Hey ho!

This will be my last post here in LJ.

After a year of ups and downs, I'm moving to a new home.

I think I can call it my home.

ANyway,

You can now find me at

http://www.ariefzainal.com

Nothing's much there at the moment, but I'll be adding stuff soon. Or day by day... I think.

Thank you for reading this.

See you at my new site!

Arief_Zainal

Hey ho!

So I've been thinking lately.

I've been with Livejournal since.. *goes to check* a year ago, and looking back (I'm literally reading my first post as I'm typing this) a lot has happened.

-AKUSUB emerged out of my own whim
-AKUSUB had its first 20k unique visitor
-AKUSUB went into hiatus and eventually shuts down
-AKULIFE turned into a full fledged blog about my life
-I acquire the taste of writing
-Changed AKULIFE into a more robust blog talking not only about my life but also, for the first time, I posts reviews
-I began to take my writing seriously
-The sudden urge to have a professional looking blog

Now I think the time has come for me to jump into a more professional looking blog and I don't think I'd achieve that with Livejournal.

So, here's what I've been pondering about.

I'm thinking of moving my blog from Livejournal to Wordpress.

I'm still thinking about it though, but if you know me, you know it won't take long.

My dilemma is this: I hate losing my friends here.

I've only have a handful of friends here, but they stick with me nonetheless even after I stopped subbing. So I really cherish their presence.

I don't know... what do you guys/girls think? Any other better host site than Wordpress you can think of? Leave your suggestions in the comment below.

Till later

Arief_Zainal

Update: Gave Wordpress.com a try and... I hate it. So I'm going with using my own hosting and use the Wordpress platform instead.

Hey ho!

So it's me again and yes, I'm not posting this on Wednesday again!

Anyway,

If you notice on the sidebar are word counters I've placed to keep track of my work (GHOST especially) and a few hours ago,

I FINALLY HIT 50,000 WORDS for GHOST!

*launch fireworks*

The dreaded halfway mark!

And another good news to accompany that news is this:

Angry Robot accepting unsolicited manuscripts

So yeah, now, I'm aiming to get my manuscript ready for March.

And for the second last good news because every good things must come to an end and this is not it:

Starting 3rd Jan 2011, the anime I translated will be aired on ASTRO Ceria.

Woohoo!

Yeah, I'm very nervous, but not for the first 16 episodes though. I didn't get the job until episode 17.

And the last good news for today!

I'm going to be translating another anime!

My brother confirmed it yesterday. And guess what?

It's One Piece...

that's 4++ episodes. Wait, let me rephrase that. That's 5++ episodes! OMG!

Oh, man...

Oh well, can't be helped. It's good money.

That's all the good news for today, till later!

Arief_Zainal

Updated: Got the date wrong. It's the 3rd of January.

SPOILER ALERT: THIS IS A GAME REVIEW

It's Saturday and I'm doing a review.

Yes. I'm bored.

Anyway, I finished this game a few weeks earlier and thought of doing a review about it but somehow life (as usual) gets over my head and the thought became lost in limbo.

So, without further due, here's my review of Spiderman: Shattered Dimension

SPIDERMAN: SHATTERED DIMENSIONS



(AMAZON)
QUICK REVIEW:

GAMEPLAY:  B
GRAPHIC: A
STORY: B

OVERALL: B+

DETAILED REVIEW:

GRAPHIC: Graphically (?) speaking, the game is beautiful and the different tone used for each of the dimension really stands out. In Ultimate Spiderman universe and the Amazing Spiderman universe, you were presented with a more cartoonish style of cell shading and bright colors whilst in the Spiderman Noir universe and the Spiderman 2099 universe, you're given with a more up to date graphics, less cartoon and more gritty than the former two. Which in my case, both is a welcome addition. I've been playing way too many graphic intense games anyway.

STORY: The idea of the story (yes, I look at the idea behind the story as well and not just what was presented to me in the game) is somewhat intriguing but as always, the end result kind of downplayed the whole thing a little, at least to me. While I no doubt think that the base of the story is fun (crossing dimensions in search of fragments of broken stone tablet so powerful it could rip the entire time and space and suck other dimension into oblivion as well), it is also hard to feel the engaging factor in it as well. There is a lack of twist or at least something that could make your heart pumping with excitement in this game which is a sad thing.

GAMEPLAY: While graphically speaking this game is beautiful, and story-wise it is a bit lacking, the gameplay is somewhat both. The good part is that control is easy and the learning curve isn't that steep... or there is none at all, at least to me. It was a very easy game to grab and play and AI really is not that bad. There are however a couple of hiccups and weird glitches. Firstly, the camera work. It's crazy. While most of the time it will stay behind you, some of the time, especially when you're trying to focus on a single enemy, it could lead to some loss of hair in your part. Which brings me to my second problem with the game. The targeting system. It's to easy and it's too fast. Seriously. It's like the developer think we're all a bunch of player with spider senses fast. The targeting system targets everything and it switches in a blink of an eye and if you lock on a target, the camera will fail you. So yeah, it killed some of my great moments. 

OVERALL: While yes, the game is somewhat filled with weird camera works and untamely fast targeting system, overall, the game looks nice and playing it is easy. While I wouldn't recommend it, I'd say give it a try, maybe you'll like it.

Have a nice weekend and holiday!

Arief_Zainal

Hey ho!

It's Friday and yeah, I forgot to post anything last Wednesday, but whatever.

Yesterday, Mark Chadbourn (author of the Age of Misrule and many more, AMAZON) posted on his Twitter this news regarding the Mona Lisa:

Hidden Numbers and Letters in Mona Lisa's eyes

Basically, scientists found (which I don't understand why now after so much scientific whatnot they shone the painting with) hidden numbers and letters inside the eyes of the famous painting.

On one eye there're L and V (which the scientists believed was the initials for Leonardo from Vinci thus LV) and on the other "they're still determining whether the figures are C and E, B and S, the number 72, or L2." (quote from the news).

So, any chance Dan Brown will be making a sequel to the Da Vinci code after this? I hope so. While most authors hate him, not so me. Yeah his writing is bad and somewhat boring, but the idea... the idea he used is enough as a page turner for me.

But hey, it's just me.

So that's the news, and here's a bit of update on my part:

- I've finished the detailed plotting for GHOST and in the process of writing those things down.

Just for fun and out of whim, I did a quick recount of books I've read so far this year, and they stopped at 20... 20?! Why so little? I need to read more... gah! I blame the lack of availability!

BTW, if you're hoping to see my top 10 list for 2010 books, I'm going to have to disappoint you. I'm not good at making good and appreciable lists.

Happy Holidays to all!

Arief_Zainal

Hey ho readers!

Just a quick update on my recent worklog since yesterday's post was long enough for me to leave these out. Here goes:

Main WIP - GHOST - As you can see on the sidebar, is at 35% done. I've finished with some of the smaller arc and returning to the main arc for about halfway before branching again to another smaller arc I have in mind.

2nd WIP - The Imaginarium - Although it's 50% done, the story is just starting and will be one hell of a rollercoaster. I am however thinking of rearranging the chapter but it is a decision I'll be making over the weekend.

3rd WIP - CONGKAK (temp.) - Now this one, is the first of the several stories from before that I'm reviving for the blog novel. I'm currently writing down the plot timeline, putting the details in the rough plot and breaking down the chapters and events. Haven't finished flushing out the characters though but I have a feeling that this one is going to be a strong story or maybe a candidate for my 'send-to-agent' list.

4th WIP - The Strength of a Man (temp.)- This story is based on local mythology which I extrapolate and gave it a more darker settings and character. Just like my 3rd WIP, this one is still in the planning and plotting the details stage and will maybe not be seen anytime soon. Also another strong candidate for my 'send-to-agent' list.

So, there you have it. All of my current work I'm doing right now other than my day-job.

Arief_Zainal

Hey ho readers, if there are any!

Obviously, if you have been following my short story blog (which I'm now thinking of changing it into something else... blog-novel perhaps?), I have updated it with a new story, The Imaginarium (you can read the first chapter HERE).

I conceived the story some time in mid-September (I think) and I have the plot wrote down in my nifty notebook (it has pouch, seriously!) and stored for it to cultivate into something grand. Then, by October, it came to me again, but this time in the form of NaNoWriMo. Thinking of using the whole month of November to write something, I picked up the idea and formed a rough layout of the story knowing full well that by the time I reach somewhere near 50k, I'd want to change it into something else.

Anyway, so NaNoWriMo came and I wrote the story down and finished it on the 25th (I think) conforming my win right after I wrote down the last word for the contest. Mind you the story is far from finish, in fact it only has just begun by 50k. Yeah I know, talk about a late starter.

So after that, I looked at the story for awhile, wondering what I'd do with it when it came to me again:

'Place it on the blog and let it rest there. Who knows, someone might like it.'

So I did and changed the name from The War (the original name) to The Imaginarium (I have something new in store for it thus the name change).

Also, if you've read the blog before, you'd notice there were several stories which I left dead after 'chapter 1'.

Well, I'll be reviving them back (or at least some of them...I think there were 2) and make them into stories that would occupy each day of the week, Monday until Friday.

I've also been thinking of doing a mock cover for them (yeah, I'm just that obsessed) but that's a story and a deed for another time.

If you have the time, don't forget to check out the blog!

And comment if you think it'll make my writing better!

Well then, till later!

Arief_Zainal

New book(s)!

So yeah, I should be posting about new book(s) I'm reading right now, but since I'm still reading Kraken (seriously, it's eating me not the other way around) so I'll be posting about new book(s) today.

Anyway, since it's the festive season over in the USA, I thought I'd give myself a thanksgiving/pre-christmas gifts namely these two lovely tomes:



The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

AMAZON

and



The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

AMAZON

For Brent Weeks, you could say that I liked his debut trilogy, the Night Angel trilogy considerably so Black Prism was only a matter of time for me to buy it.

For Brandon Sanderson, well, I gave his Mistborn a go and though it was a hard read, I managed to somehow finish it. Couldn't say that I like it as much as Brent Weeks' Night Angel trilogy though but I do in fact can say that I like the magic system in Mistborn. It was complex and entertaining at the same time.

So there you have it. Two famous books by two famous Fantasy authors.

What about you? What new books did you get for yourself?

Hey ho!

I'm back!

and I'm tired

I've just finished my NaNoWriMo novel and I am getting ready to go to sleep right now. My first calm sleep since November starts and the whole write a novel in one month rush began.

So, what did I learn from NaNo?

One simple thing, I think.

I learned that I am not a person who'd be able to write a novel in under or in ONE MONTH without any motivation. Seriously. 

The novel I wrote for NaNo is the first actually for me that I wrote in under a month.

My first draft for my first novel took me 3 months.

the second novel took 4.

the third and my current WIP has already taken half a year and is in it's 3rd rewrite.

I promised to myself to try and query agents by the end of the year. But seeing how the sudden urge to join NaNo destroyed my schedule, I have my doubts on that date.

Anyway, if you out there who happens to stumble on this blog o mine and is a participant AND HAVE FINISHED YOURS:

CONGRATULATIONS to you!

You deserve it.

And now my fellow friends.

I'm going to go to sleep. BYE! SEE U NEXT WEEK!

Arief_Zainal

P/s: If you're wondering what the certificate looks like this year, here it is:

Heiho!

Surprised to see another post 2 days later?

I know, but I'm just too excited not to post this, so I'm going to.

If you haven't watch Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Go Watch it.

Why?

Because it's awesome!

Why?

Because you don't have to use much logic to understand it. You can enjoy the story without blowing your mind trying to figure out which level of dream it is you're watching. You can enjoy the nice visual effects and put logic to the side just for this one and a half hour.

Imagine you can enjoy everything there is to enjoy about love story without having to go through the painful 'normal' shit you all see nowadays.

This is one movie everyone can enjoy if you let yourself to enjoy it.

Seriously. Life gave enough logic for us to die for. Why do you need more of it from movies?

Go see it! If you rather download, go! If you rather buy the DVD or the Blu Ray, go! Don't wait!

Go!

Yes I'm a fan and I'm biased.

You'd rather watch people explode into tiny chunks of meat rather than coins? Come on!