When Will Fantasy Come?

Half-Day Dublin Trip

2010-08-19T18:46:00.002+08:00

Yeah, even after being here for almost a year, I haven't seen all the attractions yet, so I decided to cover some of those yesterday before I go grocery shopping.

The first place I went to was the National Museum. It showcased artifacts dating back from the Paleolithic to the Viking Eras of Ireland. There was nothing about modern Ireland though. I guess they put it somewhere else. And like all museums, it bored the heck out of me in 2 hours. I did learn a few useful things though, for example, more history!! T_T I can say I remember more Irish history now than Malaysian.

Next I went to the Old Jameson Distillery, birthplace of the most popular whiskey in the world, Old Jameson Whiskey. We saw a video of its history, took a tour not too different from the one at the Guinness Storehouse, and finally had a taste of Old Jameson whiskey. Best of all, since I volunteered to do taste comparisons, I got three extra shots of whiskey! 8D But hey, I got this cool certificate which nobody else got because they didn't volunteer!

Then I went to grocery shopping. Like I said, short trip. Nothing much.

Cork and Limerick - 5-day trip

2010-08-13T22:42:00.003+08:00

Since I had some spare time, I figured I should come back and revive this poor little blog. Sure it's MY poor little blog, but it doesn't kiss up to me enough for me to care so much. It should feel lucky that I'm even doing something with it again, and not wiping it from the face of the internet.

Nah, I can't do that. This place houses my Watched Anime List, which I also haven't updated in months now. But that hardly matters. I haven't really watched much since the last time I updated the list. Only some 20 new titles. That shouldn't be too hard to remember.

Anyway, I returned to Dublin a month and a half earlier than my peers for some traveling and tidying up my house at MY OWN PACE. I LIKE to do things at MY OWN PACE, got it memorised?

Traveling plans got a little delayed because of that and some other things which I need not discuss. So, after a week of settling things at home, I can finally continue the initial plan.

Cork and Limerick were the places I decided to visit. I also planned a second visit to Galway, but accommodation became an issue and I was forced to give that up. Accommodation in Limerick was already a bomb, I didn't need a second one.

On the 10th of August 2010-the first day of my trip-I arrived in Cork City, capital of the Rebel County. I took a walk (yes, on foot) around the city to familiarise myself with place. A harbour and many warehouses occupied much of the city's eastern side; boring commercial buildings filled the western side; and old houses lined the northern side. I never bothered to check the southern part of the city. The central part of Cork City was the only place kept new and tidy, but it was much smaller than Dublin's City Centre and a little less attractive. Also, the city as a whole was also very small. It's like Dublin compressed to fit a tuna can. Seriously!

On Day 2, after much rescheduling, I decided to take a tour out of the city and head for the port town of Dingle. On the bus, I met a Chinese family. Their son sure was a talkative one. While he did entertain me for the 3 hour ride, it did get a wee bit irritating once he started following me and still kept talking, even when I'm clearly not listening anymore. I mean, come on, I'd like to go see things when I'm on a tour, not listen to a kid telling me about the difference between China and Ireland. Heck, he didn't listen to me when I explained why there was a difference!

Now then, more about the tour. We first stopped at a beach, which felt kinda meaningless to me seeing as I lived 18 years of my life on an island. So, 30 minutes on that beach, and I spent it observing how the sand changes its tone when I step harder on the ground. For those who didn't know, it does. Go try it out. Make sure you're stepping on the wet sand and not the dry sand.

Then, we continued on (and the kid continued on and on and on) to Slea Head, a peninsular on the southern coast of Ireland. There, we were introduced to the seven islands of Blasket, where the inhabitants were once almost separated from the outside world, not that it was a bad thing. In fact, they didn't suffer from the Great Famine of 1845-1852 because they were separated from the rest of the country. While the whole country was dying because the potato crops were ruined, the islanders continued on with their daily lives relying on fish. Blasket was also the birthplace of many great Gaelic authors, poets and storytellers; most of them told tales of life on the island. Too bad I can't read Gaelic or I might just give them a try.

You might have noticed that I mentioned nothing about the scenery, because it's the exact same thing I saw in Galway. Long stretch of grasslands and hills, fenced by walls made of rocks. No cement or mortar was used in constructing those walls, which is quite impressive since they were very neat and have been standing there for hundreds of years.

Finally, we headed for Dingle, and I resorted to daydreaming by now. Now, Dingle is a port town that used to thrive on fishing. It still does that now, but its main business is now tourism, all thanks to a dolphin. You heard right. Some 30 years ago, the town was a small fishing village, totally unknown and the people just barely get past the day. Dolphins would visit that port town every year but only for a short while. But one year, a dolphin did not leave the town and hung around toying with the fishing boats. When news spread out, people started flocking in to see that dolphin and well, the townspeople decided it was time for a change of business. An aquarium was opened to showcase the dolphin, which was named 'Fungi'. Fungi was free to come and go as it pleased, but never left until 20+ years later. But since Dingle still gets visited by dolphins yearly, people still keep coming and the town is still prospering till today.

One more thing. Dingle has great ice-cream! But I wonder how many people will actually try it with the 16 degree temperature and the sea breeze blowing in the town.

After that, we wrapped it up and went home. 3 hours of non-stop radio was drowned out with my last resort and favourite hobby. GAMING!!! I beat Hachi/Sensei and Colin/Sasha with Eagle/Andy! Yeah!

That night, I went for food at Clancy's, since it was being advertised everywhere. One waitress was nice, but I can't say the same about the others. Food was okay, and, since the alcohol was expensive and my mom wouldn't be too happy about me drinking (not that she would know if I don't tell), I didn't drink.

Next day, I went around Cork and visited places I missed like the Cork City Gaol (it means 'jail') and the Butter Museum, which introduces Irish butter such as Kerry Gold. Then, I left Cork for Limerick, bidding adieu to the birthplace of many Irish rebels before their independence.

So, Limerick... I arrived kind of late and the city centre was rather far from my accommodations so I decided to rest for the day. I tried Irish coffee again that night, and found that it tasted much better than the one they served at Bewley's, which, might I add, tasted like bleh!

Then, Day 4... Today, actually. I took a stroll around the city and visited their many attractions. King John's Castle, the Hunt Museum, the Treaty Stone, several churches... and I was done by 1pm. WHAT?? Yeah, all those places done in 4 hours. Longest one was the castle, which took me an hour. And since the shopping district was completely boring (at least the one in Cork entertained me for several hours), I came back and posted this.

Tonight, I'll be heading over to O'Connell's bar for some cheap but quality food (or so they boast). In fact, I should be leaving right now!

Tata, folks. Hope you enjoyed the revival post.

Next week, I might bring you an exclusive documentary on Oslo, Norway... if plane tickets are still cheap. I haven't booked. xP

Day whatever - I lost count at last

2010-03-31T21:00:00.002+08:00

Meh, blog's been dead for too long. So I shall kick it back alive again.

With one post.

What to say?

Umm...

One post...

Just one post...

Something to say for one post.

Anything.

Come on, brain! WORK!

Uhh...

.........

.........

.........

My electric bill got cut to less than half so I'm smiling. I will be meeting my Japanese lecturer again so I'm happy. I may be helping out with the Experience Japan event so I'm happy. I did better than expected for one of my midterm papers so I'm happy. Project is done so I'm happy.

Yeah... that's pretty much it.

No rants. Not any that I should be saying here at least.

*ahem*

Thinks of rant...

China guy talking to me again... Oh wait, that's not a rant. The house is clean again for some strange reason and has been for the past 3 days. That's not a rant either.

Hmm...

Found a nice place to visit in Dublin. Found a relaxing place to hang out in Dublin.

Still no rants.

Hmm...

Starting on a new cosplay. I-ZA-YA!!!! Oh, I'm on the lookout for a Shizuo to partner with me for that. Shizuo x Izaya is WIN after all...

Just an announcement, not a rant.

Sigh... If there was anything to rant about, it's

1. Studies=the PITS!!
2. Lack of other things to rant about.

Ah well, Crossburn/Huah Chiang out.

Day 174 - Totally MADicine

2010-02-22T06:13:00.002+08:00

Well, it's nearing mid-terms again and I'm watching my work pile up from procrastination and just plain lack of interest.

3 things to deal with over the course of 2 weeks. 1.5 weeks to be exact. Let's make it 10 days, shall we?

Well, first task at hand is to settle another stupid report. Actually, the report ain't due till April, but our postgraduate group member wanted it done before Easter. Specifically, before his midterms come. Well, that give us 2 weeks to complete the first draft. Enough time, but will probably lack in detail, especially when most of us don't know how the heck Irish government policies work here and what bodies are in charge of them.

Meh, I got it done anyway. Until I reread the assignment and smacked myself. It was entirely wrong! They wanted us to EVALUATE the policy. I made a general introduction of the policy. Crap... No, rewording everything ain't an option. Evaluating means researching everything they did under that policy, not just a select few. So, RETYPE!! 3 days to deadline. Woopee...

Then, just a day after the assignment, I'll be dealing with my first mid-term, the stupid German language class test. Unlike the Japanese language (which was a complete pushover), this was a real problem. I really have learned little during the class. We only started on actual vocab last week! So, I'd really like to see how she expects me to write sentences during the test. Ah well, electives are crap anyway.

Then, one week after that, the real deal is here. Cardiac and Vascular Biology combined into a single paper, which means double workload for just 1 exam paper. And 40% for each! Hah! And I've gotten pretty much... nothing done. Excellent... sigh... It's a good thing our cGPA is gonna be reset once we leave UCD, so I can actually screw my exams as long as I don't fail and study at my own pace. But I guess I still need good results for the JPA loan huh?

Bah whatever! I'm gonna throw Akito's line here.

"The only reason we actually need universities is the official certification."

Test Answers and Comments

2010-02-17T01:38:00.008+08:00

Question 1

Please answer the following question:

Please choose the mathematical formula that is equal to sin(A+B).
1. sin A+cos B
2. sin A-cos B
3. sinAcosB
4. sinAcosB+cosAsinB

Student's Answer:
3.-ish?

Teacher's Comment:
I've seen all kinds of students throughout my years of teaching, but you're the first to ever use this method to try passing an answer in a multiple choice question.

Question 2

In Mother Goose, what does the phrase "spice and everything nice" refer to?

Student's Answer:
Curry Rice!

Teacher's Comment:
Girls are not food...

Question 3

Under Japan's Civil Law, what is the minimum age requirement for a legal marriage?

Student's Answer:
As long as there is love, age does not matter!

Teacher's Comment:
Thank you for having hopes and dreams, but...

Question 4

Please write down the chemical formula for Benzene.

Student A's answer:
Ben + Zene -> Benzene

Student B's answer:
Benzeen

Teacher's Comment:
You two, see me after class!

Question 5

Please name the three countries that comprise the Baltic Nations.

Student's Answer:
Kagawa, Tokushima, Ehime, Kochi

Teacher's Comment:
Before we discuss your incorrect answers, please notice the incorrect NUMBER of answers.

grumbles

2010-02-12T04:18:00.000+08:00

Stupid lamp post!

Caramel Dance (Nendoroid Ver.) - Vocaloid All-Cast

2010-02-09T06:32:00.001+08:00

And here's Vocaloid's adaptation of the ever popular Swedish song, Caramelldansen (aka Caramel Dance).

KAWAII~!!!

Day 160 - Potluck Party

2010-02-09T01:05:00.002+08:00

Our dear class rep saved an entire box of longan jelly from Malaysian Night. unaware that everyone had already eaten before he arrived. And so, he had an entire box left in his freezer by the end of the week, about to ferment anytime soon.

So, we decided to throw a longan jelly party! But since that wouldn't be nutritious enough, we added a potluck party before that and titled the entire event "Pre-CNY Party".

Unfortunately, we were stupid enough to go for a cheap Indian buffet in town for lunch. Yes, ALL OF US. Well, except one. But that guy's eats very little because of his horrible metabolism.

I believed I complained about the missing kitchen knife on Facebook. Well, it came back tonight... with my China housemate's weekly dinner party...

So, I went to Nabila's place to cook instead. Poor girl was lonely and wanted someone to cook with. I am not joking. She was at another friend's house when I went to borrow some honey for my recipe. And Nabila invited me over. Seeing as how I would have to fight for the kitchen back home anyway, I took up her offer. ...only to regret it later.

I offered to make honey lemon chicken. And I was stupid enough to forget the honey when we were in town. Hence the borrowing. Anyway, I fried the chicken first and decided to wait a little later before making the sauce because I was waaaay ahead of schedule. During the process of waiting... "Just one." "Another one." "Last one." "Really last one." "Okay. REALLY last one."

*smacks own face*

By the time I made the sauce, there was a very visible empty corner on the plate of fried chicken. I am never cooking at her place again. Or cooking with her around for that matter...

Finally, the party began. There were seven of us, but eight or nine dishes since some offered to cook more. Poor poor Nabila, she made the fried rice too spicy and everybody was just staring at it, not daring to try. I am not even kidding. When you first put it into your mouth, Nabila's excellent cooking fills your mouth with absolute wonder. And then you swallow.

5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!! WHAT THE HECK DID YOU PUT IN THERE!!!??

Luckily for me, I cooked at her place, and already taste-tested it for her, so I knew it was coming. But for Valerie who can't handle anything spicy, not so lucky. It's kinda mean, but... Yay! Entertainment!

Well, I mentioned how stupid we were to go for a buffet in the morning. So... lots of things were left, especially the atomic bomb... uh... fried rice.

Then it was the longan jelly time. And it was frozen... Great... How do we eat a block of ice? Screw it! *ding ding ding* *crack* *scoop* *crack* Quite a lot of us were shivering after that.

Then, we had another surprise. Tang Yuan! Wait... It's not CNY yet. Who cares? SWEETS!!

And the party continued to discussions about Malaysian Night and the problems. And about how the JPA, MARA and private student groups are so seperated. And how the 1st years are so non-existent outside. Yaddy-yaddy-yada. Yep, bitching lots. Ah well, at least we backstage got to express our dissatisfaction for having to pay even though some of us didn't get to eat. I did, but like for 3 minutes per dish, so it still wasn't worth it.

Well, it was a good night. Although most of us felt like bursting after that.

For recent news... I recommend Vocaloid's Caramelldansen (Nendoroid Version) and Servant of Evil/Aku no Meshitsukai.

Day 153 - Malaysian Night 2010

2010-01-31T10:35:00.002+08:00

WOOHOO!!! I'm still overly hyper despite it being nearly 3 hours since the event ended. The only other events that have ever made me feel so happy were anime conventions. I wonder if my tablemates snuck something into my drink... NAH!!! The night was excellent. If only the darn Irish (and pretty much all Europians) did not have to close everything and chase us out by 12, we'd be able to have a longer event and probably throw in a free style dance session just to blow away all this excessive energy still inside me.

And to think I was part of the backstage crew as the props-in-charge, which means I do all sorts of heavy lifting and running around, which theoretically should have burned me out. Imagine if I was only part of the audience. The swelling energy would probably cause a blood rush to the brain and pop a few vessels.

Let's take a trip back in time to 29 January 2010, the day we conducted the only full rehearsal with complete props and costumes. Honestly, despite the multiple mistakes (some of them my fault), it looked seriously good, since the mistakes were all just equipment problems and mistakes in setting up. Performances went on pretty smoothly with minor mistakes that were easy to spot and rectify. And since it was carried out with the same surroundings as on the actual night, I can say I was confident that we'd have no problems.

The next rehearsal which took place this morning wasn't so great though. Compared to the previous day, a lot more problems arose from change of plans, and the performers were rather zoned out. A friend of mine made so many critical mistakes like moving in the wrong direction or almost bumping into her partner. It was funny but we had a problem.

When rehearsal ended, I began to worry. The pressure was obviously setting in, so will things really go as smoothly when there will be an entire crowd watching them? Well, hard to say. After rehearsal, we settled final arrangements and decorations and then went back home to prepare. With my traditional Chinese outfit on, I marched back to the Astra Hall, only to march back home when I realised that I had forgotten my ticket. And a good thing I did, which I will explain later.

The VIPs were 5 minutes late... and I was pissed as hell. I hate it when that happens. How are they VIPs if they can't even be punctual!? All attending lecturers have already been seated long before the VIPs arrived. Okay, they finally arrived, 10 minutes late, which was already a HUGE setback. Our schedule did not allow wasting time, especially since we had to clear up before 12am later. They were brought to their seats accompanied by traditional Malay drummers and I have to admit they were bloody annoying after listening to the same beats for the 20+ time. And perhaps it was my mistake due to location but they sounded very unsynched.

Then it was time for the Dikir Barat performance. And it was really nice. Although I didn't really get the lyrics... or the meaning of their actions, they were awesome. It's like listening to Japanese songs. You don't understand shit of what they're singing, but you like it anyway. Nice rhythm, and cool, talented singers.

Then, the usual boring speeches, although we totally cocked our heads when the dean told the Irish, "Can you organise an entire cultural event that introduces so many aspects of your country while still maintaining high grades? I sincerely doubt any of you can!" Hah! Too true! Ajay's speech was okay this time, seeing as how he wasn't allowed to be informal, but it was definitely better than the unmotivating speech he gave during the slave auction. Sigh... I wanna listen to the Orientation Day Ajay again! He was freaking awesome and I can honestly say that I respected him from that day on. Recently, it was just meh... even though private conversations with him were always enjoyable.

Next up were several performances while dinner was being served. Our vice-prez was awesome with his guitar and style. The dummy three who made my life miserable (but my job funner) by constantly changing their number of singers and hence, number of mics. Settled that rather smoothly. Then the dummy four who kept changing types of mics. At first, it was 2 wireless and 1 stand. Then , it changed to 2 stands and 1 wireless. Then, it changed to depending on the situation. In the end, they used 3 mic stands, because both singers decided that they were shaking too much to hold the mics.

More Malay songs, but I was too focused on eating as fast as I could to listen. However, I am grateful that they finished ahead of schedule, thus freeing us more time for cleaning later. In fact, they finished so early, we had to force a 5 minute break before the next performance. And the contemporary dancers in their white single-layered dresses were freezing to heck already. I actually lent one of them my hoodie because I found it too warm to wear. I hope she felt better. Considering the performance after, I'd say she did.

Before the dance began, I was suddenly given the job of scattering flowers across the stage, which I did, knowing full well that clearing work later will be a hell of trouble. The contemporary dancers were very graceful and flexible, but they should have at least dimmed the lights considering the romantic melodies they used and the pure white outfits they wore. Still, beautiful. Much better than this morning. Clearing the flower petals after that was backbreaking, and I was doing it with the light on, so everybody could see the idiot desperately trying to clear the stage in under 2 minutes.

Then, it was choral speaking, where multiple races will do a random performance and then end with a speech and choir. First up were 3 Malays singing Rasa Sayang. The main singer was so cute because she was so shy up there. Ah... how I missed listening to that song. Next was a friend of mine singing a well-known traditional Chinese duet song which title I've forgotten. What I can say is, "WHY THE HELL WASN'T THE CROWD SCREAMING!?" His singing and character on stage would have made CLHS boys scream like mad, so what gives!? Then, it was Indian dancing. Compared to what I saw later, this was nothing but still great as a warm-up. Finally, they went ahead with a sappy speech about unity that was actually very true. I will not repeat their words because certain racist people will just bash what they said. M-A-L-A-Y-S-I-A!! They had to scrap the flag because the flag would have to start off folded on the floor.

Then, a 10 minute break before the sketch. The initial plan was that desert should have been served by then, but since the cooks screwed up, we were delayed. However, the choral speakers had also finished ahead of schedule and bought us some time.

Ah, the sketch. The reason I've been sleeping late, asking for help, and proving myself a lousy Penangite for the past week and a half. It kicked start with a video introducing the cast with damn funny scenes. Everyone's fav, or perhaps the most outstanding part was the introduction of Li Ping, the glamour girl. I've known that senior for 3 months since she's in the same Japanese class as me, but I have never thought her to fit the glamour girl character so well. In fact, everyone screamed when they saw her. Funniest scene would probably be the Star Athelete introduction, when the teacher used an assault rifle to fire instead of a pistol. We admit that we were too cheap to invest on a model pistol, but hey, it was funny, so who cares?

The sketch was about unity. An Irish exchange student joins the class at the same time as the Merdeka performance interclass competition. He is introduced to all sorts of traditional performances as well as other cultural stuff like games and Manglish. Finally, he suggests to mix all the dances together to form one big fusion dance. Now, as boring and cliched as it sounds, the scenes were acted out in the funniest ways possible, and I mean FUNNY. Just imagine the crowd laughing at almost every joke we pull.

The first, as always was the Malay Joget dance. Unfortunately, I had to engage myself in backstage work at the time, so I didn't really pay much attention. It was the typical joget dancing but they were pretty good having trained for months. I really didn't get much epic-ness from that one, other than the fact that it was better than this morning. But it might have been because of the lighting that made every action more prominent.

The sketch then continued with a scene of the Irish kid being taught about traditional games. Our gasing guy freaked out from nervousness and screwed up the gasing act. Panicking, they skipped straight to the chaktay act. Unbelievably, they actually kept the chaktay up for almost the whole scene, something they had never done before be it during individual practice or rehearsal. And we rigged nothing. It was purely based on their skill, so although the audience found nothing wrong, the entire backstage and cast had their mouth gaping open. And they even ended the scene with an off-script comedy when the chaktay flew at someone's face. I shall say that again. That was NOT planned, and we got a roar of laughter from that. AWESOME!!! It scores a 10/10 on the WTF scale.

Next would be Hime-sama's field. Chinese fan dancing. Now, this I could not miss. Very nice. They started with Mo Li Hua, a slow dance with lots of grace and elegance. I could almost fill my mind being carried away along a heavenly river created by their passive energy. And then the song changed to one of tension, like the music you'd hear in martial arts or war movies that portrayed more of chivalry, willpower and fighting spirit. Very, very nice. I wasn't given the chance to praise them though because I was required for prop moving... again.

But before the next act, it was time for the Lucky Draw. 6 numbers were drawn. 222 was one of the winning numbers. And it came out during the only time the emcees were screaming, "1! 2! 3!" Odd... A lady won a set of men's perfume. You lol, I kill. Why? You'll see.

Up next was the Sabahan dance. I'm curious as to why this dance had so many first years participating. Of the 7 people performing, 4 were 1st years. Ah well, they were really nice. And I made a joke about how one of my friends (mentioned at the top of this post) did not screw up this time and actually did everything perfectly. Yes, I am a meanie. Also, I totally appreciate the dancers for scattering their gold papers in front of the stage, making it a lot easier to clear after performance.

Then, it's hip-hop. How is this Malaysia? Well, my friends, you don't live in atap houses or wear cheongsams all day do you? So, there was obviously a need to represent modern Malaysia too, which explains hip-hop. The stars of the show were my two seniors who are unrelated by blood yet share an uncanny semblance to each other. And our boss lady (the Malaysian Night Organiser!) took centre stage as well. The dance was a mix of cool and comedy, with the guys solo being funny and the rest being serious. I also found their cool, arrogant look very convincing. Good show, good show.

Then, lucky draw 2nd round. On the 2nd last draw, my number came up and I went on stage. They asked for my ticket (see why I'm glad I went back now?) and I showed them the number. And I won..........a set of perfume for WOMEN!? (see why you shouldn't laugh now?) In the end, the committee helped arrange a trade between the two of us and settled things. Yay! Unfortunately, it wasn't done publicly so... I hope nobody remembers...

Now then, for my favourite performance, which is also the longest - Indian dance. Our president's an Indian, so that was a given. It was long, and complex. I'm amazed they remembered all the steps. The dance was 10 minutes long and involved so many different moves and scenes, like a Bollywood programme. Seriously, some of them CAN quit medicine and joing Bollywood, like Ajay. Yes, our great prez joined and was perhaps the best male dancer I've seen all night. Well, he did coach the entire cast of Indian dancers, so meh... Well, what I found most unforgettable was Ajay's expression during the guys only dance, but his expression throughout the entire performance was perhaps the most unique and unforgettable. His smile was just weird. A confident, fun and happy smile... no, I can't really describe it, much less attempt it, but it was certainly a mix of those three with something else.

The following scene featured my PHAIL creation - the gold plated mamak stall that obviously had no equipment to serve anything, except maybe teh tarik, but still it served every kind of dish mentioned in the NO POK video. Then, funny scene, funny scene, more funny scene. Pirated CD vendor was awesome. Also another good pick. And they served real food by the way.

The last performance of the day was the fusion dance, mixing short parts of each dance mentioned earlier and adding in a chorus dance that was repeated thrice. Said chorus dance is freaking addictive and I shall find the time to memorise it. Yes, I have the footage but I'm not allowed to show it because it was taken during rehearsal. Anyway, the dance overall was epic. And the music really made me proud and happy to be Malaysian. The best part in my opinion was the Sabahan dancers' part. It seemed like they moved the least, but something about the dance made them very attractive. And the finale saw every dancer gathered to the front of the stage carrying the banner that read "Malaysia Through Our Eyes". Su-te-ki. I almost screamed "I LOVE MALAYSIA" on the spot.

And then it was random photoshooting time and staff thanking time. Strangely, the backstage crew did not get a photoshoot and I am not happy. :( And then clean up and then cabut by 12am.

That marked the end of Malaysian Night 2010. I hope our 3rd year seniors enjoyed their last Malaysian Night in UCD. I never got the chance to scream into the mic, "On behalf of the 1st years, I would like to thank the 3rd year seniors for their guidance, support and friendship!" Oh well, I might get the chance on the actual farewell day.

Oh, Chinese New Year is coming soon. Gotta go settle all the preparations for PMCSA CNY dinner, if they're holding one this year. Nothing has been mentioned so far.

Day 144 - Week's End

2010-01-23T07:18:00.009+08:00

Man, what a week. Two dissection practicals, a German language class, a mamak stall prop and announcement of our provisional results. Awesome start. I couldn't even find the time to study.

Lectures are the usual tranquilisers. The only difference is the strength. I had 2 modules I looked forward to this semester. Cardiac Biology and Personal and Population Health. Unfortunately, I got Dr Thompson again for Cardiac Biology... and she is probably the most boring lecturer this semester. P&PH will only be interesting later on when they teach psychology and ethics. For now, it's statistics, statistics and statistics.

On the plus side, I happen to always be sitting at the side which does not smoke, use coccaine or have cancer. I am LUCKY!! XD I hope my luck persists until the end of statistics, where hopefully, they'll stop using the class as examples.

Dissections were a whole lot better than lectures. The dissection room lecturers do a much better job at teaching us, always explaining things properly and occasionally humouring us by forgetting things. Thanks to them, we feel less pressure. However, one of the lecturers make us feel defeated. He has a degree in Archaeology, and he's teaching us anatomy. The scary thing is, he does not need to refer to books and can tell us the names of every part he points to, sometimes ending the sentence with "But you don't really need to know this yet." And the names ain't easy. It's like talking to a real life Dr Black Jack, except that he's not a doctor.

German is bloody crazy. Out lecturer came into class and spoke to us in full German. And she expected us to understand what she was saying. And she's MEAN. The first thing she did was force everybody to memorise each other's names, birthplace and current area of residence. We're not talking about a class of 5. It's a class of 12! How do you expect us to remember all that when we're already struggling enough to ask them in German!? Sigh... This is so different from Japanese. Next term, I'm not taking languages anymore, except Japanese.

My results were crap. End of topic.

And I was assigned the job of making a mamak stall for Malaysian Night. And as a last minute addition, I was appointed assistant computer and PA in-charge on that night. The reason I was appointed was so that they would have a substitute when the main guy in-charge performs. Whatever it is, I'll do my best. On the other hand, mamak stalls and swords are two COMPLETELY different things. You can't just assume I know how to build a cardboard house just because I could make model swords!!

Finally, a joyous news. 3... 2... 1...

FINAL FANTASY XIII LIGHTNING EDITION, BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

*Beijing Olympics fireworks x10*

*Rolls around the house.*

*Bounces around the house.*

*Makes dents around the house.*

*Gets kicked out of the house by housemates.*

*Continues to make dents everywhere outside.*

Now then, pics.

It's mine! All MINE!!! MINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 140 - I'm still keeping count! XD

2010-01-19T01:13:00.002+08:00

Right... Winter break is over and it's time to force myself out of bed and get to class again.

Firstly, a summary of my adventures in UK. My initial plan was Manchester, then Sheffield, and finally London. Change of plans because the flight was delayed and the train to Sheffield from Manchester only ran once an hour. Plus, it was friggin' expensive. So I skipped Manchester and headed straight to Sheffield.

My first day was spent listening to music and watching anime at Khai's dorm, since it was getting late and Sheffield was COLD, even in the day. And I thought Dublin at night was bad. Daytime in Sheffield had almost the same temperature as a Dublin winter night.

Well, there wasn't much to see in Sheffield. Just some art museums, the Wheel of Sheffield and nice hilltop and countryside views. What's nice was the thick snow on the ground and the heavy snow that fell one night. Ah ah, it would be so awesome to just sit on one of them hills with a romantic partner watching the night scenery of Sheffield city, so long as you don't freeze to death first.

I guess the best thing about going to Sheffield was getting anime from Khai XD ...CRAP! I forgot to get Summer Wars!

Now, London was pretty good but pretty disappointing at times. One word. RENOVATION! Almost everywhere I went, there were construction workers fixing pipes and rebuilding stuff. The House of Parliaments, Westminster Abbey and Tower of London had construction work going on here and there. Well, at least I still got to visit both places.

Buckingham Palace was closed off during the winter, but at least the Changing of the Guards still happened every alternate day and I could watch. Hyde Park was empty so I actually wasted my time visiting there. If I had gone to Kensington Gardens (which is just across the Serpentine Lake) that night, I might have spotted someone drowning. It came out in the news.

Oh, I also regret not bringing more money along. Things were cheaper in London, some from a few cents to a few euros cheaper than Dublin after conversion. My next trip will probably involve more visits to Oxford Street.

On my final day, Ethie took me to see the arcade and an anime shop. YAY! Stuff we don't have in Dublin. I finally got to play Para Para after so many months!

Lastly, I sat at the airport for 12 friggin hours waiting for the flight because my Oyster ran out of credit and I couldn't go anywhere else. Not that there was anywhere else besides Oxford Street. But I was near broke anyway. I ended up finishing "Kannagi" and "Earl and Fairy" before even reaching home.

Today, I attended my first two classes, but pretty much just brooded through them.

UUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!

And my mid-terms fall on the 2nd day of Kitacon, so there goes my chance of attending at all. BOOOO!!!!!!!

Day 116, 117 - Christmas Day, St Stephens Day

2010-01-01T04:33:00.002+08:00

Yes, it's a pretty late update, but I wasn't sure whether to mention this.

Well, Dublin is pretty much deserted on these 2 days. The only people you'll see are beggars, hobos and people like me who have nothing to do but stroll alone on the streets of the empty capital. The usual crowd and traffic are reduced to less than 1%. Even the night life in Dublin had more activity than these 2 days. Shops are closed, buses don't operate, families snuggle in their warm houses.

I had expected something to be going on, like events at a mall or park or something, so I decided to go to town. That's when I learned that buses do not operate on those days. The same for taxis, but they're too expensive to consider anyway. The only option left was to walk and so I did. It's surprisingly easy to get there. All I did was follow the main road for about an hour and I arrived at St Stephen's Park, which was closed. Unbelievable! They even closed the park!

And so I headed to O'Connell Street with little expectation. It was worse than I thought. Only 1 shop was open along the entire road which takes 15 minutes to traverse on foot. Luckily, it was the shop that sold the cheapest baguette in Dublin. Lucky! At least I wouldn't have to starve walking back.

Like an attempt to further dampen my mood, it began to rain. Foolish heavens. I may not like the wind in Dublin, but the rain is always welcomed. As my response, I played Motteke Sailor Fuku at full blast. I needn't worry about disturbing others, since the path from the city to UCD was entirely devoid of human activity.

Too bad I couldn't buy any sweet wine. Then I remembered the carton of grape juice I had back home. A lousy replacement, but since it's sweet and it looks like wine in my French housemate's wine glass, that was good enough. After that was just a whole day of sweets and anime. An excellent otaku Christmas, I must say. The perfect otaku Christmas would, of course, be a cosplay Christmas party.

While I'm at it, I might as well summarise what I've been doing up till today. Anime, manga, video games. Details?

-Naruto
Not bad, but Bleach is better. Contrary to rumours, I think the second part is not much better than the first. Sure they killed off some characters, but they revived most of them later. And Sasuke isn't really that despicable yet. When people told me that fans of the manga began to hate Sasuke, I thought he killed Iruka, Kakashi or anyone important, but all he's done is say, "I'll destroy Konohagakure!"

- Seitokai no Ichizon
Now this is nice! It's a parody-themed anime that makes obvious parodies. The jokes are funny and the characters are lovable. Kinda sad that there won't be a 2nd season, or so they say. And I'm gonna have to learn that pose! "Konjitsu no Seitokai shyuryou!"

- Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu
Not too bad overall, but it's not my kind of anime. I actually thought this was a parody anime. Turns out it's a romance anime that just features an otaku. Tch! Disappointing but since I already started, I didn't feel like dropping it just like that, so I finished it and the 2nd season.

- Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu: Purezza
The first season was better, but I am amazed how many ways they can interrupt the kissing scene. Every time you think "There's no way they can stop it now!" BAM!! Door/window breaks, phone rings, secret agents rush in etc etc. Seriously! Just let them kiss!

- Toradora!
I see what the hype was about. I have to admit that it is an excellent piece of work. I don't like romance but I enjoyed this so much that I forgot to sleep! Seriously, all the lead girls here are WEIRD. They give you this weird impression which I can only describe as "You'll never want a girlfriend like that, but you'll never regret having a girlfriend like that." It's the first time something made me wonder what it feels like to be in love. Well done. I express my regret for not having watched this when it was released.

- Umineko no Naku Koro ni
The title came up in Seitokai no Ichizon, which prompted me to try. Since I couldn't find Higurashi, I settled for Umineko. The OP and ED themes were very appropriate although they suck as songs. The story is basically a mind battle between a human and a witch, where the witch continues to create impossible crime scenes while the man seeks to disprove the existence of magic by applying logical deduction. Interesting concept, but the delivery was kind of confusing. Basically, a serial murder case has occurred on a secluded island, and the man is the only one of the victims who didn't believe that it was done by magic, so the witch challenges him to deduce each crime scene. And she will keep repeating the incident as many times as it takes until the man surrenders, so it's just a repetition of the same case with minor changes such as order of victims, location of murder and surviving members before the last murder. The witch calls it "eternal torture". I don't really understand how it is so. I mean, if I was the guy, I'll just keep retrying until I get the right answer. I do have to admit that the conditions she set make the crime scenes ungodly difficult to solve though.

...That was a surprisingly short list. Ah well, Naruto took me 3 days and all the anime took 1-2 days so no time wasted at all :)

Nothing new for games though. Just continuing FFTA2 and some of the replayable games.

Day 115 - Christmas Eve

2009-12-25T04:23:00.002+08:00

And there's NOTHING to do outside!

Everything is closed by 6-7pm. Some shops are still open but they're packed! And most of those shops involve spending 20+ euros for a decent meal.

Well, things were a little different in the day. Shops were open as usual, except Tesco. So I had to go to LIDL for my grocery shopping. Not that I had much to buy. Until I saw today's promotion. 50% off all fruits, vegies, some meat products and bread.

WHAT!!??

There wasn't much left though. Housewives doing last minute shopping for tonight's Christmas dinner took almost everything within the first 2 hours. When I got there, the meat section was already empty and half their vegetables were sold out. I ended up getting only carrots, potatoes and garlic. ...What happened to the garlic? CRAP!!!

And for the very first time since coming to Dublin, I actually caught the no. 10 bus just before it leaves. I always had to wait at least 5 minutes for a bus...

As for dinner, I was hoping to go out for a nice hot meal in a Western restaurant. But... the cheap restaurants were all closed, including the bars. I had 2 choices then, the ungodly expensive high class restaurants or McDonalds. And I so did not feel like a burger at the time. So I came back... to find that I really had no intention of cooking. So... pizza. Yeah, McDonalds sounds so much better now, but I really didn't want to go back out into the cold.

Unless it snows. Why the hell isn't it snowing!? I want a white Christmas! That's it! Next year, I'm going to some other country for Christmas!

Well, Christmas Eve sucked for my adventurous side. But at least my otaku side is celebrating Christmas for the very first time! Christmas anime specials all the way! Woohoo! And sweets to boot! I wasn't able to get wine because everything closed early though.

Alright! I'll get drunk from grape juice!

Small Nibbles Of Water (S.N.O.W.)

2009-12-18T18:59:00.002+08:00

Okay, the title didn't make much sense, but anyway, it's snowing!

Couldn't take a picture though. But I recorded a video XD I caught one in my hand, and it was like tiny chunks of frost you'd find in your freezer, or like somebody poured ice kacang through a sieve. YAY!!

Darn exam! If it wasn't for that, I'd be running around outside like Tsukimiya Ayu.

Random thought: How I wish I had lots of female otaku friends. I'd cosplay Yuuichi and the rest of them can be the girls from Kanon.

Now, if only it would snow long and heavy enough to accumulate on the floor like a white sheet of blanket! Ahh!

*Winter romance scenes, winter gathering by the fireplace scenes etc playing in head*

Right, study! Hopefully it snows down at the City Centre tonight. It would look so beautiful with the Christmas lights! ...I think.

Another Masterpiece is Born!

2009-12-17T20:39:00.002+08:00

I am so an FF-fanboy if I can call it a masterpiece having not yet even played the game. But, I trust in Square-Enix and the Final Fantasy series more than any other company or series (except maybe Atlus, but Eternal Poison and Etrian Odyssey let me down).

Anyway, I am so getting this game regardless of anything. This the last part of my "3-part master plan" I've been mentioning since the start of the year. Phase 3: Get PS3, get FFXIII.

Meanwhile, I'm just gonna pump these two songs into my brain:

Kimi ga Iru Kara - Sayuri Sugawara

My Hands - Leona Lewis

And FYI, Kimi Ga Iru Kara >>>>>>> My Hands as a Final Fantasy theme song. They should have either translated the JP theme song, or changed the lyrics of My Hands. My Hands isn't bad, but the lyrics are just too realistic.

"Go into the shower"? "Put on my makeup"? That's not Final Fantasy at all. It just looks like another way to promote her album. Well, hopefully that's the only difference.

Random Update

2009-12-15T00:18:00.002+08:00

Things just get interesting when you have to memorise something like this:

Day 89 - Japanese 3 Finals

2009-11-29T06:41:00.002+08:00

It was easy as pie. The difficulty was way below even the Japanese Language Proficiency Test for Level 4 back in Malaysia. I REALLY should have taken Japanese 4. Darn you, Nobuko-sensei for scaring me so much during orientation! I just wasted an elective!

Ah well, I'll be fighting really hard next semester when I take German level 1. I guess European languages should be harder than Asian languages around these parts.

The sad thing is that I won't be seeing my classmates anymore after today, unless Kevin really pulls off that farewell party for the Japanese exchange students.

Then, I joined Jin Yit, Peng Yit and some others to town. The girls really know their grocery shopping. We ran from shop to shop buying stuff extremely cheap. Guess that's JPA Chinese students for ya.

Histology report is still far from complete. And I've only 3.5 days left!! And what about studies!? ARGH!! I hate histology report!

Day 86 - Japanese Speaking Exam

2009-11-25T06:42:00.002+08:00

Classes today were canceled or relocated for a nationwide strike, except my Japanese Speaking Exam.

Confident that I could do well, I volunteered to be first. That way, I would be setting the standard for my classmates. I guess I didn't do too bad, though I could be better if I didn't still have that fear of interviews.

We were just supposed to say something for three minutes and then describe a picture in as much detail as possible. Panicking helped me forget lots of words. Thank you, panic. Yes, that was sarcasm!

After that, I just stood by and watched my classmate's nervous faces, glad that I was the first to rid myself of that wrinkle-producing emotion. Samarsa had the most interesting character then, panicking like crazy even though her standard can easily best even most of the level 4 students.

A surprising number of people aren't taking Japanese level 4 next semester for various reasons. Samarsa has hospital placements since she's in a nursing course, the three Chinese girls are going for an exchange programme next semester and Kiaran is already taking two electives this semester. So, I might be meeting them again in Japanese 4 next year.

Or maybe not. I'm thinking of taking Japanese 4 in the 2nd semester of my 2nd year, since I might want to take Psychology or Business during the 1st semester.

Anyway, gotta prepare for my written exam this Saturday and finish up that blasted Histology report! I still have 16 more to go and it's due in a week!

The Sore Feet Song - Ally Kerr

2009-11-23T22:48:00.002+08:00

This is the opening theme for the 2005 hit anime "Mushi-Shi". The melody is nice and sounds like a lazy country bumpkin playing a banjo on a cloudy Sunday. But the lyrics are weird. So far, I haven't been able to sing the third verse without laughing. And yes, it's in full English.

Lyrics:

I walked ten thousand miles, ten thousand miles to see you,
And every gasp of breath I grabbed at just to find you,
I climbed up every hill to get, to you,
I wandered ancient lands to hold, just you.

And every single step of the way, I pay...,
Every single night and day,
I searched for you.
Through sandstorms and hazy dawns I reached for you.

I stole ten thousand pounds, ten thousand pounds to see you,
I robbed convenient stores coz I thought they'd make it easier.
I lived off rats and toads, and I starved for you.
I fought off giants bears and I killed them too.

And every single step of the way, I pay...,
Every single night and day,
I searched for you.
Through sandstorms and hazy dawns I reached for you.
I'm tired and I'm weak, but I'm strong for you.
I wanna go home, but my love gets me through.

Lalala....

Day 81 - City Center again x 32

2009-11-22T19:54:00.002+08:00

I actually don't remember how many times I've been to the City Center, but it's definitely been more than 25.

It was 20th November 2009, which means last day to pay the electric bill. Yes, I forgot. Good thing I checked the mail this morning and saw the bill among the pile. Alright... time to kill 72 euros.

Yan Shun went with me because he hasn't paid his either. We headed to the bank near the campus side entrance. As I expected, it was a big building with a small area open to the public. Seriously, why are so many buildings, especially government buildings here the same? Even the Garda station was like that.

After slitting my wrist, I mean, pay my bill, Yan Shun asked if I wanted to head down to the City Centre. Why not? I thought. The only thing I had left to do at home was my !@#$% histology report and study.

O'Connell street was our stop once again. We had lunch at Beshoff, a popular restaurant for fish. We actually wanted to eat at Pulau Pinang restaurant but it was closed.

Their special for that day was codfish with chips and salad and monkfish with a complimentary glass of wine. We bought both and split the bill. He got the wine because I just drank last night with the Japanese students. Not much, but I'd rather not drink in the day.

Then we headed to Grafton street to look at clothes. He wanted to get some extra coats and clothing since he's going to be here for 4 more years. I'm thinking of getting a wool sweater too for the winter. And a silk hat like Nattanael's. Because it looks nice. XP

Immediately after Halloween, I had already noticed Christmas decorations being set up everywhere. Most of them had been completed in the past few days and we expected Grafton Street to look really beautiful when it gets dark. We weren't disappointed. When they flicked the switch on, lights illuminated all the way to Suffolk Street. Totally amazing. If only I had my camera then.

I made a joke about bringing dates here after exams, which was a week before Christmas. And he took it seriously. He even threw in a bet. Now, if I don't get a date for that night, I owe him and his date hot chocolate. Somebody help me!! :(

Unfortunately, even though we scoured the whole of Grafton Street, we didn't find anything that wouldn't kill our wallets. Well, I found cheap silk hats, but they were ugly. I think I'll buy it when I go to France since buying in UK won't be any cheaper.

Along O'Connell Street, an old man suddenly stopped me and asked if I was a bishop. I thought he was looking for a shop called "Bee". You wouldn't have immediately thought of bishop, would you? I'm not Christian and I look a little too young anyway. I only got what he meant when he did the Christian Sign of the Cross.

Obviously, my reaction was "WHAT!?" in a less dramatic and loud voice. See, Pikaby? I am changing :) He then pointed to the necklace I was wearing. It's shaped like the D.Gray Man Exorcist Badge. It was my lol of the day. I explained that it was just a necklace with no holy meaning (at least, not in reality) and the man quickly left.

Our last task of the day was grocery shopping. I just did mine on Wednesday at Merrion, so it did not concern me. I just got another 2 loaves of bread and we finally headed back.

It wasn't a bad day until I saw my histology report sitting all comfortable and empty on my desk. Ho...boy. There goes my weekend!

Day 80 - Japanese Language Exchange Programme

2009-11-21T07:14:00.003+08:00

Previously, we were arranged a coffee morning with the Japanese transfer students, which I could not attend due to midterms. Luckily, some of the Japanese students wanted another meeting with us, so our kind Head of Applied Languages arranged a night-out for us.

Since we're gonna have a speaking exam next week, I thought it'd be good practice for me if I attended.

First off, we headed to the Ukiyo Bar for dinner. Although nobody else knew, I was the one who suggested the place. And I wasn't even really sure where the place was. Ah well, I managed to find it anyway, after running around for 15 minutes even though it was only a 5-minute walk from the bus stop.

Well, I met a lot of people. Six Japanese 3 and two Japanese 4 students attended, as well as 9 Japanese students. Let's see if I remember their names. Yuka, Chihiro, Hajime, Yumi, Aki, Sakiko, uh... Darn, I forgot the rest.

Dinner was excellent although the food wasn't all that great. And these people really don't know spicy, except the 2 other Malaysians that attended. Hajime and Chihiro were going mad trying to finish their meal. They ordered Korean food. We used English to converse during dinner.

After the meal, I suggested karaoke. Everybody agreed, but apparently, our darn Head of Applied Languages did not book a room for us. And they were fully booked till late at night. So, we settled for going to a pub instead.

Mark led us to one of Dublin's 5 best pubs, O'neill's. Well, it was called one of the 5 best pubs in a tourist guide, but I wouldn't know. The place wasn't all that great. Maybe their food is great, but their alcohol selection looks the same as the others.

I tried a Galway Hooker, a type of pale ale. It was either their best drink or under promotion since all their coasters had the name on them. It sucked. Guinness and Heineken tasted a lot better, although they were bleh too.

Y'all are probably wondering why I'm drinking even though I hate beer. Well, this is Ireland and the only Irish food are potatoes and alcohol. At least, that's what all the Irish I've asked told me. Adrianna was saying that she could never answer that question when people asked.

No, the Irish breakfast is not traditional Irish food. It's just toast, eggs, bacon and Irish sausages, which are called so only because they're made from Irish cattle or pigs.

Anyway, conversation during the pub session was mostly in Japanese. Well, we try. At least I did. I am so much better at listening than speaking. I keep getting tongue-tied when they ask me a question, but I understand everything they say. This is why the Japanese classes should be conducted in Japanese and not English, at least for level 3 and above. Hmm... I'll suggest that in the module survey.

Sigh... Finals draw near and I'm a wee bit depressed at the moment.

Day 76 - Eirtakon 2009 Day 3

2009-11-16T06:28:00.003+08:00

Today, I rose from my slumber at 7.30am. I had most definitely not learned my lesson about going there early. Today had a different twist though. Instead of being refused entrance at the door, I didn't even get to leave UCD. Buses only operated after 9am on Sundays, and I was there at 8.30am. Damn the wind.

I bumped into Xinyi, Nabila and Isaac while taking the bus. I guess I looked pretty weird walking around with a huge box.

When I finally arrived at DCU, the event had already started, but there was really nothing much today. The number of attendees had decreased considerably compared to yesterday. Still, it got pretty crowded after 12pm.

There weren't many notable events today. They canceled the cosplay panel because the programme director fell sick. And the other events just didn't interest me, like the Japanese fashion show, AMV competition and the Live Commentary, which is the guest from yesterday commenting on his own voice acting. Stalls also had less variety since they sold a lot yesterday.

I had more free time today and the crowd was smaller, so I got to do more browsing. There were lots of stuff I wanted, but I could get a number of them back home so I resisted. There were some which I couldn't but also restrained myself when I was told the price, like the Urahara hat. 12 euros for a simple hat!? And I couldn't find a Konata plushie :( Instead, I got a Vampire Knight mouse pad. It was only 3 euros. Maybe I should have gotten the Chobits one, but it looked very girly.

The first interesting event was the Maid Cafe. It wasn't really a cafe, just maids passing out cakes, coffee and tea. You didn't even get to sit down. You just take, pay and leave. I spent 2 euros just because I wanted to get a shot of the maids. I later learned that I could have done that during the closing ceremony.

The fashion show was basically girls showing off kimonos, gothic costumes and J-rock costumes. I stayed to watch just because I had nothing better to do. I heard the AMV competition was awesome, but I never really liked AMVs.

Then, there was the cosplay skit. It wasn't a competition. It's just volunteer performance. I saw lots of cosplayers doing out of character things on purpose. Imagine Mellow and Matt from Death Note dancing to constantly-changing music, or a Shinigami from Bleach screaming "Call the Ghostbusters!" and stuff like that. Some were pretty good, the Mellow and Matt team did an awesome dance.

The highlight of the day was the Mad Dash, or as I like to call it, the Freebie Fight. Basically, the committee bring a box filled with random stuff, like plushies, posters, CDs, T-shirts, necklaces, etc etc and throw them into the crowd. I wanted a plushy, but I got a kitty hat instead. I like cats, but that just looks weird on me. Boo... Ah well, at least I know where to stand next year.

Finally, it was the closing ceremony. The boring prize giving and thank you speeches went on forever! They announced that Eirtakon would be moved to a different venue next year, but it will still be in Dublin, so yay! They could always hold it in UCD. Our campus is huge!

Now that the event is over, I just realised something. WHERE WAS THE HARE HARE YUKAI DANCE!!??

Day 75 - Eirtakon 2009 Day 2

2009-11-15T05:09:00.002+08:00

It's my turn to join the cosplay fray today as Chrona the Makenshi! I was there an hour early with some other people but the staff wouldn't let us in! The (damn bastards) staff left us outside in the rain while the MC entertained. Sure he was funny. But some people are FREEZING!

I met Nikki again while queuing up to enter. Nikki was one of my teammates for the pub quiz last night. I also met Ray, a 5th-time attendee of Eirtakon who is even so never remembered by the staff, except Shinji.

When they finally let us in, I was overwhelmed with the sight of cosplayers several times more than last night. I'd say nearly 50% of the attendees were cosplayers, and there were like 200+ today? Crazy, man. Yes, I do have to admit that a lot of them were no good, but there were those awesome ones, like a Lelouch in his Zero outfit, with the helmet.

Anyway, there were several stalls selling tons of stuff. Anime, video games, accessories, plushies, T-shirts, posters, bunny/kitty ear hats, figurines etc. I bought myself a D.Gray Man Exorcist Badge necklace. Yes, I'm hoping it will replace the Griever necklace I lost. This one cost me 8 euros. I'm considering buying something else, but I'll see tomorrow. ...Maybe that Konata plushie :D There was also an Artist Alley where people sold their hand-drawn art. A member of GameSoc I knew was there, though I keep forgetting her name. Frankly, her art was only average compared to some of the others.

The first event of the day was a guest panel. They invited a famous voice actor that did some good dubbings. Since I don't watch dubs, and personally think dubs suck except for Pokemon, I did not go and see.

The second event was a cosplay skit. You basically do a performance on stage individually or in a group. I did not enter that one because I had no skit in mind. Heck, only 3 teams signed up. But they weren't any good.

After that, we had some free time while the gamers killed each other in a Super Smash Bros Brawl tournament. I would've entered but they charge for registration. The cosplay competitions had no such fees though. Yay!

I met up with Nikki again after that and hung out with her for quite some time...even though we kept losing each other while browsing through our individual interests. It's amazing how time flies even though I was only browsing through the merchandise and talking to some of the cosplayers.

There was a cosplay photoshoot session at about 3pm. I curse my camera for dying just before this event. SHIT!!

Finally, it was time for the cosplay masquerade. I entered this one. You only needed to pose or do a short performance, much shorter than the skits. I seem to always have bad luck when I'm having fun with groups of people.

Just 10 minutes before the masquerade began, I left Ragnarok leaning on a wall while I did my hair. Then, somehow, it slipped and fell onto the floor. It was solid enough to withstand a fall like that, but because the spikes wouldn't let it fall flat onto the ground, the piece connecting the blade and the hilt cracked a little. It wasn't severe, but I couldn't swing it or even hold it by the handle anymore or the wood might just snap. A sincere thanks to Kakashi who reallocated my turn so I had time to fix Ragnarok. I couldn't fix it, so I needed a new idea.

Since Chrona tends to hug Ragnarok a lot, that's what I did. This time, stage-fright was not a problem. Chrona is generally a fraidy-cat who shivers and stammers a lot, so it was to my advantage instead. My performance was simple.

Chrona walks up stage slowly, sees the whole bunch of people and says, "So many people are looking at me. I don't what to do, Ragnarok. What do I do? K-kill them? Alright... SOUL RESONANCE!! SCREECH ALPHA! KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!" I am amazed how I managed to pull that high pitched "Kya" for so long. But I wanted to say Soul Resonance in Japanese, and Chrona's doesn't shout, except for the "Kya" bit. So that was my bad.

Since I wasted some time fixing my sword, I didn't see a lot of the masquerade. Notable ones were Chi. She had this totally cute voice and kept calling everything "Hideki", just like in the anime. A second Chi had an awesome dress, but all she did was pose. What a waste. There was Enma Ai, but she wasn't scary enough.

There were also group cosplay masquerades. A Phoenix Wright group comprised of Phoenix, Edgeworth and Maya. They were all kids and were very cute when they screamed "Objection!" The biggest group was this crazy-ass Final Fantasy VII group. Cloud, Zack, Cid, Sephiroth, Tifa, Yuffie, Vincent and Aeris. They filled the whole stage. Another group was Ulquiorra and Aizen. They did a funny yaoi scene which I had to admit was pretty good but Akito's back in Ichibanzai 2009 was better.

Following the ending of the cosplay masquerade, the crowd started to disperse. Most people stayed just to watch the Code Geass screening, but most of the cosplayers went into town for some beers, as typical Irishmen and Irishwomen do. I didn't join them because I was worried about Ragnarok.

I immediately sealed Ragnarok (a cooler way of saying "put it back into the box") after that and went playing around with some of the cosplayers that remained. I couldn't find Ray again though. I wonder where he went.

Me and Nikki went to watch the Romeo X Juliet screening. We met Vanessa again at last! I found out Nikki was from Cork, Ireland and Vanessa was from Brazil! I thought she was from France! Neither of them are UCDents. Nikk

At long last, it was closing time. Me and Vanessa took the 19C bus down to City Centre where lots of people had gathered. I think it was Ireland vs France today, so that explains a lot. We then parted ways since she wanted to eat and I needed to get some Super Glue from Tesco. I didn't see her after I got the super glue, but since we were taking different buses anyway, I left first.

Upon arriving at home, I applied the glue and will leave it over night. Still, the glue is damn strong! The moment I applied the glue, the cracked bit stopped moving! I hope it's strong enough to be good as new by tomorrow. Ugh... if it doesn't... I am definitely jinxed in crowded places.

Right... time to upload photos!

Day 74 - Eirtakon 2009 Day 1

2009-11-14T07:29:00.002+08:00

Today, I was proven very wrong about the anime culture here. The numbers are VERY small, but finally, I've met people who actually watch anime as much as they breath air. Of course, most of them are the big-wigs of their respective anime clubs.

Anyway, the night started off with anime screenings. And more anime screenings... And more anime screenings... Azumanga Daioh, xxxHolic, Disgaea and Black Cat.

Okay, it was all anime screenings tonight and an anime pub quiz.

It turns out pub quizzes are team games, so entering alone is a big disadvantage unless you're a walking encyclopedia of anime trivia. Good thing somebody offered me a place in their team since they only had 3 members. Still, we were at a huge disadvantage. After all, the Cork Anime Society brought a whole bunch of members (about 10+) since there was no limit to the number of members. The other groups also had similar numbers ranging from 7 to 12. My group was the second smallest. Another group had 3 members.

The pub quiz consisted of 11 rounds, with 10 questions per round. Due to time constraints, I only stayed till Round 9. But from there, I learned that the anime culture isn't so dead after all. They threw out all sorts of anime I've never even heard off, claiming they were good titles of the past. And some of the present (most of which I knew).

Round 1 to 3 were deadly trivia quizzes, constantly spamming anime titles I just happen to miss watching. Gurren Lagann, Hayate no Gotoku, Seto no Hanayome, Genshiken, One Piece etc. Round 4 was a guess-the-anime-from-the-picture quiz. And they were careless/stupid enough to use posters, wallpapers, character art etc that have the titles written in Japanese.

Round 5 was a guess-the-anime-from-the-song quiz. I knew only 1 of them. Round 6 was a guess-the-parody quiz. I got 4 for that one, seeing as how they used Lucky Star and Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi. Round 7 was another round of trivia.

Round 8 was an "I-can't-believe-I-watched-this" quiz that featured all sorts of titles that you'd likely can't and will never watch, except Disgaea. Seriously, why was Disgaea even in there? The epic moment was when they threw out a Bible Black question. BIBLE BLACK!! WHAT THE HELL!? For those who don't know, Bible Black is perhaps the most famous erotic anime ever and it isn't softcore porn.

Round 9 was another guess-the-anime-from-the-song quiz. I got 3 for that one. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei was the first one! Then there was Soul Eater. I left after that. So, all I know was that I was placed 10th out of some 15 teams before I left.

No references to Naruto, Bleach, Pokemon, Inuyasha, Digimon were even mentioned in this quiz. Unless of course, the final 2 rounds were about popular anime/manga.

Now, for the cosplayers. I'd have to say... disappointing except for 2. Winger should be pleased to know that the 2 best ones I saw tonight were the Franziska von Karma and Godot cosplayers. The rest were so-so. A lot of them had their costumes or wigs ruined by the rain. One of the Kurosaki Ichigo's came down flat onto his head. I have a picture of him :)

Alright! My turn to cosplay tomorrow. Shit, I can't find Ragnarok's mouth. Did I sweep them away by accident last week?

Day 73 - MedBall Blues

2009-11-13T05:12:00.002+08:00

We finally submitted our group project today, at exactly 3pm, the final deadline. You know what? I don't think the Irish are such good timekeepers after all. Right, moving my hopes onto the Japanese.

Well, Daniel gave me hope that I could attend MedBall. But my hopes were shattered some 3 hours ago when he told me that there was only 1 ticket left. Darn!

So, I'm here watching anime, cartoons and TV soap operas with the Sci-Fi geeks...

...I know none of those soap operas.

You know what? I'm gonna go steal their anime collection.

Let's see....

2 titles I don't have...

Wow...

Oh, one of them only has half the episodes.

...

...

...

Eirtakon better be good!

Day 68, 69 - Late Night Reports

2009-11-09T20:31:00.002+08:00

I swear in the name of Larry the leprechaun that I thought of a cooler name for the topic title. But I forgot it the next second. Screw them MIBs!

Anyway, I have nothing much to report except that I stayed home all day for the weekends. Since I spent little energy that night, I stayed up till 4am on both days...

Typing reports. Patient report, site report, health care system reports and slide reports.

I've got lots of reports, don't I? Well, you can call them this week's "test".

Yawn... I'm sleeping early tonight.

Day 67 - Why Am I Not Surprised?

2009-11-07T22:09:00.002+08:00

Well, I got my results for all my mid-terms. I got an A for Biochem, B for Musculoskeletal Biology and a C- for Cell-cell. Hah! Exactly as I thought. But even so, cell-cell is just way too low!

But screw my Cell-cell lecturer for not letting us know our marks. The other two at least gave us an idea of how many we got wrong, but this guy didn't. Screw this! So I am to just assume I got about 55%!? ARGH!! 30 questions wrong!

Guess I have to buck up even more for the finals for this one.

Day 65 - Chiang no Go!

2009-11-06T05:31:00.003+08:00

The title was a parody of "Hikaru no Go".

I received news from the Irish Go Association that there's a Go meet held every week in Dublin. After confirming the location, I found that it was pretty close to my university and the no. 10 bus stops directly in front of it, although the only way back is by the no. 46A bus.

At the bar (Almost everything is done in a bar in Ireland), I saw some 8 people gathered. 4 of them were playing. I was so thrilled even though ALL of them looked older than me. An old gentleman by the name of Arthur challenged me to a match. Since he was of a much higher level than I was, he gave me a 9-stone advantage. And I still lost due to a mistake.

Then, we had a second match on a smaller board with a 6-stone handicap. I won, but I think 6 stones was a little too much. 4 may have been enough.

During the games, we also had some idle chit-chat, something the other clubs and societies I've joined rarely did with me besides on Halloween night. I learned that the old guy I played against was a lecturer in the UCD School of Computer Sciences and he had been wanting to form a Go Society in UCD for some time. Another guy who was a postgraduate student in UCD opted to help if it was actually formed. I am, of course, interested too!

After the 2nd match, it was already nearing 11pm, so I bade them farewell caught the next bus home. I am SO going there every Monday and/or Wednesday from now on!

Day 64 - End of Midterms.

2009-11-04T07:00:00.002+08:00

Why oh why did the Cell-cell Communication test have to be held today at 7pm!? I had to skip Japanese class because of that!

I did fairly well. Definitely not as good as Biochem but not as bad as Musculoskeletal Biology. I should pass. Should.

......

Hmm... Guess I'll say something about last night's Halloween party. The GameSoc could not book a room earlier so they only got to celebrate their Halloween last night. Ah well, seeing as how I skipped the MedSoc party, I might as well show up for GameSoc's.

The party was okay. As usual, no food, just chips and alcohol. They brought out their XBox360 and played Rock Band (again). Nattanael and Lorik definitely had a fun time singing... even though they failed a lot. Oh, it wasn't their voices, it's just the game asking for too much accuracy.

I went as Chrona (obviously). There weren't any cosplayers that night, save for a Vincent Valentine cosplayer who won the Fancy Dress Contest. FYI, not very good. If that's the best they've got, they have A LOT to learn.

Oh, but there was this latecomer who came as the Joker from the Dark Knight movie. Now he was AWESOME. Should have taken a close up shot of his face! It was very well done. But his clothes kinda sucked. Still, awesome hair, awesome face.

Rest In Peace

2009-11-03T01:48:00.001+08:00

James Wan Khai Khor, a sad and unexpected tragedy befell upon you. I didn't like how you always teased me on the school bus, but I guess that was your way of making friends. And just so you know, I treasure it even though I still don't really know you.

After you graduated from Form 5 in 2006, we saw very little of each other even though you went to Form 6. But I always believed that we would meet again. But it seems I was wrong.

News of your early departure from this world certainly came as a shock to me. The time we spent on the school bus was enough to tell me that you had a bright future ahead of you and your passing is certainly a loss to many.

I offer my condolences to your family and pray that your soul find peace forever. I am sorry I cannot attend your memorial. Should an afterlife exist, I hope that we will meet again then and become closer friends.

永别了，元凯学哥。祝你登上极乐世界。阿弥陀佛。

Winter Sonata (2009)

2009-10-30T07:36:00.003+08:00

I'm talking about the anime, people, not the 2002 original Korean drama which greatly influenced the popularity of K-dramas Asia-wide.

Surprisingly, the anime is in full Korean language with Japanese subtitles. Even the OP and ED were in Korean although the opening "Cheoeumbuteo Jigeumkkaji" has a Japanese version titled, "Saisho kara Ima made". There is also a Chinese version called "Cong Kai Shi Dao Xian Zai". All of which are equally beautiful, although I'd say the Chinese one is the best, and the Japanese one is the worst (!).

Anyway, the first episode doesn't tell you much about the story. I'm not even sure if this is the beginning or the middle of the story (you know how some stories start from the middle or the end then flashbacks to the beginning). There was also very little conversation save for some monologues that indicates lots of back story. But I do have to say this, despite the lack of explanations, you can kind of feel a good story coming along. At least I did. Even though this is a romance anime, I might stick around for it.

I just got the OST of the original drama. But heck, this anime may open a path for me to loving Korean dramas!

Day 58 - Musculoskeletal Biology = MURDER

2009-10-30T05:33:00.002+08:00

Damn it. I've been cramming all weekend up to the last minute but I still couldn't remember a single thing. So, I just went in there and let the spotter test screw me like a... uh... screw. It was definitely nowhere near Biochem's easiness. I was actually tempted to black unanswered for pretty much every question.

Agh! Screw this! I'm gonna go play with my sword now!

*Swing* *Crash!* *Swing* *Bonk!* *Swing* *Kaboom!*

*Cough cough*

Well, hopefully I can get tickets to tomorrow night's Halloween Ball. Now, how am I gonna go into town without looking like a madman?

Day 54 - UCD-RCSI Sports Day

2009-10-27T07:49:00.003+08:00

Ah yes, it's that time of the year where we get to kick RCSI butt! Uhh... I mean, face off against our esteemed rivals, RCSI in a friendly non-competitive sports event.

To tell you the truth, I forgot it was today (25th October) until Nabila contacted me. I immediately rushed to the Sports Centre, but unfortunately, the men's basketball which I wanted to watch the most was already over. According to the audience, it was a pretty one-sided match though, with the UCD team completely overpowering the RCSI team.

The other sports I missed were badminton, table tennis and futsal. We had 4 losses and 1 victory in badminton, and the reverse for table tennis. We won 2 futsal matches and lost the other. We also lost netball. I heard RCSI imported their entire team from Galway. That ain't fair! But we still beat them twice!

When I arrived, the women's basketball had just begun. It was a surprisingly gripping match, with the RCSI team beating us at first until our sports pro Germaine entered the court. Then it was a pretty even match, with Germaine's speed against the RCSI captain's height. It was pretty obvious that these two were the main powerhouses. Sadly, Germaine can't really shoot, but she did an insanely good job stealing passes and catching loose balls as well as dodging defenders.

It ended with our victory with a 10-point lead after the RCSI team panicked in the last quarter of the game.

After that were two volleyball matches. The men's competition was really tense, especially in the 2nd round when both teams had 24 scores. RCSI won in the end. Our women's team was just a rag-tag group we pulled together at the last minute so we got OWNED hard. 5-15. Unbelievable!

As you can see, both universities won an equal amount of games, BUT each competition had a different weightage. Badminton and table tennis canceled each other out. Futsal and netball also canceled each other out, so it was basketball and volleyball that made all the difference. Basketball was worth 100 points per victory, but volleyball was only worth 80. So, in the end, UCD won overall! AGAIN!!

YEAH!! CONGRATS UCD!!!

Ah, the next day is Bank Holiday, so the athletes can get a good rest before class starts on Tuesday. Well, some actually. We UCDents have another test coming up soon, so Bank Holiday probably wasn't relieving for them either.

Right, goofed off yesterday and spent today watching sports. I'll have to study for Bank Holiday!

Day 53 - Lazy Day 2

2009-10-25T07:52:00.003+08:00

I have a 3 day weekend this week. Saturday to Monday. Monday is Ireland's Bank Holiday. I have little idea why our lectures have to be canceled just because all the banks are closed but ah well, more time to study.

That being said, I woke up pretty late today. Nearly 12pm. Gah! Blame the guy who woke me up at 3am. Just because I forgot to turn off my laptop and hence left my MSN on, doesn't mean you can come and send me a noisy message! Joking. But I don't even know who sent me the message or what it was. I only wanted to sleep and just shut my computer down.

Anyway, back on track, I spent the whole day goofing off today. I did some parts of my patient report, but no studying. I just spent the whole day in my room playing my DS until I finished Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Excellent piece of work, though I would say that they should have just used the Chain of Memories system for this since it kinda hurts your hands during intense battles.

I'm not gonna turn this into a game review post, so I'll just say that Tetsuya Nomura is a GENIUS for having planned every part of the story since Kingdom Hearts 1 in year 2002. 7 years later, he still has so many places where he can dish out plot twists from intentional loopholes. Seriously, I am amazed how KH: 358/2 Days linked so well with the Deep Dive movie from KH1 and the beginning of KH2. Lots of questions behind Organisation XIII have been explained, Deep Dive explained, etc etc

Okay. Full stop on the gaming.

I still have 2 more holidays to go. I definitely have to start studying tomorrow or risk failing my next test. It's still True False MCQ but luck only gets me so far.

Got it memorised?

Day 52 - Results Are Out

2009-10-24T02:10:00.002+08:00

I was really tempted to skip lectures in the morning. They were boring lectures, and I just spent last night checking through my Biochem notes to spot possible mistakes. And considering how BORING the Friday morning classes were, I swore I would have skipped it if I wasn't so guilty-conscious. But it's a good thing I didn't. Dr. Philips Newsholme announced that our results were out already! But we would only receive them in the evening. Way to give us pressure.

Then, we had another round of First Aid Practicals from 2 to 6pm. Today we practiced CPR, and covered some facts about hypoxia and stroke. Whoever used the mannequin before me used too much soap to clean the mouth and now I have this minor disgusting taste in the back of my throat!

Oh, and we were introduced to the FAST song. Search for it on Youtube. Depending on your character, you may find the video annoying or funny. I found it somewhere between those two. But it's pretty informative. And after listening to that, you'll never forget how to check for strokes.

F ace
A rms
S peech
T ime to call the ambulance

Got it memorised?

And when I got home, it was the moment I'd been waiting/dreading. Time to check my results. But before that, Bleach and Conan were updated so let's read those first.

...
...
...

NOW I check my results. The class mean was 56.8%. That doesn't sound very good. In fact, that sounds TERRIBLE!! It's way too close to the failing mark!

Oh, I found out from Nabila that Xinyi got 70 and Nabila got 77. Okay... even the studious ones didn't get 80... Aww man! Pressure building. Throat choking. BUT, I MUST KNOW!!!

87.500

Eh? *Rubs eyes*

09108416 87.500

*Rubs harder with glass cleaner*

09108416 ---------------------------------87.500

OH YES!!!!!!!!! I got highest in class!!!!! Along with 2 other people!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!

...But I still got 5 questions wrong. Gotta go find out what I got wrong now. *Checks textbook*

Day 50 and 51 - Double Update

2009-10-23T16:14:00.003+08:00

Yeah, I haven't updated in 2 days. Been busy.

Day 50 saw me fighting for my life to grab the 20% of my Molecular Basis of Life module. Sure, 20 is isn't much, but since our passing mark is 40%, at the very least, I want to secure a pass.

My group members were supposed to discuss our group project in the morning, but apparently, everybody skipped class to study. ARGH! We only have until November 12, people! And the project consists of 20% of our CSI module!

In the afternoon, I left campus at about 4pm, around 3 hours before the exam. Why? Because the exam hall is held outside in the Blackrock campus and not the Belfield campus. Thanks to that. I was able to be lazy and catch an infrequent straight to the campus, unlike most of my peers who had to walk 30 minutes down the main road with their heavy textbooks XD.

I arrived at about 5.30pm. Since the exam hall wasn't open, I headed to their library to study more.

At 7pm, the exam commenced. I got my game on and rushed through every question. We only had 60 minutes to answer 60 true/false questions that sounded something like "Black ink is blacker than fresh tar. True or false?"

My god, it was difficult! I could actually count the answers I was sure of with two hands. The rest were either guesses or intuitions. It's not a good idea considering the negative marking system, but it was better than nothing. Correct answers award you 1 mark. Wrong answers are penalised 0.5 marks. Or you can surrender by blackening "Unanswered", where you are neither awarded nor penalised.

Being the egoistical bastard who wasn't going to let hours of studying go to waste by surrendering, I put either True or False for every question, knowing full well that I would probably suffer more than those who were humble enough to admit defeat.

After the test, I went with Yan Shun and Jin Yit to the Student Bar for a post-exam drink. A pint of Guinness and a can of apple cider was what I had that night.

Woo! I finally had a good night's sleep last night. Although my bed still sucks.

----

Day 51

Jargon-spamming classes in the morning. Dr S. Giles is apparently taking over some of our Basic Tissue and Embryology lectures.

In the afternoon, I did some studying for next week's Musculoskeletal Biology. ARGH! There's so much I don't remember!

In the evening, I headed out with Daniel for Yan Shun's birthday party! The party Jean and Rachel had been planning through Facebook. I believe it's the first time we had fine dining since coming to Ireland.

Lots of chattinng and photosnapping went on, especially between the Singaporeans who were the majority of the attendees. Valerie, Xinyi, Nabila and Daniel were the only non-Singaporeans that night.

After that, I went for a pub session with Daniel. Yes, I went again. Yes, I know I will be killed when I get home or you come over, mom. Anyway, he wanted a drink tonight, but he didn't want to go alone, so I offered to accompany him.

Had a pint and returned home for another good night's sleep. Yay for alcohol! Boo for bad taste of beer. Seriously, if only the beers weren't the cheapest liquor there, I'd be buying something else!

Day 49 - History of Anime and Manga

2009-10-21T02:44:00.003+08:00

Ugh. The whole morning has been study study study. We had a trial test for our Musculoskeletal Biology today in preperation for next week's test. Since I'd been swamped by this week's Biochem test, I was totally unprepared for this. I got 6 out of 10 questions right. Before you start saying "That's not too bad", remember negative marking. That means I only got 40% which is a fail.

But I didn't care much. After all, I had Biochem to worry about tomorrow. But then, the test made me realise that there were so many things in Musculoskeletal Biology. That means no partying after Biochem! Gotta get home and study AT ONCE!! Which is pretty much what I did today and have been doing for the past week.

Well, 5pm struck and I rushed to my Japanese class, not wanting to miss the week-long anticipated lesson on the history of anime and manga. I won't bore the non-otakus with them and the otakus should already know the history anyway, SO... moving on...

We had 3 exchange students from Japan visiting us today. But it's pretty strange 2 of them spoke fluent English and somewhat mediocre Japanese. Hmm... nervous maybe?

Then we had a quiz about Japan. Damn, I knew nothing, but the only thing I've ever cared about Japan was anime, manga, video games, cosplay etc. Y'know, otaku stuff. So, ah well, not my fault I didn't know that roadside vending machines in Japan sold alcohol.

Finally, I came back and turned on my computer. MSN flicked on and out came 3 messages. WHAT!!!!??? My account has been spamming my contacts!? Aww man! Way to ruin a good day, man! Just when I was in a mood to study harder! Damn all you virus programmers out there!

Day 46 - Bray

2009-10-18T07:17:00.002+08:00

The night before, I received a message from Nabila informing me that the trip to Bray was not canceled and we would be leaving by the 9.30am bus and have lunch atop the hill.

So, I got up hell early to make lunch. Egg sandwich and some lemon chicken for extra, just in case someone did not bring food. Then I ran all the way to the bus stop when I thought I was late. I turned out to be wrong. They were later. Today, our own PMCSA Vice President II joined us for the hike. So, we had a professional cameraman with us!

Before we began the hike, we took a stroll along the beach near the hill. The hill lined the sea and was only separated by DART (a type of train) tracks. Apparently, white sandy beaches aren't popular in that area. Although the higher parts of the beach were composed of fine brown sand, the parts closer to the sea were filled with pebbles, like the ones you put in your fish tank.

Our cameraman, I mean, vice president took lots of photos of us. One of which included a photo of me floating slightly above the ground. Strange... I don't remember myself hopping on the beach. My psychic powers must be developing!

The hike was a little bit difficult but nothing really hard. And it wasn't tiring either. The only reason I was breathing hard was because some really steep or slippery parts required lots of caution. A group of senior citizens were hiking the area too. They said something about wanting to cover 15 kilometres today. So... that would be climbing from one side of the hill to another and then rounding back to where they started?

Yeah, Bray Head is a pretty small hill. If it weren't for all the long paths we had to take since some paths were just too risky to take without a hiking stick, I'd say it was only about as high as Strawberry Hill in Penang. It took us an hour to walk up but only 10 minutes to head down. But then we lost our way since we took a different route down and it was filled with forks. I recited the poem "The Road Not Taken" a total of 6 times.

On top of the hill, there was a cross that was supposed to be some landmark. But it was covered with graffiti at the bottom. What kinda landmark is that!? Still, we got a good view of Southern Dublin City. We then hiked up a stony cliff and had our little picnic there. They liked my lemon chicken! Yay! But it was already cold and there was not enough sauce... Ah well...

Finally we headed back to town after 3 hours of walking. Screw the misleading forks in the road. Can you believe that the roads that seemed to lead you down the hill actually makes you walk a big round. We were initially on one side of a HUGE fenced field, and by the time we got down the hill, we were on the other side.

Bought groceries, came home, study, sleep. Settled.

Day 43 - Patient Visit

2009-10-15T01:22:00.002+08:00

Man, the morning sucked. I woke up with a completely paralysed right elbow that HURT when I tried to move it. I spent a whole 15 minutes gathering enough strength to lift that arm and myself up from bed. Good thing today was CAL, which means I can be late with little to no consequences.

Immediately after CAL, Sinead met up with me and we both headed off to our assigned patient's home (Refer to Day 36). I felt REALLY REALLY bad today when I had to rely on her completely to find our way to the patient's house.

Due to confidentiality issues, I can only say that the patient and his wife were very nice people. He was a good man whom anyone could spend a long time chatting with. He directed more of his topics at Sinead than me since they were both Irish and could click more. He did show some interest in Malaysia, commenting that his friends had told him it was a nice place and how he would love to visit the place once his condition improves.

Okay, no more info about it! We followed the routine. Active history, past history, medications, allergies, social history, family history. Sinead did most of the talking. I just sat there and let them awe at my ability to write without looking. I don't know why they find it so amazing. Of course, I did throw some of my own questions which Sinead missed.

And then I went shopping for groceries. Little did I know that Nattanael was also in town buying more or less the same groceries. We now have 4 loafs of bread and 16 eggs. Great XD!

I'll have to skip today's archery club (again) since I still can't use much of my right elbow. I hope I didn't damage a nerve or anything. Hah! I see Musculoskeletal Biology is starting to scare me!

Day 42 - Japanese Class Test

2009-10-14T02:07:00.002+08:00

Yep, that marks the start of my weekly exam schedule. Good thing the easiest was the first, but it doesn't really help when every week after this will "feature" an ungodly difficult subject.

Oh, have I not said it here?

I have exams/tests every week starting this week until Christmas break. No kidding. The exams/tests comprise of 10-30% of our final grade depending on the subject.

Today's was a mere 10% and was my best subject. Japanese. I pity the poor souls who seemed to be dying during that test.

I did hate the first question of the exam. Who is your favourite celebrity? Do you know how difficult/annoying it is to write those English/Chinese names in katakana!? Searching for Japanese names in my head, I found it was nearly blank. Panic perhaps? But anyway, I don't really follow Japanese celebrities either! So I just whacked the first name I could think of.　倖田来未。 Koda Kumi. Why was that the first? Don't know. Might be because I was listening to 1000 no Kotoba before the test.

Anyway, they also announced some coffee session with Japanese students. We were to meet up with Japanese students and converse with them for 20 minutes. 10 minutes in English and 10 minutes in Japanese. I took up the offer immediately of course. I need the practice before the oral exam on Week 11.

Oh, and next week they'll be having a presentation on...
wait for it......
wait for it.............
wait for it...........................
.
..
...
....
.....
......
.....
....
...
..
.

THE HISTORY OF ANIME AND MANGA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And they're gonna have some games. Better do my research on traditional Japanese games. I hope it's not Shiritori or Dajare. That would KILL US ALL!!!

Sigh... Whatever... Gotta prepare for next week's exams... Ugh.......

Day 38 - PMCSA-UCD Election Day

2009-10-10T23:58:00.002+08:00

The Penang Medical College Student Association held its Election Day tonight for the new committee members. Since the 3rd years are going back (and totally dying from weekly exams), fresh new talents were needed to fill in their shoes.

Our elections are held by means of majority voting. One person will nominated a contestant and another person will second that same contestant. The contestant has the right to withdraw from the election though. Lots of whom did, which made the old committee really irritated. Everyone will then vote for their man/woman. Should a tie occur, the old committee president will cast his vote to break the tie. Basically, he will be the only one whom the loser can hate.

First off was the President post. According to AJ, the president has the final say in anything regardless of the opinions of the rest of the committee. Isn't that tyranny? The post can only be held by a 2nd year Med student who will be going back to Malaysia. Only 2 people contested this year. Our former Vice-President II and another 2nd year. The Vice President II won, but I voted for the other guy because he had more experience overall, having been the president and organiser of many more societies and events before.

That same guy won the Vice-President I vote by default though. Every other contestant pulled out. Boo!

For Vice President II, I nominated Daniel Ha to take up the post. Sadly, he lost it to Timothy Caesar thanks to Tim's One Malaysia speech. I have to admit he owned there.

Then, it came to the Secretary and Vice Secretary votings. I actually wanted to contest for Vice-Sec, but they decided to contest both at the same time at the last minute. Highest vote becomes Secretary, 2nd highest is Vice. So... too bad for me. Priya is now Secretary and Nabila is Vice-Sec. I'll contest next year then.

After that were the IT Coordinator, Events Coordinator, Male and Female Sports Rep, and finally 1st and 2nd Med Class Rep. I nominated/seconded Daniel a couple of times, but he lost all of them. I don't understand why. He has good ties with the seniors... Oh well, there's always next year for him.

Oh, more than 10 people pulled out when they were nominated. AJ hates the phrase "pulling out" and "withdraw" with a passion now. I find it annoying too. And the fact that less than 20 out of the 60 1st meds attended was annoying too. I hope my juniors next year won't be such chickens.

Day 37 - Dimmer Than Usual

2009-10-09T03:22:00.002+08:00

Hmm... Lots of people were absent today. Ah, right. They're all outside doing some MedDay charity thing. I didn't sign up because I was lazy and I didn't want to miss lectures. Ironic? But I'd rather work my brain than my body.

Sigh............................. They gave us more slides to draw today. Ah well, we have 22 to do in all. We now have 11. Ugh... I haven't even done 1. At least the ones today are a lot easier than before. I can probably finish those over the weekends. I'll still hate the colouring though. Oh, we have to draw skin this week. Now, the PMR leavers should all know that the skin is divided into epidermis, dermis and adipose layers. Here's something new. The epidermis is split into 5 more layers and the dermis has 2. If I listed the names, you'd all die.

I found some 1 month old beans in my fridge today! I thought my housemates already used them up, but turns out they shoved it deep behind all the other stuff. It hasn't been opened yet and it was stored in the fridge, so I guess it's still edible. If it isn't, well, too late anyway. I ate them all. No sense wasting a euro. Which is RM5 by the way. That ain't cheap!

Oh, and if you're wondering about the post title. It's about my light bulb. It seems dimmer than last night. I'd better buy a spare just in case it blows out in the middle of the night like Xinyi's did. Poor girl must have been so scared. Bet she bribed her housemates so they wouldn't leak out that she screamed. I am a bad friend.

Day 36 - CSI Seminar

2009-10-08T16:53:00.003+08:00

Ho boy! This is it, folks! Today's the day I finally receive the patient I will be assigned to visit and practice taking history. Due to confidentiality issues, I am not to divulge further information about the patient.

Basically, I have to visit the patient anytime within the next 3 weeks, talk to the patient and write a report based on what I learned from the patient. Very simple, but this is what I will be doing for the next 50 years from now on. Oh, and since we're all novices, we were assigned in pairs. My partner is an Irish girl with a strong Irish accent. I kinda feel bad that I shove the job of calling up the patient to her. But firstly, she's a local. The patient might feel more secure talking to a local. Secondly, my credit's out. And I want to change service providers so I'm not gonna top up until this weekend. Still, best apologise the next time I see her.

Well, that concludes my day. Sigh... anime night cancelled tomorrow.

Oh and related to that, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles has finally ended. With its 233rd chapter out after 6 years, the Journey of the Wings has finally come to an end. When they said the 232nd chapter was the finale, I was almost disappointed because if that was the ending, it was really hanging. What the heck are they gonna do now? And what was the price Shaoran and Watanuki paid? Etc etc.

But then I heard that there was gonna be 1 more chapter and I heaved a sigh of relief. Now, this was satisfying. And they finally let us know what their (Shaoran and Sakura) true names were. Tsubasa Chronicles... haha... nice last twist. To escape from that dimension of nothingness, the main characters of both stories (Tsubasa Chronicles and xxxHolic) paid a price each. And I'd say this last price was truly magnificent. One paid "Remain in a dimension" and the other paid "Continue moving through dimensions". Guess who paid each price?

Ah... Great job, CLAMP. Great job.

Day 35 - R4 Trouble

2009-10-07T20:02:00.002+08:00

My first message is to tell any potential DS buyers or R4 (the card that allows you to download games into) buyers to NEVER buy R4 Deluxe. In fact, don't buy R4 at all. Go for M3. It's better. I am speaking from personal experience of course.

I turned on my DS today to find an error message. I immediately plugged the MicroSD card into my computer to check for problems. To my absolute horror, everything inside had been corrupted. How the hell did that happen!? Which means ALL my save files are GONE!! The World Ends With You, Taiko, Advance Wars, Meteos, everything that I or anyone have played and saved! CRAP!!!

To add to my problems, I also learned that Deluxe is not some new R4 brand, but a clone R4. I also learned that no original R4s are being produced anymore. All they do now is provide firmware updates. And with that, I spent hours searching for the correct firmware. I first tried R4 III because I remembered something like that in my R4 before it broke. But it was wrong. I tried for hours various ways of reinstalling the firmware but nothing worked.

Finally, at 8pm last night, I discovered that R4 Deluxe has its own firmware. Another hour flew by when I discovered that the stupid chinese version firmware isn't downloadable and the english version is not compatible. SHIT!! So I spent ANOTHER hour looking for chinese firmware online.

Considering how everyone HATES R4 Deluxe and I didn't know how sucky it was until recently, it took me one hell of a long time before I finally found a working firmware. The good thing was, this version is newer than my previous one and many bugs were fixed. So, yay! Suddenly, lots of games that were unplayable for god knows why on my R4 before it broke became playable.

I guess things worked out okay then? NOT!!! If the firmware requires constant updates and the stupid official site does not update, how the damn am I supposed to play newer games!? Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days just came out. Good thing it works, but I had to spend some time patching due to ROM problems. Sigh..... I hope you don't have these problems, Hime-sama.

Day 33 - I Miss Home

2009-10-04T05:10:00.002+08:00

I've been really lax this past month. I just pass each day attending class, sightseeing, attending club activities, reading online comics, watching anime, playing my DS, visiting online forums, chatting through MSN and maybe do some chores when I feel like it. See a pattern? Maybe the kid doing psychology can easily read them, if he even still reads this blog.

So here's my deduction and explanation of my recent self. I'm homesick. Every action I've taken so far except attending lectures is a reenactment of my life from December 2008 to August 2009. The following is a comparison between my life now and then.

Sightseeing in Dublin <=> Sightseeing in Penang
Attending club activities <=> Working at Coral/Hanging out with friends
Online comics, anime, DS <=> Online comics, anime, DS, PS2
Online forums and chatting <=> Online forums and chatting
Chores in apartment in Dublin <=> Chores back home in Penang

See? Everything I've done up to now is loosely based on what I do back home in Penang. Furthermore, my desperate search for otakus in Dublin is so they can be the "Kazuki group" in Dublin. In other words, I'm trying to recreate my Penang life here. Whenever someone asked me how life was in Dublin, I could always reply "Same as Malaysia. Just colder." It's because I've done so many things to keep them the same. And it was all done subconsciously. I was never aware of the motives behind my daily activities until just moments ago.

Having resolved to not look back after leaving, my subconscious sought another way to express my homesickness. I thought it was strange I did not even feel like saying "I miss home" like a lot of my friends did. I thought it was because my resolve was still strong, but I learned that there are only three reasons you don't feel homesick:

1. Your home sucked
2. You're a heartless person who easily forgets your roots
3. You never left home

And mine is a variation of 3. What's to miss if nothing's different? My parents are online often enough to make sure that I see them almost everyday. And I have N5S forums for Pikaby. And I unconsciously erase anything that is different.

But now that I am consciously aware, the homesickness is taking over very fast.

Why am I suddenly aware? Because my mind just discovered a difference that it cannot erase. Studying. I have not touched a teaching material in 9 months. This change is significant and impossible to wipe away from my awareness unless I don't study, but I can't do that now, can I?

Studying has also made me realise something else. The time till the end of this term feels both very short and very long. Looking at my daily life, I feel that summer will come very fast. But when I look at my syllabus, I feel like just this semester will go on for years. So right now, my sense of time is completely messed up. Every time I look at my watch, I get a almost no reaction to the passing of time. Fast? Slow? I don't know anymore.

One last thing about my studies. I'm in trouble. And it's not because I haven't studied. Just by looking at what I have to study, I can already feel that it's impossible for me to repeat the feats I performed for all my previous exams. Even at my best, scoring an 'A' for any of the subjects sounds terribly difficult. In fact, I feel immensely pressured even thinking about it. Frankly, I really regret picking this subject.

But I'm not backing out yet. I should be able to complete this course, just not with flying colours. If you know me well enough, you should know that I'm a perfectionist in exams. I'm happy if I see 'A's, but even when I get an 'A', I still pick on myself for having wrong answers. The only reason I hate this subject now is because I see no chance for me to get an 'A' in anything. That's all.

Don't worry. I will graduate as a doctor. But be prepared to see results only slightly better than my AS exams.

Oh, I haven't said a thing about what I did today. Actually, thinking was all I did today. I was too panicked to do anything until a few minutes before this post. And thinking things out helped me calm down.

Day 32 - Cough!

2009-10-03T05:58:00.002+08:00

Hard to say whether the coughing got better or not. It sometimes stops altogether, and then starts acting up again. But I am SO not visiting the campus nurse and pay 10 euros just to listen to her tell me "Drink more water."

Really, I think it's just because of the cold, dry weather here. That's why my throat is irritated but I feel fine. I doubt medicine is necessary.

I spent the afternoon with the GameSoc. I don't know why I keep going. I'm the only Asian guy there and the members don't talk to me a lot because half the time, I don't understand them. Their slang and their unusually deep voices. But at least I get to play some board games, card games etc there.

Returning home, I remembered an assignment that I had to complete by mid-November. DO NOT LAUGH!! What we have to do is observe 22 slides of body tissue given to us online, use textbooks to label them and their components. And then we have to write a short essay on the functional histology of each tissue. The problem is, this isn't your SPM or A-level microscopy sessions, where your teachers guide your every move. This is an entirely self-learning procedure. So we're going in blind, praying that what we've learned is enough.

And for me, it is not. I am dying here. I don't know how to start. I don't know what to draw. I've seen the examples, but they're so good, it just gives you pressure that you need THAT kind of standard. And there are no essays for us to refer to in those examples.

Oh, and the past examples were all done by Malaysian students. Screw you, Irish peeps! We Malaysians are better... in general.

Sigh.......... After this semester, I hope I NEVER have to draw again!

Day 31 - Cough! Cough! Cough!

2009-10-03T05:46:00.002+08:00

The title pretty much sums up my whole morning.

We had a dissection practical this week. This time, we were to observe the pectoral region and the axilla, and find the pectoralis major, pectoralis minor, serratimus dorsi, and several other muscles. We were to also differentiate the various branches of the brachial plexus from a prospected specimen. If the words don't make any sense to you, that's fine. I only understand it a little more than y'all do anyway.

At night, I attended the anime movie night since I was better and didn't need anymore extra sleep. They showed Fullmetal Alchemist, Gurren Lagann, S-Cry-ed, Blood+, Death Note and Elfen Lied. They also ordered pizza for each of us. Only 3 euros for a personal 4-slice cheese pizza. They got all the pizza 1/2 priced.

After the show, I went back and got some more rest.

P.S. The coughing never stopped.

Day 30 - SLEEEEEEEEP!!

2009-10-01T15:48:00.002+08:00

Scratch Day 29, THIS was the most unfair morning. I woke up every 2 hours or so finding myself in uncomfortable, almost bone-dislocatable positions. Not only that, I keep hurting putting pressure on the swollen finger I hurt yesterday. So, when I woke up, boy was I hell drowsy.

But I had Hospital Visit today. One of the few classes I cannot miss because this lets us view up close what real doctors do. Sure, a lot of them we've seen before when we visited the doctors ourselves (except those healthy freaks who've never seen a doctor), but they don't provide explanations of why they take each procedure.

Yes, I was almost dozing off throughout the entire 2 hours. I swear my consciousness was floating above my head. And I also discovered that my consciousness comprises of 70% of my body mass.

We were lectured on history-taking today. Pretty simple and straightforward. But we probably can't make any use of it until we at least complete our 1st term.

Finally, they let us off. I rushed back to campus, bought lunch, ate half of it and went to sleep. I had intended to wake up at 6pm so I could go get groceries, but I woke at 8. Crap... So, I went jogging around campus for some fresh air. And I forgot my chain of keys. Damn... Good thing Yuan Shi was in.

Then I went back in, ate the remainder of my lunch for dinner (it was a baguette so no worries about it getting cold), took some medication and then slept again. Oh, I turned on the heater tonight too. Hopefully, that'll make me feel better. I am SO not liking the weather here anymore!

Another stick man insanity

2009-09-29T05:22:00.001+08:00

The BGM is Fighter's Dream from Naruto. Guess who each character that shows up in the background are. Frankly, I didn't know almost half of them.

Day 27 - Dublin Zoo

2009-09-29T04:41:00.002+08:00

I didn't update about this because I felt lazy over the weekend.

At 9am, I and 5 friends gathered at the no. 10 bus stop. This time, we didn't stop at the City Centre but headed straight to Phoenix Park. The scenery was the same as I remembered. Fallen branches and empty patches of dirt on the grass. Seriously, it's a big park, but if the entrance already sucks this bad, who would want to go further in? Even if the deeper parts looked A LOT better.

Tickets cost us 12.50 euros each. Painful but expected. If we didn't have our student cards, it would've cost us 15 euros instead!

Anyway, according to the map, there were 40 main animal exhibits split into several areas. As I recall, there was African Safari, Artic, Planet of the Apes and then some smaller exhibits like reptiles and domestic animals (cows, goats, dogs, cats etc)

I can't say whether the place was big or small. It took us about 5 hours to circle the whole zoo, but that included some resting time and walking into dead ends. Somebody explain to me why there were dead ends!?

The closest exhibit was the Planet of the Apes, where we saw spider monkeys, chimpanzees, gorillas, lemurs and a few others. Xinyi had a weird way of pronouncing lemurs, "ler-mwers". We spent the whole journey joking about it, but frankly, I think it sounds better than "li-mers". I shall write in to the International Department of Animal Name Pronunciations and demand a change. Well, at least we soon learned that she wasn't the only one who pronounced it that way. We passed some French ladies who happened to pronounce it that way too.

Oh, and a chimpanzee was hitting on Xinyi.

Then, we got ourselves some ice-cream, hurting our pockets by another 2 euros. The ice-creams are no different than in Malaysia, except that almost every one of them had chocolate.

And then we saw seals. One of them really reminded us of Germaine. It kept dozing off, lifting its head up again and then dozed off again. I don't know how long it's been doing that, but when we came back from the African Safari (roughly 2 hours), it was STILL doing that. Why can't it just be satisfied with the stone floor and go to sleep!

Oh yeah, the African Safari was HUGE. Not surprising as it houses some of the largest animals on land. Elephants, rhinos, hippos, giraffes etc. There was a whole field dedicated to the various types of herd animals, such as zebras and giraffes. The elephants and rhinos got their own individual space. Well, who would want to put these behemoths near the small thin animals?

And then we saw the reptile house and birdhouse. Nothing much really. The insect farm and bird park back in Malaysia had more exhibits. Although I didn't like the way that owl looked at me. Like it was saying, "Come and get me, sonny boy!" from inside the cage. What did I do!?

And then there were the farm animals. It was feeding time for dogs and cats so we didn't see any. But we saw rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, ducks, cows, goats, mules, turkeys etc etc. The ponies did not come out today though.

And that concluded our tour. Bye bye, zoo! I might come back again 2 years later to see if anything's changed. Highly unlikely though. But I want my souvenirs!

Day 28 - Nothing. Laundry day, lazy day.

Day 29 - This had to be the most unfair morning since coming here. I slept early the night before. And I woke up with a headache. You have got to be kidding. I have class today. CSI too! I figured it would die down after sometime but it didn't. It got worse. By 10am, I had to keep pressing my eyebrows to keep awake (There's a part of your eyebrow that is hard and very sensitive. Press it with a finger and see for yourself. Got the info from martial arts fiction :P).

But I loved CSI and wasn't going to skip it even if I had to stab myself to keep awake. Also, if you miss a CSI lecture, you'll be pretty darn screwed because this ain't a subject you can improve on by reading notes and textbooks. It's about doctor-patient relationship! Textbooks don't help one bit!

Finally, class was over. I raced back home (uh...well... walked VERY slowly because every step I took hurt my brain). Yan Shun offered to cook dinner for me tonight. I didn't want to trouble him, but he insisted so I took his offer. And I slept from 2 to 6 after taking some medicine.

I ate dinner with Yan Shun and Valerie at 7pm and then left for the GameSoc Video Game Night at 8pm. I know I'm not supposed to, but nothing makes me feel better than good old video games. SSBB again. Don't they have anything else!? But then again, I bet the other party game they have is Mario Kart. NOOOO!!!!

I inquired more about the Go players here but I found out that only MathSoc had Go boards. Alright! I'm so joining them next year! I wonder if Stewart can help me get the Go boards. I don't mind if I have to play alone.

Day 26 - GameSoc Coffee Morning

2009-09-26T15:16:00.002+08:00

Even thought they call it coffee "morning", it's actually held from 12pm to 6pm, which means right after my lectures. Of course, I went back to eat first.

Before going to meet the GameSoc, I went to the Student Clinic and finally got my blood taken. They do it a lot faster here, but when I peeled off the bandage, I noticed that they leave a longer scar.

It was a pretty lazy day. Everybody just sat around playing card games. Some were playing Magic the Gathering, while the rest of us who had no decks just played random card games with poker cards.

After a while, two guys suddenly asked me if I brought my DS. OH YEAH! Advance Wars time! Nobody back in college ever wanted to play against me, but now, I was actually being challenged! I immediately accepted the challenge without considering their strength levels. "The higher the better." I thought.

We played a 3 CO map but it was actually very biased. 2 players had access to a single empty island but the 3rd player did not. And of the 2 people, the better one was Plaher 3. He yielded pretty fast, since he was being rammed by 2 stronger forces. And I easily took down Player 2 later, since I had more influence on the independent land. He then cheated by not giving my DS during my turn. But I knew I'd won anyway, so I just let him be.

At night, both my housemates went out, so I cooked instant noodles again. 3 packets left... Better not get lazy about cooking anymore. Hmm... maybe I can get more at the Asian market.

Day 25 - MedSoc 100th Anniversary

2009-09-25T10:14:00.002+08:00

It was also Guinness' 250th anniversary. By 7pm, the streets near Temple Bar had been completely packed! Me and Jen Yit had a hard time squeezing through all those people. But we did that regardless and found our way to Break for the Borders.

Just the night before, we received an e-mail from the MedSoc Event manager that MedSoc would be celebrating their 100th anniversary tonight. And they promised that it would be a BIG one with BIG cakes.

Well, the party was officially supposed to start at 10pm, but people only started pouring in at 12am. Ah well, more dancing space for us. I had a Guinness (since Nigel urged me to try the ones here). It was better than Malaysia's, but I still hate it. I finished it regardless. It cost me 4euros! I also got myself some Coca-Cola to increase my hyper-ness.

Lots of jumping and screaming and soon, I felt my energy draining. So, I bought a bottle of Megito, a sweet alcoholic drink. It was only 4% so not that bad. Oh, and it was cheaper than Coke, so why not?

I had lots of fun dancing and watching AJ and Jolin heating up the dance floor. I only quit after my knees ached horribly in protest. And here's where the bad luck starts. It always does when I'm having LOTS of fun.

Firstly, I missed the BIG cake! They cut and ate it all already when I got off the dance floor. And I didn't know until I asked Grace on the way back. Well, it wasn't such a bad thing. The next is worse. Think failing-an-exam-and-having-to-retake-and-fail-again bad.

I LOST MY LIONHEART PENDANT!!!!!!!!!! OF ALL THE GODDAMN BLOODY SHITTY CRAPPY !@#$%^%*&^(&%#$#$!@@! THINGS AND TIME TO LOSE IT, IT HAD TO BE THAT AND IT HAD TO BE TODAY!! THAT HAD A CERTAIN DEGREE OF SENTIMENTAL VALUE!!!

The Lionheart was a strength charm that allowed me to breeze through SPM and A-Levels. It wasn't a lucky charm though. Well, would you consider it a lucky charm when it keeps disappearing, and this time permanently? Sure, I didn't really need it, but it felt really good to be able to grab onto something when you're pushing yourself to do something. And not just anything will do. I'm an FF fan and a Squall Leonhart fan. It was a replica of his pendant and he called it "The strongest Guardian Force". Naturally (as stupid as it sounds), it means a lot more to me than some random lucky charm you find from a Chinese feng shui shop.

Oh, it was also a very precious gift from Hime-sama! I am SOOOOO SORRY, Hime-sama!!! *Bangs head on floor*

BANG!
BANG!!
BANG!!!
BANG!!!!
BANG!!!!!
CRACK!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why do the funnest times have to end with such horrible luck!!!!!!

I am never bringing ANYTHING but 30euros to a bar party again!! SCREW THIS!!

Day 24 - Archery Club

2009-09-24T16:45:00.002+08:00

We had the whole day free on Wednesday. No classes, no practicals. So the first thing we did was head to city centre to finally settle our Garda card. We got our ticket at 9am. Our turn came at 1pm. WHAT THE HELL!?

Of course, we knew that would happen, which was why we went walking around town until 12pm. We first took a visit to our hated rival university who claims that they're better than us but we know they're not - Trinity College. Their Fresher's Week only began this week. HAH! Slowpokes!

Since Xinyi and Nabila haven't taken their breakfast, we went to eat at Trinity College's canteen. Their prices were almost insane! Everything was about 25% more expensive than UCD. But oh well, we just picked stuff that cost under 3 euros.

We then went to see then Bank of Ireland building. It was big, but can you believe that they have no restrooms for customer use there!? Once Isaac settled his stuff, we then went to find the kebab store Nabila wanted to try.

They ate, I didn't. I was hoping to go back and finish up all those leftover ingredients in my fridge. They sold some Shawarna which cost 8 euros in a set with chips and a can drink. They also had a 1/4 pounder set at 5 euros with chips and a drink.

We then returned to the Garda building and waited till it was our turn. My turn came at 12.40pm and I got my card at 1pm. Finally, with this Garda card, I don't have to carry my passport around anymore! Then we went grocery shopping and headed home.

At 5pm, I headed to the Sports Centre to look for the Archery Club with Jen Yit. We found them a little early as they haven't even set up yet. The Handball Club was still hogging the field. Some 15 minutes later, the coach came and asked us if it was our turn already. Our President replied that it would be our turn in 1 minute. The coach nodded and ushered his trainees to move aside.

We were split into groups and allowed to shoot. It felt kind of difficult at first, but I got the hang of it pretty quick. My team was the worst with the most scattered shots. The team to our left was the best with EVERY shot striking the bullseye. And they were all newbies and half of them were girls. WHAT!? Well, they definitely had a better teacher. Their teacher was always talking. Ours was always silent.

Anyway, after about 5 rounds (1 person gets 3 shots per round), I finally got the hang of it. I started shooting consistent shots, but for some reason, they just won't hit the bullseye, only the line seperating the bullseye and the red ring. Earlier, I already found a way that suited me very much and it allowed me to continuously hit the bullseye, but apparently "you're not supposed to shoot that way". Boo...

Well, the session ended at 8pm and we went home.

P.S. I started RP-ing on IAntiVirus. Hope you're happy now, Wei Yun! Now, you start being active on N5S Forums too!

Day 23 - Poker Night

2009-09-23T05:56:00.002+08:00

Anatomy in the morning (How many times will I repeat this before I don't even bother anymore?). Headache!!

Then, Isaac accompanied me to the Sci-Fi Soc's coffee morning. There, we had biscuits and coffee while chatting about stuff. Geeky stuff. Geeky stuff which I'd rather spend my 3 hours playing Advance Wars than listen to. They were talking about DC and Marvel comics. The only knowledge I have of that is from Cartoon Network Cartoons and Choong Shern's vast knowledge of them (which I couldn't understand either).

After coffee morning, I went back home and then headed out again 1 hour later. I had to go get a document from the Student Desk. And then, Japanese class. A very Japanese-looking girl attended today. She spoke in complete fluent Japanese to the teacher... for 5 seconds. And then her vocabulary and grammar went to cloud nine. Boo...

Once class ended, I went to the Student Centre to check on the GameSoc. YES! They were there tonight! Playing poker though... with REAL money. I watched. I did not play, I swear on it. Until I start working, then I'll play. It's only 5 euros per night (or until you run out of chips). If I get a
job, the minimum wage is 8 euros per hour, or so they say.

I bumped into Nathanael who just left the Sci-Fi Soc's movie night. Some random Sci-Fi flick was on tonight. I didn't bother to go, but I'll likely go tomorrow when they show Star Wars.

Day 22 - Damn you, GameSoc and Sci-Fi Soc!

2009-09-22T05:10:00.002+08:00

Morning = Classes. Yay! Chandralal is GONE FOR GOOD!!

In the afternoon, I had Biochemistry lab. Damn, it was difficult. Oh no, the experiment was easy. Writing the damn bloody report was hard! They gave us instructions that served to confuse us more than simplify things. It took me 45 minutes (including waiting time) for me to complete the experiments. It took me 2.5 hours to finish the stupid report! Yes, I was working overtime!

I had to rush back to Belgrove to make dinner then leave for the GameSoc and Sci-Fi Soc meeting. Since Nattanael (I just saw a letter with his name on it, so I know how to spell it now) cooked lunch for me this afternoon, I repaid the favour for dinner. Yuan Shi had already eaten though.

After dinner, I rushed to the Student Centre only to find the room which the GameSoc usually uses occupied by another society. I looked around for a while but couldn't find them. So, either they moved to another building or they cancelled it altogether. Either way, I didn't bother to find out.

I then headed to the Science Center to join the Sci-Fi Soc movie night instead. But they weren't in the room they told us to meet. I asked the reception if there were any other rooms being used by societies. They told me that the Sci-Fi Soc had cancelled at the last minute. WHAT!!??

Ah, darn it!

Day 21 - St Stephen's Park

2009-09-21T04:19:00.002+08:00

I once mentioned a park near the City Centre near Dawson Street. I believe I typed the wrong name that time. Anyway, after completing my Sunday morning schedule, I took a bus to revisit St Stephen's Park.

The beauty of the place has somewhat deteriorated since the last time I went, most likely due to the changing of seasons. There were lots of people today, as expected on a Sunday. I saw lots of parents playing with their kids, couples flirting on the grass, weird groups (yes, several) of people doing stunts in the park (e.g. magic tricks, juggling, unicycling, clowning around etc.).

I also found a spot where the swans and ducks like to rest after coming out of the water. It wasn't hidden, though. I saw lots of people going there, but usually in small groups so as not to scare the animals. I got close to a swan and managed to snap a photo of me with it. I would've liked to touch it, but AJ warned me against doing so. I think I'll do it next time when I'm wearing leather gloves and a long sleeved shirt.

I went to take a look at RCSI as well. If I haven't said this before, I laughed at the college. Not only was it tiny, it wasn't even the one shown in the pictures. The pictures of RCSI that PMC showed us illustrated a traditional building that looked like only classy and knowledgeable people go to. But in truth, that was the old building which they hardly use now. The new building looks like any old office building, all squarey and boring. Haha!

Lastly, I took a stroll around streets I have not been to in the City Centre. Nothing much, just more shops selling a variety of things. I finally found a shop that sold anime, but it was just a tiny section in a 3-storey DVD shop. There weren't even many titles and half of them were Studio Ghibli productions.

And that concludes my day.

AWESOME!!

2009-09-20T00:17:00.003+08:00

AWESOME!! AWESOME!! AWESOME!!! AWESOME!!!!

That's all I can say about this song! AWESOME!!!!!

Day 19 - Video Game Afternoon

2009-09-19T20:26:00.002+08:00

Ah well, the morning was a s horrible as I had expected. Chandralal's terrible teaching skills opted me to just stare blankly into space while pretending to be copying notes. After the 1 hour of total boredom was over, we had a break till 2pm.

The 2pm class was a CAL class. I suppose I have not mentioned a CAL class before but these practicals are by far the fastest classes in our timetable. They put it down as a 2-hour session but in truth we usually only take 15-30 minutes to finish what we were tasked. What a waste of time!

As usual, I settled everything in 30 minutes and raced off to the Student Centre where the GameSoc was holding a video game session for 4 hours.

I found quite a number of time gathered in a room where there were 2 TVs and a projector. They had 2 XBox360s and a Wii at our disposal. They were playing Street Fighter 4 and Call of Duty 4 on the XBox whereas the Wii saw a competition between 4 players in Super Smash Bros Brawl.

I found myself playing Brawl more often than the others. Frankly, Brawl was better, because it showcased much more hilarious moments that would have gotten 10,000 hits in a day if posted on Youtube. Pikaby, you should know this pretty well.

In one match, there was only Kirby and Bowser left on the field standing on opposite sides of a ledge. Imagine those 2 idiots standing there with a considerable distance between each other attempting to attack each other. Kirby was continuously sucking and Bowser was breathing fire. It turned from tension to epic laughter when they kept that position for 3 minutes straight. Bowser then attempted to end the deadlock (?) by jumping over to fight, only to get eaten by the Pink Ribena and spat out of the field. However, the battle did not end there as the 2 of them continued to fight like crazy until Kirby used its Final Smash and successfully hit Bowser. However, Kirby was standing on a loose platform and dropped to its doom first before Bowser flew off the screen. Epic FAIL indeed.

In another match, I had successfully dealt 240% damage to my final opponent, but for some goddamn reason (and the fact that she's a pro that just owned 8 matches using Random), I just couldn't kick her off the field. I swear I was chanting "Getoffthestage!" for 1 whole minute. Imagine, 1 whole minute of being smacked off the battlefield and she can still get back on the field safely. I was using Mr Game and Watch and she was using Marth by the way.

Then, there was this one match which we had to call the Match of the Day. A noob was using Pikachu and got beaten down to 1 life and had already suffered 156% in damage while the others still had 3 lives and suffered only less than 100% damage. Miraculously, the Pikachu survived being used as a paddle ball until the remaining 3 players were down to 1 life. The Pikachu even lived long enough to see the 2 of them die. Me and another guy were screaming, "If Pikachu wins this round, we will laugh... VERY hard!" But, even with over 250% damage, Pikachu actually survived for 5 minutes, continuously running around like an idiot yet still managing to luckily dodge almost every hit or recover from being hit off the stage. In the end, Pikachu made the mistake of attacking on a loose platform which dropped to oblivion, dragging Pikachu along with it. The winner was Sheik, with 1 life and over 150% damage. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!? A NOOB MADE IT THIS FAR!!! And we known she's a noob because even I used her as a paddle ball in the previous 4 rounds.

The day ended pretty fast after that. Just went home, ate dinner and went to bed from the tiredness.

Day 18 - International Student Welcoming Reception

2009-09-18T05:07:00.002+08:00

Morning classes were suffocating. The endless use of big words really gave me a headache. Ah well, I survived without falling asleep - something I would very much love to do during Chandralal's class tomorrow. I think it's his final lecture tomorrow. YES!!!!

I also had my first dissection class today. Unlike Hime-sama's dissection, we were doing it on cadavers, real human bodies. Hence, we were not allowed to photograph anything as it would be disrespectful to the kind soul who donated his body to give birth to a new generation of doctors. If any of you thought that sounded like sarcasm, you deserve to be shot.

This was the class I had been waiting for. A chance to fill the thrill Dr Stein (Soul Eater) does when he does his favourite hobby. In fact, I wanted to do the whole dissection myself. Sadly, I accidentally ripped a hole on my glove and I wasn't allowed to touch the body any longer. DAMN!!

After class ended, I returned to my apartment to prepare for the event mentioned in the title. As I had expected, the cheapskates who leeched so much of our money only served us sandwiches. There was also wine so I gulped down 3 glasses to balance it out. Take that, UCD Financial Office!!

But it was pretty boring, so I left in an hour. The Sci-Fi Soc was having an anime night tonight, so I thought, why not? When I got there, they just finished watching Mushi-Shi. Damn, I missed that. After that, they showed Death Note the animation. Then I requested Elfen Lied. Followed by Cowboy Bebop, Bleach and Fullmetal Alchemist. I saw their anime list. It wasn't very impressive. Mostly the famous series and some lesser known ones like Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. Apparently, downloaded anime is legal here. So, damn! I should've brought along my collection! Ah well, I'll start downloading now.

Oh yes, I am very disappointed at the anime culture in UCD. No cosplayers among the anime fans. And I've confirmed, besides myself, only 5 anime fans in UCD. Well, it's pretty obvious anime influence here is at an all-time low when somebody can ask, "What is Death Note?"

Better sleep early tonight. Then again, who cares? Chandralal's class is tomorrow. I'll go finish up Hikaru no Go.

Day 17 - GameSoc Party

2009-09-17T04:19:00.002+08:00

No classes today, but I had a few things to do, like grocery shopping and looking at more clubs and socs.

Well, I finished everything I needed to do by 5pm. After relaxing for 1 hour, I headed out for the GameSoc party at the Student Centre.

It came as a surprise to me when I saw Nattenaya there as well. He was playing a war game with some other guys. I watched for a while, but didn't get a clue of they were doing, so I headed downstairs where the party was held.

There, I was introduced to many games I have never even heard of much less seen or played. Out of everything they played, I only knew the Rock Band video game they were playing on their XBox360. I played the drums for a while, but the addition of a foot button really threw my coordination off. I got perfect beats for handwork on Medium (bet I could do Hard), but the extra foot button which I'm not used to sent me to heck.

Soon, the pizza they ordered came. Well, I'd have to admit that they were pretty stupid to think that 2 large pizzas would be enough to fill 30+ stomachs. Good thing I got a piece. Too bad for the others :P.

At about 9pm, me and Nattenaya left since we hadn't much to do there.

I think I'll go join NetSoc and Sci-Fi Soc tomorrow. They're offering some pretty good membership deals now.

Day 16 - Freshers Week Day 2

2009-09-16T04:38:00.002+08:00

Ah well, my morning classes start at 11am today, so I got an extra 2 hours of sleep. Or not. I just slept 2 hours later the previous night. :P

Well, anyway, Anatomy and Histology are starting to show their stuff now. I'm getting a brainache but hey, this is proving to be an excellent exercise for my rusty brain. I know just how rusty it is because I could hardly understand what the lecturers were saying. As for the lecturers, they're not horrible like Chandralal, but they sure are boring. It's not their fault though, the subject just contains too many jargons for them to even make a decent joke out of it.

Anyway, I had the whole afternoon free after that. I revisited the Sports Centre, but the Tai Chi Club is apparently dead, so I took off. I went to check out societies again and joined the Psychology Society (PsychSoc) since they seemed interesting. Heck, just to play them, I might throw a few things I learned from Liar Game.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent revising the earlier classes. And then Japanese class at 5pm. Seriously, I'm out of practice after not using it for a year. But my speaking was that bad from the start because no one could practice with me. I think my writing owns everyone else in the class though, except that one Irish girl. Just like me, she's out of practice after not having used the language for 2 years. How good was she, I wonder.

Ah well, everybody was lazy tonight, so we all just cooked instant noodles.

Day 15 - Start of Freshers Week

2009-09-15T04:39:00.004+08:00

Today's the day all (well, most) societies and sports club show their stuff. I had been eagerly awaiting this day so I can fill up my oh-so-empty schedule. But first things first, Molecular Basis of Life at 9am followed by Cell-Cell Communication at 10am.

For the record, I dislike my current lecturer for Molecular Basis of Life, Mr. Chandralal. Useless fellar gives us incomplete notes. He says that it's to make sure we pay attention in class. Oh sure, I can understand that. But sir, you talk VERY fast and use an Indian accent. I have to pick between listening to you or copying notes. Frankly, neither helps because I catch only 50% of what you say and you keep changing slides way too fast. Sir, I may just accept your invitation and leave your class until the next lecturer for this subject takes over. I'd be better off spending time reading the textbook, seriously. And 150 other people agree with me.

At 11am, I have a 1 hour break before my next lecture, so I decided to check out the clubs and societies with Isaac. There were lots, but no anime clubs. Boo... The closest was a Sci-Fi club that occasionally watches mecha anime. Not interested. So, I joined MedSoc (that's Medical Student Society) and Games Society. About the latter, they play board games, card games and physical games like Twister, not just video games. And they're the most active society in UCD, with activities everyday except Sunday.

After 1 round, we headed to the Sports Centre to check out the AWESOME "We can kick Trinity College's ass 100 times over without breaking a sweat" sports clubs. There were many, but for some reason the ones I'm interested in keep clashing. So, for now, I joined the Archery Club. I plan to join Tai Chi too, but the booth wasn't open today. If nothing, I'll go join Trampoline Jumping since they have practices on Saturday and Sunday. And maybe I'll go for rifling too. After all, it's just 30 minutes per session and up to 3 sessions per week. But they're on weekdays, so I don't really know.

Anyway, back to class after that. CSI again. Of all the lectures I have this sem, I enjoy this class the most. Our lecturer, Dr Patrick Felle (I think) encourages class participation without forcing people too much, cracks appropriate jokes, delivers information simply and precisely, yadi yadi yaddah... All in all, he is perhaps the best lecturer I've ever listened to. But then again, his class IS about doctor-patient communication. If he sucks, we'd be doomed.

I think I love his class also because it allows freedom of thought. The other lectures are just laying down facts. Your opinions are seldom or not at all involved. This lecture however, you're allowed to express your thoughts and ideas of how things can be done since there is more than one answer. But then, I bet I'll hate it once I get a patient assigned to me.

Oh, funny thing today, when Dr Felle was asking for an example of a situation where moral values may influence the doctor's methods, me and another guy had the same thought at the same time, "Euthanasia!"

Well, the rest of my day was the same as always. There was supposed to be some demonstration by the GameSoc today, but I forgot the location. Oh well, they have one everyday till Friday.

Time to hit the books! (Screw you, Chandralal. Because you suck, I have to study your subject earlier than the rest!)

Dead Fantasy

2009-09-14T23:29:00.002+08:00

Finally found time to post the videos. Credit (and hate mail) goes entirely to Monty Oum for this excellent fanwork! Well, enjoy!

Dead Fantasy 1

Dead Fantasy 2

Dead Fantasy 3

Dead Fantasy 4

Dead Fantasy 5

Please note the following things:
#1 Tifa CAN use magic. The Materia system in FF7 allows all characters to use magic.
#2 Rinoa IS that powerful once she became a full-fledged sorceress near the end of FF8, but she never used a gunblade.
#3 The Keyblade wielder is Kairi from Kingdom Hearts. Apparently, she can Drive here.

Day 14 - Another Sunday

2009-09-14T05:15:00.002+08:00

Comparatively, I was busier today than last Sunday. In the morning, I did my laundry and cleaned my room a little. Then, in the afternoon, I finally hit the books. But that didn't last long.

At 3pm, I went to City Centre to shop for groceries. And to help my friend buy a light bulb.

Today was the latest I've ever returned to UCD. 9pm. I had to run around several places looking for the light bulb. Tesco only sells white light bulbs for some reason. Argos only sold low-power light bulbs. Dunnes, Marks and Spencers, LIDL, and ILDA don't sell push types. In the end, I found a suitable one at some Indian mini-market near LIDL.

I also took a peek inside Dr Quirkey's Wonder Emporium. It's a half arcade, half casino. I won 20 cents in a simple game, and lost it again the 2nd time. Boo.... Well, the place was pretty boring. Sure they had House of Dead 4, Tekken 5/6, Silent Hill the Arcade and lots of racing games, but there was no Taiko or Para Para. They had DDR though, but 1 euro for a game? NO WAY!

Then I came home, cooked dinner and will soon go to sleep. Class starts at 9am tomorrow. Sigh... Mondays.

Day 13 - Eating Sand and Buffet

2009-09-12T23:13:00.013+08:00

I guess people noticed the lack of updates for Day 11 and Day 12. Well, that's because the events that happened were: Wake up, go to class, come back from class, kick back and relax, make dinner, eat dinner, relax again and sleep.

Today, the seniors took us to Marrion Beach. There, we TRIED to fly kites, but only one succeeded. The other 6 couldn't go any higher than 2m. So, aside from the successful one, the rest of us started playing Frisbee and monkey ball instead.

Our numbers continued to decrease as time went on. By 3pm, only the seniors and 2 first years were left (me and Germaine). We finally stopped when somebody accidentally kicked mud into my mouth when I was picking up the Frisbee. Ptooi.

By 7pm, we once again gathered at the 46A bus stop. At about 7.30pm, we arrived at Malaysian Hall. I'd have to say that it was disappointing. The building was recently renovated. Hence, it was almost completely empty when we got there. I was expecting a place with Malaysian flags all over or at least one big one, but nothing. The place was as empty as my stomach then (I skipped lunch).

See? It's only filled with people!

Ah well... whatever. The food was so-so with rice, chicken curry, fried bee hoon and some kuihs. Supposedly, there will be another gathering here for Hari Raya. I'll see if I can go.

The gathering dissolved at 9pm and I returned to my dwellings by 10pm.

Suihei Liebe

2009-09-10T06:29:00.002+08:00

Lyrics:
suihei riibe boku no fune
nanamagaru shippusu kuraakuka
suihei riibe boku no fune
zenbu oboete nooberushou

suiso ni heriumu richiumu beririumu
houso tanso chisso sanso fusso neon (surutto anki de)
natoriumu maguneshiumu aruminiumu keiso rin (rin)
yoshi iou enso arugon (arugon) kariumu karushiumu (karitto BONE)

sukanjiumu (chitan) banajiumu (kuromu)
mangan tetsu kobaruto nikkeru dou yatte mo aen (aitai)
gariumu (gerumaniumu) hiso seren shuuso (kanari sugoi zo)
kuriputon rubijiumu sutoronchiumu (nanka tsuyosou)

suihei riibe boku no fune
nanamagaru shippusu kuraakuka
suihei riibe boku no fune
mahou no jumon da ittemiyou

nani ittoriumu jirukoniumu niobu moribuden (moribuden)
tekunechiumu ruteniumu rojiumu parajiumu (umu umu iinikui)
ginchan kadomiumu injiumu suzu anchimon (kotchi mon)
teruru youso kisenon (kisenon) seshiumu bariumu (kensa de gokkun)

hafuniumu (tantaru) dangusuten (reniumu)
osumiumu irijiumu purachina kin suigin (taionkei)
tariumu (namari) bisumasu poroniumu (mizu ni tokenai)
asutachin radon (onsen kimochi ii) furanshiumu rajiumu (kyurii fujin)

suihei riibe boku no fune
nanamagaru shippusu kuraakuka
suihei riibe boku no fune
mahou no jumon da ittemiyou

hai kansou

razahoojiumu (razahoo) dobuniumu (dobuniumu)
shiiboogiumu (shiiboo) booriumu (sutoraiku)
hasshiumu (hasshiumu) maitoneriumu (maitoneriumuu)
daamusutachiumu rentogeniumu

(rantanoido wa)
La Ce Pr Nd Pm Sm
Eu Gd Tb Dy Ho Er
Tm Yb Lu (wai bii ruu)

(akuchinoido wa)
Ac Th Pa U Np
Pu Am Cm Bk Cf Es Fm
Md No Lr Lr (minna utaou)

suihei riibe boku no fune
nanamagaru shippusu kuraakuka
suihei riibe boku no fune
zenbu oboete nooberushou

suihei riibe boku no fune
nanamagaru shippusu kuraakuka
suihei riibe boku no fune
mahou no jumon da ittemiyou

heiwa na mirai wa genso kara

English translation:

Peaceful waters, oh my boat (H He Li Be Bo C N O F Ne)
A boat with seven sails catches the wind well, ain't it? (Na Mg Al Si P S Cl Ar K Ca)
Peaceful waters, oh my boat (H He Li Be Bo C N O F Ne)
Remember everything and you get a Nobel Prize!

Hydrogen and helium, lithium, beryllium
Boron, carbon, nitrogen
Oxygen, fluorine, neon
(Remember them all!)

Sodium, magnesium
Aluminium, silicon, phosphorus (Phosphorus!)
Alright! Sulphur! Chlorine, argon (Argon!)
Potassium, calcium (Calcium for bones!)

Scandium (Titanium!)
Vandium (Chromium!)
Maganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper and zinc! (I wanna see them!)

Gallium (Germanium!)
Arsenic, selenium, bromine (Pretty amazing)
Krypton, rubidium, strontium (You're quite strong)

Peaceful waters, oh my boat (H He Li Be Bo C N O F Ne)
A boat with seven sails catches the wind well, ain't it? (Na Mg Al Si P S Cl Ar K Ca)
Peaceful waters, oh my boat (H He Li Be Bo C N O F Ne)
Try these magic incantations!

What's yttorium?
Zicronium, miobium, molybdenum? (Molybdenum?)
Technetium, ruthenium, rhodium
Paladium (It's hard to say "umu umu")

Silver, cadmium
Indium, tin, antimony (Here too!)
Tellerium Iodine Xenon (Xenon)
Caesium Barium (Digest it all!)

Hafnium (Tantalum!)
Tungsten (Renium!)
Osmium, iridium, platinum, gold, mercury (Thermometer!)

Thallium (Lead!)
Bismuth, polonium! (Can't dissolve in water!)
Astatine, radon (Hot springs feel good!)
Francium, radium! (Madame Curie!)

Peaceful waters, oh my boat (H He Li Be Bo C N O F Ne)
A boat with seven sails catches the wind well, ain't it? (Na Mg Al Si P S Cl Ar K Ca)
Peaceful waters, oh my boat (H He Li Be Bo C N O F Ne)
Try these magic incantations!

Okay, interlude!

Rutherfordium (Rutherfor!)
Dubnium (Dubnium!)
Seaborgium (Seaborg!)
Bohrium (Strike!)

Hassium (Hassium)
Meitnerium (Meitneriuum)
Darmstadtium, roentgenium

What are the lanthanides?
La Ce Pr Nd Pm Sm Eu Gd Tb Dy Ho Er Tm Yb Lu (Yb Lu)

What are the actinides?
Ac Th Pa U Np Pu Am Cm Bk Cf Es Fm Md No Lr! Lr! (Everybody sing along!)

Peaceful waters, oh my boat (H He Li Be Bo C N O F Ne)
A boat with seven sails catches the wind well, ain't it? (Na Mg Al Si P S Cl Ar K Ca)
Peaceful waters, oh my boat (H He Li Be Bo C N O F Ne)
Remember everything and you get a Nobel Prize!

Peaceful waters, oh my boat (H He Li Be Bo C N O F Ne)
A boat with seven sails catches the wind well, ain't it? (Na Mg Al Si P S Cl Ar K Ca)

Peaceful waters, oh my boat (H He Li Be Bo C N O F Ne)
Try these magic incantations!

A peaceful future begins with elements

---

The romanji can also be read as the bracketed element symbols. Creative and catchy, aren't they?

Day 10 - Running Around In Circles

2009-09-10T04:48:00.003+08:00

As the title states, I've been running around in circles about 3 times today. Our hospital visit was scheduled at 10am today. However, to avoid missing a stop (since we had to find our own way there), we took the 8am bus, which means I was up since 6.30. The bus ride gave us a few scares when it kept turning into wrong streets. However, the driver ensured us that he will stop near the hospital, which he did. And we were 45 mins ahead of schedule.

And here comes the first circle. We asked the receptionist for directions to the lecture theater. Her directions were unclear and she used the word "up", so we went down a long corridor and headed upstairs. There, we asked another receptionist and she told us to go back down, go back to where we started and use a different corridor. DAMN! But we made it at last.

Oh, the hospital we visited was a paeds hospital. So, what we learned today was how to deal with brats... uh, I mean kids. A mother voluntarily brought her 10 month old baby to explain their circumstances, their experiences and their feelings about them. Interesting, but I still don't think I'll be going into paeds.

After the hospital visit, I went to town to buy a few groceries as well as bread and cereal for breakfast. Seriously, the French guy eats bread but he never bothered to buy more when he finished the final slices 2 days ago. But he cooks good spaghetti so I'd best not anger him.

Now, I needed a map of Dublin. I heard that Jervis (a mall) gave out free maps, so I went there. When I stepped into the building, I turned into a Slowbro and used Amnesia, resulting in an increase in Special Defense, but also forgot the reason I was there for. Just like a Slowbro, I walked really really slow towards the center of the mall, hoping that I remember what it was that I needed. Sadly, I couldn't recall it. This was the spark for the 2nd circle.

I headed back to the bus stop which was situated about 10 minutes from Jervis. While waiting, my usual habit kicked in and I glanced around all the shops around the City Centre. Then I saw the shop "Budget Travel" and as you have guessed, recalled what I needed and I quickly went back to Jervis. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the shop/person that was handing out the maps, so I just went back to the bus stop empty-handed. 30 minutes wasted for nothing!

I bumped into Daniel during the wait. The 2nd time was at the bus stop we went back to UCD together. We took the 46A bus instead of the 10 bus this time. We did not know that 46A makes a big round before stopping in front of the UCD gate. We thought we overshot the stop when it just drove past the UCD gate. So, we quickly got of at the next stop and walked back to UCD, only to see the same bus driving past us again and stopping in front of the gate. Crap!

I returned to campus with 3 tasks in mind. No. 1, print tutorial notes, no. 2 take blood test, no. 3 buy lab book. I headed to the Health Science Centre to print the notes as it is closest to the Student Centre where I can take my blood test. I realised that my lecturer had not given me the notes. I checked my timetable and found out that I had mistook the lesson. I was supposed to attend another tutorial that didn't have notes. Ah well, I just printed the Dissection Room Permit that I was supposed to sign.

The clinic at the Student Centre was full (again), so I couldn't take my blood test (again). After that was a 10 minute walk to the campus bookshop near the James Joyce Library to purchase the lab book. They asked me to go back to the Student Centre where there was a Student Union Bookshop and so I did. At the bookshop, they told me that I had gone to the wrong Student Union Bookshop. This one only sold 2nd hand books. They informed me that the Student Union Bookshop under the James Joyce Library was the one I was supposed to visit. "Screw this! Screw this!" With that thought in mind, I raced back to the James Joyce Library to find this underground bookshop. At that bookshop, the lab book was...sold out. ARGH!!!

And that concludes my day. Oh, I cooked dinner again and I failed again. I don't know why I keep failing but it can only be 1 of these possiblities: 1. My cooking sucks. 2. I lack practice. 3. The materials here are different, resulting in a different taste. No. 3 would apply for the chicken (bigger and harder to cook) and the thick soy sauce (it had a different taste from the one back home) But I guess no. 2 is possible too since I keep screwing up recipes. No. 1 would be true if you compare my cooking to the guy from China. Pick one.

Ugh... I think I'll go play my DS.

Day 9 - Anatomy Classes

2009-09-08T22:12:00.003+08:00

Today's class started a little later, at 11am to be precise. Our classes today were Musculoskeletal Biology and Basic Tissue and the Early Development of the Body , or you can call it Embryology (Somebody explain to me why they needed to use such a long name).

Compared to yesterday, the lecturers today were BORING!! There was an obvious sign too. When the lecturers aren't boring, we don't make jokes about the lesson since we're hearing enough from the lecturer. When they are, we'll go "That artery looks like a grandma's boobs!", "We have sesame seeds for bones!?" etc etc.

In any case, the Embryology lecturer was fine, but the Musculoskeletal Biology lecturer seemed pretty scary. It's a good thing the bulk of the lecture will be done by someone else! She only teaches certain topics. I wouldn't want a creepy lady glaring at me when I'm already half-dying of boredom. Oh yeah, and she likes to repeat "Don't worry. You'll be learning about that later." when she uses terms we don't understand like osteoblast. (I looked it up and it is the name of a cell that produces bones. Is it so hard to at least tell us that!?)

For lunch, I cooked since I didn't cook tonight. I had a Japanese class from 6pm to 8pm. Unfortunately, I was still groggy from the boring lectures that I kept screwing up recipes. My fried meatballs was bland because I forgot to put soy sauce and my sausage and veggie omelet turned into sausage and veggie soup because my housemate took the eggs. He told me, but it didn't process until I needed the eggs. And I couldn't throw my meatballs into the soup because they were already half-fried, so... "Ah, screw it! Just eat!" And I dumped the meatballs onto my rice and poured soy sauce all over. That worked. And since it takes talent to ruin soup, that was consumable too.

At 5pm, I went for my Japanese class. I met one of my seniors there. Tong Tong, I think. The class was pretty small as expected. I looked at the course overview and almost laughed. This is actually just the equivalent, perhaps even slightly lower than my Japanese Proficiency Test Level 4! But I haven't got the chance to practice the language for more than a year, so I guess this can act as a refresher course. Sucks that I can't take Stage 4 thanks to my stupid timetable next semester.

Also, I finally found another otaku. I haven't talked to her much yet, but perhaps next week.

I came back to the apartment and realised that I had forgotten to get myself dinner. Ah well, instant noodles, it is! I finally used up that carrot that's been in the fridge for a week as well as some more mushrooms and minced beef. The meatballs came out alright this time too.

Well, bedtime!

Oh, for you DOA and/or FF fans out there, go to Youtube and search Dead Fantasy. It seriously nice! There are currently 5 episodes. Here's to hoping that episode 6 will be released soon and ROCK just as hard!

Day 8 - And the War Begins

2009-09-08T02:39:00.002+08:00

Right. A lecture on the Molecular Basis of Life was our first lesson of the medical school. I'm not gonna go through what we learned today because none of you would bother reading the long, boring, complex etc explanations anyway. To summarise, we just recapped our entire secondary school/A-Level syllabus on carbohydrates, proteins, lipids and DNA in 50 minutes.

Then, there was Cell-cell Communication which also covered the syllabus we've studied during secondary school in 50 minutes. And finally, CSI lecture at 12pm.

After that, I went to settle my electives at the Daedalus Building. Hah! It seems my level of Japanese comprehension allowed me to skip 2 grades and just start from Level 3. I would have liked to take Level 2 first for a recap, but my timetable in the 2nd Semester clashes with all the Japanese classes, so I might as well just push myself in Sem 1. For now, my electives in Sem 2 are still a blank. I'm either taking French (which I can practice with my housemate) or Business Management (which supposedly will help me in my future career).

Then, I went out again. Today, I visited Phoenix Park, the furthest stop for the no. 10 bus. To my dismay, the place has a long way to go before it can even hope to match the park near City Centre (Grafton, if I'm not mistaken). Of course, it may also be so because it is now nearing autumn. I'll visit the place again in spring.

I stopped at City Centre on my way back to find the place that supposedly distributes detailed maps of Dublin. I couldn't find it, though. Perhaps it was closed seeing as it was already 6.30pm. I caught bus no. 10 again and returned to campus shortly after that. No point hanging around when everywhere is closing already. Unbelievably, even restaurants close so early. Only the fast food stands and bars were open. Of course, there were also some of those EXPENSIVE classy restaurant, but I wouldn't step in there even for a glass of water!

Home sweet... what the hell!? Back in UCD, massive amounts of people were gathering at the UCD Restaurants. Some random white girls (I think they were my neighbours) stuck their heads out of a taxi window and screamed at me (I am 100% sure that they were talking to me), "Party at Marty's!" *Just got info from my housemate that there's a party at City Centre* I declined. I just ate and blew all my steam running around the park.

Oh... some bunch of guys are shouting "Nerds!" at all the people who are still at home... Maybe I should go. Yeah... right...

P.S. CSI stands for Clinical Studies and Healthcare Informatics and not the other commonly known phrase.

Day 7 - A Precious Boring Sunday

2009-09-07T05:36:00.002+08:00

Man, today was boooooring! I couldn't go to town because it was raining from the moment I woke up till evening.

Despite that, it was laundry day. If I don't wash my dirty clothes today, I'll have to wear them again next week. Something I'd prefer not to do.

At 12pm (I woke up at 10 today), I headed down to the Accommodations Office to complain about the non-functioning heater in my kitchen. I know it's only autumn, but do you expect me to wait till it's 5 degrees Celsius outside before I get it fixed?

Unfortunately, it was a Sunday and none of the maintenance workers were on duty, only the receptionist. He came up to check for me, and confirmed that it was broken. But I'll have to wait till Monday before he can get someone to fix it.

After the guy took his leave, I took my dirty laundry and headed to the launderette in my residence. The place had lots of washing machines and dryers so I didn't have to wait. I just walked up to an unused washing machine and loaded the detergent, fabric softener and my dirty clothes.

The good: Washing was pretty fast and fully automatic. 15 minutes and it was done. The bad: It costs me 3 euros per wash and I still have to use my own cleaning agents! CHEAPSKATES!!

The dryers however were useless. It costs 1.50 euros per go and takes 45 minutes. However, when I took the clothes out, most of them were still damp!! Since I didn't want to spend another 1.50 euros, I just neatly folded them and returned to my room. There, I hung the wetter clothes wherever I could and left them to dry. That was 3pm. It is now 11pm and the clothes are still rather wet. Lousy Ireland weather... I guess I'll turn on the heater in my room tonight. What a waste of money (Heaters are the most power-consuming machines in my whole apartment).

A chat with my mom followed by some random net browsing was how I spent the rest of my day. I killed the DS battery yesterday and it needed recharging today (since I forgot to last night).

Finally, dinner with all my housemates again where we each cooked a dish and then went back to our own rooms. I realise that I have to act as a translator a lot because I'm the only guy there who can speak both English and Chinese rather fluently. Well, not a problem for me.

Today went by quickly, but I did pretty much nothing today. And that's meaningful to me. After today, I'll bet there'll be no more days which I can kick back and do nothing anymore.

Reason #1: Anatomy! (Musculoskeletal biology looks scary enough...) It really is like studying your entire house down to the atoms in it (including furniture, lamps and air!).

Day 6 - City Centre 2nd Visit

2009-09-06T05:35:00.005+08:00

Aimai sansenchi!

Despite having heard that alarm tone 5 times already, I always jump from my sleep whenever this plays. The volume was only set to 4 bars, but I think even my neighbours could hear it.

Well, I didn't really mind since it was supposed to wake me up at 8am. I got up, brushed my teeth, took a bath, ate breakfast (It was the first time all 3 of us were up at the same time in the morning. Yuan Shi was going to meet his friends and Nattenaya had an English assessment test, so they both got up early today.), packed my stuff and was on my way to the bus stop by 9.30am.

My reason for going to the bus stop in the wee hours of the morning (People here usually get up at 9am and only start moving around at 10+) is because the seniors offered to show some of us around Dublin 1 (aka. City Centre) again. However, this time, the trip was aimed to give us some knowledge of the places in and around the City Centre.

Unfortunately, I wasn't informed (again) that the time had changed to 10.30am. Apparently, the seniors decided at 11pm last night that 9.30am was too early and only informed those who called them to reconfirm. And so, about 20+ idiots were standing there enduring the cold morning breeze for 1 hour. TO BE CLEAR, I WAS NOT ONE OF THEM. I went into the UCD Business Centre (no wind+heater+clear view of bus stop) after 15 minutes of waiting.

Finally, at 10.30am, a few seniors arrived, some of them yawning and stretching along the way (DAMN YOU!). Once AJ (president of PMCSA) and the last of the 1st years arrived, we marched off to the 46A bus stop and caught a bus to the City Centre. And it was the first time I used my Rambler card.

Here's a brief explanation of the Rambler card. It is a card that allows you unlimited rides on the Dublin Bus from the time you use the card until 12.00am (the next day). Depending on the card you purchase, the card may be valid for 3 days or 30 days (I think there are others, but these are the 2 I know of). However, the 30 days need not be continuous. It can be used on any 30 days before the expiry date (which is usually January next year). For students, the 30-day card costs 75 euros, which means 2.50 euros per day. Since it costs 1.80 euros without the card to get to City Centre from UCD, I'd say it is very worth it. After all, it costs another 1.80 euros to return to UCD.

Our first stop was Grafton St. near a park. I've forgotten the name of the park though, but we did take some pics there.

Moving on, we went to visit the various Asian markets like uhh...well... Asian Market and Oriental Emporium. There, I finally found thick soy sauce and corn starch! I also bought some Asian veggies and tofu.

We also visited some other shops. Our seniors also introduced some places of interests as well as Malaysian and Chinese restaurants should we ever miss home food. I know I won't, but others might. Either way, the prices were insane. 8 euros for a Char Hor Fun! That's WAY worse than the menu TBY showed me from Australia.

We were also brought to Temple Bar. Some of you might know the importance of this legendary bar, and some of you might not. I was one of the who didn't, until I saw the shop. Yes, it is THE birthplace of the famous Guinness Stout. You alcohol fans out there probably worship that place, but to me, it's just a bar (and an overpriced one at that!). I just snapped 1 pic and got the heck outta there.

At 2pm, the non-Muslims were already hungry. So, the Muslims (and some nons) left the group while the rest of us and most of the seniors went to have lunch. We picked a popular Malaysian restaurant as our dining spot. As I have said before, the prices are unbelievably (and I bet unreasonably) high! A set lunch with Fried Wan Tan and rice with Cha Shao meat cost me 9.99 euros. I died, but didn't say a thing since the seniors weren't complaining.

During lunch, I also learned that AJ has a similar educational background. He is also an express class student thanks to the PTS exam and also took a 1 year A-level equivalent programme. Owing to that, he was the youngest of his group when he arrived in Dublin at the age of 17 (his birthday is in December). Because of that, he got his Garda card for free! (DAMN!@#$&% I missed by a few days!) Despite that, he is the head of the largest national student association in UCD. Unbelievable!

It is a good thing the others do not know. If information leaked out that he was almost the same age as most of the 1st years (MARA and JPA scholars are all 20 years old, and AJ isn't officially 21 until December), he might start getting bullied by his juniors too. I can divulge information here because none of my university mates visit this blog, I hope.

We were then dismissed and I returned to UCD at 4pm. After dropping off my things, I decided to return to the City Centre to explore for myself. Unfortunately, due to unforseen circumstances, I only left the house at 5.30pm. Hence, I only got to walk a few rounds around O'Connell Street and Grafton Street. I did return to the Temple Bar to TRY to feel its holy greatness, but I guess that won't happen unless I get myself a pint. The idea is veery tempting, but I think I'll pass on that until later, if not never.

I was hoping to visit Phoenix Park (another popular park in Dublin), but seeing as it was getting late and I wasn't sure how long it would take to get to the park from the City Centre, I returned home. Before that, I bought a cup of hot chocolate from Butler's Chocolate House, but just like AJ said, it was good but nothing to really scream about or continuously go back for like the girls do.

I bumped into Yuan Shi just before entering the house. He was planning to cook tonight, but firstly, I ate a late lunch and secondly, I had been walking around O'Connell St. sampling some local delights (only a few, but portions are big here), so I passed. However, in the end, he cooked too much and Nattenaya cooked as well, so I joined in their feast and had a taste. Nattenaya's spaghetti bolognese was good, but after tasting Yuan Shi's food, I am now discouraged from cooking again. He claimed that it was his third time cooking and he (as his friends did before) claimed that it wasn't at all as good as back in China, but to me, that meat and potatoes he made can almost rival those regular Chinese restaurants back in Penang! Please remember that it's his third time cooking (without an actual recipe book).

Sigh........... Guess I'll cook tomorrow and see what the both of them think. There's also laundry and trash disposal to take care of tomorrow. Well, TGIS (thanks goodness it's Sunday)! -Background: LAME!!!!-

Day 5 - Meeting the Lawyers

2009-09-05T05:34:00.002+08:00

No, we did not do anything so bad that UCD and PMC had to hire lawyers for us!

Anyway, today, we were to settle our Garda Vetting Forms and application to join the MSD (Malaysian Students Department). Back in the past, the MSD always had problems getting the private students to sign up for membership, leading to problems I did not catch. The fact is that it isn't compulsory but it helps keep track of Malaysian students all around the world and the government wants it that way.

Sure, some of you anti-government protesters out there may say, "Why do we give a damn about what they want?", but signing up entitles you to discounts and participation of events at any of the 12 Malaysian Halls around the world. Nothing much, you say? Well, let's see you say that when you suddenly have trouble finding college/university accommodation when you're 5000 miles away from home.

Anyway, we signed the forms and settled the matter once and for all. We private students had it easier. We did not have to listen to long talks of terms and conditions like the JPA and MARA students did. This really makes me wonder why the private students in the past did not just save the government some trouble and just fill in the MSD form.

I also signed up for the Penang Medical College Student Association (PMCSA). I volunteered to play basketball for the UCD-RCSI Sports Day where we get the chance to kick some RCSI butt! But I haven't played an actual game in 3 years. And 3 years ago, all I could do was shoot... Oh well, blame the seniors for saying, "You don't have to be good! You just have to be enthusiastic!" if we win by just 1 point (RCSI will lose for sure!).

I also volunteered to be props-in-charge for Malaysian Night. I'm mainly looking forward to making weapons, but I wouldn't mind making cardboard mamak stalls too. It's my chance to show those idiots back at Scouts that we could have produced better-looking props for sketches if they had let me help! ...not that they could ever see me doing it.

And that was it for the official stuff. We then went to check on our bank accounts in preparation for another official matter that we'll be dealing with next week. And after that was a trip to Centra for lunch. They sold customisable (I used this word due to a lack of exposure to gaming terms since last Sunday) baguettes (in other words, pick-your-own-fillings).

We stopped at Germaine's apartment to finish our sandwiches and then left for a stroll around campus. Jean (remember the senior from yesterday?) led us to a small pond where a few ducks resided, hidden within the campus's "Area of Biodiversity and something-something". Apparently, she rests there often when returning from Tesco.

We took a few pics there, watched Yan Shun bully Jean etc etc.

And we parted. I returned to my apartment and cooked some spaghetti carbonara for dinner. My housemates were out and eating on their own, but I was lazy and stingy, so...

I could still do it, but the main problem was Tesco's lousy milk. I thought I had done something wrong with the recipe. Then, I tasted the milk. Oh... I'm chucking the milk out tomorrow. Sour milk would've been better than that! It was like drinking water! It wasn't creamy like milk, it didn't taste like milk, all it did was SMELL like milk. What did they do? Feed a cow water for all its life!? No more Tesco-branded milk for me. I heard the yoghurt sucked too. Sucks to my housemate's friend who bought a big cup of it!

And from 7pm on, I've been playing the Nintendo DS I've UNINTENTIONALLY neglected for the past week until now.

I'm gonna have a tour of Dublin City Centre tomorrow, so better get to bed early!

Day 4 - Medical Students' Orientation

2009-09-04T05:02:00.002+08:00

Let me start of by stating clearly that I was late for the orientation AND it WASN'T my fault. Initially, they announced that the orientation was to be held at 10.30am. However, they brought forward the time to 10am last night. Normally, this would have been announced by e-mail or online notice boards, which I do check before I go to bed.

But this was not the case this time. The message was transmitted by word of mouth and can you believe all my friends thought, "He/she (other friends) should have told him, so I guess I don't need to."!?

So yeah, I was late. I left early, but because I was still rather unfamiliar with the place, I arrived at exactly 10.30am. So, I was screwed. The good thing was, there were also others who were screwed. Another good thing, the speakers today were boring and I missed the bulk of their hypnotic chanting.

After the orientation, we were free to run around till 3.30pm. So, I, Yan Shun, Valerie, Nabila and Xinyi went to Tesco Marrion again. Oh, Jean (a senior) came along too because she needed stuff, although she hid that by saying that she would guide us there since we might get lost (riiiight...).

After buying lots of groceries (I still can't find that non-stick wok and spatula), we quickly returned to Belgrove (our residence) to drop off our things before going for the library tour.

Finally, at 3.30pm, the PMCSA had an ice-breaking event which consisted of several games. It was fun but nothing special. I was hoping for a cross-campus scavenger hunt or something, but we were stuck in the Health Science Centre playing charades. Booooo....

I headed home after that. Upon arrival, I met my last housemate to arrive, a French ERASMUS student by the name of Nattenaya (I do not know how to spell his name but it's read "NAT-A-NEIGH-YAH). Yuan Shi brought back some friends for a group cooking session too. So, we all had fun cooking, eating and cleaning together.

I hope thins go well between us. The main problem now is that Yuan Shi speaks Chinese-style broken English and Nattenaya speaks French-style broken English while I speak Manglish. Looks like we'll have to settle our communication problems first.

Oh, Yuan Shi and his friends came from Hubei. And I don't understand a single word of their dialect!

Day 3 - Orientation

2009-09-03T16:17:00.002+08:00

It was the official Orientation Day for all first-years in any course. We went ahead to settle all the things we hadn't done (collecting student ID, blood tests etc.)

Next, we went for a tour of the UCD Sports Centre where we were allowed to try out various sports to decide what we would take up next week. I tried the trampoline jumping, which was quite easy to me (I don't understand why my other FITTER friends kept falling down doing the same simple tricks I did, like sitting then standing, turning etc.). I'd post a video of one of my friends, but she's kill me if she found out.

Boat-rowing was our next game. We did in on machines of course, and not out on the artificial lake that we'll be fined 150 euros for swimming in it. All the guys fell off the sliding chair while rowing. We did rock-climbing next. I was already pooped from the rowing so I fell off very fast. Finally it was aerobics. I suck, 'nuff said.

Then we had lunch at the Sports Centre Cafe. They charge 6.50 euros for everything on their menu. I ordered a beef lasagna and took lots and lots of salad. Salads were free... I can't believe I filled my whole plate, I can't believe I finished my whole plate, AND I CANNOT believe that their salads tasted better than the lasagna. The salad was excellent, might I add. If only it wasn't so expensive, I'd be having my lunch there everyday!

At 2pm, we gathered at the O'reilly Hall for the official welcoming ceremony. Upon arrival, we were given a UCD official scarf, a small cookbook and a small booklet containing welcoming statements by the members of the UCD Student Union. At the time, seniors entertained us with the UCD choir while we awaited the arrival of the VIPs.

The choir had some pretty good singers. there was a plump girl with a powerful voice. She lead quite a lot of the songs. If I were to compare, she sounded like those Disney Princesses singing in showtunes. But there were (intentional or not, I wasn't sure) tmes when her voice became very hoarse and she sounded like a witch instead. Then, there was another girl that only lead during the final parts of the last song. She dragged a very high note for 10-15 seconds, which was the only I remembered from her. Finally, there was a male singer who had a deep charming voice but should learn to control the volume! He almost completely covered all the other singers when he sang with them.

I did not pay attention to the background singers. Sorry.

Then came the UCD teaching staff as well as the heads of the university. 5 people came up to speak, with our Vice-president of UCD being the funniest, constantly joking about his Canadian wife and daughters. Poor wife and kids... As for our Student Union president, his speech was so fast, we didn't even have time to laugh at his jokes.

Following that was the International Student Orientation. We got another scarf! We listened to the Vice-president talk again followed by the head of the International Students Office. Finally, we listened to a brief history of UCD and its importance in Ireland. Booooooring...

After that, we were dismissed.

2nd Day in Dublin

2009-09-02T05:19:00.004+08:00

Yesterday felt like 2 weeks before it ended (Kinda like Robert Langdon in the Da Vinci Code! 24 hours took me 2 weeks to finish)! Today, however, felt like 3 days. Much better, huh?

Anyway, for today, we spent the morning going around collecting freebies for first years. Here's a pic of the stuff I got.

You see that pack of tiny red packet above the poster's thumb? It's a pack of condoms. What the...!? They expecting us freshies to be banging girls already!?

Lots of coupons and snacks too

I've already opened a bank account in AIB, but it takes several days to be activated. Why can't it be fast like in Malaysia where we get the account the moment we register!?

Then we went to the IT Centre for a course on "how to use the IT services in UCD". It was lengthy and I did not catch everything. But nothing that can't be learned at the last minute.

Then, we went to the Student Services Centre (not sure if it's called that) to make our Student Travel Card which makes every transport service cheaper. 41% off for certain train services! That was fast, and thanks to the bank goodies this year, we get the card at 3 euros, whereas the seniors had to pay 15.

We were supposed to do our blood test (mandatory) today, but due to overcrowding, we were rescheduled to do it tomorrow. So we went back to the bank where they gave out free hotdogs for lunch. I should've taken more...

Picnic below a tree with Valerie, Xin Yi and Han Beng (photographer)

In the afternoon, we set out for town. It cost 1.80 euros for one trip to the City Centre. Kinda pricy, IMO. With or without conversion.

We went to get our phone numbers. We had problems choosing in a hurry, so we picked Meteor since it has the cheapest rates as our temporary network. Me and 3 others will be discussing what we will choose as our permanent network providers soon. There're still O2, Vodafone and the very neglected Three.

The prepaid system here is different and a little complicating somewhat. First you have to buy the credit from their branches, then you have to fill in a form either in their branches or online to GET the credit. At least, that's how it is for Meteor. I hope the other networks are different. but I'll probably get postpaid once we decide on a network.

After that, it was Argos and Tesco (Round 2). Got more stuff today. I shared with a friend to buy plates, bowls and cutlery. I didn't need the mugs, but since the offers were 4 sets of 4 items, I got them anyway. At Tesco, I bought some stuff I needed for tonight's cooking (just additional dishes for instant noodles) and a saucepan. I will have to get a wok before I can start cooking real dishes. Tomorrow or the day after perhaps.

And I cooked for the first time here. Instant noodles with carrots and egg. Not much, but at least I still cooked.

Anyway, goodnite.

First day in UCD.

2009-09-01T04:41:00.003+08:00

Yeah yeah, I know I'm late. But the Dublin airport charges to use their Wi-Fi and the university wi-fi required me to go through some troublesome procedures to enable my computer to access the internet. And I just got it done.

The flight was again another boring 7 hour flight where I'm sandwiched between an old white guy and a lady in her late 30s. When I tried to sleep, the baby behind me would start crying and prevent me from getting any shut-eye.

Once the long flight was over, we were finally at Dublin! The journey had been tiring but the real battle had barely even begun. So, we sucked in our guts and went to settle immigration and look for our seniors.

Coming to greet us were the President and Vice-president of the Penang Medical College Student Association (PMCSA) and the president of the PPIMI (a society for Malaysian Muslims).

When the JPA students have finally arrived, it was already noon. We then headed to our bus and prepared to head for UCD. Along the way, the president of PMCSA gave us a briefing on the events to come during our week-long orientation.

Upon arrival, we checked into our accommodations and were then directed to the Health Science Centre of the university, where the bulk of our studying will be located. We also went to the computer lab to finish off our registration. Since I did part of my registration earlier, I used the remaining time to e-mail my parents instead.

Finally, we went to Tesco Marrion to purchase some things we may need. We were advised not to buy many things as we would be going to Tesco City Centre tomorrow. So, I only bought fruits and tomorrow's breakfast. Unfortunately, upon returning to my apartment, I realised that I should have also bought dish cleaning detergents.

Looks like I'll have to continue unpacking my kitchenware tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm tired. Goodnight. I should be online 8-9am tomorrow, which would be about 3-4pm in Malaysia. Yes, it's a 7 hour difference and not 8. My bad!

Halfway there

2009-08-31T05:35:00.002+08:00

I am currently blogging from Abu Dhabi Airport. The 7 hour flight since 9pm to 4am has really made my feet sore.

Damn, I regret playing Para the night before I left.

Anyway, I've met 4 other first-years and 1 senior, who happened to be the housemate of the guy who gave me the briefing last Monday. Haha... what luck.

I just checked the exchange rate and apparently, Saudi currency is nearly 1:1 to Malaysian currency, with the Saudi currency value slightly higher. RM53 for AED50. Things at the airport are expensive as expected. AED20 for a burger set from Burger King. I just bought a 7-Up since I was only thirsty. The flight provided more food than drinks.

Well, another hour more and I'll be boarding the flight to Dublin!

Over and out.

See y'all again soon!

2009-08-30T00:03:00.004+08:00

Well, in less than 17 hours, I shall be embarking on my journey to the land potatoes and leprechauns - Ireland! Going there will mark the beginning of my battle which will last for at least 10 years to come.

But never worry, for I shall never forget the family and friends who've helped me till this day.

I just wanna say "thank you" and "see you again soon" to all the people whom I shall be leaving behind.

However, know that this is not an eternal farewell (Hence, see you again soon). I will return in two and a half year's time. Some of you may have left by then too, but I believe that since we've crossed paths at least once in life, I'm sure we will meet again soon.

My first few weeks will probably be pretty hectic, so I may not have that much time to update my blog, Facebook or even online on MSN. But I will do so once I have settled down...probably. :P

Well then, farewell, my friends. Till the day we meet again.

Yesterday and Today

2009-08-28T00:02:00.003+08:00

HAH! Impressive how two neighbouring days can be the complete opposite of each other! 26 August 2009 is arguably one of the best days I've had this year, whereas 27 August 2009 is perhaps one of the lousiest days of my life.

26 August 2009
Ragnarok was progressing well. I've already completed the basic shape of the sword. And I finished that in 3 hours. The only thing left was to wrap a layer of paper around it to hold the foam and paint it. But I had an appointment that day, so I had to save the wrapping for the next day. Oh well, I made great progress that day. A whopping 37%. Pure estimation.

At 6pm, Kazuki came to fetch me and we went to Town Steamboat Restaurant (or something like that). They said it was a farewell party for me and I'm really grateful.

We took our sits and started chatting while waiting for Max. I learned quite a lot about them. Kazuki actually has a lot of ties with the CF committee. That is seriously something. He is also the founder of a new otaku group called Malaysia Cosplay Toshokan. However, Michelle is the president since he doesn't want to lead. And Sumire is Director and the editor of their online magazine.

And here's something. They're planning an event in Time Square, Penang next year with the help of Animax and some CF committee members. Sadly, I can't help or even attend since I'll be gone next year. Sigh...

Max came to join us a little late, but once he arrived, boy did we make a lot of noise. Max brought us more stories of his 5-week stay in Japan. He got a FREE air ticket to Japan. The stories were seriously seriously epic. That whole country is twisted, I tell you! Anytime y'all wanna hear some of the stories, just ask.

I received the uncut version of our video too. And they're planning to remake that video and title it "How the video should have been". So, any cosplayers out there! Lend your support please!

Finally, Max dropped me home. I realised that he lives VERY close to me! I can't believe he lived a stone's throw away and I never met him till last Sunday! It really SUCKS to meet new and potentially close friends this late! UGH!!!

And I forgot my camera!! :(

But yeah, that day was excellent. Sigh... now there are times I wish I wasn't going to Ireland. Tch! Dammit! Look forward, Move forward!

27 August 2009
Let me start by saying @##@!%$$&^$%$@$@$ WHAT THE HELL WAS THIS GODDAMN DAY ABOUT!? FROM WHEN I WAKE UP TILL THIS MOMENT WAS SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT AND BLOODY HELL MORE GOD DAMN SHIT!!

Ahem...

10am, woke up feeling sore all over for no apparent reason. Struggled to get out of bed but couldn't until 11am.

11am, cousin came to visit, which means noisy morning. I had a foul mood so I just left him and my lil bro alone to play, replying with grunts whenever they called for me.

11.30am, started working on Ragnarok. Thanks to my aching arms and legs, the wrapping sucked. I redid it 3 times and still didn't get what I wanted.

1pm, got a somewhat satisfying result at last, only to ruin in after gluing the wrapping paper on by folding it a little. I was already too lazy, so I didn't bother fixing it. Then, I thought, "Ah well, going to Pikaby's place later. Things might not be so bad after this."

3pm, arrived at Pikaby's place and immediately started off with Wii Sports Resort and I got to try the new Wii Motion Plus. Not that it felt any different, but supposedly the Wii-Mote becomes more accurate. And of course, I got owned bad.

4pm, mom SMS-ed me and told me to come home. "WHAT!?" I had to go and pray at my grandfather's grave. It had been raining the past few days, so we couldn't go. So, I reluctantly accepted it and went home. And you know what happened? IT RAINED!! Halfway home, it rained! And stupid ol' me didn't think of turning back because all I could think of was "Finally, I can go pray at grandfather's grave before I leave!" Sad, but true.

4.30pm, got home and my mom told me, "Heavy rain. Cannot go already. And don't you even think of going back there in this weather!" And all hell broke lose in my head. That was the last straw. I went straight to my room and just continued my futile attempts on completing Ragnarok.

7pm, at dinner, my mom saw my sulking face and gave me a lecture, "It's not like we did it on purpose. We didn't know either. Besides, you have chosen to go overseas, so you should have been prepared to part ways with your friends." I understood clearly. I wasn't even blaming her or anyone except myself. "Why didn't I turn back when it started raining? WHY!? I'm about to leave the country for 2.5 years and I spent 1 MEASLY HOUR with my best friend!! WHAT THE GODDAMN BLOODY HELL!!!!???"

10pm, cooled down a little. Started settling registration things and found a lot of troublesome procedures that have no explanation. Stupid website just leads me in circles. Site A>Site B>Site C>Site A>Site B>Site C and so on and so forth.

Sigh... I'm still really sore about Pikaby. He'll be leaving for KL tomorrow until Sunday, so I won't be seeing him at all for a very long time. I pray that our paths will cross again soon. Or I'll be forced to rake up my phone bill with another 2 hour call! Hahaha.... Sigh.............

Hopefully, tomorrow will be better. Kazuki is supposed to show me that wig shop after all.

Backache! Backache!

2009-08-25T20:48:00.002+08:00

Goddamshit! (Guess the reference)

My back hurts! It's either because I'm getting old, or because I've been bending down for 3 hours straight, almost completely ignorant of the passing of time while carefully crafting out Ragnarok. And can you believe it took me that long to just finish one side of the blade? Now, I have to make the other tonight. Phew... another 3 hours.

Well, I now have more time to prepare Ragnarok since I'm almost done packing. The only things I haven't thrown in are my shoes, laptop, DS and chargers. Oh, and also the documents I'm gonna bring over.

As for the outfit, I'm leaving that to my aunt. The costume this time is very much easier so she said she would help me make it. My main problem now is the hair, but my mom is helping me find a wig. Yes, my mom is actually directly supporting me this time! Hmm... does that imply something?

Oh, Kazuki just messaged me. Yay! Outing tomorrow! I wonder who's going?

Cosplay Video Shoot Take Two

2009-08-24T00:05:00.003+08:00

Well, that was pretty sudden. I received an SMS from Kazuki to redo the video last night during family dinner. There had been an error with the video we made (aside from the lousy quality). They needed full-body view and what we gave them was mostly half-body view.

It's a good thing I didn't washed the costume yet. I went and dug out the outfits from the laundry and quickly hung them to dispel the mild stench.

Half the day was pretty gloomy with rainfall from 9am till 4pm. The video shoot was scheduled to begin at 5pm. Good thing it stopped before that or the pitter patter of raindrops would really ruin the sound.

Ah, yes. We couldn't get the Equator today, so no spacious soundproof room for us. BOO!!

Anyway, today, we had more people. Besides the 4 of us from yesterday, we had Eric, Alvin, Gim, Ruben (my cousin), Max and his 2 sisters. The additional cosplayers were my cousin, Gim and Max. The other 4 were the camera crew.

This time, we had other problems. The high-definition camera from yesterday was no longer there and as I have mentioned before, no spacious, soundproof room. AND we had to take of our shoes, so a complete display of our cosplay was not possible.

We first went to a Japanese learning centre in Tanjung Tokong. It was still a pretty good place and we had a bigger green screen today, so we could remove all the background stuff. However, the place was borrowed on a whim and we had to leave at 8pm. We were making too much noise anyway. We then went to Kazuki's place to finish up.

There, we finally finished the the video and made a lot of improvements. Max was a good director and the cameramen were pretty helpful. However, me and Max agreed that the work was terrible, since we weren't in character at all since we were only given lines but not the story. Animax wrote the script for us, by the way. So we were all just dummies reading lines with barely any emotion or action. Yes, it's still bad.

After all that, we were all starving. Somebody gave the idea to use hunger as a driving force. "Finish the video properly, then we eat!" And went to eat we did, at Sri Ananda Bahwani...in cosplay. Surprisingly, not many people were bothered (Well, some were in the beginning). And I think I heard some kids scream "Hey, mom! Cosplay!") The Chicken Mahsala Chapati was nice. Max recommended it since I didn't know what to pick.

There, we chatted for a long time, listening to Max's trip to Japan. My Japanese teacher had told me many stories of Japan, but from the viewpoint of a businessman. So it was pretty nice listening to stories of Japan from an otaku. And it's a whole new world compared to Malaysia.

We keep saying that anime in Japan would obviously be of a whole different level. What we didn't know was how big the difference was. In an RPG, we'd be around lvl 5. Japan would be about lvl 90+. Here's something. Otakus have a hierarchy in Japan. I would be somewhere on 2nd or 3rd lowest level. Sigh...

Oh, and about that guy Max. Remember the Count Dracula dude during Disted Ball 2008? That was him! YES!! He decided to go with a bang for his final year in Disted. He is now a home tutor, and aiming for that job in Japan. He's already very close to achieving that dream.

After dinner and chatting, we took a group pic and finally said our goodbyes. I really made some good friends these 2 days. It's really really unfortunate I'll be leaving before I could really get to know them. And can you believe it!? They said they were gonna do a farewell outing for me on Tuesday! I only met them for like... 9 hours.

And once again, my cousin has demonstrated an incredible skill to make friends wherever he goes. I'm sure Frog remembers that very well!

Sigh... well, better continue packing. And I have a briefing tomorrow.

Cosplay Video Shoot

2009-08-22T18:56:00.002+08:00

Unbelievably, I received the invite last night at 12am. Quite a lot of my costume was already ruined and obviously, there wasn't time to remake or even patch them. But since Kazuki ensured me that it was fine as long as it's still pretty obvious that I'm cosplaying, it's acceptable.

There were supposed to be 6 people, but in the end, only 4 turned up. Kazuki, Sumire, Michelle and me. We waited for the other 2 to arrive but they ditched us! So, 4 of us had to be the cast and crew. And since we did at Equator School of Arts, we also "forced" some of the receptionists and staff to be the background characters.

As for the place we borrowed, Michelle had earlier obtained permission to use one of the rooms. It was pretty spacious and it was soundproof. All the noise we made inside wasn't even audible from the outside and vice versa.

The video camera we used wasn't professional quality but it was still HD and pretty high-end. The recordings were beautiful. Detailed facial features, clear voice recording, quick button reaction etc. It's a darn shame we made something very worthy of the title "EPIC PHAIL x 20".

The video was bad. Bloopers were funny, but in every way, it was humiliating to every otaku and cosplayer out there. Angry mobs would be chasing us out of the solar system if they ever saw that video.

But it was fun. I enjoyed the time we had, even though what we produced was "ughblarghgabahharvecrustchstorgleflorgenshtivelrespah..."

I didn't get any pics though, because I didn't bring a camera. It was unfortunate that Migryl and Tsukino came down with a high fever (confirmed not H1N1), so they couldn't join us. And since it was pretty last minute, I couldn't get anyone else, not even Wei Yun.

I'm hoping to meet them again. Well then, family dinner calls.

X the Complete Series

2009-08-21T11:11:00.002+08:00

I was thinking of watching this after I return, but since I had time last night, I thought I'd watch a few episodes first (5 actually).

Despite the average ratings it got, it managed to captivate me from the first episode (known as Episode 0). There, they introduced the whole main cast to you through the eyes of a dreamseer. The bad things is, it roughly tells you what's gonna happen too, so... I suggest skipping this episode and going straight to episode 1.

Introducing Kamui, a super-powerful, yet arrogant, selfish and anti-social teen. He is cold and very hot-tempered. He'll pretty much attempt to kill anyone just because the person invaded his privacy. And someone like him actually holds the fate of the world in his hands. One where he joins the Dragons of Heaven and save the world, and one where he joins the Dragons of Earth and destroy the world.

Kamui holds two futures, and even the greatest of dreamseers and fortune tellers don't know which future he will choose. What's more, there are supposedly two Kamuis, so what will happen from now on will be pretty interesting.

Another one of CLAMP's works that touches the occult, space and time. Oh, and although not as much as Code Geass, the storyline is pretty much continuous. The next episode always picks up from where the previous episode ended. So, this is pretty gripping too.

Kick

2009-08-18T15:36:00.001+08:00

Kick kick kick kick.

You have been pwned the moment you read this!

Please join the forum

2009-08-16T02:02:00.002+08:00

Like video games? Like Nintendo? Like Nintendo fans? Like jokes, puns etc lame and corny as they may be?

No?

Well, WHO CARES!? Just click the link under 'Visit Here' and register as a member of the Kirby 5 Star forum!

Stay active and you might just get a present from me! Be inactive and you'll get a different *dark aura* "present" *dark aura* instead!

Kare Kano Kanon

2009-08-14T01:14:00.003+08:00

Before I go to bed, I feel like promoting this song. Most of you will probably bash this song, but I like it. Credit goes to Pikaby for introducing this impressive piece of work.

Note: I'm referring to the song, and not the video.

This is my first time watching the video too. To think Idolmasters took it up, but i guess they do have lots of ties with Taiko no Tatsujin. I didn't want to give y'all the Taiko video since the drumming would kinda ruin the music. But if you insist, here's the video.

Die by Oni!!

Endless Eight is OVER!!

2009-08-11T23:31:00.003+08:00

OH YEAH!!! AT LAST!!!

What a great idea Kyoto Animation came up with. The Endless Eight arc. Repeating one episode 8 times with some wardrobe changes and calling it 8 different episodes is an aBsOLuuTeLY ingenious idea!! NOT!!!

It was annoying as hell!! In the beginning, I actually thought I was watching the wrong episode! Then, I redownloaded and then realised it WAS the correct episode.

WWWWHHHHAAAATTT!?

I understand that you're trying to make us feel the gravity of the situation they (Kyon and co.) were in, but they had little to no recollection of the repetition of events. WE, the viewers, DO!!

Twice or 3 times would have been enough. I mean, telling us that they had repeated the same thing 15,532 times would have been shocking enough...probably.

Sigh... Oh well... let's just see what they come up with next.

No GACC for me

2009-08-10T18:36:00.003+08:00

Just when I was about to win my parents' permission to go down to Melaka for GACC 2009, H1N1 just had to go and kill someone in Melaka last week. If I weren't so busy completing my video games and preparing for my studies in Ireland, I'd be forming a "We Hate H1N1" club.

I was looking forward to meeting my fellow CF forum acquaintances, and entering the Taiko and cosplay competition. Darn. Fine. 2.5 years later, as long as H1N1 or whatever disease don't wipe out humanity, I will attend GACC and other anime cons (hopefully, they fall after exams and during the holidays.)

Final Fantasy XII... Completed

2009-08-06T00:42:00.002+08:00

At last... after more than a year and a half, I've completed the latest installment of the Final fantasy mainstream series (since FFXIII isn't out yet, it doesn't count).

Ever since that fateful day of 4 December 2006 when I encountered that glitch which prevented me from going anywhere beyond Phon Coast, I've gone through hell and back searching for a way to continue. It took me nearly 8 months before I finally gave up. But then, thanks to my cousin's efforts too (since he had the same problem), he found someone with a disc that didn't have this glitch. With that, I was able to complete the game.

Now, I can erase FFXII off the list of "unfinished business before I leave for Ireland". Man, that was a mouthful.

Well, just like the other gamers have said, FFXII is a serious disappointment when it comes to storyline. It's not like it's not good, something just didn't feel right, like you never really got the story.

The following things are what I found wrong with the FFXII storyline:
1. Most boss battles have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with the storyline. Some random super-powerful monster just pops up and forces you to fight.

2. Vaan really lacks a role in the story. Everyone of the main party and some of the side characters had a much larger presence in the story than Vaan (except Penelo). Balthier would have been a better main protagonist than Vaan.

However, I do love the new battle system. It gives you a stronger sense of urgency in battle since it's now real-time. If the game utilised Kingdom Hearts' battle system, it would have been more fun, but it would have been too easy. If they had followed the traditional FF system, it would be a little boring after some time. So, I'd have to say... NICE CHOICE!

And here's something for Cubix. Before you go to Sky Fortress Bahamut, make sure you stock up on healing items, set healing gambits for everyone and get some good armour. I didn't see "Game Over", but try fighting enemies that keep coming after you while you have only 300 HP left and inflicted with Blind, Silence, Sap/Poison and Slow.

Well, time to finish Devil Summoner 2 now!

38 to go!

2009-08-04T14:46:00.002+08:00

Guess what the title is referring to.

Anyway, Popular is suddenly selling anime cheap today. Well... not exactly very cheap for those already cheap, but for the box sets that cost like RM69.90 for 25 episodes, the prices were significantly dropped to RM25.90!

Tight schedule!

2009-08-01T14:42:00.002+08:00

After today, I will no longer have work. But I'll still be busy. With 63 episodes of D.Gray Man, 3 volumes of .hack, Final Fantasy XII, Devil Summoner 2 and Tales of Legendia to finish, things'll be pretty hectic for me since I have to complete all that while learning how to cook and sew and prepare a cosplay to be brought to Ireland. I have my eyes set on Nikaidou Akira but even that is unconfirmed since I have yet to finish the whole series.

It's a damn good thing most of my friends are already down in KL or somewhere else! Yes, I blame you people!

Bankai!

2009-07-29T00:03:00.005+08:00

卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!卍解!

Just needed to get that out of my system... And it ain't working. Looks like I'm gonna be doing Bleach cosplays soon.

Prunation

2009-07-27T00:36:00.001+08:00

Something new I learnt today when choosing shoes for my trip to Ireland.

BUT!! I'm stingy so I'm not telling you people a damn thing. Go google it yourself!!

After all, I may be the only one among us with that condition, so what's the point of letting you people know something irrelevant?

Heheh...

Layers and Layers

2009-07-25T17:44:00.002+08:00

Today, I got called into the office by the accountant (the girl who took over my job) at my shop. I sighed, expecting more problems regarding stock and accounts, but I was suddenly given a box wrapped with colourful paper. In normal terms, a present.

And everybody in the office was smiling at me, save for Jason. He only works half day on Saturdays. I was somewhat smiling with my jaw on the floor.

And then when I got home, I opened the gift. And it's a damn good thing I waited till I got home. When I unwrapped the colourful outer layer, what I saw was a box labelled Winpaq. Some of you might know that brand of envelopes since it is one of the best commonly used envelopes. On top of it was a card with the fingerprints of every current staff member of Coral Computer Supply Sdn. Bhd. (So that's why she was looking for a stamp pad).

Then, I opened the box. And in it was another wrapped box, this time with newspaper. And I unwrapped that and there was another layer. And I unwrapped that layer and there was another layer. And I unwrapped that layer and there was another layer. And I unwrapped that layer and there was another layer. And I unwrapped that layer and there was another layer.

(Seriously, it took me 5 minutes.)

And I unwrapped that layer and found another box. This time, it was a box for a 56kbps PCI Modem Card. And I opened that box and found a box wrapped with newspaper. And I unwrapped that and there was another layer. And I unwrapped that layer and there was another layer. And I unwrapped that layer and there was another layer. And I unwrapped that layer and there was another layer. And I unwrapped that layer and there was another layer.And I unwrapped that and there was another layer. And I unwrapped that layer and there was another layer.And I unwrapped that and there was another layer. And I unwrapped that layer and there was another layer. And I unwrapped that and there was another layer....

(And this took me 8 minutes, but this time, I ripped instead of unwrap.)

And finally, I arrived at a layer of wrapping paper that had "Aki no Kaze" written all over it. I doubt they picked that on purpose. By then, the box was already as small as a glasses case. I opened that at last and found... a Parker pen case. And inside it was a Parker pen. The same pen I picked when one day she went up to every male staff member and asked, "What kind of pen would guys like?"

I can't believe I never realised it... But she has been asking that question on random days since the start of July. And when she was asked (not by me) the reason, she replied, "Boyfriend's birthday." I wonder if they staged that too...

I would like to thank all the staff members of Coral Computer Supply Sdn Bhd... but they don't know about this blog so I'll thank them in person on Monday. And perhaps on Facebook.

P.S. I can't believe she outsmarted me! Note to self: Never sleep at 2am again.

So... I guess there's a Season 2?

2009-07-25T08:34:00.002+08:00

I only realised just now that the most recent episode of Hetalia - Axis Powers is episode 26, the final episode this season. But... the episode didn't feel like an ending at all. Atleast even the Zetsubou Sensei series had somewhat of an ending every season. Hetalia, however, leaves you expecting another episode if you don't realise it's already episode 26.

But ANN mentioned that a 2nd series starts next week, so I guess... new season? AND PLEASE!! No more "China, I choose you!" from America!

Anti-Tanks

2009-07-24T09:11:00.003+08:00

If your strategy in the previous 3 Advance Wars games involve bulldozing enemy troops with super-powerful tanks, you will hate this new unit introduced in AW: Days of Ruin.

Here are some of its traits:

It's defense against vehicles are MAD! A War Tank (strongest tank in DoR) can actually lose a 1-on-1 fight against an Anti-Tank. The Anti-Tank is equipped with a powerful armour that barely dents against every powerful unit in the game. Even Bombers (strongest offensive unit) require 3 hits to kill it. And since it only costs 11000 to build, 2 or 3 Anti-tanks would already be on the field before Bombers enter the fray.

Anti-Tanks are also the only indirect unit capable of close combat (if you don't consider the Bomber an indirect unit). It has an attack range of 3 squares with no gaps like the other indirect units. So, it can actually already damage your units before your units get close enough to attack it. So put a defensive wall around the Anti-Tank and you can watch as your opponent's offensive force turns into dust. However, being an indirect unit means that it can't attack the turn it moves.

Now then, for my experience with these units.

Before Days of Ruin, my strategy mainly consists of creating an elephant army of Tanks and then throwing in some Mid-, Neo- and Megatanks to boost firepower. When I tried to pull off this strategy again in Days of Ruin, I breezed through the opponent's main force like a knife through tofu and then arrived in front of their HQ. I laughed at the 2 Anti-Tanks and 5 Infantries guarding it, but then... BOOM!!! Most of the vanguard were blown to pieces and I only managed to damage 1 Anti-Tank. Damage which healed the next turn!

And it took me 9 DAYS before I finally killed one and swarmed the last one! WHAT THE HECK!!?? Even a fleet of Battleships didn't give me this much hell!!

Anyway, I am now researching a new tactic to beat this new unit. One thing I realised is that it's like an elephant in Animal Chess. The strong tanks die before it, but the useless Infantry units can actually beat the crap out of it. Well.. Bike Infantries to be exact, but they're still pretty much useless in combat against vehicles.

And I am still looking for people to challenge me in Advance Wars!! better do it now before I unlock Hachi in Dual Strike and master Anti-Tank warfare in Days of Ruin!

Quick Reviews of Summer 2009 Anime

2009-07-21T00:55:00.002+08:00

1. Spice and Wolf II
I liked the first season so I'm chasing the second. And it's still as nice as before. I wouldn't say it is a top class anime, but it has a good story centering around a merchant's adventures with a wolf god. This isn't some action fantasy, but a rather light-hearted series with romance, comedy and some (literal) tricks of the trade. This was the only anime I looked forward to this season.

2. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
The story is about a hypothetical earthquake that will shake and shatter Tokyo and the struggles of the survivors after the disaster. The main character is a girl who seems to get angry at everything in her life. However, the event changed her life and now, all she wants is to return home safely in Western Tokyo. It's not a cross-country travel since this is supposed to be realistic. However, a tale of a group of three survivors traversing across a ruined metropolis should still be epic enough. The art is below average though. And the music is so-so. It's not my type of anime so I'll just drop it here.

3. CANAAN
Impressive start. Although I have no idea what's really happening. Basically, there are people called Synthesists who can perceive shapes using any one of their senses. However, most people can't take the mental pressure and will die. There are a few people who can control this power, and Canaan is one of them. I currently have no idea what the story is about so don't ask me. Art and animation is A-okay. I have nothing on music. I was too captivated by the gunfight scenes to notice any.

Up next, Needless and Element Hunters.

作戦開始！ (Begin the battle!)

2009-07-20T09:44:00.002+08:00

Alright! It's the 2nd last week of July. That means it's time for me to start getting ready for my studies in Ireland. I hope I don't miss out anything or it'll be expensive sending stuff there from Malaysia.

2nd, I'm still looking for a way down to GACC. All the damn buses leave too early or too late! I could take the 10pm or 11pm bus, but as if my mom would ever let me. Why aren't there any buses that travel at 3pm or something!?

3rd, time to finish off FFXII now that I've got a working copy! Finally! After more than 2 years, I can continue the story!

4th, I guess I should start tweaking with my laptop from today. Just to get a good feel of it. And just in case there are any problems, I can quickly rectify them.

Bon Odori 2009

2009-07-19T01:46:00.002+08:00

It's my first time attending Bon Odori in Penang for any reason other than watching fireworks. I don't attend it mainly because I hate crowds. But this year, I wante to hang out with the ComicFiesta Forum group so I decided to go for the whole thing.

I had to send my friend there too. Some of you remember Khai Chun, right? RIGHT!? Anyway, he followed me home from work and then just went along with me.

Since we arrived early, we didn't have to endure the traffic jams. The stalls had just finished setting up and are already open for business. Me and KC went around viewing stalls, banging into people, stepping on people's feet, bumping into old friends, punching someone's face, starting a street fight etc etc. Whichever you think really happened is up to you.

We soon met up with Hime-sama and although we agreed to move around as a group, we got seperated 15 minutes later. Dumb twits. :P I ran into LITTLE Miss Ethie a few times too. She managed to ambush me once (I hate it when people sneak up to tickle me), and I managed to take a photo behind her once. I wanted to sneak up to her and smack her, but sigh... damn principles.

More stalls after that.

I finally ran into Kazuki at 9pm. And following him, I managed to meet up with Migryl and the other KDU bunch. Now, we were a group. Me and Sam were blabbing non-stop about .hack at first but then the DoTA topic popped up and KC took over the entire conversation. As for me, I changed my conversation partner to Migryl and Tsukino. And because of that, I remembered the GACC thing... DAMN!!

And then Ethie came to talk to us for a while. Unfortunately, she didn't plan on staying so she ran off leaving this orange balloon with me. It was moments later before I realised, "Why am I still holding this!?" And then we left to watch the performance on the stage.

We soon found Archer aka. Gim and he joined our party. We went around to see stalls for a while and then we went to the stage. Halfway through the show, Sam, Archer and I went away to spend the remainder of our coupons. We lost Archer, but we found Black Cat (my cousin). Hmmm... fair trade I guess. Don't kill me, Archer. It was Sam's idea!!

And then it was soon fireworks time. Boom! Bam ! Bang! The end. And we went to the memorial by the sea to take a group shot. Ethie was busy and my idiot cousin got hungry and ran off, so in the end, the group shot consisted of me, KC, Migryl, Tsukino, Kazuki, his girlfriend (I forgot to ask her name!), Archer and Sam.

And then we parted ways because my mom was waiting. Tch! Why so early!? Oh well, I might have more chances. Hopefully...

And then, JJJJJJAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!

ドップラ解錠！！ (Doppelganger Release!)

2009-07-17T23:18:00.002+08:00

Well, I've restarted watching Monochrome Factor. Last time, the yaoi spamming made me shyaway from the series. But then again, the loooong waiting time for an episode to be subbed and released was partly to blame too. 2 1/2 weeks and NOTHING came out!

Now that they finished the series already (and because I have this idea of cosplaying Akira in his Shin form), I'm redownloading all 24 episodes and watching them. The starting is still pretty funny. It does get old... but since it's been a long time, it's funny again!

Akira's always the cool guy who skips classes and never gets massacred in chibi comedy. Kengo's the guy ALWAYS gets massacred in chibi comedy... and is also the annoying best friend who always gets kicked to heaven and manages to get back in 3 seconds to be even more annoying. Aya is the disciplined prefect who always tries (and usually epic phails) to get Akira and Kengo into class. Oh, and she's the one who usually massacres Kengo (accidentally or intentionally).

Pretty typical bunch, pretty typical story. But it's entertaining once in a while.

Right, episode 4 is ready!