Chasing After Rainbows

When the day came, I did some final checks, lock up all the possible entry points, and made my way to the specified meeting point. Just to be safe, after taking more-than-sufficient amount of money for the whole trip, I had deposited all the money that was lying under my parents' bed into my bank account which I can withdraw overseas from. Of course, since it's a huge amount and could possibly withdraw overseas, I had to head to the bank the day before. This luggage bag is big and heavy, good thing it has wheels. The meeting point was around the newsstand of the busiest station. The reason why I chose this place was that it's not so crowded and that the only train line that stops at stations outside the city that is transferable to several other lines in the direction of the international airport. Besides, I checked where my classmates are staying and that they would have to pass through this station anyway. It seems that I am early and that there is no one else here. G...

I was cleaning up one of my portable hard disk by searching for redundant files in a specific directory. Since I was using Vista, I can't use the search without entering part of the filename, which are somewhat random. So, I used a 1998 pc that has been gathering dust next to my Vista laptop that I normally use running XP's search engine. (It originally came with Windows 95, but for the sake of compatibility and stability, I had upgraded it.) Since it's an old PC, and have USB 1.1 ports (only 2 at the back), it's painfully slow for the thumbnails to load. As I start to scroll through ~16000 files (scroll bar is only 1/4 down as I'm typing this) and waiting for it to load, I decided to try out the command prompt command I recently found out to copy/move files. Useful if the PC if you are using does not allow access to the system drive, but does not block access to command prompt. I typed "dir /ah " at the root directory. The parts in bold are commands I di...

(originally posted here a while ago) I started doing this right after doing v0065 on the 21st February 2009. Right now, I am almost done with the outline. Since the original is a monochrome image drawn by pencil, I had a hard time figuring out which are the shades and which are the outlines on top of multiple lines that could have otherwise be represented as only 1 line (eg. the tatami mat frames at the bottom left). I have also put up colours based on my judgment or earlier vectors at roughly at where they should be. What I'm trying to do besides that is to redesign the character's heads, especially the 3rd, 5th and 6th from the front as the original was done in August 2005. If you had payed attention to the character designs of anime back then and now, you can see that the character designs have been improving. One such example is the 2002 and 2006 versions of Kanon where even though the storyline is about the same, the visuals of the newer one looked a lot better. Of cour...

My cousin and I departed ways when we left the train station as we are in different schools. The large variety of uniforms of different schools has now been filtered down to only my school. Many students were walking by themselves, except those that somehow knew another. The blooming cherry blossom trees along the way makes the scene looks better and it represents a new start. At the entrance, there was a vertical wooden sign placed on the ground and leaning on the wall to the right of the gate, decorated with some (fake) flowers as the border with the words "n th Entrance Ceremony" (第〇回入学式). The sign partially covered the name of my school. The first years headed to the hall for the entrance ceremony. My seniors are looking at the noticeboard put up near the entrance of the building to see what class they are in. With some yells of excitement and disappointment. It was such a large crowd that I had a hard time getting past them. In the hall, we were first arranged by ...

I decided to combine the lyrics here from my anime blogs, which appearently appear as the first link if you were to Google it for the first opening that comes out first out of the thousand in the results. ( Original English/Romaji lyrics post ） ( Original Japanese/Kanji lyrics ) オープニングテーマ Opening Theme ：『 silky heart シルキーハート 』 My Silky Love マイシルキーラブ 24時間 にじゅうよじかん ずっと (My Silky Love, all the while, for 24 hours) My Silky Love マイシルキーラブ キミのこと 思 おも うたび (My Silky Love, every time when I think of you) My Silky Love マイシルキーラブ もどかしいこの 気持 きも ち (My Silky Love, my irritating feelings) My Silky Love マイシルキーラブ ただ 溢 あふ れかえってく (My Silky Love, simply overflow) スキと 言 い えば 簡単 かんたん なのに (Even though it’s easy to say ‘I love you’) キミが 前 まえ に 来 き ちゃうと (When you come in front of me) 個性 キャラ がそびえ　 私 わたし のコトを 邪魔 じゃま してる (My characteristics arise and interfere with me) いつもならば 強気 つよき だイケる (If it’s the usual, I can go on boldly) そんな 性格 せいかく なのに (Even though that’s my personality) どんな 頑張 がんば ってみても 壁 かべ は 崩 くず せな...

The flower viewing season has arrived a bit early this year as the cherry blossom trees all around has started to bloom and its petals scattering all over the ground. I noticed this when I headed to work at the hospital. On the Sunday of the week before the new school year starts, my parents, grandparents, and extended family organized a picnic at the park. I don't really know anyone besides my immediate family, Kenji (uncle) and Aiko (cousin), so it feels like I'm surrounded by strangers even though they are blood-related to me. So this event is actually quite big. I think some of them brought their friends along, but I can't tell them apart from the relatives whom I don't know. Those who are 20 or older (age where one is considered an adult here) drank beer and got drunk or just chatted among themselves. The children (including my younger siblings) played with each other all around us. My youngest sister is still a baby, so my grandmother (I think), would take ca...

[Revised on 16 February 16 February 2009] [ Author's Note 1: Takes place some months before part 1 ] I woke up from bed laid on the tatami of my room to a house occupied by no one else but me. Except for the area around the study desk and where I normally place the futon , every little corner of my room is filled with stuff. Some of which are stuff I should have just thrown away. Since the garbage collector is strict on sorting garbage by how recyclable/combustible it is and has specific timings and days on collections for each particular type. I have to put out the specified garbage in a particular type of plastic bag at a certain time frame at the roadside. If not done correctly, they would just ignore it (I could tell from the other houses in the neighbourhood) or at least put a note that I am doing it wrong. I find it more convinent to just leave those around in my room and hopefully bring around to throwing those at the bins of the back alley of someone's store in the...

Not long after doing v0062 , I decided to complete v0007 , which has been lying around abandoned for 6.5 months (early August 2008; 29 weeks). Before: As you can see the version as at 3 August 2008, I had already done most of the body. The head is quite hard to do because it's at an angle, the eyes are red-ish, and the hair is quite messy and long. It also features the old version of the signature. After: Now, this is the current completed version. I was not able to do this back then as my skills back then is not as good as now. The head came from v0058 , which may explain why it may look quite familiar as I gave up trying to improve the original head. Other rejected vectors are v0008 , v0009 and v0010 . v0010 was used as the header image for my anime blogs before the current layout.

Ever since I got my new notebook PC in 3Q 2007 that came with Vista, I somewhat rarely use the desktop PC I have been using before it. Of course, I still do stuff like defragmentation and applying important updates. However, other people in the house are still using it, and they are less knowledgeable about PC. (My mother doesn't even know how to transfer files!) However, one day, I noticed that there is a notification saying that anti-virus is not installed. I checked the folder, but it's files are still there, but unable to open. I then download the latest version of that anti-virus and tried to install, but an error occurred when it scans for files that may interfere. In the end, I can't get rid of the problem or proceed with the installation. The good thing is that Spybot-SD that I had installed a long time ago for spyware and tracker cookie removal is still working. I wanted to get to the root of the problem, but those other people are using it. The only time which I c...

[revised on 16 February 2009] (continued from part 21 ) There is a small crowd that have already gathered around us, eager to watch us playing the song. Based on past experience, more people would come if people saw us already playing the musical instruments. There is a piano at one corner, but the person sitting there don't seem to be involve in the piece we are about to play. Except for the sound of nature (and the faint sound of the other me uncontrollably crying heavily from somewhere nearby), there was silence as the conductor raised his baton towards the ensemble. I played the music that I had been practicing. Not only should I follow the score sheet, I should look at the conductor and listen to the other instruments to ensure that I don't go out of tune, which could be a disaster. I have heard of a conductor who could notice even the smallest mistake that other conductors would normally miss. Since this is a performance, some notes were added, extended, repeated or playe...

(last updated on 27 February 2009) [Note to self: better put this down before I forget, and for easier reference] I wasn't planning to put this up, but since I started writing stories here in August 2008, it somewhat got expanded and the time frame for each is different from each other. Fortunately, they all happen in the same area. With cross-reference to last December's post , I have made a timeline of when the story roughly happens. At when I started: Current (as at 7 Feb 2009): As you can see, the 3rd story (Tokihi) started 1.5 years before the other two, though it was fast-forwarded to 5 months later at the end of the first part. I do however, plan to insert parts in-between, or would just edit the part it belongs to later on, but this is not confirmed. The year number is just a way to calculate how much time has passed and the day of the week based on the numbering of recent years. After all, it wouldn't add up if I say that Jan 13 is a Friday and Feb 4 of the same ye...

During the break between the middle school graduation ceremony and high school entrance ceremony, my uncle invited me to work with him and Aiko together at the hospital he is a director of. (Mum says it's good to know them better) Because I am his blood relative and with my knowledge on chemistry and biology, he just employed me to a position that would normally require a degree. That typically means that my colleagues are at least 7 years older than me. Of course, I would work part time. The white lab coat he gave me as part of the work attire made me look like a grown-up, but then again, considering my age, I might not grow larger compared to how small I was just 5 years ago. It's like the couch at home: I remember only occupying about one-third of the space when lying down, but now, not only my body occupies the whole couch, my legs are sticking out! I have grown so much that I find it hard that I came from inside my mother, whom I'm now slightly larger than. The oldes...