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Shards of Fire Happy May Day Not that it's a particularly happy day, no. The point of this is to say that this blog is on indefinite hiatus. Won't be anything new up here until I manage to pick up the pieces of that was which some semblance of life I had been living. Ta Etched in flame on Sunday, May 1, 2005 at 02:25 p.m. Shards of Fire mm... It's been 3 weeks, lol~ It's the Easter Week break over here and there are no classes. Well, things are going just fine over here, I guess. No assignments due anytime soon. There was one that was due on monday, but somehow the department "in it's infinite generosity" (quoted from the email they sent) decided to extend the deadline by a week. lol~ I've also decided not to go out so much. Save a little money that way, and I've got plenty of time anyway. 3 years of study over here. As well as a couple of holidays where I might not go home. The future is still as yet undecided. I'll definitely be going home for this coming session break in July, though. Well, there are times when I wish I was back home, and not studying over here. Heart vs mind? ^^ Seems I left my heart at home and came with just a mind~ Etched in flame on Wednesday, March 30, 2005 at 09:51 a.m. Shards of Fire It seems I'm back to my 'being lazy to blog' phase again. Well, nothing much happened this week... It's been lessons as usual, but since the admin stuff has been settled, tutorials have started as well. I have only found 2 singaporeans in almost all my tutorial groups, lol, and both are in Sociology ^^ Just so happens too that we were split up into groups of 3/4 to do prepare for a group presentation. The group I ended up in just happened to have the 3 of us, as well as a local ^^ I like my F1 merchandise, lol ^^ Speaking of F1, the cover of the latest Hobby Japan features a scratch built model of Sato Takuma's 2004 Honda, the RA004E. Nothing short of amazing, if you ask me... ^^ lol... and I only saw that because I happened to be in Kinokuniya yesterday. My friend had to go pick up a new visa label for his passport, so I tagged along, having nothing to do, and was going into town to check out a book anyway... Well, the book search didn't pan out in the end. They said their supplier didn't have the book, lol... Will try other bookstores next... Maybe Dymocks or something... They have this huge outlet in Bondi, lol ^^ Time for dinner~ ^^ Etched in flame on Friday, March 11, 2005 at 07:59 p.m. Shards of Fire I have finally returned from Melbourne~ ^^ Just in case u didn't know, I was there to watch the Formula 1 Grand Prix. First race of the 2005 season, at that. Well, plenty of new regulations abound. A step in the not so right direction, in my humble opinion. There wasn't that much overtaking, and many of the drivers were driving far too cautiously in an effort to increase the life of their engines and tyres. Those have to last 2 races and 1 race respectively. Well, we'll have to see what happens after a few races. Other than that, it was quite nice to have visited Melbourne. Not so much the place, but the company. I stayed over at a friend's place, and went around with him and his housemates. I went to Albert Park right after dropping my stuff the day I arrived there, Friday. Was just the practice sessions, but took a lot of pictures of the static displays and stuff. Almost lost my hearing too, standing at the trackside. Not more than 5 meters from the road, I think. I was happily standing there, oblivious to everything, then the first F1 car roared by. lol... Those things are insanely loud. Spent saturday more or less slacking. The weather was bad, so I didn't really feel like going out. Went to Queen Vic Market in the afternoon, though. Wanted to buy some stuff, but forgot to bring my atm card. Well, I might go back another time. Maybe during Easter break ^^ On a side note. The intercity trains aren't that good. Seats were ok, but they are very prone to delays. My return trip was delayed by almost 90 minutes due to a 'technical fault'. The trip over wasn't exactly on time either, lol. Well, today was the real first day of many things academic. Last week was just the introductions and getting to know what one did in each subject. Now we're finally getting into the substance. ^^ The JPN course is a little simple, though. And this is after I took the placement test which put me in a second year level course. lol... Finally back online, lol ^^ Etched in flame on Monday, March 7, 2005 at 08:39 p.m. Shards of Fire Right, it seems I haven't blogged in a few days. Well, though it's been a couple of days, nothing much of note has happened. Well, I haven't been blogging, ironically, because I now have internet at home. It's something like, I can do it anytime, so I'll do it later, then it doesn't get done at all. Took a little prompting for me to actually blog, lol... I heard that the results for the O levels were recently released. If you did well, congratulations! If you didn't, it's not the end of the world. Sometimes, it takes a setback to make us stop, and reassess. To see if where we're going is really right for us. Sometimes we get too caught up in society's expectations of us that we lose ourselves in it. I was like that once ^^ Well, I've finally settled my arrangements for going over to Melbourne for the weekend. Will be taking a train instead of driving, or flying. Flying's too expensive, and while I'd like to drive, I don't think I can take driving for 10 hours straight. I'd need a relief driver for that, I think. If I were to drive alone, I'd need to stop and rest along the way, and there wouldn't be enough hours of day to get me there, lol... So, as it stands, it's going to be the overnight train on thursday night going there, and the overnight train on sunday night to get me back to sydney... I'll be bunking at a friend's place while i'm there, so I shouldn't be cut off from the world ^^ Maybe I'll post updates on the F1GP while I'm there, lol First race of the season... I can hardly wait ^^ Well, classes have already started over here in UNSW. It's just lectures now, and it's still mostly administrative, but it's still quite fun. I've been attending lectures other than those I've enrolled in, to get an idea of what's what. Well, also because I can still swap around my courses for the time being. Internet is in! And the downloads have started! lol Etched in flame on Tuesday, March 1, 2005 at 08:08 p.m. Shards of Fire Friday, and it's the last day of O-week. Monday and tuesday were good, wednesday was ho-hum... didn't come here on thursday, lol... Went down to the RTA(equivalent of LTA, probably) yesterday to see about getting a local license, or maybe proof of ID cards. They don't have an IC over here, so most people use the driver's license. Thing is, to get anything done, I need a reference who has known me for more than 1 year, and currently holds a full local driver's license. Right. How am I, a 'newly arrived' foreign student, going to know anyone here with a full license (which takes 3 years to obtain) at all, much less a year? lol... Well, I do, but that's not the point ^^ Time to go bother the nice people again ^^ Classes finally start next week! Well, most likely they're going to be more administrative than anything else for the first week or so. Perfect for me to take off and visit Melb for the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix~ ^^ It'd be quite convenient to just fly over, and quick too, but I'm thinking of driving down and back. About 1000 km, or so, i hear. And it's quite nice along the coastal road... Better if they have convertibles for rent, lol... I think the Student Union card gives a discount with one of the rental companies... Might just check it out ^^ Yesh, I know it's a crazy idea ^^ What's nice to see in Melb? ^^ Etched in flame on Friday, February 25, 2005 at 12:30 p.m. Shards of Fire Yesterday afternoon was fun~ ^^ Spent most of it at the roundhouse on uni, which is something of the campus entertainment centre. It was a showcase of a couple of the performing groups there, so I went over to have a look see. N.U.T.S. and the Revue Club. Personally, I think the revue was hilarious. Not for people easily offended, though. ^^ Jesus Saves ^^ After that there was an Air Guitar competition. What's an air guitar? There's no such thing~ lol, they all were just pretending to play a guitar to music, mostly rock ^^ Evening highlight was Comedy Night. A couple of acts from an impromptu group, The Camilla Parker Bowles Club, i think. As well as a few stand up comedians. I can't for the life of me rememer their names, lol. Stomach's still hurting from all that laughing ^^ Sci-fi version of Little Red Riding Hood, anyone? Hammertime! I hear these people will be coming to campus a few more times. I definitely will go again~ And apparently there's a competition between the improvised comedy groups happening in Syd next month that takes place once every 7 years. Must go! lol... Time to grab some pancakes again. They're giving them out today too ^^ Etched in flame on Wednesday, February 23, 2005 at 09:23 a.m. Shards of Fire Ferris Bueller Info ye gods! I have found another arcade in the University! No Initial D, though. Only Daytona. a game pool, though... lol... ^^ O-week's in full swing now. Many many stalls open, by the assorted clubs and societies. It's quite colourful ^^ They even have events lasting till the wee hours. Last night they screened a movie, "Ferris Bueller's day off", i think the title was. A great piece many students will enjoy. I know I did, lol ^^ In a nutshell? Guy skips school and doesn't get caught. Doesn't sound too interesting? Well, it's the stuff that happens in between, and how he doesn't get caught. His poor principal, lol. The link on this post goes to it's entry on IMDB. Tagline: One man's struggle to take it easy. lol... ^^ Till next time~ There's free pancakes calling for me ^^ Etched in flame on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 at 09:26 a.m. Shards of Fire Nope, not dead yet. Search for local arcades is not proving fruitful. Went to all the nearby malls, no arcades found. Then a couple of days ago, I discovered one in the university itself~ No Initial D, though. They only had Daytona. And it was only the first version of that, lol I'm really going to lose when I get home ^^ Wells, I've finally moved into my new room, over in Kensington, near the university. It's about a 10 min walk. However, it's on the bottom of the hill, and my faculty is located in the upper campus, right at the top of the hill. An uphill battle everyday, lol... Another thing is that there's no internet at my new place. Well, it's not too bad, considering it didn't cost that much to rent. But the thing is, there isn't even a line in my room. So, I had to call the local telco and have them bring in the line to my room. Well, I managed to have it done today, so that's fine ^^ Now to wait for the internet to get activated. I'm hoping to be online at home by the end of the week ^^ *crosses fingers* One more thing that bites is the variety of internet plans over here. Sure there's a huge variety of them, but there's no real unlimited. The best they have? Unlimited* Notice that little * there? Yup. Fine print. They limit your download speed after you exceed a certain volume. Varies from company to company, but it's around 10GB. Hardly enough for a download junkie like me. I easily run into 30GB a month. More, sometimes. *sigh* It's much more expensive that back home, too. Anyways, it's O-week over here now (Orientation). So, there's quite a lot of things happening over on campus. There was the welcome from the Arts Faculty this morning too. Quite interesting. The first speaker, the Asst. Dean, I think, welcomed us on behalf of the Faculty of Ass. Said they even wore shirts with a donkey's head last year ^^ Hmm... I think I will go check out the clubs and societies. Till next time ^^ Etched in flame on Monday, February 21, 2005 at 04:01 p.m. Shards of Fire It really is quite irritating not having regular net access. It's like being cut off from the rest of the world. And I'm not getting my regular anime fix. grr.... Well, at least I got the library and the international student lounge with free access. I wouldn't want to imagine what'd happen without those 2. Still living with the folks over in the western suburbs, in Rooty Hill. Have I mentioned how nice the house is? And they have 2 cars. ^^ I found some more permanent housing, but I'm not able to move in just yet. Probably start moving luggage over the week gradually. Downside is that they don't have net access over there either, so I'll need to bring in my own line. I think I'll be going over to Melbourne for the Aus F1 GP over at the start of march, which also happens to coincide with the start of my sememster, lol. Well, I have a nice timetable which gives me plenty of free time, so it shouldn't be a problem ^^ Etched in flame on Monday, February 14, 2005 at 12:06 p.m. Shards of Fire Happy CNY everyone! Well, here I am using a school computer again. I still don't have internet access where I'm staying. Actually, I do, but it's a crappy dialup that disconnects itself every couple of minutes. Well, can't complain, it's free board with my mom's friends. Had to check out of the residential college yesterday, so I moved over to them. They had someone come pick me up, and we went driving around for a while. There is one very long street that was full of second hand car dealerships! Think it was called Parramatta. I must go pay that area a visit very very soon. Watched TV for a while yesterday too, for the first time in a very long while. Nothing much on TV... a bit of Oprah, and 3 episodes of the Simpsons, lol... ^^ Damn, I wanna go driving. Both for real and in the arcade. I haven't found a single Initial D machine yet... *sigh* Etched in flame on Wednesday, February 9, 2005 at 10:50 a.m. Shards of Fire Alrighty, this comes from the library in UNSW~ I still don't have a fixed address yet, much less a stable internet connection, so I don't think I'll be able to chat on MSN for the time being... Well, this is just to say... I'm Not Dead Yet!!! lol... Oh, and, I've gotten a new phone line over here, as a few of you might already know. I can't for the life of me remember what it is, though... many numbers... Hm... Just realised... It's not even noon and I'm already up and about... Something's not right here... On a side note, I haven't found any Initial D machines here. Or even an arcade near the Uni. There was a tiny little arcade at the airport, but they only had Daytona. And no customers. ^^ Think I'm going to lose when I get back, lol... Etched in flame on Monday, February 7, 2005 at 09:10 a.m. Shards of Fire OK! This entry is coming from KL International Airport! Nothing much happened on the flight here, only had a cup of tea ^^ Thanks to everyone who came to see me off! Think I'm going to miss seeing everyone back in SG. Keep in touch online, ok? Now waiting for the transfer flight over to Sydney. An hour's wait before the gate opens... *sigh* Etched in flame on Wednesday, February 2, 2005 at 07:15 p.m. Shards of Fire Today I purchased a new car for someone. A Suzuki Cappuccino, to be exact. Done in a tasteful black ^^ Well, we didn't get much chance to give it a proper rundown before I had to rush off for dinner. She does drive better than some other people I've seen ^^ I wonder if she can become good enough to defeat me when I get back. Here's hoping, yeah? ^^ Oh, and as for the name registered with the car? It's the one you prefer ^^ Etched in flame on Tuesday, February 1, 2005 at 12:21 a.m. Shards of Fire We have to admire the persistence of fools sometimes. I had someone who kept challenging me to race Initial D in the arcade, and he lost every single time. Well, I got tired and just walked off. I wasn't using my tuned cars anyway. Such a waste, a pity ^^ Etched in flame on Sunday, January 30, 2005 at 11:09 p.m. Shards of Fire Today was a 'whoosh' day... Well, not mine, but still 'whoosh'. I blame dessert. Dessert Storm at that. Etched in flame on Saturday, January 29, 2005 at 02:04 a.m. Shards of Fire 海の露へ。。。 俺は今悩んでる。何を書けばいい。何を言えばいい。何をすればいい。 悩んでるのは今何をすればいいのか分からない。俺はアナタに俺の気持を伝えたい。でも、俺はここにいる時間はもう少ない。来週は海外へ行かなければならない。伝えば、きった安心になれる、だけど、それはきっとわがままの手段です。 教えて下さい、俺はどうすればいい？ Etched in flame on Tuesday, January 25, 2005 at 11:38 a.m. Shards of Fire Oh, why did I not meet you earlier, o dew-of-the sea? Etched in flame on Tuesday, January 25, 2005 at 11:03 a.m. Shards of Fire Who wants a Gmail account? ^^ Etched in flame on Thursday, December 23, 2004 at 08:59 a.m. Shards of Fire Met up with some old friends from secondary school yesterday, and went for a movie. Blade. Wasn't very good. Action was decent, but it didn't quite string together very well. Went home by 28, which didn't stop at the bus stop outside my house, so I walked through the reservoir park. Then I decided to do a little night photography on a whim. The pictures came out blurry because I didn't have a tripod with me, lol. Then I because I had to slow down the shutter speed, I did funny things with how the lights were captured. Some of the pics look like a laser show ^^ Just wondering, should I get an Xbox before the year end? Etched in flame on Wednesday, December 22, 2004 at 11:04 a.m. Shards of Fire Hmm... decided to strip the paint off my S2000. I figure it'll look nicer with a bodykit, so now it's back to it's flat grey primer coat ^^ Who would've thought brake fluid was such a good paint stripper ^^ Random side thought... Shinn's supposed to be the main character for GSD, right? If that's the case, then why is he getting so little screen time? lol. Or is Athrun 'let's self destruct another gundam' Zala the main character? ^^ Sigh... Need to go out to buy more materials... and maybe get my hair coloured... Etched in flame on Tuesday, December 21, 2004 at 10:59 a.m. Shards of Fire Attempted to work on props today. Ended up watching much anime. lol. Well, at least I managed to finish my armour. The shoulder bits and the back plate. Now all that's left is the second gun (which i still need to get), the gunbelt, and the accessories (the cross and little pieces) Appleseed is good too, though the main character has a weird name, but what else is new, lol ^^ Etched in flame on Monday, December 20, 2004 at 09:38 p.m. Shards of Fire Not even a day has passed and I'm here again. Right, so I went to the science centre after all. Wasn't too bad, for the entry price. Well, didn't end up staying that long, had to rush off around 4+. The event was held in the same area as the Planet Games thing. When you go in, they stamp your hand. One blue, one red ^^ PG in red. Parental Guidance advised, lol. Quite a number of cosplayers there, but the presence of the PG thing made the cosplay event seem secondary. Heck, there was even a giant bananafish in the hall. Most outstanding cosplay? Imho, Freedom Gundam. Yup. The gundam, not the little pilot. Must be really hot under all that stuff, though. And ya, I think I must really be wearing out my tyres. They must have suffered more wear and tear these few days than in the few years my dad was driving. All the burnouts, slides, etc... ^^ Fun, though... Heh... till next time Etched in flame on Saturday, December 18, 2004 at 11:09 p.m. Shards of Fire Aight. Here I am again, and it hasn't been a month! lol, it's not even a week ^^ Went for a christmas gathering last night at Josh's, a friend from the PJC choir. Good food, good company, yeah, good times ^^ Saw a few old faces I haven't seen in quite a while. It seems Merci chocolates are quite a popular choice for gift exchanges, too =p Had to go to camp this morning for a mobilisation briefing. A colossial waste of time, imho. Just that ya, got to see a lot of my army friends. Almost everyone has a lot more hair on their heads now, lol. Myself included ^^ Briefing was supposed to be from 8 to 12, but somehow it finished at 9+ instead. Most of us went off to Changi V for a bite and catch up, and somehow I ended up sliding the car around in Vincent's carpark. Torque steer, or what little of it my car can do, is quite interesting. Your car wants to pull a certain direction, so you need to countersteer, and watch the car's launch at the same time. Fun. Now I'm wondering whether I should go for the Science Centre cosplay event. Tired. Costume for expo not done. sigh... Etched in flame on Saturday, December 18, 2004 at 12:07 p.m. Shards of Fire Yes, I'm here again. I know I haven't updated this in over a month, lol. Well, stuff has happened ^^ Took time off from work, attempted to do some work on props, a bit of packing for Kangaroo land, etc... I've decided to not use my Playstation2 until after EOY, or at least until the props are done. It's too much of a distraction, especially with good games out around this time. Yes, Gran Turismo 4 will be out soon, but it will have to wait. Completing games like NFS:U2, SH2:C, GTA:SA, etc... has killed a lot of my time >_< Well... San Andreas has been done for quite a while. I'm a little lazy to try to get that 100% completion, since the reward isn't that big a deal. A million dollars? Please... Permanant spawn point for the Rhino and the Hunter at the Johnson house? Stealing them from the military base is so much more fun ^^ I am at 95% now, or was it 97%? I can't really remember. Need for Speed: Underground 2 is also another time sucking game ^^ I've completed it once, though I missed out on a lot of the unique upgrades. Yes, I ignored the outrun races for the most part. I might just play through it again, if I find the time. Not likely, though. Went down to Kinokuniya today. Found out that there's going to be another season of Full Metal Panic! I can't wait. Seriously. Give it to me now! Oh, and picked up Newtype, Animage, Animedia, Young Gangan(for the SquareEnix DVD), and a FMP bunko ^^ Wallet's in the redzone, but I don't care, lol ^^ I think VCD shops have a thing for Initial D 4th Stage. Or it might be a coincidence. I walked past the one in Suntec near the arcade, and they were showing episode 7. [嵐のハチゴターボー] Specifically, it was the part where everyone's favourite AE86 Trueno went against the GC8V Impreza. Then I decided to go to Liang Court, passing by Clarke Quay. The shop selling VCDs there was also showing the same thing. Same short segment, on infinite loop. Right. The SquareEnix DVD was good... Trailers from assorted SquareEnix works. FF:AC, Before Crisis, Dirge of Cerberus, Dragon Quest, very short bit on the FMA movie, FF:XI Opening, etc... good stuff ^^ The bit in the AC trailer of Tifa fighting was especially good, as well as the part where almost all of the FF:VII crew was fighting some huge creature. Methinks Yuffie looks better, from what I managed to see of her. She only appeared for a couple of frames, lol. Barrett looks like he has a new Gun arm, looks like a rotary rotary cannon or something. Nanaki's tail looks cool, "It's on fire!", lol. Go watch the trailer. It's also available for download somewhere ^^ I wish they'd just release it soon. It's already a few months overdue, lol. That's it for now. Hope my next update isn't a month later, lol ^^ Etched in flame on Tuesday, December 14, 2004 at 10:22 p.m. Shards of Fire I have a Harrier No, it's not a Lexus. The VTOL aircraft. They're calling it a Hydra, though. The mission where you get it is really cool too. **Spoiler** Yup, sneak on board an aircraft carrier from sea. Take a boat till a little distance away, and swim in. Then sneak thru the carrier, killing as you go. Disable the carrier's missile batteries, then hop in the cockpit! Next, you need to sink a few boats and destroy pursuing enemy aircraft. A dogfight! Coolness... **End Spoiler** You could never do that stuff in Vice City, lol. For one, Tommy couldn't swim~ The cars in the game seem to be taken from real life vehicles too, if only known by different names in game. Nissan Skyline, Honda NSX, Subaru Impreza, Ford GT 40, Toyota Supra, Mazda RX-7 FD, Subaru Impreza Wagon, Honda Civic SiR, etc... The game has a driving school too. It has you doing stuff like doughnuts, 2 wheelers, barrel rolls, drift parallel parking, etc. I won't go into the stuff the other schools do ^^ I should be nearing the end of the storyline missions soon... Been to all the three cities, did a lot of missions. Wonder how to get the tank, though... I have the Harrier, but not the tank, lol... Insane Mayhem! That's it for the moment~ Etched in flame on Friday, November 5, 2004 at 03:35 p.m. Shards of Fire 3 words. Grand Theft Auto Yes, GTA: San Andreas, the latest installment has finally been released. On the PS2, no less. This is the reason I've been sleeping late and waking early these few days. Just so as to get a bit more game time on this, yes ^^ Just so happens I managed to get my supervisor to cut down the number of days I work. Excellent timing~ More time for GTA! Yes, I know I'm supposed to work on props, lol. Can't help it though... The world of GTA: SA is huge. I want to explore everywhere. I'm still in the first city, but even that is huge! Well, I 'm supposed to be stuck in the city, but on a whim I hijacked a train. Turns out it goes to all the 3 cities. And you also get a 4 star wanted level if you go somewhere you're not supposed to, lol. A police truck rammed my train over when I was halfway around ^^ Yes. You can now drive trains. Ride bikes too, even. They really added a lot of things over Vice City. Too many additions to list here. I'm not working tomorrow! w00t! lol... My first saturday off in months~ Etched in flame on Friday, October 29, 2004 at 02:28 p.m. Shards of Fire Started a new online game a few days ago. Yes, it is excruciatingly boring here sometimes. Well, it's called Ferion. And it's quite interesting. Turn based space strategy game. Veni, Vidi, Vici. lol. That's not too far off, though. It's an interesting game, to say the least. And if you enjoy turn based strategy games, you'll probably like this one ^^ On a side note, insurance agents are annoying. One came to disturb me when I was eating my lunch, for crying out loud. Please, not while I eat! Go sell your policies elsewhere! I like my EOY costume. So far, all I got is a black cassock, but somehow, it looks very Neo, a la Matrix. A pair of shades and I'm all set, lol... Still need to figure out how to do the armour, though... I have a couple of ideas but I need TIME!! Time which my job isn't giving me... ah well... Etched in flame on Monday, October 25, 2004 at 05:39 p.m. Shards of Fire I need more time. Definitely. 24 hours a day is not enough. Still not much progress made on the props for EOY. Though the robe/cassock thing's done. And that's because I wasn't working on it, lol. Going down tomorrow during my break to collect it. Yup, It's a 'get from Bishan to Orchard and back in an hour' race against time. ^^ I successfully did one to Dhoby Ghaut a while ago, so this shouldn't be a problem, unless I get held up over there. My collection of scale models keep growing bigger. Latest addition is a Ferrari 348 ts. A rather nice car, styling clearly influenced by the Ferrari Testarossa. Notice the similarity? I also picked up a couple of Archangels. Planning to paint one of them up as the Dominion. Then they can both fire their Lohengrins at each other. ^^ Etched in flame on Friday, October 22, 2004 at 05:53 p.m. Shards of Fire Today must be Abba day or something here in Parkway Best Denki. There goes Dancing Queen again... Etched in flame on Tuesday, October 19, 2004 at 05:52 p.m. Shards of Fire Boring day Asst Dept manager dropped by to do spot check. Made noise about my jacket, lol. He said it wasn't in the company colours. Well, too bad, I'm going to keep wearing this one until they decide to give me a company jacket. Probably won't happen, though. So I'll probably stick to my good old jacket ^-^ I want the 1/1700 Archangel, lol. Then I'll paint it in Dominion colours. lol, maybe I'll go crazy and get 2, then one can be the archangel, and the other dominion. *remembers the 2 meteors lying at home, unassembled* Maybe I'll do them when I get to australia. lol. Then again, HG Dreadnought Gundam is out. Maybe I'll get that as well. It strikes me as a Providence-lite. A not so beefy Providence gundam, lol And finally my magazines arrive in Kino! Can only collect them on Sunday, though. Lack of off days, and that kind of crap. Work's getting tedious and tiresome. Maybe I'll quit soon. Sounds like a plan ^^ It's not like I have a contract to keep, anyway ^^ Layout of this place isn't really conducive for traffic flow to pass by my counter, come to think of it. 3 kinds of people will pass by, usually. First, people who go to Best Denki, which is where I'm located. Second, people who took the escalator going down from the top floor, then realised they had something else to do up there. Third, people who wander around aimlessly. Maybe I'll think of some more later. lol. Of course, I didn't count the people who know there's a counter here, and have business with PacNet. I suppose I could go on some more about working here, but, nah... Although, it is taking up so much of my time I hardly have time to do other things. Like preparing for EoY. Among other things. On that front, well, yup, nothing much has happened. I've only been able to work on Shannen aka Caterina Sforza's cross and one of my handguns. Very slow, considering EoY isn't that far off. At least my outfit's getting tailored, and the muffler's done. Now it's just the armour and accessories =p That reminds me, I need to get white glue. heh... Etched in flame on Friday, October 15, 2004 at 07:03 p.m. Shards of Fire Heh... This rocks... I'm sitting at my counter listening to anime music... The laptop actually has pretty decent sound quality. And the other people around here don't seem to mind =p T.M.Revolution - ZIPS~~~ =p I spent most of yesterday here doing translations for the scanslation group I'm with =p This is really good use of time. heh, I'm getting paid to do my hobbies. Maybe I'll work on my gundams here next? =p Etched in flame on Tuesday, October 12, 2004 at 06:00 p.m. Shards of Fire Ok, now that beer bottle is bobbing about and waving at people... Etched in flame on Saturday, October 9, 2004 at 06:33 p.m. Shards of Fire There is a giant beer bottle walking around here. I kid you not. Etched in flame on Saturday, October 9, 2004 at 01:50 p.m. Shards of Fire lol, he took a taxi after all. I was still stuck at work when he arrived at the airport, so I couldn't go fetch him... He was complaining about the surcharges when I got back, lol =p Not working tomorrow! Can finally get started on my models again! and my props! lol Etched in flame on Saturday, October 2, 2004 at 11:44 p.m. Shards of Fire Certainly had an interesting day today so far That, in spite of work Well, being a weekend, I had to get to work earlier, at 1000, to be exact. Woke up at the usual time, then my mom tells me that I had a package in from the post office, but I had to go collect it as nobody was at home when the postman came knocking. Lucky I had the car, else I wouldn't have made it on time. At the carpark behind the post office I was accosted by a salesman selling cleaning solution. at a bottle or something. I quickly made my escape. Well, at least I got what I went there for. My gun! It's a pistol, actually, and it's not a real one that fires 9mm bullets. Now to start modifying it so it looks cooler. Yes, it's made of plastic. Got to work on time, though I almost got into an accident because a taxi decided to pull a stunt. Break time. Time to eat? not yet... I needed to meet my sister down at Sunshine Plaza to get some stuff. lol, From Bishan to Sunshine Plaza and back, all in the space of an hour. At least I got my Yukikaze Shirt. And she got her crack pillow =p Almost caused a bit of mayhem in the little lane, with a bit of my antics =p Kinda reminds me of that time when I was in the carpark, sending my sister home. Someone was parking, and blocking the road. Well, the car wasn't moving, and since I was already a little too fast, I zipped behind and around it. I wonder what that other driver thought. Imagine, you're trying to reverse into the lot, checking your angle, then all of a sudden a car zooms behind you, through the lot, and zooms away. Was laughing quite hard for a while that day. Well, I got back here in just over an hour. Just in time to catch a phone call from my supervisor. *phew* I think I'll have to go to the airport later. Dad's flying back, and I don't think he wants a taxi. Don't know what time yet, though... Etched in flame on Saturday, October 2, 2004 at 06:29 p.m. Shards of Fire Back at parkway again. It's so boring here it's not even funny. Seriously Etched in flame on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 at 02:23 p.m. Shards of Fire I didn't update for the past few days cos I didn't go to work... Took a few days off =p Not much happened, spent most of the time lazing around, working on my models, playing PS2, etc... Skyline's got a new coat of gloss! Coming along very nicely... Should be finished in a couple of days. Evo3 also. RX-7 has it's first coat of paint. Chrome Silver. I want to see what happens when I paint it with a clear colour over a silver base, maybe clear blue =) A little tired today at work, lol. Had to get up early to send my father to the airport. Haven't gotten up this early since the army, lol... On the bright side, the car's mine for a week now that he's not around. Don't have to worry about getting the car back on time for a while =p Etched in flame on Monday, September 27, 2004 at 02:47 p.m. Shards of Fire On the way to work everyday, I pass by a ZoneX arcade. It has both Initial Arcade Stage ver.2 and ver.3. So, I decided to take my S2000 for a spin this morning. Tried Akina Snow first. Timing worsened by about 2 sec. Not surprising. Decided to go Akina Dry next. I didn't even hit 5th gear when I got challenged, lol. (S2000 has 6 speed transmission, if you didn't know) Challenger's car? Impreza GDB. Track? Usui. Ok, maybe this is his home track. This ought to be interesting, I thought. He didn't even make it past the C121. Didn't see him in my rear mirror again after that. Challenged me again. Brought me to Akagi this time. His performance was... astounding. Couldn't see him again after the first corner. Sigh. And here I was thinking it was going to be interesting. Where have all the good players gone? Etched in flame on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 at 12:52 p.m. Shards of Fire Been busy building my model kits recently. I've been working on a couple of cars, namely the Evo III and the R34. Saves a bit of time doing 2 at once, because I need to wait for paint to dry. I usually leave a couple of hours or so for the gloss paint for the body. The Evo is now in black, and the R34 in gunmetal. All that's left is polishing them up. I wonder what car I should do next. The RX-7? The NSX? The Sileighty? The R32? The S2000? hmm... Suggestions please =) Naturally, with all the focus on cars, all Gundam projects are on hold, even though I have that nice S Gundam, lol. Work has been as usual, though it was quite busy on Saturday. It was the PacNet 9th Anniversary, so the activation fee (SGD.95) was waived for upgraders. I had to do a couple of applications even at closing time, so I didn't go home on time. Too bad there's no overtime for temps, lol. Etched in flame on Monday, September 20, 2004 at 06:54 p.m. Shards of Fire This is new. I haven't updated for a couple of days... Don't worry, I'm not dead, yet. It was just my computer. The modem gave out on me, so I had to go get a new one. That's fixed now, at least =) The laptop here at J8 is also having issues. Tilted at the normal angle, the screen becomes totally white, and it becomes totally impossible to read anything on screen. I have to tilt the screen at an absurd angle to actually see anything. Picked up Newtype and Animage a couple of days ago too. Haven't really had time to go through them properly, though... Newtype didn't come with much extras... Animage had a DVD, lol... I also picked up a copy of Hobby Japan while I was at Kinokuniya. It came with a 'Sword Calamity' modification kit for the standard HG Calamity. Dunno if I have time to do it though, not to mention I need to get another Calamity if I want to do so, as I just completed my Calamity just a while ago. Hobby Japan also came with a DVD, on how to go about using the mod kit to change Calamity into Sword Calamity. Interesting stuff. I learnt new things =) Yes, Calamity is a Gundam, just in case you didn't know =) Working on my Evo3 (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution III) model kit now. Just about finished preparing the body for painting. First coat going on soon. Think I'll paint it black, lol. It's a very old Fujimi kit, so the level of detail isn't that high, though it's ok, as most of the detail can't be seen anyway, especially that of the engine and the undercarriage. Doesn't come with those nice masking panels for the glass, so masking the clear plastic's going to be a bit of a chore =) Wonder how it'll turn out. And yes, Initial D episode 5&6 still aren't out yet. They were shown in Japan on 23 August, lol... Something's wrong with the fansub group, it seems =p That's all for now, maybe I'll update later Etched in flame on Tuesday, September 14, 2004 at 12:53 p.m. Shards of Fire I just remembered I have more strike gundams than I need. An MG Aile Strike, 2 1/100 Strike (1 Launcher and 1 Sword), HG Strike Rouge IWSP, HG Aile Strike Gundam. Yup. Etched in flame on Friday, September 10, 2004 at 12:04 p.m. Shards of Fire Didn't update yesterday cos I wasn't working! =) Manpower shortage over at work, so I only get 2 offdays a week. Anyone want a part time job? Anyway, went to watch Garfield the Movie yesterday. It was very very very wrong. Jon Arbuckle isn't supposed to get the girl! He always gets rejected! But I digress. It was an interesting show, with a generous amount of humour, even if it didn't adhere strictly to garfield convention. Odie Schnitzel, anyone? Also went to take a look at the WCG yesterday at Suntec. It was a bit of a disappontment. Racing games, especially. Though, granted, I only did watch a few NFS:U games. I didn't watch the CS games, because I don't like CS, so I'm not going to comment on the standard of CS. Most of the NFS:U games I saw followed something of a formula. First, the pinball phase, where the two competitors try to jockey for the leading position. The end of this phase is marked with the spinning out of one of the cars, be in into traffic, or into the walls. The next phase will be uneventful, as the car that got taken out would be left so far behind it could not possibly catch up. There were also a couple of people taking part in the game that looked as if they couldn't tell their right from their left. I did get a bunch of Gundams yesterday, though. MSA-0011 S Gundam (the basic model, HGUC 1/144 scale), ZGMF-515 Mobile CGUE (HG Seed) and YFX-200 CGUE Type D.E.E.P. Arms. So now I have more stuff to try to build. lol. Wonder when I'll have the time to actually start. I almost got the Laputa model too, the Flipter. But I couldn't because I didn't have enough money, lol. At least I asked the guy to hold it for me. I want that model! Today's been quite the usual day at Bishan J8 so far, except that I had an unexpected visitor in the afternoon =) So, I took an extended early break, in addition to my normal break. Hmm... Wonder if I should bring my Aile Strike down here. Should I? =) Etched in flame on Thursday, September 9, 2004 at 04:49 p.m. Shards of Fire Was just going through my archives... It's very interesting, looking at the stuff I wrote last time... Brings back memories, and reactions like,"Wait, I did that?" lol... Etched in flame on Tuesday, September 7, 2004 at 02:56 p.m. Shards of Fire This is crazy... I found a name generator thing that's supposed to give you a japanese version of your name... I put in my name, and tried several permutations of my name... and it always game me the same result... My japanese name is 藤原 Fujiwara (wisteria fields) 拓海 Takumi (open sea). Shards of Fire Ok, added a tagboard to the blog, though I don't suppose anyone will use it... Only a couple of people actually know that I started updating again, lol Etched in flame on Monday, September 6, 2004 at 07:54 p.m. Shards of Fire Kids do amazing things. Just before I left for lunch I noticed a couple of kids sitting in front of a TV in Best Denki which was playing a short clip from Finding Nemo on infinite loop, as I was waiting for the elevator Almost an hour later, I come back to find them not only still watching the clip, but laughing as if they had only just seen it for the first time Etched in flame on Monday, September 6, 2004 at 05:03 p.m. Shards of Fire Tee Orh Orh SAF Remix This came in the mail today... Go take a look before it disappears =) Etched in flame on Saturday, September 4, 2004 at 05:21 p.m. Shards of Fire People are blind. It's like they put blinkers on themselves. They can't see the sign I have in front of me that says Pacific Internet. They can't see my Pacific Internet shirt. They ask me questions like, where's the PDA section, I'm looking for a Thumb drive, etc... The kiddies ask me to fix the Xbox. I'm too tired of getting annoyed to bother. Yup. None so blind as those who have eyes but do not see. Etched in flame on Friday, September 3, 2004 at 08:14 p.m. Shards of Fire Here's a thought... Ever heard a Japanese talk about Elections? Etched in flame on Friday, September 3, 2004 at 07:03 p.m. Shards of Fire Finally back at J8, after a day off spent being sick, and a day taken off from work because of sickness. Stupid bug. It's the same as always here. Thin crowds, more students than other people. One potbellied security guard who seems a little short on screws. Life's great =) Anyway, it's the start of a new month, and with it, a new promo for PacNet. Busy organizing stuff here in the shop. Sending back last month's free gifts, printing out the new info, etc, etc.... The cat stage is still up, even though the cat show ended on the 29th of August. It's already been 5 days. Guess people here like looking at Garfield. Either that or they must be seriously deprived. The stage blocks the escalator, so maybe they would rather look at a fat cat than letting people know how to get to the next floor. I need a new mouse. The one I have at home is going mad. Maybe it's scared of Garfield, since it came out yesterday. But it doesn't click properly. I can press the button once on the IE button on the quick launch bar, and have 4 or 5 windows appearing. It's worse when I have to double click something. It's teaching me how to use the computer with minimum rodent use, at least =) Decided to try to catch up on the backlog of models building up at home... So, I did up Miguel's Ginn. Yes, it's the funky orange one with green highlights. Didn't make it bright orange like it was supposed to be, though. I did, however, make the green parts fluorescent green. Eyecatching, eh? It's done up to be 'battle-worn' though without damage. It's just dirtied up in some areas. Maybe I'll put up a picture next time Next up is Calamity Gundam, which has been sitting in pieces in a little box for months. I already did it up once before, back when I didn't know how to airbrush. In fact, it was the last one I did without the airbrush. First thing to be done is to fill up all the cracks and craters created through improper knife use =) KoC account is looking pretty good. I beefed up my defence quite a bit. Logged on today and I saw someone ranked 20,000 spots on top of me try to attack me. I successfully defended myself, lol. He must have thought I was easy prey. Not much apart from that, except I've joined up with a group called the 'Order of Templar'. Interesting bunch of people =) Click my KoC link! That's all for now~ Etched in flame on Friday, September 3, 2004 at 02:07 p.m. Shards of Fire I'm now at the PacNet counter in Parkway. It's much more agonizingly mind numbing than the Bishan counter. At least that one is near the middle of the building, and I can see a lot of stuff from there. Over here, I'm right in the middle of Best Denki. All I can see are Philips electrical appliances. The shavers being right in front of me. Then there's the music that they play here. They seem to have this one track on perpetual loop. Second time here and I'm going mad. Not to mention the Xbox demo looping on and on and on behind me. The computer staff also likes to play music on the computers, which are right next to me. Sometimes can feel the vibrations from here... *sigh* Etched in flame on Tuesday, August 31, 2004 at 07:46 p.m. Shards of Fire They're teaching people how to groom cats now... Etched in flame on Sunday, August 29, 2004 at 07:13 p.m. Shards of Fire I'm now sitting at the PacNet desk in Bishan. Bored out of my mind, and with a Cat show in front of me. With a big picture of Garfield, no less. Somehow, it's drawing a crowd. I guess people flock to see stuff if anything's happening. Either they're bored to pieces, or they're sad deprived people. Either that or they actually like cats. Not that I don't like cats, mind you. Watching people doing stuff like that is strangely entertaining. Not very, but amusing. I think someone should just shoot the emcee. He has a dead voice and I'll bet he could make people fall asleep if he gave a speech. At least he has cats to maintain the attention of people there now. Past few days have been something of a scale model aquisition spree. I suddenly have quite a number of models sitting in my room waiting for me to build them. 2 HG Meteor Units from Gundam Seed, A couple of HG kits from the HG MSV Seed Series, Honda S2000, Honda NSX, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III, Mazda RX-7 efini, Nissan Skyline R32 and R34. SD Dom, SD God Gundam (These 2 were going for a pair). The latest aquisition was a LED Mirage Knight from Five Star Stories. Got this one from Yahoo Auctions =) I just finished working on a Toyota Celica. It's not as glossy as I'd like, though. Never mind. Hopefully the next one will be better. I've also been playing a game online called 'Kings of Chaos'. It's a web based management game not unlike Utopia and Earth 3025, which I played back when I was in secondary school. A long time ago, indeed. I'll put a link on my links bar on the right side of the page, as well as one which I'd like everyone to click everyday. It gives me soldiers, lol. =) Well, that's all for now. Till next time =) Etched in flame on Sunday, August 29, 2004 at 02:47 p.m. Shards of Fire Ok, here I am again, about half a year after I stopped posting... Yeah, I know it's been a long time, and I don't know why i'm doing this. But I am, so there. 6 months has been quite a long time, and naturally, lots of things have happened. Well, Feb to mid June was quite quiet, being in camp and all. Everything was just the usual monotony. Book in camp, do duty, eat, sleep, etc... FDS is really just that, Food Duty Sleep. Then they decided to let us go earlier. ORD being pushed from 2 August to 30 June. Just over a months deduction of service for me, though people in my batch were supposed to get 2 months off. They only told us when it was near the end of june, so everyone was caught off guard. Some thought it was a hoax till they went to check the news. Good thing it was real, eh? Then everything became really rushed. The normal amount of time it takes for one in my unit to 'ORD' was about a month. That includes finding the people to sign the clearances, clearing the bunk, returning stuff, etc... So even though I had more leave than days left at the end, I couldn't use it. At least our outgoing clearance took much less time than normal. Or else getting the pink IC would be delayed. But enough about the army, eh? Glad to be rid of it, at least for the near future... After the 30 August, there wasn't really much to do, so I accelerated the pace of my driving lessons. Squeezing more lessons into a shorter space of time. Such that I eventually had to wait for my theory testing to catch up before I could continue. As it stands, I'm just waiting for my TP test which I hopefully will pass, and become a menace to the Singapore roads. Taxi drivers beware! I also decided to go get a job in the meantime. Being jobless isn't something to be while trying to maintain several interests at the same time, including trying to get the computer working again. Due to my continually growing anime collection, space is something I frequently find myself needing. To date, HDD capacity is almost 400 GB, about 100 of which free, and countless cd-r stacks lying around, chock full of anime. I somehow got myself in the position of 'Cyberguide' for Pacific Internet, though I don't use their services myself. The money's good though, S.50 per hour, and commissions on top of that, if you manage to bag signups. Thanks to Cow for helping me get the job! =) They seemed a little short on staff then, so I asked a couple of people to join as well. Sen quit after a week, for reasons I've yet to discern. Being short on staff could also be lucrative too. Less staff means one needs to work more, and working more means getting paid more. lol. There was also Cosfest held in July. Being a newly minted civilian having nothing to do, I decided to go. Partly also because I heard there was going to be a Kurei there, and I wanted to see how he's compare to me. Suffice to say that there were eventually 2 there, one being me, since I decided to reprise the character. Met a lot of old friends, exchanged a few numbers. I've yet to call most of them as things have been pretty busy these few days. For year end I'm supposed to be Tres Iqus, a character from Trinity Blood. Trademark line :"Ore wa Man ja nai. Machine da" Take a guess as to the meaning. =) I think that's it for now... More updates soon, hopefully =) Etched in flame on Sunday, August 15, 2004 at 01:23 p.m. |
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