Well it’s been a freaking long time since I’ve updated. There are several reasons to why but to cut it short, the reason for the lack of entries are mostly the following: Firstly my mind has been consistently clouded by a combination of alcohol and hangovers set on repeat, as well as exhaustion both mentally and physically by work and the lack of overly-expected achievements. Also, I’ve been trying too hard write about something original or clever or grammatically correct. And looking back my old “carefully constructed” posts, they’re still shitty writing.

Call me a narcissist but aside from checking myself out in the mirror and taking self-portraits from time to time, I also read my own articles and chuckle at my own jokes and go “Damn that shit was fucking funny!”  But if you’re reading this and are shocked, you either don’t know me well or you’re lying to yourself. Come on man we all do these shit to some degree.

Anyways, what I do find entertaining and worthy of reading on this blog which I’ve kept for whatever years now, are those spontaneous ones. So tonight is gonna be that night, all sober and ready to relish the past few months of my life and just talk about what ever is on my mind. Note to reader (if any) and future Jacky: Look out because it’s going to be a long ass read – and I hope in a few months or years you’ll find this entry enjoyable and hopefully come up with something better.

1.      Dating

So I’ve been single for about 2 years now, I don’t know the exact duration, wasn’t keeping track. I’m not sure when, but maybe a year or so ago there was this void in my life that started to grow. Maybe mostly I turned 30 recently and a lot of my friends and cousins got married and I started to be all self-conscious about it.

I’ve always been a douche when it comes to relationships. A douche in the sense that I give up very easily whenever I see something not fitting in the other half (or myself) – the unwillingness to compromise. I have this douche mentality of having unrealistic expectations for a potential partner, and at the same time not willing to step my game up to confront and go after any potential candidates. As a result I’ve had very few relationships and none of which lasted very long. It’s a two way thing really,it’s good in the sense that I never waste my ex’s time by letting them go when I feel something is “not right”, bad in the sense that maybe I just never wanted to put in extra effort to “make it work”.

Oh well, no matter. I have been adjusting my mentalities for quite a bit and been somewhat actively doing online dating. I joined this pretty awesome site called OkCupid to scan for potential dates. In the beginning my ignorant ass was again expecting all kinds of interesting hot babes, only to find out the majority of the people are no more and no less than the folks we see from day to day (duh!).

Anyways, so far I’ve met two girl sand the last one I met was an impressive one. Now it may sound ironic to say but I am fairly sure we aren’t attracted to each other, and we shouldn’t necessarily be in order for the dates to be successful. She is a slender,attractive girl, open minded, talkative and straight forward girl; we get along quite well and were able to talk about almost anything. We made it clear on our first date, which was an afternoon Starbucks chat that we both weren’t out to meet “The One”, rather just activity companions. Someone to go eat, drink,watch a movie/show with. Because like me, she only recently returned to Malaysia after 9 years spent in the US, and have lost connection with most of her friends, so there’s this loneliness in both of us.

We went to a comedy show last Wednesday and had a fantastic time. Never been to a live stand-up and the experience was exhilarating.Some acts were cheap jokes where you feel nervous for them and some were spot on and had me LOL my ass to exhaustion. I guess the best feeling is I was able to drink and smoke and laugh with a bunch of like-minded individuals. Honestly,it would have been 10 times better if we were into each other and finished the night with the hey-hey routine, but nevertheless that was a fun ass night.

On the real though, the dilemma rolled in after that night, I’m not sure if I was over-thinking, but I do get the vibe that there seemed to be little point if we continued to hang out, the main reason I believe, is that though we said weren’t looking for “the one”, we both knew that it certainly would have been better if we are spending our time and energy on someone who has the potential, and though we like each other as individuals the friend zone was already established. Age is probably a big factor too because she’s 33 and I’m 30 – it’s shallow to say but if we were maybe a couple of years younger it’d be nice to fool around a bit.

2.      Fatness/Drinking

I am sick of my fucking beer gut, and this is the primary reason why I decided to sit down and write this thing tonight. It’s just RIGHT THERE, ALL THE TIME. I’m a heavy drinker; I drink about a six-pack beer plus some whiskey almost on a daily basis. I was watching the movie “Flight” by Denzel Washington the other night and it really hit me. I’m an alcoholic, well, till this day I still deny so because I FEEL that I’m in control. I binge drink but I don’t drink to the point of blacking out and do regrettable things – but that’s just wishful thinking and I know. I have a problem and I need to fix it before it’s too late. It’s a vicious cycle, a slow paced self-destructing habit that I have kept for a long, long time.

There are things that I used to enjoy without the influence of alcohol – drawing, video games, movies, Poker, YouTube, basketball, etc. At some point in my life, most of these things have faded away. I couldn’t find the joy out of them anymore, and more and more I find my leisure entertainments so much more awesome and fun with booze. And gradually it’s come to the point where all of my leisure time will need to accompany some booze otherwise they’re just “not that fun”.  And when I say leisure time I really mean every night after dinner.

Drinking has obviously affected my physical health as well as my personal and professional life. I have developed high cholesterol and high triglyceride, I can’t climb a few stairs without feeling uneasy and I don’t exercise. To top it all off I am also a smoker. During some more heavy times I live my day in hangover and night in drunkenness continuously to the point where my body really couldn’t take any more and just get really sick. I’d recover, cut down for some time, and repeat.  During those days I often show up at work late and reek of alcohol, it’s fucking embarrassing and pathetic. I should be better than that, I know I’m better than that.

I think about the reason why I drink so much and binge so hard. Boredom? Loneliness? Problems in life? To be honest it’s all bullshit. It’s a combination of weak will, laziness, lack of discipline and to top it all off – being an ungrateful human being.

I can’t say that I can quit this habit cold turkey, but I am really fucking sick of myself doing this shit over and over again. I am consciously aware of this problem and I constantly avoid thinking about it, for years now. But the effect is there no matter how I look at it. Every time I bend down to tie my laces I feel this lump of fat stuck on my stomach, and I cuss at myself for allowing this – for like, 7 years now? As I age, my metabolism wears down and I feel worse and worse and can’t keep up with the poison I’m chugging down. George Carlin says it best: “There comes to a point where the pain outweighs the pleasure, and you just cut the bullshit.”

Well, I’m not gonna say I’m going to cut the bullshit, but I really, really want to do something about it. I want to do more exercise, set up some kind of goal, and maintain it. For now, I am thinking I should exercise at least 3 times a week, and only drink during weekends or days when I did exercise before. Not sure if it’s a good plan but it’s as feasible and realistic as I can set it out to be now, a first step, the most important part is to keep up.

Every time I do this, the pressure builds up as time elapses and boom I fall deeper into that cycle. I want to write this now and remind myself to just step up and do better, every little effort counts. Try to exercise right after work, burn some calories before dinner, and exhaust yourself so you won’t feel like drinking at all, just hop on the bed all tired, read some books and get ready for the next day JACKY!

3.      Dad/Bro

Besides my drinking problem, I think I am doing quite okay in life. I won’t say I’m happy, but overall I feel content and motivated in life. Over the years the biggest issue I’ve always struggle with myself is to set a realistic goal and put in the actual action to make that happen; while not everything has come to fruition (e.g.Fatness/Alcohol), I did accomplish some things I’ve set out to do.

The biggest worry I have now is my father and my brother. Man, the power of family. These two mofos are probably the biggest, most colossal hard headed stubborn individuals I have ever met. The tension between the two was always there but lately it’s come to an inevitable collision. The damage is high and it’s not getting any better any time soon.  

Long story short, the biggest problem I believe for the two, is that they both want to “prove themselves”, it’s like a war of who’s right who’s wrong, a constant struggle to gain each other’s approvals, acknowledgements and recognition, and these two will not back down one bit, not much room for negotiation, and even if there was, there wasn’t time for it either. I won’t go over too much in the details, every family has its problems, this one is mine and the ongoing feud is a big part of my conscious. It hurts to see how these two just can’t see eye to eye and have a real peaceful conversation, but as a bro and a son, I feel that I’ve done my best to reduce the damage and whatever goes on in the future I will stand by them, that’s family

I do want to take some time out to talk about my dad. Over the years, I have come to really know him. He was never close to us when we were kids – maybe when we were much younger, but during our adolescence he had always been this authority figure so far out of reach. I guess I could use the word “fear”, but I think it’s more out of sheer respect for the man, that we as kids never reached out to him.  

As I work and live with him the last 6 years in Asia, I became closer with the man, more and more he feels more“vulnerable”, more able to relate… more “humane” I guess. I became capable of evaluating him as a person whom I could figure out, his weakness was unveiled and his strength was realized; I started to be able to think like him and feel like him. Slowly and steadily I realize he wasn’t all powerful and all wise and all superhuman,he is just one egotistic, stubborn, hard headed, non-negotiating, high-expectation having tough SOB.

But the most important thing is, the more I find out about his more humane side, the more I realize just how much shit he’s been through and put up all his life to become the man that he is today. It’s a result of a life-long stream of sacrifices, disciplines, pain and broken hearts (of himself and those whom he caused), blood sweat and tears,chances/risks he took, and all that other things that I can’t and will never fathom. And for the most part, and to me the most admirable, is that he’s always kept them in his heart and only let his actions speak.

But yeah, whether that’s a good thing or not, he is no different from you and me. He too wants to be understood and loved, no more no less. But he’s my dad, and I have never questioned my privilege to be his son. To me, he’ll always remain at the top of the pyramid, someone who will always be the inspiration, the final boss you just can’t beat, and the pain in the ass that keep me in check and will forever be at the back of my mind to remind myself to be a better person.  

 

So yeah, it’s been two hours since I sat down and wrote, this feels pretty great. I have a whole bunch of other topics that I didn’t cover but as usual it’s getting late and I don’t have the energy to write. There are other things that are running through my head but I can’t lay them all out, but overall this is kind of an update of my life and a reminder for my future self. To all my close ones, this is what I really want to say when you ask me “How’s it going?” I know ya’ll still read my Xanga and I thank you for that, you guys listen to whatever bullshit I have to say and I don’t quite reciprocate enough. We’ll take turns though I’m sure, this is friends and this is life. Alright even though I’m pumped as fuck now I still really need to catch some sleep. It’s only Tuesday damn it.

Peace and till next time!

This guide is dedicated to all the wonderful Malaysian drivers whom I’ve had the blessing to share the road with. As a foreign driver in this country I’ve had my share of elevated blood pressure and ever-deepening frustration dealing with the proper way of the road. Through this guide I hope to help those who aren’t accustomed to the Malaysian way to have a better idea how to drive in this country with a peace of mind. Saya Malaysian Style!

Rule of Thumb

The central and fundamental rule to keep in mind while driving in Malaysia is to ALWAYS prioritize your needs and wants above all else. To be a true Malaysian driver, one must understand that your desire, convenience and comfort are far superior to laws & regulation, safety of the roads, and the lives of people around you. Attempts at adhering to the traffic laws or being courteous to other drivers will often result with serious consequences such as making driving in Malaysia less of a pain in the ass. Besides, being obedient to the law and courteous to other people will undoubtedly expose you as a noobie foreign pussy driver, in order to blend into the crowd and avoid being spotted, follow the pointers below.

Always be late

Always be late, or act as if you have some kind of emergency, so you can always drive fast. Remember how you should always prioritize your needs? You are late, so you must drive faster than all other vehicles, the faster you are driving and swerving across lanes, the more urgent of an image you are projecting to the other drivers, they’ll understand. If there is a traffic jam ahead of you, do use the emergency lane. And if people weren’t moving faster than you wanted to, try tailgating them as closely and dangerously as possible (you know you have great hand-eye coordination!) and do make great use of the high-beam lights and honks to show them that you really are in a hurry, what do carmakers make these functions for anyway right?

Always be late, so you also deserve to drive as slowly as you please because hey, you’re already late. Other cars will circle around you anyway, and if they don’t, chances are they’re too stupid and unworthy of you changing lanes, so they can wait. While you’re driving slowly, do make calls and start a fun-packed, full on conversation with your friends, family, and loved ones. A true Malaysian driver should be capable enough of basic multitasking, so to test your capability, try refraining from talking on the phone and start text messaging instead – you’d be surprised just how capable you actually are, and if you’re awkward at it, PRACTICE.

Drive within the lines

Never let the lane marks on the road distract you – those are tax money wasted by the government to paint on the ever-cracking road full of dents and bumps to insult the intelligence of the Malaysian drivers. Malaysian drivers do not need stupid, redundant paints on the road to guide them to form organized traffic flows – true Malaysian drivers have exceptional spatial cognition, they disregard lane separators or non-stopping diagonal zones and cut into or stop at any space they deem appropriate. Again: YOUR NEED IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN OTHERS’.

Be a leader, not a reader

Ignore all sign boards. Like lane marks, the sign boards are mostly pointless if not deceptive; just another gimmick set up by the government to tax more of your money into their pockets. A true Malaysian driver is smarter than to follow these boards with meaningless words, which by the way are usually covered full of massage and loan ads anyway. If you see STOP, go; if you see ONE WAY, go against the direction; if you see YIELD, rush; a NO-U? U that bitch; SPEED LIMIT 90? Go 130 or 60, get the drift? If you see pedestrian crossing marks, always speed up and cross it before the pedestrian can, god forbids those little shits take your right of way. If a pedestrian is stupid enough to actually use the zebra crosses, honk at them. And if you ever hit a pedestrian, pretend you didn’t see one, roll off and go on with your day,or alternatively if your mood strikes, step down the car and yell at them because they put a dent on your precious, antique Proton.

Keep them guessing

Never blink your indicator lights, EVER. For what? To tell the other drivers where you’re going? Blinking signal lights in Malaysia is a very amateur thing to do and frowned upon. Every time you see a driver blink and trying to get into your lane, the natural thing to do is to close the gap as quickly as possible to avoid the other car from merging ahead of you. Likewise, when you’re trying to switch lane, blinking will cost your opportunity to always being ahead, so why be a sucker?

Park like a King

Always double park. Time is precious and you must pick up your coffees, groceries or takeout food so you have absolutely zero time to find a parking spot. The distance you walk from your parked car to your destination determines the level of success you have at being a good Malaysian driver – the shorter the distance the more of a champion you are. And whenever other drivers find out your car is blocking theirs, NEVER move the car until you get your coffee, takeout food, your cigarette, finished talking on the phone or hell, until you are pleased. If you actually feel like parking at a designated parking place, never park as the lines indicated (by now you should know better), and make sure you circle around the parking lot reeeeaaalllllly sloooowwwwwly so you can find the closest parking space to the entrance of the mall, there’s always an “I” in “WIN”!

Work together with the police

In the unfortunate event of a police officer pulling you over, you must understand that the law enforcement officers here are simply doing their jobs – that is keeping up the image that they are. The Malaysian people are generally very friendly, including the police officers; they understand that as a driver you must place your needs above everything else –  you don’t have time to fill out a ticket or go to the court, so your best bet is to negotiate the ticketed fine and usually you’ll be free off the road within minutes. This keeps the traffic going and both parties fulfilling their jobs, you continue to drive the car like a douche bag, and the cops continues to pretend doing their jobs, win-win.

Final Notes

The above pointers are the most basic requirement for one to become a Malaysian driver. But if you want to truly go Pro, here are a few further pointers:

-         - Put a McDonald VIP Drive-Thru Sticker on your wind shield. Honestly, I don’t know why, but when I spot one on the road, 95% of the time the driver is equipped with the quality of a typcial Malaysian driver.

-        – Malaysia is known for its frequent thunderstorms which obscure your visibility on the road. When engaged in a thunderstorm on the road, remember to drive faster than usual and do not use the headlight to tell others where you’re at. You are better than that.

-        –  Drive a taxi: Taxis are the ultimate badass. They don’t have to pay for the damages they inflict onto your car or theirs, so with this in mind their level of intelligence drops below the level of a retarded fish and their balls expand exponentially huge when they’re on the road.

-         - Become a motorist: this grants you even higher power above all else because you are now riding a motorcycle. Feel free to maximize your privilege of the road and roam freely among the road, remember this, no matter what you do, if a car hits you, it is ALWAYS THEIR FAULT.

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I think I’ve covered most of the aspects regarding the way of driving in Malaysia. To local drivers – keep doing your thing and not giving a shit about other people. To foreign drivers, if you are fortunate enough to be able to drive in this country, I believe this guide can mean a difference between life and death. Cheers!

Babies, I can’t stand them. My coworker recently had a baby, she’s now 8 months old and she annoys the living shit out of me with her screechy, whinny, bitchy ass cries. She insists on being held at all times and when her parents feed her she demands to be fed at the right pace or else she’ll start throwing a fit again, screeching, whining, swinging her arms and banging on the table, what a spoiled little brat.

As I am typing this up she is banging some toy on the desk nonstop, her mom took it away and she started screaming. I went outside to smoke the 3rd cigarette in the last hour because I can’t stand it. I had to Google “Can an 8 month old baby be spoiled?” and the results I got came to be: “Babies from newborn to 1 year are spoil-proof” — spoil proof my ass.

I blame my coworkers because they always succumb to the cries and give immediate attention to their precious little baby and holding her all the time, she’s almost like 18-20 lbs. now and can already walk around in one of those baby walkers yet they insist on holding her all the time. Learn to crawl, walk, and talk, and shut the fuck up.

I hate babies. Every parent thinks his/her baby is so cute and smart, they’re not.  All they do besides crying, eating, and shitting is giving you the “What the fuck you looking at?” look. I tried to play peek-a-boo with her once and she was really confused; staring at me trying to figure out what I was doing, so I stopped. But as soon as I stopped she started screeching again. Guess what? I’m not your mommy so I don’t have to listen to your bitchy ass whines.  I’ve learnt to never play with her again ever until she can speak so I can tell her to shut the fuck up and learn some manners.

My contempt for crying babies and undisciplined children don’t stand alone, it goes hand in hand with their oh-so-loving parents. I can’t recall just how many times I have gone on an airplane or a movie theater and have the misfortune to sit next to these obnoxious children screaming, yelling, and other bullshits and their parents not doing (or simply can’t do) a damn thing about it. Every time I find myself in these types of situation I always have this urge to stand up and walk to the incompetent parent and tell them: “If you don’t make your stupid fucking kid shut the fuck up, I fucking will.”

I despise the warped and twisted perceptions parents mistaken as “love” towards their children. They think their babies are so bright and attractive, when they are utterly useless and probably average looking. Let’s face it, most babies look the same, that’s why you can’t tell if it’s a boy or a girl. The only special ones you remember are usually the especially ugly ones.

Parents repeat the same phrases and count numbers to the idol, unresponsive baby tirelessly, hoping for their babies to miraculously and suddenly learn how to speak and count, when all you get in return is an empty stare. And if you’re unlucky, you get a big, fat, long, rhythmic bitchy cry, which is the only single thing they learn and put to use – because why? The parents respond to it, babies don’t need to learn other tricks, crying alone brings them bitches at their service to satisfy their every single need.

I think I’ll stop typing this now not because I’m at work, but because the baby is once again bitching and whining. It frustrates me because not only the baby needs to be held, she needs to be held standing up, you sit down for a second, she cries. Worse yet, not only she needs to be held standing up, she wants to be held standing up and facing out, if she’s not seeing what you’re seeing, she cries. Why are the parents letting this happen and why can’t they just leave the little shit on the baby-walker and let her walk around? It doesn’t matter anymore. At this point I’m just going to go out and smoke another cigarette while fantasizing myself leaving the crying baby in a room all by herself. And I’d go to a distant room, lie at a sofa comfortably, light my cigarette and sip on some ice cold beer and play a movie and just let that baby cry to her sleep. I hate babies.

Procrastinators, the leaders of tomorrow. Let’s get to it.

BACKGROUND STORY:

1 1/2 year ago I decided to improve my smile with Invisalign treatment and wanted to document my progress and report my experience and share with those who are interested or having second-thoughts about this treatment.

You may find the original entry HERE.

A little background about myself, I reside in the outskirt of Kuala Lumpur area,Malaysia, and the orthodontist who handles my case is:

Yaps & Associates Dental Surgery

Lot 1.02 Level 1, Menara Maulife

Jalan Gelenggang , Damansara Heights

50490 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Tel:  +603-20940005

www.yapdental.com

My principal concern is: Over jet, Over bite, and mild crowding. All four of my wisdom teeth are present, though not causing infections or affecting the treatment in any way. (I will have both upper wisdom teeth extracted some time in 2012 or 2013 because they are starting to cause discomfort now.)

My initial diagnose came with 22 upper and lower cases, and the total cost for my case was roughly RM15, 000. (Roughly $5,000), no insurance covered – you’ll need to find out if your insurance can cover at your local orthodontist.

Please expect 20-40% more expensive than traditional braces, this treatment is currently patented by one single company and therefore the market competition for them is practically zero, as far as invisible braces are concerned.

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UPDATE:

Since my last (and only) Invisalign entry, dated September1st, 2010 at Tray #7, almost 1 1/2 year had passed and now I am on Tray 36, or more specifically, I am now on Tray 4 of my second Refinement Treatment.

My original treatment consists of 22 sets of trays. As I’ve mentioned in the previous blog, if ALL WENT WELL, my initial treatment should perfectly align my teeth by the 22nd trays (which is 10 1/2 months in calculated time). However, like all things in life,sometimes the result isn’t as anticipated and you gotta just adapt, improvise, I-Ching, whatever man just roll with it.

Upon the completion of the initial 22 sets of trays, my teeth already saw dramatic improvements and perfectly aligned, but then there were gaps in between my teeth that weren’t fully closed. For those of you who don’t know, these gaps were artificially shaved off during the treatment to create space for the teeth to move into alignment, these gaps were supposed to close up by the end of treatment, but for whatever reasons, they were still there and quite visible.

This brought me to the second stage of the treatment: the Refinements. Basically the Refinement treatment is a “fix-up” alignment process to correct anything that wasn’t done according to the initial diagnosis. My Refinement treatment consists of 10 trays both upper and lower teeth. Luckily this time, my Refinement treatment required less Attachments on my teeth, which significantly reduced the discomfort and of course aesthetically looked better since less attachments were exposed.

And so 10 trays of Refinement passed by in a flash, and my teeth were actually further aligned – I didn’t think you could align the teeth even more; but still the problem remained: there were still visible gaps between my teeth – albeit a lot smaller. With that, Dr. Yap offered to use traditional braces for the final correction, which I felt reluctant to because it’d defeat the purpose of going with Invisalign in the first place. Secondly, by then I was completely used to living with Invisalign and at this point it certainly does not bother me one bit to continue to wear the trays for another extension. Invisalign and I had become one.

Since the Refinement hadn’t really closed up all the gaps created (albeit aligned my teeth), a second order of Refinement was placed. It is free of cost, since Invisalign guaranteed satisfactory results. And my Second Refinement came in with 12 trays, both upper and lower. This time, my attachments are further reduced to 1 on top and 3 at the bottom.

Please beware that the more attachments you have on your teeth, the stronger the “pull” your aligner trays would be. And with little as 4 attachments for my Second Refinement, I hardly felt any discomfort at all (or maybe it’s because I am just really used to it).

And as of now (April 4th, 2012), I am on Tray 4 of Second Refinement, and if we do a little math: 22 original trays + 10 Refinement trays+ 4 Second Refinement trays = 36th tray so far. So far the gaps are slowly closing; to be honest I am actually not entirely sure if this will be the final stage, though I certainly hope so.

And here are some pictures of me during various stages since I began my treatment:

 

PIC1: Oct. 2007 – before my treatment, and say hi to my boo Shadow Cheng!

 

PIC 2: May 2010 – Treatment began, Tray #1

 

PIC3: August 2010, 3 months into treatment

 

PIC4: July 2012 – 1 year and 2 months into treatment. At this point my teeth are pretty much aligned, though there are still some gaps.

 

PIC5: April 2012 – Gaps are further reduced, looking from far it is unnoticeable.

8 more trays to go! (16 weeks = 4 months)

Apologies for not having clearer pictures since my previous laptop drowned to death in coffee, I’ve lost most of my data and photos, so here are some I’ve downloaded from my Facebook. 

I never took clearer pictures of my teeth at different stages because bottom line is – IT JUST WORKS, so I didn’t need  to reassure myself. And plus, Dr. Yap has all the professional, clear pictures taken, which I will eventually post up here when the entire treatment is concluded.

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ADDITIONAL NOTE

I was reading my previous Invisalign entry and noticed that at the time of writing, I adhered religiously to all the cleaning procedures every time after meal. Every time I go out I’d carry a small sanitary bag with me that contains tooth brush, floss, toothpaste, and sometimes mouth wash. This isn’t true anymore. Somewhere during Tray 18-19 I think I got lazy and stopped being so careful and started just carrying my new best friend: the floss pick, instead of the whole gang. Nowadays if I’m on the go, I’d just use the floss pick to pick and floss my teeth after meal, followed by rinsing with water at the restaurant, then just slap that aligners back on. This isn’t recommended of course, but I just wanted to note that I hadn’t gotten any cavities by going with this method, though I do notice that there’re significantly more build-ups in the aligner trays going this way, stronger discolorations also, as the bacteria and food deposits are bedded in the trays.

However, I did and have always adhere to the rule of wearing the aligners at least 20-22 hours a day. In the course of 1 1/2 year of this treatment I had only failed once – when I got piss-drunk and passed out for a night without the aligners on.

Also, I’ve stopped carrying my Invsialign cases with me, instead when I’m out eating I always just rinse the aligners and wrap it with paper towels. As you would have guessed, I’ve almost lost my aligners multiple times. Sometimes you’re just so caught up with the conversation with your friends, and the waiters come in and clean the table along with my aligners.

It’s a pretty “fun” I might add, to be able to dig through the trash cans of various restaurant kitchens and finally find my aligners. Girls probably won’t have this problem because you carry purses all the time, guys will have more difficult time to carry the bulky Aligner cases all the time. My advice, put it in your pocket.

So I think that wraps it up… if you have any questions please let me know, I’ll be happy to help. Now let’s put a SMILE ON THAT FACE!

So I went to a psychiatrist the other day because I’ve been developing these criminal intents and wanna purchase some full-automatic M16 assault rifles, a couple of Uzis and AK47′s so I can go on a killing rampage and eradicate every single last one of these idiot drivers on the road since nobody seems to be doing anything about them.

The psychiatrist thought I was bullshitting and pat on my head and giggled as she handed me a scented candle and said: “Aww Jacky! Don’t be crazy, now take this, go home, take a nice bath and release all that stress!” So I took the candle and stabbed it in her throat multiple times while asking her “How’s this for releasing my stress?” She couldn’t answer, I think it’s because she was choking to death with blood splurging out of her throat.

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My job consists of driving around Kuala Lumpur about 5 times a week to meetings, deliveries, and collect payments. I can’t seem to remember now, but there was a time when I enjoyed driving. I’d set the A/C real nice, turn up my favorite music and just cruise the road while enjoying the spectacular ocean line besides me. Wait that’s a car commercial. But I did vaguely remember I enjoyed driving a distant past ago. But somehow, sometime, somewhere, I’ve lost that passion and instead my joy turned into anger; my anger turned into contempt, and my contempt turned into massive psychotic murdering hatred.

Here are a list of types of drivers that need to stop driving, actually no, STOP LIVING.

Ruthless Drivers:

“Bitch can’t you see there’s a long ass jam ahead of us?”

First of all, if you have a habit of driving at over 130km/h, tailgating everyone you see while there’s obviously a traffic jam ahead of you, I hope your car suddenly malfunctions, your tires pop and then your stupid shit-tier, low-rank piece of garbage ass car crash and you slowly die as you burn in endless agony and just in time for your last breath I will be there to put out that hell’s flame by pissing on your face and shitty phone that’s attached to it while I’m at it.

Ruthless drivers are up my ass ALL THE TIME. And no I do not drive slow. I drive at reasonably above average speed. Can someone tell me exactly what the fuck is wrong with these people? Why are they all driving like they all have REALLY bad stomach cramp and about to diarrhea all over their seats? Why are they all too damned stupid to figure out that there’s a traffic jam right up front and believe strongly that if he continues to tailgate somebody the traffic jam will miraculously disappear. It never worked. They ALL have to eventually slow down, so what’s with all the tailgating and blinking headlights for?

Nowadays I love to fuck around with these tailgating little shits. Please note that when I perform the following I am usually already driving above or way above average speed and in most cases there are already traffic jams ahead (i.e. you need to slow the fuck down now): I’d tap on the brake pedal lightly for multiple times in a roll to make the guy brake too and they always do and slow down drastically because they suck at driving. Then the less-mentally-challenged usually understood that I purposely did that out of spite, and they would speed up in attempt to cut into my lane – but can’t, because 1) Their cars are usually shitty 2) they already stepped on brake pedal while I was only lightly tapping it so I could easily out run the stupid dumbass and 3) They’d have to get to mid lane to cut into mine and of course I’d carefully position my car right beside him to make sure to block that stupid dumbass. And there it is, I saved the traffic from potential disaster once again, but more importantly I successfully pissed off an idiot ruthless driver.

There is no nice way to change this problem. Nowadays people have GPS geared with some cop and camera detectors and they start to believe they’re road Gods. Go fuck yourself. You risk my life by constantly driving like a fucking lunatic and ignorant to the consequences because you’re late for a meeting and I’ll risk mine to fuck with your momentum so you can slow the fuck down and abide to common driving etiquette. If you can’t, die, or crash into a true slow driver.

Slow drivers:

 

“Stay the fuck away from fast lane.”

Now onto the slow drivers. When I mean slow, I really mean below 10 km/h of speed limit on a fast lane. I’ve never really liked Ludacris the rapper but one particular song that I find exceedingly fitting for these slow ass half brained shit drivers is “MOVE BITCH GET OUT THE WAY“.

Slow drivers is as unworthy of living as the ruthless-racecar-wannabe drivers because they are equally incompetent, and most of the time equally ignorant. Slow drivers can care less about your comfort and safety – they WANT to drive on the FAST lane SLOWLY and they NEED people behind to switch lanes or slow down unnecessarily to avoid being hit. If you have the habit of driving below speed limit on the fast lane then I hope someday some 40′ container fully loaded, 16 wheeler mega truck somehow forgets to slow down for your dumbass and run your stupid, sorry, imbecile ass into oblivion. And then I will stop by and take a Polaroid picture of your crushed face, slap on a tagline “Slow Down lah!Don’t be so impatient!” just like your car used to have, and put that on my rear-end bumper.

Talking/Texting while Driving:

I must admit that sometimes I pick up urgent calls when I’m driving. But you’ll never see me going “LOL ROFL”,  having a fun-packed, love-loaded full-on conversation on the phone when I’m driving. Every time you have an urgent call when you’re driving, you pick it up and tell the caller that you’re driving and will call them back soon as you can because you fucking will. You risk my life and waste my time by paying more attention to your stupid conversation than the road.

And some people are worse – they text while driving. Wow, just thinking about these fuckheads as I type, my intracranial pressure has exceeded 300 mmHg – in another words my head is about to fucking explode. I don’t believe in Heaven or Hell, but the people who constantly texts and talks on the phone while driving should definitely be sent down to the 7th realm of Hell where they pluck your tongue and amputate your limbs not so you suffer from the pain but suffer from the fact that you can never ever fucking Talk,Text and Drive, any of the above and ALL OF THE ABOVE, ever again.

Anti-mergers

 

“Thanks for cramping up the lane and cause more traffic jam douche bag.”

Now Kuala Lumpur is infamous for its traffic congestion – as with many cities in the world. And we all recognize the fact that during rush hours there will be traffic jams, cars storming out from nowhere, you move bumper to bumper. The only solutions to this problem are more roads or other means of transportation to reduce traffic flows, or simply drive smarter. But no matter where you go, you will ALWAYS find these selfish drivers who refuse to let merging traffics in.

Here is a logic question: Cars are merging into a major highway, it is congested with many, many cars on the slow lane. The mid and fast lanes have far less cars and are moving more smoothly. You are in the slow, sluggish painfully slow-moving lane but right next to the free and clear mid/fast lane, what do you do? You MERGE to the mid or fast lane right? But NO. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. There will always be these selfish, shit eating douche bags that REFUSE to let you merge and remain in the pain-in-the-ass slow lane, because why? THEY DON’T WANT TO YOU GET IN FRONT OF THEM.

TEROFHMURCK

Wow, I just banged my head on my keyboard and did an anagram for “MOTHERFUCKER”.

If you have the habit of refusing to let merging traffic in while ignoring the fact that mid and fast lane have less cars where you can move a lot faster, then I hope the gas truck in front of you suddenly explodes Final Destination style, and before your sorry ass have the time to mutter “Oh shit!” as your last line in your sorry life to your sorry phone to your sorry recipient on the other sorry line, your sorry head would be blown into sub-atomic particles and at the same time your soul and body will forever  be lost and the world suddenly becomes better because you no longer will be able to produce any selfish, fucked up kids who are going to turn out just like you.

Double Parking:

 

 

This may not happen as much in more developed countries but it is prevalent in Malaysia, particularly in the city area. People LOVE double parking here because again,they don’t give a fuck about your or rest of the world’s safety and comfort. They will single-car-ly block the entire fucking road because they have the need to park at that exact spot. They cannot afford to lose any more time looking for a parking spot 10 meters away, so they will waste your time and block the rest of the road instead.

One time I was bitching about this problem to a Malaysia-local, she chastised me for not understanding that this is a result of the government not implementing good infrastructure for parking spaces and city planning, that it’s not the people’s fault, they HAD to do it.

Oh yeah? So maybe I’m just stupid, maybe I just love taking extra effort and time trying to find a legal parking space that doesn’t invade other people’s safety and convenience. Maybe I need to go to the hospital because I have so much anger. Speaking of the hospitals, maybe one day, one of these double parking scumbags gets some kind of critical injury and requires immediate medical assistance, and maybe the ambulance could have gotten there in time to save his life, and just maybe because that same idiot’s double parked car had caused a severe congestion, and maybe that’ll be the demise of his own doing.

Idiot Parking:

One time I was riding with a friend of mine as we were going to the mall. As we circle around B1 we couldn’t find any parking, it seemed to be fully packed and best thing to do was to go down more levels for parking. But no, he slowly and carefully circled around the lot as he mumbles to himself: “I need my Irish Luck!” while I notice the dark parking garage are starting to light up because 10s and 20s of vehicle behind us with headlights are starting to illuminate the entire garage. “There it is! My Irish Luck! I found my parking spot!”, he sits there waiting for the spot as the car desperately tried to back up the car. 15 minutes passed by to no avail,at this point, an army of angry motherfuckers behind us are about to go ape shit on us, so I told my friend to give up the parking and move on to B2 or B3.” But… it’s my Irish Luck!” He said. I looked at his forehead fora second, because at this point I could never look at a man whom I’m about to fucking kill, I take out a sledge hammer that I always carry and smashed his head into a pulp with it, then drove the car to B2, and what do you know – plenty of parking spaces.

I don’t understand the mentality of these people who insist on finding the parking space by cruising at 0.5 km/h just so they can find a parking spot closest to the mall/store entrance. Hey, how about try WALKING fora change, you selfish, stupid fucking idiot? If you park further from the entrance and walked instead, it’d certainly be faster than having to circle around in the front hoping to find that stupid parking spot. Worst of all, you waste MY TIME by being the unfortunate person to drive behind your ignorant lazy fat ass. These people, they are unable to think outside of their worthless selves.

–

Then of course there are the Cutters, Parking Thieves, Non-blinkers, Broken cars that sits in the middle of a freeway, Drunk/Sleepy/High truck and taxi drivers etc. The world seems to be eternally short of stupid, selfish, ignorant, fucked up, shit eating idiots on the road and they put all of our lives in danger every single day. Every time I see one of these guys I always wished their cars would malfunction somehow and crash and explode and burn into the abyss of hell, or at the very least a police officer can finally do something about them.

Oh well it’s enough for now, after all I still have to head out in 5 minutes and hit road again.

4 years have gone by since I’ve moved to Malaysia, yet I still feel that I’m in a transitional phrase. I still feel this constant struggle to strike a balance between the reality of my life and my naïve hopes for the future to be.

A lot of things have happened in the past year. For starters, I started a relationship in mid 2010 with a very kind-hearted girl who has the heart and personality that reminds me of myself and my family. The relationship started out great like every other one but later became a constant struggle both physically and mentally. Half way through she moved to Singapore. In order to maintain the relationship we were flying to see each other almost every weekend, but there were these fundamental differences in our perspectives in life and in addition to my hot headed, non-negotiable nature, it just wasn’t going anywhere, so we ended it peacefully and now maintain our friendship to date.

I’ve just finished attending my cousin’s wedding recently. The couple celebrated their marriage on the date of their 10^th anniversary. My cousin had devoted a very long time and effort to make it a spectacular wedding to be remembered a life time. It made me think a lot about myself, being 29 and still not knowing exactly where I’m headed and all.

Marriage is not really my priority in life at this moment. I feel that even though I am already 29, I’m still a kid at heart. For the past 4 years I’ve been marching my way towards that stage in life where I feel I could take things to the next level, but somehow I’m just never there.

My priority in life is to figure out how to make steady and sustainable income in the Bay Area or Taiwan. Bay Area is where I consider being my home, equal to my roots in Taiwan, but if I have to choose I will want to settle down in the Bay.

During earlier phrase of my career in Malaysia, I’ve attempted many times to start and move my family business to the US in hopes to be able to make a living there. 3 years passed by to no avail – I learned that saying something is easy, doing it is hard, making it happen is even more difficult.  Slowly but surely, I learned to adjust my expectation and aim towards more realistic and attainable, though still difficult goals. Instead of creating and marketing a new brand of high-end supplement products, I figured why not just go with raw materials? So as it turns out, I focus all my energy and time at sourcing pure, natural honey supplies in bulk, instead of bottled goods. In late 2010 my company expanded to Vietnam for its abundant sources of honey.

I saw lights at the end of the tunnel with this honey business. All of a sudden, all the marketing and business classes I took back in college started to make sense and became applicable. So after almost a year of prospecting, emailing, cold-calling, negotiating, visiting, and finally closing – I’ve finally managed to make successful deals with clients in the US. I thought I would be jumping up and down when the deals were made, but this wasn’t eBay where the buyer would buy my shoes and I’d ship them out – we’re talking about hundreds and hundreds of thousands worth of honey in 20’ containers being shipped across the Pacific Ocean from Vietnam to the US, facing potential scrutiny of the FDA and the USDA who can easily reject all of your containers, which not only costs you thousands of dollars but more importantly, destroy all of your works for the past year. And of course there were possible malicious clients who may cheat against you.

Fortunately enough for me, none of that have happened. I feel extremely grateful that at least these first few shipments have gone by flawlessly with no significant troubles. For the first 3 years of my endeavor in business, I’ve gotten nothing but failures, day after day I questioned whether I should be doing what I was doing. But with the success of these first several deals, I felt that in my mind, this might be something I can do for the rest of my life. However, it’s ironic now that I have established a steady demand in the US, my supply doesn’t seem to catch up, so we will not be growing in this business as I’ve expected.

With my father’s advice and encouragement, I’ve also diversified my effort in making income from US by investing in real estates. Buying properties was always a vaguely unattainable dream for me, until in 2010 I purchased my first small apartment unit in Taiwan. I guess for all the grudge and contempt for living in this shitty, uninspiring, rural area of Malaysia has helped tremendously in my savings account. Taking advantage of the economic crash in the States since 2008, houses in certain areas of California became insanely cheap and suddenly affordable to a guy like me. So in October this year, with the help my family as well as my savings, I’ve purchased my first property in the US. Even though I must say I’ve paid a great deal extra for damages and taxes that I’ve never foreseen, I can only hope that the rental income and hopefully the appreciation of the property will pay off – either way I guess it’s better than having my money sitting in the bank.

So I guess that’s that in terms of what I’ve done to move towards my goal in 2011. My maturity and capability as a whole are still far behind my perceived self, I feel very uncertain for what the future will be. I somehow managed to accomplish most of the tasks I’ve set up for myself, but I have done very little in terms of the hopes and expectations that others have for me.

As I am writing this at the office, two men are sitting behind me in a distance, pretending not paying attention to me, but at the same time I know very well that every single day they observe my behavior at work and at home, expecting and hoping for me to become what they thought would be an excellent leader of the company, or if not, at the very least a good salesman. I have failed them. My father and Mr. Wu – our factory manager and the key person who keeps this whole company together, are both thinking about retiring soon. My father is pushing 60s and his age is catching up to him; Mr. Wu is near 40 and has clinical depression. They both put their hopes at me in some way, expecting me to one day take over the company, but we all know deep inside that my heart simply isn’t here in Malaysia. If we were in Taiwan or US, maybe this could work. 4 years living in Malaysia with close to zero social life can really make a happy go easy guy like me somewhat depressed.

Besides all the crimes, burglars, thieves and corrupted government in general, I’ve seen some dark shit in this place, primarily because of my exposure to the business world as well as getting acquainted to my ex-girlfriend, who is a Malaysian Chinese. I’ve seen things that I thought I’d only seen in dramas and movies – stuff that an average person may feel surprising to hear, but terrifying to see and even worse to be a part of. People who know me know that I’m one of those guys who are quite simple minded, naive, and straight forward. I hate phonies, I hate wannabes, I hate ignorant scumbags who wouldn’t think twice about fulfilling their needs at the expense of other people’s safety and wellbeing, I hate devious cunts who can’t put their money where their mouths are, and I’ve seen all of them here. I’ve seen “brothers” who on the surface would take a bullet for each other and as soon as you throw money or bitches in the middle, they’d happily be the first men to put the bullet in the head of the next guy. Hey, gotta survive right?

I believe that people of this nature exist all over the world, but I’ve seen a higher concentration of those in Malaysia, particularly with Malaysian Chinese, or shall I say, Chinese in general? It doesn’t seem to matter how advance or developed a Chinese culture is developed, there are always these defense mechanisms deeply imprinted in these people’s minds for fear of losing everything. Life seems to be a big, fat but limited sale on a daily basis for some of these people (the irony). It’s not all just about money too, also trivial things like bus seats, cutting in line, asking for favor and think of excuses to not return one, fighting for little foods left in a buffet tray, all these stupid little shit.

I understand that I may be generalizing a cultural phenomenon here to which some people may disagree with what I said. In fact, it irritates me that some people are still blind to this problem; or that these people tell me to “chill”, that that’s the way it is, if you don’t like it then get the fuck out. That is precisely the reason why I’m indeed, getting the fuck out. I have not asked anyone to agree with me, all I ask is for some people to open their eyes and see if they can spot this problem, and if you really can’t see the problem, chances are you ARE it.

Anyways, I’ve developed and accumulated this contempt and anger at this place, in all fairness I am the one who should be responsible for the situation that I’ve created, and perhaps this is the reason why I cannot strike the balance between the reality of myself and my ideals. Without this balance, I cannot find peace of mind and give 100% to the things I do. Who knows? maybe if I were to move back to Taiwan or Bay Area right now, I’d still develop problems with what I once called “my home”.

I wrote a whole bunch and can’t seem to come up with a conclusion. Well, I think that’s the reason why I’m just writing about whatever. I do know that I’m slipping, I’m falling, I can’t get up – but I gotta get up, getting back to my feet so I can tear shit up! One day, hopefully not too far away, I shall be able to look at this with a smile – preferably not drunk, but if I am, at least with red wine, not beer.

Till next time.

I think for the longest time one of my greatest personality flaws is that I am very impatient to things. And among all things, I have especially low tolerance for stupid people. I don’t think the word stupid is a good word suited for the people that I find extremely repulsive of, but more than several occasions I find myself muttering “…stupid motherfucker” when I meet one… so I guess stupid will do; by stupid I mean people who are ignorant to their scumbag nature and inconsiderate to anything outside of their piece-of-shit worlds, to which I shall give examples in the following:

No matter where you’re from, you’ll always have these people that drive as if they own the roads, switching lanes left and right, not bothering to signal because they’re too busy making up their minds, trying to figure out which lane to stay in, and all this while with a cell phone in their stupid face talking about things that nobody gives a shit about. They act as if everyone else is slower than them so they had to switch lanes around going psychotic, but what’s funny is that these stupid mother fuckers are usually the ones that slow down dramatically every time a cop is in sight, fucking sissies.  

And there are also the slow ass drivers geared with the same douche bag phones on their faces, who drive below speed limits on the fast lane. They have a dire need for safety and comfort, so in practice they drive within the speed limit on fast lanes where less merging takes place because they’re too stupid to handle merging traffic, while not giving a shit about other cars behind them who have to brake or switch lanes unnecessarily for them. You put the idiots on the previous paragraph and dumbass on this one together on the road and Voila! You get yourself a potential traffic accident. The number one cause of traffic accidents isn’t alcohol intoxication – drunk people will go hit a tree off the road somewhere – stupid, inconsiderate and incompetent drivers on the other hand are the ones that put us all in danger and hit each other and cause accidents and traffic jams. And all this while, respectful and decent drivers (like me) have to take their shit to avoid accidents and wait in traffics.

The other day I saw a billboard in Malaysia advertising some online ticketing service going: “Don’t Wait in Line! Save time booking tickets Online!” and I’m like, who the fuck stays in line in Malaysia to begin with? I am sick of people cutting lines and even more frustrated at the clerks who are oblivious to the fact that someone had cut the line and still help the line-cutting douche bag. When I was working at Starbucks back in the day I’d always instruct these line-cutting jerkoffs to get their asses back in line before the customers in line even had to make a sound or gesture themselves. Most line cutters are stupid pussies who ignore the line and stand slightly ahead of you by 10 or 2 o’clock position, as if he would naturally move up the queue along with you, kind of like the scumbag driver who merges into your lane without signaling, almost hitting your front bumper but you saved the day by braking for him and all this while the guy acts like he’s innocent to the dirty move that he’s making, in fact I think there is a very huge chance that these two are the same person.

This phenomenon happens more often in Asia, especially in Malaysia, where people literally go towards the counter like a herd of desperate reporters sticking their microphones towards an interviewee trying to get a response or two. These situations happen at virtually any place: be it at the airport boarding queues, at the Immigration lines, Post office, banks, restaurants, gas stations – basically any places that specifically instructs people to form a queue, people will ignore it. And when numbering tickets are introduced, these fucktards STILL cut it, going directly to the counter and worse yet, sometimes the clerk STILL helps him. SMFH*. Every day on the news you see these high ranking government officers saying how they’re trying to improve this country…  try starting at Basic Courtesy  101 and teach your people to stay where the fuck they belong and wait their turns.

There are also these people who shit their pants when they read or hear over exaggerated information on the news without bothering to find out the actual information. In fact that’s how brainless rumors spread, unnecessary fear form, news media generate more income, and the overall intellectual level of the general population steadily decline.

Take the example of the Taiwanese food industry and its recent outbursts of illegal food additives (i.e. DEHP) issues going on, which subsequently sprung to the entire Asia for example. I mean, even though it’s ridiculous that such illegal additives have been put in use for more than 20 years, but is it that surprising to know? Personally I’m very happy to hear that such news have shocked the crap out of people, because these people are the very same reason why such additives would be used in the first place, and it is finally about time they wake up and place a second thought about the things they consume.

I get sick and tired every now and then for people to question why 2 batches of food products we produce are “slightly” different in color, scent, or texture. Whether it’s a genuine concern over production quality or another way to get discount on prices is of no interest to me, the bottom line is: The expectation for same types of food products made in different batch to be identical is what got us into troubles in the first place. How can every batch of beverages or food items EVER be the same?  If I juice 2 apples today and then another 2 apples from the same tree, the two glasses of juice will NOT taste the same, but if the juice is instead placed on the counter of a supermarket somewhere they are expected to taste the same all the time. Unless you add artificial coloring, fragrance, and other enhancers in, each single food or beverage product can never be identical.

The same story goes with Swine Flu a couple of years back. Swine Flu is practically no different than common flu, yet because it is a new strain of virus the media had found its way to stir up chaos to help create higher ratings. What’s more bizarre was the fact that the government of Taiwan and Malaysia actually developed vaccines for the particular flu, which is actually okay in the first place, sadly, parents who are less informed about the mechanisms of vaccination went on and gave their infants such vaccinations, without realizing that vaccines are practically weakened viruses injected into humans to help the human immune system create enough antibodies to fight against real, serious viruses of the same strains when the time comes, the PROBLEM is, some infants have not developed strong enough immune system yet to battle even the weakened viruses (vaccines) yet, when treated with vaccines, some infants die as a result of Viral infection caused by the vaccine itself. What a pity.

I think I can continue on with the list of the type of people that I dislike, but unfortunately it is clearly a waste of time, I think the only positive effect these stupid ignorant people can bring to me is my appreciation for those who aren’t afraid to take a step further and think for others for a change. My friends and family tell me that this world is filled with injustices that we can’t control, and that it is my responsibility to adapt to the environment instead of attempting to change it. Till this day I still don’t know if I can do that…

Speaking of which, I find it puzzling on Facebook when someone talks smack about another person or situation in the form of a rant, then swarms of these allegedly friendly comments like “Just ignore that person/situation! Don’t let that person ruin your day!” …types of suggestion come into place. Why must we all ignore a person, a thing, an event, or any given situation so long as it is ruining our day? 90% of the time I see these “friends” leaving the same half-assed comments in attempt to comfort the complainer. Why can’t people cut the bullshit and look at themselves and think about WHY they are in the situations they created in the first place? Ignoring certain negative things are like ignoring a symptom of a disease, when the root of the problem isn’t resolved the same stupid bullshit will continue to come back. Of course, when the situation is gravely incurable, then there’s very little we can do about it, but more than half of the time people choose to ignore a minor problem which can be easily fixed, and the easiest way is to NOT ignore it, but look within oneself.

Anyways, I look at myself, and find that I do have a serious problem with my neurotic nature, I don’t consider myself any more intelligent than most people to call others stupid, but there really are a lot of stupid people, and I am a whole lot more sympathetic, considerate, and compassionate than most people around me. I question a lot of information that I was told because I have a need to find out the truth on my own.

I don’t expect my compassions or understandings to be reciprocated back towards me because only true, intrinsic compassions and respectfulness is what I consider valuable, other than that it all just a variation of being phony. Overall I am still more hopeful, because in my life I have met a lot of people who I can identify with and admire to and found many beautiful things I can truly appreciate, and so I guess in the end, I have to thank all these stupid ignorant mother fuckers for making sweet things ever sweeter.

Peace.

*SMFH = Shaking My Fucking Head.

Blade of the Immortal FINAL BATTLE Anaylsis part II (A)

It’s been a long time since my last update. The absence is mainly due to the fact that I don’t know what to write about, but last week I just got the newest copy of Blade of the Immortal, the shit boiled my blood and I thought I should continue my tribute to the greatest Manga ever created. Those of you who enjoyed my Blade of the Immortal FINAL BATTLE Analysis should enjoy the following as well.

I initially intended to just do a brief summary, but I somehow got on crack and wrote a 10 page Wikipedia shit on this, oh well, I’ve always wanted to read something like this so might as well write it on my own right? I am dedicating this post to Samura Hiroaki-sama and all the Blade of the Immortal fans for the love of this series, due to a lot of excessive writings, this will be separated into two parts, the first introducing the background and main characters of this series and the second, the FINAL BATTLE Analysis, Outcome, and Prediction. So beware, this will include a lot of spoilers!!!

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RECAP ON THE STORY

Following the Prison Arc, Manji was successfully rescued by Rin, with the help of Itto-ryu remaining member Doua and Isaku as well as Ozuhan and Hyakurin. Doua and Rin were critical in this rescue as they have caused utter chaos in the Edo castle – by blowing up the underground passages, flooding the jail cells and releasing large numbers of prisoners.

Following the chaos stirred up by Rin and Doua and inevitable release of hundreds of prisoners, the Bangashira (group chief) Habaki was removed from his position and given the punishment of Seppuku within 30 days for his misdeeds as the protector of the castle. Life wasn’t too good for Habaki.

Hanafusa the former lieutenant to Habaki was then appointed the new Bangashira upon the termination of Habaki. Hanafusa’s approach in dealing with Itto-ryu was very different from Habaki, instead of terminating the rest of Itto-ryu members, Hanafusa preferred the peaceful way, in which he negotiated a deal with Anotsu Kagehisa to promptly evacuate from Edo within 7 days and never to appear again, which Anotsu agreed. This gives Habaki only 7 days left to wipe out what’s left of Itto-ryu. And little did Hanafusa know, Anotsu’s got a master plan on his own before he leaves Edo…

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BRIEF INTRODUCTION ON THE MAIN CHARACTERS:

ORGANIZATIONS

1. Itto-ryu

From Left to Right: Isaku, Doua, Magatsu, Abayama, Kashin Koji, Baro, and Ozuhan.
Again, is this the most badass character spread or what?

Makie and Anotsu

Itto-ryu is a gang-like group of swordsmen lead by Anotsu Kagehisa. It was founded by Anotsu Kagehisa’s grandfather – Anotsu Saburou, after being disowned from his former sowrdschool Mutenichi-ryu, which was founded by Asano Rin’s great grandfather.

Despite having superior swordfighting abilities in Mutenichi-ryu, Saburou was disowned from the school because instead of using traditional katana in combat, he was found wielding exotic foreign weapons. At that time of Japan, using traditional katana was considered the standard realm of kenjutsu and honor, using anything else in a fight was deemed dishonorable.

Saburou was then discriminated and dishonored among sword schools and labeled as the “losing dog”, depressed, shamed and angered, he then formed Itto-ryu, with the sole belief that only the strongest survives, and set up the goal to conquer all sword schools of Japan. However, before he could finish his dream, he died and left the young Anotsu Kagehisa the burden to continue this goal.

Due to Itto-ryu’s motto: The strongest survives, Itto-ryu welcomes any skilled warriors to join, there are no special “secret techniques” to be taught by the master or formality of a doujo; there are no restrictions in the methods of fighting or weapons they use; the only rule that all Itto-ryu members must follow is to always fight one-on-one regardless to any situation.

During middle of the series, 9 Itto-ryu dojo masters were poisoned and murdered by a set up from Habaki (which event I will refer as the Massacre Dinner), this severely weakened the current state of Itto-ryu as they lost many followers upon these 9 itto-ryu’s death.

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2. Mugai-ryu

From Left to Right: Giichi, Hyakurin, and Shira (before white hair)

Mugai-ryu is an underground assassin group secretly compiled by then-Bangashira (Chief of police) Habaki Kagimura. Its members are all criminals with death sentences, some of these criminals possess unique abilities or superior fighting capabilities, they were then selected by Habaki to go on assassination missions of Itto-ryu members, each Itto-ryu member killed will in turn be rewarded with compensation for the Mugai-ryu members, and ultimately, having killed enough Itto-ryu members will obtain freedom from Mugai-ryu.

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3. The Six Demons (Roggidan)

From Left to Right: Banshin, Ryo, Shishiya, Doma, Murasaki, and Hasho

This underground group has similar background to Mugai-ryu, the major members are all former-criminals sentenced for death.

Upon disbanding Mugai-ryu, Habaki was given the authority to openly employ The Six Demons to hunt after the remaining members of Itto-ryu.

The Six Demons are composed of two types of units, one is the Hana-group (the Flower), with mainly highly skilled death sentenced fighters, and the other Hebi-group (the Serpent), which are money-hired and mostly just sidekick characters.

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4. Bakufu

New Bangashira – Hanafusa and his lieutenants.

The term Bakufu in general refers to the government at that time of Japan given in the story line (around 1790’s). Habaki was formerly the Bangashira, who is in charge of the security of the Edo Castle as well as the termination of Itto-ryu.

During the Prison Arc, Habaki kidnapped Manji in attempt to figure out how to develop the immortal technique and apply it for an undisclosed use. The rescue of Manji executed by Rin and Doua eventually stirred up a chaos, causing explosions, escaped prisoners and flooding all over the Edo Castle. Habaki was then removed from his position and given a limit of 30 days before he shall commit seppuku; his position was given to Hanafusa.

Hanafusa negotiated a deal with Anotsu, suggesting that the Bakufu wishes Itto-ryu to disappear in Edo and never to appear again within 7 days, which Anotsu seemingly agreed to.

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CHARACTER INTRO

Manji 卍/万次

Our main protagonist of the story. He was cursed with immortality some years ago and thus the title of this story – Blade of the Immortal. He is nicknamed “100 killer” for he notoriously killed 100 samurais in an attempt to assassinate his former corrupted boss.  This sin has lead a mysterious nun to plant immortality into Manji.

The immortality stems from a type of blood-worm named Kessen-chu, these worms can heal most physical damages inflicted onto the host in very short amount of time.

He can easily reattach his severed limbs back by pressing against the severed arm or leg against the wound; the kessenchu (bloodworms) will quickly repair and connect the damaged tissues. Think of his immortality like ultra-fast body tissue regeneration.

^Manji reattaching his right arm.

Manji is usually very laid-back and just minds his own business; when confronting with others he is very straight forward and at times blunt. He is a quick decision maker and pays great attentions and observations to his surroundings.

Overall Manji is a very adept fighter; he is very adaptive and strategic in various situations as he makes great uses of the surroundings and at times he’d cut off his own limbs for distraction use. He wields a wide array of exotic weapons, some of them capable of being assembled together for multi-purposed uses. Most of the weapons he used are acquired from foes he’s slain.

MANJI’S WEAPONS:

 

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Asano Rin 浅野凜

Our main protagonist, a 16 (now 17) year old girl who vowed vengeance on the massacre of her family by Itto-ryu members. In the beginning of the story she hired Manji as her yojimbo (bodyguard) and started their long journey of vengeance on each of the members responsible for the murders of her parents.

Throughout the series we get to see that Rin has evolved from this whinny little crybaby to a somewhat capable and reliable girl who can handle her business. This is most evident during the Prison Arc when she partnered up with Doua to rescue Manji from the underground prison.

Fighting wised, Rin pretty much remained the same, her one and only trick: The Golden Wasps, in which she throws a bunch of daggers towards the opponent. Manji and Anotsu on separate occasions had commented that the move is useless against skilled fighters, but can be effective distracters. She performed a varied version of it using gun powders to aid and greased blade lit on fire to create a fire-blasted Golden Wasps.

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Anotsu Kagehisa 天津影久

Our main antagonist-turned-protagonist. Anotsu Kagehisa is a 22 year-old prodigy sword fighter who inherited (unwillingly) his grandfather Antosu Saburou’s well to implement and achieve the realization of Itto-ryu. Anotsu Kagehisa’s goal is to entirely destroy the currently weakened, distorted and impractical sword fighting standards and system of Japan and reestablish the value of the swords by one single motto: Only The Stronger Survives.

As the leader of Itto-ryu, Anotsu is considered one of the greatest fighters in the series. He wields a very large and heavy Nepalese axe named “Head Hammer”, the hammer pairs with a similarly fashioned sword. Anotsu has demonstrated in several occasions his dominating fighting capabilities. In fights, he displays graceful movements and is very calm and emotionless; it is said that Anotsu is the only person who is able to dodge or block Doua’s extremely quick strikes. Furthermore, Anotsu has also referred to Makie as the only fighter who can defeat him.

^Facing assassins, Antotsu stated that those who crossed his ways also crossed the path of his ideal and those of his grandfather’s, now try this axe and become gravels by the road – in another words: YOU’RE FUCKING DONE SON!

ANOTSU KAGEHISA’S WEAPONS

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Magatsu Taito 凶戴斗

Magatsu is a spike-haired, young, but veteran Itto-ryu member of peasant origin who appeared very early in the series. During the Edo period set in Blade of the Immortal, Samurais are highly respected and regarded for their titles, whereas the government valued peasants only for the fact that they produce food income for the nation. The Edo government (Bakufu) heavily segregated ranks of people, with samurais ranking the highest in social status. He witnessed his younger sister being slashed in half when he was very young, he vowed to avenge his sister’s death by joining Itto-ryu and destroying the unreasonable social system of Japan.

Throughout the series he befriended Manji during the Kaga Arc, they seemed to appreciate each other as both friends and enemies.

Magatsu wields a triple sword (a sword inside a sword inside a sword). He fights strategically as he often lures opponents to terrains that fits more to his advantages, but he is also very quick and flexible in combats; as the current number two of Itto-ryu, rest assured he is a very adept swordfighter.

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Abayama Sousuke 阿葉山宗介

Who I call the awesome old dude, Abayama is one of the founding members of Itto-ryu, a 65-year old, one armed wise man, and remains to be one of the most skilled swordfighters, as well as sort of an advisor to Itto-ryu.  During earlier series he was shown to be very wise and helped plotting and counter-plotting many schemes against Mugai-ryu.

Abayama is the only survivor from the Massacre Dinner plotted by Habaki, it was implied that he was spared by Habaki to convince the rest of Itto-ryu the true strength of the Bakufu and not pursuit any further actions (too bad!). He wields a very strange looking sword with two blades and various grips that seems to fit well for an one-armed man; throughout the series we haven’t seen him in action many times, but according to an Itto-ryu member, Abayama was the only available fighter who could handle Giichi.

ABAYAMA SOUSUKE’S WEAPON

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Doua 吉乃瞳阿

Doua is an Itto-ryu swordswoman who appeared much later in the series, one of the remaining Itto-ryu members after the Massacre Dinner. She was originally from Hokkaido (then called Ebisu in Japan), upon travelling south she met Isaku and the two became bandits and robbed for a living, until one day she attacked and was defeated by Anotsu and was subsequently hired as Itto-ryu swordsmen. Doua and Isaku has very closely bonded relationship with each other, and Doua admires Anotsu Kagehisa greatly.

She is very petite and extremely fast; she couples with Isaku in combats, with Isaku providing the distraction and protection, while Doua attacks with lightening speeds. She uses a modified spear head and a sharpened Jutte, a fork-looking weapon.

DOUA’S WEAPONS

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Isaku 八苑狼夷作

Isaku is a kind-hearted gentle giant who is best friend/boyfriend to Doua. He is of Portuguese Christian origin. He joined Itto-ryu with Doua in attempt and subsequently failed to rob Anotsu Kagehisa. Unlike most Itto-ryu members, he has no weapons at all, rather he wears armours and acts defensively when in combat, at times he demonstrates his great strengths.

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Baro Sukezane 馬絽祐実

Baro first appeared during the Kaga Arc as a messenger for Anotsu Kagehisa. Upon the Massacre Dinner, he became the last remaining Itto-ryu member. He appears to be a very calm and disciplined person, very loyal to Itto-ryu. It was later revealed that he was once working as a samurai under the Bakufu, perhaps due to personal goal and ideals he abandoned such job and joined Itto-ryu to pursuit his ideals.

Baro is among Itto-ryu yet another highly skilled swordsman who uses a very long Nodachi; the Nodachi he wields has hollow spots across the blade to reduce its excessive weight, allowing Baro to strike with amazing speed.

BARO’S WEAPON

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Ozuhan 怖畔

An exotic swordfighter even by Itto-ryu’s standard. Ozuhan is one of the remaining Itto-ryu member after the Massacre Dinner. He seems to either be deaf or doesn’t speak Japanese, as he only communicates with sign language. His weapons and dresses resemble foreign, tribal look and he calls war cry after slaying enemies. He seems to be travelling along most of the time, and can be summoned within 15 minutes upon blowing a special flute with a salamander design.

Ozuhan uses a special whistle which produces loud, unbearable noises which he is immune to to distract enemies temporarily and strikes with remarkable speed and precision. For this reason, Ozuhan is also regarded as the most unwanted combat-partner in Itto-ryu.

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Kashin Koji 果心居士

Yet another remaining member of Itto-ryu after the Massacre Dinner. Kashin Koji is an old man who disguises as a doctor when not involved in Itto-ryu businesses. He is usually seen conducting researches and informational activities.

Kashin Koji is not much of a fighter, but he manipulates and shoots acupuncture needles with sharp precision and sets up traps to kill enemies.

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Makie Otonotachibana 乙橘槇絵

Makie is regarded as the strongest fighter in the series. At a very young age she demonstrated dominating sword fighting skills and accidentally defeated her older brother, who was a candidate to inherit the dojo at an exhibition match 3 times in a row. Embarrassed, her older brother committed sepukku and died, Makie and her mother were subsequently disowned from the family. Her mother sold her body to support Makie, and upon her mother’s death, Makie became a geisha to make a living.

^Makie illustrating why you shouldn’t get in her way.

Anotsu Kagehisa, her love interest and the leader of Itto-ryu, has referred Makie as his mentor and teacher, the one who inspired him the beauty of strength, he has also stated that Makie is the only swordsman (woman) who can defeat him. Despite this fact, Makie is at heart a kind hearted person who despises murders for a living, therefore she briefly left Itto-ryu. Yet she struggled between her decisions to either be a swordsman or a prostitute (Yes, at that time of Japan, it seems that if you’re female you either be a whore or you kill for a living…) During a mission to kill Manji, Makie expressed her fear in killing Manji when she defeated him and about to execute the final blow, to which Manji said a memorable line: “No matter how talented you are, you’re still an inexperienced brat, whatever it is, there must be a reason for you to hole those swords on your hands, try remembering it; If you can’t kill me like a swordsman do, then go back and live as a whore.”

Although the strongest fighter in the entire series, she is unfortunately infected with Tuberculosis, then an incurable disease. She and Anotsu were on-and-off a couple, towards the end of Kaga Arc, she rescued the heavily ill Anotsu, facing a group of avenging sword school students, after the battle, she returned as a member of the Itto-ryu.

MAKIE’S WEAPON

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Habaki Kagimura 吐鉤群

What I call the FINAL BOSS. Habaki Kagimura was a Bangaeshira (high ranking chief for the Bakufu) and the secret leader of Mugai-ryu and Six Demons. He is the master mind behind the Itto-ryu Massacre Dinner. Initially he approached Anotsu Kagehisa with the impression that the Bakufu wished to invite Itto-ryu as the official trainer for the government, yet secretly sending Mugai-ryu members to assassinate Itto-ryu members; while Anotsu was on his way to Kaga, Habaki set up a celebratory dinner with 10 of Itto-ryu’s dojo masters, which in fact poisoned all the members and ending up killing 9 along with Giichi only, leaving only Abayama Sousuke alive, mean while, he also forced the Kaga dojo master to remotely assassinate Anotsu Kagehisa, which eventually failed and provoked Anotsu’s dire revenge following in the Winter War Arc.

^The Massacre Dinner – with Habaki and Giichi killing 9 of the Itto-ryu dojo masters.

After the Massacre Dinner, Habaki held Manji hostage and tried to research the secret to Manji’s immortality during the Prison Arc, unfortunately the plan was exposed and caused a great mess at the Edo Castle due to Rin and Doua’s rescue of Manji. Habaki was subsequently sentenced with seppuku with a 30 day grace period. Habaki then vowed to destroy Itto-ryu within the time frame, he employed the Six Demons to hunt down remaining members of Itto-ryu, and purposely released the psychopath swordman Shira to kill Manji and Magatsu for his personal agenda with the two.

However, the new Bangashira Hanabusa held opposing opinion against Habaki, Hanabusa ordered on behalf of the Bakufu to force Itto-ryu to leave Edo (Toyko) within 7 days, which Anotsu initially agreed with, therefore leaving Habaki with only 7 days to hunt down Itto-ryu, before Itto-ryu leaves Edo to Satsuma (southern state of Japan).

Habaki demonstrated powerful and lightening speed Kenjitsu throughout the series, although we have not yet witnessed a real duel between him and other fighters, he was shown to pierce through Manji’s heart with a striking-speed Battojutsu. From my personal judgement he is very much capable of a match to Anotsu Kagehisa.

^Habaki strikes Manji with his battojutsu.

HABAKI’S WEAPON

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Ryo Soma 杣燎

Ryo is Habaki’s illegitimate child, she is 17 of age and works as a lumber jack. She has utmost respect for her father Habaki, upon learning her father’s seppuku news, she devoted herself as a member of the Six Demons to aid her father in any way possible.

As a female warrior, Ryo is considered as slightly above-average skilled fighter, though definitely stronger than Rin, who is the same age as her. During a one-on-one match versus Magatsu, although defeated, Magatsu commented that Ryo is a lot faster than most of the new Itto-ryu members.

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Banshin Roku 伴殷六

Member of the Six Demons. Banshin uses guns with amazing accuracy. During the pursuit of Itto-ryu, Banshin was assigned to team up with Ryo  to go after Kashin Koji, who appeared to separate from Itto-ryu to head into the snowy mountains.

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Arashino Shishiya 荒篠獅子也

Member of the Six Demons. A giant, muscular man who wields two sword-like axes. He appears to be the most loyal member of the Six Demon along with Ryo. He is a foreigner but speaks fluent Japanese.

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Doma Shinhei 弩馬心兵

Member of the Six Demons. A Chinese-styled warrior who uses nunchucks. In one occasion he mistook Manji as Baro and pursuit battle, later realizing the mistake and retreated. Manji stated that with just one arm he would most likely lose to Doma and Hasho.

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Hasho Tarieshin 八宗足江進

 

Member of the Six Demons. An one-eyed foreign warrior who is incapable of speaking Japanese. He wields a modified long spear and dresses quite funky.

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Murasaki Shouzou 叢咲正造

Member of the Six Demons. A very short guy with severe buck-teeth, who specializes in torture. He interrogated Abayama’s son and Baro’s fiancée during the Six Demon’s pursuit of Itto-ryu.

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Hanabusa 英

Initially Habaki’s lieutenant, after the blow up of Edo Castle caused by Rin and Doua, Habaki was removed from the title of Bangashira, Hanabusa took the title later and negotiated a deal with Itto-ryu to force Itto-ryu out of Edo within 7 days.

Unlike Habaki, Hanabusa is unskilled in sword fighting and prefers to resolve conflicts in “peaceful” ways.

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Shira 尸良

Probably the only “True Villain” of the series and what I call the Mini-Boss. Shira was a former member of Mugai-ryu, a skilled and sadistic fighter. He often tortures his opponents by hacking their limbs off slowly to maximize their pain before they die. He is especially sadistic towards women, with whom he often dismembers the limbs and pierce their breasts and palms while raping them, he explained that the pain would cause women’s muscle to tense up, which included the muscle tissues of you-know-where, to increase the maximum pleasure of love-making. One of his victim was Magatsu Taito’s friend, she refused to reveal Magatsu’s whereabouts, causing her to die horribly under Shira’s torture, this act also causes Magatsu to hunt down Shira.

^Shira doing his torture business 

Earlier in the series during Mugai-ryu’s hunt of Anotsu Kagehisa, Shira was infuriated by mistakenly following a body-double of Anotsu, to which he released his angers by torturing the opponents, while Rin tried to stop him, Shira stroke back but was stopped by Manji. Manji’s attack cut off Shira’s right arm, Shira fled afterwards and tried to avenge Manji.

Upon finally reaching Manji during his trip to Kaga, it was revealed that Shira actually sawed off the remaining flesh of his right arm and shaved the bones into a bone spear, this act caused excruciating pain and therefore turning his hair pale white. Upon the confrontation with Manji, the join party Magatsu faced off Shira instead in order to avenge his friend. Shira eventually lost his left arm to Magatsu and fell off a cliff into the bottom of a waterfall as the fight concluded. Yet, HE STILL didn’t die. Maybe he is the true Blade of the Immortal. He lost his left eye sight as a result of the fall from the cliff and claimed that though he’s lost both of his arms and his left eye, he’s gained “a new weapon”.

^ Shira revealing his bone-spear

SHIRA’S WEAPON

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Renzo 川上練造

Renzo was the son of a former Itto-ryu member Shinya, who was a very skilled fighter but died under Manji’s blades. Renzo was missing throughout the series but was later shown as Shira’s replacement as his arms. Renzo returned during the end of Prison Arc and expressed his hate towards Manji, therefore joining Shira in taking down Manji.

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Hyakurin 百琳

Former member of Mugai-ryu. Hyakurin is a charming lady who specializes in poisons and archery. She has a “convertible” crossbow which she wears on her left arm, all of the arrows are poisoned by the way.

Hyakurin has a sad past (as many of the characters in this manga) which I won’t go in details, her Mugai-ryu partner/sidekick Shinriji was killed by Itto-ryu members and she underwent cruel torture and rape but kept the information of Mugai-ryu secret from Itto-ryu, it was later revealed that she is now pregnant with one of the rapists from Itto-ryu.

In later chapters, Hyakurin confronted Giichi her admiration of him as Giichi proposed to raise the unwanted baby of Hyakurin.

Though pregnant, she joined Giichi to pursuit the remaining members of Itto-ryu.

HYAKURIN’S WEAPON

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Giichi 偽一

Former member of Mugai-ryu. An extremely skilled sword fighter. Giichi is a bold, quiet, sun-glasses-wearing man, little is known about him during the early part of the series. It was later revealed that he was formerly a labor who worked as a ship-builder, due to his son’s illness and low income from the pay, he committed crime and was sentenced to death, until Habaki picked him as an early member of Mugai-ryu. However, later his son died of illness and he briefly wandered into the ghetto and became a drunk with no purpose in life, only to be found later by Hyakurin, and after a brief quarrel, he found new purpose in life by pre-adopting Hyakurin’s unborn child.

Giichi wields a large sickle with chains, with the sickle structured as a large handcuff made for the neck. Giichi often locks the large sickle onto the necks of his opponents to interrogate information, asking them to choose death or betraying their friends. When retrieving the information he wanted, he often cold-hearted apologize before he beheads his opponents. Sometimes though, he lets them go. By far Giichi is one of the strongest sword fighter in the series, killing a whopping 69 counts of Itto-ryu members, a feat that is unseen with other characters in the story.

Currently he’s already earned enough gold to be free from Mugai-ryu, but learned that his ex-boss Habaki was in trouble, therefore he decided to return his former boss a favor and started his pursuit of Itto-ryu members once again.

GIICHI’S WEAPON

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Mitake 御岳

Mitake is Habaki’s loyal lieutenant. He appeared very late in the series as a messenger and second hand of Habaki. He was the one who tracked down Shira and passed on the secrets to Manji’s immortality to Shira to help Shira acquiring his revenge against Manji; also under Habaki’s command, Mitake rushed to kill all the horses Abayama prepared for Anotsu & company, what a bastard.

Besides using traditional katana, Mitake also uses a shurikken-like spinning knife.

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Meguro 目黒

Meguor is a female shinobi hired by Habaki for her extraordinary running speed. She normally disguises as an art student accompanying Tanbobo and studies under Master Sori (which was of course, identified by Master Sori, who himself was indeed a Master Shinobi). She is crazy in love with Master Sori, who is unaware of her affection nevertheless.

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Tanbobo たんぽぽ

Tanbobo is a female shinobi hired by Habaki for her excellent eyesight and accuracy in drawing portraits. Like Meguro she disguises as an art student under Master Sori. She is gifted with a great set of twins which Meguro is jealous of, the two makes a great comedic pair during the Winter War Arc.

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New Bloods 新血

The group of 9 whom I’ll refer as the New Bloods. These guys are the remaining students of former dojos whom were ruled by those Itto-ryu masters whom are poisoned and murdered by Giichi and Habkaki at the Massacre Dinner.

Though most of the students immediately parted with Itto-ryu once they learned that the masters were killed, these 9 held the same belief as the goal of Itto-ryu and admired the strength of Itto-ryu, therefore stayed and vowed to follow Itto-ryu.

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To be continued with Part B…

Blade of the Immortal FINAL BATTLE Analysis Part II (B)

Warning, the following contents contain extreme spoilers that covers storylines from Blade of the Immortal book 21 to book 27.

If you are having a hard time understanding the terms such as Six Demons, Itto-ryu, Hana-group, please kindly read Part A of this post first.

The following fights and scenes are cut from storylines spanning from Blade of the Immortal Book 21 to Book 27. This Arc is nicknamed “The Winter War Arc”, it will be the last arc to conclude the long-going Blade of the Immortal series, which has been going for for more than 17 years.

RECAP:

Following the rescue of Manji, Habaki was inevitably discharged as the chief leader and given the order to commit Seppuku within 30 days in order to exchange for his honour.

Habaki, with little time left, is forced on the final mission of his life: to destroy Itto-ryu. He employed his secret criminal-group dubbed the Six Demon, whose members are all death sentenced criminals, to hunt down all the remaining members of Itto-ryu.

Doua and Isaku, former Itto-ryu member, decided to give up their sword and travel down South away from Japan to seek new home, so they out the game. (Or ARE THEY??? HMMMmmmmmMMMMM…., they going South right?)

Itto-ryu leader, Anotsu Kagehisa, made a pact with the new Bakufu (Government) Chief to evacuate from Edo area and travel down South to never appear again. Little did we know, Anotsu went loco with his amigos, teamed with his homies and pretty much went straight raiding the Edo Castle.

Itto-ryu underboss Abayama on the other hand, led new members down South and planned to meet up with Anotsu at the harbour after he’s done with his party up in Edo.

Shira and Renzo on the other hand are hunting down Mnaji.

Meguro and Tanbobo works for Habaki and discovered that Anotsu is actually not with the Abayama group, so they hurried up North to inform the terrible news to Habaki.

And above summarized what’s been going on… who will live? Who will die?

Fight One:

Six Demons: Hana Group x 1, Hebi Group x 4
vs.
Itto-ryu: Baro

In the opening chapter of the final Winter War Arc, Itto-ryu member Baro was ambushed by one Six Demon hana-group member and 4 other sidekick hebi-group members. This fight introduced the Six Demons. They are a bunch of criminals who work for Habaki in exchange to spare their death penalty, very similar to the concept of Mugai-ryu, with the exceptions that they had significantly more masked-sidekicks (dubbed Hebi Group) who are money hired to help the main Six Demon members (Hana Group).

Result:

Six Demons Hana group and hebi group died, Baro wins.

The ambush drew attention to Itto-ryu that Habaki is indeed still planning to hunt down the remainders of Itto-ryu; Anotsu is rather intrigued by it and disgusted with Bakufu’s order to punish Habaki with seppuku.

Meanwhile, the 9 New Bloods secretly met up with Anotsu and decided to join Itto-ryu in hope for the resurrection of Itto-ryu.

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Fight Two:

Six Demons: Doma and Hasho, with Hebi Group x ~6
vs.
Manji

The previous fight of Baro vs. Six Demons was observed by Tanbobo, who then drew down the portrait of Baro. Since Baro is featured with a scar across his nose, he resembled Manji quite much, and therefore Hebi-group burnt down the hut Manji was staying in and ambushed the one-armed Manji, which pissed him off greatly.

However, before Manji went full throttle with Doma and Hasho of the Hana-group, the Six Demons soon realized Manji wasn’t Baro after all, therefore they promptly retrieved.

Result:

Six Demons lost 2 Hebi-group to Manji

Tie.

Six Demons are now actively seeking out all information regarding Itto-ryu, it was difficult to them because Itto-ryu members have already agreed to hide until late winter to act, and therefore the Six Demons went for their family, this included Abayama’s son & grand children as well as Baro’s ex-fiancée.

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Fight Three:

Six Demons: Soma Ryo

Vs.

Itto-ryu: Magatsu Taito

Itto-ryu lured the Six Demons into Itto-ryu’s former underground dojo, setting up a trap in its underground confined space in attempt to rid more of the Hebi-groups. Habaki, Shishiya and others were trapped within the dojo, while Ryo was the only one catching up to Itto-ryu, and challenged Magatsu in a swordfight, silly girl didn’t know better.

Result:

Ryo got her ass schooled by Magatsu.

The ambush set up by Magatsu was meant to delay Habaki & Six Demons’s time even more, given that Habaki was given only 7 days to kill all of Itto-ryu. After this, Itto-ryu members are separated into two groups:

Abayama & Kashin Koji leads the 9 New Bloods down south to their proposed meeting point at the harbour.

Anotsu on the other hand, gathers the most elite fighters left in Itto-ryu: Magatsu, Baro, and Ozuhan and planned on doing something pretty hardcore.

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Fight Four:

Itto-ryu: Anotsu Kagehisa, Magatsu Taito, Baro, and Ozuhan

Vs.

Bakufu: 200+ guards

Yep.  This fight pretty much took up the entire Book 23. Basically Anotsu along with Magatus, Baro and Ozuhan pretty much went straight into the Edo Castle, facing more than 200 guards.

Result:

Hundreds of Edo Castle guards killed, Baro wounded, Ozuhan fled but parted ways with Anotsu and Magatsu, while the latter two successfully fled.

So what was the purpose of Anotsu leading 3 badass Itto-ryu fighters raiding the entire Edo Castle? Well, as much as I’ve spoilt enough stories here, I think it’s still best for you to find out yourself.

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Fight Five:

Bakufu: About 10 guards

Vs.

Itto-ryu: Baro

As invincible as Anotsu & Co. is, it’s still difficult facing an army full of guards at the Edo Castle, let along traps, arrows, and firearms. Baro was unfortunately shot at the shoulder and surrounded by a bunch of very angry guards; alas, he embraced the last breath and took up a final fight.

The visual illustration is simply too sick to not to share, so here it is.

Result:

All surrounding guards dead, Baro dead. Tie.

Sad to see Baro go but the guy went with style; he also bought enough time for Anotsu and Magatsu to get away from the castle; the two were then immediately on their way down South in order to meet up with Abayama & Co. at the harbour.

Ozuhan on the other hand was trapped for a moment but given his amazing reflexes he seemed to have gotten away, but separated from Anotsu and Magatsu.

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Fight Six:

Bakufu: Several officers, one female Captain.

Vs.

Shira

Noticed I mentioned a “FEMALE” Captain? You know it ain’t good news when you’re female and facing Shira. So basically Shira was freed by Habaki with the intent that Habaki knows Shira the mad dog will do some damages to Itto-ryu and Manji, however, Hanafusa took over the new Bangashira position and ordered a Kill-On-Sight order for Shira. So there we go, what’s going to happen to this group of Bakufu officers facing an armless (…psyche!) Shira???

Result:

Today was a good day.

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Fight Seven:

Shira

Vs.

Manji

This has got to be among all one of the most anticipated fights. It would appear that Shira randomly attacked transporting sedan chairs on the road and it just so happened that Rin was in it, so here we have Manji going after Shira in attempt to save Rin. (And how many times have we seen that already huh?)

Of course, being the jerk that he usually is, Shira simply refused to reveal Rin’s locations and wanted to fight Manji one-on-one. It would seem tough to reason how an armless Shira stand any chance in winning against the one-armed but immortal Manji?

Well, just when you and Manji both thought that the fight was going to be so easy because this manga ain’t Naruto garbage, then BAM! Mother Fucker’s got Manji’s left arm, a weapon, and worst yet, IMMORTALITY.

Result: Tie.

Manji does not have any interest in fighting, as soon as he found out Rin’s whereabouts, he rushed towards to Rin, it turned out Rin is being tied up with half of her body soaked into the icy lake waiting to die slowly.

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Fight Eight:

Shira

Vs.

Itto-ryu: Magatsu Taito

 

During his chase towards Manji, Shira was unfortunately involved in a traffic accident, it turned out Magatsu and Anotsu were riding horses, also on their way South. Magatsu accidentally hit Shira with his horse, knocking him several feet away, without realizing who he hit, Magatsu got down from the horse and asked Anotsu to head South first and he’d catch up later. As soon as he got near Shira he realized the world was indeed very small.

Result:

Magatsu loss, pinned down at the ground by Shira

Upon realizing it was Shira whom he hit, Magatsu quickly pierced through Shira’s body, but little did he know that Shira was now immortal, therefore he was countered and pinned down at the ground, things aren’t going too well now.

---

Fight Nine:

Shira

Vs.

Meguro

Meguro and Tanbobo felt guilty revealing Manji’s travelling direction to Shira, therefore they hurried back and tried stopping Shira. While Meguro faces Shira, Tanbobo tried saving Rin and Manji, who was exhausted from getting Rin out of the icy lake.

Result:

Meguro loss

Meguro is extremely agile but lacked the physical strength to really inflict serious damages to Shira. Just when we thought Meguro will fall yet another victim under Shira’s sadistic tortures, a very, very, VERY angry Manji showed up…

---

Fight Ten:

Shira

Vs.

Manji, Magatsu + Horse

Manji is soaked with all the icy water and his wrists were frozen so he had to tie his weapon onto his palms to hold on to it. A few moments into fighting, Manji soon realized that not only Shira is immortal, he has lost his sense of pain as well, which made Shira more monstrous than ever, as he is now immortal AND not able to feel pain at all.

Manji was eventually subdued by Shira, and before Shira finished Manji off, Manji went Kill Bill Vol. 2 on Shira, plucking the only eye left from the one-eyed Shira; and the table is now turned, then subsequently Manji received help from Magatsu who despite not being able to walk, is now riding his horse, the epic battle then came to an end…

Result:

Manji/Magatsu win. Shira loss.

Truthfully, I love all the characters in Blade of the Immortal, and this includes Shira, I won’t go into details of the aftermath but I’ve got to say that the ending to Shira was very well set up, it’s probably the more hardcore way to go of all other deaths of the Blade of the Immortal, and Shira is almost too well-suited for the way he died because it echoed a central theme across Shira’s philosophy towards life and eath.

---

Fight Eleven:

Six Demons: Ryo & Banshin

Vs.

Itto-ryu: Kashin Koji and his village friends

  

During their march down south, Kashin Koji decided to lure some of the Six Demons into the wild woods in attempt to weaken the total numbers of the Six Demons. Knowing that there may be traps, Habaki still ordered Ryo and Banshin to follow the separated Kashin Koji into the woods, this is to show Itto-ryu that no matter what Habaki is very determined to kill every last one of Itto-ryu.

Result:

Kashin Koji dead, Banshin dead, all Hebi-gumi dead, Ryo survived but cannot fight anymore. Tie.

The fights weren’t much of any fights as Kashin Koji relies on using special traps he and his village friends previously set up. Ryo was fortunate enough to know about the mechanics of the trap when Kashin Koji finished off Banshin, therefore set up a mini trap of her own and killed Kashin Koji.

Overall, Itto-ryu lost one more man and the Six Demons lost two and several hebi-groups, a fair trade for the Itto-ryu I guess.

---

Fight Twelve:

Six Demons: Shishiya, Hassho, Murasaki

Vs.

Itto-ryu: 6 New Bloods

   

To further weaken Itto-ryu, Habaki sent Shishiya, Hassho, and Murasaki with horses to directly confront Itto-ryu. The objective was to kill Abayama as soon as the fight begins. With Kashin Koji dead, Abayama is the only veteran Itto-ryu left, having him killed will shatter hopes for the remaining New Bloods.

The New Bloods had already thought of situations like this and made a secret pact to leave 6 fighting the 3 Six Demons members, while the remaining 3 were to accompany Abayama to the port, because they all know without Abayama or Anotsu, Itto-ryu is practically finished, therefore 3 New Bloods took Abayama away while the remaining 6 were to face 3 Six Demon hana-gumi members.

Result:

All 6 New Bloods dead, Six Demon’s Murasaki dead, Six Demon Wins.

Sadly but as expected, the New Bloods were simply not up to par with the Six Demons, although outnumbered, the Six Demons displayed overwhelming superiority in combat powers, slaying all 6 of the New Bloods. Murasaki was taken to die together by one of the New Bloods.

---

Fight Thirteen:

Mugai-ryu: Giichi

Vs.

Itto-ryu: Abayama Sousuke

Just when you think things couldn’t have gone worse with Itto-ryu losing 6 New Bloods, Giichi and Hyakurin, riding horses, had caught up with Abayama and the remaining 3 New bloods. Giichi, being one of the most feared fighter in this entire series, will go heads up with Abayama, and Hyakurin shall face the remaining 3 New Bloods. Things really ain’t looking good because as strong as Abayama may be, he’s facing Giichi, who’s killed over 50 Itto-ryu members easy, worse yet, Abayama is old AND one-armed, really wonder how this will turn out…

Needless to say, this is a very much anticipated fight we’ve all been waiting for. Recall Book 9, an Itto-ryu member once commented that Abayama was the only Itto-ryu member at that time who could handle Giichi, just how strong is Abayama? We’ve never seen him fight before, this ought to showcase exactly why Abayama is the underboss.

Result:

Abayama dead, Giichi severely injured, Mugai-ryu Wins.

I can’t believe I just typed out the above statement. Well, to do this awesome fight some justice, Abayama was actually winning at the beginning, as it turned out, Abayama had installed two chains with weighs on his severed right arm, the strike of two chains at the same time plus the strike with blade on his left hand rendered Giichi unable to make any counter attack, at one point, Giichi was going to be finished, but interrupted by the raging horse shot by Hyakurin.

Well, at the end Giichi figured out a way to counter Abayama’s triple attack mode and eventually took the victory.

With Abayama gone, Itto-ryu is now looking really, really, REALLY bad.

---

Fight Fourteen:

Mugai-ryu: Hyakurinj & Mitake

Vs.

Itto-ryu: 3 New Bloods

While Giichi is facing off Abayama, Hyakurin tried to aid from the side, which pissed off the other 3 New Bloods. Fights pursued.

Result:

3 Itto-ryu New Bloods killed, Hyakurin/Mitake practically unharmed, Mugai-ryu Wins.

Through Hyakurin’s poison arrows, she luckily killed off one; she then lost to the second guy – who turned out to be a kind of a freak, but Mitake came to help and finished the freaky boy, then lastly, Hyakurin finished the last New Bloods.

That’s it, Itto-ryu Abayama Team is officially destroyed, fucking Giichi should’ve stayed at home minding his damned business, and what the fuck was Hyakurin doing walking around fighting dudes while she’s pregnant.

So great, the remaining Itto-ryus are as follows: Anotsu Kagehisa (on his way South), Magatsu Taito (on his way South), Ozuhan (missing, presumably on his way South), Makie (sick, supposedly stayed somewhere near Edo as Anotsu advised her not to follow.)’

If all these peeps stay together, it’s going to be very difficult for Habaki and Six Demons to do anything, unfortunately each one of the above mentioned are separated, let’s just hope that they can all meet up in one piece at the harbour.

---

Fight Fifteen:

Itto-ryu: Makie

Vs.

Six Demons: Doma Shinhei

Well, if you want to place anyone on your DO-NOT-FUCK-WITH list, chances are Makie will make all top ten positions just so we get reminded not to fuck with her for ten consecutive times.

Habaki and the remaining Six Demons – Shishiya, Doma, Hassho, and Mitake, arrived at the port after Abayama and Co.; crazy Habaki ordered a kill-on-sight for anyone who is involved with the boats, this is to prevent any Itto-ryu from ever getting on boat.

While executing boat people, Doma came across a strange looking boat with some Chinese people on it, given the order to slaughter all personnel on boat, Doma pursued in a fight with these Chinese people and easily took all 3 down.

However, it would seem that the boat in which Doma is on is also the boat someone stayed the previous day, someone not friendly, someone Doma shouldn’t have fucked with – OTONOTACHIBANA MAKIE…!!!

As it turned out, Makie decided to head South way before Antosu and Abayama did, she arrived a day early and decided to wait for Anotsu and Co.

Result:

Makie wins, Doma flees, Hassho (who joined mid-fight) flees.

---

OKAY!

That about summed up Book 21 to Book 27; sorry if I spoiled so much things for you, but I’ve always wanted to read something like this myself, I think I’m a pretty hardcore fan.

So, in summary, Itto-ryu is in some real deep shit now. Makie, even though given the untouchable Goddess she is, is facing Habaki + Shishiya + Doma + Hassho AND a bunch of enranged officers who arrived at the scene. In addition to being out numbered, Makie is actually fatally ill with tuberlosis, so things really aren’t looking well for Itto-ryu.

Anotsu Kagehisa is on his feet, unless he manages to acquire horses, it is very unlikely that he will arrive any time soon.

Ozuhan can be the wild card, it is convinced that he escaped traps from the Edo Castle raid, he may show up in any chapters.

Magatsu may be traveling with horse, therefore it’s possible to see him any time soon.

Manji and Rin are traveling possibly by horse or the sedan-cart, it is likely to also see them soon.

Giichi is heavily injured from his fight with Abayama, so I don’t think he’ll be part of the final battles anymore, along with Hyakurin.

I am not sure if Doua and Isaku will show up at the end, chances are slim, but if I recall correctly they should be also traveling down South because they want to go to Netherlands or something.

Without Doua and Isaku, the runner up for Habaki group vs. Itto-ryu is looking good.

Anotsu will of course eventually face Habaki.

Magatsu, Manji and Ozuhan will possibly each fight: Shishiya or Doma or Hassho

Makie will probably exit due to her illness, it’d be very, very sad to see her go, but she will remain the strongest fighter for this series.

Ok, that’s it I think I’ve written way too much, thanks for reading and if anything I wrote was incorrect please let me know. I’ll find some time to polish it up.

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So today marks my 3rd year in Malaysia; I can clearly recall 3 years ago today I was sitting right here, using Windows 2000, logging onto Xanga  with shitty ass land line and writing about my first impresison of Malaysia and my future outlook.

Well, today I’m sitting at the exact same spot using Windows 7 with Wi-Fi instead, and I guess I’ll still write about my post-impression about Malaysia and my future outlook.

For starters, I think I will be staying in Malaysia for another good 2 or 3 years. For the past 3 years I’ve envisioned expanding the business to the US for the reason that I wanted to reside in the Bay Area, and like all things in life, it is easier said than done – after numerous trials and errors, slowly and surely, the dream of bringing my family business to the US became more unrealistic as I learned more about the nature of business I’m in, and experience the level of risks, difficulties and capitals involved into expanding my business to the US.

But that does not mean I feel sad about it, because I am glad that I am finally able to identify the actual risks and difficulties to bring the business over, as opposed to placing my hopes up high without any solid action plan to backup like 3 years ago.

The sole reason why I will stay in Malaysia for another 2, 3 years is because most of my business operations run here, and that Malaysia is a pretty good market portal to neighboring South East Asian countries: Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, India, etc.; my English ability allows me to take advantage of the multi-lingual environment that I’m in, as opposed to being in Taiwan, where most businesses rely with Mandarin speakers and extremely saturated market dominated by public corporations.

For me, I don’t feel the need to “go back” to the Bay Area anymore, I just want to find out where and how I can make money first – that is passive income instead of a salary; I’ve stayed in Malaysia for 3 years, Bay Area 11, and Taiwan for 14, I have things that I like and don’t like in all 3 places, and there are still hundreds of places and cities I have not yet visited, so it’s quite early to decide where I want to stay, what matters most is where I’ll eventually stay, so before that happens, I simply need to prepare myself for it.

Another thing is, I don’t feel the attachment to “stay in the family business” anymore either. The responsibility and burden to make this company a success now become less important to me, it is now simply a survival game, as long as the business is profitable, I’ll stay in, and with or without the company, I will still make investments on real estates or side projects that I am truly interested or passionate about.

With this attitude in mind, I guess I can really see where I’m going with more realistic expectations and live my everyday life more joyously.

Of course, undeniably, I still wish to reside eventually in the Bay Area, with two reaons. One being that I really do miss all my friends, the 10 year-friendships along really is irreplacable; at our ages today, especially in Asia, it’s very difficult to make friends for the sake of friendship; most likely everyone is out here making friends for networking or business purposes. The friendships I have with the homies simply can’t be described with words, I can only say that I really am closer to some of my friends than my own family. But of course, eventually all my buddies are going to move on and get married and have kids, and maybe move away eventually, which brings me to the second reason:

Another reason is that I know eventually I will build a family and have children, I would definitely want my children to be raised in the US – whether the Bay Area or other cities. Out of Taiwan, Malaysia, and the Bay Area, US (the Bay Area) indeed has the most established, matured, and organized “systems” – in Education, Quality of Living, Market opportunities, down to the Morals.

I can’t find a word to describe the “system” I’m talking about, we notice a lot of little things that we neglect to pay attention to in the normal days, one simply must spend a good amount of time in a foreign environment, interacting with the indigenous people and cutlure, to really understand how all the seemingly trivial matters are cultivated and manifested through the “system” of a nation, be it the government, the religion, or the people, and I simply think that based on my experience, I feel that the “system” of the United States is best worth me spending the rest of my life with my future wife and kids.

Oh well, I am pretty sure that in the near future my attitude will continue to change, but what I’ve learned in the past 3 years is to be able to look at things more realistically and on a long term basis. A lot of things seem to be the trend that live short lives, I don’t think the US will continue to suffer from economic downturns; nor do I think China will continue to blossom at the insane rate it is experienccing right now, even Japan for once what it was, is now going down on the slope, so who knows? I think once we get past the idea that nothing lasts forever, or even a decade, then it’s easier to look within ourselves and find out what is it we really need and want in the core. I can say that I am getting closer, although not quite there yet.

Till next time. Cheers!