Saturday, January 28, 2006

CNY eve

All busy. The entire house is in a madhouse. All of us cleaning eveything.

Don't think I can blog the next few days, so for all BL people, and all my friends;

Happy Chinese new year!

新年快乐,年年有余!!!

For visiting details, log on to your MSN and find me.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Toyota Corola going at 773KM/H!

From Jeff ooi. But it was so amazing I couldn't help putting this up. Its old news, dating back to 2001, but it got as far as CNN!

Heres the original from the star article. Its no longer avalible an the website, but I managed to find it after using a couple of time capsules:


Thursday, April 26, 2001

Motorist booked for doing 773kph

PORT DICKSON: A 59-year-old resort caretaker here has been booked for travelling at 773kph.

New Ching Shit said he received a summons on April 4 for driving at 773kph along the 12th kilometre of Jalan Pantai here on Nov 30 last year.

"I drive along the stretch daily because my house is just down the road,'' he said at a press conference organised by Negri Sembilan DAP committee member John Fernandez yesterday.

"But it is ridiculous to say that I drove at such a breakneck speed,'' he said, adding that the speed limit along Jalan Pantai was 60kph.

New, who drives an 18-year-old Toyota Corolla GL, said he was stumped when he was slapped with the summons because the car speedometer only goes up to 160kph.

"How can the traffic police here make such a blatant mistake? I am even more amazed when a police officer insisted that there was no mistake,'' he said.

New said he had sought legal assistance to take the matter to court.

On the lighter side, New said his friends now called him the world number one F1 driver, saying he was better than Michael Schumacher.


And heres the CNN article:



This is ultimate crazy! Since when can a car, much less a Corola go more than half the speed of sound?! Even F1 drivers go around 350 KM/h, and the Bugatti has a top speed of 400Km/h! At 773km/h, thats faster than some propeller planes!

I don't trust those speed cameras our police use........

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

华语 and XP

I've realised that most computers, in Malaysia at least, by default cannot display and input non-ascii languages like Chinese. Which is sad considering there are tons of good stuff in chinese on the web, this blog included. :p

This guide is meant to teach people how to enable chinese support in their Windows Xp machines. Note that this only applies to XP ONLY! Windows 98, ME etc do not have builtin chinese support by default, unless you buy a *ahem* copy of Windows sold in Mainland china or Taiwan. Those sold in those monolingual socites have their GUI in Chinese.

This guide will turn this
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into this!
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So let the guide begin!

You will need:
  1. A Windows XP CD
  2. Time
  3. Able to read chinese
  4. ninghua.blogspot.com

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Step 1: Open the control panel. Select "Regional and Language options"





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You should see this. Click on the "Languages" tab, like the one with the bright red arrow!


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This is what the "Languages" tab looks like.


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Check the box saying "install files for east asian languages". After you check the box another box will come up like in the screen shot. Click ok.


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Click oaky to apply the settings. You might be asked for your Windows XP installation CD. So have it handy!!

Thats it! You should be able to see not only chinese words, but Japanese and Korean too! Not sure if its a good idea through. The whole thing is 230MB, and all we need is the chinese support!

Have fun!

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

I'm saved! (For now) as a tsubasa fan.

I have to say something: I love Tsubasa. To bits. Seriously.

So it was a death sentance for many tsubasa fans when fan subbing groups started to drop tsubasa from their projects. To this day, I still can't understand why Funimation chose tsubasa of all anime. But dats another story.

At the begining of this month, NHK broadcasted a 1 and half hour tsubasa chronicle special. With tsubasa licenced, fansub groups were probally wary doing tsubasa all over again.

So the special NHK aired was not picked up by any fansub group. I got the raw, but it's not much point when you can't understand a word there saying. Really. Who ever sang they wanted their girlfriends raw obvously never tried watching anime raw!

Until......



It was picked up by a Chinese fansub group! Complete with Chinese subtitles! (duh!) I'm saved!


Complete with special logo of the chinese fansub group! Click image to see a bigger picture. Don't forget to visit them!

Anyway, after watching it I was convinced that no sane minded English fansub group will do the special. It's not much. The 90 minutes is essentially "jamming in" the first 13 eps into 80 minutes. If you're a true tsubasa fan, you would have seen the 80 minutes, so its just repitation. The real meat is in the other 10 minutes.


Starting off. A scene from the first few minutes of the show.



Heck, they even translated the opening song!



It starts off with the presenter introducing her self, and introducing the voice actors of Syaoran and Sakura. They have a bit of small talk, and the show starts! No much of a start eh?

The "jamming in" session stops around the 40 minute mark, where the voice actors(VA) start talking. Its alot, so I wouldn't go into specifics. Basically, its just the VA's comments on voice acting. No an easy job mind you.

Then the "jamming" session continues, and finally it finishes and we go back to the real action, where the voice actors talk about the voice acting, and how it affected them. Very interesting, and a rare insight into the world of voice acting, especially with CLAMP works.

So let me introduce the cast:

This is 松本彩乃. But most english speakers know her as Matsumoto Ayano. Born on 04/02/1988. 1.54 m tall according to sources I know. She was the host for the special. Very cheery girl. She knows how to run a show like this!




This is 入野自由. Also known as Miyu Irino. Born on 19/02/1988 if my sources are right. No word of his height through. Not that handsome :P. But he loves his role as Syaoran. I would too if I was Syaorans VA.




This is 牧野由依 @ Makino Yui. Born 19/1/1986 (gosh, almost as old as me!). Quite beautiful. Anyone know her number? Doesn't look, or act for that matter like Sakura-hime. In the show she said she wouldn' mind doing Mokona. Yep, that white pork bun, as Kurogane would say. Can't imagine her doing Mokona through.

The most defining moment of tsubasa chronicle:first season? Even Makino Yui agrees with me:






Its the part where Sakura wakes up, and asks "Who are you?" to Syaoran! THAT is the most defining moment of tsubasa:first season. Makino Yui, in the second shot is saying "who... are you?" made her feel sad and sorry for Syaoran when she said it!

Here is it, in its full original glory!




"Who...are you?"

If you' re a die hard tsubasa fan, and you can read chinese, this is a must see. You just sieve through the "jamming" parts and get on with the meat. Its worth it.

For those who can't read chinese, look at randomc's ultra short review. And I don't agree with him/her/it saying "these seiyuu need to take better care of their teeth" I've seen worst teeth.

Monday, January 23, 2006

Malaysians can't park

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I know this is a HUGE picture, but bear with it.

This was taken in Melaka from where I stayed. Opposite is Mahkota Parade.

Told u M`sians Can't park properly. That car owner had just denied another car a parking space.1 car BLOCKING 2 parking spaces.

It can't get any worst.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Wow!


Which is real, and which is the copy, I dont know. But its sooooo realistic!

My common sense tells me that the drawn one is based on the real person. Seriously, there is no one on this earth than can be so similar to a drawing!

I'm loving it..............

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

The front page of wiki

While browsing through the worlds free encyclopaedia, wikipedia, I saw this on its front page:

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Yes, our much controversial Article 153 is on the front page of the wikipedia! And it is the featured article of the day! I don't know whether to hide my face or cry im embarassment.


Click to enlarge. The full page


Personally, giving special treatment, be it any group of people, race, religon, IS A BAD IDEA. It makes the group of people relient on hand outs. On the government. On a central power. on a certain body.

Humans evolve because there are no special treatment. They adapt. personally, I find this bumiputra thing crap. So what if you've been on this soil for so long? 在中国, 我们华人有两千年的历史。Yet the commine gov treats 我们华人如狗,如猪一样!Yet, the mainland chinese don't demand special "土族" rights.


Proof? Look at the tons of China girls heading our way. Even squatgate could'nt make them stay away. Just take any flight from Xiamen/Guanzhou to KL. 9 out of 10 times there are tons of china girls on the flight. We all know what there are hear for.

It's the same. We chinese are here coz our ancestors from mainland china were fleeing the war, starvation in china. So they moved south. 60 years later, mainland chinese still come here, down south, retracing the footsteps of our ancestors. "The Chinese people have stood up"? I don't think so! There still fleeing the "Motherland"!

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Want a laugh?

More top gear. I`m hooked on it. Its amazing how the three of them can make a car show so interesting and funny. Espically the funny part. Any one, even with no interest of cars, can't help laughing at the show. Its not a bad/lousy show. Quite the opposite. Look at my previous post.

Anyway, I`ve been doing some research in my absence, so here is some thing to chew on.

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Exibit no1: Jeremy Clarkson. he was born on 11 April 1960. Which makes him 46+ this year. Hmmm, just in time for mid life crisis. He had fun driving the Bugatti Veyron to keep his mid-life blues away.

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Exibit no2: James May. The more sensible guy, but is a little nutty. He's 42 yrs old. I`ll let you guys do the math.

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Exibit no3:Richard Hammond. The young one. He's 36 years old. And the sometimes nuttier one. Oh, and his teeth are white.

Anyway, i`m here to persent a clip. Its Top Gear meets christmas. The cast have fun with "christmas persents, that there not interested in"

For instance, the 4 mins+ clip will tell you;
  1. Why not to get Jeremy Clarkson a tie for christmas
  2. Why you shouldn't trust a 15 quid reverse sensor
  3. What you shouldn't buy for a guy who has a diesel car
  4. What if there were no cars.
  5. Cows or cars?
The clip is here. Its just 3.6MB. I`ve seen mp3 files bigger than that. So 56K modems are not an excuse to download it!

Feel free to spread the cheer around, but give me credit. It wasnt easy making it!

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Anybody want to go to the Hoilet?

First and foremost: blogger is ultra slow!!!!!! Either its just me, my connection, or blogger CANNOT keep up with its users. I dont know about you guys, but blogger is 100% owned by google, and google has US$800 mil in the bank. Surely it can pay extra for more bandwith?

Anyway, heres the meat of this post:



I think people wanting to go to the loo will kinda get a hint from the male/female picture on the left, but I have no idea who is dumb enough to buy this sign.

Things that happen in china shops. I saw this when I was in one of these china shops, where they sell things relatively cheap, and 80% of the things I buy there dont last for more than a year. Kuching is littered with them! Oh, and some of them are hang outs for those china dolls.

Anyway, this sign is RM3. Give me RM2.20, and I can make a better sign, in English, BM and 华语!Who's dumb enough to buy this sign? Who needs these mainland chinese?!

Mainland china is anything but english. They seem to be very happy trudging in 华语. I wonder how are they going to cope with the 2008? You cant teach english in 1.5 years!

Monday, January 09, 2006

How to use this site

Seriously. Since this blogging thing is relatively new here, I`m going to write how to use this site.

The main navigation is on the left of this page. So please turn your head to the left.

"About this site" is fairly self explanitory. Its just a 'normal' description of this site.
Ever wondered why this site is called ninghua? Click on "why ninghua"!
Wanna contact me.? Just click my contact. Oh, and sorry for the inconvinence. Its to try and stop the spam flood.

Auckland view basicly is a list of posts of downtown Auckand. Warning: not for those below 256K dload speeds! Its filled with images!

"BL blogs". Essentially, blogs by the class of 5C-2005 SML BL. Wanna to be added? Contact me.

"Blogging legends". I`ll leave it to your guys to find out who they are......

"The world out there". Translation: Links Thats all it is.

Now below the world out there, is a nice white area. Nope, its not a canvas. Its a shoutbox!

A shoutbox is essentially a place for all of u guys to shout out what you guys think of this site, me or anyting. Be warned, its public, and if you get disconnected and end up with a different IP, its impossible to erase what u just shouted out.

Other than that, have fun with the shout box!

This concludes "The Guide to Navigating ninghua.blogspot.com" Thank you for tuning in.

Updated on 3/3/06.

Friday, January 06, 2006

Damn Imageshack!

This iage was taken a few minutes ago. From Imageshack.




I use imageshack to host pictures that
  1. Blogger cant handle
  2. Blogger wouldn`t handle
  3. to share pics wif other people
  4. as a backup to more crucial images
But after looking at the down time recently, I`m having my doubts over reason 4. I know imageshack is a free service, I know I`m not paying a cent for it, And I willingly use thumbnails for my bigger images.

On paper(or is it electrons) Imageshack is nice. Unlimited storage, each image is given 100MB bandwith PER HOUR! Wow.

But with the down time recently, and they seem to have something wrong with their SQL data base from the above error message, I`m not so sure the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

I know of a VERY good imaging host. No file size limits, no space limits, no number of pics limit, NO Bandwith limits. Heck, the more pics, the better!

The drawback? Well, your pics are subject to censorship by the chinese commine gov, your account can be closed anytime, and if you outside china, your account is ultra SLOW!
But If you`re inside china, its VERY fast, espically if u have broadband.

The site? 163.com

Oh, and by the way, u need to be able to read 华语。

Anyone know of better image hosts?

Wednesday, January 04, 2006



Spot the difference. Seriously.

This is the DVD cover of tsubasa chronicle released in Japan. The DVD cover image came from a china website, thus the watermark.

After a few minutes of photoshop, valla! No watermark!

Kurogane`s cloak is easy: the whole thing is black. Just using the clone stamp tool with the proper base will do the trick. The other DVD covers are a bit more complex. More different colours.

I`m having fun......

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Crazy world of 2005

From Reuters. Told you the world was mad.

Dogs went woof over a Brazilian puppy love motel, an Australian trained mice to surf the waves and an Indian village married off toads in bid for rain.

In the world of the weird and wacky, the animal kingdom was the big winner in 2005.

It handsomely defeated incompetent thieves and misplaced corpses to take the prize for the year's most bizarre headlines.

A love motel for dogs in Sao Paulo proved a big hit with amorous Brazilian pooches, offering a heart-shaped mirror on the ceiling and headboards resembling doggy bones.

Shane Willmott trained his three mice -- Harry, Chopsticks and Bunsen -- to enjoy Australia's favorite sport with special mouse-size surf boards. He even dyed their fur so he could spot them among the crashing white waves.

Two giant toads were married in a traditional Hindu ceremony in eastern India by villagers hoping to please the rain gods and end a dry spell.

Peruvian officials saved 4,000 frogs from the cocktail blender after they were found hidden in an abattoir. In the Andes, frog cocktails are popular because of their supposed aphrodisiac qualities.

Finnish wolves with a taste for domestic dogs were given a nasty shock -- Helsinki shops started selling wired dog coats which sent 1,000 volts of electricity through the outer layer.

And in Germany, a woman burned down her family home by setting fire to the garage when trying to kill spiders with a can of hairspray and a cigarette lighter.

SAGA OF THE YEAR

The award for the most bizarre animal saga of the year was a close fought contest between Russia, China and Germany.

Stone the cows ... Russia's long winter is just flying by for a herd of cows being fed confiscated marijuana.

Drug workers said they adopted the unusual form of animal husbandry after being forced to destroy sunflower and maize crops that 40 tonnes of marijuana had been planted among.

In China, it was a case of crouching tiger, hidden donkey.

A restaurant in northeast China was caught serving donkey meat spiked with tiger urine in pricey dishes advertised as endangered Siberian tigers.

A German inventor sparked the fury of animal lovers with his macabre solution for soaring fuel costs.

Christian Koch concocted an organic diesel fuel that contained garbage and run-over cats among its ingredients.

He said around 20 dead cats added into the mix could help produce enough fuel to fill up a 50-liter (11 gallon) tank.

THICK AS THIEVES

Bungling thieves hit the headlines in 2005.

A South African mugger was mauled to death by tigers after he fled the scene of his crime and took refuge in a Bloemfontein zoo.

Australian police responding to a break-in at a furniture store were surprised to discover the suspected culprit asleep at the scene and snoring loudly.

Across the globe, the dead were not always allowed to rest in peace.

A Frenchman in his sixties lived for five years with the body of his dead mother so he could keep receiving her monthly pension.

A Mexican motorcyclist with a helmet-wearing corpse strapped to his back crashed in the northern city of Tijuana when he lost control rounding a curve.

Police believe the killer, who fled the scene, had been trying to take the body somewhere deserted so he could dispose of it.

And back in Australia, city officials faced the ultimate embarrassment -- they apologized to the family of an elderly man given a parking ticket while he lay dead in his car in a suburban shopping center.


Ninghua:Just one question: WTH was that old man doing in the car parked in a suburban shopping center?

HAPPY 2006!

Happy 2006 people!

Fireworks are exploding left, right and center rite now! None in my house thankfully.

Site note: I`ve realised that the calendar tumbnails in my previous two posts have some trouble loading. Try refreshing them. The links are not broken. Imageshack seems to have some problem.