Only My Christmas Railgun
25 December 2009
Contrary to popular belief, I'm not dead ^^; I've just been taking a very long break from the blog. However, I wanted to pop back to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!!
Hopefully, I'll see you again soon!
Posted byHocchan at 3:52 pm 0 comments
Lucky Number Seven
06 September 2009
I can't tell you how much of a pleasure it is to be using a new computer after suffering at the hands of my laptop for the past year. It's just so quick and painless compared to how it used to be. Now I don't have to waste hours of my life waiting for Windows to starts or for a program to load. I can even have several things running at once without slow-down, imagine that! Best of all, I can finally upgrade to a new version of Windows. As good as Windows XP is, it does feel very dated now compared to Windows 7. I'm currently using the Release Candidate as my main operating system until it officially gets released on 22nd October. So far it's been fantastic. It's like having the stability of XP combined with the aesthetics of Vista. It's pretty much everything Vista should have been plus a little bit extra. I'm particularly fond of the feature that lets you minimize everything but the selected window by shaking it from side-to-side. It's perhaps a little gimmicky but it sure is a lot of fun!
I think I'm pretty sorted as far as computers go for a good few years now. The best thing about getting a desktop is that I can upgrade the components as I go along. That way I can keep up with the advancing technology and not have to replace it in a few years. I'm currently planning on buying a decent graphics card in the new few months. I couldn't afford to get a dedicated graphics card on my budget so I'm having to use the integrated graphics found on the motherboard. It's fine for watching DVDs but it does struggle when you try to run a game that's been made in the last couple of years. All I need is a card that will be able to run Final Fantasy XIV when it comes out. Although, I've not decided if I want to play that on the PlayStation 3 or on the PC yet.
I would also like to get a proper monitor some time in the next year. My LCD TV is currently doubling up as a monitor at the moment. While it is an upgrade compared to my laptop screen, it's still lacking a bit in terms of resolution. What I'd really like is a monitor capable of outputting at least 1440x900, though 1680x1050 would be better. Considering how much that would cost, however, it's likely that I won't be able to afford it until May 2010. At least my RAM is sorted for a long time. I decided to spend a little bit more money and get 4 GB of RAM instead of 2 GB. That's the maximum my motherboard will take and should be more than adequate for at least two or three years. All in all, I'm a pretty happy bunny!
Posted byHocchan at 3:55 am 1 comments
The Arch-Nemesis Returns
03 September 2009
It's funny; I was hoping to mark my return to this blog with some better news but it appears that a certain organisation is out to ruin my plan. And they've done a pretty good job of it by all accounts. So, rather than resurrecting Kuroneko Doumei with a cheerful story about elves and pixies dancing on a big cake of happiness, I'm going to launch into a scathing attack on one of the companies that's become the bane of my existence in the last few years - Royal-Fucking-Mail.
You may recall that I've been pissed off by Royal Mail's shitty service a few times in the past. This is a company that seemingly prides itself on its ability to make me angry. Time and time again they manage to do something which completely enrages me to the point where I feel like going out into the street, ripping up the paving slabs, and hurling them at the nearest moving object. What is it about this company that attracts the biggest bunch of tossers to come work for them? I swear to God, it's like they were trained to be incompetent.
This latest incident is the most annoying one by far. Here's what happened. I had recently ordered a new computer (which I'll probably write about in a separate post) and I needed a monitor cable to go with it so that I could use it with my LCD TV. I bought a Belkin monitor cable from a seller on eBay last Wednesday and waited for it to arrive. Days passed and there was no word from the seller. Then on Saturday evening I received an e-mail from the seller saying that they'd been on holiday, but they'd posted the item that morning and were sorry for the delay. Normally that wouldn't be too much of a problem. However, it just happened to be a Bank Holiday weekend which meant that it probably wouldn't arrive until Tuesday. No problem, I thought, my computer was due to arrive on Tuesday anyway so it wouldn't matter much.
Tuesday came and my computer arrived as expected, along with the keyboard and mouse which I had ordered from Play.com. However, there was no sign of the monitor cable. I was slightly annoyed since I wouldn't be able to use my new computer until it arrived. I knew it would probably turn up the next day so I decided to wake up early and wait for the postman so I would definitely hear him knocking. It gets to Wednesday morning and I wake up at 8:00 AM to wait. It gets to 10:30 AM and I hear the letterbox lid slam. Odd, I didn't hear anyone knocking (I was listening intently), I thought. I went downstairs and there's a 'Sorry, you were out' card by the door. The postman was already long gone by the time I got there. He didn't fucking knock! What a bastard! He just left his shitty little card and pretended that I wasn't in. Cheeky son of a bitch!
As a result of this shit-faced tosser, I've had to wait until this morning until I could go COLLECT my monitor cable from the depot. What's the point of me paying postage if I have to bloody go collect it? And the worst bit is, the parcel would have easily fit through the letter box which means that the postman didn't even have the fucking thing with him in the first place. He had intentionally not taken it with him on his rounds that morning and instead, forced me to travel into town to pick it up. What a cock! What the fuck is he being paid for? He's a fucking POSTman, so fucking post my shit, you whore! FUCKING ROYAL MAIL IS SHITE!
Posted byHocchan at 10:24 pm 0 comments
Infinity
22 June 2009
Why do university text books have to be so expensive? I've been thinking of buying a couple of them for next year but I'd forgotten how expensive they were. It's going to cost me over £50 just to buy the two books that I should have bought last September. The high price was the main reason why I decided to just borrow them from the library for the whole year instead. I never intended to do that but it just sort of happened. I had expected to borrow them for a couple of months and then buy my own copies but I quickly ran out of money that semester. As long as no one reserved them (which no one did) I could theoretically keep them for the whole year, renewing them every four weeks. And that's exactly what happened. I'm not sure if that tactic will work next year, though. There will be new students starting on the course and I might have to compete for 'ownership' of the book. So it might just be easier to finally give in and buy my own. But as I said earlier, it's so bloody expensive! Plus, I'll probably have to buy the next volumes of the text books soon as we've almost covered all of the material in the current ones. I have two choices really: fork out over £100 for new text books; or fight the first years for them!
Among the books for my course, there's one that's not actually required but will probably be quite useful. It's the 2008 edition of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test exam paper. I'm planning to take the exam this December and get my first formal Japanese qualification. It's not required by the university but I've been planning on taking it for awhile now. The only thing is, I'm not entirely sure of which level I should take. I'm fairly confident that, with minimal revision, I could pass Level 3 (Level 1 being the hardest, Level 4 being the easiest). However, I wonder if I should try for Level 2 and just work a bit harder during the lead up to the exam? The only problem with that is that the jump from Level 3 to Level 2 is supposed to be massive (hence why they're changing the system in 2010). As the exam is only available once a year (and costs £60), should I risk it? I'll have to consider my options carefully before the application period opens in July.
Posted byHocchan at 12:15 am 0 comments
Don't Say Lazy
19 June 2009
I'm currently enjoying my summer holiday at the moment by catching up on all the computer games that I've neglected during the year. I finally completed Lost Odyssey a few weeks ago. I think my play time at the end was just over sixty-hours, which wasn't bad considering that I spent a lot of time levelling up and doing side quests. I have to say that the game was a lot better than I had expected it to be. I was kind of put off by the artwork when I first saw it. However, as I played through the story, the characters really grew on me. Well, all except that twat called Mack anyway...
One thing that I'm very pleased about is that they included the original Japanese audio track. It made the experience a million times better. I'm slightly disappointed that they didn't sync the lips to the Japanese vocals, though, that would have made it even better. But at least the option to listen to the Japanese voices is there. It really pisses me off when publishers don't keep the Japanese audio track as an option. Unfortunately, it seems like Lost Odyssey was a one-off as the latest JRPGs to be released in the UK (Star Ocean: The Last Hope and Tales of Vesperia) both don't include a Japanese voice option. Bastards! One thing is for sure, when Final Fantasy XIII gets released, I'm importing a Japanese copy instead of buying the domestic release. English dubbing can go screw itself!
After I completed Lost Odyssey I moved onto Oblivion for awhile. I bought it together with The Last Remnant and had only intended to give it a quick go. However, it quickly got me hooked and I found myself playing it full time. Unfortunately, several things started pissing me off big time, and it wasn't long until I gave up on the game and moved on to The Last Remnant. It's a pretty good game so far, despite the horrendous frame rate problems that it suffers from. The battle system is very interesting and I like the way you recruit leaders and soldiers to fight for you. I'm disappointed that there isn't a Japanese voice option, the English dubbing is truly dire. But at least you can turn them off during the battles, that's one saving grace.
But alas, it's not all fun and games for me at the moment. I seem to be suffering from some pretty severe toothaches lately. I think the reason why it's so painful is due to the fact that it's coming from two different sources. The first being the massive cavity that I've developed on my third molar on the right-hand side, and the second being the emergence of my Wisdom teeth. As a result, they've both combined to give me an excruciatingly painful time. I think that if it continues to be so unbearably painful then I might have to give in and finally pay the dentist a visit. I'm sure the pain of root canal surgery can't be as bad as what I've already experienced.
Posted byHocchan at 8:21 pm 2 comments
Just Wild Beat Communication
31 May 2009
It's been over a week since my friends and I went over to Germany to play in the German Reach Mahjong tournament. It was an enjoyable trip overall, but it did have a couple of rather annoying moments. One of those being the half-hour delay to our train back to Bremen from Hanover, and the other the extreme lack of sleep from staying overnight in the airport. Of those two, the train delay was definitely the most irritating. I was extremely tired after staying awake for thirty-six hours straight and it was something I really didn't need. Plus the fact that the German announcer didn't tell us what was happening in English, when it's an international station, really got on my nerves. I think the reason for the delay was down to the football fans (of which there were hundreds) that were crowding the train station, both in Hanover and Bremen. In any case, it was severely irritating. I hope that I'll never have to experience that ever again!
Apart from those two niggles, the rest of the trip was good. We did run into a massive rain shower during the afternoon in Bremen but it cleared up not long after it started. We spent a few hours looking around the city and got lots of free rides on the trams. Speaking of the trams, it appears that you don't actually need to buy a ticket for it, even though there are ticket machines on-board. You see, no one actually comes around and checks for tickets. And the locals don't ever buy them either. So I'm guessing the machines are only there to fool naive little tourists like us. Another interesting thing about the trams and trains in Germany is that they use a very strange bell tone when they announce each stop. It's a single, very dull 'dong' sound - very similar to that of a death toll. Extremely eerie, especially at night.
The tournament itself was fantastic. We only just about managed to get there on time, thanks to some ingenious navigation by the sun. The first round was extremely nerve-racking but I soon settled into a rhythm and played three decent rounds. By the start of the fourth round I was in 25th place. Unfortunately, I began to chase the win in the last round and lost about 20,000 points. If that hadn't happened then I would have finished in the top half of the table. Unfortunately, it did and I finished in 35th place in the end, which I was slightly unhappy about. My friends, rather disappointingly, finished in 42nd and 45th place. But it is our first tournament and I'm sure we'll be able to do a lot better next time, when we've actually had a decent night's sleep!
I've finally got around to taking a picture of my figure collection. The Ignis figure that I ordered arrived last Tuesday and it quickly became my new favourite. The detailing on the figure is fantastic and Ignis' pose is extremely fluid and dynamic. The cast-off features are an interesting bonus but doesn't really add that much to what is already a superb figure. My only concern is that the whole figure is supported on only one pin in Ignis' left foot. This means that there's a risk of the figure leaning over after awhile. I don't think it shouldn't be too much of a problem, though, as the tentacle also provides some extra support to the weight of the figure. I'll just need to make sure I check it regularly for any signs of it leaning.
Posted byHocchan at 8:24 pm 0 comments
Mou Isshuukan
14 May 2009
I'm pleased to say that all of my PVC figures have now arrived; a whole week sooner than I expected. The last item to arrive was the Clalaclan Noir Ver. figure on Monday. The figures from Hong Kong didn't take nearly as long as I thought they would, and the delivery from Japan via SAL took only eight days to get here. I'm glad to see that they're all genuine products and not bootlegs (especially since a few were from eBay). My favourite has to be the 1/6 scale Kos-Mos figure. The sheer size of it gives it a tremendous presence, and the detail on Kos-Mos's outfit is fantastic. I particularly like the way they've rendered her hair in a translucent plastic. My second favourite is the Clalaclan figure. I really like the black and purple colour scheme of her dress, and the slight see-through effect on the stockings gives it a nice touch.
Although I said that I wouldn't be buying any more figures until the end of June, I've made an exception and bought another one from Hobby Link Japan. The store is having a massive one-year anniversary sale and I couldn't resist. The prices are just too good to miss. This is the one I bought:
Creators' Labo #016 Jingai Makyo Ignis 1/7 scale (Yamato)
It's a nice looking figure with an energetic-looking pose. It also comes with cast-off features which will be interesting to play with /laugh. It's not been sent yet so I expect it'll arrive towards the end of May.
It's now only a week until I head off to Hanover, Germany to compete in the Mahjong tournament. I'm getting slightly nervous about the trip but I don't expect there to be any problems. I still have to type out a rough itinerary for the trip so that we know what we're supposed to be doing at any given time. I also still need to buy a small German phrasebook from Amazon so that we can communicate with the locals if we need to. In the meantime, we've been playing lots of games of Mahjong to get us ready. I don't want to jinx myself but it appears that my luck is finally picking up after a small slump. I hope that it continues to get better over the next week and that it holds up during the tournament. After all, I don't want to embarrass myself in Hanover.
Posted byHocchan at 9:09 pm 0 comments
Shuuryou Shimashita!
09 May 2009
Hurrah! I've completed my first year! I took my final two exams of the year today (Japanese Language: Aural and Oral) so I'm officially finished for the year. It was such a huge relief to finally get these two exams over with. The listening exam was a lot tougher than I expected it to be. Not only was the speed at which the people on the tape spoke faster than what we're usually used to, the sheer amount of information we had to get down as well was immense. It was all I could do to scribble down some really rough notes and hope that the examiner would be able to read them. I don't think I missed too many bits of vital information but my handwriting could turn out to be a problem. I know it has been in the past. There's nothing I can do about it now, though, apart from hope that they don't penalise me for the messy presentation.
The speaking exam was probably the most nerve-racking of all the exams. I didn't find the role-play section too difficult, but I may have got my intonation wrong in a few places. The general conversation section about a memorable summer holiday was a lot tougher. Before I went in, I had a whole soliloquy worked out in my head and I was ready to go through it from start to finish without stopping. Unfortunately, I suffered the same problem as I always do and left too big a pause after my sentences; thus giving chance for the examiner to ask me a new question. After that I was merely reacting and my original plans went out of the window. I felt that I could have added some more complex grammar constructs into my speech but I was too busy trying to make sure that I didn't have any periods of long silences. Overall, I think I did fairly well. I'd be disappointed to come out with less than 70% for both of the exams.
Now that all my exams are over I can look forward to a couple weeks worth of intensive Mahjong training! I have to make sure that I'm ready to face the opposition in Hanover on the 23rd. The only problem I can envisage is that there are only three people going to the tournament and that might pose a problem when trying to find a fourth player for our training matches. We'll be wanting to play at least once per day, everyday and I'm not sure how willing the casual players will be to play so often during those two weeks. There's always the option of playing three-player Mahjong, but that's so different to four-player Mahjong I don't think there's any point. I'm sure we'll be able to work something out though.
Posted byHocchan at 1:26 am 0 comments
A Votre Sante!
05 May 2009
It seems like the title for Horie Yui's 7th solo album has been decided! According to her official website it's entitled, 'Honey Jet!!' and is due for release on the 15th July. I've already pre-ordered the limited edition version from CD Japan and I'm eagerly anticipating its release. The best thing about this album is that I actually have plenty of money to buy it! Usually, I'd be struggling to find the money to purchase Horie Yui's albums since they're so expensive to ship over. I always use EMS delivery since it's the quickest and safest method, but it's also the most expensive. But I don't mind paying for it though; it is my beloved Horie Yui after all. I want July to get here as quickly as possible so I can hear this latest album. The style of music changes with each release and I'm wondering what this one will be like. It's got the Toradora! songs on it so it's looking like it's going to be pretty good already. We shall have to wait and see.
In other news, one of my figures arrived today. Fate attempted to screw me over again though. I woke up this afternoon (I went to bed late >.>) and checked the tracking sections of both Royal Mail and Hong Kong Post for my parcels. My parcel from Hong Kong was still waiting for a flight, but it appeared that they had tried to deliver my Royal Mail parcel this morning. For some reason, however, the postman didn't leave a calling card in my letterbox. I had to head down to the depot to see if they were holding it for me and, luckily, they were. The item was well packaged, with plenty of polystyrene bits protecting the contents. The figure itself is better than I was expecting. As far as I can tell, it's 100% authentic (as was my first figure) so I'm pleased about that. I bought it from a company called Eye on Asia based here in the United Kingdom. I didn't know how legitimate their figures were but it appears that they're authentic enough. I'll be more willing to order from them again in the future. I don't have any pictures of the figure since I don't have a digital camera any more. If I can get hold of one I'll upload some photos next time.
Posted byHocchan at 6:09 pm 0 comments
Plastic Fantastic
04 May 2009
My wallet isn't very happy about it, but I seem to have found a new obsession. I've become addicted to buying PVC figures of anime/game characters. I've bought a total of five in just the past two weeks. I think I've spent almost £200 on the whole lot. So far, only the first figure that I bought has arrived. The rest are still on their way from various places around the world. I expect that they'll be here in the next couple of weeks. These are the figures that I'll be expecting in the post soon:
Clalaclan Noir Ver. 1/8 Scale (Kotobukiya)
KOS-MOS Swimsuit Ver. 1/6 Scale (Alter)
Himekuri Image Girl Moda Bianca Ver. 1/7 Scale (Kaiyodo)
Nagato Yuki Swimsuit Ver. 1/8 Scale (Alter)
And this is the figure that has arrived already:
Onodera Karen Swimsuit Ver. 1/8 Scale (Good Smile)
I've decided to put my foot down firmly and forbid myself from buying any more figures until at least the end of July. Otherwise, I might find myself completely out of money by the end of May at this rate.
One thing that I have learnt during this whole experience is that the British postal system is infinitesimally better than the rest of the world's - especially the USA's. You wouldn't believe how much it costs to have stuff sent overseas from America. It's bloody arsehole-ish! Over thirty-stinking-turd-Dollars to post a small parcel to the United Kingdom?! If you were sending it from the United Kingdom to America, it would only cost $15 at most. What the bloody hell!? Not only is it slower, it costs a hell of a lot more. I really don't understand why they charge so much for an inferior service. It makes it financially impossible for anyone to buy stuff from America. In any case, sort it out!
Posted byHocchan at 5:45 pm 0 comments
Easter Can Go Die
02 May 2009
There's something about the Easter period that makes it completely mess up my life. This year's Easter holiday was one of the worst ever. No sooner had I broken up for Easter than I was struck down with a nasty case of Mumps. I had heard that it was going around the university but I wasn't too worried about catching it. In hindsight, considering I had a flatmate who had caught it a couple of weeks before, I should have gone and got myself vaccinated. But I didn't. So I ended up with cripplingly painful, swollen saliva glands. It was agony to eat anything. I also ended up with a massive fever and couldn't do anything. Although the fever only lasted a few days, the swelling stayed for over two weeks. The worst thing was that I ended up with a second fever towards the end of the illness, like it was giving me a farewell present.
As a result, I didn't manage to get any of my essays done during the Easter holidays. This meant that I had to cram all the work into a single week - not a fun experience, let me tell you. Thankfully, I somehow managed to get everything done by working day and night. I even managed to get some revision time in. I'm glad to say that I've now completed a majority of my exams and handed all my assignments in. Just a couple more exams on Friday and I'll be finished for the semester, and indeed the first year. I can't really believe that it's gone so quickly. It's kind of flown by without me realising. I've enjoyed it immensely, though. I consider 2001 to be one of the best years of my life, and the last eight months to be just as good. I've made some very good friends during that time and had a lot of fun. I just hope that my second year will be just as enjoyable.
As a sort of reward for finishing the first year, a couple of friends and I are heading over to Hanover, Germany to compete in a Mahjong tournament. We'll be flying out on the 22nd May and staying for the weekend. Due to our limited budgets, we've decided not to book any accommodation whilst we are there. Instead we'll be sleeping in the airport. I'm not entirely sure how well this is going to work out but I'm optimistic that it'll all be fine. As for the tournament, since it's our first time playing against other people I'm not sure if we'll be up to scratch. However, I'll be happy as long as I don't end up last. In any case, it'll be a nice trip over to Germany. We'll have a bit of time to do some sight-seeing before the tournament so that should be interesting. I can't wait to go!
Posted byHocchan at 5:19 pm 0 comments
Updates Coming Soon!
01 May 2009
Just a small note to say that I haven't forgotten about this blog. I've had a lot other stuff to worry about recently, but I'll have more free time to update now. I'll explain the reasons for my absence in my next post. Expect one in the next day or so. Until then, mata na!
Posted byHocchan at 2:39 am 0 comments
Pari Pipo
03 April 2009
It's become surprisingly difficult for me to think of stuff to write about on here since starting university. It seems like a bit of a paradox but it's like there's less less to write about when there's more happening. It might be because there are so many events occurring that I can't remember them all without taking notes. However, that's hardly very practical. I'm not some detective who carries a notepad around with him everywhere he goes. I think the only solution would be to make smaller posts on here and only include small pieces of information each time. I'll have to evolve my style of writing once again; from the massive behemoths of 2007, to a more compact prose for 2009. Hopefully that will motivate me to update more often. After all, I did say that I was aiming to write over 150 posts this year. I'm already quite far behind my quota for the the first three months so I have to pick up the pace to compensate. I think the summer months will help, though. I'll be so bored that I'll have nothing else to do but update this blog continuously!
I thought that I'd found a solution to my bike storage problem a few days ago. I figured that it might be viable to rent a small room in one of those short-term storage facilities over the summer. That would enable me to store my new bike (along with a few other bits and pieces) until I move into my new flat in September. Unfortunately, after looking at the costs, it doesn't look like I'll be able to afford such an expensive option. The best price I could find was £11.00 per week. Considering that I'd have to rent a space for about eight weeks, that's quite a lot of money to be spending. So, it looks like I won't be getting a new bike in May after all. Not unless another solution appears.
Next week will be the final few lessons of the semester for me and it feels kind of sad. I can't believe that I've almost completed my first year of university already. Granted, there are still a few weeks remaining after we get back from our Easter holidays but they'll mainly be for revision and exams. Most of the teaching will have finished by next week. I've enjoyed most of modules this semester, and I think that's down to the fact that we've had some very good lecturers. There are a couple that I won't be seeing again next year which is unfortunate. Having a good lecturer in your class just makes it so much more enjoyable than if you have a bad lecturer. I really hope that the second year of teaching will be just as good. However, the first year isn't over yet, though, so I still have to keep working hard until May. Kakatte koi!
Posted byHocchan at 6:35 am 2 comments
Boyonka Boyoyonka
28 March 2009
After a friend showed me the special offers on a mountain bike shop's website I've been tempted to buy a new bike. There's a 2008 GT Avalanche 3.0 Disc available for only £269.99 and it looks to be a very good deal. Although the specification of the bike is fairly low (compared to my 2000 GT Arrowhead which I spent a lot of money upgrading), the frame decals are very nice. It wouldn't be such a bad idea to buy the bike and ride it 'as is' until I get an opportunity to upgrade the parts. The only problem I can foresee is where I would store the bike. I really don't have enough room at home to house two bikes and I won't be moving into my new flat until September. That leaves me with about three months where I won't have anywhere to put it. If I can sort that little problem out then I'll probably end up buying it in May.
March really is the time where everything seems to end in Japan. All the drama series are pretty much finished and all the anime series are coming to an end. This includes the two series that I was watching - Toradora! and The Tower of Druaga: Sword of Uruk. The ending to Toradora! was slightly unexpected but it did finish off the story quite nicely. The show overall has been thoroughly enjoyable with a good story and some likeable characters. The only flaw I can pick out is that the artwork seems a bit inconsistent in places. As for The Tower of Druaga: Sword of Uruk, the second series wasn't quite as good as the first. The story felt a little rushed and disjointed towards the end. It's still worth watching though, even if only for the opening and closing theme songs.
It's getting to the end of the term at university now and the work is starting to pile up a bit. If I'm too complacent then there's the possibility that I won't pass the first year. That's only if I completely screw up and don't hand in pieces of work though. I just need to make sure that I don't procrastinate too long and get the essays finished. Of course, I still need to make sure that they're well-written and not rushed. I should also make a start on my portfolio work soon too. I really don't want to have to work through the night to get that done like last time...
Posted byHocchan at 11:02 pm 0 comments
Hello!Blog's Hello!Project Poll 2009
27 March 2009
Posted byHocchan at 10:16 pm 3 comments
Peace And Rock And Roll
26 March 2009
It seems I failed quite badly today. After demanding to know our marks for almost the whole semester, we finally received them this morning. Unfortunately, for me at least, I kind of wish that I'd never found out now. The reason being that my marks are a lot worse than I had been expecting. Perhaps I was hoping for too much but 55% is just very demoralising. I had written quite a lot during the exam and I thought that I knew what I was writing about but I guess not. I feel very disappointed in myself for achieving such a low mark. The only positive thing I can take from this is the fact that the exam was only worth 10% of the overall module mark. It's still kind of soul destroying though. I'll have to pick myself up from this disappointment and try harder next time.
At least I have Yakitate!! Japan to cheer me up. I had a serious urge to re-watch it again for some unknown reason. I'm very glad I did though because I'd forgotten how good the anime was. It's so hilariously funny all of the time and it's very addictive to watch. It also makes me want to start baking bread again. I haven't made any bread for a couple of years now but I think I'm going to get back into it again soon. I'd like to try making some melon-pan again, as well as maybe croissants and loaves. Perhaps I could make it a regular thing this time. The only bad thing about watching Yakitate!! Japan again is that it takes up so much hard drive space. The whole series is about 10GB and I was already quite low on hard drive space before I started downloading it. I've had to save it to my internal drive for the time being. It looks like I'll have to buy a new external hard drive soon. Something with a big capacity would be nice - 1TB or so is ideal. They are a little bit costly though so I'll have to wait until summer before I buy one.
Posted byHocchan at 3:48 pm 0 comments
Dakishimete, Dakishimete!
21 March 2009
I decided to sign into my Final Fantasy XI account yesterday, just to see who was on. I didn't sign into my character - I'd have to renew my content ID to do that - just into PlayOnline. I happened to see one of my old friends online so I sent them a quick message to see how things were going. They informed me that the linkshell I was part of was no longer around. It came as a bit of a shock but, I suppose, it wasn't unexpected. When you spend six months away from the game things change. And the linkshell itself had been going for many years already. Many core members had slowly gone their separate ways during that time so an eventual split was perhaps inevitable. It does make me quite sad but I still plan on returning to the game over the Easter holidays, and perhaps more permanently over the summer and into the second year of university.
Did I ever mention how bad the British Rail service is? Well, I'm going to mention it now in any case. Yesterday, I came back home via train, as usual. Only this time I'd arrived at the train station earlier than usual, which put me right in the middle of rush hour. There were quite a few people standing on the platform, waiting for the same train as I was. You'd think that during the peak hours they would have trains with plenty of carriages to accommodate the passengers, right? But not according to British Rail. They sent a train with a piddly two carriages; carriages which were so old they required a conductor to open the bloody doors for you! Half the people (including me) had to stand in the luggage bay in order to fit on the train. It wasn't until near the end of the journey that I managed to get a seat. It's safe to say that I won't be catching a train at rush hour ever again.
There's another British institution that I have problems with, and that's Royal Mail. I'm sure I've written about their sub-par service before. It's finally gone and done it this time though. About three weeks ago I received a letter from Student Finance asking me to sign a form and return it. This form is the last step of my application for a loan next year, and without it, I won't receive any money. I hastily signed the form and sent it via recorded delivery. Two weeks later, I check to see if the letter had been delivered. It hadn't. I keep checking everyday but nothing changes. The bastards have gone and lost the single most important letter that I'll be sending this year! Are they intentionally trying to screw me out of my student loan or what? Goddamn whores! You'll be certain that I'm going to claim every penny of compensation out of them for losing my letter.
Posted byHocchan at 5:59 pm 0 comments
Ohrinalda
19 March 2009
A strange thing happened to me this weekend - I lost my voice. Not completely, but I had to put a lot of effort into making myself heard and understood by the people I was talking to. I don't think I've ever lost my voice like that before. It was quite an odd experience - kind of like having your larynx anaesthetised. It's recovered now, somewhat, so I can speak properly once again, albeit between the coughing and croaking. I'm grateful that whatever I've managed to catch hasn't turned out to be something more debilitating.
I've been having a bit of a drama-watching spree recently. I finished watching Ryuusei no Kizuna last week. I really enjoyed that series. It was funny, it was sad, and it had some very good characters. I'm still watching Mei-chan no Shitsuji but there's only one more episode to go now. I've got it downloaded to my hard drive so I'm just waiting for the subtitles to get released. In the meantime, I've started watching Voice. It's about a group of students in the forensic medicine department of a university. They come across various cases in which they try and find the 'voice' of the deceased person, in order to bring to peace to the families left behind. It's an enjoyable series to watch but it does seem to get a bit formulaic after awhile. If you can overlook that little downside then it's well worth watching.
There was a written assessment in Japanese Language on Monday. We were given a list of our imaginary family members - each with several traits and facts about them - and we had to write about them using our knowledge of grammatical constructs. It was quite a long list and we were only given one hour so I only just about managed to finish on time. Overall, it wasn't too difficult. There were really only two or three different conjugations that we had to use. Perhaps I could have made it a bit more complex but I would have run out of time if I spent too long thinking about it. It's only worth 10% of the module mark in any case - nothing too serious.
Finally, since Taurinensis wrote about this in his recent blog post, I'm going to finish this entry off by talking about Resident Evil 5. Admittedly, I've only played a little bit of it so far but I do intend to buy it at some point in the next couple of weeks. From what I've seen, it's not a rapid departure from Resident Evil 4. The graphics look similar, its control system (although slightly modified) is pretty much the same, and it's still very action-based. In some ways, it leaves me kind of disappointed. Perhaps I'm being too optimistic here, but I had hoped that they would return to a more classical style of Resident Evil. That is a game less action-based and more puzzle-based, with the same camera style as 0, 1, 2 and 3. That's what I believe the 'real' Resident Evil is. Not that the new style is bad, far from it. I enjoyed playing 4 as much as the next person. But it just wasn't Resident Evil. It's more like a closely related spin-off in my eyes. I read that 6 was going to be another massive change in style so maybe there's hope for us traditionalists yet. Maybe...not...?
Posted byHocchan at 5:08 am 0 comments
Urs!!
06 March 2009
Somehow, despite promising myself that I wouldn't let myself get short of money again this semester, I've found myself...well, short of money. It probably has something to do with the fact that I bought myself a new TV during the start of the term, as well as some new clothes and shoes a few weeks later. The damage deposit on next year's accommodation has also taken up a fair chunk of my remaining money. At least this time I've left myself a small amount of reserve cash in a savings account so I have that to fall back on. I don't think I'll have to use that though, as long as I don't buy unnecessary things and save all my money for essentials. There's only about three weeks until the next scholarship payment arrives so it shouldn't be too hard to survive until then.
In the meantime, I have quite a lot of work to keep me occupied. I have a couple of essays to finish before the end of next week, and a timed essay on Monday. The essay will be interesting, seeing as how it's all going to be Japanese. I'd better revise some of the key vocabulary and kanji before the test, just in case. As for the essays, I don't foresee any problems with them. I'm about halfway through the first (I really should have finished it by now) with about 700 words to go. I haven't even started researching for the second essay yet but I can delay that until Easter if I really have to. That would give me time to concentrate on my Japanese portfolio which I've been neglecting. I'd like to make some sort of role-play video with a few of my friends and include that as a speaking task. I'd also like to include some sort of kanji exercise this time. I'll get started on it next week, I think.
My luck in Mahjong has been pretty dire recently. I don't know if it's the tail-end of the immense winning streak that I was on before or not, but it's been downhill for quite a few games now. I don't think I'm doing anything differently from before but I just can't seem to complete hands any more. I'd hate to think that my previous wins were purely down to luck but it's looking like that may be the case. On the other hand, though, if it was pure luck then surely I'd have won something by now. It's just a matter of probability after all. I guess I'll just have to ride out this rough patch and keep playing until my luck returns. Perhaps it's retribution for that Ryuu Iisou...?
Posted byHocchan at 8:33 pm 1 comments
Ikinakutemo Ii Desu Yo
24 February 2009
It's been one of those days where you wish you hadn't bothered getting out of bed. What makes it worse is that it's not even 5 o'clock yet...plenty of time left for more irritatingly annoying things to happen. When I woke up this morning things didn't seem so bad. I got up, had some toast and soya milk, and went for a shower. Got changed, packed some clothes into a suitcase and headed out of the door. I was going back home for a few hours so I could get a couple of documents for my accommodation application. All the crappiness started when I got to the train station. The train I was waiting for was first delayed by 13 minutes, and then 3 more minutes on top of that. To top it off, towards the end of the journey the train inexplicably stopped at a level crossing and waited for the cars to pass. What the hell?! The cars are supposed to make way for the trains to pass, not the other way round. Why is the British rail service so turd?
When I got back home I just so happened to be there when an annoying debt collection agency called. For some reason they had a totally wrong address for me but I stupidly told them the correct one anyway. I should have just hung up at the beginning. They can sod off though for all I care. They aren't getting a single penny from me, not if I can help it. Scum-sucking whorebags! Eventually, I got pissed off with the person on the other end of the line and hung up on them. I put my clothes into the washing machine and set off for the library to photocopy those documents.
When I got back the washing machine still hadn't finished its cycle yet so I had to wait. A short while later I heard the drum stop spinning so I went to get my clothes. Stupidly, I turned the machine off and tried to open the door but it was locked. I turned it back on and it was still locked. There was no other way of getting the bloody door open so I had to put it into a spin cycle again. It was already 2:40PM by this point and I had to be back at university for 3:30PM at the latest, as the office will only take payments until 4PM. The damn cycle took 15-20 minutes to finish. By the time I got to the train station it was 3:05PM and the next train wasn't until 3:20PM. I was well and truly screwed. I have no choice now but to wait until tomorrow to hand in my application form. I hope this one day hasn't jeopardised my chances of a room.
Posted byHocchan at 4:34 pm 0 comments
Mahou Tsukai Desukedo
21 February 2009
It's already getting to that time of the semester when all the deadline start piling up thick and fast. I've got a total of four essays, one presentation, a portfolio, and two exams to do before the end of the academic year. Thankfully, most of the stuff is due in after the Easter break. That leaves me with only one essay, one exam, and the presentation to do this term. I've already made a start on the essay but I haven't really made that much progress on it yet. I really need to get my head down and complete it as soon as possible, otherwise it's just going to add to the workload come April.
I'm not too worried about the presentation just yet. It's right at the end of the term and I've done enough of them now to have a pretty clear idea of what's required of me. The exam, however, might be a cause for alarm. It's going to be very similar to the exam I had for Background to Japan last semester, only this time it'll be worth a lot more. This means that I'll have to revise a lot more than I did last time if I want to do well on it. That's not looking very easy at the moment though, as the lectures we've had thus far haven't followed guidelines. Looks like I'll have to do quite a lot of self-research in my spare time.
Just a shame then that the game industry isn't making it very easy for me to do that. As luck would have it, all the games that I want to play are getting released in the next couple of months; as if to try and make me fail the year. We've just had Street Fighter IV released over here and that's going to take up a lot of time. Then next week we have the release of Oneechanbara and Silent Hill: Homecoming. Although the Silent Hill game isn't meant to be very good, I wouldn't mind playing it through myself just to see how bad it really is. The week after those two games comes the release of Battle Fantasia, and the week after that comes Resident Evil 5. Finally, to top off the gaming-cake-mountain, Star Ocean 4 will be making an appearance towards the last week of Easter break. That's a smorgasbord of games if ever I saw one.
Posted byHocchan at 2:58 pm 0 comments
Reppuu
12 February 2009
After thinking about my finances a little bit more carefully, I've come to the conclusion that it won't quite be as bad as I initially thought. All I have to do is make sure that I save at least £1,000 from my loan payment that's due at the end of April. Of course, this would mean that I won't have very much to spend during the summer, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem since I'll be staying at home during those few months. If I do that, then I can use the extra money to ease the financial burden during the next academic year. I might also consider getting a small part-time job during the summer for some extra money too. Now that that's all sorted in my head I can stop worrying about it so much and concentrate on applying for a room at Trinity. I'm still missing a document from home so I'll go back and pick it up this weekend. If everything goes well I should be able to hand in my application next Monday.
Recently, the Japanese lessons have begun to start getting quite tough. We're finally covering material that I'm not all that familiar with and it's becoming a challenge. This is a good thing of course. I didn't come to university just to revise everything I already knew. I'm looking forward to having to get my head down and actually do some hard work. Of course, I still have the second half of my portfolio to complete and that's pretty tough already. I've still not really thought about what I'm going to do for it. One possibility is that I include a collection of lessons from the Basic Kanji Book as a Kanji task. Another thing that I've been toying with is the idea of making a short role-playing video. I would have to enlist the help of a few friends to pull it off but it should be doable. There's still plenty of time until the deadline so I shouldn't be too unduly worried about it yet.
Posted byHocchan at 4:42 am 0 comments
Trinity Mahjong Village
10 February 2009
You know how I said that there appeared to be a light at the end of the tunnel in regards to next year's accommodation problem? Well, it seems that it wasn't the end of the tunnel at all. Rather, it was an axe-wielding maniac who happened to be holding a torch. And right now he's chopping my head off...
A few friends and I had decided to stay in some private halls next year so we went to get an application pack today. Upon receiving it I noticed that the rent was a lot more expensive than I had originally thought. I'm currently paying £70 a week for my university-owned room. The rent for the new place will be £86 a week - a whole 18.6% more expensive! The new place would come with an en-suite bathroom but does that really justify such a large increase in price? I know that an extra £16 a week doesn't sound all that much but over the long run it adds up. The total rent for the first semester would take up 75% of my loan and grant. That doesn't leave me with very much money to survive on.
Although the whole situation has made me a little more apprehensive about applying for a place, I don't really have that much choice. A lot of the places have been fully booked already and the ones that remain aren't too appealing. I think the only solution I have is to save up some money from my final term's loan and use that to boost my funds for the second year. I plan to have about £1,000 left by the end of this academic year, so if I save about 50% of that it should leave me with a comfortable amount of money to live on. I will have to be a lot more frugal about my money and not spend it as freely as I have done this semester. That's no bad thing I guess.
Posted byHocchan at 2:50 am 0 comments
Natsu Doki Lipstick
06 February 2009
Despite all of my worrying, it seems that this week hasn't been as bad I thought it would be. First of all, the presentation was finished with plenty of time to spare and the delivery went off without a hitch. I managed to say my lines without sounding too nervous. I did trip over a few words but overall it went very well. The lecturer was also kind enough to e-mail us our marks in the evening. My partner and I were awarded 64% for the presentation, something I'm very satisfied with. Considering that presentations aren't really my strong point, I think that being able to get such a high mark is fantastic. And with only the two essay assignments remaining (my strong point) I'm pretty confident that I'm going to pass this module with at least 70%. Or at least that's how I hope it's going to be.
As for the other concerns that were on my mind, they seemed to have faded into insignificance for the time being. They'll probably resurface again sometime in the future but at least, for now, my mind will be at ease. With regard to the accommodation woes, it appears that there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. There are still a few places at a couple of the private halls available. I've contacted the owners of one of the halls but they haven't replied yet. I'm sure that one of the halls will have spaces. If worst comes to worst, at least there'll be rooms left at Brunel Court. I suppose I could just about manage to endure living there for a year. I hope it doesn't come to that though...
I've managed to progress with Lost Odyssey in between sessions of Mahjong. The game is actually a lot better than I was expecting it to be. I was slightly put off by the character design when I first saw it but it's grown on me somewhat since then. The storyline, however, is very good. You can definitely tell that it's a Sakaguchi Hironobu game. The music is also very reminiscent of Final Fantasy VII. The game itself is a bit tougher than your typical RPG. The first boss, for example, can very easily kill you if you're not careful. Once you've gotten over the initial learning curve it's actually a very enjoyable game.
Posted byHocchan at 8:43 pm 0 comments
Le Sigh...
03 February 2009
I've been sat here for the past ten minutes trying to write an opening sentence but none of them have really been good enough yet. I'm hoping that this attempt to start the post will be more successful. The difficulty I'm having with trying to construct a decent opening is probably linked to the current state of mind I'm in. I don't know why but I've been feeling out of sorts for the last couple of days. I'm feeling a mixture of frustration, stress and depression. There just seems to be a lot of unresolved stuff floating around in my head at the moment. And some of it is stuff that I can't really talk to anyone about. It's probably easier just to write some of it down on here and let it dissipate into a string of binary numbers. I have no idea if it'll be of any use but it's better than bottling them up inside.
The first object of contention is the presentation that I have to do on Thursday. I wasn't that worried about it last weekend but as it gets closer I'm starting to feel apprehensive. It's another joint presentation and once again, I feel like I'm not contributing enough. I don't really have that much confidence in myself. I just need to persevere for another couple of days and then I won't have to worry about it any more. It's just a shame that it won't be the last presentation that I'll have to do this year. There's another one coming up in March for the Background to China module that I'm taking. At least I have quite a bit of time to prepare for that one.
The whole ordeal of trying to find a place to live next year is also causing me some grief. It turns out that the place a group of friends and I had planned on applying for has been taken over by the university for next year's first years. So now we're all going to have to change our plans and find somewhere new. I really don't want the hassle of find a house to share. I'd much rather just get a room in private halls. There's one place that looks quite decent but I'm still waiting on the owners to e-mail me back. Whichever place I choose, I'd better do it quick because places will probably fill up quite fast. I'll also have to spend quite a large amount of money just to secure my booking too - which means added stress about finances.
There are a couple of other matters that I don't really want to talk about publicly. Those are things that I'll have to resolve on my own and in my own time. They're pretty trivial things to worry about but I'm the sort of person who stresses over little things. I just hope that I'll have some peace soon.
Posted byHocchan at 7:08 pm 0 comments
Silky Heart
24 January 2009
I've been spending far too much money these last two weeks. First came the television, then came the games, Xbox 360 controller, a couple of pairs of jean and a new coat. That's on top of all the expensive take-away dinners I've been having too. I've really got to reel in my spending for the rest of the term. Starting from next week I'm going to go back to cooking my own dinner again. I do still need a couple more items of clothing but those can wait until February I think. It's only a new pair of boots and some new shirts. After that, I don't have anything planned money-wise.
The new semester is pretty much in full swing now and the deadlines are already coming in thick and fast. Lots of essays and exams coming up after Easter and a couple of presentations before then. I've also received most of my semester one results, with the exception of Asia Pacific Studies and Background to Japan. I'm fairly happy with the marks that I received. My portfolio wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting it to be, but I was slightly disappointed with the mark that I received for the Background to Japan presentation. My partner and I had put a lot of work into that presentation and I expected a higher mark. It's still pretty decent though so I shouldn't really complain.
Posted byHocchan at 6:13 pm 0 comments
Master Chief!
17 January 2009
I've just had my first week back at university and it's been a productive one. It turned out that I didn't need to worry about my student loan at all. It arrived in my bank account in the early hours of Monday morning. And as it turned out, accommodation didn't take out my rent until yesterday. I bought myself a new Sharp 19" LCD TV for £179.99. At first I wasn't very impressed with the quality of the display when playing my Xbox 360 on it but as soon as I changed to a HDMI connection I was blown away by how good it looked. Now I can play all my games in glorious 1080i resolution. The TV also has a built-in Freeview decoder so I can receive quite a few digital TV channels. Overall, I'm very pleased with my purchase - even if the customer service at the shop was crap!
I've also bought myself quite a few games during this last week. The first being Halo 3. After playing through it I regret not having bought it sooner. This instalment in the series is so much better than the second game. There's none of this playing as the Arbiter rubbish, and the story is a vast improvement. It feels a lot closer to the original game, which in my opinion, was the best game of the series. I also bought Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey for £4.99 and £9.99 respectively. I haven't played either of them properly yet but they look pretty good. Finally, I ordered a refurbished 20GB HDD from Microsoft for £12.99. The twats at Microsoft managed to get my delivery address wrong but I managed to sort it all out eventually. It's a good job there are people at UPS who know what they're doing.
Posted byHocchan at 11:11 pm 0 comments
Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo Sakana No Ko
11 January 2009
Aah, the joys of a half decent internet connection! I'm back at home for the weekend so my internet speed has been pretty good compared to one I was getting on the university's network. Unfortunately, I haven't managed to sort out the problem yet. I've e-mailed IT support but they tell me that there hasn't been any other reports of slow internet speeds from my halls. They've told me to check my computer on someone else's connection and check their computers on mine. This means that I've got to enlist the help of one of my friends before I can determine the cause of the problem. Most likely I won't be able to get anyone until at least Monday which means I'm stuck with a crap connection tomorrow. I can feel my blood pressure rising already...
It also doesn't help that my student loan seems to be taking its time this semester. Last time it was already in 'paid' status the weekend before the first day of term. This time it's still in 'submitted' status, and it's been like that for the last week. What the hell does this mean? Does it mean that it's been submitted to the bank for payment on Monday? Or does it simply mean submitted to the system for payment? If it doesn't arrive on Monday then I'm going to have to see accommodation and ask them to give me a few more days to pay my rent - it's due on the first day. I could be stressing out over nothing but it's got me concerned.
Posted byHocchan at 1:52 am 0 comments
High Speed, My Arse!
07 January 2009
It is the year 2009, right? Well, you wouldn't think so from the speed of my internet connection today. Jesus Christ, even loading a web page is like trying to force your face through a cheese grater - extremely slow and excruciatingly painful. I really don't understand what the problem is. I got back to my university halls yesterday and the internet has been complete shit since then. I did change my LAN settings slightly when I was back at home (to get online with the 360) but, as far as I can tell, everything is back to normal now. But still it proceeds to piss me off. It's worse than when people had to use 56k dial-up modems to connect to the internet. I've tried the computers at the library and the internet is fine on there (but the computer itself is slow as shit). It's got to be a problem with the network in the halls. They'd better get it fixed soon or I'm going to have to start smashing stuff...
Posted byHocchan at 11:23 pm 0 comments
Holy Jesus Christ! So, This Shipment...
06 January 2009
I know that this is six days too late, but Happy New Year! I can't believe it's taken me nearly a week to write the New Year post. I've been very lazy during the last quarter of 2008 and that seems to have carried over into 2009. My procrastination in updating this blog is clearly evident when you take a look at the post count for 2008 and compare it to 2007. One-hundred and twenty-six posts in 2007 compared to just eighty-five posts in 2008. I only just managed to beat 2006's post count by four. I'm very disappointed in myself. So I'm going to make myself a New Year's Resolution - to write at least one-hundred and fifty posts in 2009. It shouldn't be too difficult, as long as I don't start procrastinating again. Gambarou!
So what do I have planned for this year? Well, next Monday I go back to university (I'm actually here on campus already but teaching doesn't resume until next week) so that'll be fun. I'm looking forward to the new semester and the challenges it should bring. I'm also eager to see the results of my first semester assessments. I've also got my student loan arriving on the first day back so I'm going to have a lot of fun spending it! I've already planned on spending about 25% of it in the first week. Most of it will go on buying a new LCD TV for use with my Xbox 360. I can't wait to see the games through a HDMI connection. That's something I'm excited about. The rest of the money will go on getting a HDD for the 360 (so I can download some Live Arcade games) and new clothes (that trench coat I've been meaning to buy since September). That should still leave me with plenty of money for the rest of the term. More than last time anyway, when I ran dangerously low towards the end of November. Let's hope that doesn't happen again...it's not fun being poor!
Posted byHocchan at 10:53 pm 0 comments
