randomshinichi's Meido Cafe (now with Soapbox!)

2008-Jan-19 - X JAPAN - I.V.

My new blog redirects to a picture of a stupid fat girl smiling out at me knowing that I won't be able to post something up there today. Fucking bitch.

So I've taken the trouble to uploading X JAPAN's newest song, I.V. on Mediafire for you peeps to enjoy. The great thing about mediafire is that it doesn't make you wait, nor does it have a limit on total downloads or concurrent downloads.

http://www.mediafire.com/?bnymyxmmmb...nymyxmmmbu

Mediafire rocks. Just like X JAPAN.

Impressions of I.V.: not too bad actually. It's nice hearing Toshi again, his voice hasn't really changed. Yoshiki's songs have changed, though... this isn't sounding like the speed metal band that I loved... it sounds more American, and not because the lyrics are completely in English now.

It's still not the best, obviously. I don't do music theory, so I wouldn't be able to describe what I don't like about it in a 'connoisseur'-ic fashion. Just download, listen, and spread the word. X JAPAN FOREVER!!!!!

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2007-Dec-9 - Tiffany signed up on Efx2blogs?

What the... hmm.... I remember she had one before, but she made a new one? oh well, she's at
http://tiffanychung.efx2blogs.com/
now.

Anyway, I haven't posted here for a while, so I'm going to type a lot of useless random crap as usual.

I really miss using randomshinichi. Each time I go and commet on somebody else's anime blog now, I keep on inadvertently typing randomshinichi... unless my browser remembers the values for me, in which case I just type my comment and say enter.

Tiffany introduced me to this stupid series of videos called 2girls1finger and 2girls1cup. Each of them involves shit, or as Tiffany likes to put it, poo. I wouldn't mind seeing certain girls enact that, but hey, poo is kinda disgusting after all, so yeah.

Watching anime. There's a 1080p BluRay rip of Toei and Key's AIR out there. It's not too bad, not so sure that it deserves the HD treatment though. Missed an exam. Not good. Trying to get a deferral back. So yeah, I'm rather stressed, but I'm on MSN and finding out more about Linux right now, so that pushes the stress back again.

Then again, I must study for APSC. Oh god...
n.p. 04. Bôa - [Get There #02] Get There

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2007-Nov-9 - ATTENTION: Trackbacks Need To Be Disabled.

Attention Blog User: There has been a recent outbreak of spam that is sneaking past our spam filters and using the Post Trackback feature. This feature, if enabled on your posts, will allow spam to get in and post comments - those of which no one wants. Since Keith is currently offline and not available, us Community Leaders have taken it upon us to find a temporary solution until Keith can do something. Here's The Fix: You need to go here: http://www.efx2blogs.com/manager/tra...ttings.php and make sure "Trackback Default for New Entries" is set to 'Trackbacks Disabled' in the drop-down menu and also, "Autodetect Trackbacks?" is set to 'Autodetect Disabled' in the drop-down menu. This will disable trackback on all new posts you make. *** If you are apart of multiple blogs, you will need to select specific blog in which the problem is first in the blog control panel.... and then click that link for the settings to appear. *** For previous posts that have been attacked you must Edit that post and just below the Post Edit Box you should see a link "Advanced Post Options" - click that and you should see an option for "Allow Trackbacks?" and make sure it is set to 'No.' -------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for your participation in this matter and helping us alleviate the problem. - The Community Leaders (leaders.efx2blogs.com) THIS POST CAN BE DELETED.

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2007-Oct-6 - randomshinichi will no longer blog

He will instead blog under a different name. It won't be that easy, seeing as I've used this name for about... 6-7 years already, but I'd like to do so anyway. Why the sudden move? After all, I've spent about 95% of my blogging time at EFx2.

First off, let's just say there's nothing against EFx2 nor Keith. Except for the fact, maybe, that we are allowed a paltry 10MB of space for images and miscellaneous stuff. I want to go bigger, beyond blogging about computers mostly and what I did - beyond saying what a great time I had with my games and anime, or even music. Up until now all I've been doing is describe all these things in long winded words that you guys have to read. I think it would be way better if I took pictures of what I did in the game, when Sumire sneaked into Ohgami's room at night, when Fulle died keeping the guards busy in Scrapped Princess, my VMWare experience, and what kinds of esoteric error messages my computer pops out at me. I'd take screenshots of them using PrintScreen and Irfanview, but I don't like Imageshack. What if Imageshack goes down? What if they lose some of my photos? My blog would become like a wasteland. What if my blog loaded quickly, but the images forever because they were on a different server? I think the most important component in a website should be consistency. If a picture doesn't load but the text is there, making me want to see the picture even more, I am not enjoying my time at this site.

At the new site (which is a Wordpress blog), I get my own FTP account, and I can upload and determine the structure of my website, where I want my images to be placed, and so on. And the best thing is there isn't any space limit for now - not that I'm using much space, anyway. My pictures take up about 2-3MBs currently.
So:
1. Image hosting reasons.

Lately I wanted to post something about what I was thinking, but I couldn't do so, because too many people know of this blog already. Specifically, the people who know me. I'd rather arguments arise as a result of our daily interaction and not because of a simple post on a blog; I also would like it if those people would complain and rant at me personally instead of posting a poisonous message on my blog for all to see. It does your comment no amount of credibility whatsoever - I get the feeling that you're trying to be annoying on the same level as spam - but at the same time, I would not like our relationship to be disturbed. That is why I even bother acting upon them.
A blog is not meant to have private posts. What's the point of making a post that only you can read when it's on the internet? The blog is not a diary. At the same time, I would rather the people I know not read my blog.
To the people who said that my 'I Have a Life' posts were interesting, thank you very much for your support. I'm glad at least something on this site entertained you.
2. Anonymity

What has randomshinichi been all about up until now, anyway? Worthless posts about what my computer is doing, except once in a while when I find something to post about in life. I bought a box of Triscuits today, and brought a cookie home from the Totem Park tent 3 days ago and never got around to eating it, I took a bite but then I thought I saw very slight green discolorations in the cookie so I threw it away. This shouldn't be what a blog is about. This is not important. This is not even interesting! Heck, the truth is, I don't even read my own blog. It's simply not interesting for me, except for the few posts from my 2005 July trip to Japan, where I took a shitload of pictures and ranted non-stop excitedly about Japan. I love those posts. They make me smile, feel alive, interested. They are the only posts to do so.
Still, even if I start a new policy for posts from now on, all one has to do is just take a look at the old posts. With the new blog and the FTP and quite unlimited storage I can make an mp3 of the week feature! It's not really new, but it is a start. It's a way to expand beyond what little content I already have.
3. A New Start

And these are the three big reasons why I've switched blogs. It's been fun with you, EFx2, Keith. I remember when I first encountered EFx2 through blog.efx2.com/user/elly from a link on the NGEmu forums. I remember those old comment edit forms juxtaposed with the new control panel that were never fixed. I remember when EFx2 was a small site with not many users on it - frankly, I liked it better that way. I remember the ModBlog users moving in - I wondered what would happen to EFx2 from then on. Lots of subsystem changes have occured, but really, not much has changed. I still love the good old EFx2 3-column layout with my black design and C4D render as the logo, with my snap font saying 'randomshinichi'. It looks good in snap font. Sadly, I don't think I'll be using it again. Not if I care for point number 2. I have a new name - it doesn't look good at all in snap or any other font, though.

Props go out to psyphen, CuMan, VegasMaleSlut, and Old Man Lincoln for their blogs which were actually interesting to read, unlike mine. I don't even know if they're on this new BlogHoster system any more.
Props go out to paradox and xcryonicsx. To me, you were always competing against each other in designs, always outwitting the other in each new design you made. Honestly, I just don't see how you girls have the time.

See ya EFx2. I'll be back to post once in a while, I suppose.
n.p. 24. Leningrad Philharmonic (Mariss Jansons), Mikhail Rudy - [Rachmaninov Orchestral Works CD4 #06] Piano Concerto No.1 Op.1: Andante

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2007-Oct-1 - Studying for APSC Quiz tomorrow

Posted in The Broad Highway of Life

214. F4 - [流星雨 #10] Precious Existence
Life Cycle Analysis
Useful for rooting out all possible environmental impacts of a product, from its raw material extraction to disposal or reuse. There are 3 general stages to any Life Cycle Analysis:
1. Definition of purpose (and by extension, scope) of study
This is useful because sometimes LCAs can develop into really humongous structures, especially a complex product (like a car, I don't know, sometimes some people define the purpose as 'to find all possible environmental impacts of a car' which would make it humongous by default). A purpose lets you know where to focus on the most, such as the extraction, or manufacturing, or usage, or disposal.

2. Inventory Analysis
This is where the real data collecting is. This is when you go and find out what happens in each stage of manufacturing that product you're studying, and take note of it, and draw lines and write things down that pertain to the life cycle of the product. Apparently quantitative data is better because might might help you determine which thing has more environmental impact (I dunno!)

3. Impact Assessment
Now you decide which places make the most negative environmental impact and figure out what you can do to reduce that.
There are a few substages to this:
a. Classification
Classify data in Stage 2 according to which ecosystem it is associated with
b. Characterization

common frameworks for comparing different data are established.

WTF does this mean?!!
c. Localization
Weighing impact based on the standards in the region and the assimilative capacity of the region. Which, as far as I can get out of it, means that if there's plenty of room for landfills, our product being disposed won't be that big of a deal, environmentally speaking, compared to... uh.... its traces of mercury inside or something. Or if nobody follows ISO9001 standards while manufacturing the product, and we don't follow the ISO9001 standards either, it won't be as big of a deal either. Which pretty much shoots the idea of Sustainable Design in its own foot.
d. Valuation
Weighing its impact based on socially perceived importance. As far as I can get out of this, it seems to be saying that if the public doesn't care about it, neither should us engineers. Which shoots the idea of Sustainable Design on its other foot.
Really, why does the Applied Science course have to set it in stone and procedurify it like that? It's like saying 'procedures of operating a computer - put hand on mouse; put hand on keyboard; put eyes on screen; sit down; push button', except it feels weirder.

OK, so Life Cycle Analysis is down. Afterwards it's Industrial Ecology. I wonder if we had to study anything else.

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2007-Sep-30 - Yoshiki is back on track.

Besides announcing a reunion with Toshi, and a general unification of X JAPAN back in June, he's also got this collaboration with Gackt, Miyavi, and Sugizo, all of which I've actually heard of (damn, this is really big, I should have been at Anime Expo 2007 where they performed a preview concert).

It's good to be alive. m-flo also seems to have released a new album and single since I last checked, too! Hooray for music! Oh, and DC++... haha.... FLAC rip of Cowboy Bebop Limited Edition Box... HAHAHAHAH I'M IN HEAVEN.

Not my grades, though. But I'm studying right now, so that should be fixed relatively soon. Man, watching S.K.I.N. play really makes me want to make my own band.

I'm almost finishing the GTO anime. I also downloaded loads of anime OPs and EDs thanks to this torrent called Yukito's 1001 anime OP+EDs. That's pretty useful, but in the end I had to get the full version of Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran's OP from IRC.

ANYWAY, FUCKING S.K.I.N.!!!! YEAH!!!!!

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2007-Sep-28 - Mai-Hime Overview

Posted in Anime Talk

Let's tell you about Mai-Hime, which I recently had the opportunity of sampling thanks to a nice guy on RezHub's DirectConnect. As usual the first episode was already enough to hook me (by then he was already offline) and get me downloading the rest via Bittorrent. Ample bandwith ensured that all 4GBs of it finished within a day's time.

Mai-Hime is a rather interesting, if slightly rushed, slice of life-drama-magical girl. At least the people seem to have more background than everybody in Magical Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS combined. That show was a total waste of time. Back to the topic, the only major flaw with Mai-Hime is that it feels quite rushed. It felt like within 2 episodes of introducing Alyssa Searrs the school was taken over and the bridge destroyed. The last arc of the series with everybody fighting against one another was very awesome and almost tear-inducing (the real tear inducing is still X JAPAN! FUCK YEAH) but it still felt like I didn't get almost enough time to get comfortable with the characters. Or maybe I was just feeling a bit removed thanks to the sheer mind-blowing disconnection with real life in the last arc. I mean... never mind. Just watch it. The music's tolerable, at least they don't take the OP theme and make several different arrangements of it (I My Me Strawberry Eggs). The ED theme is great. The animation is great, just what you'd expect from good old Sunrise. Again, I really want to spend more time with the characters, but hey, it's almost there. Besides, any more and I'd really have to get a dual layer DVD if I want it to fit all on one disc.

Which reminds me: now I'm using VirtualDub and x264 to reencode the XVID 640x480 Static-Subs encodes of Mai-Hime. I know, I should do it from a raw, but I'm just too lazy to find alternate subtitles. Besides, I like consistency. All 26 episodes total just a hundred and two megabytes over the standard capacity of a DVD+R. So I'm re-compressing with x264, 750kbps 2 pass. It should give me 25MB extra space per episode, so I'll only need to reencode 5 episodes or so to get all 26 episodes to fit nicely onto a DVD+R. I did the math: I get twice the amount of GBs per Canadian Dollar from a DVD+R than from a DVD+R DL. I'm making sure to choose First Pass (fast) instead of standard First Pass because the standard takes an hour to complete over a 24 minute episode. At the rate this is going on, the first pass should be done in half an hour or so, then the real encoding can begin.

But man, it'd be nice to have some dual layer discs so I wouldn't have to worry about sizes each time I download an anime that's over 13 episodes.

I went down to the library yesterday intending to study physics. I passed this incredible collection of library CDs, and I went crazy. Me and Kathryn collected an armful of CDs each (me classical, her Broadway musicals and soundtracks) and we were thinking about checking them out, but then I had a better idea. Rip it onto my laptop. Awe-fucking-some. Quick as a rabbit it was up and running... I found that Nero AAC only had one thread, and I couldn't wait for that, so I used Lancer's SSE3 MT aoTuV Vorbis encoder. I started off with Earl Wild's transcriptions of Rachmaninov songs... Frank Sinatra and Sextet: Live in Paris... Claude Debussy: Les Trois Sonates.... at this point i figured out I should turn on wireless to get to freedb... Antonio Carlos Jobim Songbook... Liszt - the Schubert Transcriptions II (yes all 3 CDs of that).... some pianist called Murray Perahia playing Mendelssohn.... some guy trying to look badass on the cover, Volodos - Piano Transcriptions.... and finally Bernard Haitink's rendition of The Magic Flute. I'm not a big fan of the Queen of the Night in this version, but Ach ich fuhls from Pamina is great.

Frank Sinatra just said that One For My Baby is his favourite song! He's got taste!

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2007-Sep-26 - VIOLET UK'S DEBUT ALBUM!! YOSHIKIIIII!!!!!!! 2

2007.09.20
VIOLET UK　初CD収録!!
YOSHIKIセレクションによる映画「カタコンベ」オリジナルサウンドトラック

2007年10月03日（水）発売
『カタコンベ　オリジナル　サウンドトラック』
2,625（税込）/EXRI-1001/included 12 sings
発売元：EXTASY RECORDS INTERNATIONAL
販売元：QQS DISTRIBUTION

『カタコンベ　オリジナル　サウンドトラック』収録曲
１．VIOLET UK「Blue Butterfly」　＿＿映画「CATACOMBS」のメインテーマソング。YOSHIKIプロジェクト“VIOLET UK”初のCD収録曲！
２．Black Light Burns　「Lie」
３．ＢＴ「Smartbomb」
４．SKINNY PUPPY「Magnifishit」
５．The Crystal Method「Bad Ass (Rogue Element Mix)」
６．Avenged Sevenfold「Unholy Confessions」
７．Peter Murphy「Twist Your Fate」
８．Shawnee Smith「Please Myself」
９．zilch「PSYCHE」
10．ATREYU「Bleeding Mascara」
11．THE HUMAN ABSTRACT「Vela, Together We Await The Storm」
12．MINISTRY「Die In A Crash」

After like.... 6 years, Violet UK finally has a CD! GO YOSHIKIII!!!!!!! WOAHHH!!!!
From www.yoshiki.net

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2007-Sep-26 - YOSHIKIIIII!!!!!!

n.p. 088. X - [(Hametsu ni Mukatte)Tokyo Dome On The Verge of Destruction CD2 CD2 #09] Endless Rain

I bought two scarves today, in the midst of a lot of chattering females who were picking out scarves. I don't see what's particularly great about most of these scarves. They're pretty ugly.
As per the instructions for the APSC150 course, I took a 'professional personality' test. I got the category I like most, 'Idealist'. Mwahahahaha!!! I wonder if this says something about my stance towards moe-moe ness.

Sitting down to breakfast today. Some girl sat and asked me all about Canadian politics. Apparently she was Japanese. Apparently she thought I'd know better about Canadian politics.

Endless Rain!
Fall on my heart... kokoro no kizu ni
Let me forget.... all of the hate... all of the sadness!
Endless Rain!
Fall on my heart... kokoro no kizu ni
Let me forget....... all of the hate.... all of the sadness...

So I went up and got her a newspaper. That couldn't have helped much, since it was just an editorial from a reader that didn't state many facts.

YOSHIKI!!!!!!!!!!!

Fall on my heart! kokoro no kizu ni...
Endless Rain!

Uh.... so that's what happened today. I suppose university life isn't that interesting. In fact, I'm supposed to have a horrible Math Basic Skills Test tomorrow. I have to get a good score on that.

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2007-Sep-23 - LessWatts.org

http://www.lesswatts.org/
Found this while on Slashdot. With these tricks, maybe my laptop can go over 4 hours of life! Right now the battery life I get is 3 horus 59 minutes idling, with Vista in Powersaving and using the Windows Classic theme.

Maybe I'll save more power if I use Linux.

Then again, I'm not trying that. I still want my Sakura Taisen 2, easy to use mkvtoolnix, music (I'll have to move it somewhere else before I format my disk), and of course Photoshop CS3 and Ever17. Still, though, the novelty of having a Linux computer... no! Ever17 is more important!

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About Me

Welcome to randomshinichi's Meido Cafe, featuring randomshinichi on his Soapbox 24/7! Sometimes I will rant about how awesome Haruhi is, other times Ayanami, other times my Miele TT250 bicycle, or how Vista is retarded but I stick with it only because of Ever17. In any case, enjoy the tea and make sure to listen to randomshinichi when he rants!