Of course, everything just have to be done on the same day. *sarcastic snort*

What else is in store for today? First off, there's the Windows restoration (who knows how long that'll take?) Then the shipping fee problem and the announcement to be made on 5B2F Web site. Then I'll have to finish and post my actuary section and catch up with the rest. Maybe I'll need to do a bit of incorporation as well, depending on how much is available now. Then there's the discussion tonight.

Thank goodness I don't need to work tomorrow. I've been really deprived of sleep this past week. Though, I'll admit, the fault lies in me mostly.

Now that the rant is over... 負けないわ！行くぞ！

Uso...!! New Type is trapped in an endless waltz of self-reboot. Again. ＿|￣|O

Yabari, bro's experiment with the Chinese input thing did it. I knew I'd have to do quite a bit of cleaning after he left, but I didn't expect this. Although I have no solid evidence that it's really the same problem as the one that occurred ages before, the symptoms seem identical enough. Tsumari, I'll need to dig out the CD and try to go back to another restore point. If I still remember how to do it, that is. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Man, haven't seen a Flash movie this funny in a long time~! Final Fantasy A+ is a definite must see for all FF fans!! XD

And I can post at AnimeX.Com again!! Kudos to LoneWolf and isolation man for making it possible!! ^__^

Bro left for airport an hour and a half ago for Taiwan. Guess he'll be missing in action for the next couple of months to one year. Ii na, he gets to go back...

哼、搞了半天、原來沒有人知道這次 collab 到底在問什麼、那篇文章也沒人懂、星期天就要交、大丈夫かな？-___-

Calgary lost. >__<

But that's ok. You guys did a good job, fighting all the way there from the 6th place in the western conference. You did it this year, and you can do it again. まだ来年頑張ね、フレームスよ！

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!! >O<

The cat vomited on my bed!

The last time he tried to do that, I managed to remove him from the bed and dropped him on the floor in time. Luck was not on my side this morning as I only had less than 2 seconds from the time I woke up to him finishing the deed. But I suppose it could have been worse. At least only the bed sheet and the mattress were affected. Oh, and one claw of my Beany crab. My bed is extremely crowded with sheets and plushies. We survived the event with a minimal damage. For that, I am grateful.

PS. No, I didn't punish the cat. It's not his fault. We haven't been feeding him the hair removal gel for way too long.

お、あれ星矢の声じゃないのか？ Didn't think I'd hear him in 神風怪盗ジャンヌ。^__^

聽得出來的聲優加入一名～

The short list of recognisables by ear:
石田彰
桑島法子
関智一
山口勝平
関俊彦
緒方恵美 (男声)
朴路美 (男声)
保志総一郎
堀江由衣
久川綾
林原めぐみ
緑川光
梅津秀行
子安武人
三木真一郎
小西克幸
鈴村健一
雪野五月
置鮎龍太郎
遠近孝一
高木渉
森久保祥太郎
松本保典
草尾毅
三石琴乃
白鳥哲
古谷徹

The Last Samurai

The hypes about the film were not overrated. Of course, Tom Cruise's name was what I heard first, but since I'm not really a fan of any star, it could have been anyone. But the theme of samurai was what really caught my attention. Anyhow, I suggested the title without knowing anything about it.

Epic. 壮大。熱い。すごい。感動です。Those are some of the words that come to mind. 侍どか武士どか、よくしりません。けど、この映画お見るあとて、ちょっとわかります。I can understand why L-san said he's definitely buying the DVD. I was almost tempted as well. Maybe I will, a few years down the road. Hero もね。

Another hot day, another fruitless shift. Yup, my very first ESP-less week. I'll probably get a few talks next week, though I seemed to answer most of the objection questions correctly. Ma, c'est la vie.

I'll also have to be more careful about transfers in the future. Wouldn't wanna get written up, ne?

It's gotta be the oyako donburi with lots of MST... The first thing I did after coming back from the beach was bolt into the bathroom. Even now, my stomach is still very unsettled and is pushing me to go again.

The green tea with jasmine ice cream cone was good though. Not my usual liking of Japanese green tea style, but it's good.

And because of this very upset stomach.... ごめん！I'll be online for sure tomorrow for the group discussion!! >__<

Time to pay another visit to the bathroom...!! X__X

Man, is it hot!! ^__^;;;;;;;;; (can you see the sweat drops?) The little clock/alarm/thermo thing on my desk says it's 26.8℃, and I'm sure I smelled something burnt when I entered the room...

Ok, I better get at least one ESP tomorrow or I'll stand at zero for the week. That would be very bad, especially considering the others have been selling them and I did have a few opportunities.

ま、そろそろ時間だ。Time to get ready to leave for the beach!! XD I'm not a fan of the sea (No, I'm not hydrophobic. Not yet), but I like the wind.

Gee, that was yet another scare. (I'm getting quite a few of these lately, aren't I?)

This morning when I got up, both PCs were off but the laptop was on. Coordinator was still on when I went to bed around 4am! まさか it's the infamous worm/virus thing that shuts down the computer within so many seconds??

Luckily, bro confirmed that there was a blackout for a split second early this morning, and the laptop was fine because it has a battery. (Of course! Why didn't I think of that? -__-)

Then New Type got that age-old pink blob problem again. That's fine, since there're a couple ways to fix this. Then it gave me a minute before shutting down due to a remote procedure call service thing. According to my search on Google, it's the Blaster worm. That freaked me out. Why did New Type contract the worm now when it was fine when the hype was highest?

Anyway, the pink blob thing came back again when the worm shut down the system so I had to reboot. While I waited, I used Coordinator to look for the patch and told bro about the situation when he dropped by. He then told me that Mum's already using the computer for a while now.

.......好樣的、你剛才是在耍我嗎？-__-#

This is insane... W32.Spybot.Worm??

I think I got it out now (after some frantic struggle) and am keeping my fingers crossed. How did it get in here in the first place? I'm not using Kazaa or mIRC. Did I get it through Xnews? I shouldn't think so. I'm also having doubts about the anti-virus software. AVG doesn't catch everything, and Norton doesn't update/scan regularly enough.

Somehow I'm having more problems with the legal copy of XP Pro than with the beta copy. If I didn't already have a lot of stuff in here and paid big bucks for it, I'd be very tempted to switch back. -__-

哼... This is what you get for not thinking ahead and changing your mind half way. I had to go through the whole blog (thankfully I had neglected it for a long period of time) and retype all the non-English characters to fit the Unicode encoding now.

So what if I can't remember what I wrote before? I tried as best I could to write something similar from my memory, and I just made something up otherwise. I think I was pretty close anyway...

This is frustrating. I finally decided to try the photo blogging thing and even created a new blog for that. Guess what happened after I installed and logged in with Hello? I kept getting a 500 internal error!! Apparently, I am not the only one. The online help forum is full of people like me. I hope they fix the problem soon! Better yet, add support for Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox! XP

A note on the supper... Why is the 'meat-maru' vegetarian???? （ノ`Д´）ノ～～┴───┴

After a lengthy trial period, I've finally settled on the current colours -- closer to the originally proposed 'Athrun theme' XP

Sugoi yo, ano Cirque du Soleil!

I probably missed some great acts, but what I saw still amazed me. The four white pajama guys are hilarious, and the two red nose clowns are funny both together and alone. The diabolos seem very impressive, though I know it's easily (OK, maybe not that easily) doable by many. All in all, that was a good show. It probably would be a lot more impressive seeing it in person, but you can see it more clearly on TV. Besides, the ticket ain't cheap. XP

Matantei Loki Ragnarok 完食!

What can I say? It's not a bad anime. The art is lush, elaborate, and colourful, and the cast is very good. Most of the characters are Norse deities, but they are just like humans, except they have supernatural power. This is also the series where I discovered Park Romi, who has since become one of my favourite seiyuu. Oh, Morikubo Shotaro (Thor/Narugami), too. As for coupledom, I suppose I like the Loki (adult) x Mayura OR Kotaro x Mayura pairings.

It sure scared me big time this morning when the lights on the modem flashed and there was no connection. I thought they finally decided to cut our service. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed, though, seeing how I did grab quite a bit of stuff (Argento Soma alone accounted for almost 5G). Hopefully we'll manage to keep the connection, and people don't post large files of series I want. (Again, though, tough luck. Someone seems to be posting Juuni Kokuki in OGM format with both the Japanese and English tracks...)

Yoshhha!! Calgary beats Tampa Bay, 3 - 0! Can you see the sea of red pour out into the streets from the stadium and cars honking all the way? I can. ^__^

Ahh~ Haven't sold a computer system in some time now; it's no wonder I'm still a little giddy now, 30 mins after the sell.

The couple originally dropped in to compare price for a particular HP model after checking around in FutureShop. Turned out we don't carry that model. After finding out what it's gonna be used for and for whom, I suggested another model. Then they said they just want a normal monitor, but I changed their mind. They ended up getting a 17" LCD (the husband wanted a 19" but wife said no) to go with the computer. On top of that, there're the surge protector, the wireless PCI card, and a 3-yr warranty on the PC.

Though all my effort went in vain as the scanner turned off itself from idleness. I scanned the isles twice already! Gotta do it again next week...-__-

And now that I think of it, we forgot about speakers. Oops. ^__^;;

*plays MP3 from AIR OST*

bro: "Is this from some anime?"

me: "No. It's from a game. I've never played it. It's one of those so-called bishoujou games."

bro: "Oh. No wonder the music doesn't sound like the style of the games you usually play. You know, Gundam or Final Fantasy."

me: "...."

What? Nani ga warui? -__-#

Argos no Senshi kanryo!

Iia, hontou ni natsukashi na~ I used to play this game on the Red-White NES over a decade ago. It's still great fun to play, though I remember it being longer and more difficult. *shrug* Hey, I was using emulator, after all. XP

OK, something's definitely very wrong here. There is no reason why the computer should suddenly restart itself without any warning like this, and it's not the first time!

To be frank, the new system is all nice and wonderful, but the little quirks are starting to set doubts in me: only the front speakers work because the sound card is on-board while I asked for a Sound Blaster sound card; the CD drive makes very strange noises when it reads discs; the computer suddenly restarts without warning (I have a growing suspicion that the CD drive might be at fault here? The incidents occurred today both happened when I tried to read the content of some CDs... Guuzen ka? Soretome...)

Is it time to get it to be checked already?

It's dead, ya hear me? Dead! I didn't sell anything at all today, and we were just sort of walking around towards the end. *sigh* This is bad for business. Though I was kinda 'grateful' for the close to null traffic in the parking lot because I didn't lock the back door of my car...

Ah! So that's what Pandemonium means! I thought it's the boss demon or something... ^__^;; So, instead of trying to type shurajyou in kanji, I'll just use pandemonium from now on! XD

BTW, the soap opera part of the Feng Yun tape was most amusing. Too bad Ding Ning failed. I like her better than Chu Chu. XP

Yaa, Argento Soma turns out to be quite a series, after all. I'm still not planning to burn it or buy it though. Soreni sasuga Yukimura! I knew he wouldn't betray Sasuke and the others like that! ^__^

On the other hand, it seems that I'll have to wait a bit longer before getting the ones I really want, since it's cheaper when all the DVDs come out. Shitakanai ne. I'll wait until all the Wolf's Rain DVDs are out; maybe by then Mugen no Ryvius will also be out? I have enough on CD right now to last me till next year anyhow. XP

Finally finished with the catch-ups! That was very tiring, and I had to rack my brain to remember the happenings. Now that Coordinator is in my room, hopefully I'll be able to post everyday on schedule (fat chance).

Yes, the new system is now sitting beside and on my desk in my room, thanks to all those time and effort I put into clearing up the space and re-organising my belongings. The only complaints I have are the non-adjustable height of my wooden chair and the silent rear speakers. What good are they if they don't sound?? Better ask Peter about them tomorrow.

Everyone told me different things, but it was good that everything was resolved in the end, though not without much frustration on both the customer's and my part. CrossExchange, huh? Nice. I'll keep that in mind. :)

Ah, prayer meetings that I haven't been attending much, how I miss you! The short translation session on Israel history and Kings was interesting, but, alas, nothing beats the praying and the praise and worship after that.

I probably should had ride with someone else instead of going over to Way's with bro, but who would had thought it would take him one hour?? The cookie was good though, and the race part of the 2nd Black Stallion movie was still blood pumping as always.

On a last note, NEVER try to mix warmed milk with Napoleon ice cream. Very bad. The leftovers Mum brought back were good, though. Mended my stomach problem somewhat. XP

So it's a peace offering, huh? Whatever the motive, the all-you-can-eat at Topgun was very fulfilling.

After supper, I set out on a mission in acquiring the much needed surge protector and maybe an anime DVD or two, depending on what's out there. On brother's request, I picked up his copying order while grabbing the mission item... $173.76??! You ordered a job for that sum of money?!?!

On the other hand, it seems that even FutureShop's stock on anime is shrinking. Don't tell me I'll have to get all my DVDs from Taiwan now? There's that stupid region code thing, ya know! >__<

I knew it. The nuke was only covered, not disarmed.

It started about noon after a brief pre-war missiles. The battlefield was eerily quiet when one side retreated elsewhere. Then it recommenced with full force just when we were about to leave. Luckily, like the previous ones, I was not the main target and managed to escape with few scratches.

Another truce, but how long will this one last?

Sweet! Samurai Deeper Kyo manga! I've always wanted to read those after learning that the manga is a lot more in-depth than the anime version (this is true for almost all manga-turned anime, ne?) but never got a chance to. At last! My curiosity fulfilled (somewhat)! XD

Only read the first volume so far, no Yukimura, Sasuke, or Benitora yet. The art isn't as good as the anime (not to mention that the characters look too young for their experience and age) and there is no excellent seiyuu to give characters life and back the story up, but the slightly different scenarios and variations are nice. Looking forward to the next volume!

Another short shift, another few hours to kill. This time Guildford was the choice of location, partly because I needed food and didn't want the usual junk.

A couple pleasant surprises. First off, Mr. Sub with Greek bread and pineapple is great! Though the price isn't as sweet. Second, Gundam SEED graphic novel vol.1 and the small calendar sheet with CLAMP's Tsubasa art! Though Athrun is drawn way too femininely and it's basically the same thing as the anime. Third, Cat World Encyclopedia @ 19.99 +tax! Though I'd like a dog one a lot more.

Had a short but pleasant talk with Pastor Priscilla after the service. Other than the usual what I'm doing these days, she invited me to join the choir. Truthfully, I would much prefer being away from people's eyes. I would even call myself a backstage person. I don't like to be praised. I'd feel awkward. Anyway, I replied that I'd need to think about it and see how my schedule turns out. Not much chance of me joining, though, from the looks of it. *shrug* We'll see.

Was it luck or misfortune? Just when I made up my mind to go to the CAYAC meeting, Mum issued the order to mow the lawn. Well, I know I was supposed to do that yesterday but didn't, but I only have two shifts next week. Can't I just do it sometimes next week? The gas price would probably be lower, too.

Alas, it's no use arguing so I ended up mowing the lawn instead of going. And everyone phoned in to ask why I didn't go... That'd teach you the importance of doing things when they're due.

After all this time, Gokusen still moves me greatly.

I'm talking about the drama series, of course. The original manga series isn't bad (well, the art is bad..), but it just doesn't have the same excitement and feel as the drama version. The anime version is even worse. The only highlights of that version are Suzumura Kenichi (Sawada Shin) and Konishi Katsuyuki (Shinohara-sensei), and they don't even get to speak much.

The new LCD monitor looks very beautiful, but because of the high resolution, everything looks much smaller than they used to be. Chotto zannen ne.

Ooh, I didn't know there's a new computer store in Guildford. Though I admit, it looks very small and empty...

On another note, London Drugs' nii-san, why is it that you gave me an answer that differs from that from our consultants? I'll have to go with our guys on this one, since there is quite a bit of difference in the prices. I'll check out that new computer store some other day and make my decision.

...What is this messed up schedule? I was the only one after 4:30?? Luckily, Russ was nice enough to stay an hour late to give me two breaks. Luckily it was dead, unlike the other day.

Who would have thought setting up a new system would be this troublesome? After the basic Windows settings and the security and anti-virus stuff, the download and installation frenzy started.

Mozilla, Firefox, winamp, flash, java, real player, quicktime, acrobat reader, ACD see, regseek, adaware, NJ Star, winzip, winrar, xnews, icq, icq plus, and of course, the necessary audio/video decoder package.

Then each needed to be configured individually. It took me a whole day! It's nice and comforting to have all these working on the computer, though. Definitely worth the time and effort.

It was only a four-hour shift, but to avoid getting lectured, I had to stay out late, just like when I used to skip school. Pathetic, if you ask me.

The library had once again become my refuge, especially now that I had nowhere else to go. It was a rather fruitful expedition, though. Got a few game and PC magazines, and that CSS book I've taken out so many times but never even read one page of. Oh, and I paid a $3 fine.

Happy Mother's Day!

...was what I wanted to say, but the civil war continued from the week before, and the atmosphere was tense at best. Things seemed to look up during service though, and they seemed to be making up.

It turned out to be one big illusion. After the family prayer, the truce was over and the two were back at it. Aren't I glad that I'm working a full shift tomorrow...

Oooh! My very first virus extermination!

After some frustration at not able to connect online, I was able to figure out what went wrong. Once the driver for the on-board NIC was installed and the computer restarted, I went to download and install Zone Alarm right away. During the process of downloading and installing other necessities like anti-virus and Windows patches, many programs asked for permission to go online. When the security software were all in place, I checked the list of programs and started removing the installers and such. Two caught my attention as I've never seen them before, appearing to be Windows update files. Of course, not having to use legitimate XP Pro before, I didn't realise it at first. But it alerted me when they kept asking for permission right after I removed them from the list. To my surprise, a quick search on Google revealed them to be viruses.

After much struggles and frustration, I was finally able to remove the two of them with the help of AVG and PC-cillin's housecall online scan. I also learned that neither was able to detect both. Of course, I didn't think of it sooner before removing them. I never got to learn whether Norton could find both.

Anyway, it was fun and challenging (though many people would probably see it as a piece of cake) while it lasted. I didn't really care because I had just installed Windows and could easily reinstall it if need be. It would prove to be a major problem if similar incidents take place in the future. Here's hoping, and keeping my fingers crossed.

Ah, the joy of installing Windows... and re-installing Windows...

How do you partition the hard drive?? T__T I had to reformat the whole thing and reinstall Windows just because I screwed up at the attempt to partition it. In the end, I kept the 120 G as one drive. I'll figure something out in the future if I remember.

The more immediate problems being... Why am I not connected to the Internet? Isn't that the LAN port? Why isn't it connecting? And why does the screen look so terrible?? Isn't LCD suppose to look great? Did I waste all that money on the video card? Should I had gone with a CRT instead?

Gotta post the paper draft first. I'll leave those for tomorrow... -___-

Is that what I think it is? PANTSU?! I'm actually seeing them hanged on a laundry rope beside the road?! I know it's technically in the backyard, but you live right next to the street, man!

We planned a surprise for Lisa during cell group for her birthday. Nothing special, but the mousse cakes were delicious. I especially liked the green tea (I'm a sucker for almost anything green tea) and the mango flavoured ones. ^Q^

How is "Coordinator" for a name? XP

No, I'm not obsessed with Gundam SEED. I'm simply following the naming convention. The previous PC was named New Type because it was much faster and superior than its predecessor, which was named Prototype when the hard drive was installed in the PC as a slave drive. So, since the new system is even better than New Type, I thought Coordinator might be a good choice. In a sense, the new system will lead the way, just like how the term "coordinator" came to being in SEED.

Of course, I'm keeping this to myself. I don't suppose anyone else would find the name meaningful. They'd either roll their eyes and snort in disdain, or give me a very strange look. Provided they know where I'm getting this name from. Anyway, it's Coordinator now. XD

The new computer system has arrived! ｰｰ（°∀°）ｰｰ

But I'm missing the keyboard and the mouse, and I have yet to clear up the space for it in my room, so they'd have to stay in the boxes in the den for now.

And I've gone back to NES once again. Not wanting to having to try to figure out where I was and how my party was doing, I opted to start anew. Not DQ3, of course. It's DQ4. If I remember it right, I only got as far as the martial arts competition part in chapter three. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish the whole game this time. :)

Calgary advances to the Western Conference Final after defeating Detroit in the overtime! ｰｰ（°∀°）ｰｰ

Though, what impresses me the most is how united their fans are. One glance over the stadium was all I needed. Over 80% of them were wearing the red Calgary jerseys, and 10% of them wore other types of clothing with the Calgary signs. It was truly a red sea of people!

I'm not really a big Calgary fan, but since Vancouver's out, they're the next best choice. I *always* root for the Canadian teams. I want Calgary to win the Stanley Cup this year! >▽<

They seem to be doing well with overtimes this year, winning the series with both Vancouver and Detroit in the overtime. Go all the way, Calgary! I'll be watching! :)

And Jugi is a sore loser, giving up watching after Detroit lost. XP

吁~ That was quite a scare. I thought they really cut our Internet. O﹏O

Luckily (?), I was able to access the Internet after re-plugging the cables. But who knows when they'd be true to their words and cut it for real? Gotta remain a low profile for now... -__-

On another note, it's been waaaaaay too long since I last done any translation or update of the 5B2F site. Gotta finish those today before another hectic week takes over.

Maji???!!!! It's 30 GB, not 3 GB??!! ( д ) ﾟ ﾟ

No wonder we get these warnings.. I really have to cut down on my downloads, don't I? Oh well, lesson number one: self-discipline... -__-

Last day for filing income tax!!

The whole ordeal started out with quite a frenzy as I failed to locate one of my T4 slips. Thankfully, I was able to find the letter buried under the pile of stuff on the desk. ^__^;;

It took me about half an hour to key in everything, about the same as last year. But this year, we've decided to try filing it online to save ink/paper/money/time/frustration. Really, if we had to print off all three sets, it would had taken us (or more specifically, me, as I am responsible for every computer/printer problem in the house) hours just to get them right. The poor little old Canon has become a living dead for months now.

We're all happy when the tax filing was done and over with (and keep our fingers crossed and hope none of us get audited), we went to Tokachi for dinner. As usual, the green tea ice cream was the best part of the meal. XD We even happened to see one of our neighbours there, too.

But things started going downhill after the meal and some grocery shopping at T&T. Our garage door finally gave in. With the help of the neighbour's kid who was playing outside, we managed to get the cars out before the whole door crashed down. Thank goodness it's almost summer so it's not so much of a deal to park the cars outside. I hope it's not too expensive to replace the door thing. A lot of things seem to be needing replacement after 10 years: printer, garage door, fridge (anytime now), stove (sooner or later), answering machine. Yes, we just found that the answering machine had died while we were out. Oh, joy. -__-

Vancouver day tour! XD

After getting Lisa's phone call and a quick shower, I set out for the skytrain station with excitement and the prospect of getting some books from the Downtown library. The day started out well, with amiable sunshine and a warm breeze, and we quickly finished Lisa's mission #1 around Main. I never thought I would see so many black-haired people walking on the street outside China Town. They looked so young. I wondered how they perceived us? XP

Next stop is Waterfront, where we had lunch at a nice little Japanese restaurant Matsu near the famed steam clock. The clock rings every 15 min with the very familiar bell tune from Taiwanese elementary school. Nice food. Nice view. Nice bell.

We set out with a full stomach and visited Lisa's friend living in one of those grand townhouse/apartment combo places. It's right next to the Coal Harbour, so very nice view of the inner bay. One of the boats in the parking lot was most cute, designed like a small cozy green cottage, and another one had an owl on the post.

Then came our longest walk of the day as we proceeded to China Town. After completing Lisa's mission #2, we had a bowl of hot tofu pudding. It's been a long time since I had any! Though, we would had have some ice cream when we were in Downtown if the circumstance had permitted it. Zannen. :(

And of course, we were both excited about the final destination, the Downtown library! Incidentally, both of us headed straight to the manga section, and I soon wandered to the Japanese section. Unfortunately, there weren't any Animage or good ones. But I managed to find a few decent ones for the moment. The biggest surprise of the day was the Korean section. I never ventured there because I don't recognise a word of it, but I decided to see the manga selection there for the heck of it today. Guess what I found? 1 Saint Seiya, 2 Shiroi Senshi Yamato (!!), and a whole bunch of old school stuff! My final loot?

Genji Monogatari (Chinese)
Narutaru vol.1 (Chinese)
New Vampire Princess Miyu vol.3 (Chinese)
Doubutsu no Oisha-san vol.8 (Japanese)
Gundam Wing vol.1 & 3 (Japanese)
Super Robot War Final Strategy Guide (Japanese)
Saint Seiya vol.15 (Korean)
Shiroi Senshi Yamato vol.2 & 3 (Korean)

Of course, we had very pleasant and engaging conversation throughout the day and greatly enjoyed the day. We talked about everything from our school life in Taiwan, high school life here, friends, work, hobbies, habits, future, etc. It's also very nice of Lisa to pay for the transit fare and the lunch. Must get her something special for her birthday coming up next week!

When it comes to comedy, I have to hand it to Full Metal Panic Fumoffu.

Full Metal Panic is already funny enough, but Fumoffu, without the grimmer line of Sousuke's duel with Gauron and the capture of the whisper's ability, is much much much much more superior in laughs.

And I had to repeat the scene several times today when Kazama went into SEED mode. ~>▽<~

I now declare Full Metal Panic Fumoffu the funniest anime of all time!! XD

吁~ slacking off and then trying to catch up on over a week of posts is not fun. But I did it. T__T

Brother is coming back from the States after almost one month of absence. Frankly, I don't miss him at all, except when I need to take out the garbage and vacuum the house. I suppose he'll immediately start an argument about the usage of the new computer system once he learns of it.

New item added to the DVD To Buy list: Wolf's Rain

Ohh, hayai ne, onii-san! $1900 after tax, huh? Sounds good! You've done your part, and I'll do mine to persuade Mum.

It's decided! The new system (name pending) will join Shao-Hei (Little Black) shortly!

Pentium 4 2.8Ghz
512MB DDR
120G HD, 8mb cache
ATI Radeon 9200SE 128MB DDR 8XAGP
Creative 4.1 SBS-450 4 Speakers w/subwoofer
Windows XP Pro
17" Acer LCD


Tanoshimi dayo~^O^

Gate Keepers 完食。

Ii series da. No dramatic or heart-wrenching scenes, but I couldn't help but 會心一笑 :)

Princess Nine 完食。

Nothing special at all, and the storyline turned into something like soap opera at one point. But the series is ok. Baseball has always been, after all, a source of my hot-blooded-ism. :P

But the automated recording from Shaw worried me. Yabari, I'm downloading too much, huh? (see? I said I can't afford to download everything and see how they turn out...) Sono tami ni, I dropped Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai after 3 episodes and will drop Ragnarok after 3 episodes as well. We'll see what happens afterwards...

This is what being a student is all about. The 修羅場 of papers and assignments.

Stupid stupid stupid assignments. And seeing your submissions made me realise how childish and lacking mine was. -__-
Though I really would have taken a course in GPS if there was one. o__o

The long awaited farewell dinner with Tim!

Even though we don't talk or hang out very much, after all, he's been my cell leader for, what, five years now? I've always respected him greatly and admired his walk with the Holy Spirit. Sure, it's not a permanent separation, but I'll miss him. Who's there to chat about computers now? Oh well, maybe I'll meet him again in Vana'diel someday. XP

Having said the above, we haven't really felt the separation that's to take place in a few days. The 12 of us sure had a good time together and shared a few more laughs!

The cheesecake wasn't much to my liking, but the hot water with lemon and honey was good. XP

U...Uso deshou? Why is my throat hurting when I swallow? Why is my head hurting by itself now and then? Why do my eyes feel so heavy? Masaka.... Kaze?! >__<

And I was just thinking how I've been the only healthy one in the whole department and hadn't called in sick... :(

Very interesting message. Useful, too. Though I'm not planning to walk down that path, I'm sure the series will come in handy.

3 myths about love:
1) Love conquers all
- love alone isn't enough; "If I keep loving him/her more, it's ok if he/she drinks"
2) Love at first sight
- it's just excitement; no connection and knowing at all, usually outward attraction
3)....... wasuredeta :P

8 scenarios where the relationship would never work out:
1) When you love your partner more
- no balance and always 'chasing' the other side
2) When you idolise your partner or mentor
- difference in attitudes (boss vs. secretary, etc.)
3) When you are on a rescue mission
- sympathy isn't the same as love; you're always treating the partner as the weaker
4) When you are attracted by physical/outer aspects
- superficial, doesn't hold once the partner changes outwardly
5) When you love the potential of your partner
- you need to be able to love the partner as of now, not treating the partner as a project
6) When it happens during a short yet exciting period
- meet someone during a trip, etc.; no real connection and knowing, lose feeling when parted
7) When you choose your partner to be rebellious
- it's out of spite, not love; relationship needs to be blessed by family of both sides
8) When you and your partner are available

Huh, who would have thought the place to be more troublesome than ours.

Due to many reasons and demands, the lawn mower was pushed all the way to the "Little House" to clean up the grassy jungle. One could never have guessed the state of the backyard by looking at the front lawn. It's a totally different world. The front was annoying because of the extremely weird shape and the extra portion that extended to the mailbox and the poll, but the back was much worse despite its simple rectangular shape.

After much toil and trouble, the wild jungle was reduced to a manageable mini prairie. Good enough. Ato wa tanomu yoroshiku ne, new owner.

Left Behind 完食。

As expected, the novel version is indeed better and a lot more detailed than the movie version, though being able to see it makes an impact as well. I'm still seeing Buck and Nicolae as portrayed in the film. The Left Behind series definitely captures some essentials of the End Time, and I was constantly asking the question while reading: Will I be left behind when Jesus come for His people? Will you be left behind?

I sincerely hope and pray that the answer to my question is "No, for I will be taken to my heavenly home and be with Him and all my friends and families."

Time to get the second book...

Collab 報告終於交出去了! （°∀°）
歷經汗與血及好幾個無眠夜 （つД`）
...再三交代要把顏色改回黑色、段落要排版、要做單字跟文法檢查、你怎麼都沒做啊～～～～～(*｀Д´)╯

剛才查了一下 schedule、這科還有一個 collab 要做... ＿|￣|O

It's official now, I'm gonna get a new computer within a few months.

I won't deny that some of the driving factors include FF XI, anime, MP3, but it's also for legitimate reasons such as school and diverting usage from Mum and Jugi, especially seeing how I'll have to run the heavy software within six months, and we're ALWAYS fighting over who gets to use the computer.

So here's the specs I'm thinking of right now:
Pentium 4 2.5Ghz+ or AMD Athlon 3000+
512 MB DDR RAM
120 GB HD
CD-RW
Windows XP Pro
128 MB+ video card
3-piece speakers w/ subwoofer
decent sound card

Main applications will be:
Mozilla & Firefox
Windows Media Player 6.4
FF XI (XP)
FirstClass
ArcView
ArcInfo
Access
Word
Winamp
ICQ
Xnews
emulators (GBA, SNES)

Now if the next staff shopping day can just come around sooner...

Rurounin Kenshin yomu kanryo. Gotta admit, I wasn't too keen at first and wasn't buying all the hype the series was getting, but after finishing the whole thing, I gotta say I was impressed. No, I'm still not a fan of the series, but I did find quite a few chapters worthy of saving, namely the ones where Yahiko fought against the whale guy to protect the town, and the last few chapters depicting the afterwards for the characters. I also like the ink paintings. Very full of feelings.

Overall, RK is a nice series. I probably wouldn't want to read it through again in a few years though.

Heh, how long has it been since I last worked on any paper? Two years? Can't say I miss those time, but it seems I still like to play around with words, after all.

Anyway, finally got that letter to students posted. We'll see what the others think of it. We'll also have to synch the content of the two letters as well. They're not consistent at all right now. Sore wa komarun deshou? ^__^;;

On another note, Gate Keepers isn't bad at all. Very interesting and nicely done for a plot line that's been used countless of times. I look forward to its development.

The guys on Ha-dono's board seem to detest Tenjou Tenge, and I don't blame them. I stopped reading the manga after a few chapters myself. As expected, the anime version is full of fan service and more fan service. If it's not for the seiyuu cast, I wouldn't even grab the 1st episode. The OP, however, is *very* nice. I really like it. Just like how I liked Himikoden's OP. I suppose I'll watch a few more episodes before deciding whether to chuck it into the disco pile.

Even though I went to bed at around 2am, woke up at 7am, started working at 8am, got home at around 5pm, and I was tired as anything, I decided to go to the prayer meeting.

On one hand, I was throwing away everything because of the exhaustion, on the other, I was hoping to get recharged at the prayer meet. And I did.

I'm glad I went. I miss the time immensely. Yabari, inori no jikan ga saigo ne. :)

你們是想怎麼樣?? =___=###

都已經在 outline 裡寫說不同等級的差別、你還問要怎麼加入 quasi-quantitative 分析??

所以我討厭 group project... -__-

How could I be this tired?

True, I did stay up last night to discuss the collab until quarter to 1am, went to bed at around 2:45am, got up at 7am, started working at 8am, had an absolutely insanely crazy morning and throughout the whole shift, got home at around 4:45pm, cleaned a few files off the hard drive, tried to catch up on the reading.....

...I guess I do have a reason to be tired. Sorry, guys. I simply can't make it tonight. I'll definitely make up the lost time and effort tomorrow!! m(__)m

Oh, the long missed Japanese food at Tokachi!

The combo thing wasn't as fulfilling and satisfying as the lunch bento, but it was better than none. What I missed the most, though, was the green tea ice cream. Yabari, are umaizo! ^Q^

So this is the so-called Monday Syndrome, huh? Never thought I'd experience it.
Tsukareta na...

I take my words back. It's not like the End of Evangelion. It's worse. -__-###
Though Hoshimaru is still very very very cute. XD

Ohhhhh! Is that "Gundam SEED" I see there? They finally made a separate category for it? Sweet! Now I can really set my mind into writing SEED fanfics. XP

I also have more to read now! Nice! Though, it'll take me even longer to get back on track with the Slayers fanfics. I intend to finish the SEED ones while it's still small and manageable. Over a month away from ff.net is NOT a good idea, I've come to realise. Oh well. *goes off to read Gundam SEED fanfics*

EDIT: Whoa, they have "Samurai Deeper Kyo", "Full Metal Alchemist", "Peacemaker Kurogane" (not that I'm gonna read them), "Last Exile" (same with this), "Twelve Kingdoms" (!) now as well? I just see a huge chunk of my time gone in the near future...

Spring cleaning of New Type day 1

Burnt out 3 CDs worth of MP3 and watched all the not-burning-worthy episodes. New Type now stands a little above the 2G mark. If all goes well, I should be able to get it to around 4G by the end of the weekend.

PS. Athrun is most cute in the drama HARO. Ka-Wa-Ii~XD Same in Kluzt: Senpai~XP

PS2. Haven't watched the new series yet, but Kuwashima Houko seems to play a role in many of them. Lucky~:D

*twitch* ...What's with all the singing and idol thing??

While trying to free up some space, I came across a Nadesico episode where an idol contest for a new captain is held (Oh, so that's where those songs I heard before come from). Then I watched an episode of Blue Seed where Momiji is entered into an idol contest. Then I tried Full Moon wo Sagashite, which is about a 12-year-old girl with one year to live wanting to become a singer (I totally hate myco's acting, btw. She has a nice deep voice for singing, but it's completely unsuitable for a little girl. Plus, her acting is plain and unexciting. -__-##)

Kidou Senkan Nadesico is really good, though. The plot is different from the manga (which came after the anime anyway?) and is full of drama. The integration between Nadesico and Gekiganger is great, and the whole thing is funny as anything~ A youthful hot-blooded series! I'm glad I got to watch it. ^__^

On another note, Samurai Deeper Kyo is good, too. I especially like the music, the camera angles, the flow of actions, and, of course, the cast. The biggest failure, however, is that even though it has nice character design and art, the proportion of people is just way off most of the time! -__-# I'm not even half way though, so we'll see how the story turns out (I heard that Kyoshiro prevails in the end. 'tis a shame. I like Kyo x Yuya better XP).

Now I've really done it.

I'm not an impulsive buyer because I am poor 99% of the time. So what shall I call it this time? My bank account is mourning its lost, my mind and logic are struggling, but my heart is singing.

Final Fantasy XI, the only computer game I've ever planned to buy, now sits on the desk shelf with GPM DVDs, Mononoke Hime DVD, The Three Musketeers, and The Divine Comedy.

Now all that's left is to get a graphic card (gotta go look up the card model again), apply for a Master Card ($12.95US/month for 1 char, $13.95 for 2), clean up the disk space (6 out of 20G required... a big chunk, I'd say), read up on the game, and the installation.

My heart is going doki doki, but I don't know when I'll actually get to see the real action. Ah, all the complications~

It's official now. New Type is out of space and stands at 0 kb. -____-

Why is it that people are posting all these interesting looking series now?? These waves are just like those waves of customers. You can have half an hour go by without talking to one single customer, and you can be overwhelmed by several in the same minute!

Anyway, time to do another spring cleaning. Gotta burn those OPs & EDs out. Gotta watch those episodes. Gotta read those manga. Gotta finish those roms. Gotta burn those pictures out. Gotta...

Yabari, classics are made classics for a reason.

Even though the plot doesn't hold up very much now, even though a lot of the scenes still look outdated, even though the design are clearly from that time, even though I've watched it many times and know what's going to happen next, even though...

But Star Wars Trilogy live up its name after all those years. 1977. I wasn't even born then.

Granted, I'm not very much a Star Wars fan. The three movies and one novel are all I have under my belt. For some unexplainable reason, I didn't feel like watching Episode I at all. (Was there an Episode II as well?) Somewhere deep down, I felt that the new movie wouldn't do the original justice. It'd just be another Sci-fi movie with lots of great effects that carries the name. I'm quite the conservative, as you can see.

My thought turned to Gundam. I've been hearing the name for ages, but I never got the chance to see it or the many flavours of it. SD Gundam models and manga were all that I knew.

Came 2000, Gundam Wing entered my life. I was so thrilled to finally be able to get a glimpse of this great franchise that I immediately became a fan. Of course, as I slowly got more familiar with anime, I realised that Wing is AU and is nothing like the original or the other ones. To me, Wing didn't deliver enough of its promises. Nonetheless, I was happy to have watched it.

Then Gundam SEED entered the picture. It's said to be 'the First Gundam of the 21st century', and I fell for it instantly. The plot, the characters, the relationship between people, the interactions, the emotions, the... (and the cast, which is one of the best around)! Everything draws me in more, and I started posting on Gundam.com and discussing SEED with other people. I was sad to find out that most old timers see SEED as a rip-off and kiddy version of the original Gundam, and that most of them don't like SEED at all.

Strange, isn't it? There seems to be an odd relationship between the classics and their offspring, at least from my POV. Fans of the classics love and worship it, and the new ones are deemed inferior than the original. Fans of the new ones see the original as outdated and, in many cases, boring.

It could be a change of target audience, as the new series are typically created to recruit new blood to the aging fan base. It could just be the way our memory serves us, making what we held dear even more special. It could be.....

Whatever the reason, one thing is for sure, though. Classics or not, effects or not, bishounen or not, as long as the plot and the characters can move me, I'll be a fan. It was like this with Wing, it is like this with SEED, it is like this with many other great series, and it shall always be like this.

Heh, this has somehow become yet another disorganised post, hasn't it? *shrug* All I wanted to say is that I respect the classics and do find some of them to be great (Saint Seiya comes to mind), and enjoy the new ones for their fresh ideas and ways of execution. (I'm not even making sense to myself now. -__-)

Oh, and I still intend to watch the original Gundam and all the other Gundam series, UC and AU. I don't care if some people say they're ugly. Bad art isn't enough to deter me. XP

え？！あの人たちは本物？！

真田幸村、徳川秀忠(紅虎)、猿飛佐助、霧隠才蔵、穴山小助、出雲の阿国、織田信長
->「SAMURAI DEEPER KYO」から
沖田総司、土方歳三、山崎烝、近藤勇、山南敬助、永倉新八、原田左之助、藤堂平助、斉藤一、坂本竜馬
->「PEACE MAKER 鐵」と「るろうに剣心」

面白いね、日本の歴史は！

なるたる 第 7-8 話

なにこれ？まるで THE END OF EVANGLION みたい。-__-

しかし、星丸はすごくすごくカ・ワ・イ・イよ～～～XD

でも、ちょっとわかる、これからのストーリは。

Peace Maker Kurogane ep.24

I stopped watching it at ep.12 and decided to pick the last episode up to see if it's as promising as the OP..... I missed the real fight, didn't I? ＿|￣|O

Though, I can't not admit that it's a beautifully drawn series. Neko-kun was right. Since it's the last episode that wraps everything up, I was able to focus more on the art, flow, pace, etc. Action manten! Sasuga GONZO! I was almost tempted to save the episode just for these. I suppose I'll be getting the missing episodes when I free up enough space.

Ep.24 is basically a summary of the aftermath of the climax raid. Viewing of previous episodes not required. It'd definitely help with more knowledge of the happenings, however.

First lawn mow of the season!

Man, I didn't realise that the whole backyard lawn has been taken over by the moss army corps. It's starting to look like the forest floor, minus the trees and ferns and stuff. Gotta start some massacre, I suppose. The thick mat of moss is keeping the whole place moist, making it difficult for me to mow. *twitch*

Finally got my car washed!

But it was rather disastrous. To start it off, the nuzzle wasn't working so I had to use my finger instead. Then the water didn't come out properly; apparently the hose was clogged somewhere. And did I say the water was COLD? No, make it FREEZING. It's got to a point where I was worrying whether it was sufficient to rinse off the liquid car wash properly. The worst of it all? I missed two spots. Right on the engine cover. It's so obvious ~>__<~

And last but not least, I crashed Mozilla in the evening. It's not Mozilla's fault, though. I simply ran out of disk space (< 5MB) in the middle of setting up an email account with Mozilla Mail. Everything worked fine after some frenzy hunting (to search for things I could delete) and a reboot. Yokatta desu.

At least the day ended well.

Uwah, I missed the date! I meant to challenge myself to post something everyday starting from April, but I'm failing on the very first day. How resolved am I? -__-

This past week's been hectic. I have no idea why, but I just seem to have very little time to do whatever, even though I only work three days a week now. Hopefully, I'll be able to sort out a schedule and free up more time. I really DO need to study, after all.

Man, this post is just as disorganised as my current life... That should change in the future, I hope!

I've been eating pasta whenever I eat out lately. That baked shrimp and feta penne was all right, a bit on the salty side, though, especially near the bottom.

Now that I think of it, I've been eating irregularly and rather badly ever since I worked. The McDonald's consumption rate is even reaching a dangerous level (can you say McChicken?? -__-*). I'll have to come up with a battle plan to counter this soon, or I'll surely die early like Andy said...

Anyhow~ Time to go back to the translation. I'm almost there! Ganbatte, sanopup!! Fight! Oh! (I guess I'm lacking sleep...)

Hm, I knew there's a feature on Blogger to change the date of entries. *smirk* Now we'll see if I can keep up with the posting. XP

Kino no Tabi ep.4

I've been wondering if Kino is actually a girl since the beginning. Yabari, it's just as I thought. Seeing how it's all about her travel, gender really isn't an issue, is it? I was somewhat surprised that she has an equally sad past. But then again, I kind of expected it after watching the previous episodes. The whole series is beautifully drawn, but it's also filled with much sadness and even regrets...

Wow, it's been that long since I last posted anything, eh? I guess I'm just too lazy...

Anyhow. This is my first post in 2004 (I had to constantly remind myself to write '04 instead of '03 on everything)! To start it off, it's super freezing today! It's been like this for the past week, and even though I don't dislike snow or winter, it's making me even more lethargic.

My seasonal job seems to have been prolonged for another month. I suppose whether it will keep on going to not depend on my performance this month. I still can't believe how bad I was doing last week. 4! I only had 4 ESPs for the whole Boxing Week! Did I suck or what? -__-

Good news: I was accepted by SFU for the UniGIS program that will start this March.
Bad news: I have to pay the $5000 tuition by Feb. 1 if I want to enter the program, and I have less than a month to get that much money before the due date.
Somewhat uncertain: I might be able to get that amount if I sell all the mutual funds I have and add that to my savings...
We'll have to see.

....What a boring post for the first post of the year. Hopefully things will get more interesting next time. I have lots to say about many shows I've seen, but they're for later times. Until then.

ごくせん最高!!

很久沒看過這麼令人感動的片子了。原本以為ごくせん大概是女 GTO 之類﹐結果完全不是這麼一回事。

劇中有令人捧腹拍桌的爆笑片段、令人熱血沸騰的精彩場面、令人淚流不止的感動時刻﹐穿插著許多做人的道理及仁義﹐超級好看的! 最後慎的那句﹕「悪いけど、四人だ。」更是一絕啊!! XD

PS. 因為太喜歡ごくせん了﹐已經決定要以其為藍本寫 Slayers 跟 GW fanfic. 雖然是 based on same story, 不過會寫出很不一樣的東西吧。

PS2. 看到慎的第一個想到﹕森! 那個以前在「未滿都市 ~我們的勇氣~」裡跟在百合後面的小孩﹐曾幾何時已經長這麼大啦﹖哦﹐他叫松本潤啊﹖他長得不算帥﹐但是蠻有型的﹐搞不好會成為第一個我欣賞的男優... 他有演金田一啊﹖害我有點想看了說 ︶__︶

人果然是有惰性的。

本來只是因為身體不適而請假﹐後來就完全不想去了。雖然這工作還算簡單﹐只要動動嘴巴就好﹐可是這種性質畢竟我不喜歡﹐所以假請了沒幾天後就送出辭職信。

這下我又恢復無業遊民的身份了。

等老媽知道一定有得唸... -__-

Well, gotta pay the consequences of my own actions and decisions, ne?

原本看好四張CD要買﹐結果到了 Celebration 意外發現新專輯﹐Vineyard 跟 Chris Tomlin 立刻不戰而敗。

本日戰利品﹕
Vineyard Anaheim: Just Like Heaven
Vineyard Nordic: Desire
Soul Survivor: Glimpses of Glory
Martyn Layzell: Lost in Wonder

要不是身上沒錢了﹐一定會買更多吧。

真的假的﹖可以打中文哦﹖@@
那為什麼之前打都不行﹖-__-

既然可以中文化....
高機動幻想 ガンパレード・マーチ 最高!!! XD

Got through the first day of training as a Tele Sales. It's been quite some time since I had to sit in a classroom environment and such. I suppose I'll just slowly adjust my sleeping habit...

Anyhow, my fever for Gunparade March continues. The Fan folder suddenly finds itself a few hundreds files fuller in a matter of two days because I started visiting fan sites and grabbing pics. Zannen desu ga, but there are so few official pics of GPM so I can't make any new avatar and have to stick to the old Hayami one...:( I'm already doing a Xel/Filia fanfic in GPM style, and I have yet to write that review. I'll probably get to do that sometimes next week, if all goes well. As far as I am concerned, this hype for GPM isn't going to die down anytime soon, seeing how it got on the All Time Favourite Top Five List with just one episode seen. Gunparade March saigou!! XD

Starting playing Princess Maker 2 English yesterday... Is it just me, or does the game not come with sounds? It's probably me... I find the game quite boring, as all I've been doing is making my daughter work so I can afford to feed her and buy her stuff. The fortune teller keeps telling me that she'll turn out to be a farmer...-__- I guess I have her working in the farm for too long... She is not popular, has 0 refinement, charisma, and isn't cultured. I don't know how long the game is until her outcome is determined. She's almost 17 now. I wonder if it's not too late to make her into something better than farmer. We'll see. *shrug*

Gunparade March!

I fell in love with it instantly after stumbling upon it accidently months ago, and I was delighted and excited to see the first episode on AnimeX.com. Even though my busy life has kept me from watching the 12 episodes I've burned onto the CDs, I never forgot about it.

Today, thanks to one of my best friends Dan, I watched the whole series in one sitting! I'm very happy. :)

True, Ishida Akira was what motivated me to watch GPM at first, but after a little browsing of the site, I decided to watch it. As I watched the drama of life and death, love and hate, as well as trust and bonds, the characters grew on me, and my heart goes out to them as they progress. GPM immediately earned a spot in my all-time top five list.

It's really hard to describe my feelings after watching it now, but I'll eventually get to it. After I watched it again, this time more closely, I'll write that review for AnimeX.com.

Nanka, shiyawase omoi de... :)

Ah, the decisions...

After some searching today, I found another GIS program I can consider: Certificate of GIS @ SFU. This one, however, seems to be tougher to get in, requiring both a bachelor's degree in related field as well as work experience in GIS related environment.

Here's a breakdown of the two programs:
GIS Advanced Diploma @ BCIT
Duration: 9 months
Fee: ~$4500 Cdn
Focus: more technique oriented (lots of programming involved)
Method: lectures/seminars/practicum

Certificate of GIS @ SFU
Duration: 2 years
Fee: ~$10,000 Cdn
Focus: more design and implementation oriented (I don't really see any programming courses in there)
Method: distant education + seminar

Both are not easy to get in, especially with my barely-get-by marks at UBC... I'm still looking into these two options, as the earliest application date doesn't start until October. Let me think about it...

Mozilla Firebird is quite swell, I must say.

Sure, it still has some features I don't like as much as the ones in Mozilla, but it's indeed living up to its name. The Christmas phoenix theme is one of the most beautiful themes I've seen/used, and I love it! The fact that Web site icons are visible in the bookmarks is a nice touch, too. Kudos to the theme author! The open all in tabs feature is handy for checking bookmarks except when, of course, there're just too many entries in one category.

Will the fiery king of the air beat the formidable lord of land and become the default browser on my computer? The answer isn't certain. Firebird is smaller and therefore faster than Mozilla, but feature-wise, it's hard to say which one I like better. They both have their own strength. Only time will tell, I suppose.

I am running Firebird right now, but Mozilla is still the default. I'm guessing that a definite winner won't emerge until the next version of both come out...

Well! Interesting how things turn out like this. After more tries and attempts, I'm going to enter the training class which starts on June 26, awaiting to be a bilingual outbound sales representative at RMH.

I'm sure 90% of the people in the marketing business with sales positions don't want to be sales, but it is still good to have the experience. As for me, I want to be a generalist, and I want to try as many different things as possible, be it labour works, office jobs, or weird and down right unusual. Yatemimasu.

We'll see how the training and the first period before the assessment go. If all is well, I'll probably stay for the rest of the year. All in due time...

Too bad I'll have to miss the boot camp though... :(

The Wedding Singer.

Didn't think I'd like it because Adam Standler (sp?) starred in it, but was I in for a surprise. I didn't see the first bits so I don't know how much I missed, but what I saw pleased me. Well, what do you expect? I am a big fan for sap.

Hmm... This gives me an idea for a Xelia fanfic. (And this line sounds exactly like the cliché line from Art Attack... ^^;)

Hn, not perfectly to my liking, but good enough. For now.

After a month of frustration, I finally figured out why the archived links wouldn't show up on the left column: I didn't put in the JavaScript tag. Then more problem arose due to the incompatibility of the colours I originally set for the two columns. Using the JavaScript meant I can't specify different colour schemes for the columns (or, at least, I don't know how to), so I had to reset the whole theme to make it look presentable. I realize that it still needs some work, but I'm content to leave it the way it is now.

Paw Wow v.2, I name thee Midnight Blues (as opposed to the original Asuran Theme).

Kiddy Grade.

At first, I thought it's one of these series with fancy mech design, special CG effects, and fan service characters. I continued to think so until a few hours ago when I finished the last few episodes. True, the series has plenty of fan service shots and the pace is relatively slow until later episodes, but I enjoyed it, especially the second half. Not having seen the whole series, there are many unanswered questions, but that doesn't matter. The last battle between Deucallion and the ES-members is fascinating and exciting, at the same time beautifully done. Gonzo really is a leading company when it comes to 3D animation and CG effects. I don't quite like the female character designs, but almost everything else is nicely done. If I really have to point out its weakness, it's the lack of character depth. There're simply too many major players beside Eclair and Lumiere. While the two main characters grow as the series progresses, nothing much is done for the other characters, which is too bad because those other characters can provide much depth and prospective to the story.

Granted, Kiddy Grade probably is not making my list of top 20 anime, but there are a few episodes which I like a lot, and some themes displayed throughout the series are touching and moved me. An entertaining series, to say the least.

Ohisashiburi desu.

One month has passed since I last posted anything due to my extremely busy schedule. What have I been doing lately? Nothing much. After the merchandising job with Brofort in Langley, I started down the path of distributor, doing door to door promotion for charities and non-profitable organizations such as Greenpeace and Canadian Mental Health Association.

Until this Sunday.

First of all, I really learned a lot during the week and a half I was working there. The team spirit was very high all the time, and the people were great. I got over the fear of ringing strangers' door bells and talking to them about donating money to charities. That was some experience! However, this job requires a full 8-hour on the field and takes up over 12 hours of my time everyday. As someone living with the family and also has a church life as well as web life, my time was reduced drastically. Plus, summer is coming and we'll be getting busy for some community evangelism! As a result, I had no choice but to discontinue being a distributor.

All in all, I really enjoyed my time at Bottomline Productions; I'm not closing the door yet.

Tales of Eternia: The Animation (I can't believe Namco pulled its ToE pages out...-__-)

It doesn't have anything special and the plot is quite typical, having been a byproduct of the RPG, but it is imposing to say the least. I started watching it because of Ishida Akira, but as I watched the series, I was drawn to the characters of Rid and Marone. Rid isn't the brightest guy on the block, but he is in touch with other people's feelings and hearts. Clumsy at times, yet caring and considerate, and always putting the others, especially his friends, before himself. Marone, having come from a tragic background, tends to isolate herself from others. After meeting Rid, she is moved by his caring heart and actions. Even though she wouldn't admit it, she sees Rid and the group as her friends and companions, and she opens up her closed heart to start caring for others. Both are serious when it comes to people they care about, and both would not hesitate to sacrifice themselves for their friends. Characters like them never fail to touch me.

All in all, Tales of Eternia: The Animation is far from being one of the greatest anime in history, but it's definitely worth watching, even if just for the two characters mentioned above. The series shall live in my memory.

So, this is what merchandising is all about.

I'll be leaving for the fourth day of the project of merchandising the Langley Staples in a few hours. It's my first time doing night works but I think I'm doing all right. I get to see the sunrise a lot (well, it's been raining all week...)

After working for the past three days, I found myself not having enough time to do things as much as I want to. So I guess this is what working full time is like, huh?

Anyway, as this project lasts only three weeks, I'm still on the outlook for works at the same time. Hopefully, by the time this project is finished, I will be moving on to the next job!

Let's hope and let's pray. :)

Ok, now this is getting stupid and pathetic. -__-

A few days before (April 9th) the lsass.exe system error thing popped up. The situation was resolved the next day (April 10th) using the restoration point from April 8th.

Tonight when I returned home from Langley, my brother informed me of another occurance of the lsass.exe system error. With the memory still very fresh in my mind, I set out to solve the problem with the same method as before, except that I actually went through a system restore after logging into windows. To be on the safer side, I chose to go back to April 7th.

When I tried to run Mozilla, the splash screen was the only thing that did work. Figured it must be messed up registry problem, I removed Mozilla 1.2.1 from the control panel and deleted the Mozilla folder manually. Then I ran RegSeeker to clean all the Mozilla registries before doing a clean install of it. Then Zone Alarm asked for my attention with an important update. I downloaded the update and installed it. It required to restart windows in order to complete the installation; I complied.

Guess what I saw after the restart? The lsass.exe system error box. Perhaps it wasn't a wise move to copy the registry from April 8th and run the system restore with April 7th's RP. Right now, I'm sticking with just the April 8th registry fix like the first time. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping to never see the annoying error box again, ever.

.....I'm going to restart windows after I'm done tonight. I better not see those hateful words again.

Side note: Due to a ridiculous highway traffic jam, I decided not to take the road that would lead me to doom. After checking the unmapped region on the slightly outdated map book, I took a local route. To my delight, it's very empty and surprisingly nice to drive on. It took me less than 20 minutes to get home, and I didn't get lost despite the fact I've never went that way. :)

I was close to hysterical earlier this afternoon. Why? I got to log into windows over that stupid lsass.exe system error!! :) For someone who is nearly illiterate when it comes to computer problems, this is a super big achievement for me!

Second note, I prefer Mozilla 1.2.1 over Mozilla 1.3 as of now. 1.3 runs slower than 1.2.1 for many sites, and I'm not quite used to its re-arrangement of the options for the right-click menu. 1.4a is out now, so maybe I'll just wait until 1.4 comes out...

Hmm, it seems that verson 1.4 on will be based on Phoenix. I've heard some praises for the browser; perhaps I'll try it myself in the near future.

With the release of FFX-2, a lot of people are putting down the latest installment of Square's Final Fantasy series.

Truth be told, I was also somewhat disappointed when I saw the character arts at first. My impressions of Yuna totally changed just by looking at her new outfits, and I almost didn't feel like checking out the title further. Well, guess what? After seeing first the promotion video, and lately a couple of the CG movie clips as well as the ending clip, I am glad I didn't let my prejudice stop me in the first place.

Final Fantasy has set a standard for pretty much all the RPGs out there, and Square isn't afraid of trying new concepts and ideas and using them. With each new installment, Final Fantasy lives up to its name with the most efforts (and therefore final) from the staff.

I don't plan to play FFX-2 anytime since I've stopped playing console games for years now, but I keep following the stories of Final Fantasy. From what I've seen, FFX-2 has a moving plot as well as a powerful theme, love. Some people complain that the FF series always has love for a theme, but why not? Love is the single most powerful emotion a human can ever experience, and it is the most touching and moving, a force to be reckoned with. That's what makes the stories of Final Fantasy so great.

Granted, I don't play the games so I am overlooking all the technical difficulties such as repetitive battles/mazes/puzzles/etc., but when I play an RPG, I focus on the story. Otherwise, it is just an action game or challenging entertainment. If one cannot immerse in the story, how can one role play the character?

The whole FFX-2 bashing also reminds me of the fate of being a Christian. FFX-2 is judged harshly because it descends from a great name, and every gamer in the world recognizes it. The more publicity and fame it has, the more it's criticized and scrutinized. The same goes for us Christians. People recognize us and have certain expectations of us because of our titles. If there is a little spot that they don't like, they would not hesitate to point it out.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we need to live up to the great title that's given to us by the Son of God. Live our lives according to the Bible and be living testimonies of the names we bear!