6 people better than Hirano Aya

Ian has ambitious plans. Unlike most of us, who just want to graduate and get a job, Ian aims much higher. He, with SAMS, is trying to get Hirano Aya, Gotou Yuuko and Chihara Minori for I've Anime 2008. While the probability of me winning Powerball is higher than the 3 of them coming close to Kuching, netherless, it had me screaming:

OF ALL THE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD, AND IT HAD TO BE THEM!"

Thus, I have knocked drawn up a list of people which would probably be better than those 3. But by no means is this list exhaustive.




1)Horie Yui
This should meet little resistance. Hocchan is widely regarded as one of the most influential and best seiyuu's in this modern age. And lets face it, she is really one of the most prolific seiyuu around. Just look at her CV. Seriously, if no one else but her turns up, I'd charter a flight back home.

Taken by me

2)Ogura Yuko
If I met her in person, and without sounding morbid, I'd die a happy man. And I can think of many other ways to die. Yuko-rin is legendary among moe circles. She is one of the few girls in this world who don't try to look more mature, and how many girls look good in a seifuku when they're 25? And, she did the first ED song of School Rumble!





3)Koge-Donbo
Mangaka aren't the most public people in this world, but if SAMS does bring her here (keeping in mind she has been to the US of A twice), I'll spend every minute thanking her for Pita Ten. It is the only manga that has made me cry.

(Through I probably might like to learn how to speak 日本语 first.)





4)CLAMP
Lets face it, CLAMP is undoubtedly the best group that has ever come out of the history of humankind. However, they are notoriously public shy. So if anyone manages to get them to Kuching, they should be awarded the Nobel peace prize.





5)Kobayashi Jin
Okay, so he has been to Taiwan and Hawaii, and he's camera shy. But if I even get to have a picture with him, I think my life would be complete. I mean, how wrong can you go with a guru guru maru love comedy?! And without him, where would I be without my School Rumble quotes and Harima vision?

Shes the one on the right (duh)

6)Inoue Mao
Okay, I admit, she's not in the anime industry (thank the heavens!), but she is not doubt the most eligible Japanese actress IMO. And she's my age too, if only to prove that I'm getting old. Shes too good for me, way out of me league, but lets face it, Mao-sama did well in Hana Yori Dango. She is one of the few girls that look better as they grow up. No, she deserves better than me!













So, I have put forward 6 people than those 3. That said however, if Ian even really managed to get one out of the 3 to come here, I'm flying back home, if only to witness history in the making.

I've Anime 08 anyone?

Someone tell me what is going on

Context and source here.

Love calculator

I know we're all in the thick of assignments (damn Software Engineering), but here's some light relief and a way to pass time.

A few months back, I created a program which takes in 2 names and spits out a number for my programming/algorithm study. It's not the most interesting thing on earth, but it cost me a fair bit of my life doing it. Once I got to the part on input/output in programming, I decided to change the code a bit to allow end user input. Reading a manual (yes, its a manual, not a textbook. Go figure), I finally learnt how to make an executable!

Slight background here: I'm learning a language called Scheme, which is a dialect of LISP (yes, even programming languages have dialects!) for my first year programming. Unlike most places, we don't use "normal" languages like C, Java etc. Scheme was developed at MIT, and they still use it as their introductory programming subject. There are pro's and con's to using such a "interesting" subject, which is a whole topic in itself.

Anyway, I've knocked up a program that takes in 2 names, and calculates the "love-compatablity" between the 2 of them. My algorithm, if anyone is interested, is as such:

If the number of occurrences of the character is odd, the value is 50 plus the ascii value of the character (hint: use the predefined scheme procedure char->integer
to get the ascii value of a character). If the number of occurrences is even, the value is the ascii value of the character. If there are no occurrences of the character, then the value is zero

I suppose it should be a good idea to add a disclaimer now: this is purely random. It is no more accurate than those SMS love calculators you see online and anywhere else. In a way, this is the more "high-tech" version of the "love" game some of us might have played in Secondary school. Y'know, taking the names of two people and see how compatible they are by the number of letters they share................

The program isn't the most user friendly one out there, but it is not supposed to. We learn how to create programs, not MAKE programs. Subtle but important differences there. Some people get confused with the "input first name" prompt. It doesn't mean YOUR first name (like mine is Timothy). It just means input name n0 1. If that makes sense.

After I passed finished it and did all the documentation, I decided to put in a few names, just to see what I'd get:


Oudou faction 4 ever!


Nooooooooooooooooooooooo! This can't be happening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Surprisingly, it can be accurate.


Damn true.


I swear, this is random! I did not rig the results in anyway!


Repeat after me: T-H-I-S I-S R-A-N-D-O-M.


It isn't as daft as it sounds.


But SQ doesn't want my money!


Never has a program by a 1st year student been so accurate.



I love MH. And SQ. And NZ. And QF. And........................

And some more:


LEGAL DISCLAIMER: BY CLICKING ON THE DOWNLOAD LINK, YOU AGREE TO THIS TERMS AND CONDITIONS. I, TIMOTHY, WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS IN THE USAGE OF THIS PROGRAM. THIS INCLUDES, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, RELATIONSHIP BREAKUPS, DIVORCE, BANKRUPTCY AND HEARTBREAK. PLEASE DO NOT MAKE ANY DECISIONS WHATSOEVER BASED ON THIS PROGRAM. THIS IS PURELY FOR FUN AND HAS NO SCIENTIFIC BASIS WHATSOEVER.

Anyway, the program is downloadable here. Its a 3.3 MB zip file. You have to extract all the files properly in order to run love-match-test.exe. Make sure that all the DLL's are in the /lib subfolder. Easiest way is to use WinZip to extract the files. Hosting thanks to Ian.

Have fun!

University unions

Yes, the food you see was given to me for free

I suppose one of the perks of studying in the southern hemisphere is that university unions actually do something. While I know they're not as radical as some American universities or as entrenched as British ones, it is a breather from the usual passive, apathetic, toothless and useless Malaysian (and Singaporean, I might add since I'm here) unions.

I have no idea what is inside this packet. There is no name, nothing.

While I know LKY doesn't like unions, and it is not in the interest of UMNO-putera's to have a independent university union, the fact is, someone has to keep the university in check. They don't have to be radical, laying siege to the buildings and burning tyres.

QUT had their university union elections not too long ago. Yes, we ELECT our unions. Tp quote them, it:

"is controlled by students for students and operates the representation, advocacy and welfare services at QUT as well as many commercial services on campus."

The QUT student union is linked with the National Union of Students (NUS). While I admit I'm still not 100% sure and knowledgeable about the whole student union thing, netherless, I have to say I'm interested.

Unlike most Asians I observed, I did go out to vote. They do take campus elections seriously here: the AEC was on the ground during polling day. While campus politics aren't that interesting, it was interesting to see the campaigns of the individual parties, such as Voice, Socialist Alternative, Action, the Greens and Make Howard History. Yes, a party called Make Howard History.

At this point it might be a good idea for me to state that I have no political affliation with ANY political party anywhere on earth. Besides, I can't vote in the upcoming general election anyway, so what happens makes little difference to me international student. The only thing that'd perk my interest is if they restore free university education. But I can assure that's not on the cards from either political party. Through I have to admit the party ad's on TV (and now on youtube!) are interesting.

Who on earth licks a can?!

Anyway, Action won the vote, and they have made some changes to the union run stuff. Some things are obvous like an overhaul of the QUT student guild website:

The old one


The new one

(side note: While the new one looks heaps nicer, I'm not a big fan of flash.)

Some a bit more on the ground:

Like putting up stats


On the state of Australian education


Student work rights


The cost of education



1996 was when Howard was elected. Go figure.





Enrol to vote!

By the way, this is what the Malaysian student union did for Merdeka.

I just wonder, what do university unions do actually?

The greatest understatement of all time

Guess how The Star decribes Kurogane?



Full context here.

And you thought I was brash

0_o

I swear, it's not what you think! Seriously!


The Chinese version makes it sound even better.

AirAsia took out full page ad's in the Courier Mail

They are coming, no doubt about that.