Showing posts with label Other Hobby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Other Hobby. Show all posts

Monday, September 21, 2009

Bonboya-zyu Mug

It would seem I forgot to mention the mug in the loot of my previous post. So its getting a special post. :P
It's actually a Bonboya-zyu mug, featuring some peeking monkeys. I got it from Daily Yamazaki, a conbini near our office. Last week, they were offering it for free if you buy a box of Meiji Choco Almond and a big pack of Choco pie. Pricey for a total of 500+ yen (conbini price, of course). Well, I like the cute characters so I guess it was worth it. I didn't buy on the first day, so I missed the mug design I liked. But this is still Ok, since the monkeys have some special meaning for me. ;P

The text on the mug says:
Saru mitemasuyo. Gambatteru anata no koto chanto mitemasuyo.
The monkeys are watching. Properly watching you, who is giving your best.

Break from Work

It's Monday, but I'm glad to be getting some rest today instead of being at work. Will be in vacation mode until Wednesday since it's officially the Silver Week holidays (a name I think they only recently came up with to match the other week long holiday here in Japan, Golden Week).

It's been a hectic two weeks of debugging with late nights. As such, I've been indulging myself with some stress buying over the past two weekends. I did however limit myself to low cost purchases.  ^_^ So budget is still intact... more or less.

Total damage of recent loots pictured above is just a bit over 4000yen. These include:
  • Revoltech Frauline Rin Tousaka,
  • Revoltech Frauline Nagato Yuki (to match my Frauline Haruhi),
  • A basic di:stage set (which I am now using with Haruhi, since I broke her stand)
  • Books 5 to 8 plus a Special of Ga-Rei manga (been waiting for this to turn-up in Book-Off, so I'm glad they finally did. Although I still don't have book 9)
  • Book 2 of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi... although I don't have book 1. Lol!
Other than that, I've also been posting figurine pictures over at Figure.fm, a site for figurine lovers and collectors. It's a popular community for posting high resolution figurine pictures. ^^

Feel free to visit my recent posts and comment on them:
The first two posts are actually similar to the pics here in my blog. Although you might be interested to view them in higher resolution. v(^^

Ah, times like these, I wish I could buy a professional camera. I just use my 3-year old Canon IXY to snap those pics. It takes quite some time to get a decent shot.

In any case, I will most probably be posting all my figurine pics over at that site from now on. Will just place links here to them. Enjoy! :)

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Of Plants, Zombies, and Games

It's been a long time since I tried to finish a video game. The recent explosion of 3D games didn't quite appeal to me - not that the gameplay of the games were bad, but the thought of shelling-out cash for both the game and the required hardware simply sounds appalling. Besides, I'm already too tired from overtime to even bother with a game that requires too many hours and too much concentration in one sitting.

Two weeks ago, the website of Popular Science featured an article on some simple but great games that are not mainstream - ones people [regretably] miss. Plants vs. Zombies caught my attention with its intruiging choice of personalities. I've read that zombies are the modern vampires, so no surprise they are the villians again... but against plants? And cute ones at that?! I couldn't resist. I went over to their website that day and downloaded the trial version (60 mins of cumulative gameplay). Sure enough, it was fun and amusing - but most important of all, it had just the right difficulty to entertain me, and provide me with some instant gratification before I go to sleep after a day's tiring work. It's a really cute strategy game with surprisingly lots of variety to keep one playing even after completing the 50 stages. What's more, it's really, really cheap! So now, its installed in both Belldandy and Haruhi-chan (the purchase allows you to install it 5 times via online registration) and it now takes up a chunk of my idle time. :D

Now, if only the Zen Garden mode came with an online social network capability (like PlayFish's Pet Society) to allow people to share their plants... that would make it quite... perfect.

As a side note, I was really surprised to find out it came from the same company that created the game that kept my mom and brothers glued to their laptop even to this day. :D

Aside from video games, I've been playing [again] with the usual UFO catcher. :) Last week, I lost 2,000yen without getting anything! This week, I got even, and was lucky enough to get a Yoko (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann) bed sheet for only 500yen (3 tries)! I haven't taken any pictures of it yet, but Sega Prize (the company that makes it) has a pic up on their site. I actually got Yoko on the 2nd try, and was hoping to get the Nia bedsheet with my remaining try, but alas, fate decreed Yoko should be more than enough for me. :P

Today, I caught myself a cute (albeit a little pinkish) C.C. nendoroid figure from Banpresto! I've been wanting to get a C.C. for the longest time! Hm... with a really-green hair like the figure's, you'd wonder whether she played a role in Plants vs. Zombies... as a celery perhaps?

Saturday, May 23, 2009

PC/Laptop Setup - Best Practice Number Zero

Since I recently just had a chance to setup Haruhi-chan fresh from the shop, I'm putting some of my personal best practices here, along with my personal set of freeware suggestions.

So what is the first thing that anyone should do when freshly setting-up their PC/laptop? The answer: Best practice number Zero is "Secure your PC/Laptop." At first glance, this seems obvious, but believe me, a lot of people I've met either does not consciously do this, or miss some basic aspects of it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying my system is perfect - in fact, I most probably have a zillion security holes, but hopefully, it's also a zillion less than most home user's.

Since I'm a Windows XP user, I'll just concentrate on Windows XP home systems. Also, since most problems are usually results of being online, I'll be addressing such issues most of the time. Here are some steps that I take as part of Best Practice Zero (in order of execution):
  1. Upon first boot-up and login, set passwords for your Administrator and user account(s). Pick a good password - mix numbers, upper- and lower-case letters.
  2. Change login method to show the Windows welcome screen that prompts for password - never allow automatic user login. Also, disable fast user switching.
  3. Do not immediately connect to any network.
  4. If your system is packaged with an antivirus software, ensure it is installed and running.
  5. Enable Windows firewall and Windows Automatic Update.
  6. Connect to the internet, but do not access any site or do anything else, other than to perform Windows automatic update.
  7. Perform automatic update of your antivirus software via the antivirus client, if it has one. Again, do not access any site or download anything.
  8. Disconnect and reboot to ensure all updates have completely installed.
  9. At this point, I'd take a risk to use Internet Explorer to get the stuff I need to install. In order of installation, these are:
The above set of software completes the basic protection package. I take the time to reboot and perform a full system scan using the antivirus and anti-spyware tools after they have been installed. For a fresh system, this normally doesn't take long. Even if it does take some time, it's usually worth performing. Also, I always keep the auto-update feature enabled for these software. Additionally, I tweak some Windows services and settings to increase protection and performance, but I do not recommend them for casual users unless they know what they are doing.

However, do note that these software are only as effective as the person that uses them. I recommend taking time to fully understand each software's capabilities. A lot of help topics and tips can be found on the software's respective sites, help files, and online forums.

At this point, I'm more or less confident to install other additional software for daily use, as well as access online contents/accounts. Of course, as I mentioned, the best protection is still an informed and smart user - nothing keeps that pain away better than safe surfing habits:
  • Always keep to trusted sites (don't ignore SiteAdvisor warnings!)
  • Install only recommended and reliable software (always check reviews first)
  • Never connect to an unknown network (wired or wireless)
  • Never transmit sensitive information over instant messaging or e-mail ("Hi, Mom! My password is "H1N1SwineFlu" -- duh! )
  • Never access sensitive online accounts from a web cafe unless it is an emergency (e.g. somebody may die when you don't do so...) -- seriously, never ever do this. Sensitive online accounts include e-mail and social networking sites (more on these later), and naturally, bank accounts. About e-mail, please remember that these days, a lot of personally-identifiable information is available in your e-mail and SNS. You endanger not only yourself but also others when you ignore this oft-neglected practice.
And that wraps-up Best Practice number Zero!

Now, for non-security-related concerns, here are other free software that I use to replace the official ones (usually due to performance and/or cost issues):
For the items above without official links, I usually stick to downloading from this trusted site.

That's it! If you have comments and/or other suggestions, please feel free to leave me a message.