A Certain Anime-Oriented College Essay

I’m in this hell where I can barely squeeze in time to watch anime and play video games during lunch break called school.  I thought that I would never be able to write about anime until the school year was over.  By a twist of fate, I received an assignment to write a college essay on whatever the fuck I wanted as long as it was within 400 words.  CARPE DIEM! I took the chance to write about anime.  Before all of you laugh thinking that the essay would probably be mocked by peers and colleges alike.  The former actually handed back my paper during feedback and told me it was good.  One actually felt hers was completely incompetent after reading my essay and began another one. (Ok, OK I’m being an obnoxious bastard.)  So, I present to you the essay written on the manga that changed my life, Honey and Clover.  Enjoy. ❤

   -Poro

Team Zero status update

“Come around me and sit down as you listen to this marvelous story, children…”

With my senior editor Blindability so graciously allowing me to put up this post, I shall take the opportunity to update on Team Zero’s behalf.  And before you say anything, of course I’m going to make myself look good. XD

“Je vous dit au revoir a tous.”

By your beloved, KAZA.

With a saddened heart, a tear, and about twenty boxes of tissues I must announce this to you fellow readers who have followed my posts. And maybe even to those who haven’t and just know me by “that guy named Kaza who writes funny”. On behalf of good manners, politeness, and a pistol holding me hostage if I don’t do this, I present you with a sorrowful “good bye”.

Svea Deli House, Kota Bharu

Today at 8 p.m., Earth Hour will commence. Earth Hour is a global initiative that aims to offset global warming by reducing carbon emission and this is done simply by turning off the lights for a whole hour. Though Malaysia is not participating in this event, USM (the university I’m currently studying in) is joining the effort and I, myself offered my participation. Even you can join along and help to save the planet in simple ways you never expected. And turning off the lights is surprisingly helps the purpose. Visit the Earth Hour website for more details.

When I was told that there is a Swedish restaurant in downtown Kota Bharu, I was rather shocked to hear this yet delighted because knowing that there is such a restaurant in Kelantan. My friend first introduced the place to me as Sven’s Deli House. Not bad to name a restaurant, that is what I had thought in mind. What is more convincing to me is that according to my friend, the owner is a native Swedish. What can go wrong if you have a Swedish operating a Swedish restaurant? However once my friends and I set our foot there last night, I began to think that I should have doubted a such convincing expectation in the first place.

 Svea’s Svea Deli House

Paddington House of Pancakes, Midvalley Mall

OH MY GOD! The outcome of episode 23 of Gundam 00 is just unexpected. I believe many of those who follow do not like this episode very much. Will get to the review as soon as I can.

This will my final installment of the long overdue backlog of my KL trip last month. I have been very busy ever since I came back from that trip and the struggle continues even during the upcoming semester break this April. But at least, I’ll be a little relaxed when I’m home by then. Only earlier today, I had finished my final mid-semester paper before I will face my finals in the coming 2 or 3 weeks. Well shit happens but that doesn’t mean I’ll be quitting the blogosphere just yet. For today’s offering is my post on Paddington House of Pancakes in Midvalley Mall. Before I begin, I would like to declare that I was not a fan of pancakes, not until I discovered Paddington’s pancakes. A pat on the back to Max for bringing me there. I’m thankful for him and his family for bringing me around to the best places to dine in KL, and that experience had never been better.

 

At first, I was a little skeptical because as I mentioned earlier, I am not a big fan of pancakes. But my dear friend insisted on how good Paddington’s pancakes are and I just kept mum. Again, I was skeptical. Going through the menu book, I was spoilt for choice when there was many menus to select and decision never comes easy for me. I was also surprised to see how they rojak the pancakes to the extreme. I’m having doubt whether or not they serve pancakes in the first place. Max and I finally go for the house’s recommendation and voila, it was a Treasure Box. Hey, I’m paying for this treasure box and and no, I’m not regretting my pick on this treasure box. As the name suggests, it has everything you can imagine to add into your pancake. To consider that it is only a dessert pancake meal, this pancake is worth the shot. You might know this one well from this post but here’s my take on it. I love the fact that they mixed all the fresh ingredients, all with strong tasting. I know that this kills of the pancake (which is supposed to be the main serving) but the overkill actually works. Pancakes don’t come strong in terms of taste and flavour. So the use of additional ingredients are necessary to give more appeal to the plate. To top it off, a scoop of ice-cream was added on top and it may looks a little messy but the taste is not.

 

 

Maybe it is overrated. Maybe I am biased. But all I can say it that the pancakes are the best I’ve ever tasted. Thanks to Paddington’s pancakes, my perception on pancakes changed for the better. And I do look forward for another seating at Paddington House of Pancakes. Besides Midvalley Mall, you can find their chain restaurants in OneUtama, The Curve, and Hartamas. Yes, they’re exclusive to KL only. What a shame.

More Code Geass R2 Teasers / Malaysia Decided 2008

More stuff on Code Geass R2. Heed this warning. Reading any further means that you agreed on knowing some of the possible spoilers of the story. Alright now. Code Geass R2, as many would know, is a year jump from its first season. Yet this second season have many things going on that many would wonder what had really happened to the whole story. Here are some of the key events of things to come.

 

• Lelouch has a younger brother? Honestly this person was never mentioned in the first season and having him introduced seems rather forced into. I’m not sure if he is even his biological brother or not because Lelouch only have other half-siblings, but there is a good chance that he might be.
• Lelouch has a slightly longer hair and somewhat looks more gentle. I don’t what is this suggesting but I’m guessing that he might have lost his memory somewhere along the line. He might have even lost his Geass though I would see this unlikely to happen.
• More new Knighmare Frames and now they have Vincent as their latest addition. Vincent is modeled after Lancelot, poised to be used for mass production. Speaking of Lancelot, now Lancelot can fly. Also new is the Knights of the Round who are supposed to the elite team of Knightmare pilots and not so surprising, Suzaku is part of the team. And he’s the only Eleven to ever join the team.
• Nunally’s fate is unknown but if things are going as what the manga expected, she may return with a Geass. And if she can use Geass, that of course would mean that she is no longer blind.

You can read more about this in its official website (in Japanese) or Random Curiosity. If you want the wallpaper for the image above, just let me know.

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On another story, Malaysia had recently gone through its general election. Many echoes that this is the most unimaginable election Malaysia has ever had, and the oppositions are happy to tout their democratic victory. Well on a glance, nothing much had changed. The main coalition party, the National Front, remains the governing party of the Parliament but this time, they are losing their majority as the oppositions are gaining stronger grounds in the country’s political platform. I’m trying to be unbiased here but here’s a fact. The National Front, which consists of many smaller group of race-oriented parties, had been controlling Malaysia ever since Independence Day. As time goes on, more political parties emerged, promising better racial unity that Malaysians are having trouble with until today. The National Front being the government, denied any disunity within the population, a fact of which they have been always tried to ignore.

Enter the so-called Opposition Front, that are made of Democratic Action Party, National Justice Party, and Pan-Islamic Party. The strongest among the three is Democratic Action Party and together with National Justice Party, they resounded a hope of a better Malaysia where racial discord is a relic of the past and equality to all in terms of rights and economy gain. Their only problem is that they never had a chance to properly govern a state or the country as a whole. However that does not mean that the National Front is doing any lesser. They come with many megaprojects that are necessary to secure the country’s biggest ambition – to be a developed nation by the year 2020. The problem is that they are moving too fast to the extent that they ignore the very foundation of this country, which is racial unity. I know that I sounded a little biased to the opposition side but I have to be clear that I am politically neutral on this matter. As for the election outcome, the National Front won by a simple two-thirds majority over the country but the setback was losing 5 out of 13 constitutionalized states. Among them are Selangor and Penang, both of which are wealthy industrial states.

Tony Roma’s, Pavilion KL

What do you think about this? Should I be posting anime download links on my blog?

This is quite a late entry. In fact, I should be posting this entry 3 weeks ago. Yeah, more unfinished stuff about KL. Not that I am very obsessive about KL or anything. I mean, I do love KL but I don’t actually go crazy about it. The real thing that I want to share with you guys is my gourmet experience in KL. If not for the shopping, KL is also best known for its exquisite dining with many international restaurants and high-impacting food label such as Starbucks, Carl’s Jr and Wendy’s. As we all know, Pavilion KL is the place to be in KL for both shopping and dining. But take heed, you would need to stretch your wallet for such a feat. Also there was one particular dining place that my KL (technically it’s PJ) friend had been talking about (the other being Carl’s Jr), which is Tony Roma’s. Who doesn’t know about Tony Roma’s anyway? When I first heard the news about that franchise’s arrival to Malaysia, I know that I was in for a deal for the best rib steaks you can get your hands on.

 Inside Tony Roma’s.

Oh yes, the best rib steak is here in KL. In Pavilion KL. It’s Tony Roma’s right in front of my eyes. I took a seat. Gave my order and guess what I had for lunch (yup, lunch). Tony Roma’s burger. Yes, the best rib steak in the house but I got myself burger instead. I know that it’s utterly stupid but here are my reasonings. First, it was lunch time. I have no intention to get anything heavy for lunch. Second, I wanted something quick as I was on a rush at that time. So I needed something fast for my lunch although in the end, I waited half an hour to get my burger on my table. Third, I would not prefer to have meat for lunch. I mean, a plate of a load of meat. Burger is something just right for me. And fourth, well, there is no fourth. Having said that, I don’t indicate that the burger is horrible. In fact, it’s one of the best burger I’ve ever had. The best being Carl’s Jr though I haven’t tried Wendy’s yet, so I can’t give my verdict just yet.

The burger.

If there is one thing that I really, really like about Roma’s burger is the patty. Basically it’s a steak on a burger. The meat was done medium rare as what I had requested. And boy, the meat was tender and juicy. If there is a burger heaven, this burger would make it there without a doubt. Yes, Carl’s Jr is good. No denying on that. But Roma’s won it out by its great tasting patty. The ingredients were fresh as well. And of course, the size was humungous. A little larger than what I had in Carl’s Jr before. Even the size of the patty was huge. However the excitement stopped there. If there is one thing that I don’t enjoy to have with my meal, it’s gonna be onions. I won’t mind if the amount is considerably small or if they are cooked with some sauce or whatever. But Roma’s burger came with a huge, raw onion ring around it and I found that finishing the burger was quite daunting. In the end, I had to remove the onion so that I can finish the rest of the food. Well, barely. I couldn’t finish the fries because the meal set was large. Very large. To the extent that my belly nearly burst (just a figure of speech, aye?). I don’t like onions. I don’t like how onions can leave a stinky breath to your mouth. And usually, I can have stomach upsets when I have a little too much onion. Call it onion intolerance.

The extras. Yeah, this picture is meaningless really.

Besides Pavilion KL, you can find Tony Roma’s in Sunway Pyramid, Cineleisure Damansara, and soon at The Gardens Midvalley. And yes, I’ll remind myself to get rib steaks next time. 

The Gardens at Midvalley

Yes, I’m blogging again despite of me saying on the previous post that I was busy. But that’s the truth and here’s another truth. This is a backlog. Not a real time post update. As for my reviews on Gundam and Dragonaut; those have to wait for some other day.

It is exactly two weeks since my trip to KL. Nothing extravagant there, really. I happened to have had attended at concert in KL that day, so I took some time to shop around KL. Otherwise I’ll home which I have not intended to do at that time, or stuck here alone in Kelantan. Last year, I first went to Pavilion KL when it had recently opened then, there was a strong appeal to the mall that gives it the wow-factor. I thought to myself, Pavilion KL has to be the most astonishing mall ever in Malaysia. That aside, Pavilion KL is also playground for the rich and overly pampered. I’m saying this because of the fact that this mall is the most “expensive” mall in Malaysia to date, with their lavish offerings of high-end (expensive) and fashionable (expensive) items for Malaysia’s rich bastards opulent consumers. Opulent, as for filthy rich. Nonetheless I still enjoy Pavilion KL as much as many other shopping malls in KL, partly because of its amazing shopping experience (and of course, Paul Frank and J.Co Donuts). However Pavilion KL is not the only player in that field. Introducing The Gardens at Midvalley.

The Gardens is an extension of the already-big Midvalley mall and this is no ordinary extension. Specifically chartered for the rich and those with exquisite taste, The Gardens offers something totally different from the common shopping scene in Malaysia. From my standpoint, The Gardens made a huge effort to bring art and also pampering to the shopping experience. From the exterior, the design of the mall is different than other typically misshapen shopping malls. I must say, the architecture works for Pavilion KL is good but nothing can compare to the artistic architecture of The Gardens. If the exterior impresses certain some, the interior will blow everyone way. The moment I stepped inside The Gardens, I was wowed. Rather than feeling impressed, I felt great appreciation to the works of the interior designer to come up with something different than any other malls. Besides the design, The Gardens also offers a wide range of specialty stores for many kind of interests, including Singapore’s first overseas outlet of Robinsons. There is also Malaysia’s first ever Cafe Baskin-Robbins.

The design at The Gardens is inspired by the structure of a sail boat.

Chinese New Year decorated lounge.

This particular span looks nothing like Malaysia. What do you think?

The linking bridge to Midvalley Megamall.

What I really like about The Gardens is the shopping experience. I’m not saying that Pavilion KL is any worse than The Gardens. Both are equally good in their own way. In Pavilion KL, space is the theme design of the mall. The key is that space offers comfort and comfort is what the customers experience. In The Gardens on the other hand, there is a feast for the eyes for the amazing interior designs and also comfortable cushioned couches for the customers to relax. Over there, the customers are pampered. The Gardens is definitely an experience like no other.