TF2 Rant

This is insane.

The new polycount pack. It just gives those who have the financial power to purchase the pack, a huge advantage over the players who can't afford to buy the pack.

That is why I hate ingame stores. They give a huge amount of power to those who can afford it.

I cannot believe I nearly broke my laptop over this game. Hell, I'm not launching it. Again.

Next Project

So my next project comes from a request. A request from one of my friends.

Unfortunately, there isn't a preview image I can post yet. Since this is a hard nut to crack. But you can see where the image is from- as seen in this video on Youtube.

Don't ask, Don't tell. That's the policy I will follow from now on.

Anime and Digital Piracy

2ch and Sankaku complex is on fire again. This time, due to pirated release of anime. Here is the newest artice of insult throwing from 2ch

A Certain Magical Index- an anime I watch and download

As an Otaku, I have no choice but to pirate most of my anime. Since there is no real way of me getting hold of the official released version of the Anime.

But on the positive side, the free download of anime has convinced me to buy figures. A lot more expensive compared to buying every single Blu-ray release (if available)

I haven't have time to learn Japanese yet, since one, I take IBDP and two, if I do learn Japanese, I can't get hold of the anime in the first place!

But when someone (such as an economist) thinks about it. Isn't Digital Piracy overall good to the market?

Before I begin on the analysis, I will define some of the terms I will use in the text.

Cross Elasticity of Demand (XED)- It is a measurement of how the change of price of a certain good affect demand of another good.
Complimentary Goods- Goods that are bought along side of the main product
Price Elasticity of Supply (PES)- The responsiveness of supply to a change of price
Price Elasticity of Demand (PED)- The responsiveness of Demand to a change of Price.
Market- Where buyers and sellers meet to determine a trading price
Opportunity Cost- The cost of the next best choice (e.g. Monetary- Buying a new iPod, what else can you spend it on with the same amount of money)

The animators and the company that has the copyright of the original franchise may lose money due to us constantly downloading the illegal copies of Anime. But remember, there are complimentary goods to the anime (such as figures and posters).

Here, we have a SnD curve when Anime is provided through normal routes. We can see that there is a set price by the market on P1 and Quantity demanded at Q1.

But when anime is distributed free on the internet, the P1 is lowered from the original graph to the graph below. Since it is now free, the demand of the good would increase (since there are almost no opportunity costs related to downloading an episode of Anime

What the anime companies lost here is the revenue due to free alternatives.

Complimentary goods usually have a NEGATIVE XED, this means the increase of price in good A would decrease demand in good B. Or the decrease of price in good A would increase demand of good B.

Since the interest of an anime has increased, (due to increased exposure), and also due to the lowering of price of the anime itself. The complimentary goods will see an increase in demand (as shown in the graph below) from D1 to D2. But supply of the goods hasn't changed, so the price of the good would generally go up, and the quantity supplied would go up.

The increase of goods sold may mean the increase of revenue. Usually, the revenue of the complimentary goods is higher than the original good itself.

So in long term, it would be a better idea to provide anime for free on the internet. Since the revenue lost at the original anime may be covered by the increased sale of complimentary goods.

osu!

The phrase "osu!" is used as a greeting between Ouendan (Japanese Cheer squad) members. But it's also a game.

Here is a gameplay video of osu:

Notice how it's played. This is a rhythm  game. The notes should either follow the vocals or the background Music. For the gameplay above, it's the vocals.

There is a better introduction in game on how to play.

Next Sketching project

I don't know about the next sketching project right now. Since I'm quite burnt out by the last sketching project. But right now, I'm taking any sort of requests.

I took a quick break from sketching for a few days, instead, I've made a Judgement inspired login-screen

The login screen

How it looks

Government Flying service accident

The Government Flying Service  (GFS) is a disciplined unit of the Hong Kong Government. They provide services such as Air Ambulance, Fire Fighting, Search and Rescue and when needed, Police operations. They’re equivalent to the US Coast Guard.
Recently, there was an accident with the GFS. A Eurocopter Super Puma (AS 332L2 Mk2) was ditched into the Shing Mun Reservior.

So what is the Eurocopter Super Puma? It’s the new helicopter the GFS to replace the aging Sikorsky S-70 , which was left from the Auxiliary Royal Air Force. The Super Puma started service at around the year 2002. They are currently grounded for Safety Checks
Why am I posting this? I’m a bit of an airplane freak. I also want some of the US reader to be aware of such issues in Hong Kong

"英語？何だですか？" 御坂質問

"English? What's that?" Misaka Asks


Ah, English. The language that you can probably speak and write in. Japanese people have problems with this particular language. In this post, I'll focus on society and Sentence structure that causes problems.


Society


Japan is a society based on a "Shame Society", Where parents control the children and maintaining order with adults using shame. So when Japanese students tries to speak English to a native speaker*, they would be afraid of pronouncing words wrong, sentences making sense and so on. Such attributes would cause the student to sky away from speaking English.


This can become a huge problem. Since language proficiency comes from constant practice. Without practice,  their English language skills will not improve.


English is also misused within the Japanese society. The English words on popular clothing/shops is meaningless and is there for decoration. So any exposure to English in Japan wouldn't be useful.

Sentence Structure

The Japanese language and the English language has a big gap in sentence structure. This is how something in Japanese would look:

私は箱を開けます。

When directly translated to English:

I Box open 

In proper English:

I open a box

You see the problem? No? Then let me explain

The Japanese language have what we call an SOV type of sentence, meaning Subject,object,Verb. While English, we have SVO type of sentence, Subject Verb Object. This can be frustrating to some students learning English.

Imagine this: You're working in a factory, you're here to sort items into boxes, the product will go in: A-b-c. You've been doing this for 10 years. Suddenly, I tell you to change the order to "C-A-B". You will have a hard time adjusting to it. That's exactly like what they're experiencing.

It's hard to change habits.

That's about it, I should grab some sleep now (It's 2.10am GMT+8)

Foreign Countries

"What is so thrilling about traveling to a new country?" Misaka Asks


Travelling to a new country may be thrilling to some people, or just plain scary. It depends on what kind of person you are.

Me, I love traveling to new countries, or learn something more about another country. As you might have thought, right now, it would be Japan. What's interesting about travelling to another country is that it challenges one's perspective.

For example, we would assume most people living in MEDC's would eat turkey during Christmas. But they don't in Japan, they eat KFC.

When one's perspective is challenged, one would generally ignore it and forget about it. Not me, I appreciate it and try to find the origin of such practices. Heck, I might even try to incorporate it into my own practice if it has a meaning behind it.

Using the example provided earlier, the reason people eat KFC is due to KFC running a successful campaign that persuaded most of the Japanese that Westerners eat KFC for Christmas.

Building on that, why did the Japanese people just assume westerners eat KFC during Christmas dinner? Did they not bother to search it online? That is a question that I might not be able to answer for a while.

So, why did I bring up Foreign countries? To keep it short, I want to share what I might do after Uni.

Japan, well known for their terrible English, search on Youtube "Japanese english" and you get videos of general Japanese population failing to pronounce words properly. Sometimes, they can't even structure the sentences properly (Due to the different sentence structure).

So, I might go apply for JET. But one thing prevents me form doing so, I'm a Hong Kong Citizen, English is spoken by only 30% of the citizens and Japan-HK relationships are particularly high. Applying for this can be a challenge for me.

I'll post more later when I feel like it :)

"Guest sketches"

So I agreed to post some of my friend's sketches on this blog. Instead of Vector graphics, I'm posting some Pixel graphics.

Apparently, they're made on Photoshop.
Credits go to Ryu for making these sketches

Project I is used in another wallpaper

My first sketch is used in another image :3

Here it is

"Project II, complete! (not)" Misaka reports

So here it is: The completed Sketch.

Download the Xara file: http://www.mediafire.com/?mazd9juku3m3d70

"Congrats UTW" Misaka Congratulates

They've finally released their fansufor Index II Ep12.

Expect a review as soon I finish dling it.

"Project II- Update 2" Misaka reports

So no more than 13 hours after my last post, I've made some significant progress. That's why I'm posting :P

Notice that the upper body still needs some work

How it looks in Xara without the details

Fun fact of the day: I'm racing my second 24hr GT4 in B-spec mode

"Project II- Update 1" Misaka reports

"Merry Christmas" Misaka Cheers


So, here is my second project. A bit of update

This is how it looks in Xara

This is how the exported version looks like

Oh, the review for Ep.12, is not going up until UTW releases Ep.12, but I've already watched the Chinese version :)

My Gear

So, you might be wondering about how my working desk looks like. Here you go~

My room and all it's junk

What used to be in the cup- Milk Tea (and I've got that cup in my trip to the States)

The two bottles of drink I usually have next to me

My HP Envy 14 which is used as my main computer

Mouse mat and mouse.

My iPod Nano 5th Gen 8GB

HTC Desire

And my favorite- my Nikon D60 With Sigma 18-200

Next sketching project

Here to quickly post an update.. So I'm a week into my Christmas holidays, and I'm bored. The image above you see is my next sketching project.

As usual, I'm going to be sketching Misaka :3

"Misaka Sketch" Misaka exclaims

So.. after a month worth of work, the sketching finally finished! (as my friend predicted)

Credit goes to:
J.C. Staff- For making this picture in the first place!
Ryu- For general art inquiries and listening to all my whining :P

Oh: If you want- Xara file of the sketch: http://www.mediafire.com/?rxadf4kqcnqqyaz
And the original image: http://oreno.imouto.org/post/show/126705/misaka_mikoto-seifuku-to_aru_kagaku_no_railgun-to_

FLCL

Since it's almost Christmas, I might as well start another anime. Considered the BEST anime of the whole decade. FLCL (Fooly Cooly).

I've just finished episode one. What makes this anime special is the mixture of artwork, and the themes involved. It was epic and funny. This episodes goes to prove moeblobs should go screw themselves (*ahem*k-on*ahem*).

The voice actors so far is OK, but Haruko needs another voice actor, I don't think it fits with her personality.

Storyline is gripping so far. Although I did get lost once or twice within the episode, but I guess this should happen since it IS my first time watching it.

"What I'm up to" Misaka reports

A little update on me:

Right now, I'm working on a sketch on Misaka Mikoto on Xara Xtreme. I've been working on it for a good few weeks now.
Misaka in Xara with background:

Misaka without the Background (Notice her skirt isn't finished)

Index II Episode 11 review

Toaru Majutsu no Index- The second real anime series I follow. It used to be Angel Beats and Library Wars. So now we're up to episode 11. Close to the end of Daihasei Festival Arc.


So far, the anime follows the book quite well (I do read the light novels, but in Chinese)

The novels I have right now... 8-22

I would say the Daihasei arc has gone on way too long. Even for a fan like me. Parts of the anime is unnecessary (huge amounts of filler text...) But anyways, back to the main point of this post

The story picks up from where Ep. 10 left us, Kamijo finally meets Mikoto's mother, Misuzu.

Eh...? 

It follows on to the Mother-daughter teasing

I wonder....

And Toma's father usual

Obvious response

While Index tries to bite Toma for his comment (Ep 9 recap...)

The scene then shifts outside to a fruit juice stall, and Index, being herself, wants a cup of juice

I think Toma's face is not well drawn in this scene

The scene shifts to a Mikoto, where she is trying to find her mother to tell her of an change in time (Bread-eating race? That's what the novel says...)

It's a challenge to capture this screen (and the certain Lesbian, Kuruko

We then see Toma hugging Index.... To measure her waist size (Because Toma doesn't have a ruler on him)

Try not to hug someone in a cheerleader costume.. ok?

And misinterpreted by a certain lesbian

With obvious results

Notice Toma's hand...

Index quietly hiding behind Mikoto and Kuruko.

Taken directly from the novel's illustration

Toma and his luck.....

No matter how you look at it, this is a very bad day for Toma

 A place not too far away from what just happened...

Am I the only one who spot what's wrong with this?

When Toma gets rid of Komoe, they chase after Thomson with Stiyl. But...

Tsuchimikado and Thomson CQB

Thomson wins, Tsuchimikado is stalled. Thomson sees Himegami's necklace...

Boom I guess.. (this is the Time Toma declares war on Thomson in the novel)

The episode ends with Komoe trying to revive using magic. Stiyl notices and tries to help. Leaving Toma on his own to find Thomson

"Personal response..." Misaka Wonders

This is definitely one of the least entertaining episodes in the Index II arc. The art style has degraded a bit. Some things just look awkward. Personally, i don't know if the animators are slacking off or it's close to Christmas. However, this is close to the original novel.

This arc has been dragged on way too long. Most of us are sick of Toma running around the city looking for Thomson..

A bit about me- Misaka explains

Well, this is my personal blog- Misaka Declares


With a bit less Misaka, this is my blog. This is a place where I would post updates on what's on my mind. Not very interesting is it?

I will post a bit of rage, technology and reflections - Misaka adds while blushing