Nanami Kamimura's Blog (Purple Edition)


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Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: I adopted Hanon Hosho

Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: I adopted Human Seira

Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: I adopted Episode 34

Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: I adopted Episode 84/P32

Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: I adopted 'Koi wa Nandaroh'

Survivor tidbits & Amazing Race returns.
(Posted on Sunday, October 2, 2005 at 05:21 p.m.)

Yesterday's episode of Survivor: Guatemala can simply be explained in just a few words: Nakúm got their revenge—again. This time, twice. In the reward challenge where comfort is the prize (i. e. comforters, pillows, and blankets), it seemed Yaxhá would win. But when all broke loose on the Y's tent, Nakúm caught up and soon won. In the immunity challenge, Nakúm again took the initiative in a game similar to netball (which is basketball for women—without the board), only the net is floor. But Yaxhá had Amy to boot, but she hurt her foot. Gary did use his NFL background to good use, but not good enough. With the help of Danni, Nakúm won at the challenge.
Back in Yaxhá, Stephenie was so worried about the four straight losses by her tribe that Yaxhá is becoming like the big loser tribe Ulong. Meanwhile, the entire tribe was putting their immunity loss at two non-athletic tribemates Lydia or Brianna. In the end, Brianna got the boot for the same reason Morgan got out.
Closing thoughts: it had been eight days, but Nakúm still hasn't built their shelter because of the heat (114şF/45şC). People in India work hard under those temperatures, why can't you do the same? Or better yet, why camp out inside those ruins if you're too lazy? One things for certain, some Nakúms took a dip into the lake for a short time for fear of crocs.

The Amazing Race finally restarted last Wednesday. but this time, it is a "Family Edition," where ten families of four would race each other across America. It's high time Americans explore their backyard.
The race started at New York where after going to SoHo to buy some camping gear. Then they bought "franks" from Kevin and Drew (of Season 1). Then they went to cross the Delaware River just like George Washington did to pick up flags and see them being folded. After camping out in the "City of Brotherly Love," Philadelphia, the teams went to an Amish Detour where they would "Buggy It" (pull a carriage without a horse) or "Build It" (a mini water-house). The Blacks got lost in the confusion. They wanted to catch up with the Linzes, but they were too late; they were eliminated, and the kids took it hard. Here's the leaderboard as of the end of this episode's leg:

The Godlewskis (four pink-wearing sisters)
The Gaghans (a pair of parents, and two kids, a boy and a girl; the girl is the most gung-ho about the Race)
The Weavers (a widow and her three children; they certainly have their faith in God, who's watching together with her husband.)
The Rogerses (a pair of parents, and teenagers)
The Schroeders (a dad, his two children from his previous marriage, and his new wife)
The Paolos (a pair of parents and two teenage boys; they have a mini-family feud so loud they seem to to shut their mouths
The Bransens (a dad and his three daughters)
The Aiellos (a dad and his three sons-in-law; the three daughters pitched in their dad and their husbands to the Race. No wonder.)
The Linzes (three brothers and a sister; looks like Buggying it overestimated their strenghth)
The Blacks: ELIMINATED (two parents and two young sons; like I said, the kids took it hard.)

Next week: The teams go amidst a Civil War re-enactment as Wally Bransen tires out. Meanwhile, the Paolos have a civil war of their own.
Judging from the "Civil War" re-enactment, I'm sure they are heading for the South. Where in the South, we'll never know until next week.

I'm supposed to write this yesterday, but a recent event stalled me. My sister married. It was grand, to be honest. And I'm happy for her. I have a picture of the married couple together with my mom and dad, but I decided to not it to you. I decided to show you something else I saw at the garden where the reception was held: Swans

Yep, swans. And they have other birds in there. That's all I can report. Until next time...

Omatase Shimashita!

Survivor and Big Brother tidbits
(Posted on Saturday, September 24, 2005 at 11:40 p.m.)

Yesterday's episode of Survivor: Guatemala can simply be explained in just a few words: Nakúm got their revenge. That was despite most of the remaining guys, especially Blake, seem to be getting sick from their trek. But they got their act together. They first won the spider web-climbing reward challenge because Yaxhá's tribe members began to wear down. It was down the wire but it was too late.
The next challenge showed a muddy tug-of-war where neither tribe won. So Judd took the reigns for two of the three individual rounds of singles tug-of-war. One of them revealed to the tribes that Gary was a NFLer. But Gary's American football background did not help as Judd's strength helped in Nakúm's win. For the first time, Yaxhá went to Tribal Council where they voted out Morgan for carrying a way too light load.
As a final thought: I was wondering why Gary tries to deny that he ever played professional American football. He should be proud because he was a pro-player. Maybe he must have a bad past in that field.

I am supposed to post this two weeks ago. But I found out too late that my Ripway account had been disabled. I seem to understand their policy of deleting free accounts without notice after 30 days of inactivity because with me seldomly posting anything while Survivor and the Amazing Race were in hiatus. As a result, I'm posting this at my MyFileStash account, which currently hosts my Brown Eyes video.
Here's the picture I'm talking about: The Big Brother House

This is the Big Brother House which is a walking distance from my place of work (if you consider 20 minutes to be a walking distance). It seems just like a normal house, but there is something happening inside, only we don't know what until the footage is aired.

Speaking of Big Brother, I found this tidbit on the 2001 Guinness Book:

MOST INTERACTIVE DRAMA-DOCUMENTARY In the show Big Brother, broadcast in the Netherlands from Sept. 16 to Dec. 30, 1999, nine people's lives became a daily half-hour "live soap" after they were placed in a house fitted with 24 cameras and 59 microphones. More than 4.7 million viewers phoned and e-mailed to vote on which contestants would leave the program, and which one would remain to win $125,000.

In fact, this originally Dutch shown was so successful that it has been exported to many countries, including here in the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, a lot of Spanish-speaking countries, and even the US. Only the US modified its version to a Survivor-like one because the original rules turn out to be boring for them. At least, the whole world is catching on.

On a last note, WOWOW had been (unintentionally) pulled out. I called the cable company and they told me that their signal from WOWOW had been cut off. This means that if WOWOW won't be put back, I guess that the number of anime I'm watching has now dropped to:

Rune Soldier Louie
Full Metal Panic (The first season)
Full Metal Alchemist
Naruto

Well, looks like I'll be really yearning for more.

Omatase Shimashita!

Survivor Time Again!
(Posted on Saturday, September 17, 2005 at 10:25 p.m.)

Finally, I'm back after a long hiatus. I know it's been a while. But I had to wait for the moment for Survivor: Guatemala to arrive. It finally did last night.

It started when the 16 new castaways, divided into the Nakúm (yellow) and Yaxhá (blue, pronounced Yak-sha) were joined by Palau guys Bobby Jon and Stephenie respectively (representing the infamous Ulong tribe). Then, the trek started with an 11-mile run, which proved to be gruelling for all, especially Nakum's Blake who was vomiting a lot, probably because of those thorns.
Although Nakúm won the challenge and got to camp on an actual Maya ruin, I doubted if four of the guys, especially Bobby Jon, would carry out their tasks, and this plague seemed to spare the old guy Jim. Even Bobby Jon was cramping.
I bet that this dire situation figured in the fire immunity challenge, giving Stephenie and the Yaxhá tribe their first (and I really mean first) taste of tribal immunity, something Stephenie never achieved in Ulong back in Palau.
In Tribal Council held at another actual Maya ruin, the Nakúm tribe unanimously evicted the old guy. I thought Jim is the rightful choice because let's face it, he hurt his arm in the immunity challenge and must needed medical attention very quick.
And I think next week, Nakum's situation among the man grows more desparate as they grew weaker. But will the ghosts of Palau that seem to haunt Bobby Jon in this episode haunt Stephenie, too?
I am satisfied that although I can't watch the live feed telecast of Survivor on the afternoons because of my work, at least, the primetime telecast is shown later that evening. I just make it a point not to look at its Wikipedia page.

As for The Amazing Race number 8, it won't start for two weeks. But already, I'm excited for it, too. This edition won't involve teams of two but families of four. With some teams having kids on tow, how will they survive this new Race? We'll just wait.

One last thing before I'm through with this entry: Red

Red Chii

Chobits - What Color Chii Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Omatase Shimashita!

Big Brother fever.
(Posted on Saturday, August 27, 2005 at 10:15 p.m.)

Here I am again, late as usual, busy for the past few weeks. Well, until next month when Survivor and The Amazing Race return. For now, my current reality TV fix is focussed on the local version of Big Brother...

Yes, the Big Brother that the world by storm has arrived in the Philippines. Just like the other versions, there are twelve housemates locked inside a house for 100 days with absolutely no contact with the outside world. These twelve housemates include an aspiring politician, a teacher, a rich girl, a riches-to-rags girl, a waiter, a magazine model, and a half-Isreali guy.
The show is currently finished on its first week, but a lot has happened, like a body painting contest, a volleyball play-off at the pool, and even keeping a fire burning for a week, not to mention some stiff dancing here and there. And the slogan that the program is a "real life soap opera" is right; there are tearful reasons for the right and wrong reasons.
As of now, I don't know who I am rooting for and and if I do, won't tell it here. For now, my focus is in helping to develop its article on Wikipedia.

Omatase Shimashita!

Cutting my losses.
(Posted on Saturday, August 6, 2005 at 11:00 a.m.)

I have long delayed this one again. But it is not because I have neglected the blog, I've really been busy for the past few weeks. I went went cost cutting recently because of an incident two weeks ago.
I went to my favorite internet access station to download and have a CD burned, this time for my sister. But when I finished, I discovered that my bag, which was supposed to be under my chair had gone missing. Contained in my bag were my copy of 100 Best Solitaire Games, my diskettes, my little notebook, and my handheld fan (with its handle removed), as well as a little bag which contain my pay vouchers and a patch for my uniform at work. I had reported it stolen (not missing) because I know that could've not vanished into thin air. And those in charge of the internet station did not see those right behind me at the time. As of now, though I wanted to have all of them back, I haven't heard anything about it since.
So I have to replace everything. Immediately the next day, I bought the only other copy of the Solitaire book at the same bookstore where I bought my first one, as well as a new handy-dandy notebook. The next, I bought a new set of diskettes, and I saved approximately the same content of my lost ones to my new ones (one of my lost ones contains my resumé and a copy of my thesis, both of which have a copy on our PC). I still have my other fan. But I know there are files in my lost one that I can't recreate anymore (such as my Anime Survivor Tribal Council grids) because I don't remember how it went on. So I may turn a new leaf as I continue its 22nd run.
I have since lost a lot of my weekly wages because of this, but I have to replace whatever is lost because chances of me having them back is slim. At least, I was still holding my trusty pen when my bag vanished, or I'll be forced to disposables.

Here's my list of anime I'm watching right now:

Angelic Layer
Full Metal Panic - The Second Raid
Trinity Blood
Shuffle!

Because I surf the net minutes after I come home from work, Naruto is out of my list, because it creates a conflict. I also wanted to add Full Metal Alchemist if not for GMA pulling it out before its time. (Party poopers!)
As of present, I still have no Animax, and Hero, a new anime channel, is about to be aired, but no date is announced! When will I get more anime?

Here's a Guiness tidbit:

Oldest mummy Mummification dates from 2600 B.C., or the 4th dynasty of the Egyptian pharaohs. The oldest complete mummy is of Wati, a court musician of ca. 2400 B.C. from the tomb of Nefer in Saqqâra, Egypt, found in 1944.

Omatase Shimashita!

Moving on...
(Posted on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 at 05:54 p.m.)

Well, it's been a long time since I posted my last entry (below), but ever since that time, the Kibou no Kaneoto forums has been on the doldrums and is now in the point of closing. I decided that I will make the decision to not post anything anymore on that forum and little by little, turn my back to the Kibou no Kaneoto forums, not because I support the "attack," as I said in the last post, I was for neither side. It is also not because I don't like the KnK anymore. I "left" because...

The Kibou no Kaneoto Forum is dead.

It seems that nobody is interested in posting more interesting topics there anymore. It is just a "desert." To me, maybe it is because of the incident that happened there. Either way, I made up my mind and little by little, sever my ties with KnK. I've started it here in this blog and I already removed its link in Wikipedia because I know posting such "promotes" the forum.
For now this is my statement. And I'll say no more...

P. S. Regard my last statement as the past. We cannot change it anymore.

Here's a Guiness tidbit at a time of the Tour de France:

MOST TOUR DE FRANCE WINS Lance Armstrong (U. S. A., pictured) has won the Tour de France a record six times from 1999 to 2004. He is the only man ever to accomplish this in the history of the Tour. Jacques Anquetil (France) in 1957, 1961-64; Eddy Merckx (Belgium) in 1969-72 and 1974; Bernard Hinault (France) in 1978-79, 1981-82, and 1985; and Miguel Indurain (Spain) in 1991-1995, have all won the Tour five times, the previous record-breaking total.

As of this writing, Lance is already gunning for his seventh and it looks like, no one is stopping him now. Go Lance!

Omatase Shimashita!

Trouble at the KnK Forums;
and a Cable Problem
(Posted on Saturday, July 2, 2005 at 11:30 a.m.)

It's been a bad week in the Kibou no Kaneoto Forums. And I was witness to its opening stages.
It all started when I started to log off so I can go to sleep way past midninght of Tuesday. I noticed something very disturbing from the posts two of my fellow members Ming Yi and Ekuri-chan. So I was disturbed, but I had to sleep. So when I woke up in that morning on my way to work, I was already thinking of writing an open letter of concern voicing my comments on the events that transpired when I logged off the forum. But when I logged on again, I didn't know what happened but the forums interfaced changed. From what I gathered, somebody hacked the forum hours earlier and put hentai avatars and turning it black. I found out that Ming Yi and Ekuri are not the only ones mad at the two admins Mary122888 and Kitsune (once called Coco-Fan), but also Amritam, Jody, Lani, and even Mireiko-sama (or Miri-chan for short). In fact, again from what I gathered, Mireiko was the hacker. And that was disturbing specially that I have good relations with each of those I mentioned. And it all because of the actions they made that earned each other's ire. Regardless, I posted my open letter.
Here's the original text as it appeared in the forum right now:

Well, I don't know where to start because of what has been happening in the past 15 or 16 hours, but considering that before I've read those posts, I watched an episode of CSI: NY and even earlier than that an episode of Mirumo dePon! and both are very disheartening. And it's been in my head even when I woke up in the morning and went to work.

I've read Ming Yi and Ekuri-chan's posts and they said that they quit the forums because of the actions that both Mary and Kitsune did against them. Now, I'm not taking any sides in this issue, but I'm not only concerned for this forum, but for all of us members. The situation is already disheartening because of this disgust. I'm affected. I'm sure you are, too, because it affects the big guns of our forum.

The key word here is responsibility. After all, we are all human, but we must consider how our actions would affect everybody else. Both Ming Yi and Ekuri-chan gave me virtual slaps on the face in the past, but I've already learned from those mistakes. Kitsune and Mary should learn those lessons, too. I already knew Ming Yi and Ekuri's personalities.

I can't say anymore to close this note. But in this shenanigan we are all in, we are all losers, no doubt about it. So let's all be responsible for our actions and watch our hands and our mouths because they might cause trouble.

P. S.: I don't support anybody, but BFG is right. Sit down and talk it over. Attacking each other won't solve everything. AND I'm sick of this all bashing here. Please! Let's have cooler heads win this battle. Until that happens, I'll be on the sidelines.

In my opinion, I think Ming Yi, Ekuri, Miri-chan, et al. should think of their actions that spark this protest. That goes for Mary and Kitsune who are the object of their ire. If this clash would've gone that far, life in the Kibou no Kaneoto Forums would've been as cheerful as it was.
The forum is somewhat back to normal. But my question is if this rift will go on outside the forum. How will the forum survive after such incident happened? And will the eight members I mentioned will ever cool down and reconcile. Only time will tell. Because the short term consequences so far aren't good.
If you want to know their own side of the story you can refer to Ming Yi, Lani, and Ekuri-chan's Livejournals (if you know where they are).

And what a timely way to go back online after I had to buy a new modem cable and adapter. Last Sunday, the original cable didn't work anymore as my stupid brother's online session was cut short. Since I can't find the very same modem cable as the one packaged with the original, someone suggested to me a USB modem. I did buy it, but it turned out to be a white elephant because whileit does work, it didn't work very well with my laptop, with each connection lasting at least a minute before dropping. So the next day, I bought a new modem cable, which is a 9- pin-to-15-pin rather than the 9-pin-to-9-pin the modem uses. I also bought an adapter and it worked. But including with my expenses for the weekend, plus unavoidable expenses, I spent more than half my weekly pay because of it.
As for the white elephant modem, after further testing using my laptop, they offered me to exchange with something else. But I wasn't thinking of buying anything at the time, so opted to wait for the refund. That modem is one purchase I regret doing. I would've thought of buying that modem cable and adapter instead of that modem.

Here's a Guiness tidbit:

Fastest World Cup red card Ion Vladoiu (Romania) was sent off after three minutes in a World Cup finals match against Switzerland on June 22, 1994, at the Pontiac Silverdome, Detroit, Michigan, U. S. A.

Omatase Shimashita!

OSWI
(Posted on Saturday, June 25, 2005 at 08:07 a.m.)

I apologize if I haven't blogged anything for the past three weeks or so since I last wrote. On one week, I got a pain on my lower back for no reason, and on another week, I am typing non-stop for the concepts the elementary administrator asked me to type.
But in my spare time, I went shopping with my pay for the first two weeks. I got lucky to have this: Official Scrabble Words International

I found this book on the same section of the book store as Card Games for One which I bought for a steal. I never thought I'll find such a book, let alone buy one. But it was just lounging around surrounded by language and quiz books. I even got excited that I bought a pocket version of Scrabble, making this book more dispensible, although bulky.
On my wishlist right now: The Official Scrabble Players' Dictionary, Fourth Edition. But I think it'll be a long wait before I'll buy one because it hasn't arrived yet.
By the way, most of the books in that section are British. And I can see it.

Here's a Guiness tidbit:

MOST NBA CHAMPIONSHIP TITLES The Boston Celtics have won a total of 16 NBA Championship titles, in 1957, 1959-66, 1968-69, 1974, 1976, 1981, 1984, and 1986. In their last three championship-winning years, their team included record-breaker Robert Parish (U. S. A., pictured).

Speaking of the NBA championships, I congratulate the San Antonio Spurs. That was a nail-biter. But I'll also give credit to the Detroit Pistons because they didn't want to give up so much that they forced a Game 7.

Omatase Shimashita!

Welcome to the Purple Edition
and a post-Idol comment
(Posted on Saturday, June 4, 2005 at 11:20 a.m.)

Welcome to the new Purple Edition of my blog. I know it follows the same old design. I was comtemplating about changing and/or updating my layout. But ever since I have a day job, plans for my blog often went to be back burner and my time typing my new entries have to be done at night whenever I'm free and whenever my brother doesn't use my laptop.
For now, these are the modifications:

A new banner with Lina of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch playing Babanuki or Old Maid with the words "Let's Shuffle Up 'n' Deal!" That's a quote whenever a game in the World Poker Tour begins. I like to watch it although I don't play it. I just got the quote because of my recent interest in solitaire games.
Five new cards are chosen randomly and for the second ever time, the Deuce of Spades is once again front and center, first time since the Pale Green Edition.

Whenever I can, I'm planning to give the blog a really new look. But I have to plan for it while I'm out.

It's been a week since American Idol ended and it is still lurking in my head that Carrie Underwood won instead of Bo Bice. Even I can't believe it. But when Simon told Carrie that she had done enough to win the whole thing, I immediately went to my Tarot cards. My Celtic Cross reading is a little vague as it actually doesn't show how wins. Subsequent readings told me that Carrie would win, but Bo will have his just desserts anyway. The next day, while I surfed for news on mobile phone (I was at work when the American Idol finale was aired live), it confirmed my readings. Carrie did win. And my little brother and I even thought that her rendition of Guy Sebastian's Angels Brought Me Here understandably.
To her credit, Carrie herself is good and is consisently never in the bottom three. She even used her forte of singing country while doing her best to do other genres. The same can be said with Bo; his forte is rock and while he goofed doing a Broadway song, he managed to pick himself up again.
I know that country and rock can't compete with each other, so while Carrie might be hogging the spotlight right now, I'm sure Bo won't just fade away to oblivion anytime soon. Clay Aiken got away with fame even if Ruben Studdard beat him to the title, so I'm hopeful Bo will also be famous. He may even beat Carrie on international music scene because country music isn't a very popular genre here in Asia.

Best of luck to you, Bo and Carrie!

Lately, this are the anime I've been following lately:

Wagamama Fairy Mirumo dePon!
Angelic Layer
KareKano
Love Hina

My job had prevented me from watching Naruto and One Piece, and I haven't watched the anime on WOWOW called Trinity Blood simply because it is late shown at night. Ever since the end of April, BS2 was pulled out of our cable, so it now becomes hard for me to find new anime tunes. That's a confession from a cable viewer whose subscription hasnt included Animax.

Here's a Guiness tidbit about manga:

GREATEST COMIC-READING NATION In Japan, manga comics (pictured) represent 40% of all printed material sold. Thirteen weekly magazines by the largest publishers, together with 10 biweeklies and about 20 monthlies, represent the core of this industry. Throughout the 1990s, yearly sales of manga reached an average of 600 billion yen ($5.5 billion), with roughly 60% spent on magazines and 40% on paperbacks. At any given time, at least 10 of these magazines reach sales of 1 million or more copies per issue. People of all ages read manga yet currently much of the market is targeted on adults

I'm sure that this is a tidbit that my fellow anime fans would appreciate.

Omatase Shimashita!