WELCOME TO KEITH'S PERSONAL DOMAIN

Since PlaySchool when I was god knows how old (3 years old?) until now, it's been a long journey of education.

Currently at 25 years of age, I have finally reached the end of my education life, barring any "mishaps" with my upcoming exams, I shall officially integrate into the world of full time working adults. Anyway, today's the last day of class and it was celebrated with a party organised by some of the Faculty Lecturers. Each group was to help prepare some food before hand and my group of friends and myself decided to come up with a dish of fried rice. Why fried rice you ask?

BECAUSE IT'S CHEAP! Hahahahaha! Total cost of the dish? AUD$7. To be shared among 5 people. Not a bad deal I must say. Furthermore, the dish is extremely simple and fuss free to prepare. The lecturers themselves brought Kangaroo meat to be BBQed and truth be told, the meat tastes pretty good.

Of course, as pictures speak a thousand words, I'll let the following pictures do the talking instead.

Warning, this time the cut links to ALOT of pictures as I am just going to upload every single picture we took during this last day of class in Melbourne.

( Final Student Days Pictures! )

Guess it's been sometime since I last uploaded photos of on-goings in my real life (and not my virtual SilkRoadOnline life). Lol.

So today, here are some photos primarily from:

1) Mooncake Festival Dinner

2) Bowling Outing at Chadstone's AMF Bowl

3) Final Student Presentation of my student life

( Pictures! Pictures! Pictures! )

> Monday

> Week 13 of the semester

> Presentation in 2 hours time

> Exams in 2 weeks time

Lol. That pretty much sums up the rest of my remaining school term for my entire life (unless I decide to go crazy and take up some Masters course) and it's back to home sweet home soon.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty fun considering Fayth and I went for a mooncake dinner in Springvale by the Singaporean Association of Clayton Monash; and we had a bowling outing with a couple of friends just last week.

Photos will follow soon enough once I get Christina to lend me that Photoshop CS2 instead of this current crappy Photoshop 6.0 which is such a drag in converting files.

On a side note, I sometimes wonder why the hell am I upkeeping a blog. I have less than 6 registered friends in LiveJournal and half of them are relatively inactive. The existance of this blog is unknown to most of my friends, and my life ain't interesting like some of my friends with clubbing sessions and outings at least once a week. Hmmmm, I wonder who ever takes the time to venture into my domain and give it a read.

Been quite some time since I last updated on my figurine collection. However, due to limited funds, there wasn't many that I could add to my collection.

My brother picked up the black Saber which he had helped me pre-ordered, and my trip down to the Melbourne Anime Festival yielded a pleasant surprise as one trader actually had the limited edition black Saber for sale! The price was unbelievable too.

( Black Sabers pictures )

Wow. Just realised that I was away from my blog for almost 4 months now...

Ain't gonna find excuses, I simply just couldn't be bothered to blog since nothing much happens in my life and no one ever bothers to read my blog anyway.

Well, still, I guess I would pick up blogging again (though not on a regular basis), and only report here when something interesting does happen (which is highly unlikely also).

Quick update of what happened during the period I was away. Been playing SRO still ever since, had my birthday celebrations few days ago, went down to the Melbourne Anime Festival (Manifest) today. Other than that, my life is just that. A waste of the 24 hours given to me.

Finally, the long awaited day has arrived. Going down to check my letterbox yielded a note stating that I had a parcel awaiting my collection at the concierge.

Going down there, I picked up the parcel and opened it at home, revealing my favourite anime babe of all times: YAKUMO!

It was very nicely bubblepacked but the box had abit of dent here and there due to the air travel. Ah well, what HK Gensen gave me made up for it. Pictures below. tsubaki_ eat your heart out!

( Yakumo Tsukamoto Figurine and nice extras )

First paper of exams start tomorrow at 9.30am.

'Nuff said.

Heard of Erika Door? Well, no?

I am not surprised. Neither did I.

But it seems that this lady here is a pretty well known and established cosplayer. Cosplay, what is that, you ask?

It means costume play, which essentially means you dress up in some anime or game or what have you costume. Think of those Star Wars fanatics who like to dress up as Darth Vader and you get the idea.

Well, here is a short interview about her and anyone who is interested in embarking on the ardous journey and world of cosplaying, get your tips and lessons here.

Interview with Erika Door

Otherwise, check out the Cosplay site over at

Cosplay Website and be amazed at the costumes made by these individuals.

And no, I am not a cosplayer nor intending to be one. Just a dude who is fascinated by the dedication of these people in re-creating costumes from animes, games, movies, etc.

Lol.

This was the first unique unit that I had to take in University and boy was this assignment fun. It was a break from all the "complete a marketing report of 3,000 words with 20 references" assignments that I had to do since College Part 2.

Instead, this assignment required us to form groups and design AND make our own product package! Now how cool is that??

Being a complete marketing student since my poly days, this got me pretty excited and seeing the final result really shook my world.

Of course, my group was lucky enough to have the ONLY design student in the whole course. She did the drawing, printing and actual production of the package while the rest of us fiddled with the report part of the assignment.

The product we did was Omo. Omo is a brand of washing detergent in Australia and our proposal was to have a travel size washing detergent pack that was light weight, easy to carry and easy to use. We came up with the name of "2 Easy" to depict the 2 easy steps needed to use our product - namely to peel open the protective foil and pour the product into the washing machine. Of course we did not have the actual tools to work with and had to improvise on our product, hence the choice to use 2 small cheese cups (think of those yogurt cups and you have the idea) and simply just pasting the printed foil over it. We had a stunning box to protect the product and I'm going to show it here.





Frankly though, the pictures don't do it justice. You really got to see it to believe. If I were to place it in a supermarket shelf, I bet my life savings that someone will actually try to pick it up with the consideration to buy it.

Kudos to the team! (Michelle, Michiko, Tanya, and of course myself.)

Well, it is finally Friday. This signals the end of the much dreaded Week 11 as I had one assignment due on Monday, one presentation on Thursday and my Packaging Design assignment which I just handed in earlier.

That's it. No more assignments. Which means only one thing. Exams.

Yup, as the semester draws to a close, the much anticipated (dreaded) exams loom. I am somewhat lucky this semester as my 4 exams are all nicely spread out. No longer do I have to contend with 3 exam papers in 2 days. That kills, let me tell you. Sometimes I wonder how the hell I managed to get through secondary school with their system of one exam per day for one whole week straight. I must have been crazy. Or extremely studious. Either way, not what I am right now: Slacker, Couch potato, Gossiper, Journaler, Anime watcher, Online Game player.

My exams fall on these days:

1st June : Performance Management exam (2 hour PM paper)
9th June : International Business exam (2 hour PM paper)
14th June : Issues in Competitive Advantage (3 hour PM paper)
22nd June : Marketing Issues in Package Design (2 hour PM paper)

I know it is abit late, but well, I just got my sch_rumble_sem2 community journal up and running.

Anyone here who wants to see what school rumble semester 2 has to offer feel free to go take a look.

By the way, there are a total of 77 images (878kb) in that synopsis. It is a MAJOR SPOILER so if you haven't watched it and intend to do so, please DO NOT open it. You have been warned. If you don't care, go check it out.

http://community.livejournal.com/sch_rumble_sem2/

Alright, my obsession with School Rumble just hit breaking point and my fandom with Yakumo has led me to the edge of insanity. So much so that I decided to start......

A new School Rumble Semester 2 community!

Well, there ARE other SR communities out there, but well, they are distinctively unattractive and though I can't say mine is superb, at least it is slightly better (in terms of layout and background wallpaper which I made myself.)

Other than that, I am gonna update episode by episode reviews on the anime and of course, my beloved Yakumo-chan! Lol.

If you are a SR fan, or at least in my friend list (which isn't many anyway, I can count you guys with one hand), do support my community and spread the word around. Hopefully, it will be one of the best School Rumble (and Yakumo) fan communities around.

Once again, here is the link to it.

http://community.livejournal.com/sch_rumble_sem2/

Finally! I got down to finishing downloading and subsequently, finish watching School Rumble Semester 1.

This series is platinum I tell ya! I managed to get to download School Rumble Semester 2 (essentially part 2), and the pre-school cultural festival survival game got myself and Fayth into such fits of laughter that I tell you, it was equally as bad as when Christina and Michelle get together and have their wild bursts of hyena laughters.

Since SR sem 1, I had a deep love for one of the characters - Yakumo Tsukamoto.

In the anime, she is the younger sister of the main female lead Tenma Tsukamoto. However, unlike her bumbling, chirpy elder sister, Yakumo is quieter, sweeter, prettier and has the unique ability to mind read! How cool is that!!!

Anyhow, at the same time, there has been a wide spread hoo-hah about another sleeper anime that had hit Japan. Named "The Melancholy of Suzumi Haruhi", it portrays the story of a school girl who is obsessed with mysteries of the world, a.k.a aliens, espers, UFOs, etc. The anime has a unique feel to it as it doesn't follow the conventional story line run. What I mean is episode 3 could actually be episode 6 in the story line, and episode 6 is actually episode 4. It keeps you scratching your head in confusion but at the same time, glues you to its quirky humour. Worth checking out. However, between school girls, Haruhi and Yakumo are both equally endearing characters, though with personalities totally apart! Furthermore, Haruhi has really funny erratic behaviours that you will always be left guessing as to what she will come up with next.

Seeing as how tsubaki_anime and seorang are so obsessed with Haruhi, i am gonna run a few pictures for anyone who comes across this thread to see and compare for yourselves. Me? I am still a Yakumo whore.

Edit: I just watched episode 6 of School Rumble Semester 2, and thus gonna add a couple more pictures of Yakumo.

( Pictures of Yakumo from SR and Haruhi from TMoSH )

Finally! My black edition Kasumi from Dead or Alive has arrived! The beauty! Oh well, there are a couple of flaws but beggars can't be choosy since it is hand painted.

( Pictures of my own Kasumi figurine )

Well, finally I am back to updating this dusty blog of mine. Hmmmmm, when was the last time?

Ouch... a week plus ago. Lol.

Well, the trouble with my laptop is finally all over, and this week or so had been really hectic with all the major assignments due in the same week. Had abit of trouble juggling my stuff around and somehow, this semester I have really really poor time management. I think it is due to all the gaming and animes that got me into this super "slacker" mode which I can't shake out of. Darn. And to think that exams are in 2 weeks time.

Ah well, I'll post a couple of updates now as to what had been going on in the past few days (except for my assignments, I am sure no one wants to know what I have been doing in that aspect.)

Stay tuned!

Well, I was practically non-existant the whole of yesterday, 3rd May 2006. Reason: 50% due to school. 50% due to my personal laptop.

Most of you know about my recent fiasco with my laptop where it was attacked by malware and later on a virus (What kind I don't know, coz I reformatted my laptop by then).

Just yesterday, another problem surfaced. This time, it's the hardware. Yep, my laptop cooling system broke down. No cooling system = no fan = no air flow = laptop overheating = reduced laptop speed = bloody hell lag in everything I do, that includes opening Microsoft Word.

As such, I am gonna send it down to the local Toshiba repair centre since I have another year of International Warranty left on it. I called them up and they informed me that it may take up to 4-6 days. Bummer. Life without internet and a laptop = suxxors.

P.S. In the school lab now, hence the ability to surf.

Every now and then, I will be introducing some word or term or train of thought that relates personally to me. To most people, I am the happy go lucky, can't be bothered with trivialities kind of person. To a certain extent, some people may take me for granted or even totally disregard me due to my lighthearted personality. Anyway, I am actually a pretty deep thinker and I think all sorts of stuff from the orthodox such as politics, world affairs, human psychology, etc to the unorthodox such as nonsense thinking, pron, anime, etc. What kind of a person I am; I'll leave it for the next Personal Muse entry.

( The Blue Infinity? What is it? )

Being far away in Melbourne, Fayth and myself do not receive much news about the current on-goings of the upcoming elections. All we hear and know of are from friends and family members. I myself do not have to vote because the constituency I am in, Marine Parade GRC, is not contested due to a walkover yet again. Ah well. As for Fayth, she has to get her sister to vote on her behalf.

Anyway, for all of my Singaporean kakis here in Melbourne, in case you didn't hear, this is an update that I found on tsubaki_'s blog. Pretty interesting to read and it is food for thought. All along, the PAP have been revered and is always thought to be the party that will always win the majority of the election, but it seems like this year, the WP will be putting more of a fight.

http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2006/yax-581.htm

Today I was on the way to the hair dresser to cut my hair at Melbourne Central, and I bumped into seorang. Being the good friend that he is, he accompanied me while I was getting my hair cut. Ah well, at least he tried to by going to Borders to browse magazines while my hair was slowly snipped away.

Anyway, we went down to the local Chinatown hobby store and looked around a fair bit, afterwhich I went over to his place to browse through his animes that he kept stored in his two external hard drives. I found a couple that I am going to leech from him.

1) Midori no Hibi
2) Saikano
3)Magikano
4)Ikkitousen
5)Amaenaideyo (ep10-13)
6) Canvas 2
7) Rozen Maiden
8) Kanon
9) Air Gear
10) The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumi

Lol. Don't have to burn my download quota on the above animes. Hehe. Life is truly good.

Few days ago, my brother acquired the blue Saber for me which got me in such a frenzy. Saber is Love!

Now, upon my request again, he has once again returned with another set of figurines that I pleaded with him to help me get. This latest figurines are the Tenjho Tenge ( translated from 天上天下) main girls which are featured in both the manga as well as the anime. I had been following this series since it was first released and I only managed to collect up to manga book 6 before I had to come to Melbourne for my studies. Ah well, at least I got them in plastic now. And at a discount no less. Life's good.

( Tenjho Tenge Figurines and my three proudest 1/6 collection )