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Showing posts from June, 2008

171th post

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I am done with the cleaning up of the hard disk , leaving behind only this month (June). It was quite monotonous Would search for duplicates the next time. I received a message (and haven't reply) from my secondary/middle school classmate saying if I would attend my form/homeroom teacher's "farewell". I don't know what he meant by "farewell". It varies from a farewell party to a funeral. I checked on my other classmates' blog, but they never even mention anything about it. One did say that she was not able to contact him, though she could be refer to someone else. I was informed at the very last minute (Thursday actually) that there would be another 生徒会 meeting at school that conflicts with my class outing , though for the latter, I could go there after 3pm. The problem is that I don't know what I would be missing, who's coming at when and the location is a lot further away than my house. I don't plan on staying there overnight, but prob

Cleaning up the hard disk

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I'm currently in the middle of cleaning up my hard disk of unwanted images and some flash files. I have deleted about 200MB of files so far and there seems to be more waiting to be found. The majority are from 東方, Fate/Stay Night, Lyrical Nanoha, and whatever that I found ugly by current standards. The images you have seen me uploaded are among the best I have and does not contain things unsuitable to typical readers. (yes, I do have images that are unsuitable to some people, but I don't put them up anywhere.) It looks like there are a lot more files to check through. When I was transfering from the old portable hard disk to the new one (via the laptop) between February and May this year, there were about 50,000 files (not sure how much that is in Megabytes), and that does not include images stored elsewhere. I should get going now.

Problems with firefox 3

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I have been using Firefox for quite some time now, but not long after I upgraded to Firefox 3 recently, I have been facing problems like high memory and CPU usage (carried over from Firefox 2), taking an awfully long time for stuff to load and other stuff, even more visible on my 2002 PC, despite the 1.2GB (1020MB+250MB) amount of RAM. The browser is more likely to freeze, the "save to" dialog not appearing and not able to click elsewhere when trying to save images. These problems were not visible in other browsers. I am using Safari 3.1.1 right now by the way.

What to do now?

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With my parents currently giving me a miserable amount of monthly allowance, which was half compared to when I was in secondary/middle school, my expenses would easily be more than my allowance and there isn't much in my bank account. How little? Let's put it this way: at the current prices, an airplane ticket to a place 5 hours away would cost between 1/2 to 1/3 of what I have. It's not even enough to cover all the other expenses like accomodation and other related things. With current commitments to school studies, club activities and the 生徒会, it would seem difficult to find a part-time job without affecting the other 3 or finding a time to take a break. The time when I am actually doing nothing is quite rare, even after doing stuff at places like Facebook. I haven't felt very happy deep inside for a long time that jokes don't seem funny. In fact, nothing significantly new has happened around me before these days. To tell you the truth, I actually don't care i

Wasted things that could have been avoided

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As I sat in the 生徒会 room today, doing the task I was assigned to by people of higher up positions, I came to think about the unused portion of papers that were cut, especially if they made up more than a quarter of the original amount. The temperature of the air conditioning of the room was set too cold for comfort. Then comes the time to eat, roughly in the middle of the time I was there. A teacher bought them for us and someone brought them into the room. The problem is that the food seem alien to me and were too spicy, just like the camp last week where I didn't finish everything (except for the McMuffin from MacDonalds™). All this wastage could have been avoided if sufficient portions and the food people want were given. It may not seem much, but it adds up. Not feeling well at that time, for this week in fact, I lay down on a couch and took a nap. Then someone told my group members to write a report (which I don't like) and send her by email about whatever crap she wants u

Headphones vs. Speakers

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(I'm feeling better now, but not yet fully recovered.) When I'm bored traveling, but not in the mood to read, I would be listening to music. As there are too many songs on the PC, along with the amount of incorrect/corrupted song info, I would first correct them and then use iTunes to put the songs I want onto my iPod Shuffle™ (2G) . I do put songs on other devices such as my mobile phone or PSP, but I find the navigation and putting the songs in there more troublesome, with the memory being shared with other things. Without the screen on the iPod Shuffle, it would be less distracting (and maximise battery power) when using it, though you migh not know what song is being played. On one side of the headphones that came with the iPod Shuffle™, it seems to have become softer lately and have to adjust the problematic side so that the sound volume balances. To make matters worse, I could barely hear the music when I am at a loud place such as a crowded place, the subway when under

165th post

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For yesterday and today, my eyes feel heavy, but I was not sleepy . It was raining when I was sleeping. I'm not sure when it started, but there were large clouds (that reflected lights from the ground) as at 2am. Today was the outing of the library club. It was an hour after the appointed time before we actually start to head there. We had a buffet at a hotel that looked liked a high class with staff wearing formal attire everywhere. I'm not sure how to get there, but it was on the other side of a hospital near the train station and walk in some direction until near a flyover/viaduct of a busy highway. With part of the condition mentioned in the first paragraph, I didn't have the mood to eat or play with the others. After 3 hours after eating, followed with confusion and disappointment, I headed home and went to sleep until it was dark outside.

Something's wrong... (2)

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As I was searching for missing information for my music tags (Amazon.co.jp and Google search especially), I noticed that the internet connection is ridiculously slow, in fact, even slower than my school's network speed at peak periods or my upgraded 1997 PC. The "taking too long to respond" error message keep poping up more frequently. Trying to watch the final episode of a series online here (or YouTube) seemed to give up loading less than half-way. For a new series on another site , it doesn't even seem to load after waiting on a long time. Facebook is next to unusable, Windows Live Messenger seems to disconnect me every few minutes. In fact, everything seems to take forever. When I used my laptop (which is where I'm typing this from) and connect to the same network, everything seems to be normal. All this started shortly after I installed Firefox 3. However, knowing that the PC is failing (it's made in 2002), the problem does not lie with the internet bro

Editing mp3 files with Windows Media Player

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I have been editing mp3 files using iTunes for quite some time, but around the time before heading to somewhere earlier this week, it seems that changes to the tags for the files I had made applied only to the iTunes music library and does not apply the changes to some of the files for some reason. However, the album images (if any) that I had applied to the files works. I first noticed this when I selected "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" where either they are located under the old name (eg. Aya Hirano <-> 平野 綾) or sorted correctly but the file info is outdated (eg. The file name (renamed by iTunes) says "アイの庭", but the title tag for the file still say "Ai no Niwa"). Besides the above, I have also tried editing in Windows Media Player 11 and the explorer of Windows XP and Vista. For Windows XP, inserting album images to the file, except via iTunes and WMP, is next to impossible. In Windows Vista, that can be easily done by clicking and dragging

Thinking about the future

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At the 生徒会 camp a few days ago, I was reminded of my (dreadful) past which I shall not discuss about and made me think about my future. With higher qualifications and increasing competition for places for universities or jobs, finding a job that I like doing can be quite hard. Next thing is that I may have several friends, but I'm not really close with any of them. Finding a soul mate is a lot harder. I would be graduating from my current school around March next year. Whether I do well and be able to continue on is currently the big unknown. Graduation day is one of the most saddest moments in my life. Not only will I miss the place that I have been going for the past few years, I would also miss the people there. The graduation ceremony itself is even more saddening, where it would be the very last event in that school and possibly the last time meeting the people I had known. I think I should stop typing for now. Tears were leaking out of my eyes endlessly as I was typing this p

161th post

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(If you hurry, you might be able to make it for the Firefox 3 download day which ends at 19 June, 3:16am JST (18 June 18:16 GMT) and set the world record, 4 hours from the time of post (3 when I finished typing this).) I'm back from all that camping outing, so I'm quite exhausted. There's another at the end of the month, but there is some gap in between. I have met my juniors of the 生徒会 , though not enough to know them well. I did not bring along any valuables for it, including my transport pass and camera. There are plans for MySpace and Facebook to revamp the user profiles. For Facebook, they are going to have seperate tabs which would have user info, photos, feeds, and application. Currently, all are together and looks messy when too many are there. For MySpace, I heard that they are simplifying the customization so that they are easier to navigate than the current one, which it has been critisized for. This would also mean that existing ones would not work, but necessa

Back from overseas

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Without caring about my group project , I headed to overseas. I packed my stuff including clothes and even included a notebook and a PSP. The place we headed to was............. Negeri Sembilan , Malaysia Anyways, tired from the (very) long journey, we went to have a break before continuing. It only costs RM200 for it. Anyways, we went to a wholesale center at a place called Nilai 3 (no idea why there is a number in the name). It's located less than 50 kilometers away from the capital's international airport . As it was daytime, the sun was very bright and too hot to get around without going into the buildings. I had also noticed the lack of trees. Anyways, they sell stuff that are cheaper or probably won't even find back home, but the majority of the stuff there aren't of my taste, especially clothing and religious items there. (Along the way, I noticed a food court that, despite being new, looks like a run-down state with dirty chairs and tables (which are covered

Groupwork project status

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As the deadline draws closer , my team members had for some reason did not turn up for school for the past 2 days for some reason. I heard that my other classmates told the teachers that one is sick while the other is unknown. Why must we do this thing so close to the deadline when they gave us about 2 months to do it? Shouldn't it be done at the beginning or at least somewhere in the middle? If you ask me to do it around now all by myself, I probably won't be able to finish it by the deadline which is just this Tuesday. On top of that I have many other more important matters to attend to. I have to go with my family to visit my newly born-nephew overseas tomorrow, and then rest for a day after returning before the 生徒会 camp again. The thing is that the deadline is on one of the days of the latter. So where do you think I can squeeze in the time to do it? As to how I end up with these useless morons , the teacher ask us to form groups of 4-5 people. In the end, only the 5 of us

Déjà vu

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There are times where I felt that certain events have happened before, even though it might be my first time experiencing it. I'm not sure why, but it has happened several times before, like at a town I never visited before or during a conversation with someone. Some of the possible reasons include: being reincarnated, either as someone else or my current life is repeating similar to one of my earlier dreams envision that it would happen, but a long time ago via my parents or siblings etc. Anyways, I find it strange that when wearing with shorts or skirt at cold places, my legs feel no difference than at normal, even though the rest might be fully clothed and still find it insufficient to protect from the freezing cold. The highest temperature I can tolerate is 32℃ without complaining of heat. Lower if the sunlight is directly pointing at me. Slightly higher for heated water (eg. bathtubs, shower).

Busy right now

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I'm currently busy with a lot of things right now. Why must my group members always push the project to me only now, which is very close to the deadline, especially when I have a lot of other things to worry about. Between the time the project started (which was many weeks ago) and now, barely anything was done. On top of that I have things coming up in the next few weeks. I'm already lacking the time to find a part-time job to support myself because my parents are getting old, my older sister's art university fees, and my needs easily exceed my allowance that I have to refrain from buying anything or withdraw cash from my bank account that had accumulated since before I entered primary/elementary school, which itself is only enough to buy 2 high-end computers. I need much more for university fees, transport and accommodation. Why am I wasting time typing this? So that you know what is going on. If you excuse me, I should get started on it. 23:52 edit: Okay, I'm done w

Signing up for Nico Nico Douga and plans for this month

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Other than the FIFA 2008 world cup (which I have no interest in), and something that happened in Akihabara earlier today ( pictured ), it seems that a lot of things are happening today around me. In fact, I can't seem to get any peace and quiet yesterday and today with loud music from the outside from many, but nearby, sources. Anyways, I have heard of Nico Nico Douga (ニコニコ動画) for quite some time, but not sure what it is exactly. Turns out that it is somewhat like YouTube . As you might already know, YouTube is one of the worse places if you want videos in normal (let alone high) quality videos and audio (in Mono sound). Nico Video may not be the best, but it sure is better than youtube (in terms of video quality), one of the most popular sites visited in Japan (and Taiwan). But content wide, there is room for improvement. You must log in in order to watch videos (except for the embedded ones). Anyone can sign up, but the language of the site is available only in Japanese. Let

New Haruhi series

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An imperfect day for Miss Perfect (from さよなら絶望先生) I heard from somewhere that the reason for the so-called "cancellation" of the Second Season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱) was because of plans to create it from scratch in an alternate universe. Base on the stuff that has happen from official sources since some time last year, such as the official website (which, during when the first series was aired had regular changes such as the page being messed up to reflect what was aired at that time) to solving puzzle by entering the intitals of the characters' names , a fake news report that appeared on various places dated 7 July 2007 on how mysterious symbols appeared overnight with a related life-like CCTV footage of the event (the novel said that the even happened 3 years before the previous season). The new series is believed to have been set in a different universe (and no, it has nothing to do with Kyonko ), where Haruhi (and Koizumi without ESP powers

rising crude oil prices and climate change

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Was bored when this was taken. With rising prices of crude oil, which currently stands at more than US$120 per barel. Prices of things such as petrol, diesel, electricity, and plastic-based products are indirectly increased. With this, many countries in Asia has the cost of the fuel deducted. But with prices increasing in recent months, they could not keep with the subsidy that they decided to reduce/abolish the subsidy and (hopefuly) spend money that was saved on improving public transport. My country is one of the few that didn't subsidise fuel prices. Just because it's not a day where you should be cutting down doesn't mean that you don't. Here are some tips on saving the environment and your bill: Turn off the lights and fans if there is no one in the room. Do not leave the computer on the whole night. Try to walk, cycle or take the public transport as much as you can. When shopping, try to avoid using plastic/paper bags given at cashier and instead use your own. Ev

An uneventful month (May)

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(This is one of the few places where you can get the forms to register for a business.) Apart from stuff that happens only online and negative things, the month of May seem to just fly by as though I just started the new school year in mid-April and suddenly it's already almost the middle of June. Each day, including public holidays (the "golden week" was in that month) and weekends, the days seem to quickly fly by with nothing eventful happening. In fact, nothing that makes me happy has happened. The same old boring day with the sunrise and sunset. In fact, it seems lately that there are more than one sunrise and sunsets in a day, or time is really flying by quickly. I shall not elaborate on the negative things that happen recently here, but luck seems to be turning around somewhat. I found a 10-coin lying on the floor. Other than the return cups of payphones and vending machines, I haven't found a coin lying around in a public place for quite a long time. Could this

My spoken and written vocabulary

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(Inside the old school building) If you watch anime with subtitles, you might want to watch this video (total of 5 parts). It's regarding fansubs. I do have to agree with most of the points raised there. It seems apparent that my spoken vocabulary is a lot lesser than my written vocabulary. When I try to talk, the words come out broken or a lot of basic words were used to the point that I'm not sure what I was saying. But when it comes to writing/typing, it comes out alright. The main likely reason for that is the lack of usage in practice. Another reason is that my brain processes things slower than everyone else . So the first thing that comes to my mind during the thinking process is said out, but inconsistent. So, if you ask me about something, it's possible that I may answer an immediate "don't know" or say out the basic things even though I might know a lot about it. I have learn several languages but the following are what I know more of: English, Jap

151th post

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(It says: "まぢで恋する五秒前") I have officially decided to drop out from the drama club that I was very active in last year and become a librarian this year instead so that I can still earn credits when I graduate from school. Last year was too stressful for me in that club, but with my school work being increasing in difficulty, I could foresee myself going crazy if I were to remain there. I have missed 1 major project that was to take between the end of the previous school year and the beginning of the current school year and 2 major meetings that were marked as "compulsory" on the club's notice board. As for the library, my task today was to take out books that has the latest published date earlier than 1991. I did the electronic engineering section (I didn't know the school has such books, and very old on top of that) that was mostly in English. It wasn't so hard. I could tell by how brown the pages are and the design of the book cover (I saw a book on how

alert but sleepy

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Most of the time, I find that my mind and body are not synchronized when it comes to sleepiness. Even as I type this just past midnight, my body is telling me to go to sleep with my eyes starting to shut close by themselves, but my mind says otherwise. So you might see me running around doing tasks or talking to you actively, but I'm actually still asleep. On some nights, I find myself awake in the middle of the night, being unable to sleep. Most of the time was because of of insect bites and my sister using the PC in my room (except for the laptop which only I use and there are no other PCs in the entire house) with the lights on, but at other times, I have no I idea why. In any case, what would seem like a short morning (3am-10am) would seem to pass by a lot more slowly. On mornings where I have to go to school almost everyday, I have to wake up early due to the distance between my house and the school and the 生徒会 Student Council duties that have to be in school earlier than no

현재 보여지는 이미지의 변화를・見てないよ

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내 블로그의 이미지를 전의 프로필을 변경 및 프로필을 사용하여 여러 개의 다른 이미지가 전체의 이미지를 정확하게 일치합니다. 그 이유는 이미지의 일부가 거기에 꽤 많은 시간 대체되었습니다. 나는 혼란에 대해 사과드립니다으로 인해 이러한 변경 사항이 발생되었을 수도있습니다. Anyways, enough of that. After doing the above and this , I find myself doing practically nothing other than finding it strange that I can't see things clearly beyond 12cm/ 5inches without contact lenses or glasses (a bothersome to wear), which is ridiculously near to read. I can't even see the clock face across the room without them or a digital camera. People say I look better without them, but I can't see a thing! So, when I try to take a shower or swim at a pool/the beach, I would be doing it blindly, though the colour of the objects (but not the outline), familiarity of the place and sense of direction would save me like when heading to the public toilet. I don't know why my eyes have become that way, but I think it started back when I started primary/elementary school around 1996. Back then CRT displays were far