A Day with Kenn 13

 

Image by chichiruchiru  

Haha, don't expect this to be very interesting. No class today (who has classes on Sunday?). You could say that it's a lazy sunday, though I'm not sure if it was very lazy for me.

Nom nom nom breakfast. Fried rice noodles. The unappetizing thing at the back of the bowl is a slice of a sticky rice thing. There's celery something else and fried egg in the bowl with the noodles.

My lunch. I guess that this is a better photo, eh? Same thing as breakfast, though this time it's ladled with a dollop of hoisin sauce and sriracha. Quite tasty with that combo. Oh, and black pepper is there too.

I guess these are dates with limes. Not actually sure what they are because there's no English anywhere on the package. They're tasty as heck though. Been snacking on these all day. =3=

Dinner. Fried rice. Breakfast was fried rice noodles, this is fried rice. ^^; Also quite tasty, though I have to say that the lack of anything other than rice probably made this a rather empty meal...

On the other hand, had a look at the lastest chapter of Medaka Box.

THE FINAL CHAPTER. ZENKICHI DIES. MEDAKA CRIES. THE END.

Read the chapter for more details.

Manga of ze Week - 学園アリス

=3= Next week's will be better.


Title: 学園アリス, Gakuen Alice, Alice Academy
Author: Higuchi Tachibana
Genre: Shoujo, Comedy, Drama, Romance, Supernatural
Serialized in: Hakusensha Hana to Yume
Total Volume Count: 21 (ongoing)
Licensed by: Tokyopop (8 volumes, ongoing)

Summary from Tokyopop:

Young Mikan runs away to Tokyo to follow her best friend, Hotaru, who has been enrolled in an exclusive, secretive private school for geniuses. But it turns out that Alice Academy is a lot more than meets the eye. If Mikan wants to stay by Hotaru's side, she has to both pass the strange "entrance exam" and face the even greater challenge of befriending her very odd new classmates. Whether it's Hotaru's gift for inventing gadgets, the cranky Natsume's fire-casting ability, or Professor Narumi's control of human pheromones, everyone at the school has some sort of special talent. But what ability, if any, does Mikan possess? Mikan is going to have to rely on her courage and spunk if she's going to stay in school, or even stay alive!

Kenn's Comment: =3= Sometimes, I really just want to nuke that school. =3= Higuchi Tachibana kinda made it somewhat obvious that a certain person was Mikan's mother, with all the hints dropped. =3= The manga is pretty good though, the different arcs have quite different feelings to them. Lots of drama, and a good dollop of comedy. Romance thrown into the mix, in a bowl of supernatural. =3= Pretty much what it's like. The later chapters are quite drama heavy. The anime covers the first 6 volumes.

Weekly Vocaloid Feature - スマイリー

Image by purinko

Special Luka feature today. Happy birthday ルカ! A bunch of songs from her, or at least I hope.




Song is スマイリー (Smiley) by fatmanP.  ;D sm9536770





This one is 通り雨 (A Passing Shower?), by CielP. Not sure about the english translation. Don't know what the first kanji means. ^^;





Last one. It's 熱情舞踏曲 by イカロスP. I don't know what the title is in English.

A Day with Kenn 12

Image by Mizuki Makoto 

As promised, here's the another post later today.

The day started off as usual. Had breakfast and whatnot. What made it different was that I felt super, super sick. On a wild guess, I'd have to say that it was probably the peanut butter I had yesterday. Because of that I ended up bringing everything I put into my stomach back up.

Popped a few tablets and get on my way. Brought along some of them just in case.

Had lunch at Tim's (Tim Horton's) on campus. Two doughnuts and a small coffee. Was going to watch the fourth episode of Ladies vs Butlers! on the iTouch, but decided that it was a tad bit too...racy, for the lack of a better word, to be watching in public.

Headed off to the library to do my usual Friday ritual of messenger + reading Crim textbook. Burned the hours away, made the song of the week post while I was there. The coffee wore off really quick. Either that, or it was my odd reverse reaction to caffeine.

Choir went by in a flash, and before I knew it, I was on the way back home. The 430 from Metro was one of those special long distance buses. They're obviously not made for frequent stops, since they only have one door. The inside pretty much looks similar to an airplane, minus the round, small windows. Comfy chairs. They're the type of buses that you'd find running from city to city, like from Delta to the downtown core.

I'll call this my second lunch, and first dinner. Teen burger and onion rings from the Dubs (A&W). Tasty, but oh so bad for you. Got another dinner coming up later, but I don't think I'll have room for it anytime soon.

Dinner...or second dinner for Kenn. Rice, with grilled pork, deep fried spring rolls, and a salad. Tasty, and very filling. I know it look a bit gnarly in the photo, but I assure you that it looked better before I took it out of the take-out box. It's from the family restaurant, and much healthier than both my lunches were by a long shot. Feeling sick again. x_x

Song of the Week - Serenade

'Tis Kenn again from the North Vancouver campus of Capilano University.


Good song. Their outfits are probably more extravagant than their set is. Quite sad too if you know what's recently happened to them.

They're known as Versailles - Philharmonic Quintet in the USA, though their fifth member, Jasmine You, the bassist, died in August. You could say that Serenade and the PV is a tribute to him. He's not in the video, obviously because it was shot after his death. Ascendead Master was the last song he was in.

Another post later today. A Day with Kenn.

A Day with Kenn 11

Image by mota

Alright, so no classes on Thursday, so there's not much to blog about. Threw in a little something to take up some space.

Breakfast. Rice, some pork ribs of some sort, cucumbers, little Mandarin oranges, and a nice cup of Taiwanese black tea. Tasty, filling, and warm. Perfect for those cold, dreary mornings.

Lunch for Kenn. It's snack bread. Or at least that's what it says on the box. On the left, it's topped with margarine, and cheese. On the right, the one on top has bananas and Nutella, while the one of the bottom has Peanut butter that's been sitting in the fridge for god knows how long, and bananas. 

Not feeling too well after eating that peanut butter one. Not sure how old that peanut butter was.

Anywho, haven't had dinner yet, and I'm pretty sure phở is on the menu tonight. 

Here's the 'little thing I threw in to take up space'.

Waaaay back in the days, before Mp3 players were around, before the first iPod came out, I had this: a portable CD player. I used it before I got my first mp3 player years ago, and when I had it, Mp3 players did exist, contrary to what I said in the first sentence. It's become pretty obsolete now that I had the iTouch.

Ahh, Hit Clips. Anyone remember this? It's idea was cool...at the time at least. And of course, that time was around 2001 or something like that. Was around the time the Back Street Boys and N'Sync were at their peak of their popularity. It's sound quality was absolutely terrible, but at the time, it was awesome because of it's size compared to a lot of the other music players back then.

 

This suggestive looking thing was my first Mp3 player. It had about 64mb of data capacity, and lasted me a year or two. Used it back when I just got into anime, so much of the music was from either Bleach or Naruto. ^^; Quite embarassing looking back at it now.

 

Huzzah. First iPod. Also, the first iPod...I think. Compared to my Mp3 player, this thing could hold my entire computer for all I knew. 20GB compared to 64MB. Yeah, that's a real difference. Plus the sound quality was so much better than the cheap Mp3 player. I guess I used this four to five years ago. My, how technology has changed. ^^;

I lost my iPod or something, because I started using my PSP (fat one), as a music player. Couldn't hold too many songs on this. Had to keep room on the memory stick for games. Sound quality wasn't bad though. Huge for a music player, though having the games didn't hurt in class.

 

Compared to the PSP, this thing is tiny. Got it during grade 11 (I remember this because of all the antics that happened during that project, which I've lost all the photos of). Yeah, I realize that it's upside down. Was on sale at Visions, across the street. Stopped by what was once a Buns Master bakery (also across the street) for a lucky penny, 'pepperonya' roll, and other baked foods. Inside joke...kinda.

 

Still use the Shuffle every now and then. Often on long trips as a backup for when the Touch dies.

Finally, this is what I use now. It's the iPad Nano! I kid. It's an iTouch. We've probably just spanned almost 10 years of technology right there. xD

A Day with Kenn 10

Image by Rei

Alrighty, so not all too much happened today, mainly because I only had one class =3=.

Breakfast. I actually don't know the name of it. We usually refer to it as bún which is a general term that refers to the noodles used I think. It's got barbecued pork, cucumbers, lettuce, the noodles (of course) and is topped with a dollop of nước mắm (fish sauce), and Sriracha. Tasty, though I get the feeling it might've been better if I had warmed up the meat and noodles a tiny bit.

After lunch I had this. It's a small piece of the whole thing, and I wasn't really sure what it was. Not sure what you'd call it, since the packaging didn't give a name other than the company.  I know that it's supposedly a Korean dessert, though a tad bit old. On a wild guess, I'd say it's 찌는 떡 (steamed ddok). Couldn't tell what the white part was, though I have to say that it was kind of dry and tasteless. I'm pretty sure those are azuki and mung beans on top. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Lunch for Kenn. Haven't had dinner yet. Actually, this probably doubles as my dinner. It's rice with stir-fried vegetables. If memory serves me correct, there are tomatoes, celery, cauliflower, soy beans, and ground beef thrown in to the mix. Don't forget the Sriracha. Love that stuff. From the looks of it, all I need to do is have some ramen for dinner, and I've just had a pan asian day. Vietnamese breakfast, Korean for dessert, Chinese for lunch, and Japanese for dinner. Dude, I am too cool.

On another note, I've got another blog running. There won't be interesting updates, or even blog updates at all on it. It's my testing grounds for all the various things I want to implement on this blog, so I don't screw around with what I already have. You can see it here. Very different from this, though I'm still in the processes of working with it.

A Day with Kenn 9

Image by kantoku

I'd be lying if I said today was interesting.

I'd also be lying if I said that this post was going to be interesting.

In a nutshell, nothing happened today, unless you count a truck nearly hitting the bus I was on. Love how I play down the fact that I might have just had a brush with death.

Anywho, the day started out like any other university or collage student's. Getting up early in the morning, catching a bus and whatnot. Had to stand for a good bit of the ride on the 25. Though I'm thankful I got a seat before a close call with a truck.

The rest of the ride was dull, so I'll skip forward to after all my classes. The got a bit motion sick on the ride back, as I was playing on the PSP. The game I was playing will be on a 'Currently Playing...' feature later.

Bought lunch (again), and headed home.

Doesn't that look tasty? Mixed vegetables, fried rice, and sweet & sour pork. Classic Chinese fast food dish. Probably not the best for me, though probably better than McD's, BK or A&W.

A Day with Kenn 8

Image by Minakata Sunao

=3= On the road four times as long as I was in class today.

Short one today, because nothing happened.

Yeah. Only one class, piano, today. Hour long class, while it takes an hour and a half one way. One round trip takes approximately an hour and half, throw in the wait for a 430 at the Metro loop and if I'm unlucky, it might be an hour and fifty minutes.

Anywho, placed an order for Keroro Gunsou volume 16 at Sakura Media, and the Cyanide and Happiness book at Chapters. Total cost was $16.79. Chapters doesn't have a store to store service like Sakura Media does. Hope that the two books come at the same time. ^^" It'd make it easier to remember. Must remember to keep $15 aside for Keroro.

Note to self: find a new piece for piano. "orz

Manga of ze Week - わ！

Image by Kojima Akira

Hoo~! It's sunday! Sunday means manga of ze week! Here it is!

Title: わ！, Wa!

Author: Kojima Akira

Genre: Shounen, Comedy, Romance, Slice of Life

Serialized in: Square Enix Gangan Joker, Gangan Online

Total Volume Count: 1 (ongoing)

Summary from MangaUpdates: 

At Takamanohara School, lots of the students have crushes, but all on different people. In fact, if you trace out who likes who, it makes a full circle! This is the story of that circle of crushes.

Kenn's Comment:

It's a nice fun manga. And regarding that summary, I've traced who likes who for ya. A bit of a spoiler, so it's at the bottom if you want it.

Yes, it's by the same author of Mahoraba. Loved that series. There's supposedly also an alternate story, まなびや (Manabiya),  which, based on the cover, I assume that if you trace the path and what not, you get a square on who like who. Then again, the story is about a photography club, so the fact that the character is making a square could also be a reference to the photo.

Spoiler Alert!

Weekly Vocaloid Feature - 可能世界のロンド

A nice little song. ^^; Happy feel to it.




可能世界のロンド (Ronde of Possible World) by Aki.

A ronde is a dance for those of you who don't know. It's an old dance that's something like square dancing, except in a circle. Tomorrow's manga of the week has something to do with circles too, so I guess it's a teaser?

The people I'm subscribed to haven't been too active as of late, so I'll probably start falling back to older Vocaloid songs. ^^;

A Day With Kenn 7

Image by Toi8

I gave a bit of a spoiler in the Song of the Week post. More details later.

Lunch from a few days ago. Forgot to put it up when I had it.
Photo turned out much much better than I thought it would. Almost as good as the sandwich tasted. It's a WBLT with Cheese. Waffle Bacon Lettuce Tomato avec le fromage (with cheese). It was so good, but at the same time, so small ;o;

Anywho, I brought my laptop up to Capilano today. My bag was very full today; Criminology and Composition binders, Criminology textbook, a water bottle, and my laptop. It weighed in at a whopping 9kg (20 lbs.). Walking up hill wasn't a tad bit difficult because of the odd distribution of weight. I could feel myself accelerating at 9.8 m/s down that hill.

Criminology wasn't that bad. Class activities kept things fairly lively. After class, I was faced with a three hour gap between Criminology and Choir. Headed down to the library where I turned on the laptop, and started writing some music! Sorta.

Gave up on the writing, and went to read my criminology text. This chapter is pretty darn boring. Compared to the one on Canadian Law (Law is where my interests lie in this field) and the UCR chapter, this chapter on patterns and correlations in crime isn't very fun.

Burned the three hours away on Windows Live messenger, and Animesuki Forums. I got too hungry to stay in the library so I went to hunt for food. The stores in the cafeteria were closed...so I had to revert back to my grade 12 habits. A bag of chips. Yum. As if I don't have enough health problems already.

Anywho, choir was the usual. Nothing else interesting happened. xD That's all folks.

Song of the Week - 외톨이

Blogging from campus today on the laptop. First time for this. Another post coming up for when I get home.

TK, trying keeping up with this one >D

Title: 외톨이, Loner/Alone (I've seen it translated as both)
Artist: 아 웃사이더 (Outsider)
Genre: Korean, Hip Hop
Single: N/A
Albums: Maestro
Vintage: 06/09 (?)

Outsider's got the title of the fastest rapper in Korea, going at 17 syllables a second. Not sure how the Korean language works, but no matter what language you speak in, that's an impressive feat.

Winter Season in a nutshell

Image by Ningai Modoki

I've gotten through the third episode of most of the Winter series. Now for a brief run down of them. Not too many compared to previous seasons. Next season is similar.

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

A fun series for sure. It says in the title 「バカ」, so the level of stupidity that some of the characters display shouldn't be too much of a surprise. Hideyoshi doesn't hurt either.

Chu-Bra!! (or Let's Educate People About Women's Underwear While Having Fun)

I have to say, this is probably one of the first times that エッチ　(ecchi) has been not sexy. I can't say I really enjoyed the first three episodes too much...but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. By the way, the title (and the title I gave it) should pretty much explain what the series is about.

Durararararararara (Sorry, I stuttered)

Well, I've only watched the first two episodes, but hey, that's all I need to tell me that it should be good. Episode 2 was essentially episode 1 from a different perspective, but 'twas still good. Watch it.

Hanamaru Youchien

It's diabetes in anime form. The amount of cuteness shouldn't be underestimated. It'll make even the toughest man's nutbladder go HNGGGG. The ending changes every episode, so it's always fresh! It's got some amazing staff members, so I'm expecting to love this one all the way through.

Hidamari Sketch Hoshimittsu

The first two episodes don't have a completed opening. It showed up in episode three though. I'll let that finish the rest of my explanation.

Ladies vs Butlers!

Well, it's not bad, although the characters do seem to be missing noses. If it wasn't for that retarded maid, I would've liked the first two episodes more. Episode three didn't have the retarded maid, so it was much more enjoyable. ドリル Flameheart is one half of the lead girl pair, and she went from irritating, to quite fun in three episodes.

 Nodame Cantabile Finale

Sorry. I couldn't seem to get a shot of the title without something blocking something. The best one I got, but that sixteenth note pair covers the last character in Finale. I've only watched the first episode...but it seems that, like last season, they seem to be cutting parts of the manga out? Hopefully they won't stray too far from the manga.

Omamori Himari

Hm. I get the feeling that the character designs are a bit off for some reason. Maybe it's the colours and stuff, but watching it just irks me for some reason. Anywho, not too bad so far, though things will most definitely heat up in a few episodes or so, if they stick to the manga material. I worry about the later episodes and censorship though...

Ookami Kakushi

Well, they certainly know something that we don't. Certainly is creepy sometimes. Giving me ひぐらし vibes. Not sure where this one'll go but I'm liking it so far. Both the opening and endings are great by the way.

Seikon no Qwaser (or With Censorship Like This, We Hope That You All Buy the DVDs For The Director's Cuts)

Well, er, I haven't watched the uncensored version yet, but I'm sure it makes much more sense. The censored version had unnatural zooms, background and random still shots for censorship, rather than the usual black or white streaks or blobs. A lot of the parts they censored makes it hard to tell what's really going on...And those boobs. Holy shit, I stopped watching Queen's Blade because the amount of fanservice was just too much. But those boobs in Qwaser are absolutely ridiculous. I'm not talking about the milk or whatever. Tomo's breasts are just like...Godzilla sized, with equally ridiculous physics. Can't see myself keeping this on my watch list.

So·Ra·No·Wo·To

Well, for something that looks so similar to K-ON, it's certainly got a different feel to it. Lots of questions are left to be answered, and Kanata still can't play her bugle. She didn't seem to inherit her lookalike's natural talent for music. Anyways, it's been pretty good, so I'll keep it on my watch list.

Dance in the Vampire Bund

Well, er, Mina's boobs aren't quite as attractive as other the pair that other loli's sport. Could they have animated the series riding on the sudden explosion of popularity of Vampires, no thanks to Twilight? Who knows, but it's not terrible. They're taking a bit of a different route to the manga, with the permission of the mangaka himself. Not sure if that's the best thing to do, considering it only has 12 episodes...In three episodes, we've seen Akira in action once, and Mina in action twice. Here's to the hope that the story will get on track next episode!

Kenn through the Decades

Image by Masao

Well, being an early 90's kid, I've gone through a few gaming consoles out there. I've lived with my cousins my whole life, so we'd share consoles, to get the best of both worlds.

Before I talk about my gaming stuff and technology through the years, I'll talk a bit about my parents. If you remember, my parents (and aunt and uncle) run a new restaurant here in Vancouver, and down in Richmond. They meet a lot of people running the business, and every now and then, they meet someone quite interesting. They've met more than a few notable new anchors, and recently, the son of a person in a position of power. He gave them his dad's business card.

^^; It's not often you get a business card from Japan here in Vancouver. No clue where Nishihara-cho is, but I do know where Okinawa is. ^^; Was quite surprised when my parents showed me the card.

And now, back to the technology.

This was probably the first gaming console I played on. Yes, I'm that old. I played on a classic, retro Game Boy before, though I never owned one. I remember playing Snow Bros. with my cousin way back in the day. Fun times.

Probably the first gaming console I owned. Got this for my birthday in grade two I think. ^^; My faovurite games were Pokemon Puzzle League, Super Smash Bros. (the very first one), and Mario Cart 64. This was during the height of Pokemon's popularity, so I also owned a few Pokemon games with it, including Pokemon Stadium (to go along with my GB Pokemon Blue, Red, and Yellow), Pokemon Snap (so fun, so fun), and Hey you! Pikachu! (cutting edge technology at the time).It eventually broke down and disappeared. ^^;

While I had my N64, my cousin went along the Sony route, and owned the PSone. Played a lot on it,memorable games include Vanguard Bandits, The Legend of Dragoon, and Crash Bandicoot.

My cousin upgraded to a PS2, while I went to the Game Boy Advanced.

This bad boy lasted me a long time. From grade five to grade nine I think. Had lots of games for this one. ^^; Enjoyed the Fire Emblem, Pokemon and Final Fantasy games especially. It's definitely seen better days, and I didn't move onto the DS, going to the Sony's PSP from here.

It was around the time I got the Game Boy Advanced that I got my second computer. My first computer kinda died, though it was way back when I was a total idiot. ^^; Didn't know the ins and outs of computers very well.

Not quite sure where my first computer went, but this one is my second one. It lasted me a few years. I remember playing Maple Story on it. I think it was the first computer that I watched anime on, though I'm debating whether I can truly call Bleach and Naruto anime. It died at the hands of my sister. Not quite sure what she did, but she did something that fried it's insides. ^^; It's now been reduced to a nice piece of furniture.

After my second computer got fried, I got this bad boy. I have to say, this guy lasted me a long time. Okay, so another few years, but I went through a whole lot of crap with this thing. I started my descent into Otaku-dom, and I started Ragnarok Frontier on this machine. Not sure where I'd be right now if I hadn't met the people I did on RF. ^^;  The laptop took a few falls, and stopped working properly. It sits in my closet, patiently waiting for the day it gets revived...

I got my PSP a little after I got my laptop. As you can see, it's now missing it's circle button after it fell out somewhere, so I can't really use it anymore. This guy's got a whole lot of memories etched into it, especially Monster Hunter. All that hunting is probably one of the causes of the circle button's failure.

 

Got this computer so that I wouldn't always be on a laptop. ^^; Was a bit reluctant to move over to a desktop PC, as I'd have to transfer a crap load of files. After a few hitches, this machine is running fine. ^^; The one I currently use. It's not very impressive, though it serves it's purposes. I still played RF on this machine in it's earlier days. Not for very long though.

After the circle button on my 'fat' PSP fell out, I went ahead and got myself a PSP Slim. I like the Piano Black colour better, but I was buying from a friend of my brother, so I didn't have too much of a choice. ^^; This one's still going strong.

Back in October, you might remember that I made a post about buying a PS3. Well it's still here, and I've gotten another game or two. Ugh. Demon's Soul. I've made lots and lots of progress on it, but ugh. Was too lazy to get a picture of the Wii, so I'll include it's story here. I got it well before I got my PS3 and second PSP. My sister mainly plays on it now because the games take less than normal amounts of thinking. Wii Sports, Wii Restort, and some crappy looking carnival game thing.

My most recent tech purchase. I suppose the reason is reverse of the reason I got the desktop PC. I'll probably be using this for composition and school. At the moment, I mainly use it for it's portability. ^^; Can't bring my PC out into the room where the PS3 is, so I use the laptop.