Thanks again to Mama and everyone for their support and wishes, and sorry for deleting them. Don’t worry, the blog still continues! Hope you continue to read about my Japanese adventures. Stay tuned!

I wasn’t the only one who got worn out after a week of hard work.

Yes, my great luck with computers has finally run out. My hard disk died out on me two days ago, bad sectors and all. It’s been rendered as completely unreadable. Luckily I backed up my work files, but all my photos (AAAAAAARGH) and my blog files are lost in the partition vacuum.

Downloaded all sorts of recovery software but just like the goblin jumper cables they don’t seem to work. Will send it to a data recovery center tomorrow or day after.

Meanwhile, I’m on my new hard disk so I have to start over. Starting with software. So don’t be surprised if the next posts on the anime awards do not follow the usual graphic format.

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However, not all hope is lost! In-between trying to revive my hard drive and panicking for my digital life, I surfed through NicoNicoDouga on my mom’s netbook and found some cool vids :) It’s an entertaining Dame remix of Shaft and Kyoani anime OPs and EDs! By the way, in English “da-me” means useless, just like my hard disk =_=

They should make more remix videos like this!

(Daitai) Shaft Studios OPED Remix (i.e. a great 11-min artsy feast for your eyes):

Well look at that, it’s my favourite anime studio, Shaft! To be exact, it’s the remix of works by Shinbou Akiyuki till April 2009 (no Bakemonogatari for you), who’s the director for most Shaft series. The video includes his pre-Shaft productions as well. Was really hit in nostalgia by Starship Girl Yamamoto Yoko!

Couldn’t find the non-Nico-comments version though, gomen.

KyoAni remix (i.e. a wonderful rendition of fluid animation, all in one go):

Complete with Full Metal Panic, Key shows and oh, who could forget Haruhi and Lucky Star. It’s the latest DameMixx creation and includes shows until December 2009, so it’s pretty updated. Btw, my favourite KyoAni show is Air :)

Just a little hint, a few of the above are gonna make to my Top 5 opening ;) Look forward to my next post!

Here’s to this hard disk not being another da-me one.

“And weeeeellcome to Family Feud!”

“We have surveyed 500 Malaysians and the top 3 answers are on the board. Name a typical Malaysian’s biggest money worry!”

“Retirement funds!”    “And the survey says….”    *Buuuuuuu~!*
“Fall in stock prices!”    *Buuuuuuuu~!*
“Bank getting robbed!”    *Buuuuuuu~!*
“Dropping my wallet on the streets!”    *Buuuuuuuu~*
“Not getting the right change from the shopkeeper!”    *Buuuuuuu~*
“The inability to buy my favourite LV bag!”    *Buuuuuu… wait, that’s kinda correct, but judges say it’s not accurate enough, sorry*

“Oh my goodness, this is so hard. What could the answer be?!”

Seriously, Mr. Visa, do we really need a survey for this? No, more importantly, does this even qualify as news? Moreover, at the very top of the home page?

The Star Article – Malaysians’ biggest money worries: Cost of living, salary and debt

Forgive me, I’m just feeling all so sarcastic tonight :)

A little late, but happy new year everyone! あけおめ！Spent New Year’s with my cousins in several eatery spots, everyone wasn’t in the mood to go to a crowded place for some countdown. After that day, I had to prepare for job hunting, was invited to a Japanese otaku friend’s house for a night’s stay, all in all it’s been a pretty busy but fun week.

Anyway, last year was quite the blast. 2009 marked an important year for me coz I spent the entire year living in Japan. Full of ups and downs, but no doubt a life-changing experience.

Now what will 2010 bring? It’s all up to me, of course :) Let’s recap what my new year resolution was in 2009…

Though I didn’t get up to par on my drawing skills *sob* but I think I worked really hard on my Japanese skills. I can’t believe I was not able to read much Kanji up till last year. Still a mystery to me how I passed JLPT Level 3 few years back. Being in Japan really does help a lot. A LOT.

Sure I’ve gotten better and all, but it was quite a tiring year for me as well. I think “stress” is a great word to sum up the entire year. Not to mention that I’ve gone through a bitter moment back in April if you remember. I ended up caring too much about everything, became envious of other people’s skills, had little confidence in speaking Japanese with others, irritated at the smallest mistakes I made, cared too much about how others think about me, was too cautious on expressing my interests, bla bla.

Enough of this nonsense, I say! Here’s my new year’s resolution for 2010:

The word is nonki, or easygoing/carefree. Heck, didn’t even bother to write it in Kanji but I decorated it with beautiful autumn leaves :) No concept whatsoever, I just love autumn leaves!

2010 is the year to return to my happy-go-lucky self again! What, my Japanese sucks? Bored of my anime talk? Don’t like my opinions? Well, screw you hahaha! I don’t care! It’s time to get my life back on track, do what I like and live in the now. Hopefully by the end of 2010 I won’t be too self-conscious about the tiniest details and be a much happier person.

Whatever it is you’re set on doing in 2010, all the best! I hope for your continuing support in 2010 as well. 今年もよろしく！

The trip to my friend’s house and a certain anime award in the next few days. Stay tuned!

If I can spend my summer with this girl, it’ll be a great summer already. A cute and quiet summer.

Took this picture while spending my time in Akiba today. Yes, what a way to start my summer!

Yup, so my 1-month holiday starts today. It might seem long, but I have a whole lot of things to do and have so little time. Mom coming in August. Mount Fuji to climb. Many games to make. A booth to apply for December’s Comiket. Beaches to explore. Fireworks to see. Far distances to cycle.

And with all this, many many things to blog about. Stay tuned!

His parents are both Malaysian Chinese, Penang-ites, but Danny was born in London. His father is Jimmy Choo, whose shoes have been made for the likes of Princess Diana, Jennifer Lopez, Paris Hilton, the cast of Desperate Housewives and other superstars. This popular pop culture icon deserves its own post, but I don’t write about fashion designers, sorry :P

Anyway, Danny had something else up, his interest in Japan started with his imported Sega megadrive. He didn’t have Chinese education, so when he was young, he pasted Kanji cards all over his bathroom wall! According to both of them, he didn’t borrow a single dime from daddy.

From there, he worked in Japan Airlines office in London, hoping to get a head start. Next thing you know, he ended up as a manager in Amazon and Microsoft offices in Tokyo. Now he has a nice startup in Tokyo, serving big-name clients. And he married a Japanese! Easy only. Kantan dake.

He also worked as a stormtrooper before. Sadly, luck would have it that the Death Star blew up and he lost his job, so he ends up dancing in the streets of Tokyo.

Here’s a little video introduction. He was featured in CNN.

To show you how far he has come, he’s now featured in a Nikon TV commercial. No, not as Guy B running in the background. It’s really a proper interview with him. Though he’s actually a Panasonic Lumix user :P Shhhhh.

I’m sure he wanted to explain more about the maids XD “This is Zettai Ryouiki…”

He’s truly an inspiration for many of us, otakus and non-otakus alike. Congrats, Danny!

All aspiring photographers should also check out the other adverts @ http://www.nikonnext.com/. Very awe-inspiring ads.

Usually I don’t like to write about bad news, but this is about my favourite district on Earth, so I’ll make an exception.

The bastard in the suit above is Tomohiro Kato. Noon today, he drove a truck into the middle of a crowd in Akihabara, Tokyo. He then walked out and randomly stabbed those people with a knife. 7 people have died and at least 11 others have been injured.

His motive? “I’m tired of life. I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn’t matter whom I’d kill”.

In case you didn’t know, Akihabara (nicknamed Akiba to attract locals and tourists) is the “electric town” of Tokyo, where people can buy electronic products and anime-related goods. As you can already guess, the place is super-crowded on a Sunday.

The story doesn’t end there though:

• A week and a half ago, someone posted a thread in 2channel (a popular japanese forum) under the title “[News] In Akihabara, an Xbot ninja will be involved in a tragic slashing spree” with the text “Soon after 5th June, this is guaranteed to happen, so I thought I’d post ahead of time”. Whether the killer is the poster himself is yet to be determined.

• A similar stabbing spree happened 2 months ago in another district, killing 1 person. Coincidence or not, the stabbing was done by a Dead or Alive runner up champion. Because of the “Xbot ninja” thread, the killing today was attributed by some to the Ninja Gaiden 2 launch, also by the same company.

• Today is also the seven-year anniversary of the Ikeda elementary school killings in Osaka, where 8 children were killed.

Looks like the reputation for being one of the safest country in the world is being tarnished. I truly hate the killing of innocent people. May the victims rest in peace and my sincere condolences to the families and friends involved.

Here’s CNN’s early coverage of the incident:

Be careful, Daim. Take care of yourself.