Chasing After Rainbows

Nothing happened. Just that the Comiket 73 at the Tokyo Big Sight or 東京ビックサイト (International Exhibition Center; 国際展示場 ) had took/is taking place from the 29-31 Dec. The crowds are like crazy. How crazy? Well think of it as a subway train in the central area of the city fully packed with people. Photos were forbidden there except the cosplay area. Also, to get in, there is an extremely long line and had to wait for an extremely long time to get in. Had to head there early to avoid the crowd, though the earliest train to there is already crowded (note that the Taxi fare rates there are the 2nd most expensive after London). The image on the right would give you some idea on how crowded it is from the previous comiket. Below is an overhead image from Google Maps/Earth showing the location. It's just next to Tokyo Bay. The Big Sight is just on the right of the text 国際展示場正門 in red.

Shinjuku Station (新宿駅) is one of the busiest station located somewhere near the Shibuya area. So busy that it recorded an average of about 3.31 million per day last year (2006). Since it serves that many people, of course, there are about 25 train platforms served by 5 different operators along with about 200 exits. It's so large that you can compare it with a small city. Of course, like any other station there is an automatic fare gates (except in towns and villages which may not have any). The card used to enter is called Suica (based on Sony's Felica, which is also used on the Octopus Card in Hong Kong and some card in Singapore with an uncreative name). It can also be embedded in mobile phones (Keitai denwa / 携帯電話). That's why there you can see people putting wallets, handbags and keitai on the card reader to enter. Of course, there are machines to purchase tickets. (Near the New South Entrance/Exit (新南口). The train station is that short long building on the right of ...

The worst thing that could happen to anyone is having a writer's block . Back in secondary school, I always seem to be unable to come up with anything when doing the assignment of writing essays or writing more than what is already provided. Of course, this would be worse if it involves creating something new or choosing whatever topic I like. I got this project to do that is to be done by the 9th of next month, but I'm already stuck at the 1st slide. It's supposed to last for 10 minutes. My laptop comes with Microsoft 2007 but it's on a trial period until I enter the serial number. So I end up using OpenOffice.org instead unless I'm using a different PC. Maybe I just don't know how exactly to do this. Or maybe its just that I just lack of exposure of learning. If only I could turn back time or things happening differently in the past, things could be different now. Speaking of learning, I want to forget what I learned about the Malay Language (Bahasa Melayu / ...

(Note: Photo taken in November 2006 (13 months ago); all the things in this picture had moved quite a lot since then.) The black part near the top you see in the picture on the left broke some time ago when I was moving boxes up there. As I had removed the mattress below earlier to do stuff under the bed, I managed to grab hold of the closet to the right (not reflected in the image) in time. The frame of the bed looks like its falling apart (it's made of wood) and could break at any moment. The furniture set is quite old. It's been around since I moved in in Dec 1996 (11 years ago). Anyways, I now have images taken from yesterday (24 Dec 2007) and today (25 Dec 2007) that would (probably) help with my school project, which I haven't started. More would come soon from the same place until 2 Jan 2008. Of course, not all of the images would appear in the final version. I'll try to do it differently from other people (that are around me). Since it's most likely to be Ja...

(image souce: 2chan.net at Dec 2006) I know this image is 375 days old, but I find it quite amusing that Haruhi (from 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱) on a protesting sign in the Gazaa City by a kid. What is even more amusing about this is that this image appeared on intenational news (via  Agence France-Presse, a french news agency) on newspapers and online worldwide. I wonder what they were thinking. Anyways, enough of that. This would the time of the year that people of developed nations waste their hard earned money for something and giving it away, having parties that would waste water, electricity, petrol (and somehow contribute to polution) People far and near are also gathering together (good or bad is another thing). Public transport and roadways are crowded too, leading to traffic jams and overcrowding which also leads to delays, waste of energy while waiting for the jam to ease and unhappy people. Heavy floods and snowstorms in some areas. Accidents that leads to injury or death would happen mor...

I don't know why but that "thing" (I can't say it here) above "random image (from anywhere)" is in japanese sometimes. Another thing is that the banner of the same dimentions on my other blog has images instead of static text. I exchanged money with my sister for lower denominations (eg. 1 $1 coin -> 2 $0.20 + 6 $0.05, 1 $1 -> 2 $0.50) and then $8.60 worth of 1&5 cent coints for a $10 note, then 10 $1 coins for 1 $10 note. I use the vending machine (it has "Polar: the popular choice" on the side) to exchange the $0.10, $0.20, and $0.50 coins for $1 coin. They don't accept $0.01 or $0.05 coins. I'm doing this so that I can have as little coins without the bulk of coins (and help the vending machine to have small change). Too bad the bank deposit machine only accepts $10, $50 and $100 notes. The bank would also charge if you deposit too many coins (250 of mixed denominations i think), an amount equal to buying a meal at a fast food...

I don't like it when people communicate to me when not in person. Here are the things you should take note of: If contacting me by mobile/fixed/internet phone: I have a caller ID Make sure I know who you are when you are calling. Me giving my number and you not doing the same is as good as not knowing who is calling me. Do not call me on all my numbers for more than a total of 2 times in a day, even if I do not answer. Otherwise, I see you as a prank caller and have a bad impression of you. When messaging by SMS/MMS, say what the hell you want. Not " Are you free next ___? " or " Go online, I got something to tell you. It's urgent. " (for the latter, I would assume that it is not urgent since you are telling me to go online instead of telling me what that "urgent" thing is.) What I'm expecting is "There will be a ___ meeting on ____ at ___.", " Do you know how to solve this equation? x=2y-y^2+3z " or " Thanks for what...