Kori Kokoro no Basho

Fri, 24 Sep 2004 15:28:13 GMT

So what was that last post about?

Let's just say that I am one frustrated guy who wants to go to uni solely for the purpose of studying. Social and other crap come later and it would be nice to be involved, but I am singlemindedly there for my own education. Call me selfish if it makes it easier to understand.

So I get pissed off by the politicking around the campus. I get pissed off at socialist posters, at chalk on the pavement, at people screaming at me (us) before lectures, at people holding impromptu political napalm-slinging across a class, and at those leaflet distributors.

The past week has been the apocalypse-like elections for the university, and it was like Florida all over again. Too bad most SRC presidents have so many ideals but so little practical use in improving the world.

The prosaic verse (paradox there) Manifesto of a Bored Student was a reaction against all of those.

Very tired right now, Church camp tomorrow requires 6 oclock awakening. I need to feed on blood to wake at that time.

Manifesto of the Bored Student

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 16:06:11 GMT

In the corner of the quadrangle, beneath the great tree, is a collective work of art. A pile of haphazardly placed, multi-coloured paper aeroplanes of all conceivable types. Red, yellow, green, white...there's text and pictures on that paper, but who cares about that? Rhetorics bent with precision, pictures creased with care by the hands of bored students before lectures. The message loses its form, yielding to the graceful one of the aeroplane, promising lofty heights, graceful glides. Useless pieces of paper find their true function -- to fill the boredom and frustration of the minutes before a lecture, something for the studious to work on, as the physics of wing-span and intricate folds blur the shouting voices, and the creation of a new form of the paper-aeroplane adds to the intellect.

This is our world. We are the majority. We refuse to be biased by rhetoric, and you call us uncaring. We shut our ears to propaganda, and you call us rude. We refuse to take your pieces of printed junk, and you ambush us without pride or place.

So we take your junk and make it ours. We bend its form to our will, we give it grace and use -- then discard its shortlived function in a pile beneath the century-old tree. We know our history. We know the lies. We know disillusionment. We know the truth...and we care.

We care for our primary function.

Wed, 22 Sep 2004 08:12:44 GMT

Just came back from Kinokuniya and other stuff...went to Cartoon Gallery and ordered some R1 Kino no Tabi DVDs...the second volume of Saikano R4 is released tomorrow, already on pre-order...

Kino no Tabi cost around 130 dollars...pretty OK at $40 per DVD, considering they are the costly R1's.

Kinokuniya was interesting today because they have arranged all the bright pink things into one spot...like bright pink books, and bright pink stationary -- male deterrent!!

Tue, 21 Sep 2004 06:00:47 GMT

Got an email today from one of the members of the group SPORK, telling me about my mistranslations of the CLANNAD track names. Nice to know all sorts of people download HF-network releases.

Talking of CLANNAD... Found out that the doublesided tape I used to put up the posters in my room was just a bit too old -- wouldn't stick properly. Problem lay mostly with the CLANNAD poster which had been tightly rolled up for a long time and so the edges underneath and on top were trying to curl up.

So I left the tape on (still a bit sticky), wiped the wall with a damp cloth just to get rid of any interfereing influences, and then stuck some blu-tack onto the patch of tape (cos if you stick it on the poster it ruins it eventually with an oily patch, the tape acts as an extra-sticky surface and also to some degree, protection from oily crap) and just stuck it on...seems to be holding. Hopefully it will hold for a longer term.

Still have to plan how to resurrect the anime-merchandise-shrine in my shelves.

Tue, 21 Sep 2004 05:56:09 GMT

Crap stuff today...everyone got off work late because of certain customers who refused to get the heck out of the store. I don't really care if they are regulars or not -- they should make it so that if the customer is still strolling around the store 5 minutes after close, they get treated like trespassers. You keep 4 people from going home just because you are some selfish procrastinator who could not shop until the last minute, they should be made to pay our overtime rates.

Or maybe get like 3 members of the floor staff to tail them around the store. That should do some psychological damage... :P

Tue, 21 Sep 2004 05:48:45 GMT

Went to the library to start research on asian studies essay today...as I was checking out, saw the sign:

"Do not put your student card in your mouth. If you do the librarians will be unable to lend you any books."

University as nursery, anyone?

They should put a sign like that at the supermarket.

"Do not let your children suck your groceries/money or handle them with grubby/oily hands. The cashiers cannot process your order if you do."

Sun, 19 Sep 2004 00:55:32 GMT

Met with LK to pass him his Read or Dream radio drama CD, then we went down to the Modeller's World which was having a 40% sale (it had closed for renovations and just reopened). The new refurbished store looks much classier than the previous incarnation, but the product range was awfully limited. But I took this chance to buy the spectacular Master Grade Gundam Wing Ver. Ka. for around 50 dollars (where normally it cost 90 bucks). Pretty happy with it, but no time to build it. It would involve a lot of work.

Also got the Megami magazine and Newtype. All up, spent a bit too much in the space of one day.

Went home today via a different route -- took a strathfield-bound bus with Jenny, reached Strathfield in 30 minutes...just missed the Hornsby-bound train, but ran immediately for the Express to Wyong. Just caught up with the Hornsby train at Epping -- score!

When I got home, I went about postering my room with posters as part 1 of my room renovation. Took down the old Gundam seed poster, and put up posters from: Galaxy Angel, AIR (being made into animation soon!), Aoi Nanase's Weather Spirits manga, and CLANNAD (limited edition poster distributed with the pre-CLANNAD book). That's just part one, will need to organise my shelves -- next time.

Sun, 19 Sep 2004 00:40:19 GMT

Got my CLANNAD 3 CD OST set today. Cost me in excess of $100 all up, but I think it was worth it -- genuine merchandise from Japan, with a limited edition hairy starfish keychain/mobile hanger. Took me excess of half a day to transliterate and translate the names of the songs, but managed to release it just now on HF-network.

Mon, 13 Sep 2004 05:53:50 GMT

Hmmm...I caught up on sleep on Saturday and Sunday. As a result, I wasn't as tired as I was normally on Sunday and can be considered "genki". I lost one hour of sleep this morning...or was it two...but still genki. ^_^ (wai! wai!)

I got a bit mad yesterday cos I stupidly managed to lose an ebay auction. I didn't pay attention to the time just as the auction approached the last minute and as a result I missed the closing time by a matter of seconds. Now I have to pay 15 dollars more for that mistake.

Met up with James (M) on the train this morning. His class was at 9, and he caught the 8:39 train! Of course, by the time it got to the station it was 5 past 9 or something, so he would be late. On the train there was this racist fat guy sitting in front of us. Unfortunately for him, everyone that tried to sit next to him was Asian, so he was muttering under his breath (you know, in the manner that annoys me the most), saying stuff like "shit" or whatever. I was waiting to see if someone would piss him off so much he would explode into violence. But that didn't happen. (awwww)

How did I get clued in onto his racism/anti-social attitude? A couple (Asian) tried to sit down next to him, but apparently he gave off bad vibes or farted or whatever, and after a few stops the couple moved to another seat. But there was a moment of tension between the fat dude and the guy.

Got to Redfern station and I didn't proceed to the uni from the train station: instead I had to change trains to get to St. James station in order to proceed from there onwards to the Art Gallery of NSW (my tutorial was taking place there). It looked easy to get to from the map I downloaded off 131500.com, but I couldn't find the Prince Albert road from the St. James station...had to go to the Museum and ask the reception guys for directions. Managed to get there eventually. Rather long walk, though the Domain side of Sydney is actually quite nice. Have to explore that area sometime...and maybe St. Mary's Cathedral.

Got to the gallery a bit too early and I didn't see any familiar faces...was a bit apprehensive that "What if no one turns up and I got the date wrong" (a regular nightmare for me). But of course everything worked out ok.

The Gallery itself was nothing spectacular, though I regret not taking any notes when the tutor was talking about the paintings. I need to get back there some time...there are a few art works I am interested in, and also the Celestial Silk exhibition could be worth going to.

The only problem I had was that getting back to uni from the gallery took close to one hour, and thus I had to rush a bit to get back on time for the next lecture which started 15 minutes late anyway...all the traffic lights and bus stops seemed to be conspiring against me.

More when I get back, hopefully.

Racist crazy person

Thu, 09 Sep 2004 23:45:27 GMT

Incident 1: So I was there right...in the express lane, my least favourite checkout position (have been in there for 2 days in a row). It was a quiet day, so I was spending some time to restock the cigarettes (all in the name of eliminated stupid-genes from the general human population). This guy (apparently wanting cigarettes) enters. I am at counter 3, he stands at counter 2 mumbling to himself. I was like "sir, over here please" but he just stands there. The Asian woman who was in the queue behind him pushes in front and places her loaf of bread on my counter. I was about to serve her when at last he noticed and started making a big fuss "I was here first". Whatever, he was right of course, so I turned to serve him. Meanwhile the woman ran off with the bread after dumping some money on the counter. WTF.

Observation 1: People are normally inattentive and ignorant...until such time when they are disadvantaged. That's when they "turn on" and actually pay attention to what is going on.
Observation 2: People who want cigarettes from the Express counter do not queue up with the main queue. They think they can just barge in from the outside and get served immediately (sorry, no. We just ignore you and serve the main queue until the main queue is exhausted. you are better off joining the queue). Smokers do not get priority in my books.
Observation 3: People will just take any opportunity to try to cheat a few cents. The money she dumped wasn't the correct amount. I also think that she was the one who is consistently cheap, throwing my mind back to the other incident...

Incident 2: My sister and I were both cashiers, and I was serving when she came back from her break. I was serving one person, an Asian woman immediately behind the one I was serving, and then followed by another woman. I was finishing up my transaction, and the Asian woman had all her stuff on the belt already, when my sister opened her counter and asked the woman after the Asian to go to the counter. What happened instead was the Asian woman took all her groceries from my belt and rushed over to the newly opened counter. How cheap do you have to be?!

Incident 1 Continued: Adding insult to injury, the mumbling crazy guy (they call him "Albury" -- anyone out there look him up and start harassing him?) continued to make a fuss and just before he left, threw the following vitriolic line:

"It's because I am not Asian. Asians get served first."

I didn't respond, I don't know why, maybe I was shocked, maybe I was keeping myself under control because of the work environment. But here are the responses I would give if he does something stupid like that again:

i) Jump over the counter and punch the living daylights out of him.
ii) Lean over and say menacingly "Do you want to say that again?"
iii) "That says a lot about you, doesn't it?"
iv) "Takes one to know one eh."

Responding to the cheap Asian woman who ran off with her loaf of bread:

i) Shout at the top of my voice "GET BACK HERE NOW!"
ii) "If you do not follow the proper purchasing procedures, your actions are counted as theft and the manager has the right to detain you."

Maybe throw in a few derogatory curse words too. ;P

No one insults my professionalism at work. Whilst I might on rare occasions express racist views as a personal individual, my conduct at work is that of fairness. It's pretty simple. You come to my counter, I serve you. If you are at the wrong counter, I don't serve you. If you cut in front of the line, I ask the person you cut in front of whether they minded if I served you. If you didn't give an indication that you wanted to be served, I go on to the next person. The subject of race doesn't even apply. Calling me a racist in that situation only reflects back your own ugly views. This situation reminded me that despite the friendly exterior that Australian people have, you never know if just beneath the surface is that racist and bigoted views that they were brought up with. Trust no one.

Thu, 09 Sep 2004 02:46:45 GMT

Wow. Posting during a one hour break between the two classes I have today...I was trying to access via the computer centres at the library and at the Carslaw building, but the queues were very long. I could never access the general internet directly via laptop wireless before, but I had a suspicion it could be done. So I went over to one of the empty lecture theatres in Eastern Avenue (which has wireless coverage) and did my usual thing...then searched for the Proxy settings on the USYD site. Found it at last and after a bit of jiggling with the IBM connection wizard, here it is, I am posting via a slow (and expensive) connection. Charged by MB. lol.

This morning I got to the city too early so I walked around China town, picked up a Foccacia for breakfast...then after breakfast I went out and saw a "designer gifts warehouse" thing that sells all manner of cool "guy executive" stuff...bought a few things like metal dice and compact screwdriver set. Such a cool place. I wanna go back.

Philosophy lecture was kinda fun...learnt that the psychological egoist view was not exactly applicable due to certain technicalities...then we delved back into the "state of nature" social contract theory by Hobbes. We did that in Semester 1 philosophy already!! I don't want to go back there!! Noticed Elizabeth (from school) in the lecture but maybe my appearance has changed so much I can't be recognised by her? Gotta re-introduce myself some time. Had the bad luck to be sitting in a noisy patch. The people in front and the people in the back of us were all whispering and stuff...and from what I gather, they didn't really pay attention or take notes. No one is preventing them from leaving, you know.

Anyway, class soon...maybe have more work stories when I come back.

BTW, yesterday I finished "Tokyo" by Mo Hayder. It is gross and very dark and pessimistic. I don't know what to think of it.

Thu, 09 Sep 2004 02:38:28 GMT

Ugh. Just came back from work. Worked from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, long shift. At the express counter. They had put up that lighted sign saying "hand baskets only" but what can you do when the customers don't read it at all? I think they should have like a little swinging gate at the place you enter the express lane, with that sign in red. Or do a little re-modelling so that trolleys can't enter the lane from within the store.

At first it was ok. The other supervisor works hard, though inconsistently, so the work load was OK. But then later on when she went home and handed over to another supervisor, the lazy one, the house came down. The other one doesn't work at all. I am not sure how many customers she had served when I went home at 4:30pm, but it was a pathetic number. Two of the people who were supposed to come in at the end of my shift to replace me and another cashier who had already left, did not arrive. Talk about irresponsible/ignorance!

So the conclusion: two people down, and heaps of people during rush hour. Supervisor left by herself to man the Express Lane -- now we will see how well she can work. >:)

Anyway, because the queues was so long, when I was closing up and packing up my drawer, this whole line of people was lined up across from me, giving me death stares. Crazy people. I am so tempted to take the view of the psychological egoist (who states that everything people do is out of selfish motives).

Thu, 09 Sep 2004 02:29:58 GMT

X-files is a damn good series (though there are 9 seasons in all!). I like the stories and though mum says X-files is bad cuz the questions are never resolved, I thought that was what gave it its appeal. Everything appears to be clear by the end of an episode, only you find out at the last minute that another possibility is there. The dangerous contortionist is given a chance to escape, the bad-ass Ghost in the Machine rebuilds itself and reactivates...it appeals to the half-hidden fears of humans in this world connected by sewers and telephone lines. I also think that the lack of romance between Scully and Mulder is deliciously refreshing from other crap.

Fixing up the DimSim computer...format the hard disk, reinstall windows, reinstall programs...put back in the personal files, etc. I screwed it up though when I went to check out one of the favourites URL...it was a page loaded with an exploit and I suspect it screwed the computer up. Oh well. Reformat, reinstall again. No loss there. I'll have to install serious Adaware and free anti-virus software...also SP2 will be needed.

A scan of the temporary internet files (that I backed up to my computer before formatting) reveals a few pages contained Bloodhound exploits. Ouch. Looks like the system was never update before, so SP2 should make it safe for the time being. I am getting tired of unplugging and plugging in my computer monitor and keyboard/mouse from one computer to the other. I think I will get a KVM (keyboard/video/mouse) switch (allows you to control multiple computers with only one set of mouse/monitor/keyboard by the flick of a switch). I saw a good one with USB and monitor ports, but that one ends in 6 days' time...by which time the repairs would have finished.

Thu, 09 Sep 2004 02:28:49 GMT

Father's Day today. Time warp happening to me...I was setting myself up to wake at 11:00am, but then somehow I got woken at 10:00am! I glanced at my alarm clock and it said 11:00 too, but I forgot that my alarm clock is one hour later that the actual time and took it at face value. Found out later we had to go to shop for presents and stuff at Castle Hill for the fathers in the Church (sis was responsible for making the little presents to be given to fathers). Went to the old side of Castle Hill where I paid the Franklins there a visit. What a shit-hole. I think only 3 people on duty, didn't see any floor staff, place was quiet and almost empty. Pathetic compared to the Harris Farm Market right next to it. Usually where I work, the supermarket gets much more traffic than Harris Farm. I found the box of chocolates we needed (only one left!) and bought it. Shit customer service. She must have fallen into the "I am a scanning machine" mode of things. In order provide good customer service, you need pride, PRIDE!! Give them a posh British accent and all that eh, old chap. I do that sometimes just to take the monotony out of things.

Church was weird. The guy leading the singing in the worship service kept repeating the same stanza of the song even though there was half a page more of lyrics left unsung. Like, WTF? The preacher was a new preacher and I think he prepare too much (well my sister thought he did and I agree). He was practically reading from his folder. And his message wasn't all that good too, though he used the TimTam as an example to great effect. I thought the message was a bit shallow and not very applicable to real life.

Since I brought my uniform to church, didn't bother to go home to change, and went straight to work. There was lunch at the Church but everyone was staying back for it so the queue was EXTRA long. Didn't bother.

Thu, 09 Sep 2004 02:27:40 GMT

Went to a leech party -- was supposed to wake up at 7 to take the bus and then train to get there by 9:00 but totally missed the alarm, got there at around 11 oclock instead. Oh well. At least I got immediately set up and down to leeching. I was leeching Bakuretsu Tenshi at first, but went to slow...later on decided to use the HTTP method (seeing file lists using a browser) and after a bit of tweaking of the download options on Firefox, I got the thing working in a reasonably speedy and efficient manner. The only thing that pisses me off about that method (and browsers in general) is that there is a speed limit to it all, because Firefox has a buggy Download function. It seems it can only download 2 files efficiently at a time, and when you try to make it download something more it takes a long time to actually start downloading. The download dialogue is slow...frequent crashes of the browser. But since it's a LAN I can just go back in and reconnect. But still very annoying.

I should install Getright on the laptop in the future, because its browser function "harvests" all the files linked to a page/directory without using a normal browser or windows explorer. Windows Explorer sucks at LAN parties -- everyone uses something else to get files. Problem is that Windows Explorer is also unstable and if the connection dies during a transfer, you say goodbye to Explorer and have to start up explorer.exe again.

Anyhow, later on, everyone had slowed down their leeching operation so the servers could take more load. That's when I did multiple parallel transfers to maximise bandwidth. Where before I highlighted multiple files and just dragged the whole thing into my computer, now I dragged one file in, then another, then another, etc. Until I had 10 files all transferring at once and using up the bandwidth properly. That was sweet. I leeched Full Metal Alchemist (40 episodes) within 10 minutes.

Anyway, hauled in a lot of stuff. Will post a directory listing what I took. I think I used around 90 GB of my 160 GB hard disk. Not bad for a day's work, and think of how much time it would take to download that data using ADSL...and if you were trading by DVD-R or CD-R, how much media and burning time you would need...!

Currently downloading: X files Season 1 and 2. Attempting (but failing) to download Man on Fire.

Before Badminton...

Fri, 03 Sep 2004 09:23:12 GMT

Got back from work...dinner was nice: quail eggs (CUTE!) and Century Egg. I myself brought back 750 Ml Nudie Crushie (Mango and Passionfruit, the best ever).

Today work was a nightmare. Heaps and heaps of people, usually many. My dad says it's cos the salary has come in for people so they are all on spending sprees. Constant queues in excess of 5 people on each register...

In addition to that, we were understaffed cos many people had gone on vacation...and the people in charge were inefficient. They didn't time the staff breaks and other stuff properly...and a few of the cashiers were just full on bludging (even as the amount of people waiting was burgeoning). One of them took the opportunity to count her drawer because apparently she thinks she was cheated of money by a customer. Whatever. Took her around 15 minutes to count it anyway.

At last, after working around 4 hours straight I was allowed to go on my measely 15 minute break. I time my breaks with a stop watch, so I come back on time (just being honest)...but 14 minutes into the break I got called back to the register. Can anyone say "RIP OFF"? Other cashiers are less than conscientous of the time they take for breaks...I know people constantly overstay their breaks, 15 minute breaks become 20 or 25-minute breaks...there is no justice.

As I was closing up (since my shift is finished), all these people queuing up at other registers were giving me death-stares. I wanted to go up to them and punch them in the face, shout some sense into them. They're probably thinking "If you have time to play with your register why don't you serve ME?" Well, my perspective is different from their's.

As far as I am concerned, customers are a single entity. A huge bulging mass of capitalist greed, which I have to slowly chip away at. I feel like telling them that I have been working for hours, serving their predecessors, and now I am tired, and I wanna go home. I feel like telling them that I have contributed my share to shortening the queues that they are in, and they should have some consideration for cashiers, who are just as human (if not more so) as they are. We are not scanning machines.

We are people and we can feel the pain in our backs and in the soles of our feet. We try our best to process their crap as quickly as possible, and have to swallow all kinds of crap, from sullenly silent and impolite customers, to idiots buying smelly and leaky blue cheese. How can they, with their cosy office jobs and hour-long coffee and smoke breaks, understand the feelings of those in the lower echelons of the "career ladder"?

Whatever. In the end I ended up going home half an hour late because I had 30 dollars more than I should have had in my drawer. I think I'm gonna get a "counselling" (i.e.: warning). Whatever. I feel glad I ripped someone off for $30.

Badminton coming up. I hope I can play...
Leech party tomorrow!

BTW, I have a suspicion that I might die soon. (Hi-mi-tsu!) :D

Techie Talk

Thu, 02 Sep 2004 23:53:16 GMT

Well, I'm bored...and yesterday was a non-event other than the fact that I finished my essay at 3:00am in the morning and managed to forget that you needed to hand in two copies (what the heck for anyway?)...so now I am here before the lecture waiting to hand in the second copy.

Anyhow, loss of sleep = really tired right now.

Woke up an hour too early, so I got down to the city one and a half hours earlier than my class and walked around the place. Heaps of people standing around selling Legacy day pins and stuff.

I dunno, I am getting tired of charity. First it was Jeans for Genes day, then Daffodil day, now Legacy day. Why do they plan it so that all the charity stuff is squeezed into the space of approximately one month? I was enthusiastic about supporting Jeans for Genes, then the others came flooding in and I don't wanna buy anymore pins or whatnot already.

I think they might make more money if they spread these stuff out over the year so that people don't get flooded with this crap.

Anyhow, I think I figured out the problem with the DimSim computer (I was fixing this computer cuz it had a memory fault whenever it tried to log on to windows). I think it's a serious software problem, not a memory hardware one. I didn't want to reformat because that would mean I have to restore all the users and programs and files...but it looks like I have no choice. Even reinstall did not do much (made things a bit worse, though it meant I could see the error message). Anyhow, I tested and installed Windows XP Pro on my new hard disk which I had transplanted into the DimSim computer, and it worked perfectly. So not a hardware problem (if it was, the new operating system would experience the same failure). Backup and reformat tonight...after badminton.

Wed, 01 Sep 2004 09:25:08 GMT

7.5 hours of work later...

I have to do an essay.

But I have some interesting pics for putting on this site.

The two Haro which I got. They have a weighted bottom and so can balance on a flat surface. The "ears" open and close as required. Aren't they cute?

The "modded" nudie bottle. I buy nudies sometimes (they're some kind of pure fruit juice drink which comes at ~$3 a small bottle for 250 ml) and I give the bottles to my sis. She brought it to school and one of her friends stole it...giving it back today with a modded label apparently they drew themselves. Originally it was a blueberry and blackberry crushie with a limited edition fireman nudie character on it, but now (in case you can't read the label from the photo) it got modded to:

limited edition
antonio stradivarius nudie

green tea, lychee & more

LOL

Violent Academic

Tue, 31 Aug 2004 14:55:17 GMT

What's with the violence in uni this week? In Asian Studies, they talked about the Buddhist concept of hell (not pretty) and also the self-mutilation and immolation of Buddhists (again, not a pretty concept).

In Art History, they screened a surrealist film (The Andalusian Dog) which involved within the first minute, someone taking their razor knife and slicing open this girl's eyeball. I watched in the tute before already, so I knew when to avert my eyes when it was shown on the big screen during the lecture...could hear the whole lecture theatre gasping and little screams from here and there... :|

Got another Haro cutie and the Noir DVD v7.

Online...

I've started moving in the Hongfire.com forums...posted my BT rules up and all that.

Boxtorrents is down again. I was about to finish downloading Scryed too.

Makoto Shinkai updated his site to include another update on his progress. Here's his kitty:

Seems next issue of Animage will be released with a DVD including the 120 sec trailer for Kumo no Mukou...I might get it as it will be higher quality than that available on the 'net. If so, I might even release a "fansubbed" version of it on HF-network using the translations by daike my correspondent in Japan. I edited it after all, so I will just make it a joint release. daike runs the Makoto Shinkai Fan Web, a website in English about Makoto Shinkai and his works, with English versions of Mr Shinkai's site updates, and other news concerning him.

Back to IRL:

Well, I am still doing the Asian Studies essay, the Philosophy Essay has been pushed back a week...and I have work tomorrow. -_-;;

AIR the movie

Mon, 30 Aug 2004 14:29:25 GMT

OMG, I just watched the 9-minute-long trailer for the AIR movie. Though it uses cheap effects and mostly static images, it was good. VERY good. The focus, again (a feature of the original game), is on the story, and they used the original music score to great effect! I hope they preserve the original music in the final form of the movie.

Recommend GET!!

Seriously, if you have not played the game (or understood it), you have missed out. Don't miss out on this one!

SPLURGE!!

Mon, 30 Aug 2004 14:25:26 GMT

Today was my splurge day. After yesterday sleeping for ~12 hours I feel a little more genki today. Here's a summary of what I got today:

- 1 x 160 GB Hard Disk ($168)
- 1 x Nadesico DVD box set Box Only ($17)
- 1 x Haro trade figure (got the Pearl Stone variety) ($6)

Got back from uni to find three packages:

- CD (Shitty piano music collection) ($4)
- CD (Planets, Gustav Holst) ($4)
- Powerball Gyroscope! ($80)

Tomorrow will be another splurge day, having to deal out money for the HERO DVD set and the NOIR last volume DVD...might have to get another Haro too, cos it's so cute.

The Gyroscope is really fun...you spin it up and then holding it tightly, rotate your wrists to make it spin faster. There's a generator inside the gyroscope so as you spin it the blue lights come on and its really bright. No batteries. :) The faster it spins the harder it is to control the gyroscope which exerts various forces trying to jump out of your hand...really cool once you get the hang of it.

Boy, am I glad I didnt win this item! Went to Cartoon Gallery and they had it (Grimrock mix of Asuka and Rei figurines) for $50! With my anime club card I can get 5% off, so that's a saving of $9.80 + $5 + Whatever postage and handling costs. Maybe I'll get it. But I think I am running out of money.

Anyway, enough of real life stuff...online stuff!

The Hongfire Site has been back up for a week or so now, and I have set up my account though not really set my avatar and such yet. I just got modded, and I'm supposed to help with the moderation, but I suspect I'll just bum around anyway. I REALLY like the new layout and especially the banner on the top, compared to the old layout, or the layout on the Bittorrent tracker site. The girl reaching up to the sky...so surreal.

ANYWAY. When I have time I'll properly set up my account and put up some guidelines for BT uploading, having too many people uploading torrents asking "Plz Seed xxxxxx" and when there are seeds they don't change the torrent name, just leave it like that...ugly.

Right now, 3 BT's downloading: Seraphim Call (which has been going for excess of 40 hours, being sooooo slow), AIR the Movie special disk, and GIGA opening songs collection released by Giga-Anime. Giga-Anime is starting to concern me, cuz they keep releasing I've Sound stuff, which has been my release territory at HF-network so far...and we are slowing down on our releases too, which is unfortunate...I am thinking of the next two HF releases to do (when I have time) being:

1) Evangelion hidden songs
2) KLEIN artist doujinshi's + artbooks. This artist has very good style, almost equalling that of Aoi Nanase.
3) Other shizz

Also, I need to start up THE SOURCE once again...need to find for Petite Cossette DVD vol 2 (which was released some time ago, but couldn't find it yet). But before that, need to install the new 160 gig.

Busy busy...essay due on Thursday too.

Sun, 29 Aug 2004 10:00:11 GMT

Hehe. I didn't update this one yesterday, but yesterday was more like half a day. Woke at 1:30pm, went to "rehearse" at Church for their "Dream Island" play (I was playing a security agent for all of 5 seconds), then went home for dinner, and then went back for the actual play. The audience loved us when we came out to drag some guy off (we were dressing like agent smith, with black suit and darkglasses.

After that went to MacD's for some splurging and then came home to find my router had screwed itself, and also my computer refused to display on the monitor. Well, whatever. Cold restart, also reset router. Router works again, but the wireless is broken for the Vaio now. I am not sure if it works on my IBM laptop, I think the whole router's wireless part is dead or something.

Anyhow, system back up, I tried to join #HF-network again, but it wouldn't let me in cos the "channel was full". I had to look back on my logs, pick out one of the nicks in the log, then using Chanserv, ban them and kick them off the channel from outside to create a space so I could get in. Para had set the limit to 61 people (his script for flood-join had died), so I took off that limit and then unbanned that poor person who had to suffer bannage and kickage because of no fault of his own. :P

I managed to finish downloading the Hero Director's Cut DVDRip (gasp, illegal!!)...didn't notice much in terms of new scenes. Maybe some of the fight sequences are longer, and during one of the parts Zhang Zi Yi tries to suicide but Jet Li stops her (I dont think that was in the original).

I like that movie, so I am glad that it is being screened in some Australian cinemas. It has great effects, and I liked especially that spear-vs-sword fight in the rain (near the beginning). The special effects on the water, and the soft tonal hum on the sword and spear are so appealing to my liking of "minimalistic" and "Zen-like" designs.

Anyway, placed an order on ebay for the legit 2-disc set which also includes interviews and making-of features. Fun!

I've fallen sick, but the full impact of the flu has yet to come to me (been semi-sick for around 3 days now). Hopefully this is all I'll experience. After all, it should be logical since I had pumped myself full of Vitamin C due to a recent Ribena addiction. But right now I am feeling totally lethargic and I was shaking at work just now...I think this is it -- the stage just before the roof collapses on me...I still have an essay to do too...wonder if those soothers (with liquid centres) give a laxative effect. o_O

Currently downloading Seraphim Call (12 epi series). Part of the download is finished so I am listening to the opening track for it. It's a pretty good song. I chose to get Seraphim Call because of the involvement of Aoi Nanase. I am a huge fan of Aoi Nanase, and in fact I have asked Kaon to reserve a giant transparent poster of an Aoi Nanase artwork for me. ^_^

In other news:
- I am going to get the authentic OST set for CLANNAD from Rayearth
- LAN party on Saturday at *censored location*.
- Changed my desktop theme to KOL's Tiger VS port

Time relativity | Elitist Searchings

Fri, 27 Aug 2004 11:28:17 GMT

Today was a long day. I went to uni for one hour of class, then went back home...then went to work. Today was a bad day for working because everyone was being difficult. The guy next to me was being bitchy and since I wasn't in the best of moods, I kept shooting him down as well.

Add to that a constant worry at the back of my mind, because the customers kept taking large cash outs, and no one was giving enough cash.

Cash-outs: when paying via EFTPOS (using Savings or Cheque accounts from an ATM card), customers can take out cash like from an ATM. Maximum limit to this is $400. However, the cashier, at the end of the day, needs to have at least $400 in their drawer as "float" or they die (to put it simply). Obviously cash-outs come from the cashier's drawer, so we must always be on guard not to give out too much.

The cashier starts with 400 dollars in their drawer in various notes and coins, and usually, I would be able to build up a base of cash of ~$500 in addition to the initial $400, and then later have enough cash to do more than enough cash-outs. Not today. Within the first few people, I already had a $100 cash out, pushing me below the float. Add to that, everyone was paying by card, no incoming cash. I had to reject a few crazy people who wanted $200, or $300 and ask them to go to another register.

This happened a few more times, people give me cash, I build up a base of ~$100, then the next person comes in and takes it.

At last, this lady came in, $250 worth of purchases, all given in cash. I thought "Well, now I don't have to worry anymore." WRONG. The person immediately after her asked for $300 cash, pushing me back down.

In the end, I did get above the float, ~300 dollars cash excess of the float. But usually, I would get cash totally $1500 or above in a day's work. I made ~$5500 worth today, but of that, $5000 or something was through EFTPOS. So imagine how stressed I would be with the float always looming as a shadow behind me.

Why do customers like taking such massive amounts of money from cashiers? Again, the human nature is to go for convenience. Who gives a crap about the mechanism behind it, or the ability of the cashiers to comply with your wishes? Who gives a crap if there is an ATM with HEAPLOADS of cash right outside around the corner? They just want all their stuff on one transaction. They treat us like we are some ATMs...I feel like telling them to take their cash out from elsewhere. (Of course that is against company policy).

Perhaps one of the more satisfactory cases I have encountered was this woman who asked for $200 cash out, but was rejected by the bank because of "Insufficient Funds". She could barely pay for her purchase itself (half of it had to be via cash).

----

Notice the music I am going for currently, "Pastel Pure". It's by ALI Projects, a quite celebrated band. But I do have something against it, because Pastel Pure has the majority of its melody ripped from "Yume no Ato Ni ~Apres un reve" (After a Dream), which was one of the music pieces they had originally composed for the "Music Tracks from Wish", a singularly angelic piece. Some of Pastel Pure goes low or into minor scale, but the melody from Yume no Ato Ni is recognisable.

Not that it is somehow "illegal" to rip off your own work (or is it?), but I thought they might spend a bit more effort for new pieces. But they might be justified in "reusing" the piece if the original album was not too popular and has sunk into oblivion (which it has, it now belongs to the realm of elitist purists).

I had first come across the "Music Tracks from Wish" whilst researching CLAMP's works, in particular their rare animated music videos -- one from X manga (before TV series was made), one from Wish, and one from Clover. In addition to that there is a weird one which is a mix from all their different manga. It wasn't hard to find the X, Wish and the mix one, and from there I found the Wish soundtrack from ALI (one of the best albums ever, ranking with the AKA OST). BUT the Clover one is impossible to get. Impossible. Rumour has it that it was screened before a Cardcaptor Sakura movie, but back then no one cammed the thing. There have since been no releases of it (not even with the VHS or DVD of the CCS movie). Some say glimpses of it can be seen in some of the trailers, but personally I haven't seen any of it. Anyway, it is impossible to find, and many are still in that eternal quest for it.

Clove itself wasn't actually finished. It was finished, BUT the publishing company went bankrupt and now the drawings for the volumes after the 3 or 4 out are locked in some safe. I loved the Clover manga...it's style and execution is exquisite.

Recounting crap customers

Thu, 26 Aug 2004 11:10:57 GMT

Hehe, just came back from work. Today the day seemed really long, but that's cos I'm tired. The customers just kept coming and coming and coming. I was positively bumbling the first ten minutes of work, cos my register was just full of crap (dump stock, broom, etc). Then 1 hour later a broken can in a package of coke got coke all over me and the groceries receptacle. Sticky receptacle and standing mat for the rest of the day.

What's with customers who don't respond when you say "Hi"? I'm an introverted person, so it took a lot of practice to say "Hi" to complete strangers, but after all that effort, these crazy people don't even bother to be friendly. There was this guy whom I said "Hi" to the first time, didn't respond. So I said "Hi" again. Didn't respond again. Basically didn't talk until I screwed him over and told him the price in a really soft voice and he was like "What was it again?"

Sometimes a customer can just come, load their groceries, give you their money, and leave, all without saying a word. That's pretty damn rude, IMO. I make it a personal mission to make them utter at least a word, either by (as above) screwing them over in some way so they have to talk, or asking them a question pertaining to their personal financial wellbeing/plastic bags (you can be sure they will say "yes" to plastic bags). If you do something that somehow threatens them financially or personally, they are sure to talk. Then I gloat because I took them off from their pedestal of "untouchable elite". (When they don't speak and you have to do all the talking, they are in a greater position of power than you are, and I don't feel comfortable with that)

One time this lady was really really sullenly quiet. Incidentally, I had a question I wanted to ask her (probably concerning plastic bags). She didn't respond, so I said in a louder tone "EXCUSE ME" and she full turned with a scared look on her face, and I said "Hi". She probably thought I went to all that trouble to said "Hi" and had to reply "Hi", still with that "caught-in-the-spotlight" look. That really was one of the most memorable experiences ever, because it showed me how fragile their pedestal of "silent power" was.

Talking of position of power, there was once this guy who insisted I said "please" when pronouncing the cost of his purchases. I was like "whatever" and said "please" anyway, but seriously, they are coming to me for a service, it's not like I am begging them to buy their groceries. They should say "please scan my groceries" if they want me to beg for their money.

Well, maybe I'm a bastard. But so are all the customers. Working (anywhere) really gives you a glimpse of the disgusting nature of humans.

Around the mind

Wed, 25 Aug 2004 10:23:54 GMT

Woke up too early today (considering that it is a no-uni day of the week for me today), and got to work...only to find out I was there one hour early! Oh well, I started one hour early and finished one hour early, kinda screwed their schedule but...*shrugs*.

I was working at one of the worst places possible, the "Express" line. It's stupid they call it the Express Line, it's really slower than regular registers, probably because of the customers. Reasons for this reasoning:

1)Express lines have longer lines. More people queue there because of the general thinking that it is faster.

2) Greater numbers of people is supposed to be offset by each person having less groceries. Wrong. It is slower because there are more "transactions", mercy on you if at that time most people used cards to pay for their purchases (triple tendering time). (With the regular registers, there are more groceries, but if the cashier is good, they will scan through that stuff quickly, and the times spent on multiple transactions in the Express lane outweighs that of scanning the stuff.

3) Idiot customers/situations. Such as cigarettes which are not on hand. Or (my "favourite") going into the Express lane with a trolley of groceries, even though the sign proclaims "hand baskets only". It does not matter if they have only 4 items in their trolleys -- the Express Lane copes poorly with a big-ass trolley choking it. Position the trolley vertically to the register and you effective block the whole lane (and thus access to get out or go to registers later on in the lane). Position it horizontally and it gets into the territory of the next register and the customer at that register will have to lean over the trolley to put their stuff on the counter. But the worst situations would be people pushing (perhaps ignorantly [stupidly], or lazily) their trolley loaded with groceries into the lane. Equiped with only a small receptacle for groceries, and only one plastic-bag dispenser, the space quickly gets choked up and I have to start crushing groceries in order to process anymore.

Anyhow, I was by myself in the Express lane checkout for a long time, whilst the other person who was supposed to be there ran off somewhere for lunch for about an hour (supposed to be half hour lunch break). Long lines, non-stop. It was mostly cash as well, so no time to rest in between. Ugh.

One thing you notice when you work in express lane especially is the blatant disregard for the environment on the part of most people. NSW is currently trying to cut down on the use of plastic bags, and as a result, most of us ask the customers (if they are only buying one or two things) if they want a plastic bag. 92%, I estimate, of my customers today, said yes to plastic bags. Some "statistics":

- Racial profiling: Whilst this might be controversial, I noticed that most of the people who did not want plastic bags were Caucasian. Rare is the case of an Asian or other group who says no to plastic bags. Are they perhaps less aware of the issues concerning plastic bags, or are they simply "cheap"?
- Age: Most of the younger people, students, guys especially, say no to plastic bags. I suspect they are more concerned with the environment, though I do understand that old people might need plastic bags because they can't hold their groceries for various reasons.
- Status: Housewives seem most keen on getting their hands on plastic bags. So are businessmen and women. Incidentally, smokers seem to be OK not having plastic bags because they just put their cigarettes in their bag/pocket...why can't the panadol addicts be like them?

A few notes on the dispensation of plastic bags:
- Large items which cannot be practically held in a plastic bags generally prompt the question as to why the customer would want a plastic bag for it. It's not going to make it easier to hold (e.g.: a large package of toilet paper would just bulge out of the plastic bag, rendering the handles useless -- the bag would basically be just a small condom for the bottom of the package).
- Heavy items also prompt the question. The plastic bag is strained beyond its limitations and there is an increased chance of it rupturing. Pisses me off when the customers "remedy" this problem by asking for double-bagging. Just use a trolley or box already!
- Small quantity of small items such as panadol or gum. Obviously you can just hold the thing, put it in your handbag, stuff it in your bra, or put it in your pocket. What's the point of getting a plastic bag which weighs as much as the item you have inside?

What is the main obstacle to plastic bags being phased out:
Impracticality: the architecture of the supermarket, especially in the counter area, all appeal only to plastic bags. Any cashier would tell you that packing groceries into the plastic bags is around 2 or 3 times faster than packing it into the "enviro-bags", or even worse, the cloth/canvas bags people provide. Particularly hated is the bag that Sydney Morning Herald provided earlier this year. It doesn't stand, and is so narrow you can't practically fit groceries into it. Also, big bags from hardware stores are impractical. How are you gonna lift it? The arrangement of groceries on the bag is also lost in the process...I might as well just dump everything in regardless.

Enviro bags, when new, are perfectly alright. The problem comes when people reuse them (which is what they are supposed to do). They have been folded in such a way that it cannot stay open. Or the bottom hard plastic card which gives the bag its shape is lost. The cashier needs two more hands to hold the damn bag open than humans have. In addition to that, there is no way (currently) of achieving the ease of use of plastic bags for Enviro-bags. Sure, some newer designs have the little hooking loop on one side to fit into the plastic bag receptacle's protruding metal piece, but it still takes a long time to fit it there, and when it's fitted the bag is still not guaranteed to stay open, and worse of all, does not sit even with the surface. It's slanted so all the groceries have to be packed at an angle.

Until such time that the architecture of the packing mechanisms is overhauled to provide easy usage of the enviro bags for cashiers to pack efficiently into, the plastic bag will always be the better alternative in terms of productivity.

Taxing issues:
One of the things pushing supermarkets and people to reduce plastic bag usage is the threat of a plastic-bag tax looming in the horizon, if the supermarkets do not cut plastic bag usage by (I think) 50% by 2005/2006. That is, the customer is going to be charged for every plastic bag used in their transaction. This might threaten the supermarket business, but personally, I am looking forward to it.

I look forward to being able to tell that complacent housewife: "that will be 4 dollars and 55 cents for your panadol, plus 20 cents for the plastic bag," or the stupid men who ask for plastic bags for every single one of their toilet paper packs, "that will be 50 dollars for your groceries, plus 2 dollars for the plastic bags".

Currently, I am holding to the pessimistic theory that humans are greedy -- they want a plastic bag, because it is free -- in Singapore, they would call it "kiasu", trying to gain the most advantage they can get out of a situation. Because it gives them a little convenience. They thoughtlessly discard their plastic bags thinking it makes no difference, they belittle you as having no common sense if you ask them whether they want plastic bags "Well, I have to have something to hold my (panadol) in!"

I believe that putting a monetary value (instead of some vague idealistic conserve-nature value) and cost on what people take for granted, will effectively reduce plastic bag usage. More people will work it out that it is better (not because of environment issues, but because of finance) to use cardboard boxes and reuseable bags.

It's too bad that all the plastic bags being saved by people using their reuseable bags is being balanced out by the numbers of people who insist on having more plastic bags just because of pettiness.