SpringsCalling

[Kotobukiya] Kudryavka Noumi - Waffu Ver PVC Figure Review

2011-09-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, my Little Busters PVC arrived from Japan. The character name is Kudryavka Noumi from Little Busters, a visual novel made by Key. This character was even popular enough to spawn her own visual novel where she stars as the main heroine. It was called Kud Wafter. So its no surprise that a number of manufacturers created figures using her character. From all the ones I've seen, this is probably the best version yet. Read on for a full review.

I've bought many figures in the past. So many that I can't even count. But for most of the purchases, I've had to think about whether I wanted to buy it or not. Questions like "Is the price ok?" or "Does it look great enough?" or even "Do I like this character?".

But this figure for me was an impulsive buy. I just HAD to HAVE it. Atleast that was what the prototype pictures had me sold. So I preordered it first thing. Waited a couple of months and here it is.

ITS JUST SO CUTE !! !!

While I knew who Noumi was prior to this figure's debut, that had no relation to why I bought it. It was just... *faints*

Ok, finally we can start the actual review. (I finished my prologue. *cough cough*)

Box

Starting with the box, while there is nothing surprising about the exterior, the interior plastic holding the figure in place was kind of unique. Of all the ones I have, it has always been 2 pieces of plastic held together by 4 or so buttons. But this one was a single piece of plastic which folds at two lines to conform to a 3D shape. Interesting. Does it mean anything...? Probably not.

Interior Plastic

The figure itself was as adorable as the prototype. On first impression it did appear to be more glossy than other ones that I own. While not the greatest news, it was alright. Everything else was still perfect.

The smile and pose still captures me just as it did 3 months ago. The sculptor did a great job expressing the character's cuteness naturally. The pose feels just right at home. It gives off a childish aura which breathes out happiness all over which corresponds to the type of character she is.

Smile !

I didn't notice any defects in the product upon inspection and the details on the figure is very well done. The hat especially, unlike other figures with hats I've own, this one has specific engravings on the inside of the hat so that at one specific position, the hat will fit snugly.

Hat (Those weird engravings are for the hair to interlock itself with the hat to create a great fit)

There were other details such as the ribbons on the shoes, socks, and rear side of the shirt. While those weren't factors which would be detrimental to the whole figure, the fact that they were done well and properly helps to improve the image of Kotobukiya.

The hair and her cape was also full of life as it danced in the wind. A common feature with practically all figures of characters with long hair. Here is no exception, creating compelling volume as the wind carries it about. This was anything but dull. And frankly, dull figures just aren't interesting enough to store in my cabinet.

Focus of the Hair and the Cape from behind. (Notice all the different strands of hair and the amounts of bends on the cape. Alot of work was put into this portion to create this energetic sculpture)

In terms of the paint... Nothing too spectacular but nothing disturbing either. Just like any other quality figure by big name companies. I quite like the shading though.

Lastly, the base. Its a generic base. Just a white piece of plastic with the name pasted on the top. The figure is stuck to it by a bolt (or something). So I didn't try taking it out.

Base (Nothing special about it)

I generally like characters who are more cheerful than not. So this figure was a great buy for me and will fit nicely into my cabinet of other goodies. Anyway, the gallery and Amiami link for the product is below. Thanks for reading !

Aside: I apologize for the picture if its a bit dark. On my camera when I was taking them, they were just fine... On my Samsung monitor is not too bad also. But on my NEC one, its a bit dark.

Gallery:

[Kotobukiya] Kudryavka Noumi PVC Figure

Amiami shop: Link.

...

Oh yeah.

There was a hidden surprise in the figure.

What the...

O_O?!

Slightly NSFW

My Memories Suite Review

2011-08-28T11:06:00.001-07:00

Some time ago, I was contacted via email by someone to help promote their program. I was then given a review copy of the program to test and write a review on it. The program was called My Memories Suite and it was a digital scrapbook software. I have never used a digital scrapbook before, even a physical scrapbook... I rarely used. So I didn't know what to expect when I first ran the program. But to my surprise it was actually pretty simple to use. Having created something, I was able to make a review. Read on for more.

Firstly, lets start off with the program logo.

Software Logo

Nothing much to say about it except since its version 2, one can assume that future updates will be available to either add content or fix up bugs in the older versions. Thats always a plus. No one wants their software abandoned the moment you buy it. Hence one of the reasons for Apple's success. They treat their customers well and still offer support to them several years after purchasing their devices.

Next to discuss would be the layout of the program. Since I am neither a professional nor an art fanatic, I probably could not full appreciate the magnitude of features that the program offers. However, while I was using it, the program felt like an extension of my own moving limbs.

Screenshot of the program

Why I said that was because everything was clear and just made sense. If you wanted to add a textbox or a photo, go on the right side and pick the right tab you need, and there would be the correctly labelled button which did exactly what you wanted it to do. Completely unlike other softwares (Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Powerpoint), which to insert a picture, you need to go to the top menu then insert then picture. While I understand Microsoft Office isn't a software for creating digital scrapbooks, this program showed that simple and intuitive use of shortcuts makes doing things more like doing things. No more need to scour the menus to find out how to do every little task.

Because I've talked with general consumers, they don't need complicated computer programs. Apple knows this and that is why Apple is so closed, they do everything for you. From forcing you to use itunes with their devices, locking you out of a file system, not letting you jailbreak/unlock your phones. Those sound like all bad things. And in a way they are. But in another way, moving songs from your computer to an iphone if it had a file system could be very complicated. Most likely too complicated for some individuals to do. That means losing sales to Apple, so they just made it easy. What they're doing is targetting the general population (which is the majority). Only computer people would enjoy a file system where they sort their own stuff instead of letting Apple do it for them.

That aside was meant to explain while simple GUI or graphics user interface is important nowadays. If its too complicated for some people, they just won't buy it, if they won't buy it, you won't get money. So the plan is to make it simple enough for even babies to use. Because you can never be too sure.

Anyway.. ! That was a long aside. Great thumbs up for the user interface. Since I couldn't compare with other competing software, I'll leave this point at just that.

Next is the customization. While I may not know alot about art, I do know that art is about expressing yourself. Each person's piece must be independent of each other person and no two pieces of work are ever identical. Therefore, for this program to be truly successful in its own sense requires it to be adaptable to hundreds or millions of different artists and thus ideas.

I believe this company and program can definitely accomplish that. What makes me say that?

Well, there are several reasons. First of all this program offers an extensive list of pre-made templates where you can just apply, then simply add pictures and caption/text. It makes for one professional scrapbook with a few clicks of the mouse and a little bit of typing. Or you can go a little bit more by changing the template around to your free will until you find something you like. The template then bends and wraps around your creativity and that piece of work now becomes art.

Wait... what?? Well, if another person were to use the same template and changed it around, it is highly unlikely it would look like yours. Because you applied your own personality into it, it has individuality and is unique, those are what we call art.

While the program offers templates which are fine and dandy if you just want to get the job done. This program is provides much more than that. There is an option to create your own scrapbook from scratch. You decide what to place where, and build it the way you want. You shape it all in the palms of your hands. No restrictions, nothing. Think of it as using a template then deleting everything on the template. So you're left with blank pieces of paper and the easy to use tools to make everything in your imagination run onto paper.

In both options, there are massive amounts of customizations you can achieve. From changing background colour to creating customizable shapes/text. You can overlap text on top of shapes to give the album some depth. You can even change the kind of size you want your scrapbook to be printed on. You don't have to print on 8.5x11 paper all the time !

There is also a feature to export the album as a set of jpegs, or as a movie. Which also means, you can add sound/narration to your scrapbook. As technology advance, more and more features become available. MyMemories Suite is definitely no exception. Maybe its not new but the idea or adding sounds to a scrapbook seems... unreal.

As for the second reason, this company also offers templates for sale, some of them free, others paid, on top of their already massive library of core templates. These additions will give you more building blocks to work with and increase your arsenal of scrapbook tools. I personally believe this is an awesome idea as alot of other companies had already implemented the idea. In games, these are regarded as DLC or Downloadable Content. If it was on an Apple device, it would be called In-app Purchase. And etc. Either way, this has been very successful to previous companies and are sure to do well for MyMemories also.

Next we'll go through an example of something I made using the program. The scrapbook was about the California trip that I took at the end of June 2011.

I started with one of the templates already there, I liked how it used different boxes put together like a jigsaw puzzle. Since we ourselves also drove around California visiting things we passed by. We did have the 3 cities destinations (San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles) but we were pretty clueless as to what to see and where everything was. So whenever we saw something interesting, we parked the car and explored around.

The boxes originally were all separate but I had to put them together so it wouldn't look awkward since I couldn't fit California into a single box. I also changed some of the colours of those boxes. The pictured boxes were already implemented in the template, but it was very easy to add your own.

Here, I added the slanted words on the boxes and added a picture of my own to show how hot it was over there in California. I also changed the paragraphing to fit all the text without overflowing from the bottom.

Nothing special here, that was exactly how the template looked like, I just added the picture.

Also, unchanged from template, you can see how even without doing anything, the page looks great. A balance of pictures with shapes to give the reader some information about the trip without flooding their eyes with photos after photos.

Again, unchanged from template. I should mention that when you add the photos, because these photo boxes are square, parts of the photo is cropped (you can have it stretched if you wanted to, but I like cropping). Simply double click the picture and it'll open up a window which lets you control what is cropped, where is the center of the picture, etc. Very easy to use. Great for old people who are not into computers. And young people who want to share their experiences with friends but not familiar with artist terms like balance.

Picture of the Hollywood Walk in the evening. Shifted the focus down, perhaps a little bit more exposure of the sky would be better (?).

Nothing to add here.

This was probably the most interesting page I worked on, along with the one below. This specific page in the template (you can remove the kind of pages from the template you don't like and add duplicates of others as you see fit) had no place for words, so I decided to put something that didn't need many words on this and the following page. Something that tells itself. Something like an amusement park. And the 8 squares just perfectly fitted Lego Land. Great !

This page, I started with the same template as the previous, but I rearranged everything since Sea was only 3 boxes and World was 5. I added a little bit of overlap to create depth and tilted the words so they were parallel with the boxes.

Nothing in particular to add either.

This template had a good amount of pages without text areas, which was fitting for my trip as we mainly were sightseeing and exploring what attractions were available in California. Also, I dislike writing. Hahaha...

Again, I rearranged some boxes so I could have 3 coloured boxes adjacent to each other to spell out "See" and "You". As I mentioned previously, even though you loaded a template, each item (shape, text box, etc) are completely moveable and removable so you can make it fit your taste. No longer are you confined to the restrictions of the program. MyMemories Suite is made to fit you.

Video Tutorial (Provided by the company):

Welcome to the Family! from Lisa Jurrens on Vimeo.

Lastly, I have 2 things to share with the readers. Firstly, I was given the opportunity to host a giveaway of the program to one lucky reader of my blog.

Entry is simple. Just surf over to MyMemories' website and share your favourite kit (template) in the comments below. Just simply state the name of the template with the URL and why you like it (please write more than one sentence).

For example,

Fireworks Vol 1.
http://www.mymemories.com/store/display_product_page?id=MRKZ-EP-1105-2036
I like it because I enjoy looking at fireworks explode in the sky, they are so beautiful and mesmerizing. I want my scrapbook to have an impact and capture the attention of its viewers.

I will pick one of the comment randomly (I will random generate a number between 1 to #comments, the comment number that shows up will be the winner) on October 31, 2011. That is just about 1 month of time. Hopefully there will be a good number of applicants so it can be a little bit more lively here. (Even if its just once)

__

The second thing is for those of you who either don't want to wait until October 31, 2011 or didn't win in the giveaway. I was given a $10 off promo code to supply to the readers of my blog (Hurray!). So I'll share it with you all, if you wanted to get that scrapbooking software, now is the time !

The code is below,
STMMMS2796

Conditions (Taken from the site):

This unique code is ONLY good for My Memories Suite v2
MyMemories reserves the right to modify terms or conditions

Thank you for reading and best of luck in the giveaway ! If anyone wants to leave any comments or questions, please do so in the comments section below. I will try my best to answer them.

The time I lost my wallet...

2011-08-21T18:12:00.000-07:00

It was on a normal day much like August 21, 2011. I ate breakfast outside at some Hong Kong style restaurant like a typical weekend. We ate till we were full then set out to shop since none of my family (my brother aside) had work. Since we were a techy family, we went to Futureshop down on Kennedy Road and Lawrence Ave. It was there we had a nice little encounter with Microsoft. I thought it was going to be a fine day... But...

I had no idea what was going to happen.

It was afterall, a very long and interesting day.

The day before this day, I had received word that HP's TouchPad had gone from $399 retail to just $99. We went to FutureShop to try to grab a copy. Needless to say, our attempt were futile as it were sold out at the store as well as any other FutureShop or BestBuy.

Then we continued to our other routine tasks of grocery shopping. This time around, we picked Walmart, since I am into building Yugioh decks, Walmart was a great place as I can sometimes pick out cheap packs of cards (when those 30-70% stickers are on the merchandise). It didn't take very long until we finished and the shopping continued.

My mother doesn't really like technology so we dropped her off at Winners in the Eglinton Square Shopping Centre. Afterwards, my dad and I went to check out another FutureShop, since we were skeptical. Of course, nothing.

Disappointed, we went to the dollar store, Dollar Giant, to get some cheap tools and utensils for some event he was planning. While there, we also picked up 2 BB guns for $1.25 each. It came with bullets and we shot a few rounds around (not aiming people and picking up the bullets after firing). The projectiles didn't fly very far, but a good toy for a little over a buck.

Since my mother can shop at Winners for a surprisingly long period of time, we decided to drop by a flea market which was very close by. We spent about 10-20 mins in there doing nothing more than window shopping then went back to Winners to pick up my mom.

Our last planned trip was to drop by a card/hobby shop at the Agincourt Mall before going home. I stayed there for about half an hour to an hour looking at what single Yugioh and Magic the Gathering cards they had. It wasn't as cheap as Dollys but there were many cards not found in one but in the another. While there, heavy rain and lightning storms were seen and heard everywhere. To avoid accidents, we stayed in the mall for a while longer. To spend time, we shopped at No Frills to see if anything else were cheap.

Everything was fine at this point... until we reached our car after shopping. It was then I noticed my wallet was missing... Sh!t.

With my forgetful brain, this crisis was a bigger crisis than it could have been. If I was able to accurately recall when was the last time I had my wallet, I could create a time range in which we would backtrack and search. However... I had no idea.

First we had to go home to drop off our groceries. It was then that I also called my credit and debit card companies to let them know I had lost my wallet. That way, they could disable my cards before I would be charged for things I didn't buy.

Then we backtracked the whole day's event starting from the most recent. So that meant going to all these places in order;

- No Frills
- Agincourt Mall
- Flea Market
- Dollar Giant
- FutureShop #2
- Walmart
- BestBuy
- FutureShop #1
- HK Style Restaurant (Where we had breakfast)

And after all that... nothing. No one reported a lost wallet... Sh!t...

Now broken and defeated, we went home to call the police to file a report. And so I did. They said they would call me back in an hour and told me to prepare some information to help me file a report. During that hour was long and rough... I kept thinking what would happen to me. After all, unlike most people, I carried my SIN (Social Insurance Number) card with me. They would also have my Health Card and Drivers License which had my address. And the entry card to enter our townhouse/apartment complex. It was very frightening for me indeed.

My parents at this point was very optimistic, they kept telling me that maybe someone has already turned it into the police and that everything will be fine. I'm sure they know deep down that I messed up so bad. They just don't want to say it.

I was so worried I didn't even notice I had a voice mail on my phone. I listened to it. It was our gatehouse speaking. Told me that a lady came to ask if I lived here, claiming to have my wallet. !!! Was I hearing this correctly? I rushed down to the gatehouse. And sure enough, she had left me a sheet of paper with an address and a note stating exactly that she had my wallet. There was also a contact info. Ecstatic, I called the number when I got back to my townhouse. She picked up and I scheduled a meeting time (in the next half hour). I got there and thankfully recovered my wallet. I thought it was awfully nice of her to drive all the way to my address to let someone know so I brought over a can of egg rolls as gift. My wallet was also lighter by $45... but I didn't say anything at that point. I was just glad it was back in my possession.

I asked where she picked it up. And it was at Agincourt Mall. Outside the card/hobby shop. I kind of knew it was there, but when we didn't find it, we couldn't just stop looking. While I couldn't say I was sure, I knew I frequently feel my pockets to make sure everything was fine. Surely today couldn't have been an exception. My bad memory made today just a terrible experience. I'll probably have to change where I place my wallet, or maybe not to put the wallet and my phone in the same pocket. I don't know yet, I'll think of something.

Oh, regarding the police, I left them an email saying I retrieved my wallet, although lost $45, I chose not to followup on it. If they need me to file a report, I'll let them know whatever they need me to know. But I won't search for compensation. It was my fault afterall.

Yes, I indeed lost my wallet today, on August 21 of 2011. Luckily I got it back. Just short $45. But nevertheless, no hassle to reapply for new cards. Maybe the gas was a bit of trouble too. Afterall, we went all over the place.

I'll have to repay my dad good in the next few weeks. Thanks for listening. If you ever do lose your wallet, don't panic too much. We do live in Canada and the people are generally nice. Do remember to temporary or permanently disable your credit/debit cards though. The police will also lend your assistance if you give them a call. And if you need extra comfort, my mom always tells me to pray when there are things outside your control which you need help in.

Writing on the go: Windows Booth

2011-08-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

On Aug 20, 2011, outside the Futureshop north of Lawrence ave on Kennedy road, was a Microsoft booth to educate the general public about Microsoft Windows. I originally went to futureshop to buy the HP tablet for $99. But unfortunately it was sold out. Read on for a more comprehensive of what was there.

The tent had several laptops and TVs for displaying some features. One of the displays were about windows Internet explorer 9. The only thing there that I have yet to know anything about. The TV showed a comparison between IE9 and Google Chrome. The webpages were identical, a html5 webpages of an aquarium with fishes. IE9 had 1000 fishes running at 16 fps. Chrome had 10 fishes and 11 fps. While I don't know if it's 100% legitimate but I will definitely try out IE9 when I get home. I also asked then about new features of IE9. They are;
- Drag-able tabs to window 7 task bar on bottom
- Drag-able tabs to edge of screen and maximize them like any other window explorer
- Uses computer processing power to shorten load times (unable to comprehend, just stating what they told me)
- Simple GUI with little clutter

I also asked about their windows live messenger but nothing much was new. Only;
- Supports skype
- Link with Facebook

There were a couples of mid to high end computers present to let you feel the windows experience. All in the $1000 range computers.

Lastly if you talk with those people for 5 minutes, you get a free pair of sunglasses. Also there's food. Free hot dogs or hamburgers with water and chips. Great stuff.

Yummy!

Come drop by sometime if you're close. It probably won't stay open for long so hurry!

- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

Come Play Grandchase !

2011-07-21T09:47:00.001-07:00

I've been playing this game for a long time now. Today I would like to try to recommend it for all the readers out there. Its a 3D side-scrolling dungeon crawler game with mmorpg properties. You can level up and get items which (like diablo, has different special properties). So no two equipments are ever the same ! Read on for more details.

The game's plot is a bunch of children (Its funny, I know) travelling different continents to save the world from evil. They call themselves the "Grand Chase". You start with 3 characters who level independently from each other which gives replay value to the game as well as more options to find out what you like. There are quests which you can buy from the shop and complete to unlock and play additional characters. Each character has 4 jobs except for Mari, Dio, Zero, and Ley. Each job plays different from the previous and are unlocked via level requirement and quest completion. In addition to jobs, some has skill tree to enable further customization of comboes, special attacks, and additional skills such as evasion or berserk mode.

List of Characters, taken from Ntreev Grandchase website.

Elesis, typical swordsman and leader of the grandchase. Melee.

Lire, archer with unique gameplay which reminds me of gunbound (though not exactly). Ranged.

Arme, magician with overwhelming power. Melee/Ranged.

Lass, thief with speedy attacks and typical hard hitter. Melee with some ranged.

Ryan, druid with ability to morph into a creature for additional power. Melee.

Dio, demon which introduced another way to use special attacks, very powerful and cheap. Melee.

Ronan, magic knight which plays similar to elesis and has good defence. Melee.

Zero, wanderer and with new special attack input like dio, another powerhouse. Melee

Seigheart, gladiator with berserk mode for increased damage output for a short duration, very similar to Elesis. Melee.

Amy, dancer, probably fastest of all the characters with low hp and def, damage is mediocre but can regenerate allies' MP. Melee with little ranged.

Jin, fighter using hands and legs to attack, speedy blows with good attack power, can charge up ki to shoot fireballs. Melee with one ranged attack.

Mari, rune caster with very unique play of building structures such as towers and portals, uses machines to fight. Melee/Ranged.

Ley, summoner with ability to call creatures to fight for her, also uses unique special input like dio and zero. Ranged.

You can get more information about characters here,
http://grandchase.ntreev.net/guides/Characters_elesis.aspx

There are 2 main gameplays for Grandchase. The first is a dungeon crawler which is a party of up to 4 people going through a dungeon and defeating the boss. After winning, you are rewarded with a chest which could be equipments, items (potions and alike), or ingame currency, or nothing at all ! Monsters in the dungeon may also drop items to aid you. There are dialogues (not spoken) for the plot in each dungeon. Whether you choose to read it or not, is up to you, most people skip it. Of course, you get experience which lets you level up to improve your character. Also, a quest system exists to help speed up levelling. All quests involve crawling one dungeon or
another. There are 6 continents to explore in total with countless dungeons.

Continental Map, 6 continents, many dungeons in each. Including hero dungeons.

Equipments, common is white, rare is blue, epic is yellow, relic is pink. Common has no special properties, rare has 1, epic 2, relic 3. Shops gives commons, dungeons drop rare and epics, events gives relics.

Dungeon Crawling, up to 4 people per room for dungeon.

I personally only do dungeons, I enjoy coop play with other people so if you do sign up, add me. I use AznWizzie for my character name.

The second gameplay is pvp. It stands for player versus player. As you can guess, you face other people who also play Grandchase. Here, mostly skills are required but items also matter alot. So just go blindly into battle ! Most rooms will state its requirements in the room title so it will be roughly a fair match assuming everyone met those said restrictions. Pvp also rewards experience but no items.

Those are the two main attractions to the game. There are plenty of other features in Grandchase, for example the hero dungeons which are dungeons for level 40+ (Sanctum of Destruction) and 30+ (Crucible). These dungeons are different because monsters' strengths are equal to the averaged stats of all the players in the room. Where as normal dungeons has a level range, where if you're 30 levels or so above the dungeon, you will mostly 1 hit ko the monsters. This proves a challenge to even the long time players in Grandchase.

Another feature is the workshop where you can create or disassemble equipments you picked up in the dungeons or bought. The created items are usually only found as dungeon drops or created via workshop.

There are also guilds and a friend system which is normal to all mmorpg by now.

Theres a couple system which could be interesting or not. Couples boost each other's experience multiplier when levelling up so you level up faster. Aside from that, nothing special about it.

This game has alot of benefits for being a casher, however I was never one for online games and probably never will be. Cash can either grant you better equipments than other people, special skills for characters, unique pets (which aid in combat, non-payers can also get pets though), and gacha and spell breaker gacha.

Both gacha work like a lottery, it takes coins or seals to unlock either pets or equipments which are usually limited time.

For those who don't cash or even those who want more cash. Ntreev do offer "free cash" methods, such as completing surveys or watching a video, or installing spyware (don't do that one). Some ask for your mobile phone number then they send you a pin where you have to enter on a computer, but I never tried that cause giving them my phone number seem like a bad idea.

But thats about it for what I can say about Grandchase, if you have any other questions, feel free to post in the comments below. There are alot of other small features I neglected but there are alot more things Grandchase has to offer so give it a try !

Once again, if you do join and quite like the game, you can add me at AznWizzie. I don't play too often, I usually play when theres a good event. Speaking of events, Ntreev does provide a good event every now and then, completely unlike their other game Pangya which seems only to have events which require cash.

Also note, if you do plan to start, you should start sooner, because they have an event at the moment which gives you special items for completing level checkpoints (level 1, 5, 10, etc).

Thanks for reading. The link below is to sign up under my referral, it gives me certain benefits if enough people sign up. I won't keep my hopes up but it'd be nice if there were some people who do start playing because of me.

Sign up link:http://grandchase.ntreev.net/entrypoint/etp_rf.aspx?r=bAmbnlWeiZqQekEj0dSjDcI47GsHE87GCrApzuqRrDm8N1TiKVkFN0BZTMXefpoT

[QuesQ] Moriya Suwako Figure Review

2011-07-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

July 6, 2011 was when my first figure from QuesQ arrived. I really had no expectation from a company who I have not yet purchased from. So I could not say how the figure would turn out. I would be delighted if it turn out like the prototype. But most figures I've preordered had been spectacular and I haven't been devastated yet. Lets hope it doesn't start now. Read on for the full review.

I first read about it on Nekomagic, my one stop place for figure news. And instantly I was sold on the face. Usually if I buy a figure its because I love the face. While the pose or other elements are important, when I look at something, its the face. Regardless or if its a person, an artwork, a photo, everything.

First thing I saw when I looked at the box was... its SMALL ! D8 Kind of the same feeling I got when I received the the Ameri figure. Then I looked at the box, and didn't find a scale ratio. Boo.

But size isn't everything, yes, it looks strange when put beside my other 1/8 Touhou figures, see below.

But adding details on small figures is much more difficult than on larger ones. Atleast thats what I believe.

In terms of the photos, I first took them using the photo shooting box my dad got me a long time ago in broad daylight. I thought it was fine, but when I got on my computer they were dark +_+. Someone must have messed with my camera setting cause when I checked it afterwards, the exposure setting was set to -1.0 (0.0 is normal). Not cool. And by then it was already evening, so I took the stuff up to my room and shot it there with a desktop light lying around.

Here was the contraption, because the nature of the lamp, the colour was tinted yellow. (Don't give me those eyes if you see spongebob, its a great show. And I happened to have won it at Seaworld on my trip to California.)

This was taken in the morning with the reduced exposure setting. But notice how the image is not tinted yellow like in the ones below. Would be perfect if the settings wasn't changed.

Anyway, moving on to the review.

Luckily, the product arrived as anticipated from images I've seen online. Not much deviation was spotted and I like it as much as I did the prototype images. Great thing considering prototypes are usually meant to be perfect copies for the product to appeal to customers.

The face still captures me like a rock versus paper... (ok, thats bad.)

Smile ! ^_^

The colouring was well done upon closer inspection (Unfortunately, macro shots are not possible with my camera, so you'll just have to take my word. Sorry, hope to get a macro lens later.). Also, I didn't see errors like chipped or cracks. I think for quality this is pretty well done.

The gimmicks are pretty nifty too. It comes with 2 right hands which uses a tube mount to connect to the figure. Part of the tube and the mount is squared so you wouldn't be able to rotate the hand and there is only 1 correct way to connect the hand onto the figure. This is actually nothing new but as T's System's Kochiya Sanae had it too for the head (Though, why the head was removable on that figure remains a mystery to me.)
The second thing was the hat. It sticks on magnetically, just like the Pixie Hiyori from Good Smile Company, but a bit poorer made. The hat on Hiyori didn't have grooves from inserting the magnet, but it clearly shows up here. Luckily, if you put on the hat, no one knows. They won't even see the line across the forehead thats on basically every figure.

Magnetically attached hat but you can see the groove where the PVC was cut to insert the magnet.

The left hand softly wraps around the hat when you put it in place. Very life-like !

Nice detail on the clothes, the decal (?). Those are frogs because Suwako is portrayed as a God whose a frog. However that may work.

The pose fits the character, Moriya Suwako very well as being cute and childish. While I don't exactly know her personality in the official Touhou Games by ZUN. But fan works have given her that kind of chara. She can also be portrayed as a dark character. Clearly not the case here.

I've rarely regretted buying anything and certainly I haven't regretted buying this. Though the price was somewhat expensive for something this small. Its a nice piece of addition to any Touhou Project fan or just any collector looking for a cute figure.

My display case as of July 6, 2011. The new figure is on the top level to the right.

Gallery is below, thanks for reading.

[QuesQ] Moriya Suwako PVC Figure

Photos from Vacation to California USA

2011-07-06T07:56:00.000-07:00

Its been a while, since I got back from California on July 3, 2011. After going through all the photos from several cameras I am finally able to upload the photos. Great place in California, a bit too hot for my liking though, especially when the sun is scorching you nonstop. After this trip, my arms got "burnt", my dad was even mistaken for a Mexican. Lol. Read on for links to photo galleries and a summary of the vacation.

Summary:
Very good trip, lots of new things to see, my cousin's son, "Nathan" was alot of fun. We played games together, goofed off together, lots of laughs every moment. Maybe I do act like a kid. Meh.
When I got there, I found out that in California, it was a law that all restaurant and fast foods show the calories of each food on the menu. Atleast thats what a cashier at a McDonald in Walmart said. She also said that not everyone obeys it though. But to me, it was interesting to see in big numbers, the calorie for say... a big mac.
It was alot of walking though, more than what I would have liked. But since it was with other people, I couldn't exactly just complain. Since my daily routine would be, play, sleep, eat, play. LOL ! Also, my GPS on my iPhone 3GS refused to work... had to read a map like a pro @_@. Sucks, but exciting. Getting lost can sometimes bring you to neat, unforeseen places !
Next trip will be where I wonder... I can't wait ! ^_^

Galleries and Description:
June 24 - Once we got off the plane at Los Angeles, we went to Thrifty to rent our car, then drove for 2 hours until we got to San Diego where my cousin and his wife and son lived. Together, we visited the Old Town of San Diego and ate Mexican food. We stayed at Motel 6, probably the worst hotel of this trip. NO FREE WIFI... WHAT THE H*LL ! D8

June 25 - We started off by going to a district by the beach with houses in the millions because of its location and not size. We had some interesting sweet cookies because we haven't seen them before. Everyone complained it was too sweet, I loved it. We went to another beach afterwards and that was when my cousin had to leave us to pick up her wife. So it was just my dad, mom, big aunt (whos the cousin's mother), Nathan, and myself. Since we were with a child, we went to Legoland ! OMFG LEGO !! Its amazing, all the things that could be built with lego.

June 26 - Breakfast was at a pancake restaurant, they serve many different types of pancakes. Some were big, others not so big. I had the apple pancake, it was huge. I couldn't finish it. After our filling breadfast, we went to Balboa park. There, because Nathan really wanted to go to the science center while everyone else had something different in mind. I was chosen to go to the science center with him to make sure nothing bad would happen. The science center was an interesting experience. I always enjoyed those more than museums or sight seeing (what my parents had in mind) since science centers had interactive yet educational games. While we were there, my parents went to some cactus garden taking photos of cactus. Ew. When we met up, there was a weird parade. Music and dancing with people dressed up as things I couldn't recognize. HOWEVER ! I saw someone dressed as Naruto, but with all the people and chaos, I couldn't get a picture of him. We parted ways after with me and my dad going alone and my mom, and the cousin's family together. They went to outlets to shop and sight see while we went to the Midway Museum. What is that you ask? What about USS Midway Museum? Thats right! Its a warship. An aircraft carrier at that. While the ship wasn't left in an original state (it is probably rendered inoperable), there were still many fighter planes (which may be working or not) to take pictures of. Some even let you ride inside it (of course it doesn't move or work). We also went into the control tower with a guide explaining the roles of the different crew. Lots to learn about.

June 27 - We started the day with Seaworld. Another amusement part. This one had shows with sea animals such as dolphins, whales, and sea otters performing. Oh, there were people actors too of course. We stayed there basically the whole day from 9am to 6:30pm. We went through basically every exhibit. The last few pictures were me chasing a pigeon with my camera, kind of pointless. I just realized how pigeons don't like to fly.

June 28 - Today, we leave San Diego, so my cousin, his wife, and Nathan did not follow us. Only my family and my big aunt continued towards San Francisco. Most of the day was spent traveling. Afterall, it was around 6-8 hours road trip to get from San Diego to San Francisco. We did stop by Google Inc along the way and I got to hug the cute android. (^_^)V We had dinner at the Japan town eating Japanese cuisine. The hotel we lived at was Presidio Inn, they finally had free wifi and I started all my torrents of ANIME ! This place had the fastest wifi connection of all 3 hotels we lived at.

June 29 - We went to the crooked downhill road, forgot the name. It was like a zig-zag downhill, and there were even houses on either sides. Imagine how hard it would be to get out of the house during busy times (in the afternoon or evening). We went early so there were few people. But when we went back later (passed by on streetcar), it was packed. We drove to China town afterwards, neat buildings. Some looked like ancient China. To my surprise, fake Yugioh cards! Yippe! Now I can distinguish real and fake ones (aside the obvious change in price, maybe I'll make a post later). After that, we went to Pier 39 which is a famous pier with restaurants, shopping, and boat tours. Of course, we didn't miss out and got on a boat tour for the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. After the boat tour, we got on the streetcar, the wait took almost an hour. The streetcar brought us all the way to union square in downtown. They had something similar to our Eaton Center in Toronto, huge mall. From downtown, we walked to Japan town where my mom and myself went there while my dad and my big aunt went to get our car back at the pier 39 parking lot. Of course they went back by bus so it wasn't too time consuming. Lastly at night, we thought we'd get another close up view on the Golden Gate Bridge before our return to Los Angeles early tomorrow, so we went at night to take a few pictures at the closest point that cars were allowed to go.

June 30 - Today, we set off to Los Angeles, another 4-6 hour drive. Our airport was at Los Angeles. We passed by Apple Inc in Cupertino along the way. Unlike Google, there weren't many places to take pictures off and inside any building was out of bounds for visitors. So we only got photos from a car. Their street name is interesting though, "Infinity Loop". Except it was small and the infinity was finite... What a shame. Due to the long drive, we stopped occasionally for my dad to rest, we went to Trader Joe's to buy souvenirs for relatives in Toronto. Apparantely, Trader Joe's was a well known super market in California with its own brand of products. The scenery was nice, there were several pictures of that along the road. The scorching heat however was not nice. The first thing we did when we arrived at Los Angeles was to see the Hollywood walk. I found some famous names and was astonished to see names like "Godzilla" and "Winnie the Pooh". Crazy. There were also many people dressed up to take pictures with, however it was a custom that if we got a photo taken, we'd have to pay. So we juts took pictures of other people who took pictures with them. Or flat out, take picture when hes not looking. Yay for stalking skills !

July 1 - The hotel we stayed at was Guesthouse Inn & Suites. The nicest of all the hotels on this trip, however the free wifi was not very fast, 80kbps was the most I could get out of it from my torrents. It was over 200kbps on Presidio Inn. But thats fine, as I only torrented while we slept. We first went to Beverly Hills, the rich and wealthy area where celebrities are said to live. We got honked by this Infinity 35Z because we wanted to slow down to take pictures. Arg, I don't like them rich people... We also went to the shopping district of Beverly Hills where we saw a very unique car. The Bugatti Veyron (atleast thats what I think it is). Its also the fastest car available at the moment (I might be wrong now, my news is outdated). The spoiler rises automatically when going fast enough, the woman driving it (yes, its a woman) opened the spoiler probably because she knew people would take pictures. Sure enough, it wasn't just me taking pictures, others were too. After Beverly Hills, we returned to the Hollywood Walk because we didn't finish all of it yesterday cause part of it was closed, and it was getting dark, rendering my camera lesser and lesser capable. Lastly, we went to the China town and Japan town for a visit. We ate at China town in a familiar Chinese restaurant as it had all been some foreign food for the past 4 days. When we returned to our hotels, we went to a supermarket to get some water and found very cheap breads, 3 for $0.99 so we bought those along with some of our instant noodles we brought and ate it for dinner. Yummy.

July 2 - Today was our last day. Our flight was at 10pm while my aunt's was at 7:30pm. We already finished basically all of our plans so we decided to go a bit further and went to Manhattan Beach in the morning. It was sunny x_x but the view was nice. Many very nice houses with unique styles unlike the ugly houses I see around my area. We then went to a mall to pass time, my dad was so tired he paid a dollar to those massage chairs to relax for 3 minutes. He said 3 minutes definitely wasn't enough. Afterwards we went to return our car and took a shuttle bus to the airport. We signed in much before the scheduled departure time, at 5:00pm or so. Then waited until my aunt got on the plane. We waited a bit more then we got on our plane. When we arrived back at Toronto, it was 5:00am. So I took a nap on the plane as if I slept from 10:00pm to 5:00am. Currently, I do not feel any jet lag.

So that was my trip. Hope you enjoyed the read and pictures. See you all again soon !

Greetings from San Francisco

2011-06-30T07:06:00.000-07:00

Hey there, I've arrived in San Francisco 2 days ago and will be leaving today to Los Angeles for the final 2 days. Our little vacation ends on July 2nd but we're making the most of it.

We saw many new sights and tried many tasty foods in both San Francisco and the previous city, San Diego. You can be sure we'll do all sorts of things in Los Angeles as well !

I will be uploading the whole picture album after I return to Toronto and sort through all the photos.

Er... That image looked stretched, but if you click it, its alot better.

Cheers.

Written on the go: Leaving for Los Angeles

2011-06-24T04:39:00.000-07:00

At the airport will be leaving for Los Angeles in an hour on the 8:30am flight.

Today I woke up at 5:30am to get ready. So excited!! See you soon!

- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

University of Waterloo Convocation

2011-06-16T15:16:00.000-07:00

At last, its over ! ALL OVER ! On June 15 of 2011, I had my convocation at the University of Waterloo. Celebrating my achievement of a bachelor of science in honours chemistry. A full gallery below, so read on and celebrate (with me)!

June 15th was the convocation date for all of sciences, applied health sciences was in the mornings at 10:30am and natural sciences such as biology, chemistry, and others were in the afternoon at 2:30pm. I was in the latter group. Most of my friends were there to pick up their diplomas except a few. You will see them in the gallery below if I decided to write caption on the photos.

I also brought a good from from my highschool with me to UW because he was free. He had never been to UW before and to our surprise, while there, we bumped into some of his friends too ! This world is so small.

We returned home at around 7:00pm in time for dinner. No parties unfortunately, was grabbed by my parents before I could escape. Boohoo.

Gallery below.

UW Convocation June 15, 2011

Anime North 2011

2011-06-08T18:45:00.000-07:00

Between May 27 and 29, 2011, Anime North 2011 was hosted at the Toronto Congress Centre, which had been the location for atleast 4 years now. I don't really know what I can say about Anime North at this point, it feels just like every other year. Though this year, unlike the last, I went with a different bunch of people so we saw different things. Read on for a comprehensive summary of my life on May 28, 2011.

We arrived there at about 11:00am. And we were greeted with this line.

BAM ! The line is to the left and it is an oval around the area where cosplayers were being photographed (around the right side and center)

We waited in line for about an hour before finally getting into the convention centre. Inside was another line but much shorter and took maybe 10 minutes.

The inside line. Registration desk is to the right.

Once we registered, our first sight was the artist corner. There were a fair amount of good artists in my opinion who created professional looking artwork.

A sample artist booth at the artist corner. Many of the booths were swarmed with customers and spectators when we were there. I hope I won't get in trouble with these pictures...

We bumped into a friend of a friend of ours who had her own vender table. We chatted for a bit and moved on. Throughout this day, we bumped into a handful of acquaintances. From vendors, to cosplayers, to normal attendees.

The next area we looked at was the dealer's room where all the vendors who weren't artists were selling merchandise. This included everything from DVDs, to mangas, to posters, to figurines, to gundam models, to even erotic pillow covers. The atmosphere is like the artist corner except artwork is replaced with merchandise. Also the vender tables are larger for their inventory and they usually have their store name somewhere in the back.

The atmosphere of the dealer's room area. Just like the artist corner but with more people (and less room).

Because I recently started buying Yugioh cards, I bought a few packs from a vendor here. It was from a vendor who also has a card shop called Card Masters.

Both of those areas were pretty cramped as seen in the photos. Cosplay photos taken in there were a bit of a pain for both the photographer, cosplayer, and other people. As everyone had to adjust slightly to provide a free space for the photoshoot. Therefore, I would advise to take cosplay pictures outside. Preferably infront of the main Toronto Congress Centre entrance right by the intersection between the convention centre and the Double Tree Hotel. That area has a huge traffic of people going between the two buildings.

After shopping, we proceeded to get food. Since based on previous experience at Anime North, the Harvey's at the intersection would be extremely full, so we went to the Double Tree Hotel to eat food. There we saw many people playing card games with one another. Mainly Yugioh cards. However as I didn't bring my cards, I couldn't join them. Also, I would feel bad if other people had to watch me play and do nothing.

Where we ate. I brought my own food, my friends bought food from there.

For the remainder of the time at Anime North, we checked out panels, video show rooms, and other events. The panels and video rooms were dull and uninteresting as either someone would talk about the topic of the panel or a video would play for the anime in question. Neither of which interested me much to write about. I will say this however, if you were thinking of going to a panel. Don't. And I have a reason, if you don't know anything about the topic of that panel, you're probably not interested in it. If you were, you would have looked into it already. If it was about an anime, you probably would have watched it, and therefore, you will already know what the speaker will be talking about. Of course, to be fair, you should go once just in case. Maybe you'll find some hidden enjoyment from me. If you do, please post in the comments below.

An unique, interesting event at Anime North 2011 for me was the Idol competition, since I went with another group of friends previously, there were different tastes and I hadn't seen this before. The idol competition was like a singing competition. Each contestant would sing a Japanese song. Also there were 3 judges who would give constructive criticism. And at the end of the presentations, there would be the awarding ceremony for the winner.

The idol performance stage. The masquerade which I wanted to watch but didn't have time would also be held here.

We left at about 6:00pm because our driver had other plans later that night and had to get ready. It was all in all a great day. Bought some stuff, took some photos for memories, and even saw something new. Would definitely be up to go again next year if other friends are going.

I even considered cosplaying, except I'm terrible with a sewing machine and buying cosplay clothes easily cost $100+. Perhaps I will reconsider when I get a job.

Please visit the gallery below for many more pictures.

Anime North 2011, May 28

Hope you enjoyed reading this article. Any comments of questions, please post them below.

Blackberry Playbook Review

2011-05-26T20:11:00.000-07:00

Today I have something to share with you all. A close friend of mine recently won a Blackberry Playbook from an event and I had the privilege to test the machine over the course of a few days instead of at a store such as BestBuy. Read on if you're interesting to hearing what how it worked out for me. The price is $499.99.

*Warning, walls of text to follow*

My testing was just based on the casual usage of the system using relevant features that were available to me. I will not be comparing to the iPad2 or other tablets as they are different systems as a whole. But by simply stating what was done well and what was not.

Home screen, applications on the bottom, the middle is the programs that are opened.

Firstly we'll talk about user interface and first impressions of the machine. What the system feels like when you first turn it on and the first few minutes action. Its good. For real. While some may think that Blackberries without a physical keyboard would be a disaster (ie storm). But with this size of a tablet, physical keyboard would destroy its thinness or the large screen size. The typing is very easy with just the thumbs anyway (atleast for me). The UI seemed intuitive, swiping the fingers from the left and right switches applications, swiping from the bottom bring you to the home page. And swiping from the top opens up the options of the current app. I have been an Apple user for a long time now, about 2 years. So this Blackberry device was my first ever. I picked it up and was using it like a pro within minutes. That’s how easy to use it was.

The size is nice and portable. With both hands holding the tablet sideways, one could easily reach half of the screen with each thumb for total accessibility of the entire screen. The tablet feels somewhat heavy and feels solid. As one should expect when purchasing something in the hundreds of dollars range. Its small size will fit basically all bags. The device came with an official Blackberry sleeve. It was made of those elastic material so the fit was perfect. Too perfect for me, so I didn’t like it nor used it because of the hassle to put it in and take it out. It fits into those pockets in the front of hoodies. When I needed to put it away quickly, I just stuffed it in there. Good stuff.

Blackberry Playbook and Cover sitting on my lap.

I didn’t try the HDMI out. As we didn’t have any of those cables at my home. The microUSB slot also caused tons of problems for us as we didn’t have those either. Luckily my brother’s android phone charged with a microUSB cable so I borrowed it to transfer files over from my computer to test on the Playbook. As well as transferring out some pictures from the Playbook to the computer to upload for this post. The screen on the Playbook was great, videos and photos were very clear and crisp. However the Playbook lacked a lot of codec for videos. I may not be a pro but only .avi files were detected from the .mkv, .avi, and .rm files. That was a little disappointing as all my anime videos are in .mkv format. When connected to the computer the Playbook acts like a portable hard drive with pre-created folders and files for the device to function. Creating folders with Chinese or Japanese characters did not cause problems for the device to locate files.

For what you pay surf the web or do documents or play some light games, this blackberry is fun to have. Its small, quick, and easy to use. It feels more rigid than most laptops. Considering this has no keyboard or hinges for folding, the increased toughness makes sense. On top of all this, the blackberry play book is sleek.

However at the time of this writing, that was the limit of goodness this machine had to offer. On the down side of intuitive controls and smooth operations, it lacked a large choice of software compatibilities. And while everyone has been saying this already, as a comparison with the Apple ipad. Yes, the ipad has a ton more apps. But the question is, do people need all those apps?

So since I am a typical user, I will assume that the apps I wanted were of a typical user. So lets get on to what the Playbook did have and not.

Firstly, we'll need to go over the purpose of the tablet so we can filter out the necessary from the desirables.

For a tablet to have a purpose, it needs to do certain things better than a laptop and a smartphone so it is viable to carry an extra device.

Ok. So what do we not like about the smartphone? The small screen. And the laptop? Slow boot up time, poor battery life, etc.

Keep in mind that I am not a Blackberry user and therefore, I did not have any access to Blackberry Bridge.

For me, when I am outside and need a computer, I do some of these things;
- Surf the web
- Check emails
- Watch videos
- Check maps/addresses
- Write notes
- Play games
- Take photos of interesting things
- Blogging

So lets go over each of these things.

Surfing the Web
The browser works great, user interface adds even more to the overall experience. The browser also has the option to turn Adobe flash on and off. For those who require it. However I found that flash generally caused the browser to slow down.

On the other hand, I was not once able to get the Playbook to connect to the web through tethering to my iPhone 3GS. This is probably the deal breaker for me to even consider the Playbook. I tried Bluetooth and wifi (through cydia app) but neither worked. My brother tried tethering with his iPhone 4 and while it worked, the connection was extremely slow. To the point that it could be called “not working”.

The Playbook would be amazing for surfing the web on public wifi at coffee shops or restaurants, except it never worked for me.

Checking Emails
BAD. In order to check your email, you have to open a browser then go to the corresponding email provider webpage (gmail, hotmail, yahoo mail, etc). There was no program for the email service (again, not sure about Blackberry Bridge). You have to sign in again and again since it doesn’t remember passwords. Basically a lot of hassle. I checked the app store but couldn’t find a email fetching app. So currently, its extremely tedious to check simple email. Kind of like a laptop.

Watching Videos
Youtube works well, like you would expect. Video quality is clear with the brilliant screen. This could totally replace the laptop in this department. The bigger screen size than phone also makes it much more comfortable to watch a movie (imported from computer). Definitely a plus.

Checking Maps/Addresses
Not that great on the tablet as 1, unable to to my iPhone so I couldn’t use it unless wifi was nearby and 2, the map database was bing and not google. The con about bing is that their maps aren’t as complete as google (some smaller roads inside campuses or malls aren’t shown). Aside from that the map program runs as expected, same with locating addresses so you don’t get lost. I use this feature mainly on my phone when traveling somewhere to make sure that I was going in the right direction.

Writing Notes
There is the Document to Go app on the Blackberry Playbook. Which is good. However, no exporting by upload or email. Which is bad. It has all the font, paragraph, etc options. Which is good. However I’m just writing a note, not an essay, which makes it pretty meaningless for me. Which is bad. The load time is fast. Which is good. But can’t export out of the device except by USB to computer. Which is bad. It goes down to, lack of exporting options which is the weakest point for this usage. Aside from that, more functionality for its word processor is a good thing.

Playing Games
The current game library is lacking in both quality and quantity. Even the “best” game, the Need for Speed game which came with the release of the Playbook was pretty choppy. The game felt “laggy” and not refined. The Playbook processor should be far superior, I blame the game and not the device as even though the game is laggy, when you swipe up to go back to the home page, it is extremely smooth. This was seen in other games I tried playing. Looking through the game section, games were either not interesting or poorly coded. Bottom line is more developers need to start/better code for this system before it could be capable of playing games.

Taking Photos
Brilliant. Nothing much to say here. Camera works like a camera. No focusing on a point though, atleast I couldn’t make it work. Also, taking picture process seems funny but turns out ok. When you take a picture and move, the picture looks blurry on the screen, but then when you go to the picture app and look at the picture, its perfectly clear. Its just weird, but doesn’t affect performance. I wouldn’t pay too much attention to it though, afterall, it does a good job taking photos. But the device is much bigger than a phone.. so whether that feature is any use, will depend on various people.

Blogging
No blogging program at time of writing.

Final Decision
For me, I would not even consider getting this tablet based on what is available right now. The reason is because I cannot get online with the device through tethering with my iPhone 3GS. It also lacks games and an email fetching service which I have on my iPhone. Lastly, my eyes work well enough not to require a bigger screen to read emails and text on a screen. At this point in time, less weight on my back to prolong back pain is more important than bigger screen to prolong my eyesight… Or something like that…

While the Blackberry Playbook does have many great features, I currently do not see its existence for a normal consumer not running on a Blackberry phone. If you do use a Blackberry and use the Bridge software, write in the comments below if it works well for you.

Henry's Photo Show

2011-05-13T16:58:00.000-07:00

Today, on May 13, 2011, I went to the Henry's Photo Show held at the International Centre in Missassauga. The show was intended for photography enthusiasts. There were alot of things to do there. Follow the link below for a more complete coverage of the event (not very).

The show was held for 3 days, Friday May 13, to Sunday May 15. However I only went on Friday. The show was similar to the other events that I've been to (Anime and Car).

There were a list of things to do there, like in the other conventions. They include;
- Buying photography tools such as cameras, lenses, bags, tripods, photo paper, picture frames, and many more
- Testing out lenses and cameras brought by vendors such as Canon, Nikon, Sony, etc
- Listen in on lectures from professionals on photography techniques
- Inquire about products of the new (coming soon) and old (present)
- Communicate with other photography enthusiasts

I'm not too much of a photography person but I won't say I don't appreciate nice photos. Im especially intrigued with light painting images or empowering landscapes and scenery. I think photography terms and ideas are kind of flowing into me now. I can kind of follow people's talk over at booths about whats a good lens or what material makes a good tripod, and etc. Though from what I could see, photography is an expensive hobby ;-; Probably worse than collecting figurines like I do. Except they can be used... darn it...

Basically all of the event was summarized up above. The atmosphere is very similar to the other conventions I've been to, lots of people, shops and booths of enthusiasts and vendors. Unlike anime conventions, no cosplayers. Also, not as crowded as the car show or Anime North either. The space was not too large, just hall 6 at the international centre, but the space was well used and laid out to prevent congestion. Needless to say, there was no chaos. And there were security officers and checkpoints to make sure no stealing.

Some photos included below, since this is a post in a long time, I'll mention a little bit about how I've been doing. Also, all pictures are taken with a Blackberry Playbook.

An overview picture of the event hall (excluding some lecture rooms).

The checkout desk, since this event was sponsored by Henry's, you see their logo in alot of places.

Discounted stuff, there were tons of it.

Woah, crazy lens from Sigma, 200-500x zoom O_O

My brother trying out expensive, hard to obtain lenses on his Canon 5D Mark II.

One of the several lecture areas, this was one of the smaller ones.

Lecture room. this one we went to was a talk about techniques to take pictures at night.

Of course we can't forget the eating area. Can't have people starving.

Gallery: Here.

I just graduated from University of Waterloo and now job hunting for a chemist position at some company, preferably for a research position or assistant. My field of work had been in the GC or gas chromatography field and hope to get a job there to present what I know and expand on my knowledge in the topic. If any employer manages to read this, I have my resume which I can email to you if you are in search of an employee. I can be contacted at pakhinlaw@gmail.com

Thank you.

PS. I haven't had much news to write about hence the lack of updates. I should be getting some anime figurines soon. I'll try to write a review about them when I get it in and taken some pictures (with some tips from this show) =D

UW Graduation Composite Photo Get!

2011-03-29T13:04:00.000-07:00

The end of my 5 years education is ending before my eyes.

The photo pickup was free along with this bag of goodies.

- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

Writing on the go: Congratz !! New ipad2 owner

2011-03-25T16:07:00.001-07:00

My helpful lab instructor, named Jake Fisher, bought an ipad2!! 32gb 3G black model! Lucky!! He teaches the physical chemistry laboratories at UW and is the most senior lab instructor now ! Hes great to get along with. If you do see him, just mention my name ! (Pak Hin Law) You'll get a great reaction. ;)

I missed out ;-;
Just 4 more people or so before me when it sold out.

- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

Writing on the go: Ipad2 lineup at waterloo!

2011-03-25T14:07:00.001-07:00

The line for ipad2!! Store starts selling at 5pm on March 25, 2011.

We got there at 5:05pm.

Let's hope we get one.

Freezing here!!!!

- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

2011 Canadian Internation Autoshow

2011-03-05T18:37:00.000-08:00

On Feb 21 of 2011, the 2011 Canadian International Autoshow was held. This year I had the privilege to go and see what was there. It was held in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto. It had many exhibits from every car company that you can find in Canada. If you're interested in what the show had to offer, read below!

I have never thought that much about cars. As long as it gets me from A to B with the best competitive rates and a stylish exterior, I'm sold. What else can you talk about in a car..? It appears that is not the case at all.

First things when you walk into the show rooms with the different manufacturers. They have already laid the whole floor with cars. Of different models, different packages, some different colours. Finding your car isn't just picking one which gets you to point A to B.

Look at all the cars (and people)!

But keeps you comfortable, be reliable and efficient, lastly and most importantly, keep you safe. And when you take a look at the booths or talk to the representatives, they will explain all brand new features available in their models. They basically talk like sales representatives. That is because you can actually place orders for cars.

I personally love the stylish cars. I want to drive down the road in style. But Lamborghinis are way out of my league. I got to see some pretty sleek cars at the show.

Hyundai Genesis

Honda CR-Z

Honda Civic Concept (Maybe next generation?)

Which leads me to the next point. I love seeing their concept vehicles from each manufacturer. They are either very unique and won't be making it into the marketplace anytime soon, or they look sporty in the way that makes me want it. >W< ! Aside from just concept cars, the old concept idea of using electricity for cars have finally grown. At the show, there were a noticeable amount of hybrid technology cars. Of course, the Chevrolet Volt was there.

Fully electric cars, that is the kind of charging station they will have

Subaru Concept, it looks sporty :D

Kia Concept Car, more room to enter the car, but no support in the middle o_o

Hyundai Concept Car, several concepts there had these kinds of doors. Maybe its becoming reality soon?

Concept cars, normal cars. What about SUPER CARS? Of course they had them.

However unlike the common cars, these did not let you ride in them, there were fences around them so no one could enter. Boo.

Lotus Brand, small and light cars, very sporty looking and unaffordable for me :P

Lamborghini Brand, most people know about them, extremely expensive and seem to like straight lines more than curves like most brands

Lexus super car, LFA, very nice looking (and Im sure performs extraordinary too)... but no money ;_;

Hmm... so concepts, common and exotic cars are all present. What if I'm rich, I can afford exotics. Were there any collector cars?

In fact, there were. I don't know if there were going to be auctions, but I wouldn't even think about attempt to obtain one of those.

1972 Fiat Dino (Oh, Fiat made an appearance at this autoshow, it was my first time hearing that name, but apparantely, it has been around alot longer o_o)

1976 Lamborghini Countach

If those weren't old enough for you... how about this one?

Its small...

LOL ! It was just brought in to show that that Mercedes was the fathers of automobile and that was their early vehicles.

That basically covers the whole show. There were other smaller things. They had an area to drop off your kids. They had vendors to sell toy cars. Several food courts were around the building. Oh, they also have a room where they show you the cars which won awards.

Lastly, there weren't much freebies. Just bags to hold your brochures or books that you can get at the booths. Sadly. Well, thanks for reading till the end.

Entire gallery below.

Auto show Feb 21 2011

Selling EssenceRO Accounts

2011-03-02T18:59:00.000-08:00

Hello, I got another offer for you all. There won't be an expiry date since this isn't a coupon or anything. Its accounts for a game called RO. I used to play but I don't anymore. Since I was able to make a few dollars from a Google Adwords Coupon, I thought I might as well try this too. Read on if interested.

Editted Aug 30, 2011: Accounts Sold. Thank you for all who were interested.

The accounts are for a server called EssenceRO, link here.

They are the largest server housing the most players online at any given one time.

Its a great server, really is, just that when you lose interest, you lose interest. I've been playing RO for over 8 years. On and off. On essenceRO, maybe 1-2 years.

Take a look around the server, if you like it, come back and buy the account =D

Anyway, I have 2 accounts for sale (More if you want crappy accounts with nothing good).
This account.
Characters:
Pic
Items:
List

Asking price: With zeny, $180 CDN. Without zeny, $80 CDN.
*Note: Donation for the server gives you donation tokens, $1 = 1 donation token = 10m zeny*
This account has over 2billion zeny.

and this account.
Characters:
Pic
Items:
List

Asking price: $50

Prices we can discuss if you email me at tomabackspin@gmail.com. You'll need to anyway to find out my paypal email address :P

I will stay first, like the last coupon offer, this is based off of trust. Basically, you give me money to my paypal, I send you username and password, then you're free to change the email on that account after accessing the essenceRO control panel by logging in on the website.

I will trust you as long as you trust me. But we can discuss this if you are interested, just email me any questions. Contact me at tomabackspin@gmail.com.

Let me know if any links go down, I'll reupload them.

Thanks and happy hunting!

$91 Discounted Offer: $100 coupon for Google Adwords for $9

2011-02-08T17:04:00.000-08:00

Just like the previous offers from Google (Its not free though ;D ). More detail after the jump. Updated Feb 14, 2011: Coupon code has been sold. Thanks to all those who were interested. Hope to see you again when the next offer is out.

This offer is again from Google. $100 if spent before Feb 18, 2011. From Feb 18 to Mar 17, 2011, the amount is only $75. Expires completely after Mar 18, 2011.

What is Google Adwords?
Not familiar with Google AdWords? You simply create ads that appear next to relevant search results on Google.com and its network of partner websites. Potential customers see your ad at the exact moment they are searching for you. When people click on your ad, they're connected to your business.

Getting started with AdWords is easy. Just choose the search terms your potential customers are likely to use, write your ad and decide how much you're willing to pay per click and per day-it's that simple.

Here's why so many people like you are using Google AdWords to promote their business:
- Pay only when people land on your site. Google Adwords is performance-based, so you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
- Control your budget. You decide how much you're willing to spend on advertising each day-and how much you're willing to pay when someone clicks on your ad.
- Target just your town, or the entire world. With Google AdWords, you can focus your ads on just your neighborhood, or to people worldwide.
- There's no minimum term or commitment. You can pause or cancel your AdWords campaign at any time. Once you use up your $100 in free ads, you can continue runing your campaign, or not. It's your call.

I'm looking for some extra spending cash. So this is what I am going to try to do.

I am going to put it up for a first come first serve, email me at tomabackspin@gmail.com. I will give it to the first person who emails me with an interest for $9.

Thats $100 for $9 ! What a deal!

How it works:
Basically just simply state in the email you want the coupon. If you are the first one, I'll let you know and provide you my paypal username so you can transfer money over.

So the offer doesn't go to waste. I'll give it FREE to the first person who emails me after Feb 31, 2011. So don't email me in advance saying I want the free $75 !

I should also mention, I live in -5 GMT or Eastern Time.

Thanks. And cheers.

English is so special

2011-01-26T10:28:00.000-08:00

I was writing a report for one of my courses, when I ended up writing "...an universal...". To my surprise, auto correction brings it to "...a universal...". Since this was strange to me (I was sure I was told, if word start with vowel, use "an" instead of "a"), I had to look it up. Results and reasoning after the jump.

Apparantely, I was taught wrong, or taught right and remembered it wrong.

English isn't something you just memorize, which makes it one of the harder subjects to master.

Instead of memorizing vowel beginnings then replacing "a" with "an", you should pronounce the word first. If it SOUNDS like a vowel, then you do the replacement. Otherwise it stays the same.

Here are some examples, since it caught me off guard myself.

Ultimate
- Sounds like "a"ultimate
So its "[an ultimate] human being"

University
- Sounds like "y"university
So its "[a university]"

Heres the problem though. If you aren't fluent in english and have no idea what the word sounds like, then what do you do?

Source: Here.

NSFW: [Escude] Akatoki! -Yume Koso Masare Koi no Mahou- Visual Novel Semi-Review

2011-01-08T20:43:00.000-08:00

This visual novel I played recently, was called Akatoki! -Yume Koso Masare Koi no Mahou- by Escude. Or in the japanese, あかときっ！-夢こそまされ恋の魔砲. Unlike the previous reviews, I won't be giving a score because I could not completely absorb all the information given. Why? I played it in Japanese. For those who wants to hear my thoughts on the game and along with a brief introduction to the game, click after the link.

First the box art or the title page.. or atleast this is the first impression one would get from this visual novel.

Front Cover

I personally like the art. Probably one of the main reasons why made me play. Just like animes, if I don't like the art, it doesn't matter how good the story is. Because I can't make my eyes stare at something I don't like for long periods of time (hours). Call that prejudice if you want. But all reviews are going to be like that to some degree.

This game isn't just a normal adventure visual novel because all you do is not simply read dialogues and pick whichever choice you think gets you to the ending you desire. There is a little bit of more involved combat which I will mention in great detail later.

The characters... there are alot of them. Why? Because theres the good guys and the bad guys. I got the pictures off the getchu (NSFW) site, they were missing a few pictures, but thats fine. Most of the important people are included.

Main character, shujinkou in japanese. His name is Yano Mayuto. Uses composite (no element) magic.

First of your 2 childhood friends, Kamishiro Yuuji. Uses light magic.

Second of the 2 childhood friends, Tachibana Yumi. Uses darkness magic.

First of the 5 heroine which has a pursuit-able route. Her name is Agatsu Nayu. She is a shy girl who is easily blushes and fluster easily. Very cute. Her magic elemental is fire.

Second of the 5 heroines. Name is Mashiro Sayaka. She is the typical perfect class president. Highly capable and leader material. Infact, she is the leader for the group. She uses earth magic.

Third of the 5 heroines. Shes the typical tsundere, named Amata Maki. I start to think that whenever a girl is blonde and has twintails in an anime or visual novel, they are automatically tsundere. Lol... She uses sound magic... what? I might have interpreted it wrong, from the elemental circle (weakness and strengths), her magic is yellow. So maybe lightning or wind...?

Fourth heroine. A bit strange on how to describe this one, her name is Kurushima Ririi. Her route was actually the one I played. Not very often theres someone with heterchromia. But her personality is similar to that of a kid, even though she strongly disagrees. She is pretty rough around the edges if you really get to know her. But she hides that side by putting on an act around people. An act that resembles a typical ojou-sama. But she doesn't show off like one. Thank goodness... She is a ice magic user.

Fifth and final heroine. She is Marukawa Rinko. Shes... maso. Yeah... Notice the collar? You put that on her. I don't know much else about her. Anyway, darkness is her elemental attribute.

This little thing is cool. Its basically a generic enemy. However he somehow defected to your side. I don't know the details because I couldn't read japanese. Hes number 773 of the mass produced minions. So hes named Nanami by you and your two childhood friends. (7 = nana, so na for short, and 3 = mitsu, so mi for short. Combining 773 gives na na mi)

Generic bad guy. Theres black ones and white ones. Theres also more evil looking bad guys like wolves and birds which I don't have pictures of. Theres also evil marionettes.

The guardian for our group of 6 people. Her name is Ayasaki Nagare and acts as our intelligence personnel. She is often ridiculed by other people and acts as comedic relief.

The master of the enemy which assaults the main character's. I did not understand the reason. Perhaps it was mentioned but I must have missed it. All I know was they want to take over the world. And then that was how it all began, with massive numbers of those cute looking knights. Her name is Kukuriku.

Maid of Kukuriku. I don't know her background, but she serves Kukuriku basically whatever she needs, she does. Her name is Chikka.

The most annoying bad guy in my opinion. Hes a clown, so he speaks in a funny fashion. He is pretty involved in the story so you won't be getting rid of him easily. He calls himself Piero. He is supposed to be one of the three main bad guys who works under Kukuriku.

He is the third of the strong bosses of Kukuriku. His name is G-Fender. There is a second boss who has a clock for head but his picture was not on getchu. So I'll leave him out. He looks cute. Doesn't he? Looks like lego too. Haha. I love lego.

Next, I'll mention the battle system which drawn me to the game. Every now and then, you'll reach an event where you either meet a boss or minions. Those are all pre-written in the program so you will do it every time you reach those triggers. The battles takes place in a turn-based fashion. Your characters versus whatever the enemy has.

Each character has the following actions,
1. Attack (Consumes Mana) single target
- There are 3 attacks per person, weak, medium, strong
- Each attack has their amount of knockback in the ordering or turns
- So you can make someone never have a turn
2. Change Formations
- Attacker gains attack and speed, but most probable to attack
- Wingman gets nothing and loses nothing
- Defender gets more defence at a cost of attack
3. Rest (Regenerate Mana)
4. Use spell (Different per person) on all characters
- Mayuto boosts attack
- Nayu boosts speed
- Maki boosts shield
- Ririi dispells negative effects
- Sayaka heals
- Rinko puts enemies to sleep with a certain percentage
5. Uses special (Requires Heatgage at 100%) Note: Heatgage probably means Heat Gauge. Oh well.
- Its an attack that hits all enemies
- Becareful because some enemies have it too

There are also chain attacks and append attacks which helps add damage to your comboes.

Oh yes, the elemental wheel.
Water -> Fire -> Nature -> Earth -> Wind/Lightning/Sound(?) -> Water
and
Darkness <-> Light

So basically strategically outsmart your enemy using all the information given. Sounds fun! And alot like other rpg games.

The objectives are of course, to KO all the enemies before you do. At the end of every battle, you are given stars, those stars are used to improve the stats of your characters. If a character is KO'ed in battle, then at the end of that battle, that character gets 1 less star than what you would get if he had survived. So try to keep everyone alive.

Oh... since one more thing. Have you ever heard of Queensblade Spiral Chaos? This game is similar. Your character has one unique feature different from all the other games I've played.
Look below.

You start out like this.

As battle goes on...

That happens...

Keep going and...

Ta da! Btw, it doesn't stop there. You can imagine.

It applies to pretty much all of the heroines and some of the enemies.

Its considered a KO if you become exposed. Don't worry though, that is hardly possible in the two play throughs I've done. You ALWAYS get HP KO'ed before that happens. Or maybe I'm playing it wrong... Hahaha...

I'll mention what I thought of the story, atleast what I found from it. The stories were not as deep as the previous I played. But nevertheless it was quite enjoyable. For one, I felt like my japanese was on an adequate level to follow what was going on. The story didn't have too many twists and was straight forward. Ririi's arc left more on an impression on me than Nayu's arc. But that might be different from person to person. I might also be missing fine details due me not being fluent in japanese. That also said, because of that, I am unqualified to give a proper review. But I would say, I enjoyed it. The stories.

Synopsis:
An evil group of people calling themselves Kurayami attacked the world in an attempt to take over. Their army consist of cute looking things such as those knights which rendered conventional military confused and inefficient. That was when magic came into existence. Main character and your two childhood friends went out to be magicians to combat this threat. You go to the school to learn and that is where you become familiar and eventually pursue one of the 5 main heroines of this game. The game involves a generic arc that covers about 50% of the game. After which depending on the choices you've made, you follow the character specific arc for 5 alternate endings.

Lastly, the CG and music wasn't that great for me. There weren't many CGs at all. But now that I think about it, the length was not that long either. There were 2 H-events for each character except Rinko. Several tracks in the music consisted of something similar to what we hear in Canada and America. It just sounded different. I'm not used to hearing fluent english words in a japanese game. Sorry.

Well, that concludes what I had to say. Its been so long since I actually posted something relevant to Japan. So I thought I'd write this up since it was something I played. Proud of it? Kinda yeah. One step closer to playing raw visual novels and watching raw anime. Because you know, every little step helps!

Game Opening Video:

Official Website: Here.

MySpace Port: Poem Summary

2011-01-06T15:22:00.000-08:00

Basically, I brought over all the poem posts I've made on myspace. The entries were in reverse chronological order. First post was the latest. The dates ranged from Feb 11, 2007 to Dec 20, 2007. I never considered myself an english major. But I really appreciated the poems I wrote. It felt nice to read and it made me feel extremely good inside to have produced something that seems nice. If you do have time. Please take a moment to read some poems. They were written to be read afterall.

MySpace Port: Poem of Cookies

2011-01-06T15:21:00.000-08:00

I just went to myspace to see some how I acted and stuff back many years ago. Then I realized I had actually wrote ALOT of poems. So I've decided to bring them over to the blog. Since I wont think I'll visit there ever again. Poem is after the jump.

Here is a little poem I made for the fun of english.... Haha... Enjoy.

Version 1

Cookie cookie, come to me.
I'll do anything, just for thee.
One or two, I don't need much.
Just a few would make me touched.
Thank you friend, for your kind help.
Your warmth shown, has made me melt.
Your support, I'll never forget.
Thanks my friend, you won't regret.
May God bless you, all the way.
And give you happiness, everyday.

Version 2.

Cookie cookie, come to me.
I'll do anything, just for thee.
One or two, I don't need much.
Just a few would make me touched.
Thank you friend, for your kind help.
Your warmth shown, has made me melt.
Your support, I'll always remember.
The fun times that we had together.
May you be rewarded heavily.
And one day you'll live happily.

MySpace Port: Albatross18 Valentine Event Poem

2011-01-06T15:19:00.000-08:00

I just went to myspace to see some how I acted and stuff back many years ago. Then I realized I had actually wrote ALOT of poems. So I've decided to bring them over to the blog. Since I wont think I'll visit there ever again. Poem is after the jump.

No Stealing !! (tense)!

Enjoy

To my dear Kooh,
who stole my soul.
I remember when we first met,
such a time I'll never forget.
It was back when I first started,
when my friends had all just parted.
I was lonely, can't you see,
until I set my eyes on thee.
Your flowy hair so light and free,
it was all so gorgeous to me.
Your pretty eyes, so full of passion,
and those colours, oh such great fashion.
You stood there with much strength and might,
it was truly such a sight.
You helped taught me how to play,
but soon after, you went away.
I've been playing since that day,
so "lets play again", I'll one day say.
Without you, its not the same,
at least let me hear your name.
I never gave you my reply,
to your question, I know why.
I was foolish as was dumb,
now my heart is all so numb.
I love you Kooh, with all my heart,
please don't let us be apart.

Again for a golf game, Albatross18.

MySpace Port: Drinking and Driving Poem

2011-01-06T15:18:00.004-08:00

I just went to myspace to see some how I acted and stuff back many years ago. Then I realized I had actually wrote ALOT of poems. So I've decided to bring them over to the blog. Since I wont think I'll visit there ever again. Poem is after the jump.

Drinking and driving is all so cool,
thats only if you're a fool.
It will cause you your life,
and give great pain to your wife.
Leave your children unattended,
and a scar not easily mended.
How this happens, its no surprise,
that is why no one survives.
Drinking one glass leads to two,
keep on drinking and you're screwed.
When you're broke you leave the bar,
walking slowly to your car.
Start the engine, release the breaks,
all that seems like a piece of cake.
Get on the road and reach a light,
forget to stop, and it turns bright.
open your eyes and what do you see,
its so scary that you start to pee.
When light dies down, you see a truck,
all you can do is say "holy f*ck".
Crash and burn is all men sees,
not knowing that it was me.
That was the story of how I died,
apologies for those who cried.
I do not wish for the same mistakes,
to those people who may fortake,
the pains and pleasure of drinking beer,
let me warn you, there's tons to fear.
Let this be a lesson to remember,
that life is precious, like a treasure.
So live freely like a bird,
drinking beer? Don't be absurd.
You only have one life to use,
live it right so you don't lose.

Special thanks goes to StriderX, my real life friend who inspired me to write this.

MySpace Port: Midterm Poem

2011-01-06T15:18:00.001-08:00

I just went to myspace to see some how I acted and stuff back many years ago. Then I realized I had actually wrote ALOT of poems. So I've decided to bring them over to the blog. Since I wont think I'll visit there ever again. Poem is after the jump.

Midterms happens once a term,
it attacks you like a germ.
Stealing away your time and mind,
forcing you to go and grind,
memorizing terms and theories,
draining your life, leave you weary.
Hours spent, none accomplished,
left your brain fully abolished.
When its test time, you wake up late,
you say to yourself, "Oh just great".
You run to exam room and what do you find?
You've been kicked out so now you whine.
Begging and swearing is all you do,
two hours passed and now you're through.
Zero on one midterm is such a pain,
it is as though you've just been slain.
So you work hard for the rest,
get a 70, you did your best.
Find out later that the class failed,
what a relief that you weren't nailed.
Don't celebrate yet, it has just begun,
let this be the start of a brand new run.

Inspired by Kevin Y. I did my best

MySpace Port: Fair Play Poem

2011-01-06T15:17:00.001-08:00

I just went to myspace to see some how I acted and stuff back many years ago. Then I realized I had actually wrote ALOT of poems. So I've decided to bring them over to the blog. Since I wont think I'll visit there ever again. Poem is after the jump.

Playing fairly is a rule,
cheating, haxing is not cool.
Cheaters give me such a scare,
I thought you weren't being fair.
Games should be played fair and square,
not with programs here and there.
Play by AI isn't good,
but by skills like how it should.
Next time lets play with skills and pride,
if we fail, at least we tried.

MySpace Port: Apology and Response Poems

2011-01-06T15:13:00.000-08:00

I just went to myspace to see some how I acted and stuff back many years ago. Then I realized I had actually wrote ALOT of poems. So I've decided to bring them over to the blog. Since I wont think I'll visit there ever again. Poem is after the jump.

You broke up with me in the past,
it's a pain that forever last.
When you weren't there, all was boring,
so I spent every minute mourning,
wondering what i had done wrong,
left me hollow and you gone.
I do wish for another chance,
for our lives to enhance,
to heal and remove the old sorrows,
and carve ourselves a bright tomorrow.
It's already a new millennium,
but feels like a circle, much like a pendulum.
Although much time has passed by,
nothing have changed between you and I.
I still seek for your forgiveness,
in the past, for my selfishness.
I finally understand why I was rejected,
because I was actually defected,
being selfish and greedy,
asking for stuff and being needy.
As in the past I'm still begging,
but you never reply to my nagging.
What can I do before you talk to me again?
money, chocolates, roses I can send.
Myself too, I have changed,
much like a living room, rearranged.
No longer the crowded room as it was,
more spaces and freedom which you sought.
Whatever you want, I will give,
please come back to me, together we'll live.

As for the reply.

I'm sorry but that will not do,
As for you and I, we are through.
I now have another man,
a person who gives me a hand.
Takes away my stress and pain,
having him is such a gain.
He does nothing bad to me,
makes me happy, feeling free.
He respects all my decisions,
even with my ovary incision.
We both love each other greatly,
Please forget me and find another lady.
I am right now very happy,
I want to live here eternally.

I must have been too bored in class again (:[)

MySpace Port: Yugioh Poem

2011-01-06T15:12:00.000-08:00

I just went to myspace to see some how I acted and stuff back many years ago. Then I realized I had actually wrote ALOT of poems. So I've decided to bring them over to the blog. Since I wont think I'll visit there ever again. Poem is after the jump.

Yugioh Poem

Want an anime to make you crack?
The main characters are yugi and kaiba.
And the show name is Yugioh,
it sucks so much, like Cheerio.
Theres monsters like kuriboh,
300atk,200 def, its so useless, omg no!
Yet yugi never lost to another,
I set kuriboh face down and end my turn!
Every time its win wins winssss,
Then dolfini comes and spins. (wtf? Wrong game(lol))

Theres a secret code in there. If you think you have it, contact me via, reply to this blog or msg me on msn and tell me.
My alb18 account is the prize, and dont worry, its not a lie. Rhyming is so very fun, so lets begin the first run! You have until March the fourteen, my deadline is strict, as I'm mean (>=D)

MySpace Port: My Way of Thinking Poem

2011-01-06T15:11:00.001-08:00

I just went to myspace to see some how I acted and stuff back many years ago. Then I realized I had actually wrote ALOT of poems. So I've decided to bring them over to the blog. Since I wont think I'll visit there ever again. Poem is after the jump.

My Way of thinking

People ask me if I'm gay,
Avoiding all girls everyday.
To that question, no I'm not,
a straight mind, I have got.
But you see, I am too poor,
I am living in a sewer.
I have to live off of others,
eating all their leftovers.
Not just money, but time too,
I lack both in waterloo.
Secretly studying in university,
because others took pity.
Working hard 24/7,
please let me die and go to heaven.
How could I have a girlfriend now?
With so many problems, oh tell me how.
So I just avoid them the best I can,
the most I do is talk through LAN.
The fewer that I see,
the better for me.
Because they will only steal my heart,
and make it painful when we part.
There you have it, my story.
I have my pride and glory.
Maybe once I have the time,
I'll look for one, with a dime.
Using up my money for her,
"You want a car?", ok sure.
Suddenly, this feels like such a scam,
losing my time and cash, "Oh damn"

I felt I should write something...

MySpace Port: Unnamed Poem

2011-01-06T15:09:00.000-08:00

I just went to myspace to see some how I acted and stuff back many years ago. Then I realized I had actually wrote ALOT of poems. So I've decided to bring them over to the blog. Since I wont think I'll visit there ever again. Poem is after the jump.

Would you let me follow you?
Would you take me to the zoo?
Would you give me all your time?
Would you trade it for a dime?
Would you buy me this and that?
Would you mind if I was flat?
Would you care about how I look?
Would you worry if I can't cook?
Would you share with me your lunch?
Would you give me that fruit punch?
Would you like to have a dance?
Would you give me another chance?
Would you like to talk to me?
Would you one day set me free?
Would you wait for my return?
Would you see what I have learned?
Would you protect me forever?
Would you, at night, endeavour?
Would you make me your forever pair?
Would you kiss me everywhere?
Would you strip me of my clothes?
Would your love for me grow?
Would you, could you make me your?
I want to know you more and more.

Not sure what to call this... lol. Note: I know there are lots of grammatical errors, but for it to actually sound pleaseant when i speak it in my head, those sacrifices must be made. (lol)

MySpace Port: University of Waterloo Poem

2011-01-06T15:08:00.000-08:00

I just went to myspace to see some how I acted and stuff back many years ago. Then I realized I had actually wrote ALOT of poems. So I've decided to bring them over to the blog. Since I wont think I'll visit there ever again. Poem is after the jump.

University of Waterloo Poem

Water water water!!!
loo loo loo!!!
Water water water!!!
loo loo loo!!!
Welcome to our university,
its not for the poor and needy.
Overpricing food and book,
forcing us all to cook.
Paying for tuition is hell,
to afford, your home must sell.
Ninety thousand for a year,
that alone will make you fear.
That is only the beginning,
to the university's winning.
If you choose to live in rez,
your money and future will be a mess.
Deep in debt you will be,
because that is just like me.
Another evil plan they have,
is forcing you to go take math.
Its the course that rapes our mark,
trapping our souls, make us park,
into their grasps forever.
We will not escape, not ever.
Fail and fail year after year,
I see bankrupcy drawing near.
I regret the choice I made,
and also cry for my current grade.
There is no fun in waterloo,
if we play games, they will sue.
Rob us of what we have left,
then put us in jail like a theft.
Forcing parents to spend cash,
to bribe us free, with their stash.
Ruining their own retirement,
draining their money as payment,
to the university for our release,
no more cash, retirement ceased.
We become beggars, nothing more,
At UW, I truly swore.
"You wrecked my life, you filthy b*stards"
"I should have been rich... I was a nerd!"
Please pay a visit to my home sometime,
its a big box filled with lime.
Please bring some food and money,
Its not a joke, I'm not that funny.

In reality however, UW is a very nice place. haha

MySpace Port: Hong Kong Poem

2011-01-06T15:07:00.001-08:00

I just went to myspace to see some how I acted and stuff back many years ago. Then I realized I had actually wrote ALOT of poems. So I've decided to bring them over to the blog. Since I wont think I'll visit there ever again. Poem is after the jump.

Hong Kong Poem

Have you ever been to Hong Kong?
Its the place of chinese songs.
Chinese letters and language,
lots of seafood, lots of fish.
Streets are always filled with people,
with some wise men who makes riddle.
Mass transit is always used,
being carless is what most choose.
But the air is still so bad,
the smokes there drives me so mad.
But I like their school system,
students wear uniforms, its a custom.
It makes them look so well mannered,
like my cute cat when she purred.
Hong Kong is the place to buy,
but don't stay outside, you will fry.
Every building has AC.
So the malls are a must see.
If you are free, go visit sometime,
don't bring weapons, or its a crime.
Please have fun on your journey!
And next time you can go with me!

Lalalala, bored in music class again.

MySpace Port: Albatross18 Poem of Green

2011-01-06T15:06:00.001-08:00

I just went to myspace to see some how I acted and stuff back many years ago. Then I realized I had actually wrote ALOT of poems. So I've decided to bring them over to the blog. Since I wont think I'll visit there ever again. Poem is after the jump.

Entered for alb18 St.Patricks Day contest, no copying! (tense)!
Enjoy

Poem of Green

Have you ever gone outside?
Its so dirty, it made me die.
What happened to all of the green?
the good old trees standing tall and mean.
Scaring away bullies and fiends,
makes me friends with all the teens.
They also filter the bad air,
makes life cleaner, everywhere.
But now the trees are not around,
no sign of life forms on the ground.
The world is withering away,
this kind of lifestyle must not stay.
Lets work together to restore life,
lets not cut trees, with our knife.
Instead lets plant a new forest,
and make it our base and fortress,
against the loggers who harms the green.
A world without trees, we have seen,
let us prevent that disaster,
as was done by our master.
We should work toward a tomorrow,
with lots of joy and little sorrow.
Please do not kill anymore trees,
they are living, like you and me.

This was again for Albatross18. A game of golf.

MySpace Port: Poem of Equal Trade

2011-01-06T15:04:00.000-08:00

I just went to myspace to see some how I acted and stuff back many years ago. Then I realized I had actually wrote ALOT of poems. So I've decided to bring them over to the blog. Since I wont think I'll visit there ever again. Poem is after the jump.

Poem of equal trade

Nothing in this world comes free
Open your eyes and you will see
In order to gain something nice
You must pay an equal price
Such as a leg for an arm
That should set off your alarm
No more wanting everything
No more wanting to be king
Keep on wanting and you'll have nothing left
Continue to want and you'll be a theft
Pay the fines and go to jail
Lose it all, at life you fail
Theres a lesson to all this
So fame and fortune you don't miss
Just be yourself and don't be greedy
So what if your clothes are chessy
Be thankful of what you've got
Having it, is better than not
If you happen to believe in luck
Then I must tell you what the f*ck
If you idle, nothing will come
Why don't you go beg your mom
Those people do not deserve to live
They only take and never give
Let us share this across the globe
Never stopping, like a space probe
With this I hope to change the world
For the future boys and girls
Thank you for lending me your time
To hear my message in a rhyme
Lets all do our part to help
About this messenge we will tell
May we see a brighter tomorrow
In a world with much less sorrow.

1st of the 2 poems I wrote while working, made during the breaks I had hehe. On my cell =P

MySpace Port: Rosaline Poem

2011-01-06T15:02:00.000-08:00

I just went to myspace to see some how I acted and stuff back many years ago. Then I realized I had actually wrote ALOT of poems. So I've decided to bring them over to the blog. Since I wont think I'll visit there ever again. Poem is after the jump.

Rosaline Poem

To my sweet dear Rosaline
You're the sun that always shine
Your radiance shown like a flower in a desert
Seeing you alone make me hurt
So pretty yet so fragile
I want to protect your smile
I beg of you to accept me
Together happiness we will see
I can give up everything
Even my position as king
Anything to reach your heart
So we don't have to be apart
My life is nothing when you're not around
Much like the pebbles on the ground
Laying there forever forgotten
Just like some old shredded cotton
Scattered all over the place
Like my heart struck by a mace
When you bid me goodbye
I was so hurt and started to cry
I want you to know that I still love you
And shall endure all that you put me through
Because without pain none can be achieved
At least that is what I truely believed
Therefore I shall keep on waiting
For the day when we'll be dating
Oh my dear sweet Rosaline
How will I make your heart mine

The 2nd of the 2 poems I wrote at work. The name "Rosaline" does not especially mean anything to me (if any at all). I was just thinking of words to use for mmorpgs =P Suddenly felt like making a poem on that name, and there you have it. The so-called inspiration.

MySpace Port: Albatross18 Wishlist Event Poem

2011-01-06T14:59:00.000-08:00

I just went to myspace to see some how I acted and stuff back many years ago. Then I realized I had actually wrote ALOT of poems. So I've decided to bring them over to the blog. Since I wont think I'll visit there ever again. Poem is after the jump.

Time for a poem on the spot !
Start time, 7:13pm.

When I first open my eyes,
I see a field of baby's cries.
They Wished for presents that never came,
They lost hope in Santa lame.
So I told them my story,
of presents and glory.

Story: "Once upon a time, a valkryie named Kooh who fought alongside the gods of the world. The war was indeed the great Ragnarok. The fight was tough and during the final battle to renew Earth, Kooh was injured protecting Odin, the leader of the gods against the monsters that were terrorizing the lands. She was recorded in the history of the world as the savior and protector of Earth, awarded the "Kooh's Halo", she ascends into the heavens leaving behind a message to the humans and gods that we will protect this earth so no more sacrificed like in Ragnarok must be made."

(continuing with poem)

How this relates to Santa they all ask.
I tell them nothing's free, theres a task,
You must show them your trust,
towards Santa Claus, is a must.
You must believe not in myths,
and must work hard to earn great gifts,
Just has Kooh fought in the fight,
to earn something which was right,
A hero sacrificing herself for,
the greater good for Earth and all.
Deserved the title of hero and angel,
and watches over us on that rainbow.
Let us work hard for our rewards,
so we can be like Harrison Ford.

If it is unsure what present is on my wish list, it is the Halo (K).
I hope you enjoyed reading as I enjoyed writing.

End time, 7:35pm

I don't remember for sure, but I think this was for an albatross18 event where you write a poem incorporating an item you would like to receive in the game. The item here was a Halo for Kooh (K).

Second Pangya Self Design Completed

2011-01-02T06:23:00.000-08:00

I surprisingly had more time than I thought. As mentioned in the previous post, the source of the outfit was from Meruru of the Ore no Imoutou anime. Pictures after the jump.

The source picture I used was actually different from what I originally Planned.
The picture was a screencap from the anime episode 10. I used this picture because it felt more appropriate.

I think its well done for my standards. I've never been an art person. Though if anything, I think I messed up the sleeves. Though infact, its extremely hard to do it since when the hands stretch or what not. The clothes stretch, leading to un-uniformity of the pink band on the sleeves. Though its not perfect, I wouldn't worry too much about it though.

I dropped the 2 yellow balls on the skirt since it wasn't possible to draw 3D. I did some shading on the clothes to try to give it a feel of depth. Not sure if thats enough though... All in all, I spent much more time on this. Especially the ribbon on the top and the "frills(?)" on the bottom. Its hard to make something flat look like its folded. If you know what I mean.

I don't see myself doing anything new anytime soon. But who knows, maybe another one will pop out from nowhere. If anything can get my uncreative brain started...

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

Akimashite omedatou gozaimasu!

With that, marks the end of another wonderful year of 2010. Hope we continue to have a good and enlightening new experiences in the time to come. My present to you is after the jump.

I have finally recorded a piano piece from the visual novel "Clannad". The song is called "汐" in its native Japanese name, and when translated to romaji through google translate, it gave "Shiodome". When I used google to define that word, it says that its a place in Tokyo, Japan.

My friend translated it to Shio, meaning wave, current, or opportunity. Not sure what it is anymore. =x

Second friend translated to Ushio, which would make sense, so lets go with that. Spoiler alert. (highlight to see)
Ushio is the name of Nagisa's and Tomoya's baby girl.

This video was completely recorded from my iPhone3GS, if that means anything.

The source for the music sheet is here. The site is called Picoscores. Japanese person. Great music. I love it for its simplicity because I haven't played piano in a long time so I can't do complicated songs anymore.

My previous song, Kotoko - Allegretoo music sheet was also from there.

Happy new year!

BeNippon's New Affiliate Program

2010-12-31T21:24:00.000-08:00

I am officially signed up for it. More information after the jump. Lets get along, dear readers. ^_^

It works basically by giving the person who refers people to their website (Notice the hyperlink with the ID 191, thats my ID) some money based on the buyer's paid amount. It works by us bloggers signing up on their website then having a banner or two with a hyperlink that has your unique ID for the affiliate program. When people buy items using the link on your blog, you get some money.

Sounds good ! Though I highly doubt I will really make any money from this. But the banner on the right side has been updated with my ID. I'm not going to start spamming banners all over my blog. Don't worry about that.

Heres what it looks like. Exactly the same as the one on the side.

Aside though. BeNippon was my first online vendor for Japanese goods. Maybe because what I bought was extremely expensive and big. I thought the shipping charges was relatively heavy. For that reason, I haven't been using them since I found hobbysearch and amiami. But unlike hobbysearch, it is possible to find Touhou goods there. Atleast last time I tried, I could.

The site is unique for the ability to buy used goods. I never tried though. I prefer to preorder stuff. Though you always have a chance to be disappointed because prototypes always tend to look better than real products.

I won't say not to shop at BeNippon, but I think its generally more expensive than other places. But thats only for figures (which is what I solely look for). Books and stuff, it might be a good deal buying there. I think they stock stuff aside from otaku items too. Like Japanese goods, similar to Rakuten. Every store has their special charm to them. Thats why they're still alive. So if you never heard about BeNippon, give it a shot. At the very least, browse what they have and maybe you'll find something rare and affordable!

Hope you've learned something new. Lets work hard to get some extra spending money.

First Pangya Self Design Bottom

2010-12-28T11:35:00.000-08:00

I had to make a matching skirt for the Hatsune Miku top I made previously. As a first attempt, while doing it, I learned the ropes of the editor. The hardest part for me was trying to make the skirt appear to have a zigzag design while the actual skirt was perfectly flat. I used shadows and shading to try to get the effect. Thoughts for future work below.

All in all. Hard work, especially since I had to use a laptop touch pad (yes not even a mouse). But the track pad isn't too bad. About the same difficulty as a mouse. I'm not perfectly pleased with it. For some reason, it didn't turn out as well as the picture I used to do it from.

I have already thought of the next work I'll be doing. Meruru from Ore Imouto. Because the newest Pangya character Nell, looks alot like it. Pictures soon.

Source Picture (What I'll use as reference):

Nell's ingame picture:

Here is the video of Meruru from Ore Imouto

Free Offer: $100 coupon for Google Adwords

2010-12-24T06:18:00.000-08:00

Again, I got another one of these ad words gift cards. This time from Vistaprint. For those who are interested, send me an email at tomabackspin@gmail.com. In the email, please include your opinion if it were to cost $10 dollars for the next time. Would anyone still be interested? Don't worry, I am not going to charge you yet. I personally want some more spending money. You MUST include this in your email to be considered eligible for the free offer. Thanks. Offer is on a first come first serve. Expires Jan 20, 2011. Editted Dec 24: The coupon code is given out. Please try again another time.

For those who don't know what adwords is, read below. There are more information below.

It is a service by google where they would host a banner for your website, and it costs you money whenever people clicks it.

Here is what the letter says.
"Dear ___,

We'd like to thank you for being a loyal Vistaprint customer. To help you promote your business online and attract even more customers, we're giving you $100 worth of advertising with Google Adwords- for free.

Just go to www.google.ca/ads/vistaprint100 before January 20, 2011, and enter the code printed on the enclosed gift card.
Your first $100 of advertising is on Google.

Not familiar with Google AdWords? You simply create ads that appear next to relevant search results on Google.com and its network of partner websites. Potential customers see your ad at the exact moment they are searching for you. When people click on your ad, they're connected to your business.

Getting started with AdWords is easy. Just choose the search terms your potential customers are likely to use, write your ad and decide how much you're willing to pay per click and per day-it's that simple.

Here's why so many people like you are using Google AdWords to promote their business:
- Pay only when people land on your site. Google Adwords is performance-based, so you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
- Control your budget. You decide how much you're willing to spend on advertising each day-and how much you're willing to pay when someone clicks on your ad.
- Target just your town, or the entire world. With Google AdWords, you can focus your ads on just your neighborhood, or to people worldwide.
- There's no minimum term or commitment. You can pause or cancel your AdWords campaign at any time. Once you use up your $100 in free ads, you can continue runing your campaign, or not. It's your call.

Get started today. Just go to www.google.ca/ads/vistaprint100 before January 20, 2011 and follow the enclosed step-by-step guide, using the special code printed on your gift card. But hurry-the $100 offer ends soon.

Sincerely,
____

First Pangya Self Design Top

2010-12-16T13:23:00.001-08:00

Modelled after Miku from Vocaloid. Whom I have an unexplained hatred towards.

I basically took a fan art of someone's drawing of Miku and did the top while following general trends of the shirt. Its too bad the type of shirt isn't quite the same. And drawing in a tie which doesn't stick out is.. well not really correct. But I even added some sort of shading of black and white to try to make it somewhat vinyl. Kinda...

And for some reason, my tablet refused to work =_=. It works with the touch (works like any normal mouse) but when I use my pen, the cursor went crazy like the calibration area was out of whack. So that was done by mouse. Boo...

Whether I make another or not will depend. I don't have any intentions of selling them and both points and pang is very limited for me (surveys for points, poor gameplay for pang) lol.

Tokyo Anime/Manga Ban Passes!

2010-12-15T02:11:00.000-08:00

Uh oh. Is this a bad omen? Quote from Sankakucomplex (NSFW),

"The revised law now demands a restriction on sales of anime, manga or games which “improperly glorify or emphasise” illegal sexual acts, such as rape, groping, BDSM, voyeurism, exhibitionism, etc., by extension including underage sexual activity as well."

So that basically means animes with suggestive themes that air normally or similar mangas that sell without an adult only restriction now either has to stop completely, go over series revisions, or be attached with an adult only sticker and be sold accordingly.

According to sources, this will have a huge impact on the Japanese anime and manga industry (As one would expect). Good thing is the law doesn't kick in until July of 2011.

To read the full news on sankakucomplex, follow links here, here, and here.
To think, this all started with amazon.com posting Rapelay. Forgot how many years ago that was though. Anyway...

Thats the end of the news.
Read below if you want to hear my monologue about my opinion.

I may be an otaku to some degree, but I'm still human. Although I am against the idea of "banning" all together as I already know it solves nothing. The idea behind it is justified. One big problem is the low birthrates in Japan. This maybe because alot of japanese people like to stay indoors (hikikomori). Why do you think they stay inside? Because they find better things indoors than outdoors. As a person of similar nature myself (meaning I stay inside alot), there are always regrets that come with it. I first noticed it when I was working.

As you know, working isn't just about working. You make connections with your immediate supervisors and coworkers. That way, promotions and other benefits are easier to obtain. However, when I've locked myself indoors most of my life, how do I start a conversation with those people? "Hey the weather is nice today?" Not going to work. Trust me, here in Canada, you won't get very far by talking about anime and games either. Especially in the adult stages, its mostly about sports, music, and movies, and anything between them (including actors, etc). No, japanese pop doesn't work either. ESPECIALLY if you don't even understand japanese yourself.

So the baseline for this ban is. GO OUTSIDE. Totally agreeable. How the ban works is limiting the joy you get indoors so the incentive to go out is greater. Great! Except that shouldn't be how it works. You should work on increasing the incentive to go outside. Not decreasing the amount of indoors. But I don't write laws. Lets end it at that.

About the anime industry. Although in my anime history of shows watched. They aren't great with high score animes from good producers like Ghibli Studio. My kind of shows has always been comedy/romance. I do watch others from time to time but I get bored of them fast. But even in the specific genre I've been watching. Anime seem to be going downhill. There is an increasing number of sexual suggestions. If you look and compare Kanon to Clannad and now to Ore Imouto. Kanon had nearly none. Clannad had very few. And Ore Imouto has lots of them. Sure, none of them had actually any sexual content. But thats what they are banning. Anime do not have to have those to be funny or enjoyable. Yet, of the late, thats all the creators were able to think of. And yes, I know the sources for those 3 animes are different. But they still have a plot in common. And no matter which source its from (eroge, visual novel, manga), a plot is still a plot. Animes have become filled with "fan service". I especially hate when animes I watch now have been just exposed pantsu every few minutes or tripping over and falling on girls at every intersection. There is a limit to how many we can see in a lifetime. I am well past it. Not impressed.

Its time animes turned back into the glory they used to be.

Lastly, this is something to say why I am against the ban. It all started when the Western people (Americans) saw Rapelay on amazon.com. Thats when the whole eroge conflict came about. It later developed into child pornography. Now its become a broad anime and manga ban. It all happened because people feared children were being compromised. But I personally do not think that is the case. It is true that when you see something you want to do it. Most people have probably already felt this one in their lives. However, what matters is not what they see. It is the mindset and the knowledge their parents and guardians taught them. I loved my upbringing. I can't remember it. But I am sure I loved it. And whats better? I can identify what is right and what is wrong. Isn't that what parenting is all about? You don't just stop your child from seeing those things. You tell them after they see those things. That they are bad. You should not do it. Over long periods of time. You will automatically know its bad (kind of like propaganda, hahaha...). If you just don't let them be exposed to it, when they finally do at a greater age, they will go to their best source of information (their friends). And thats when things go hare-wire. You know peer pressure? Im sure you've been there. Killing, robbery, that kind of stuff happen BECAUSE of peer pressure.

So what I'm saying is, if this ban was for the sake of the children? I say, f*ck it. You're digging your graves.

Oops, forgot one last thing. Its about the creativity in animes. Or maybe the content. This is what I find interesting in animes. The ability to watch things that I cannot perform myself. I watch animes because I cannot write one myself which can look anywhere as good as what they air in Japan. I play games because I cannot write a better game than the ones available. I view art because I cannot draw one as competent. I listen to music because I cannot compose. And the list goes on. Think deep down, isn't that also a reason because you do something?

Sure, my expectation for anime/games/art/music/etc can never be fulfilled, that is why you continue to do those things until this very day. And when it does become fulfilled, you stop playing games, or whichever. But you do those things because it makes you in awe (and maybe because you enjoy it, but how can you describe the act of enjoying? You can't.).

Isn't that what animes are all about? If you ban certain aspects of animes, some people are going to lose their favourite genres, themes, aspects, and so forth. The anime industry is going to suffer (from people, they say it is already suffering). Because you couldn't do those things in your current life, you want to read or view about it. And thats what mangas and animes are for. (Sorry for the sudden use of this inappropriate example but I feel it is neccessary). Take a look at the number of rape mangas and animes there are. There are ALOT. Why I know this? Don't ask. It is because Japanese people don't want to commit this crime (makes sense, I don't either). But there is the desire to be relieved. So what to do? They draw ero-mangas for it. Or ero-animes for them. Although the relevance isn't completely there before I don't have any data on me. Japan has the lowest number of reported rape incidents in the world. Before you go totally believing what I say, it is also true that Japanese girls are more shy and therefore they may not report all the cases. Which leads to a decreased number of reported incidents. But I strongly stand by what I said.

Because of the time it took me to write this, I've already forgotten what I wrote in its entirety. Therefore there won't be a summary. Lol. Sorry.

Thank you for reading through to the end. If you have any comments or questions. Feel free to ask them below. I am heavily affected by this ban and feel deeply connected to it. I may be still an otaku so I am hurt deeply by this ban. But at the same time, I am human so I want the best for my Japanese friends who I have not met and is currently indoors and wasting their life away. Do take an opportunity to learn about the world. Outdoors is not as secure as your 2D life (expect depressions and despair) but it is the only thing that is real. So although it sucks. You have to bear with it. You were born a human afterall. This ban is going to hurt the creativity in the anime industry and people's appreciation of it. Causing it to go severely downhill from this point. I don't think this ban will serve much good. As banning something is never a solution to begin with. Education is the key. Ultimately, we may just see backdoors. As with pirating. As with illegal drug/firearm imports. Trying to stop something just makes more criminals. Sorry Japan. Do try again.

EssenceRO Christmas Loading Image Submission

2010-12-02T20:47:00.000-08:00

Whether I win or not, atleast I've put the wacom to good use. LOL !
The image is after the jump.

I have renewed respect for artists now. Drawing is HARD! I mean, seriously. Not even the thinking and planning part. That was kind of easy for me. But to put the stuff in my head onto paper. WOAH SLOW DOWN ! Even though Im submitting it, I think its full of problems. But I'm disregarding those since I might stop playing essenceRO soon anyway.

I wanted to try to use this as a motivation to draw. But I see from this experience, drawing isn't for me. It took me way too long to do and the result wasn't that great. I wonder how people can draw so well?

Japan 111R Twelfth Class

2010-12-02T06:33:00.000-08:00

Last class !!
We had presentations and learned just 1 lesson from the textbook. But somehow still took the whole class time...

We began by learning the last lesson. It was on the 3 verbs, ageru (to give), morau (to receive), and kureru (to receive). We were taught on its usage and when is it grammatically incorrect.
Of course, we learned how to conjugate those 3 verbs, but the same rules were used from previous lectures. (All part of putting it together)
eg/
I received candy from my friends.
I, from friends, candy received.
watashi wa tomodachi ni okashi wo moraimashita. (Is grammatically correct)
watashi wa tomodachi ni okashi wo kuremashita. (Is grammatically wrong)
tomodachi wa watashi ni okashi wo kuremashita. (Is grammatically correct)

Thats all we learned in this class. Then we had our presentations.

There were 5 presentations in total. The first one was a gameshow. Second was a puppet show except the puppets were paper drawings. Third was skit for news. Fourth was my group's skit, a comedy gameshow where unsuspecting victims are pranked. And 5th was a recorded skit with a questionnaire at the end.

In general, I think the presentations got better as it went from the first to the last.

The teaching assistants (TAs) also did a skit of their own. They portrayed a japanese person living a hard life in Canada because of some of their words. The skit was performed in a restaurant setting where the japanese person would use words like "hamachi" for some fish which I can't remember. But it sounds like "how much?". And so the english speakers would give them the bill when they really wanted to order some food. There were other words besides that one.

After that, the professor gave us her thanks for interest in Japanese and said she had a good time teaching our class. She also told us that the exam will be 2 hours in duration and 6 pages in length.

I personally enjoyed the class. It was the only class at university I've been in where I actually enjoyed it. I felt like it wasn't much like a university class, more like highschool. Where you could speak out and no professor or anyone would be shouting at you. In any of my other chemistry classes, if you spoke (other than raising your hand and asking a question), the professors would scowl at you. Here, I could just say some whatever is on my mind (supposing its appropriate for the situation), no one would care. Heck, sometimes people would laugh or the professor would make a follow-up remark.

I will be trying to enroll in Japan102R. Since Japan111R is in direct conflict with the technical elective I need to take. I hope it will be just as fun. If I get in and you're enrolled in it already. Please do say hi to me. Name is Pak Hin Law.

Japan 111R Eleventh Class

2010-11-24T15:26:00.000-08:00

Today was our second last class. Next class will be just an hour or lecture then presentation!! I'm worried sick !

At this point, our script isn't done, we haven't rehearsed, we have no idea on our props. We pretty much haven't done anything!

But looking at it another way.
We have the script made, just need to translate it from english to japanese. And then we just need to memorize the lines and get together and practice. We should be able to do that over the weekend. So it should turn out fine.

On another note, the midterm was disastrous LOL. I knew I missed a few questions but LOL. 81%? WHAT? *SHOCK*

Whats done is done. Just gotta do better for final. Nothing much I could say about it. Careless mistakes and just a few questions which I got it wrong.

Today, we learned how to conjugate the 2 types of adjectives to their past tense forms.
For "i" adjectives:
ookii desu (present tense)
ookikunai desu (present tense negative)
ookikatta desu (past tense)
ookikunakatta desu (past tense negative)

For "na" adjectives:
shizuka desu (present tense)
shizuka dewa arimasen (present tense negative)
shizuka deshita (past tense)
shizuka dewa arimasen deshita (past tense negative)

For "na" adjectives, they are nearly treated like nouns. ie. kuruma desu (its a car).

But thats all we learned. We played some game where I forgot the name. Something similar to slap jack. TA calls out a hiragana character, we gotta find it on the table (scattered).

Things learned:
- Conjugation of adjectives for past tense and past tense negative
- for both "i" and "na" adjectives

Free Offer: $100 coupon for Google Adwords

2010-11-18T11:17:00.001-08:00

I got another offer for $100 of Google Adwords money. Updated Nov 18, 2010: Code Given.

Just like before. Email me at tomabackspin@gmail.com if you want it. First come first serve. Only have 1.

Offer expires Dec 17, 2010.

Here is the original message from Google.

Dear AdSense Publisher,

Did you know there's an easy, effective way to generate quality traffic to your site? Not just more people, but the type of visitors actively searching for the type of product, service or content you offer?

It's called Google AdWords, and for a limited time, we're offering $100 worth of advertising* to show you how AdWords can drive the type of traffic you're looking for. Just go to www.google.ca/ads/adsense before December 17, 2010, and enter your unique coupon code.

You're probably already familiar with AdWords—the 3 line text ads that appear next to Google search results. Getting started is easy: just create your own ad, choose the terms your ideal visitors are most likely to search on,
and your target geography. That's it!

Pay only when people land on your site. Google AdWords is performance-based. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad and connects to your website
Spend your free $100 your way. With Google AdWords, you control how much you're willing to spend per day, and per click (the higher your bid, the more people will see your ad)
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Start attracting new visitors today, for free. Just go to www.google.ca/ads/adsense before December 17, 2010 using the coupon code displayed above.

Japan 111R Tenth Class

2010-11-17T13:01:00.000-08:00

We had our midterm !! And with it came lots of tears.

Hopefully I breezed through it. I did mess up something, so I'm sure it wasn't perfect. Forgot what "cleaning" it was "souji" D: !

Aside from the midterm, alot of new material was taught. Actually the only new material was adjectives. A whole sheet of them. We also learned how to conjugate those adjectives to their negative forms and "adjective" forms.
eg/ kirei (pretty) [exception 1 (even though it ends in "i"), type na adjective]
Declarative form
sono neko wa kirei desu ne.
(that cat is pretty, right?)

Negative form
ano hito wa kirei dewa arimasen.
(that person over there is not pretty.)

"Adjective" form
kono kireina e wa totemo takai desu.
(this pretty drawing is very expensive.)

Likewise, we learned the same for the "i" adjectives.

Another fun class. I think.

Kyou no kurasu ha tanoshii deshita.
(Today's class was fun.)

Things learned:
- Adjectives
- group "i" adjective
- group "na" adjective
- Conjugation of adjectives (both types)
- "ha dou desu ka" (question that usually result in adjective response)

Japan 111R Ninth Class

2010-11-10T14:48:00.000-08:00

As far as I know, today we learned nothing fundamentally new. Just continuation of the previous class.

We got a few more verbs in our knowledge bank now. We also learned more nouns as well. But thats all. A boring lecture (atleast in terms of knowledge).

What we learned:
- Nothing much
- more verbs and nouns, no new fundamental rules

Japan 111R Eighth Class

2010-11-03T17:10:00.000-07:00

Unlike last week, this week was much less work. I guess things balance out.

Several major things happened today in class.

1. We got our groups for the final presentation
2. Midterm date was pushed from Nov 10 to Nov 17
3. We had our oral test
4. Verb quiz is next week

In terms of teaching, we went over verbs again.

A lot of time was left to us to decide our groups and start brainstorming an idea.

What we learned today:
- Difference between "de" and "ni" for location marker
- "de" is used if the verb is an action verb
- "ni" is used if the verb is imasu or arimasu
- I just restated what the professor said, I am still not so sure about it.
- Frequency words
- such as mainichi, maiasa, maiban, maishuu

Writing on the go: Extremely Heavy Fog Today

2010-11-03T06:47:00.001-07:00

In Waterloo, Ontario.

If you're driving today, becareful.

It's also quite cold.

- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

Writing on the go: Black Rock Shooter Origin?

2010-11-02T14:09:00.000-07:00

Found that at some cartoon store in Ottawa many months ago.

What do you think that is?

Looks kind of like Black Rock Shooter, no?

Colour
Clothes
Name

- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

HobbySearch was Hacked!

2010-10-28T22:46:00.000-07:00

I just found out today when I read it on Nekomagic. The source will be linked to after the jump.

The good news is that paypal users were unharmed but if you used a credit card on HobbySearch, you might want to check your statements or contact the card company. Just for safe measure, I will check my own card as well. Make sure theres nothing going wrong.

But on a side note, I haven't ordered from HobbySearch for a long time now. Amiami has all the stuff I need. And at a better price (most of the times).

Source: Here.

Japan 111R Seventh Class

2010-10-27T17:25:00.000-07:00

Today was probably exceeded the majority of the class' learning capability! I mean, its ALOT of new material ! Even I am worried. And I haven't worried before in class =(

To begin today's class, we had a quiz, about the days of the week and counting months, of course. Aced! YES!

Then we were reviewing the relative locations material, left, right, beside, etc

We did some other reviews, like asking where something is at an airport, or in someone's house, etc. All oral practice, professor says its important. And I agree.

Then came our break.

We were told that we were ahead of scheduel so I was expecting the class to be pretty relaxed for the time being. However, after the break, all h*ll broke loose !

Professor went on to the next lesson. About ordering foods. And what good is ordering food without first learning the verbs, "Tabemasu", right? RIGHT?!

You bet thats right! But she didn't stop there... Ohhh... no.... She went onto a list of 30 verbs. YES 30! Including what is known as the "u" verbs and "ru" verbs including the irregular verbs!

Holy crap! Thats too much. Seriously. But we were told we did have 2 weeks to cover it all. Thank goodness. Though, I bet most of the brains in the class already snapped.

But lets think of the good side. With these many verbs, we'll be able to engage in meaningful chatter in japanese! Right? Cause clearly verbs like migaku (to polish) is important... right...?

But seriously, on a plus side. The prof is going into the conjugation of verbs! YES ! I've been waiting for this day since day 1. I don't know how much she will teach, but any is better than none.

Yes, thats right, we're not just learning the -masu form for those 30 verbs ! but the -ru form as well. Isnt that cool? Thats like... 60 verbs! YAY!

We previously covered the negative and past tense and negative past tense also, so we'll put it all together now.

Oh, and for your interest, for "u" verbs, which are verbs not ending in "iru" or "eru" though there are exceptions where some "iru" and "eru" verbs fall into this category, but you will have to memorize those, the conjugation rule for -masu ending is:

Convert the _u to _i then add masu.

For example,
kaku -> kaki -> kakimasu
nomu -> nomi -> nomimasu

For the "ru" verbs, which are verbs that must end in "iru" or "eru", the conjugation rule for -masu ending is:

Drop the last "ru" then add masu.

For example,
miseru -> mise -> misemasu
neru -> ne -> nemasu

So we have a whole new bunch of words to practice in our free time. Of course we still have that presentation next week. Also we just got our final project today. Now I need to find some group members then decide what to do. Busy class... for a first year course =/

Heres what was learned today:
- Difference between "ya" and "to"
- "ya" is used for if there are many things more than just what you listed, for example, you use it when you want to say there are pencils and books on a desk with several other things as well. Tsukue no ue ni enpitsu ya hon ga arimasu.
- "to" is used if you are listing out everything on in that environment or system, for example, you use it when you want to say there are pencils and books on the desk which only has pencils and books.
Tsukue no ue ni enpitsu to hon ga arimasu.
- Verbs, 30 of them
- Learned their -masu form and -ru form
- Learned how to conjugate them between forms
- Learned the groups of verbs, 1 for "u", 2 for "ru", and 3 for irregular

Interesting Video: Largest Gummy Worm

2010-10-23T18:47:00.000-07:00

Heres an interesting video I found. The video is quite funny and the product is... well... a joke. At best. Read below for the source website.

The largest gummy worm!

It packs 4000 calories and a year long shelf life. I don't know if its real or not, but its quite an accomplishment. I don't think its practical though. We'll let you decide however.

Oh, it comes with different flavours !

Source: Here.

Interesting Video: Crazy Accident

2010-10-21T10:55:00.001-07:00

Crazy video I thought I would show, rather its real or not, I can't say for sure. But I will assume its real. Thank goodness he made it out ok.

I've never been in a serious accident myself. Got rear ended a few times while I was still a passenger. But nothing serious like that.

Remember kids, look both ways before crossing the road ! (or intersection)

Source: Here.

Japan 111R Sixth Class

2010-10-20T15:43:00.000-07:00

Today, we continue to learn verbs and nouns. We're up to 5 verbs now! And nouns just keep piling. I think we'll be able to carry out a proper conversation soon.

We were suppose to play bingo today but we missed it for some reason. It got pushed to the next class.

Surprisingly, there was no quiz today ! But there will be a quiz tomorrow. And the class after that, an oral quiz... Boooo!

The quiz we should have had but didn't was going to be about counting months and days, such as;
Nichiyoubi, Getsuyoubi, etc
Ichigatsu, Nigatsu, etc
Tsuitachi, Futsuka, etc

Tough stuff. I studied for it too. Oh well.

As for the presentation quiz in 2 weeks. We need to memorize a paragraph of about 8 sentences. Say it out properly, at a good speed and audible (can't say bengoshi as be-n-go-shi, gotta say it smoothly). Also we will be asked a question or two about the paragraph we read. Such as what certain things means (translation question).

I hope I don't mess up. I am terrible at presentation.

We learned quite a lot today, list below:
- Verbs imasu, arimasu
- Past tense of those words
- Negative tense of those words
- Difference between emphasis of subject and not
- Using "ha" and "ga"
- Ordering the sentence if there are many things like "_ de", "_ ni", etc
- Directional words
- ue, mae, soba, etc
- Location words
- book store, phamarmacy, station, etc
- How to ask what something is using "_tte nan desu ka"
- "yo" and "ne" and when they are used

Japan 111R Fifth Class

2010-10-14T13:29:00.000-07:00

Another day another dollar... another 50 cents after tax.

Uh... nevermind. We had a test on our 5th class. It was brutal. We did a bunch of other stuff too. Full listing below.

First thing we did when we got to class was write a test. It was called a quiz. But it was 1 page both sided. Whereas our normal quizzes were 1/3 or 1/2 a page, single sided. It wasn't too hard. I definitely, didn't get perfect. But it wasn't easy either. It was alot of writing for one thing. It was no wonder alot of people didn't finish.

I got out of that test first. Yep, was pretty confident too, but then I started noticing things I did wrong. Like for the hiragana "ru", I pierced the bottom... LOL damn. Amongst other errors. But that was the worst of them.

In terms of learning. It wasn't much different from any other day. We did sing some song though. Using the melody from Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, the lyrics were replaced with stuff like "a" "i" "o" "u", etc. It was about learning Hiragana.

Alot of stuff was learned today. Going to take a long time getting this stuff down. Especially the days of a month.

All the things learned today:
- more nouns (meeting, park, places, today, tomorrow, etc)
- Going to places
- first 3 verbs, ikimasu, kimasu, kaerimasu
- including present, past, present negative, past negative
- Time
- today, tomorrow, next week, last month, etc
- monday, tuesday, etc
- 1st day of the month, 2nd day, 31st day, etc
- particle "ni"

Trip to the Cheltenham Badlands

2010-10-06T19:44:00.000-07:00

Its a somewhat unique place in northern Toronto. Around the Brampton area. It was special because of the red soil and the rolling hills. We drove there by ourselves without any guides, other than a GPS. It was just on the side of the road, as you can see to the left side of the picture above. Its a nice scene. I'm not much of a guy for scenery but I do like looking at the sky. The vast sky makes me feel calm with the cloud cover and light diffused throughout the landscape. I would love to be able to star openly into the distance. Except school and work calls. And they take breaks for no one. Continue reading for the gallery link and other links.

Going there to the badlands, showed me something new. Although I personally didn't find it to be that interesting. There were alot of other people though. In the pictures in the gallery, its nearly impossible to not have someone photographed. There were THAT many people.

Since as you know, I photograph my pictures for figure reviews and what not. I am slowly picking up photography. Like going from auto mode of the camera to manual mode. Controlling aperture, shutter speed, etc. And one of the main skills I need to take pictures of figures is macrophotography. Since its important to show people the fine detail in any product to give it a thorough inspection so you may decide with lots of knowledge whether or not buying the product is worth it. And what are the pros and cons in doing so.

Yes, the overall product, is important, because you don't exactly stare at it closely 24/7. It just sits in your room somewhere. I fully understand that, but why would you buy something which has hidden flaws? So you can be disappointed later? That just cannot be right. Therefore, I want to be able to give fair assessments so the reader can benefit from my reviews. I know I don't do alot of them.

Two reasons for that.
1. I just don't have money to buy everything and give you a review.
2. I don't have the time either, nor am I ever at home. I am currently in university. Last year, research project. Its going to be tough and VERY BUSY. Sorry if updates slow up on the blog.

Anyway, thats my take on this issue. Whatever that may be. I lost track while I was writing it. Didn't want to erase what I wrote since then if you opened up this post to read on, you would only have 2 links. More information and gallery.

Information link: Here.
Gallery link: Here.

[T's System] Kochiya Sanae Figurine Review

2010-10-06T18:56:00.000-07:00

Recently, I bought another figurine from Amiami, I tend to use them more than HobbySearch or BeNippon (Previously shopped at, online retailers).

Its mainly because selection is good and I've only looked at some Touhou goods. But I like Amiami's service. Its quick and its done right. Not that I've had any problems at any retailer thus far. All I needed were a paypal account and an account for their website. Full review below.

Lets start like always with the box. Nothing too special there. Its a very plain box. By very plain, I mean, VERY PLAIN. As you can see below.

The front of the box. All there is, is the company which sells the product and a hole to see the front of the figure.

Same with the back, just a couple of words like where its made, who the sculptor is, and a couple of warnings.

Personally, I don't mind the box, since its just a box.
The insides are whats important.

The base wasn't that great. Like the box, it looks plain. Though that can be said for most figures. Atleast the Griffon Enterprises Touhou figures has a nice name tag on them. The T's System's figures doesn't have anything on the base. Oh well, thats just too bad.

As plain as you can get.

The 4 dots are there to make sure Sanae is nice and snug. Wouldn't want to be bumping left and right. Right? They fit nicely into the shoes of the figure. As expected. Though the leg had to bend slightly to fit. I don't think its a problem though.

Moving on.

The figure itself was well done. It felt like any other professionally made figures. I've never bought anything from T's System so that was my main worry when ordering this. I love the face on this Kochiya Sanae. Also, its not like Griffon Enterprises made any figures of her either.

Cutest/Bestest face ever!!

*Aside

Kochiya Sanae is a shrine maiden in the Touhou Project games, similar to the main character Hakurei Reimu, but the shrine they each belong to is different. Sanae serves as shrine maiden of
Moriya Shrine. Serving the gods Yasaka Kanako and Moriya Suwako. You can read more about her at the Touhou Wikia. Where you can get more information than you ever need. Thats not in the scopes of this review, so I will just give you a link.

Touhou Project is originally a shoot em up game made by Team Shanghai Alice. But has seen been expanded to include music, doujinshi, and doujin games. You can find them all over the web. Just search Touhou.

End of Aside*

I think the figure looks great. It was the reason why I bought it even though it costed quite a bit more than any Griffon Enterprises ones. It looks calm, a good representation of who Sanae is. Though in fan fic, shes seen to be excited with robots. Lol. I'm excited with robots myself. GUNDAMS ! Can't wait for PG Strike Freedom. Though thats completely irrelevant.

Love the face and pose. Its got a calm aura about it. Maybe it will make me feel less stress from school and work.

The figure feels heavy, atleast it feels like its a product for sale. The details on it seems appropriate and professional. There were few errors with paint or other things. Something completely different from Orchid Seed. The two figures I have from them both have some sort of imperfection. This one from T's System is much better. No scratches, no junk stuck on the figure.

The snake looks well painted.

As the shoes. Not to mention the nice details.

And on the hairpin.

Mmmm... I like this angle :P The wrinkles adds nice depth to the figure.

The paint and decals on the dress are well done as well.

I also love the hair. Long flowing hair is so alluring. Damn.

Long hair *_* !

Theres 2 things which I would have liked more. Because you know, nothing is perfect.

1. I wish the finish could be more transparent. Im not saying that its not good as it is. Because its pretty faint. The lines that shows the different PVC pieces used. Or whatever those lines are.

Weird lines? Or are these showing me that they used several pieces of PVC to make the dress? Either way, if it wasn't meant to be seen, I would like it if it didn't show up. But its great nonetheless.

2. I wish there were some things I could do with the figure, I don't mean moving hands, or legs like those figmas, but more in terms of castoffable or even some things you can put on and off, like the Marisa and Flandre figurines from Griffon Enterprises.

But I like the figurine alot as it is. Of course, more never hurts.

Oh, and the head comes off. I haven't figured out why it comes off, but it does. Here are some pictures. If you have any idea, feel free to express your opinion in the comments below. I'm guessing, maybe its for swapping heads of other T's System figurines. But that would be bizarre.

The headless Sanae O_O... Wah?

Finally, its a size comparison with something else I own. A 1/144 HG Double 0 Gundam. I never bothered measuring the figure, but it felt pretty big. Though when I put it with my other Touhou figurines, the size wasn't too much bigger. Maybe I should get real measurements someday. It is suppose to be a 1/6 scale figure though.

Notice the 00 Gundam's stance. (Hehe, no, Sanae is not that young, wikia says "mid-teen")

I quite like posing the HG gundam, because they balance easier and they have less parts. So even if they fell and broke apart (pieces still intact), its relatively easy to rebuild. While for the MG, they are difficult to pose and some of them (my ZZ and Unicorn) are extremely feeble.

In case you were wondering what Sanae wears underneath her skirt. Two NSFW pictures below.
Here and here.

I am very happy to have bought this figurine. One because I'm a Touhou fan. Two because its of high quality and looks nice to have on my display case.

After this instance, I can trust the quality of T's System. If you, the reader didn't think this post was any use to you, atleast know that theres one person who owns something from T's System and that their quality is comparable to other big name companies in this industry.

Gallery link: Here.

Japan 111R Fourth Class

2010-10-06T16:53:00.000-07:00

Another day. And another quiz. This one was about numbers and time. I think I aced it. I also got all my previous quizzes back. 100% YES ! Anywhere, heres what happened today.

A standard day, nothing out of the ordinary like the Japanese Bingo last week. Several presentations where I had to speak a few lines from the textbook. Other things are like following what the teacher says and repeat after them.

All in all, a normal day. So far now, we had a quiz every class. Next week will be different because it will be a TEST. Its called a quiz in the syllabus, but its going to be 30 mins instead of 5. Also, I hope I do well in it next week. I'll be studying and working on my other assignments. Busy busy.

Oh.. There is one thing special. We finally used our first verb ! Misete!
However, we did not talk about the word at all. In fact, the professor did not even say it was a verb. She just linked it with -kudasai and told us that was how you say "please show me". orz

FYI, misete is from the verb miseru (to show)

Anyway lets wrap it up here.

What we learned this week:
- More nouns
- "to" for saying one thing with another, watashi to isshou = "I with everyone"
- Learned counting, hitori, futari, hitotsu, futatsu, etc
- Learned the word "ikura" and how to ask how much something is
- Learned the word "kudasai" and how to use it
- Briefly learned "-demo ii desu ka?", we learned from the example, "'card' demo ii desu ka?" for can I use a card?, this phrase is used to ask whether or not you can do a certain thing.

Interesting Video

2010-10-04T12:08:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting video.

The source claims to be a Cebu Pacific airline. Instead of the standard boring safety lecture, they turned it into a dance.

If you didn't like that video, think about it this way.

Writing on the go: Ancaster Gem Show Volunteer

2010-10-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

Hello, today I got to school early to do volunteering. I was at school at 7:00 and there was no one!! More info below.

It was so amazing!

The volunteering work started at 8:30am but we left at UW at 7:38am.

The location was at Ancaster, close to Hamilton.

I was basically volunteered to be a tour guide for a group of 4th graders from a specific school. I was in charge of The Lady of Lourdes.

It was a great experience. The kids were great, so lively and happy. One kid wasn't so great though. Disturbing the class when a presenter was talking.

There was a shopping hall, I bought about 18 dollars of stuff. Pictures of the place below.

My job was to lead the kids around the building to the events and to make sure that they followed a preset schedule. Easy work. After the class left, it was all free time for me to shop.

We left at 2:38pm or so. In fact I am writing this on my iPhone while sitting in the bus.

PS. I bet my mom is real jealous.

- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

Japan 111R Third Class

2010-09-29T20:09:00.001-07:00

Here we are, already at our third class, 1/4 of the way through the term. Full details below.

Like always, its has been just alot of repeating after the professor and occasional presentation of a couple of lines between my partner and I. The presentations are getting more difficult with new words learned and the need to memorize. Of course, the professor still helps you with the words, if you get stuck. But I try not to.

As for the difficulty, it has definitely gotten harder. We're at a point where there are actual things I hadn't known/studied before. For example, that when you say minutes, sometimes you use fun, other times is pun, all depending on which number is said right before it. For example, 1 = ippun while, 2 = nifun.

More memory work !! argh !!

We did do something interesting today though. Although not that great. We had something called the Hiragana Bingo. Yes, its bingo, instead of numbers, we picked our own hiragana and put them into a 3x3 and 4x4. We played Bingo twice. Winners got some Japanese chocolate. I didn't win. Boo.

Finally, here is what we learned today:
- How to use ano/sono/kono
- How to read time (hours and minutes)
- Ask what time "nan ji"
- Learned kara/made, for "from"/"until"
- More nouns
- Events (meeting, working, partying, etc)
- Places (Department store, super market, restaurant, etc)

Japan 111R Second Class

2010-09-22T13:24:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the 2nd week/class at Japan 111R. Continue reading for the details.

When class began, we had a short practice of hiragana then we had a quiz on the hiragana characters.

We had a few practice where we had to walk up to the board to write/erase stuff. Otherwise, we just sat there and repeated what the professor said. Or talking with my partner.
Things learned:
- Lots of nouns (jobs, places, household items)
- Numbers (practice with phone numbers)
- Particles: mo, de, no
- Question words (doko, dare/donata, nan)
- Position words (koko, soko, asoko, kore, sore, are)

Closing statement, another easy course except for the mass overflow of nouns. This makes it difficult to learn because they're not in sentence or anything, just a huge list of nouns. Atleast a picture is included, that helps...

Review: Dragon Dog...?

2010-09-22T06:11:00.000-07:00

I was at UW yesterday, attending classes. I dropped by my favourite lab instructor for a chat since thats what I like doing... talking. And somehow we got to a conversation about foods and he mentioned a DRAGON DOG at the Davis Centre cafeteria. Told me to try it. So now I have and whats what I thought.

First of all, there are several choices with your dragon dog. As seen in the picture below.

You can choose your sausage, topping, and sauce.

The one I had was,
Honey & Garlic sausage
Crispy Cabbage topping
Cheeky Chilli sauce.

It was surprisingly good. Of course, I have never heard of the topping or sauce. I've had plenty of honey garlic sausages while I lived away from home in Ottawa. But they just microwave the sausage then put it on a grill for a few more minutes. I boil my sausages in water then pan fry them. Not sure which is better.

Although it was great, the cost was $4.50. Not quite the most affordable considering its a hot dog... with different toppings. Hot dogs are $2.50 or something.

I greatly enjoyed the sauce and the topping. The sausage was ok too, but I never had deep fried cabbage before. It was crispy and tasty.

This dragon dog is suppose to be hot, atleast thats what my impression is considering the name of the toppings and sauces. Although there was the Black Pepper sausage that I could have chosen, my configuration wasn't very hot. It was hot, but not hot enough to make me drink water. If its not hot enough for me, then its probably pretty weak in terms of spiciness. For example, a few people I know can handle spicy on a whole higher level than I am. I think I'm one of the poorest people when it comes with dealing with spicy flavours.

But the bottom line is, that its tasty. I don't think its worth the money, however, if you got some extra change and want something for a change. Definitely drop by the University of Waterloo Davis Centre for a taste of the DRAGON DOG.

Japan 111R First Class

2010-09-15T14:52:00.000-07:00

I was so excited ! Since its my first time officially learning the language through an institute (UW in this case). I got to class about 30 mins early >w<

The teacher is a pretty old lady, shes fluent in Japanese (as expected). No weird accent when speaking english either. Great news. I can't stand those Japanese accents when speaking english =(. It sounds too weird to me.

Anyway, to my dismay, this course seem to be more for the busy people, because the book is called Learning Japanese for Busy People. Boo. Meaning, it'll probably be more like teaching you phrases and things, instead of getting to the bones of Japanese.

Well, if thats the case, I expect to ace this course. Since I've already done a few CD lectures in the past. On and off. Been at it for a long time too... on and off.

What we covered in the first week.
- Talked about the Hiragana characters
- all 46 of them
- including the "ba" and "pa" alternatives of "ha", and the "da", "za", "ga", etc also
- small "ya", "yu", "yo"
- double vowel (aa, ii, oo, etc)
- double consonant (ikko, etc)
- How to write Hiragana
- the 4 ways to end stroke (stop, hump, sweeping, loop)
- We did several short skits where we had to speak Japanese
(I aced it of course, other people, not so much, Talking to yourself helps (hahaha) )

Homework included
- Writing hiragana for each of the characters 8 times (a,i,o,u,e -> n)
- Writing hiragana from roomaji words

Needless to say, this week was easy.

Photoshop Tutorial: Adding Lightning

2010-09-09T16:57:00.000-07:00

I decided to play around with a photo taken by my friend at mosaika. The pose is supposedly from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, from Kamina. "Your drill will be the one that pierces the heavens" or something like that. The lightning has nothing to do with anything, but I just made it anyway.

The steps aren't that difficult. I remember doing something similar to this back in grade 10 highschool. So I roughly remembered how to do it.

I started with a photo like this one (resized).

"Your drill will be the one that pierces the heavens" (Kamina)

- First, open the photo in photoshop.
- Then start a new layer so you could work without impacting the original image.
- Set your colours to black and white
- Make a gradient of black to white horizontally (left to right) or diagonally
- Basically the line where the colour changes is where your lightning will be
- Go to filters -> render -> difference cloud
- Go to adjustment -> levels
- Move the black triangle to the right or adjust the triangles to get a crisp lightning shape
- Go to adjustment -> hue/saturation
- Check the "colourize" box, this will give it a colour
- Change the hue to the colour you would like
- Now change the layer type from normal to screen, the lightning should appear on top of your original image
- Move the lightning via "free transform" to where you want it to be, rotate if needed
- Using the eraser, remove any unwanted lights in the lightning layer
- Take the smudge tool and go to the end of the lightning and smudge it so it doesn't look like it was cropped, smudge tool is the finger icon, in the same place as the sharpen tool or blurr tool

- Now I added a lens flare to the start of the lightning at the finger of the image, it makes it fit a bit better than without
- To do that, make a new layer, paint it black
- Go to adjustment -> render -> lens flare
- Set the size to a small size, this can always be changed later with the free transform adjustment
- Change the layer type to screen
- Move the lens flare to where it should be
- Readjust size with free transform if needed

And voila, you're done !

Free Offer: $75 coupon for Google Adwords

2010-09-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

Hi again, this is the same thing as the previous.
Updated Sept 9.

Got some money from google to advertise for a blog or a website, I don't need it. So I'm throwing it out there for whoever is interested.

The offer fully expires on Sept 30, 2010. So if you're interested, please contact me before then, at tomabackspin@gmail.com or pakhinlaw@hotmail.com (msn)

Thanks.

Google Adwords is a service for advertising a website on google advertisements, money is deducted from your account on a click by click basis.

Update: The money has been to the first email response I received at 7:42am, another one at 9:46am, and at 11:05am.

Many thanks to those who were interested. I'll post another one when I receive them.

With that, my final coop term ends.

2010-09-02T15:19:00.000-07:00

The goodbye was a sad one, lots of tears were had. Except they were all held inside.

"Good luck in school and your future career"
"Thanks, take care of yourself too"
...

With that marked the finale of the past 8 months of work at National Research Council (NRC).

Without a doubt, it was at this place I learned the most out of all my previous workterms. The people were educated and helpful. The tasks were intriguing and challenging. NRC had it all.

Aside from all the technical skills learned, great memories were carved there also. The times with these special people would be remembered forever. Atleast it will be written on this blog so even if I may ever forget, I shall remember once again when I read this passage.

I couldn't say these things when we parted because I am bad with giving speeches. So let me write it out here after I had to time to think and compose myself.

Thank you Martin for the wonderful guidance,
for without you, I would have sat in silence.
Also thanks to Cameron for helping me fit in,
it made asking questions not feel like a sin.
The wonderful solutions Alex suggested,
were so brilliant when I had tested.
Your abilities made me felt kind of weak,
but Pier's kindness showed up when I had seek,
turned my feelings upside down,
for there was a grin from a frown.
Lets not forget about Malgosia,
without you, there would be no fire.
You are the soul of our department,
with years of experience and commitment.
Thank you Lisette for the useful email,
keeping us in check so we don't fail.
It keeps us aware of our situation,
even if that means no more vacation.
The people there are always working,
but its all work and no singing.
That was why I started a noise,
it was called "delicious and moist".
I hope you enjoyed reading this script,
I had a tough time, my paper's all ripped.
Too many mistakes during compilation,
but now its nearing the completion.
With that I bid you all farewell,
we'll meet again, I swear upon my spell.

*staring*
*spell coujuring*
*spell conjured*

On a completely different note, my landlady also requested a poem, so I wrote this one here.

Oh where, where, where do I live?
Work at NRC starts on the fifth.
Without a shelter, death is certain,
but Marina had an open curtain.
She took me in, like a kind mother,
of a lost cat, when others didn't bother.
I felt for once there was warmth,
it was then, that I had sworn,
I would pay back her good deed,
500 monthly, if she need.
Thank goodness she accepted,
or else I would feel neglected.
Thus began my new life,
including home cooking with a knife.
There was a cat, her name was Cannelle,
around her cuteness, my composure fell.
I wanted to hug her so many times,
if it cost money, I'd have lost many dimes.
Eventually we became close, but now we must part,
my heart just froze, then pierced by a dart.
It pained me much, to have to separate,
but don't worry, I'll come another date.
Thats what I told myself when I moved on,
this memory shall never be gone.
Let us part for now, but its not the last,
we'll see in no time, since time moves very fast.

Unless someone wants to tell me, I suck at this, I think I might have a knack for writing poems. Atleast rhyming ones, all the other ones, I got no clue.

Interesting Video: Kyoto Subway

2010-08-31T06:23:00.000-07:00

The video above is the Tozai Line in Kyoto. Its regularly looking and sounding right?
Well, look what the inhabitants of Nico nico douga did. Results below.

I must say, I'm impressed, not just the creator/creation, but Japan as a whole. This isn't the first "remix" of anything done by nico nico douga. In fact they've done a whole lot. Here are some examples.

Most of their work involved replaying some lines over and over again with a specific background music. Accidentally it becomes quite addicting.

They even have a theme song. Its basically a whole bunch of songs linked together from many series (and games, ie Touhou). Oh its over 10 minutes long.

Friend came over for weekend, tons of fun.

2010-08-23T05:09:00.000-07:00

On the weekend of Aug 13-15, 2010, a friend came over to visit me from Toronto. For privacy issues, I will just call him Kev (yeah, sure, THAT Kev). I didn't exactly had any plans for the weekend. Heck, I had no idea he was coming !

He told me a few days ago prior to 13th, he was going to tell me if he was coming or not. Since I didn't get a response until 13th (I didn't ask for a response since it was a far ride, I'm not the person who would force people to spend lots of money), I thought he wasn't coming. Then all of a sudden, I got a text saying, "I'm on the bus". WHAT REALLY?! HOW?

Anyway, he took a cab to the place I was living at and he stayed over for the weekend. It was lucky that I didn't let my landlady know that he WASN'T coming, or that would have been hectic. I just left it in the air, was going to make up a story if he really didn't come, since I had told her that he was going to show up. Anyway, worked out fine nevertheless.

So basically now that he was here, what to do..?

Sitting at home and playing games would be boring, yes? YES ! We should all go out more, even though I'm not the person who should be saying this. (As I spend alot of time inside)

We dropped by the Ottawa Museum of Nature, the military parade "Fortissimo", and the light show "Mosaika".

Since my friend had the camera, and he took a ton, he couldn't send it all to me, even though I would like to have a collection for myself. He does have facebook, except I don't use facebook either than games and refuse to spend any of my (un)important time on it. PS. I don't play any facebook games anymore. The moral behind it is bad. The TLDR version is,

You play the game so you don't feel the shame.

I refuse to play something thats not about being fun anymore but preventing yourself to be embarrassed.

I am waiting for the collection of photos, if you are reading this, KEV !

Anyway, the museum of nature was pretty normal, the interior and exterior looked fantastic though. There were a few paranamic images but again, I don't have them. Parts of the structure was newly renovated, although some of the antiquity was lost, the new glass tower was magnificant. The interior had 9 show rooms, featuring mammals, dinosaurs, birds, amphibians, rocks, fishes, insects. Although it was completely understandable since it was a museum, I found them rather lacking in interactivity. Maybe I am just expecting too much or maybe I didn't really have much interest in animals.

As for the reason why I went to the museum of nature? I had heard from several people that it was a nice museum to visit. So I thought I would drop by with my friend. By the way, entrance fees were $10 for adults and $8 for students. Yes university student counts, as long as you have your student ID and it is before the expiry date.

Perhaps I should try a science museum...

Fortissimo... zzzzzZZZZZ...
I personally didn't enjoy it. For one, we were sitting on the grass, it wasn't very comfortable. Second, it was just a bunch of bands playing music. There were a few good songs here and there. But the majority wasn't to my taste. The cannon firing and gun firing was cool though. Admission was free for this one.

I loved their uniforms though, and when we asked around, some of them were volunteers for the summer. Cool !

Mosaika was probably the best event that day. It was the lightshow on the parliament building. It talked about the history and eventually got patriotic about being Canadian. Which I don't exactly believe in, I mean, patrioism is kind of like propaganda put into nicer words. If someone says its patriotic to kill someone, people are going to do it, be it jewish (Germany in WWII) or chinese (Japan in WWII). Anyway, I don't feel the Canadian pride in myself. I think people should just believe in themselves. They should think freely and act on their mature judgement. They should not be held back from doing what they should do because of what your country tells you. But should you comit a crime, you should be expected to pay the consequences. A crime is something which is hurtful to another, such as robbery, or killing, or whatnot.

...I was told by someone to shut up during the national anthem though, even though my friend and I were talking to communicate urgently how to navigate to meet up with us. That felt... strange.

Yes, a friend of a friend from the university of Kev came over also. She arrived at the end of Fortissimo which Mosaika was right after. Fortissimo was at 7:00pm and Mosaika was at 9:30pm. After watching Mosaika, we had a drink, and then we went home.

My finger will pierce the heaven!... wait.. what?

Gallery: Here

Interesting Fanmade Video

2010-08-22T10:29:00.000-07:00

Something I found while surfing the web. I thought I would post it. The fanmade video is above, the characters in there are from Touhou. After the jump is the original version.

The original is from an eroge called 魔界天使ジブリール4 or Makai Tenshi DJibril 4 in Romanji. The maker is FrontWing (NSFW). I never played it and probably never will. It doesn't really have a good story. The first and 2nd of the Jibril series were put into an anime (of course, its for 18+).

On another note, I thought the fan made video was very good and professional. So I thought I would help spread the word.

Video Explanation: I will try to explain as much of the details on the video so you can comprehend the effort put into this.
- All the background pictures were changed from the original to a more Gensokyo like theme, with old era buildings. PS Gensokyo is where the Touhou world exists.
- Character animations were changed, as were the still pictures.
- The weird pink logo at 0:27 is Youmu's ghost half, Myon
- The title got changed to Meikai Kenshi Yoyomu 4, and Myon is written on top of the "4"
- ZUN is the Touhou creator. He started it all.
- The characters in introduction order:
Konpaku Youmu (spelled Yomu in the video) (Gardener)
Hakurei Reimu (Shrine Maiden, and main character)
Kirisame Marisa (Ordinary Magician, 2nd main character)
Saigoyoji Yuyuko (Manipulator of Ghosts, is one herself)
Yakumo Yukari (Manipulator of boundaries, a Gap Youkai)
Cirno (spelled Chiruno which is how its spelt in Japanese, since they got no "r") (Ice fairy, the Strongest, she is labelled as 9 for "baka" or stupid because of this pic, legend at bottom says 9 is "baka")
- The tree at 1:00 is the Saigyou Ayakashi, it holds a significant important to Saigyouji Yuyuko, who happens to be Youmu's master (or mistress).
- Twin BBAs probably refers to Twin Baabaas, for twin old ladies. They're not twins, but they are expecially close, video here. Also, they're called old because the majority of the girls in Touhou look like children. But their ages are mostly all in the hundreds because they're considered Youkai (monsters, if you will)
- The picture of Reimu at 1:27 is her with a donation box. Fan works always make her seem poor and asking for money. There is alot of fanpics of her donation box with other people as well.

And there you have it. Those are all the things I can point out, but if you're a Touhou fan, you might find out more than what I have. I've only been a fan recently. I admire the music greatly, especially a few groups like Silver Forest and Liverne.

Anime North 2010

2010-08-19T08:08:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, I was not at Anime North 2010 which took place during May 28-30, 2010. However, my friends went and took pictures in my place. I will post a link to the picasa gallery.
Updated August 19, 2010.

From what I could tell from asking them, it was pretty much the same as the previous years. Perhaps not as good. During Anime North 2008 and 2009, those same friends and I would go on all 3 days, but this time, they only went on Friday and Saturday. But they claimed to have been "sick" (flu-kind or bored-kind, I don't know). But its fine.

I personally don't know whats there to do at anime conventions anymore. As you all have already realized, I do my shopping online at one or more of the links on the side of the blog. Those sites provide much more recent figures with a good state of mind that you don't get fake products unlike here. Also, the prices are not that different after considering shipping and other fees. Though, at places like Anime North, there are a bunch of vendors (alot more than G-Anime), so the chances of discounts are higher (competition). And also, because you can bargain for lower prices. But generally, the prices don't vary say more then $20 CDN. Some stuff you can get dirt cheap at anime conventions though (like wallscrolls, wallpapers, and old figurines).

Mainly because I heard that most wallscrolls you buy which are cheap, are not "real". Or in otherwords, someone had a printer and took a high quality picture and printed it out. How I know this? I asked some vendors, also, I've been to danbooru often, I have a good idea on whether the wallscroll picture is real or not.

Here is something to help you with that (although not 100% correct, nothing ever is).
- Generally real wallscrolls would only use official art from a series. If the picture looks like a fan art, its most likely printed by someone else other than official manufacturer.

- The feel for scroll texture feels more paper-like for the fake wallscroll as opposed to fabric-like

However, that is not to say the least my friends didn't have fun. They went on a shopping spree, one of them spent around $150 CDN. They also took alot of pictures.

I heard there were Touhou goods (not just the games) at Anime North. Whether its true or not, when I asked my friends about the details, they couldn't give me much details about it. But thats fine, I already found a vendor for my Touhou needs.

Gallery: Here

Updated: Second Gallery: Here (Thanks Jonathan)
Ooooh, Remilia!! (wikia)

[Osu] Few More Videos of Mastery Progress

2010-08-18T06:10:00.000-07:00

Hello again, I don't plan to upload every and any song I play on Osu! But here are a few more good songs which really stood out.

The first one above was the Portal credit roll song from the makers Valve. The song was sang by Jonathan Coulton & GLaDOS. I had never finished Portal nor did I search for the song previously. But after I heard it, I was addicted nearly right away. It'll probably be another few weeks until I get off it.

Below is the original version.

Another osu map I decided to upload was the following song, Omae no XXX de Ten wo Tsuke by Iwasaki Tarou. It was a BGM from the anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

One of the best BGMs I've ever heard. If not THE best.

Writing on the go: Watching Mosaika

2010-08-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

Just like Fortissimo, this took place at Parliament Hill. It is a light show on the Parliament buildings. It took place at 9:30pm.

Great light show and sounds.

Definitely worth watching except it's quite late.

Should play throughout August.

- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

Writing on the go: Watching Fortissimo on Parliament Hill

2010-08-14T16:50:00.001-07:00

Sitting on the grass, watching Fortissimo on Parliament Hill. It is a show about military musical groups performing music. It goes throughout August on nearly everyday at 7:30pm. It lasts 1.5 hours.

It's not too interesting for me, but it might be worth going to. Bring a chair, grass is uncomfortable.

Some good music for me. Some weirdly funny dancing.
Free.

- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

[Bandai] Gundam Exia MG Model Review

2010-08-09T18:51:00.000-07:00

As previously mentioned, this Gundam Exia MG Model didn't belong to me, it was my brother's so this post had a fair share of his contribution to the construction and photographing process. The full review is below (For atleast as much as I could).

I did participate in part of the construction process even though most of it (head, torso, both arms, and 1 leg) was done by him. From what I could pick up from the construction, it seemed relatively complex and worthy of the title MG. I've always had a worry about the 1/100 models that didn't use the standard MG box. Though, I never built those Strike Freedoms and Destiny in their Full Burst Mode or what not.

Glad that wasn't the case. (Though it was kind of obvious as those didn't have MG on the box, but hey)

The blade was most likely the most appealing feature on the whole Exia suit. And the kit didn't slack in that department, it, along with the 2 swords attached to the waist (detachable, of course) had metallic coating as blades should.

Love the blades *_* !

Aside from the high level of detail in the suit, such as complicated knee joints and such, the joints were relatively strong, as the arms had to hold up that heavy blade. The joints I found were weaker than the joints on the Shinaju but stronger than the Unicorn. Which was acceptable. The leg joints were relatively weaker than the arms, surprisingly.

Some frustration went when posing the Gundam. One of the fold up beam saber/dagger holders on the shoulders was loose and difficult to keep it in the "up" state. Second, that large sword was difficult to put on. The hand's "stuck up part" was difficult to get to fit into the weapon handle's "slot". Although this is generally the case for most models since they don't want the "stuck up part" to take up too much space on the hand so its made rather short, so contact isn't deep. And the ones which can retract and frustrating in its own way.

I found Exia to be one of the best looking suits from 00, if not THE BEST from 00. I personally don't like how 00 Gundam looks. I know I might receive alot of flaming if word gets out. But this is afterall a personal blog. I see no reason why I can't state personal opinion.

The model kit was relatively expensive because of shipping, otherwise it was quite cheap, around 50 bucks, then like 30 for shipping. Boo.

Generally, the kit had no problems as far as I had experienced it. I didn't try to apply decals and my brother said that stickers were no problem.

The gallery was split into 2 because one of them was taken by my brother and the other was by me. Atleast he took most of the pictures from the Canon EOS 7D camera with some Tamron lens (I'm not a photographer, so don't ask photography questions). I was using some older Lumix DMC-FZ30 camera (his old camera that he discarded when he got the 7D).

You can probably tell for sure the 7D is much better at low light with much less noisy pictures. But other than that I think they're similar. Was it worth 1.6k (after discount) for camera and another 500 for the lens? I don't know.

Gallery: From Lumix / Canon.

Lastly, while taking pictures, I put together a fun photo clip of how Exia beat 00 ! YEAH !

Special thanks goes to Kev and King for their wonderful 00 Gundam HG. And yes, I know I'm using a Char Aznable Red Zaku base instead of the actual base from the 00 series. But there are some stuff I don't have with me.

[Wacom] Bamboo Touch & Pen Tablet Review

2010-08-09T15:42:00.000-07:00

I bought this on July 27, 2010 at CanadaComputers when there was a $5 discount, at $90. There were a few reasons for the purchase. Even though I can speak for myself that they weren't well justified. But since I bought it, I might as well give a review on the product. So future consumers will have an additional option for checking product reviews.

The main reason for me was because this version does not require batteries at all. AT ALL!
No more dying in the middle of a stage on osu because battery was low. I couldn't be happier. Also, the multitouch idea was great, since my parents aren't good at a mouse. Eventually, I'll be giving this to them when I either buy a new one or stop using them all together. So its better to plan ahead. I've never really used multitouch on a window 7 computer before, so I was kind of excited.

I will mention first that these photos were done on my iphone 3GS, in very bad lighting conditions (I tried my best with a ceiling light and desk lamp). The phone just has incredible amount of noise! Unforgivable !

Lets start with the box. Its very nice, as you would expect from a product of such a price tag.

The box came with a bunch of stuff.
- Tablet (USB cable attached)
- Stylus
- Installation CD
- Software package CD
- Replacement pen-tips

There were alot of packaging on each of the item. Paper wrap around the tablet, plastic wrap for the stylus, ziplock bag for replacement pen-tips, cardboard CD case for the CDs. Good thing I wasn't charged based on weight. Alot of dead weight in the box. Haha.

Now lets get onto the actual product. And what it looks like. The pen feels good and solid, nothing seems loose other than the pen tip and the eraser which are both loose so you can apply pressure without damaging anything. I would have liked it a bit more if the stylus was thicker, it would make it easier to hold onto. Also, I found it rather easy to press the buttons. Perhaps I'm just gripping too hard though. I often press the buttons when I play osu, which is bad.

New Wacom stylus on top, Old Genius stylus on bottom

The eraser tip works fine after installing the driver, needless to say, before that, nothing works, only your fingers are registered on the tablet (not stylus, not multitouch). I would have to say something I don't like about the stylus though. The pen-tips are relatively easy to use up. What I mean is, every time you use the pen, parts of the tip is "eaten". Until the length is no longer there and they give you replacements. Thank god they do give you some extras. Or perhaps, Im just a heavy user (with osu and all).

Replacement pen-tips (3x) and tool for taking out pen-tips (1x)

After installing the driver, you can setup your pen with the feel of the tip/eraser (ie how hard you need to press), the double clicking speed, the boundaries, the buttons, and some other options. Likewise, you can also calibrate your sensitivity for the finger control on the tablet, as well as which gestures (2 finger scrolling, dragging, etc) you can enable and disable. You can also set up the 4 buttons on the tablet for pretty much anything.

The tablet is somewhat more resistive than the genius one I had. Be it good or bad. Its generally more resistive than your standard laptop ones. About the same as those HP ones with the glossy finish. I'm used to using the touchpads on the Asus laptops and theirs were pretty smooth. This was definitely more resistive than that. The tablet generally work well, but takes time to get accustomed to. The 4 buttons are useful but I hardly use them. The multitouch gestures are all that I use, of course, I still need my keyboard (nothing is currently there to replace that, as typing is a must).

One special feature of the tablet is the light on the left (or can be right depending on whether you are left handed or right handed, you can set that up in the tablet options). Its off when its not plugged in (duh). White when its not in use but powered. Bright white when your finger is touching it (ie. touch recognition). Red when stylus is in close proximity or touching the tablet. It has a smart system where when the style is within range, all finger input becomes ignored. The idea is so you can rest your hand on the tablet when you draw. But I personally like to be able to use my left hand to navigate the painting canvas while my right hand draws. If I want to do that, I have to first remove my right hand, navigate, then put the pen back onto the tablet. Oh well, maybe next time.

This new tablet is smaller than my previous but I've gotten used to it now when I play osu. I didn't use the old tablet for anything other than photoshop work and osu, but atleast this new one, I use it to surf the web too.

Tablet size comparison, along with my current desk setup

The gestures on the tablet basically all work on window computer, with exception to the rotate on window picture viewer but thats not too much of a problem for me. Since I use the keyboard solely when I browse photos. The zooming and scrolling also isn't smooth as I would have liked. Although I don't like Apple, I must say that their touch pads are spectacular. Or it might be their OS. This tablet works on a mac too, but I just haven't tried it myself to give you an opinion. The scrolling feels the same with a mouse scrolling, it goes in chunks, not like the mac where its smooth. I assume this is an OS problem though.

Last topic, usage intergration.

I call it that because at the end of the day, what separates this (with the price tag and features) is ultimately the multitouch. You can easily find a Genius or even another company that features a tablet without multitouch for a fraction of the cost. Heck, even Wacom has a just pen version or just multitouch version.

So the question here is, was multitouch really worth it?

I will give you my honest opinion.

No, it wasn't. Why?

Its simple. For people like me, who has grown up in this world using a mouse since grade 3, I've completely familiarized myself with a mouse. There is nothing (almost nothing, I'll go over the things later) I can do with a tablet faster than with a mouse. One can complain my mouse isn't a crappy mouse, yes, thats true, but most mouse have the same features mine does.

So lets compare what you can do on a mouse vs tablet in a few of the most normal things you do on the computer.

Web browsing:
Neither really have any advantage in this area, except I am more precise with the mouse than I am at the multitouch interface. One may however argue, but 2 finger scrolling !

Yes, but my mouse has a wheel, which is pretty quick and easy to use. But you may then say, you can zoom in/out with pinching!

Yes, but zooming is done by holding control on keyboard then using the wheel. One may then ask, but 2 finger side scrolling goes back and forth pages!

Yes, but theres a button on my mouse for forward and one for backward.

Typing:
Keyboard is the main thing here, but in the cases of scrolling down to find something in the document, again, I find myself more efficient on the mouse than on the multitouch tablet.

Gaming:
I think its safe to say that no one games on a tablet, should it have multitouch or not.

Photoshopping:
I can see a good use of multitouch in this aspect, especially the panning left and right and up and down with 2 fingers scrolling in photoshop. Unless there are shortcuts which I'm not familiar with, I always have to use the navigator tab to pan around my image when I'm in photoshop. So the multitouch tablet definitely takes this round. Also, its near impossible to draw with a mouse.

As you can see, for people who are already proficient in the mouse, multitouch tablet isn't going to be much use. Even after you practice. But Steve Jobs (Apple CEO) might be pushing towards that kind of computing. So its not too bad of an idea to pick up one if you decide the price is just right. However, it does not replace your mouse anytime soon.

If you're a new computer user, by all means, you might as well pick one up. The reasons are simple. Mouse is only for desktops, and maybe laptops if you don't mind carrying an extra mice with you, but most people will have a laptop in their life at some point. So its not a bad idea to start familiarizing yourself with multitouch and the touch pad which is on almost all laptops (minus some Lenovo ones).

If you're into art, you're going to have a tablet for sure, so might as well make it a multitouch tablet, since you're the kind of people who likes to touch things anyway. Though I realize the expensive Wacom tablets don't offer multitouch.

Even though I said that it wasn't worth buying the tablet, I don't regret it. I've never really bought much for myself. I wanted to try something new. And now I have, so I'm happy. I'll continue to use it. Since its nice to surf with your fingers instead with a mouse from time to time. Makes you feel more in control.

Please be advised that although this is a review, this is still filled with alot of opinions. So if you do not feel convinced to buy, Engadget does provide a video review for your satisfaction.

Gallery: Here.

Writing on the go: Akina Japanese Restaurant Review

2010-08-01T17:04:00.001-07:00

I'll keep it short since I'm writing outside.

This restaurant is at Denison and Kennedy.

Pros:
- good sushis
- lots of selections
- waitresses has recommendations
- sirloin cube with garlic was quite good (not overcooked or rough)
- beef roll with baby mushroom also very good
- in general, cooked meat tastes pretty good, not too rough and quite plenty of flavor

Cons:
- slow service
- no mango pudding (editted: there is mango pudding, but its not on the menu)

I found it better than Nikada.

Pictures:

- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

[Osu] Addicting song on youtube.

2010-07-26T05:21:00.000-07:00

The song name is 美也と天国と地獄 in Japanese and Miya to Tengoku to Jigoku in romanji. The music for the melody is from an old song called Can Can. The voices are probably all based off of the character Tachibana Miya from the anime Amagami SS.

I found this song after seeing this song on osu! After which I searched for the youtube video and found that. It was originally posted on nicovideo but converted to youtube.

Below are some osu videos of the songs. All which I played. As you will be able to see, I've been playing that game for a while now. Still not especially good. But not too bad either.

Hardest Difficult (Relax mode makes it easier than it is, despite 90% accuracy and B, when I tried with failoff, I had 65% and D.

Second Hardest Difficulty. Normal Play.

Third Hardest Difficulty, Hard Rock, Double Time, Hidden Mods Used.

osu song link: Here.

PS. Don't ask me why the mapper of that song decided to put a picture of Byakuren Hijiri there.

[AkabeSoft2] Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo Visual Novel Review

2010-07-21T16:29:00.000-07:00

Finally finished Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo. Wow, that was long! And the story was great! Its a visual novel by AkabeSoft2 with the focus on society and its corruption. It had a heart warming story and promoted a ton of deep thoughts in it. There were also a ton of suspense and twists at many corners. Highly enjoyable experience to any deep thinkers with an understanding of what society is.

Full review after the jump.

Game Cover

Synposis:
You play as a male known as Morita Kenichi. You start off without learning about his history but over the course of the game, you (as the player) learn basically everything about Kenichi's background. Morita Kenichi is a very successful individual with lots of fame and money. He is smart, and looks decent also. In the course of the game, you face various challenges as your final examination to become a "Special High Class Individual". It is an occupation very desired in the country and regarded as the most prestige title one can hope for. The location for the final exam happens to be in the town where you grew up, where he left many painful memories. His task was to rehabilitate 3 girls, who went by the name of Mitsuhiro Sachi, Oone Touka, Hinata Natsumi. Each of them had to uphold an "obligation", it was his job to remove them.

An obligation was similar to a sentence decided by a judge and jury. It was an absolute order handed out by the country on a person who commited a crime. However, that obligation could be abolished if the rehabilitee demonstrates that she had self reflected and can stand up and contribute back into the society. That was Kenichi's final exam.

Morita Kenichi, protaganist, special high class individual in training

Higuchi Ririko, Kenichi's sister

Hinata Natsumi, obligation of restricted contact with opposite gender

Mitsuhiro Sachi, obligation of restricted time

Oone Touka, obligation of complete obedience to parental figure

Oone Kyoko, Touka's parent, school teacher

Mana, Sachi's unofficially adopted sister

Uzuki Isono, classmate

Nagumo Eri, fellow special high class individual cadet

Masaomi Houzuki, liscenced special high class individual, Kenichi's supervisor

Ratings:
Plot: The plot is the best one thus far. It was both very personal and grand at the same time. Society was not a obscure topic yet it had affected everyone. You and I both live in a society, whether there is a government (developed countries) or not (tribes). You live based on a set of rules that is set up from a person or people. And this story has its own society, it shows its problems and how corruption takes place. Because everywhere has a form of corruption. Corruption occurs because it is impossible to satisfy everyone, no matter how hard they try. The people who aren't satisfied will say the government is corrupted. It is as simple as that.

The plot was also darker than the other visual novels I've read. Adding to the seriousness of the story. Life is not nice, its not all candies and rainbows. This plot was surprisingly realistic for a visual novel (from the amounts that I read). Another realistic one would be Narcissu which I didn't review it but I had read it a long time ago. It was about suicide. Another very gloomy and sad plot.

The plot was also extremely long (in my opinion, based from earlier visual novels that I've read). It was divided into 5 parts. Whats like an introduction then moves onto Sachi's arc, then Touka's, then Natsumi's then finally the combination or conclusion arc. Of course, theres also the epilogue with the character you chose. But thats extremely short. So in a sense, this can be regarded as 3 visual novels as each one of the girls has a different problem so it is a different story. However, it all links back together at the end.

Choices mattered but they also not mattered. Actually I can't say for sure, but this is what I tried. I reloaded older save games (before I cleared the game and changed a choice, skipped a bit of conversation, the dialogue didn't change from my other savegame. So what I think is that, different choices will only get you a different immediate dialogue but doesn't do much else. EXCEPT there is an obvious choice to for whether you want your ero-scenes with a certain girl or not. Pick it and thats how you enter her route (thats what I believe), reject it then you'll be presented with the other girl's route at a later time (thats also what I believe). I only cleared it once, so I can't say too much for sure. Also, for Touka, there is an instant end option. I will assume there is one for the other characters too. But generally speaking, as long as you pick what your mind believes in, you should be able to clear it in one clean sweep.

In my opinion, I prefer happy stories except I must give this one an applaud for the emotional story. I definitely shed some tears.
5/5

Characters: The characters were probably the only thing they could have improved. The characters were by all means lovable. They all had their charms, from one of those energetic girls, to a tsundere, to a overly reserved girl. The problem for me were the voices. Although it might have been intentional, I found the voices to be a bit rough, like the voice actor was acting. It didn't sound very natural. Or maybe it was just how the people sounded like.
3/5

CG: The CGs were nice. The drawings were consistent and didn't look like the artists slacked off. There were a combination of normal pictures and chibi pictures. Both had their own charms.
5/5

Explicit Content: There weren't many, but is as expected. I only went through Touka's arc, there were 3 scenes, 2 of them were merged together in the event extras. There were 4 separate CGs (not including the variations; eyes opened, eyes closed, etc). More can only be better, right? Haha. As long as the story is not compromised.
4/5

Translation: I didn't notice anything wrong with the translation. After playing 3 games, I found that fan translations seem better than official translations by a company. Which is pretty strange but I can't argue nonetheless.
5/5

Overall: I think this was a good novel, again, I would recommend it to everyone. It is however on the long side so those with a short attention span or don't have much time should probably ignore this. I found myself agreeing to many things said in the story about corruption and ideal. It was great to know I wasn't the only one thinking like that. That was kind of aside though. But I would say I definitely learned alot of things if not just confirming my beliefs. It had alot of educational value as well.

There isn't much more that I can mention, the music is decent. There were some tracks I loved, and others not so much. But that was purely due to taste, I can assure you. I generally like the happy sounding tracks. Music was used in the visual novel as way to give players the atmosphere of the situation. For example when main character saves the day, theres a heroic BGM. When people are in tears, the music is very sad. And so forth.

The user interface and user experience is simple and refined. Nothing like the Wanko to Kurasou visual novel.

Title page

Sample CG

In-game screenshots:

4.5/5

Title Cover Image Source: Here.

The following are just notes I made while I was reading the visual novel. I made no reference to the notes when I wrote up this article except to get the character's names.

*SPOILER AHEAD*
Note:
- Main character is Morita Kenichi
- Story is realistically dark, the stories tend to have things like conspiracies, the plot is not straightfoward and simple
- Morita's background is a very intelligent person with lots of understanding of different people, probably why hes the youngest "Special high class individual", basically he is good at everything (looks good, athletic, smart)
- Morita's life goal "To manipulate people like fools"
- People who have done bad deeds gets obligations which they must fulfill, depending on the appointed "Special high class individual" who watch over them, they can either be lifted from that obligation after being recognized that the sins were atoned for, or they could be killed because progress was not met
- A theme is politics, talks about how the Government is run by the "Special high class individual" because they have been trained/educated in many different areas (super human in a way). For that reason, Special high class individual are rare because of the qualities involved to become one
- Another theme is corruption; every heroine had demonstrated some sort of trait, such as free will or spirit, however, Houzuki shows how easily such things are crushed. While Kenichi tries to show that those are important traits and it will prevail against the opposing government and corruption.
- Sachi and Touka both mentioned how they're don't feel like they deserve the "obligation" they have, felt it was unfair
- Educational, main character is educated, his thinking is thorough, lots of things that can be learned, good value
- Diverting blame seems to be another recurring theme, with the 3 girls looking for other people/things to make decisions for them (so they dont feel guilty)
- Stories involve putting blame on other people for their own misfortunes (dark stories)
- Choices seem to be a recurring theme in the game, every character had their share of choices that were laid out in front of them. They eventually have to choose and grow up
- Undecisive characters, got annoying for me.
- Alot of choices, however from what I could tell after reloading older savegames and picking the option I didn't pick, only certain few choices leads you to a "bad end". In fact, I had only gotten a bad end for Touka after picking an obviously wrong choice. Tried a few other choices, nothing seem to have happened, but ofcourse I didn't stick with those choice until the end of the game. So it may have an effect on the "final ending"
- Each story had their own theme about personal traits and how society tries to suppress those emotions, calling them useless. Main character sought to protect them.
Sachi - Justice
Touka - Compassion
Natsumi - Love
- Game is separated into 4 parts, Sacchi's Arc, Touka's Arc, Natsumi's Arc, Ririko's Arc

Characters:
- Morita Kenichi (Previous name Higuchi Ken, deserted his allies): Protaganist, Special high class individual in training
- Higuchi Ririko: Kenichi's sister
- Nagumo Eri: Fellow special high class individual cadet
- Mitsuhiro Sachi: Childhood friend, obligation of restricted available time
- Mana: Sachi's "sister"
- Uzuki Isono: Sachi's appointed "Footsoldier boss", writes fairytales, possibly a writer, pen name "Sepia"
- Hinata Natsumi: Childhood friend, obligation of restricted of contact with opposite gender
- Oone Touka: Classmate, obligation of complete obedience to parents
- Oone Kyouko: Teacher, Touka's mother
- Masaomi Houzuki: Experienced special high class individual, Kenichi's superior

Quotes:
- "No one has actually seen the tenets of society! Humans invented crap like gods and ghosts because they wanted to explain stuff that they didn't understand, so that they could avoid having to take responsibility for it themselves. As the advancement of scientific knowledge and technology marched onward, humans had less and less need for such explanations. However, right when the world had us believing that we had understood pretty much everything, we realized that we had come up with our own form of unexplainable phenomenon by creating society!"
- "People can't live without someone or something to shift the burden of responsibility onto."
- "Nah, you'll just get dumber if you go to school. The teachers are all trash, your friends are all stupid, and the rules are all pointless. If you can't study, they treat you like you're worthless. Kids who don't fit in are considered failures as human beings. The only thing you can do inside of that prison is listen to what the teacher tells you."
- "Society's fraudulent methods were absolutely powerless before true strength."
- "Depending on how you look at it, this world we live in is either heaven or hell. But, here's the thing. People are so weak that they never look at anything except themselves."

Photoshop Tutorial: Changing Daylight Conditions

2010-07-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

I found a picture of Reisen Udongein Inaba on Danbooru (NSFW) the other day. I quite liked it, however, to be shrunk and used as a MSN avatar was quite poor. The reason being, it would end up too small and dark that no one could see what was what.

So I ended up doing some photoshop on my own. I have never learned photoshop from a professor. Everything I did was purely through intuition.

The first picture above was what I had editted it to. The picture below was the original.

This picture was trying to make a sunset colour background however things didn't seem to be working out. So I just dumped the yellow background all together.

As for what exactly I did.
- First, I applied a curve adjustment layer to the whole picture to light it up.
- Then I had to select the background (I used the polygon lasso to select) since I wanted to change the background colour and brightness.
- I had 3 adjustment layers (probably 2 is sufficient though). Brightness/Contrast, Hue/Saturation, and Curves. Select the checkbox for "Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask".
*Note: I could not find out how to attach a clipping mask to an adjustment layer, but I know its possible.
*Note2: I had never really learned the difference between Levels and Curves. From experience, they seem to do pretty similar things, but in Curves, you can also adjust the RGB colours individually. So I never use Levels anymore.
- Start adjusting. I started with Hue/Saturation, then Curves, and finally Brightness/Contrast
- Finally, I made 2 additional layers (without clipping masks, but you can add it if you like) for the gradient for the sky. Bright in the top right corner, darker in the bottom left corner.

On a closing note, I know I called this a tutorial but I personally don't have too much knowledge in photoshop. I only consider myself a man who likes art so I post what I think looks right. Please take this tutorial with a grain of salt.

Should you have any questions about anything or perhaps you are indeed an artist who can provide some sort of advice for future work, I'll gladly hear it in the comments.

Source: Here.