My partner got me a nice LCD stand for our anniversary, web browsing, coding and reading manga work quite well vertically ^^.
New LCD Stand
Aug 3
I maintain a fairly long media player classic play list. Filled with all the episodes of stuff I’ve yet to watch (and as I get more episodes, they’re added to the end). A couple years ago I discovered this was somewhat problematic; if I wanted to move any entries from towards the bottom of the list to the top of the list it’d require dragging the file up the whole list inside media player classic, which can take quite awhile when the whole list is several hundred entries long.
So back then I created the MPC: Playlist Manager (in Visual Basic 6 too, heh). Which served my purposes for awhile. Recently however, I’ve gotten annoyed at how it was limited to moving one file around at a time (options being Move to Top/Bottom/Up 1/Down 1). What if I’ve got a new series I want to watch sooner than the rest and don’t feel like setting each episode to ‘move top’…
So, I decided it was type to redo the program in something better than VB and to add some functionality. As such its now written in C# and sports a few improvements.
- Multiple entries can be moved around at once (ctrl+click to or shift+click or drag+mouse to select multiple entries, standard way of selecting multiple things).
- The window is re-sizable. The original didn’t increase the size of the list box or move the buttons around when the window was made larger, which made it difficult to use for long file paths/names.
- The ability to save new playlists rather than just editing existing ones.
- The ability to Add or Remove entries rather than adding/removing with MPC before using the program.
Screenshot:

Download:
mpcplm.zip (~17KB)
USB & PIC Controlled LCD
Apr 26
So I recently bought myself a PIC18F4550 chip and a PICkit2 ICSP (PIC programmer). After salvaging an LCD screen from an old Nokia 3310, I’ve built the following:
Figure Shelves v2
Jan 6
Figure Shelves
Dec 26
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Some overlap in the images there, but I couldn’t be bothered installing photoshop to clean it up right now. In any case, that’s what my figure shelves look like so far. Still got plenty more to setup coming in the mail too…
Most of these ones are the ones I had before going to Japan. It’ll be a lot more crowded once I add all the ones I got in Japan this past year. There’s another shelf above the two in the photos too, so that will fill up fast. What I really need is enclosed glass shelves, damn things are a pain to dust.
Well, its nice to be living in a nice large house again. Much more comfortable.
Oh and Merry Christmas everyone ^^.
New Ruri Figure
Oct 12
Picked this up at Mandarake in Namba today. I was surprised they actually got a new Ruri figure in. Ruri Figure

Mandarake is a second hand anime / manga / action figure / games / consoles / collectibles store. With everything from little toy cars to life size statues.
While we were in Namba I also picked up the newest volume of the Yotsuba& manga (in english anyway, vol. 6), and some Japanese flashcards. I’ll learn some Japanese eventually… heh.
New Chat Setup
Oct 9
Recently got a stand for my psp. For now I’ve got it setup vertically holding my contact list and chat windows. Frees up desktop space nicely, which is an issue since my widescreen is back home in Australia ^^.

PSP Screen
Excuse the quality, camera phone and all. What do you think?
Japan 2009 – Update #5
Oct 5
Well, it’s been another 2 months since I last updated so I decided to write another note today. Adam and I have been in Japan for just over 9 months now!! This means that we’ll be home in less than 3 months… o.O I’m so excited but a little bit scared at the same time… things will be very different when we get back…
So what have we been up to since my last note? Well, we saw summer “end” (it’s still pretty warm even though it’s October now)!! I can’t wait until the weather starts to finally cool down though… I’m really looking forward to that! Meanwhile, when we get home, it will be summer again… *sigh*
The Train I Catch To Work…
Aug 21
The train I catch to work each day was recently depicted in a new episode of Haruhi. Its a Hankyu Railways train running between Osaka and Kobe.

The style they use for their trains is obvious, and in another section of the episode, they’re in a shopping arcade in Nishinomiya, where one of the schools I teach at is. Damn good likeness of the train too.
Earthquake!
Aug 11
I just experienced an earthquake! I heard a short creak in the building, then I felt dizzy for about 20 seconds.There was one yesterday, so I thought maybe this was actually a small quake. I checked online within 1 minute, the quake advisory site updated with info saying one had just occurred! It was 6-lower on the JMA Intensity Scale in the worst hit area. And a 2 in where we are.
6 is described as: Difficult to keep standing. A lot of heavy and unfixed furniture moves and falls. It is impossible to open the door in many cases.
And for us, a 2, as: Felt by most people in the building. Some people awake. Hanging objects such as lamps swing slightly.
And indeed, as I felt dizzy, I noticed the door to the toilet swaying back and forth. Amazing.
The picture below shows the tremor across Japan. We live in the area I’ve marked with a pink circle (not to be mistaken as a level 7), which is filled with blue marks indicating a level 2 was recorded. As you can see, to the east was where the epicenter was, where they felt level 6-.
Level 3 or 4 would certainly be interesting!




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