So I figure I'd share a post I read on Engadget recently about a Japanese notebook from NEC. Just take a look at the link if you haven't; it's pretty damn clear what's going on.

Here we have an anime-themed laptop. And not just some mod, an official anime-themed laptop. Now I'm not really aware of the popularity of KimiKiss, not having even considered watching or reading it until now, but apparently NEC thinks they can sell a KimiKiss branded notebook. What this says about anime is anyone's guess XD

At almost a thousand USD, it's a pretty weak machine to start with; you can get a much more powerful Dell at only a fraction of the cost. But if it just happens to count for anything, I don't think the lid of said Dell will come with a KimiKiss character.

Of course, who needs KimiKiss when your Dell has Hamtaro?

Though some of this content is essentially copypasta from Nonsense Wars, I figure it was time to write an other entry here. I feel my most recent illustration deserves some comment and a significant amount of time has passed since my last entry.

So I've got a chain of these single character fanarts for the various Tales games I've played over the years. Raine for ToS, Tear< for ToTA and Philia for ToD. Now I really do try to put the effort into these to make 'em nice but it never really works out that way. I have a theory that the harder you try to make something look nice, the harder you will fail to make it look nice. Hence I'm not really satisfied with any of those three. Raine is actually a second or third version and I'm still not satisfied.

Recently I've added two more pictures to the single character fanart series: Akari from the Aria series and Yuki from TMHS. Akari's not really my favorite character from Aria, but I was torn between Aika and Alice.

Nonetheless I'm trying to move away from the rather plain and boring backgrounds I've been doing for these fanarts; plain and boring backgrounds which have unfortunately been rather prolific since the start of this gallery. Coming from 071126 I decided the plug and play backgrounds just weren't going to cut it.

Subsequently, the Akari and Yuki paintings, though primarily meant to further an illustration process begun with 071120 have begun to incorporate some real backgrounds with real content again, the likes of which we haven't seen since 070303.

The current linearts uses only a 1px pen tool over a pencil sketch. Tracing with thin lines at a large resolution lets me draw with a large margin of error at the pixel level and still have the macroscopic lineart look nice. Digital linearts also make the final drawing quality of the initial sketch irrelevant and let me bypass my scanner in the transition from traditional to digital medium. The current process has also unintentionally brought along a rather splotchy painting style and while it is a bit faster and matches the lineart style, I deem this method to be rather inelegant and am looking to move away from it.

Incidentally, almost a year ago, I had a painting that held the title of feature deviation for more than half a year. I hope the current painting doesn't hold the crown that long. As usual, it's also interesting to see the direction in which the art has progressed since then. I don't think I imagined I'd be doing it this way at this point in time.

Well, I'll skip the computer stuff and move on to this season's anime.

In order of preference, the new shows I'm following this season are True Tears, Spice and Wolf, H2O, They are My Noble Masters, Minami Ke Owakari and Zoku Zetsubou Sensei. I will also be following Aria the Origination once I finish watching the second season. That will be soon.

So True Tears also has my favorite OP of the season. The animation here is excellent, second only to the now venerable Clannad. Honestly I can't really say why I like this show that much; at first glance you could pretty much call it a typical shojo anime, but there's like another "layer" to it that you wouldn't see in say To Heart (which, in my book, is the ultimate generic shojo anime with excellent animation). Anyways, watch it if you aren't. It's good.

Spice and Wolf has the gheyest ED of all shows this season and you can interpret that how you will. I usually don't care for /d/ girls like Horo, but she just doesn't count. This show seems to set up a whole lot of tension without really doing anything particularly noticeable. I just never feel like I can trust any of the characters outside of Horo and Lawrence. It just always feels like someone's gonna BS you. It actually reminds me of this non-anime I watched a real long time ago... something like "The Lost Unicorn" There's a unicorn who turns into a chick and follows some dude and they eventually free the rest of the unicorns from some sauron-like evil-overlord. Maybe that's "Last Unicorn". Whatever.

H2O... I dunno. No comment yet. I think it's queer how they make the dude unblind in the first episode after making a big fuss of it.

Noble Masters is like the non-kiddy version of Hayate. It's what Hayate shoulda been but didn't become because they SOMEHOW decided to make it freaking 52 episodes. That was dumb. Hayate almost lost my interest completely in the middle of the thirties. I only recently picked it back up.

Minami Ke and Zetsubou are ok, but they really lack the charm of the originals.

Ok I'm done with this. Comments and stuff appreciated.

... since I wrote a journal entry.

So it's two in the morning and I just woke up after trying to sleep early. I'm in college and I hate living in a dorm. Since I'm so damn antisocial it's just so damn boring at times. I'm going home tomorrow like I do every other week since my college is just so damn close to home. And yes, I look forward to it.

For the time being I'm just doing some random sketching. I rarely get to sit down and just randomly doodle as time is precious and comics and finished pieces take priority. But lately with the whole college thing going on I've had less sleep and more downtime, not to mention less artistically unrelated stuff to tinker with. So some doodles for our enjoyment (or lack thereof).

071119a 071119b 071121a 071131b

These are all original characters of mine from the past few years (almost a decade now for some!). The last image is a paintchat with a long time friend of mine who has recently gotten a DeviantART account. He is my colleague at Nonsense Wars, the webcomic which some of you have inquired about. I will take this opportunity to pimp the site.

http://nonsense-wars.com

Anyways in general I'm very happy with the progress I've made on artwork over the past year. Just over a year ago, I put up 061127 and I thought I hadn't been making much progress in improving my skills. I was under this impression for much of the last year, but in the past three months I've realized that isn't true, especially after with 071126 which makes a great comparison being another ToTA piece.

061127 071126

I'll also take this time to show y'all a funny picture. This is my art of ten years ago. I might've been nine or ten. Jolly good ain't it?

http://76.21.4.254/My%20Pictures/071109b%20001.jpg

You'll notice it's hosted at 76.21.4.254. This is my own server, which I recently set up on my wonderfully loud and unreliable custom box (for the enthusiasts out there, that's an Abit AN7, Athlon XP Barton 3200+, 2x 512MB PC2700 DDR, GeForce FX5200, 80GB), now dubbed Colette. Since I'm a total computer nut, I'll be doing some upgrades in due time. But for now, it's running Windows XP for an OS (That's right, call me a fanboy, but I'll have none of this Linux stuff), apache 2.2.6 for an http server and xlight 2.8 for an ftp server.

dsc4647 dsc4648 dsc4639

She'a also my torrent server, controller via Windows' Remote Desktop feature. I avoid doing torrents on my college network because they are cracking down on piracy and because their network is significantly slower than my connection at home. Despite the fact that I have Comcast, which caps all torrents at 750U/50D. Ok, so I doubt the RIAA or whatever the hell cares about anime, but maybe I don't just download anime.

Speaking of which, I'm following Clannad, Genshiken 2, Hayate no Gotoku, Minami-ke, Myself; Yourself, Shakugan no Shana II, Sky Girls and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (Still!?) this season.

Clannad is a riot, I love this show. Classic KyoAni/Key. If you ain't watching it, you fail at life. Minami-ke is and I quote about "the ordinary and plain life of the three Minami sisters. Please do not have high expectations". Hell, I have high expectations. This would be my second recommendation of the season. This show is basically running along the lines of AzuDai and Lucky Star; comedy at it's finest. Myself; Yourself would be my third recommendation. Basically it's about a kid who returns to his hometown only to learn about the evil stuff that went on while he was away.

Genshiken 2 is pretty average. Nothing too exciting, but nothing terrible either. They pretty much follow the manga to the dot, which is (according to Zetsubou Sensei) an excuse for making a bad anime. The mediocrity may be due to the fact that I've read the whole manga. Hayate no Gotoku is getting kinda bland. They shouldn't have decided to make it... 52 episodes. That was dumb. Shakugan no Shana II doesn't live up to its name either. It's a pity as I thought the first season was pretty good. Really liked the first season music too.

I've already commented on the last two; Sky Girls is almost over and the folks subbing Zetsubou are just taking FOREVER.

Anyways, I'm done talking for now, have yourselves a nice day. Especially if you decided to read all of that.

So every year my family goes back to Hong Kong to visit our relatives.

This year my dad decided to take me to Europe (namely London and Paris) along the way as I've never been there... along with a hojillion other places in this world.

My general verdict? I'd rather stay in California. I toured colleges last year and my impression of these old European states is that they're like Ivy League colleges. They all seem to be competing to see who has the most eccentric and random quirks; I can't really pick anything specific out that lends to me to come to this conclsion; it's just a "feel" if you will. Maybe I'm just crazy.

It's terribly expensive over there. Prohibitively so if you're getting around on the US dollar. Items in London are of the same numerical value as thier Californian counterparts... except in pounds (don't know the code for the pounds symbol). And we all know a pound is two point odd US dollars. Paris wasn't too much better. Items were of slightly higher numerical value than their Californian counterparts but in Euro... which is 1.4ish USD? Either way gas really is ridiclously expensive over there.

Singapore is a different story. It's a real city, not a bunch of facades with shops and offices behind them. Without as high a population density as other cities, it's not as imposing as say Hong Kong or New York, but a city nonetheless. Reminds a bit of Mexico. Heat is terrible. Hot and humid to boot. I don't remember the rates but I believe most items in Singapore cost about the same as their Californian counterparts. An interesting thing I found out from a Singaporian friend of my dad's: there is a ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY percent tax on cars. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY PERCENT! If you pay $25k for a Civic it's now gonna cost you more than $60k! And you can only own it for ten years... without paying yet another premium. As things would go this has encouraged spending on cars... as they've become something of a status symbol.

Anyways, I went to the "usual" places in London and Paris; I'm sure you've all heard enough about these locations so I'll just mention one thing. I was really impressed by the size of Versailles. Buckingham palace is a dot compared to that place. You could fit the f*cking internet in there. It's really hueg. Like Xbox. Not to mention I went at the perfect time: A rainy monday and there were few other tourists and free admission. We walked about a fourth of the garden. Then turned around. Damn was it big.

The previous paragraphs were written on a plane en route to SFO. Now on to more mundane things.

Anime

Picked up Sky Girls and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Not to mention the second episode of the Tales of Symphonia animation. Nothing strikes about Sky Girls strikes me as being terribly new or exciting, but it's cute. I guess that's what counts. Zetsubou Sensei on the other hand takes wierd to a whole 'nother level. With more and more of these atypical anime coming out here and there I get the feeling the anime scene is turning into a modern art scene... The ToS animation part two starts feeling rushed. Feels like more stuff is cut and there's less dialogue and more just... woosh. Seems like the animators are starting to feel the crunch.

Figurines

Yeah. I splooged on some figurines in Hong Kong. Three to be precise. Hamburger Saber [1] cost a pretty penny, something in the realm of $450HK ($55USD). Lacking a display case, I keep my large figurines in their boxes; the picture was taken with the model inside the box with a 6v flashlight shining down the top. Robe and wizard's hat Yuki [2] is still in the box, as the box does not make as good a display case as that of Hamburger Saber. She cost only about $40USD. Finally, maid Tsuruya [3] is small enough not to warrant a display case.

[1]
[2]
[3]

Well, that's it for now. Have yourself a nice day!

That's right. I got my new one on Monday!

Dell Latitude D830
Centrino Duo 2.0GHz
2GB DDR2 RAM
80GB 7200RPM HDD
And plenty of other stuff...

[1]
[2]
[3]

Quite the ironic wallpaper if you ask me...

My first impression taking the thing out of the box was that the build quality was much nicer than that of my 500m. I believe the entire chassis exterior is some sort of metal alloy as opposed to the plastic casing of the 500m. Furthermore there's no flex in the screen, palmrest, or anywhere. The keyboard has slightly superior feedback to the 500m, but it's a bit bigger and might take a bit of getting used to. People say that the screen is a bit dim, but I haven't had a problem with brightness.

Vista wasn't as terrible as I envisioned. Not externally, at least. Yes, it's very pretty to look at. No, there was no lag after I updated Dell's default video driver nor were there as many security prompts as I had expected. Just as much as XP SP2. The folder structures are actually quite similar to those of XP so it's not that hard to get used to. Regardless I'm still not too happy about all the supposed DRM stuff under that shiny cover and have subsequently upgraded to XP.

I bought the machine with Vista so I could get a Vista OEM disk XD

As it stands, XP was a hassle to install. Either that or Murphy's Law was particularly strong with me that day. All I can say is that it took me a full morning to get it running correctly, though I can probably do it in less now that I know what I'm doing. Hopefully I'll remember when reformatting time comes around.

[4]
[5]
[6]

Among other computer related stuff, I replaced the hinge on my old Latitude CpT. Even though I never use it I like to have it functioning. If it's still working by the time I'm old, I'm sure it will be valuable. Plus I just like to collect stuff. Kleptomania or something like that.


I also reorganized the workspace in my room, creating the oddity in picture five. Basically I'll need to be able to work in my room since my parents are kicking me out of my upstairs workspace when I leave for college. Previously the switch in picture five was meant to have a monitor sit ontop of it, but a newer flatscreen eliminated that monitor. Subsequently the switch had to move to less obtrusive position: under the desk.

Finally, I took apart that 500m and cleaned out 3 years worth of dropped food; until I get some protective covering for my D830, it will still be my main computer. Besides the physical wear of some of the keys and palmrest it almost looks like new.

Commissions

If anyone is interested, commission rates still stand:

[$05 USD] Single-figure pencil
[$10 USD] Single-figure pencil w/h [simple] background
[$15 USD] Single-figure color
[$20 USD] Single-figure color w/h [simple] background

Contact information in my profile.

Manga and Anime

Hayate no Gotoku: Holy cow this show is genius. If Lucky Star makes me giggle, Hayate downright makes me lol. It has just as many references as Lucky Star and a coherent story to boot. Nothing against Lucky Star, but Hayate is just that good.

Something Something Gurren Lagann: I can never remember how to spell the first two works of the title. This show is Evangelion with less emo and more gar. Thank you for the recommendation, Empty Smile!

Errr... what manga? I bought Gunslinger Girl four at Borders the other day. My primary reaction was "OMFG finally!!!". I think I'll get Yotsuba four as well...

Miscellaneous

"You watch me, I watch you" policy still stands.

2000th viewer will get a free illustration. Contact information in profile. Screenshot or something is required.

All comments and stuff appreciated!