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(Posted on Friday, August 22, 2003 at 10:29 p.m.) The top three leaders in the Anime Diva race as of this writing: Cute 'n' Cuddly: Anime female characters who are either pretty, intelligent, or just plain cute. (106 votes so far)
On this week's episode of The Amazing Race, the teams were heading home. But first, they were introduced to an Autralian Aboriginal ritual. They then tried the Wing-Wander Detour and all three went skydiving. But when all three teams were leaving for Hawaii, the Goats made a mistake. They went to Sydney and discovered that there was no connection to Honolulu earlier than the direct flight that would not leave until the next day. That would put them virtually last, making the rest of the leg a race between the Gays and the Idiots. But when the Idiots (as usual) made the mistake of going to the wrong terminal in Narita, that almost sealed their fate. The Gays reached Hawaii first (with the Idiots minutes behind), trying out a "rocking" Road Block. After a hike in hardened lava, both teams went home #&0151; to Phoenix in the state of Arizona. The flight may have equalized the two teams (four rows apart in the same flight), but when the plane landed on Phoenix, it was the Gays all the way, starting from the SS Arizona anchor, to Sun Devil Stadium. In the end, Reichen and Chip rode bikes to the Finish Line, making them the first gay millionaires. The Idiots Kelly and Jon stepped onto the Finish Line behind the gays. The Goats (David and Jeff) never made it. Here is the final leader board:
Last Tuesday and Wednesday night saw me making my video version of Destiny's Child's song, Brown Eyes. As the song itself reminded me of Sakura and Li (of Card Captor Sakura), I decided to use scenes from the second Card Captor Sakura movie. I used the romantic mood of the song for the selection of scenes to use for the video. I even included two lines from my fan-song Brown Eyes (Sakura Loves Xiao Lang) in the end because the fan-song is based from song itself. Windows Movie Maker made the music video possible. I made two versions. The original one is large at 3.2 MB. Even when compressed, I know that the size of that file wasn't enough for Village Photos File Storage's upload quota. So I made a smaller version at 1.7 MB. Its screen size is smaller, but just as good. Until I find a way to store the larger version, the smaller version will be the one to be uploaded. I'll be sending this video to Kawaii Sakura Shrine. The site said that not all video submissions will be posted, so I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope my efforts in making this video would not be in vain. If you want to see it now, however, you can download the video if you want to. Pop found out her little sister's secret. So Majorica decided to make her a witch trainee, too. But at her age, it seems she is still not responsible enough in using her magic powers, but she'll be weaning for a little while. In the meantime, the Queen of Good Witches has tasked Doremi, Hazuki, and Aiko to capture some "bad omen cards" that give bad luck to those who use the things the cards possess The three trainees will use the services of a warlock thief-turned-cursed and caged creature aptly named Daddy-O just to find these cursed cards. Daddy-O's personality, though, leaves the girls a lot to be desired (Pervert!). Guiness tidbit: Most valuable illustrated manuscript Leonardo da Vinci's (Italy) illustrated manuscript known as the Codex Hammer, in which he predicted the invention if the submarine and the steam engine, sold for a record $30.8 million (£19,388,141) at Christie's, New York City, USA, November 11 1994. The only Leonardo manuscript now in private hands, it was bought by Microsoft boss Bill Gates (USA).If you have a Leonardo Da Vinci desktop theme, I'm sure that the wallpaper does not contain parts of the Codex Hammer. I saw an illustration of it on the 1998 edition of the Guinness Book. But I can be wrong. Ja! (Posted on Sunday, August 17, 2003 at 10:14 a.m.) The top three leaders in the Anime Diva race as of this writing: Cute 'n' Cuddly: Anime female characters who are either pretty, intelligent, or just plain cute. (84 votes so far)
On this week's episode of The Amazing Race, the three remaining teams went north from Brisbane to Cairns (they're still in Australia). They first gathered some wool in Brisbane, the went to Cairns to take pictures of crocodiles. They went to Wangeti beach to search for clues on the Saddle-Paddle Detour, but neither of the teams picked up a paddle (it's all horses). They then went to a race course in a town called Julattin for the Road Block, where they raced in buggies. Chip's car broke down and had to drive another one. Idiot Jon's car, meanwhile, turned turtle (i.e. turned upside down). Though the Idiots initially capitalized in the race, Jon first forgot to get his camera (for the crocs), and later took a wrong turn. Because of that, there was no change in the leaderboard at the end of Leg 12. Here is the leader board as of the end of this week's episode:
Last Thursday, I took the Civil Service Exam for eligibility for government work. The type of exam used computers, so I got the results later that day. Luckily I passed, considering I just reviewed my academics for only three days. I has been five months since I graduated. I may be eligible for government service, but my quest for a job still continues. Unfortunately, last Friday was the last day Ranma ½ episodes were shown on AXN. Only 80 episodes! I understand why some fans are outraged, but what I need is a definite explanation from AXN. The channel must've given us the impression that they don't have any subtitles ready for episode 81 and beyond! Last Friday also saw the last episode of Shaman King. I'm glad everything turned out fine in the end. Since last Tuesday, I was worried about what happened the protagonist Yoh Asakura against his evil "twin brother" How. I didn't even watch last Thursdays episode because I came home late from both the Civil Service Exam I mentioned earlier and a visit I made to one of my old professor. I'm also glad Doremi, Hazuki, and Aiko got Majorica's magic shop back from the witch frog's old rival named Majorca. Majorica lost the shop when she lost a game with Della the tax collector. Majorca then took over the shop, and sold items that are in fact cursed. The three witch trainees took advantage of the situation when Majorca's amulet accidentally went with the trash. The three may have solved this problem, but a new one was afoot. Doremi's headache (a.k.a. little sister) Pop almost knew their secret. Uh-oh! Guiness tidbit: Banknote with the most zeros The Yugoslavian 500-billion dinar note (equivalent to £0.70 or $1), issued in 1993, had 11 zeros printed on it.Lucky for Turkey, this one is worst than their lira. The last time I checked, a dollar in Turkey costed about 1.3 million liras. I wonder how much is it now. I also wonder if Serbia & Montenegro still use that note. Ja! (Posted on Sunday, August 10, 2003 at 10:14 a.m.) The top three leaders in the Anime Diva race as of this writing: Cute 'n' Cuddly: Anime female characters who are either pretty, intelligent, or just plain cute. (68 votes so far)
On this week's episode of The Amazing Race, the teams went to relatively warmer territory—Australia (while it's winter in Korea and Europe at the time, it's summer down under). The teams had problems leaving Korea, but the via-Singapore flight sent three of the teams ahead. David & Jeff "swam" for the Fast Forward and won it (that was the last one, too; meaning Kelly & Jon can't get one anymore). The other three teams went rapelling in the Detour—face first (rather that walk to another hotel). They then swam with the sharks in the Road Block. Reichen & Chip were penalized because they drove to the Pit Stop (instead of walking, as instructed). Unfortunately for our clowns Jon & Al, the gays' penalty was not long enough for them to stay in the Race; they were eliminated. Here is the leader board as of the end of this week's episode:
While this week and the weeks before that, it seemed that my diskettes were being infected by the Wyx virus and the internet cafe's anti-virus programs indicate it so. So last Wednesday (which is not my usual online logging day), I decided to download some free anti-virus programs to confirm my hunch that my laptop was infected with the Wyx virus, with the help of three new diskettes that would be martyrs in this viral battle. I first downloaded the Solo anti-virus program (a shareware program). It did detect the Wyx virus, but cannot remove it! So I have to install Solo on my PC, and download AntiVir Personal Edition (a freeware program) for my laptop, it also detected the Wyx virus, but it cannot remove it either. Lucky while I was downloading Solo, I also downloaded its CleanWyx program, a Wyx virus removal tool. So in hopes in removing the virus, I ran the program while my laptop was in "infected" MS-DOS mode. I tried CleanWyx earlier that day, but it did not work. This time, though, it seemed to remove the virus. Because when I ran AntiVir again while my laptop ran in Normal "Windows" mode, it didn't detect anything. When I ran diskettes in my laptop, they weren't infected. Wyx has now completely disappeared in my laptop. The infected diskettes were disinfected either by running Solo in my PC, or later in the aftermath when Wyx cleared off my laptop. When I tried running Solo and AntiVir both before and after the clearing, they also discovered another virus infecting my laptop: a variant of the Redlof virus, which is why the Folder.htt files kept multiplying despite me deleting them. That was gone, too, but I also lost the original folder.htt and some other infected files in the process. So I have recreate another folder.htt from the default.htt, but I have to recreate the other infected files. I think my laptop got infected when I used a diskette to upload the Anime Playing Deck video to my Village Photos File Storage account. The internet cafe computer I used at the time maybe infected with the Wyx virus (without my knowledge) and somehow transferred to my diskette. It began indicating that the virus was present in the diskette, which prompted me to use other diskettes, but they too were infected later on. Lucky, using another internet cafe has anti-virus programs, which removed the viruses, but they still got infected. This led to my concern about my laptop getting infected, and my search for a cure. Now, my laptop is virus-free, coupled with an increased free space on my hard disk. But I know that I have seen the last of the Wyx virus, or any virus in general. I may have uninstalled Solo from my laptop (but what the heck, it's free for 30 days), but I decided to have AntiVir stand guard on my laptop so my laptop won't be infected again. But I was wondering. I know that Wyx is passed to a computer's hard disk when an infected diskette is accessed. But when I ran Solo on my PC, it didn't find any sign of Wyx, but it did find a single Titasic virus. I accessed the same infected floppies on my PC. So why wasn't my PC infected the same way my laptop did? Last Thursday night, I finally got to see Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis. It was a very good, and very disturbing movie, which is about the confusion of politics and the over-relience of technology. Picking up from what I read about the 1929 silent movie with same name by Fritz Lang, the movie is also similar in theme to the silent one. Set in a futuristic yet old-fashioned world, it tells the story of Kenichi, nephew of the visiting Detective Senkaku, who finds a robot named Tima. The robot may be a target of an ambush by Rock, son of Duke Red. Tima's quest in finding her identity will lead to a very disturbing conclusion. I won't spill any other details about the movie to you. All I can say is that the movie tells us that we don't need technology on all aspects of life. Which reminds me of Case B (i. e. Season 2), File 4 of You're Under Arrest, where the Bokuto Station's IT program reached a point when the patrol communication system was dismantled from Today (which is Miyuki and Natsumi's police car), and Natsumi fought with the machine which determines her menu depending on her health, not on her appetite. I am glad AXN South East Asia aired a dubbed version of Metropolis instead of the subtitled one the closing credits claim. Because usually, AXN airs anime in Japanese with subtitles at the bottom of the screen. But if you know me, I actually don't care if an anime is dubbed (in a language I can understand) or subtitled (in English, of course), as long as it is good. I may really spill the details of Metropolis in a later time, as well as my say on Spirited Away, once after Metropolis is aired again—on August 30. Guiness tidbit: Largest known prime number Michael Cameron (Canada), a participant in the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) announced the discovery of the largest known prime number on December 5, 2001. It is 213,446,917-1. Written out in full, the number would have 4,053,946 digits. A reward of $100,000 (£68,568) is offered to the person who discovers the first 10-million-digit prime number.A number with four million digits? That's over the range of most scientific calculators. I wonder what are its first and last digits? Ja! (Posted on Monday, August 4, 2003 at 10:14 a.m.) The top three leaders in the Anime Diva race as of this writing: Cute 'n' Cuddly: Anime female characters who are either pretty, intelligent, or just plain cute. (49 votes so far)
On this week's episode of The Amazing Race, the teams went to Korea and back to the cold (they went into a cold Europe). But not before going to a Buddhist temple. Once in Seoul, they already had problems with their taxi drivers who either speak broken English or no English at all. They went to the town near the 38th Parallel, where the Road Block, was located. (In the process, Dacid, Jeff, and the clowns got lost at the 38th Parallel. This Road Block was like the very last one in the first Amazing Race, only this time, there was doctor who would check if the one who would try would go. Back in Seoul the teams did the Detour: breaks boards or eat live octopi. Kelly and Jon (the idiots) who the last to leave finally came in first. But lucky for last-place David & Jeff, a.k.a. the Goats (so-called for their short beards), Leg 10 was second non-elimination leg. Here is the leader board as of the end of this week's episode:
I'm already recreating the Anime Survivor Tribal Council grids that were destroyed two months ago by a floppy disk error. Since I have first drafts of the first three "editions," I successfully recreated those. But for the next five (I made eight), I am trying to remember what "happened" during those five editions, as I have only names on the lot jar for the fourth and challenge tracker papers for the others. *clap* Wish me luck. CSI may have ended its second season, one of its earlier episodes was shown last Wednesday. It is sort of a warm-up episode as it introduces CSI's viewers to the cast of what would be CSI Miami. That show will be shown starting this Wednesday, 9:00pm. Guiness tidbit: OLDEST CLONE ANIMAL Dolly, a Finn Dorset sheep cloned from the breast cell of an adult ewe, was born at Edinburgh's Roslin Institute, Midlothian, UK, in July 1996. Her arrival prompted a debate on the ethics of cloning. Named after the US country singer Dolly Parton, she was mated naturally with a Welsh mountain ram in 1997 and gave birth to a healthy lamb called Bonnie on April 13 1998.The last news I heard about Dolly was when she was about to be "put to sleep." I already forgot why and/or how and how true are those reports. I have to confirm that claim. Ja! (Posted on Tuesday, July 29, 2003 at 10:03 a.m.) In my last update, in my Guinness tidbit, I mentioned that Miguel Indurain of Spain won five Tour de France titles. Last Sunday night, (Or Sunday morning in France), Lance Armstrong joined Señor Indurain on the five-titles chart, and is set for number 6 next year. Good luck! Ja! (Posted on Saturday, July 26, 2003 at 10:19 a.m.) In an earlier post, I reported about Anime Diva. It's now ongoing and here are the top three leaders in the Anime Diva race. Cute 'n' Cuddly: Anime female characters who are either pretty, intelligent, or just plain cute. (36 votes so far)
On this week's episode of The Amazing Race, the teams were still in Sabah, Malaysia. Kelly and Jon were dead last and the bickering between them continued as they got lost en route to the first route marker of the leg. They wanted to get the Fast Forward, but without them knowing it, the gays were going for the same prize (thanks to Chip's misdirection) and winning it. (Jon even said the dreaded F-word.) But the "idiots" managed to catch up with Millie and Chuck (no thanks to the Saw-Haul Detour and them getting lost) on the bird nest-Road Block, turning the two teams' meeting into a race to the Pit Stop. The "idiots" not only won the little race, but also eliminated the virgins out of the Race in the process. Here is the leader board as of the end of this week's episode:
I don't if this new term I made is actually new. I call it Aero G. G.. Nothing to do with airplanes; it is just a pun of ero-jiji, a Japanese term meaning a "dirty old man." No thanks to Ranma ½ (subtitled version), which this term refers to Happosai the pervert. I hope this makes sense. I finally saw the season ender of CSI last Wednesday night. Another person fans knew was shot dead. The case involved might've ended in a surprising way (Agent Cathy Willows and her former boss Dan Brown are actually related). And Grissom finally admits to his hearing ailment and decided to have surgery. There is a poll right now asking viewers what would the outcome of the surgery. If you want to vote on the poll, click the CSI website link on the right. Guiness tidbit: Most consecutive Tour de France wins Miguel Indurain (Spain) won a record five successive Tour de France titles between 1991 and 1995.American Lance Armstrong is about to the same this year. Right now, he has the yellow jersey — leading a few seconds ahead of Jan Ullrich. Let's hope he makes it and wins title #5. Ja! (Posted on Monday, July 21, 2003 at 10:45 a.m.) On this week's episode of The Amazing Race, the teams went out of India and --- guess where they went? Malaysia - Truly Asia! Kota Kinabalu in Sabah to be exact. There were some confusion on the way out of India, especially for the gays. By the time the teams finally went to Kota (via Singapore, KL, or both), and underwent a good luck ceremony. A confusing Nets-Traps Detour followed. Confusing because those who went for one Detour ended up in the other. After that is a Road Block in Manukan Island --- one that reminded me of Matt and Alex in Survivor's Reward Challenge --- where teams used arrows, spears, and blowguns to shoot. Kelly and Jon (the idiots) ended up last; fortunately Leg 8 wasn't an elimination leg, so the engaged couple is still in the race. Here is the leader board as of the end of this week's episode:
When I check my blog last Thursday, I noticed that all the graphics in my blog were missing. According to my image host, Village Photos, their file server fouled up when they were transferring to their new file system. If you noticed it, too, sorry for Village Photo's inconvenience. Gomen nasai! Last September, I chose Doremi Harukaze as AAT2's Page of Cups because of her absolute cuteness (and her goodness apparently). Though even before that time that merchandise for Ojamajoh Doremi are in stores here in the Philippines, it is only this week that I finally get to see Ojamajoh Doremi on free TV. So far, I saw Doremi getting her powers, trading places with Hazuki (the bespectacled rich friend), and meeting Aiko, who just moved in. When Aiko saw her two "papas," Doremi was forced to tell the truth (fearing she too would turn into a worm like Majorica, the owner of the magic shop) to no effect, and giving Hazuki and Aiko their share of power. Their first line of business of being managers of the magic shop was the episode I last saw the afternoon I am typing this. And it's very funny! I just hope that my future job (whenever I get one) would allow me to view more of Doremi, Hazuki, and Aiko, as well as Majorica and her fairy companion Lala. Guiness tidbit: Highest non-USA international box-office gross Bean — The Ultimate Disaster Movie (UK, 1997) took more than $100 million (£62.5 million) at the international box office—the first time that a film that has broken through the official blockbuster threshold without a single cinema ticket being sold in North America.When will Americans ever know Mr. Bean without even seeing that movie? Hopefully after this was set. Ja! (Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2003 at 03:14 p.m.) Like I promised in my last update, I uploaded the video about my Anime Deck which enables you to preview each of the cards, including the two Jokers. To give the video some pizzazz, I decided to insert the snippets of the song Absolutely Everybody by Vannessa Amorosi. It may be a relatively old tune (I first heard it during the Sydney Olympics), but the song still rings into my mind. Here is the video. I'll upload the cards later. It seemed that every two years I'm doing the Animé Diva instead of every year. Must be my busy schedule. Anyway, I started Anime Diva in 1999 as a way to take advantage of the high number of visitors of the former Cartoon Network Akazukin Cha Cha Homepage (now the Assorted Anime Tarot). Back then, the nomination and voting process was all by form-mail. It had a time frame, but it was a different system then and there are only a few votes. Nomination was restricted not to include those of Akazukin Cha Cha but the visitors who nominated seemed to be hard headed, so I went to those who signed my guestbook at the time. On 2001, I reopened Anime Diva, this time with a category system, and with a use of a poll. The categories were (and are) Cute 'n' Cuddly (cute, lady-like, or pretty females) and Rough 'n' Ready (tough, aggressive, or tomboyish females). Most of the nominees came from both the Yahoo Group dennogumi and members of the now defunct Anime Grapevine forum, as well as my online "penpals." Although that also has a time frame, it took longer because I decided to let the polls reach 100 first. (Initally for three months, it took four before the vote was closed.) Anime Diva works like a popularity contest where visitors vote for females from various anime. Of course, the female who gets the most votes wins the title "Anime Diva" for their respective category. Hence the new slogan "The Ultimate Anime Female Vote." This year's Anime Vote brings 10 new nominees for Cute 'n' Cuddly and another 10 for Rough 'n' Ready will slug it out on each other again. This time, most of the nominees are named by members of the Project Zen forum, and the vote will be held under the wing of SRS, a.k.a. Sailormoon and the Roving Sailorettes, instead of AAT (because I haven't updated it for a very long time). If you're interested in the vote, and/or if you wanted to vote, here is the link: http://www.geocities.com/nanakami/animediva/. On this week's episode of The Amazing Race, the teams went to the Indian state of Kerala, where they first went find a sign that would lead them to Alleppey. This is the second time that the Road Block came before the Detour. On the Road Block, chosen members of each team laid themselves on the mud and hold on to the bulls. Six people got messy in an instant. The Detour involved bikes and elephants (most opted for the big trunks. But just as then that the Tangerine Team were on a route to reconciliation, they got eliminated! And they got ahead of the gays at the Detour (I didn't get it)! Here is the leader board as of the end of this week's episode:
Guiness tidbit: Longest music video American pop star Michael Jackson's part-feature film, part-music video Ghosts (1996) is 35 minutes long and was based on a concept by horror writer Stephen King (USA).I haven't seen the video itself; just the condensed version. Ja! (Posted on Friday, July 4, 2003 at 10:25 a.m.) Welcome to my new Orange edition of my blog. Remember on an earlier update that my former blog template was destroyed by my diskette fouling up by errors? This new edition is made entirely by scratch. I have to make and modify some parts to make this new template possible. There would be some modifications on how my archives would work. I'll tell you about it in a later time. Past entries from the Midnight Blue Edition are now in the archives under the name "Midnight Blue Edition" while those from the White and Light Golden Rod Edition are under "Old Entries." On this week's episode of The Amazing Race, the teams went finally out of Europe and into India. They finally realized how impoverished Mumbai is compared to the cities in Europe. Once into the famed Bollywood studios, and surviving the crowded trains (they aren't MRTs, you know), most of the teams washed some clothes on the Suds-Duds Detour just to find clues. They then went to the 20-palai Road Block, which is stinkier than the last one at Amsterdam. Despite some of the teams making mistakes in the Road Block and the traffic en route to the Pit Stop, most of them went through. Our NFL wives Monica and Sheree did not make it in time and were eventually eliminated. Blame it on their failure to find a bus before the others do. That leaves our clowns Jon & Al to cheer. Here is the leader board as of the end of this week's episode:
If you notice that I have shown you the royal flush in spades of my Anime Deck. I will upload all of the other cards soon along with the video I made for the cards. Guiness tidbit: Best-selling single The biggest selling single of the rock era is Elton John's (UK) "Candle in the Wind 1997"/"Something About the Way You Look Tonight." It was released in September 1997 and sold 33 million copies worldwide in just three months. The song, originally written about US actress Marilyn Monroe, was re-recorded in tribute to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, after her death in 1997.I have that single and it was really beautiful. I love that song. Oh, by the way, the song that used to hold the record was Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and the Comics. It sold 25 million soon after its release sometime in 1954. Ja! | My Websites Sailormoon and the Roving Sailorettes Links Village Photos Online File Storage |
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