Oooohh, what a nice feeling!

Nothing much to blog about except for the fact that I think I found "that" feeling during my golf swing practice today :D
Using a 7 iron and armed with 7 golf balls, I began my "so-called" practice session this evening. My main purpose was to practice swinging the club steadily/consistently. While it definitely ain't perfect yet, I felt that I gained something that I haven't compared to my previous practice sessions. All of this came with the expense of one lost ball. Better than my previous, 4 lost balls. Heh.
After trying a lot of stances, I found one stance that I was comfortable with in my short game and was hitting the ball at the direction I wanted it to be. I need to reaffirm this nice feeling again in my next practice. Hopefully tomorrow. "Whacking white balls" are fun. ;)
Now, if only I can figure out my golf driving game. Need to hit those balls far and long. ;)

Haruhi-ism Widget

Hide Navbar from your Blogger blog

Here's a small tip on removing that blue Navbar from Blogger:

1. Go to template tab
2. Go to edit html tab from template tab
3. Add this piece of code to your blog:
   

   #navbar-iframe {
      height:0px;
      visibility:hidden;
      display:none;
   }
   

Ok that is it. Finally! I've been looking for a workaround for sometime. ;)

Vocaloid 2 Nendoroid Dance!

Nyahahahaha! Cuteness FTW!! >_<

I'm posting this just because I just ordered Nendoroid Hatsune Miku (the one with the green+bluish hair). Will be posting pics of her later once I receive the item, hopefully that is, if there's no problems with the shipping.
Oh, btw, I also pre-ordered the yellow-haired twins who appeared after Miku last month. Me crossing my fingers the place where I pre-ordered won't screw me up. I tell you pre-orders can be a hassle especially if they suddenly cross your name out for "someone" else. Heh.

Some Odd Day

Finally, I'm online again ^^; There was a long downtime since morning . At first, I thought it was because my modem was acting up but it turned out to be something else. I suspected the downtime to be "maintenance" on TMNet's part. Heh. Connection's still not stable though. It disconnects randomly.
As if that wasn't irritating, earlier today some accursed assturd spread bad gospel (via SMS according to the local news on TV) saying that there was some kind of upcoming demonstration involving gas merchants, in retaliation to the government's recent price hike ruling. It was mentioned that there would be a major close down for days which means limited or no gas at all. This sent people over here to a frenzy. Similar to that when Malaysia's PM first announced the price hike weeks ago. I was there. That was far more worse though. Sabahans went crazy for a while today to restock gas, thanks to that. I didn't even know till my grandfather paid us a visit to borrow some containers to restock. There were lots of cars everywhere when I went for a ride to get my daily dose of caffeine this evening. Traffic jams are definitely irritating. Fortunately, it died down after some time. So much for that hoax.
I wonder what's to come after all these price hikes. More price hikes but I predict a much bigger storm coming. Maybe this time there'll be some political religious agenda like Friday law or Sunday law or whatever bullshit they come up with. The opposition ain't doing that good either. In fact, it was from the opposition such religious motion was heard. Such is the result when power is in the wrong hands; in the hands of the abominable. *sigh*
Anyway, I forced myself to watch a CGI sci-fi movie "Vexille" (by the makers of "Ghost in the Shell" if I'm not mistaken) just now. My initial intention was an entertaining action packed movie but there was more to it. What can I say.... it's definitely one scary movie even if its not horror. Just for the sake of not straying off my earlier point, this one made me ponder what the influential filthy rich bastards can do in the near future. Bio-tech wars... currently the most mentioned these days and that's not even all of it. Politics, religion, and science is evil after all.

X-Files: I Want to Believe Preview!!!

This one was a shocker and a very nice stumble. Yes, Ladies & Gents! Prepare for the comeback and the next invasion!

Code: Breaker

If you're a fan of Mangaka Akimine Kamijyo artwork or a fan of the Samurai Kyo Deeper and/or Silvery Crow series, you might wanna check out his latest, Code Breaker.

Preview
Read the first chapter late last night and moving to the just-released chapter 2. I've gotta say he really enjoys coming up an anti-hero protagonist which is interesting and one of my reasons why I keep myself updated with his works. His Silvery Crow works is an exception though as the protagonist was that of a typical hero.
The story revolves around Sakurakouji Sakura, a high school girl who gets fascinated with our fire-wielding protagonist Oogami Rei.
Speaking of his art style, it hasn't changed and is as original as it can be. It still is unique and distinguishable. I still find the "deformations" of the characters figure a tad bit odd though. However, this is one doesn't give me that much of that odd feeling (in a good way) compared to his previous works. Don't misunderstood me though. It's not that I'm saying it's way out of it.
In any case, I enjoy his style and not to mention that his story telling is also entertaining. If you're a manga addict or someone who appreciates art, you should mark this one.

Below are some Info about the manga.

Series Synopsis:
Sakurakouji Sakura is a girl who appears modest and graceful but in reality is skilled in martial arts. After witnessing a boy burning people with his blue flame, she is startled to see the same boy is a transfer student, Oogami Rei.

Author: Akimine Kamijyo
Artist: Akimine Kamijyo
Serialized in: Weekly Shounen Magazine

Read it online
Chapter 1
Chapter 2

Show must go on...

So Manchester United's #7 has turned his back towards us fans, club, manager. So be it, so much for this needless saga.
This was what he was quoted saying after Portugal was sent packing:

Ronaldo (on the loss to Germany): I didn’t do anything wrong. I did what I had to do but the team made mistakes and that is why we lost.^[1]

I wonder how low can he get by shifting the blame. He even was co-captain. *shrugs*
MU will get loads of cash from unloading this ingrate however, unless MU signs another "prodigy" we prolly won't be seeing the glorious team like last season but we'll survive. We don't him for continued success.

To put it bluntly, the show will go on. The show must go on.
Ref.:
1. "Exclusive Interview: Cristiano Ronaldo to reveal his 'Dream step forward'" Quoted from Guillembalague.com

EDIT: LOL. I can't seem to erase the extra spaces above even with editing the damn html in blogger. Been stuck on this like forever. Oh well... Found the solution.

KK Jazz Fest 2008... *sigh*

*sigh*
Another gone year, another missed Jazz fest.
The KK Jazz Fest is now happening as we speak. Its website list ticket prices at RM50-100.
*sigh*
Missed out again...

Adding RSS feed/icon tutorial in Blogger, Blogspot

So you want to add an RSS feed and your own awesome icon to your Blogger blog? Here's how I did it, in case you were wondering:

Step1

Log into your Blogger.com account. This will take you to your Blogger Dashboard, which is a list of all of your blogs on the site along with controls for customizing them.

Step2

Select "Layout" for your desired blog. The "Layout" tab will be displayed, providing a graphical representation of your blog, including the area where blog posts appear and areas where you can add customized elements.

Step3

Click on "Add a Page Element." Another window will open with a list of elements that you can add to your blog. Select "HTML/Javascript" by clicking the "Add to Blog" button located beneath it. Additionally, you could use the "Feed" option but that'll be another topic.

Step4
On the editor that pops out, fill up the title, and for the content, click "Edit HTML" and add this three lines to the text area:

You can change http://yourblog.blogspot.com/rss.xml to http://yourblog.blogspot.com/atom.xml, whichever that you prefer, and then http://www.any-website.com/rss-icon.jpg is a URL to (the FUN part) any RSS icon in the net that you prefer (or upload your own).
Note, if you're using blogger and find that didn't quite work out, try this (for RSS only): http://yourblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
Additionally, you could just sign up at feedburner, and set up your RSS url there, and in turn replace the link with your feedburner link. e.g. http://feeds.feedburner.com/youraccountname
instead of http://yourblog.blogspot.com/rss.xml or http://yourblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Step6

Save your changes. This will lead you back to your Page Elements page. Make your selections, review how the feed will look on your blog, and select "Save" on that page when satisfied.

Step7

Click "Preview" to see how your new feed appears. Voila!

Here are some useful resources that helped me sort my problems:
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=42662
http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help-howdoi/browse_thread/thread/23b3923b115bd286
http://www.mohdshakir.net/2007/12/13/adding-rss-atom-feed-icon-to-blogger-blogspot
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42663&useful=0&show_useful=1&comment=3:%20&

I hope it was clear enough. The steps above may not be accurate as I didn't go through it again. If there were typos or errors, kindly inform me and I'll edit it and give you credit. So, use it as a reference. Take note that there's always other ways to do it like for example using Blogger's feature by adding the "Feed" page element. However, that doesn't give you the privilege to add your killer rss icon. Obviously, you could always google to find out how. Hordes of results on this, I tell you. And I'm sure you know that. ^^;
If you need help, do not hesitate to ask. Either leave a comment or drop me a bomb and hope that I get struck by it. ^^;

More RSS Icons

A while ago I posted and raved about the Ojingogo rss icons. As cool as it is, there are more.
In fact, I was browsing a while ago and stumbled upon what could probably be the ultimate list of free RSS Icons from Hong Kiat's blog. The Ojingogo icon was listed too! yay :D
Here are some of my favorites apart from the Ojingogo one of course ;)

World Biggest RSS Icon

Acid RSS

Grudge Style RSS Icon

NewsFire Replacement Icon

RSS Icons Orb v2

Here are some DIY RSS icon resources copy-pasted from the same blog source:

Photoshopcandy: Design Vista style glassy and vibrant RSS feed icon

Create RSS Icon

rss-icons.com allows you to create customize RSS icons by filling up the form.

RSS Graphic Tool
Yet another online service to create customize RSS Icon

So what's up about RSS icons? If you still don't know what RSS is, here's a definition from whatisrss.com:

RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it.

This one taken from hongkiat.com:

More and more bloggers and webmasters are using RSS syndication to convert their webblog visitors into regular readers. However before you can start getting them to subscribe, you’ll need to first catch their attentions. Obvious and catchy RSS icon can be a good start. It is pretty straight forward that if a RSS icon (or button) is big enough and positioned highly on the upper fold, they tend to be more effective.

Now to answer the previous question, simply cos its neat. I'm a sucker for art, gfx, or anything related. As simple as that. Again, this came up during a chat with a friend of mine, Rush, who
asked me how to change the rss icon in his blog. I hadn't put much thought into it but after browsing interesting resources I can say I got hooked. I mean, like I've mentioned earlier, I get easily fascinated by cool gfx, be it icons or whatnot. I should thank my friend for the "inspiration" and for feeding me with blog fodder. Glad you brought it up Rush dude. (Oh, I'm still holding on to my Ojingogo by the way for now, even if there's other hordes of other icons.)
So yeah, you should go check it out yourself too! Maybe you'll be the next one hooked or rather, marked. ;)

Ojingogo RSS Icon :D

If you haven't noticed yet, I'm using these RSS Icons made by Matt Forsythe an award-winning comic book artist, illustrator and co-editor. :D I'm going to use this one officially unless he asks it to be taken down of course.
Here's the original post: http://comingupforair.net/2008/01/rss-icons/
There's supposed to be a set of these coming and I'm for sure picking it up. Check it out his awesome blog.

Macross

I was chatting with a friend about anime and along the way Macross was mentioned. I was checking my list of bookmarks today and found that I actually had this on my list:
http://macrosshare.blogspot.com
Its a Spanish Macross blog but it has lots of downloads in English as well. If you're a fan of mechas and/or Macross, you might want to check this out.

An 80+ on the first 9...

I shot 80+ on the first nine holes in a game of golf with my pops today. I "improved" my best score of 72. For those who don't know, you should be scoring 36 for the first nine holes to get at even par. Meaning the score would be 0. More about the game of golf at wikipedia. My pops kept on telling me over and over that I shouldn't worry too much since I don't practice that much anyway and that the score is "acceptable" for a beginner. I couldn't eat that.
The most irritating thing was, I missed countless of shots which is embarrassing even if there's no one looking. Definitely too hard to swallow for my so-called standards. I began last year (2007) tagging along my father fyi.
Somehow I still can't solve my golf swing problems. Lots of em... :/
I love golf even though I suck balls so yeah, I'm gonna continue to learn to play and hopefully improve. Back to the driving range...

Some Big Purchase

Just a few moments ago, I made two transactions over at Play-Asia.com and pre-ordered for two figs 1/8 scale Kamina & 1/8 scale Yoko both made by Eye Up via both Paypal & Credit Card (Debit Card actually). You might ask why both? Well, I haven't ever purchased using PayPal before so I'm trying it out. As for my card, the last time my card got rejected even though I had enough funds innit. So yeah, in case my card gets kicked again and that PP works, I'll prolly switch (although PP uses cards too).
Back to my initial topic, Eye Up's kinda new so I'll see what I get. The prices itself are pretty much high but I was told its a good investment. Well we'll about that.
I guess you can say I'm diggin myself a major hole in my pockets... I do hope its worth it.
T^T such is a life of a so-called otaku...

Tiger mania!

Was watching the US Open golf major tournament early morning today and phew... I'm glad I didn't miss it. A dramatic end to the supposedly final 4th day although the game didn't end with a winner. Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate will fight another day tomorrow in an 18 hole playoff. The first ever in a major tournament.
I'd say this major has been a real thrill. There was awesome top pairings (by world ranking) for the first two days and now an 18 hole playoff. Can't miss it tomorrow morning. :D

Update: Tiger won by 1 stroke at the 18 hole + 1 playoff. He finished at Even par, while Rocco at 1 over par. Game was decided on another extra hole. Impressive and most entertaining game ever!

My Lovely "Kanu"

I just received my figurine order today.  This was supposed to be sent here but I had to go and pick it up myself at SkyNet courier services.  I have dealt with Skynet once before and wasn't satisfied with their service.  Initially, I feared the worse but phew... I got it in perfect condition thanks to the wrapping.
Apart from model kits, I've been wanting to start but haven't had the luxury to do so. So early this week, on Monday, I made my first buy from The Figure Mall (TFM). It took me quite a some time before finally deciding on the 1/8 scale Kanu Uncho Pre-Painted PVC Figure from the Dragon Destiny Ikkitousen anime. There were of course zillions of others but I fell in love with this at first sight! fyi, it took me a month to carefully decide mainly because with the amount of money I paid for this I could buy 2-3 kits. A big invesment and decision indeed. I confirmed my order on June 11, Wednesday. It was a late decision but I was in luck, almost all stores ran out :D (with the exception of HLJ, an online store that I frequent). TFM had only one unit left even ^^; I was indeed lucky.
I'm pretty much excited with everything. The guy that owns that online store was very helpful and considerate and not forgetting to mention, very nice and by far the best I've ever dealt with. Not bad for my first. My previous deals were all Gundam model kits btw.

Here are some pics of XD

Nicely wrapped


Opened!


Received my Kanu in purrrrfect condition! All thanks to the awesome wrapping!
My first buy and definitely not the last ;)