Archive for August, 2009

My Saimoe Favorites

August 30th, 2009

To supplement my previous post, my Saimoe favorites:

  1. Nishizawa Ayumu [Hayate no Gotoku!!]
  2. Katsura Hinagiku [Hayate no Gotoku!!] (the probable winner)
  3. Fujibayashi Kyou [CLANNAD ~after story~]
  4. Misaka Mikoto [To Aru Majutsu no Index]
  5. Hirasawa Yui [K-On!] (because Ui didn’t make it)
  6. Kushieda Minori [Toradora!]
  7. Furukawa Nagisa [CLANNAD ~after story~]
  8. Azusa Nakano [K-On!]
  9. Asahina Mikuru [Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu]
  10. Suzumiya Haruhi [Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu]

And I never said these were in order :D

Will support: Sakuya, Kana, Koromo, Isumi, Tsukasa, Yami, Mikan, Furude Rika, Tomoyo@CLANNAD, Kuroko@To Aru Majutsu no Index, Ami@Toradora, Taiga@Toradora, Henrietta@ZnT, Nagato Yuki, Touma@Minami-ke, Ritsu@K-On, Ushio@CLANNAD, Saki, and Kotegawa Yui@ToLOVE-ru.

Here’s a link to Saimoe 09’s first prelim results (presented very colorfully ^^):

SAIMOE 2009!!

August 30th, 2009

—> http://www.animesaimoe.org/ <—

Omg… I haven’t even written about my vacation to Hawaii yet, or my frustration about school starting TOMORROW. And here I am, about to begin my rant about this year’s Saimoe tournament (see the wiki page for it, wiki page lists past winners, etc; quite interesting)…

okay, the first go-around isn’t even over, but I have ranting to do. Be forewarned, long long post upcoming.

» Read more: SAIMOE 2009!!

MotoROKR Z3 (= wasted week of summer)

August 21st, 2009

Soo, what have I been doing this week (other than anime)?

Well, I get annoyed sometimes when I forget to bring my iPod with me, and I have to wait a long time for something (e.g. doctor/hospital waiting room, DMV, bank, etc etc). Of course, as Hanchan mentioned, the chances of me bringing my iPod are probably actually better than the chances of me remembering to bring my bluetooth XD.

Erm, anyways. My phone is an awesome Motorola RIZR Z3 that I got one or two years ago. The battery works REALLY really well, and it doesn’t fail me much. Of course, the Motorola firmware is kind of featureless, but maybe the carrier is more at fault than Motorola. The hardware is awesome~~ *slide open* *slide shut*

Well, Motorola’s audio player sucks, and it’s java, which gobbles down my battery like strawberry shortcake. So, me being the geek genius I am, I went in search of ways to add functionality to my awesome Z3. And, I guess I hit the jackpot in looking for motorola modding. (If you’re interested, head down to ModMyMoto or some other related site and read their tutorials/forums/guides.)

After spending a bit of time (read: a couple hours) going through the forum for my Z3, I got brave enough to remove RSA from my phone. That went without fault.

Then I flashed a random MP firmware to my phone. It had iTunes and ELFs (e.g. excutables that were written for the phone’s processor, not in Java ME). How awesome! So many skins, so many features, so many programs!

My luck ended there.

» Read more: MotoROKR Z3 (= wasted week of summer)

School is comiinngg x_x

August 21st, 2009

Tomorrow I’m leaving for vacation (to Hawaii as I’ve mentioned). And when I get back… it’s back to school for me XD

I hope hope hope hope hope hope I get a nice English H teacher. Precalc/Calc A I don’t really care what teacher I get, and I guess I’ll be happy with whoever I have for AP Physics. Chinese 4… well, hopefully he/she is nice too. Orchestra 3 and PE, meh.

Ok, enough about school, I want to write about anime x3

Math problem of the day… week… month…

August 18th, 2009

Let

f(x) = x^{11164} - 11164x - 11164

and let r_{1}, r_{2}, r_{3}, \ldots, r_{11164} be the 11164 roots of f(x) .

Find

r_1^{11164} + r_2^{11164} + r_3^{11164} + \ldots + r_{11164}^{11164} .

… you know you’re bored. Come on. :D

Department of Motor Vehicles

August 18th, 2009

In California, the institution that we have to bug for our drivers’ licenses is called the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles). Today, I went to apply for a provisional permit. I didn’t take any pictures (sorry), but it was an awe-filled experience. I’m not sure whether this awe is good or bad >_<

Most of the employees at the DMV seem to be very annoyed at their job, and all the customers/applicants. They do their job as slowly as they possibly can, and enjoy watching the 200+ person line waiting outside in the hot California summer sun suffer.

Also, I have something to say about the driving test they require. It’s 46 questions, and you can’t get more than 8 questions wrong or you fail at life and have to wait a week or so before coming back to go through the ENTIRE process again (… yes, waiting outside for a couple hours, and waiting, and waiting for your number to be called, and waiting, and waiting, and lining up to take the test, and waiting, and finishing your test, and waiting to turn it in… etc etc).

The funniest thing (well,.. more like “pitiful”? I’m not sure) I saw at the DMV today = the hordes of Asian old grannies and grampies trying to apply for drivers’ licenses, and failing miserably on the tests. Also funny: the middle-age just-off-the-boat-from-China ladies and gentlemen who graduated from what, Tsinghua University or something, and have never failed a test in their life, failing the drivers’ test. Entertaining.

I also saw an African-American teen who came back to take the test for like, what, the seventh time? And he got a NINE on the test XD so he had to retake it (the eighth time…).

For your information, I got 3 questions wrong. I know, I’m Asian and perfect and all, but whatever. The guy who gave me my permit didn’t even glance at my test, and promptly tossed it in the trash can without even caring about my score. Touché, grannies and grampies.

CANAAN

August 17th, 2009

First of all… Japanese people are incapable of spelling “China” correctly. o_O

Air Caina

I guess they do paint Shanghai pleasantly (not that I’ve been to Shanghai ever).

shot3

Well, festive atmosphere aside, this is really a serious anime. See blood, guns, and dead people for proof. Usually, in serious animes, the main character is serious as well. Canaan, by my impression, seems to be very enthusiastic and eminates a happy aura. She doesn’t call the people shooting at her “enemies” — they’re just “foolish people”. And she has the skillz to back up that statement XD

Friendship (hopefully not yuri)

This anime has the potential for greatness.

“I believe there are many things in this world that people haven’t seen yet. Well, if you really want to see something, there’s nothing you can’t see. You can’t see it because you’re closing your eyes on purpose. Because if you use your eyes to see it, it’ll be painful and sad. That’s why they’re closed in the first place. I think photography is like borrowing someone else’s eyes. So even if your eyes are closed, you can borrow someone else’s…”

Also, I think this “synthesia” concept is interesting, although not new (Bakuretsu Tenshi? idk).

“Vision, hearing, taste, touch, smell. A person who can use these independent five senses at the same time is called a Synesthete. For example, they can see colors from letters, and sound takes a definite shape to them.”

“Use the other senses to distinguish the information gathered by vision. That’s an undiscovered field in science…”

The depiction of human nature… even though it is a common theme in many animes, the innermost truths, provided from many different perspectives, by many different animes, are always shocking. The reason one lives on… the purpose and impact of society. These things go on and on.

In Shanghai, people are being shot down left and right. Blood spewing. Yet, during a Chinese New Year festival, everybody turns a blind eye.

“Hey, this is for real! Do they think this is a part of the festival?

They think this is a part of the festival...

No, the truth is placed right before their eyes… But they’re purposely choosing to ignore it…”

shot5

I must say, though, the 3d animation of the festival dragon was sorta lame.

Lame Dragon

I don’t know why I bothered to take screenshots and type up these quotes. I just felt like it, mmkay?

Screenshots:

Why would a boy from China enroll in an American military high school!?

August 16th, 2009

Okay, so today we had some guests come over. They came while I was having my weekly violin lesson, with my uncle. Family friends, I think. Why were they in America?

Because their fifteen-year-old son (who btw is nine days younger than me) wanted to attend an American military high school in Indiana or something…

Well, I’m thinking… the education system in China is awesome… soo… um… why do you want to go to an American MILITARY high school? Do you think you get paid very much in the Army? So… you’re coming to America (the RICHEST country in the world) to learn how to get killed later on in life?

And what about China? Aren’t the Communists really really insane about their Peoples’ Military or something? Whatever it’s called >.>

Would you really spend your whole fortune for your only son (remember, children, the One Child act!) to go to America and study how to kill people? (And also waste all the valuable math education from Chinese schools? Yes, that’s the most important part XDD)

Aaaanyways. After a bunch of chatting, we went to the mall (Westfield Shoppingtown Santa Anita, psh), and they spent like they were burning money. And we ate like a $200 meal at Todai (which my family paid for =_=).

Yeah. Nice day today. I think I’ll skip dinner (mmm sashimi though).

Tsk.

August 16th, 2009

This post will be filled with random rants about random things. Stay tuned for a more meaningful post.

Contents: Mathematica, quintics, WordPress, LaTeX, and stuff in between.

» Read more: Tsk.

Songs that are currently stuck in my head

August 16th, 2009

Song #1: Sora Iro Days
[media id=1 width=320 height=20]

Auuu~~ this song is beyond defining in terms of “awesomeness” — it’s the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann intro song. The animation that goes with this is epic as well.

Also of mention is the TTGL movie theme, “Tsudzuku Sekai” which is also stuck in my head.

Agh, I don’t have enough bandwith to serve these files on my blog though. I’ll look into getting a last.fm account or something.