I've been back from the 5-day Yellowstone bus trip for a while now, but I've been lazy uploading the photos. I finally got it up a few days ago but didn't finish adding the captions until now.
Here's mine. And here's some of what my brother took. I didn't bother adding the captions for his batch. Too much work...
Now I can go back being lazy. XD
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
I'm usually pretty easy going except on some occasions, where I can be stupidly stubborn. The グリムス(gremz) blog widget happens to be one such occasion.
Actually, I was about to give up the whole thing when I accidentally stumbled upon a Blogger blog with the gremz widget. Surely there has to be a way for this to work. So I filled out the web form (in Japanese) yesterday regarding the matter. This morning I got a reply from the gremz web management team (in English, since I mentioned that I'm from Canada).
It seems that Blogger is indeed not supported and the person referred me to FeedBurner. That's what I did and it worked! The only downside is that since I had to use the FeedBurner URL as the blog URL, clicking on the tree or the Paw Wow link on the gremz website takes one to the blog feed instead of the actual site. Ah well, it's not as if I'm trying to get people to come through gremz. *shrug*
So my little gremz tree has sprouted today! Hopefully it'll grow to be tall and strong. :D
There's also グリムスキーワード, where if you input グリムス and an eco-related keyword that matches the gremz database, there would be special effect added to the tree. I'm assuming the keyword to be in Japanese, though, so I probably won't be able to see the specials... :(
Actually, I was about to give up the whole thing when I accidentally stumbled upon a Blogger blog with the gremz widget. Surely there has to be a way for this to work. So I filled out the web form (in Japanese) yesterday regarding the matter. This morning I got a reply from the gremz web management team (in English, since I mentioned that I'm from Canada).
It seems that Blogger is indeed not supported and the person referred me to FeedBurner. That's what I did and it worked! The only downside is that since I had to use the FeedBurner URL as the blog URL, clicking on the tree or the Paw Wow link on the gremz website takes one to the blog feed instead of the actual site. Ah well, it's not as if I'm trying to get people to come through gremz. *shrug*
So my little gremz tree has sprouted today! Hopefully it'll grow to be tall and strong. :D
There's also グリムスキーワード, where if you input グリムス and an eco-related keyword that matches the gremz database, there would be special effect added to the tree. I'm assuming the keyword to be in Japanese, though, so I probably won't be able to see the specials... :(
Friday, August 29, 2008
Blogger doesn't seem to be very popular at all with the Japanese, so I was forced to give up the wonderful グリムス(gremz) blog widget because it's not supported. I looked around for a bit more but couldn't find anything similar. Tsk.
As typical for me, I strayed after the futile effort and ended up bringing back a completely different widget. I present you, 真・フルみっくすプレーヤー!
This is my first time adding a blog widget so I was a bit nervous, but it was actually quite painless and easy to do. I only picked a handful of songs that I've heard from the list of available tracks. Apparently there are more songs on the way, so I'll update the playlist as well (if I remember).
To play, just pick a song and click on it. I think some of them are not full tracks, but the playlist should be enough to give you a sense of what the Vocaloids have to offer. #1-37 are Hatsune Miku, #38-54 are KAITO, #55-67 are Kagamine Rin/Len, #68-69 are Kamui Gakupo, and #70-71 are MEIKO.
As typical for me, I strayed after the futile effort and ended up bringing back a completely different widget. I present you, 真・フルみっくすプレーヤー!
This is my first time adding a blog widget so I was a bit nervous, but it was actually quite painless and easy to do. I only picked a handful of songs that I've heard from the list of available tracks. Apparently there are more songs on the way, so I'll update the playlist as well (if I remember).
To play, just pick a song and click on it. I think some of them are not full tracks, but the playlist should be enough to give you a sense of what the Vocaloids have to offer. #1-37 are Hatsune Miku, #38-54 are KAITO, #55-67 are Kagamine Rin/Len, #68-69 are Kamui Gakupo, and #70-71 are MEIKO.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
5-day Yellowstone bus trip.
Well, actually we only got to visit Yellowstone for one day. The other four days were spent mainly on the road. It's cheaper to go on a bus tour (as opposed to taking the plane), but it's also way time consuming...
There's so much to talk about, I'm not going to write them all out. I'll upload the photos, along with the ones my brother took, to Picasa later and just post the link.
For now, some brief thoughts and miscellaneous stuff not captured in the photos:
- The group consisted of 30 people including the three of us. Most were young families with little kids. Yeah, I'm not the most patient when it comes to kids, but I managed. Only 6 out of 30 spoke Mandarin, so the tour guide was in Cantonese mode a lot of the time.
- The tour guide spoke Cantonese and translated in heavy accented Mandarin from time to time. Mum can understand some Cantonese and asked the people across from us if she really wanted to know what the guy was talking about. Bro just ignored him most of the time. I strained so much trying to understand/guess what he was saying, I'm still hearing Cantonese in my head. Not good. Must watch more anime or Japanese drama to rid the problem.
- The whole thing felt kind of rushed, which is understandable considering the long distance covered each day and the number of people in the group. But the trip would have been better if we didn't have to waste time on shopping and get to stay in Yellowstone longer. A lot of the people in the group would probably disagree, though. The trip was supposed to be a Yellowstone tour, but in fact we were only there for less than a day. Disappointing. :(
- The sun was bright and the weather dry and hot, making it difficult for my camera to take pictures of things on the other side of the bus windows due to reflections. It's really a shame. I wanted to take picture of the bisons and the landscape. But I think the shutter time of my 2+ years camera is still too long to really capture the moments on the moving bus. Orz
- Mum and many other people have lamented on the loss of Yellowstone's charm due to the 1988 fire. I'm actually not too concerned about that. For me, Yellowstone's beauty lies in its geology and geography. Vegetation is a necessity for the animals, not an attraction. Forest will grow back, but the geology and geography won't return once altered.
- Got a chance to drop by BestBuy during the 'shopping time' and the anime section just blew me away. Look at all those box sets! That's cheating, man! Why do they get twice as much selection and options!? I really regretted not bringing my card with me down there. Orz
- I'm usually pretty tolerant when it comes to food, but I think I ate better when I worked at Staples (regular diets of Tim Horton's and McDonald's) than during most of the trip. I don't want to see another Arby's or some lame buffet...
- Movies shown on the bus: Night at the Museum, The Battle of Red Cliff (赤壁), a documentary about the 1988 Yellowstone fires, a documentary drama Supervolcano, Eight Below (2nd time viewing for me, but I still teared up)
- I brought along the first volume of Saiunkoku Monogatari, but Mum scolded me every time I pulled it out from my bag on the bus. I only managed to finish two chapters. Since the title and author's name are in kanji, I don't think anyone realized that the book is in Japanese.
Well, actually we only got to visit Yellowstone for one day. The other four days were spent mainly on the road. It's cheaper to go on a bus tour (as opposed to taking the plane), but it's also way time consuming...
There's so much to talk about, I'm not going to write them all out. I'll upload the photos, along with the ones my brother took, to Picasa later and just post the link.
For now, some brief thoughts and miscellaneous stuff not captured in the photos:
- The group consisted of 30 people including the three of us. Most were young families with little kids. Yeah, I'm not the most patient when it comes to kids, but I managed. Only 6 out of 30 spoke Mandarin, so the tour guide was in Cantonese mode a lot of the time.
- The tour guide spoke Cantonese and translated in heavy accented Mandarin from time to time. Mum can understand some Cantonese and asked the people across from us if she really wanted to know what the guy was talking about. Bro just ignored him most of the time. I strained so much trying to understand/guess what he was saying, I'm still hearing Cantonese in my head. Not good. Must watch more anime or Japanese drama to rid the problem.
- The whole thing felt kind of rushed, which is understandable considering the long distance covered each day and the number of people in the group. But the trip would have been better if we didn't have to waste time on shopping and get to stay in Yellowstone longer. A lot of the people in the group would probably disagree, though. The trip was supposed to be a Yellowstone tour, but in fact we were only there for less than a day. Disappointing. :(
- The sun was bright and the weather dry and hot, making it difficult for my camera to take pictures of things on the other side of the bus windows due to reflections. It's really a shame. I wanted to take picture of the bisons and the landscape. But I think the shutter time of my 2+ years camera is still too long to really capture the moments on the moving bus. Orz
- Mum and many other people have lamented on the loss of Yellowstone's charm due to the 1988 fire. I'm actually not too concerned about that. For me, Yellowstone's beauty lies in its geology and geography. Vegetation is a necessity for the animals, not an attraction. Forest will grow back, but the geology and geography won't return once altered.
- Got a chance to drop by BestBuy during the 'shopping time' and the anime section just blew me away. Look at all those box sets! That's cheating, man! Why do they get twice as much selection and options!? I really regretted not bringing my card with me down there. Orz
- I'm usually pretty tolerant when it comes to food, but I think I ate better when I worked at Staples (regular diets of Tim Horton's and McDonald's) than during most of the trip. I don't want to see another Arby's or some lame buffet...
- Movies shown on the bus: Night at the Museum, The Battle of Red Cliff (赤壁), a documentary about the 1988 Yellowstone fires, a documentary drama Supervolcano, Eight Below (2nd time viewing for me, but I still teared up)
- I brought along the first volume of Saiunkoku Monogatari, but Mum scolded me every time I pulled it out from my bag on the bus. I only managed to finish two chapters. Since the title and author's name are in kanji, I don't think anyone realized that the book is in Japanese.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Long Vacation.
I had my last day on July 31st and officially became unemployed starting in August. For some reason, I've felt quite at peace about the whole thing, and it feels like a long overdue vacation for me. My passport's even expired for over 6 years... Yes, a vacation is in order. Maybe not one involving those giant metallic birds that can take you across the oceans, but a vacation nonetheless.
Of course, I have plans beside looking for my next job during this time of rest. Some will become part of my daily life, while some will be accomplished over a period of time. I haven't gotten everything laid down yet, but here's some of the things I plan to do:
[Devotion time]
One of my biggest goal during the long vacation is to read more Bible and know more about God, which I've neglected for a long time. I think it's time for me to go back to the origin and start afresh. To boot, I'll challenge myself and start with the Old Testament. All those background readings for various ACG series should be good enough preparations. I can do this.
[Sleeping earlier & Walking]
Yeah, it's no secret that my health sucks. The only saving grace (or not) is that I can go on with just few hours of sleep, but that obvious won't last, and my body's been protesting (craaaaack) since last year. Now that I don't have to spend close to 10 hours out everyday, I can go to bed earlier. My goal over the next month or so is to make 12am so I can get up at 8 and hopefully be out walking by 9 if the weather permits.
[Anime]
Entertainment is an essential part of rest for me, so that's where anime comes in. A large chunk of time will be devoted to job searching during the weekdays, so I'll probably keep my anime watching to the weekends. Maybe an additional episode or two during meals a few times per week.
[Game]
Frankly, I don't see myself playing much. I'll probably just finish the Alice in Clover game and call it quits. Maybe the occasional online casual games and RO once a month. I kinda lost my appetite for CLANNAD after someone told me that the Tomoyo ending, the only one I'm interested, is a bad one... Little Black is still in a coma so I can't touch the DQ III save file in there. :(
[Translation]
I've talked about this for a looooong time but never got around to actually do it. I'm planning to use this chance to put the proposed writing/translation blog into action. If all goes well (I'll be using the same template for it so I want to find out why this blog is not indexed by Google...), it should be ready for posting by the end of the month. I don't really have anything to offer yet, but eventually I'll post Agion (original work in progress) and the English translation for the Saiunkoku Monogatari novels. Be warned, though, that I have no formal Japanese education and everything I know was picked up watching anime...
[Plamo]
Over the years I have accumulated over a dozen plamo (the number will likely increase once I get a chance to watch Gundam 00) and only managed to build three. My hands are itching with anticipation, but I guess I'll have to re-arrange my room again (oh, man...) to make room (pun intended) for them first. My goal is one plamo every two months.
[Learning]
I love learning new things and I have a wide array of totally unrelated interests, so I'm definitely taking the time to learn something. I really really really want to play with the VOCALOIDs, but they're so expensive, especially KAITO... orz
One can probably guess that I'm not an outdoor person. What a boring Canadian, eh? Anyhow, this is my initial plan for the long vacation. We'll see how it goes. :)
I had my last day on July 31st and officially became unemployed starting in August. For some reason, I've felt quite at peace about the whole thing, and it feels like a long overdue vacation for me. My passport's even expired for over 6 years... Yes, a vacation is in order. Maybe not one involving those giant metallic birds that can take you across the oceans, but a vacation nonetheless.
Of course, I have plans beside looking for my next job during this time of rest. Some will become part of my daily life, while some will be accomplished over a period of time. I haven't gotten everything laid down yet, but here's some of the things I plan to do:
[Devotion time]
One of my biggest goal during the long vacation is to read more Bible and know more about God, which I've neglected for a long time. I think it's time for me to go back to the origin and start afresh. To boot, I'll challenge myself and start with the Old Testament. All those background readings for various ACG series should be good enough preparations. I can do this.
[Sleeping earlier & Walking]
Yeah, it's no secret that my health sucks. The only saving grace (or not) is that I can go on with just few hours of sleep, but that obvious won't last, and my body's been protesting (craaaaack) since last year. Now that I don't have to spend close to 10 hours out everyday, I can go to bed earlier. My goal over the next month or so is to make 12am so I can get up at 8 and hopefully be out walking by 9 if the weather permits.
[Anime]
Entertainment is an essential part of rest for me, so that's where anime comes in. A large chunk of time will be devoted to job searching during the weekdays, so I'll probably keep my anime watching to the weekends. Maybe an additional episode or two during meals a few times per week.
[Game]
Frankly, I don't see myself playing much. I'll probably just finish the Alice in Clover game and call it quits. Maybe the occasional online casual games and RO once a month. I kinda lost my appetite for CLANNAD after someone told me that the Tomoyo ending, the only one I'm interested, is a bad one... Little Black is still in a coma so I can't touch the DQ III save file in there. :(
[Translation]
I've talked about this for a looooong time but never got around to actually do it. I'm planning to use this chance to put the proposed writing/translation blog into action. If all goes well (I'll be using the same template for it so I want to find out why this blog is not indexed by Google...), it should be ready for posting by the end of the month. I don't really have anything to offer yet, but eventually I'll post Agion (original work in progress) and the English translation for the Saiunkoku Monogatari novels. Be warned, though, that I have no formal Japanese education and everything I know was picked up watching anime...
[Plamo]
Over the years I have accumulated over a dozen plamo (the number will likely increase once I get a chance to watch Gundam 00) and only managed to build three. My hands are itching with anticipation, but I guess I'll have to re-arrange my room again (oh, man...) to make room (pun intended) for them first. My goal is one plamo every two months.
[Learning]
I love learning new things and I have a wide array of totally unrelated interests, so I'm definitely taking the time to learn something. I really really really want to play with the VOCALOIDs, but they're so expensive, especially KAITO... orz
One can probably guess that I'm not an outdoor person. What a boring Canadian, eh? Anyhow, this is my initial plan for the long vacation. We'll see how it goes. :)
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