Mystery solved!

Being the lazy person that I am, one of the first things I do after installing Firefox is to set up keyword search. This way, I can just type in whatever in the URL bar and out comes the result page in my chosen web services.

Being the poor person that I am, I use AVG for anti-virus. Not long ago, it popped up with a reminder that the then current version will not be updated after certain days and urged me to upgrade to the next version 8.0, which I did.

I haven't been playing around much in Firefox lately and mostly just used the bookmark to go to selected sites. I used the URL bar to search occasionally but those were all in English.

That's why I didn't notice the problem until today, when I tried to search 'Kagamine Rin' 'kokoro' 'kiseki' in Japanese. As soon as I typed in the terms, the "xxx has encountered a problem and needs to close" message jumped at me. All my attempts ended with the same error message and the Talk Back agent window. Time to troubleshoot.

It didn't happen when I search via Ctrl+K, only when I used the URL bar. I tried English, no problem. I tried Japanese, crashed. I tried Chinese, crashed. I went into about:config, nothing wrong. I tried rebooting the computer, same thing. I tried Mozilla Suite, no problem.

Then it dawned on me. During the few times that I searched this past week, I remember vaguely that there's some kind of green mark beside the search results, an indication that the link is deemed safe by AVG. I thought it might be the security toolbar I agreed to install at the time of upgrade. Not seeing an option to uninstall the toolbar by itself, I uninstalled the whole thing and reinstalled it minus the toolbar. Same thing.

I was at my wit's end and was considering switching to a different anti-virus software. As a last effort, I opened the suspect and tried to see if I can find a setting for it. Then my eyes landed on the LinkScanner icon. I clicked on it once. Nothing. I right-clicked on it. Nothing. I finally double clicked on it and got the option to appear. There's no mouse over description as well. Not too friendly to an UI dummy like me... -__-

Anyway, my keyword search is now back to normal after I disabled the LinkScanner. I'm so happy...（つД`）

Lessons for the day are
1) It can be a pain and sometimes downright frustrating to use non-English characters in an English software environment. It shouldn't be like this, especially considering that Windows XP (and I assume Vista as well?) is UTF-8.
2) Make your UI more friendly for people like me please!! I could have resolved the problem with a few mouse clicks and saved the time I wasted uninstalling and reinstalling and rebooting
3) Don't install all features by default! If you offer a customized route during installation, makes all features beside the core component (in this case the anti-virus part) available for choosing. And have clear descriptions for the features and let the user decides. I wouldn't had enabled the LinkScanner if I had the choice.
4) Stop ranting on and on and making the post so long...

人はやばり光と希望を求める、そして誰でも救われるを信じたいかな？

Having experienced numerous ACG works in various genres over the years, I've come up with a pet theory on human nature, which basically encompasses the above rhetorical question: Humans, after all, seek after light and hope, and want to believe that anyone can be saved. I'm not good at translating my thoughts into words, so I'll just briefly summarize it with a few general scenarios.

Case 1. The 'bad' guy usually started 'good' and innocent until something drastic happened to him and caused him to be the way he is. After clashing swords a couple times with the protagonist, he is touched by the protagonist's personality and is reminded of the good side of human nature and get converted.

Case 2. A character from a 'bad' faction grew up 'bad' because that's the way he's supposed to be in that given environment. After numerous encounters and conflicts with the protagonist, he is attracted by the protagonist despite their difference in background, value, and status. Those around still condemn/fear him, but the feelings between him and the protagonist, whether it's love or friendship, will allow him to leave his old way of life and be with the protagonist.

Case 3. The guy decided to behave in a certain way on his own accord. He may act all bad-ass and mighty, cold and merciless, or not caring about anything, but he is lonely and longs for something deep in his heart and subconsciously. The protagonist brings him out of his own confinement, and he has a change of heart.

The 'bad' guys in those cases may range from a new recruit for the opposing side, an infamous killer, a leader, a user of supernatural power, or a Mazoku/monster/youkai/spirit/ma. They all chase after something. If the something is of light in nature, they would obtain it and be saved. If the something is of darkness in nature, they would end horribly should they obtain it.

Sound familiar? They should, as these are basic elements and staples to a lot of the ACG works and overused to the point of cliche. Yet people never get tired of these patterns and themes, and they continue to create and consume works built around them. Why? This is where my pet theory comes in.

I believe that since the day that Adam and Eve were ousted from the Garden of Eden and separated from God, there exists a void and desire in the human heart that can only be filled by that which is from God. That's why we seek after light and hope and believe in such power. That's why we want to see people of darkness be saved and pulled back into the realm of light. By seeing a good ending for those people, we hope for the same for ourselves.

There are people saying they're fine being in darkness and rather stay there, including a number of my friends, but I do think they're bluffing themselves and/or ignoring what their hearts are telling them.

Personally, I have nothing against such themes, and I'm sucker for those to a degree. The only instant where I will not tolerate this is when the subject in question is a devil or satan itself, as I believe their paths cannot be changed once they chose to rebel against God and got thrown down from Heaven. Other than those, I'm good with any variation of the said themes.

I used to be pretty dark, btw, without anything drastic happened to me. I may not be completely in the light now, but I'm definitely and surely going there. With the help of my good Shepherd, of course. :)

SP2!!
Yes, that's Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2.
Yes, I finally installed it today (well, it was really midnight yesterday) after the error message while trying to update my anti-virus software engine.

Man, did that take forever or what? I even went for a shower during the install. Well, I was planning to use Little Black to pass the time, but my attempt was met with the 'Operating system not found' message that I used to see...

I'm hoping it's just a side effect of having it on for months and just sitting there doing nothing. Maybe I'll be greeted with Windows 95 again when I turn it on. Don't really have the energy for this. Maybe next week. Updating a whole bunch of stuff requiring SP2 is hard work and very time consuming. Not to mention it takes quite a number of restarts. -__-

So I have IE 7 now! Haven't fired it up yet to see what it looks like. I'll probably do that after Little Black comes back to me...

ココロ(Kokoro/Heart). This is the song, or rather, the PV that lured me into the fantastic world of Vocaloids.

I've briefly mentioned how I came to know this piece of wonderful work, so I'll skip it here and focus more on the emotional side.

To be frank, the plot scenario isn't that original to begin with so I wasn't too enamoured by it until seeing the PV. I'm a daydreaming (XD) type of person so it's always that much more meaningful when something is associated with visuals and a story. I teared up when I saw the PV, and the tears threatened to spill over when I saw the PV for the answer song, ココロ・キセキ(Kokoro Kiseki/Heart.Miracle), by the same author. And I actually cried when I saw the PV for ココロ＋ココロ・キセキ.

ココロ, by itself, is like a gracefully woven story between two star-crossed lovers (i.e. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet), but with ココロ・キセキ, the tragedy is elegantly transformed into a beautiful romance (i.e. Gonzo's Romeo x Juliet). OK, I'm stretching it as I'm currently watching the anime, but bear with me here. (I'm only halfway through the series, but I'm assuming it won't end like Willy's version.)

Ahem, back to ココロ. While the robot of miracle ceased to function at the end in both songs, ココロ leaves a slightly melancholy aftertaste, and ココロ・キセキ's is tinted with a small happiness. Together, the two compliment and complete each other. To pack so much emotion into these short minutes also reminded me of Hoshi no Koe, or the lingering feelings in the first Inu Yasha movie.

I was watching Bleach ep.160 yesterday and it had a scene where Kaien was explaining his view of 'kokoro' to Rukia, that 'kokoro' exists between two people when they connect with each other, and that the 'kokoro' is left with the other person when one of them is no longer there. I only nodded my head and thought it very true when I read this part in the manga, but seeing it in the anime after ココロ was yet another experience. I immediately related the concept to ココロ, how the 'kokoro' was obtained because there's a relationship between the scientist and the robot, and how even after the scientist dies, the 'kokoro' was left with the robot. The robot stopped in the end in both songs, but the 'kokoro' is now left with all those that have viewed and been touched by the songs and the PVs.

On the other hand, when one dies alone with no one to leave the 'kokoro' with, it's a lonely thing. The lonely scientist in ココロ died before the robot obtained the 'kokoro', so he still ended lonely. In ココロ・キセキ, the robot obtained the 'kokoro' while the scientist was still alive. Even though the scientist still died before the robot, he was able to leave the 'kokoro' with the robot. He did not end lonely.

Another thing in the same episode that resonates with ココロ is when Rukia was reflecting the various emotions she's come to experience, like the robot who came to realize joy and sadness once she obtained the 'kokoro'. Rukia actually resembles both the lonely scientist and the robot. When she was adopted into the Kuchiki family, she was distanced by those around her and was alone until Kaien came into the scene. Her heart was closed again after Kaien died in her hands and she became cold. After she met Ichigo, her heart slowly opened up and she became, in Renji's word, human. Just as Kaien had left his 'kokoro' with Rukia, Rukia will have someone to leave her 'kokoro' with when her time's up. That's what nakama is for.

See. I told you I'm a daydreaming type of person. XD

*All the links in this post are from Nico Nico Douga. I think the video are also available on YouTube in a lower quality.

KAITO はすごいね。ていうか、アニメですごいね... え? 何のはなし? 島唄よ。(KAITO sure is amazing. Actually, anime is amazing... Eh? What am I talking about? Shima-Uta/Island Song.)

Not making sense? OK, let's backtrack a bit. Well, it'll still be in somewhat reverse chronological order, but you'll (hopefully) get it by the end.

I was introduced to the famed VOCALOID Kagamine Rin(鏡音リン)'s song "kokoro"(ココロ) on YouTube via an ACG-oriented Chinese forum. My impression of VOCALOID songs were denpa and pop, neither of which were my cup of tea, so I didn't have much expectation. But I was near tear after I watched the PV. (I'll leave the details related to "kokoro" for another post.) Two weeks ago, I signed up for a Niconico Video account and searched for the PV, and eventually linked out to the author's mylist page. From there, I watched his PV for "Byakkoya no Musume"(白虎野の娘) and was instantly captured by the song.

That was the first time I heard KAITO sing, and I was thoroughly amazed. I started searching for KAITO's songs on Niconico, and I hit Shima Uta. (While I'm typing this, I found another Shima-Uta by the same KAITO + Fuuga Naoto, which is awesome!) Unfortunately there's no mp3 available for this version of the song, so I can only listen to it using Songza or Niconico. On a whim, I searched 'Shima Uta' on Songza and various tracks came up in the result. The more I listen to it, the more I like it. Including KAITO's, I now have 5 versions of Shima Uta in my Songza playlist.

So that explained the KAITO part. What about the anime part? Well, Shima Uta is Japanese folk music, and this type of music isn't usually liked too much by the masses except for old folks (pun intended). Nor is it something that can be heard anywhere, especially if one lives on the other side of the Pacific from the island nation. I, for one, had never come in contact with any Japanese traditional music until my interest in ACG blossomed.

The Inu Yasha anime opened the door to Japanese traditional music for me, and the genre quickly grew on me. Then, while watching Samurai Champloo, I heard Asazaki Ikue's "Obokuri~Eeumi." It might had been the atmosphere of the series itself, but I took a liking to the song instantly. While I don't actively seek out Japanese folk songs, I've been very open to the style since. If I didn't watch anime, I'd probably never be interested in the Japanese traditional and folk music.

On a side note, I recently learned of the meaning behind the lyrics of Shima-Uta. Time has changed, but the emotion remains. Rather than the vestige scarred by war, KAITO's Shima-Uta seems to convey a wish for peace after stormy times. The version by KAITO + Fuuga Naoto, on the other hand, connects both expressions in an act of oyako performance. It's simply great.

You'd be surprised by the scope and diversity of all things I've come in contact because of ACG. XD

Continuing from a previous post, here's more first impression on some of April's new series.

狂乱家族日記 (Kyouran Kazoku Nikki) ep.1
I wasn't too sure what this is about, but I decided to check it out anyway. The lead female isn't very likeable and reminds me of the bossy side of Suzumiya Haruhi, but I'm guessing it'll change later, perhaps even related to something dark and painful from her past? The children seem normal enough to me, and I'm all for the non-human ones, i.e., the lion, the robot, and the pink jellyfish. XD The scene where Ooka was scolding the robot that a child shouldn't attack his parent, I was more bothered by the fact that he was pointing a gun at his child. Sure enough, he was later scolded by Kyouka for that very reason. The cast is a bit on the younger side, so I'm not keen on seeing any kind of romantic elements. The art style is bright and colourful, fitting for a comical series. I'll keep an eye on this one.

Vampire Knight ep.1
I've read some of the manga and heard the LaLa subscriber service drama CD before, so I'm somewhat familiar with this series. I'm glad they're using most of the seiyuu cast from the drama CD, which is on the heavy side, but why is Koyasu Takehito absent again? Same in Zombie-Loan... :( The actual animation is better than the preview image on the website, and it didn't inherit the awkward human skeletal frame from the manga, so that's good. The manga is still on-going so I'm not sure up to which volume the anime will be. I'll be watching this.

Chi's Sweet Home
Technically, this isn't a full-size series, as it only runs about 5 minutes everyday like Damekko Doubutsu from before. I'm a sucker for animals, and cute kitten is right in my alley. Nothing much to say about this, except that I highly recommend it.

Fireball ep.1-3
Another mini-series that runs for about one and a half minute per episode. This one was recommended to me by Neko-tan, and I instantly fell in love with it. The 3D modelling and motion are excellent, and the script is full of neta and hilarious. It's really hard to imagine Disney has a part in this. I can't count how many times I've rewatched each episode. It's that good. You'll regret it if you miss this. I mean it.

Special A ep.1-2
I've read the manga before and found it interesting enough, so I sort of decided to watch it when the news of the anime came out. I haven't seen much of Goto Yuko outside of Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, so it's refreshing to see her as a bright and energetic girl full of fighting spirit. Not a big fan of her singing, though, so I'll pass on that OP... The ED is fine, but nothing special. Fukuyama Jun sure can act, but same thing, I have yet to hear a good song from him. The show seems entertaining, to say the least. I'll be watching this.

More on the April new series later.

Neko-tan dropped me a note last week recommending Shigofumi out of the last batch of anime shows, of which I replied back in email with some thoughts of my own on some of the ones I recently finished. I didn't go into too much detail in the reply, but since I already took the time to start it, I thought I'd follow-up with a proper(ly summarized) post on the topic.

もやしもん (Moyashimon)
This one is quite interesting in terms of concept. Having the ability to see and interact with microbes in such a unique way is an attractive idea for me. There's lots of germs involved, but they're packaged so cutely that you just can't resist the lopsided grin when you see them floating around and hear them speak. The cast is on the heavy side considering the nature and the length of the series, and the omake microbe theatre at the end of every episode is pretty informative. I also have an affinity to agricultural universities due to my childhood dream of becoming a vet, and such setting is rather fresh for an anime. The bit about Kei dressing as a girl was weird, though.

Moyashimon didn't inspire me to actively learn more about microbes, but it's entertaining and fun to watch. BTW, I failed microbiology, one of the required courses for pre-vet, in university before switching to earth science. I don't dislike it, though. Just didn't study enough and joined the failing 50% of the class population.

Recommended unless you must have your fix of fighting and abnormal cast. XD

破天荒遊戯 (Hatenkou Yugi)
This is a very typical girl-goes-on-journey-with-friends-she-meets-on-the-road story. The only highlight for me is the male cast, as I'm not familiar with the seiyuu for the lead female. I don't really have much to say about this show since it didn't leave much of an impression on me. It may be just me, but I feel Kino no Tabi is a better 'travel adventure' show, even if the overall mood is more melancholy.
Not recommended unless you dig Sakurai Takahiro or Miki Shinichiro.

魔人探偵脳噛ネウロ (Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro)
OK, I admit that the seiyuu cast was what convinced me at first, but the interaction between strongly portrayed characters helped keep me to the end. The 'regular' cases are typical enough and even fun sometime for a show in the suspense genre, but the 'X' cases can get pretty graphic and bloody. More so than a lot of the other war and fighting themed shows I've seen, actually. My brother got a glimpse of the second last episode (the nastiest episode in the series) and saw the screen filled with broken bodies scattered about in blood in a dark and ominous place, and he immediately cried murder and questioned my taste...

Recommended if you're into this sort of thing. You have been warned.

Rental Magica
This I really watched purely for the seiyuu cast. I'm fine with magic and supernatural power, but focusing mainly on said power is not. I was never into this kind of stuff to begin with... Without the cast that it has, I wouldn't had touched it. The OP song isn't bad, and the slow version is even better.
Not recommended unless you're into seiyuu like me.

狼と香辛料 (Wolf and Spice)
I know this is not Code Geass, but having Fukuyama Jun and Koshimizu Ami as the protagonists feeds to my delusion of Lelouch x Kallen... Ahem. This is an interesting show in that merchant business, something I usually stay away from, plays a big role. Frankly, I get lost easily whenever someone gets into some theory about the way of business (which is the majority of the series), but it's fun pretending to know what they're talking about.

Anyway, I was intrigued at first because of the 'wolf' in the name (wolf is my favourite animal) but I was left a bit disappointed in the lack of decent wolf design. On a side note, the first thing that caught my eye right after I rolled the video, was a shot of Holo slowly uncurling herself in the beginning of the OP sequence. That looks just like a flipped image of the Firefox logo (minus the globe... but she's embracing the field)! XD

It's hard for me to do the recommendation line for this one since I don't really have any feelings for it, but the original light novel seems well received... Recommended only if you like the main seiyuu or the original work?

NOIR
When I saw the 1st episode many years ago, I was completely blown away by the unique style of the OP sequence, the beautiful choreography (Kirika's awesome whenever she moves in for the kill!), the amazing and realistic scenery, and mood swaying music (this is where I first heard of Kajiura Yuki). Of course, having my favourite seiyuu as one of the leads helped as well, although she never get to speak much. Neko-tan warned me of the distorted character art in later episodes and the weak ending, but I was so impressed by the 1st episode that I decided to give it a try. And after all those years, I finally managed to finish the series.

Neko-tan's warnings were fair and well deserved, as there were more than a handful of episodes with very notable character art distortion, and the ending was indeed on the weak side. I've seen worse, however, so it was bearable. The plot is really the biggest flaw, which is fatal for any series. For this reason, I've come to view NOIR as an artistic piece composed of art, style, and music, with some kind of story in the background. Yeah.

Recommended unless you're the type of person who can't stand going to art museums or similar musical venues and must have a strong story. In which case, do at least watch the first episode.

I'm not a musically talented person, but I usually like to have something playing in the background when I'm on the computer. My kind of music, of course. And I wear earphones at work so I don't disturb other people.

At home, I have my 'Jukebox' located conveniently in Stargazer (the 2nd HDD) so there's no problem. But I can't possibly load all my music unto the work laptop which I leave at the office, and 8hr/day & 5 days/week is a pretty long time to fill. So what's one to do to rid of the silent boredom and avoid playing the same tracks over and over?

Well, first of all, there's web radio. There's a couple web radio sites with seiyuu as personalities that I listen to, but my Japanese level isn't good enough to be able to write (in English) and listen (in Japanese) at the same time. Besides, seiyuu may speak perfectly clear Japanese when voicing over characters, they can speak really fast and mumble quite a bit outside recording sessions. As a result, I can only listen to web radio when I'm doing more routine work or data punching. And the radio programs that I listen to only get updated on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

Next there's Songza. As mentioned before in a previous post, Songza is pretty neat and friendly. The only things is, it usually grabs the source files from YouTube, so you sort of have to know what to search for. It's a great resource to hear some only-on-DVD live performances, though. My current Songza playlist includes a couple Mizuki Nana's songs from the 2006 and 2007 Animelo, a few tracks from the Sound Horizon Triumph live (especially love that duet by Yuuki & Revo), a few Vocaloid2 songs (more on those in another post), and a few Kageyama Hironobu live songs (e.g. Pegasus Fantasy in Portuguese), Kamen Rider Kabuto's OP, and three versions (piano, original Russian, and English by Ed's VA) of Brothers from Fullmetal Alchemist.

Today I found a new way of listening to music at work. From an unlikely source, too. Nico Nico Douga XD I'm very new to this and right now only listen to the Vocaloid songs, but the site is full of treasures. For example, I'd search for 'KAITO' and play the results one by one as BGM. I'm not sure what I did this afternoon, but it just automatically started jumping to a different Miku's video after finishing the current one. I believed I started with a Kaito + Miku one, and it just sort of went out of control afterwards. I'll have to find out how to do that. :D

I used to do last.fm while going online on foreign (i.e., not my Coordinator) computers and play 'my radio station.' However, I soon found out that my music taste was a bit too skewed and it quickly returned with a no more new track available message after a short while. I think the site's got a whole lot of music recently so I should have a better chance now, but I think it'll only play each track at most 3 times? Not gonna work for me if I just want to listen to music when not on my computer. Besides, I still doubt it'll have much selection for my taste...

Before this all, I used to do shoutcast and listen to the anime stations. The selection is usually pretty varied, but that represents another problem for me. I don't just listen to any anime song, so while I get to hear some nice tracks that I don't have, it's relatively easy to encounter music styles and artists not quite my taste. And it can get annoying when people request a whole line up of songs like this. Lastly, the connection can be scratchy from time to time, and the sound quality may fluctuate sometime.

So at home, I have my ever expanding 'Jukebox' to rely on. At work, I alternate between the music I loaded, the web radio, and Songza, depending on what I'm doing and my mood. I'll be adding Nico Nico to the mix from now on. Should be fun. XD

ハチミツとクローバー (Honey & Clover) Japanese drama version

I've been somewhat skeptical since episode 1, and here's my verdict after watching the series.

It's a nice adaptation of the original manga, however, the project is an ambitious one and isn't really suited for a 11-episode drama series. Because of the scope of the original story and all the interweaving of the character background and relationships, it'd be much better to break it into two seasons like the anime version. As such, the coverage is relatively shallow and, while most of the issues introduced in the drama are resolved at the end, leaves something to be desired.

Of course, I said the above because I've already read the manga and watched the 1st season of the anime. For someone who has never come in contact with H&C, the drama would be a good watch with themes of friendship, love, and even goals in life. The slightly altered setting doesn't impress like the original, but the story still retains a pretty reasonable mix of ideal and reality. Great for young adults or anyone who has some level of experience.

I ended up liking Hagu the best out of all the cast, followed by Nomiya. Hagu is gentle yet strong like the original, and Nomiya is the mature voice like the original. Miyako is pretty otaku, and Mayama isn't half the pervert of the original. The others are fine, but no one really stands out except for Yamada, in a not-so-good way. She's the only one I can't get used to. It's simply too hard to compete against the extremely beautiful art of the anime. Morita? He's changed too much for the drama so he doesn't count anymore... The same goes for Romaiya-senpai. orz

I gave the drama version a B. If I've never seen H&C before, I probably would have given it a B~B+ or a B+. Recommended either way. First impression can be difficult to beat... Maybe I'll do a quick comparison for the mixed media series I've seen when I have time.

PS. I was browsing the ja.wikipedia page for the drama version just now and guess what I saw? There's going to be a Taiwanese drama based on H&C coming out in May! Yeah, I'll be checking it out for sure. This will be my 1st Taiwanese drama. XD

If you had ever stumbled into this absurd corner hidden deep in the web maze before, be it by design or accident, you'll notice something different.

Yes, I abandoned the Asuran Theme and its variant which I had been using since 2003.

Yes, I upgraded the classic template and had to pick one temporarily. Didn't like any of the templates but didn't really have time to make one myself, especially considering all the reading I'd have to do.

Yes, I finally found a template which layout is simple enough for me to modify without going through too much hassle.

Yes, this is the theme I'll be using from now on till I get bored and have a lot of time on my hand. Thus I present you Paw Wow v.3!

No, I don't have a name for the theme this time. I didn't have anything particular in mind when I picked the colours out of whim.

Yes, I will be using this as a basis for the writing/translation blog that's been waiting for its debut for years. Only God knows (literally) when that will be...

April. It's that time of the year again, when a slew of new anime shows start. I haven't time to get through even just a handful of them (heck, I only just finished NOIR less than 2 weeks ago, and I had it since it came out in 2001!), but I'll post my thoughts on what I've seen so far and follow up with more posts later.

First off, the ones I'm looking forward to the most are Code Geass R2 and Macross Frontier. Those are sure bets so I'll just grab them and wait till I have time to watch them, which, judging from past history, will be a good couple months away, if not longer...

The other ones that I'm not familiar with but will probably receive the same treatment are Toshokan Sensou (図書館戦争) and Soul Eater. The former seems very interesting and I like the clean feel of the artwork. The latter is based on a manga which I've seen but never read. I'm guessing it might be similar to Shaman King or Bleach in terms of background setting. Should be fun.

Now let's start on what I have seen so far for the new shows.

紅 (Kurenai) Ep.1-2
The OP is pretty hip and cute, and it's of a completely different tone than the anime itself. The pace is okay and the overall mood feels a little dispirited, mainly due to the relatively depressing protagonist. He's not like Shinji type of depress, though, just a bit too accepting. I rather enjoy the interaction between him and Murasaki. This is when he acts like a responsible big brother. There's still too much enigma about the whole setting and character background. I haven't decided what to think about the anime yet, but I'll continue to watch it. We'll see how it turns out.

イタズラなKiss (Itazura no Kiss) Ep.1
I watched the 1st episode purely because of Mizuki Nana, and she was indeed the only highlight for the show and not enough to save it for me. Well, Park Romi also plays the little brother, but she simply doesn't get enough screen time at all to be a factor! The art is outdated and the plot and the characters feel flat. I tried reading the original manga a long time ago and forced myself through two volumes before deciding not to torture myself anymore. My brother got hooked by the Taiwanese drama based on it and even bought the DVD box set and the soundtrack CD. I sampled bits and pieces walking by the living room while he was watching it. The Taiwanese drama version is altered enough to actually be watch-worthy, but I can't stand the way the heroine is acted out. If it's Mizuki Nana's Makoto in the drama, I'd probably watch it. But for the manga and the anime version, I don't really see any way to save them. A drama CD with a different cast (but leave Nana and Romi-nee in there!) might interest me, but I'm dropping this anime.

隠の王 (Nabari no Ou) Ep.1
I read the manga quite some time ago and found it fine. Okay, I can't remember a thing from the manga except that the different ninja tribes are trying to get the thing (whatever it's called) from Miharu and fighting his little group of comrades. Watching the 1st episode refreshed my memory and at the same time brought a fresh look for this series. The art is good, and the fighting sequences are awesome and way beyond Naruto's level. I was unsure about having Kugimiya Rie as the protagonist, but she pulled it off very nicely, not to mention when Miharu went into intentional teretere mode. Interesting story, good characters and cast, great fighting scenes. You can bet I'll be keeping this one.

BLASSREITER Ep.1
This one feels like Devil May Cry to me, only that now there's an official group fighting the demonica(?) beside those with special powers. The 2D art is good, but I have trouble swallowing all the 3D ones. The cast is pretty good, and having Itou Shizuka and Miyake Kenta in the same team reminds me of Pumpkin Scissors (which I'd really like to see a sequel of for the anime version). It's intriguing that the main guy hasn't really entered the scene and keeps watching from a distance. I'm guessing Matsukaze Masaya's voicing him 'cause I heard him in the episode preview at the end. A truly exceptional thing about this series is that it's actually available on YouTube, with pretty decent English subtitle. I have to hand it to GONZO for this bold and brilliant move. This is most encouraging and hopefully it will open the door for many other studio to promote their works this way. Like I said before, with the ridiculous price per anime DVD disc here, there's no way I'm buying anything unless I've watched it and liked it. And I know a great percentage of the anime watching population in NA feels the same way. Again, props for GONZO!

Monochrome Factor Ep.1
I can't believe I watched this. Is this suppose to be BL? The title rings a bell so I think I might had read a chapter or two of the manga before, and I don't do BL... It's got a pretty good cast, which is the only thing keeping me at the moment. The art is okay, but Shirogane's character and the infamous kiss scene are really pushing it for me. I actually looked around online to check if this is BL. It's not, thankfully. So I guess I'll stick around for a few more episodes.

I think this is long enough for a single post. More to come later.

Let's see... Spring officially started last week so it should be all nice and warm now, right? I mean, this is just Vancouver, not Toronto or Winnipeg.

Think again. This is, after all, Vancouver we're talking about here.

It only lasted about two hours, but it snowed today. Yup, a flurry with huge sticky snowflakes. It wasn't anything major, but I don't recall it snowing this close to April, at least not in the last 15 years.

Just want to leave a record here. :)

ただいま機動戦士ガンダム第1話を見終わりました。そう、あのファーストガンダムよ。

やあ、感動しました。実はめちゃくちゃカッコイイではないか！(≧∇≦)

次回も楽しみに！

PS. 仮面ライダーカブトもいいね...

很久以前寫過一篇聽得出來的聲優名單, 如今已隔數年, 來更新一下名單吧。

這次分開男女聲優及本命, 看是男聲優多還是女聲優多(我覺得應該是男聲優...)

[本命]
桑島法子　　　　　石田彰
朴路美　　　　　　関智一

[通常不會聽錯]
浅野真澄　　　　　秋元羊介
伊藤静　　　　　　池田秀一
井上喜久子　　　　伊藤健太郎
植田佳奈　　　　　井上和彦
大谷育江　　　　　うえだゆうじ
緒方恵美　　　　　大川透
岡村明美　　　　　大塚芳忠
折笠富美子　　　　置鮎龍太郎
甲斐田ゆき　　　　小野坂昌也
かかずゆみ　　　　小野大輔
勝生真沙子　　　　柿原徹也
川上とも子　　　　神谷浩史
川澄綾子　　　　　岸尾だいすけ
釘宮理恵　　　　　草尾毅
小島幸子　　　　　小杉十郎太
小清水亜美　　　　小西克幸
斎賀みつき　　　　子安武人
坂本真綾　　　　　阪口大助
高橋美佳子　　　　櫻井孝宏
田中理恵　　　　　笹沼晃
豊口めぐみ　　　　白鳥哲
野田順子　　　　　杉田智和
能登麻美子　　　　杉山紀彰
林原めぐみ　　　　鈴置洋孝
久川綾　　　　　　鈴村健一
日高のり子　　　　諏訪部順一
平野綾　　　　　　関俊彦
堀江由衣　　　　　高木渉
松岡由貴　　　　　立木文彦
三石琴乃　　　　　谷山紀章
皆川純子　　　　　千葉進歩
皆口裕子　　　　　辻谷耕史
南央美　　　　　　遠近孝一
矢島晶子　　　　　鳥海浩輔
ゆかな　　　　　　中田譲治
雪野五月　　　　　成田剣
　　　　　　　　　浜田賢二
　　　　　　　　　速水奨
　　　　　　　　　檜山修之
　　　　　　　　　福山潤
　　　　　　　　　藤田圭宣
　　　　　　　　　藤原啓治
　　　　　　　　　古谷徹
　　　　　　　　　保志総一朗
　　　　　　　　　松本保典
　　　　　　　　　真殿光昭
　　　　　　　　　三木眞一郎
　　　　　　　　　水島大宙
　　　　　　　　　緑川光
　　　　　　　　　宮田幸季
　　　　　　　　　宮野真守
　　　　　　　　　宮本充
　　　　　　　　　森川智之
　　　　　　　　　森久保祥太郎
　　　　　　　　　森田成一
　　　　　　　　　矢尾一樹
　　　　　　　　　山口勝平
　　　　　　　　　遊佐浩二
　　　　　　　　　吉野裕行
　　　　　　　　　若本規夫

[臺詞夠多時能認出]
浅川悠　　　　　　石井真
天野由梨　　　　　石川英郎
大原さやか　　　　石野竜三
川村万梨阿　　　　梅津秀行
菊地美香　　　　　緒方賢一
後藤邑子　　　　　神奈延年
小山茉美　　　　　私市淳
榊原良子　　　　　佐々木望
佐藤朱　　　　　　陶山章央
佐藤利奈　　　　　高橋広樹
篠原恵美　　　　　チョー
清水香里　　　　　寺島拓篤
進藤尚美　　　　　飛田展男
高山みなみ　　　　中原茂
田村ゆかり　　　　中村悠一
長沢美樹　　　　　浪川大輔
小林沙苗　　　　　野島健児
根谷美智子　　　　橋本晃一
潘恵子　　　　　　日野聡
広橋涼　　　　　　平川大輔
渕崎ゆり子　　　　堀秀行
松井菜桜子　　　　松風雅也
宮村優子　　　　　三宅健太
水樹奈々　　　　　安元洋貴
清水愛　　　　　　家中宏
　　　　　　　　　山崎たくみ
　　　　　　　　　山寺宏一
　　　　　　　　　西村知道

果然不出所料, 男聲優遠超過女聲優... 一來看的東西應該有關係, 二來男聲優大多用原聲, 但是女聲優大多會變聲。不過若論歌聲及歌唱力, 男聲優就被比下去了。

I dropped by BestBuy yesterday hoping to find the missing AIR TV DVD volumes. Guess what I found? They stopped carrying it without ever getting volumes 2-4.

Am I peeved? You bet. Like I had mentioned in a previous post regarding copyright, it's really the availability, or the lack thereof, that's keeping my wallet closed. This is the fourth series I have trouble completing the collection because the stores have ceased carrying the titles. You think this will do any good to the local anime industry? I think not.

I'm really losing faith in the local stores.

And I ended up buying Kanon (2006) DVD volume 1 yesterday. orz

Finally got a chance to watch Tales of Earthsea last night. I've been anticipating it for a long time, but, sadly, it didn't quite live up to the quality that I've come to expect with the Studio Ghibli name.

I've never read the original work the film is based on so I'm judging only the movie itself. The art work is excellent, as expected from Studio Ghibli. The character design is familiar, with a touch of distortion when the character is overtaken by fear and rage. I warmed up to the yakuru-like steed immediately. XD

The music isn't composed by Hisaishi Joe as most other Ghibli works, but Terashima Tamiya's music here is just great and fitting. Overlooking the panoramic scenes with the orchestra playing in the background really gives off a sense of majestic and depth.

So what let me down? The narrative. Artistic alone does not make a great tale. It has to be woven skilfully with a compelling story. This, to me, is what the film lacks.

While some of the ideas are interesting (having the "light" portion of the heart as the "shadow" chasing after the body, for one), there's too many loose threads and unanswered questions. The film focuses on Arren and his change of heart during the journey, but the quest feels really one-sided and the background setting somewhat shallow.

While the friendship between Arren and Teru is good and all, I have trouble figuring out the significance of dragons in the human world, and if Teru being one means anything. Needless to say I was disappointed when the 'END' word appeared on screen. It's not satisfying and left much to be desired. Maybe Miyazaki Gorou isn't quite ready for prime time...

At the end, though, I still gave it a B~B+. The narration may not be complete, but it still managed to establish a main storyline with lots of character growth. That, and I really liked the art and the music.

I look forward to the next master piece from the master himself, Kage no Ue no Ponyo.

今天天氣: 晴時多雲偶陣雪

這個冬天目前為止就數這次的雪最大, 20幾公分而已, 遠不及去年某次。不過已經足夠讓我被強制上班請假了。
(中午過後的路況似乎沒啥問題, 可是我不想為了三個小時而開/塞一個小時半來回 -__-)

早上還沒被禁止出門前, 很認命地在飛舞的雪花中剷雪。看著一片白茫茫的積雪, 邊剷邊希望我也能有個秋子阿姨幫忙剷啊... 這裡應該沒有他們那裡冷, 路邊也沒有供應防滑的砂子。不過我有一次因為車子非加油不可, 晚上下班的時候用微波爐熱了一杯水, 澆在加油孔的蓋子上融冰, 不然打不開沒辦法加油。

但是話說回來, 名雪學校的制服真的設計很怪, 那麼冷還是穿短裙, 連那個萬年感冒的傢伙都穿那麼薄。女性角色設定跟地方天氣實在一點都不協調啊...

Continue on my view in response to a previous post, here's my take on the music front.

I'm never one for pop or secular music, but I consider my music taste normal enough. At the very least, I know there's a lot of people out there listening to similar genres. Unfortunately yet again, anime and game OSTs are rarities here, and anime theme/character songs CDs and seiyuu CDs are by and large impossible to find. Not to mention that doujin music, which I've taken a liking to lately, circulates only within the island of Japan.

So ACG music-wise, Internet is my main source. My taste in music has been greatly broadened these past few years thanks to the downloads. I've only bought a few seiyuu CD and an old doujin bootleg CD (I think this one's out of print already) so far, but I do have a long list of CDs on my shopping list. It'll be a while before I get a chance to go to Taiwan or Japan though...

Are those downloads lost sales for the music industry? I can assure you not. Growing up, I wasn't a music listener to begin with. In fact, the only music I could stand and amuse myself with was BGM from various NES games. In short, I didn't care for music at all.

But the anime and music downloads have changed the scene. If I've never seen/heard them, I'd never know of them, and I'd never buy them. Even if I haven't bought them all, those are all potential sales. Availability is the number one deterrer for me. This is why I don't download Christian music CDs because I can buy them in the store.

On a side note, I discovered Songza recently, and I love it! The interface is excellent and intuitive, and the search speed is "Google fast." I was able to pull out quite a few songs and artists during the test drive, but those accounted for only a fraction of what I'd like to listen to. It's definitely worth trying and using.

My bottom line for music is this: I download music, and I buy the ones I like, or wait 'til I have the chance. I won't buy it if I've never heard it or if there's only one or two good tracks on it. I didn't used to listen to music at all, and I can just easily live without it. I do have my piles of Christian music CDs to pick from, after all. I see a very slime or no chance for the type of music I'm mostly interested in (seiyuu, drama CD, doujin music) to enter the market here, so these pretty much have to be imported. The Japanese music industry and artists may not be getting the money now, as much as I'd like to pay them, but they have someone who'd potentially spend lots. If only I get the chance to go to Taiwan (I heard some stores would order from Japan for you) or Japan...

嗚嗚嗚～好傷心啊～～～（；´д｀ ）

人家這麼期待終於可以看到初代鋼彈的說, 都忍受了必須開 IE, 然後再 update Adobe Flash player, 居然在我按下第一話之後給我跑出來限定於日本國內放送的佈告..........

Yahoo Japan 我討厭你... 為什麼不事先說明啊～～～(￣д￣)

劇場版AIR... こんなのAIRじゃない～～～～～～（≧ヘ≦）

Just finished watching the movie version of AIR... and I felt like betrayed. Give me back my youth (wrong)!! I already knew the movie is nothing like the original game or the anime from ja.wikipedia, but it was still a big let down for me, especially considering that I gave the anime series a grade of A-~A and the Summer Specials a B+.

Given the relatively short time frame of a film, it's understandable that the story line would have to be narrowed down to focus on only few characters. However, the pace still seemed rushed, and the love relationship just blossomed too abruptly and felt forced. I mean, a week? They didn't even talk or interact that much. Not to mention that both the plot and the characters were altered quite drastically, for the worse.

While it cleverly weaved the Summer episode with the present through Misuzu's field work research, the story for the mutated Summer episode was so lame, it reflected on the present plot line and killed much of the emotional elements that made the title. I didn't shed a single drop of tear, nor did my eyes get moist during the movie. The festival day was pretty good, though.

The character design deviated a lot from the anime version that I was so used to, and I never got around that to the very end. It just looked generic to me for some reason. Design style aside, the art was good when it's good and bad when it's bad. And by bad, I mean bad. The difference between the good and the bad was so great that you'd think it's produced by two separate teams. Toei Animation is clearly no Kyoto Animation, and the artistic gap is painfully apparent when they both make the same title. It also didn't help that I watched the Summer Specials right before watching the movie... Orz

The overall film was rather static, and quite a few of the 'action' scenes resided on the bad side. I did find the use of the traditional art board drawing a nice and interesting touch.

The seiyuu cast and the music were the only highlights for the film, though those were basically from the original game/anime and weren't enough to save the film adaptation for me. Midorikawa Hikaru's Yukito felt a bit like Zelgadiss, gloomy and people/self-loathing, while Ono Daisuke's Yukito had more spunk. Not having played the game, I can't say which is closer to the original Yukito. But then again, the main character of an H-game is usually invisible anyway, since the player is him... I was also pleasantly surprised to hear Miki Shinichirou and Okiayu Ryoutarou.

I'd go see it in the theatre, but not buy the DVD. I can imagine people watching this because they had played the game or seen AIR TV, but I can't imagine people get converted because of this. I gave the film a grade of B-, which, despite all the above bashing, is still a decent score. I don't see myself watching this again, RIP...

Honey & Clover drama ep.01

I wasn't planning on watching it so soon, but I couldn't resist. After all, the anime was what introduced me to the world of H&C and is on my list of top 5 anime. I was stung once before by the movie version, so when I saw the news of the series being dramatized, I was excited and afraid at the same time. I recognized a few names in the cast list (after linking out to their ja.wikipedia pages for the list of roles), but that did nothing to pacify my anxiety. So with much tentative anticipation, I rolled the video.

And the 1st episode left me with mixed feelings.

Of course the casting wouldn't even be close to that of the original, and I feared for the worst. The drastic opening only aided in building up dread. It was relatively easy to get used to the drama Takemoto, although I find his monologue lacking. I do remind myself, however, that I'm comparing the drama against the anime version with professional seiyuu, so this can be overlooked.

It took me almost half-way to acknowledge Mayama and Hagu, but I find them well suited and have high hopes for them. Romaiya-senpai is interestingly different, but he doesn't seem to have a big enough build for the amusement park mascot role. XD Rika looks physically able and not as fragile as in the original (she even appears a little too not fragile), but I think she's got the Rika role right. Miyako doesn't seem as eccentric, but that could change when her air time increases. Nomiya... I can't tell from the less than one-minute screen time he has. XD

Notice that I left out two main characters? That's right. Morita and Yamada, my favourite male and female from the series. Morita is probably one of the most difficult characters in the series to portray. I think the drama Morita is doing a good job, but he's still a bit too refined and not crazy enough for me. XD Yamada, on the other hand, just doesn't have the air as the original. Except when she kicks. In other words, she has all the tsun but none of the tere. The drama Yamada also looks older than the rest of the main student cast. I even think Takahashi Mikako would be a much better Yamada...

The story includes some episodes from various stages in the original and adds its own ingredients and flavours. How that'll turn out, only time can tell. This is only the 1st episode, after all. As the 1st episode usually provides the story and character backdrop, it's too early to say anything at this point. I shall continue to follow the series.

I was reading (again, trying futilely to catch up) my RSS feeds when I came across a Bits Debate on the topic of copyright and technology, the first in the weekly series.

The arguments from both sides, while valid at times, seem a bit vague and general. Maybe just warming up for the first day? In any case, the comments are what's really worth reading and provide much insights for both parties, especially the nay side. I haven't the time to go through all of them, but the ones I've read so far spurred me to write a little on this matter myself.

Granted, I am no business major nor am I expert in law and history and whatever may be affected by the issue. I can only offer my meagre two cents based on my experience and practice as a consumer/end user, within the confines of anime (video), music, software, and touching a bit on books. Seeing how I tend to rant on and on, I'll break this into several posts over the next few days, each pertaining to one category.

[Anime (Video)]

Living far away from the land of the rising sun and its yam-shaped island neighbour, anime-related stuff are hard to come by. Even when they do, they're usually charged for a premium. Quite a few of my friends know that I watch anime and fewer still share similar interests (eg. Japanese/Taiwanese/Korean drama and Tokusatsu). As a result, I can't rely on friends for anime support and have to buy them myself.

With the wide range of anime genre and the sheer number of titles, picking out ones I'd like while not emptying my bank account is no easy feat. Due to the high price tag for anime DVDs, I generally only shell out for the sure bets. Nine out of ten times, the sure bets are series that I've already seen. The odd deviations so far are G Gundam, Zeta Gundam, and Char's Counterattack. Yeah, they're all from the Gundam family. Go figure, eh?

So how do I get to watch a series before the DVD purchase? Fan subs. I can't speak for the other people, but my anime DVD collection has grown from nil to close to a hundred ever since I started watching fan subs. Sure, YTV's been showing a few anime these past few years, but those offerings, with the sole exception of Gundam Wing and Fullmetal Alchemist, haven't been successful in keeping me in front of the TV at all. I couldn't really stand the English voice acting for a lot of the other series, and I stopped watching all together after the 1st re-run of Bleach about a dozen or so episodes in. I much prefer my anime in Japanese.

As far as I know, all North American anime DVD releases have to have the English audio track. I imagine that's included in the price tag and thus the reason of them being more expensive than their Taiwanese counterpart, which only has the Japanese audio track. If it wasn't for the region code issue, I'd import a whole bunch of them from Taiwan. Not to mention that there's way more choices and stock over there.

With the high cost and less than scarce availability of anime titles (I'm still bitter that Geneon ceased distributing Fafner in the local retail stores here without ever releasing all the volumes), I'm not spending my hard earned cash blindly. Because of fan subs, I know what I'm getting when I put down the money for my anime purchases, and I'd happily and readily contribute to the North American anime industry. Because of fan subs, I absolutely refuse to buy bootleg anime DVDs, no matter how cheap or how fast they can come out, and I strongly encourage my friends to only buy legitimate discs. While it's not exactly legal to download and watch fan subs, it makes no sense to help fatten the pocket of bootleggers if you're going to pay.

Fan subbing has done wonders in North America for the anime industry in general. Not only does it help drive DVD sales and related products like model kits, figurines, and accessories, it's also free and viral marketing. Neko-kun mentioned in a blog post that during an anime convention panel session, the seiyuu Yukana was asked by someone from the audience about the future development of Code Geass. The question greatly surprised her since the series is not released in North America yet. I can bet you, though, that a lot more fan sub watchers will buy the DVDs when they come out than people whose only source of anime is Cartoon Network (US) or YTV (Canada).

My bottom line for anime (video) is this: I watch fan subs, and I buy the DVDs if I like the series. I'm not buying it if I don't know whether I'll like it or not, because anime DVDs are expensive, much more so than movie DVDs. And bootleg is a definite no-no. In the North American setting where anime is niche market and far from being mainstream for the near future, fan subs actually help the industry and contribute greatly in terms of customers, sales, marketing, and overall anime evangelism. Fan subs downloaded are not lost sales.

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

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...

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

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

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！:)

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?

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.

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...

Minna, yoku ganbatta na. Mata rainen ne.

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 Shin Dotchi no Ryouri Show 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

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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

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

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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

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...

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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...

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...

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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。

Firefox 2.0! XD

I just installed it a few minutes ago and browsed through the new menus and such, and I find it quite swell. Here's a quick walkthrough.

First of all, extensions and themes are now collectively called add-ons. Right off the bat, Firefox told me which add-ons have updates available for 2.0 and installed the updates. Out of the eight extensions that I had for 1.5, three were updated, two are shown to be not compatible, and the rest work fine. undoclosetab (incompatible with 2.0, of course) is now built into Firefox so I uninstalled it. I haven't used BugMeNot (incompatible with 2.0) in quite a while now so I also uninstalled it. Neither of the two themes I had were compatible so I'm using for the default theme right now. Being a somewhat skin junky, I've never used the default theme for both Mozilla and Firefox. Surprisingly, it's actually not too bad, especially when I have Windows running the classic theme and tweaked the colours to my liking.

Currently installed extensions:
Context Search 0.3
DictionarySearch 2.0
MeasureIt 0.3.6
Paste and Go (still waiting for update)
ReminderFox 0.9.9.3
text/plain 1.1.8

Some of the big things for 2.0 involve better web browsing experience. undoclosetab is built in, so is session restore. undoclosetab is self-explanatory, but I've never used session restore or the likes so it's a new thing for me. So far it's useful when I needed to install a dictionary or update something that require Firefox to restart. When it came back up, voilà, all my previously opened tabs are there and accounted for. I haven't encountered a crash yet (and I can probably count with my fingers the number of times Firefox has crashed on me in the past few years) so I can't tell how well it works, but I think I'm in good hands if it should happen. At the far right corner of the tab bar sits a little arrow, which renders a drop-down list of the tabs opened. I can see myself benefiting from this, seeing how I had over a hundred tabs opened the last time I was browsing through ff.net. XD I do find one of the new additions galling, however. The little cross on the tabs for closing. I close tabs via the context menu or Ctrl-W. Having a cross on the tab itself would mean a heightened risk of hitting it by accident. Even with the built in undoclosetab, having too many accidents can still be annoying.

As I type this, the inline spell check works wonderfully well. It underlines the questionable words with unobtrusive red dots, which is a lot easier to ignore than the ones in Word. You can easily add the words to the dictionary or select from a list of suggested spellings. When I type, I tend to just pound away on the keyboard and it's not rare for me to misspell words. The built in spell check is definitely a plus for me. Too bad it only works in Firefox and doesn't extend to Notepad... The only thing with the spell check is that I had to install the British English dictionary instead of the US one. I hate it when my "neighbour" gets corrected.

Other noticeable new features for 2.0 include Live Titles, search suggestions and a search engine manager in the search box, and improved RSS function. I'm skipping those because I don't use them. I'm sure someone else will cover them.

So what's my verdict? Well, there's still room for improvement (what software doesn't?), but it's worthy of the 2.0 label. What are you still waiting for? Rediscover the web with Firefox 2.0!

As I sat on my bed this morning, wrapped in my blanket in a lame attempt to fend off the cold air, I pondered on the topic of writing. A lot of my recent posts are in Chinese because it felt more natural due to the ACG-related topics. The more I write, the more familiar I become with the language and the words once again. But there're still areas where I have difficulty.

Technically speaking, my Chinese reading is much better than English, so shouldn't my Chinese writing be better as well? Not necessarily. While I do have better grammar in Chinese, I did most of my higher education in English. On one hand, I communicate with my family and friends in Chinese. On the other hand, the majority of professional knowledge come to me in English. This leads to an interesting split in my writing. For anything technical or paper style, English is my language of preference. With the long history and richness of the Chinese language, my casual posts are usually more descriptive when I write in Chinese.

There is a third area where I often have to struggle with both languages before compromising and settling with one. Fiction/Fanfiction writing. I first attempted writing my own fantasy stories back in '96. Obviously, there was no way I could have pulled something like that off with English given my level at that time. As with a lot of people, my little projects took off... and then kind of evaporated. Some due to writer's block, some because I kept changing the setting or story concept. I still have all the scripts and read them from time to time. I love reading my own writings. XD

Anyhow, a few years gone by without any organised writing on my part. Then I encountered anime and entered the realm of fanfiction. I put my imagination to work and started writing fanfiction, this time in English because that's the language of the medium that introduced me. Again I kicked off countless little projects like mad, but to this day, except the ones too outrageous or crazy for others to understand so I just keep them to myself, only a small fraction of them are posted. I've had a number of posting hiatus, but the stories continued to progress slowly in my head so I do intend to finish them all. If anything, then at least for peace of mind when I plunge in for my next original story project, which planning already started a few months ago.

This is where the dilemma comes in. I do better description and action scenes in Chinese, but I have not the ability to make the story flow in Chinese. I have more experience with composing stories in English, but I suck at description and action. Worse yet, I've been watching anime in Japanese for a few years now, and Japanese often pops in my head when the characters talk in my head. This annoys me greatly as I have yet to find satisfying translation for some Japanese words and phrases. Sometimes it's easier to translate it into English, but since Chinese and Japanese have closer linguistics, Chinese is usually the desirable language in most cases.

I have a habit of doing the setting and, at the same time, having the characters go ahead and play out the story in my head. This is usually a bad thing for me. If I get too caught up in all the details for the setting, the story gets stuck and isn't able to progress further. If the story moves too smoothly in my head, I have to make up some background info at the spur of the moment and by the time I'm able to actually write the story down when the settings are finished, I forget half of the middle part already and only remember the opening and the ending. The latter is what happened to Heir of Light and Slayers SEED, which explains why it takes me so long to get the chapters out, 'cause I've forgotten what's played out.

For now, I've decided to do the project, codenamed Agion, in English. It's not hard to imagine the three-way tackle match though: settings in English, characters sometimes talk in Japanese, and action scenes blur by in Chinese. I can't wait to get started on the actual thing! XD

也不知道到底在忙些什麼, 可是最近一個月就是沒有寫東西的動力跟時間。所以, 讓我們來回顧一下還存活於記憶中的九月大事吧(對, 又是總集篇, 而且這次大概還漏了不少...)

九月最大的事莫過於 9/7 拔智齒。那種可怕的經驗, 我絕對不想再經歷一次。果然大學的時候就應該去拔掉, 別讓它們根深蒂固這麼多年, 變得更難拔。不過老實說, 我對那時候在看的牙醫的技術不是很信任, 所以還是現在拔比較好一點吧? 總而言之, 真的只有一個字可以形容那個過程: 痛! 我的牙齒本來就很硬, 據說這種比較難拔, 但是最重要的是, 麻醉對我不是很有用。沒打夠? 拔之前就打了十幾針(四顆牙), 中途又打了五針左右, 結果還是痛到眼淚都流出來了。我都不記得最後一次因為痛而流淚是什麼時候的事了, 真是一世英名全毀啊。

痛歸痛, 畢竟也不到兩個小時。更麻煩的恢復期還在後面吶。拔完牙第二天, 母親大人就跟朋友到美國去了, 然後我那天小發燒。拔過智齒的人應該都知道, 之後最少兩個禮拜沒辦法正常進食。話說拔完後三天, 教會的小家要辦火鍋。連嘴巴都不能張很大的我要怎麼吃呢? 當然是不能吃。結果大家很快樂地選購食材及大快朵頤, 然後我很可憐地在旁邊慢慢地細吞著蛋糕吐司。最哀怨的是, 大家的食量都不大, 結果剩了一大堆一大堆打包回家! 我也想吃啊~~~ 哼, 即使是已經什麼都可以吃了的現在(不過因為種種因素, 右邊還是不怎麼能咬硬的東西; 從小就一直都是用左邊在吃比較多), 回想起那段只能每天吃麵類, 不能吃肉跟很多種青菜的日子, 還是令人唏噓不已。

順道一提, 在我拔牙的那個週末, 店裡的顧問之一也因踢足球弄傷腳踝, 結果 MIA 了三個禮拜, 一直到這禮拜才回來。所以我拔完快一個禮拜的時候, 就被拖回店裡上班跟代班。還好那時候已經過了最忙的 BTS, 不用跟太多客人講話。

在拔智齒的恢復期中, 把絢爛舞踏祭 ザ・マーズ・デイブレイク看完了。位於火星地面下的海盜尋寶的故事, 実に面白い! 各個城市船、不同海盜們及軍隊的做法、機械及人物的設定、火星跟地球的關係, 這一切的設定也都非常有趣。當然, 関智一和桑島法子的主角配對也是一個 plus, Vess 的主題曲「深海の空」亦是我很喜歡的一首。夜明號上的人們, 各個都有自己的目標及夢想。正因為他們是海盜, 所以他們可以任性地追求自己的夢。只要行得正坐得穩(まあ, 雖然職業是海盜, 其實他們算羅賓漢一類的義賊吧), 比起被一大堆規矩和面子束縛的軍隊, 他們追夢的日子豈不愜意得多? 最後神之石回歸火星的海, 一點一滴地將生命力灌注進去, 也將對未來的盼望帶進人們的心中, 很棒的結局呢。

除了絢爛舞踏祭, 另外一部在看的是機動武闘伝Ｇガンダム, 還剩一片(四話)就看完了。雖然是 1994 年的作品, 又是 AU, 但是很不錯吶。爆笑有時、熱血有時、感動亦有時。島本和彥加関智一, 果真除了熱血還是熱血啊! 唯一美中不足的是, 因為是北美版的 DVD, 字幕都是英文, 所以東方不敗流派跟 Sai Saishi 的招數都變成魄力不足的 romanji, 害我還得去找對應漢字(這種時候, 日文的 Wikipedia 就很有用)。Ｇガンダム果然跟一般鋼彈, 甚至是 AU 作品, 完全不同類型, 不過不是很歡樂嗎? 熱血啊, 沸騰吧! 為了地上的愛和正義!

咦, 為了地上的愛和正義而戰是女神的聖鬥士的工作吧? 沒錯, 所以我第一眼看到冥王神話的時候很興奮... 然後又失望了。還好冥王神話有兩篇, 至少有一篇是可以看的。「什麼跟什麼啊?」是我弟聽我說後的第一個反應。也就是說, 車田正美老師的 The Next Dimension 畫爛了, 手代木史織的 The Lost Canvas 可以當少女漫畫版的聖鬥士看。不曉得冥王神話的走向會怎麼樣, 不要連故事也寫爛了。只要故事好, 絕大部份的畫風我都可以接受。拜託了, 兩位老師!

同じ NEVERLAND なのに、感じはぜんぜん違うよね。

I haven't read Peter Pan (!! Yeah, I know...) so I'm not familiar with the term, but I happened to bump into it today watching two anime episodes: Trinity Blood ep.7 & ARIA the ANIMATION ep.5. While the former tells of a tragic tale of innocent children being experimented upon and in turn harbour hatred toward the adults (although the ending is not too bad considering the genre and style of the show), the latter reflects upon the reclamation and retention of childlike innocence, as well as the notion that the world would look wonderful from the eyes of a wonderful person(素敵な人の目には世界は素敵に映ってくれるのよ).

いつもいい言葉がいっぱいあるし(藍華の場合は恥ずかしいセリフだな XD)、前回が見る時も泣きました。やっばり、ARIA は超癒し系ですね。:D

プラネテス(動畫版)完食。

真的是很棒的作品。剛開始以為只是單純的宇宙 debris 回收工作跟 debris 部員之間的互動, 沒想到後半部會搞出這麼大的事件, 連主角跟幾個重要角色都變黑了(黑ハチマキ跟以前的我有像, 但是我比他還要黑上幾倍...)。不過結局是一般動畫中難得的圓滿又感人溫馨結局, 真是太好了。全劇至始至終都穿插著許多引人省思且實際的問題, 但是仔細想想, 真的只要有「愛」就能解決了呢。無私、完全給予、彼此包容的愛。そう、神の愛のようにね。我也是這樣才不再繼續黑下去, 感觸良多啊。

這部剛出來的時候, 最吸引我的地方是它的 SF 設定。裡面無論是機械、架構、觀念、技術、及科學應用等, 都很真實(宇宙中沒有空氣做為音波的媒介, 再大的爆炸也聽不到啊!), 於對天文及宇宙開發有興趣的我來說, 有著平淡但相當的吸引力。最後フォン ブランシ要出航那裡, 也讓我想到アルジェントソーマ裡最後ユリシーズ号出航的時候。雖然プラネテス的畫風不如一般動畫顯眼, 角色背景跟性格也平凡不過, 但是有愛就沒問題(笑)。

順道一提, 聽リュシー的時候聽出ガン×ソード的ファサリナ。雪野五月果然很棒。

七月初的時候好不容易完食了 Gundam SEED DESTINY, 本來要寫感想跟評論的, 不過一直沒時間, 寫了幾行就沒繼續寫, 導致之後原本想寫的東西也一直沒動。以前的 SEED 感想也是這樣, 結果就常常有好長一段時間什麼都沒寫。為了破除這種壞習慣, 這次就先寫別的, 有空的時候再補完 SEED DESTINY 的評論好了。

そういうわけで、このポストは7月の総集編。XD

月初的時候終於看完 Gundam SEED DESTINY。如前文所說, 評論以後再補上。

SD戦国伝天下統一編　四代目頑駄無大将軍 見參! 之前組 BuCUE 的時候還不覺得, 這種時候就會很希望有塗漆可以用啊... 雖然是1991年出品的東西, 做得很精細又很帥吶。BB戦士最高！XD 照片等我有空想到的時候再補上, 先看官方照片吧。

蒼穹のファフナー RIGHT OF LEFT。這算是蒼穹のファフナー的前傳, 還沒看之前就知道是幾乎無人生還的結局, Peace of mind 的 striking 度也比 Separation 要高得多, 早就想到大概會是催淚作, 不過還是沒想到會哭這麼多地方。好像很多人都拿這部跟 EVANGELION 或 RahXephon 比, 雖然還沒看過 RahXphon, 但是ファフナー跟 EVA 給我的感覺相差十萬八千里。看完 EVA 會覺得 "good for you" 可是有點空虛, 看完 End of Evangelion 會覺得想翻桌(我非常討厭陰沉或無奈絕望的東西), 但是看完ファフナー會覺得看到希望之光, 即使是 L計画全 38 人無一生還也是一樣。想當初蒼穹のファフナー的消息剛出來的時候, 我本來還因為人設的關係跟角色臉上的效果線(long story...)差點不打算看。好在後來還是抓了第一話, 然後就決定追下去, 現在在我的 list 上排名於前十五名。順道一提, 我對ファフナー的聲優都蠻陌生的, 可是 RIGHT OF LEFT 最開始僚在畢業典禮結束後跟一個前輩講話, 忽然讓我聽到環的聲音, 原來都是宮野真守呢。後來看了一下, 他還配了 WOLF'S RAIN 的キバ, 讓我更期待了。(對, WOLF'S RAIN 就是那個目前為止我只有在它剛出來的時候看了第一話, 之後就沒時間看, 可是就因為這麼一話, 將之排到前五名的傳奇作品 XD)

很久以前就想再買另外一顆 HD 做 media/data backup, 不過這裡不比台灣, 任何電腦用品都貴得要命, 所以一直都只是想想而已。終於, 在一次偶然地機會(其實是去找看有沒有ファフナー的DVD)看到某店的 250GB HD 在大特價, 立刻以比平常半價還要低一點的價錢買下, 很高興地捧回家。雖然是第一次裝 2nd HD, 過程還算是順利, 沒出現任何火花或電波(大概)。到了該給它取名字的時候了。如果按照之前的慣例, Prototype、NewType、Coordinator, 難道要叫 Extended 嗎? orz 不, 絕對不行。別的不說, 出場的 Extended 全員戰死, 而且還有導致暴走的禁句, 一點都不好啊～～ 想了30秒後, 決定叫 STARGAZER。因為正好是 G drive, 就變成 STARGAZER (G:) XD

上個禮拜, 一個朋友一邊看著店裡用32吋 HD LCD 放的 Matrix, 一邊讚嘆著其拍攝跟 CG 的手法。第一次看到 Matrix 的時候, 的確是有一點覺得拍得不錯, 動作的 choreography 跟其他片子完全不同, 還蠻有創意的。不過最近幾年來也算看了不少動畫, 其實 Matrix 裡的拍法在動畫裡都是很常見的。不, 應該說動畫在這方面上仍是遙遙領先。單就戰鬥及動作畫面來說, 最近看的 Final Fantasy: Advent Children 跟 BLACK CAT 就是很好的例子。尤其是 BLACK CAT, 之前看漫畫的時候還不覺得怎麼樣, 本來還不太想看動畫的, 沒想到看了以後覺得很棒, 最後給它打了個 B+~A- 的分數。Combined with the awesome graphics & music, the gripping story telling, the boundless imaginary settings, and the spectacular seiyuu voice over, it's no wonder why I much prefer anime over shows or movies acted by real people.

以前一直認為 ACG 裡會怕打雷的女主角只是一個傳統的設定, 到今天我才知道, 像ハルヒ那樣聽到雷鳴會動彈不得是真的有可能的。最近炎炎夏日, 如果不開著窗戶, 在一整天西曬又有電腦的房間裡根本沒辦法睡。就這樣到了凌晨(?)被雨聲吵醒, 正在想說這個雨怎麼聽起來比站在蓮蓬頭下還要大聲, 突然百葉窗外的黑夜一閃, 然後不到一秒就打了一個驚天動地的雷, 感覺好像整個房間都在震動, 嚇了我一大跳。接下來的時間, 除了持續不停的傾盆大雨, 每十秒一個小雷, 每三十秒一個大雷。每次一看到閃電就開始緊張, 深怕又是一個可怕的雷響。我包在被子裡, 數著每個閃電的時差(多於三秒就可以放心, 只是個小雷), 不禁想到ハルヒ。連我都會有點怕了, 如果小的時候一個人晚上在家, 遇到這種雷雨交加的情況, 一定會造成永久性的恐懼症吧。想了想, 閉上眼跟耶穌禱告, 請祂把我受到的驚嚇跟恐懼除去, 又沉沉睡去。有耶穌真好。:)

剛才發現了一個非常令人震驚的事情... 滑鼠上那個滾輪是可以按下去的, 也就是一般在網路上常常看到的 middle-click!!!

驚訝地發現滾輪可以按之後, 為了確認那個就是中鍵, 還 undoclosetab 叫回一個分頁來試驗, 結果真的按一下就關掉了! 之前還在 ICQ 上跟貓講說沒看過有中鍵的滑鼠, 搞了半天, 它一直都在那裡啊。要不是剛才看 MozTW 上的某篇回文裡寫了「滑鼠中鍵(滾輪)」這樣的字眼, 我大概永遠都無法解開這個中鍵之謎。好樣的, 為什麼我會被騙了這麼多年... orz

Coordinator, front USB online! XD

I was appalled to find Coordinator off when I returned from church this afternoon. My initial guess was a power outage, but considering that the two desktops were the only victims, it was likely a power surge. I never turn off the computers, so I took this rare chance to vacuum the inside. It's been nearly a year since it was cleaned, anyway.

While I was at it, I decided to try getting the front USB connected again. After much flipping the motherboard user's guide and searching online, I ventured into the unknown. The fact that the connectors came unlabelled and separated only added to the confusion. With some beginner's luck, I was able to get the connectors lined up correctly. It was difficult to describe my feeling and sense of pride when the USB mouse cursor moved across the screen while connected to the front port. Hey, I am no tech, so opening up the case and getting something to work without screwing up is always a big accomplishment for me.

Having carried out this exploit successfully, I moved on to New Type with more confidence and a bit more experience under my belt... Only to find that the connectors were already on. Apparently, I only disconnected the ones in Coordinator back then because of the location of the pins. Feeling annoyed and a little foolish, I went to grab the motherboard user's guide just to make sure. In the bag was, lo and behold, a USB bracket with connectors! To mend my wounded ego, I immediately got to work on putting it in. Needless to say, I was feeling satisfied once more when New Type recognised the USB key I plugged into the new ports. The front ones still didn't work, however. I think the connectors might have gotten loose during that HD swapping incident way back, but I was too irritated to open it up again for inspection. It'll have to wait until next time (read: unforeseeable future).

Today's score:
Coordinator - 6 USB (4 rear, 2 front)
New Type - 4 USB (4 rear)

PS. There was another power surge while I was typing this post, which earned a "damn it!" from me. Luckily, I was only in the middle of the second paragraph (not counting the first line) and still remembered mostly everything.

拜網友貓的指教, 昨晚順利地下了彩雲國物語第一、二話, 而且是中文字幕(!)。這部是一聽說要動畫化就決定要追的。故事背景跟人設暫且不提, 桑島法子+関智一就夠說服我了(當初絢爛舞踏祭就是這樣), 梁邦彥的音樂也是一大賣點(第一話裡有段插入音樂跟偲芳歌超級像的)。小說大概是無緣拜讀, drama CD 可能要找找看。

沒記錯的話, 秀麗會去別的州當州牧, 然後又捲進某些陰謀, 看來跟劉輝結連理的時候還遙遙無期啊。小說還沒完結, 不知道動畫會發展到哪裡。話說回來, 靜蘭該不會其實是劉輝的哥哥吧? 雖然入紅家的時間早於八年前的政亂, 可是好像也沒交代說那個失蹤的繼承人是什麼時候不見的。靜蘭的姓的發音也是紫(し), 常常在暗處看著劉輝, 好幾個人聽到他的名字的時候也有反應... 如果是真的就有好戲可看了, 想要回王位的時候順便要了妃子, 然後看兩個人搶秀麗。(不負責妄想) XD

--跳 topic 分隔線--

昨天在從圖書館回家的路上, 經過一大片在施工的空地, 靠近路邊的地方插了一塊牌子寫「SURREY AUTOMALL」, 結果第一眼看到的是 AUTOMAIL... 前天剛看完鋼鍊咩 XP

ただいま鋼の錬金術師を完食ました。感動しました。

生命と感情、多くは途中で失われましたが、多くのものも得られました。人の魂(いのち)は値を付けることができない。だから、キリストは私達のために十字架に死にました、そして、復活された。だから、人々は一生懸命で生きる、人間同士を愛と尊重するはずです。

わたしも、少し成長しましたかな？

Keyboard mission complete! XD

I accidentally spilled some milk (read: half cup) on the keyboard a few days ago and the "a" key stopped responding right away. Devastated, I hung the keyboard dry on the floor and used the back-up keyboard I got last year (what foresight...). Since it's hard to say if the "a" key will work again or not, I decided to clean the whole thing, which I've been meaning to do for a long time now.

As expected, the inside of the keyboard was a sight to behold, in a bad way. There wasn't enough scrap to fill a plate, but I almost had second thought and considered chucking it instead. Though, fortunately, it wasn't as bad as it looked, and I was able to restore it to a presentable state in less than ten minutes.

The fun part of the thing was, of course, taking the keys out and putting them back in. I had a bit of trouble popping the keys back because I forgot to take a picture of it before, but I figured it out at the end with some lucky guesses. Why didn't I just look at the other keyboards in the house, you ask? For some reason, all the keyboards have different symbols for their symbol keys (each of the symbol key has four symbols for this keyboard), and that's where I had the problem.

Anyhow, I'm glad that the keyboard is back now. Not that there was anything wrong with the back-up keyboard, but I like the key layout and the feel better on this one. For someone who has the tendency to just type away when given the chance, a good and comfortable keyboard is essential. This explains why it took me much trying out to get a keyboard but only seconds to choose a mouse...

Ah, my cute little clean keyboard. We have much to catch up. And I'll remember not to bring any open beverage too close to you again... Try to, anyway. XD

剛才看了兩話的動畫銀牙伝説ウィード, 看完只有一個感想: 好隨便啊... 的確, 跟1986年的銀牙・流れ星銀比起來, 現在的技術、音像、聲優要來得專業一些, 但是想靠這些打混過去是行不通的。雖然一看就知道年代久遠, 很多地方都很粗糙, 流れ星銀卻給人很細心的感覺, 尤其是在狗的部份。

會特別注意狗應該是意料之中的事吧。別說我對狗情有獨鐘, 國中的時候畫了一大堆銀牙的模仿畫, 銀牙亦列於我 All Time Favourite 的名單上, 基本上會去看這部的應該都是因為狗的關係吧。再回來看看兩部動畫中的狗。當然, 怎麼樣也比不過原作的狗帥, 兩部也各有帥氣的 pose, 但是在動作方面, 尤其是戰鬥畫面, ウィード就遠遠不及銀牙。之所以會有覺得很隨便的感想, 這是最大的原因之一。

很遺憾, 銀牙的讀者似乎不多, 之前問岩瀨書店的店員, 她們根本連聽都沒聽過, 所以基本上在這裡是買不到。回台灣還不知道要等幾年, 回去了也不知道找不找得到 T__T 要試 eBay 嗎? Orz

As promised, here's casual post #1. XD Since I'm listening to 朴路美's songs right now, let's talk about her.

嚴格說起來第一次聽到朴路美是シャーマンキング的道蓮, 不過那個番組我只看到道蓮出場那裡, 而且是很早很早以前看的, 所以在這裡就不算了(手上倒是有幾首道蓮的歌)。第一次正式聽到是魔探偵ロキRAGNAROK 的ヘイムダル。雖然當時對大部份的聲優都不熟, 但是馬上就對這個聲音有反應, 也很有印象。之後在鋼の錬金術師聽到エドワード的時候, 馬上就想到是她。不過鋼の錬金術師那時候我只看了不到五話, 一直到現在還沒看完 orz。對朴路美的喜歡程度急速上昇是在看了学園アリス的日向棗和うえきの法則的植木耕助, 之後朴路美在我的女聲優名單裡一直都排得很高(第一當然還是桑島法子, 除了第一以外也沒有排過名次)。

其他幾個聽比較多的角色包括 BLEACH 的日番谷冬獅郎、創聖のアクエリオン的雙胞胎、∀ガンダム的ロラン・セアック、部份朗読劇「電車男」、跟 SAMURAI 7 的カツシロウ。雖然她是女聲優, 也有配女性角色, 可是她配的少年才是絕品哪! 要熱血有熱血, 要冷血有冷血, 要天然有天然, 要算計有算計, 絕對的實力派大姊。低低厚厚的聲音, 唱起歌來也很棒。強力推薦(～大心)!

PS. 剛剛才發現朴路美要配 NANA 的大崎ナナ。本來對這個完全沒興趣的, 畫風也不怎麼喜歡(不過有幾個朋友好像挺喜歡這部的), 可是從來沒聽過朴さん配女性主役, 聲優名單裡又有関智一跟石田彰... 春季新番出來的時候先抓個幾話來看看好了。漫畫嘛, 還是不打算去碰。

It's painfully obvious that I've failed to uphold my new year's resolution to write something everyday. But I want to get back to the habit of writing again, if nothing else but to prepare me for the write-up of my million-page final project. Well, actually I don't know how many pages it will be, but it wouldn't hurt to keep myself in the writing spirit. Wait, that's not the right description in this case. Practising self-discipline is probably a better way to put it. There're always countless, albeit many of which are crazy, ideas swimming in my head and begging to be put into words, but I just ignore them plainly 'cause I'm too lazy to make the effort of writing them out.

So! Hopefully this time I'll get better result. We'll start with something casual. In the next post, that is. XD

お楽しみに！

I know I shouldn't be doing this, as there're tons of stuff I need to do, but... SeaMonkey 1.0 installed! XD

So far, SM feels very similar to Mozilla, but the lack of a suitable theme is a big drawback to me right now. The modern theme is all right, but the tabs are hard to distinguish (the fore/background rule), which confuse me quite often. I'm sure there are usable themes out there. I'll need to search for them some other time.

As Mozilla will only be updated for security up to the 3rd quarter of 2006, SM will eventually replace Mozilla on my computer. That's why I'm trying to configure it to be as close to Mozilla as possible. Again, I really don't have the time to go through about:config today, so the comparable preference and extensions will do for now.

[Extensions list]
Adblock
BugMeNot 1.3
ConQuery
Converter 0.1
DictionarySearch 0.9.3
Extension Manager 2.0
Extension Uninstaller API 2.0
Paste and Go 0.4.1
text/plain

This extension list is pretty much the same to the Mozilla one, except that Mozilla also has Web Developer and ReminderFox installed.

PS. When I typed in about:logo to show bro what the SM icon looks like, he asked, "Why isn't it a monkey?"

...sounds familiar, doesn't it? Please, people. Google it. A sea monkey is not a monkey. Not even close. Have you guys never been cheated by the sea monkey ads in the magazine when you were little? You know, the ones that tell you how you can grow these cute little pets from a pack of weird powder... No, I never bought those things, just tempted.

I was too quick to celebrate the return of Little Black. It's dead again. The power source is dead, to be exact.

Since late last night, the light on the power adapter started flashing, but I didn't notice it until the computer beeped the plug-in-the-power-or-lose-your-work low power warning. By then, it was too late. The power adapter is still blinking now, though the ratio changed from 1:1 to 1:2, where 1 is on and 2 is off. The same problem had occurred once before when Little Black was still in coma, but it was fixed after unplugging and re-plugging the cords a few times. Luck doesn't seem to be with me this time around. :(

I am tempted to buy the universal power adapter if that would solve the problem, but it'll cost me close to 100 bucks, and there is no telling how long Little Black itself will last. Such cruel dilemma... Is it just not meant to be? T__T

There was something I wanted to write about but I can't remember it now...

All I can think of at this moment is the very cute Chinese crested (Powderpuff type) I saw in the store today. That's my first real-life Chinese crested, I believe. Absolutely adorable; pale beige and near white for the crest, cream toward the back. Very friendly, too. She even licked my hand. XD

機動戦士ガンダムSEED Special Edition II 遥かなる暁 前編

I won't go into too much detail as most of this is re-run of the regular episodes. Since it's been a long time, I couldn't really tell if there's any new footage at all except for having Park Romi as Nicol. For the most part, I just watched it as is and enjoyed re-living the moments with the characters. Ok, so I still paid more attention to Athrun and Fllay...

Watching the special edition made me want to finish the fanfic I started so long ago. Maybe I will finish it... sometime in the unforeseeable future.

Oops, I missed the time. My internet connection was acting weird so I went away for a while...

Anyhow, nothing too special today, except that I went back to work after four days of 'rest.' The cold is almost gone, but the coughing just refuses to be rid of and breaks out every so often. My throat still hurts. Coughing candies have become necessities now... Annoying.

Mum's been wanting me to call in sick to really rest until I am fully recovered, but I know myself. This would take a while, maybe even another week or so. So I'll continue. Luckily, it wasn't too busy today so I didn't have to talk a lot. It better stay this way for the rest of the week *flee* XP

'Tis a day calling for celebration, for Little Black and Google Maps are resurrected!

After many months of being dead (and I've been kicking myself countless number of times for that seemingly innocent act of network attempt), Little Black, my dear little trusty notebook, is back in action! For the past year or so, Little Black would loses its OS from time to time and sometimes the hard drive when I boot it up. Everyone told me it's the motherboard battery and there's basically nothing I could do but to watch it die before my eyes, especially since digital isn't even around anymore. I was so sad because I still had some documents in there (e.g. the Christmas play I accidentally overwrote with another file of the same name on Coordinator), and ever since I switched to the desktop, I haven't really wrote at all. Hopefully having Little Black back would get some of that creative juice flowing again.

Ok, it's indeed miraculous to have a supposedly dead laptop back, but what's with the Google Maps? It's been working all along, isn't it? Well, here's the situation. Due to the bug with JavaScript setting the html page title and causing Firefox to hang for a reallllly long time, I applied the work-around and added a line to the prefs.js (which, frankly, I didn't even remember doing it). When it's set at "noAccess," Google Maps just doesn't load, and Gmail gives me a blank page after almost any action. To think that I even emailed the Gmail team on the problem... orz But everything is all good now. My Mozilla and Firefox are once more happy browsers. What about the security concern regarding the title loading thing? Well, I did it just to be on the safe side, but the exploit requires direct user interaction and doesn't work too well (just deleting the history seems to solve the problem anyway), so I'll just do without for now.

In an attempt to start the year for the blog, here I am.

The first hour or so of the year 2006 was spent at the prayer meeting with all my dear brothers and sisters from the church. We had lots of praise and prayer. It was wonderful time. :)

Though, two hours of singing and shouting might had been one of the culprits for my worsened condition this morning, while the lack of sufficient rest might be another. As a result, I woke up with an extremely painful throat, an upset stomach (not too sure on this one; could it be from the different pills?), and headache. I was so disappointed that I couldn't make it to the unified service at PA. T__T

Yeah, I'm going to see my family doctor if he's open tomorrow. Luckily, I have the day off. Hopefully I'll recover enough to work on Tuesday. Calling in sick sucks, be it for work or for church. :(