"i can't go any further than this.."

this song is stuck with me the last few days.... especially Fergie's part.... so catchy it got me hooked on it...
MEET ME HALFWAY by Black Eyed Peas

ASTROBOY, at last...

Thought I was going to have to wait for the DVD release to be able to see Hollywood's treatment of ASTROBOY, but THANKS to Juliana - was able to see it today at Warner Village, Taipei -- one of the best places to see a movie, really.

As an avid fan of the MANGA and most Japanese Animations, I was put off at first with the look and feel of the film, of Astroboy himself.... but in fairness, once over my initial trepidations, I actually ended up enjoying the film. And now, am sooo glad I was able to catch it in the big screen. with the voices of Freddy Highmore, Nicholas Cage, Donald Sutherland and Kristen Bell (love her, love her voice!)- this version came on its own and can definitely use a sequel.

Of course, am still going to wait for the DVD release and add it to my ASTROBOY collection. Always Great to find friends who shares the same hobbies...

Open Your Dream

Back in August, while visiting my fave mall in KAOHSIUNG, Dream Mall, we happen upon this new cute little boutique - OPEN PLAZA. Cute characters printed in so many different goods: tote bags, umbrellas, tees, caps, etc.... and of course, the thing that attracted me to them in the first place, VINYL TOYS!!!

Over the last few years, OPEN PLAZA characters have been used for various promotional push by 7-11, but for the most part I have seen keyrings, plush items, and a few others. So, as cute as they are, I did not pay them too much attention. Not until I stepped into their shop, their wonderful world. So much VINYL TOYS - from music boxes with rotating figures, cute dioramas, and vinyl figurines... I was sooo enamored but still was strong willed not to start another new collection, after all, with just tokidoki goods alone, I really do not have more space for anything else.

Fast forward to this recent visit to the Wu residence in Kaohsiung, a visit not ever complete without hitting three places: our FAVE breakfast place, IKEA, & of course my personal fave, DREAM MALL. I dragged everyone to take a look at OPEN PLAZA Boutique once more - just to take photos. (^_*) Once again, I was enamoured with everything there - and was once again reminded how am loving these characters.

As if to egg me on more into wanting to covet them, the cutest 7-11 promotional tie up just commenced, ""Open Your Dream"". In this one, running through the holidays, the five main characters stands a top their own individual boxes. Cute I thought but why in the heck, do I need 60 point stickers (1 sticker per purchase of NT$30/a little less than US$1)!!! Well, upon closer look I realized that with a push of their individual buttons - they each start dancing -- and when you line them all up you got yourself the cutest chorus line. Now I gotta get cracking with these stickers - I now have 14 stickers so far - only 286 more to go in order to get all 5 figures.

Naturally, 7-11 was the next stop for a round of drinks - and of course, to get the stickers! Lo and Behold, as if they wanted to add SALT to my WOUND from pining for them, a cute mechanical display was put up at the Mall's 7-11 shop -- in it, a bunch of these cute figures are lined up, dancing away. And actually a 6th figure was added to the line up, a bird named Coco - this one I am told is a cross promotion that will run with another shop, COSMED. Darn, now I gotta go find me a COSMED to figure out how to get my hands on this 6th one. WHEW!!!

Open Plaza Cuties dance up a storm!Here's the cute ADVERT for the 7-11 Program, it stars one of Taiwan's Biggest POP Star, Jolin Tsai.
OPEN PLAZA PHOTO ALBUM HERE

"ONE"

did not want to let the 20th Anniversary of the FALL of the Berlin Wall go by without a little tribute here in my blog pages... so here is U2 singing "One" live - accompanied by a series of powerful photographs that someone has made - a very fitting song for the occasion, and a great reminder to us all how: "we are all one but we are not the same - still we get to carry each other..."

Computer Blues...

Almost a week of no REAL computer connection - WAAAAAAH!!!! yes that's right 5 days to be exact that we had no proper NET CONNECTION - an hour here and there, at IKEA or someone else's WIFI does not count at all...

always one of the worst things for me to go through is to not be able to connect... not only because of work matters but for all the personal reasons (always BUGS me when I cannot keep in touch with my Mom), as well.... and yep, admittedly, that includes FACEBOOK and BLOGGING.. (^_*) In other words, if I have to say what am addicted to - I WOULD, WITHOUT HESITATION SAY, MY COMPUTER!!

Anyway, the last few days had been good for the most part - not including my COMPUTER BLUES - got to go to Kaohsiung and visit with the Wu Family; play with LALA, who is getting on in years; visit the TOWNSHIP of LUGANG and EXPERIENCED a 5.plus Earthquake, and its after shocks while touring the town; got a really IRRITATING, more like INFURIATING letter to deal with; and processed lots of dollies to go out... in other words, LIFE, as I KNOW IT! and with that, i was reminded of this passage:

"Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

Courage & Fear

My take on this is, is that:

COURAGE has to come from within... because it's opposite, FEAR, lives inside us all as well.ART made by Hans.

Be@rbrick: 10 down - 35 more to go....

so I have always liked these cute articulated vinyl bears from Medicom, Be@rbrick... First released in 2001 as a free gift to visitors of the World Character Convention 12 - years later and you cannot help but be overwhelmed by the number of releases - a few different sizes and lots of collaborations. Even FAKES from CHINA abounds!

I remember picking up the ones that appealed to me each and every trip to JAPAN, I bought them for my collection and as presents... even got some to go with some Susie releases.

Above Photo:SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION FENDI Be@rbrick - would get them but they are rather costly - too costly for my own good!!!

Fast forward to a couple of months back - Be@rbrick collaborated with tokidoki and the love for them once again, caught on fire. So far 4 regular sized be@rbricks X tokidoki has been released plus a couple pof 400% sized ones. All of them I had to have of course! During one of my many visits to MONSTER TAIPEI/MONSTER GEAR - a be@rbrick displayer, also made by Medicom, caught Juliana and I's attention... Of course, we each got one to properly display our collection... 'cept we did not even figure in that getting this would get us into more troubles as it houses 45 of them... 45!!! Oh well, so far I have uncovered 10 of them - 35 more to go to fill up this displayer, YOWZA!!!
Photo Right: 400% LA Robber (tokidoki X Be@rbrick)
Be@rbrick Links:
-Official Be@rbrick Site
-Fan Club

UNI+Y

As this is the mponth for the THANKSGIVING Holiday, I decided to atart off with the word UNITY and it's DEFINITION - as we all need a little reminder now and again that, WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!!! Am accompanying it with a photo of these UNI+Y cuties I picked up from FnH - who produced these items in collaboration with the Philippine National Red Cross, proceeds from the SALE goes to help out the TYPHOON VICTIMS.
unity (yo̵̅o̅′nə tē)

noun pl. unities -·ties

the state of being one, or united; oneness; singleness
something complete in itself; single, separate thing
the quality of being one in spirit, sentiment, purpose, etc.; harmony; agreement; concord; uniformity

unification
a unified group or body
the quality or fact of being a totality or whole, esp. a complex that is a union of related parts

an arrangement of parts or material in a work of art or literature, that will produce a single, harmonious effect
a design or effect so produced
constancy, continuity, or fixity of purpose, action, etc.

PIXAR: 20 Years Anniversary Exhibition

...and I swear, the line to get in felt as if it took another 20 years!!!

David and I tried to see it a while back - it was a weekend so it was a given that the lines will be long... of course, we opted not to see it then - as we hate anything that takes more than 30 mins to line up for... this time around I thought for sure it would be different as 1) it has been around for a bit now... and 2) it was on a weekday morning - when everyone should be in school or at work - WRONG!!!
I think everyone was thinking the very same thing - so we all ended up attending the same day... boo hoo...

anyway, the day started well enough... Juliana and I met at ROYAL HOST for some early breakfast.. we knew we needed to get fully charged for a good couple of hours of lining up for tickets.... couple of hours?? more like three and that is just to buy the tickets... once purchased - we needed to get into another line to get in... it was, at least, another half an hour plus more.... by the time we got to the actual entrance to the Exhibition - we were both in need of, a toilet run... and both starving to death as it was way into 1 PM already at that time.. so what to do? get stamped and head on to our respective Restrooms - lo and behold, another line... We can only be both THANKFUL enough for SUE coming to our rescue with McDonalds meal for each of us..Anyway, a quick lunch in Sue's car was very much needed (we also got her and Cecilia tickets btw, but because of work scheds, they did not go in till after 3PM) - right after, Juliana and I went back in with our stamps to finally see the exhibition... wait, wait, another line!!! well, at least this one was quite fast - not even 10 mins... and we were in.... of course, as expected from the amount of people in line, each exhibition room was soooo crowded that is was hard to get a closer look at things unless one lines up (AGAIN!) and move at a snail pace to each of the exhibit... but i can HONESTLY say -a all that was there was worth all the hassles of lining up!!!

We were not allowed to take photos inside or else my BATT would have died fast as there was sooo much I wanted to photograph... and normally I would have sneaked some shots, but with all the people there, I did nnot want to chance being found out... so much of the original sketches, story boards, clay figures - bnoth prototypes to actual designs used... such a comprehensive exhibition/explanation on the art of PIXAR animation that one is in sooo much AWE of the loooong process for a single sequence to be shot... HATS OFF to all those involved, TRULY!

All Pixar movies were represented, from Toy Story which came out back in 1995 through the latest, and a personal fave of mine, UP were covered.... and of course, it dates back to all the animated shorts made by the team even before any of the full length films... stand outs were KNICK KNACKS, TIN SOLDIER (was supposedly going to be the main character in Toy Story!), and a few other black & white shorts - we were treated to these short films, btw... so it turned out to be a GREAT DAY after all... and after seeing the exhibition in its entirety, all the hassles of lining up were long forgotten... Thank God for the gals, who are also avid ANIMATION fans - they helped me get through the hours of lining up...
COMPLETE PHOTOS HERE
KNICK KNACK

TIN TOY (1988)

Happy Halloween '09!!!

Have Fun & Stay Safe, Everyone!!!

can't take my eyes... off of him... my ears, too!

so this past weekend I was reminded what I miss most in Taiwan television -- watching One Million Star (Taiwan's American Idol)... i miss seeing some really good, and some, not so good but kinda' funny performances form the local talent... plus I get to practice my Mandarin singing prowess.... hahahahahaha....

I say I miss it as for the last couple of years, we have made a conscious effort to not watch television so much... to not get caught up in any shows religiously that we cannot do anything or go anywhere for fear of missing a single episode... in pother words, we try to avoid being COUCH POTATOES in this household... LOLs.... so, besides an occasional DVD showing, we really do not get to watch TV much...

Anyway, last Friday Lyn & Shaun had a little SHABU SHABU nite for a few friends and us in their new home... so we were there for a good couple of hours and the TV was on... and it just so happened that my FAVE show, One Million Star was on... boy was I hooked, once more... why? because of this guy, Anthony Lee (SP?)... not only does he have a rich, manly voice when singing either English or Chinese (so pure and such control) -he is also blessed with the looks, the cuteness to go with the voice.... take a listen of his version of The Blower's Daughter from the movie, CLOSER - even without looking at him... you will get butterflies in your tummy, GUARANTEED!!!
...and this is him singing a FAVE Chinese song of mine: Wo ZHENDE HAO XIANG NII:

Hump Day Funnies

well, am not just rediscovering old dolls... am also finding some old photographs!!! Going through them. laughing with a fuzzy feeling in my tummy, is giving me the much needed break, from all these reorganizing & spring cleaning...
Have UPLOADED HERE.... and I will UPLOAD more the next few days... SO BE WARNED!!!
And just to PROVE am LAUGHING WITH YOU - I also included this shot -yep that's ME in leather pants..LOLS!!!:XMAS '98
WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!