Belate, Happy New Year and all that

Wow, it's been a really long while.

I've been occupied with other things. Nothing really stand out, just a bunch of stuff.

Recently (well, it's been months) We decided that a wireless internet access is a good addition to the apartment/hotel thing we have. So, yeah, we talked for a while, mainly me and my aunt, since she's overseeing day-to-day things here. Quite a few guests were asking for it, already. So, we decided, yes, we'll get it.

First, the phone company was being an ass. I don't see why we couldn't get 2Mps speed when I can get it easy for personal use. They said they couldn't, my question was why, since it's not like they send us the wireless signal, but instead we got it through phoneline like in the house. What morons.

Anyhow... we set it up normally, though I have no idea if it was the way it usually done in building like this. But it's easy for me to get it done and maintain myself, so it'll have to do.

We got N1 Vision by Belkin because it has the strongest signal. Of course, that doesn't cover 5 floors, so after N1 is set up. I picked up range extender, also Belkin (easier to get them all the same brand, compatibility is key here)

I got the extender set up this morning. Worked well, when I figured out that the security didn't match on both.

Had to be WPA and TKIP, instead in N1 it was WPA+WPA2. Now I just have to hook it up on the 3rd floor and then maybe another one on the 4th and we're homefree.

Picked up a new Nintendo DS lite as well. A black one. I had N5DS before hand and whatever people review said, it did not give me any problem. At all.

Also got NDS Lite in white for my sister too.. and Kitty's case for it. Cost me a pretty penny, so she better appreciate that.

Now I'm addicted to it. I'm playing My Sims, Harvest Moon IoH, Animal Crossin : WW. Such a dork I am.

wifi/star war tribute

Tuesday : Me and another 2 friends went to pick up a Belkin Wireless ADSL Modem+Router G+ Mimo instead of going to my violin lesson, of course I was planning on canceling the class anyway since I wasn't feeling well and my throat hurt. So, it was a perfect timing when my instructor also called to cancel.

So, we picked up the Belkin G+ Mimo. Before that my friend also picked up a Belkin G+ for her home use, this latest one was for her cousin's office. We didn't think that there would be any problem, since they set up the thing easily, except the security which she called me up for help. It took little time at all for her and 2 brothers to get it going. Of course the one that actually did the setting up was her younger brother.

Now, right the next day she called me up that she couldn't get it to work. So, I sat and look through Belkin site for her, the hard part was that, I don't know what she was looking at, I have to be there to actually be of any help.

She said she should pick up her brother for him to do it. But she didn't.

Today : I spent most of the day trying to help her out over the phone, it's like flying blind, we did several times, but I never really sure what she was looking at. I guess we'll do it again tomorrow. She was having problem with the internet itself. So, I told her to try calling the ISP to see if their line was perfectly fine. SO we could be sure that it was the modem and not the ISP. My phone nearly die but before that she said she had it for today.

Guess we'll start again tomorrow.

I never knew setting up a dame wireless modem+router could be so hard.

I saw this the other day from Youtube... and well.. Love it!!



It was awesome, applause to the guy who made it.

Anime : Jigoku Shoujo : Mitsuganae/Mouryou no Hako

So, new season of Anime, and what I decided to watch...

First off, 3rd season of Jigoku Shoujo, titled Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae (The Cauldron of Three). Despite some repetitive theme in the series I actually like this one, so imagine my surprise that they made it a third season. Normally, they only made so many episodes and that's that. Though lately there are a lot of of the continuation of the well-to-do series. I guess there's nothing wrong about the studio trying to capitalize on their money maker.

I'm not gonna review the anime, I don't think I can keep up anyway, but I'll post the screencap and my reaction and stuff... whenever I feel like it. O.o



Emma Ai was punished at the last episode of Jigoku Shoujo Futagomori (The Two Prisoners) and we all thought that she's no longer the Hell Girl. So, even though I know that she would be the main character again, I was interested to see how they were gonna bring her back. So far we were introduced to another girl, Yuzuki, whom we are yet to know the relation to Ai, except that one bathing scene where Ai showed up in her vision and pulled her in, kissed her, Ai said she was cold and for Yuzuki to open. I'm assuming that she was Ai's vessel, a way for her to come back. We'll see how long this's going to last.

At the moment though, Yuzuki could see what Ai was doing, like Tsukumi did. We also get to see the new sorta servant, a boy Yamawaro, so we got another doll, different color.

And the story went as always someone felt that wrong was done to them, in this case a girl, whom pretty much self-centered, thinking that one teacher was out to get her, and that he was so horrible, though in my opinion, she was the one that was disrespectful. So full of herself that she thought she had to get rid of him because he dared written her up. Eventually we learned that he didn't, that it was all just a threat and nothing more. But it was too late he went to Hell.

Another one I'm starting to watch : Mouryou no Hako.

Just starting so more on that later.

Project : Bookmaking

I'm working on a book, no, not writing a book, but making a book.

Way back in July my current favorite fan-fic writer posted an epic The Devil Wears Prada fanfiction, Truth and Measure, and it was impressive size of story, a novel, I'd say, longest of its kind.

So, I decided to make it into a book. Why, I have no idea, I just wanted it to. Telanu herself had it made into a hardcover back via lulu.com. Me... I'm one of those that will do things by hand if I can.

So I made a book.

It is not complete, I have the back cover to make and also the spine. I'll pick up a metallic marker maybe, for the spine because it's so dark in color that anything less won't show up.

But this is what I got so far of the book.



I've changed the paper that I use for cover twice, printing the last part page by page by sitting by the printer and feed the paper by hand. The paper was one of those eyecare thing. I came to about 450 pages, while the Telanu's copy was 669 page. I reduced the size of the font to 10 pt. and the margin to 0.8" all around. Probably why I got less pages than she did.

Now I've just written Telanu's name on the front cover, what's left is the back and the spine. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully it'll come out good.

finding : Citroen commerical

I found this vid via Gizmodo It's an ad for Citroen. :) A dancing robot that is a car...

Project : Truth&Measure Book

I decided a while ago when Telanu posted Truth and Measure (The Devil Wears Prada fan-fiction)And epic for this fandom, comprised of over two-hundred thousand words. Telanu herself had it made into a hardcover book via lulu.com.

I myself, wouldn't let other people do what I can do myself (sometimes)so a bookmaking project was in order.

I started formatted each part. There were 6 parts plus the epilogue. Altogether made up a 450 pages book. I printed them at 10 point Times New Roman and 0.8" margin all around. Otherwise it would be a much thicker book. (The professionally made one Telanu order from lulu.com was 669 pages as she had posted on her LJ.

Each section I simply ordered it to be printed on both side I periodically check if the pages were stuck together, and with a fresh cartridge. But when I got to part 6 which has 100 pages. I had to sit by the printer and fed it one by one. just so I don't waste any paper, and avoid disaster.

Now, making holes. I made 5 for traditional Japanese stitch. Didn't work. It was much too thick to be bind tightly.

New plan. I unbound it and make more holes, this time 9. Allowing for me to pull tight.

I put cover page on the front with quote from Marie de France.

'For above all things, Love means sweetness, and truth, and measure; yea, loyalty to the loved one, and to your word.'

Right now I'm in the process of making the cover for the book. For that I went and bought a bunch of handmade papers, which I won't be using all of them, but it's good to have choices and laid them against one another. Now I'm settled on the blue, and inside orange.

The front over is almost done, a few more things, like author's name. Then it's on to the back, I already decided. Now all I want to getting something to hang off of the bookmark. Maybe a little heeled shoe. :)

New season of a lot of shows are also starting. Which made me really happy.

So far, True Blood is awesome, Sarah Connor Chronicles is shaping up really well, although I still don't know why they got Shirley Manson for the liquid. But I'm will to wait on the judgment.

Now I'm looking forward to Supernatural, which is tomorrow, and then it was Criminal Minds and NCIS. Man I can't wait for Criminal Minds to see who's the unlucky bastard to be in the car that got bombed.

I hope it's the southern detective, don't like him, and I will be very disappointed if JJ decided to leave BAU, because it would be such a bad move for a character that worked really hard to get where she was just to throw it away for a man.

Like Cruella DeVil said more good women were lost to marriage than any war or deceases.

Anyhow, gonna watch SCC now.

firefox 3.0.1

I have 2 computers.

1 desktop at home.

1 laptop at the store (which I share with my mother, whom only play solitaire on it.)

I used Firefox for my browser, and even though I still have IE on both my comp, I rarely used it, except to check on a few things. I'm happy with Firefox, for the most part.

When Firefox released version 3, I was kinda apprehensive, especially when I heard about a few bugs. But well, I upgraded anyway, but only on my desktop at home. As for my laptop, I left it alone.

And I found some trouble, but nothing that bothers me too much. Still I did not plan to upgrade on my laptop.

And then Firefox 3.0.1 came out.

That morning I went to the store, turned on my laptop, and when the prompt to upgrade came up, without thinking I pressed install.

What an Idiot!

Only after the installation of the new version that I realized what I've done. Man, did I feel like kicking myself. But what's done is done.

Then my first irritation began.

I could not load youtube. And I did almost everything I could think of, I cleared the cache, the cookies (as per the recommendation) still nothing.

So, the next day, I tried again, and it was the same ol' thing. And this time, when I tried to get to my friend's hi5 page, I could only get the text and not the format and layout. I tried youtube on IE and it worked just fine.

Now I had to look at all the add-on I have.

I went and turned off most of them, except a few. Then restarted the firefox. and Voila! Youtube worked, hi5 worked. Now I went back and turned a few back on, except better you tube, and one another. Man, I almost create a new profile. That would've sucked big time.

I hope nothing else is going wrong.

paper marbling : homemade liquid starch 2

Finally, after several trials of trying to make sizing that's gonna work.

The first trial was completely a waste of time and material. It was much too thick, I was going too fast, too much. So, that had to be thrown out.

The second trial, I stuck to the recipe I found. 1/2 cup of corn starch and 1 cup of cold water, mixed then pour into boiling water. (of course the recipe I found it said to mix corn starch and cold water in big bowl and pour in boiling water). As it turned out, the damn thing didn't turn clear and it was way way too thick. Since I didn't know how much of boiling water I was suppose to put in.

So, I tried smaller portion of corn starch/cold water. This time it was 1/4 corn starch and 1/2 cup of cold water, into 6 cups of boiling water. It still didn't turn clear like the recipe said, but I found another one that said it might be cloudy, so I guess it's ok.

I left it to cool down, and now I found one that work!!!

So, next step, figuring out how much water and acrylic paint to mix and how much dish detergent to put in. Currently it was a good size acrylic and about 11 CC. of water and a drop of dish detergent. Seems like it was pretty good, but it spread out too much. So it'll be another few trials I guess.

Paper Marbling : homemade liquid starch first trial

I decided to make a few books, and I'd wanted to try to do paper marbling for a while now. So, it seems like a good time as any.

Well, I got the recipe, which is easier and use the easy to find things. Or, so I thought.

First acrylic paints, well, they aren't hard to get, so it's all right, I picked up a cheap set, because I still need to start slow.

Liquid starch, they said you could get it at the laundry section of any store. Well, I picked up a few and it wasn't usable. It wasn't thick enough and most of the paint just fall to the bottom. So, that's a bust. I went to the store again, hoping to get the powder kind, so I can mix it myself. No such luck.

I ended up having to make it, myself. I wasn't sure of the consistency that was needed, so I went big. like a cup of corn starch to 2 cups of water. Not good... there wasn't enough water, or rather too much starch (depends on how you look at it). So, I ended up with paste that I can't use, too thick, but they would work well for something else, so I save it for now. I might do a back of some fabric to make cover. I'll have to decide, but that's gonna have to be quick, because it'll go bad in several days.

Anyway, try again tomorrow.

another venture into the art of bookmaking... (well a part of it anyway)

Several years ago I took a papermaking class, at the time, it was a class that offered me nothing toward graduation (it was a filler for me, since all the credit I needed at that moment was only from Senior Studio). It wasn't a class I enjoy too much at the beginning, although I liked it.

Only by the end of the class that I enjoyed (not the project though) Then after that I wanted to take bookmaking, but it was full, much too quick. And I didn't feel like fighting for a spot with anyone. I did learn how to bind a book, though, and basic bookmaking.

I made a book for my last Senior Studio class, and my advisors loved it (as well as the people that showed up at the show) So I guess it's good. :)

Now, I tried my hand at another thing. Paper marbling.

Since I can't get the supplies here that are especially made for paper marbling, I had to go for homemade method stuff. And one I chose to do is with liquid starch. My first trial (which is barely an hour ago) was all right, the color wasn't as bright as I thought it was gonna be.

I used generic store brand liquid starch (which now that I can see it didn't seem to be thick enough) I might just make it from scratch.

The paint was a set of acrylic paint, which works well, but I have to play around with the consistency, although I read somewhere that oil paint will give more vivid color. Also I have to try with alum threat paper too.

I watched the vid of paper marbler, and the sizing he used was left clear once he finished with one sheet, so I don't know. Oh well, gotta try my hand in a few things I guess.

Another thing, I finally made that The Devil Wears Prada fanfic listing that I've been meaning to do for a while. The list keeps going longer and longer though. It's my favorite fandom at the moment (gotta give props to Meryl Streep.. she did really awesome Miranda, and man, I'd do her!)

Anne Hathaway is good too. :)

Now I'm gonna go watch a few Marbling demo on youtube. Maybe I'll get a better idea.

no class today!

I have no violin class today, my instructor canceled it, not that I feel all too good anyway.

Friday night I woke up (well, Saturday morning) at around 5 AM itching all over, but what I felt was stomachache first, but after that the itch set in. Man, that was a torture. I got some anti allergy from mom and took it. Then right the next morning she woke me up, and then I found that something was wrong.

Went to the doc, nothing serious, but annoying. I mean how would you like to go around all day feel like something stuck at the back of your throat you can't swallow and then when you tried you gonna upchuck all over the floor.

Yeah, so I got some medication for allergy reaction I had, which we still don't know what it was that I was allergic too. (suck, big time) Doc said I have to pay closer attention to what I was eating.

I wasn't even eating any seafood. weird.

But now I'm feeling a little tired all day because the med. Still I have to take all of them, for 7 days, and then I have another appointment.

A friend of mine decided that she's gonna clear up everything at the place she's at right now and come home.

I said it's about time.

I mean, she said she has opportunities there, which I wasn't sure about, but it's been years now and they didn't pan out, none of them.

And now it sounded like they are trying to chain her to where she was, and give her nothing at all. So, I told her, come home. Better off here even if she get small salary, because no rent to pay.

So, we'll wait and see if there's anymore obsticles.

Sometimes people thinks they are being nice by saying she would be miss and all, and she should say, oh what would we do without you and all that, but they didn't help when she has no money. So, how nice are they being?

Anyhow, I'm chatting with her everynight (well, almost everynight) I'll let her borrow money if she needs to, but she said she won't until she's really desperate.

C'est la vie.

fic rec : Truth and Measure

I've been anticipating the coming out of this fic for a while, ever since Telanu announced it a while back.

Personally I like a good size fic, I like to read stuff that has development and character driven, I mean, PWP is good too, but give me choices and I'll pic a good long one anytime.

Apparently it was more than 200,000 words. I'll put them in word and see how many there were.

I'm a little obsessed with DWP fic right now. :) (like anyone that read this wouldn't know that already)

I spent about a day reading (with some interruption in between) I finished at 4:30AM, and I started it at around 8:30AM. And man I wish there was more.

New project I assigned to myself was DWP fic-listing. It's been a long time coming. So, I'm gathering the links and the list right now. Typing a lot of them up, but I still have to go through the LJ to find more. I do remember a few that weren't post to DWP community, but instead posted on Passion and Perfection and such.

The format of it still need some work. I don't want to clutter up anything, but at the same time, if I want to put rating and summaries, and pairing, it'll be.

I guess I'll figure it out as I go along. Now I'll just get all the links and titles and authors down. Hopefully I'll get the first draft hammered out soon.

world : Miranda

I'm not surprise that Miranda was the biggest word in here, and Andrea was the second biggest. This came from 'She Likes A Prize Fight' By Telanu, my favorite Mirandy fanfic.

project : showerstall (cont.)

First two pieces of the contact paper went up without a hitch, of course that was not the case with the next piece.

It was the biggest piece in all of this. And it gave me the most trouble. It was much too big for me to manage by myself, although I did, but not without some compromise. I had to separate the piece up, cutting some parts so that I could put them up. Before that, however, they were tangled up so badly I nearly had to throw the entire piece away (and that, will definitely ruin the entire piece and force me to do the whole thing over again)

There were some parts that, I will probably have to cut off, and form it into waterdrops and stuff. After fighting with it for almost 2 hours, I got it up, and now I'm just waiting for the mist that came from the soap mix spray to evaporate, so I can see where I have to fix.

Then a couple of nights later I put up the third piece (well, I cut and put up the third piece) This one suffered from the mistake I made with the big piece, due to some misplace, the piece was higher than it should, and so I had to fix this one by extended the stem of the leaf, which is a must, or risk ruining the one thing I can't modify.

The fairy was the one thing I can not modify without ruining it, so I had to keep it in the same place, and with that I extend other parts instead. Too bad that the head was right where the handle was, kinda ruin it a little. But that's how it comes, not much I can do, most picture starts at the bottom.

But looking at it from the other angle, I'll probably work on a new one when I feel like doing it, which could be in a few months from now, so not attach with this image would be a good idea.

It's not done yet, there'll be another 1 big piece and 1 small piece to go up.

On the other note, I want sheet music from Apocalyptica (like I'm all that proficient with violin to play, really.) I'm not good enough to play something like that yet, but it's good to have goal, right?

So, on that thought, my goal for my first course of violin is playing Apocalyptica's Hope. :) I'll even buy the sheet music.

project : showerstall

A project that I've been planning for a while, and did start once, and stopped, because I didn't have the time and the image was way too complicate. So I started it over and got a new image.

So, I worked on the image and use posterazor to print the image out to side. Of course, they came out in pieces on A4. Took about 70 pieces. And I put them together with clear tape, and some glue. As for the parts that did not have anything printed on, I just leave it out, no need to waste paper more than I already did. Besides, I didn't have enough papers, which I didn't know before hand.

Needless to say, I had to hunt down the paper from all the room. Some of the paper has other things printed on one side.

I divided the pieces up, for easier handling.

Originally, I only divided to 6 pieces, and now I divided up even more, because the bigger the pieces, the harder it is to put it up.

So far I'm not done with it yet, but I've put up 4 pieces.
These are the first 2 that I put up the night before. They are also the first two pieces I cut, too...

Took me a while to straighten them out, since I didn't use the transfering tape, which I found kinda hard to do unless I have them all done and in one piece.

To put these up I just peel it all out and then sprayed a mix of water and shampoo on the back and the glass panel. It allowed me to adjust the contact paper and get the bubbles out easily.

The third piece was the worse, since I had to use transfering tape, since it has small pieces. The bad thing about this is, if I use the shampoo mix, I will have a hard time peeling the tape out.

It'll be another day or two for the color of the contact paper to clear up, it's kinda mucky now because it's not dry yet. Once it did it'll be semi transparent (don't mind the chair.)

There are more, but maybe later.

accident do happen, let me tell you

On Wednesday night something happened, due to my stupidity (at least I think that was the course of it.) I popped the E string on my violin.

Yes, I popped it.

Anyhow, I was left with a violin that had only 3 strings, and I couldn't leave it like that, no way, least something got pulled out of shape due to the uneven tension. Then I'd be left with a useless violin as well.

At least it was only 1 string, the other three still could hold it, for a while at least.

So, by morning I called up my instructor and asked what brand of string I should use, since I can order them, but a novice like me, I can't very well just go ahead and buy the string without asking first.

My instructor said Tonica is pretty good and I asked about Dominant. He said it's good too... depends on what kind of sound I like. But at the moment, I'll settled for what I can get in midrange. (he also said that I could get the cheap one to use for now, it'll cost me a few bucks. Of course they will sound terrible, I want something I can live with for now...)

So I ended up with D'Addario. They came in set of 4 (which I didn't know) And I had the guy at the store changed it for me right there... took a while because of tuning. But still the violin (which I will now call, Metis) is pretty new that it'll still adjusting anyway, so by Tuesday when my class come along, my instructor will still have to tune it for me again.

I just checked the price for Obligato, a set of violin strings cost about $78. Dominant cost about the same I think, although might be less.

Anyhow, I'm ok with what I got right now. And the new strings sounded pretty warm. I will certainly get new sets in the future, so I'm not worry about it right now. As for my old set (3 + 1 broken one) I kept in the new string package, not that I'd ever use it again (I don't think) But it might come in handy one day.

I got a music stand, too... the table top kind because I don't need another thing to clutter up my floor, 1 easle is enough. I can just fold this thing away after I finish. And rosin... this one is red, cost almost as much as the stand. :) I liked the color of it, and it came in a little wooden box.

My neck kinda hurt. I'm still trying to find comfortable position.. I'm thinking the way I had it wasn't right... so it'll be a while yet. But my bowing hand is pretty comfortable now. :) I guess I got it right. Finally.

I felt a little awkward for a while, the way I kept having to straighten my thumb out to hold the bow, which according to the book, the instructor, wasn't a way to go.

Live and learn, ha ha..

True Blood : pilot episode

The other day I found True Blood, a new Showtime show, which is still in production stage (I'm guessing) I got to see the pilot episode though, and just knew, it's gonna be one of my favorite shows!

True Blood is adaptation from Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series. I've been meaning to read her book for a while now, so this would be a good time to start.

In the series, Vampire were out of the coffin, since Japanese found a way to make synthetic blood that was exactly like the real thing, enable Vampire to live off of it without ever having to feed from human. The product is called 'True Blood'.

At the base of this, it was kinda like Laurell K. Hamilton, that vamp were legal citizens, although no other creature appear yet (it's still the pilot after all) Its setting is also down south, so it'll be kinda weird to my ear to hear that much sourthern accent. But it should be fun. I loved the pilot episode already. I can't wait to see more.

The main character Sookie was a very moral cocktail waitress with a loud mouth, and often rude bestfriend that could not keep a job, a boss that's in love with her. To top that off, she was also a telepath.

Her trouble started when a newly awaken vampire 'Bill' stepped into the place where she worked.

Another 3 months before the show was on. I'm all shivering with anticipation. LOL

My friend's going to love it too! I just knew it.

Violin lesson yesterday was kinda fun. Since I have violin now my instructor is giving me a homework. I'm to work on a song 'Can Can' I'm sure everyone heard of that song. He said so that my fingers get use to changing note and string. It's still on only D and A string, but every note on it was use.

I worked on it for a while last night.

I was alos on the phone with Angie for a while the other night too. It was nice talking to her again. Nice to talk to someone that knew 'lcf' and can sympathize. I told her, we shouldn't say her name too often because it might just conjure her up.

Ha ha

And I was right about 'her' being single, otherwise she wouldn't call me. Typical.

Oh well, I went through it all before, so I'm not gonna dance to her tune.

Speaking of tune, (random? yeah) I got my digital tuner, a Sandner SMT 330. It wasn't top of the line or anything, but as far as I read all the review about using tuner, it doesn't matter much, it will still work all the same.

Not that I'm gonna tune my own violin, probably not for a while. But it'll be good to check if it's in tune or not. It's also a metronome, so that'll be what I'm gonna be using it for (because online metronome requires me to be in front of the computer). And if I wanna practice while sitting anywhere else, I won't have it.

Make sense? I think it does, at least in my head.

Maybe 'Can Can' isn't a good piece to practice. I kept playing from what I remember of the song, instead of going with the beat.

bridge is fixed

On Sunday I brought my violin (which I'm going to call it Metis from now on) to my instructor while I brought my niece to her MLM class.

Sunday was also the first day of her Ballet class as well. It was a trial class, and apparently she liked it so she's going back. Which mean that I would be staying longer on each Sunday waiting for her.

Anyhow, the bridge on my violin was not square, it was leaning toward the fingerboard. The little feet on it was actually lifted off of the surface a little. My instructor said that it was probably because the pieces of Metis is still moving and settling in. He said that it'll be another 6 months or so. It'll get better for 3 and then worse before the sound got stabilized. Then it'll get better as it's aged.

Well, I'm ordering a metronome/tuner. Because, even though I could get one of those webpage that offer metronome for free (actually they have it on their page) I still have to be on computer to use it, this way I could just sit on my bed or something. And tuner is good, too, because I wanna know if I get the sound right. I don't really trust my ear for right now.

Tomorrow is another class.

I've decided that for every class I'm gonna put 1 sticker on the cover of my violin book. So, I have 3 now on the cover. They are just the printout of Mai HiME and Mai Otome fanart (ShizNat mostly) there are some Fate/Stay Night as well. I cut them out to small pieces and then put the clear contact paper on it, in case I wanna take them out. (probably not).

Well, new instrument almost always meant new problem to solve...

I was taking out my violin (I'm gonna find a suitable name for it now) last night to practice bowing a little bit. Because I found myself unable to only stay on one string at the time. Especially the D string. And then I was putting on some rosin on the bow (because I notice that on both end of the bow aren't producing the sound that they should) And after putting on rosin, it was giving out sound.

But then, bigger problem, I noticed that the bridge wasn't square. It was leaning toward the finger board. Which mean, the sound was going to be off. And since I can't do this myself, (I don't wanna make it worse) I'm gonna wait till Sunday when I drop off my niece for her lesson to have my instructor look at it. Hopefully he can fix it and we won't need to get it to the store or anything.

Hopefully.

I want Guitar Hero III, so I got one, and apparently my Wii doesn't take the upgrade very well, so it won't play the newer game (which mean Guitar Hero III and Boom Blox) and since my Wii is a modded one, I brought it to the store and have them check it out. we even tried the games on their console, and it plays fine, so I guess it might be the version of firmware that mine has. Although mine plays the older games without any problem.

I should know what to do with it in a few days. After all, I wanna be able to play new games, too.

Man, I can't wait to play. Already got the guitar and everything.

The faceplate of the guitar is white, just plain white, so I might stick something on it. Stickers, probably. Most likely.

teaching old dog new trick... it can be done... no, really, it can!

I'm learning something new.

Yeah, hard to really considering learning anything when you're at the working age, you know, you finished with school and now working, and you spent all your day at your respective jobs and stuff. But since I work for.. well, me and my family I can take the time out during the day to do something else, as long as my schedule doesn't conflicting with my mother's. Someone's gotta mind the store.

I've always wanted to learn an instrument. Lack of chance when I was a kid, and so, now seemed like it might be a little late, but hey, who knows.

Well, I've read that Meryle Streep learned to play the Violin when she was 40, so that goes to show you that the age isn't important if you wanna learn. (ok, so she learned it to take the role of a violin teacher in a movie, but man, she could certainly demand a stand in or something) I've been telling my mother that we should get my niece to some classes, you know, piano, violin, cello, whatever, so she gets the skill to do something creative for herself when she's older. As for whether she would keep up with it when she's a teenager, well, I hope she will.

If she can't draw, then she can play something.

And so we started her on basic music course. You know, notes, tempo, a little bit of piano. Things that a 4 year old could enjoy. And since I'm the primary chauffeur, and they offer a violin, cello guitar (among other thing) I decided that I wanna take Violin class. It's only once a week, so it doesn't interfere with other things. Might be a little expensive, but hey it's no more than me getting the next toy.

Mom said if you want to, then go ahead.

So, my niece is taking the basic music course (they called it MLM, Music for Little Mozart) on Sunday (because Saturday is not set in schedule, we might need to go somewhere since the store is close) at 10 AM. And by the 15 we'll be starting her on ballet right after that too. (this one because she wanted to, I think she just likes the tutu)

As for me, Violin class on Tuesday (yeah, why not the same day? Unfortunately, someone else (older than me) already booked that time for piano lesson so, out of luck) at 1 PM.

Today is my third week, so far so good, I just got my violin too. Not the terribly expensive one, because I'm just a beginner, after all, when I'm good at it, then we'll see about a good one.

I don't think I'm gonna be shelling out for a $1,700 violin when I'm still just starting out. Now I'm looking to get a tuner/metronome. I'd need metronome for practice, but as for tuning, I think my instructor will probably gonna be tuning for me for a while. But it'll still be something I need to learn to do it for myself.

A while back I also decided that I'm gonna cut sticker for my glass shower stall. At first I wanted something from Mai HiME or Mai Otome universe (which for me, is equal to Shizuru and Natsuki) But it gets really complicated, and I could not find an image that I like enough to do something this big for. So I rethought the whole thing. I want something that I can look at and not go.. what the hell was I thinking (of course ShizNat will not get that reaction for me, it just that I don't wanna do it and found it came out horrible) So I picked something far less busy.

I found an image on Clo-cro site, and I thought, hey I could do that and not get bored with it too soon. I'm figuring how I was gonna do it, put on the clear contact first or cut first. Finally I decided that I'll cut first and that way I don't have to deal with the seams that will surely come with putting the contact paper down first.

I did separate the image along the places that weren't connected, for easier cutting. Still a few pieces were big enough that it's still hard to handle.

I got a few of them done already and found that a few pieces can be separated even more. So I did.

Should be done in a week or so.