Forza Horizon 3: Star of the Goliath

Behind closed doors, this Centenario is going to have the sweet spots it deserves as well as its looks just to rise for the occasion. Take a guess, folks. I'm sure the Centenario I'm working for is well-trimmed for a very special occasion. So, what's it going to be for the Centenario?



Right here...







Surprised? There is a main explanation to that. You see, both the Forza franchise and THE IDOLM@STER franchise were launched in 2005. Their latest offerings such as this, Forza Horizon 3, and THE IDOLM@STER Platinum Stars came out in the year 2016 and what better way to honor such installments is by decorating the FH3 star car into something Platinum Stars-inspired and here is the finishing result you see fit.



With the 765PRO ALLSTARS-inspired Centenario in place, there's one thing I should do with this special kind of Centenario I made it myself and for that, the Centenario is preparing for the ultimate challenge yet as it will take on the Goliath Circuit which covers all four routes from Byron Bay, Yarra Valley, the Outback, and Surfers Paradise. That's like the whole New South Wales, Act, and Victoria combined to create the ultimate festival event ever dared to take on.

A select number of cars can reach the maximum class and the Centenario is one of them. With the car set to the maximum class, a class only attainable for some of the cars upgraded to the max and to handle such power, you need some bravery to handle that kind of power and for a ultra fast car set in an ultra long circuit event, you need to man up to take on the ultimate challenge.

Sadly, my filming equipment can only take ten minutes of footage and for a track this big, it's impossible to film such unless you have a powerful vehicle that can eclipse the Goliath Circuit's near-impossible sub-10 minute mark. Even in max class, the Centenario is not one of them so I have a plan to make sure this footage goes smoothly enough to savor the occasion.

Without further ado, get ready to witness the birth of a star in the face of Goliath.



At last, a star is born and it happened right here in Horizon Australia!


So, I managed to conquer a mammoth of a circuit event but this is not the best time to rest in our laurels because even with the Goliath Circuit conquered, there's still plenty of leftovers to deal with from all corners of the Land Down Under. I maybe the star who dominated the Goliath Circuit but the journey is only the beginning because no matter how many events you conquered, there's still time and place to revisit some old events if you want to practice your skills when the opportunity arises.

Looks like I want to stay here just a little while longer because Australia is...kinda feels like home to me but which Australia?

THREATS FROM NORTH KOREA: Bomb shelters unprepared as threat looms

Bomb shelters across South Korea and Japan are left unprepared in an event of an all-out military conflict breaks out as tensions escalate over the Korean peninsula's rapidly advancing nuclear weapons programme.

South Korea has nearly 19,000 bomb shelters throughout the country. They include more than 3,200 in Seoul, just 40km (25 miles) from the militarised border drawn up under a truce that stopped the Korean War but left them technically at war.

Their shelters are not built to withstand against nuclear, chemical, or biological attacks. They are mostly in subway stations or basements and parking garages in private apartments and commercial buildings designated as shelters with the consent of the owners. In Seoul, most bomb shelters have no long-term supplies of food, water, medical kits or gas masks. They can't be forced to stock up due to lack of public funding, according to an unnamed official.

In the Japanese capital city Tokyo, the remaining bomb shelters from the Second World War are no longer useable or accessible to the public and they have no plans to reuse the decades-old shelters or build new ones for now.

Source: Reuters

Let's Do The News! (July 11, 2017)

- The World Boxing Organization has concluded that judges were right to name Jeff Horn the winner in his bout against Manny Pacquiao after the controversial Brisbane battle two weeks ago. Horn took the Filipino great’s welterweight world title after judges scored the bout 117-111, 115-113 and 115-113 in the 29-year-old’s favour but many observers questioned the outcome, saying the officials had made a “hometown decision”.

- Barangay officials could possibly stay in their positions since it has not yet been confirmed whether the barangay and youth council, Sangguniang Kabataan, will go ahead or will be postponed. According to COMELEC chairman Andres Bautista, this is possible due to the Congress' decision still on hold.

- An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 hit the southern Japanese island of Kyushu on Tuesday but no tsunami warning was issued.

- A US military plane crashed in rural Mississippi on Monday evening and five people are reportedly killed. No official details were immediately available on the crash in northern Mississippi’s LeFlore County, about 100 miles (160 km) north of Jackson, the state capital. However, reports told at least five of the nine people aboard the plane are presumably dead.

- Rampant wildfires in Western Canada's British Columbia disrupted timber and mining operations, damaged equipment at a regional electric utility and forced thousands from homes in the interior of the province.

- With Islamic State all but ejected from one of its former capitals and surrounded in the other, members of a 72-nation coalition meet in Washington this week to try to ensure the battlefield victories do not, once again, evaporate amid new sectarian strife. Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi announced that they've won the battle against the Islamic State in Mosul, three years after the militants seized the city.

- Avex Pictures aquired game maker ixtl and become its subsidiary.

- Russian court ruled last weekend to reduce blogger Ruslan Sokolovsky's prison sentence for posting a video of himself playing PokeMon Go in church.

- The all-new Audi A8 flagship saloon has been unveiled and it's the first to use its new AI traffic jam pilot that allows this car to autonomous drive through slow-moving traffic at up to 37.3mph.



- Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise showed his pic on a shooting for the next film alongside Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, and Ving Rhames, in New Zealand, where shooting for the next film took place.

TTFN!!!

New Toyota Camry/Daihatsu Altis (XV70)

Back in January, Toyota launched the all-new Camry at the North American International Auto Show and while Americans are the first to get the new model, not to mention that it was part of this year's Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series alongside its rival Ford Fusion and the soon-to-be-replaced Chevrolet SS, it's hard to fathom what will the Camry for the world market will be since the previous model but the new Camry we last saw in NAIAS last January has now arrived on the Japanese market and it promises to be a global midsize sedan known the world over with its new styling, new high-tech features, and eye-catching performance that sounds very promising but is it?

2018 Toyota Camry

2018 Daihatsu Altis

Like almost all of the wide-body Camrys since the Gracia, Toyota will sell you the new Camry for 3,294,000 Japanese Yen ($33,000) but if your nearest dealership was a Daihatsu and you want a midsize saloon like this one, don't fret because its Daihatsu Altis equivalent is now available to order starting at 3,499,200 Japanese Yen ($35,000). So, what's new with the design, perhaps? 

Come to think of it is a mashup of something old, something new, something Asian-American or so they say. Up front, the front lamps look like it came from the old V50-spec Camry of 2006 while the bumper is more of an enlarged version of the one seen in the previous generation model. The grille is now T-shaped like the ones on the C-HR compact crossover, just to give the new Camry a keen look that won't be as tasteless as a tasteless sugar-free vanilla ice cream you bought at the supermarket. On the back view, well, let's just say it looks nice enough for a Camry of this magnitude but if you are asking for more about the back, better talk somewhere else.

2018 Toyota Camry interior

2018 Toyota Camry interior

2018 Daihatsu Altis interior

2018 Daihatsu Altis interior

Inside, it's becoming more luxurious than the previous model and while the dashboard kind of reminds you of the Prius, the instrumental panel looks suspiciously familiar to the Nissan Teana L33, one of the Camry's chief rivals in the midsize saloon stakes. The instrumental panel looks very vivid and easy to see out of, the spacing on the rear is very promising indeed as well as the boot space is big enough for your yard sale hauls you bought last weekend with the grannies.

2018 Toyota Camry

2018 Daihatsu Altis

Okay, enough about the design impression because it's time to get an earful about how the new Camry behaves with its earful TNGA platform, the new Camry promises to be comfortable and stable while delivering fun-to-drive handling you wouldn't expect on a car like this. It's also more rigid and even lighter as good thanks to its lightweight materials on the body. While this car delivers the sporty handling you would expect on a Japanese midsize saloon like this, the powertrain is not what you called convincing.

Like last time, the Camry is hybrid-only but it bears the brand new 2.5L A25A-FXS petrol engine mated to an 88kW electric motor and at long last, a Li-ion battery, resulting in a combined power output of 211PS of power, and with a CVT standard, fuel efficiency varies by 28.4 to 33.4km/L based on Japan's JC08 Mode standards but due to the WLTC Mode standards in force by next year, these stats are now irrelevant.

Still, if you are one of the people who go by the name of Truex Jr., Hamlin, Busch, Jones, Kenseth, Suarez, Sieg, Gaulding, and Gase, best to stick back to your NASCAR because with a performance of that caliber, the new Camry won't match against its NASCAR equivalent but for an average joe, it's not half bad to drive that Camry. It may not be as fun as a NASCAR but for work and at play, this Camry always gets the job done and this is more than just a family car you can take it for work, it's a road trippers' car fit for your next weekend trips, especially when this car comes with Toyota Safety Sense P and a wide array of safety tech great enough to keep yourselves safe and happy.

So, I think that's enough about talking about the new Camry and its Altis equivalent from Daihatsu despite being involved in NASCAR, it's nowhere near as fun as its NASCAR equivalent but you can feel thankful that this car isn't as tasteless as a vanilla ice cream and with its sharper design that looks uncanny for a midsize saloon, it's even more attractive as well and that is the bottom line.

Available colors: Platinum White Pearl Mica, Silver Metallic, Attitude Black Mica, Emotional Red, Steel Blonde Metallic, Graphite Metallic, and Dark Blue Mica Metallic.

Photo: Toyota/Daihatsu

Let's Do The News! (July 10, 2017)

- The National Food Authority is investigating the complaints of evacuees in Iligan City that the rice provided in the relief packs smells bad and causes stomach ache.

- Davao City Archbishop Romulo Valles is named as the new president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines. The voting took place during the CBCP Biannual Plenary Assembly in Pope Pius Center in Paco, Manila. Effective next year, Valles will replace outgoing CBCP Pres. Archbishop Socrates Villegas while Caloocan City Bishop Apblo David will serve as Vice-president.

- Ormoc City Mayor Richard Gomez might declare a "state of calamity" due to consecutive quakes that are being felt in the Province of Leyte. Last Thursday, Leyte was first hit by a magnitude 6.5 quake where an establishment collapsed and two individuals died while more than 40 were hurt.

- Officials warned that wildfires in Western Canada may spread with more hot, dry weather, following over 220 wildfires reported across the province.

- London firefighters were battling a blaze at a building in the city's Camden Market as three floors and a roof of the building were on fire.

- Galvanized by the release of hardline leader Leopoldo Lopez, Venezuelan opposition supporters marked 100 days of protests against the Maduro administration blamed for political repression and economic misery. Thousands of people gathered in an east Caracas square to hear opposition figures including the wife of Lopez, Lilian Tintori, speak.

- Production of the Tesla Model 3 electric saloon has begun with the first Model 3 produced belongs to Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

- Tickford has turned a Ford Mustang into a Bathurst '77 Special in honor of “one of the greatest moments in Australian motorsport”, when Allan Moffat and Colin Bond drove a pair of Ford Falcon XCs to a one-two finish at the 1977 Bathurst 1000.



- THE IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls Gekijo anime shorts renewed for another season coming this October.

- After recently premiered in Netflix last weekend, the Castlevania animated series gets renewed for another season with double the episodes than the first four.

TTFN!!!

Spider-Man Homecoming

Last year, Marvel fans got shocked when their web-slinging superhero Spider-Man became the surprise attraction in the battle between Iron Man and Captain America in Civil War. One question that sparks the minds of fans many is how does Spider-Man ended up on the Avengers initiative? Why did he become one of them? This new Spider-Man movie explains all.

Spider-Man Homecoming

Spider-Man Homecoming is Marvel's brand new action-adventure movie that introduces actor Tom Holland to the role coveted by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in the past as Peter Parker, better known as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man as he's trying to become part of the Avengers initiative while dealing with his biggest moment of his life; the senior prom.

Peter Parker's chance encounter with Iron Man himself, Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.), changes everything and much to the dismay of his new mentor, Peter struggles to fit in to his normal life while busy saving the world as Spider-Man when a powerful new threat known as The Vulture (played by Michael Keaton) emerges and the friends and family Peter cared about will be threatened. How will he risk everything to save the day while more importantly, saving himself for his once-in-a-lifetime moment?

While Tom Holland's not new in the world of Marvel ever since his Civil War debut as Spider-Man, having a fresh new face puts a bold new twist to the epic story of everyone's friendly neighborhood and this film gets the job done rather well. While watching the film about Spider-Man getting involved with the Avengers initiative before his surprise appearance in Civil War last year has all the answers we really need, the way we look at Spider-man is beyond our predictions because like this one time, we all thought that Spidey's look will be the one hinted in the upcoming PS4-exclusive Spider-Man game but we were wrong because it's still classic Spidey look as we get from the pages of comic books and that was a bit of a disappointment for us all hoping to see Spider-Man's new look.

Despite the disappointment, Spider-Man Homecoming is a definite proof that the thrills and spills we expected from past Spider-Man films that traces us from the years of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are back. It is truly back and even with Tom Holland's presentation of being the new Spider-Man, it feels pretty much like all of the best Spider-Man films ever witnessed. So, now that we got the answer about how Spider-Man ended up on the Avengers initiative at the eyes of his new mentor, question is, is he ready for the endless war that will happen next year along with the other Marvel superheroes we saw in the past and the present? With Thor and Black Panther in the waiting list for the time being, looks like Spider-Man is ready, willing, and able enough to be in the ultimate Marvel experience soon and we have our fingers crossed.

My rating: 4.1 out of 5.

2017 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup - Quaker State 400

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup series lands to Kentucky Speedway for the Quaker State 400 and in this epic 274-lap battle of the best drivers in America, many have tried to survive this kind of grudge match but only one nailed it with three stage wins, making it one heck of an extraordinary match for greatness.

In the end of Lap 80, Martin Truex Jr. cleared the first stage of the race. Seven laps later, the number 14 car of Clint Boyer smacked through the wall as well as the #48 of Jimmie Johnson. After the smack in the wall by these two, MTJ also cleared stage two as well. Fast forward to lap 265, smoke comes out behind Truex Jr.'s car and such inevitable has triggered an overtime and after one heck of a chaotic overtime, Martin Truex Jr., wins the race after winning all three stages of the race. Not as flawless as such but this is his tenth career win.

Next race is on New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Overton's 301 this 16th of July.