Wishlist

So since my birthday and Christmas are just around the corner, I wanted to make an early wishlist of what I'd like to have. 'Course, budget aside, I'll find some way to get to them. One way or another.

1. Laptop bag (something less bulky than what I have now. The ones from Halo or Targus look appealing. Jarvis (my 12" Acer Windows 8 lappy) could use the space.
2. HDMI to VGA adapter. I can't make presentations using my laptop without one! I really need to find this since I don't want to have to rely on the projector having an HDMI input (since it isn't a staple so much).
3. Lego Marvel Super Heroes 3DS game. I told myself that Pokemon X/Y is one of the last games I'd get for myself for a while since I have other priorities to save up for. This would be a great bonus to have, especially because of Stan Lee.
4. iPod 7th gen. My 4th gen iPod's screen is starting to conk out due to my careless drops, and it's been displaying the wrong cover album art for as long as I can remember. Maybe that's to be expected of an 8gb device and cram 7gb of its storage with music. The poor thing.
5. Computer Table & Chair. I don't utilize my desk in my room so much since the bed is more inviting. And since I'm at home, I do sort of want to relax a little and literally lay low with a down-to-earth coffee-table like table (and maybe copy off of my siblings). A floor chair would be neat too!
6. A Kamen Rider Belt. Either W, OOO, Fourze or Wizard would be awesomesauce. :)
7. iPad Mini. It'd be neat to have a tablet of my own. I can end up saving up for one myself, but this is just to put it up here so I have a running list of what I actually want to have.
8. Deadly Heat. The fifth installment of the Nikki Heat series based off the ABC series Castle. It was released last month, and I'm wondering when it'll be available locally so I can finally get past that cliffhanger from the previous book.
9. Nintendo Points Card. So many digital downloadable games, downloadable content requires money! And an easier way to that is by getting point cards to get them. :)

One can dream right? v(^.^)v

My New Lappy

My first post using my new laptop! After the whole escapade of my desktop laptop Tony dying, I was already on the hunt for a new one. Owing to the need to help with the capabilities of my return to the coding scene (no, not professionally, just as a hobby surprisingly enough), I began scavenging around for a powerful laptop from a reliable brand.

After browsing several electronic and PC-related shops, and even the Best Buy websites, I finally decided on one. Another factor that came into my decision was geared more on how much I can pay in a span of around one to two years.

If I've learned anything about the value of a good laptop, is looking at the reviews and seeing if it's cheaper abroad. Luckily enough, my dad was due for a San Francisco flight a few weeks back so I took the chance and asked him to get it for me.

And so, lo and behold, my new laptop! My new Acer Aspire M5-481PT-6644 Ultrabook!

Here's the specs:

• Intel Core-i5 processor
• 6GB RAM
• 500GB HDD
• Windows 8 65-bit OS
• Touch screen

5 Year Buddy

My first laptop (not including the hand-me-down Compaq laptop I used until high school) was a 14 inch HP dv2000 laptop. It was my chosen graduation gift from high school in the whole threshold to college, and with a course like Computer Science, it sort of demanded me to have a laptop of my own with better capabilities. At the time, it seemed to have been a decent choice, but it quickly became a let-down, what with its default OS to be Windows Vista, and had I known that it would end up causing me problems down the line, I would have chosen a different brand or model altogether. But, needless to say, it served it purpose well.

Of course, you'd imagine why I'd be writing up an entry like this. Well, the answer to that is simple: I've laid it to rest due to its inability to boot up after 5 years of servitude and neglect. I guess part of the reason why it died on me was the fact that it got demoted to being a mere desktop laptop that stayed home, was constantly plugged and hardly ever rested (yeah probably my fault) ever since I got my little Acer Aspire One netbook for more convenient portability in my final year of college. AND considering I've gone through three batteries for said HP laptop, I wouldn't be surprised it failed me over time.

But to commemorate how it still means something to me, I wanted to give you a little glimpse of the good and bad times I had with my 5-year-old HP that I originally named Roy, but just recently named Tony. Because it's Tony (yes, named after Tony Stark), I can be a sadistic little ass and point out that his Arc Reactor gave out and couldn't revive him or that he didn't have a Jarvis to do any repairs. Phrasing things like that puts me more at ease about the loss, at the very least.

Tony has been my reliable buddy throughout my first three years of college, when coding assignments were rampant. He helped me out of a dozen pickles, but that came with the consequence of lugging him to school, and he wasn't exactly the lightest laptop around. It was for that purpose that my mom bought a special backpack for me (with its separate laptop compartment) to transport my laptop to and from school as I frequented commuting rather than driving (since I wouldn't be driving until second year). Yeah it put pressure on my body for the extra weight, but well worth it considering my need for it half the time.

I suited Tony up with a few other armaments, including several OS upgrades to Windows 7 and Ubuntu to help me out whenever and wherever necessary. Because he had an optical drive, I managed to burn DVDs as necessary, and even play some PC games for a time with him. He definitely gave me the best and easiest time with things, until I up and decided that I needed less weight to carry. Yeah he ended up staying home after that, but that didn't mean I discarded him completely. He still had much more to offer me and I'm just glad that he was able to provide for me the needed help whenever he could. I'm happy to have had Tony to support me, but now I'm ready to say goodbye (which I already have) and move on with my netbook Bruce (yes, after Bruce Banner. Ain't I creative?) until I can save up for a more powerful unit. Until then, pocket netbooks FTW!

Catching Up

Lately for school there's the usual lectures, assigned readings and homeworks. Not surprisingly, I'm tossed back into the world of coding that I realize my logic is not as refined as I had made it towards the end of last year (then again, I've slowly stopped coding unless required, like for thesis). But needless to say, I've gotten back into the swing of Java for one of our classes, and C in another. To suit my needs, I've armed my little netbook (named Agri) with the necessary programs (Eclipse, Dev C++ and Visual C# Express Edition+XNA Game Studio to be specific). That way my programming becomes portable, and I can actually work on thesis with the little guy.

Speaking of thesis, I'm currently starting on the art assets for Stage 2 (3/4 stages), which should take less time to design and prepare for the game. Implementing it will take a bit more time considering inclusion of a timer and what not. So this should be an interesting development. Hopefully Jason and I can get things rolling.

In other news, Kai introduced me to a dating game catered to our tastes. The theme? Prince of Tennis. Not surprisingly, it makes us go 'kyaa' xD. Should be fun where this goes. At least it's an excuse to start playing with my DS again once in a while.

Geekiness

This post was actually a day late in creation and publication for the mere reason that I was jumping for joy on one end and bawling the next. Why? Lots of reasons.

But before I go any further I just want to greet some birthdays. Yesterday was a special birthday. Tenimyu Seigaku 4th Cast's Fuji Syuusuke, Furukawa Yuuta. So a happy birthday to him. ^o^/

Now then, onto other things. First things first, we have results of the morning's class. Since it was a networks class we dealt with cables and what not. Yesterday we, learned how to make a LAN cable. Success below!

Then that afternoon, I was taking a nap to wake up to my dad coming home not long after with my new Acer Aspire One Netbook! 8D I'm composing this entry on it right now so the picture with the box is in my other laptop, so I'll edit that in later on. BUT, this wasn't all happy happy since I made a stupid mistake of wiping my USB clean while trying to make the other one bootable. After some searching high and low on the internet I finally found a program that could retrieve lost files. All that's left is to rename them and sort them out properly. Will take some time off my hands but well worth it that I got most of my files back untouched. TuT

Chocolate Raisins

チョコレートレーズン。（ちょこれえとれえずん）Chokorētorēzun. trans. Chocolate Raisins.

Finally, my Navi Planner is brought to full use now that it's the year 2011. I must say I found this appealing than collecting Starbucks stickers like I've been doing since 2007. It's a fresh start indeed!

What's more, my dad came home from the States today and brought home a few things for me. :D

The first is a new battery for my laptop. My second HP battery died after a few minutes but I think it's still good for some use. I'll have to confirm. But for the meantime, I'm on a new battery, and am currently draining it down to 0% to see how long it lasts. So far so good though. Starting at around 94% something about an hour back and the percentage is at 63%. Not bad! Looks like this will be good for about 2-3 hours. Hopefully I can keep the battery life like that for a long while.

But that is not the main point of my blog entry today! CHOCOLATE RAISINS~ Some two years ago I make a random post about it here just as I was starting out this blog (oh how time flies so fast), but I never got around to posting a picture. Well, now I have~ If I may say in the many years I've enjoyed this delicacy I've noticed how the container was modified.... to hold more raisins! xDDDDD

Omoi Nimotsu

重い荷物。（おもいにもつ）Omoi nimotsu. trans. Heavy Load.

Blogging from school for the first time in a long while with my laptop no less!! ^____^b

I was expecting that I would be needing to bring Roy - my laptop - along with me everyday during my Junior year with all these projects and labs for my major classes, but I was sorely mistaken. Roy's been happily resting in the confines of my room on a table by my bed these past few weeks and it's the first time I brought him along to school.

Of course, that entails my bag being all that more heavier bringing him along but that's fine. CS152 lab deadline is fast approaching so it's no surprise that my partner Ryan and I need to finish everything before then!

As usual, it takes a while to get an internet connection around here, but Sec Walk seems like a nice reception area for the school wifi. Excellent.

I won't be having my CS123 in the afternoon (1:30-3pm) because of some Academic Convocation, so hopefully Ryan and I can finish things in that span of time. Hopefully when we do manage to finish up everything I can go with Kai to Cinemalaya in UP!

Fingers crossed. ^______________^v