Friendster's featured friends

(Note: The url name of all 3 of my blogspot blogs is the same as all 3 of my friendster profile)

If you were wondering on how I chose my featured friends, here's how:

asuna888 (main account; Sep 2006; ' Haruhi): Since this account is my main profile, I will only allow people I have met and know well, their friends and my other 2 accounts on the friend list. Due to the fact that the profile resembles my other 2 (anime themed, created (or copied and modified) layout using CSS, and using Female/Unisex Japanese names), the ones on the far left (no. 1 & 4; along with a message below the display image) are my other accounts. The rest are people whom I am the closest with.

the1iam & fnfd (Dec 2003 & Sep 2005; ' ' ' Konomi & ' ' ' Yukari): [The former being having more "friends"] This is purely based on the display image at 50x50. What I don't want in the display image (some may also apply to what anime images I select to download):

• The same as the prevous round of selecting featured friends (unless i can't find better ones)
• Males (unless they form less than half of the total number of people in it)
• Fan art (unless it looks very nice, which is very rare)
• Smoking tobacco
  
• Naked and/or showing certain body parts (a girl with clothing on and wearing a skirt but with no panties may be accepted depending on the angle and explicitly)
  
• Cheerleaders (i just don't like it)
• Transgenders / Crossdressers (unless they bare no visual resemblance that they are/used to be males)
• Masturbating / sex (even if the parts are not shown)
  
• ugly art/people (very obvious)
• any anime created before 2005 (unless it looks like those from 2005 onwards)
• popular anime like Pokemon, Naruto, Inuyasha, One Piece and CardCaptor Sakura. (anime like Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu is an exception)
• bunny girls
• school swimsuit (mizugi) outside the school
• Elf/devil ears (characters from the anime "Shuffle!" is an exception)
• Background area is larger than the character in the image (display image only)
• Gothic/loli clothing
• dark skin
• at the beach in beach outfit (i've seen too much of it)
• people who are aged between 0-11 and 50 onwards unless they form a family
• garbage
• girls that try to be guys
• glasses (megane)
• black and white (but not grayscale)
• not depicting a software/product (eg. OS-tan)
• wedding dress (i've seen too many of those already)
  

What I am looking for (everything below need not be included):

• School Uniform (seifuku)
• cat ears (neko mimi)
• Maid uniform
• Girls (unless they form less than half of the total number of people in the picture)
• Vector/High Resolution images
  
• CG graphics (preferably larger than 800x600)
• smiling

The things i don't mention above is either because I couldn't think of it at the time of typing, hard to express it in words or should be very obvious.

I am so speechless...

(all of the images in this post belongs to http://www.darkmirage.com/)

I came across a link to this site while looking for lyrics of the 2nd ending of Code Geass.

Here is a picture from that page:

Source: http://www.darkmirage.com/2006/12/20/a-look-into-an-otakus-room/

The furniture arrangement looks strangely familiar to my room only reversed (something like looking into a mirror) and it is black instead of that ugly green and the bed there appears to have been removed (where does he sleep? The floor?). The layout you see in here and here (both are taken in mid-November 2006; probably in the middle of the O-Level exams :P) has changed significantly and is much neater. (Although I have yet to clean that cabinet on the left in picture 3 and the area below the drawer). If I knew what to do with the stuff I don't want (besides obvious things like leaking batteries), it would have probably be cleaned much quicker.

Another screenshot:


._. Where the heck can he afford all those manga (japanese (language) comic books), posters, (region 2) DVDs, merchandise? Assuming that each regular manga book (there appears to be at least 250) costs 390円 each and assuming that the average of everything else is 1000円 each (posters cost less, figurines, games and DVDs costs more). Oh and assuming that mobile phone (Sharp/Vodaphone 903SH; found only in Japan) costs 20000円 So the total of the anime related things (and that keitai deiwa) would roughly cost: [(24x200)+(17x2000)+(3000x20)+(250x390)+20000]= 198300円！ (actual total cost might be higher or lower as he might either actually go to japan or order online/from a shop outside japan that specializes in manga and anime merchandise (the former is cheaper and have larger variety avalable but the later is recomended and more convinient if you don't have time to go there or the total cost of shipping, services, transport etc. does not exceed the costs of a return airplane ticket.); Don't ask me, I'm not the one who buys all this nor do i know the exact costs of every single object)

If that figure is converted and rounded up it would be S$2600 or US$1700! (about 3-4 months of salary if you earn S$1300 a month assuming that part of that money is used for daily expenses) That guy said that he have an allowance of S$1000 a month. Too much for an allowance of a student in Junior Colledge if you ask me. Mine barely even reach $100 a month...

The post before the prevous one might apply to here.

Note: 円=￥=Yen=JPY

testing resolution and brightness

Since the EPSON STYLUS CX3700 device broke down due to my sister's sillyness which causes it to always jam the paper when it tries to print (and blames me for it for whatever reason when obiously she cauused the problem), I end up replacing it with HP Deskjet F370 (the paper loads from the front instead of the top as with all HP printers that i know of)



As you can see there are differences although the one on the right can achieve like the one on the left by adjusting the brightness. You can tell by the fact that the hair on the left is blue while the one on the right is white/grey/silver.

Here, I compare the resolution of the same image. The one on the left is scanned on 4 January 2007 (Epson) while the one on the right is scanned on 15 February 2007 (HP). No modifications were made between the two dates. (Image resized to fit on the page)



I'm not sure what is the dpi (dots per inch) of the one on the left was but I know it is lesser than the 300dpi image on the right. (Note: I used the one on the left in the media box of my accounts at friendster. However, the one on the right will be used on my main account. You know why, when ppl see a nice image by someone, they will save it and put it up elsewhere. I know because I have done it before and have seen ppl put the above (left) on theirs. The drawing is actually a trace (by placing piece of paper on top of the LCD screen and trace from there) from a japanese website. Can't remember which one.)

The maximum the scanner can go is 1200dpi although scaning an A4 sized image in full colour at 600dpi produces a 6.71MB image (JPEG format). However, if you are just scanning something that is printed (eg. magazine, newspapers, software/game packagings), you are better off at 300dpi since you will be able to see those dots that form the colour of the image you see.



Want to know where my main account is? Use my hotmail email adress or add アスナ８８８ (in half-width and the first 3 jap charaters romanised) after the http://www.friendster.com. You can also look for it on my other 2 accounts. (Note: For my main account, I will only accept friend request if I know you or a friend of one of my friend (friends from my other accounts do not count). Otherwise, I will reject (more immidate if the location is either Malaysia, Philipnes or Indonesia (where most of the "friends"/anime fans of my other accounts are from) as I do not have actual friends from those countries). However, I do send friend request from one of my other accounts (ending with a .co.jp if you must know) but this also depends if you are allready a friend of my other account and wheather I feel like it. I have so far block 1 persorn (i think the name is Paulos Dexter or something like that) for repeately sending friend request to my main account even though that persorn is allready a friend of my other 2 accounts.

bought something

I bought the March 2007 (35th) issue of マジキュー at 紀伊國屋書店 (the one at Orchard Road; a major shopping district) for about S$23.80 (including 5% tax).
You may notice that the price on the front says 980円 (not sure if it includes tax), which is roughly equal to S$12, but considering the fact that I never been to 日本 before. At that time I was considering if I should buy volumes 3 & 4 of 魔法先生ネギま！ (they are about S$10 each although the back of the book says ￥390E. (What does the "E" mean? "Excluding tax"?). (edit: I found a square at the bottom left of the back which looks somethig like 本体９３３円)

Since most of the マジキュー (majikuu/magic) magazine pages (130 in total; each page is about the size of an A4 paper or more than 2 times in terms of area as compared to that of a manga page) is in full colour and but manga is small enough to fit in your pocket. In the end I decided to go with the マジキュー magazine. Inside was illustrations from anime related games / tv show etc. etc. (most of them are of girls btw) This is better than looking at images from the internet. Of course, I will buy more if I earn at least 10x more than the usual S$100 a month (none if there is school vacation) and able to go to Japan since it is obviously cheaper than buying here (though the price here includes transportation etc. which kinda offsets the cost of buying a flight to there and back plus accomadation, etc. ).

I found great difficulty removing the plastic wrapping off it since it is enforced with strong (transparent) tape at both horizontally and vertically. I ended up using a scissors/pen knife to cut it.

By the way, is it cheaper if I take a budget airline (Tiger Airways, AirAsia etc.) from here (Singapore) to Hong Kong and then from there take a regular flight (ANA, Singapore Airlines etc.) to Narita as compared to taking a regular flight directly? (And when will this "Rock Airway" (search at google if you want to know what it is) start it's service? It's been almost a year since people first heard of it recurting people. It claims to be a budget carrier that flies to East Asian cities.)

profile screenshots and fan subbing complains

Here are screenshots (i was bored):
Screenshots are taken from Windows internet explorer (ver 7 for windows xp) at 75% zoom.




The point of these screenshots is that they are mine (i have another one but too lazy to upload a screenshot of it). The evidence is that there are the words edit on them. The 2nd screenshot is my main profile so that my friends would know me but i somehow got distracted and somehow became what it is. (The same goes for the 1st screenshot, which is older (the acc that is), but reached to a point of no return ;P)

By the way, I have recently been busy making subtitles. I type the text from an already subbed version by a group then add the subs to a raw (unedited; usually to a higher quality ver). The reason for doing it is the one subbed by a group have hardsubs (espically the opening/ending) and cannot be removed. Next, even if there are softsubs, the op and ed and some scenes is still in hard subs (for most groups these days. Exceptions (everything including op/ed, credits of ppl who did the subs)include POGO (which, unfortunately translates only from Japanese to Chinese). Obvious
examples include the 1st episode of "Saint October" (Jan 2007) by Ryoumi subs (though another group did a better job): The ローマ字 (romanised japanese) for the opening; an annoying waving text that goes to the next line every japanese word (about 3-7 in romanised form) in a poor attempt to follow the japanese text (which is hard to copy btw). Next, group subs that put some image before the video starts (which means that the timing is pushed back) and even more annoying if that thing appears and the audio of the actual video is heard only and only appears a few seconds later. Examples include スクルーランブル二学期 (1H 2006-3Q 2006) by yourmom subs (that's the name btw and another subbing group stopped subbing until ep 9 (of 24) due to it being licensed by some US company though yourmom continued until the end [i heard people saying US=the world]. They post random photos from lamposts to cats), N・H・Kにようこそ！ (3Q 2006-4Q 2006) by toybox (the part about hearing audio only applies to this; one of the main female charaters on an orange background with text of ppl who did the subs and their IRC channel). Fortunately, another subbing group is doing it and the fonts are better. next, SHUFFLE! memories (1Q 2007) by ayako (or something like that). A picture of a featured charater (from the game or a CG art; the former is likely) appeared before it starts (there are no japanese text; only the romaji and english translation for ep 3 btw). ep 4 is worse: that image along the audio of the original video appeared until the first line of the song begins. I'm not sure if the following is done by the same group but the OVA of はぴねす！ (DVD raw was released on the 1st week of January 2007) starts off with an alien looking outside (from the inside) on a planet (the scenery is something like at the moon). Speaking of that episode, it involves Wasare Jun (who dresses and behaves very much like a girl) and one of his close friend/classmate (i think his nam is yuma) being turn into a real girl after being hit by combined spell that resulted by an accident, got hit. Jun went to the toilet after it happened since jun felt something strange with jun's body. Jun notices "those things" from the chest and "that thing" missing from Jun's bottom (Jun got hit directly but the latter was right next to Jun when it happened. Therefor no one noticed until Haruhi (another classmate) notices that yuma didn't go crazy over Jun (by which the spell is removed) unlike all the guys in the school and then notices "those things". Afterwards, the madness that happened to Jun (being chased by all the boys in school, although that didn't happend to jun immedately) happens and that is where the episode ends. The entie episode focuses on jun by the way).

here's a sample of what i did from the 5th episode of ネギま！？ (total 26; 18 had been aired and 12 have been subbed by mahora academy-fansubs at time of typing)(formatting may be affected due to the font type/size and/or resolution)

Dialogue: 0,0:14:57.00,0:15:01.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Partner: Kagurazaka Asuna. Show me the power within you!
Dialogue: 0,0:15:02.00,0:15:04.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Contract, Activate!
Dialogue: 0,0:15:19.00,0:15:20.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's the Suka Card!
Dialogue: 0,0:15:21.00,0:15:22.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Suka Card?
Dialogue: 0,0:15:22.00,0:15:26.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Out of the 3 cards that are formed, 1 of them is a total hit-and-miss.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:28.00,0:15:32.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Whaddya mean "hit-and miss"!? I'm still strong with this on!
Dialogue: 0,0:15:34.00,0:15:36.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Just as I thought; it was that fairy's doing!
Dialogue: 0,0:15:37.00,0:15:38.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What do we do, Aniki?
Dialogue: 0,0:15:41.00,0:15:41.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Setsuna-san!
Dialogue: 0,0:15:46.50,0:15:48.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Ojou-sama!
Dialogue: 0,0:15:49.00,0:15:50.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Se... cchan?
Dialogue: 0,0:16:01.00,0:16:03.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Negi-kun! Are you a...?
Dialogue: 0,0:16:09.00,0:16:11.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Are you alright, Konoka-san?
Dialogue: 0,0:16:11.00,0:16:13.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yeah. Where's Secchan?
Dialogue: 0,0:16:14.00,0:16:15.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Secchan!
Dialogue: 0,0:16:16.00,0:16:17.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Are you okay, Secchan?
Dialogue: 0,0:16:19.00,0:16:20.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yes; Don't worry about me.
Dialogue: 0,0:16:21.00,0:16:24.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Do you have any injuries, Ojou-sama?
Dialogue: 0,0:16:25.00,0:16:26.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Secchan...
Dialogue: 0,0:16:31.00,0:16:34.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Aniki, yet {\i1}another{\i0} person caught you using magic!
Dialogue: 0,0:16:34.00,0:16:37.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I couldn't help it... it was an emergency...
Dialogue: 0,0:16:37.00,0:16:42.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We just have to make sure those 2 don't know about it.
Dialogue: 0,0:16:42.00,0:16:43.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We saw it-mya!
Dialogue: 0,0:16:43.00,0:16:45.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Shi-shichimi-san! Mots-san!
Dialogue: 0,0:16:46.00,0:16:49.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Looks like someone unintentionally found out about your magic, mya!
Dialogue: 0,0:16:49.00,0:16:53.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Looks like we'll have to send you back to the Magic Academy, mya!
Dialogue: 0,0:16:53.00,0:16:59.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Not only will we take away your mage certification, we'll turn you into an animal too!
Dialogue: 0,0:16:59.00,0:17:00.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In a good way!

ps. I don't know how to extract the subtitles from videos (mkv) containg softsubs. If i did, i wouldn't go through this much trouble. I plan to do Negima!? (1024x756 (although the 640x780 version is aired earlier); done ep 1-5, 6 in progress), SHUFFLE! memories (used 1280x720 but found no difference in video quality as compared to 704x396 when viewed in full screen at 1024x768.; only ep 4) and Kyoushiro to towa no sora (640x360; havent started).

[Feb 2 edit: I think I will also do のだめカンタービル (1280x720)]
[Feb 9 edit: Decided to put 京四郎と永远の空 on hold as there is only 1 episode at 1024x768 (by AniMa-RAW) while the remainding episode by many other RAW providers are at 640x360. The video with subs by Ayako (the same group that did SHUFFLE! memories, only without images appearing before the video) seem to clearer/sharper than the one by other RAWs of the same resolution. I guess i'll wait until the DVD rips are avalable.]