Neverending new beginings

How the Google customized search box as part of the Google Adsense (where I would get money if people clicked on it) is relatively unknown when I first put them on my blogs (including tokimekinohibi.blogspot.com) back in July. On the stasticics page, I noticed that people had used it, but less than 1% of them had clicked on the links in the results as it would result as being the same way as if you were to just go to Google. People were expecting things relating to my blogs in my blogs, but they saw things from all over the web instead. Just a while ago, I went to the search settings at Adsense and saw this option highlighted in red below: It was on "The entire web" option... no wonder. I entered the list of site people might be searching for below and it works! Reason why I didn't notice this earlier was that I never used it myself!

(from my main Blogger blog)

Left: Vector done earlier today
Right: Pencil drawing of the same thing done 18 months (1.5 years) ago
See also: This post

If these two were to be viewed side by side, the improvements in the tiny details would be obvious. Besides what was already mentioned back in July, vectoring is better than drawing. Not only does the vector looks better, it also uses much lesser space for the raw version and can also be modified at a later date. Think of vector as the MIDI of image: they both only contain instructions on how to construct the output instead of the output itself and therefore take up much less space.

With vector, I can easily zoom in to small details like the eyes or hair. With pencil, it quite difficult to do so without a magnifying glass or drawing the overall thing larger, the latter option would be impratical if a lot has already been drawn. Speaking of which, if a mistake were to be done in vector, I can easily correct it without affecting other areas, like what was mentioned in the second half of the previous post. If for pencil, not only will a mark of it (and surrounding areas) be left behind, it would be hard to correct it perfectly without redrawing it. It can also hide my horrible handwriting and easily correct outdated info written there.

Not sure if I should remove the thumbnail of the pencil version of what I had already vectored as it seems redundant and the vectored one looks better. (Friday, 28 March 2008)

One of the few drawings that I had actually paid close attention to in the details. Plaid skirt is quite a nightmare for me to draw. This is Mio Nishizono (西園美魚) from the visual novel "Little Busters!" (リトルバスターズ!) released just last year. It's not an anime, but other visual novels that were made by Key like "Kanon" (2002 & 2006/7), "Air" (2005) and "Clannad" (2007 & 2008/9), all of which were relased a long time ago, as you can tell from the screenshots of the visual novel.

As for the characters I do, I would try to avoid main/supporting characters of anime as there are probably a lot of them already done online (if you know where to look), even more for popular anime like Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu and BLEACH. I would pay close attention to minor characters that may appear only once in the entire series. That's why you may see unknown characters but them wearing the same uniform as the main characters.

Examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
1: Clannad. Main character (Tomoya Okazaki) is walking in the opposite direction to the left of the character in the middle-ground. One of the uniforms came from the girls in the background of the scene where another (Kouko Ibuki) is the main focus.
2: Zegapain. Main character (Ryoko Kaminagi) is sitting down to the right of these characters.
3: To Love-Ru. The character walked past the main character (Rito Yuki). Head and legs are not visible.
4: To Love-Ru special. From the Magical Girl Kyoko: Flame on episode 20.
5: Clannad: Another World. The character appeared in the background in the scene where the main character (Tomoyo Sakagami) was applauding when a signage was put up by the school's student council.

29 Sep 0:15 edit: I saw this when I logged into one of my email They did say that it is 70% faster to load, though I find keynote no.2 funny that says about storing something massive on it.

I took the JLPT level 3 at the Japanese School (日本人学校（小学部）チャンギ校) today. (Level 4 is the easiest, 1 being the hardest but enough for living in japan) I'm aware that there is also the Standard Charted Marathon run with the SC that morning. Well, I registered for it back in August (about 1-2 weeks before regestration ends) at a obscure place called Midland House at Middle Road (hmmm). I hardly studied. Some of the reasons for that is that there is the lack of study (though i have studied a bit), too much school related activities (mic money sense, sc oath taking / grad night), watch/read too much anime and manga (though they are in japanese with no subtitles). I went there from my house (simei blk 164), walked to Jln Pelatok (there were dogs barking madly at me around there one night) and take from the bustop along Upp Changi Road East and alighted at the school at Upp Changi Road North (quite near). Removed shoes before entering the exam room. During the 2nd part of Listening (聴解) section of the test, I filled up the correct ones but did not for the ans for the wrong ones. I felt that there was not enough time. Overall, I felt that I could have done better if i didn't spent too much time reading the question (though there was enough for the Reading-Grammer / 3rd section and time for correcting mistakes), tables facing the front (mine was in the home econs room), and the clock not being set about 5mins ahead of the correct time.) At the end, there was this strange happy music being played through the PA system. There were a lot of people when leaving, let alone the bustop. So i decided to walk along Changi North Ave 2 before realising that I went the wrong way when I saw the PIE towards the airport (and an airplane landing) and turned back to the school again. The crowd was still there despite some time since I left.
So staying on the side opposite the sch, walked along the pathway until it comes to a dead end. To continue, I climbed over the (extremely dusty) metal railing (the ones you see along expresasways) onto the side of the busy road (vechiles from TPE, PIE and Changi) in the direction of Expo) when I found a dirt path further down at the end of the railing. Had to wait for quite some time when crossing over the PIE (Changi Airport / Tuas) entrances (there was grass to walk on and the side of the flyover had a walkway). I continued on until I reached the bustop opposite where i boarded and walked home (actually, I already am) from there.
Test started at 1420 and ended at 1735. Took me 10 mins to get there but an hour to reach back (due to the croud and detours) to get back. Parents bought me some crappy food from some hawker center for dinner. I'd rather have EVM from MacD instead.

During the 20min break between each paper and on my way out, I managed to explore the campus and take these pictures (havent went to the gym or the other floors though. Also there were food and drinks, but the food and cups ran out T_T):

<br><img src="http://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1peV4bCq0_kZHqhPIsT2vydE4_dC2O0RE3s3PopmRA_L5zyc1f2I4BKfjUWx45FykXrJtIoYsAsUY">
<br>Classrooms opposite my exam room.
<br><img src="http://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1peV4bCq0_kZGtQ8KoCGvvc8EyLP82U3XlCHowUPsp0F6IUHeIQlptqR_xmIQcuOcidYuIkseVyz0">
<br>One of the swimming pools. The other is somwhere around the gym.
<br><img src="http://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1peV4bCq0_kZFcq4a-9LsmysFoXo3xKAF75ryR5EEtp6KcEEo_L1-4yoPi35WBtU1dGaBdF0YH968">
<br>View of the school.
<br><img src="http://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1peV4bCq0_kZHe7s2Lf1fNQmn8mAFKGywuzophs8cHT-ATOfJTj5Vf3L7GTB4UzIFsE8B6m2i0Tm8">
<br>One of the notice boards and a clock
<br><img src="http://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1peV4bCq0_kZF-mRTU5qec_RpKK90x4tO7G7ktMlUe6fqP00MQYA2lOzY7q4w66xbMhMMqsyDOccY">
<br>Same place as above turned 180 degrees around.
<br><img src="http://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1peV4bCq0_kZEoc6ZoFCf_aw0ndjn1-5Zg-uqt2n8__Ik8Em55T42zJF0RX1vCe2PI80gzQ-eotkI">
<br>The sign outside says "Teachers' Lounge" but it looks more of a storeroom.
<br><img src="http://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1peV4bCq0_kZG6k-WHE-DN8pkJqS-4sM5jE5rTCIA0bTU7NtlABbO6xNAMI5i7WX_jUGLAzuhXdE8">
<br>Same place as 2 images above but facing the entrance gate at the center.
<br><img src="http://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1peV4bCq0_kZFGbM5Gw3ISRNiyFF4ZFasq_2KBUvIow8f7d0B6pGrgcha12ecfcS_FdAAqf11q-mY">
<br>Saw this on the right hand side on the way out. Around where the guy with the white shirt and blue tie of the above image was.
(If the above did not show the images correctly, go to "December 2007" album here)

P.S., The classrooms errily resembles the schools in Japan. From the (Green) Blackboard, to the facilities, toilets and stuff. Though the location of the classes are not along an indoor corridor (with windows) or classes on the opposite side.Or a large field between the entrance gate and the building itself. Kind of like most of the anime I watch and a segment of a game I bought at a closing down sale of a branch of a department store. Forgot what it's called but the english name is "Raw Danger".

i really didn't want to post this but this has gone too far for me to ignore.
This guy by the name of Uchiha Sasuke (http://www.myspace.com/infinitezala), Akaza Zala (http://www.friendster.com/31024514) and Hayate Haramoto (http://www.friendster.com/43365062), has been copying me from the way i phrase words to the images i upload there. I don't know what to do with him...

Image 1: This is the myspace profile mentioned above. It is only viewable if you are "friends" with him. The things he copied is quite obvious.

Image 2: This is my myspace profile. As you can see, that box below the display image is supposed to be in the MS PGothic (ＭＳ Ｐゴシック) with the background transparent (may appear blue-ish if viewed in Safari (Apple) browser) and saved in PNG format. In Image 1 you can tell that he edited it and typed the name different from the display name and saved it in JPEG format, which means a loss in image details (due to compression) each time it is saved in that format.

Image 3:A closer look of Image 1. This guy copied the same text as me (and box, which is mentioned earlier) and has the nerve to call my drawings as his.

Image 4:He also copied the list of anime i am watching currently (though the shows are slighty different and most of them are not of current anime/episode). The japanese text were originally saved in GIF in with 35px with Terbuchet MS in paint. He rezized it to height to 50px and created more in the same height but in a different font (most likely Arial Unicode MS). After I first noticed that he copied me, I used a vector program instead of MS Paint, changed all the stuff to what you see in Image 5.

Image 5: "Anime watch list" in the media box on my 3rd friendster profile. As you can see, the background for the japanese text is transparent and can see the background image through it. (if entered as text instead, it would convert to some code or to ?'s).

Image 6: In addition to Image 3, he also put my drawings even after I reuploaded them. (the earlier ones did not have the date and the website url). If you are curious on what was on the blog on that image, go to: http://asuna888.blogspot.com/2007/06/please-read-this.html

Image 7: The zoomed out version of Image 6. Loacted between Image 1 and Image 4. You can see that he posted more of my drawings (and none of his own) on the profile.