Friday, July 18, 2008

got tagged

i did say the last post was going to be my last for a while.. but it's a weekend so, i'm resting my brain from all the studying. i just got tagged and i have to oblige the tagging rule of cyberspace.

1. Do you think people will judge you by the answers to this questionnaire?

maybe but if so, i have a lot of other things to worry about than people judging.

2. What is your favourite brand for bags?

ummm.. not much of a bag guy.. but when i do buy one, i get the cool ones with a good brand on them.

3. What’s your favourite thing to do?

currently, video games, downloading old tv series i haven't watched and drawing.

4. What are your phobia(s)?

i'm afraid of open water (stop laughing). it's true! i have this fear of being in the see and fish are swimming around me.

and i'm slightly afraid of heights. i have no problem looking down from even 100 stories high up IF there's a sturdy rail between me and the edge. but if there's nothing, i'll be hugging floor..

5. How do you vent anger or stress?

take a walk or do the dishes. that'll calm me down..

6. Do you believe you can survive without money?

without money at all? of course not. but as long as i have a home and enough to make ends meat, then yeah. that's fine with me.

7. What are you afraid to lose the most?

my family

8. If you win $1 million, what would you do?

buy a home for myself. save most of it for the future, and spend the rest on my family.

9. If you are asked to do one house chore, which would you choose to do?

the dishes, yup i'll pick that over any chore. i hate vacuuming the most.

10. List out 3 good points of the person who tagged you?

funny, unique

11. What skill do you wish you have?

cooking.

12. What type of person do you hate the most?

people who stab you in the back..

13. What is your ambition?

ambition? not sure at the moment.. just going with the flow..

14. What did you regret doing?

even though it's working out well, i still say taking this job that i have now.

15. What do you think is the most important thing in your life?

if we're talking about objects, i have to say my awesome PC. i'd die without it..

16. If you were a car/bike what would it be?

probably my dream car, Aston Martin DB9

17. If you have a chance which part of your character would you like to change?

i guess to be a bit more daring in the dating department.. :s

18. What music have you been listening to recently?

not updated with what the kids are listening to now..

19. What is your least favourite animal?

oh, my tagger knows this one.. no need to mention it.. *cringe*

20. What is your ultimate addiction?

my current addiction, i'd say are the newest gadgets. especially, if it has anything to do with my PC.. if i can install it in there, i have to have it.

Instructions: Remove 1 question from above, and add in your personal question make it a total of 20 questions. Then tag 8 friends.

i shall tag: ali amani, mash, maurina, afee, naj.. and anyone else who's willing..

i'll be back in 2 weeks with my exam results. til then, keep your fingers crossed for me..

Monday, July 14, 2008

busy for 2 weeks

hello everyone. as the title suggests, i'll be over my neck in exam preparation. so, i won't be updating my blog until after the exam and i won't be able to spend as much time chatting online so don't get offended. i'm going to leave you with my new hobby (well, until i get bored of it and find something else).


remember the robot i drew for fun? well, i actually submitted that to the facebook graffiti contest. the theme was robots. so, i drew it and guess what? it got into the top 250! so, it kinda got me interested in drawing again.

i got a drawing program and picked, the very beautiful, Song Hye Kyo (the Korean actress from Full House) as my first subject. apologies in advance if the drawing doesn't look like her and for the horrible shading too. i was trying it out.

there are a lot of cool videos of people drawing (type in "speed art" in youtube) and i thought it would be cool if i knew how to record that. but here's the next best thing - besides, i'm no where near as awesome as those people.

so check it out more clearly by clicking each photo.
program used: Artrage 2.0



anyway, for those who are on their summer break, have a good one. i can't wait til my damn exam is over so i can have my break.. wish me luck. i promise i'll post something better to read.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

12,000 laptops lost & a 400GB CD invented

12,000 laptops lost in U.S. airports every month

source: Dallas news
According to the study commissioned by Dell, more than 12,000 laptop computers are lost in U.S. airports every week. That’s about 600,000 notebooks per year. What’s more, only 33 percent of the laptops found in airports are ever reclaimed. That’s not surprising if (as the survey found) 16 percent of business travelers said they would do nothing if they lost their laptops, while 58 percent said they’d contact their companies for advice before they did anything. Just 27 percent said they’d immediately retrace their steps and contact lost and found.
A question for those who said they would do nothing: what do you do when you show up to the big meeting sans laptop? Pretend to type on an invisible computer? Act like you’re suffering from amnesia? Seriously, who does “nothing” when they discover their laptop is missing? I know laptops are getting cheap, but this seems like a stunning lack of concern for the whereabouts of a machine worth several hundred dollars at least, and presumably storing important documents, valuable photos and so forth. Of course, Dell is using the startling findings to pitch its new laptop protection and data recovery services, so make of these findings what you will.


400GB optical disc invented by Pioneer

source: Cnet
Got a big archiving project you’ve been itching to do? Pioneer’s latest development could help you keep all your data in one nice, little circular package. The Japanese electronics maker has been working on an optical disc, which, like Blu-ray, can store 25GB of data in a single layer. But Pioneer says it’s one-upped the high-definition format to the sixteenth degree. The company announced today that it has a single disc that contains 16 layers of storage, at 25GB each. That adds up to 400GB of data capable of being stored on a single disc.
Blu-ray comes in single layer (25GB) and dual-layer (50GB) flavors. Pioneer does say that because the lens specification for reading the discs is similar to Blu-ray, “it is possible to maintain compatibility” between its disc and Blu-ray discs. That’s not saying it will be compatible, but it would make sense since Pioneer is one of the original Blu-ray Disc Association members. However, plans for that archiving project will have to be put on pause if you want to use this technology. Pioneer is going to demonstrate it at an industry conference next week, but for now the disc is read-only. Eventually, they’ll add write capability as well.

Monday, July 07, 2008

top 10 anime of 2007

okay, this topic, i was not suddenly hit in the head by the curiousity cat. but this is more for that person out there bugging me to post something so she could be kept occupied for a few minutes. haha.


in 2007, 2 million anime fans cast their votes for their favourite anime. i'm not much of an anime fan but the result was not what i anticipated.

10. hidamari sketch



Sunshine Sketch centers around a young girl named Yuno who finally is able to get accepted into Yamabuki Art High School, which she has longed for. To attend the school, Yuno moves and starts to live in a small apartment building named the Sunshine Apartments located near the school. Once there, she starts making new friends like her classmate Miyako and the second year students, Hiro and Sae. There is no real plot line to the story but rather the events of the characters' everyday lives are shown as they attend the school together and get to know each other better.


9. Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei


Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei revolves around a very pessimistic high school teacher named Nozomu Itoshiki who, at the very beginning of the series, tries to hang himself on a sakura tree. Despite this effort of self-destruction, he is saved by an extremely optimistic girl known only as Kafuka Fuura (though in her effort to save his life, she almost kills him). She explains to him that it is simply unimaginable that he would hang himself on such a nice day, especially in front of such beautiful trees. She decides to nickname Nozomu "Pink Supervisor" , and offers to pay him fifty yen to call him by that nickname. After having enough of the strange girl, Nozomu bolts to the school and starts his homeroom class, but the attempt to escape was in vain as he finds that the girl is one of his students. Not only that, but Kafuka is just the tip of the iceberg: each and every student in his class represents a new personality quirk or bizarre obsession, posing challenges that the suicidally-inclined teacher must overcome in spite of himself.


8. Nanatsuiro Drops

Masaharu Tsuwabuki is a normal student, though not very social. One day he meets a new student named Sumomo Akihime, and another girl named Yaeno Nadeshiko, Sumomo's close friend. That same afternoon, he suddenly bumps into Arthur, a servant of Nona Yuki from Figurare who at the time was disguised with a mask. The collision causes Arthur to drop a bag full of magical potions; amid gathering up the scattered cans, one of them is accidentally switched with Masaharu's soda can. Upon drinking it, he transforms into a stuffed animal lamb at night. He must collect seven stardrops, in order to return to normal.

There are two primary worlds within the story of Nanatsuiro Drops: the human world called Retroscena, and a magical world called Figurare from which the Stellar Spinners originate. There are currently two schools that teach magic within Figurare: Pramu Cloris and Saint Asparas. According to Natsume, each year the two schools pick their top Stellar Spinners (the one from Pramu Cloris is called Prima Pramu, and from Saint Asparas is called Prima Asparas) to send to the human world to capture seven stardrops in a goodwill competition to improve relations.


7. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS is the third season of the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series. The Nanoha anime was, in turn, a spin-off of the Triangle Heart series of games and OVAs, specifically Triangle Heart 3: Sweet Songs Forever. This season aired shortly after the promotional event "Lyrical Party III" scheduled on April 1, 2007.

StrikerS takes place after the epilogue of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, aired between October and December of 2005. While the epilogue connected A's to a world six years later, StrikerS advances the timeline another four years, where the main characters have gone on to work for the Time-Space Administration Bureau (TSAB) and come upon a new case. The series focuses more on team-based battles and bureaucracy rather than individual rivalry and school life, due to the change in character dynamics.

6. Gintama

The story takes place in Edo (known today as Tokyo because of the name change in 1868), Japan, which has been taken over by aliens called Amanto since the late Edo period. The samurai of Japan have fallen, and the Amanto placed a ban on carrying swords in public. The story focuses on an eccentric samurai, Gintoki Sakata, his (partial) apprentice Shinpachi Shimura, and a teenage alien girl: Kagura. All three are "free-lancers" who search for work in order to pay the monthly rent, which usually goes unpaid anyway.

5. Higurashi

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni takes place during June 1983, at a fictional rural village called Hinamizawa which has a population of approximately 2000. The main character, Keiichi Maebara, moves to Hinamizawa and befriends his new classmates Rena Ryugu, Mion Sonozaki, Rika Furude, and Satoko Hojo. Keiichi joins their after-school club activities, which consist mostly of card and board games (and punishment games for the loser, usually him.) Hinamizawa appears to be a normal, peaceful, rural village to Keiichi.

However, the tranquility abruptly ends after the annual Watanagashi Festival, a celebration to commemorate and give thanks to the local god, Oyashiro-sama. Keiichi learns that every year for the past four years, one person has been murdered and another has gone missing on the day of the Watanagashi Festival. Keiichi himself soon becomes drawn into the strange events surrounding the Watanagashi Festival and Oyashiro-sama. In each story arc, he or one of his friends become paranoid, and a crime is committed. Usually, the crime involves the murder of one of their own friends. While it seems impossible to tell their delusions apart from the mystery of Hinamizawa, slowly the truth is revealed.

4. Ookiku Furi Kabutte

The series, set in Saitama, follows the story of Ren Mihashi. Mihashi was the previous ace pitcher in his middle school's baseball team, but it seems that he only got the position because his grandfather was the owner of the school. His teammates (especially the team's catcher) hated him, and they always lost their games. Mihashi is thoroughly convinced that he is a lousy baseball pitcher and he graduates to high school with extremely low self-esteem. He then transfers to Nishiura high school with plans of quitting baseball, because he does not believe he is good enough to succeed at baseball. However, he is dragged into Nishiura's baseball team by their coach. Assisted by his new teammates (and especially the catcher, Takaya Abe), he grows in stature, confidence and skill, helping his team excel with his own abilities.

3. Kaitei Kyoshi Hitman REBORN

The Reborn! story revolves around a boy named Tsunayoshi "Tsuna" Sawada, who is chosen to become the Vongola Family's boss due to him being the great-great-great grandson of the first Vongola boss, who had moved to Japan from Italy during his time. Also, the other candidates for the position of the head of the Vongola Family died: Enrico, who was the leading candidate to become "Vongola X", died in a gun battle; Massimo, the second, "sleeps with the fishes;" and Federico, the favored son, was found as a pile of bones. For these reasons, Tsuna is the only remaining heir. As such, Timoteo a.k.a. "Vongola IX," the current head of the family, sends Reborn, an infant hitman from Italy, to train Tsuna. Tsuna then unwillingly undergoes training from Reborn.

Tsuna goes through many predicaments in his progress of becoming the Vongola boss including fighting against escaped Mafia convicts, a rival group of Vongola assassins claiming the right for their boss to be the true Vongola boss, as well as rival families aiming to destroy the Vongola Family. Through his experiences, Tsuna unconsciously becomes stronger and more confident, which ultimately makes him better suited as the Vongola Family's boss.

Reborn's main instrument of choice in teaching Tsuna is the "Dying Will Bullet" ("Deathperation Shot" in Viz Media's translation of the manga), which will make the person be "reborn" with a stronger self intent on fulfilling his dying will.

2. Lucky Star

Portrays the lives of several school girls attending a Japanese high school with a very loose humor tone. The main heroine is Konata Izumi, an athletic and intelligent girl who, despite these attributes, is not in a sports club, and her grades remain low. Her laziness at school is due to her love for anime and video games, and she is not interested in much else.

and the NO. 1 is....

sola

Sola's story revolves around Yorito Morimiya, the main protagonist, who is a young boy attending high school. He loves taking pictures of the sky at any time of day and any time of the year. One day, Yorito decides to take a picture of the sunrise overlooking the bay, but is deterred when he meets a strange girl trying to force a vending machine that stole her money to give her what she tried to buy—a can of tomato juice. Yorito helps her with forcing the machine while attempting to strike up conversation with her, despite it being four in the morning. Yorito tells her why he is here, but by the time he has forced the can out of the machine, the girl has mysteriously vanished.

The next day, Yorito goes to visit his older sister Aono in the hospital with his friend Mana Ishizuki and Mana's little sister Koyori Ishizuki. Despite it being Aono's birthday, Yorito leaves soon after to take a photograph of the setting sun near an old church on the roof of the hospital. That night, Yorito leaves to buy groceries when it begins to rain and stops on the way home to wait for the rain to stop; while waiting, he runs into the strange girl he met from yesterday again. They talk longer this time and Yorito finally learns her name—Matsuri Shihou. A few days later, Yorito goes looking for the girl in the old church and finds a man wielding a sword before Matsuri.

After a display of Matsuri's astounding powers, Yorito discovers that she is in fact a creature known as a "Calamity of the Night", who has lived for centuries. She is being chased by Takeshi Tsujidou who intends to kill her, but Yorito tries to protect her by bringing her back to his home which is when Yorito asks her to stay with him for the time being.

A "Calamity of the Night", otherwise known as a Yaka is a supernatural being in the Sola story. Yaka have many supernatural powers, such as: a strong physical ability, fast regeneration, and never aging body, among other powers. A Yaka is hurt by direct exposure to sunlight, but the wound can be healed in time if the exposure is not excessive; a Yaka is otherwise immortal unless exposed to too much sunlight or has received fatal wounds. Matsuri explains that a Yaka is the embodiment of human agony and pain and that such creatures are meant to always be alone.

so to those who were expecting bleach or naruto in there are a bit surprised, i imagine.. i might watch a few of these.

(are you happy now?) ':)

Thursday, July 03, 2008

what sleepless nights can make me do...







i used to draw a lot when i was younger. good times..

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

the process of laser eye surgery

just a few seconds ago, i was watching the king of queens and the episode was about carie getting laser eye surgery but was blind for a few days instead. i literally paused the video and googled about it. what it laser surgery? how much is it? and what could go wrong? read on to find out.


basically, the cornea is sliced from the side to create a flap by using a high-tech cutting instrument. the laser is then put over the eye and blasts for a few seconds to correct the eye. after that, the flap is put back into place, which heals back really fast. and a few days after that, perfect 20-20 vision.


from BBC news:

How does this improve vision?

People need to wear glasses for different reasons. Some people are said to be short-sighted or myopic. This is due to the cornea being too steeply curved or the eye longer than normal.

Therefore, light rays fall in short of the retina - the area at the back of the eye that interprets the image - and results in blurred distance vision.

Other people are long-sighted or hyperopic because their cornea is too flat or the eye is too short. This means that the light rays focus too far beyond the retina.

Others have a condition where the cornea is oval shaped rather than spherical, called astigmatism. This produces two different focal points which can blur images at all distances.

Laser surgery to reshape the cornea can help to correct these problems.

Will it help with age-related vision loss?

No.

Laser surgery will not be able to cure age-related presbyopia and the need for reading glasses that people often develop in their mid-40's.

This is because presbyopia is not to do with a problem with the cornea. Instead, it occurs when the lens becoming less flexible with age.

Where can I get it?

Private treatment usually costs £1000-1500 per eye and is available at some NHS hospitals.

What are the risks?

Complications occur in less than 5% of cases, according to the Royal College of Ophthalmologists.

Some people have a problem with dry eyes in the months after surgery and artificial tear supplements might be needed in the long term.

Many patients have experienced glare or halo effects when night driving, particularly just after treatment. This is more likely the higher the correction that has been made, but is rarely severe.

In rare cases, excessive thinning of the eye wall can cause the shape of the eye to be unstable after treatment. Severe loss of vision is very unusual, but some patients could require corneal surgery or hard contact lenses to restore vision, it said.

Can both eyes be done on the same day?

Yes, but your consultant should outline the risks. In order to reduce the risk of cross contamination should complications arise, each eye should be treated as separate procedure.

How long will it take me to recover?

Most patients have a reasonably comfortable period after surgery and are back at work within a few days to a week.

Depending on the vision correction attempted, driving may be unsafe for one to two weeks. Tinted glasses with ultraviolet protection are needed when out in the sun for the first three months.

here's a video of the whole procedure. the patient does not feel any pain because of the eye drops that numbed the eye. the only discomfort in the whole process was the night after.. but the pain went away quickly.