Last Post About Redwall

Well, I’ve finished six chapters from the first book. This is going to be the last time I write about it, for I’m afraid I’ll saturate this blog too much with Redwall. And I also don’t want to reveal any major spoilers. It’s always more fun to read it yourself!

So, Dotti the female hare turned out to be an annoyance. She’s noisy, talkative, and so full of herself. Good thing she’s not too obnoxious and a good fighter who can stand up for herself.

She finally joins Lord Brocktree to find the shore. They trek a brook to a stream. There, they find another travelmate in form of an otter who’s also a sailor, albeit starts as an incident of misunderstanding. Well, not exactly. He uses an elm tree as a boat and he sails on rivers, not seas. But he’s as close as a sailor we have so far. So be it.

The danger is finally coming. In form of an army of blue(!) rats. Led by a ferret called Grand Fragorl, they send a threat to Lord Stonepaw to submit the Salamandastron to their king (spoiler : a black wildcat). What would happen next? Well, find out yourself. The story is just started!

Redwall First Chapters

Well, I hope I can get to post anything daily. Short story, poem, anything. Gonna be a huge challenge though. I couldn’t even finish Inktober this year.

I posted a poem yesterday. So I think I should do something different for today. How about a short review? I just read the first two chapters of the first book from a huge series of novel called Redwall. Many people recommend this series for fantasy genre, so I decided to give it a try.

So far, I think Redwall series is basically an epic that’s played by small animals. Yep, a fable. The series consists of 22 books. And the first book alone is 918 pages long in its ebook format. It’s gonna be a long journey to finish the series. But worry not. Since it’s epic meets fable, it’s going to be epic. If not, people wouldn’t recommend it.

The tale starts with the story of Lord Russano of Salamandastron. He attempts to collect all the legends and tales of the past to make them into one huge history book about Lord Brocktree, the first Lord of Salamandastron who really was able to bring peace for his people.

But to complete the work, the price he pays is quite grand. Quoted below is his own words about what he’s done to acquire the complete details of the history of Lord Brocktree, his greatest ancestor.

I’ve been two seasons now, reading through dusty old parchments, interviewing creatures for stories about their ancestors, and studying carvings in the forge. I’ve sat on the shore, listening to sea otters, stood beneath trees recording squirrelshuh, I’ve even had to crouch for four days in a mole dwelling. Had to keep waking those two fat old moles up so I could hear their story. Do you know, it was told to them by their great-grandma, who had it from her old aunt’s cousin, twice removed on the uncle’s side, or so they said?

What a dedicated Badger Lord.

Wait! I just realized that this is a story within another story! The story of Lord Russano about the story of Lord Brocktree.

The story of Lord Brocktree starts with the signs of danger looming over the Salamandastron. The then current Lord, the old Lord Stonepaw feels that signs and wondering if any strong warrior can hold or defeat the incoming danger and become the new Lord of Salamandastron. The story then focuses on a female hare (yet I think that hares are male rabbits) called Dotti. She’s fallen into a bad neighborhood ruled by local gang of 14 stoats. Fortunately Dotti is a good fighter. She manages to beat almost all of them. But she’s only one hare. Against 14 stoats, eventually comes the moment when she can’t defend herself.

Enter Lord Brocktree. A massive and strong Badger Lord. He wields a huge sword with double hilt. He then saves Dotti and send the stoats running.

Well, that’s what I’ve managed to read so far. Not really a review, leave aside short, as it resembles more like a retelling. Hahaha.. But that’s I can think about for today.

See you soon.

Asus Republic Of Gamer, Affordable Gaming Laptop with Godly Specs

Well, this is the first time I’m writing a blog post for a competition. Mainly, because I don’t like to be pretending to know stuffs and talking about it, and my luck on this kind of thing is practically non-existent. LOL.. But this time, it’s different. We’ll be talking about computers. And you know pretty well that I’m all about computers and technology in general. So, the competition is for the Asus Republic Of Gamer line of laptop computer. Right. A gaming laptop, that is! How awesome is that? Now, let’s start the journey!

So, what’s the differences between Asus Republic Of Gamer (Asus ROG) and the other competitors out there? Why should I care? That probably is your question now. So, I’ll try to explain the specifications and technobabbles for the ROG lines.

The main difference is the innovations Asus put on the line with no compromise whatsoever. For example, gaming gears are generally heavy, aren’t they? It definitely is not the case with the ROG. Asus put godly end hardwares into the ROG Zephyrus, namely Core i7 7700HQ, GTX 1080 Max-Q Design, 24 GB of system memory, and 512 GB of SSD storage that only weighs 2.2 kilograms. That’s even lighter than my current Acer Aspire laptop! And to add the greatness to the already awesome Zephyrus, it only has 1,7 centimeter thickness. Man, that’s sick. With it as my daily weapon, I can literally work my designs anywhere without the heavy burden. Well out of watery places of course.

Asus ROG consists of 3 series. The most affordable series is the GL series which the prize of the giveaway, GL502VM, belongs to. GL502VM in particular has two colors, black and silver. I’d like to have the silver one honestly. Although the black one would also looks cool.

This is the GL553,another part of the GL series

The middle one is the G series. The design of the G series should look familiar to the fans of Iron Man. Yes, the design of the G series is inspired by the Iron Man, Tony Stark himself. The highest end one is the GX series. The design is just too cool. It’s inspired by combat jetplanes. Anywhere you take them, you surely will catch the eyes of people around. The bragging right is strong with this one.

Looks alone will get you nowhere, right? That’s why all lines from the GL series (also called the Strix), G series, and the GX series are packed with the newest Intel i7 processors and NVIDIA GTX 10 series. Some units like the GX 800 are even loaded with two(!) GTX 1080 GPU for maximum performances. Coupled with water cooling, you’ll be able to have LAN parties longer than ever. And did I mention that it looks gorgeous? Yes, as a technophile, I’m drooling for the handsome pieces of hardware.

For display, all series are already equipped with IPS panel. For a gamer, designer, illustrator, or someone who plays a lot with color, IPS panel is a basic requirement. Typical LCD just won’t make it due to constant color shifts. Color shift is a nightmare for an illustrator like me because I might never get the colors right. Software side, ROG uses NVIDIA G-Sync to make sure you never miss any minute detail. Some units also have 4k display if you really want to push it further. I for one will settle on full HD although I won’t refuse the 4k one. Hahaha..

Wait a minute. Why should I, an illustrator, entering a competition for a gaming laptop? Well, that’s partially where ROG get it exactly right. The design is just so cool that an aspiring artist like me even able to go crazy about it. Moreover, who said that a graphical artist can’t use gaming gears? Move aside, gamers. An aspiring artist is also here to take a part for the market. Hahaha..

It’s all cool and awesome indeed. But what about the endurance? I know a certain guy who’s able to wreck his laptop on his first week alone. LOL.. that’s so me, you know. But I didn’t wreck my laptop on first week. Only on the third quarter of the warranty period, by wiping away the entire disk. I don’t even know what did I do. Windows is partly to blame, I think. LOL..

All ROG units are tested heavily to ensure the best quality possible, ranging from keyboard stroke counts, vibration test, shake test, drop test, etc. Additionally, all ROGs are covered with two years international warranty. You can rampage as wild as you can and still feel safe because of the quality control is so strict.

So, are you ready to be a part of the Republic? And which one of the ROG line are you interested in? #WEARERROG #ASUSROGID #ROG

Gonna Work for the Review of Kamen Rider Drive

Well.. where did I leave the hollow of the review? The last airing episode is episode 20. So I guess I’ll make a bulk review starting where I left straight through episode 20 or 21 (which will be airing next Sunday).

[REVIEW] Bima – X Eps. 24

Well.. As promised, here’s the review of Bima – X Episode 24.
So Rexxor and Lady Mossa reported the power of Power Stones and their failures to Black Lord. And as expected, he was enraged by their failures. Then Lady Mossa defended themselves (so nice of you!) that Rexxor and she already had a plan to track the last Power Stone. Enraged Black Lord bound Lady Mossa’s neck with circle of energy. And hilariously, instead of groaning in pain, she moaned. Yes. She produced a moaning sound. This is a kids’s show, for God’s sake! But still hilarious for adult viewer.
Next scene, Reza was in search of the last Power Stone. He approached citizens who live around the place where Grand Gator fell apart. Grand Gator was the last boss from last season. It was controlled using all seven Power Stones (Power Stone Merah, Power Stone Biru, Power Stone Hitam, Power Stone Hijau, Power Stone Putih, Power Stone Oranye, and Power Stone Ungu).
One of the citizens told Reza that a man collected the remains of Grand Gator back then. The man turned out to be a scientist, a colleague of Ray, Reza, Randy, and Rena’s parents. By the way of Rena, she’s absent today. Along with Ricca. And the OP is slightly altered and crudely cut.
So the trio (Ray, Reza, Randy) came to the scientist to ask for whereabouts of their parent. But the scientist refused. And it got worse when Lady Mossa appeared with the new monster, Magna the Rhino monster (I like the design). She even managed to kidnap the scientist (or should we say scientistnap? LOL..). And wait for next week.

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[Review] Bima-X Eps 20, 21, 22

Well.. I missed yet another episode this week. The reason is I fell sick since Friday night. So I thought of making the review before I forgot, while wait for the rerun next Saturday morning.

So, Black Lord  holds a competition for Death Phantoms. Whoever wins will get Phantom Weapon (idiot naming, I know..).Phantom Weapon’s power is supposedly so great that Black Lord is confident that the winner will be able to defeat the three Satrias. So the Death Phantoms are fighting among themselves. A new reporter (who is a rival to Draconer’s alter ego Chris Ruslan) pursues them to get a live report. But Draconer, has gotten himself the Phantom Weapon, confronted him and begins to attack him. Apparently, Phantom Weapon is part of Black Priest himself, because Draconer now has similar feature as Black Lord himself in form of a pair of curly horns. Reza comes at the right moment and tells the reporter to run away. Ray comes shortly after and they both are defeated. Getting themselves pinned to the ground and unable to escape.

Episode 21 was a good one. The new Satria appearance was just good. Not overpowering existing Satrias, but help them anyway by beating the small fries and give a piece of power for Bima-X and Azazel to use. And by combining their Power Stones’ power (Oranye, Hijau, And Hitam) into a triangle-based pyramid (Illuminati detected! LOL..), Bima-X and Azazel were able to defeat him. But the one who finishes Draconer is Topeng Besi. Pretty surprising for this series. The previous season didn’t have murdering scene like this. Okay, you may ask, how the hell did Bima-X and Azazel able to free themselves? Thanks to the reporter. He makes a live report about the sufferings of the Satria. And the citizen begins to pray for them and their prayers give the Satrias power to escape. Honestly I were surprised! Mixing religious stuffs to the series was an alien thing in other tokusatsu. But I think it’s due to Indonesian are pretty religious, so they decided to include the stuff anyway.

Episode 22 was not that good. It’s just the new Satria revealing himself as the owner of Akhsara Corp, Dimas Akhsara, the master of Ricca. Following the scheme of episode 19 where they use the old suit, this time Bachyura the Crab Monter (a.k.a. F U ra) and the Bee Knight (the monster where Bima-X Storm first appeared, I forget his name) re-appear with the power of the Synthetic Power Stone embedded into the body of Dimas’s driver. In this episode, we also see Dimas transforms for the first time.

Well.. that’s that. I’ll review the episode 23 as soon as it aired.

[REVIEW] Kamen Rider Drive Eps 13, 14, and 15

Well.. I totally forgot to do reviews for Drive. As payback, I’ll do triple review!

So, turned out that Gou (Kamen Rider Mach) is not that bad. He can do his own investigations which Shin-chan cannot do. His investigation resulted in he revealed the guy who is capable of producing Density Shift-inducing bracelets. He even called Shin-chan as Shin nii-san (Big Bro Shin from onii-san) and Shin-chan agreed to act as his brake (as in motorbike’s brake) if Gou acts too fast. Well.. I feel a bit envious, you know.. The episode is rather fast-paced. Before I knew it, it already over.

Next, Chase approached Kiriko to ask why does she appear in his memory. It then revealed by Brain that Chase is the Proto Zero, the first Roidmude ever created. He also helped people defeating many Roidmudes when the Global Freeze occurred six months ago. It means, well.. you guessed it, Chase is Proto Drive.

The case this two weeks is an actress who followed by a stalker and protected by a Roidmude. The Roidmude always left a tarot card whenever it ‘killed’ a human. She recalled the Roidmude as her former lover (who was a fortune teller who used tarot cards) which she accidentally killed. But she couldn’t remember anything, even after Kiriko showed her her diary entry. Actually, the Roidmude took her memory and turned into the one who protected her this far. Interestingly, this Roidmude (numbered 096) is the first weekly female Roidmude (well.. Medic was the first female). The Roidmude in first two episode was able to change into a woman as well, but he retains his male voice, while this one does not change into a man and has female voice.

This episode also marks the first time Mach uses Shift Car. Max Flare to be exact. He was able to injure Brain pretty badly that Medic forced to flee with the newly re-brain-washed Chase.

And there is a Drive Type Dead Heat in the preview. What an episode.

[REVIEW] Bima – X Eps 17, 18, and 19

Well.. My internet connection was so bad for almost a week. I was unable to post anything. But here I am with the review of episode 17 and 18 of Bima – X.

For episode 17, I’d say one word : Fanservice! Well.. it should be two words, but I like it as one. And it reserved to female audiences. The episode opened with Rena wondering about the third Satria. Should it be a girl? Would Ricca transform into a Satria using Power Stone Putih? The daydreaming closed with an argument between her and Randy, saying there would not be a female Satria where Rena insisted that there should be. Well.. Feminists are everywhere!

And next, here comes the fanservice! Reza was walking alone, looking for other Power Stones when suddenly Topeng Besi Reborn (Iron Mask Reborn) ambushed him. The explosion torn Reza’s shirt apart. Reza got rid of the remaining pieces of the shirt and showing his glorious body. LOL to that. Topeng Besi Reborn also discovered that his cannon holds much more power than he knew. Zacross suspected that the disturbance to the force of Power Stone (yes! yes! yes!) was causing the unusual power surge. But Topeng Besi didn’t agree.

Next, Lady Mossa showed up, chasing Power Stone Putih. But Ricca, determined to protect the Power Stone, absorbed it to her body, defeated the water clone of Lady Mossa. By the way, looks like Ricca has the tendency of falling down all on her own. Since the beginning of her getting more screen time regularly. Rena was looking for her before the assault of lady Mossa, and she found Ricca when she shouted in pain due to fall to the ground.

Ricca absorbed the Power Stone Putih turned out to have a bad side effect. Her body froze gradually, started from her right arm. Lady Mossa in her human disguise, pretended to help them by providing a shelter, which Lady Mossa took over by killing the owner. Paman came to the shelter bringing a bucket of soup, stating that nobody could refuse the deliciousness of his cooking. But when Paman came, Ricca’s body was already fully frozen. Worse, Lady Mossa showed up in her monster form and commanded Kuronion to attack. Ray transformed and fought the Kuronion. After the Kuronion defeated, Lady Mossa sent Bima faraway using her water sphere and ultimately, showing her Great Monster Form. Eventually, she (her water clone, to be exact) was defeated with combination attack from Bima – X and Azazel.

Back to the shelter, Ray tried to communicate with Ricca using Power Stone Merah. He told Ricca to let go of Power Stone Putih, because it is now safe. And she is now has a new family, Ray, Randy, Reza, Rena, and Paman. She smiled in tears and woke up from her coma.

As for episode 19, there is not much to talk about. It’s just another flashback episode you’ll find in any series, especially Tokusatsu. Well.. animes too. The main plot is Draconer had a plan to steal Ray’s Power Stone using Monster Hantu (Ghost Monsters) who didn’t have physical body. Turned out, the monsters are slacking away and do nothing but defeated by Bima – X with the help of Power Stone Putih revealing the existence of the monsters.

Swype Keyboard Review

Well I am now reviewing the Swype keyboard for Android. My phone, Motorola Photon 4G, already had the Swype keyboard built in. But since the keyboard is now obsolete, I’m thinking about downloading the new Swype.
And here is the review . So far so good I can even dictate the words on the Swype keyboard. Hit or miss attempt admittedly. But still good to have than nothing, right?
So the swipe keyboard has a new lay
out with a different number placement from the built in on my Photon 4G. the numbers now placed on top of the keyboard rather than the feature phone format in my copy of Swype Annoyingly, it still has no support for emoji. I’ll go with Go Keyboard then. The predictive inputs also is a pain in the ass. Heck, it doesn’t even has the word ‘ass’, ‘arse’, and ‘heck’! Too bad for a paid keyboard which claimed it has the most updates for new words. Hey, ‘ass’ has been a valid English word for ages! I won’t buy this stuff.

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[REVIEW] Kamen Rider Drive Eps 11 & 12

Well.. Episode 11 is the final part of a trilogy (consists of episode 9, 10, 11), so it has no real ties to episode 12. But well.. Be it.
So episode 11 (wow, I kinda forgot already) ended with the resurrection of Medic, a female Roidmude. She has the ability to revive a core to its former evolved state. And in this episode we also got the glimpse, well.. A siluet of Kamen Rider Mach. So, Mach is called Gou, the little brother of Kiriko. In episode 12, she took a day off to prepare for the coming of her brother.
We got a funny scene too. Gen fell down a tall building in slowed-down pace due to the Slow Down, or technically (in show) Density Shift. He fell all down to the ground while Shin-chan was still fighting Gunman (the monster of the two weeks, maybe more). Thanks to the Density Shift, Gen survived and even managed to look at Drive’s face.
Gunman made a kind of contract with a human, similar to the one with the camera. So the human was able to cause a Density Shift with a special bracelet. He’s the one who caused Gen to fall by throwing a barrel of oil and thus, made Gen slipped.
We now see how Mach henshins and do his hissatsu. Well, I hate him. He’s kinda like the bad side of Nitou (Kamen Rider Beast, Wizard’s secondary). Plus some bits of sissy. Oren (Kamen Rider Bravo of Gaim) surely was gay, but this guy, Gou, was even worse.. His hissatsu also was not that good. No where close to Drive Type Speed’s hissatsu on episode one where he jumped few times over Tridoron before he kicked the monster.
But since Shin-chan and Chase-kun are way too cute, Kiriko and Rina are too fabulous, I’ll brace myself to watch this show to the end.

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