The Craps of Christmas.

Somehow, I feel bad for posting this.

I dislike Christmas.
There. I said it.

The festive holiday that the majority of us love, I have a slight disdain towards. The presents are great! Or are they.
It's an odd feeling, not enjoying a festive holiday. Perhaps it's because I don't really take any religion fully seriously?
Maybe the way I was raised.

Ah well, you get what you get.

Now, moving on...

Toaru Majutsu no Index 6

I've been following Index pretty closely. Watching it when it's released, etc. I must say first, Kudos to Eclipse for doing such a fantastic job on subbing this project.

Anyway, to the summary!
Firstly: Epic fight scene. Might be my inner child speaking, but honestly has to be the best fight scene I've ever seen that's been capsuled in a small 6x3 meter room. That little rant aside, the character development just took a really strange turn... Nonetheless, it's managed to keep me wanting more (damn you, weekly releases! *shakes fist*).
I suppose though, 6 episodes in it's about time the Church's role in the series begun to rear its head and become more of a known part to the audience.

All in all, still enjoying it. And I reccommend it to action-junkies if you like a good storyline with abit of boom and zap. :)

DSLR? But I hardly Know'r!

Ok ok, my apologies for the terrible pun as the title.
But yeah! DSLR!

So long story short, after several months I've decided to go out and fork out a _lot_ of cash for a Nikon D60 twin lens kit. Coming out of the closet about another bad habit of mine... Photography. Like a small child, I pulled it out of it's box pretty much the moment I got home and started practicing (Or, getting stupidly snap-happy.) Whichever term you pick. :P

It's a fantastic camera, solid, functional. More importantly, it takes _awesome_ pictures.
No post-processing needed! (Unless I over-expose my pics... but anyway.
The only qualms I have now is that I'm going to be spending more on new lens', a flash, and what have you. Oh, woe is me. >_>
Well, anyways. Here's some shots of Unison Vita and Reinforce from Alter to keep you lot happy. :P

Awesome Song Time!

Yo! Weekly update for once!
Hurrah! Or the fact I've finally got a public holiday to do something other than gaming. Mainly catching up with animu. So far I've watched:

Toaru Majutsu no Index
Akane-iro ni somaru saka
Toradora!
Shikabane Hime
And a shitload of ARIA. (Or should I say a boatload... xD)

So nice to lie in bed just watching anime though. Soothing, one might say.
So, just a note to say the Kannagi! Opening theme is damn addictive, the PV is cute too. :P
motto Hade ni ne! by Haruka Tomatsu. Youtube link here.

Anyway, here. Have some lyrics. English lyrics can be found below.

ah! pretty shinning love!

yeah unbelievable

wakatteiru wa yo deai no shunkan ni
ase ga nijinda Babyface

osaerarenai kodou YASE gaman de kakusu
SUPIIDO ihan no Driving

datte te o nigiremo shinai kuseni
tsuyogatte "tsuite koi"
nante senobi darake no anata ga suki

mada mada jimi da NE!
Kiss mo jimi da NE (fuwa fuwa)
haki furushi no zubon nuide tobikonde kitara?

sore demo jimi da NE!
HONTO no koi da NE! ｋidzuite
anata dake ni atsui AN DU TOROWA misete ageru sotto
Hard day's night game
TOROkesou…

wakatte kita no yo issho ni ita mono
sunao ni narenai Shy boy

"otoko rashiku" nante kuchi kuse ni iu kedo
DORIFUTO tsuzukeru Loneliness

datte ano ko ni ki mo nai KUSE ni
omowaseburi na mekubase
chotto koko ni iru janai watashi o mite

mada mada jimi da NE!
NAKAMI mo jimi da NE! (hara hara)
jibun dake no yume o miru yori issho ni oｄorou yo

yappari jimi da NE!
HAATO wa Crazy for me! itsuka wa
mune no oku de amai haru ichiban fuki areruno kitto
Magic nightmare
shibirechau…

gogo no kyoushitsu DARA DARA jyugyou
taikutsu na jumon KOKORO ga sawagu
shoubu wa houkago itsumo no ano basho
onegai matteite watashi no subete
anata ni sasageru wa
ｋami sama mi mamotte For you

mada mada jimi da NE!
Kiss mo ji mi da NE! (fuwa fuwa)
haki furushi no zubon nuide tobikonde kitara

sore demo jimi da NE!
HONTO no koi da NE! kidzuite
konya dake wa futari AN DU TOROWA kasanari au motto
hade ni ne!
dakishimete…

In English....

ah! pretty shinning love!

yeah unbelievable

wakatteiru wa yo deai no shunkan ni
ase ga nijinda Babyface

osaerarenai kodou YASE gaman de kakusu
SUPIIDO ihan no Driving

datte te o nigiremo shinai kuseni
tsuyogatte "tsuite koi"
nante senobi darake no anata ga suki

mada mada jimi da NE!
Kiss mo jimi da NE (fuwa fuwa)
haki furushi no zubon nuide tobikonde kitara?

sore demo jimi da NE!
HONTO no koi da NE! ｋidzuite
anata dake ni atsui AN DU TOROWA misete ageru sotto
Hard day's night game
TOROkesou…

wakatte kita no yo issho ni ita mono
sunao ni narenai Shy boy

"otoko rashiku" nante kuchi kuse ni iu kedo
DORIFUTO tsuzukeru Loneliness

datte ano ko ni ki mo nai KUSE ni
omowaseburi na mekubase
chotto koko ni iru janai watashi o mite

mada mada jimi da NE!
NAKAMI mo jimi da NE! (hara hara)
jibun dake no yume o miru yori issho ni oｄorou yo

yappari jimi da NE!
HAATO wa Crazy for me! itsuka wa
mune no oku de amai haru ichiban fuki areruno kitto
Magic nightmare
shibirechau…

gogo no kyoushitsu DARA DARA jyugyou
taikutsu na jumon KOKORO ga sawagu
shoubu wa houkago itsumo no ano basho
onegai matteite watashi no subete
anata ni sasageru wa
ｋami sama mi mamotte For you

mada mada jimi da NE!
Kiss mo ji mi da NE! (fuwa fuwa)
haki furushi no zubon nuide tobikonde kitara

sore demo jimi da NE!
HONTO no koi da NE! kidzuite
konya dake wa futari AN DU TOROWA kasanari au motto
hade ni ne!
dakishimete…

わかっているわよ　出会いの瞬間に
汗が滲んだ　Babyface

抑えられない鼓動　ヤセ我慢で隠す
スピード違反の　Driving

だって　手を握れもしないクセに
強がって「ついてこい」
なんて背伸びだらけの　貴方が好き

まだまだ地・味・だ・NE!
Kissも地・味・だ・NE!（Fuwa-Fuwa）
履き古しの　ズボン脱いで　飛び込んで来たら？

それでも地・味・だ・NE!
ホントの恋・だ・NE!　気付いて
貴方だけに　熱いアン・ドゥ・トロワ　見せてあげる　そっと
Hard day's night game
トロけそう・・・・・・

わかってきたのよ　一緒にいたもの
素直になれない　Shy boy

「男らしく」なんて　口癖に言うけど
ドリフト続ける　Lonliness

だって　あの娘に気もないクセニ
思わせぶりな目配せ
ちょっと　ここにいるじゃない　私を見て

まだまだ地・味・だ・NE!
ナカミも地・味・だ・NE!（hara-hara）
自分だけの　夢を見るより　一緒に踊ろうよ

やっぱり地・味・だ・NE!
ハートはCrazy for me!　いつかは
胸の奥で　甘い春一番　吹き荒れるの　きっと
Magic Nightmare
シビらちゃ・・・・・・

午後の教室　ダラダラ授業
退屈な呪文　ココロがさわぐ
勝負は放課後　いつものあの場所
お願い　待っていて　私のすべて
貴方に捧げるわ
神様見守って　For you

まだまだ地・味・だ・NE!
Kissも地・味・だ・NE!（Fuwa-Fuwa）
履き古しの　ズボン脱いで　飛び込んで来たら？

それでも地・味・だ・NE!
ホントの恋・だ・NE!　気付いて
貴方だけに　熱いアン・ドゥ・トロワ　重なり合う　もっと
派・手・に・ね！
抱きしめて・・・・・・

Ah! Pretty shining love!

Yay! Unbelievable!

I already knew, ever since the moment we met
I had a sweat filled Babyface.

While hiding my uncontrollable heartbeat and my wild endurance,
I break the speed limit while Driving.

Well, it’s because I can’t even grip your hand and yet
I’m able to strongly say “Come here!”
How is it that I love your growing figure?

It’s still too plain!
My kiss too is plain! (Light and Airy)
What if I took off my worn of shoes and pants and jumped in?

Bet even so it’s still too plain!
It’s true love right? I realized...
Just to you, I’ll gently show my hot 1 2 3...
Hard day’s night game
I’m mesmerized...

I’ve come to understand the person with me
can’t be honest...such a Shy boy

Although your favorite phrase is “Like a Man!”,
you continue to drift into Loneliness.

I shouldn’t pay attention to that girl but
she gives you suggestive winks...
Hey, I’m right here aren’t I? Look at me.

It’s still too plain!
My interior is still to plain! (Heart beats)
Rather than just seeing my own dreams...lets dance together!

I knew it, it’s still too plain!
Your heart is Crazy for me! Someday,
I’m sure the sweet spring deep in my heart will blow away my
Magic nightmare
I’m getting numb...

The afternoon classroom and the long lecture,
this boring charm makes a riot out of my heart.
The match will be after school at the usual spot.
Please wait for me, me and my everything.
To you, I’ll offer
a god watching over you...just for you.

It’s still too plain!
My kiss too is plain! (Light and Airy)
What if I took off my worn of shoes and pants and jumped in?

Bet even so it’s still too plain!
It’s true love right? I realized…
Just for this night, our 1 2 3 will overlap each other…
It’s too gaudy right!
Hold me...

Anyhow, That's it for today methinks.
reijin out.

The Great Australian Firewall

So, some may have already heard of Australia's great firewall plans.
This is already proving to be problematic, with their currently flourishing plans to build a national broadband network.

Please note: the following is not the opinion of anyone I know, just me.

As a country, the state of our internet is already unimpressive as is. It would be much wiser (In my opinion) to be spending the money going into this project towards the infrastructure of our nation.

Whilst most may argue that it is to protect our children, and as such our futures - Let me ask those who say this a question: Isn't it a parents responsibility to ensure their child doesn't end up looking up inappropriate materials?

Furthermore, it can be easily bypassed by commonly accessible programs / Protocols that can be used on the internet. There are infinite numbers of loopholes that can be exploited.
Secure HTTP (Web browsing on an encrypted level),
Proxy servers (Quickly becoming a household terminology in China)
Bit-Torrent (Which traffic from cannot be easily monitored, and is associated with illegal media downloads.)
Just to name a few of the more commonly known.

In the end, the taxpayer will be the one suffering at the expense of implementation, something that will surely cripple our current infrastructure.

It's been a while

Well... I don't even know where to begin.

So much stuff happened this last few months... Gah! Too much to mention.
My fair share of drama, hilarity, and the usual procrastination happened, along with

*sigh*

I suppose I can start with the figures I got (With no pictures....)
Unison Vita and Aisaka Taiga from Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS and Toradora! respectvely.
I'll update the post with abit more on pics etc. But both are fantastic figures.

Unison Vita is very well modelled, and highly detailed. What more would I get from Alter, I suppose.

As for Taiga, Max Factory have done a pretty job of making the palmtop tiger 3d. It's not as detailed as some of the Alter models, but nonetheless a very decent job for only around the 6000Y mark.


The one thing that seriously hates me is the shipping cost though... $20 a pop. :(
Oh well. Anyhow, I'll leave a gap here for some pics when I update.

Work seems to be the usual. Boring, Lack of anything really intriguing to do.
Talking to customers is fun, and I suppose I should keep reminding myself that it is for me to be abit more solid in basic procedures. It's good though. The people I work with especially are terrific.

Just the issue of actually staying enthusiastic about it all.
And then my health... >_> Gah.
Allergies, Skin issues, etc etc. The list goes on.


Anyhow. I'd best not ramble for too long. I might be getting a new camera in the future so these figs will look better on photo too!

Thanks for reading as usual, my small readerbase (if any).
Reijin out.

Figma Hatsune Miku

I was very pleased to have this come in. A welcome suprise, in fact. Anyhow, here's some pics.

Fairly basic Figma build quality, nothing amazing except the price of $20 :)

As usual, Thanks to the boys and girls over at HobbyLink Japan
On a side note, My 24" screens are coming in under 2 hours. Hurrah!

We're not dead!

By no doubt you've all seen the google frontpage of today, and realised we're not dead.

I guess the LHC isn't going to kill us all. :)



Sorry for the lack of updates all, it's been pretty flat-out lately.
Not much going on anyway. Just the world revolving, and all that.

I did have a go at the WAR Beta yesterday though! It's quite fun, although it does still play like WoW. Some diffrences are that you can actually tank in Player-vs-Player combat though. It does seem like a fresh direction to take, especially with your abilities and how they're used.

Anime is still entertaining too, Strike Witches keeps me entertained. :)

Anyhow, Not much more I can talk about.
Reijin out.

Animania 2008 writeup... Of sorts.

Because I'm horribly lazy, this writeup won't be exactly huge. Anyhow, explanation! Pretty much what happened was a group trip of myself and about 11 other friends (I lose count at times, seriously) to glorious Sydney for a weekend for Shopping, Stupid amounts of food (On my part) and Animania! For those that don't have a single clue what I'm on about, Animania is pretty much a convention based around Anime/Manga culture, and as such there were people in various Cos-play, loads of food, and plenty of excitement and loud noises. So, Some pics!

Eddy's gone and found his Avenue.
Beginning the epic journey! (Note: half of us in some form of costume...)
Like some soppy movie scene... but blurry!

So, our gorious day at Animania Sydney 2008 begins! There was alot of fun to be had that day.
Stalls displaying a variety of wares, lots of food (I must have eaten like... 10 takoyaki...), plenty of cosplay, karaoke, anime displays, cosplay displays, all sorts of fun!

Now apparently some of the downsides to this year was it was in Redfern, which isn't akin to TownHall where it was previously. And I gotta say, it definitely did feel like a downside. No food variety, and not much to do when you got bored. There wasn't a fantastic variety of things to do at the convention itself, either. Apart from the cosplay, it was seemingly quiet for most of the day, and very few of the events had much "spark" to them.
That said though, some of the cosplay that we DID see was awesome. Alot of it was my fangirly inside screaming, but some of them were really amazing. Honest! Fine, don't believe me? Heres some pics!

Trains are awesome. Most of the gang!
I just... Don't quite know anymore.

The waiting! huge amounts of crowd... And note the Host Club near the centre.
Soul from Soul Eater

Few friends of mine, and 2 VERY EXPENSIVE outfits. Suigintou and Shinku from Rozen Maiden.
.. Complete with evil coloured Contacts.
Sakagami Tomoyo from Clannad. One of my favourites, but a pity she didn't get more attention.
The Team Fortress 2 Crew. Their doctor was late..

Well played, Sensei.

School Rumble!

Anyhow, I'll post more in a 2nd writeup later this week, I'm rather tired and sickly at the moment. :(

Reijin out.

Animania 2008!

Hurrah, I'm going to Animania tomorrow! If anyone wants to meet me, drop me a comment with your email and I'll get in touch with you :D

Anyway... This is the reason I watch Koihime Musou.

Hows that for fanservice.. I'm thinking this is one of the "So bad it's good" shows. It's a good laugh for quite a bit though, so enjoying it so far.
The storyline is abit far-fetched though... But we'll see how it develops. Probably only watching it for the huge bewbies at the moment.

In the gist of things

Somehow, this doesn't quite work out for me at the moment. It usually works well, but sometimes not. Maybe I need to go back into like, a martial art. (Pity I can't because of work)
Oh well, I suppose I'll keep job-hunting and find something that suits me.

It's abit iffy at the moment, but you have to find a niche to fit into, don't you?

Anyway, I might just leave the update here.
reijin out.

Huh. Musing, once again.

So, just musing bout my average life.
Where am I going with my current career... Network engineering...

Oh well. I guess you can't complain , at least I'm getting a decent pay.
For what I'm doing, anyhow. I'm considering Graphic Design and possibly getting back into music though! So, we'll see how it goes. Life goes where you take it, I suppose.

That aside, Anime this season seems pretty good. Strike Witches is entertaining, and theres only 2-3 new series' that I'm after in terms of watching, so I can actually catch up on my backlog.... Which is only ever getting larger and larger. Oh well.
Anime is amusing. When adults and peers ask me why I watch this "Japanese 2d softcore" I simply reply that it's humourous, and it fills a niche that is misrepresented in western society.

Adults not liking animated features? Excuse me for liking them so, because in all honesty I can't for the life of me see a story such as EF being done as a TV sitcom that a wide audience will enjoy and as such, let the show continue. On top of that, sitcoms etc that anime sort-of represent in a 2d fashion are all either comedies, or Home & Away type dramas.

I'd rather just see some guy fall in love with the girl of his dreams, and follow that one storyline... Thanks for offering me a pack of 11 randoms that just want to screw each others' brains out.

Anyway, I hope my incoherent rambling made some sense to my few readers, and I guess I'll do something more amusing for you few tomorow :)

Note to self

I should really learn not to touch settings I don't know about...

Long story short: I hate the names motherboard manufacturers give to voltages.

Review: Logitech G51 5.1 surround sound speakers

So, Yesterday I found these beauties for a ridiculously cheap price of $148, and on a whim brought them. Oh. Woe is my spending. The G51 Speaker set is currently Logitech’s best speaker system available, and is currently receiving applause from pretty much everywhere. I’m usually not one to join the crowd at most times...

However, These make me go wow.

Opening the box, I was greeted with the 4 monitor speakers, a centre speaker, the instruction manual, A subwoofer (Which was the majority of the box), and the small volume controller. My thoughts? “Wow, this is a pretty substantial kit.” The speakers consist of two little drivers, that are “laser tuned” or some bullshit like that. Personally, I never believe it until I hear them. However, all of my thoughts and assumptions were very quickly torn asunder once I plugged these in and set them up.

Firing up some good old music, I quickly found it VERY hard to find a flaw in these beauties. They had little issue reproducing trance and bass-heavy tracks with ease. Something people may want to note though, if your subwoofer is too loud TURN UP THE SPEAKERS, not the volume in winamp. The volume controls on your PC mis-represent the amplification and as such give you much deeper bass alot of the time. While it’s all good and merry if you’re a wog, most people do like their music balanced.

I didn’t have to touch the subwoofer volume at all for this set, which was quite welcome. Treble is represented clearly without the ear-piercing that some speakers produce, mid-range is very clear as well. I could easily tell difference in tones and notes. The leading and melodic vocals are seperable when you listen to the music too. Bass response is reasonably clean, but still responsive and tight.

Firing these up in a game of Call of Duty 4 and Team Fortress 2, Explosions sounded stunning. Having the sub on normal and “crazy explosions boom boom levels” were still distortion-free, and the directional sound on these was very good. People coming up behind you and missing with the knife... I’ll just say I was abit startled the first few times. Similarly for TF2. Hearing a boom behind you really did sound like it was from behind you. Seems like these are good for music and gaming!
As for movies, watching Air Force One was a pretty good experience. The effects sounded good (for the copy of the movie I have anyway), and there wasn’t much complaining to be done.

Visually they look pretty good. They don’t take up a huge amount of room, but they are larger than your usual small set. The stands of each speaker are reversible for wall-mounting so all you really have to do is stick a nail in the wall if you want to mount them.

One thing I do have an issue with is the sub though. The design is aimed at the floor, so really it does give that “rumbling bass” without needing too much power. However, it’s not very good if you live with people, or are in an apartment / unit complex. It is a very well-made sub though, and as said before, it reproduces bass-lines and beats very clearly. It did have some issues with really fast basslines, but for a $148 set, I’m not too unhappy with it.

My rating? 4.5/5 They sound great, look great, easy to set up, and they’re not the price of a small house. The only qualm is with the sub, which could be better and more balanced, but theres little to complain about.

4850 pre-review-preview? :s

So. 2 ATi HD4850's. I'll just let you have a little pre-taste here... More to come after I burn through these assignments.

Complaints about life

So. Some depressing parts of my life incoming.
Firstly: Wow, my job sucks! I'm quitting. End of line. Too much crap from too few people that just makes the entire line of work go down the shitter rather quickly. Seccondly: Looking at my life, it's pretty depressing. Aside from the occasional friend outing, it's games at home. Or work. Not much variety.
Thirdly: God damnit, I'm oh so very lonely. ;_;

Eh, I suppose I'll get over it. I guess I'm not feeling the best in the world for the last few weeks or so. It'll pass, and I'll go back to my usual stupidly happy self. Only where the currents take you, I suppose.

Whatever it is watching over us... he sure ain't doing much more.
My apologies to those few that are after content, by the way. I'll post some real material when I wake up, hopefully refreshed and ~ready for action~
Reijin out.

HD4850 and the continuous cooling conundrums...

And today, I bring ye... The HD4850, by Sapphire. Apart from the card running hot as a damn volcano, It's a beautiful thing that finally lets me play games stupidly fast.
Now all I need to do is Volt-mod them.

I did buy two, at the good ole Computer fair. $230 a pop too! Not a bad price at all.
The 2nd had a bad heatsink with a faulty fan - Took it off, put it to the hacksaw. (Stupid idea, huh?) Turns out the heatsinks aren't even copper. Tin, with copper plating. Horrible at transferring heat.
Nonetheless, it's a very good card for the money and I highly reccomend it. An extra $40 will get you some very decent aftermarket cooling that you can put on these pretties that will drop the temps from 80 to a cool 30.
Not to mention UT3 at 150 frames....

Nonetheless, I am indeed a very happy chappy. Anyhow, heres a picture of the beast in the nude :)
My current problem is the MOSFET's at the back - I really don't want to fork out for additional heatsinks :(

In further news, Diablo 3 has been announced! It looks VERY good. Male and female classes, a HOTBAR!? and more importantly, DESTROYABLE SURROUNDINGS?
Finally, this festival of pants-creaming was topped off by DECAPITATION EFFECTS. I HAVE NEVER WANTED TO PLAY A GAME MORE IN MY LIFE.
Anyway, maybe the caffiene is getting to me. I'd best let you all have a look here as well. Along with Starcraft 2, this should make my Christmas a very entertaining one indeed.

Reinforce Zwei! First Review!

So, as life goes on, I may as well fill this blog. A job interview next week, Computer building for friends this weekend, life is good! But that aside, I bring you... Reinforce Zwei by Alter! It came a few weeks ago, thanks to the good people at HLJ. Something I would indeed really like to have is a few shelves. Pity there isn't a Ikea store or anything around me. So much to buy, so little time.

Before I start though, apologies for the quality, ye olde' camera is dying. I'm still happy with it though, so I'm not going to get anything newer for a fair while. And it still does the job.
Anyhow, to the fig! For those who watched the Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha series, she is Hayate's unison device that appears in the final arc of the trilogy - StrikerS I did enjoy the series alot, and do reccomend it to people. (And here I am, an 18 year old guy recommending magical girl anime... God knows what'd happen to me if my boss found out.) But anyway, the quality of her is amazing, my first of hopefully many figures by Alter.
If you were thinking of buying her - Good luck! From what I've seen, she sold out pretty much worldwide a week within her release. However, if you do find one from a reasonably trustworthy buyer, don't hesitate, most likely it'll be gone the next time you go back and check. She's an incredibly popular supporting character.
Overall, I was very impressed by the level of detail, especially in a figurine. I can definitely say Alter are staying on my buying list for anything I find in the future. The hair though sometimes scares me, it does feel a little fragile

I have heard that Alter are releasing a figurine of her master which comes with a mini-reinforce thats due in december, however. I'll keep you posted.

First Proast!

Hurrah, new blog! Along with a new motherboard....

The computer fair this weekend should be interesting indeed.
Just in time to see the 4870's arrive en masse on multiple sites - These cards are really amazing. The give the average joe Crossfire at an affordable point, they perform very well solo, and they finally have resolved ATi's long battle with Anti-aliasing and Antrioscopic Filtering. PC Case gear have a very nice deal I may just go with. Judging from the TweakTown review, there still are a few driver problems, but they'll be resolved rather quickly. Stick a ThermalTake DuoOrb on them and you'll be sweet. Now the only problem is a lack of damn PCI slots on my motherboard....

Nonetheless, my rig is going quite happily. Vistax64 has been relatively qualm-free, and the copious amounts of RAM I have (compared with before) is making me a very happy chap indeed.

Cable management is going to be my forever bugging problem though.... :(