Shiroi Chou No Samba
26 November 2008
This week has been (and will continue to be) an extremely busy week at university. I have to complete a presentation for my Asia Pacific class by next Tuesday. Normally that wouldn't be too much of a problem, if it wasn't for the fact that it needs to be based on a 2,500 word essay that I haven't started yet. As it is, I'm having to do some speedy research in order to have enough material to talk about for ten minutes. It would make a lot more sense to have the presentation after you've written your essay. I think I'm going to have to get started on the essay and have a rough outline to base the presentation on. It's a real challenge to try and maintain my high mark from the first essay. I'm determined not to give up my crown just yet!
With it being just over three weeks until the end of term, it means that I've also got to get a move on with my Japanese portfolio. I've already completed one of the four tasks that are required but I haven't really made a start on the other three. I'm hoping to complete a listening comprehension task by the end of this week, then perhaps a speaking task the week after. I'm a bit undecided about what I want to do for my last task though. I feel that I should work on my grammar since it's so weak but I'm not sure how. Hopefully I'll figure it out soon.
Posted byHocchan at 6:04 pm 0 comments
Iku Wa Yo!
20 November 2008
My laptop's hard disk drive finally decided to crap out on me a few days ago. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I've had it for about six years now; so it was probably overdue for a massive disk failure. What was strange was that it happened quite suddenly, without warning. I turned it on one day and a weird, Windows 95 style log in screen appeared. I tried to log into my account as normal but it wouldn't let me, no matter what I did. I tried to use the Windows CD to repair the thing but it didn't work. After several hours of frustration I decided to give up and format the hard drive and start again.
I wasn't too concerned about having to lose all my files since I'd copied all the important ones over to my external disk months ago (thank God I did!). There was also the added attraction of being able to finally get rid of the damned FAT32 file system that my hard disk was formatted in. It was a massive pain trying to re-install all my old programs from before the crash. At the moment, I think I've managed to get all the settings back to how it was before. Unfortunately, the laptop doesn't seem to be running quite as smooth as it did. It takes ages to do simple things like starting a new program or initiating a download from Firefox. At least that annoying sound-distortion problem is gone. However, it does look like I'll be needing a new computer sooner that I thought...
Things have been better in my studies. I got my first essay back from marking and was astounded to find out that I'd scored 74%! That's the equivalent of a 'first' (or an 'A'). And here I was worrying that I'd not even get above the 40% minimum pass mark. I hope that my next essay will get a similarly high mark. It's certainly spurred me on to try my best for it.
Posted byHocchan at 7:44 pm 0 comments
Watashi No Ichi Nichi
15 November 2008
Guergh...somehow I've managed to catch a cold these last couple of days. I think it might have something to do with the freezing weather we've been having lately. It's not too bad though - all I've had is a sore throat, which developed into a chesty cough after a couple of days. It's been more of an annoyance than anything else. I hope it'll be gone by the start of next week.
I've been playing Rogue Galaxy this week. It's enjoyable for the most part, but it doesn't half piss you off sometimes. The main gripe I have is with the battle system. I was expecting it to be a turn-based RPG when in fact it's definitely an action RPG. That wouldn't normally be so bad, if it wasn't for the fact that the AI that controls your party characters is retarded beyond belief. They'll just stand around getting hit when they should be defending. Not that defending does anything, mind you. Seems like 90% of the enemies' attacks cannot be blocked. And that's a major problem when there's not much in the way of armour in the game. You can easily die within a few hits if you're not careful, and that's the thing that annoys the hell out of me. As for the story, it's certainly very entertaining so far. The English voice acting is surprisingly decent (except for one extremely irritating American teenage girl). I'll just keep grinding my way through it and hopefully the niggles will disappear eventually.
Posted byHocchan at 3:14 pm 0 comments
I Want Nobody, Nobody But You
13 November 2008
This is becoming a bit of a bad habit. I've been seriously neglecting my blogging duties of late and I need to rectify this problem. So what better way to kick-start my blogging revival than with a brand-spanking new post?! I'm still not entirely sure what I'll write about yet but I'm sure I'll figure it out as I go along.
I guess I can start by talking about the past few weeks of university. I've been quite busy with a 1,500-word essay in Asia Pacific and a 15-minute paired presentation in Background to Japan. The essay took about two weeks in total to get completed. It was quite a struggle to write as I've not written anything academic for almost five years now. I was quite worried about getting the whole referencing thing right. I think I've done it correctly but I can't be sure until the results come back. I'm hoping that I'll get at least 40% on it (since that's the minimum pass mark). Anything about 50% and I'll be extremely happy.
The paired presentation was also quite daunting. I'm not exactly the most confident person in the world, so the thought of standing up on stage in front of fifty-odd people and delivering a presentation was nerve-racking. My partner and I were up until 3:00AM on the night before the presentation trying to get it finished. We had to get up four hours later at 7:00AM to put the final touches to it. Thankfully, all our hard work paid off and we managed to do quite well. It was such a good feeling at the end once it was over with. Now I can relax for the rest of the semester and watch everyone else's presentations.
One problem I seem to be having at the moment is the lack of money /laugh. I know that the stereotypical student is always short of money but I didn't expect myself to be in that position. I've got to survive on £100 for the next few weeks until my scholarship payment arrives. This means lots of instant ramen and cheap meals. I can't wait for January when my next loan instalment arrives...
Well, I think that'll do for the time being. I don't want to exhaust all my material in one post /laugh. I'm going to do my best to update this blog again within 2-3 days. I promise to throw my Horie Yui CD out of the window if I don't!
Posted byHocchan at 2:05 am 0 comments
