Yes, that's right. And this time, you're darn sure it's permenant!

I've finally gotten the website I've always dreamed about - and I've spent the last 2 days fixing up the main site as well as the blog. Ok, ok, I admit, I spent only about 2 hrs before I moved on the the blog which is a real pain to edit.

Especially when I had nothing but the raw template to work on... and that I went through 3 different templates before thinking, "Ah, hell with this. I'm gonna be lazy and go the easy way."

Which... turned out to be not so easy because I was experimenting with the center layout, as well as the vertical-align. All done in css, of course ^_^ I'm such a css snob...

Then there were all those tagboards I experimented with...

ANYWAY! New links!

The Rogue Nomad - www.roguenomad.com

A Sprinkle Of Sand - blog.roguenomad.com

Enjoy!

"I hit them with this stick, and they work harder! It's magic!"
All-High, King-Korg, Magnificent, Illustrious, Ruthless Emperor of Great and Mighty Bograth; Deadwood Staff

I've been meaning to change the layout of this blog for a long time, and last night I finally got off my lazy butt to do so. The old layout was getting on my nerves a lot (Lookit all the clashing colours! What was I thinking?! And the code was evveerywhere), and since I've been working on the new website I thought I might as well give this blog a new look too, to match it.

So behold, the table-less layout I've shamelessly mutilated from The Layout Reservior. Add in a few more hours of testing the css and figuring out what does what, and playing around with the different themes, laziness kicked in and I've decided to stick to the same colors as my website, The Web Nomad. Whip up a couple of pictures and voila!

Nice? Not nice? Looks weird? Let me know! So far tested in Firefox, Netscape 7.1 and IE 6.02, and IE's the only one where the right box (holding the tagboard) is aligned a bit funny, but still shows up decent.

"Hospital! Take me to the hospital!"
"This is the hospital"
"SO TAKE ME IN, BASTARDS!"
- Inuhiko, after being shot in the leg; Leviathan

Well well well. Phew...

I've just come back from the Akademi Fantasia (AF in short) 2 concert and man my throat hurts. I predict tomorrow I will be wandering around with no voice, with but a single note book to announce my thoughts to the world.

The concert was pretty good, I have to say. Despite the fact that most of the 'singers' can't sing *coughmascoughcoughfitriCOUGH*, Aznil knows how to whip the crowd up into a frenzy to the point where you don't really care who's on stage; ya just gotta cheer for them. #1 host in Malaysia, definitely. ::is sniggering at the memory of him shaking his 'moneymaker' on stage::

Although I managed to stay my hands when it came to some singers.

Never. Never in my life will I ever do the bloody mesra for you Bob. Nor the Breep Breep. I have my dignity! Which, sad to say, didn't extend far enough to stop me from clapping like a madwoman, yelling out to my heart's content and wavin' my arms and groovin' to the beat. This is where sheep mentality kicked in. Everyone was doing in, so why can't I?

Besides. It was fun. And the guy sitting next to me was egging me on (not blatantly egging ^_^) and crowd atmosphere and all, y'know?

Heehee. And Arys did the whole mesra thing though. I will never let you forget it! NEE~~VAAA~! And man, that girl's voice can hit such high pitches, I think I went deaf a couple times. (Teasin' ya, Arys!)

Ooo... Kaer's voice live is glorious. He sings so sweetly I swear that boy is half-elfen! I mean, he's got the ears and all... And as for Bob... geez... I wish I could hate him but sadly his voice is magnificant. Darn it.

Zahid, of course, was the crowd pleaser. Fun fun fun, and he really really puts me to mind of a teddy-bear. Honest! Great singer, great performer.

Adam got stuck with that Petik Bintang song, so he didn't really have to sing well. Just dance, do his pretty boy moves and yell into the mic. HEAPS of fun. Huge crowd pleaser, especially since he didn't actually need to bring singing talent into it...

Heehee. I still stand by my opinion that his singing is subpar compared to, say, Kaer.

Fitri... what can I say? I cringed throughout the performance, and the guy next to me shared my opinion of wishing we brought ear plugs.

[tangent]::thinks about it:: That makes him the second guy to actually strike a conversation with me in this past year. Wow. New record for me![/tangent]

And Anding... ::pause:: Dear god, did I mix up Anding and Adam's song? I think I did. For the paragraphs above, switch "Adam" with "Anding". And the singing talent thing doesn't matter cause they both can't sing. See, to me... that's what Anding is. Entirely forgettable. ^_^

I think Adam sang Tipah tertipu. Featuring Zahid, so it was a gauranteed crowdpleaser. Oh, but the lil boy who was brought up on stage from the audience to dance throughout the whole song was darn steady. That kid can DANCE, even though he got lost in the beat somewhere. ::sweatdrops::

But I feel for the lil kids who were brought up on stage, full of confidence that they could dance/sing/whathaveyou... only to stand up and stare at the huge huge HUGE mass of people looking back at them.

Some of them started crying ^_^

Anyway! For the girls... gawd, did they have to get Mas to sing twice? Why?? She can't sing! Arys and I were cringing and holding onto each other in terror. The guy next to me looked like he wanted to sink into his seat and die. Though we were in the minority, as I now believe Bruneians will cheer for almost anything.

Though at this point I really must say. Bruneian people, when it comes to AF, are darn sporting. The teens/adult who were brought up stage to do absolutely ridiculous things (Bottle of water: $1. Rather nasty-tasting Sugarbun beefburger: $2. Ticket for almost front-row seats: $65. A rather old looking woman and a teen girl having to put on feather boas and do a sexy dance for Zahid? PRICELESS) did them with full enthusiasm.

I mean, at the end they had this guy who was old enough to be my father, and certainly is someone's father, go up onstage to do the AF trademark ending dance, Menuju Puncha.

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Anyways, after the songs and the dances, when all was over and done with, the AF stars lingered on stage a while more to pose for pictures, sign autographs, accept gifts and flowers and so on. Arys and I, deciding to try our luck, pushed forwards and was met with a solid. Human. Wall.

We couldn't move, couldn't budge, people were pushing and shoving from all around us. Arys was rather worried, but managed to snap a couple pictures of Adam and Zahid, albet a bit blurry cause of the constant shoving.

Meanwhile, I stood there all by my lonesome. Though I was about 3 people away from Zahid, he upped and ran off to the other side of the stage towards the fans there. You could almost see the wave of people following him, and I was carried off as well, not that I minded.

Heck, the fangirl in me just wanted a little smile in my direction, maybe a lil' wave, and I'd have been happy. But oh no... the moment I was again 3 people away from him he upped and headed back to where he just was. And the moment he did glance my way, some bastard stepped in front of me, and being a foot taller than I am, proceeded to block my view. Not to mention he was screaming Zahid's name for some strange reason.

It wasn't meant to be, especially when more people, people much much taller than my puny 5 foot self, began to cage me in to essentially hide me from anyone looking for me, much less glancing my way. Although... Kaer did glance my way and for a very brief moment the tall people parted and he caught my eye, and gave me a rather comforting/sympathetic smile.

A rather nice condolence price... though I bet he's thanking God that he's not as short as I am, at just the right height for other people's armpits.

Geez people. Ever heard of deoderant?

Ahh, but pity I didn't manage to get close to the stage. I'd have offered Zahid a look down my shirt (Yes Lil! I went to that place with my mom, tried the shirt on and let my mom look... and she said... "Ahh, it really does look good... fine fine! We'll get it!" For everyone else's reference, it's an incredibly low U neck shirt that shows a remarkable amount of cleavage. Pretty and flattering shirt!)::sniggers:: Ah well, his loss! Hahaha.

All in all, if I had the moolah, I'd definitely go and buy tickets for the next concert, a couple of days ago. It was that fun, Aznil's incredibly funny and I swear I must've broken a rib or two laughing. My sides still hurt!

God. The entire concert was worth it just to see Aznil in action.

"Hurry up and become more important to give us an easier time. Oh, and get a wife-!"
-Hughes to Roy; Full Metal Alchemist

Gawd I love Hughes.

Neways, like the subject said. I'm serious this time. I've sat down, done my budgets, done my research for the past four days, and have come up with a conclusion.

I so very badly want my own website and domain.

And upon doing my homework, I've settled on a decision on which one to get. They offer very reasonable pricings and very good features, and the questions I've emailed them are answered pretty fast. I've checked out their reviews and I haven't seen a complaint against them, and the ones that were initially against them have been explained and resolved by the site reps.

So far, looks good. So I'll be planning on exploiting my birthday next month to get dad into paying for my first three months and my domain name ^_^ and it'll only cost $50 Brunei! Then just about $12 per month for me to keep it up. AND I've the option of paying monthly, so I won't get screwed over if the host bombs, which it doesn't look like it will.

*fingers crossed*

Although... Looney's pointed out to me that I hardly ever update my sites... ::sweatdrop:: *sheepish* He does have a point there, but I'm planning on changing that. Besides... I'm pretty sure everyone knows the real reason why I make websites is to tinker around with the pretty coding... and that I *hate* adverts. Hate hate hate hate hate.

Mmm... coding...

::is a geekette at heart::

Hey you're right Whall! I do make this look easy!
- M'ck, Kybar's Teeth Magi

It's true!! I gave into my inner geek and made another one. Check out Web Nomad Kyris. And this time, the layout is entirely mine! Woohoo. All my hard work, that. Well... if you count 2 hrs playing with photoshop hard work. All the purdy people were photoshopped from the gorgeous card game Magi-nation.

Once again. Yaay.

Tact is for those not intelligent enough to use sarcasm
- Balachron, Nar Magi; Magi-Nation

Aaahhhh... ::breathes in deeply:: I've practically forgotten what it's like to breathe with an unblocked nose. Hea~~ven.

For many days and many nights have I laid down upon my bed of kinda lumpy mattress, amid growing mounds of used tissue which, in times of extreme boredom, makes for a teeny bit of entertainment trying to throw them into the trashcan sitting in the middle of the room. Well, when you're practically bedridden for a few days, you'd be bored outta your mind.

But now I am up and running! And what's the first thing I've to do, now that I'm no longer tottering on my feet looking like some strange spawn from an illicit meeting between an undercooked egg and a bed post?

"Sis. Update 666 Satan, Addicted to Curry, Black Cat, Eyeshield 21, Ichigo 100% and Yakitate for me? Thanks!"

::'s, then quietly curls up in the corner to cry::

There you have it. My existance on earth is to run around and download stuff for my bros. No, hey sis, feeling better? Great to have you walking around! No... none of that.

Nevermind, nevermind. I'll download everything so long as they keep up my bribes of coffee, KFC and McD.

So off I go, checking up on where my lil bros left off so I can continue. And just my luck. A few of them just needed a couple of chapters or so, but Black Cat... Black Cat... 100. A hundred. A hundred. Chapters. To update. And the worst part is, most of them will have to be manually d/led from mIRC because my client sulks when I don't give it personal attention.

On a side-note, muchos thankies to the people who leeched off my fserve. It's nice to know I'm helping in a tiny way. Almost half a gig of files sent out!

Back to the rambling.

Yes... over a hundred chapters of Black Cat. And from what I can see, Eyeshield 21's not going to make it any easier on me, and neither is 666 Satan. God help me, but I hope there's Bit Torrents of the files out there. It's much easier to use that rather than trying to do my manual downloads.

::Looks at her My Name is Zuoshi v01-v03, Homonculus v02-v03, Leviathan v01-v07, Cafe Kichijoji v01-v03, and about 20 anime episodes happily seeding away::

Thank god Espeed charges a flat rate... I know, I know, I'm exploiting my dsl, but hey, money's worth and all that.

In other news...

My kittens are all grown up and trying to murder passing feet! Yes, the lil devils are at that stage, although Tam and Shiks are very very much less prone to doing it compared to Wokky.

As a recap, Tam (As in... hiTAM) is our gorgeous gorgeous fluff of a furball. He's all black, save for the sides of his neck (a mane, if you will), and his chest and tummy. His legs lighten up a tad bit, then become absolutely black again at his feet. A stump of a tail, and crossed-eyes, and that's our Tam.

Shika, aka Rusty, is our little gentlekitten. Perfect manners and all, as in when you hand-feed him, he'd gently take the food into his mouth before chewing it. Not a single nibble incident. And he's just so shy ^_^ Anyway, he's the least furred of the three. A silver tabby, we suspect he'll look like a short-haired version of his mummy Naomi. Oh, and when he looks at you, he has the exact same expression as Stitch from Lilo and Stitch. Serious.

Lastly, E-wok aka Wokky. She's a splotchy one, all black and yellow. And as you can probably guess from her name, she really reminds me of an ewok. Now this kitten... is currently being 'trained' by my lil bro to be an attack cat...

::watches everyone go ::

She's the one who takes after the dad most, especially in her hyperactivity and single-minded determination to kill the toy mouse being dangled above her. Oh yes... plus she thinks shredding hands are fun. Especially the purdy red colours...

But besides that, she's taken after her mom in adoring people. She will not hesitate to run up to you, climb on your jeans to get to you, claw her way up your back just so she can purr right into your ear.

Then she shreds your hands .

Well, maybe tomorrow I can take a picture of the lil monsters and show 'em off. Good lil exercise with the digi-cam.

Till then!

Fibre makes me a happy person! No fibre makes an unhappy person!
- Lily

Heehee, sorry Lil, but you know I'm always collecting quotes from you guys!

Anyways, seriously, I'm contemplating making a new blog just for the heck of it. Prolly could use it to practise making layouts, though how I'm gonna do that without a graphics program is kinda erm... difficult? Heh.

I know, I know. Blogs have taken over my soul and are ordering me to propegate them. ::sweatdrops::

Although it would be soo neat to make an anime/manga blog. Then I could post up all those bittorrent links... and my manga list... and rant and rave about Genzou HK. Hrrmm. Awfully tempting...

Heck, I could rope Arys into co-managing it with me ::evil glint in eyes::

Actually I think it's cause I'm sick right now. Down with the flu with frequent bouts of asthma. So I'm trying to divert my attention to something else besides me feeling sorry for myself.

That said, I think I *will* make that blog. Then all my friends can look at the list and bug me to mail it to them. *thinks again* Though now it sounds like a website would be much more useful... ::thoughtful::

Many thanks to Syaf for giving me that gmail account. Emailing manga has never been so easy, though the 10mb limit is a paaaiiinn.

Now to just hunt down a copy of photoshop so I can make full use of my wacom tablet...

"So what's the queen like? I was kinda hoping she'd be hot"
- Cliff; Star Ocean 3

Argghh... my brain huuurrrtts. I have just spent the past 5++ hrs burning all sorts of anime onto cds to free up enough space on my lil bro's portable HD so I can shift my manga there. Not to mention I went on a strange organizing spree and decided to catalogue our entire collection...

Where ever did I get that brilliant idea? ::rolls eyes::

Just to give you all an impression of exactly how much anime I'm dealing with, I'll give y'all the list that I was burning.

Full Metal Alchemist 17 - 35
Tenjo Tenge 10 - 13
Naruto 94 - 101
Samurai Champloo 1 - 4
Kurau Phantom Memory 1 - 8
Ragnarok Online 1 - 8
Gakkou no Kaidan 1 - 6
Prince of Tennis 105 - 110
DearS 1 - 4
Whistle 1 - 19

So that's a total of... about 85 anime episodes. Not including the 2 gig of manga lurking in my laptop...

The 2 gigs that I'm currently transferring into my lil bro's HD... which'll take over an hr. Gaahhh. Brain hurts. Will just end post with a couple manga recommendations.

Genzou Hitogata Kiwa. Rocks. The blardy. WORLD. ::Worship:: (scanlated by Manga! Inc)
Death Note. Download now. Read now. (scanlated by Orange Tangerine)
Soul Eater. Read. Laugh. Continue laughing. Worship Shinigami-sama. (scanlated by Manga-Rain)

Anyone's interested in these manga (and more!), you can find them in irc. More specifically, irc.irchighway.net in the channels #mangainc, #manga-rain, #manga-daisuki (is anyone seeing a pattern here? :P) and #dragon-voice.

I list those channels cause I usually hang out there, and those manga are some of the few in my fserve. Not to mention the other fserves in those channels, specifically #manga-rain are just chockful of manga goodness.

If you want more information on the manga, check out Manga News. They list manga series and which group is doing its scanlations, plus if you click on the group's name, more often than not they'll provide the group's website and/or irc channel so you can download the manga off them.

Okies, tomorrow I'll attempt to do a proper post.

And I don't care about speeling!
- Lil bro when I was pointing out his typos

That's right! You people are in for another treat: Anime Reviews! Can you say... woohoo? C'mon, it's not that hard! Heh.

Yes... strangely enough, I'm going to do another review. Perhaps I should exploit my blogdrive account and create an anime review blog. And if I do that... wow. That means I'll have a total of 6 blogs in this one account. Ahhh, proof of my obsessive compulsiveness. Can it get any better than this? ::crooked grin::

---

Well, firstly I shall talk about Gakkou no Kaidan.

When I first caught sight of this anime in bit torrent, I read up on the reviews and thought, hmm. It's supposed to be a spooky anime? Takes place in a school? Sounds interesting. Pity it's aimed for the younger viewers though.

Then I thought... heck. I'll give it a go. There's nothing else to watch. So I clicked and downloaded the first 4 episodes.

Thank god I did that.

Basic Summary:

Satsuki Miyanoshita and her lil bro Keichiro moves into their mom's old hometown and enrolls in their new school. It's new, but it's also situated right next to the old school building. And according to school-lore everywhere... old school buildings are haunted.

The anime takes its lead from there. Kaya, the Miyanoshitas' cat, runs into the old school building and the siblings rush to find it. There they meet the other three 'main' characters; Hajime, the ever-present loveable 'tough' guy, Leo, the ever-present nerd, and Momoko, the ever-present beautiful girl who everyone else falls in love with.

From there, they find out ghosts are coming out from the forest situated behind the school - people are clearing the land to build a monorail of some sort and with the demolitions of statues, trees, etc, the ghosts are released from their seals and ready to wreak havoc. And of course... they've got to do something to stop this.

I love this anime. It's the very first that actually had my lil bros and I screaming, though admittedly it was from surprise and my bros are very adamant in claiming that it's only becase I screamed first that they screamed.

Okok. I lie. It wasn't from surprise. The little girl in the bathroom is downright freaky and I'm not ashamed to admit she scares the hell out of me (But then again... I've always had this irrational fear of little ghost kids...). The entire anime gets better with each episode, with the 4th one (the last amongst my downlaods) winning the award for scariest moment.

The 4th episode deals with the music room ghost. This apparition plays Fur Elise, and the victim is treated to 4 versions, with each one the tempo slows down... and after the 4th version, the victim dies.

Scariest moment award goes to the 2nd playing. I'm not saying anything else. If you're curious, go download it ::grins:: Although the 3rd play was a riot. Fear the piano! ::cackles::

Character-wise, I like 'em. The girls are not the typical anime stereotype. And by that, I mean they do use their brains! Heh... and the guys scream louder than them. It's very satisfying.

And lets not forget the cat Kaya. That cat rocks. Heck. This anime rocks.

Rating: 4.5/5
Scariest moment for me: 2nd play in 4th episode.
Scariest moment for lil bro: Ending song lyric - Hey, won't you come into my room?
Scariest moment for lilest bro: The TV in 4th episode.

---

Whistle!

Aha... another sports anime. This one deals with soccer though, and sadly, unless you're a fan of the sport, I doubt you'd enjoy it. Or maybe you will. This anime's funny like that.

This anime is a bizzare lil' concuction. I swear, the 3/4 of the cast are gay and aren't afraid to express it. The one guy who I'm sure isn't gay walks around wearing pink. Those who are hot pieces of eye-candy are very very eye-candy, and those who aren't are down-right ugly.

Ok, that's enough of my bitching about the characters. I do like this anime, why else am I downloading all 39 episodes? I just needed that vent, that's all ^_^

Like my lil bro said... "Sis, ugly people make you bitch." Well, ok. He said whine, instead of bitch, but I'm sure he meant bitch.

It's... I dunno. I'm not too sure why I like this anime. It's not out-standing in any way. The main character (Kazamatsuri Shou) makes me cringe cause I keep on comparing him to Ryoma from Prince Of Tennis, and trust me... Shou is NO Ryoma.

Hmm. Well, I'll just try explain the plot and we'll see if I can figure out why I like it from there.

It starts off with Kazamatsuri Shou transferring from the No.1 soccer school (Mitsouri no Mori) to one of the most pathetic soccer schools around (Sakura Jouki). And from there the anime follows the soccer team as they go through trying to make a proper team out of themselves.

::blinks:: That was rather short. Lemmie try extend it by giving away some spoilers.

In the few beginning episodes, Mizuno, the most talented player on the team, challenges the team captain to a match of substitudes vs the regular players, with the captainship on the line. Mizuno obviously is not happy with the way the captain has been running the team, but as the captain said... as long as they're in the same district as Mitsouri no Mori... why bother better themselves? They'll just get beaten in the end.

So after that obstacle has been dealt with, the team now faces new problems. With the resignation of the old captain most of the members followed suit and resigned as well, to show their alliance to the old captain. However, with the new player Shou in the team, he manages to get some of the old players back and the team finds themselves under harsher training regimes under the leadership of Mizuno.

Now they just have to go out there and win some games...

Hmm. Ok, that's slightly better ^_^

Ok... the anime has its funny moments and they really are funny. Like when Fuwa (Think Inui, Kaidoh and Ryoma condensed into one bishonen package, and given Heero Yuy's appearance. Mada mada dane~ ::Squeals to self::) attempts to apologize to Noro. But some bits are just so randomly weird...

Ok, seriously? I can't seem to review this anime. Go watch it to figure out if you like it.

Rating: 3.5/5
Random observation: Shou has maternal instincts goddamnit.
Random warning: Watch out for the nekkid Greek.
Inside running joke: Mada mada dane! MADA MADA DANE DAMN YOU!!!

And I drove for miles and miles and miles~
- She will be loved; Maroon 5

Whee! Quizzes!

What villian are you? You're That Tub of Kool Aid! You're scary as hell. YOU HAVE NO ORGANS!!!! Go away.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

I have no organs! I must have sold them by the millimeter... just like Onizuka!

Mwahaa. Okok, basically, that quiz made me think of GTO; Great Teacher Onizuka. Yoroshiku! ::sniggers::

Now, why have I started watching GTO? Or rather, why have I actually watched the entire anime episodes? Among my friends, GTO is the classic pervy anime. Complete with panty shots, high school girls, a focus on feminine assets... why why why did I watch it?!

Well, for one... mini Tezuka ^_^ Hehe. Or as he is known in the anime, Kikuichi, which makes me think of kuachi (sunflower seeds). It's sad when a character you like, you refer to him as a very messy snack. He's my type of character though; brainy, smarmy, and strangely enough he wasn't placed in the 'untouchable' regions when it comes to the anime's humour. Like when he freaks out when Onizuka asks him if the pervy pictures are ready. Heehee!

But... anyways. Surprisingly this anime has a rather solid storyline and concept, with nice all-round characterizations of each cast member. Onizuka, gang-leader turned teacher because (and this is rather vague cause I skipped the first couple episodes) he wants to find a high-school girl friend. He's rough, rude, very crass (What is with him and digging his nose? ::sweatdrops::) and he does things his own way. That includes his methods of dealing with problem students, which ends up pretty efficient. Watch the anime to know what I mean. And Lily, I will have you watching this anime before you fly off!

Music, animation... again it's top-notch. I'd say though that the heavily exaggerated expressions of the characters are a mite bit disturbing (You know... when they end up looking ugly ^_^)... but only because I'm too used to the lead men being bishonen. It suits the scenes very well though, and quite a pleasant change. The soundtrack though is excellent. Beginning and ending songs; all are included in my music list now, and my personal favourite is Hitori no Yoru. It shall be included in my listening-while-driving cd. Yes it shall!


Yay, mini-Tezuka!