The year is almost ending and since I have no life I'll just blog about this year in particular. I think that, when comparing this year to the other years, its probably quite appropriate to write about it (in contrast to the other years, which just pass by without much of my notice) for one particular reason: I had nothing to do this year, although that's not quite accurate. But the main point is that I didn't have serious stress-inducing school projects for an entire year (I'm working on a research project but that's not nearly as frustrating as school can be, ironically) and so my entire year was relaxing, almost like a fun-trip (almost).
(Well, I suppose the main reason I never did end-of-the-year writeups for the other years is normally around this time I'd be playing Ragnarok Online :V)
That being said, it's not a lie that I feel a sense of apprehension for this upcoming year, when I (supposedly) am getting into graduate school. There are some worries that float around, such as what kind of strenuous events will come up when I get to grad school, or the possible bomb-drop of not getting into a (good) grad school at all. I'm pretty sure that 2009 will be one of the most relaxing years I've had and I'm going to have for a long long time. Possibly the only time I'd be more at ease in my past than this year would be something during my elementary school days.
Now that being said, just because this is the most relaxing year doesn't mean this is the most fun and exciting year I've had so far ( I probably don't remember my most exciting year anyway). But since we're supposed to be talking about 2009 we can talk about some of the main highlights for me, such as my obsession over GUMI WHICH CAME OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS YEAR... *ahem*
...
Ok yea that's probably the main event in 2009 that struck my interest. :V
Besides GUMI, I got a job and figured out (most of?) the differences between being a student and a worker without having any serious issues or culture shock; I learned I do better with in silico experiments than with in vitro experiments; I tried socializing more, not too sure it succeeded; and other various topics I forgot or failed to announce.
...
Doing these end-of-the-year things seems difficult, I think this is the last time I'll ever write anything up like this ever again. V:
31.12.09
30.12.09
K-On Second Season
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-12-30/k-on-anime-gets-2nd-season-green-lit
THIS TIME YUI WILL BE MORE POPULAR THAN MIO, RIGHT?
...RIGHT?
OR AT LEAST MORE SCREENTIME FOR UI??? D:
THIS TIME YUI WILL BE MORE POPULAR THAN MIO, RIGHT?
...RIGHT?
OR AT LEAST MORE SCREENTIME FOR UI??? D:
28.12.09
ef - tales of melodies
I've kept on putting this series back, and for a good reason: because I really liked the first season, I expected the second season to be just as good. I have to say, my expectations... were met pretty strongly.
Artwork, character design, music... much of that I've already written for Memories (I think), so I'm not going to repeat the same thing here because its basically the same. What I want to write, again, is the symbolism in the show, one of the things that made me like Memories so much, and one of the things that I like about Melodies as well.
To start I want to talk about a character most people probably ended up not liking too much, or would pass by as a side character merely used for a motivation of plot: The teacher that lost his sister in the earthquake, the one that "says" he's the same as the main character (for this series, that is). I think what's most intriguing, and what may leave some people behind asking "why?", is what exactly he saw in Yuu-kun's portrait when he saw it. After all, we can probably safely assume that Yuu-kun's sister is not his sister, yet the teacher is convinced he sees his sister in that portrait. Why is it that way?
We can probably make some inferences from the back story of the main heroine, Yuuko. Yuuko was adopted to supposedly fill the gap where the teacher's sister has left, yet was insufficient in doing so. Why? Well besides the obvious answer "she's not actually his sister", we can sort of see where she started deviating from being the "sister replacement" in the teacher's mind. First off, the physical reasons: Yuuko started to grow up. In the teacher's mind, the sister most likely has remained young forever, so when Yuuko was actually growing up, he started realizing she wasn't his sister, thus got extremely angry. Since we are mentioning this we can say the same situation can be explained with the watch that Yuu-kun was carrying in memoirs of his sister: While his sister was alive, the watch was clean, working, and ticking. When her sister died, the watch was no longer working, no longer "alive", and most importantly, no longer ticking. Time has stopped for the deceased, and when Yuu-kun looks at the watch, he sees his sister, deceased and stopped in time.
However I digressed with another symbolic object, we're asking, why the portrait. One thing that can probably be concluded is, with the "mask" that Yuuko put up not just towards Yuu-kun but to everyone else (I won't go into the whole "mask" symbolism since that's everywhere and probably pretty obvious), its very likely that Yuuko never showed her true smile to her foster brother, the teacher. For this particular reason, the teacher probably could not see his sister in her, because when his sister was alive, its inevitable that he must have seen his sister's true, innocent smile. And this is exactly what he saw in Yuu's portrait: The true, innocent smile of-- not the sister, but-- Yuuko. And this is why, he saw his sister, because Yuuko drew the innocent smile of Yuuko. It could be said, now, that he mistaken Yuuko in the portrait as his sister, and this is true, but for that particular reason the teacher, having been tortured for the many years of his life after his sister has died, can finally relieve himself after the portrait was finished.
In short, many people I believe would find him to be a despicable character, yet I think he was more meant to be pitied. You can especially see this in his smoke, while he smokes: the artistic design always portrays his smoke hovering around him, "binding" him almost, trapped in his own delusions and unable to move.
There's another symbolism that's been passed down from the first series to the second: the symbolism of the key. I think this is a fairly straightforward symbolic act, as a key represents opening a door. Of course when the door is closed, you can't move past it, or forward, so you're stuck in one place, but if you have a key, you can open the door and move forward. That's why in all these love stories the symbol is the key, and when they have recieved the key, they are able to move forward. They then pass the key to someone else so they can move forward.
I also like to say how interesting and smooth they refer back to past events from the first season. I find that prety neat, and I always like the whole "glimpse of what happens afterwards" feel that the second season certainly provides.
SO anyway, symbolism put aside, what do I think about the characters. From a purely superficial view I like the characters in this season better than last season. Superficial in that I like their character designs better... For the blonde girl Misaki (I think? I just remember her child name, Miki), I was a bit turned off I think in the first episode when she had twintails + her tsundere attitude, although I found it that didn't last too long. After a while I kind of liked her character appearance because it seemed like a good combination of Misuzu and this one girl from "Akane-iro" that I really like in terms of character design. Not to mention, Misaki(?)'s personality was really bright and cute despite her past, which really makes her nice.
The other girl, Yuuko-chan, is very much what she represents: an angel. There's not too much to say about her, except that, I think that its really nice how they tie things together: Mainly that, ef's storylines are all reasonably "logical" in that what can happen can happen with reason in life, EXCEPT for the angel appearance (in the logical sense). Something akin to Clannad, possibly, where the accumulation of happiness can lead to miracles? Or being rewarded for all the suffering one has been through? Its a nice ideal thought, in any case.
...I think I could probably go on and on, such as the possible heaven/hell symbolism that might be present as well (I'm getting the feeling that when the teacher burned down his house, the flames are representative of burning in hell), but I don't think I'll try delving in deeper for the time being.
Unless I rewatch this show with my sister and have an urge to write again. V:
Artwork, character design, music... much of that I've already written for Memories (I think), so I'm not going to repeat the same thing here because its basically the same. What I want to write, again, is the symbolism in the show, one of the things that made me like Memories so much, and one of the things that I like about Melodies as well.
To start I want to talk about a character most people probably ended up not liking too much, or would pass by as a side character merely used for a motivation of plot: The teacher that lost his sister in the earthquake, the one that "says" he's the same as the main character (for this series, that is). I think what's most intriguing, and what may leave some people behind asking "why?", is what exactly he saw in Yuu-kun's portrait when he saw it. After all, we can probably safely assume that Yuu-kun's sister is not his sister, yet the teacher is convinced he sees his sister in that portrait. Why is it that way?
We can probably make some inferences from the back story of the main heroine, Yuuko. Yuuko was adopted to supposedly fill the gap where the teacher's sister has left, yet was insufficient in doing so. Why? Well besides the obvious answer "she's not actually his sister", we can sort of see where she started deviating from being the "sister replacement" in the teacher's mind. First off, the physical reasons: Yuuko started to grow up. In the teacher's mind, the sister most likely has remained young forever, so when Yuuko was actually growing up, he started realizing she wasn't his sister, thus got extremely angry. Since we are mentioning this we can say the same situation can be explained with the watch that Yuu-kun was carrying in memoirs of his sister: While his sister was alive, the watch was clean, working, and ticking. When her sister died, the watch was no longer working, no longer "alive", and most importantly, no longer ticking. Time has stopped for the deceased, and when Yuu-kun looks at the watch, he sees his sister, deceased and stopped in time.
However I digressed with another symbolic object, we're asking, why the portrait. One thing that can probably be concluded is, with the "mask" that Yuuko put up not just towards Yuu-kun but to everyone else (I won't go into the whole "mask" symbolism since that's everywhere and probably pretty obvious), its very likely that Yuuko never showed her true smile to her foster brother, the teacher. For this particular reason, the teacher probably could not see his sister in her, because when his sister was alive, its inevitable that he must have seen his sister's true, innocent smile. And this is exactly what he saw in Yuu's portrait: The true, innocent smile of-- not the sister, but-- Yuuko. And this is why, he saw his sister, because Yuuko drew the innocent smile of Yuuko. It could be said, now, that he mistaken Yuuko in the portrait as his sister, and this is true, but for that particular reason the teacher, having been tortured for the many years of his life after his sister has died, can finally relieve himself after the portrait was finished.
In short, many people I believe would find him to be a despicable character, yet I think he was more meant to be pitied. You can especially see this in his smoke, while he smokes: the artistic design always portrays his smoke hovering around him, "binding" him almost, trapped in his own delusions and unable to move.
There's another symbolism that's been passed down from the first series to the second: the symbolism of the key. I think this is a fairly straightforward symbolic act, as a key represents opening a door. Of course when the door is closed, you can't move past it, or forward, so you're stuck in one place, but if you have a key, you can open the door and move forward. That's why in all these love stories the symbol is the key, and when they have recieved the key, they are able to move forward. They then pass the key to someone else so they can move forward.
I also like to say how interesting and smooth they refer back to past events from the first season. I find that prety neat, and I always like the whole "glimpse of what happens afterwards" feel that the second season certainly provides.
SO anyway, symbolism put aside, what do I think about the characters. From a purely superficial view I like the characters in this season better than last season. Superficial in that I like their character designs better... For the blonde girl Misaki (I think? I just remember her child name, Miki), I was a bit turned off I think in the first episode when she had twintails + her tsundere attitude, although I found it that didn't last too long. After a while I kind of liked her character appearance because it seemed like a good combination of Misuzu and this one girl from "Akane-iro" that I really like in terms of character design. Not to mention, Misaki(?)'s personality was really bright and cute despite her past, which really makes her nice.
The other girl, Yuuko-chan, is very much what she represents: an angel. There's not too much to say about her, except that, I think that its really nice how they tie things together: Mainly that, ef's storylines are all reasonably "logical" in that what can happen can happen with reason in life, EXCEPT for the angel appearance (in the logical sense). Something akin to Clannad, possibly, where the accumulation of happiness can lead to miracles? Or being rewarded for all the suffering one has been through? Its a nice ideal thought, in any case.
...I think I could probably go on and on, such as the possible heaven/hell symbolism that might be present as well (I'm getting the feeling that when the teacher burned down his house, the flames are representative of burning in hell), but I don't think I'll try delving in deeper for the time being.
Unless I rewatch this show with my sister and have an urge to write again. V:
27.12.09
Sherlock Holmes
Having read 500+ chapters of Conan in the last week or so, plus the fact that I read the (supposed) Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection quite some time ago, I'm of course obliged to watch the new movie that came out. Although truth be told I never remembered any Irene Adler or Prof. Molarity (Possible err in spelling the names) even though they appear to be famous Sherlock Holmes characters (even Conan mentions this!).
Of course, I couldn't forget Holmes and Watson though. :V
The movie all in all was entertaining, and I suppose that's all that is needed. The difficult part is that, because they are British, they sometimes speak so fast with their accent in a mumbling format that a lot of us have trouble figuring out what the hell they were saying in the first place. I figured sometime in the middle of the movie that I'd need to watch it again, with subtitles, to understand what they said. :V Well I think I got like 80%-90% of what they said (I think it might have helped, staying in England for a while) so it wasn't too much of a detriment. Was a bit of a nuisance though.
The movie, overall, was more comedy than it was action or suspense, I think. Comedy and Mystery, which I think should be good enough since I didn't go and watch Sherlock Holmes excepting superhero fights. Although the action might be part of it since they think most of the audience won't be amused by having a detective just walk into a room looking at minute details for most of the movie. Well, at least the fights had Holmes's train of thought so that was amusing to listen to.
Characterwise I thought most of them were entertaining but nothing out of the ordinary. In particular I liked Irene's character at the start, but then thought she was getting a little too sappy and weepy by the end of the movie. The Governess that Watson is supposed to marry is a token moe character, although I was half expecting to reveal herself as being an antagonist (which never happened).
(Spoilers possibly follow)
Most of the mysteries and "mysterious circumstances" that Holmes was trying to solve were pretty simple that I didn't really need Holmes to tell me how it was done. Of course I didn't know exact names of the drugs and stuff that they used but I had a good idea of what the mechanics were (ex. drugged in this part, combustion in that part). The main mystery parts I didn't get was the antidote for the fellow magic members (I didn't even think about that) and how the coffin was broken open and replaced with the dead body of another (I think he spoke too fast and I couldn't figure out the exact mechanics of what happened).
All in all Sherlock Holmes was amusing enough to watch, though no blockbuster hit. I highly doubt this was a script from Doyle's archives but its fun to watch. Its not everyday you can listen to deduction schemes especially in movies like these, so its pretty fun. It's one of the few movies I've watched in recent years so its good that its worth the watch. V:
18.12.09
Random thought.
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm1754685
Really? The second most favorited group singing is... this, really??? ....:V o_O...orz.
Really? The second most favorited group singing is... this, really??? ....:V o_O...orz.
miki's "Milky Milky"
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/nm9121230
I've stated before that I didn't really like miki's voice becaus it was too much like Miku's voice, but this video I think proves me wrong. I think there's still reminants of Miku's voice lying in there, but either the producer of this song did a REALLY good job at changing miki's settings, or did a very nice job of using the music to cover up her bad parts. I get the sense its mostly the latter, because I believe the strength of the beat and the other "accessory" sounds around miki's voice actually helps suppress some of her less desirable voice traits. I'd have to listen to a version with her voice only to be absolutely sure, though. Still nevertheless, cheers! Looks like I was too quick to judge you, miki.
I've stated before that I didn't really like miki's voice becaus it was too much like Miku's voice, but this video I think proves me wrong. I think there's still reminants of Miku's voice lying in there, but either the producer of this song did a REALLY good job at changing miki's settings, or did a very nice job of using the music to cover up her bad parts. I get the sense its mostly the latter, because I believe the strength of the beat and the other "accessory" sounds around miki's voice actually helps suppress some of her less desirable voice traits. I'd have to listen to a version with her voice only to be absolutely sure, though. Still nevertheless, cheers! Looks like I was too quick to judge you, miki.
17.12.09
Modelling the Outbreak of Wars
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091216/full/462836a.html?s=news_rss
People are now modelling and predicting the times when humanity goes to war.
BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE MODEL
...or this may just make us look silly.
...nah BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE MODEL!!! WE CAN PREDICT WHEN HUMANITY GOES TO WAR... AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT!!!
People are now modelling and predicting the times when humanity goes to war.
BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE MODEL
...or this may just make us look silly.
...nah BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE MODEL!!! WE CAN PREDICT WHEN HUMANITY GOES TO WAR... AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT!!!
16.12.09
Manga Guides
Me and my sister went to Fry's today to buy my advisor a birthday present, and to do some price checking on things I've been interested in.
Then while we were waiting in line, looking at one of those paid-commercial cheesey products, my sister pointed out, "Hey look at that!"
http://www.edumanga.me/mg_mbiology.htm
omg this is epic beyond belief. (there were other versions too, as shown on the website)
Then while we were waiting in line, looking at one of those paid-commercial cheesey products, my sister pointed out, "Hey look at that!"
http://www.edumanga.me/mg_mbiology.htm
omg this is epic beyond belief. (there were other versions too, as shown on the website)
7.12.09
Eternal Snow
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8990537
by Luka.
After hearing a few of her good songs more recently, I think Luka is indeed much better than just a lower-keyed version of Miku. I think she still has her areas (especially seen in this Luka version of the ending to "Full Moon wo Sagashite") where her "artificiality" comes out, but she really is a good vocaloid. I still think she's one step (maybe a small step) behind GUMI in that GUMI has something in all of her voices that adds to her realism (except in parts where they purposely remove it), but right now I think that can be up in the air in terms of whether that's just my personal preference rather than an actual fact.
Regardless, cheers for reminding me of my past early days when I first got into anime! And did a significant commentary about FMWS because I thought it was so good... >.>
by Luka.
After hearing a few of her good songs more recently, I think Luka is indeed much better than just a lower-keyed version of Miku. I think she still has her areas (especially seen in this Luka version of the ending to "Full Moon wo Sagashite") where her "artificiality" comes out, but she really is a good vocaloid. I still think she's one step (maybe a small step) behind GUMI in that GUMI has something in all of her voices that adds to her realism (except in parts where they purposely remove it), but right now I think that can be up in the air in terms of whether that's just my personal preference rather than an actual fact.
Regardless, cheers for reminding me of my past early days when I first got into anime! And did a significant commentary about FMWS because I thought it was so good... >.>
Why I want to buy FFXIII
http://kotaku.com/5420199/dress-as-this-final-fantasy-xiii-lady-for-100
...ok so actual content of this post is not relevent but oh so moe~
...ok so actual content of this post is not relevent but oh so moe~
Cell Bio, the video game
http://kotaku.com/5420691/video-game-makes-cell-biology-cool
Needs better graphics...
Still think the one video from Harvard released 3 or so years ago was the best Cell Biology/Modern Entertainment combo out there.
(I wonder if "Modern Entertainment" is the right phrase...)
Needs better graphics...
Still think the one video from Harvard released 3 or so years ago was the best Cell Biology/Modern Entertainment combo out there.
(I wonder if "Modern Entertainment" is the right phrase...)
4.12.09
New Vocaloids
General overview/opinion:
miki: Sounds a lot like Miku. Maybe too much like Miku. There is a VERY slight difference... I can't quite describe it, I think its like miki maybe has more of a sore throat than Miku...? o_O Well she IS a robot so perhaps the artificial sound is supposed to be her appeal. I don't quite like it though, I'm rather disappointed.
Sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsVv_fWJF64
(I like this miki song actually its pretty fun, but doesn't this seem REMARKABLY FAMILIAR TO ANOTHER GUMI SONG I'VE SEEN BEFORE...????)
Yuki: Excellent, she pretty much sounds like a younger version of GUMI. Her voice is very cute, and she can even do normal speech rather well (hence her currently most popular song, a upbeat rap-like song). I'm quite impressed with her, even her character design is pretty awesome. I believe she has a lot of potential.
I don't really like this song too much since its more rap-style but it definitely shows her potential.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEAn01oNxRA
Kiyo: Eeeeh... well, I THINK he's better than the other Vocaloids, but... still not up to par with the girls. Except that I think the way he sings makes him sound like a girl, his voice range seems too high. Well, I guess its progress, but IMHO the male vocaloids still need a lot of work. I think though, in terms of quality of voice, Kiyo is to the rest of the male vocaloids (so far) in how Miku was to the previous vocaloids of her generation: more higher pitched, but noticably better quality, even if its still not quite there yet. I doubt Kiyo will be getting as much popularity as Miku though. :V
At least I think his char design is cool!
EDIT2: For Kiyo, since I didn't have a sample for him I liked at first, I have this one. His voice again isn't the best but I like this song. :V
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8998660
EDIT: FOR MY OWN FUTURE REFERENCE THE JAPANESE NAME FOR YUKI: 歌愛ユキ
miki: Sounds a lot like Miku. Maybe too much like Miku. There is a VERY slight difference... I can't quite describe it, I think its like miki maybe has more of a sore throat than Miku...? o_O Well she IS a robot so perhaps the artificial sound is supposed to be her appeal. I don't quite like it though, I'm rather disappointed.
Sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsVv_fWJF64
(I like this miki song actually its pretty fun, but doesn't this seem REMARKABLY FAMILIAR TO ANOTHER GUMI SONG I'VE SEEN BEFORE...????)
Yuki: Excellent, she pretty much sounds like a younger version of GUMI. Her voice is very cute, and she can even do normal speech rather well (hence her currently most popular song, a upbeat rap-like song). I'm quite impressed with her, even her character design is pretty awesome. I believe she has a lot of potential.
I don't really like this song too much since its more rap-style but it definitely shows her potential.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEAn01oNxRA
Kiyo: Eeeeh... well, I THINK he's better than the other Vocaloids, but... still not up to par with the girls. Except that I think the way he sings makes him sound like a girl, his voice range seems too high. Well, I guess its progress, but IMHO the male vocaloids still need a lot of work. I think though, in terms of quality of voice, Kiyo is to the rest of the male vocaloids (so far) in how Miku was to the previous vocaloids of her generation: more higher pitched, but noticably better quality, even if its still not quite there yet. I doubt Kiyo will be getting as much popularity as Miku though. :V
At least I think his char design is cool!
EDIT2: For Kiyo, since I didn't have a sample for him I liked at first, I have this one. His voice again isn't the best but I like this song. :V
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8998660
EDIT: FOR MY OWN FUTURE REFERENCE THE JAPANESE NAME FOR YUKI: 歌愛ユキ
30.11.09
The world of Science keeps changing...
...but you just can't see it.
Unless you're in academia or want to pay a subscription to an online news feed you mostly won't read!
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/11/white-house-lau.html
A scheduler for teachers and scientists who want to get together and promote education for science! Cue cheesey relationship jokes.
Note: For all the amazing teachers I know that read this blog, resource: http://www.nationallabday.org/
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091126/full/news.2009.1110.html
Everything inside a microbe, broken down. It's like decoding a huge amount of code! On the same level, I wonder if we can use this information to program an extremely realistic artificial microbe...
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091129/full/news.2009.1114.html
First HM's brain is dissected, next the full structure of a Glutamate Receptor is revealed. Tis a good week for Neuro. If we can get an accurate kinetic model for Glutamate I'm sure our project will do well.
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091127/full/news.2009.1111.html
Being exposed to more hostile environments means developing a better immune system. Who would have thought? :V Seriously, isn't it common sense that being dirty means that you'll be exposed to more things and thus try to develop immunity from it? I guess its the whole "cleaner = healthier" mentality... but being clean prevents you from being sick as long as you're clean. If a clean person and a "dirty" person were to go into the "dirty" environment... then yea the clean person would get sick first. :/
Unless you're in academia or want to pay a subscription to an online news feed you mostly won't read!
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/11/white-house-lau.html
A scheduler for teachers and scientists who want to get together and promote education for science! Cue cheesey relationship jokes.
Note: For all the amazing teachers I know that read this blog, resource: http://www.nationallabday.org/
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091126/full/news.2009.1110.html
Everything inside a microbe, broken down. It's like decoding a huge amount of code! On the same level, I wonder if we can use this information to program an extremely realistic artificial microbe...
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091129/full/news.2009.1114.html
First HM's brain is dissected, next the full structure of a Glutamate Receptor is revealed. Tis a good week for Neuro. If we can get an accurate kinetic model for Glutamate I'm sure our project will do well.
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091127/full/news.2009.1111.html
Being exposed to more hostile environments means developing a better immune system. Who would have thought? :V Seriously, isn't it common sense that being dirty means that you'll be exposed to more things and thus try to develop immunity from it? I guess its the whole "cleaner = healthier" mentality... but being clean prevents you from being sick as long as you're clean. If a clean person and a "dirty" person were to go into the "dirty" environment... then yea the clean person would get sick first. :/
27.11.09
Pandora Hearts Anime
Dude Ada's breasts are a lot larger in the anime than in the manga...
Or maybe I just didn't notice in the manga...
Is this supposed to emphasize her "growth" contrast over 10 years? :V
Speaking of which, episode 17 is like the sole reason to ever watch this show. Both Sharon and Ada, what can be better! A bit of Break is helpful too, I suppose. :V
Or maybe I just didn't notice in the manga...
Is this supposed to emphasize her "growth" contrast over 10 years? :V
Speaking of which, episode 17 is like the sole reason to ever watch this show. Both Sharon and Ada, what can be better! A bit of Break is helpful too, I suppose. :V
25.11.09
UTAAUUUUUU
A Utau is fine, too.
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/nm8157801
On the topic of Utaus, Teto sounds pretty bad but actually one Utau (Hiyori) is a REALLY good singer. I think I put that on my facebook but didn't make any mention on my blog. Too bad she doesn't get a long of songs produced. :(
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/nm8157801
On the topic of Utaus, Teto sounds pretty bad but actually one Utau (Hiyori) is a REALLY good singer. I think I put that on my facebook but didn't make any mention on my blog. Too bad she doesn't get a long of songs produced. :(
HM's Brain Dissected
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091125/full/462403a.html
Pretty special news, they're putting all the information online too I think (although I don't know if that's public access).
Pretty special news, they're putting all the information online too I think (although I don't know if that's public access).
23.11.09
Video Game Releases
http://kotaku.com/5410256/how-the-world-reacts-to-a-new-release
yeah, probably. :V
yeah, probably. :V
22.11.09
Random thought on Relationships
From what I remember in Genetics, there were the following classifications of Relationships:
Mutualism: Both benefit each other
Commensalism: One benefitcs, other other is neither harmed nor helped (or probably more realistically, not harmed/helped to a significant degree)
Parasitism: One benefits, the other is harmed
Antagonism: One is neither harmed nor helped, the other is harmed
Competition: Both are harmed by each other's presence.
Also a relationship where neither is harmed nor helped... I don't think that one has a name either, but seriously, that's just a "normal"/boring relationship, isn't it?
Well back to the point. Obviously the best type of relationship for any living organism to have is Mutualism, but it doesn't always work out that way. That being said, Commensalism really isn't a bad thing and I'm not sure why some people would get irritated or angry if one person benefits while the other isn't really harmed (or helped). I mean why not?
Parasitism is something I'd be more against for moral issues. Logically the person with the advantage can do it because it is benefited, but if another is getting harmed its really quite grating on the mind. The person being benefited will easily become classified as "selfish" and will not likely recieve much sympathy from people if those people think like me. However, when breaking it down to basics everything is basically "Parasitism"; I mean, as people with a need for consumption, we need to eat and therefore eliminate one to benefit another. However the general thought process is "If there's an alternative that's better, or you won't lose anything in the first place, its best to avoid this type of relationship".
Consequently, there is another form of "Parasitism" where instead of one guy taking advantage of another, it is another sacrificing him/herself to let the other become benefited. I think this is called Altruism or something. While ideal romantic stories, I don't think this situation is typically realistic and people that come to this conclusion are either in an extremely rare and dire situation (therefore the relationship is acceptable) or just stupidly noble (which is stupid).
Antagonism is something that cannot be understood, and only happens in human nature. In general you never would want to harm anything unless you get something out of it (Parasitism). However Humans will "take revenge" or do something irrational just to see others get hurt. In most cases, this is the WORST relationship because there's no reasoning behind it.
Competition would be worse than Antagonism if it weren't for the fact that in many cases Competition is unavoidable. Food stock, for example, forces animals to evolve and become more "fit" in order to be the one less harmed by a declining or changing food stock. The curious thing about this relation (again pertaining to human relationships) is that many people would engage in competition just because. Both are harmed, one comes out more harmed than the other, but everyone is still like "lets do it!" However, because both are being detrimented I am feeling slightly less critical towards this kind of relationship, since both are recieving some sort of damage. I'm just more or less confused at why anyone would want to engage in a relationship like that.
So in summary, Mutualism > Commensalism > Competition > Parasitism > Antagonism.
I bet what a wrote is totally different from what people would think what would be here judging from the title. :D
Mutualism: Both benefit each other
Commensalism: One benefitcs, other other is neither harmed nor helped (or probably more realistically, not harmed/helped to a significant degree)
Parasitism: One benefits, the other is harmed
Antagonism: One is neither harmed nor helped, the other is harmed
Competition: Both are harmed by each other's presence.
Also a relationship where neither is harmed nor helped... I don't think that one has a name either, but seriously, that's just a "normal"/boring relationship, isn't it?
Well back to the point. Obviously the best type of relationship for any living organism to have is Mutualism, but it doesn't always work out that way. That being said, Commensalism really isn't a bad thing and I'm not sure why some people would get irritated or angry if one person benefits while the other isn't really harmed (or helped). I mean why not?
Parasitism is something I'd be more against for moral issues. Logically the person with the advantage can do it because it is benefited, but if another is getting harmed its really quite grating on the mind. The person being benefited will easily become classified as "selfish" and will not likely recieve much sympathy from people if those people think like me. However, when breaking it down to basics everything is basically "Parasitism"; I mean, as people with a need for consumption, we need to eat and therefore eliminate one to benefit another. However the general thought process is "If there's an alternative that's better, or you won't lose anything in the first place, its best to avoid this type of relationship".
Consequently, there is another form of "Parasitism" where instead of one guy taking advantage of another, it is another sacrificing him/herself to let the other become benefited. I think this is called Altruism or something. While ideal romantic stories, I don't think this situation is typically realistic and people that come to this conclusion are either in an extremely rare and dire situation (therefore the relationship is acceptable) or just stupidly noble (which is stupid).
Antagonism is something that cannot be understood, and only happens in human nature. In general you never would want to harm anything unless you get something out of it (Parasitism). However Humans will "take revenge" or do something irrational just to see others get hurt. In most cases, this is the WORST relationship because there's no reasoning behind it.
Competition would be worse than Antagonism if it weren't for the fact that in many cases Competition is unavoidable. Food stock, for example, forces animals to evolve and become more "fit" in order to be the one less harmed by a declining or changing food stock. The curious thing about this relation (again pertaining to human relationships) is that many people would engage in competition just because. Both are harmed, one comes out more harmed than the other, but everyone is still like "lets do it!" However, because both are being detrimented I am feeling slightly less critical towards this kind of relationship, since both are recieving some sort of damage. I'm just more or less confused at why anyone would want to engage in a relationship like that.
So in summary, Mutualism > Commensalism > Competition > Parasitism > Antagonism.
I bet what a wrote is totally different from what people would think what would be here judging from the title. :D
Pandora Hearts (Manga)
http://www.onemanga.com/Pandora_Hearts/34/01/
This is the best intro page ever.!
Of course this has nothing to do with the fact that guys get 80% of the spotlight (last 20% is Alice) and this is a rare opportunity for moe. I do not harbor any feelings or ill-will by the fact that most of the girls (namely Sharon and ADA) get shafted for most of the manga.
NOPE NOT AT ALL.
...
This is the best intro page ever.!
Of course this has nothing to do with the fact that guys get 80% of the spotlight (last 20% is Alice) and this is a rare opportunity for moe. I do not harbor any feelings or ill-will by the fact that most of the girls (namely Sharon and ADA) get shafted for most of the manga.
NOPE NOT AT ALL.
...
20.11.09
Endless Da Capo is Endless
This news is long overdue (I heard it ever since yesterday night) but DC IF is being released by mangagamer.
I sense this is a ploy by Kotori to regain control as my top favorite character on my anime list...:V
Also they said they're going to release DC II, eventually, but they don't know when. Which is cool because I think I like the chars in DC II more than DC, Kotori excluded.
Source:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-11-19/mangagamer-adds-koihime-muso-more-da-capo-games
Also, clearly I am not squealing as much as I used to. Shame on me. :<
I sense this is a ploy by Kotori to regain control as my top favorite character on my anime list...:V
Also they said they're going to release DC II, eventually, but they don't know when. Which is cool because I think I like the chars in DC II more than DC, Kotori excluded.
Source:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-11-19/mangagamer-adds-koihime-muso-more-da-capo-games
Also, clearly I am not squealing as much as I used to. Shame on me. :<
16.11.09
Why MIT is awesome
This is how famous MIT is.
Akuun says:
"you guys were mentioned in pani poni dash! The main character from Half-Life went to MIT! You guys must be awesome!"
oh
Thomas says:
really? the main character from half life? huh
how interesting.
Akuun says:
yes
Gordon Freeman has a PhD in quantum physics or something from MIT
and he spends a solid chunk of every game whacking stuff apart with a crowbar.
Thomas says:
physics PhD at work.
Akuun says:
indeed
oh wait, theoretical physics
Akuun says:
"you guys were mentioned in pani poni dash! The main character from Half-Life went to MIT! You guys must be awesome!"
oh
Thomas says:
really? the main character from half life? huh
how interesting.
Akuun says:
yes
Gordon Freeman has a PhD in quantum physics or something from MIT
and he spends a solid chunk of every game whacking stuff apart with a crowbar.
Thomas says:
physics PhD at work.
Akuun says:
indeed
oh wait, theoretical physics
15.11.09
Catgirls in White School Swimsuits
... are apparently a more popular theme than I thought.
If anyone remembered the last figurine I got, it was a catgirl in a white school swimsuit.
Here's another one.
http://www.kotobukiya.co.jp/item/page/pvc_yotsunoha_nono_w/index.shtml
If anyone remembered the last figurine I got, it was a catgirl in a white school swimsuit.
Here's another one.
http://www.kotobukiya.co.jp/item/page/pvc_yotsunoha_nono_w/index.shtml
13.11.09
Subtitles
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/1111/2?rss=1
I guess I should start watching anime in japanese subtitles instead of english. :V
I guess I should start watching anime in japanese subtitles instead of english. :V
12.11.09
Goku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
"On their way to a University, they study their hardest, but once admitted, they sit around watching anime!!"
- Zetsubou Sensei
There has never been a truer statement than this.
- Zetsubou Sensei
There has never been a truer statement than this.
11.11.09
Bread
Less inappropriate but equally amusing to the previous post:
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2009/11/exclusive_interview_baguette_b.html
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, YEARS OF RESEARCH ALL RUINED BY a bird passing by.
Well it could have been worse. It could have been droppings.
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2009/11/exclusive_interview_baguette_b.html
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, YEARS OF RESEARCH ALL RUINED BY a bird passing by.
Well it could have been worse. It could have been droppings.
"Engineered Penis Raises Reproductive Hopes"
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091110/full/news.2009.1075.html
I know most of you can't access this but just look at the title.
Now, maybe I'm still immature by thinking this is amusing. Or maybe I've just been to 4chan too much to think of the implications this can have.
...yea, I think its 4chan. Oh this is so funny. :V
...OTL I fail as a human being.
I know most of you can't access this but just look at the title.
Now, maybe I'm still immature by thinking this is amusing. Or maybe I've just been to 4chan too much to think of the implications this can have.
...yea, I think its 4chan. Oh this is so funny. :V
...OTL I fail as a human being.
8.11.09
Shugo Chara Ep. 98
EPICCCCCCC
Seriously I thought that (especially when I was talking with a friend of mine about it) the 2nd season of Shugo chara was getting quite lame and fillerish... Especially with the end to the Lulu arc being quite disappointing (she didn't even get to have an appropriate chara transform!!) but then...
NADESHIKO IS BACK
EPPIIICCCCCCCCC
ITS LIKE AN INSPIRATION TO A WHOLE AUDIENCE NEVER TARGETTED BEFORE
Seriously I thought that (especially when I was talking with a friend of mine about it) the 2nd season of Shugo chara was getting quite lame and fillerish... Especially with the end to the Lulu arc being quite disappointing (she didn't even get to have an appropriate chara transform!!) but then...
NADESHIKO IS BACK
EPPIIICCCCCCCCC
ITS LIKE AN INSPIRATION TO A WHOLE AUDIENCE NEVER TARGETTED BEFORE
5.11.09
EFZ Encounters
This is actually going to be remarkably similar to that 27 EFZ players thing on WoE forums ( http://efz.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=moejoe&action=display&thread=377&page=1 ) except that it will use the theme I came up with a long time ago ( http://enigmatic-cube.blogspot.com/2006/10/possible-random-story-arc-stemming-from.html ). However that was just a short "intro" story paragraph so I'll first explain a bit of the environment.
The general theme as already mentioned is almost something like pokemon with cute girls (Moemon?). Actually, Sekirei covered the theme pretty darn well, except in these cases the girls are chibi-sized (about knee to hip length on average?) because that's how they look like in EFZ. Generally each one has an element, class, and weapon associated with them. There's no real overarching theme to this whole concept except a few things:
-The setting is medieval fantasy
-The girls are summoned, either accidentally or on purpose, to their "owner".
-There are "feral" girls who attack humanity out of hatred (representation of CPUs). They are generally weaker because they have very little concept of strategy and the ownders with their trained girls (...that doesn't sound right) beat them all the time.
-the exception is the Angel class Kanna who doesn't really appear except in dreams. My character tends to have these experiences a lot since Misuzu is pretty closely associated with Kanna. :V
-Owners battle each other in tournaments and random spars for training, of course.
-In a later period there was discovered a sort of "portal" to an alternate dimension that only the girls could enter. The owners could still communicate with their familiar (I think that's a better phrase) and explore the inner world. Apparently the inner world is smaller than the outer world and people from all around the outer world can easily access this portal and engage in spar fights with random people encountered in the world. They can even use their familiars to communicate with them! However, occasionally if the familiar gets too deep into the fight they might lose communication with their owner. (<--- elaborate description of netplay)
I think that's about everything. The following is a record of a travelling alchemist's encounters which relate to these sort of things. Take note that these are his (ie, My) experiences alone and may not include some people that are involved in the world of EFZ. The encounters are in chronological order.
=======
CodeName: tekkenchild
EFZ Character: Mai - Light - Paladin - One-handed Sword
Description: Stubborn and slightly arrogant, yet has a strong sense of virtue. Strengths are in Defense and Distance, using his familiar's powerful weilding of light associated with her sword to keep opponents at bay from afar.
CodeName: Spatula
EFZ Character: Mishio - Heat - Spearman - Spear
Description: Sage/Librarian. Kind-hearted, yet unforgiving in battle. Very aggressive and headstrong with a strong sense in punishment (at least to the alchemist). The familiar controls the temperature of the metal spear through magic and uses to emit sparks of electricity and/or fire when needed.
CodeName: TReusbucks
EFZ Character: Misuzu - Life - Alchemist (like his owner!) - Formless liquid
Description: Myself. From other people's records, tends to be aggressive and a trickster, but extremely clumsy. Tries to charge through and dodge everything through the use of illusionary feathers, but often fails. She's been getting better at it, though...
CodeName: Raven
EFZ Character: Mai - Lightning - Samurai - Katana
Description: Lone warrior. Arrogant and has an outward personality that seems to look down on others, but in reality he wants others to get better, especially in his country. Recently was horrendously defeated at another country which made him lost most of his motivation for fighting. Style tends to be extremely fast and tricky; really hard to pin him down when he's on his aggressive streak, and even harder to keep your defense against him.
CodeName: linalys
EFZ Character: Mio/Mayu - Illusion - Shapeshifter - Varies
Description: Ninja, good friend and accomplice of Raven. Style changes almost in every battle, hence its hard to keep track of his style. One thing seems to be for sure, though: Whenever an opponent thinks his familiar is down, she strikes without warning, in the most unexpected way.
CodeName: FFD
EFZ Character: Misaki - Force - Monk - Fists (used to create powerful forces)
Description: Part of the militia. Extremely eager, really cheerful yet always up for a fight. Really good with combination links, though a bit weaker in defense and offense (as in getting the hit in). Can sometimes blow a fuse, but ALWAYS likes a good spar.
CodeName: Atheist
EFZ Character: Sayuri - Electricity - Magic Knight - Wand
Description: A wizard and childhood friend of TReusbucks. Obtained his familiar a bit after TReusbucks did. Is still trying to develop his skills, but his aggressiveness has become more strong lately, as well as his combination skills. A really happy-go-lucky guy, kind of thinks his friend is "cool!" because of this familiar thing although TReusbucks is really more like "eh really".
CodeName: Akuun
EFZ Character: Mio - Ice - Ninja - Shuiken
Description: Never actually met the owner, however a really nice and trustworthy person. Said to be a wanderer. Although opponent's familiar is small in stature, fights extremely well both defensively and offensively. Although his face was never seen, became a good friend to talk to whenever there was a local portal to go to. A lot of training exchanged between Akuun and TReusbucks.
CodeName: BlitzWing
EFZ Character: Mai - Wind - Knight - One-handed Sword
Description: A nobleman and really amiable person. One that has went to the "holy land" for mostly ambassador purposes, however it is said he is also inevitably getting some training there as well. His skills are very fine-tuned and errs very minimally. Very upstanding person.
CodeName: Leviathean
EFZ Character: Varies - Earth - Pupils - Spirit?
Description: A priest, and one of the first characters that uses multiple characters. Generally raises his familiars like orphaned children. The fighting is said to be necessary to the familiar's growth which is why, even though he's a clergyman, he engages frequently in battle. Thus, his skills are quite high as well. VERY good at defense.
CodeName: Amoirsp
EFZ Character: Akane - Wind - Puppeteer - String
Description: A merchant that happens to also stumble upon a familiar. Although not extremely skilled partly due to his occupation, he's really eager to learn and enjoys discussions on the subject of familiars. Through various training, much under Leviathean through portal battles, he is getting better.
CodeName: Nephi
EFZ Character: Nayuki - Water - Enchanted Warrior (sleep) - Frogs? {OOC: I'm obviously running out of ideas here}
Description: A young yet powerful upcoming owner, still a student at a local school. Uses a local portal to engage in communication and fights with the outside world. Eager one day to meet other people he has encountered from portal battles...
Other people that I've played, but can't really make a profile outside of being a side character (SORRY!! >.< As you can see I'm already losing my sense of creativity with the last entry :V):
db, Mizunashi, nolo, Chipz, Zaido (he was sort of a senpai-type character, in a way), pragany, MayFTW, Dax, VMan, Evospace (VAMPIREEEEEE)
The general theme as already mentioned is almost something like pokemon with cute girls (Moemon?). Actually, Sekirei covered the theme pretty darn well, except in these cases the girls are chibi-sized (about knee to hip length on average?) because that's how they look like in EFZ. Generally each one has an element, class, and weapon associated with them. There's no real overarching theme to this whole concept except a few things:
-The setting is medieval fantasy
-The girls are summoned, either accidentally or on purpose, to their "owner".
-There are "feral" girls who attack humanity out of hatred (representation of CPUs). They are generally weaker because they have very little concept of strategy and the ownders with their trained girls (...that doesn't sound right) beat them all the time.
-the exception is the Angel class Kanna who doesn't really appear except in dreams. My character tends to have these experiences a lot since Misuzu is pretty closely associated with Kanna. :V
-Owners battle each other in tournaments and random spars for training, of course.
-In a later period there was discovered a sort of "portal" to an alternate dimension that only the girls could enter. The owners could still communicate with their familiar (I think that's a better phrase) and explore the inner world. Apparently the inner world is smaller than the outer world and people from all around the outer world can easily access this portal and engage in spar fights with random people encountered in the world. They can even use their familiars to communicate with them! However, occasionally if the familiar gets too deep into the fight they might lose communication with their owner. (<--- elaborate description of netplay)
I think that's about everything. The following is a record of a travelling alchemist's encounters which relate to these sort of things. Take note that these are his (ie, My) experiences alone and may not include some people that are involved in the world of EFZ. The encounters are in chronological order.
=======
CodeName: tekkenchild
EFZ Character: Mai - Light - Paladin - One-handed Sword
Description: Stubborn and slightly arrogant, yet has a strong sense of virtue. Strengths are in Defense and Distance, using his familiar's powerful weilding of light associated with her sword to keep opponents at bay from afar.
CodeName: Spatula
EFZ Character: Mishio - Heat - Spearman - Spear
Description: Sage/Librarian. Kind-hearted, yet unforgiving in battle. Very aggressive and headstrong with a strong sense in punishment (at least to the alchemist). The familiar controls the temperature of the metal spear through magic and uses to emit sparks of electricity and/or fire when needed.
CodeName: TReusbucks
EFZ Character: Misuzu - Life - Alchemist (like his owner!) - Formless liquid
Description: Myself. From other people's records, tends to be aggressive and a trickster, but extremely clumsy. Tries to charge through and dodge everything through the use of illusionary feathers, but often fails. She's been getting better at it, though...
CodeName: Raven
EFZ Character: Mai - Lightning - Samurai - Katana
Description: Lone warrior. Arrogant and has an outward personality that seems to look down on others, but in reality he wants others to get better, especially in his country. Recently was horrendously defeated at another country which made him lost most of his motivation for fighting. Style tends to be extremely fast and tricky; really hard to pin him down when he's on his aggressive streak, and even harder to keep your defense against him.
CodeName: linalys
EFZ Character: Mio/Mayu - Illusion - Shapeshifter - Varies
Description: Ninja, good friend and accomplice of Raven. Style changes almost in every battle, hence its hard to keep track of his style. One thing seems to be for sure, though: Whenever an opponent thinks his familiar is down, she strikes without warning, in the most unexpected way.
CodeName: FFD
EFZ Character: Misaki - Force - Monk - Fists (used to create powerful forces)
Description: Part of the militia. Extremely eager, really cheerful yet always up for a fight. Really good with combination links, though a bit weaker in defense and offense (as in getting the hit in). Can sometimes blow a fuse, but ALWAYS likes a good spar.
CodeName: Atheist
EFZ Character: Sayuri - Electricity - Magic Knight - Wand
Description: A wizard and childhood friend of TReusbucks. Obtained his familiar a bit after TReusbucks did. Is still trying to develop his skills, but his aggressiveness has become more strong lately, as well as his combination skills. A really happy-go-lucky guy, kind of thinks his friend is "cool!" because of this familiar thing although TReusbucks is really more like "eh really".
CodeName: Akuun
EFZ Character: Mio - Ice - Ninja - Shuiken
Description: Never actually met the owner, however a really nice and trustworthy person. Said to be a wanderer. Although opponent's familiar is small in stature, fights extremely well both defensively and offensively. Although his face was never seen, became a good friend to talk to whenever there was a local portal to go to. A lot of training exchanged between Akuun and TReusbucks.
CodeName: BlitzWing
EFZ Character: Mai - Wind - Knight - One-handed Sword
Description: A nobleman and really amiable person. One that has went to the "holy land" for mostly ambassador purposes, however it is said he is also inevitably getting some training there as well. His skills are very fine-tuned and errs very minimally. Very upstanding person.
CodeName: Leviathean
EFZ Character: Varies - Earth - Pupils - Spirit?
Description: A priest, and one of the first characters that uses multiple characters. Generally raises his familiars like orphaned children. The fighting is said to be necessary to the familiar's growth which is why, even though he's a clergyman, he engages frequently in battle. Thus, his skills are quite high as well. VERY good at defense.
CodeName: Amoirsp
EFZ Character: Akane - Wind - Puppeteer - String
Description: A merchant that happens to also stumble upon a familiar. Although not extremely skilled partly due to his occupation, he's really eager to learn and enjoys discussions on the subject of familiars. Through various training, much under Leviathean through portal battles, he is getting better.
CodeName: Nephi
EFZ Character: Nayuki - Water - Enchanted Warrior (sleep) - Frogs? {OOC: I'm obviously running out of ideas here}
Description: A young yet powerful upcoming owner, still a student at a local school. Uses a local portal to engage in communication and fights with the outside world. Eager one day to meet other people he has encountered from portal battles...
Other people that I've played, but can't really make a profile outside of being a side character (SORRY!! >.< As you can see I'm already losing my sense of creativity with the last entry :V):
db, Mizunashi, nolo, Chipz, Zaido (he was sort of a senpai-type character, in a way), pragany, MayFTW, Dax, VMan, Evospace (VAMPIREEEEEE)
2.11.09
Virtual Idol Obsession
A friend of mine recently asked me why I was so obsessed with GUMI, after hearing that for the first time ever, I bought an import (not just an import CD, the first ever import) from Japan: kv(livetune) and Yukimasami's album "Crosslight" ( http://www.yesasia.com/us/crosslight-japan-version/1020340894-0-0-0-en/info.html ). It's a reasonable question to ask considering my extremely eccentric actions from last week (although ironically, the CD is not entirely GUMI, and my favorite song on the CD isn't by her either; although in retrospect, I don't think there IS a CD devoted entirely to GUMI out yet).
To trace the origins of this particular interest, one would have to go back to before Miku was even known about, when the first instance of her is passingly mentioned on the ANN website with some rather mediocre samplings. Ironically I think what was written was something about an anime being made based off this virtual singer, although I never heard anything about any anime (BRS exempt, I doubt BRS was even out when Miku was first mentioned in ANN) about Vocaloid. In any case, while the image was cute and the concept intriguing, I never took an immense amount of interest. I downloaded the Vocaloid program and tried to play around with it, but in the end my interest never got that high since her voice was still distinctly different from a real person's voice.
That's not to say I didn't take any interest in Miku's later songs. There were of course good songs, one of the ones most notable for me being "World is Mine". "World is Mine" is probably the first spark that told me, "this can get good". Miku's voice, as stated earlier, does not match a human voice but it can still work well, like an instrument with a particular tune. Good Miku songs such as "World is Mine" do exactly that, using Miku's voice not as a limitation but as a unique tone and style that no other human being can match. Hence, when composed correctly, Miku's voice sounds really nice.
So, good character design and a voice that can fit depending on how the song is constructed. Good job, Miku! What about Ren, Len, Luka, and other Vocaloids? They are, in my opinion, not much different from Miku. Ren has a higher pitch than Miku; Luka has a deeper pitch than Miku. But overall the distinction between their voice and a real person's voice is still the same. There's still that barrier that says Virtual Idols remain in the virtual (internets?) realm, and real people are in the real world. Their voices just cannot match a real person's voice.
So. GUMI.
Lets start from the very beginning. When GUMI was first announced, before her picture was presented, I was curious. Megumi was going to voice her. The person who did Ranka Lee from Macross F. First, Ranka Lee. As a character, I didn't like her too much; I mean, she was cool, but Sheryl was cooler. And that's pretty bad because Sheryl is an onee-san character, those are not usually the ones I think are more moe than the younger types. However, Megumi's voice while singing is still really nice. I mean, the only real reason I watched Macross F is because of the songs and nothing else. Great, there was a plot. Great, there was mech fightings. But the most awesome was no doubt the final scene, for that 15 minute medley; that was just epic.
Ok, I talked enough about Macross F (I forgot if I made a writeup on my blog about it before). I only spend two days watching that anime anyway. More onto GUMI. Her character was announced, and was probably drawn by the cheapest artist they could get their hands on (I'm assuming the company, unlike Crypton, doesn't have loads of money to blow especially with their failure on Gacktpoid). It was unattractive and seemed like a complete failure before the product even came out. I mean, what was the main motivation behind people to use Miku? It was her character. Otherwise Miku would fade to the backgrounds, just like previous voice synthesizers (Kaito and Meiko were not even HEARD of before Miku came along). Naturally failure in character style would coincide with failure in product.
...Or so I thought. The great thing about the fanart community is they can compensate for a bad character design, so that issue was much more minor than I thought. What they absolutely excelled at, was GUMI's voice.
The first thing I ever noticed when I listened to GUMI was "she sounds so much more real!!!" Anyone will tell you that the first time they listen to GUMI after listening to so many other vocaloids. And that's really the first key spark for my sudden interest in GUMI. But her realistic voice wasn't the only thing that was appealing; she was also still appealing in the synthetic sense. She can do songs similar to Miku's style and still do awesome in it; yet she can also do songs sounding more towards reality, and while not quite like Megumi herself singing, yet, she comes pretty darn close.
This is the difference. While Miku, Luka, Rin and the other vocaloids are sitting in your computer monitor, singing as best as they can, they can't reach out to you and say "I'm human, listen to me". No matter how cute they are, how much fanart is drawn, they're still... instruments.
But GUMI.
Admittedly, GUMI isn't there yet. GUMI is not Megumi, like I said. But you can see her hand stretching out to you from the monitor screen. She wants to reach you with her voice. The rest of the Vocaloids are standing there, in their virtual realm perfectly happy (and rightfully so, they're quite good there as it is). GUMI is trying though. GUMI is trying to become real.
Miku was the first step in virtual idol. She provided everyone with a personality, a display of the potential for virtual idols emerging into reality. But Crypton was happy with Miku's success, and the Vocaloids after them are modelled remarkably similar to Miku. GUMI is the NEXT step. Built by a company that knows they're not as famous as Crypton, knows they're competing against a nationwide sensation and knows people are labelling them as just copycats. But because of that they tried hard to make a much better model. And that's what GUMI is.
What will happen with the next step? It's pretty hard to say. But GUMI in my opinion was as big of a significance as Miku was, purely for her improvement. Professional Musicians will diss GUMI because she's still not there (still too Miku-ish?) while Miku fans won't look at GUMI because they're busy with... Miku. But GUMI, you are changing the world even if people don't see you.
Besides, GUMI has green hair!
To trace the origins of this particular interest, one would have to go back to before Miku was even known about, when the first instance of her is passingly mentioned on the ANN website with some rather mediocre samplings. Ironically I think what was written was something about an anime being made based off this virtual singer, although I never heard anything about any anime (BRS exempt, I doubt BRS was even out when Miku was first mentioned in ANN) about Vocaloid. In any case, while the image was cute and the concept intriguing, I never took an immense amount of interest. I downloaded the Vocaloid program and tried to play around with it, but in the end my interest never got that high since her voice was still distinctly different from a real person's voice.
That's not to say I didn't take any interest in Miku's later songs. There were of course good songs, one of the ones most notable for me being "World is Mine". "World is Mine" is probably the first spark that told me, "this can get good". Miku's voice, as stated earlier, does not match a human voice but it can still work well, like an instrument with a particular tune. Good Miku songs such as "World is Mine" do exactly that, using Miku's voice not as a limitation but as a unique tone and style that no other human being can match. Hence, when composed correctly, Miku's voice sounds really nice.
So, good character design and a voice that can fit depending on how the song is constructed. Good job, Miku! What about Ren, Len, Luka, and other Vocaloids? They are, in my opinion, not much different from Miku. Ren has a higher pitch than Miku; Luka has a deeper pitch than Miku. But overall the distinction between their voice and a real person's voice is still the same. There's still that barrier that says Virtual Idols remain in the virtual (internets?) realm, and real people are in the real world. Their voices just cannot match a real person's voice.
So. GUMI.
Lets start from the very beginning. When GUMI was first announced, before her picture was presented, I was curious. Megumi was going to voice her. The person who did Ranka Lee from Macross F. First, Ranka Lee. As a character, I didn't like her too much; I mean, she was cool, but Sheryl was cooler. And that's pretty bad because Sheryl is an onee-san character, those are not usually the ones I think are more moe than the younger types. However, Megumi's voice while singing is still really nice. I mean, the only real reason I watched Macross F is because of the songs and nothing else. Great, there was a plot. Great, there was mech fightings. But the most awesome was no doubt the final scene, for that 15 minute medley; that was just epic.
Ok, I talked enough about Macross F (I forgot if I made a writeup on my blog about it before). I only spend two days watching that anime anyway. More onto GUMI. Her character was announced, and was probably drawn by the cheapest artist they could get their hands on (I'm assuming the company, unlike Crypton, doesn't have loads of money to blow especially with their failure on Gacktpoid). It was unattractive and seemed like a complete failure before the product even came out. I mean, what was the main motivation behind people to use Miku? It was her character. Otherwise Miku would fade to the backgrounds, just like previous voice synthesizers (Kaito and Meiko were not even HEARD of before Miku came along). Naturally failure in character style would coincide with failure in product.
...Or so I thought. The great thing about the fanart community is they can compensate for a bad character design, so that issue was much more minor than I thought. What they absolutely excelled at, was GUMI's voice.
The first thing I ever noticed when I listened to GUMI was "she sounds so much more real!!!" Anyone will tell you that the first time they listen to GUMI after listening to so many other vocaloids. And that's really the first key spark for my sudden interest in GUMI. But her realistic voice wasn't the only thing that was appealing; she was also still appealing in the synthetic sense. She can do songs similar to Miku's style and still do awesome in it; yet she can also do songs sounding more towards reality, and while not quite like Megumi herself singing, yet, she comes pretty darn close.
This is the difference. While Miku, Luka, Rin and the other vocaloids are sitting in your computer monitor, singing as best as they can, they can't reach out to you and say "I'm human, listen to me". No matter how cute they are, how much fanart is drawn, they're still... instruments.
But GUMI.
Admittedly, GUMI isn't there yet. GUMI is not Megumi, like I said. But you can see her hand stretching out to you from the monitor screen. She wants to reach you with her voice. The rest of the Vocaloids are standing there, in their virtual realm perfectly happy (and rightfully so, they're quite good there as it is). GUMI is trying though. GUMI is trying to become real.
Miku was the first step in virtual idol. She provided everyone with a personality, a display of the potential for virtual idols emerging into reality. But Crypton was happy with Miku's success, and the Vocaloids after them are modelled remarkably similar to Miku. GUMI is the NEXT step. Built by a company that knows they're not as famous as Crypton, knows they're competing against a nationwide sensation and knows people are labelling them as just copycats. But because of that they tried hard to make a much better model. And that's what GUMI is.
What will happen with the next step? It's pretty hard to say. But GUMI in my opinion was as big of a significance as Miku was, purely for her improvement. Professional Musicians will diss GUMI because she's still not there (still too Miku-ish?) while Miku fans won't look at GUMI because they're busy with... Miku. But GUMI, you are changing the world even if people don't see you.
Besides, GUMI has green hair!
1.11.09
Moar Da Capo, wat
Its like it just keeps going over and over again...!
*looks at title* wait a minute.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-11-01/new-d.c-da-capo-anime-reportedly-announced
So what, are we on Kotori's grandchild now? :V
What would be more interesting is if we were PLAYING Kotori's grandchild. V:
*looks at title* wait a minute.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-11-01/new-d.c-da-capo-anime-reportedly-announced
So what, are we on Kotori's grandchild now? :V
What would be more interesting is if we were PLAYING Kotori's grandchild. V:
29.10.09
Moar GUMI 3D
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8592286
In comparison with a lot of other 3D GUMI dance videos I've been seeing (most of them are quite terrible), this one has much better dance coordination; the design for this GUMI isn't so bad either. If only the quality of the video wasn't so bad...
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8600686
OH YEA THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT
EDIT: OH WAIT HERE IT IS HAHA MY BAD
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8568000
EDIT: This one isn't exactly eyecandy like the previous ones but it gets props for being hilarious. LOL RANDOM KAITO
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8418859
In comparison with a lot of other 3D GUMI dance videos I've been seeing (most of them are quite terrible), this one has much better dance coordination; the design for this GUMI isn't so bad either. If only the quality of the video wasn't so bad...
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8600686
OH YEA THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT
EDIT: OH WAIT HERE IT IS HAHA MY BAD
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8568000
EDIT: This one isn't exactly eyecandy like the previous ones but it gets props for being hilarious. LOL RANDOM KAITO
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8418859
28.10.09
GUMI meets...
Original by みつか
PixIV Link: http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=4497677
Once again by the awesome team of G4oPTG. :V
Expenses
Suddenly, my interest in applying for John Hopkins has dropped significantly.
http://www.campusgrotto.com/colleges-with-the-highest-total-cost.html
http://www.campusgrotto.com/colleges-with-the-highest-total-cost.html
27.10.09
GUMI BEAM, translated
Yes I know it was practically self explanatory anyway BUT THAT MEANT THE TRANSLATION MUST BE EASY SO IT MUST BE DONE.
ANOTHER WONDERFUL WORK BY THE AWESOME SCANLATION GROUP G4oPTG.
ANOTHER WONDERFUL WORK BY THE AWESOME SCANLATION GROUP G4oPTG.
22.10.09
SfN 2009
Like all conventions, the Society for Neuroscience 2009 convention needs a writeup too. Actually, this is more than just a summary of what I did at the convention and what interesting things happened; this is also a list for me to refer back to to know what research I thought was important and what schools I'm applying to.
For privacy purposes only the first two letters of a person's first name is used. I'm the one who knows who they all are anyway. :D
Friday
-Having baggage apparently costs 20 dollars and I accidentally selected that I wanted Premier stuff or whatever (which was another 38 dollars) so I managed to waste over 50 dollars before I even headed off to Chicago. This trip sounded awesome already!
-Noted that while quality of food in United Airlines might be a bit better than China Eastern, the flight attendants in the former are significantly older than that of the latter. Also, possibly associated with age, they are REALLY SLOW at handing out drinks. That, and the food/snacks cost money too.
-Arrived at the O'Hare airport, found out that the airport was conveniently located 2 hours away from where my friend's house is (and where I was staying). And also that she didn't have a car so we had to take train/bus all the way back. Upon arrival, stuff was dropped off, a meal was eaten at a local restaurant, and fatigue was prompting us to sleep as soon as we were done.
Saturday
-Originally there were very little plans for Saturday since there weren't any poster sessions of my interest but it ended up to be a busy day
-After figuring out how to get to the convention center in the most roundabout way I checked in and received the programme.
-Hueg programme is HUEG. Imagine the anime expo programme. Now imagine a book of it multiplied by 3. There were 7 books all around that average size as the programme for Neuroscience 2009. Safe to say I was not amused lugging 7 books around the entire day.
-Went out to eat lunch with CA, a high school acquaintance. It's interesting to meet people after 5 years and see where they are now. Apparently in graduate school, which is where I'm going too. Also, apparently married. Which does not seem to be quite where I'm going right now...We talked about our works and Los Angeles and Chicago and other stuff. I learned there is a such thing as computational linguistics and they almost do the same thing as I do. Looks like I can get into any field with computational simulations!
-I went back to the conference to check out one of the posters from my lab. There I met SE, one of the big guys from the company sponsoring our research. We shook hands and he told me about the situation of the company, and how many pharmaceutical companies are interested in our stuff. It's all business. And it's alllll right. (the state of our research and the future of the company, that is)
-Found a poster shortly after about A new, incredibly accurate algorithm for determining error around edges in images, something interesting for computer vision. Admittedly I felt stupid because I couldn't quite know exactly how the algorithm worked, but it had to do something with partitioning one image, then partitioning the same image in another way, then comparing the two images... I think. Regardless it was remarkably accurate; for example, an image that might have more miscounts due to noise might have an accurate "edge" of an image, but an image that has less miscounts yet has a specific miscount next to the edge might seem more accurate overall, but is actually more inaccurate because now the edge looks like it has some kind of bump. This algorithm corrects for this kind of thing. Dr. TU, who was in charge of this project, also referred me to some other people from his school doing some computational neuroscience work, and I'm thankful for that.
-After that I went to visit my old advisor, RE, at a bar. AL and her boyfriend came and visited also. Eventually, SA, one of RE's new lab coworkers, and the person letting me crash at her place, PH, all joined to hang out. We hung out and talked about lab research, lab drama, football, stuff that doesn't work in lab and makes us angry, more football, other sports, where to eat, what to eat, finding a place to wait for our pizza to be cooked, what we wanted to drink at starbucks, japanese hair color, and traps. And yes I was amazed we somehow got onto the topic of traps.
-Eventually our Deep Dish Pizza was ready and, even if it looked small, it was a BIG thing. Even with like 6 people we could not finish it, so I was allowed to take it back to my friend's place. The leftover pizza was to be my breakfast for the next 4 days.
Sunday
-Lots of stuff happened on this day, since Neuroinformatics poster session was in the morning and Simulations was in the afternoon.
-There were a lot of graph-theory related research in the morning too (Seperate from Neuroinformatics). In one type of research "Fault Diagnosis Engineering", they try to determine protein network interaction to determine what kind of treatment is appropriate.
-Another network project involved an attempt to map post-translational proteins from different sections (synapse, cytosol, nucleus). They mostly looked into proteins that get phosphorylated right after translation, I think, and used a pulldown assay for that. They also did some stuff with histones.
-There was some research on Neurodegenerative Networks at Northwestern University. Seems to emphasize how many neurodegenerative diseases and cancer seem to have common networks to go by. Quite interesting.
-The Salk Institute is trying to make a 2-in-1 MRI and EEG machine!
-Some very enthusiastic person explained his research to me in using vectors to determine flow rate in the Perforant and Hippocampal areas of the brain. Honestly while I was listening I was like "this is all good and interesting but how will this ever be useful". I think maybe it will be useful to determine how drugs will flow into the system... or maybe the flow has something to do with how memory or other parts of the brain work? ...Ok yea I'm still not too sure what's its usefulness is right now.
-So along to ACTUAL NEUROINFORMATICS STUFF, there's various programs and interesting development going on. A lot of database stuff (of course). In one poster they're trying to form a database connecting symptoms of diseases in humans with animal models, since that may not always be very obvious when you're ordering your Alzheimer-diseased mouse.
-Apparently there was this poster on some program "GENMA" from the universeity of British Columbia but I'm googling it and nothing is coming up. I'm sad. :(
-The National Taiwan University is making a database of MRI images.
-There was this one computer science person who was making a list of words that are mentioned in science articles, then grouping them all together. I think this is like saying the word "hippocampus" is usually closely associated with the word "memory" in journal articles, or something to that extent. IMO I could not determine what exactly was the difference between what he was trying to do, and what a search engine does already at pubMed.
-Slim-Prim at University of Tennessee- https://ctsi.utmem.edu/gateway.php I think it tries to connect clinical data with research data.
-Neuroscience Information Framework BIIIIG neuroscience website that's acting like Neuroscience wikipedia + Neuroscience google. Heck, it IS Neuroscience Google. Seems like people from UCSD and Caltech are working on it.
-Waxholm Space and the INCF Digital Atlasing Program- making a world map of the Rat Brain. Many people, including UCSD (again!) are involved in this.
-After the Neuroinformatics poster session I found SU, my coworker, at a seminar. The seminar was pretty boring unfortunately; she and her friend RO were falling asleep. It had to do something with determining whether the X and Y chromosomes themselves determined gender identity, or if a particular gene which encodes for the generation of testosterone or some other hormones determined it.
-We set up our own poster afterwards. SU had to stay by her poster so I had to go get lunch by myself. I had a McDonalds hamburger which, later on, I thought was a bad idea since I had malaise almost the entire day afterwards and for the next 2 days at the convention center. Well, I don't directly associate it with the McDonalds hamburger but it sucks that I was at not quite the best condition to run around and learn neuroscience from everyone.
-There were some interesting topics in the simulation poster session #1. The first thing that caught my eye was a project some people were doing in Japan on connecting various different simulation and modeling programs together to make one larger system. Considering how we were trying to get Java to work with C, and then python, I (and my lab coworkers) became REALLY INTERESTED in where this work is going to go.
-A really overly happy but friendly guy from Case Western (a new student I think, he was presenting his old work from John Hopkins) gave me a lot of tips on who's doing what at Case Western. Sort of. Well, at least he gave me names, and that's good. Except it means more work and research for me. DAMMIT
- There was a neural networks optimization topic from Northeastern that involved proportions of excitatory and inhibitory cells. Something about the h value in the neural network to be constant... well ok I don't really know. :V
-Study at Michigan University involves Memory Maps where a cluster of cells in charge of say, one memory, may link to another memory. However, at weak stimulation one memory inhibits the activation of other memories. It actually seems pretty interesting.
-IN REGARDS TO OUR OWN WORK, most people were all like "yea cool" except for this one Blue Brain guy who totally floored us over. He pointed out specifically the parts that make our simulations slower and the clumsiness in construction of the platform. In many cases we were like "yes, we know that already you don't need to point that out *roll eyes*" in our head but of course since he's competing against us (I'm assuming since he's working on a similar project in the Blue Brain project) I think he wants to make us look bad as possible since we're already presenting what we have.
-I got a hand-exercise squishy thing that was in the shape of a cute chicken from a chicken antibody vendor. THIS IS WHAT I PAID THE 100 DOLLAR REGISTRATION FEE FOR, YOU HEAR ME??!??
-After that our super generous lab director gave us a big dinner where everyone ordered too much food and I bet half of the food we ordered were never finished. And it was all very expensive but apparently he is rich so its ok. Chicken soup was helpful considering the meals I've been having previously have had liters of oil dunked into them.
-I got back at like 11 PM super tired and ready to sleep in the air mattress that had a hole in it. :(
Monday
-Bus Miss-adventures #1: While walking towards the street I saw the bus SPEED past the bus stop and I was like "OH WAIT I NEED TO CATCH THAT" and ran after it but the bus never stopped and I just got worn out. :( Someone actually saw me and offered to catch the bus for me but I declined. People here in Chicago appear to be nice though.
-Water at the convention center: $3.75
-Banana: 1.00$
-Vendor items such as bags, candy, larger bags, and pens: Priceless. Literally.
-Sunday was an intense day, but Monday things were starting to settle down. I noticed, while wandering around, there were many simulation and modeling projects on oscillation and frequency patterns in different areas in the brain. MIT was pretty big on it.
-To my surprise there was a poster from Georgia Tech that dealt with an issue of heterogeneity in two neurons, in both simulation and in experimentation. I actually couldn't quite figure out what they were doing because I didn't exactly know what the heterogeneity meant... I think they were trying to test some theory or modeling scheme (like neural networks) and determining the constant (or nonconstant) value in such a model.
-There were some...interesting posters I happen to see when I passed by... such as "Mechanisms and Effects of Sleep Deprivation in College Students" or "Neural Activity Patterns in Older Adults after Internet Training." It's all good but I wonder how they get grants for funding this sort of research. Maybe the grant-givers were just curious.
-CONNECTOMES. Someone in the University of Utah is trying to build an Entire Connectome of the Retina , currently by hand. They're apparently taking a million images or something and piecing them together, manually, one by one. I asked them if they need a computer scientist to help them connect them faster or to help model whatever they found. I think there were amused. :V I will need to contact them later.
-Lunch was in ChinaTown (THANKFULLY) and we had some dim sum. Or rather, I had a lot of dim sum because I realized my friend didn't like to eat pork. So I had most of the dim sum. The other two people accompanying me had their fried rice and chow mien, though.
-Back at the poster session, there wasn't too much to see even though there was another modeling poster sesion. Perhaps the next most interesting thing wasStructural Synaptic Plasticity Modeling where someone was modeling how the shape of neurons change over time. I think, I could be wrong and forgot what their research actually was.
-Continuing the "I wonder how these projects get funding" trend, we have a toy neuron called "My First Neuron" for kindergartners or something! Man, kids are learning this stuff in elementary school now. That's intense.
-Since there wasn't too much other things to see other than visiting old lab coworkers, I went to the wikipedia talk where the speakers were teaching people how to use wikipedia and why everyone should use it. In actuality I kind of could figure out on how to use wikipedia but I was also sorta feeling crappy so I just sat there and listened to stuff I already knew about. I probably can't help contribute despite them saying "OMG EVERYONE CONTRIBUTE" because I don't think my knowledge is that good enough quite yet. :V
-Today was "meet everyone from your old lab" day. In the morning I went to SA's poster session and said hi. He was mostly busy all the time though. In the afternoon I was eager to meet MI since I haven't seen him for a while ever since he graduated and went to UCLA. There I bumped into MA too, so we talked a bit. Later when the poster session was almost over, I got together with MI, MA, and YU where we all decided to go out for lunch... somewhere. SA came along too. I suggested Chinatown but SA didn't want to go. Then I found MI, the old lab PI (well he's my current PI too), and so we hung out around the convention center for a longer period of time. RE came by and talked for a while too. EVENTUALLY we (me, MI, YU, and MA) figured that we'd have dinner after the social since we spent so much time talking and hanging out around the conference center that there wasn't much time left after that until the social.
-We took a bus to MA and YU's hotel. The view was really scenic and I regret that I didn't bring a camera (this thought occurred to me like 10 minutes before I landed in Chicago... "OMG I FORGOT TO BRING A CAMERA"). After stopping by MA and YU's room to drop stuff off we went to the social.
-Social was interesting. And dark. Bars are so dark. The weather was really dry so I had a slight bloody nose unfortunately (it was so dry I had to buy chapstick for my lips) but then I drank some orange juice and it was better. Sort of. I kind of felt queasy after drinking the juice but at least I didn't throw up. I met some people and learned about neurotree, which is a pretty nifty website that treats students and faculty as children and parents, and we can see who taught who and stuff like that. My name is now in there, so now you can see who my big bosses are!
-After that we went to some place called "the Bowl" or something to that extent which served Chinese and Thai food. There was this hot and sour soup that was pretty good if I wasn't feeling like crap still from all the dryness and the slight malaise that I've been having for nearly the entire conference period. We didn't order much since a lot of us were already pretty full from the social. Following that we went to CVS Pharmacy where I can buy stuff to make the dryness feel slightly less dry and then went back to the hotel, where I picked up my stuff and left.
Tuesday
-Bus Miss-adventure #2: This time I saw the bus fly by and I didn't run after it, thinking "I have enough time anyway so i'll just wait for the next bus". I was standing beside this building which helped in that it blocked off the wind, but I had to check every now and then to see if the bus was coming. I HAPPENED to NOT CHECK for a short moment whether the bus was coming and then... it just drove by the bus stop. AGAIN. WHEN I WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF IT, PRACTICALLY. OTL Needless to say I checked for the bus a bit more often after that and got on after the 3rd bus. :V Oh bother.
-Tuesday I didn't find too many posters relevant to my research or academic search either, but I did find funny things. Like a pigeon in the convention center! It was just walking around the tables behind the posters minding its own business, looking for leftovers. :V Or, a vendor advertising a mini-centrifuge signed by the cast of CSI Miami! The ones that do 10 minute PCRs! Signed a mini-centrifuge! :V There was also a poster on "Walking Speed Control in a Stick Insect". Really? They're measuring how a walking stick walks? :V
-There were still things that WERE relevant and worth mentioning. At UC Davis some people were designing a [b]Software tracking the movement and placement of chambers and electrodes[/b] in people's (or rodent's) brains. I believe it used scans and then determined the approximate location through the programming. They used a program called Caret (coded in C++ and OpenGL). Rather intriguing stuff.
-An intriguing poster to look at was the 3D Model Reconstruction of the Neuropil at University of Austin, Texas. The stuff they had on the poster was really detailed and thorough; it was very impressive. They even went down to the organelles and stated how they affected flow of current within the cell; that's some awesome work there. Along the lines of 3D, I think in this session I noted how many models are starting to incorporate 3 dimensions (our model uses 2) in lately, making things more complicated and making it seem like our project is a step behind (although we'll catch up soon... I think... maybe).
- There was some person who presented a poster on the "Information Integration Model of Consciousness"... It took me a while to figure out what the models meant, but when I did I didn't exactly see how it dealt with consciousness (it seems to be some sort of sorting algorithm that split a group into more groups, then separated those groups and having some sort of weight calculation). Or maybe I'm just stupid. :V
-So, Lunchtime came and I couldn't get anyone to come with me for lunch so I went to Chinatown by myself hoping to find a noodle house except... I couldn't find one. I walked, and walked, and kept on walking, turnedmyheadsuddenlybecauseIsawananimeposter then continued walking... until I found one, but it turned out to be a Pho house and I didn't really want Pho. So I walked back and went to a small cafe which luckily had noodle soup on its list. I ate some Shredded Pork and Preserved Vegetable Noodle Soup. I NEVER felt MORE satisfied about my meals in ALL THE I'VE BEEN IN CHICAGO.
- In the afternoon I went to a conference talk by Larry Swanson (I'm not affiliated with him and his name is in the programme anyway so I might as well mention his name) who also happened to come from USC. Most of his talk was on the history of Neuroscience, but it got a bit informative at the end, where he mentioned the state of neuroscience today and talked about some technologies. He mentioned how pattern recognition software is slow in development, so that's showing the importance of robot vision. Then he mentioned some neuroinformatics stuff ("Google Earth for the Brain") and talked about NIF and BAMS (I need to look up more on this since I don't know too much about it).
- After the talk I walked around the poster session along with SU. We met up with some of my old lab friends at their poster and we had some conversations and etc. After the poster session was over SU went to another talk while I went to get dinner. Because everything at the convention was so EXPENSIVE I decided to take the Metra train (they gave us FREE PASSES which only last for like 3 stops so its not THAT great), went to the end, bought a sandwich at subway somewhere, then went back and ate sandwich at the convention center.
-I FOUND MICROWAVES AT THE CONVENTION CENTER. A bit late though. It was funny because SU was eating cold leftover pizza only moments before. And only a few feet away from the microwaves too. It was quite ironic.
-The last event that happened on Tuesday was the Computational Neuroscience Social. For a social event I wasn't exactly that social, mostly hanging out with people from my current lab + 1. But I did manage to talk with that +1 on some variable step method models, crabs (its his research), eating crabs, and anime (Yes I know, I was totally productive...). I also talked with another guy because he looked bored and lonely and found out he was a master's student that, like me, was applying for graduate school looking into computational neuroscience programs. We exchanged our background projects and also talked about schools (Of course, we were all like "Yea, its ALL about UCSD for Comp. Neurosci") and I got some info on other good schools I can look into. Or schools I might not look into because it's more work. :<
-After that I went back earlie rthan before (GASP) and arrived back at my friend's place at 10 PM, where I mostly just talked about politics and Rand and her books before packing up and going to sleep.
EXTRA: Wednesday
-SO IT TURNS OUT I SPEND HALF OF MY DAY AT THE AIRPORT/ ON AN AIRLINE, and 2/3RDS OF MY DAY DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Luckily Chicago Airport is a lot nicer than LAX and there was time to wander around and explore before I laid down in the wait area to rest. Coincidentally, my current lab collegues were on the same flight so we met up and had fun there. Stuff happened and then we went on the flight and crashed-- I mean, went home. Oh before I left the LAX airport I found a vending machine selling iPhones. Really? Is there really some guy who's gonna be like "YEA I NEED ANIPHONE RIGHT NOW EVEN THOUGH I WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO CALL ANYONE OR LISTEN TO MUSIC ON IT"?
-I got home, played some RO, watched some Shugo Chara, and basically killed any sense of maturity and smartness I managed to get while I was at the neuroscience conference.
All in all, good fun. I enjoyed it despite being only 9/10ths as healthy as I wanted to be at the convention. CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR ITS IN SAN DIEGO, RIGHT NEXT TO WHERE I'M LIVING--Oh wait I might be at the east coast then. ...DAMMMIT
For privacy purposes only the first two letters of a person's first name is used. I'm the one who knows who they all are anyway. :D
Friday
-Having baggage apparently costs 20 dollars and I accidentally selected that I wanted Premier stuff or whatever (which was another 38 dollars) so I managed to waste over 50 dollars before I even headed off to Chicago. This trip sounded awesome already!
-Noted that while quality of food in United Airlines might be a bit better than China Eastern, the flight attendants in the former are significantly older than that of the latter. Also, possibly associated with age, they are REALLY SLOW at handing out drinks. That, and the food/snacks cost money too.
-Arrived at the O'Hare airport, found out that the airport was conveniently located 2 hours away from where my friend's house is (and where I was staying). And also that she didn't have a car so we had to take train/bus all the way back. Upon arrival, stuff was dropped off, a meal was eaten at a local restaurant, and fatigue was prompting us to sleep as soon as we were done.
Saturday
-Originally there were very little plans for Saturday since there weren't any poster sessions of my interest but it ended up to be a busy day
-After figuring out how to get to the convention center in the most roundabout way I checked in and received the programme.
-Hueg programme is HUEG. Imagine the anime expo programme. Now imagine a book of it multiplied by 3. There were 7 books all around that average size as the programme for Neuroscience 2009. Safe to say I was not amused lugging 7 books around the entire day.
-Went out to eat lunch with CA, a high school acquaintance. It's interesting to meet people after 5 years and see where they are now. Apparently in graduate school, which is where I'm going too. Also, apparently married. Which does not seem to be quite where I'm going right now...We talked about our works and Los Angeles and Chicago and other stuff. I learned there is a such thing as computational linguistics and they almost do the same thing as I do. Looks like I can get into any field with computational simulations!
-I went back to the conference to check out one of the posters from my lab. There I met SE, one of the big guys from the company sponsoring our research. We shook hands and he told me about the situation of the company, and how many pharmaceutical companies are interested in our stuff. It's all business. And it's alllll right. (the state of our research and the future of the company, that is)
-Found a poster shortly after about A new, incredibly accurate algorithm for determining error around edges in images, something interesting for computer vision. Admittedly I felt stupid because I couldn't quite know exactly how the algorithm worked, but it had to do something with partitioning one image, then partitioning the same image in another way, then comparing the two images... I think. Regardless it was remarkably accurate; for example, an image that might have more miscounts due to noise might have an accurate "edge" of an image, but an image that has less miscounts yet has a specific miscount next to the edge might seem more accurate overall, but is actually more inaccurate because now the edge looks like it has some kind of bump. This algorithm corrects for this kind of thing. Dr. TU, who was in charge of this project, also referred me to some other people from his school doing some computational neuroscience work, and I'm thankful for that.
-After that I went to visit my old advisor, RE, at a bar. AL and her boyfriend came and visited also. Eventually, SA, one of RE's new lab coworkers, and the person letting me crash at her place, PH, all joined to hang out. We hung out and talked about lab research, lab drama, football, stuff that doesn't work in lab and makes us angry, more football, other sports, where to eat, what to eat, finding a place to wait for our pizza to be cooked, what we wanted to drink at starbucks, japanese hair color, and traps. And yes I was amazed we somehow got onto the topic of traps.
-Eventually our Deep Dish Pizza was ready and, even if it looked small, it was a BIG thing. Even with like 6 people we could not finish it, so I was allowed to take it back to my friend's place. The leftover pizza was to be my breakfast for the next 4 days.
Sunday
-Lots of stuff happened on this day, since Neuroinformatics poster session was in the morning and Simulations was in the afternoon.
-There were a lot of graph-theory related research in the morning too (Seperate from Neuroinformatics). In one type of research "Fault Diagnosis Engineering", they try to determine protein network interaction to determine what kind of treatment is appropriate.
-Another network project involved an attempt to map post-translational proteins from different sections (synapse, cytosol, nucleus). They mostly looked into proteins that get phosphorylated right after translation, I think, and used a pulldown assay for that. They also did some stuff with histones.
-There was some research on Neurodegenerative Networks at Northwestern University. Seems to emphasize how many neurodegenerative diseases and cancer seem to have common networks to go by. Quite interesting.
-The Salk Institute is trying to make a 2-in-1 MRI and EEG machine!
-Some very enthusiastic person explained his research to me in using vectors to determine flow rate in the Perforant and Hippocampal areas of the brain. Honestly while I was listening I was like "this is all good and interesting but how will this ever be useful". I think maybe it will be useful to determine how drugs will flow into the system... or maybe the flow has something to do with how memory or other parts of the brain work? ...Ok yea I'm still not too sure what's its usefulness is right now.
-So along to ACTUAL NEUROINFORMATICS STUFF, there's various programs and interesting development going on. A lot of database stuff (of course). In one poster they're trying to form a database connecting symptoms of diseases in humans with animal models, since that may not always be very obvious when you're ordering your Alzheimer-diseased mouse.
-Apparently there was this poster on some program "GENMA" from the universeity of British Columbia but I'm googling it and nothing is coming up. I'm sad. :(
-The National Taiwan University is making a database of MRI images.
-There was this one computer science person who was making a list of words that are mentioned in science articles, then grouping them all together. I think this is like saying the word "hippocampus" is usually closely associated with the word "memory" in journal articles, or something to that extent. IMO I could not determine what exactly was the difference between what he was trying to do, and what a search engine does already at pubMed.
-Slim-Prim at University of Tennessee- https://ctsi.utmem.edu/gateway.php I think it tries to connect clinical data with research data.
-Neuroscience Information Framework BIIIIG neuroscience website that's acting like Neuroscience wikipedia + Neuroscience google. Heck, it IS Neuroscience Google. Seems like people from UCSD and Caltech are working on it.
-Waxholm Space and the INCF Digital Atlasing Program- making a world map of the Rat Brain. Many people, including UCSD (again!) are involved in this.
-After the Neuroinformatics poster session I found SU, my coworker, at a seminar. The seminar was pretty boring unfortunately; she and her friend RO were falling asleep. It had to do something with determining whether the X and Y chromosomes themselves determined gender identity, or if a particular gene which encodes for the generation of testosterone or some other hormones determined it.
-We set up our own poster afterwards. SU had to stay by her poster so I had to go get lunch by myself. I had a McDonalds hamburger which, later on, I thought was a bad idea since I had malaise almost the entire day afterwards and for the next 2 days at the convention center. Well, I don't directly associate it with the McDonalds hamburger but it sucks that I was at not quite the best condition to run around and learn neuroscience from everyone.
-There were some interesting topics in the simulation poster session #1. The first thing that caught my eye was a project some people were doing in Japan on connecting various different simulation and modeling programs together to make one larger system. Considering how we were trying to get Java to work with C, and then python, I (and my lab coworkers) became REALLY INTERESTED in where this work is going to go.
-A really overly happy but friendly guy from Case Western (a new student I think, he was presenting his old work from John Hopkins) gave me a lot of tips on who's doing what at Case Western. Sort of. Well, at least he gave me names, and that's good. Except it means more work and research for me. DAMMIT
- There was a neural networks optimization topic from Northeastern that involved proportions of excitatory and inhibitory cells. Something about the h value in the neural network to be constant... well ok I don't really know. :V
-Study at Michigan University involves Memory Maps where a cluster of cells in charge of say, one memory, may link to another memory. However, at weak stimulation one memory inhibits the activation of other memories. It actually seems pretty interesting.
-IN REGARDS TO OUR OWN WORK, most people were all like "yea cool" except for this one Blue Brain guy who totally floored us over. He pointed out specifically the parts that make our simulations slower and the clumsiness in construction of the platform. In many cases we were like "yes, we know that already you don't need to point that out *roll eyes*" in our head but of course since he's competing against us (I'm assuming since he's working on a similar project in the Blue Brain project) I think he wants to make us look bad as possible since we're already presenting what we have.
-I got a hand-exercise squishy thing that was in the shape of a cute chicken from a chicken antibody vendor. THIS IS WHAT I PAID THE 100 DOLLAR REGISTRATION FEE FOR, YOU HEAR ME??!??
-After that our super generous lab director gave us a big dinner where everyone ordered too much food and I bet half of the food we ordered were never finished. And it was all very expensive but apparently he is rich so its ok. Chicken soup was helpful considering the meals I've been having previously have had liters of oil dunked into them.
-I got back at like 11 PM super tired and ready to sleep in the air mattress that had a hole in it. :(
Monday
-Bus Miss-adventures #1: While walking towards the street I saw the bus SPEED past the bus stop and I was like "OH WAIT I NEED TO CATCH THAT" and ran after it but the bus never stopped and I just got worn out. :( Someone actually saw me and offered to catch the bus for me but I declined. People here in Chicago appear to be nice though.
-Water at the convention center: $3.75
-Banana: 1.00$
-Vendor items such as bags, candy, larger bags, and pens: Priceless. Literally.
-Sunday was an intense day, but Monday things were starting to settle down. I noticed, while wandering around, there were many simulation and modeling projects on oscillation and frequency patterns in different areas in the brain. MIT was pretty big on it.
-To my surprise there was a poster from Georgia Tech that dealt with an issue of heterogeneity in two neurons, in both simulation and in experimentation. I actually couldn't quite figure out what they were doing because I didn't exactly know what the heterogeneity meant... I think they were trying to test some theory or modeling scheme (like neural networks) and determining the constant (or nonconstant) value in such a model.
-There were some...interesting posters I happen to see when I passed by... such as "Mechanisms and Effects of Sleep Deprivation in College Students" or "Neural Activity Patterns in Older Adults after Internet Training." It's all good but I wonder how they get grants for funding this sort of research. Maybe the grant-givers were just curious.
-CONNECTOMES. Someone in the University of Utah is trying to build an Entire Connectome of the Retina , currently by hand. They're apparently taking a million images or something and piecing them together, manually, one by one. I asked them if they need a computer scientist to help them connect them faster or to help model whatever they found. I think there were amused. :V I will need to contact them later.
-Lunch was in ChinaTown (THANKFULLY) and we had some dim sum. Or rather, I had a lot of dim sum because I realized my friend didn't like to eat pork. So I had most of the dim sum. The other two people accompanying me had their fried rice and chow mien, though.
-Back at the poster session, there wasn't too much to see even though there was another modeling poster sesion. Perhaps the next most interesting thing wasStructural Synaptic Plasticity Modeling where someone was modeling how the shape of neurons change over time. I think, I could be wrong and forgot what their research actually was.
-Continuing the "I wonder how these projects get funding" trend, we have a toy neuron called "My First Neuron" for kindergartners or something! Man, kids are learning this stuff in elementary school now. That's intense.
-Since there wasn't too much other things to see other than visiting old lab coworkers, I went to the wikipedia talk where the speakers were teaching people how to use wikipedia and why everyone should use it. In actuality I kind of could figure out on how to use wikipedia but I was also sorta feeling crappy so I just sat there and listened to stuff I already knew about. I probably can't help contribute despite them saying "OMG EVERYONE CONTRIBUTE" because I don't think my knowledge is that good enough quite yet. :V
-Today was "meet everyone from your old lab" day. In the morning I went to SA's poster session and said hi. He was mostly busy all the time though. In the afternoon I was eager to meet MI since I haven't seen him for a while ever since he graduated and went to UCLA. There I bumped into MA too, so we talked a bit. Later when the poster session was almost over, I got together with MI, MA, and YU where we all decided to go out for lunch... somewhere. SA came along too. I suggested Chinatown but SA didn't want to go. Then I found MI, the old lab PI (well he's my current PI too), and so we hung out around the convention center for a longer period of time. RE came by and talked for a while too. EVENTUALLY we (me, MI, YU, and MA) figured that we'd have dinner after the social since we spent so much time talking and hanging out around the conference center that there wasn't much time left after that until the social.
-We took a bus to MA and YU's hotel. The view was really scenic and I regret that I didn't bring a camera (this thought occurred to me like 10 minutes before I landed in Chicago... "OMG I FORGOT TO BRING A CAMERA"). After stopping by MA and YU's room to drop stuff off we went to the social.
-Social was interesting. And dark. Bars are so dark. The weather was really dry so I had a slight bloody nose unfortunately (it was so dry I had to buy chapstick for my lips) but then I drank some orange juice and it was better. Sort of. I kind of felt queasy after drinking the juice but at least I didn't throw up. I met some people and learned about neurotree, which is a pretty nifty website that treats students and faculty as children and parents, and we can see who taught who and stuff like that. My name is now in there, so now you can see who my big bosses are!
-After that we went to some place called "the Bowl" or something to that extent which served Chinese and Thai food. There was this hot and sour soup that was pretty good if I wasn't feeling like crap still from all the dryness and the slight malaise that I've been having for nearly the entire conference period. We didn't order much since a lot of us were already pretty full from the social. Following that we went to CVS Pharmacy where I can buy stuff to make the dryness feel slightly less dry and then went back to the hotel, where I picked up my stuff and left.
Tuesday
-Bus Miss-adventure #2: This time I saw the bus fly by and I didn't run after it, thinking "I have enough time anyway so i'll just wait for the next bus". I was standing beside this building which helped in that it blocked off the wind, but I had to check every now and then to see if the bus was coming. I HAPPENED to NOT CHECK for a short moment whether the bus was coming and then... it just drove by the bus stop. AGAIN. WHEN I WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF IT, PRACTICALLY. OTL Needless to say I checked for the bus a bit more often after that and got on after the 3rd bus. :V Oh bother.
-Tuesday I didn't find too many posters relevant to my research or academic search either, but I did find funny things. Like a pigeon in the convention center! It was just walking around the tables behind the posters minding its own business, looking for leftovers. :V Or, a vendor advertising a mini-centrifuge signed by the cast of CSI Miami! The ones that do 10 minute PCRs! Signed a mini-centrifuge! :V There was also a poster on "Walking Speed Control in a Stick Insect". Really? They're measuring how a walking stick walks? :V
-There were still things that WERE relevant and worth mentioning. At UC Davis some people were designing a [b]Software tracking the movement and placement of chambers and electrodes[/b] in people's (or rodent's) brains. I believe it used scans and then determined the approximate location through the programming. They used a program called Caret (coded in C++ and OpenGL). Rather intriguing stuff.
-An intriguing poster to look at was the 3D Model Reconstruction of the Neuropil at University of Austin, Texas. The stuff they had on the poster was really detailed and thorough; it was very impressive. They even went down to the organelles and stated how they affected flow of current within the cell; that's some awesome work there. Along the lines of 3D, I think in this session I noted how many models are starting to incorporate 3 dimensions (our model uses 2) in lately, making things more complicated and making it seem like our project is a step behind (although we'll catch up soon... I think... maybe).
- There was some person who presented a poster on the "Information Integration Model of Consciousness"... It took me a while to figure out what the models meant, but when I did I didn't exactly see how it dealt with consciousness (it seems to be some sort of sorting algorithm that split a group into more groups, then separated those groups and having some sort of weight calculation). Or maybe I'm just stupid. :V
-So, Lunchtime came and I couldn't get anyone to come with me for lunch so I went to Chinatown by myself hoping to find a noodle house except... I couldn't find one. I walked, and walked, and kept on walking, turnedmyheadsuddenlybecauseIsawananimeposter then continued walking... until I found one, but it turned out to be a Pho house and I didn't really want Pho. So I walked back and went to a small cafe which luckily had noodle soup on its list. I ate some Shredded Pork and Preserved Vegetable Noodle Soup. I NEVER felt MORE satisfied about my meals in ALL THE I'VE BEEN IN CHICAGO.
- In the afternoon I went to a conference talk by Larry Swanson (I'm not affiliated with him and his name is in the programme anyway so I might as well mention his name) who also happened to come from USC. Most of his talk was on the history of Neuroscience, but it got a bit informative at the end, where he mentioned the state of neuroscience today and talked about some technologies. He mentioned how pattern recognition software is slow in development, so that's showing the importance of robot vision. Then he mentioned some neuroinformatics stuff ("Google Earth for the Brain") and talked about NIF and BAMS (I need to look up more on this since I don't know too much about it).
- After the talk I walked around the poster session along with SU. We met up with some of my old lab friends at their poster and we had some conversations and etc. After the poster session was over SU went to another talk while I went to get dinner. Because everything at the convention was so EXPENSIVE I decided to take the Metra train (they gave us FREE PASSES which only last for like 3 stops so its not THAT great), went to the end, bought a sandwich at subway somewhere, then went back and ate sandwich at the convention center.
-I FOUND MICROWAVES AT THE CONVENTION CENTER. A bit late though. It was funny because SU was eating cold leftover pizza only moments before. And only a few feet away from the microwaves too. It was quite ironic.
-The last event that happened on Tuesday was the Computational Neuroscience Social. For a social event I wasn't exactly that social, mostly hanging out with people from my current lab + 1. But I did manage to talk with that +1 on some variable step method models, crabs (its his research), eating crabs, and anime (Yes I know, I was totally productive...). I also talked with another guy because he looked bored and lonely and found out he was a master's student that, like me, was applying for graduate school looking into computational neuroscience programs. We exchanged our background projects and also talked about schools (Of course, we were all like "Yea, its ALL about UCSD for Comp. Neurosci") and I got some info on other good schools I can look into. Or schools I might not look into because it's more work. :<
-After that I went back earlie rthan before (GASP) and arrived back at my friend's place at 10 PM, where I mostly just talked about politics and Rand and her books before packing up and going to sleep.
EXTRA: Wednesday
-SO IT TURNS OUT I SPEND HALF OF MY DAY AT THE AIRPORT/ ON AN AIRLINE, and 2/3RDS OF MY DAY DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Luckily Chicago Airport is a lot nicer than LAX and there was time to wander around and explore before I laid down in the wait area to rest. Coincidentally, my current lab collegues were on the same flight so we met up and had fun there. Stuff happened and then we went on the flight and crashed-- I mean, went home. Oh before I left the LAX airport I found a vending machine selling iPhones. Really? Is there really some guy who's gonna be like "YEA I NEED AN
-I got home, played some RO, watched some Shugo Chara, and basically killed any sense of maturity and smartness I managed to get while I was at the neuroscience conference.
All in all, good fun. I enjoyed it despite being only 9/10ths as healthy as I wanted to be at the convention. CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR ITS IN SAN DIEGO, RIGHT NEXT TO WHERE I'M LIVING--Oh wait I might be at the east coast then. ...DAMMMIT
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