Merry Christmas!

I believed in Santa till I was about 11. I was already in boarding school before it just suddenly occurred to me how unlikely he was. It was a pretty sad day for me.

Happy Holidays Y'all!
(Don't play with bangers. They'll put your eye out.)

J-Dorama Recommendation

I was meaning to do a post about my love for Asian TV and Cinema before doing any recommendations but - this can't wait.

My Japanese Drama series of the moment is "Anego." It's the story of japanese office lady (that's a working woman) Noda Naoko played with cute charm by Shinohara Ryoko, who at 32 is on the verge of becoming an Oba-san (old lady or old hag).



She has a reputation for solving the problems of her junior workers who keep coming to her with their love issues then marrying off under her. Everybody depends on her. They give her the name "Anego" which means big sister. But who does she depend on?

Her life becomes more complicated when she meets two interesting men.

The first is Sawaki Shoichi played with sophistication by Kato Masaya (some may remember him as Ryuji Hanada in Crying Freeman), a handsome man who rescues her from a drunk on a train. This man turns out to be the jet setting husband of a former junior worker of hers whose trying to be friends with her again.



The second interesting man is Kurosawa Akihiko played with languid beauty by young idol Akanishi Jin (Soooooooooooooooooo bishounen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!XD) a new gorgeous junior who seems to be the only male in the office that sees her as a female. The main problem with him is that he just happens to be 10 years her junior. That's right. TEN.



It's interesting because the series takes us through Naoko-san's life as she deals with impertinent juniors, sexist male co-workers, over dependent bosses and over anxious parents with wry cheerfulness, the occasional grumble and selflessness while also dealing with loneliness and her self identity as a woman.

Her future is uncertain. Women don't work till retirement like men do so what will happen to her. Can she never meet a man she can fall in love with and marry? Is that in fact what she really wants? It's no wonder that the married man and the junior are proving to be such temptations to her!

I like this show because, as a woman who is the older person in her relationship (by 3 years) I can kind of relate with some of the things going on in her life. There is such a pressure on women to get married and have kids that it can sometimes be all encompassing and overwhelming. If, like myself, you fall in love with someone who is younger than you and naturally has a whole different set of pressures more commiserate with their age and time in life, it can be difficult. I really hope I can face my own difficulties with the honesty and broad mindedness one is supposed to acquire with maturity the way Naoko-san sometimes does.

Anyway the show is only 10 episodes long with a two part special bringing the count to 12. You could finish the entire thing in a day if you had the time! So go out and look for it! For those of you marooned in Nigeria like myself, If you have internet access try www.crunchyroll.com, an excellent resource for all your Asian TV needs.

I am currently on episode 8 and I'm already 100% invested in this sometimes funny and sometimes touching show! I bet I'm going to cry at the end!

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhh! I can't wait!

easy.delicious

So, more information on the graphic novel. Here's my official character break down:

Deedee Esene:



Funky, independent, hot tempered and sharp mouthed. She’s one of the two co-founders of the group. This mixed race cutie with the big brown afro plays bass guitar.


Eniola Bode-George:



Conservative, sheltered, highly talented and timid she is the opposite of the brash Deedee and the other cofounder of the band. She plays the violin, keyboards and synths.

Isi Ugoji:



Baby sister of one of the owners of up and coming Maximum Music Studios. A tomboy who loves music and is eager to prove her mettle. Mellow with a sarcastic edge. Fierce Drummer.


Vicki Ajayi:



Beautiful, image conscious, arrogant and beloved by many, she is Deedee’s mortal enemy. But even Deedee can’t deny that the girl has a powerful set of lungs and an amazing voice. With, her looks, voice, style and attitude, no one can fill out a spot light like Vicki.

(NB. Please Note that all images have been purloined from other sites on the net and are very loose references for the look of each girl!)

The good news is I've finally started getting some artistic interest in the story so Yay!!! I can't wait to see the results!!

I'm still messing around myself so please feel free to check out my concept stuff on Deviant Art.

And if you are at all interested in Spaceboy Nigeria and the Nigerian Comic Book Showcase, by all means go on their blog to see all the cool stuff they have on ground.There have been some exciting proposals already and I think when it comes to voting for which one should be published first, the competition will be pretty stiff!

I am especially encouraging female writers and artists to get involved so that it doesn't end up being a complete boys club! Plus someone needs to put out good comics for us too, don't you think?

My Graphic Novel

I've decided to come clean and admit here that I'm writing a graphic novel. I'm doing it for the initiative that Y has set up. It's called The Nigerian Comic Book Showcase and it's under Spaceboy Nigeria. It's meant to promote and publicize Nigerian comics!

My story is called easy.delicious and tells about 3 friends and one frenemy that are gifted to various degrees in music and decide to form a rock band in contemporary Lagos. It's going to be about their lives, dramas and romances and what happens when they actually succeed.

For those who know me you're probably guessing that there's going to be more than a few shoujo elements in it. I'm happy to tell you that you are guessing correctly. Because I am a sucker for shoujo manga, it stands to reason that I would want to do something similar so I can share some of the joy that the genre brings me! Woot!!! \(>0<)/

Ahem.

Anyway, I am currently working on the scripts which (be warned) I shall probably provide samples of here. I am also currently desperately in search of an artist to share this project with!!! It's hard to find someone that can do the cool, funky and feminine style that I think this story needs but I won't give up. I have actually considered trying to do my own work. This would mean having to learn to draw, of course so I set up my own page own deviant art specifically to force myself through what I fully expect to be a grueling process!

Please wish me luck and look out for more info on this!

Zombie Killing - 1st, 2nd or 3rd date?

So after months of ill concealed fanboy anticipation, Y finally got his hands on Valve's Left 4 Dead for the 360. He had to get someone to purchase it on his behalf in the UK and then bring it over. As you can imagine, we were in quite a dither. He because it's really just the sort of co-op oriented, adrenaline shot game that he lives for (plus Valve is unsurprisingly a favourite with him) and me because I get how excited he was to finally get it.

So after giving it a bit of a test drive in its single player mode, Y decides that we (he and I ) absolutely have to play it together. This is not the first time he has been struck with this particular notion. We actually have a bit of a history with console teamwork, some of our more successful partnerships including: Champions: Return to Norrath for PS2, Dynasty Warriors 6 on the PS3 and Balder's Gate: Dark Alliance for PS2.

But here is where the problem lies. I'm no good at - well, scary games. This means games that have icky, disgusting realistic monster types that are very, very agile and are passionate about eating you alive against backdrops so bleak and depressing that you're almost cool with it.



It's not that I hate them. It's just that, like with horror films, they scare the crap out of me and when I get scared, parts of my brain turn off.

With horror movies this usually means me doing that thing where you cover your eyes leaving a sliver of window thin enough that you can no longer make out what's going on and going, "nananananana, etc." till the scary bit is over.

In game play, it means a glazed look coming over my eyes, my thumbs locking into an insane jabbing frenzy on the gamepads and my ceasing to understand the english language.

That's right. In the tense situation, when the shit hits the fan, I'm that guy. (or even worse, I'm that girl.)

But Y knows all this and sunnily insists that we play anyway. His optimistic reasoning is that it is all just psychological. I agree with him completely but that's not going to keep me from entering the phantom zone when zombies begin to come out the wood work.

And let me tell you, if you ever wanted to play a game with zombies and woodwork, this game is it. And there are different types too; zombies that pounce on you from above, zombies that grab you from a distance with ropey, prehensile tongues, zombies that visciously flatten you against walls like wet tissue, zombies that throw up on you and attract, my personal favourite, the zombie horde. For swift, ugly death awaiting you around every dank corner, this game will not leave you wanting.

Anyway, we play the game. Y played Louis the black dude and I played Zoey the chick (we weren't in an imaginative mood I guess). It took us exactly two hours and seven minutes before we were able to board the helicopter that flew us to safety from the roof top of a dilapidated building swarming with every manner of monstrosity intent on having us for dinner. We lost two good men on that roof top (you always play in a group of four so it was Y, me and two A.I. characters). One of them died saving my life.

I can't say I was proud of my conduct. Coordinating myself and targeting was a constant challenge. I predictably did the phantom zone thing every time I even heard the audio cue for a boss and in a game that was mostly about covering your teammates, the number of times I was able to rescue anyone was pretty small. And this was playing the game on easy.

On the other hand, I only actually died once and according to Y, I even had some good shooting moments.

By the end of the game, my hands were shaking and I had sweat patches under my armpits. And how did I feel about Left for Dead? Surprised. Why? Because, underneath the panic, even I could appreciate that I was playing a good game.

Things I liked about it include the very basic, plot (just get across town through a series of safe rooms to the helipad) and the pitch perfect script and voice acting which were very appropriate to the genre. I like that their is a black character that doesn't look like a football player. I also like the A.I. mechanics that respawn a new "campaign" layout of horrors every time you play so you can never play the same game twice. Finally, though it might not be for me personally, I respect the well crafted level of tension that is honed and maintained throughout the entire game.

Left for Dead was tough. The fact that we made it through to the end with only one Game Over speaks more of Y's skill and experience with FPS types than it does of this game being in any way a pushover. I would definitely recommend it to any gamers who consider themselves good under pressure.

But would I recommend it as a date game?

We-ell...maybe not for the first date...or the second or third one.

In fact, you probably shouldn't jump into this one with your honey until you're pretty sure the relationship is on firm ground. The truth is when tensions rise, the gloves sometimes come off and after screaming expletives at your beloved while they shoot impotently in the wrong direction as you are devoured alive by a horde of ravenous zombies, you'll want to have that strong foundation to return to from the Game Over screen!

Cool Things I can Do 'Cos I'm from the Third World

A night ago, I got home after work to a house swathed in cruel darkness (thank you PHCN/NEPA). I had to pick up a 50 litre jerrycan, stash it in my trunk and head right back out again in search of Diesel.

Luckily there's no shortage right now and we have a gas station really close by. The entire thing should have taken me 15 minutes tops except that my return route put me bang in the middle of the vicious traffic jam that is end of the day rush hour. So make that thirty minutes.

I was not a happy bunny by the time I got home. I was N3000 lighter (that got me 30L, and not a litre more from the miserly attendant) and had survived exactly two close brushes with okada related death on a route that was shorter than the distance from my house to the gates of our estate.

I got the house help to help me unload the jerrycan from my trunk then began the aromatic process of refilling the generator. By the time I was done my irritable mood had lightened. Power and perhaps an hour or so on my PS2 were imminent, after all.

As I switched on the generator and switched over our power source so we were connected to it I actually began to feel a sense of accomplishment. I mean, sure in its mundane actuality, it's more of a colossal pain than a difficult process but hey! I can buy diesel and refill a 15kva Generator! For those who don't encounter generators in their day to day lives, that's one of the big ones.

Add that to being able to change my own tires (it's all in knowing what to turn clockwise) and I don't think I'm doing too badly!

You go, me.

Travesty at Jos

I can barely believe what is going on in Jos. Wholesale slaughter of human beings. A mini holocaust. Mass murder.

And Jos is such a nice place.

The newspaper today dispassionately referred to it as 'loss of lives' like there had been a land slide as opposed to Nigerian citizens with names and addresses running around with cutlasses and murdering other Nigerian citizens.

Shame. Are we cattle? Doesn't cattle even warrant the protection of its master? What is so special about nigerians that makes us undeserving of the protection of law and order?

Today, I really hope karma is true to her reputation.

NEPA vs. my PS2: A Losing Battle?

I know it's called Power Holding Company now. Whatever. We all know that it is still possessed by that Mega Demon called NEPA.

I just need to ask Naija gamers one small thing. How far? How do you do it? How the hell do you handle NEPA? Is it Inverters? Transformers? UPS? And when they blow as they inevitably must, what then? Bribery? Jazz?

How many grim and hard earned battles have you lost between distant save points? How many of your consoles have given up the ghost? How do you deal? Is there a support group for those bereaved by NEPA?

I'm tired and battle worn but I don't want to give up. Not till my PS2 pops and I catch that familiar smell of burning rubber in my nostrils. At which point in time, I will be looking for revenge.