Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (spoilers alert)

I have just seen Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (wiki) yesterday with two of my lab-mates. Despite what the reviews say, which chop Transformers into bits and pieces, and although I am not a Transformers fan, I myself was quite satisfied with the movie, and I must say it is perhaps due to the awesome Computer Graphics technology used in the movie, and the good actions too.



That said, I was hoping for better story. I am going to list a few drawbacks that I noticed, and they contain spoilers, you have been warned !

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Drawback List (Mine):

1. I was anticipating that the Autobots would lose in this movie and then come back in the next series (the third one), just like what happened in Star Wars. WRONG ! Although the last scene indicates that there will be a third movie, Autobots won again. Optimus Prime was indeed destroyed but he was resurrected.
2. If it is possible to resurrect Autobots or Decepticons, they must know better that in order to kill one enemy, they should obliterate every part of the body. Why didn't they do so ?
3. Stupid jokes in the middle of intensified situations, like a small Decepticon behaving like a Chiwawa and trying to "play" with Mikaela's legs.
4. Is it that easy to land in Egypt ? Is Egypt part of US ? And is it that easy for US to order Egypt's and Jordan's armed forces to participated in the war without explaining ?
5. The idea of combining two Autobots is cool, but why does the form remind me of Alteisen in Super Robot Taisen Series (wiki) ? But maybe this one was just my imagination.

I am also going to put up some drawbacks which my Japanese friends brought up yesterday:

1. Is US the world ? Maybe they can learn from other movies, like Independence Day (wiki) for example, which at least includes resistance by other countries.
2. Combining robots ? Aren't they just imitating Super Sentai (wiki) ?
3. A decepticon camouflaging as a pretty woman ? There should be a distinction line between a bot, and a human
4. There were many unnecessary scenes, like the vacation in Paris and some of the university life scenes. (Come to think of it, the story about the sliver of the Cube wasn't even touched from the middle until the end of story ).

I guess that's all the critics from me. I guess one way to enjoy a movie is not to worry about the little details, after all, isn't the idea of transforming robots itself absurd ? NOOOOO ! Just kidding :). Anyway, I hope that they'll make a better story next time, just like what they did with The Dark Knight (wiki).

Aiming at JLPT Level 1

Two weeks later on 2009 July 5th, I am going to take a JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) level 1 test in Japan. Not that there is any requirement for a particular purpose that I have to fulfill. It's just that I think it's a good time right now to take this Japanese test and obtain the certificate since I have studied for SPI, that is GRE/GMAT-like (but in Japanese) tests a while ago to look for a job.

One of the peculiar things about language tests in Japan, including this one, and another one for English proficiency called "英語検定" or "eigo kentei" (I bet you didn't know this one existed), is that they divide it into several levels, and let the applicants decide which level they want to apply to. This is different than tests held in English like TOEFL, TOEIC or GMAT/GRE, which basically only have one level (if you can say it as a level at all). Thus, the way you say your score is also different. For English tests, you usually say "my score is ...", while for these Japanese test, you say "I have passed the [test-name] level [level] test" without mentioning the scores. At first, I was a little bit confused whether I should take level 1 or level 2, but I decided to take level 1 anyway. Oh yeah, level 4 is the easiest, while level 1 is the hardest. Confusing ?

So I still have two weeks left to study, and aside from the job hunting preparation months ago (it's already that long ?), I have barely started preparing ! Indeed, I better focus on it soon, or else I will be wasting my application fee :).

Heading To No More Zero Income Benefit State Of Mind

Is it just my feeling, or is it real that I received more tax and insurance bills this year ? I have to admit that I was quite surprised when I saw the amount for the first time because it seems I won't be getting any less-than-a-certain-amount income benefits, much less zero income benefits (discounts) this year. I am sure that most of you already know that you have to pay taxes based on the amount of money that you earned. Plus, in Japan, if you live here for more than a year, you have to register (and pay) your National Health Insurance which basically cuts your medical expenses as much as 70%. For zero or less-than-a-certain-amount income earners, you get discounts. This is why the medical expenses, at least not for big ones like surgeries, are not much more expensive than those in Indonesia, for example.

Now, the calculation is basically based on your income a year before, so since I have been working as a part-timer since around mid-2007, I have to pay the full amount of the bills starting this year (based on the income in 2008), plus since I already have a wife, the amount of the bill is doubled. This is something that I had not anticipated before.

Being almost 30 this year and as a someone who will soon become a father, maybe it's time for me to let go of those nice benefits and start experiencing the full impact of entering a society, unprotected by any kind of benefits although I would very much love to get them. I am quite optimistic however that my new job next year will be able to lessen this anxiousness.