The Wonders of Winter

Yup, winter is coming near... And with winter comes one of my biggest challenges in japan... the cold... and don`t start giving me those wimpy looks... sure, Osaka isn`t actually Vlodivostok, but still coming from a country that`s smack in the middle of the equator does make you a bit reliant on heat from the o-so-kind sun... I admit, there has been times where the sun came short of frying me in my pants or threaten to turn me into a puddle of mucky sweat, but I`ve always prefered hotness rather then coldness... I`m warmblooded... what`d you expect...

The only good that comes outta winter is snow!... and of course pleasures that come with it, such as snowboarding, skiing, snowmans, pelting people with snowballs and the way it floats down flake by flake (hint.. girl with you at this time would give you an extra 66% successs rate ^-^). Avalanches are NOT in the list due to fact that considering that watching tons of snow slide down bulldozing anything is its path might sound fun in a sick way, death and destruction is not something I find humourous (especially if I`m somehow in the middle of it)...

Why do you wonder all this talk about the snow and cold... I`m going snowboarding!!!
Will of course fill you on that after I come back... (^-^)...

Bloging off...

Digitally Paranoid

I have always enjoyed technology... and how it makes life easy for human kind... its applications vast, its limits boundless... but from experience working in the electronics industry and my own personal experience, technology is anything but reliable... from a simple calculator to a high end laptop...

I blame it on the complexity of the system... a rule of thumb, more components/parts a thing is made from the higher the probability of failure... doesn't it make you feel better knowing that for example a motherboard depends on all of its 600 discrete components behaving 'normally' for it to function properly?... consider that when you buy something next time...

Even in terms of design, sytems are getting drasticly smaller and increasingly complex. Complex systems, (e.g - microprocessors) have reached the point where even a fracture of miscalculation, a sliver of unaccuracy, a tad of unsufficient calibration can cause bugs and in worst cases failure. Sometimes, the system can be so complex that debugging it is seemingly more trial and error `black magic' then proper calculated analysis (which of course I admit works too if your lucky! ^^).

It brings a chill down my spine when I know the more money a jack in to buy something electronic, the more complex it is, hence the higher probability it is to fail... and for you digital camera freaks out there.. you think your memorable pics are safe on harddisk and CD's?... HAH.. i laugh at your face... hahahahaha.... well, again I might be wrong, I am of course `digitally paranoid'....

(This article is a lame attempt to actually realize the authors `engineering-self' and is not in reference to any material or source whatsoever. People don't usually take me seriously, why should you start now?...^^)

Blogging off...

Intermission

Sometimes the wrecking ball of life hits you so hard.....

Blogging off....

Scan a Sketch

My first scan... Notice my brown sweater?

Well finally i managed to scan this pic.. took me 1 hour to set-up the scanners TWAIN to my photoshop... but still the quality is real bad... have to ask help from the adobe-guru, Tanechan later...
In anycase, this is suppose to be an outline sketch of what one of the main characters will look like... It was of course modeled from yours truly, but I admit somehow how he looks much cooler in the manga version...lolz... I`ll post any new pics as soon as I finish with them... hopefully this time with better scans...

He does kinda look like me eh? (refer to picture the below).... (^-^)

Blogging off...

Gamer in me

Tennis pro in the making...

These are my attempts to put pictures in the blog... excuse the random pics but I`m experimenting... I`m gonna post some of my art for my upcoming online manga script and hopefully it`ll be a habit and I`ll be able to get one of my biggest dreams running!

Anyway, this picture was taken during one of the most grueling tennis matches in topspin (Xbox) (me and aca <-- his returns are deadly!).... in normal mode... of course it was womens tennis, but who cares... It`s been awhile since a game pumped some adrenaline in me... love that feeling.... reminds me of Quake... and how I used to OWN everybody in that game... Anyway, will resurrect my gaming career by buying Virtua Figher 4 - Evolution and of course the oh so arcady joystick (childhood dream this one!)...

Aoi-chan, ohisashiburi desu.... Blogging off....

Countdown

Countdown... less then 2 weeks from my test.... god help me.... I hope things turn alright....

Worries aside... I just had the first raya overseas... Yup, first time without my family.... you miss your family the most during the holidays... hahaha... can`t believe i even miss the usual raya bickering... hahaha..... well, goes to show you miss things the most when your far far away from them, and that humans have this natural talent of taking things for granted.....

Anyway i had a malaysia raya thing anyway, thanks to the fact that the raya fell on a Sunday. Went to the Kobe Mosque, which was one and half hour away, and went to a open house with the Malay gang.... Yup quite fun.... its amazing how many people you can fit into like 15 square feet of space.... lolz.... the closer the merrier eh?...

We also had another raya thing in the Kaikan, courtesy of Zarif, Aca and Me.... of course, i was doing supporting duties... (should not be confused with slacking off....^^)and we had another one in Nadir, Eb and Kumin`s house.... That was excellent.... especially the FOOD!... Eb`s ayam masak merah, Nadir`s Kari, Kumin`s bergedils and of course the hands down winner Cz`s kuah kacang... yup, i ate so much that day.... hahhaa... yup, a good example of raya spirit.... ^^

Another raya celebration coming up this weekend in Kobe and I have to be a judge for an English speech contest... ^^... will fill you on that later....

Back to the notes... Blogging off......

-- Gotta work hard to Level UP! --

Diligence is not me

First before I start i`d like to express my admiration for you people out there who can actually update your blogs everyday!... it amazes me on how diligent people can be! (or maybe how LAZY I can be... hahahaha)....

Well, bigget event this year looming down the corner... yup the entrance exam, in japanese... subjects you ask? Circuit Theory, Electromagnet Theory and Digital Electronics... Oh yeah, sure i`ve studied them before, but the minds ability to forget is uncomprehensible.... to put it simple... i remember... zilch...

Well, i have a good people on my side though... Onoye Sensei is being supportive on the exam preparation... I`ve got great friends that are helping me out, Tanechan and Yoshida!... (Thanks guys! if your reading this!).... And i`ve got this new plan of 3 questions per day going.... I might just pull this off....

I`m starting to love my life in japan.... I`d like to spend at least another 3-4 years here before i go back ^^.... have to do my best...

Ok... blogging off... back to the books...

Summer Holidays

I'm currently in the Lab... Taking a good hard look at my Digital Fundamentals book... Worth mentioning of course is that `looking' should never be confused with `reading', which at this point is really to hard to do... Looking is soooo easy...... It's amazing how many words they can cram in one page.....

So anyway, the reason being of course is that i just finished 2 weeks of what I could salvage from my Summer Holidays (which is Natsu Yasumi in Jap).... It was kinda fun.... I think i watched a total of around 15 DVDs in that whole 2 weeks and slept at around 6am everyday.... Did miracles for my biological clock.... lol.... Also, ate tabehodai (buffets; which are a popular thing in japan) almost everyday, since I only ate once in a day.

In terms of activities, didnt do anything exciting but did go to Yodogawa River for a Dragon Boat festival, and guess what? As a contestant!... yup our team was the glorious `Yodogawa International Students Team' (ok I admit the name was far from being creative >_<)... and despite being last in both heats, we went down with a bang! (actually, a splash would be more accurate)...

Incoming abrupt cut... Sorry to cut it short, but labwork is beckoning..... Summer Holidays... Luv em!

Blogging off......

Mixed feelings

Whoa... in the rate I`m updating this blog, it`ll take forever for it to be a decent site...
Well, i can try can`t I?

Hmm.... so where do I start.... OK my life...
So far the biggest revelation is that that my jap course is over... Mixed feelings on that... A bit sad, not being able to meet the teachers and classmates.... I loved those 5 months.... OK.. OK... I admit that I slept a few times, but hey who doesn`t....

The final presentation was great... I missed a few words, but it was fairly fine... And believe it or not.... I kinda enjoyed it.... And i got to wear my suite... yup... neat and spify that day....

And of course being the sentimental fool I`ve always been, I got caught up in actually getting the final BBQ up! (again!)... It`s so DejaVu... hahaha... but it just doesn`t feel right saying goodbye just like that... It has to go with a bang... or a lot of BBQ smoke at least... (^_^)
But, it ended up quite well, despite the rain... And in the end, all the troops rallied and things kinda fell in place... as they usually do.... it was great... kinda sad though...

Now my life in the Lab will begin... A lab friend is going unfortunately.... Randy, american, great guy... One more Ryugakusei gone.... But I`m sure things will turn out fine in the end...... I hope....

Blogging off......

5 minute recap... and guess what i`m 24!!!

 Well fast recap... My language course is almost done... tommorrow`s the big grammar test, and I`m getting insane over it. Not also mentioning the fact i got a freakin presentation on my research (which i have no idea about) in sweet sweet freakin JAPANESE.... oh god.... oh god... let me get my anti-hyperventilation shots...
 
And guess what approx. 1 hour ago I turned 24! great huh? I`m a wiser man... To bad nobody noticed it.... well my presents count is currently.... Zero!!!
 
Well at least I got my health....
 
And ironically guess what... the gunbound server is down!!!
 
blogging off.....

The Wonders of Japan...

Yup, currently today it`s approx 4.30pm 29th of Jun 2004 here at the land of the rising sun (Yup, Japan). (Of course technically, Japan is not the land of the rising son, which is Fiji, ealier buy 3 hours).

The reason this blog is getting any attention in the first place is that -
1. I`m sick, I have a fever and so no class! This effectively puts me with a lot of free time.
2. Gunbound server is down (freaking hell!!!), which of course has increased my idle time by a whooping 50%.
3. Too much filing on my 1/8 scale resin Ai model is gonna snuff me out, if I`m not careful! (they say it`s as bad as asbestos!).
4. I`m running out of pretzals..... damn....

OK, so intro settled, let me start with my blog.....

Before that happens of course, I`d like to give a background on my situation here in Japan. It was on the fateful 1st of April that I kinda decided to jumped over the other side of the fence to see whether the grass was greener. I decided to leave my job in Intel , and go off to venture to Japan to further my studies. And so far... I love Japan!... It`s great... I miss my family and friends a lot at home though... a lot....
Oh yeah... is the grass greener?... give me a few months to figure that out.. ;)

My life is a routine 9-4 japanese class, Mondays to Fridays. Which I really don`t mind, since I enjoy learning the Japanese language and the teachers are great! My classmates are pretty nice bunch as well. I`ll give some more details on that later....

My lab is great as well, got 2 B4 jap students that are really nice and fun to be with (Tanechan and Yoshida). They help me a lot! ^^ And the lab is great, it`s SO high tech. And they even gave me this nifty X22 (which exactly looks like my old X20 in Intel...SWEET!!!) to write this nifty blog, my research stuff and surf (and also sometimes to play gunbound... ;P)....

OK gotta blog off... time to get moving...

Bakuretsu Tenshi... 33.2%

Prelude to the second war: Ramblings of a crazy ghoul.....

And so it has come to pass. The once long and mighty battle leave little scars in the earth. A ghoul’s skull here. A sword there. A bow here. A tauren totem there. Once green, grass is beginning to grow again. The streams are clean of undead blood. But there is a familiar breeze blowing across the plains, a familiar rumble in the ice. The wind brings news, news which are unwelcome, but then again not unexpected. Far up north, there is talk of undead armies moving across the icy snowcaps. Westwards there are the not-soon-forgotten sounds of enormous drums. Eastwards there are sightings of woodland areas flush with activity. And from the forts of Men in the south, there are the tell-tale signs of smithies at work. There is no escape. The lands will once again be littered with the dead, their blood draining into the ground to nourish the trampled grass. The skies will crackle and burst with death and destruction. It is inevitable… all denizens of the land, natural or not will come together once again to proclaim their individual rights. There are even rumours of armies from forgotten lands eager to do battle with the best. A shaman from the lost temple has decreed, “Skies shall darken, land be stained with blood, forests burned to the ground, dust be made from rock. 2nd moon. 27th passing of the sun”

Report... Warcraft 2 LAN party #1

Battleground - Huzeins house, Tmn Senangin
Time - 4th Feb 2004; 8pm - 6am
Players -
Psycho, Orcs
Megamonkey, The Undead
Yehaa, Humans
Ghost, Night Elves

Even though playing against computer is fun but the best is still playing against human opponent.. the thrill and fun of outsmart and crushing your opponent is what make multiplayer gaming the best!! And it also prove to be the best for picking up new skill… after our one vs one (ghost vs psycho), I bet Nadrul is thinking hard now on how to counter my Orc's Ultimate Bloodlusted, Endurance Aura-ed and Berserked grunt+troll attack force… ; ) Nadzrul, any counter yet? I have just learnt a new N-Elves strategy that I couldn't wait to try on u… hehe… let the Treant shows it's POWER!!!

2 vs 2 session is pretty fun too.. With the 1st winning goes to psycho+yeha after successfull attack by the horde with help from yeha's Mountain King's led army and 2nd winning goes to ghost+david after an unsuccessfull tower rush attempt by psycho.. The game is pretty well over after the failed tower rush attempt which has taxed psycho too much resources to pump enuf Grunts to help yeha when being under-run by undead+elves combine force.. Miscommunication is also contribute to the lost of the 2nd match.. When 'canon' is being interprete wrongly by yeha ; ).. Yet the team still manage to create some fun by running over ghost's town with hordes of raiders..

Vs computer session is the best during 2 vs 3 computer (normal).. With Nadzrul using ton's of roaring Bear+ psycho's giant lembu Tauren's combo army, the team manage to turn the tide of war from the blink of losing to the glory of winning… !! Bloodlusted Tauren and Roaring Bear proved to be too much to handle even to the combine forces of 3 computer armies.. The team ripe thru their great armies and lay down a pool of blood to the barren land.. If only yeha and david is around to see the intensity and the glory of this battle… hehe…

Overall it was a good W3 party… the only complain is the venue really needs to be clean up… : )