Connect?

Right now I'm trying to connect to a wireless network, but it's not going too successfully, so I may have to post this at a later date. But I hope I'll be online soon enough. I know the faithful among you will be used to delays in my updates, sometimes along the lines of four months. But I hope I won't subject you to anything like that again. I'm still struggling with this, but I have password issues. This stupid laptop just won't save a password. And I'm waiting on a text message to get the password, but it's just not coming through. I think they're already asleep. Curses.

Well, by the time I actually connect, I'll probably have added to this very brief update. I'm still getting my phone to work correctly. Its disobedience is rather infuriating. I will be having words with its mother. But it's still great for Skype, it just needs more juice. Everything has been so exciting the past few days, I can't wait to tell you. I'll probably tell all tomorrow, if I can. I'm sorry for no detail.

---

That was a few days ago. I'm properly connected in a Starbucks right now. I'm having one of the best times of my lives. Certainly the best of the last few months, I'm very excited. I want to shoot out a hello to many of my friends who are reading. And I am sorry for never detailing what is going on. Maybe tomorrow?

I love you all. Especially some of you.

Quick Stop Over

I'm just going to make this quick post, letting everyone know I'm ok.

I made the last entry backwards to weed out the people who don't really care that much, as it was kinda personal. Turns out Natasha read it without software support, as in just as is: backwards. That wasn't the intention. But it doesn't matter too much. I'm just on my laptop in a Starbucks right now, and my battery is dying, so I really can't be long.

I assure all my loyal fans that I'll make an full, informative post within the next few days.

I'm downloading the latest REM album. I feel I should be listening to it. I'm meeting some really old friends tomorrow, I can't wait. It's been far too long since I've seen them.

People, give me a call if you can.

LOW BATTERY: GOODBYE

Backward Beliefs

.od ot tahw wonk yllautca t'nod I .leef lliw I woh erus ton m'I dna ,elpoep gnillet ,eno si sihT .em ot nepo shtap wef a evah I ,taht dnoyeB

.noitamrifnoc litnu stsal ylno tI .flesym tcetorp ot desu evah I sdohtem tseb eht fo eno si laineD

.revE .taht yrt ot tnaw t'nod I .flesym etah dna dertah eht esol t'nod I fi tahW .efil elohw ym deniatniam evah I tahw woleb level a sa ti ees yllanosrep I ,sdnuos ti sa tnagorra sA ?em evael ti seod erehw tuB .meht emoceb dna ,meht etah ton ot nrael spahrep dna ,etah I elpoep eht ekil emoceb ,selur nwo ym kaerb ot eb dluoc dohtem rehtonA .ti tuoba enoyreve llet ot si melborp siht htiw laed ot tpmetta ot gnisu ma I dohtem eno tub ,uoy fo tsom ot esnes ekam ton lliw sihT

.elpoep niatrec ot semoc ti nehw erusopmoc gniniatniam fo elbapac flesym dnif regnol on I .ti evresed t'nod ohw esoht ot noissergga trevid ot dewolla ma I ,erus etiuq ma I hcihw fo gniht enO

.gniees ma I taht steltuo eht ekil ton od I dnA .teltuo wen a tuo thguos dna tliub sah ti etal fo ,naH tfel I ecnis melborp a neeb t'nsah ti hguoht dna ,emit gnol a rof teltuo na dah t'nsah regna yM .taht ekil t'nod I dna regna fo etuor gnol a si erehT .ssecorp tsaf a t'nsi siht tuB

.flesym egnahc nac I ,hcihw hguorht dna ,desilaer eb nac sweiv ym spahrep hcihw ni yella wen a dnuof evah I .ot gnirrefer saw I tahw si siht ,oga stsop wef a snoitalever tuoba yleugav ekops I nehW .ni flesym eusrup ot syella wen dnif ot no em del ti tub ,tnetxe llams a ot depleh tseirp ehT ?ereht morf ot nrut I od erehw oS .era yeht ohw ton ,siht fo esuaceb ma I ohw ekil t'nod I

.ecalp tsrif eht ni tsniaga ma I tahw si taht ,yllacinorI .t'nera yeht ohw ot elpoep egnahc ot tnaw t'nod osla I dnA

.em stceffa won taht noitca na s'ti taht flesym gnillet yb ti yfitsuj dna yrt I .leef ot esle woh wonk t'nod I tub ,stnaryt evitavresnoc etah I dnA .tnaryt evitavresnoc a emoceb ot tnaw I ylneddus dna ,tuoba erac I enoemos ot sneppah ti ,neht dnA .melborp ym t'nsi ti tub ,sneppah ti taht das m'I .erac t'nod I dna ,em tceffa t'nseod ti dna ,tnaw yeht revetahw od ot thgir s'elpoep rof ylgnorts os thgif I .elpoep gnigduj etah I :em steg taht trap taht s'ereh dnA

.latnemgduj gnieb tuohtiw tuoba stnerap ym ot klat tonnac I gnihtemos s'tI .yaw laicifrepus a ni tub ,depleh sah retsis yM .edivorp nac ylimaf ym troppus dnoyeb seog sihT .troser tsal a sa tol a ti fo kniht I ,ti no hcum dennalp reven I .did I tahw elpoep owt dlot ylno I .ni edifnoc ot tseirp a tuo thguos I ,emit taht retfa yltrohS

.uoy esirprus thgim sihT .noigiler fo sweiv ym wonk elpoep ynaM

.pleh t'nseod ti ,meht ot kaeps ot doog s'ti elihw dna ,ailuJ dna ammE morf edisa ,smaeb troppus on yletulosba dah I .od ot tahw wonk t'ndid I ,taht retfA .step s'retsis ym htiw melborp a dah I meht dlot I .tfel dna pu tog tsuj I dna ,ees ot tnaw t'ndid yllaer I gnihtemos was I .oga skeew wef a ytrap a ta noitalever cifirroh a dah I .modeerf dna scitilop fo sweiv ym deduolc yletelpmoc evah hcihw seussi gnivah neeb evah I tuB

.flesym lortnoc nac I .taht tpecca nac I

.os od ot modeerf ym nihtiw yletelpmoc s'ti hguoht neve ,ytrid dna gnitsugsid leef I ,selur nwo ym kaerb I fI .modeerf elttil yrev rof wolla taht flesym ot selur tnegnirts ylemertxe ylppa I .flesmih tpecxe ,eciohc lanosrep fo modeerf ot thgir latot htiw ,snoitpecxe on htiw ,nosrep yreve taert lliw ohw ,nosrep larebil a sa flesym ebircsed dluow I ,lla nI

.dloh ton od I taht sfeileb rehto htiw dnah ni dnah seog ti ,yldaS .erutluc ytisrevinU ni evisavrep etiuq si msilarebiL .tnetxe emos ot sweiv emas eht dloh wonk I elpoep eht ,yllareneG .emas eht gniveileb srehto ynam enigami ot drah s'ti semitemos dna ,nac I tseb sa ysircopyh tuohtiw siht dlohpu I .od uoy tahw ni srehto tceffa ton od uoy sa gnol sa modeerf lanosrep ot stimil on era ereht taht tnaem yllareneg taht eno ,weiv larebil a deniatta I ,scitilop nasitrapib fo gniwollof dna gnidaer lacitilop hcum hguorhT

.enoyna nopu meht hsup ot elbissopmi si ti ,os ssel nevE .enoyna ot nialpxe ot redrah hcum dna ,flesym rof neve ,dnatsrednu ot drah er'yehT .gniredisnoc seulav egnarts evah I .sevlesruoy ot esolc ylralucitrap eulav a ro feileb a dloh uoy fo ynam woh wonk t'nod I

Redesign

Now this is tragic:

I spend over four hours redesigning my blog, and the main host is down, so almost no one will see it. Great. Well, a lucky few will. So you enjoy it.

So if you're wondering why I updated the design... I was just replying to an email from Erin earlier, and I mentioned something that was "awesome", and realised that I was using some very clichéd words. So I thought I'd mention that my feelings towards this particular event were superlative. To the max. I thought about that for about 8 seconds before I decided it was my new site design. I mean, redesigned my site about this time last year, just before I went to Japan, so I thought I'd treat you special people to a brand new and beautiful design.

In case you were wondering, I did a lot of it in Paint, and put it together in Photoshop. And speaking of Photoshop, I finished that project with optimal results. The project was to design an Elfen Lied tshirt for Kiana, seeing as it's one of her favourite Animes, and I just cannot afford one of those shirts from the Octopus store in the Trocadero. I got it printed at Uni, A3 on a tiny shirt which would fit her, and it looks great, only on the second attempt. Seeing as I totally misjudged the sizing of the first shirt I made, I now have one of my own as well, only reversed. I'm including the image below. And when I get some photos of Kiana or myself wearing it, I'll be sure to show you.



We finished watching the Elfen Lied anime today. We watched something like 8 episodes, which isn't that much when they're only 25 minutes long. But I also managed to get my XBox SNES emulator working, so I played Super Bomberman 3 in between a few episodes.

I did the whole redesign myself. I put the CSS on a separate style sheet, I rewrote several CSS sections and changed all the colours, I spent ages on the main graphic, and then I made all the other graphics (like the dividers and the footer) from scratch. I'm pretty happy with how it looks, it might stay this way a while. It looks a bit more silly, which is kind of what I was looking for.

Kaori moves out of here later today. Kiana goes into her room, takes her stuff out of my room, and everything is right in the world until she leaves two days later. It's been good fun having her here. We made curry earlier today, and went to Tescos, and did all sorts of fun things that make this house a house.

Natasha came around yesterday and we watched the rest of Series 1 of XMen, and then we watched Cars. Now, I have to say, I'm a Pixar fan, I really think the world of them as a company, but knowing the terms of the distribution of Cars, it felt kinda hard to escape them. As most of you probably know, Disney screwed around with Pixar's distribution contract, in essence extending it from six to seven films. Cars was the seventh, and was made begrudgingly at first. I thought it wouldn't have as much effort put into it as the other wonderful films that studio has put out. And I felt that through the film as well. I loved all the references they put in, like 2319 and the Birds on the telephone wire. But a quick look on rottentomatoes.com will show you that it was quite favourably received. But let me share two wonderful little excepts from the site with you.

"Cars is the first Pixar flick I'd describe as 'cynical,' and that, frankly, breaks my heart just a little bit." -Scott Weinberg, EFILMCRITIC.COM

I find that rings quite true. I'd put it on par with A Bug's Life, but I didn't enjoy that move extremely, but I didn't find it cynical. The next review I find also very amusing, and I feel it highlights the shortcomings of the story, which was the least interesting of all the Pixar productions.

"Disney ... is going to lecture me on the commodification of America?" -Pete Vonder Haar, FILM THREAT

It was an enjoyable film, but the best thing they have done is still The Incredibles, which I just want to see again.

I managed to write and compile a program in C# that ran on my mobile phone. I am very happy with myself. It's just a Hello World program, but I think it's definitely an excellent first step. I might make phone programming my development project next year, unless I can think of a more interesting one.

I've just loaded Super R-Type onto the XBox, I'm going to go and try it out before I go to bed. I hope the new layout serves this post well. I'll speak to you wonderful people soon.

My Hosting Went Down

To add to the problems IXWebHosting has provided for me, my account is suspended. Luckily, this, my backup blog and the blog that I used to work around their FTP issues, still works. Hopefully this is only temporary, because I love the quasiblog.net domain, and I love having it so accessible. Plus, everyone knows that one, no one knows this. I'll have to point them in the direction of it.

Though it does mean that when I publish this post, I won't have to do that FTP stuff that makes me so bored and sleepy.

Speaking of sleepy, I am. And thus this post won't be long.

Both Kiana and Emma come back from their respective holidays tomorrow. I should seriously clean. I have restarted my Free Weekly planner, I find it very useful to go day by day, more so than Google Calendar or my Phone Calendar. I shall use it from projects, like projects I'm planning or the like.

I have received a lot of indirect praise for my blog recently. Firstly from the people who have told me that they have read my blog from start to finish in one sitting (which is impressive seeing as I never shut up which happens a lot as I sometimes just keep typing and don't finish sentences and sometimes make paragraphs too long so that they become incoherent and that I often write thousands of words and sometimes I don't even space it out with a comma or punctuation orspacesandsometimesitsjustonebigword). But reading all of this blog is an achievement, and I have learnt of two people who have done it. And I extend my thanking arm to them.

Also, the amount of people who have contacted me about my site being down is flattering. I had no idea that people cared. I kinda feel like my site outlived Dan's though, which went down a while ago.

Well, I apologise to my legions of female adorers who were expecting a long post, and congratulate you on finding the blog at this address (unless you're reading this on my normal page and then you suck). The sun is rising. I'm meeting Kiana at the station tomorrow, and I have been tired out from all the N64 Emulation going on, and all the Flickr posting. I hope you all forgive me and join me for a far more in depth post coming very soon.

It's not like you're missing out, I've just sat on the sofa watching XMen for days.

Shocking Revelations

Considering that I do not have a serious hobby and I do not spend large amounts of time getting drunk and partying and that I do relatively little work to obtain my degree, I have rather a lot of time on my hands. This time lets me think, and I think a lot about life, and what it means. Maybe I enjoyed Philosophy too much at school, but I find the topic of life and what it entails to be interesting, and the topic of who I am is just as interesting. So much so, that I have been exploring who I am of late, and finding out new things along the way. Last night, I believe I found certain solutions to many problems that I have, and while not a complete be all and end all to my issues, could be what I have been looking for for the past few weeks.

More on that when I learn more about it.

You know what blogs are for? It's the whole sharing of links, sharing of information, stuff like that. I have been reading about how sharing of links has lead to con-men and dishonest people have been brought to social justice by their technical ineptitude, and it's quite beautiful. I like to think that if I were to ever stoop to levels of deceit and dishonesty, I'd be able to cover some tracks and not give the person I was ripping off ample ammunition to take me down.

Stolen T-Mobile Sidekick

A very classy and charming young lady comes into possession of a lost phone and struggles in choosing the right thing to do.

eBay's Broken Laptop

An honourable and decent gentleman sells his laptop on eBay, and of no fault of his own he forgot that the laptop did not work and forgot to clear the hard drive.

This is hardly a torrent of visitors, but it gets its share of regulars every so often, and I hope that they amuse themselves with these websites that thrive on people's sense of justice. They kinda make you feel angry and feel good at the same time, and some people have equated it to an internet mob lynching, with no real death or anything like that.

Kiana moved in to my house two days a go. She has a lot of stuff, and I hurt my back with it, but it's good to have her close. I'm looking forward to next year when everyone is back and a routine begins again. Though I will miss Housei when he's gone.

Speaking of which... I have to say hello to Natasha. She keeps complaining that I'm missing her out of my blog. Well, I care about you darling, so don't you worry. I'll mention you in the next post or something.

Oh, oh... I do get to update you on Carlos and Stacey and Mandy's house situation. I saw Carlos and Mandy at Southlands yesterday, and they informed me that they are no longer living in Kingston, they are now living across the road from me. I have to say, this is excellent news. I was worried for a bit, but this makes things a lot easier. It's only a shame that Sam is now missing out. Hopefully it all won't be too disruptive. I should find out what's going on though.

I don't know what's happening. Things haven't been this vague since... like... ages ago.

The other day, Kaori gave me a big bag of goodies with presents for everyone inside shipped directly from Katou. I got a Gundam model! Which, although I haven't built any models in many years, not since I was in Canada, I am excited to have. It should be fun. I also got this little snack called Nerunerunerune, and I swiped the Ramune flavoured one. You mix this dust with water and stir then dip in candies, it's all so sugary and delicious. I am very grateful to Katou and Kaori for those wonderful gifts.

Tonight I met with Ellie for the first time in over a year. We keep bumping into each other but we never get to talk, and it's so tragic. But we went for a meal and we ate sushi (my first sushi in over 6 months) and had a long decent chat about what has happened to us in the past year. It seems the same thing happens to many people when it comes to housemates, and she is also moving out of her house to go to new accommodation. Not on campus though (shock). It was good to learn the fate of my last years flat mates, and to know what has been going on around Whitelands.

Half Life 2: Episode 1 was released. I love everything Half Life. I played and completed all the add on packs for Half Life, and now I am seeing these new expansions for HL2. I'm playing it on the Normal mode as well. I almost always play on easy, but this time I'm going the harder way. Anyway, I've started and I'm finding it pretty frightening. Long dark corridors with an ever fading flashlight and short fused flares, it's tense. I don't pay for software often, but I find all my purchases to Valve have been worthwhile. And for $18 or something, which is about £10, I'm having quite a bit of fun. I daren't look at a walkthrough, but I'm so scared of the endless bug attacks...

Zombines... get it?

Anyway, I think I'm overwhelming people with how often this is updated now. Don't let your hats spin too much.

The Way It Used to Be

As if life wasn't exciting enough, the end of Prison Break was a cliffhanger. I know I'm a bit late, but I started watching after it finished here. And it wasn't bad after all. I didn't enjoy the first episode that much, but it was pretty good by the end.

I wasn't expecting a Season 2. Anyway, that's what I'm promised. So when the end of Summer comes, I'm going to be treated to new episodes of Lost, 24, Prison Break, all sorts. It'll all be added to my download rosta.

Who would have thought that the raid on ThePirateBay would have backfired so badly? I personally have had problems connecting to it since it went back up, but with all the controversy that it's stirred up, it hardly seemed worth it. Another uprising in the digital world, I can't help but feel proud when people are willing to stand up and say that we will continue downloading stuff.

That's topical enough for my blog, I'm now going to talk about what happened today:

For the first time in 11 months, I spoke, vocally, to Yukina. We've been chatting online since she left to return to Japan, and we've always promised to Skype, but we just haven't. Anyway, now we have, and we chatted for nearly an hour. It was so nice to catch up in a way you just can't over text. We spoke about how this time last year we were going to Asda every morning for a McDonalds and staying up three days in a row, and we both agreed that it was one of the best Summers. So much has happened we couldn't begin to cover it, but I don't think (and am hoping) that it will be the last call. There was a 2 second delay in talking, but the sound quality was amazing, and we had a lot of catching up to do. I'm going to start getting into Skype again, I remember how great it was. I also Skyped my dad briefly as well.

I have been working on a Photoshop project for a while. It's difficult, because it's not the kind of project I'm used to. This isn't a marketing thing where I'm trying to get attention and convey an idea, this is trying to convey an image without selling it, making it purely aesthetic. I know that aesthetics are the most important part of images, but never has it had such power: all my images have had an agenda, this one does not. I want to balance this image, I want to make it so that you don't mind looking at it and you are proud of other people seeing it. It's an amazing complement to see people using my marketing images to decorate their space, but this is different. For the first time, I'm being truly limited by my artictic ability, rather than my Photoshop ability. Perhaps that's a complement to my Photoshop skills, but I feel that this is far more of a challenge than designing film posters. I'm not sure if I'm happy with it, but I don't feel like I should start again, because what I've done is rather cool, and would probably be great. I might look up some techniques to help improve the image.

I also spoke to Shun on the phone for a short time the other day, which was cool. I'm feeling so last year that I felt I should update my blog, as I would have done at this point in 2005.

I have an exam on Tuesday, which won't be fun but they never are. It's DBMS, my least favourite module and the hardest. I hope it goes well, I'll do more revision for this than I would most things.

Kiana is also moving her stuff in here tomorrow, the first step in the half way transition between Kaori and Kiana, and the half way point of living in this house. I love this house, it's the best place I've lived. I was discussing with Emma earlier about how almost everyone who has lived off campus in their second year has gone on to live in Halls again in their third year. Why do I want to continue living with Emma and Mizuki? I've had a really good time, and it's sad to think of others not having such a great time.

Apparently Carlos and Stacey and Mandy and Sam have found a house finally, but it is in Kingston. Subsequently, Sam has chosen not to live there. I won't comment, as I do not know the details, but I will advise most strongly against this. Kingston is too far away for convenience, and it will just add troubles. I think one of the main reasons that EmmaHouse has been so happy for myself and Emma is that it has been so close to University. That and a foundation of strong friendship and compromise. Had we lived at one of our other chosen houses, the one near Asda or in the estate, I doubt we would be renewing our contract for a second year.

Really, I do not recommend living at that distance. I have learnt this from Dan's troubles and I doubt he'd like to spend another year in Wimbledon. In fact he doesn't, he's living on campus next year. Avoid.

Speaking of listening to advice, I really should listen to Kiana and start revision. I have only one more exam. Hooray!