Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Personas for Firefox from Mozilla Labs! Ever since the post went live, I've seen many follow-up reviews from various sources. Having just recently switched to the goo Green Label theme at the office and been using the green cat theme at home forever, I was somewhat reluctant to try this. Call it old habits die hard or simply laziness on my part, I didn't want to bother.

Then something hit me and I took the plunge yesterday at the office. Why do I always make these kinds of changes at the office first, you ask? Well, first off, it doesn't constantly have a few dozen tabs opened and thus makes it easier to restart after the change. Secondly, my home computer runs on customized Windows chrome and therefore doesn't blend in as well with certain colour themes, and certainly not when there's transparent elements involved.

Anyhow, I decided to give Personas a try... and I fell in love with it instantly! It's just a face change, but look at all those cute and adorable "skins" for the choosing. And they're not even inside my computer! It was difficult for me to pick a favourite, so I went with the Firefox Logo one yesterday and Foxkeh Hanami today. I'll probably use something else tomorrow. XD

Having now experienced the magic of Personas, I boldly ventured in and installed it on Coordinator last night. Alas, it's as I feared, a lot of the skins clashed with my Windows chrome theme. A couple did seem to be fine, thankfully. All the menus and font sizes had reverted back to the default theme (with the Slime Green flavour), which appeared larger than the green cat theme UI, but I could live with that. So since late last night, my Firefox on Coordinator has been sporting its new Groovy Blue look, and I'm proud of it. :D

On a quick side note, I just showed my brother the new look and demoed a few other ones, and he immediately got all agitated and shook me to demand the URL. Knowing his taste and style, I knew he'd fell for it. XD

Sunday, December 16, 2007

After three hours of hard fought battle, they're all done! May I present you my 2007 Christmas card (use the magnifying glass to view it in full size)!

It's basically a combination of the ones I did in 1998 and 2001. It's easy to see my growth over the years, eh? orz

I've always wanted to do a Christmas story parody using Firefox, and I finally did it this year. Not sure what got into me. Must be all the frustrations that's been accumulating for the past months...

I did 12 of these, one of which I'm keeping for myself, and right now my right hand is feeling really sore from all the writing. It's so much taxing to write Chinese than English. Though, I also have a reputation for messy English hand-writing, which explains why no one ever wanted to copy my notes in school...

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

I discovered goo 検索 Green Label yesterday from a Japanese news article and played around with it for a bit. At the office, I installed the add-on, enabled the goo Green Label theme, and started using the search bar. So far, I have grown 2/10 goo tree.

After the [always] horrible visit to the dental office, I came back home and installed the same add-on on my computer. I was going to just use the goo Green Label theme, but it didn't look as good because of my "slime green" Windows chrome, so I had to revert to the green cat theme I've been using. The goo tree icon is still there beside the Home icon.

Then came the big question. Would the goo tree grow only when I use the search bar, or would it work when I use keyword search from the address bar? Numerous attempts and many searches later, I confirmed my fear: it's tied with the search plug-in.

The search bar is always one of the first things to go when I install a fresh copy of Firefox, and I've always just type in the address bar directly to search on Google. But I guess the search bar that I dug out for this experiment is here to stay. I'll remember to type Ctrl+K when I search from now on.
Dental story. Yeah, it's mine, unfortunately. And it's starting to hurt.

One of my molars started acting up a few months ago. I've known that one to be a bad case, and there was no saving it this time. Well, it might had been salvageable, but it's more than I could and willing to afford. Anyhow, after some consideration, I decided to take it out for good.

Hence my current condition. The anaesthetics has worn off for the most part, and I've stopped using gauzes to clog the gap. Those tasted awful. I'm counting on my almost-non-existent bodily health system to stop the blood from oozing out. I have to use a straw to sip water from a cup, and I'll probably have to settle for instant noodles for dinner tonight... Not sure when I'll be able to return to my regular diet, but I imagine just two or three days should do it. At least this is much better than what I had to go through last time when I had all four wisdom teeth taken out. That was just bad.

There's now a big hole on my bottom left side, and it'll take me a bit more time getting used to the sensation of having my tongue miss the teeth and hit the big gap. This is what you get for not taking care of your teeth properly... orz

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

I came across an article today about the state of teleporting research while trying to catch up on my RSS feeds. A few terms jumped out during the reading, and I couldn't help but immediately think of ZegaPain. Even to a total amateur like me, the connection seemed to be there, and a rather strong one at that.

Fast forward to a couple minutes prior. I was watching ep.9 of ZegaPain, and it hit me when I got to the part where Chris explains to Kyo the basis of their data transfer. Wait, didn't I just read about this quantum computing thing today!? I was so surprised and thrilled that I just had to pause the video and write about it. This is what I call "applied knowledge (not)." XD

I'd probably use this as an example to show how one can gain knowledge from watching anime if I had watched the episode before reading the article. What a shame...

Okay, enough blabbing. I'm going back to the episode. Just thought I'd share. XD

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Wedding Story. Not mine, of course. It's one of my high school buddys'.

Having played through our (okay, just mine) high school years and went to the same church together after that, it took me some time for the event to hit home. On the other hand, though, it felt just right. He's always been a homely type of guy, and I had teased him on a number of occasions to be a good husband and ready for marriage. I only realised today at the wedding that we've known each other for over ten years! He's the first to get married out of my classmates. Wonder who's next? XD

The bride was also from my church. I haven't gotten to know her much (which is a shame, for she's a great cook), but from what I've seen of her, she's very sweet, gentle, and full of care and love. The two are a perfect match. I'm so happy for them!

I was pleasantly surprised to see Pastor Wu as the witness, and I was equally glad to see some friends that I haven't seen in a long time. A couple of songs were performed in the couple's (pun intended) honour, and the young adult cell group (me included) did one as well. We never got around to get together for practice, but I think we did reasonably well. The wedding ceremony was well arranged and cozy, and the reception was quite fun. Too bad we couldn't get them to kiss mouth-to-mouth for over half a second. He kept dodging the penalty games and picked less desirable places to kiss. So sly! Ah well, just like our good host for the reception said, it's just their first day...

やあ、本当によかった。二人でお幸せにね!:)

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Snow! 1st snow this winter! (Well, there was this one night when it sorta snowed in the area, but it was gone before the night was over and didn't really count) The weather forecast was actually spot on for once... Right now, Weather Eye shows -3°C, the lowest this winter so far. However, temperature might go up to 13°C next week...

Someone posted some CG cutscenes from FF VII Crisis Core and I eagerly grabbed them before realising what format those were in: PMF. Since this was the first time I've encountered this type of file, I didn't anticipate this being a mission impossible. If you've some experience with PMF playback on Windows, you can probably guess. Yup, no audio. After much anguish and frustration, I let out a scowl and unwillingly admitted defeat.

Luckily, I found a web site that streams those cutscenes in one video. As long as I timed it right, I could watch the PMF videos with sounds in the background. The few CG movies weren't enough to sate my appetite, though. Having seen the trailers on the Square Enix web site, the lack of the flower girl's appearance in those cutscenes was disappointing. I checked Youtube and managed to find two clips of Zack x Aerith. It's really cute but with a tint of sadness when you know their final outcome...

I had found it odd that the two seemed to be on familiar terms when I watched FF VII: Advent Children, and my doubt was somewhat answered when I saw the trailers for Crisis Core. I really should find time to play FF VII, eh? As far as I know, Zack's story is only told in CC, so unless Square Enix does a port, which is highly unlikely but would be totally awesome, I won't be able to 'watch' it like I did with FF X & X-2. :(

Speaking of the trailers from the Square Enix web site, part of the fun was to try and distinguish the seiyuu. With AC, I recognised Cloud, Kadaj, and Aerith. I wasn't familiar with the voice of Morikawa Toshiyuki at that time and therefore wasn't able to tell him apart with just that one line. With CC, not counting the characters in AC, I was pleasantly surprised to recognise Angeal and the Shinra guy with blond hair. Genesis was a tough one. I struggled and went through all the notable voices in my head but still couldn't come up with a matching name. A quick trip to the Japanese Wikipedia told me why. Genesis is voiced by Gackt, who is a singer but not a seiyuu. This is the first time I've heard him beside the theme songs for the Zeta Gundam movies. His voice is... unique.

Final Fantasy VII's story is probably one of the most complex out of the FF franchise. (Though, who am I to say this, when all I've played are III to VI, and III isn't even beaten yet) I think I'll make playing FF VII one of my New Year's resolutions for next year. Wonder if there'll be an EC coming out for the FF VII series?

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

また、久しぶりだな... いろんなこともあったな。

換了新工作、完食好幾部動畫、脂肪比例直線上升、鬱卒指數也將近爆表、連電腦螢幕都長眠了。雖然外在看起來沒什麼變化, 其實裡面的起伏之高低又豈是三言兩語就能講完的? 未來的事也需要仔細的考慮清楚吶...

想做和必須做的事有如奧林匹斯山那麼高, 不過還是一步一步按照自己的步調走吧。


Again, long time no see... Indeed, much has happened.

Got a new job, finished quite a few anime series, the percentage of fat has gone up, the frustration index has sky-rocketed, even the LCD bit the dust. Although it hasn't appeared to be much change outwardly, the internal tumult can't be described in just a few sentences. There's also the matter of future to be considered...

What I want to do and must do are piled up like the Olympus Mons, but I'll keep my own pace and walk it.

Friday, May 04, 2007

There's lots I'd like to say, but I don't know what to say anymore. We lost. The hockey season is over for Vancouver. I guess we won't be seeing those car flags out there starting tomorrow...



Taboo words for tomorrow: hockey, Canucks, Ducks, Luongo.

On a lighter note, the food battle between the seafood curry and the eggplant & mince meat curry on was intense and very mouth watering. The eggplant looked so interesting, it almost tempted me to put eggplant curry on the menu for this weekend if it wasn't for the fact that what we have in the fridge is nothing like it. Just you wait, I'll make it some day. With my original recipe, of course. XD



言いたいことはいっぱいあるけど、もうなにを言うべきがわからない... 負けました。もうシーズンは終わた。再也看不到飄揚的車旗了...

みんな、よく頑張りましたな。また来年ね。

明天的禁句: hockey, Canucks, Ducks, Luongo.

換個輕鬆點的話題, 新料理東西軍的海鮮咖哩跟茄子肉醬咖哩對戰實在很精彩, 令人垂涎三尺。我對那個茄子非常有興趣, 甚至到了想把冰箱裡那兩根弱枝茄子拿來做咖哩的地步。不過老弟提醒, 那兩根恐怕已經快到保存期限, 所以這次就算了。下次吧。下次來加些叫人意想不到的東西。XD

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

No, the self-restriction hasn't been lifted. I just thought I'd take a breather. Not writing for too long gets me frustrated...

So we start off with the YOU'VE-GOT-TO-BE-KIDDING-ME result of the game tonight between the Canucks and the Ducks. We were leading 2-0 when we closed the store. How did it get to 2-1 by the time I got home, 2-2 after a few minutes of watching, and 2-3 OT just after I finished making supper!? Come on, people! That's two straight lost at home! We're down 1-3 going down to Anaheim! That means we'll have to get to game 7 to win! And we were all so positive you'd won for sure tonight... -___-

Started wearing steel-toes today for work. They actually feel quite all right, just much heavier than your normal shoes. Every step takes more effort to make, giving me the illusion of training my feet like in those martial arts manga... XD



不要懷疑, 自主性限制還在實行中, 我只是上來喘口氣。太久沒寫東西的話, 我會鬱卒...

首先來看本日最令人火大的消息: Canucks 對 Ducks 的比賽。關店的時候還是領先 2-0, 我回到家的時候變成 2-1, 看了幾分鐘以後變成 2-2, 然後做飯做到一半在 OT 被進分。你們在搞什麼啊~! 連輸兩場 home games 耶! Series 變成 1-3 了耶! 這樣就非打到第七場不可了! 大家本來對今晚的比賽都信心滿滿的說...

今天開始穿鐵片鞋上班, 感覺還好, 只是比一般的鞋子重了些, 每一步都要多花一點力氣抬腳。不禁想到七龍珠等穿重物訓練的格鬥漫畫... XD

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Finally finished tagging all the posts. Such a tiresome job... Being the lazy bone that I am, I limited all labels to one word and had rather broad coverage for each label. Out of the 300 posts prior to this one, there're 116 tagged Life, 100 tagged ACG, 51 tagged PC, 17 tagged Blogger, 11 tagged Mozilla, and all other ones have fewer than ten posts. You can sort of tell where my interests lay. Of course, this isn't comprehensive at all, as I've been too lazy to write about a whole bunch of other stuff, not to mention the lack of updates.

I'm somewhat paving the way in preparation for the day when I'll be able to post regularly, hopefully within a month or so. Assigning labels is only the first step. Next will be re-designing the template. This will take longer so I don't know when I'll get to that yet.

On a side note, Paw Wow's archive was absent when I viewed the last post. Apparently, the script I used was dropped years ago, and the archive section broke when I switched to Beta. Koinu has no such problem 'cause it was created a little later. Since I have to change Paw Wow's scripts, I'm kinda using it as my experimental ground, as I have big plan for Sora. I can't wait to start writing Agion...




吁, 終於 tagged 完所有文章了, 真是累人啊。懶人屬性的我很自然地把所有標籤都設定為一個字, 涵蓋的範圍也蠻廣的。這篇不算的話, 三百篇裡 Life 佔了 116 篇、ACG 佔了 100 篇、PC 佔了 51 篇、Blogger 佔了 17 篇、Mozilla 佔了 11 篇, 其他一些雜七雜八的標籤各佔不到十篇。大概可以看出我個人興趣的分佈吧? 當然, 有很多東西我都沒寫, 又常常消失, 所以這些標籤代表的並不完整。

這些都是為了近期內能恢復寫作習慣的那日(希望是一、兩個月內)而做的準備。加上標籤只是第一步, 再來是重新設計 template。這個比較花時間, 所以什麼時候會做還不清楚。

順道一提, 上次 post 之後看了一下 Paw Wow, 發現左邊的 archive 不見了, 查了一下才知道我用的 script 早在數年前就被遺棄, 轉到 Beta 以後就壞了。Koinu 是後來才開的, 用的 script 不一樣, 所以沒事。既然都是要改 scripts, 乾脆就把 Paw Wow 當成實驗場, 為以後的 Sora 鋪路。好想趕快開始寫 Agion 啊...

Monday, April 02, 2007

Gee... How long has it been? Something like half a year now?

Unfortunately, this post doesn't indicate the end of the update drought. I just decided to make an effort to churn out something this morning after discovering that both Coordinator and Little Black have adopted the Daylight Saving Time at long last.

On a different note, even though I switched to the beta new version of Blogger for Mozilla Links Zh, I haven't actually looked around to explore the new features yet. Maybe I'll do that...

Starting from this post, I'm hoping to present everything in both English and Chinese whenever possible. I consider this as practice for my writing/translating skill. Haven't decide whether to translate the old posts yet...



呃啊... 好像有差不多半年沒出現了吧?

很不幸的, 這篇文章不代表我回來了。只是今天早上發現 Coordinator 跟小黑的時間終於跟 Daylight Saving Time 同步了, 欣喜若狂的同時也決定要逼自己寫點什麼來記念。

話說回來, 雖然因為 Mozilla Links Zh 的關係把帳號換到 beta 新版本, 至今倒是第一次進來。不知道有哪些新功能, 有空的時候看看吧...

發現了嗎? 以後如果有可能, 我希望能儘量走雙語路線。算是同時練習中英寫作/翻譯吧。舊的文章... 看情況再決定要不要翻。