Friday, April 25, 2003, 10:06 a.m.
Survivor and fanfic update, and a deck of cards
I didn't see the redux episode of Survivor last week because on where I had my vacation didn't carry the channel that airs survivor (besides, last week was Holy Week, a time that Filipinos take seriously). I'll expect to watch it this week, along with this week's episode.
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My first Card Captor Sakura fanfic, Kero's Tooth Day is now up. Check it out at Kawaii Sakura Shrine.
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During these past few days, I decided not to write on this blog because my latest project. It is a deck of cards. But it is still not AAT3 because I have not decided on anything about it yet. It is just an deck of ordinary playing cards featuring characters from my favorite anime, including my new favorites Rave and Final Fantasy: Unlimited. The Aces depict my most favorites: Sailormoon (Ace of Spades), Card Captor Sakura (Ace of Clubs), Pokemon (Ace of Hearts), and Galaxy Angel (Ace of Diamonds). Unlike AAT1 and AAT2 where the selection has a more complex criteria, selection in this deck was simple: I don't select what I haven't seen (sorry, Love Hina) and I don't select what I hate. That last criterion was supposed to be reserved for the Jokers (since they were the least used cards in the entire playing deck), but they were occupied early by my two favorite anime jerks, Gokudo and NieA!
Not surprisingly, I got this idea from an ABC news report about a deck of cards issued to Coalition Forces in Iraq which depicted 52 of the 55 most wanted Iraqi officials (with Saddam, of course, as the Ace of Spades).
The cards were made the same way as those of AAT1 and AAT2, and they are stored on my PC. But since my PC is in a room being repainted at this very moment (I'm using my laptop), I can't show my deck to you right now. I'm just telling you this to let you know. I'll be posting pictures of it in a later entry.
Ja!
Tuesday, April 15, 2003, 10:09 a.m.
Survivor Comment Update/Vacation Notice
Well, Deena was voted out. So what? She should've been. But it is because of one, single, solitary, live bug that she blew up the Immunity challenge. Add to that Rob's dilemma on who would he side, and Jenna's confession to Alex. Matthew "the killer" is now immune and he would be there for three more days. Yikes! At least Butch wasn't targeted.
I'll be having my five-day Net vacation this coming Wednesday. This means I'll be going to a far off place for the Lenten/Easter holidays. And unless that place doesn't have interner access, I won't be online for a while. By the time I'll come back online, look forward for Kero's Tooth Day.
Ja!
Thursday, April 10, 2003, 10:14 a.m.
Fanfic update and Rave
Though I haven't started on my latest fanfic, Kero's Tooth Day, I already laid out the framework on it. This is how the story goes: Kero (or Kerberos), after eating too many sweets, suddenly have a toothache and seven of his fellow CLAMP character tried to help ease his pain -- with some chaotic results.
This is a all-CLAMP crossover as Kero (of Card Captor Sakura) meets up with the following:
- Chii and Sumomo (Chobits)
- Inuki (X)
- Nokuru Imonomiya (CLAMP School Detectives)
- Mokona (Magic Knight Rayearth)
- Miyuki (Miyuki-chan in the Wonderland)
- Hikaru (Angelic Layer, although has a striking resemblance with MKRE's Hikaru Shidoh)
I'll start working on it as soon as I have free time.
As for the last installment of Akihabara Denno Gumi: Time Travelers, I'll still thinking of how I should end this short fanfic series. I have a vague layout of the story, yet I still doesn't fit. Again I'll start with it as soon as I have free time.
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Rave is an anime about a group of stones collectively known as Rave which are scatter throughout the world fifty years before by the huge explosion called the Overdrive after destroying the Dark Bring stones.
It follows the adventures of Haru Glory, the second Rave Master, finding these stones to stop Demon Card, a terrorist organization, from taking over the world using the Dark Bring Stones. (The first one, Shiva, is the one fighting 50 years before and by the time he found Haru, he was way too old to fight.) Going along for the ride are his pet Plue, a very weird creature (with a drill bit for a nose) that can detect the presence of Rave; Elie, a girl who somehow last her memory (a very painful, she claimed); a thief-cum-silversmith Musica (Silver Rhythm Musica to be precise; his grandfather is Blacksmith Musica, who knew Shiva somethime before); and Griffon Kato, an equally weird creature who looks like a cross between Flubber and an Easter Island statue.
Little is written in the Net about Rave, so I'll wait a little while before it ripens it popularity (but it has already has a place in the third Assorted Anime Tarot deck). But I've seen 20 episodes so far, but I'm now in the point where I should view each episode only once. (Oh, the agony!) But I won't spill the beans on what happened in episode 21. Just wait until it was released in America.
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Daylight Savings Time has just started, and this means I'll catch the live feed of Survivor an hour early. Yahooo!
Ja!
Monday, April 7, 2003, 10:30 a.m.
Survivor Comment Update
This time it ws rocket scientist Dave who was voted, and I think after winning that reward that he became vulnerbale. But I'll tell you before Dave's departure, there were many funny things happened in the episode.
- As a token to remind the tribe of Roger, they threw away his brief!
- The tribe was concerned about Matt. Is Matt thinking of food out of his tribemates?
- Rob started to call Jenna and Heidi "Twigs & Sticks." And why not? Just look at their legs
- And no matter how beautiful the tribe made their masks, don't you think they're still hideous?
Well, since Dave is now gone and the Jaburu "men" and all the females seem to vote out the men of Tambaqui first, it seemed that Butch is now a sitting duck for sure, unless he wins immunity. But of course, I can be wrong.
Ja!
Wednesday, April 2, 2003, 10:15 a.m.
Survivor comment update & Chobits
On this week's Survivor, the two tribes finally merged and they called themselves Jacaré (meaning "alligator"). Sounds cool isn't it. But according to the CBS Survivor Store site, the merged tribe color is red. But when you watch it on TV, their red buffs are more like red-orange than red.
Okay, the tribes have merged and personalities clash. Deena vs. Roger, no doubt; the bossy one going against the responsible, but tough one. What happened was the tribe decided to retain the responsible one (Deena) because if Roger was in the jury, according to Rob (I'm not sure if he said it), he would never ever vote for a female. But to me, that's a good idea, although I can still see flaws on Roger's bossy character. Oh, well.
There are two funny moments in this episode. The first one is when Jenna and Heidi stripped themselves before jumping on the water during the immunity challenge. Their idea is to tempt the men to jump off also, but they got more than they bargained for. The second one is when Rob voted against Roger, he spoke like a DJ playing a song Roger "requested." I don't remember the name of the song, but what Rob sang was "Nah-nah-nah, nah-nah-nah, hey-hey-hey, good-bye!" That alone is funny. (Rob spelled Roger's name like it was Kentucky Joe's [Rodger of the Outback]; coincidentally, to me, Roger looks like Kentucky Joe, only younger.)
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Chobits is another CLAMP anime about a guy who finds a persocon in the trash, and when that persocon wakes up, the guy tries to "teach" it.
A Persocon is an android that can do anything that a computer does and more -- or less. (Furthermore, "Persocon" actually came from the Japanese term pasokon, which refers to a PC, so in a sense, we can also call a Persocon a PC -- personal companion.) This is why the series's main man Hideki Motosuwa, a Hokkaido farm guy who tries to enter a university, was desperate to have one while trying to take up university entrance exams in Tokyo. He found one --- in the trash. But what's interesting about this Persocon is that this one can only say "chii," and can imitate everything he does. Its operating system cannot be examined and Persocons that tried to scan its memory crashed (those include Sumomo, a little Persocon owned by Hideki's roommate Hirobu Shimbo)!
Hideki later found out from Minoru Kokubunji, a young expert in custom made Persocons (young is the word here) that the one Hideki found was a legendary type of Persocon called Chobits, which acts and speaks and learns in its own will. So Hideki named the Persocon Chii (since it can only say "Chii"), and then taught it about everything he knew. What happened next is... you be the judge. All I can say is it funny and chaotic.
Since my computer's CD-ROM had been acting up lately, I can't extract some pictures from the series. But what I can tell you is Hideki reminds me of Tohya, Yumi Omura reminds me of Rika, and Chitose Hibiya the landlady looks like a cross between Tomoyo and Yamazaki-kun. For more info, visit the official Japanese website at http://www.tbs.co.jp/chobits/ or one of my favorite English sites: Chobits The Anime.
Ja!
Monday, March 24, 2003, 09:24 p.m.
Survivor Update
On this week's episode of Survivor, Butch finally saw Christy's worth. He believed that even if she is deaf, she has strength inside that outweighs her disabilities.
As for Shawna, shame on her, because she got waaaaaaaaaaaaay to much pep from both Alex and Matthew.
Now it's down to six men and four women. How will these two tribes merge and under what name remains to be seen.
I just wanna say that Spirited Away won the Oscar for best animated feature. Yokkata wa, Yamazaki-sensei! Omedetou gozaimasu wa!
Ja!
Saturday, March 15, 2003, 07:16 a.m.
Survivor Comment Update
When Joanna was voted out, I was happy to see her go. Not only she is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too religious, she's also waaaaaaaaaaay too loud!
As for the men, at least Matt found his usefulness in the tribe since was aligned with Daniel and Ryan. Now we know he can fish!
Back to this week's Survivor. That episode was a table-turner. When Dave and Jenna was called to have a "good time," they never knew they will trade tribe members. Dave chose my (new) bet Christy to be part of Tambaqui, along with Jeanne and Heidi, while retaining Butch and Roger. And Jenna made the right choice of retaining Shawna (and Deena) while picking Alex (along with Matt and Rob); Shawna really need's some psychological pep.
With what happened on this week's episode, what started as a battle of the sexes is now an equal-opportunity battle, with both tribes having male and female members.
That's all for now! And congratulations to Koushin Gunji; he's the Ultimate Survivor (of Rota Island).
Ja!
Wednesday, March 5, 2003, 03:06 p.m.
Survivor Update
I can't believe my favorite Survivor, Daniel was voted out!
IIIIIIIIIIIIYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!
*sigh* Sorry about that. But he's my favorite! But everyone in Tambaqui hated and because of that he was voted out.
At least those in Jaburu got things into order.
So how now, brown cow? Well, Christy is my new bet, now. She's disable, and everybody loves an underdog.
I'd finally seen Spirited Away (or almost all of it) and I'll be giving you my comment about it in the next entry.
Ja!
Wednesday, February 26, 2003, 12:40 p.m.
Survivor comment update
At last, Tambaqui is immune. Jaburu had been in a lot of arguments lately, especially on the shelter (I forgot; Jaburu has no shelter). And when it comes to the immunity idol, JoAnna was way too vocal against it. (The Second Commandment, "Thou shall not have other gods than Me," was her basis). What's with her anyway? And with the words of her tribemate, the deaf Christy, "Man, if you are a vessel of Christ, don't you think you need to be a little nicer or kinder?"
Forget the granola bar; I won't talk about it.
I recently have a copy of the Oscar-nominated anime Spirited Away. I'll give you my opinion about it some other time, once after I watch it.
Ja!
Thursday, February 20, 2003, 10:32 a.m.
I'm sorry!
I forgot to tell myself. Belated Happy Birthday to my alter-ego; his birthday was last Tuesday.
That's all for now!
Ja!
Saturday, February 15, 2003, 01:48 p.m.
Survivor finally begins!
Yesterday, I finally got to see the first episode of Survivor: The Amazon. From the beginning, Jeff Probst did not introduce the contestants anymore. He took us straight to the game instead.
I was disappointed that the guys at the Tambaqui tribe lost and were sent to Tribal Council. Lucky for me, it's Ryan who was voted out. My favorite to win is still Daniel. What does Dave have against Danniel, anyway?
But I hope the Tambaqui men gonna keep up with their work; the Jaburu women still have no shelter!!!
I'll be having my defense today. I hope you'll support me!
Ja!
Monday, February 10, 2003, 03:16 p.m.
Thesis Pressure!
By Saturday, I'll have my thesis defense, and I have to make all of my defense essentials (visual aids, etc.) and my addenda by tomorrow. If you don't know, it is the description of the appeal of Card Captor Sakura to some 10- to 12-year-olds of our university's resident elementary school. I'll tell you how will go later.
Ja!
Saturday, February 8, 2003, 04:12 p.m.
Break!
I'll be out for two days because I was needed in my team's work. Wait until Tuesday for my next piece of news.
Ja!
Friday, February 7, 2003, 02:23 p.m.
Survivor (Japanese version)
While we're still waiting for Survivor: The Amazon to come out of our screens, let me tell you about one version of Survivor.
The Japanese channel TBS made its own version of "Survivor." The title was, of course, Survivor. This is where 16 Japanese are marooned in an island for 39 days and are eliminated one by one until one remains. The prize is ¥10,000,000 (or about US$83,580).
The good thing about the two tribes in each installment is that the two tribes are always under the same two symbols: the blue circle and the yellow (or golden) star. When the tribes merge, so are the symbols.
Survivor (Japan) is currently on its fourth installment, held on Rota Island in the Northern Marianas. The first one is on Palau, the second is a secret location called "Survivor Park," and the third one is one the Philippine island of Siquijor. The current tribes are called Somnak (under the yellow star) and Manglo (under the blue circle). The names on the symbols tell you that.
Here is the list of the tribes on the last three installments: The names in blue indicate those under the blue circle and those in orange are those under the yellow star. The green ones are the merged tribes
Palau: Deleb + Bekeu = Cirrus
Survivor Park: Wakka + Toy-Toy = Nitai
Siquijor: Dalahican + Ompas = Tigum
Those each episode ends in Tribal Council, there is something odd about how thins run in just one episode of the Japanese version. On this week's episode, as well as last week's, two Survivors were voted out on the same episode! Must be the irregular schedule Japanese TV has. Japanese TV airs special programs during transition time (April), Golden Week (April-May), Summer Vacation (sometime in August), and New Year. This leaves the four installments with unequal number of episodes. But that's OK. As of this week's episode, ten Survivors are left. The should've be merged by next week's episode. What will be the merged tribe's name is anybody's guess.
If you want to know about it, visit www.tbs.co.jp/survivor. But if you can't read Japanese, go there at your own risk.
By the way, the blog now have a new interface. I'll be giving you the link on what the first layout looked like.
Ja!
Wednesday, February 5, 2003, 12:49 p.m.
Beyblade on AAT3? Maybe!
I've been suggesting that if there would be a third Assorted Anime Tarot deck, surely a Beyblade character would be in one of the Major Arcana cards. Here is my short list:
- Kai as The Hermit or The Devil. He is so introvert when he joined the Beybladers.
- Max as The Sun. He always smiling -- or at least I never see him frown.
- Kenny the Chief as The Hierophant. He always consult his laptop, which its interface (Dizzi) doesn't exist in the original edit (as long as I knew).
- Ray as Death. After losing to Tyson, he decided to join his group. And everything else followed.
- Tyson as The Magician. With a Beyblade with his hands, expect the unexpected.
In AAT3, a Beyblade character will have a 1 in 22 chance. But there are other anime that I left out, like Chobits and FLCL. Also, I've degraded the criteria. I only choose anime from 1990 to the present.
That's all I can say for now.
Ja!
Tuesday, February 4, 2003, 10:06 a.m.
About my fanfics
For those who want more fanfics for me, I'm very sorry, but I simple I don't have time to write them. Here are my still pending fanfic projects:
- The last chapter of Akihabara Denno Gumi - Time Travelers which is to be submitted to the World of Akihabara Denno Gumi.
- CLAMP in Wonderland: Kero's Tooth Day - a mega-crossover of CLAMP characters to be submitted to Kawaii Sakura Shrine.
- the online version of To A Friend (For Hotaru) which I will upload on SRS.
Real world activities kept me from writing these fanfics, including my undergraduate thesis for my bachelor's degree in journalism. I'll be graduating in the said course this March. But rest assured I will make them as soon as I have time. Same goes for SRS's next update; the site will celebrate its fifth anniversary this August. I must find more images and more inspirational songs, too.
Ja!
Saturday, February 1, 2003, 1:06 p.m.
Survivor's coming! With an Asian-American.
Thirteen days to go and Survivor will be back. And just like last season in Thailand with Shii Ann Huang, Asian-Americans are again represented in the Amazon, courtesy of Daniel Lue. He is a 27-year-old tax accountant from Houston, Texas. He will be along with three celebrity-look-alikes (Dave Johnson looks like John Travolta; Roger Sexton looks like Richard Gere; and Jenna Morasca like Sandra Bullock) and a deaf woman (Christy Smith). With this selection, all Survivor fans, including myself, can't wait to see how will all of these contestants mentioned (along with 11 others) will survive in Survivor's version of the NHK Red-White Show (a.k.a. the NHK New Year's Eve Song Festival), where it is a battle of the sexes.
Today is Chinese New Year, and it is Ewe's year (The Year of the Sheep). Here where I am, people greet each other "Happy Chinese New Year" in Fukienese. I rather do it in Mandarin.
Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Ja!
Friday, January 31, 2003, 01:22 p.m.
Of Inu-Yasha theme songs and Free Image Hosting
Two days ago, I got the CD that I ordered. One of those songs in the CD is a song Every Heart, a theme song from Inu-Yasha that I thought was sung by Ayumi Hamasaki. That's because the singer of that song sings like her, and has a sound similar to Ayu-chan's music.
A little bit of research later (right after I made this blog yesterday), I was bit disappointed (and I regret selecting Every Heart). That is because Ayumi did not sing Every Heart; she sang Dearest. But fortunately for me, Every Heart was sung by BoA, a popular Korean singer. How many other Korean acts have broken into the Japanese mainstream, aside from BoA and S.E.S? Probably a noticeable few. (But does Every Heart have a Korean version; I want to know how it sounds like.)
Right after I set up this blog for the first time, I had a new problem: which is the appropriate site to host my image for this blog. Here are the points that made it worse:
- GeoCities, which is where my two websites are, does not allow outside linking, i.e. publicly showing an image from a GeoCities web page in a site outside GeoCities.
- I had trouble accessing Powow and all other affiliates of FreeHomePages.com (including the site itself) from my end. Powow is where my third site, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire International, is being hosted. With this trouble, that would mean the same thing if I were to put my images there.
- Sharemation's service is also an option, but visitors must know the password to my Sharemation account to view the images properly.
My best solution is to find a free image hosting service which can publicly show URL's listed in a directory.
Right now, this blogs images are hosted by two sites: Image Magician and Village Photos.
The picture of Shugogetten Shaolin from Mamotte Shugogetten (the one at the left of this diary) is currently being handled by Image Magician. Though it offers 1MB of space for free, this account lasts only two weeks. Meanwhile, most of the other images are hosted by Village Photos. My account is 3MB, but there are limits: the account should contains only 25 images and each image should be about 60KB or less to be uploaded. For those over 60KBs (like the image of Shaolin that I mentioned earlier, which is 72KB), my only option for now is to "chop" my images just to make them smaller, thus giving them smaller byte size. But that "chopping" option will not be resorted as long as the Image Magician one is still active, and as long as I find other free image hosting sites. In fact, most of these free image hosting sites mostly cater to persons who auction items at auction sites, such as eBay. (And I'm not selling anything yet.) But having images hosted by Image Magician (for two weeks) and Village Photos is better that using the default templates Pitas gives.
Besides, I don't have money for the other sites that offer image hosting for a fee! (No offense for those sites I mentioned; I'm just giving my point.)
By the way, for those who are asking, the girl in the top pic is Millefeuille Sakuraba from Galaxy Angel(s). And her name is pronounced as MILFOY, not MILFIW. Her name is not only mispronounced, but also misspelt; no website dedicated to Galaxy Angel(s) seemed to spell her name right! (Take that case to Encarta!)
Ja!
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