Selrotta

Design blues

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:40:25 GMT

Words don't lie. Or rather, MSN nicks don't lie. If more than 4 people are whining about the same thing, then it's really quite possible that Design project II is a bitch too.

Ha ha... done for the week. My weekend only started on sunday 2pm. That's like, after working non stop on the thing everyday since last monday. I just wish the profs will enter our comp labs and *SEE* the hordes of CBE year 4 ppl camping there all day just to finish up the latest design report.

Like I said, we're not even mechanical engineers. Why must we know abt mechanical integrity of our plant, steel types and engineering drawings?

Yup, between FYP and Design Project, my last semester of studying is becoming memorable in the wrong sort of way.

Forever Your Pain, part 2

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 08:45:08 GMT

Post-worthy thing to blog about.

And it doesn't help that when it's a good thing that happened, I'll try to do something more *productive* like say, typing out my fyp report or some more *entertaining* like gaming on my ps2.

But whenever it's something bad, then it's really blog-worthy.

So forgive me if I'm being really bitchy, cause life's a bitch as well so I'm not the first bitch that existed.

And we were trying to make sense of the results. I was feeling somewhat resigned to the fact that Susanna, my FYP prof, is too busy to notice that I've attached an excel file compiling the results of the Bradford assay to the email I sent here (see previous post for more about Bradford). It always seems that she's too busy to notice my efforts, but what the heck. We're all very busy people in this world.

{Edited version of what happened}
Susanna: "Alright now I would like you to do a densitometer test on your gel."
Me: "Alright. But I have never used a densiometer before."
Susanna: "Basically you put your gel into the gel imager and it will calculate what percentage of your expressed protein is in your samples."
Me: "Erm, I'm not sure whether I've thrown away the gels."
Susanna: "Oh, so you might have. Then we can't go on with this experiment."
Me: "It might be better if you would give some warning that we were going to use the gels for our next analysis."
Susanna: "But I did mention we were going to use the densitometer."
Me: "But you did not mention that the gel was going to be involved."
Susanna: "Alright. You're the first FYP student that has told me that you've thrown away the gels. Most of the other FYP students keep them in containers with the destaining buffer. This way you can keep them for 2-3 months."
Me: "Oh. Yeah, they do."
Susanna: "Well, I see not much point in repeating this experiment, since we don't have much time to repeat the steps. We'll have to move on to the next step then. If you have time perhaps you can repeat this experiment to perform these analysis."
Me: "Okay."

Yes, the Silent Death™ treatment. She waits for you to commit an error, then tells you what you should have done. Lovely. Happens all the times when people point fingers at each other when something really screws up. Also let's forget the fact that this was about the first time where I threw away my gels soon after my experiments. How am I supposed to know there were more things to be done?

Susanna: "In fact you should be the one that's telling me what you want to do with your experiment. I'm just here to guide you."

Hmm, might be better if we didn't suffer from communication gitches like the one below. Of course, I'm not going to blame myself. I'm going to blame her. It's far more satisfying that way.

Susanna: " So the first draft of the report is due this Friday, on the 21st."
Me: "Right. It has to be handed in in hard copy right?"
Susanna: "Yes, hard copy."
Me: "Okay. I was wondering how do I send it to you since it'll be a public holiday on Friday."
Susanna: "Oh. In that case I'll send an email telling everyone to send me a hardcopy on Thursday then."
Me: "Oh, so what time will it be due?"
Susanna: " By the end of the day."
Me: " End of the day as in 5.30pm? Or 6pm?"
Susanna: "5.30pm. That'll be fine."
Me: "Alright then."

So at the end of this painful discourse, the verdict is that I have to repeat the experiments with my variable and control elements swapped. Easy to say in one line, right? And we have to spend almost 45 mins debating.

I think she also mentioned that we can't do an ELISA (some more specific kit that's far more accurate that everything I've been doing to detect protein concentration) since it costs $1000 a piece, and it takes delivery time and such to arrive. What's more "since most of your experiments were done last minute we don't have much time to wait for delivery of the kit."

Ouch, was it really neccessary to add the time constraint point, considering that with the $500 bucks that my FYP funds allow we'll probably never *ever* (Amen to that)get a freakin ELISA kit to detect the protein of interest? Oh so NOW I have to partially take the blame that we can't get an ELISA kit cause there's no time to wait for delivery; cause I paused my FYP during the second strech of my last sem to retain my sanity and work hard for my grades???

But I don't care. I won't care if she doesn't care about my sanity.

Heck, she doesn't even care for our welfare. Compared with the bio lab next door, our lab is really really barren. Just a weighing machine, biosafety hood and SDS-PAGE running stuff. Absolutely everything else has to be used in the common lab/borrowed/booked from somewhere else. Basically that means a lot of *excess time wasted* running around between one lab to the next just to borrow/use equipment. What's more if the other labs happen to be locked up or if the equipment is in use by someone else you're basically screwed.

I am SO not going to regret that I started my FYP later than the rest. After all I've really been working every week this sem (except for two weeks), and I can pretty much face up to my own damn conscience. And I don't care if you think I screwed it up, cause my results have been quite consistent most of the time and also YOU GO TO HELL for not reading my perfectly crafted Excel file.

FYP: Forever Your Pain

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:47:10 GMT

Alright so my Final Year project involves testing out polymers and seeing their interaction with recombinant proteins. Since it's a bio lab, my experiments takes three days to produce results.

So far for this week the only day where I haven't been to the lab is Monday. At the rate my prof wants results, I've submitted to the fact that we aren't just FYP students, in fact just call us FYP slaves and be done with it.

Sorry, but it's really not my fault that that's the way the world functions, and a couple of procedures need overnight incubation time. Just today, after getting fresh results from the lab, she asks me to do Bradford assay. That's about okay, but then she says something to the effect of "You better continue doing experiments each week, and I don't care whether you've got other obligations such as a FYP first draft due next week, or term paper to hand up on tomorrow. Since you have weekends, why not write your report then?"

Oh, so much for humane treatment of students. But wait, we're slaves, so that about explains it. Slaves don't have any say and just say yes. Yes, I'll do more work. Yes, I'll even do work on weekends and every other time all the time.

For a short explanation of what Bradford does, it basically measures total protein concentration in whatever solution you feed to the machine. Before taking readings, you have to calibrate the machine first, which takes about one afternoon to do. (And perhaps one night planning out the protocol to calibrate the machine) And due to the almighty ways that the world functions, even if I can calibrate the machine tomorrow AND feed my samples to it, my samples would have been sitting around doing nothing for 2 days. Now I won't be surprised if something goes wrong cause something degraded/decayed in my protein solutions.

Damn, why can't she just tell me earlier she wanted a Bradford so I could just calibrate the machine earlier?

She's been asking for results since Tuesday, where I've started my first day of experiment. The fact that I can deliver results on Thursday already shows I'm not slacking in the least right?

I've been keeping a record of all the experiments that I've been doing since this semester started, and so far I've been quite consistent doing one experiment per week except for two weeks. (Yes including my recess break which was virtually not a break at all.) Yet after all this time I haven't seemed to catch up with the rest of her FYP students.

Like, crud. Somehow a part of me regrets not doing FYP since recess break during last semester, but then another part doesn't regret it since it was after all, for the sake of my sanity and exam results.

Makes you wonder whether she's saying that I'm lagging behind just to force me to work more.

Sigh. I can almost imagine her ultimate move. "Alright, why not you just repeat your experiments just to see how reproducible the results are. Perhaps you can get some error bars too while you're doing that." (Note: To generate error bars, at least 3 experiments must be performed)

GAWD NO. But then what comes out of my mouth will just be another yes.

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 02:22:44 GMT

Currently crazy over Green Day cause their songs are about the only that makes sense these days.

Now I just came along this hilarious song, great for stress relief and the like.

Gawd it was released in 1997, 11 years ago. Yeah, I'm getting old so fuck you. XD

The Grouch by Green Day

I was a young boy that had big plans.
Now I'm just another shitty old man.
I don't have fun and I hate everything.
The world owes me, so fuck you.

Glory days don't mean shit to me.
I drank a six pack of apathy.
Life's a bitch and so am I.
The world owes me, so fuck you.

Wasted youth and a fistful of ideals.
I had a young and optimisitic point of view.
Wasted youth and a fistful of ideals.
I had a young and optimisitic point of view.

I've decomposed, yet my gut's getting fat.
Oh my god I'm turning old like my dad.
I'm always rude.
I've got a bad attitude.
The world owes me, so fuck you.

The wife's a nag and the kid's fucking up.
I don't have sex `cause I can't get it up.
I'm just a grouch sitting on the couch.
The world owes me, so fuck you.

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:56:41 GMT

Ah, when FYP results are bad, time to give life the third finger.

Currently in love with Green Day songs, somehow they're more funny than My Chemical Rommance. Some of their old songs are just plain bratty. And even a song about drag queen wannabes is funny.

First punk rock song I ever heard accompanied by trumpet and trombone riffs. O.o Amazing.

King for a Day by Green Day

Started at the age of 4.
My mother went to the grocery store.
Went sneaking throught her bedroom door to find something in a size 4.

Sugar and spice and everything nice wasn't made for only girls.
GI Joe in panty hose is making room for the one and only.

King for a day, princess by dawn.
King for a day in a leather thong.
King for a day, princess by dawn.
Just wait 'til all the guys get a load of me.

My daddy threw me in therapy.
He thinks I'm not a real man.
Who put the drag in the drag queen.
Don't knock it until you tried it

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 02:28:43 GMT

Attended the Hall 11 production's drama which was in DBS theatre yesterday, for which my friend was the script writer (woo hoo). The whole play was in Chinese, though being Singaporean in context there was also Singlish, Hokkien and the usual short forms like "sem" "DOTA" and of course "noob".

This girl at the row behind was asking "What's Dota?". Me feels that's just cute.

Hall A's production has two distinguished people holding up the sky, one a talented scriptwriter, the other a successful director. However, after giving his latest script to the director (his best, as he claimed) scriptwriter Wei Jie dies in a car accident. The director, being the guy's best friend, continues on with directing the play despite not having Wei Jie to help him along.

Yet firstly there are two problems hindering him. His girlfriend is the female lead, and the male lead is a good looking guy Nick. When they do intimate scenes, the director gets intensely jealous of the guy "stealing" his girlfriend. Next, he's haunted by visions of the ghost of Wei Jie, who supposely haunts the Hall function room and gives him tips and advice from beyond the grave. Everyone thinks he's going mad. In the end, the cast and crew refuse to listen to the director anymore, adding another blow to the director's battered ego.

Finally, the ghost of Wei Jie appears again taunting his "good friend". He reveals that he orchestrated everything so that the director would be tormented. Realising that Wei Jie is up to no good, the director scuffles with Wei Jie (But *how* do you fight ectoplasm?) and then discovers the source of the ghost is a mirror at the end of the room. He then breaks it with his fist, dispelling the ghost. One of the crew hears the scuffle and enters to find him with his fist bleeding. He is then taken to the hospital. Meanwhile, the production of the play is a success, no thanks to the director and scriptwriter.

The acting was quite alright, most funny was the scene with the gay and the unwilling guy. Slapstick always makes you happy.

Have 2 quiz next week. But the silver lining is that my best friend is back from Aust and we'll be going PS to eat sushi and watch Sweeney Todd together. We'll also be decking out in our gothic punk casual wear, all the more reason for photo taking XD.

My 10 cents worth on Valentine's Day

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 06:48:14 GMT

It's Vincent Valentine's Day. Or Vincent's Valentines Day. =3

In the game, he gets called Mr Valentine a lot. Maybe it's cause he looks senior-ish, after so many years of moping around over ~~dead scientist that isn't quite dead due to Jenova cells~~ Lucrecia.

She just reeks of Aeris-rip-off, doesn't it? Cloud has Aeris to mope over, Vincent has Lucrecia. They even have similar hair, just different ribbons; one hair is braided, the other not. Because of Sephiroth, both ended up in a dead or not-so-dead state.

Wonder if they'll make a Cloud version of Dirge. I mean, he already has Fenhir and a 6-piece sword First Tsuguri.

What's more, with the World Rescue Organisation calling him MISTER STRIFE, the game's set to sell. *evil laughter*

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:53:42 GMT

Awesome song. Awesome. awesome.

"Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" by Greenday

I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
and I'm the only one and I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone

Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah,
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah

I'm walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line
Of the edge and where I walk alone

Read between the lines
What's fucked up and everything's alright
Check my vital signs
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone

Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah
Ah-ah, Ah-ah

I walk alone
I walk a...

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone...

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:19:25 GMT

Hum, this must be major lag, cause after a full 4 months I finally gotten off my lazy bum and installed my tablet.

Wonder what was the trigger. Maybe it's the drawing that I drew on my lecture notes today. I *really* haven't been drawing lately, kinda makes me feel ashamed of myself as an artist, but then again, I don't really care.

Meh, there'a always a side of me that doesn't care. Life is just a journey through time, and whether or not you see certain things as important or not is just up to you.

And now, off to experiment on my drawing skills with a stylus... ^^

General life update

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 09:15:26 GMT

Made the most stupid error in my FYP-ing history. I forgot to add water to dilute the concentration of this buffer to the correct amount, and was happily adding it to other things before I realised I forgot to add water to get the correct volume.

Meh, there goes another portion of the expensive ingredients. (Most sadly, the DTT. It seems to be the most expensive of all the stuff I add.) Sort of the modern alchemist mixing them up, but not quite.

Lab-stuff aside, suddenly gained the urge to level a *female* wizard instead of a male one. I just decided I couldn't stand the ah-kwa move that male high wizards do when they cast spell, and quite simply, the female sprite for high wizard looks better.

Ah ha, so that's 99+ 53 levels down the drain since my male wiz is rather highly levelled. (99 levels to rebirth, 53 levels as high novice and high mage) What's more, I am SERIOUSLY considering getting some protection against those archer classes who like to take pot shots at me just cause I have low hp.

But for all the sacrifices of life and love, I guess I'm much more willing to sacrifice 15 bucks for the remaining three books of Vampire Knight. I just *had* to have the hardcopies so that I don't have to switch on my comp and navigate around just to see Kaname's face. He's the kind of character that grows more murky and sinister the more you probe into the story. Sort of like the vampire royalty version of Raito of Deathnote. Or maybe the vampire version of My boyfriend is a Prince.

I guess I'll have to spend tomorrow again in lab, just cause of this fess up today. (What's morte it's supposedly my 3rd attempt on this control experiment, yet I still can't seem to get it right. pif)

Ah, shit happens. What to do? >.

Mutterings of a repressed creative (?) soul

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 03:23:25 GMT

AhhHH, I received an email (one of those random spam that my school sends me) asking about "How do you write? Do write feverishly when the inspiration strikes? Or do you prefer to write leisurely, adding little spices everyday?"

The sad reality is: I HAVE NO TIME.

I have no time to write, I have no time to draw. Heck I don't even have time to level up and hunt for crap and start up my ps2 for a nice long gaming session. All I do so far for the past 3 days is FYP fyp fyp fyp...

At least, if and when it's finally over, I can shake my legs and look at the sky that was long lost to me. (*ponders over the in-reality of it all*)

In the meantime, my sister has returned from overseas, and we're both trying to enforce each other's music onto each other. (Well, SHE started it first with her piano/cello whatever classical music!) Now I'm spamming all my game soundtracks on her. Touche!

Mom's ecstatic.You can tell cause she's suddenly making chao guo tiao for breakfast. Since when did she ever cook a breakfast for everyone? =P Not that I'm complaining. The bean sprouts are really not bad.

Well that's all for now. Really shouldn't be blogging on my lab computer. >.

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 03:57:58 GMT

Was just browsing animewallpapers.com for a new wallpaper to replace the KH2 one and got this from the naruto section.

Doesn't it remind you of the other spikey headed blond guy with a sword?

Whatever/whoever this guy is supposed to be, he's definately *VERY* distracting on my desktop. X3 X3 X3

-----------------------------------

Also, playing Dirge of Cerebus now and at the stage where Vincent is slowly going nuts. Maybe it's the mako floating around that's making all the main characters in FF7 go nuts after a while. Proven by the words of a stuffed animal:

Cait Sith: "Things are really going to get nutty around here."

Lastly, bosses should beware what they ask for. They want the beast, they get the beast. *melees Azul to death*

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 08:50:15 GMT

Always wanted to do this:

They tell me redemption is at counter 8, so all ye sinners, you know where to go.

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 09:49:43 GMT

Hmm, after a misunderstanding (which was related to either miscommunication or this perception that I had after hallucinating/imagining it *sarcasm*) I found that perhaps I should just get on with it and JOIN A ORG13 GROUP or bust.

Yeah, little old me tired of cosplaying alone, non?

If not, there'll always be KH photoshoots to look forward to. *pines for and waits for Suki*

Darn, I'm just so darned passive. Like Vincent. Har.
----------------

Other news:

FYP's a bitch, and always finding more questions to ask the prof in charge even after I've had discussions with for the nth time. Think she's getting more irritated?

Visted sgcafe and found some *really old* messages in my inbox that are 2 years old.
"Those were the days?" *cue: the song by the Carpenters

After talking with Baoshin, got inspired to get off my lazy ass and start drawing again seriously. Though seriously, when the first storyboard appears will have to be some time later. (some time being holidays most likely, if carolling, driving and coswork don't get in the way >.<)

What's more, there's just 2 bucks left in my bbdc account. Gotta find a day to run over there just to TOP the darned thing up so I can register for more #@$ classes for another go at getting my driving license. Third time's lucky, I hear. *fingers crossed*

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 17:55:31 GMT

What is the one thing you might never do in your life?

Eh, join a Naked Bike Ride like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Naked_Bike_Ride

I've heard of beaches where people strip down to their birthday suit, but this is... incredible.

Anything for the environment, I suppose.

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 04:24:33 GMT

This is apparently why people like to say that something "tastes like chicken". So give it a thought when you're chowing down on the crap that canteen food vendors serve you.

http://www.post-gazette.com/healthscience/20000717chicken1.asp

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:43:50 GMT

Saw this on my MSN. Thought I'll post it here.

Two people just next to each other. Just kewt. ^^

Fashion attack!!

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 08:45:25 GMT

Getai is hot, with the local movie 881 doing better in the box office than Rush Hour 3. Tomorrow's going to be 中元节, according to my informative parents, and they advise me not to hang out at the getai-s for fear of molesters and ghosts. >.>

But enough about that. Let's talk about what my sister got me for my birthday. I seriously feel she's getting disconnected from her younger sis's mental age after being overseas for 5 years? It came in the mail, together with a card, with the return address very enigmatically written from "Guess Who?" from London.

I don't need to have a degree to figure out that it's from my sis. I mean, she's the only one I know currently in London. >.=;; (Ah, well it's... cheerful! And...erm, lame.)

But nit-picking aside, the solid proof that she doesn't understand what kind of a person her sister is came from the 100% original Hello Kitty scarf complete with WHITE POLKA DOTS on a red background.

I took the scarf with the plastic covered, and shivered as I beheld Hello Kitty's visage.

"Hello... Kitty..."

*plastered half-smile that is a mixture of shock, amusement and revulsion*
*ghostly karaoke from neighbour plays in background*
*stares for 10 seconds*

To make things even creepier, my Mom came along and took my expression to be pleasant surprise.

Mom: Wow, what did your sister give you? Is it a scarf? *takes it out* Why, it is! Maybe you can put it on your head like this... *puts it on my head and realises it's too small* Hmm, why don't you place it around your neck? Ha, it's so cute!

Me: Eh, I'm just... stunned.

Mom: *looks at me* Hmm, if you don't like it you can use it to cover your printer or your computer things.

Me: Uh... ah... *sheepish stunned-smile*

-------

Mom. Sis. I AM TWENTY-TWO THIS YEAR. NOT EIGHT. Heck, even when I was eight I'll probably secretly throw this thing into the bin or hide it in some forsaken corner of the house and let it gather dust for 4 years.

And what's more you DO NOT wear Hello Kitty (with white polka dots and red red red background!) unless you're a toddler or your brains have been fried by too much sun/exams. Or maybe on National Day, since it blends in with the national colours.

...

Reminds me of the time when my Mom and Sis tried to convince me that this light green long dress would look good on me since I was effectively the tallest out of them both and "long dress look good on tall girl." At least I should wear it out for formal occasions.

I don't know. The first thing I thought of was "cabbage". The next thing was looking perhaps 15 years older instantly. Needless to say, it remains hanging in the nether depths of my closet, the only green thing next to all the black stuff.

Update:
Apparently my sis also doesn't know what the heck is cosplaying as well.

(quote from the card) "the annual cosplay -- which I still don't get!! *emoticon*"
(about the scarf) "PS: A little contribution to your next Cos Play ^^"

O_______O

=____=

...

Cosplayers. DO. NOT. WEAR. HELLO. KITTY. SCARVES. *death glare*

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 07:13:41 GMT

Hmm, Innocence of Silence is nice. And so is Fascination Maxx.

Too bad Dragon Blade doesn't have the cool brakes of CHAOS. It would have become one of my favorite songs.

Does it prove the theorem that Japanese make all the nicest stuff for Japanese only? I heard the US version of SuperNova contains a lot of pop songs and other crap not suited for DDR.

I guess the ang-mohs don't get it when they try to localise a good solid japanese game. (*Cringe* English version of... Real... Emotion... *gags* And what the heck's wrong with Lenne's voice?!? Why is her face $#@$@ emotionless at the end of the game?)

Songs that I like that are not in the ps2 game:
DoLL and Max300 (Super-max-me mix)

So much for planning to train them on the console.

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:48:36 GMT

SuperNova 2 is out, and just yesterday I was playing the *old* version, SuperNova 1.

Time does fly when you're in term time, does it?

Well anyway, got around to slugging it out with the ps2 version of SuperNova, and currently addicted to playing No.13.

I mean, I've played through the thing 14 times in a row on expert(heavy) mode, and still I've yet to reach Nirvana. Most of the time I just react to the stream of arrows and hope that it hits. I doubt if the same thing appears on the DDR machine my feet will be able to keep up.

I tried doing a simpler song with my feet, but no luck. There's just no bar behind you to support your weight, so ditto.

List of songs that I (hopefully) will master soon on foot:

CHAOS (difficult, expert's insane!!)
DoLL
Mugen
AA (!)
No. 13 (!!)

Somehow something is wrong with my feet: my right foot is too used to stepping on right and up arrow and left foot is too used to stepping on left and down arrow. (aka I can't turn for nuts!!) And even though I can do [up+ right+ up+ down+ up + left+...] or [down+ left+ down+ up+ down+ right+...] combos on ps2 I can't seem to do it on foot. =.=;;

Now each 3-song game costs $2 now in cck, I wonder what's the price for jp, but I think it'll be almost the same. So training in the arcade is going to cost a lot of money.... (Damn the GST hike, you ****** politicians!!)

Meanwhile, daytime fantasies are occupied with Kaname Kuran of Vampire Knight. I fell in love with him after reading Chapter 20 of the series.

And how many ways do I love thee? Let me count the ways:
a) He killed another powerful vampire by first thrusting his hand through her torso. (Oh, blood!)
b) Then he bit her neck and took a few gulps of her blood. (Oh, more blood!!)
c) Moving on, he put his hand around her heart and ripped it out. (Gore!! Wicked!)
d) Leaving her decapitated-still-conscious body on the ground, all bloodied and beyond repair. (Yes! Behold the power of Kaname sama!)
e) Because he'd planned his attack when she was the weakest and could not heal herself if her heart was gone. (Brains! He actually planned things carefully before he struck!)
f) And then he moves on before she actually dies, leaving someone else to be near the corpse in the moments of her death; effectively framing the person that finds her and leaving him scot free. (With some new powers too, and an unknown curse/burden. But who cares if you're effectively more powerful than you already were?)

And even though his subordinate saw the event, he remains too scared to speak up because he's smart enough not to anger Kaname sama. (I mean, he just killed and drank the blood of a pureblood vampire? Do you want to be next in line too?)

Kaname sama knows this fact. That's why all he needs to do is to glance at the poor guy and he shuts up instantly. XDXD

I wonder what Yuuki would think if she knew this dark side of him. Would she stop seeing him altogether? Now that would *really* drive Kaname deeper to his dark side. (Oooo, what could be scarier?? ^.^)

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 07:59:54 GMT

Sometimes it's good to stylise your own misfortunes into things which you can brag.

a) I have a 7-hour non-stop lecture session on Tuesday!! Woo Hoo!
b) I've lost my right contact lens! Only one month after I've lost and replced my left one! Effectively I'm buying a new set of contact lens for myself after less than 2 months of usage!

Alright, this looks set to be a swell day. Always good to keep a positve outlook on life.

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:39:12 GMT

Actually lots of things are happening in my life but somehow all my spare time has been used up trying to a acquire a rare accessory in FFX-2.

More specifically, trying to wait until an AP egg pops up as a prize in the blitzball league or tournament. AP eggs are awesome cause they triple the amount of AP u receive during battle, n that makes learning abilities 3 times faster. (Yay, 3 times less battling!)

Voila, and I *had* sworn that I'd never touch blitzball again. That was... a year ago, when I was waiting for Wakka's final seal thingy to appear so that I could unseal his ultimate weapon... etc etc

I suppose this is the fate of people who don't own gamesharks. =.=

-------------------------

Alright, finally got an elective of my choice. It's not my first choice, but it's the second or third choice. It's called "Whose rules? Issues in Crime and Punishment." I suppose I can relate to that in RPG terms.

Crime: Some bad guy comes and wants to take over the world
Punishment: I, the main character, turn up and show him who's the boss by laying down some major hurt.

I suppose whose rules depends on which guy ~~owns the bigger sword~~ has the most ethers and elixers. X3

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I got myself a tablet today. Was thinking that my father would be the first to disagree, but after he mistook a tablet for a "table", he promptly replied "Go ahead to buy." (Exact same words)

Gee, if Mom has any complains, u do know that I'll hold you responsible right, Dad? =.<

But well, it's all for good quality equipment. A Wacom tablet comes with a 1-year warrenty plus driver software, Corel painter X and Adobe Photoshop Elements. What's more I get a copy of the first issue (Apr/May 2007) of Fresh Mode, a comics magazine that I've never heard of in my life. (Hopefully it's better than MAGE)

Week 2 and tutorials are starting. From the look of the stuff in the lecture notes, it's looking like we are just starting to descend into the depths of hell.

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 19:01:57 GMT

I digress but advertisments disguised as comics absolutely crack me up...

http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics81.html

Gotta love it when a giant pitcher crashes through your wall and asks you to drain it of its red bodily fluids. OHHH YEAHHH!!!11!!

Also, there was a time where America didn't have manga and they tried to fake it.

http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics94.html

Possibly the most disturbing image... Worms wearing caps pulling a phallic object through a large tunnel. *cough*

http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics93.html

Argh, you can have too many sidequests...

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:25:32 GMT

I've got a theory: Maybe Square-Enix thought that their game would be much more memorable if there was 101 sidequests and 1000 inane things you must do to get the best ending. (Can I say I don't give a damn??) Hey, we don't really have much else of a plot, so let's add a lot of sidequests and sugar and spice!

I'd consider myself blessed not to be playing FFX-2 way back in 2003 when it was released, cause as a member of the Final Fantasy series, it's gotta be the most irritating and brainless game ever to bear Tetsuya Nomura's name.

What's more by this time Nobuo Uematsu is already not composing any songs in this game, so the lackluster music in the game just... makes the experience more irritating. *stabs FFX-2's composer with a penknife*

Well, at least Paine gets all the nice lines, even if Yuna and Rikku are now hooked on Prozac. Brother should be thrown out of the airship and put back to the gay stripper club where he belongs. *heh*

Alright, so I'm not bothering to get 100% for FFX-2 like my walkthrough says. (Quote: "DO THIS OR ELSE YOU CAN KISS YOUR 100% GOODBYE".) Um, like I care. But what? If I didn't do this and that in the earlier chapters means I can't get a new dresssphere? So effectively I should read the walkthrough from chapter 1 and follow every single guideline just to get the last dresssphere (Mascot)?

Ok, so right now I can't get Mascot dresssphere because of something that I didn't do a month ago while I'll was still happily bumming around in chapter 1. That's simply annoying, when I've basically completed almost 80% of the *other* stuff that's needed to be done.

So fine, I can't get the last dresssphere. Can I at least upgrade all my special dressspheres? Yuna's key items were easy to find. Paine's ones were a tad bit hard (especially the one in the thunder plains dungeon, inane sidequests AGAIN though). While Rikku's are... a bit on the insane part. A little bit more explaination is required:

a) Her key item is required to unlock her last ability, break hp limit, which allows the special dresssphere to have more than 9999 HP.
b) The item, machina booster, is found in a dungeon. That dungeon needs to be unlocked.
c) To unlock this dungeon, you'll have to complete this *long* process of raising chocobos and raising them and sending them to calm lands for them to *find the dungeon. (and thus unlock it)
d) To raise chocobos, you'll have to find chocobos and catch them.
e) To find chocobos, you'll have to travel to places in the world to catch them. Note that not all battles contain chocobos and you might have to fight 50% of the battles without seeing a chocobo.
f) Unfortunately, you need 4 chocobos that can be raised to level 5. Not all chocobos can be raised to level 5, so you'll have to catch more than 4 chocobos. (Preferably 14)
g) After catching 14 chocobos, you'll have to travel back to the ranch and examine each chocobo just to see whether it can reach level 5. If not, you'll have to find and catch chocobos again.

So that's an example of how long-winded and convoluted a side-quest can be... just to get a $#@$ item.

The last straw sort of came when I realised that I screwed my chances for getting the good ending or the perfect ending. You're supposed to press X at this point in time in the middle of a conversation. Like there was any clue (except for the walkthrough which I chose to ignore) given in the game that this was imperative to get a better ending. Do the people at Sqaure-Enix enjoy making such important stuff so understated???

So after lots of not-so-easy sidequests completed later, I have to do restart nearly 40+ hours of gaming time just because I didn't mash X when I was supposed to. (Like, F*ck.)

Here's what a walkthrough writer says:

"I would like to stress that I highly recommend earning these videos
instead of just looking them. I strongly believe that when it comes to
RPGs, the journey matters more than the destination. If you did not earn
the endings you will not appreciate it."

Eh, I think s/he probably hasn't done this a lot. I've wasted 80+ hours of my life of over-levelling just to watch a fmv that's 3 minutes long. (That's Drakengard 2, for the record. From none other than Square Enix, ho ho. ^.< ) I figure that's not worth my time. Rather than "appreciation" for the videos, I get to feeling betrayed that whatever I worked so hard for was just... a 3 minute of not-so-nice fmv.

And anyway, 100% completion only grants you a text-dialogue. No nice pretty extra long FMV like the opening sequence. Man, that might be the most expansive and longest FMV in the game.

Funny huh, we work so hard to get the end-game videos, and yet the nicest ones are the ones in the beginning or the ones that play in the loading screen.

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 03:10:05 GMT

Meh, I still can't get the elective I want. *sob*

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS SCHOOL? CAN'T ANYONE JUST GIVE ME A SPACE TO ENTER MY ELECTIVE?!?

I still think ~~Singapore~~ the world is overpopulated. Right now, we don't have enough resources to fit in one more person in an elective.

(Alright, so it was partially my fault I didn't register it when I had the chance during the earlier registration process...)

*Insert any 4-letter swear word of choice*