I'm in Shanghai right now, and will be until January next year. So, I'm away from work at Maikaze. If all goes well, it should be complete by winter.

Anyway, I can't login to LJ from Shanghai (without proxies) so this might be the last post for a long time. Maybe I'll start a new blog.

Got a Wilhelmina figurine~

Ever since I saw this on display at Akibaoo I've been wondering where it came from. Well, Akibaoo has a figurine section, but, it didn't look like the ones there... (I later found out these were sold on the shelf by the cash register at Akibaoo, and also, the fact that they were boxed made them harder to find.) Anyway, I was at Chiba today and was wandering around the Yodobashi Camera building, and the Yellow Submarine hobby shop had these boxes stacked... I thought immediately of getting them, but the problem is, these boxed figurines are a gamble. There are like 5 different figurines, and what you get is random. There are pre-opened boxes sold at the store, but, the price goes up (2,000 yen for Wilhelmina) and the only preopened Wilhelmina figurine had a bad paint job on the hair. I found out that the boxes weighed slightly differently when I lifed them, and I bought three of the heaviest ones (since Wilhelmina looked like she has more parts than the rest.) And well, you can probably tell that I got what I wanted, since I'm posting the picture. The other 2 are from a series I don't know, but they are made so that you can display them together... (this is part of an Ito Noizi figurine collection.) Mmm, this is the first Wilhelmina Carmel figurine I know of, though, odd, considering there are lots of Shana figurines out, and Wilhelmina is pretty popular... I think? Well, I'm pretty sure there'll be a 3,000~8,000 yen figurine made of her soon enough? (These are ~700 yen a box. Depends on where you buy it.)

http://www.amiami.com/shop?vgForm=ProductInfo&sku=FIG-COL-0113&template=review.html

Got the new speakers... not the one I was planning to get, but it's an Onkyo set with digital input. These are what I got: GX-D90.  GX-100HD, which I was planning to get were sold out everywhere including online shops.

The olders speakers I've been using since back in Taiwan... (almost 10 years ago?) have "MLi 270T" written on them. It seems they aren't as bad as I thought them to be. But, when I turn the volume nob, it makes a crackling sound and when the volume is turned low, often one of the speakers quit playing.

I wish my house (or well, technically my parent's house) were closer to inner city Tokyo. An hour from Tokyo on the train is a bit far. Or well, it probably seems far since I go across Tokyo to the other side, but.. :P

I was remote controlling the computer at home using VNC, but, when I installed a codec pack and tried to reboot, it froze... and the FTP I setup on the second computer froze as well... ;P so, I went home today to reboot the computer and check the mail (not email but real mail). There was a letter from the university in the mail, I thought it was the report card, but, when I looked closely, it was addressed to my father and it had the 150th anniversary logo, so I found out it was just another advertisement/donation mail. It seems the report card is going to be sent out on the 10th, and it's going to be uploaded to our web accounts on the same day.

Being in a house alone is pretty lonely (compared to a condo or hotel room, I mean). It wasn't that bad when I was working in my room with the heater on and the sun still up, but felt a bit creepy when it was getting dark and I was eating cup noodles alone in the cold living room. It felt too large. I really want an apartment of my own, but, then, if I rent an apartment, I'll probably face budget cuts on my allowance, which would hurt my animation career... lol. I guess I'll have to cope with the slight inconvenience for a while... I'm quite better off than the other college students who usually have part time jobs.

Anyway, speaking of money, my cheapo speaker that's been with me since I was in Taiwan is starting to crackle when I turn the sound down, so I'm thinking of upgrading the speaker on the desktop system. For a moment I thought I'll buy something cheap and wait till I have money, but... considering speakers technology doesn't make rapid progress like CPUs and also that most good speakers need aging, I thought maybe I shouldn't waste money on something cheap, and instead try to find something I can use for a decade or so? (Like I did with the old speakers, though they were really cheap. I think it was like NT$280... so, like US$12? lol...)

Anyway, but, if I get the ONKYO speakers, which are like $200, I won't be able to get a CPU upgrade, but, mmm... do I really need a quad core? ....mmm, well, I want a machine that could render fast, but, the bottleneck for video rendering is usually the hard drive speed. (I looked around a bit, and found out it's not always the case, but I don't do ultra-nested compositions in 3D or anything, so.) So, CPU upgrade probably won't do much except satisfy my desire for a fast CPU... lol. Normal solution would probably be to make a RAID0 system, but, the main computer already has a RAID5 array. So, well, I thought maybe I'll make it a x64 system and try out ramdisk... Well, most people probably don't understand a thing I just said, but, ramdisk is kind of like this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1PiYgBhAkAM

This is a bit different, but you get the idea... insanely fast.

Mmm... for the reference, specs on my computers now :3

Case: Antec P150 (includes 430 watt power supply from Antec)
Motherboard: GA-P35-DS3R (rev1.0)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
Memory: Elixir Chip DDR2-800 1GB x2 (bulk) (Dual-Channel)
Graphics Card: GeForce 8600GT 256MB (bulk)
HDD: Hitachi 500GB SATA x3 (RAID5)
Optical Drive: Some cheap drive from BENQ with lightscribe

Well, from my previous mistake, I learned that the case is probably the most important part of the computer. :P  A good machine looks really cheap and unsatisfactory without a good case. And the Antec P150 looks beautiful for the price, plus it's really easy to take apart. It's rock solid... I can rest my foot on it and it won't budge. (The old case has a dent on top from my bad habit of laying my foot on it while I go on RO.) The only problem... is that it's insanely heavy. With everything assembled, the computer weighs over 12kg. I carried it to my aunt's house once, and I thought I'll break my back. Currently runs Windows Vista Home Premium x86... I want Ultimate... ugh, oh well, I just want the remote desktop feature, but, I guess I'll wait for a Vista compatible VNC... until then, it runs as an FTP server.

And that's not all, lol, I have a second machine ;3

Case: Shuttle SN25P
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
Memory: DDR-400 512MB x2 (Dual-Channel)
Graphics Card: ASUS GeForce 7600GT
HDD: Western Digital 320GB, Seagate 250GB SATA
Optical Drive: I have no idea, it's some old DVD-R drive that can't burn DL disks.

This one is, really small and really quite, and it's not as fast as the other one, but I love it? it's so small... ;o  I broke my Socket939 motherboard a while back, and all the other parts were still working... so I went to look for a replacement board. And that day, T-Zone was doing a clearance on these things and I got the last of them for like $200. Whee? I mean, these things were over $400 one time, I think? It was good since I got to replace the horrid case I had and fit all the old parts in a nice compact package. (Got a CPU upgrade after a while, though. Before I had a AMD Athlon 64 3200+, but I hurried bought a Socket939 dual-core before they stop selling them, those were getting cheap as well anyway.)

Okay, well, that kind of sums up what I've been doing with my computers for these few years, lol. Except for the laptop. The laptop I just got a memory upgrade from 512MB to 1.5GB. It's okay for surfing web or playing 2D games, but 3D performance sucks and rendering videos on this thing is a disastrous, although I had to do it several times.

1. It is a doujin (non-commercial) game and is made almost entirely by 1 person, known as ZUN


2. It's a shooting game that focuses on dodging enemy bullets more than the shooting part


3. And these bullets you dodge are often come in beautifully designed patterns


4. The game takes place in a Japanesque fantasy setting, and the characters are well designed for a shooting game
   
5. ZUN has approved of most fan works (as long as it's not a direct copy), which has created a very large following of fans who create other doujin work off Touhou

• Touhou Anime Project is doujin, meaning, it's not made by paid people in commercial animation houses (although there are exceptions)


• Even though it is doujin, the creation process is very professional. The project goes through most steps of commercial annimation.


• The entire voice acting will be done by professional voice actors. But, the level of the voice acting depends on the budget and the time schedule. Popular voice actors have very tight schedules, which is filled several months ahead of time.

• Characters are based on Immaterial and Missing Power (+ Aya)


• Characters making appearance in the first episode are.... wait, maybe I shouldn't say this. Well, okay, first few scenes are Reimu + Suika. Then Aya + Marisa enter.


• There will be battle scenes.


• 3 episodes are planned, 10~15 minutes each (+ ending movie and credits, no opening planned, at least for the first episode)


• Planned release date of the first episode is August 17, 2008 at Comic Market 74. Third demo with previews of actual scenes will be released at Hakurai-jinja Reitaisai 5 May 25, 2008.6. We have 3 episodes planned, 10~15 minutes each (+ ending movie and credits, no opening planned, at least for the first episode)

To those who know English, just click on the link(s) below, and watch the flash animations. Enjoy? (Touhou Stuff.)

知っている人いるかもしれませんが、外国の方でこんなの作ってる人がいます。（東方FLASH）
http://www.walfas.org/
東方ジェネレータ
http://www.walfas.org/flash/create.swf

多分そのままFLASH見ても読めない人が多いと思うので、ニコニコで「Walfas」とか「東方インターナショナル」のタグを調べますと適当な字幕コメント版が出てきます。
http://www.nicovideo.jp/tag/walfas 

After the last Comic Market, the cupboard I stuffed doujinshi in has completely filled up. I guess I need to find a bigger place for the collection. 

BTW, the Patchy postcard that was given out at the KFC booth is really pretty. Mine unfortunately got a bit folded on the edge... ;_;

Finals: January 23 - February 5
Finals Schedule Announcement: January 9

By January 14
Finish reviewing Statistics, Econometrics and write rough draft for Fashion Report, (Take a look at After Effects if there's time)

By January 16
Finish reviewing Marxist economics

By January 20
Finish reviwing Microeconomics and Economic History

That's it? Well, the least required to pass. Other classes I can fail... plus, well, like, German, I don't think there's the need to study... Multiple choice test, ...a really easy multiple choice test. Mmm... maybe I should stock up on energy drinks. (Those things that are kind of like Red Bull... There's a variety in Japan.) And maybe put Help me, ERINNNNNN!! on loop...

I've been using this cramped computer desk for a while, but, now that I want to start editting movies, it was too crammed. I mean, I got a small sized keyboard, yet the mousepad goes undeer the keyboard because there's just too little space. So, basically, I got a new computer desk. It's similar to what I was using back in the US, flat on top, and pretty much no attachments, no keyboard drawers and such. Just one regular drawer and one small elevated platform, probably to place the printer or something. The old desk, might stay, if I find a place to stuff it in this room... Or maybe it can go to the club room at college... where I plan to add a computer. Mmm... Well, getting late.