Chasing After Rainbows

It has been 25 days since the kindle arrived (Seemed longer to me) and in that time, I have finished reading 2 Harry Potter books, plus quite a number of manga volumes. These, however, form quite a small number of the amount I had already loaded on to it. Since then, I had figured out how to take screenshots on my kindle.  How to take the screenshot varies on which version it is (press and hold the keyboard and menu buttons for mine). If you do it correctly, the screen would flash and the screenshot would appear in the documents folder when you connect it to the PC. Of course, the Kindle has a hidden feature where you could view images: just create a "pictures" folder in the root directory. To make sure it is optimal for the screen, make sure the image is as close to 600*800 (3:4) as possible in monochrome, though images could still open if you didn't do that. The loaded images would appear on the main menu in the same way as a normal ebook, but using the folder name ...

After briefing the measures that Powell Research should be doing with the current situation, I had to rush to where Kotomi is: her parent's place. It's not urgent, but it isn't something I should be taking my time to get around to doing either. Kotomi has this curse where she needs to see Itsuki as a male regularly to keep her sanity for years now, but as I head to her place, the severity of what happened earlier becomes clearer, but still filled with unknowns. Judging from Kotomi's call earlier , she doesn't sound like her usual self. However, she did mention that she is aware of it, but unable to do anything about it. She was too shocked to mention where she was, but since her parents and siblings were mentioned, I assume she is with them. The likely place they would be is at her parent's house, though it is possible that they went out. Ever since it happened, I never ever saw anyone being aggressive, though I did hear people whining on why they are unable...

Back in 21 December 2012, I ordered an Amazon Kindle from the US store, along with other problems that followed involving the delay of delivery due the holidays. Anyway, it arrived at the delivery center closest to my home on Friday, 4 January 2013. I knew Saturday deliveries are only by appointment. The day it was delivered (6 January 2013) being a Sunday, I wasn't sure if I should be expecting it to arrive since it's the weekend until I saw on the courier's tracking page earlier that day that I saw it being delivered. It was a good thing that I wasn't planning to head out that day, though I did on Saturday. The Kindle is packaged in a "fustration-free" packaging that uses minimal resources. The only things inside was the kindle itself, a microUSB (or was it mini?), and a card containing some basic information. (Why include a very long printed legal information anyway?) I opened it up and was presented with several languages to choose from. (Japan...

The Kindle I mentioned earlier has been delivered to forwarding service with US address at 5am on the 27th of December 2012 (JST). The forwarding service took two "business days" to process it (sort it out from other people's packages that arrives at the same time), and then another two "business days" to prepare to ship it to me. In between these two events, it is held at their warehouse for up to 30 days (for free) so that I could wait for other shipments to arrive and ship everything from the US address together, which I didn't have any. The state it is located in, Oregon, has a 0% state tax at the moment. Unless the shipment comes with information regarding its value, you would have to declare its value (in USD) before you are allowed to ship it out. Then they charge US$11 (international shipping) + cost of fuel (based on actual weight or volumetric weight, whichever is higher) + "mandatory" insurance (based on some percentage of the t...

The girl Nanami saw appeared to be a student from the well known prestigious Mizuho Girls Academy. She looked very much like the president of Nanami's school computer club who graduated last year. Is this her sister? Moreover, for a girl who attends the academy that is known for people to to be knowledgeable, gentle, and feminine, her playing violent games clearly designed for men of ages older than her seems far out of place. Nanami thought that this could be their secret way of relieving stress and anger hidden behind the smiling faces. As much as Nanami wanted to know, "Hey..." The Mizuho girl had a worried look on her face. Nanami wasn't sure if the Mizuho girl is angry for trespassing. Before the Mizuho girl got closer, she received an incoming call from someone. It now looks like Nanami was given more time to come up with an excuse. "Huh? When did you say that was? A minute ago?!" Silenced followed as the unknown caller talked as the Mizuho gir...

Recently, I have been gaining interest in reading books. It wasn't until I started a movie marathon of the Harry Potter film (grew up with it) that I felt the desire to wanting to read it: I had read the book versions of the whole series (except the 7th, which I had only seen the movie version), and knew that there were things in the books that were omitted from the film version. The problem is that I seem to have misplaced it, or was not with me when I wanted. (I can't carry a lot of books with them weighting me down or leaving little room for other things, especially with the 4th volume onwards.) Well, you do know that I write my own stories on this blog. About two hundred thousand words on last count. Weeks earlier, I wrote down the first 3 parts of Teary Promise on sheets of lined A4 paper I had lying around: it took up 22 pages, and I had to take a break to rest my hand at every 3rd or 4th page. (I found typing errors as I did it.) I myself was shocked at how many pages...

Nanami found herself in a white void where everything she looked seems to extend forever with nothing in sight. She couldn't even tell if she is standing or lying down as she can't feel the gravity and with nothing in her sight but the shadowless white void for reference. She's not sure if she could even move her body, if she had any. Nanami is confused on what is happening around her. She knew she saw some rapid flashing green lights (in her home, not sure) not that long ago. The place is dead silent: not even the sound of a book being flipped, or any soft sounds. Is this silent, empty, and white, a place that everyone calls heaven? The last situation Nanami remembered certainly did not seem the kind that she would be killed in. After a few moments of being in this white void, not being able to do anything, things materialized around her as if she was in a video game, except that it looks real and she could feel the things that appeared. The object in question was an...