SPACE BAR WOES

My laptop has always been sitting on my table, and hence has attracted some dust. I was feeling quite diligent the other day, and so I cleaned up the keyboards with a brush. Then I covered it with a keyboard protector which I got from some pharma company.

Now just a few minutes ago, I was happily watching some videos on my laptop, and when I kinda moved the protector, I saw THIS!!!

The print in the protector transferred into my space bar!!!! （　ﾟ Дﾟ）

I don't know. It must be the heat of my room. I want to be pissed, but ironically, I am amused. (；一_一)

Can anyone suggest something to remove this? I am afraid to try random stuffs cos I might further damage my keyboard. *hahay*

KASHIWA BARA

Although I love video games, but I was never the gamer type, and back then was never convinced to buy a gaming console for myself. The only gaming device I own is a Nintendo Family Computer, which we've had since I was like 5(?) years old, and which I'm proud to say, still works perfectly even as of this time of writing. My sister was the one who loves to play, and when she was still a kid, she'd spend the whole day at our neighbor's house watching and playing with their SEGA Dreamcast, and eventually their Playstation1. Then when my sister was in high school, she borrowed her classmate's Game Boy, and she lets me play Pokemon Yellow on it sometimes. Later on, my sister brought home a PS1 console (borrowed from her then boyfriend, now her ex), but I was more contented in watching her play, rather than me at the controller. The reason perhaps is that she hogs the controller  I'm not very skillful at any kinds of games, have a bad sense of direction, and have poor motor coordination. I really envy gamers who have very fast reflexes and can deliver multiple combo techniques. I can never seem to understand how to do all those stuffs! <(◎o◎)>

So eventually when my sister started working, and earning her own money, she got involved in playing Monster Hunter 2nd Generation with her officemates, which prompted her to buy her own PSP. When she comes home for the holidays, she lets me play with it, though I could hardly slay a velociprey back then (I'm such a loser TAT). She was telling me to buy my own unit, so that we could play together, but I wasn't that interested and thought it was useless for me.

Later on, I met another friend who also owns a PSP. Curiosity prompted me to ask her why she bought a PSP when she's hardly the gamer type, and she said it was a gift from her grandmother. I pressed further and asked her the game titles she plays, and she laughed and said, "Oh I don't have any games here. This is just 8GB worth of manga scanlations!"

Wait...whut!?!? You can read manga with the PSP!?!?! It was then that I got REALLY INTERESTED and started keeping an eye out to buy one for myself.

It wasn't until the last quarter of 2009 when I finally got the chance to purchase a PSP. My sister was staying in Japan for three months, and she was telling me that they were selling second hand PSPs in Akihabara for almost half the usual price. Although they were allegedly used, but they looked like they've never been taken out of the box! So I told her to get me one. Well, actually two, since my boyfriend also wanted to get one for himself. Suoh and I were so excited we decided to name our (couple) PSPs Akiha and Bara. Sadly, due to firmware problems, my sister only brought home one unit for me, and since she bought it from Kashiwa, I changed my PSP's name to Kashiwa Bara. Suoh bought his unit from Greenhills instead, and his silver PSP is aptly named Akiha Greenhills. >__<

Bara-chan!!!  @>-->--

My unit is the PSP-2000 version, and the color is purple. My favorite color is yellow, so my sister threw in a yellow handstrap from Japan (which I've never washed x__x). My boyfriend's dad gave me a set of PSP accessories that Christmas of 2009, and ever since, my PSP's been housed in a crystal case. Well, up until around last week that is. It was kinda broken already so I decided to remove it (That was also the first time, after more than 2 years, that I cleaned the external part of my PSP, ehehe~ ^^;).

Bara-chan and I have made many beautiful memories together. As my original goal, I have used her to read manga scanlations, most unforgettable of which were Koukou Debut, Penguin Revolution and Strobe Edge. There was also a time that I used it to play my mp3s whenever I travel by bus to work. I also store lovely anime images in it which I use as references whenever I feel like drawing. And yes, I use it to play my animes! It's so much lighter to carry around in my travels, and also a lot less conspicuous when I'm watching videos while at work. (^_~)-☆

And though not much of a gamer, but I do play games with it! The first game I tried was of course, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. Sadly, even with Suoh helping me out whenever he has the chance, I am terrible in it and have resorted to become a mushroom hunter instead.（￣□￣；） I've tried many other games, but the ones that I really enjoy are turn-based RPGs like Mana Khemia. Another game that I really love is Gods Eater Burst, and what's so memorable about this is that I have already spent more than 50 hours on this game when my file was suddenly corrupted! But because I love it so much, I played it all over again! (Talk about stubborn determination!) Recently, I've tried my hand in Corpse Party, Uta no Prince-sama Music and Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom. I'll most probably write more about these last two games later on.

Bara-chan has been a most wonderful companion for the last two years. And even with the PSVita out now in the market, I won't be trading her for any other consoles in the world. （*´▽｀*）

MOBILE BLOGGING?

I'm now attempting to make a blog entry using my phone and using the mobile browser, Opera Mini. The idea of mobile blogging excites me, but I know this carries some risks as well. And somehow, punching the keypad and staring at my mini-phone screen just doesn't feel as natural as typing in front of my desktop.

Still, this is something exciting since I can now easily update my blog (unless laziness strikes first! XD). Maybe if I get a better phone/gadget, I can have better access. But of course, that's out of the budget for now. >_<

Now pressing "OK" and let's all see if this works....

MY PHONE

Mama's cellphone has always been hand-me-downs from either my aunt or my sister, so I have been promising to get her a phone that's brand new. I gave her a Nokia 5310 for Christmas 2009 but after a few days she gave it to Papa because he was impressed with its music/video features, and so she went back to her old phone again. It took a while before I started looking around for another suitable model to give her, and I finally decided on the touch-and-type Nokia C3-01. Ma's not very techie and is not so good with gadgets, but I want her to be trendy. Besides, she had that high school reunion to attend (which I'll write about next time) and I wanted her to look good in front of her old friends. So as an early Mother's Day gift, we bought said phone unit two weeks ago. She's quite used to it by now and I'm happy that she seems pleased with it.

I own two cellphones and both already look quite shabby. The keypad from my Nokia 5000 even came off last month and I just used double-sided tape to fix it temporarily. My feelings of euphoria and envy after getting Mama a new phone coupled with my impulsive and compulsive personality brought me to a MyPhone shop, and so I also got myself a brand new white Q19i! Now, it wasn't really a totally random decision since I know 3 people who own the same unit and I have been receiving great feedbacks from them. One friend even boasted that her Q19i fell to the floor yet it's still working so well. So I have been thinking about this phone for a while for the following reasons:

• I want to try a Dual Sim phone.
• I want to try a QWERTY phone. I want to buy a Blackberry but it's too expensive. :(
• I want a cheap but sturdy phone that can support my careless carefree lifestyle.

And so here's my Q19i phone!

I named it Takahiro cos my current message alert tone is Junjou Romantica Mini Drama 8 from the second OST, and it's Usagi-san saying something like, "Takahiro no otouto wa..." in his deep sexy voice. ^__^♥

Now I won't be writing an in-depth review of this phone cos I'm just too lazy to do that. So far though, it's been quite easy to use, and so convenient to be carrying around just one phone with my two sim cards. I like its clean look, and people get readily attracted to it cos it seems like some high end phone (from afar XD). I thought my fat fingers would have a hard time punching in those letters (main reason I'm not getting a touch screen phone), but surprisingly, it's not that difficult at all. There are also shortcut functions (like the space bar can open the music player), and when making SMS, there are two buttons - alt and up  - which function like the shift key, making it easier to access the punctuation marks, numbers, etc. Since it has an expandable memory of up to 4gb, I loaded it with lots of mp3s and images which seem to work fine. I particularly enjoy customizing my new phone, and immediately placed a b&w Kimi no Todoke♥ pic as my wallpaper. 

Cool, huh? ^___^

Downsides... The audio's not really anything special, and if you're mainly using your phone for playing music, then I suggest you look for something else. But the speaker is really loud, so it's quite an effective alarm clock. The lay-out's a bit tacky, but I don't really care that much. Camera's quite fuzzy, I don't even think this is VGA. And multitasking makes the phone functions lag a bit, say you're using the music player and then you text, it seems a split second slower than usual. Sometimes, when the phone rings and you press the answer (or silent/reject) key, it may take a while to respond, so it may keep on ringing for a few seconds longer than you intend for it to. And I did mention that the speaker is quite loud, so the persistent ringing may be a bit embarrassing especially in public. It cannot connect to wifi, but that's fine with me since I'm not much into mobile internet anyway. 

By next month I'm getting my Nokia C3 (my boyfriend's birthday gift for me which has been lying in its box in QC since February) so I might have to say goodbye to Takahiro soon. My mother is eagerly awaiting for it to be transferred into her open hands, since she also own multiple phones (besides the new one I gave her). So our bonding time together might be short-lived, but I'm maximizing and enjoying every minute of it. ^o^

NEW PORTABLE DVD PLAYER! YAY-NESS!

My boyfriend's dad got me a new portable DVD player as I've requested.
It's not for free though. Hehehe But I love it! ^______^<3<3<3
I think it will feed my otaku fandom very well. XD


It's sleek and shiny black! w00h00!


OPEN SESAME!


Sorry about the glare, but the picture quality is actually quite nice.
(It's my crappy phone camera that doesn't take good quality pics, hehehe)


In fairness, I tried playing DVD, VCD, CD, .avi files in USB (yes, it has a USB port!), and they all work pretty well.
I also tried some DVD9 discs and it was able to read it too!
(But I think it couldn't read one of my Taiwanese doramas, but it's OK... It can't be TOO perfect, hehehe...)


And it also comes with...

a padded bag, and


some accessories (ac adaptor, car charger, earplugs and remote control)


Pretty cool huh? ^____^


I posted the pics because there are still some stocks available for grabs so you can just order through me...
Offer good while supply lasts, I guess. Hehehehe

THE (VERY) LATE COMEBACK ENTRY

There were actually 4 main events which happened last March 2008 which kept me away from my blog. Let's review them briefly (so that I can move on with my life XD).


Week 1 - March 9

We had a meeting with other alumni from our NKVS scholarship to set our mission/vision statement and goals. It was held in one of the retreat houses here in the city. It actually felt weird because a lot of the people who went were actually consultants already and were in fact our teachers before. So it felt like we're on the same level because we used to have the same scholarship grant and we're all physicians now, yet at the same time, it also felt like we were not just at the same level, cos face it, there is a huge gap between our age and social/professional status. I somehow felt so small and useless there. I wanted to do a lot of things and say some more stuffs yet I felt like I am unable to.

I didn't feel very happy but at the same time I just tried to be indifferent about it.


Week 2 - March 13 to 16

These 4 days were hectic but at the same time happy and memorable days for me! It's because my boyfriend came over to visit me! YEY! (^o^)v It's been more than 7 months since we've last seen each other, and although we communicate everyday through calls, it's just not the same when we're actually together. It was also very exciting since it was the first time for suoh-san to come here to CDOC and to meet my parents and friends. We also met our fellow members from the CDOtaku forum.


We went to many places (or just whatsoever my city has to offer, ehehe ^^" ) but mostly we just ate and ate and ate. XD My father even joked that suoh-san prolly gained 5 kilos after his short visit here! LOLx But overall it was a new experience for him, riding the motorelas and going to places that I've been telling him about.

Oh, I almost forgot. It was also my birthday that time (the 14th) so it was really a blast getting to celebrate it with those I love and are important to me.

Absolute YEY-NESS! (^__________^)v


Week 3 - March 18 to 23

Then I got a week off from work since classes already ended in Hosanna. I stayed at home most of the time, still recovering from the exhaustion of having gone out to many places with suoh-san. But during the Holy Week break, my sister came home from Cebu, and although it was just a very short time, yet I'm happy to see her again. Being the only child at home now has its perks too, but my sister will always be my sister and one of my best friends.

She also had my Sony Ericcson k610i phone fixed, since it kinda went bonkers already and I had to send it to their service center in Cebu. But it got locked back to Smart again! I almost laughed at the irony of it. I guess it's my fiddling with it in the first place that has already cost me so much money and effort. But now it's as good as new, so I then decided to just leave it that way and sell it. I really loved that phone, but I guess we're probably not just meant for each other.

I was thinking of buying a new phone, probably a Nokia 6300, but I was very hesitant since I'm really very broke these days. But luckily, my auntie from cebu sent me a birthday present and guess what it is? It's actually a cellphone! I really felt like praising God for His goodness because it was very unexpected and yet so timely. And it's really funny because my new phone is actually one of those China phones and for some really weird reason, my auntie has decided to pick out a pink colored phone with lots of Hello Kitty designs on it! It looks like a toy (or as my sister describes it, a calculator XD). And erm, I really don't like Hello Kitty. XD Nevertheless, I'm very thankful. It practically has the basic features I need in a phone (camera, video, audio player, expandable memory, bluetooth etc) plus it's touch-screen too! Hehehe It's really cool.




Week 4 - March 25 and 29


It was then back to work for me and on March 25, I went with my employers on a church dedication/medical mission to two places, Tuburan and Bulua, in our city. Tuburan was like so so so so far away! I didn't even know that such a place existed and is even considered as part of our city! Anyway, it was a moving experience for me to see different types of people but having the same heart to worship and praise one God. But after the service, I was then "attacked" by so many people seeking medical attention and free medicines! It was very exhausting, having to examine so many patients at such a limited time! I think I saw almost a hundred patients, in just 2 hours! (1 hour in Tuburan and 1 hour in Bulua). I felt a bit unsatisfied with such haphazard way of doing things, it is just not my style. But with the constraints of time and with the urges of my employers, I couldn't do otherwise.


Then on March 29, we had a beach party in celebration of CDOtaku's 2nd Anniversary! For those of you who don't know, CDOtaku is an online community which I (in a way XD) helped organized back in 2006. It's mostly composed of otakus from my city, CDO (hence the name) but we also have members from other parts of the country and even outside the country.

Anyway, the said event was held at Lopez Beach in Opol. I then realized that it's been such a long time since I've last been to the beach. Preparing for the anniversary also made me exhausted because I got really (unnecessarily) worried about so many things. But God is good and He never fails us. Everything went smoothly and we had more than enough food and activities. It was also fun meeting the members from online because I can finally give faces to the names.

For a detailed summary with pictures of the anniversary beach party, please read Reply #214, which I made for the forum.

Anyway, I hope that sort of explains my one month long absence.
I was really busy last month, but I was actually also just plain lazy too. XD