After a long time of putting up with the spam on my old tag board, we finally got a new one. Hence, we can now post actual messages on it. (WOW :o!!!)

Anyway, there's lots of other things to post. Mai-OTOME Zwei episode 2 was released just recently, and I downloaded the unsubbed version. It was awesome. The subbed version was released a few days after that, but I'm putting off downloading that for now because I have other priorities (man, it's like 400 MB for a 26 minute video...). This particular episode focuses on one of my favorite characters of all time (in both Mai-HiME and Mai OTOME), Haruka!

Also I'm watching Kanon, which is an on-going series now in Japan (if I'm not mistaken... it should still be airing). It's a remake of the popular game, and the OVA that came out in 2002, all of which have the same name. So far, the story is awesome. The biggest high light is the main character, Yuuichi Aizawa, in his new [apparently better than his old 2002] portrayal. He's so funny, and his attitude towards everything is interesting. Yeah that includes both good and bad situations. Ayu Tsukimiya is currently my favorite female character, even though at first I absolutely hated her.

Also, I've been reading a lot of Cromartie High School (the manga) recently. From the first time I heard of this (and the anime) I knew I was gonna love it. It is completely random, senseless, and the kind of waste of time that's actually fun all throughout.

And because of that, I downloaded RAN Online, which is a school-based MMORPG. I'd already wanted to download this before, but it didn't get good reviews. Actually I can see why. Even though it's school-based, they couldn't make it just a school-fight kind of game. They had to include mages and archers. But I'm not really complaining about that. The game is almost purely hack and slash though, with some focus on PVP, as territories are fought over, just like actual school gang fights (yay). I'm trying to limit how much I play this, though, because I don't want to be addicted. But it's pretty fun.

I've just finished writing chapter 1 of what is to be my manga, featuring Sae. The title of the story is still undecided, but I'm actually leaning towards the simple title "Sae", since the story really is about her. Yeah, it's not even about her school life. It's just about her. Anyway I'll start working on my frame sketches tonight, and I'll work on them tomorrow and during my free time on the weekend.

Lastly, I'm going to a men's leadership retreat in Caliraya on Friday. I'll be gone until Sunday night. I miss Caliraya, so it'll be awesome.

Monato Esprit, the latest MMORPG I wanted to try, ended up not working on my PC. I'm getting a device failure error, that is supposedly only fixed by having the latest compatible drivers, which I do have. But this is where computers can fail you: even if by all logic, things should work, sometimes they just don't.

That being said, I suddenly realized that my PC is over 5 years old! The earliest file I see listed here is from January 16, 2002, with several files listed within days after that. We bought this PC when our old PC broke due to age (the previous PC was 3 years old).

This PC has certainly proven itself, and I'm happy that it still works fine, and is still within the minimum requirements of most games these days despite its age.

To celebrate this PC's loyalty, I'll post its original hardware specs when we had it assembled, and its current specs. Take note that at the time we bought this, this was one of the most powerful machines without being unreasonably expensive.

Original:
Genuine Intel Pentium IV 1.6 GHz Processor
8 MB Video Card with AGP (I forget the brand and make, but it was only 8 MB)
128 MB SDRAM + 64 MB SDRAM (from the old PC)
17" CRT Monitor
SiS 7012 Sound Card
20GB (18.6) GB SeaGate ST320410A Hard Drive
MicroSoft Windows ME

Modified:
64 MB GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X (I was being cheap when I bought this; GeForce6 was already available at the time)
512 MB DDRAM
40 GB ExelStor J240 Hard Drive + 20 GB SeaGate ST320410A (the old one)
MicroSoft Windows XP

I didn't list the stuff that I haven't changed, like the monitor and sound card. I only switched to Windows XP just a little over a year ago, even if my sister's PC already had it long before then, mostly because I was afraid that my 196 MB RAM at the time may not be enough to properly run Windows XP, especially because I'm from a time when Windows XP was considered the unstable, experimental Operating System.

Anyway, cheers to a good old machine! I'm hoping to buy a new one soon-ish, like when I get a job, but I won't scrap this one. This is pretty much a legacy machine. :D

My new sketch of Sae and Kaori together. I used Photoshop to color, as usual. The poster effect is done manually instead of using the poster filter. I did it by double-scanning the same image, accidentally actually, because I was trying to correct an error I made in the first scan. The outcome was surprisingly nice.

The art style is designed to look like those non-mainstream Japanese artworks, like those used in fashion magazines instead of regular anime/manga style. I copied both faces from different real life models, but translated them so it doesn't come out too realistic.

Sketching didn't take too long; but coloring took about 6 hours.

Bleh. I could've done better, but I was getting excited and rushed it. Still, it came out pretty nice. I used Photoshop to try to emulate colored pencils. But that was just to test if I could do something like that. I might make a better colored version of the same drawing in the future.

Penciled in sketchpad, scanned and colored in Photoshop. :D Click to enlarge. Hope you like it.

Sae: My, it's so windy today, I think I'll just stand here with my partly unbuttoned shirt.

Posted on DeviantArt as well.

Well Scions of Fate was fun, but I was disappointed in a few things. First of all, there were a lot of botters when I was playing. It's funny because they were botting in newbie grounds... I think after a while you don't get any exp from them at all. The second thing that disappointed me was the constant server-side lag, which causes you to lose arrows if you're an archer (you fire more shots than necessary to kill your target, because you still go through the attack animation even if your target is already dead), among other annoying things (like slowly chasing after a frog that's hopping away because the latency is just too much). And finally, all pets, which seem to be essential in making a good character because of all the awesome benefits, can only be bought from the premium shop, and they're expensive (US$10 for the rat or the hawk, which are typically weak).

That being said, I decided to quit the game, despite its good points, and free up some hard disk space on my machine. And I need the space, because I'm downloading a new game to try out, which is called Monato Esprit. :D The game looks really nice, and has just entered v.2, with an apparent character wipe of all pre-v.2 characters, to make way for the new classes they introduced.

The overall look of the game seems pretty nice, and they have some features that aren't explained in detail on the website. One such feature is the "Fate" system, where from what limited information I gather is something like finding your soul mate, or fated character, which is supposed to be another player on the game. They also feature private "instant" dungeons, for when there's too many people running around and KSing from you on your favorite leveling ground.

Anyway, the installer is over 540 MB, which should only take a few hours on my connection, but I'll save that for when I go to sleep.

Artwork update! I joined DeviantArt. Check out my profile once in a while! I'd made a new sketch but I have to ask Abby how to clean it up efficiently in Photoshop, because our scanner picked up pretty much every little detail. D:

(At the time of typing this, DeviantArt was going through "maintenance", and I couldn't upload or update anything on my profile, but the 4-koma has already been uploaded there.)

Well yeah I'm a day late, but I finally finished my first 4koma (4-panel strip) featuring two characters from the story I'm going to write. The image is below. Take note that it is read from right to left, because I originally wanted to write it in Japanese, but opted for English for the time being, and I don't want to flip the image. Just click to see the full-sized image. :D

For a short background on the characters: Sae Kobayashi (小林さえ) and Kaori Sanada (真田香吏) both poor girls that are in a fictitious exclusive school for girls on scholarship. They used to be rivals for the top student grades when they were younger, but Sae grew to hate school (more explained in the story) and decided to lay low on her studies, doing only well enough not to flunk any subjects.

I'll write more 4koma and maybe even short chapters that aren't necessarily part of the story, as teasers. I hope to get some love for these characters before the story comes out. Later, I'll work on sketch art featuring Sae and Kaori individually.

In unrelated news, I found some mp3s of the opening and ending themes of the old anime Akihabara Dennou Gumi (Cyber Team in Akihabara). Man that's nostalgic. What's funny is that, it turns out, the last time I watched this anime was 7 years ago, but when I hear the songs, it's as if I'm still in that time.

To remind myself, and educate other people, I originally got the idea for the name Hanakoganei (for my pen name, 花小金井たくや or Hanakoganei Takuya) from that Akihabara Dennou Gumi anime. There is a character there named Hanakoganei Hibari (花小金井ひばり), who is, in fact, the lead. The name amused me, because it was an unusual 7-character name, which is why I forced the Takuya part of my pen name to be written in hiragana, just like Hibari's name. Upon minimal research, I found that Hanakoganei is an old name, but isn't really used anymore. It's the name of a train station now in Tokyo. So it's interesting to use as a pen name.

I haven't been an otaku or even what you might call an "anime person" in years (the only anime these days that I'm really geeky for are Ghost in the Shell and Samurai Champloo; even the popular anime these days, such as Haruhi, etc., I don't really fall for so easily). But there are some things that stuck with me all this time, and it's the memories that came with the times when I was watching anime.

For example, I'm listening to music from Saber Marionette J (Megumi Hayashibara - Successful Mission). I was watching this anime in 1999 (like I said in previous posts, it was the first anime I ever recognized as "anime", being different in essence from regular "cartoons"). I remember what it was like in 1999, particularly how much I loved this anime. I would rush home no matter what because I got out of school at like 2:40 PM, and the anime was on 3:00 PM. I think it's the only show of any sort that I actually did that for. Anyway I also remember the scenes of our old house then. Ah memories...

I've been getting a lot of old anime songs for nostalgic purposes. Turns out, the ones I remember the most are the ones that are really worth listening to. For example, this song from Escaflowne (Hiroki Wada - Mystic Eyes). I didn't like the Escaflowne anime as much as I liked this song. It's also fun to sing.

Anyway I'll bask more in my anime music nostalgia.

Okay lol. I scheduled the completion for my 4-koma (four-panel comic strip) for February 7th, but obviously I haven't finished yet. Actually the original plot I had figured out wasn't as funny as I thought it would be, so I had to rewrite. Also, since I don't have previous experience with writing 4-koma, it's kinda hard to make something clever in only 4 frames. D: Anyway, I'm hoping to get this out anytime before Valentine's Day. ~_~ I already have a new plot figured out, and it's not LOL funny, but it's kinda cute funny, so I'm okay with that.

Another reason is that I've been busy working with our youth ministry much of the week, so I haven't been at home enough to do any drawing.

Other news, I formally quit playing Ragnarok Online again. I felt the game was eating way to much of my time, because PVP was just way too fun. It was also eating a huge amount of hard disk space (it's like 2.5 GB...). I uninstalled it and deleted the the installers, to help me keep my resolve on quitting.

Other other news, Gendou.com now has an anime section. I'd only recently heard of the site from Mikko, who pointed it to me for getting anime mp3s. The anime section isn't huge yet, but it's useful to know they have some stuff already in it.

Shoulder hurts... No date on Valentine's Day... But I'm not bummed out. :D

Now listening to: Agua - Daydream ~ そばにいるよ

Yeah this is an oldschool song. Apparently it's the ending theme to the Kimagure Orange Road movie. I'd never watched KOR, but several years ago we got a cassette tape with various anime songs in it, and this one was included. We lost the cassette tape already, but the memory of this song rang through my brain all this time. But at the time I didn't speak Japanese, I didn't understand the lyrics, hence I had trouble finding the song. I only thought of looking for it last night, now that I can actually decipher the parts of the lyrics that I remembered.

Anyway yeah. I think it was around year 2000 when we got that tape. I remember listening to it while editing stuff for Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear, which was probably my favorite game at the time. I remember our old house, and the public school out front, and the sound of the kids yelling or reciting something, and the smells of the peanut factory down the street. I remember the trees and the sound they made when the wind blew even a little.

Soon after that time though, we lost the tape. I think we only listened to it about 4-5 times, but this song particularly stuck to my head (in fact, I don't remember any of the other songs on the tape; I think it had some songs from 逮捕しちゃうぞ).

Anyway the big b-boy event is tonight (Friday). I'm pretty excited and nervous. I'd worked out a new routine, which is really just a compilation of some of my favorite styles into a single routine. I'll practice it more before the event, because it has to be so natural that I don't forget it at all, even if I get nervous or tired.

Well I've been waiting on this game called Scions of Fate for months now, and I never got to beta test it, but it's been officially released today. It really looks cute (but is almost certainly not as interesting and diverse as Voyage Century Online). I'll definitely test play it though. I'll download it later as I sleep (the installer is only about 460 MB; should be done downloading when I wake up).

There's a big breaking event on Friday, February 9th, at The Fort (Fort Bonifacio, in Taguig). I'm pretty excited but I haven't cleaned up my routines yet. As a styler, I really need to put more emphasis on what I do, and I shouldn't get mental block when I get to the floor, like I often do. Routines should be... routine. D:

Oh yeah I'm almost done with a short 4-panel strip concerning Valentine's Day. As usual, it will be posted here and on a website to be put up for me by my sister on her domain. I'm hoping to have the whole thing done by tomorrow.

Mikko showed me this thing, which is one of the most awesome figures I've seen (the glasses are a removable part).

Alright, now for the real point of this post. Student's Vision was the school newspaper for my alma mater, St. Joseph's Academy of Valenzuela (I studied there from 1990-1996 [grades 1-6], and again from 1998-2000 [3rd and 4th year high school]). Anyway in my senior year, around 1999, I was part of the newspaper staff. Originally, I applied for an editorial job, but they gave me an artist job instead.

So anyway, 1999 was the advent of... well, let's say my fondness of anime. In 1999 I began watching Saber Marionette J, and with nothing to compare it to yet, I thought of it as such an awesome storyline. It was the first anime that I ever consistently watched, and it's the anime that lead me to differentiate between Japanese anime and American (or other country's) cartoons.

Moving on, Saber Marionette J began to influence me into a lot of things, among which belong my fondness of Japan (still exists today even if I'm not an anime otaku anymore), and my artwork (especially my style back then).

Anyway, without any further adieu, click here to see a scan of the comic page (back page) of Student's Vision, a comic I drew (circa November 1999).

Just in case, here's a translation of what I wrote on the comic's panels.

Frame 1
Waiter: What would you like to order?
Girl: Order? Hmmm... I can't think of anything. What do you recommend?

Frame 2
Waiter: If it were me, I'd like to eat the delicious Beef Steak.

Frame 3
Girl: You're right! That sounds delicious! Okay I'll order that.

Frame 4
Waiter: Sorry, ma'am, we don't sell that kind of food.
Girl: So that's it...

Anyway I won't make excuses. I didn't speak Japanese back then, and much less could I actually read/write it. I picked up a small book that had a table for kana, and that's it. I was a fan of anime, especially Kenshin, so I copied the kanji from a poster (?) I had or something. On the right side is a horribly spelled attempt at writing Aoshi Shinomori in katakana, but it ended up somehow being Aehoshi Shinamori. I blame the dubbers of the version that we saw on Studio 23 at the time for pronouncing every single name wrong (Kenchee, Cory, Yowshee, Sanosukee, Aehoshee... I think Megumi was the only one among the main cast that didn't suffer that).

When I was in high school, I went by the nickname of Rei (written with the same kanji as in rei gun, because YuuYuu Hakusho was the single most popular show on TV at the time), as granted to me by my best friend, Mark Peralta.

One more thing, as the last thing I'll explain about the paper, is that the paper was most popular for its greetings. So I wrote all sorts of names on the page as service to my classmates (IV St. John was my year/group). In fact, the page behind my comic is an entire sheet dedicated to greetings and shout-outs. And students will spend the better half of the day (and even when they get home sometimes) looking for their names, and the names of people they knew.

This post is pretty long now so I'll end it here. Next time I'll talk about more nostalgic days from my ghetto high school, St. Joseph's Academy of Valenzuela. :) Until then!

Oh man... I saw the ending of Samurai Champloo. It was so awesome (and the series as a whole), but they ended it in the way that I was afraid of; an ending that I'd foreseen yet somehow I kept wishing wouldn't happen. I won't go into detail. But then again, [let's just say] it's an open ending where you're allowed to think of what happens next for yourself, so you can fantasize about anything lol.

I've been going to a gym for about a week now. I've gone 4 times in the last 6 days. The first day I pushed myself too hard without proper warm-up, so I had to rest a couple of days, but I've been pacing myself on the other days, and I feel great. I've received tips on doing weights and stuff, so I should see improvements in my strength and shape within a few months.

Finally, I've set for myself a deadline of up to February 7th. I have to write a short (3-4 frame) strip about Valentine's Day, hopefully using the characters in the story I'm about to write. I don't have any progress yet, but I'll be working on sketches later and tomorrow. I'll post it here and on a [temp] website my sister is going to put up for me when it's done.