Welcome Test Subjects!

Recently I bought Portal 2 on Steam during it's Autumn Sale. I've played Portal 2 before, pirated, so I sailed through the single player with ease. Thankfully I remember what to do and stuff. The first time I played it I was absolutely clueless.

Anyway, I completed the co-op levels with Josh yesterday and I played around with some community test chambers. And then I made my own test chambers. So yes. To whoever who reads my pointless blog and this blog post with a motive, I'd very much appreciate it if you try out my test chambers if you have Portal 2 on Steam. The link will be down there.

Now I'm thinking with portals.

Happy testing and have fun!

Fleeting Feeling of the Absolute Carefree

For the past few months I haven't really been doing anything. Ever since my classes have ended, that sense of fighting for the future thing just stopped happening. Every week, I choose what days to go to college, the factors depend on whether I feel like it, if my friends are going and if I have something to do. When I go to college, the working studio is always filled with juniors so I have to find a lab to work in. By "work", I mean the short film project my group is working on for our graduation, and by that I mean "pass the time". Ever since my part in CG modeling was done, I had a few weeks of not doing anything and then I got called back to work on water simulation. Early stages was horrible, I believe I had complained it before in previous posts, if not, that's nothing to mention about now.

The past month (late October onward), all I've been doing is; 1) Find a computer, 2) Switch on the computer, 3) Open Maya 2012, 4) Open the water simulation scene file, 5) Open Firefox/Chrome, 6) Log into Facebook and Dropbox, 7) Play Pokemon, 8) Tweak water simulation, 9) Repeat step 7. When lunch time comes, I'd call Emmanuel and Ann Nee and we'd go catch lunch together and pretty much hang out at the restaurant and at the lab until I go home, usually at 3 or 4pm.

There really isn't much for me to do because I had pretty much nailed the water simulation. All I had to get was my group's approval on the simulation and I would be done. The last two weeks all I did was refining the simulation but in count of days, it took me only 2. Finally today I passed the files to my group member who's in charge of rendering. Now I'm back to doing nothing.

A few days ago, our lecturer posted on Facebook that our final submission date is the first week of December. Honestly, I don't know the progress of my group, our group leader does not update us or tell us what is happening. I only found out that our animation have finished when I asked a few weeks ago, and I still don't know our group's progress.

So, our final submission is in December but our graduation is in April. I had the thought of getting a part time job until then but knowing myself, I'm too lazy. I'd rather sit at home and hunt shiny Pokemon, read manga and watch anime. Night time is Dota2 time so that is not a problem. Maybe I'll really get a part time job to get some extra money. I've been overspending on food recently. Seriously, all I've been spending my money on is food, though there is a 10% spending on games.

A mail came in the other day with the particulars about my graduation. There are so many rules and so many words I feel that it's such a hassle and a bother. The price is expensive too! It's such bullshit. I really can't wait for my graduation, I can't wait to get it over with because thinking about it makes me feel such stress from such hassle.

When I don't go to college, the time I wake up range from a span of 11am to 2pm. After waking I would spend my time just like that. If I feel like it, I'd make nuggets for lunch, if not, it's instant noodles. After lunch I would just hang around Facebook, play Pokemon, watch anime, read manga or just spend the time doing nothing. Then evening comes and Skype would become busy. Every day I'd talk with KW, Ann Nee and Mal (Mal comes on pretty late since she's overseas now). Emma and Cardin seldom joins the conversation. On weekends, Kai will be around. Some nights we'd Google Hangout together with the addition of Cheryl and JL. And it's become a habit to play Dota2 every night. We'd play until 3am (4am on weekends). So now I got these eyebags. I plan to ditch Dota2 one night to get enough sleep. I'd also like to get some exercise if possible, sports or hiking or something.

So for the past month, I've just been "living the moment". I haven't put much thought on what to do after graduation and stuff like that. I just focused on the immediate moment. Unless planning what to eat the next day counts. I really wonder what to do after I graduate though. I guess university is the way to go. I doubt I'm ready to start working. Pfft. Me, working. I really can't imagine that.

Enter, Kalos

Last week on the 14th I received my Pokemon X version and I've been playing it since. The hype on the latest installment to the Pokemon game franchise, Pokemon X and Pokemon Y was going on for a long time in the TOA Pokemon Club (it's a Facebook group created because TOA don't have clubs). About a month ago, one of our members found a page accepting pre-orders, we put our money together to pre-order our games in bulk.

There sure are a lot of changes to the gameplay now. Leveling up is significantly easy. The EXP Share is now a Key Item and it shares experience points to the whole party. Also, catching Pokemon gives experience points too! And I didn't know that since Black/White/Black 2/White 2 that TMs are reusable. That makes things so much more easy now.

I started my journey with Froakie. When Nintendo released the starters, I was gonna go with Fennekin but I now break my chain of Fire type starters (since Ruby/Sapphire) for Froakie because Greninja looks so much cooler than Delphox.

So my starters since Red/Blue go in this order, Squirtle (Blue), Totodile (Gold), Torchic (Sapphire), Squirtle (FireRed), Chimchar (Diamond), Cyndaquil (SoulSilver), Tepig (White, White 2) and Froakie (X). Notice how I never picked the Grass starter? Only Treecko and Turtwig are like the best Grass starters. Chespin looks okay, I might come to like it too.

As of the release of Pokemon X and Y, people playing are almost everywhere now. Ken is playing, we traded Pokemon a couple of times. Almost the whole TOA Pokemon Club is playing. Misaki and Baddie are playing. Charmaine started recently and Kai started today! (I had Kai's Pokemon Y with me because I helped him collect it, I used it to my advantage. Hee hee.)

This also made an increase in Streetpass in college. Everyone who has a 3DS started going around college trying get Streetpass. I am one of them and I would usually get an average of two to three Streetpasses when I make my round in the main block.

So far I have just defeated the 6th Gym Leader. I still need to complete my White 2 PokeDex though. I gotta complete that before December comes.

JOTI13.PU

Last Saturday and Sunday (19th, 20th October) was the annual Jamboree on The Air and Jamboree on The Internet (JOTA, JOTI). This year I helped out at the JOTI Petaling Utama (hence JOTI13.PU, PU is Petaling Utama if that's not obvious enough) again as an officer. I was assigned as the Mac room head officer.

On the first day I had to wake up really early because on the same day, my sister was going for some cheer leading competition and they had to meet up at SS2 at 6am. After my dad dropped her, I had breakfast with my dad before going to Sri KL, the school hosting JOTI13.PU. I was the first officer to arrive so I had to wait for a bit. When Mr Colin and the head officers arrived, we immediately got to work, starting up the computers and readying them for JOTI. After that, we had our opening ceremony. During the ceremony, Mr Ekbert installed Joon Keet and Kai Liang their assistant scoutmaster epaulets. After the opening ceremony, Mr Colin got the scouts to get into pairs and patrols, he briefed them about the jamboree, rules and stuff.

The jamboree started and together with Lysandra and Mun Keat, we watched over the Mac room. There were a lot of technical problems at the start, some scouts couldn't sign up for a Yahoo account and some couldn't get a verification email from the JOTAJOTI website. The problems were soon solved and things went pretty smoothly. I spent most of the time in the Mac room alone, doing my own things while watching over the scouts to make sure they are focused on their phases and to respond to their problems, for both days. That's pretty much what an officer does.

I was impressed by the scouts' performances during JOTI Night. Most of their sketches were really good; short, funny and straight to the point. On the first night, the scouts worked themselves till late night wanting to finish as much as they can. The jamboree came to an end after an award and closing ceremony. I'm looking forward to next year's JOTI!

Back To Basics and Investiture Camp 2013

Just last week I went for the Back to Basics (B2B) camp. It's an annual camp for the Rover H Crew to go back and camp like we used to when we were still junior and senior scouts, hence, "back to basics". We camped at a site in Janda Baik for 3 days 2 nights. I missed the previous three years' B2B because I always had classes and final assignments to attend to when it came around, this time when my schedule is more relaxed, I finally got to go for it.

The mornings and nights were really cold, about 25 degree Celsius. On the first day, we built our tent upon reaching the campsite and continued on to building the kitchen until late at night. When morning came, we continued to build the dining table and made laksa for lunch with the help of Mr. Ekbert and his wife. For backwoods cooking, we made two types of chicken, roasted and baked, we made bread in the shape of cups and had jam in it and we made pizza, all using the traditional backwoods cooking methods, the pizza was quite the success considering it was the first time any of us have done it before. After cleaning up we played some games. First was Holey Sheet, a game that has been played every B2B camp, I think. The objective of the game is to move a ball around numbered holes on a flysheet as a team, the challenge was, everyone is playing in the cold cold river and no one can talk or give orders. We were divided into two groups and my group failed to win the game. After that we played a race where we were split into three groups and each group consisting of five members can only have four pairs of legs at the duration of the race. After the games, we had our bath and relaxed for a bit before we start our barbecue for dinner. The barbecue was really great. So great I already miss the delicious meats we had. After dinner we had a short night game and right after that we had our rover installation ceremony. After three years in the crew, I finally get installed as a full fledged rover. After taking photos, we went to bed, taking turns to sentry.

My sentry shift was the last. The morning was really cold. Together with Joey, Yong Tick and Kuok Wei, we kept the fire alive to keep the mosquitoes away from the campsite. Morning came and after breakfast, we had our closing ceremony and proceeded to clean up the campsite and prepared to leave.

We had lunch together at a restaurant in Bukit Tinggi before heading back to PJ. I really enjoyed the camp. Hopefully I can attend again next year!

Wanna Hang Out?

Just yesterday Joshua sent me a message asking if I wanted to hang out. The first thing that crossed my mind was, "Eh... I don't want to..." but I know I shouldn't reply with that. Sorry Josh. The first reply that came to mind was "What's the occasion?". That one response I wanted to reply sparked a thought chain through my mind. Was it necessary to have an occasion as a reason to hang out? That wasn't the case five-six years ago. I replied Josh with a "Where? What time?".

Thinking about it, back when I was still in secondary school, we didn't need a reason to hang out, we just decided on a weekend and we'd go to 1Utama to catch a movie and hang around, we'd play bowling and pool and check out books at MPH. Now that it's my fourth year in college, an arts college where we are to sit in front of a computer to do work, hanging out needed a reason, if not, I would rather stay at home doing nothing within the walls of comfort. Maybe it's also because of the internet's influence. I used to be a guy who wanted to go out and enjoy the outdoors, now I just want to sit at home and watch anime or read manga, play games or if I feel like it, do literally nothing.

In the end, the hang out was called off because nobody knew what to do if we went out. I also told Josh that I didn't feel like going out. There was an issue about spending not a lot of money as well. Well I gotta force myself to go out soon. I don't want to really become a recluse. I wonder if there's something to do that does not require spending money when hanging out.

Sleep, Eat, Rinse and Repeat

For the past few weeks when I don't have to go to college anymore, my sleeping habits got messed up. My usual bed time is 2am, I always go to bed at this time, 3am being the latest. Usually I would wake up at 10am or 11am but as of now, I cannot wake up earlier than 1pm even when I set an alarm clock. I feel that things are getting worse when the other night I could not sleep at all. I was awake the whole night until 7am before falling asleep and waking up later at 2pm.

Now that I have nothing to do at all, I really don't do anything. My activities only start in the evening until night, the afternoon is when I spend some time playing with my cube puzzles, playing Pokemon or hanging around Facebook, doing nothing. I haven't been following my YouTube subscriptions and I haven't been reading manga. My mom told me to get a part time job the other day but I've already eased myself in this hermit life I'm living now.

After pushing myself to do at least something, I picked up watching anime again. I have a lot of movies and anime series I haven't watched and they are pilling up as I keep downloading the anime I want to watch. I started off with a Studio Ghilbi marathon, watching the films I haven't watched yet. I'm now left with Pom Poko and Nausicca. As for anime seires, I just finished Neon Genesis Evangelion, MM! and a couple anime short films.

While I'm at it, I'm slowly building the motivation to work a part time job. I don't have a car so I can't go too far. I know I'm lazy so I'm hoping to get a job that don't need me to work myself out on the clock. Ever since college my body muscles ache and sprain easily.

While I had been wanting to go out for quite some time, I now prefer not to go out. The 'me' in my Pokemon White 2 can do all the outdoor activity fun for me now. Haha.

Cubic Courier

A couple of months back I ordered a bunch of cube puzzles on Taobao with the help of BlackCatz and finally they have arrived. I still two more puzzles that have not been sent yet so I gotta wait for them a little longer.

What have I ordered? I got a Windmill Cube, a 1x3x3 Floppy Cube, a Skewb Diamond, a Siamese Cube, a Triamese Cube, a MF8 Megaminx and a WitEden Roadblock 2. I got a Skewb Ultimate but from the number of axles, it doesn't seem the case...

I actually already have a Floppy Cube and a Megaminx but they are not that good. I did some research and got the MF8 Megaminx, I'm really enjoying it, it's turns so smoothly and corner cuts nicely. When I ordered my WitEden, the image on the product showed the WitEden Cubiod 3x3x9 which was what I wanted. Instead, I got the WitEden Roadblock 2. After checking, it turns out I was looking at the wrong page but that does not matter so much. The Roadblock 2 by far is the most complicated puzzle I have solved. It took me almost a whole day just to figure out how to solve it even with tutorials.

So I just have to wait for my last two cubes. I'm thinking of making another order to get the WitEden Cuboid 3x3x9 for real this time and maybe a 2x3x3 but those have to wait until I save up more money.

AniManGaki 2013

AniManGaki 2013. It was the event that had some major decisions made.

For the event, I had printed a lot of Pokeball badges to be sold. Using the existing Pokeballs, I designed my own style of each Pokeball from Generation 1 to 6, Pokeball to Dream ball, including some from the anime and 1 from the spin-off Pokemon typing game.

Also for the event, I had made the decision to crossplay for the first time. Crossplay is "cross costume play" for short. Being in the cosplay community, crossplay among girls was always the norm but crossplay among guys wasn't until recent years. I made about four months of preparation for my first crossplay, Naze Youka. I made as much effort as to keep it a secret until the day itself.

So.

Day 0
I went to Cheryl's house to sleepover as usual because I wanted to get fully dressed before going to the event because I was worried people will see me and I was nervous and shy about it, and I didn't want my family to know it yet, especially my dad. I brought all my stuff including half the amount of my Pokeball badges. We have a booth on Sunday only. I wanted to have it both days of the event but my friends sharing the booth didn't want to. As to save money as we were fairly broke (the downfall of being an animation student and a cosplayer) we only had the booth for one day. Cheryl was rushing her Original Character (OC) cosplay so I helped her out.

Day 1
I woke up really early to prepare and Cheryl was finishing up her cosplay. After she helped me put on makeup and bandaged my head, I got dressed. My bandage plan was a failure, I should have done a test before to make sure it was right. With only being able to see with my left eye, everything was a blur because my left eye has astigmatism and I don't wear contacts because my eye sight isn't so bad as to need them. Amanda was supposed to be my cosplay partner as she cosplayed Kurokami Maguro but she was busy with her booth so I pretty much was solo the whole day. It was both a scary and new experience. It was the first time I had a lot of people ask for a photo while being a solo cosplay. Looks like I manage to fool majority of the public that I am a girl. I manage to meet up with a few friends who either already knew I was crossplaying (I told a few girls about it) and some who recognise me somehow (most probably my big smile). I didn't get enough sleep so I was sleepy the whole time, having only one eye made me really sleepy. I fell asleep for a while while Cheryl, Misaki, Baddie and Weiss were taking a break. Then they went for late lunch. I wasn't feeling hungry because of the bandages, they gave me headaches because of how tight they were and it was pretty hard to breath. I decided to change out and after doing so, I felt so much more energetic and hungry. I joined Cheryl and the others for lunch and soon after waking around the booths, we went back.

Day 2
This day it's easier. I was cosplaying as Okabe Rintarou again. Before going to bed (sofa) the night before, I had packed everything in order in my box along with the stuff Cheryl needed to bring for the booth. We got to the event late because we woke up late. But we manage to set up our booth in time but not complete when the door were open for the public. Laura, Wee and I stayed at the booth most of the time. Business was slow that day. Even thought a lot of people were interested in our stuff, they would not buy after some consideration. It was obvious when looking at their expression changes. The day came to a close with the dance off and Danny Choo who was at the event too did a sexy dance on stage. He wanted to escape afterward but the cosplayers on stage kept him in the center. He eventually jumped off the stage from the front and went back to cleaning up his booth. I bought two sets of badges, a Pacific Rim Yaeger set and a Black Rock Shooter set. I dropped one of my BRS badges somehow, I was pretty upset about it.

I intend to continue to sell my badges at Comic Fiesta but the booths are all taken and I can't find any friends who's got space for me to join them. I don't really have any other plans for the end of this year. Without a booth, it looks like it's gonna be a pretty boring Comic Fiesta for me. I hope it won't be as boring as I think it will be. After many years of being an event-goer AGC conventions don't appeal so much to me anymore.

D-Event

I went to this event that I have no idea what the name is but it was a marvel. I had a booth so I could enter the event place earlier than everyone else. When I got in, I immediately went to the rides. There was this Minecraft inspired water slide. It was freaking neat! I went on it a couple of times and then I hanged around the amazing food stalls selling food of epic proportions. I did not notice it but the event place had opened and I was enjoying myself I lost track of the time. Suddenly someone came up to me and asked me, "Hey, where are the stuff you are selling? Where's your cosplay costume?" and suddenly the whole place turned dark. I was stunned and shocked. I realised I don't have any of them with me. I was empty handed, only my booth vendor pass around my neck and my wallet in my pocket. I saw everything start to move in slow-motion and I blacked out, only to find myself awake on my bed, distraught and full of panic. For a second I thought it was AniManGaki already. That really scared me so much I stressed about it since this morning. I told my friend about it and she said it's my brain telling me that I'm nervous. I guess that's right. I know for sure my brain is telling me that I'm full of panic and worry as well. Only one week left to the event. I gotta check if my badges are ready or not soon. I feel so unprepared but I know that I am about ready. Brain, why you do this to me?

About This Blog

A=M
It's been a long six years since I last signed up for a Blogger account. Let's talk about my blog.

A lot of my friends change the name or title of their blog a couple of times at least once, someone I know changes her blog name once every week until she forgot her password. The name of my blog, Raison D'etre is a French phrase meaning, 'reason for existence' which, back then I thought was a really cool name for a diary or in this case, a blog. I had the intention of recording down the notable moments of my life in this blog and so I did. And now, the name of my blog is the very question I ask myself everyday, "What is my purpose in life? What do I want to do? Where do I want to be? What do I want to achieve?" and I haven't found my answers yet.

Vsauce videos always remind me how short life is. I feel that I want to carpe diem and feel self achieving. If that makes sense.

May 2007 was the time I started blogging. I remember my first blog post, it was a ridiculous and really embarrassing introduction (or 'hey it's my first blog post' post) so I deleted it, I wish I didn't so I can laugh at myself for how silly it was. When I first started, I had a couple of rants and pointless 2 sentence long posts about what happened in class or why I disliked this teacher and sort. I had those deleted too because I thought about how childish and naive it was, I don't have the right to condemn my teachers who taught me.

In the middle stages of my blog, it became a random mess consisting of daily events, nonsensical posts (random rambles), pictures and poems. Eventually as I reach adulthood, they became posts about major events in my life or just AMG (Anime, Manga, Games) events and the sort. I also became inactive a couple of times on this blog. Now, I would come here on my blog to express my thoughts and emotions when I believe it's inappropriate to post on Facebook.

Sometimes when I feel really down or when I miss someone I come here and blog about it instead of posting it on Facebook as to not worry too many people. If there are actually people who worry about me.

I don't know how many friends read my blog and who reads my blog. I only know a few who do and most of them are from my secondary school days. I always wonder if people I know in college or from the cosplay movement read my blog. I always get cautious when I post a blog post and sometimes will reconsider what I wrote but now, I just check for spelling and grammar errors. I start to belief that I should be more honest with what I post on my blog.

In the past six years of blog posts, I have a few blog posts that contain hidden messages of all forms and styles. They usually hide a secret or something only for me to remember. Why am I telling this? I believe those "secrets" are not much of a secret anyway. It's not like it's gonna harm anyone. Some of those "secrets" are childish acts of stupidity though.

Blf givw gl wvxrksui gsrh xlwv wrwm'g blf? Gib gsv mvcg lov.

Wt hvwg kog vofr tcf mci, W rcb'h hvwby mci qob rsqcrs am chvsf qcrsg.

I don't really remember what my blog first looked like. All I remember is that I used to have a music player at the bottom of my blog. The layout didn't change much. I don't remember what my first color scheme was but that background has been black for a long time now. I recently changed it to a shade of grey because white font on black is just too much when most webpages are white.

Why did I write this? I wanted to save it for the 10th anniversary of my blog but I was looking through some old posts and rode the nostalgia wave so I had to write this post. Here's to more great memories ahead. Cheers.

Galaxias Wars Skills Camp 2013

I wanted to open this blog post with an epic intro but I got too lazy to think of one.

So the annual skills camp. For about two months before the camp, the senior scouts and the scouters started planning everything for the camp. A lot of new things were to be brought in this camp and it was intense. With Maverick busy this year, Sean and I had to take his plan and take care of the scout troop. Eventually it lead to Sean becoming the camp chief and me the assistant (which I did not know until the first day of camp). Because we didn't get to have a Tenderfoot Training Course this year, Sean and I kept teaching and training the scouts during troop meetings to prepare them for the camp, with the lack of TTC, we wanted the skills camp to be big. And we put a lot of effort into it, all of us, seniors and scouters, which we happily succeeded. The theme of the camp was proposed by the seniors, a combination of Greek mythology and Star Wars. Benjamin told me that they have bigger plans for next year and beyond as the themes will be based on the word 'hybrid' which is a six year plan, with each concept based on each letter of the word 'hybrid'.

Majority of my contribution to the camp is the photography, video and editing department. I basically had to make sure there were senior scouts taking photos and videos during the activities of the camp and all videos had to go through me for verification and critique. I also worked on the campfire opening video which took a month of preparation and when it played successfully during campfire, I almost cried of relief and joy. (Because the one I did was year was a huge failure)

Like usual, our scouters for the camp were Sean, Maverick, Yu Feng, Wern Kit, Ivan and me, and this year was also had Yong Tick to help us. A new feature in the camp was the exhibition hall planned by Benjamin. He had collected some scarfs, camp booklets, logbooks and uniforms for the parents and visitors who come for the campfire to see. I must say it was very impressive. The campfire this year I must say was quite a big success. We had not expected so many parents to come for the campfire but we were prepared. We learned from last year's mistakes and made this year's set up a lot more advanced. Mr. Dawson came to see the campfire as well and did a great help by helping us with the scouts. The newly assigned co-curriculum teacher, Madam Ngau for the school showed support by attending our campfire as well.

During this camp, I got to know our scouts even better. And hopefully the troop's skills camp will get even better.

I'm looking forward to sending our scouts to district events now that we have support from the new co-curriculum teacher. JOTI is coming soon.

The Graduation I Can't Attend

Tomorrow is the day my friends from the class I was in will be graduating. While I feel happy for them, I can't help but to feel sorry for myself because I can't graduate with the people I spent my years with in college. Being dropped down a semester in a classroom full of people I don't know well is lonely, and I feel even more lonely when I think about how lonely I will be when I graduate with these people. I might have made some friends in this class but we are not so close to the point of being comfortable monkeying around with each other. I'm always the awkward outsider like a foreign tourist hanging around locals. Though such issue does not bother me so much, I just feel sad that I can't graduate with the people I call my true classmates. Happy graduation DG1001-1.

Oh Oh Oh Wo Oh O-Oh!

Last Saturday some of my classmates from DG1001-1 got together at the photography studio in college to take some final class photos. There were few of us but it worked out nice. The best shot I believe would be our take on the famous painting, The Last Supper. We had lunch after the session and part our ways. While everyone went home, some of us gathered again at Emmanuel's house.

37th Bon Odori
After lunch, Ann Nee and I met up with Yumi and JL at Emma's house where we spent some time relaxing a little before getting changed into our yukatas. I had bought a yukata from an online shop Ann Nee found on Facebook because they were selling it cheap. After Ann Nee, Yumi and I got changed, we headed out to the Matsushita Stadium. Surprisingly Bon Odori wasn't as crowded and had more Japanese people there compared to previous years. I wore the tengu geta my cousin, Zhen Rong bought for me when she went to Japan. The first thing we did there was take a look at all the stores before buying some food. I manage to spend only RM30 on a yakiniku bento and a can of Asahi beer. The Asahi beer was super dry, which was not to my taste but the beer definitely tastes better than Carlsberg or Tiger. Because my obi was tied pretty tight on me, I didn't have much of an appetite.

After my meal, I went to look for Vincent and Mun Kay. The day before, Vincent had marked where he would set his mat at on a map and so I found them there along with Denise and Andrea. It was a great short reunion. I also saw Alex, Sarah and Elie there. It was the first time got to meet up with so many friends at Bon Odori, usually it would be so packed that I would hardly be able to spot anyone. Wee and Andrea came later and we went to see Charmaine who was with some of her highschool friends. I didn't see Jun Ee, Atticus and Kuui that day even though they were there too. As usual, I joined in on the ondo dances. It's the same every year but I always have to relearn the steps. Together with Ann Nee, Jian Leng, Yumi, Emmanuel and his younger brother and sister, we dance one round and then spent the rest of the evening waiting for the fireworks. We bought some kakigori right after the dance.

This year was the first time Bon Odori Selangor has fireworks display. I heard that the one in Penang always has fireworks. Our wait was not in vain because the fireworks display was the most beautiful performance I've seen in my life. There were some firework patterns I've never seen before and they had the biggest I've ever seen as well. The sky was literally filled with fireworks of many colors. The huge ones were so big it felt like I was watching a 3D movie. It was absolutely spectacular.

We went back to Emma's house as soon as the festival comes to a close. My dad picked me up from Emma's house later at night. I have another event to attend that will drain my energy.

HaKU Live in Kuala Lumpur
About two months back, posters about HaKU's second concert in Malaysia was flowing about in Facebook. I was an instant fan when I first saw their performance at JRock no Tamashii last year but due to some financial planning I did beforehand, I thought I wouldn't be able to go to their concert this year. At C2AGE however, Jun Ee manage to confirm my decision and I got the concert ticket. I was excited.

The concert venue was at The Pavilion. I've never been to the mall before so I had no idea where the place was. All I knew was that I was late thanks to my sisters and the location is called The Venue. After running around the mall a couple of times, asking information counters twice and calling Jun Ee, I found out that The Venue is a pub and manage to get in just in time before the opening band, The Flying Pan play their first song. The Flying Pan played four songs, 3 of their singles and a cover of Deeper Deeper by ONE OK ROCK. I manage to spot Jun Ee and I joined him but he was with his group of Taylor's Lakeside friends so I just stood around. Atticus came pretty late but in time for most of HaKU's performance.

HaKU really rocked the stage. Everyone was constantly on hype. Jun Ee was obviously the happiest, singing along to the songs and getting into the moment. It was a long and exciting night of constant fist pumping and jumping. After the encore, I met with Yun Han who was at the front. We went to Tokyo Street for the next part of the concert. There I bought 2 albums, astronautS for me and Wonderland for Amanda, who had asked me to help her buy HaKU's latest album, and I got both the booklets of the album autographed by the members of the band. I also got to shake hands with them. I was excited, joyous and nervous at the same time. I wonder if my hands were sweaty. Anyway, it was the best feeling ever. I was at a lost of words when I met the members of HaKU, all I said was 'hello' and 'arigatou' and I kept bowing. I met up with my sisters later and we took the LRT back to Kelana Jaya where my dad was waiting for us. I feel like keeping the autographed Wonderland booklet but that wouldn't be nice for Amanda wouldn't it? Hehehe.

When HaKU did their second encore, the crowd asked for Hikari.

That encore was the best feeling of all with everyone singing the song together.

Four Strings

Couple of months back I got a ukulele and I only learned the basic chords and then left it to collect dust. Because of my recent episode of nothing to do, I picked up my uke and learned some easy songs to play. After a few weeks of watching tutorials and ukulele covers, I learned three songs, Melancholy Will by Gorillaz, Get Lucky by Daft Punk and Viva la Vida by Coldplay. I still can't play without looking at my drawings of chords on my notebook though. While learning, I tried to look for chords of my favorite songs but to no avail. There are very few ukulele chords and tabs out there, most of them are for guitars and pianos and since I can't read music, I don't know how to change the chords from other instruments to ukulele format. There are a few chords I find really hard to play because I don't use my left hand a lot and my fingers are stiff, especially my ring finger and pinky. Besides chords I also have two tabs jotted down in my notebook, the Pokemon Center theme and the Imperial March song. I can't get used to playing tabs, it feels strange to strum each string separately. I guess I will be practicing mainly on the three chords I've learned until I get better before I learn more.

Heyyyyy Welcome to DotA 2

I've been hooked on DotaCinema's Top10 Weekly and Fails of the Week videos. Honestly, I got better at some heroes and even got used to heroes I've never played before by watching those videos, especially Pudge and Timbersaw. Watching these videos and coming to be fans of SUNSfan and Reaves made me think of doing commentary or casts for Dota gameplays. I asked Kai and caught his interest but we're not ready to commentate anything yet. Sure we've played Dota 2 for a long time now (I play less than Kai) but we haven't tried all of the heroes yet and is not fully familiar with them. We told KW about it and he is interested in helping us out so we started playing heroes we don't usually play. I always play carry and support heroes like Sniper and Treant Protector. Our last game I tried Sven, a hero I'm definitely terrible at and Pudge, which to my surprise, I'm pretty good at. So yeah. When we're used to all the heroes, Kai and I will try at commentating public games just for the fun of it and if we can get popular enough, maybe we can make money out of it. Yay!

Drop

I got a new Cbox because why not.

A Breather

Yesterday I went to watch Man of Steel after class. That really eased my anxiety and took my mind off the stress I've been having. This morning was the third Saturday troop meeting for the 157th Petaling scouts. This further eased my mind and I'm feeling better than before. Meeting up with my juniors sure helped a lot. I'm also getting a good feeling so I guess I got a positive lookout to help me get over this phase for now.

Midlife Crisis?

It's been a few months already and it's gotten from okay to really bad. Since April I've been thinking about what I should do in the future, what I want to do and many other questions. Am I really doing what I want to do now? Someone I know in college asked me a couple of weeks ago over lunch a question I have never asked myself before, "Are you happy?". The question was directed to whether I feel happy about my current situation and to my horror, I am not.

As my friends come close to their graduation ceremony, a few of them have started to put their plans into action. Some of them are preparing to go overseas to further their studies and some of them have already started working. Knowing myself pretty well, I am certainly not ready to jump into the working environment. So I have decided to further my studies as well, but the big question comes into mind, am I really doing what I want to do? Sure I want to stay in the art industry but is this department of art what I want to be in? From the question of whether I am happy, I looked towards to what I want to achieve in the future, I guess I went too far and asked myself, "What do I want to do before I die?" and "to travel the whole of Japan and soak myself in their culture, indulge in everything the country has to offer and enjoy my time there" was the answer. How do I put this dream into action? I decided maybe I could further my studies in Japan. But this was to be put on hold as I encounter another problem from those questions I ask myself.

I discover that I am truly unhappy because I don't want to spend my time in front of my computer. It sounds very contradicting as I am in fact typing this very post in front of my computer. What I really mean is that I don't want to spend most of my week in front of my computer. It's been four years in The One Academy and being in a digital animation major, I have spent 3 years in front of a computer making animation and stuff like that. As of now, I'm working in a group on a short film as our graduation project. Everyday, I ask myself, is this what I want to do? Do I want to spend my days doing work in front of a computer? No. I want to go out and experience the outdoors. I want to go out and spend time with my friends. As long as I don't have to spend 7 days a week in front of a computer. Why don't I go out? Go out? I can't go out. My parents don't let me drive and I'm always locked behind the automatic gate because there isn't a spare key. Almost every day I would open the front door, and look out beyond the gates of my house and wish I could go out and enjoy myself. The weather is bloody hot as well so I always think of going swimming.

When I told Kai about my problem, he says I am going through midlife crisis. Is this midlife crisis? Wikipedia says midlife crisis happens of people in their thirties and forties. I should be having quarterlife crisis but I'm not, the symptoms I have are of someone having midlife crisis. It's ridiculous. Why do I feel old? I'm only in my twenties but I feel that life has become too short, too little time left to live life to it's fullest.

Some weird phase I'm going through. Hopefully I can get this over with. It's bothering my project progress a lot. My mood keeps swinging and I can't concentrate, my short attention span adds on to that factor. Hopefully I can plan an outing with my friends to a short holiday. I need some time out from home. I just really need to get out of my house, I feel depressed just staying at home.

Tralala

"Did you hear? Alex, Nathan, Thomas and Samuel were killed on the job today."
"Dear me, we should find their traces and figure out what they were looking for when they got killed."
"The giants keep killing us. Why don't they understand we just want to build a city here?"
"Don't mind them, as long as the giants can't find out city, we can roam the lands as much as we want. We will find the food and resources we need to survive. It doesn't mater how many of us die, our Queen will do something about it and our race will strive!"
"Hoorah! Well said. Lets move out and scout around to find more places to expand our colony."
"Oh no! It's a giant! It's using something!"
"Help! Help us!"
"Save the babies! Save our future! Protect the Queen!"

And so the human killed the ants and destroys the nest. Once again, the human saves the day!


My kitchen is having ant problems lately. They're crawling around the sinks and there's always a single ant at our water jugs.

Trip Above The Clouds

Last Thursday I went to Genting Highlands with Wilson, Sim Yen, Kevin, Jia Ee, Lyan and Siow Yin. Chun Liang was supposed to join us but because of the semester break that isn't really a semester break, he had to stay back to work on our final project development.

The day started off in a rush hour. Our bus departs at 8.30am. Wilson and Sim Yen got to KL Central early and Wilson kept contacting me to keep updated on my situation upon reaching. I had planned to take the LRT from Kelana Jaya but my sister's schedule threw a wrench in my plans and I took the KTM from Subang Parade and made it in time but little did I know, the others were caught in the traffic jam and were late. Wilson had already got the tickets for the next bus so I had a chance to have breakfast while waiting for the others to come.

When everyone got here, we walked around a bit and then headed to our bus. Our trip begins! We were supposed to ride on the cable car up to Genting but it was out of service so we had to take the coaches up. We can only check into our rooms at 3pm so we dropped off our bags at the free storage and went to get our Outdoor Theme Park tickets.

The place wasn't so crowded because it was a weekday. The first ride we took was the swinging pirate ship, everyone was excited except for me because the swinging pirate ship is one of the nightmarish rides I ever rode. The shift of gravity and the absence of support on your back is crazy frightening to me. Wilson insisted that we ride on the last row but I didn't want to, still he got me on the second last row. Kevin, Jia Ee and Lyan sat on the opposite side at the last row. Obviously, I was screaming, crying and laughing out of shock the moment the ride started. Wilson said the veins in my head popped out intensely, I was obviously scared beyond my wits. Everyone on the ride was probably laughing at me, especially those on the opposite side, they saw my terrified expression (which looks funny as Kevin described). Now, I'm never ever gonna ride on any of those swinging boat rides.

We went to the famous little roller coaster ride next. Obviously, this ride is fine. I like roller coasters. So it was over with with joy. We went on the rotating swings next. Kevin didn't like this ride so he stayed behind and took pictures. After the ride, we continued on. Jia Ee and Lyan wanted to try the Space Shot, I actually wanted to go as well because I liked it but Wilson kept saying scary stuff that lead me not wanted to ride it. The rest of us went on the Ferris wheel instead. If you don't know me yet, I'll say this first, I fear Ferris wheels a lot. They are huge torture machines that dangle you in midair high above the ground, slowly. A slow torturous machine for those afraid of heights. Yeah, so it was my first Ferris wheel experience, and I was really scared at first, now, I guess it's okay. It wasn't so bad, probably because I was trying to not look out of the window most of the time. While riding in the Ferris wheel, the mist came in and it started to drizzle. Not thinking too much of it, we went to the Dinosaur Adventure ride but the rides were stopped for a while and it started to rain heavily. We took shelter at the ride's entrance before dashing back to the hotel.

We had some snacks at the indoor theme park or mall, whatever it's called. I tried the fried durian, it was great! We chatted for a while until the rain stopped and we went back out to the theme park to continue our fun. We proceeded to ride the go-carts and then the Cockscrew roller coaster. Compared to the first time I rode it with my mom, the roller coaster this time was kinda boring, I wanted to ride it again but the others didn't want to so oh well. We wanted to try more rides out but the theme park was closing already which surprised us because it used to close a lot later. With nothing left to do, we collected our bags and checked in to our room.

We first separated the beds into 3 so the seven of us have a place to sleep. After that it was bunch of lazing around and doing nothing. I had a short shut eye and then we had dinner, cup noodles, lots of cup noodles. After dinner we went out to walk around and enjoy the cool air after getting some drinks from Starbucks. We went back later and played card games late into the night. We went to sleep at around 3am.

We went back in the afternoon after breakfast. Why do all posts end like this? I also forgot about this post too, months late.

The Semester Break That Does Not Feel Like A Semester Break But Still Has The Essence Of A Semester Break

I've been having my semester break for about three weeks already and it doesn't really feel like a semester break but it still feels like one. Because we still have to work on our short film project and submit it every Wednesday and at the same time I'm playing games and reading manga. Now every night is Dota2 night with Kai and the others. I'm catching up with the manga I haven't been checking on every week and trying to catch up with the anime that I'm in the middle of watching. Still every day I'd face my assignment and stress myself out. When the next semester comes, I have a feeling it's gonna be busy and free at the same time like now.

Last week I attended the Bald On, Wax Off for Cancer and got my hair shaved with Wayne. Yay. End.

RANT

As we know, most anime are adaptions of a manga or novel series.

There are four results that come out of anime adaptions:
1) The anime adaption is good/great.
2) The anime adaption is okay.
3) The anime adaption sucks!
and rarely,
4) The anime adaption is excellent!

In recent time, most of the anime adaptions suck. Directors who take on to make an anime adaption tend to change parts of the original story from the manga or novel to "suit" animation tastes or fit the allocated anime episode time slots. Which destroys it. (Oh and most directors now pick ecchi mangas and novels because there are a lot of hungry insecure teenage boys out there)

One case which caused a lot of anger and hatred in me is my favorite series, Mirai Nikki. I couldn't bother to watch the anime because many years ago when the manga ended, I tried to get other people to read it and spark interest in them but because most people don't read manga, they shun my recommendation and when the anime came out, they became instant fans, which made me really pissed off.

But what am I on to right now? Thing is, there are differences between the Mirai Nikki manga and the Mirai Nikki anime. Out of all the things, one thing pisses me off a lot, and it was the change of Gasai Yuno's character. From the psychopathic murderous girl who loves Yukiteru, the anime portrayed her as a yandere who loves Yukiteru, thought the two characteristics sound the same, they are not.

Probably what pisses me off most is that fans label Yuno as the face of yandere. The anime Yuno's level of yandere is mediocre! Sure she is over-possessive but does not cut to be the face of yandere (I can't believe Wikipedia also used Yuno as a "good example"). In my opinion, Yuno is more psychotic than yandere.

Basically it all comes to me, hating Mirai Nikki anime fans because they treat Yuno as the queen of yandere. There are many others who are better yanderes than Yuno but because there's no anime adaption, they are not known. Bollocks.

Hard Disk Stress

Yeah, it's April Fool's Day but what happened is no joke.

I have a Seagate GoFlex external hard disk. I bought this brand because it was said to be great and works on both Mac and PC. But I once had a problem, a huge portion of files from my Assignments folder was corrupted when I accidentally pulled out the hard disk without ejecting it. I manage to save those files but there are still fragments of the corrupted files lingering in it which is only visible on my Mac and not visible on the PC.

Just today, all my Photoshop files for my final assignment due this coming Wednesday disappeared for no reason. I don't remember having any corrupt files or anything. I tried whatever solutions that does not require downloading some software but to no avail. On my PC, the folder is visible but empty, completely empty, properties show that it's 0KB, no hidden files, nothing. On my Mac, the folder is missing instead, there's a System Volume Information folder. I tried to see what's in it but also, nothing. What the hell happened?

This hard disk is almost full already so the new hard disk I plan to get will be something else. I'm sick of having problems with my hard disk. A hard disk is supposed to back-up your files but when the back-up files need a back-up, then it's pointless. I was so upset and stressed that it felt hard to breath. This is seriously fucked up.

Achievement Unlocked: Autograph Get!

Last Saturday I went to attend Animax Carnival 2013. At first I didn't intend to go but I had class on Saturday so why not? Sunway Pyramid is right next to my college so I decided to go then. Everyone close I know was going on Sunday because it's not open to public on Saturday, only Animax subscribers get to go in. I thought, "Oh well, I'll be going alone for a short while.".

It was until Friday that my lights lit up. Bryan tagged me in his friend's Facebook status saying that she has won a close-up tickets. The ticket entitles the person to get an autograph and a photo with her. She didn't want it because she wasn't a fan and she was just trying her luck with a friend for fun. I quickly got to contact her and the ticket was mine! The person told me that it comes in a pair so I can have a friend to get the VIP entrance. I realised I was going alone! I had to get someone fast to join in the joy! Denise couldn't make it so I called the next person I know who's not confirmed going, Amanda. Sure enough she could go so yeah.

Saturday after class and group discussions, I made my way into Sunway Pyramid and met up with the girl who was gonna give me her ticket. I got these goody bags and the tickets and they told me something about only one person can get the autograph and the autograph can only be signed on the mouse pad given in the goody bag. I got the stuff and then I tried to contact Amanda. We decided to meet at Subway to grab lunch.

I told Amanda about the happy occasion and because I wasn't that much of a May'n fan (but I knew about her before her huge fan from Macross Frontier) so I decided that Amanda can have the autograph session. Before I was done with my Subs, May'n performance started. I ushered Amanda to go to see her and passed her one of the tags and a goody bag. I finished my Sub and went to the place too. Honestly I wasn't sure what I was doing, I just went over to the VIP entrance and the personal there saw my pass and ushered me in. I could see Amanda up front watching the stage show but I couldn't get in front because of the stuff I was carrying (my bag and the goody bags which were huge) so I stayed back. The personal periodically came to inform us individually about getting ready to greet May'n. Because of the loud ambiance, I couldn't really understand what they were saying and I was clueless about the whole ordeal.

May'n finished her last song and her bonus giveaways (some limited edition stuff only people who went to her concept in Japan can get) to people who answers her quizzes. Then the Animax personal ushered us into a line, as clueless as I was, they put in in a line with some other people. Turns out we were put into colored tags. I didn't fully understand what it meant but I was gonna get on stage with the others to take a photo with May'n. After the photo session, May'n was gonna give us her autograph, we had our (Accel World) mouse pads out and we took turns to get her autograph. I notice Amanda at the bottom of the stage and I got confused but there was no time to think about it, I was next in line! I started to buckle up out of nervousness and my hands got sweaty. I went up to May'n and greeted her, after signing the mouse pad, we had a photo taken and I shook hands with her. As I left the stage, my vision went blur and I was overwhelmed with joy. It was the first time I ever got an autograph from a famous Japanese artist. I missed the chance with Kalafina last year. I was so happy I almost cried. Amanda came to get me at the bottom of the stage. As we went back to get our goody bags, I held and forced my tears back and recovered quickly.

Amanda was kinda down about not getting the autograph. She explained to me that I had the colored pass that entitles the holder the autograph. I would have given her the autograph but my extreme joy (and sudden shock of selfishness) held me back tightly. Sorry Amanda, greed took me over.

We spent the rest of the day going round and round the place chatting and taking photos and stuff, we also had some rest while eating Moo Cow frozen yoghurt. I didn't see a lot of people I know well at the event. And so I went back with a really precious gift out of luck.

So here it is, May'n's autograph. I am so happy.

The Confession

"Inside the charitable house two deprecating frogs speakers in silence.

Again with the floorboards the clouds roll across the ceruminiferous dreamscape,

Missing is the tale for physical appearance is visible to the invisible.

Anonymous influences dancing on grass fields and bicrescentic horse backs.

None is the meaning when windows dance around the badly charred water;

Yield the paperback anvil as it tortillas the hall with yarborough and baked goods;

Mandolins iron the xylophobic chicken along the board of zenzizenzizenzic equation;

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis disarms the yawning balalaika;

Had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect to it;

Oval octopuses open orange octagons operate on obsequiousness orphans;

Many eyes have many spies;

And that that is is that that is not is not is that it it is;

Nocturnal stones melt upon the contact of joyous solid air;

Igloos built above the invinsible swan lake in the pressense of molten fish gills;

Alas fart farts fart in the pure aroma of titan arums and raffelsias;

Cold options dissolve the time of spines and skiing top hats."

Alone no landscape to discover no geography no cave,

Only a right hand man and his long island,

So cold so hot,

So depraved,

Desire,

Insert key here,

Reach the skies,

Clouds to the atmosphere,

Become one,

Take the precious,

Rejoice.

Cosmo Black

With the money I saved up and the money I got during Chinese New Year I bought a 3DS. Finally, I guess I can start my Pokemon adventures all over again.

Jaw Torture

So I went for my oral surgery to remove a small part of my gums that's overlapping my wisdom tooth. It was okay while the anesthetic was still in. But now that it's gone, my jaw hurts like crazy. I'm here right now trying to eat some bread so I can take Panadol but it's like a torturous procedure. I can't open my jaw wide and it hurts with every chew. This somehow reminds me of a Happy Tree Friends scenario.

The surgery was quite an interesting experience, this would be the second time in my life to have go through oral surgery, the first time was when I was 10 to extract a tooth growing in between my two front teeth. I doctor injected the inside of my jaw and like a wave, my mouth went numb, even my tongue. I had my eyes closed during the operation because I was kinda scared of the tools they were using to cut off part of my gums. I didn't feel a thing and I was pleased about it. NOW IT HURTS LIKE CRAP! AHHHHHGGG!!!

At a Positive Look of the Unfortunate Event

It's been about a month since my Nintendo DS was stolen with my precious Pokemon White version and even though I have gotten over it, I still think about the incident before I fall asleep in bed. Obvious I get sad during those moments but a couple of nights ago I manage to see a brighter side of this misfortune. I have an unopened and untouched version of Pokemon Pearl. I can play that and get the 4th generation Pokemon first, also, I still have my Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon SoulSilver versions, after I transfer the items I need to the either game, I can replay that version to get more Pokemon. All I will be missing are a couple of legendary Pokemon, unique and no-longer obtainable event Pokemon and shiny Pokemon. Not bad actually. I can really start over again.

Sexy and Black

Guess who's the new family member in my house?

I'ts my brand new Dell Precision T1650!

It took me about 2 hours to clean my computer desk (which turned into a disaster during the time my PC was away) and set up and tidy the wires and stuff. Now I have just synced my Google Chrome (but it doesn't look like anything has changed) and I've just installed Steam and starting to install all my games.

I have rearranged the setting of my desk and so it's neat for now. I hope my family members won't mess this place up again (including myself as a matter a fact). The OS on this new desktop is Windows7 (thank god it's not Windows8!) and the desktop has got the college feel to it despite the smaller monitor screen.

Well, no time to waste!
I've got to haste!
Install some programs before I snore,
So my desktop will be just like before.

Visit to the Anthill

Yesterday my class had a field trip to Silver Ant studios. The studio is located at The Boulevard which was quite surprising to me. The company just moved to the block about 2 years ago, that was about when The Boulevard just launched.

We were welcomed by Raven (I don't know if that's how you spell his name). He first welcomed us and did a small introduction about Silver Ant, then he showed us around the place. First was the reception floor which consisted of a pool table, meeting rooms, library, gym, cafeteria and more. I have to say this first, the interior design is beautiful, it's modern Japanese themed mixed with some traditional touches. There is an impressive Silver Ant bust next to the reception counter and a fine collection of books at the library. The place is small but very nicely arranged to put all the places together.

One floor down the reception is the working studio. We got to have a look at the working environment but we were not allowed into it because of private and confidential stuff. We went back to the reception floor and into the little review room to watch Silver Ant's impressive demoreel. After that we went up to the N-Cube, which is Sliver Ant's management department, which is also called the boring department because of it's huge contrast of interior design to the bottom floor. There's a lot of meeting rooms and a mini cinema here, everything is cubic shaped, like minimalism. We watched some stuff in the mini cinema like the Seefood trailer and Silver Ant's current work, the Transformers Prime television series and the new KFC cinema rating clips.

Raven took us to the general meeting room and showed us the Transformers Prime workflow from pre-production to release of an episode stuff. We then had a Q&A session with some of the employees and after like an hour or more of questions and answers we finished the trip off with a group photo.

Silver Ant really appealed to me and I learned quite a lot of stuff about the animation industry. The competition here is quite high so if I were to try to land a job there, I most probably won't with my average skills, also, I would go as a CG modeler but it looks like they need animators more than modelers. I might try to sign up for the internship program. End of the day, the trip was a good experience.

Oral Surgery They Said

The other day I went to the dentist in UM to get the pain in my gums around my wisdom tooth checked. I eventually was sent to the surgery department because of the piece of gums (gum? gums?) or soft tissue (as the doctor or dentist or doctist whatever put it) is like a lid over my wisdom tooth and it's swollen or inflamed (as the doctor or dentist or doctist whatever put it) because of the irritation of my teeth and so on whatsoever something like that along the lines of that I think maybe somewhat kind of I guess probably.

So I have to go through oral surgery to rid of the gum/gums or soft tissue (as the doctor or dentist or doctist whatever put it). Also examining my teeth the doctor/dentist said that the wisdom tooth of my top right is growing in the wrong direction which is outward towards my check. My bottom left wisdom tooth has grown but is still embedded within the gums so it's not really out but out? Bah. Whatever.

Flowing

I don't know what I ate during Chinese New Year but I've got diarrhea and it's green in color. Ugh?

Water Snake of Change

Like every year, my family will go up to Penang to celebrate the Chinese New Year. This year is the year of the Snake (water snake). This year's Chinese New Year is pretty different from how it used to be.

Day1
Early Saturday morning, we left for Penang later than planned at 4a.m. We had actually planned to leave at 3a.m. Through the whole journey up to Penang, I was asleep because heck, I lack sleep. We stopped in Ipoh to have brunch at a dim sum restaurant before continuing our journey. After settling into my grandparents' home, I helped my grandma set up the Chinese lanterns with help from my uncle. It was the first time our family went to a western restaurant for our reunion dinner. The restaurant was located at the new reclaimed land parts of Penang (I don't know the parts of Penang, don't ask me) with a fine dining theme which wasn't really fine dine. We went home after dinner and at around 10.30p.m. people started to release fireworks. My dogs were barking and whining in fright from the loud noise. Hahaha. At around 11.30p.m., there was a power outage. Five houses in a row lost electricity. Since it was dark and there was nothing to do, we went out to see the fireworks. By that time, the sky was filled with fireworks from every direction I could see from the porch. At least six houses had fireworks display, the nearest being the neighbor five houses down the road. The fireworks around filled the sky for a long time until 1a.m. nonstop. It was like an orchestra of fireworks played by a group of excited musicians. When the fireworks died down, we all went to bed.

The electricity came back on I have no idea what time. I was disturbed in my sleep when the electricity came back (my sisters and my dad were cheering loudly and the ceiling light was on) but I went back to sleep the second I woke up.

Day2
After getting dressed in the morning, I went down to the living room to spend time before my family goes out to visit our relatives. Several relatives from my mom's side of the family (actually my grandfather's siblings and their children) came to visit. Later in the afternoon, my family went out to visit my dad's brother (dad's 4th older brother, my 4th uncle). We learned that my cousin had a second child, a boy. During our visit, more relatives came to visit as well, they were a cousin and a nephew's family. The thing about visiting my paternal families is that the issue about 'what do our kids acknowledge each other' and as always, it's always nephews calling someone younger than them uncle, in such case, my sisters and me. My nephew has children already so that makes me a grand-uncle and my parents are great-grand-uncle/aunt. I think I've mentioned this before in last year's CNY blog post.

Day3
In the morning, more relatives came to visit my grandparents' house. My family went to my cousin's house (where my dad's 2nd oldest sister, my 2nd aunt) is living at. My cousins always has large buffet lunches at her house and invites everyone from my dad's side of the family to eat. Almost everyone was there and the house was so packed and noisy. After everyone has eaten, my nephews (yes, older than me) called everyone out to the porch to take a family photo. It was the first time we had a family photo together.

Day4
In the morning, we went to visit some of my grandfather's siblings. At lunch we took my grandparents to Sushi King. After lunch, my family went to my uncle's house (dad's 3rd oldest brother, my 3rd uncle). During the visit, it rained heavily so we had to stay longer than planned and had to postpone other visits because it got too late.

Day5
After breakfast, the plan was to go to my mom's friend's house but my 3rd uncle called my dad and told him about a monk going to bless the family and he invited us to get the blessing too so we rushed my slowpoke sisters and we got there in time. After the blessing and prayers, we had lunch and we chatted some more. After that we had to drop my mom at her meeting with her school friends whom she has not seen for the past 31 years. The rest of us went back to my grandparents' home and rested. I was working a little on my assignment and there was Caught on Camera: Disaster in Japan on tv. It was about the huge earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in 2011. I always find myself brought to tears when I watch the clips of the disaster. There were several video clips shown on the program that I've never seen before like the footage from a tourist on the top of Tokyo Tower during the quake, the sailboats that got swept into the highways and devastated people looking for their lost families after the waters resided. After the show ended, we left the house again to pick up my mom after her reunion was over and then we went to visit my parents' friend. We were there until late in the evening, almost night.

Day6
While waiting for my family to be ready to go out, I was playing with Patches when I had to blow my nose. So I did and out came a lot of thick and clear mucus. It was so thick and clear it was like I had gel in my hand.

Anyway, we went to my visit my aunt (mom's older sister). After that we took my grandparents to Gurney Plaza to eat at Chili's. It's been a really long time since I last went to Gurney Plaza, like 10 years ago, I can hardly remember anything about that place. It's Valentines Day so there were a lot of couples around. While we were eating, it started to shower, because Gurney Plaza is by the seafront, the winds were strong and you could see all the rubbish on the floor being swept up and tossed around in the air by the wind. People sitting in the open-air parts of the restaurants and cafes around quickly went indoors before the rain came. After lunch we walked around the mall for about an hour before going to Tesco. I manage to exchange the SonicGear earphones I bought before leaving for Penang at Tesco Mutiara Damansara for a Philips one because the SonicGear one was too big for my ears, how the heck do people wear 15mm wide earphones? It hurts! The new earphones are not as good as my stolen iPod earphones though. Maybe I'll buy the new iPod earphones some time in the near future. My mom bought seven tubs of yoghurt because it was on sale and we couldn't fit them in my grandma's fridge so we all finished two tubs as dessert while watching tv.

Day7
We woke up early to go pray at the Guanyin Temple we always go to. The front part of the temple was under renovation so it was hard to go into the temple with the crowd. After we were done with the prayers we went to buy chicken rice to eat at home. We went around Penang for a bit because my grandma had some errands, we went to the Kwantung and Tengzhau assosiation building and the general hospital to collect medicine for my grandpa. After lunch, I did some assignment and watched some anime. My family went out because my mom had a dentist appointment and my sisters wanted to get their hair cut and my dad had to drive them so I stayed back. My grandma also went out soon after. I got tired and dozed off in the living room until evening when my family came back home.

That was pretty much it for my Chinese New Year holiday this year. It was a lot quiet because my uncle and his family didn't come back because my cousin was stationed for National Service in Singapore and my other uncle and his family went back early to their floral shop for Valentines Day sales.

Before we went up to Penang, my right wisdom tooth was growing so it was hurting and disturbing me a lot. It have already grown out of the gums but there's this part of my gum that is sticking out like an appendage and it bothers me a lot. Also, the right row of my teeth hurt a couple of times.

While going around Penang, we passed by a lot of places like my mom's primary and secondary schools, the school some of my uncle and aunts went to, the house my dad grew up in and my grandfather's birthplace. This made me realise that Penang is such a small island. My parents would keep remising the shops and memories when we go about the island, they remember almost every road in Penang, but the roads in Penang have changed quite a lot, so we got lost trying to find a house. Haha.

The one thing I don't like about Penang is the lack of internet. When I came back, this Harlem Shake thing went viral. Huh, The couple of hours I experienced the Harlem Shake, I never guessed it was the Flithy Frank guy who made it viral.

The Day A Part Of Me Died

A part of my life and soul died when someone broke into my dad's car this morning and stole my Nintendo DS and iPod earphones. My pride, joy and dedication of 6 years just disappeared like that in the 20 minutes my dad and I went to have breakfast at the usual kopitiam at Kepong. In my DS was my Pokemon White version which held a complete PokeDex, 62 legendary Pokemon, 20 shiny Pokemon and various rare event exclusive Pokemon which one cannot obtain ever again. It also had Pokemon transfered from the previous games, Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl and Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver and also Pokemon of other various languages notably Japanese and German.

Today I made a few mistakes I've never done before. First was I didn't trust my instincts when I left the house with my DS, a nagging feeling in the back of my head started when I took my DS in my hands and slept in the back of my dad's car as he sent my sister to college. Later, we went to Kepong and had breakfast. I just woke up and was groggy so I put my DS and iPod earphones in the glove compartment, which I never do. If I want to leave anything valuable in the car, I would put it in the back pocket of the passenger's seat because it's discreet and if completely hidden from view. But I put it in the glove compartment with the door open, for anyone who wants to steal see. After our meal, my dad and I went back to the car only to be shocked to find that the passenger's seat window was smashed. My dad thought some rock fell and broke the window but being more observant I noticed that the shards reach all the way to the driver's seat, someone broke the window on purpose, but nothing was touched, my dad's wallet, money, handphone and various things were left untouched. I opened the glove compartment to be sure and the world around me smashed into a million pieces. 6 years, 6 years of hardcore collection, literally catching 'em all, my risky gamble of getting Pokemon I want through online trades, 6 years of climbing the steps to become the Pokemon Master, all crumbled into dust, leaving nothing behind but the emptiness of my heart. I felt so hollow and disappointed in myself. How could I have made such careless actions? And my dad, of all places parked behind the shops, no one would notice if someone was killed because no one goes through there.

My dad and I asked some workers in a kitchen if they saw anyone. The guy there said he didn't see anyone and told us there's a lot of bad people around the area, if they see something they deem valuable, they'll take it. But I know, this guy knew who took it but didn't dare to tell us because he feared his life, he's just a worker there and the people who stole my DS were gangsters or drug addicts. This thief must be a stupid person anyway, how is he gonna sell my DS? It's a console, not a phone, you cant sell consoles as easy as phones. I don't mind if he wants the console, I want my game card, it's where all my years of dedicated lies in.

We went to my mom's office where I couldn't hold it in and cried my heart out in the toilet. My hard work, the one thing I could be proud of, vanished and I don't know if I can find it ever again. My mom helped me talk to the kopitiam people and see if they can look out for my DS. Even if I can get my DS back, will the data in my game card still have my treasures? The DS, game card and iPod earphones were things I bought on my own.

Nothing can ever replace the treasures in that game card. The Spikey-eared Pichu, Japanese Meloetta, the special event Darkrai, everything. Those are the treasures only so few in the world has, I was one of them.

In the first time in my life, I know what it feels like when you lose something truly important to you. It doesn't sound as serious as it seems but, I lost my position as a Pokemon Master, the childhood dream I've only ever achieved. I lost a part of my soul and I failed myself.

This day is the day a part of me died.
Tuesday, 5th of February 2013 (5-2-2013)

Looking To A Positive Tomorrow?

I don't remember what drove me to disable the comments for my blogposts but I've enabled them because I just have this feeling.

I Am Good Surgeon!

Today I watched Pewdiepie's new video playing Surgeon Simulator 2013. So I downloaded the game as well for my Mac and I had a go with it just now. The goal of the game is to perform a heart transplant. You basically just get rid of the ribs, throw away the lungs, cut out the heart and toss the new heart into the the big cavity you made and 'Success! It looks like he'll survive.', when it clearly looks like he'll not, which makes the game extremely funny when not taken seriously (Who would?).

The keys controls are fairly okay but it's hard to grab stuff and control the arm. I played six times and I only manage to successfully complete the operation twice. The first success, I had a hard time getting the heart out because I accidentally swept most of the tools off the table. When I manage to put the heart in and get it in position (for some reason it didn't end when I put the heart in), there were three scalpels, some broken beakers, a little spoon thingy and little pieces of ribcage in the cavity. The second time, I played around with the saw too much (spammed it literally) and the patient was loosing blood fast, I couldn't cut out the old heart with the saw (because lungs and broken rigs were swimming around) so I just grabbed the new heart and tossed it in and after the mess of organs rolled around for a bit, I unexpectedly completed the operation (when it clearly was a fail).

The other times I failed I spammed the hammer and another was the patient ran out of blood because I dropped a lot of the tools and it was hard to pick some up. Overall, I think the game is more humorous than it's actual intention. I guess I'll keep it on my Mac for maybe a month and then I'll delete it.

PS: I don't think this end section should be called 'PS' in a blog post. Anyway, I haven't completed Slender since the day I attempted to play it. Still can't get the memory of screaming in my friend's house out of my head.

PC's Not Home

It's been about two weeks since I sent my PC for repairs. I haven't been able to play any games and I wanna do some digital painting but yeah. Now I simply pass my day doing assignments or doing nothing. I'm bored..

Felt like the good ol' days

Last Thursday night I spend the night in college with Kai, Wilson, Chia, KW and JL. I didn't really have anything to do, I just did my own work while the others have to do their final rendering for their graduation project. Just that night, the countless jokes we pulled felt like the good old days (Just two years ago actually) when we were all together. That night we didn't do much, we were pretty engrossed in the iSketch game with Mal (who was at home) and I watched Wilson and KW play Ghost Recon Online. I wished we can hang out together like that again some time.

Birthday Mail!

A special parcel came in for me today.

After class, my dad picked me up from college with my sobbing sister who couldn't go to some K-pop concert in Sepang. On the way home, my dad told me I got a parcel delivery today and he was joking about how he thought it was a bomb. While he was making those jokes, I already knew what the box was but I didn't know what was inside.

There was only the three of us tonight so we went to have dinner at the new hocker center opened near my house. After that we went home and my dad passed the parcel to me. The parcel was a birthday present from Wei Mae. It wasn't wrapped though and it was a Zalora box with the words, 'It's here!' on it which made it fitting. I was gonna take the box to my desk and open it but my sister wanted to see what was inside. Since I was in a good mood, I opened it and inside was an M&M's dispenser, named Blue Caesar (which looks purple to me). Inside was an envelope as well wishing me a happy birthday and other joyous stuff.

Thank you so much for the birthday present Wei Mae! It's 10 days late but it's worth the wait. Thank you again!

Loading...

Recently my desktop has been unable to boot so I would force it to shut down, start it again and perform a Startup Repair, that usually does the trick. But yesterday, it wouldn't boot at all. Startup Repair tells me that it can't repair the problem and it won't boot. I've already look for solutions but they don't seem to be working. I haven't tried replacing the hardware yet because I feel that it's too risky. I guess I should start looking to buy a new desktop. I need a good one for my type of work anyway, this guy can't handle the number of polygons and graphics all that well.

Featured!

If you have been to my deviantArt page before, the first thing you'd probably notice is this awesomely delicious looking photo of a bowl of noodles simply named, "Pho". Yes, it's a picture of a bowl of Vietnamese noodles and no, it's not a photo. It's a painting I did about a year or more ago for a pointless class called South East Asia Culture & Society class. If you haven't seen it, it is here, that means you click on the word, 'here' but not this 'here' here nor this 'here' right here or even this 'here' here but the first 'here' mentioned.

The painting I did was featured on a Vietnamese Community Facebook page called Vietnam Community that started out early this year. In all honesty I am happy but not so happy to the extent I am joyful. Currently I'm working on a 3D model of my original youkai, Taiko-obake and Hitome-bachi. Yay. That's it.

Wow. So many links.

Some random updates

I just realised that at least more than half of the blog links to my friends' blogs have either been removed or been set private, etc. Which made me come to a further realisation that I have not been really updated with what is happening to the people I know and of course, not updating my blog frequently. I can say my deviantArt page is worse, as I have hardly ever upload any art work because I was so busy in college, seriously, something has to be done. What kind of life threatening lifestyle is The One Academy nesting?

So I spent little time on reading some my close friends' blogs and I decided to make my New Year's resolution. First, I will update my deviantArt and blogger accounts at least monthly. Do some quick sketches, or simple paintings, single panel comics, whatever, and short blog posts, reviews (I used to review movies, anime and manga, unprofessionally) and whatever's on my mind, stuff like that.

I just updated the thing that was on my mind just now in the previous post, out of frustration, depression and irrationally demanding pity. I was so upset I left the game before it ended and shut down my computer without saying anything. But behind all those negativity, I learn a few things, I think, I might just be saying this because I might want to be pitied, maybe.

Even thought it's just the start of a new semester (or trimester, whatever), I'm starting to stress over my final assignment because we already had a brief idea of what we have to produce and I've already seen what my friends have done and I wanna do something outstanding, which I know I will along the way be half-hearted, discouraged and shit but will might somehow do it.

There is one thing for sure. I have too little time and too many things I want to do.

Nothing is more frustrating than losing in a team match against the team members you always play with.

What's worse is when you lose against them twice.

Game as Presents

My birthday is just around the corner, like really next to the corner because it's tomorrow. And before it even comes, I got myself birthday presents already. Both of them are games and one is from myself and the other one from Vincent.

I got myself Bastion. A game which I can only remember it for it's epic narration. Steam was having a sale and Josh convinced me to buy it. It was already tempting enough after I watched Josh play it last year. So I got that.

Vince got me something better. Poker Night at the Inventory. I had it in my Steam account wishlist for quite some time and he bought it for me. I'm so moved! Thank you so much Vincent! I really appreciate the gift. It doesn't mater if it was on sale either, it's the thought that counts.

Time to get myself a bunch of Team Fortress 2 promotional items.