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 (Posted on Tuesday, August 31, 2004 at 11:32 a.m.) I can still remember that September is the month when my laptop's last hard disk (a far superior 5GB to my current 1GB one) fouled up and had errors. The problem got so bad, it went to the point the OS (Windows Me) didn't start-up at all. The hard disk had to be replaced, and cost my family about 0-150. And that's no joke considering even I can't afford some thing that costs over . The problem started on September 16 last year, the same week Survivor: Pearl Islands was aired. March and April (the midway points) had past and except for some hang ups (which by many is a characteristic flaw of ME) and problems I can't solve (the IE pop-up problem), the computer is still running fine. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hope that my current hard disk doesn't foul up come September 16. It maybe just 1GB but it's the only one the repair man can find for a 266MHz Pentium II with 64MB of RAM. And that's not enough to run a 20GB hard disk. And if I do get past through this, have a job later on, and save enough money, I'll buy a new at least bigger hard disk (about 2GB or 2.5GB), or even buy a new PC, let alone a new laptop with bigger hard disk space. Laptops are on the top of my ultimate wish-list. Far-fatched, of course based on my current situation. In last Wednesday's Amazing Race, the teams went from the lookout point at Lake Manyara and went their way (back) to Dubai via Nairobi. On their way to their charter flights, three teams got into trouble with even one team went with a flat tire and refused to pay in full (see below). Once there, they strangled for position in Dubai and went to the tallest hotel in the world, the Burj Al-Arab, and went to the heliport. Once they found Abdul Rahman's dhow, they either went for an Off-Plane Detour (skydiving) or an Off-Road one (driving a jeep through sand dunes). By some mistake, Kami and Karli came in last. Though they weren't eliminated, they suffered the fate the Bowling Moms had back in Cairo. Here is the leaderboard as of the end of last Wednesday's episode:
Tomorrow, the twins try charm to gain money. Colin losing it more while making a brick in Kolkata. And one team going for the other Fast Forward—and lose all their hair in the process. (I think Chip & Kim should go for it. Chip has nothing to lose.) Where to next? Like I mentioned above, Kolkata. That's what the Indians call Calcutta nowadays. But let's wait till tomorrow! Using the the Chamber's Wordgames Wizard Site, I finally got past the D's. And that's just another week. I've recently picked up the P's. But this was done the usual method. About three hours was made up. but not until I have to buy another 25-hour prepaid account because my brother almost used up my last one. I got about left hours in that one, but he used it all up. I had to uncheck the "save password" check box so cannot use my new one with out finding the original password first. But enough of that. In fact, tomorrow is September 1. If this continues, maybe I'll hurdle all the C's and the S's (all 5,000+ of the 10-letter S-words) by the third week of September. Twenty-three letters down; three to go. Or should I say, 138 searches down; 18 searches to go. This moment's Galaxy Angels screen shot: Forte choosing Door #1 and Lanhua choosing Door #2, not knowing the doors actually the same door! Ja ne wa! (Posted on Monday, August 23, 2004 at 04:25 p.m.) In last Wednesday's Amazing Race, the teams went from Luxor, Egypt (a.k.a. Thebes, the ancient capital) to a mystery location, which turns out to be in Tanzania (after going to Nairobi, Kenya first). First, en route to Nairobi, Charla & Mirna took on Colin & Christie because Christie blocked the airport entrance. Except for the Bowling Moms, Colin & Christie got the support of every other team. To get back, Mirna found an earlier flight and took the risk for flights at the Middle East. But the four others got ahead because Charla & Mirna and the Bowling Moms were about to get onto a delayed flight! While in Tanzania, the teams went to Mto wa Mbu and everywent for a "Busy" Detour (delivering furniture) rather than the "Buzzing" one (harvesting beehives). After that would a Road Block at Kibaoni, where each person would literally eat an entire ostrich egg! But after that an a ride along a flying fox en route to Lake Manyara look-out, I was devastated to find out that my faves, Charla & Mirna were eliminated! Here is the leaderboard as of the end of last Wednesday's episode:
On Wednesday, Nicole complains about Brandon's spending. And Colin's tantrums got his team into trouble—and all because of a flat tire. Where to next? We don't know yet, but it seems their not leaving Africa. Let's watch out this Wednesday! Using the the Chamber's Wordgames Wizard Site, I finally got past the M's. It took almost a week because of my other preoccupations. But I'm determined to finish everything. That would mean if taking the last three letters' results one by one. Just taking the D's took about more three or four hours alone. And that was over the weekend. I'll start checking the results one by one. Twenty-two letters down; four to go. Or should I say, 132 searches down; 24 searches to go. This moment's Galaxy Angels screen shot: This is Mint's face when she found out Chip and Kim won a trip to South America.... And this is Forte's face when she found out Charla and Mirna had been eliminated. Ja ne wa! (Posted on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 at 04:55 p.m.) Over the weekend, I have to wake up very early in the morning just to watch the opening ceremonies of the Athens Olympics on TV. 1:45 am to be exact. But it was worth the loss of sleep. I got to see the parade of athletes with their nations marching in Greek alphabetical order. Greek! And Saint Lucia's Greek name starts with "alpha." While the Philippines fellow P-countries marched under "pi," the Philippines marched under "phi" together with Finland and Fiji — right at the back! If you want to know what I mean, here's the list of the countries in order of entry. According to Olympic tradition, Greece always enters first, host country enters last. But since Greece is both, its flag came first, all of its athletes entered last. And you should see the lighting of the Olympic flame. Back in 2000, the cauldron is underwater, hence Cathy Freeman in a wet suit. This year, the cauldron looked like a giant torch. The ceremony was pretty earlier, but thanks to the live broadcasts of Doodarshan and NHK BS-1, as I mentioned already, it was worth it, considering the loss of sleep I got. Anyway, Super GALS ended, so it's no use waking up at 8 in the morning. In last Wednesday's Amazing Race, the teams rode their way fro Cairo to a relatively unknown city of Luxor. After a scramble for tickets, the teams first headed to the temple of the Creation to either "Herd It" (sheep) or "Haul it" (water). After that, it's go to an archeological site to find scarabs. But because Marshall's knees slowed him down to a halt, but Lance knew it's hopeless and he and his bro quit. They're in last place, anyway. Here is the leaderboard as of the end of last Wednesday's episode:
Tomorrow, while Chip & Kim mix in with their ancestors' possible other descendants, Brandon & Nicole shouted at the locals. And Charla & Mirna and Colin & Christie race — to the ticket counter. Where to next? Further into Africa. But where we have to know until tomorrow. Using the the Chamber's Wordgames Wizard Site, I got past the B's. I currently have to take on the M's. It's just the past Sunday that I got all the M results. And it took a total of four to five hours just to get the ten to fifteen letter M results. And that's long after I finished searching, checking, and adding the results into the SOWPODS list last Thursday. Twenty-one letters down; five to go. Or should I say, 126 searches down; 30 searches to go. This moment's Galaxy Angels screen shot: Scoop. Millefeuille Sakuraba having an affair with a robot! Ja ne wa! (Posted on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 at 04:00 p.m.) In last Wednesday's Amazing Race, the teams flew from St. Petersburg to Cairo, Egypt. Before going there, they have to find a Rembrandt "Prodigal Son" painting. Once in Cairo, they went to the Tower of Cairo and went around the Pyramids. Some went down below in the shaft, and everybody (but two teams) went for the Rock 'n' Roll Detour because it was too late for Hump 'n' Ride. The Bowling Moms were last. They weren't eliminated, though, but they got something just as scary. Here is the leaderboard as of the end of last Wednesday's episode:
Tomorrow, the Bowling Moms begged just to stay in the Race, Brandon shows us some abs, and Charla & Mirna and Colin & Christie fought over one taxi. Where to next? Still in Egypt. But where we have to know until tomorrow. Using the the Chamber's Wordgames Wizard Site, I finally got passed the R's and the T's. Next up is the B's. I estimate that I'll be finished with everything by the end of this month. That is if my my current job applications would not go smoothly (because I found three job offers.) Twenty letters down; six to go. Or should I say, 120 searches down; 36 searches to go. This moment's Galaxy Angels screen shot: Mint: I got an idea! Ja ne wa! (Posted on Tuesday, August 3, 2004 at 11:31 a.m.) In last Wednesday's Amazing Race, the teams flew from Patagonia back to Buenos Aires, and then all the way to St. Petersburg. The teams first scrambled for bus tickets to Buenos Aires. Once in Buenos Aires, tickets and flights are scarce, having to go to layovers in either Paris, London, Madrid, or Frankfurt. Once in Russia, they were asked to either "Block 5 (hockey) Shots" or "Drink one shot (of vodka)." Then, they went to Pushkin, where they ate way too much caviar. Bob and Joyce had problems getting tickets at Buenos Aires and were later eliminated. Here is the leaderboard as of the end of last Wednesday's episode:
Tomorrow, accidents plague the teams; Brandon and Nicole grew closer; and Charla goes under. Where to next? Egypt, based on the Pyramids. But how we have to know until tomorrow. Using the the Chamber's Wordgames Wizard Site, I've got past the F's and A's. I'm now about finish the R's and it wasn't as promising as the A's. As of this writing, I'm about to finish the R's (one last R search) before packing up the T's. Fortunately, I decided not throw the towel on the SOWPODS Scrabble list because I think this will be practice when I finally land on a job. Furthermore, for the T results and up to the S's, I'll be using a different 25-hour prepaid internet subscription exclusively for gathering the results. The 12-hour ones are for checking now. Nineteen letters down; seven to go. Or should I say, 113 searches down; 43 searches to go (like I mentioned, I'm not finished with the 15-letter R-words yet).  Speaking of Scrabble, two Saturdays ago, I finally bought the book Everything Scrabble, which I spent more than two weeks saving my allowance for. This Scrabble book is more informative and more updated than the other Scrabble book called The Scrabble Book which was actually written in 1984! Furthermore, the former is more geared to using The Official Scrabble Players' Dictionary.So what's next in my immediate wishlist? Recently, I found out that "Arc The Lad" which I originally watched five years ago is finally out. But rather that just one volume, I have to buy the whole set of VCDs, so I have to save about for it. But I have to save in a way that will not jeopardize my immediate needs. This moment's Galaxy Angels screen shots: The Angels' ways to say "Open the Door!" Forte: (angrily) "Open the door or barge it down!" Mint: (politely) "Can somebody please open this door for me?" Millefeuille: (begging) "Please, please, can you open the door... pleeeeeeeease!" Nomad: "Accessing door lock... Accessing door lock." Vanilla: .... Ja ne wa! (Posted on Tuesday, July 27, 2004 at 12:55 p.m.) In last Wednesday's Amazing Race, the teams left Buenos Aires and went to Patagonia (San Carlos de Bariloche to be exact). The teams scrambled for tickets on the airport. Once in Bariloche, they met mayor, tried to bite into chocolate at the Road Block just to look for a white center. In the Smooth Sailing-Rough Riding Detour, everyone chose to fly to the skies on paragliders. In the end, military dad Jim and his girl Marsha were eliminated. Here is the leaderboard as of the end of last Wednesday's episode:
Tomorrow, Mirna and Brandon square off, the brothers bicker after a mistake has been done, and teams experience the "ultimate Road Block." Where to next? Russia, based on the preview. But how we have to know until tomorrow. Using the the Chamber's Wordgames Wizard Site, I've already finished the E's and F's. A's are next, but after knowing at how many 10-to-14-letter A words I would search, I'm now thinking to stop the search after I finished the A's, because the search is taking too long. For one-to-three searches a day to twelve searches a week, that is what is happening right. But August is fast approaching, and after the A's are finished, I still got searches for seven letters, especially the S's. But this is still tentative. Seventeen letters down; nine to go. Or should I say, 103 searches down; 53 searches to go (I've already done the 15-letter A words). If I change my mind after I finish the A's, I'll be relieved that I've finished all of the vowels. This is from the Guinness Book of Records 2004: Most Tour de France wins The greatest number of wins in the Tour de France is five and is shared by five riders. Jacques Anquetil (France), who won in 1957 and 1961-64; Eddy Merckx (Belgium) with triumphs in 1969-72 and 1974; Bernard Hinault (France), who was champion in 1978-79, 1981-82, and 1985; and Miguel Induráin (Spain), the winner in 1991-95.The editors mentioned only four names, and seemed to forget Lance Armstrong, who won in 1999-2003. But that's no more because two days ago, Armstrong won his sixth! Now that's a record. And looks like he's gearing for a seventh next year. But whether he wins or loses next year, we may never know. What is certain is Armstrong is now on the top of the world (of cycling) and time will tell if anyone else can challenge him now. This moment's Galaxy Angels screen shot: Lanhua munching on the world's largest siopao. (Sorry, but that's what Filipinos call both a pork bun and beef bun.) Ja ne wa! (Posted on Tuesday, July 20, 2004 at 10:59 a.m.) In last Wednesday's Amazing Race, the teams left the comfort of Uruguay, and took a ferry to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Before that, they have to swim through mountains of foam in a disco to find their first clue. Once in they're all in Buenos Aires, they searched for Eva Peron's tomb. (Some went to the wrong cemetary where Juan Peron is buried.) After that, teams went for the Perro-Tango Detour. Four teams went for the dogs (perros in Spanish), while the rest went for Tango and search for Mr. Tango-dancing Clue Man. (The Clowns, a.k.a. Jon & Al, and the Gays, a.k.a. Reichen & Chip, did something like this back in Venice last year.) After grabbing scarfs from cows in San Antonio de Areco, Alison and Donny, who bickered and bickered during the whole leg, got what they deserved: elimination. Here is the leaderboard as of the end of last Wednesday's episode:
Tomorrow, Chip & Kim and the all new Wonder Twins, Kami & Karli, still on each other's necks, Charla eating some meat, and Marshall and Lance angry... at Mirna? Where to next? That's answer I would not know until tomorrow. Using the the Chamber's Wordgames Wizard Site, I've already finished the H's and I's. I've finished the H's just now, but it the search-and-add had been slow lately I am trying to save some prepaid time. I'm actually saving my allowance money for later on so I can by the book called Everything Scrabble. That's about P695 (.44). But I'm taking advantage of the 15-day promo the prepaid card I'm using specifically for this purpose is offering. "Surf the Net for free between midnight and 7 in the morning," the promo says, by modifying the username. Fifteen letters down; eleven to go. Or should I say, 91 searches down; 65 searches to go (I've already done the 15-letter A words). The E's are next, and I expect this to be like the I's and U's. Last weekend, I acquired from my dad a Nokia 6230 (to the dismay of my sisters). I was willing to give up my last phone (Nokia 2100) becuase I was now bored of making Nokia ringtones. But I still have a notebook I'll use as an archive just in case anybody wants an "anime ringtone." As for him, he acquired the new Nokia 7610 (the one with the zoom-function, megapixel camera). So far, I haven't used the full potential of the phone, but I already customized it, while a Mermaid Melody image as a wallpaper, and the transformation sound as my message alert. The ringing sound is that of the intro to the Eurovision song "For Real." I've even uploaded a blank operator logo so I can see the whole wallpaper. Even before I acquired the phone, I once used the phone to take the picture of my copy of the Guinness Book of Records. I've also taken this image of some notes about the relationship connections in Gundam Seed below (resized for this area). The image isn't clear enough and my handwriting may not eligible for you, so all I need is pictures of the characters so I can make a digitized relationship map to make things clearer. I'll talk about this in my next update.  This moment's Galaxy Angels screen shot: Millefeuille and Forte saw something they don't want to see. Wanna know what it is? Ja ne wa! (Posted on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 at 10:33 a.m.) Since I posted my last one last week, I've already hurdled the O, G, U long words, using the Chamber's Wordgames Wizard Site. The O's and U's are very kilometric. The O words are very easy because after checking those letters that are present, there are less words to check. That goes also with the G words. At present, I'm already found the the I words, and it took me about two hours to find them. The search for I words is much like that for the U words! Most of the results are words! Although I might give up my method of checking words five at a time, I did find a way to save my prepaid internet time by gathering the 10-to-15-letter-words starting by a single letter all at once. It does save me some internet time. That also goes if one surfs the internet between midnight and seven in the morning the next day by modifying the username. That way I would have free access. Looks like I have get up early in the morning just to do that! But the prepaid account I use to check and gather words from the Chamber's website is different is from the one I normally use to surf. Thirteen letters down; thirteen to go. Or should I say, 79 searches down; 77 searches to go (I've already done the 15-letter A words). Amazing Race started on the Santa Monica beach. After some bruises and bad decisions on which flight to take, they arrived on Uruguay, found some ferries and carried some beef. While four went for Chips in the Zips-Chips Detour (two by accident) by playing some roulette, the rest went for Zips and went sky high on zip lines and flying foxes. But in the end, even if two of the teams were penalized, the once-engaged couple of Dennis and Erika are eliminated. Here is the leaderboard as of the end of last Wednesday's episode:
Tomorrow, Mirna danced the tango, appropriately, in Argentina, BB Girl Alison complaining about Donny's face, and a race between Chip & Kim and the all new Wonder Twins, Kami & Karli. Speaking of the Race, rumours say, it would pass through the Philippines later in the season. I hope that's true. This comment update had to be posted today because the next episode is tomorrow. I was preoccupied with the Scrabble Long Words pruning that I forgot to this. This moment's Galaxy Angels screen shot: Meet the winners of our brand new Kalashnikov ultra modern tank! Ja ne wa! (Posted on Wednesday, July 7, 2004 at 10:21 a.m.) Over the past few weeks, I'm still using the Chamber's Wordgames Wizard Site in searching for the longer words that would be integrated into the future SOWPODS word list to be give to Timwi. That was despite finding a more definite SOWPODS wordlist from the Internet Scrabble Club. Their SOWPODS list only integrates OLWL and no UK-only words. So far, I finished J, K, L, N, Q, V, W, X, Y, and Z using four 12-hour prepaid internet accounts. After finishing the search for long V words, I abandoned the idea of finding other long words based from the tile values of letters, and instead searching them according to the number of ten-letter results (like I said in my last update, not all of the results are words). N happens to be the fewest with 889 results. That one was the first one to finish on early Sunday morning. Finished searching all long L words earlier this afternoon. I just finished finding all ten-letter U words (the third fewest with 1,378 results), and I can believe that 1,300 of them are words! Even after pruning out those that are already listed in the current SOWPODS list (that is the OLWL words), I still got 505 words to check. So far, in all ways to speed up the process, the only effective solution is to check the words five a time for the ten-letter words. For eleven-or-more-letter words, I check them one by one and skipping the understood plurals except those with their singular forms not listed and those that are very doubtful to be plurals (NEWSWORTHIES, which can be easily be mistaken as a plural for NEWSWORTHY, is not a word after all). Initially, I thought on how fast I finished searching the long L and N words (two to three searches a day on avarage), I will finish everything by the end of this month. But with the shock of the number of ten-letter U words to check, it may take some more time. I can see this as a preview for how my last two searches will turn out: the long C words (3,944 ten-letter results) and the future nightmarish long S words (5,273 ten-letter results await me there). But I have to do this fast, because I have to find a job immediately. The time when my father (my sole provider) retires is drawing near in about over a year's. I have to decide to take up post-graduate IT studies or resume persuing the IT job offer I turned down on my birthday (my sister and my mother stressed me to take it). As of now, my cable provider is still not carrying Animax! But the lastest anime fare is few but fruitful: Tokyo Underground and Dear Boys (an anime in the same wavelength as Slam Dunk) on a local channel, Samurai Deeper Kyo in a supposedly all-English UHF channel, and Gundam Seed on Cartoon Network (together with Beyblade V-Force). Even my fellow online anime peers in the Philippines can't wait for them, too! This makes my deviotion for anime more unexplainable, considering that the only other anime I watch are Super Gals, Shaman King, and Captain Fatz, not to mention Ranma ˝. While I still can't watch Animax, at least one of the two new channels provided by my cable operator airs shows I've only seen on Oprah before then (such as The Jamie Kennedy Experiment and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy). Today, The Amazing Race begins! Hurray! One the first, it was Team Guido. On number three, I'm rooting for Ian and Teri. On number four, I'm rooting for the ATC's and the clowns. Now I'm rooting for the dwarf and her cousin. How I love underdogs. I still haven't read my Guinness Book much recently because once again, I'm preoccupied with my Scrabble word list and my anime interests. I'll try to go reading it until the next update. This moment's Galaxy Angels screen shot: Madam Lanhua:"Hmmmmm. I'm seeing something on my crystal ball." Ja ne wa! (Posted on Wednesday, June 23, 2004 at 10:58 a.m.) As usual, not much is happening these past weeks. I was trying to help Timwi out in developing a SOWPODS wordlist for his Scrabble program. Using the SOWPODS text file extracted from Networdz, I used it as a base for most of the words. To make sure that the word list integrates both the UK and the US word lists, I downloaded the Official Long Words List from the US National Scrabble Association website and integrate it to the list. Since the OLWL (as it is called) has no UK online counterpart, I had to usethe Chamber's Wordgames Wizard Site to find the words ten to fifteen letters long and not included in the OLWL, since I know some words that listed in Chamber's are not included in the OLWL's source, the Merriam-Webster Tenth Collegiate Dictionary, and vice versa. What make this process too long are:
Speaking of words, last Wednesday's episode of CSI (on AXN South East Asia) tackled two of them. The first one was BITCH, written by a boy who set a fire that killed his sister. He hears it a lot, he says. (Can't anybody teach the boy good values?) The other was EXVINS. Neither the Official Scrabble Players' Dictionary (or OSPD) nor its UK counterpart lists it. The victim played EXVIN (actually a bluff) and the suspect pluralized it, but was deemed illegal. Later, the suspect forced the victim to swallow six tiles (E, X, V, I, N, S) as retribution for the embarassment the suspect had. The suspect never counted on the victim choking to death. The game involved is Logos, which seems to be a variant of Scrabble, but with no board and with circular color-coded tiles. While the game seems interesting, it doesn't seem to exist. Maybe the producers made up Logos to escape a lawsuit from Hasbro, the company that licensed Scrabble in North America (which was what happened to the guy who programmed Networdz). Recently, my anime DVD collection recently had an addition: Di Gi Charat Summer Special 2000. I can't believe that was very funny, especially when Di Gi's (a.k.a. Dejiko) actions and the eventual slapstick it contains. I really laughed about the Paya Paya character, the worm-like one that always talks about a Nirvana. I really laughed a lot! Compared to my already large anime VCD collection, my anime DVD collection wasn't very big (only three titles so far), and it is placed in the living room along with other movie titles, including recent ones. That's because it is very expensive for my budget and there aren't many titles. For a DVD region 3 country, it maybe difficult to obtain DVDs of titles I like, especially the elusive ones. Oh, well! I haven't read my Guinness Book much recently because I'm preoccupied with my Scrabble word list and my anime interests, especially now that Tokyo Underground is on. I'll try to give another Guinness tidbit on my next update. This moment's Galaxy Angels screen shot: Forte pretending to be dead. Ja ne wa! (Posted on Saturday, June 5, 2004 at 02:20 p.m.) Nothing was happening this week. I just uploaded the new Major Arcana Translations in Korean, which I actually made about three months ago. I had to find the Korean names by using online dictionaries in the internet to put them together. What took me so long to put it up on the Assorted Anime Tarot site are Survivor and my preoccupations for the last three months, as well as my recent preoccupation with Scrabble. I also made the new title image in AAT's site. This time, it's Ranma at front. Check the site out and see it for yourself. Here's a Guiness tidbit: MOST RACES WITHOUT A WIN Andrea de Cesaris (Italy) competed in 208 Formula One races without a victory between 1980 and 1994. He drove for Alfa Romeo (1980, 1982-83), McLaren (1981), Ligier (shown here, 1984-85), Minardi (1986), Brabham (1987), Rial (1988), Dallara (1989-90), Jordan (1991, 1994), Tyrell (1992-93), and Sauber (1994).Looks like he retired unvictorious. Good luck on his later life. This moment's Galaxy Angels screen shots: FLASH: Mint Blancmange's head found under a chicken head... Ja ne wa! (Posted on Monday, May 31, 2004 at 02:51 p.m.) Since Survivor All-Stars have been finished three weeks ago, I decided to write my entrie anytime from now until The Amazing Race premieres this July. I'm sorry for the delays that took me from writing anything about the past week. I'll explain to you now.  Last weekend, I finally got hold of the new paperback version of the 2004 Guinness Book. I religiously collect the Guinness Book since 1995, and until now after my graduation from college, I still collect paperback editions of the Guinness Book. I actually waited for this copy since the first half of May, but as I said, it came late last weekend. Unlike the hardbound version, it was published by another company (Bantam Books), which makes the paperback version cheaper than the hardbound version, which I estimate is about P1,000 or more here in the Philippines or about US.What new records did I notice for this year's edition? I haven't done taking up excerpts for a while since my home is finally connected to the internet last October. But do this for the first time at the end of this entry.  I also caught the finale of American Idol last Thursday. I was amazed by the performances of both Fantasia Barrino and Diana de Garmo. While the Philippines is gaga over Idol because two of the final 12 have Filipino blood (which I never cared), I just want to see how the Idol franchise works, since I saw World Idol last February.Well, America made the right choice when 60 million votes gave Fantasia the title of "American Idol," something Kelly Clarkson and Reuben Studdard received. Someone who belts a great performance week by week since last February until last Thursday had been superb (although she bumps along the way). I didn't say that Diana is not as good as Fantasia. She sings very well. But in my opinion, she signifies the statement Simon Cowell said on World Idol about the Idol franchise — a glorified karaoke competition. Diana's performances are so-so, so to speak. On the other hand, even I can seem to join into Fantasia's performances, especially the so-called "Bobo" dance step (named after Fantasia's nickname). The most important factor in American Idol is the audience. Since America votes and the three judges Simon, Randy Jackson, and Paula Abdul play no more part after the final 32 was selected, singing and performing well is not enough; one has to have charisma to take America away. Fantasia did just that not only to America, but to its overseas audiences as well. (I even read articles predicting Fantasia's win.) So I say congratulations to Fantasia, and kudos for Diana for being the bridesmaid in year's competition. Diana did very well despite her pitfalls. Last week, I finally recreated the Tribal Council Grids for my unwritten fanfic Anime Survivor's first to eight editions. I made the first to the third editions easier because I have tangible paper copies. But since I forgot about the circumstances of the Anime Survivor 4-8, I just guessed. I was not 100% sure on what happened, but that's the least I can do. I tried to recreate the Tribal Council Grids last July after the diskette containing the original files fouled up and erased almost everything, including the Tribal Council Grids from editions one to eight. I finished recreating Anime Survivor 6's Tribal Council Grid weeks before my laptop's original 5GB hard disk started to act strange and suddenly had errors. Since September while my laptop's hard disk was being replaced, I moved on to Anime Survivor 9 without even finishing recreating the first eight. Those recreated ones were still in that broken hard disk, and I didn't have time to move them. After I finished the Tribal Council Grid for Anime Survivor 19 (what a long way!), I finally decided to buy a new diskette exclusively for Anime Survivor last week, transfer the existing ones from the original blue uploader diskette, and finally recreate the first 8 Tribal Council Grids before I move on to Anime Survivor 20. Which I did this past week. Unfortunately, the hangover from the unwritten events of Anime Survivor 19 and its real live TV counterpart kept me from starting Anime Survivor 20 in full blast. I hope that by finishing this entry, I may finally begin. I finally ditched ScrabOut for its successor, Networdz. I decided to ditch this Scrabble program after seeing that it had flaws in its dictionary entries when word lists are imported and exported. Networdz, is still the same as ScrabOut except it is capable of chat and online gaming. But it can also be played offline. It also has dictionaries (TWL98 or OSPD3 plus the cuss words, and SOWPODS or OSPD3 plus the UK counterpart OSW), it is fully customizable. I even customized it to resemble Mattel's Scrabble, since Networdz board resembles Hasbro's. Both ScrabOut and Networdz were programmed by the same author. But Networdz is online and you can find it anywhere; just search for it!. I haven't done this for a while but here's a Guiness tidbit: MOST SYNDICATED COMIC STRIP "Garfield," created by Jim Davis (USA) and circulated by Universal Press Syndicate, is the world's most syndicated comic strip, appearing in 2,570 journals throughout the world.I know that there'll be a live-action Garfield movie coming up! This moment's Galaxy Angels screen shots: A kiss that launched a thousand ships... and blew them all up. Ja ne wa! (Posted on Friday, May 21, 2004 at 02:54 p.m.) Welcome to the new Moccasin Edition of my blog. You can see that I did away with the blog banner with Millefeuille Sakuraba in it and replaced it with a new one with Doremi, Hazuki, and Aiko in it. I used a new font just to type the Roman Letters in that new blog banner. I've been using the old Millefeuille banner on my blog for over a year. Time to give the blog banner a little face lift. Also, on the upper right hand corner of the page is the where you seen my Anime Playing cards. For the past four edition, I've been churning out Royal Flushes. Now, I decided to post the king and queen of Hearts (you know who they are) as a reflection and idealization of several anime couples I come to love and cheer. I won't mention who they are because they are way too many. And in the continued devotion for Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, I decided to put the pictures of the Mermaid Princesses on the top of this page. That's something for a cartoon I haven't seen in either cable TV or Free TV here in the Philippines! Aside from The Eurovision Song Festival and Survivor All-Stars, I was preoccupied last week by editing a very long word list bundled in Timwi's Scrabble ande shortened the list for about three days. Why, you ask? That's because I wanted to apply the word list to another Scrabble program called ScrabOut, which is smaller that the Timwi's English Scrabble program bundle alone. But the program calls for words two to twelve letters long. I edited the list with MS Word, closed it, and imported to ScrabOut to see if there are any long words left. By Thursday, the list was free of any words with 13 or more letters. I further edited the new updated list removing any offensive words (like f--- and a--hole) and some words that said to be removed from the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 3rd edition (da, dei, des, kev, vin, vins, and von) I have my own copy of OSPD3 (as it is called), but those words are still listed. That copy must be an earlier printing; it doesn't even have qwerty! Usually, at this time of year, the paperback edition of the Guinness Book of Records is released. I'm still waiting for this year's edition. I've been collecting editions of the Guinness Book since 1995. I use the earlier edition for reference. As of now, I don't know what took the release of this year's edition so long. This moment's Galaxy Angels screen shots: Millefeuille introduces us to the room that makes each of them. Millefeuille: This is my room... (A kitchen?) and this is Lanhua's room... (A gym?) and this is Forte's room... (A workshop?) and this is Mint's room (Oh, a bank.). Ja ne wa! |
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