Chasing After Rainbows

So, you may have come across a book like "G****** World Book of Records" and looked through and get amazed at the things they mention. But how many record-breaking things are there that are not recorded in this book? How many are achieved through cheating, or through impractical and unrealistic means? Which record has the most number of failed attempts? Some of these records looked as if they are done for the sake of doing it and either beat the previous record (even by just a tiny amount) or have it to themselves. If you watch their shows, or a news article about it, you would noticed that the event is "officially" supervised by someone. Nobody is going to recognize an event that actually breaks an existing record without shortcuts used if it is not "officially supervised", like a man running up and down the countryside by himself faster than that Bolt guy. Just don't believe everything others say, but leave room in the possibility that it coul...

My name is Naomi Maeda (前田ナオミ), and I am a year 2 student of Kaisei Middle School (海星中学校). I think I am 13 years old, but I oddly seem to have no memories any further than me being in my first year here... Why can't I remember? Seems that I'm not the only one as my classmates are asking that same question. I know a group of older girls which, as my memory tells me, I get along well. Everyone has their own rooms in an apartment or house that is shared with other people. I don't know what's the difference between those and a dormitory or how I ended living there, other than having more relaxed rules and limited rooms per house. It's strange how they have the same family name as me, but don't look alike. Then again, Maeda is a rather common one. The house is an area in Katsura City (桂市) where there is actually a direct train from my school to the station within walking distance from the house. The house is littered with pictures and reading materials from man...

It has been months since we had that talk about Mamiko, and our third year in High School has started. As if it has been plotted in that discussion, Aiko's cousin actually did die from being hit by a train . Surveillance footage has shown that she was attacked by two unknown men who did something to her, then made her dizzy before throwing her onto the tracks. The cousin was seen wandering around the tracks before walking towards an oncoming train that killed her. It seems like suicide, but autopsy reports shows that her eyes were missing. It's almost as if she was never born with eyes. Nobody knows how that happened, but it does explain why she was running around aimlessly before running towards the train: she couldn't see. In the footage and according to witnesses, she knew that a train was approaching and panicked, but being dizzy and blind meant that she couldn't tell which direction she was facing. Although Aiko foresaw her cousin's death, she didn't th...

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...