The cam's not mine but it was fun taking pics with it xD


• 「the GazettE SPECIAL EVENT」 is also set to take place on the same date.
Optical Impression ~ CD+DVD
• Distress and Coma + music clip
• Headache Man
¥1,785-(tax in)
Auditory Impression ~ CD
• Distress and Coma
• Headache Man
• Without a Trace
¥1,260-(tax in)
source: the GazettE staff blog
Last Fri at noon, I went to Guitar Center with my dad. I don't have a classical guitar with nylon strings so it was my original intention to buy a cheap one. I tried some Luceros.. they sound heavenly wonderful and I was gonna make my choice but my dad called me out.. said he found something on the walls. It was an electric-acoustic, Ibanez AES series. The first thing I noticed was its design: stylish wood-print and beautiful amber gloss finish. Tried it unplugged... and the sound was good enough for practice... not as rich as the others within the price range (when unplugged) but when I hooked it up the amp, whoa... I had to look at the price tag for the second time... you know, to make sure there weren't 4 digits before the decimal point =D It's got thin neck and a mini jumbo body which makes it really comfortable to hold since I'm a small person ^-^ I sampled a few more but in the end, I chose the ... didn't want to wait another holiday for it to go on sale again lol
Here are the specs: source Ibanez
| BodyShape: | AES Mini-Jumbo Body |
| GtrTop: | Figured Ash Body |
| Rosette: | Black and White Multi Rosette |
| Tuners: | Ibanez Chrome Die-Cast Tuners |
| Pickup: | Fishman® Sonicore® Pickup |
| Electronics: | Ibanez AEQ-SST Shape Shifter™ Preamp with Onboard Tuner |
| Outputs: | Balanced ¼” and XLR Outputs |
| Fretboard: | Rosewood Bridge and Fretboard |
| Saddle: | Ivorex II ™ Nut and Saddle |
| BridgePins: | Advantage™ Bridge Pins |
| Strings: | D'Addario® EXP™ Strings |
| Finishes: | Amber High Gloss Finish |
I DL'd the torrent for the full show because the clips on Youtube were being pulled down, minutes after someone uploads a clip. One moment you're watching and the next thing you know the vid's not available anymore T_T
The show wasn't too great but it's not bad either. The venue and stage were small... stage effects were limited but everything I underappreciated was overshadowed by Toshi's voice. Compared to the 3-consecutive-night 'reunion concerts' that were held earlier last year, there were very few squawkings and more roughness to his voice. His performance was mostly solid throughout the night and any doubt I had before whether Toshi can still sing at this calibre is now eradicated from my mind.




VIEW SOME CLIPS HERE
The set list: source - Listen the World @ Wordpress
• Endless Rain (Live TOHO cinema with Yoshiki on piano and Toshi on Volcals)
• Prologue ~ World Anthem
• Blue Blood ~ Piano Introduction
• Blue Blood
• Rusty Nail
• Orgasm
- Countdown -
• X
• Tears
• I.V. Prelude
• I.V
• Kurenai + Drum Break
• Say Anything S.E
• Longing S.E
...and finally, check out this list they included at the end of the credit roll. Glad they brought up MSG again and added a Los Angeles stop. Now I'm torn which one to attend but I don't want to think about that right now... it's too early and I'm just going to give myself a headache >_< Beijing was pushed at the end of the list.. I think it's because of the Bird's Nest issue about the Chinese government not wanting to give away the first concert to a foreign band o_O.
2009 World Tour: source - blues-ratapoil @ Jrock Revolution
17/01 ASIA WORLD EXPO, Hong Kong
14/02 World Trade Center, Taipei, Taiwan
X/X Dôme in Japan
X/X Dôme in Japan
X/X Tokyo Dome
X/X Tokyo Dome
21/03 South korea
22/03 South korea
X/X Supachalasai Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand
X/X Tokyo Dome
X/X Tokyo Dome
X/X Madison Square Garden, New York, USA
X/X Los Angeles, USA
X/X France
X/X Germany
X/X Finland
X/X Pekin / mainland China


First of all, Happy Holidays! Yeah, really late but I got a pretty nasty sinus the past two weeks -_- I'm feelin' a lot better now though...
Anyway, I woke up early today because I was hoping to see a live stream of X-Japan's New Year Countdown gig... which I missed by the way... I guess the alarm clock is broken after all.
So then.. I grabbed my Zune instead, only to find it frozen at loading screen... I tried rebooting it but it's stuck and it won't even shut down! It's just basically sitting there all useless and wasting battery. I tried Yahoo! Answers and found a lot of people are having the same problems on the same day O.o
Really odd... In fact, when I went to zune.net's forum, it seems like thousands if not all 30GB Zunes are frozen and others claim their 20GB Zunes are having the same problem. I would've called for customer support but users say they're not accepting calls anymore and they transfer the calls to a disconnected number O_o Wow wth Microsoft?! They can't just leave their consumers hanging in thin air. Atleast, they could've released an official statement regarding this matter and let us know they're atleast, figuring out wth's wrong with their hardware.
Anyway, I hope they release a fix soon. This isn't the first time I've had trouble with this hardware along with its software but this has got to be the worst because it's not just me, it's thousands more of people and a lot of them bought theirs not so long ago.
My folks came home from TGM store this afternoon and mom showed me today's edition of Asian Journal. The ad was there but the free article spot was altered and I was THANKFUL. The editors probably developed sore eyes after they read the one Kuya Manny wrote
. They fixed the grammar, gave it a fitting third-person pov and cut some of the pictures but I've expected just that, even though I was told it should cover half a page. As it turned out the required size was atually 1/4 of the page
.

RURURURURURURURURUUU~~~~~~~~~
Earlier tonight, I had to drive my mom to her workplace for their Christmas party. I made a right turn at the corner and instantly noticed the police beacons, which were rotating like mad disco lights. Several police cars were parked in the middle of the road in what seemed to be a checkpoint. I pulled to a stop and the policeman informed us that they're conducting DUI check then he asked for my DL.
I reached for my jacket's pocket as I was so certain I have it with me but then like a flash of memory in the movies... I remembered switching for a warmer jacket the last minute before I left the house...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
OMFG!, I swore I paled... I was so freaking nervous and I tried not to panic but my heart was beating heavily and faster by the second like doki Doki DOki DOKi DOKI DOKI! DOKI!!!.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...just didn't expected it to be so freaking soon!
PHEW!! I was so damn lucky.. and I was ready for an earful from my mom but knowing her, it never came. She was just as equally relieved as I am that the cop let us through. Once we got through I was feeling a mixture of disappointment, relief, irritation, joy, anger, embarrassment, guilt.. and the only way I could express all of those emotions at the same time was through letting out a string of colorful words but my mom was sitting beside me so I just kept it all in my head. 
Anyway, I can't risk something like this carelessly happen in the future... and I can't possibly expect all cops to be generous either. So let this be a lesson to myself and a reminder for everyone else.. always check for your driving license before driving away with your car!
Kuya Manny and I worked on store advertisements til 1 AM last night. They're for Asian Journal (which really is a Filipino-American newspaper in CA, NV and NY) and were due late in the afternoon. If it weren't for an MGS4 track on the loop and the poor grapes sacrificing themselves to be devoured by me, my face would've fallen flat against the computer desk because I was that sleepy. Even so, I stayed up til 3 am to finish the store website's gallery.
At 10 this morning, he came back as promised so we could work on the other half-page ad and I was still asleep. I swore I set that stupid alarm clock to wake me up at 8 am but it never did ring and I'm a light sleeper too... I think. Maybe it's broken >.>
He brought food from the store so I ate first before I sat to work on the second ad. We finished close to 2:00 pm and I e-mailed the files to Jojo, an Associate Editor for the newspaper.
It's only the second time I made ads that were to be featured on AJ. The first one was last year during the same holiday season. I think the big difference was that yesterday, I was well aware that each half-page ad is worth 800 bucks O___O. Talk about the pressure of creating $800 worth of ad in a few hours
.
Anyway, I just hope people would stop and consider the ads when they read December's edition.
The Dream Match. It was a fantasy match, often simulated by many gamers (myself included) in Fight Night Round 3, a video game which features De La Hoya himself on the front cover [ps3/xbox360]. It was also a far fetched idea that was quickly laughed at and considered as old man's random musing when Larry Merchant first suggested the duel, sometime last year. But when the two camps settled to seal the deal, there was no trace of doubt left that The Dream Match was well on its way to reality and talks of The Mismatch rose even louder.
The Mismatch. By boxing standards, De La Hoya's height dwarfs Pacquiao, despite hunching over that has become part of his fighting stance. His reach stretched 6 inches longer and possessed a physique that was much broader than his opponent (btw, his asymmetrical abs bothers me hehe). Added to these physical disadvantages, Pacquiao has never fought in a welterweight division before, which reminded everyone that De La Hoya's clearly the more experienced fighter. With his ever impressive record of 10 world titles in 6 different weight classes, the Golden Boy was easily favored to win by many boxing experts, rivals and fans alike... yes, even Filipino ones.
The Bout Night: Golden Boy vs Pacman. A slightly surprising irony came to play last Saturday night, when Pacquiao entered the ring, weighing more than De La Hoya did. At 148 lbs, he said he felt quite comfortable. De La Hoya stepped in at 143 lbs, which I believe, the lightest he's been since he last fought on welterweight class in 2001.
As soon as the opening bell signaled the start of the first round, both fighters quickly launched into measuring each other's distance. Pacquiao was more agile and his speed was notably present throughout the fight. His stance was that of a technical boxer's... with great footwork and often seen evading, moving from side to side and bobbing his head to further decrease De La Hoya's predictability of his movements.

(AP Photo/Eric Jamison)

(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
With the final adrenaline flow, De La Hoya surged forward and delivered a combination to Pacquiao's body. Unfortunately, it did very little and he found himself once again leaning against the ropes for support and in defensive position. Any Pacquiao fan would tell you, that's the time Manny likes to finish off his opponents with overwhelming speed combinations and if De La Hoya was any other fighter, Pacquiao would have made him kiss the canvas right then and there. But no, he was The Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya whom Manny idolized throughout his carreer.
Seeing Pacquiao launching combos at the helpless De La Hoya and suddenly moving away as if giving him a breather and a chance for the Golden Boy to recollect himself, I've come to think that Pacquiao was somewhat hesitant to finish him off. Perhaps, it was the respect as a boxer that prevented him to do anything more aggresive, or maybe, it was simply sticking to Roach's plan for a 9th rd KO. The last 10 seconds has been quite a show but we all know that won't be enough time to pull the big man down.

(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

(AP Photo/Eric Jamison)
Before anything else, I've seen the much hyped movie, Twilight... and I must say... I wasn't impressed. It was as though I was watching a live action movie based on a poorly written high-school-themed... fanfiction
. It's too predictable and full of cliche'd moments. For a 'romantic' film, there wasn't enough romantic development.. meaning, they fell in love faster than a rabid Twilight fangirl can rave about how godly the movie was. Also it felt like, the 'forbidden love' between a vamp and a normal person wasn't stressed enough.
There was a fresh, new-age idea present in the story, but I found sparkling vampires to be quite humorous. It's like Mr. Clean minus the bald head o__O
Anyway, back to what I really intend to post... these photos were taken at the Open Space, sometime before Thanksgiving.

yep, summer would be nice =3 read more
on X JAPAN COUNTDOWN GIG ~初心に帰って~ + 2009 Tour