Back to Basic Anatomy and Background Drawing Practice

Posted on August 1, 2009 in: Life Experience, Musing, Projects

council3small

- Raine, Ian and Kyouko are my latest victims of anatomy drawing practice -
Sucks like there’s no tomorrow, I know. Shuttup, lol.

I’ve settled all debts with WSA. They better not be coming up with more random debts that I have to pay, or I’ll seriously scream bloody murder this time around.I didn’t check this blog for a few days and interesting spams landed in the spam folder. It seems like spams are geting cleverer with each passing day, but not clever enough to get as Akismet and Intense Debate. Good, all good.

Art: Once upon a time, I used to have a good sense of anatomy for drawing. I used to be good at drawing backgrounds too. If I could just find my three-chapter manga, fully coloured that I made when I was in Form 2, I’m sure they’d look a lot better compared to the ones I make now. The keyword here is ‘used to’, of course. I guess all of my previously acquired skills rotted away because I didn’t pay attention to them enough. Drawing a simple Bridge of Venice is a hassle now. What a shame.

I feel the need to start over and practice more. I’ve left my six-year-old Deviantart account (~sirius-angel) for a new one (=toffeepops) to start afresh. The journal feature is very useful for my random art musing, but random oekaki/sketch log will remain at Pixiv. I still couldn’t find anything better than Livedoor/ Blogger Alliance blogs when it comes to oekaki blog service.

Speaking of anatomy, I wonder if I should re-install Poser Figure Artist or just stick to Posemaniacs. The latter is probably the best online reference ever.

Languages: While my command of Japanese is getting better (but I don’t have time and money for this year’s JLPT), my Italian and Spanish are dying. I keep being confused between Italian, Spanish and French words. A small mistake could lead to my whole sentence being written in a different language than the one I originally intended for it to be. Sucks. Also, I think it’s high time I start learning to read and write Thai. Knowing how to speak the language alone is not enough anymore. I need to be able to write and read as well – for my own satisfaction.

Hosting: Ugh, I’m still at Media Temple. I have two weeks if I want to move out, but seriously I haven’t been able to come to a firm decision! Sad, sad, sad…

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Doujin Overload 2009

Posted on July 25, 2009 in: Life Experience

YamaGoku!!!!!!!!!!! I am so gay for the Gokudera crossplayer (<a href='http://sweetchoco.co.cc' rel='external friend' title='My bff´s Mira´s blog'>Mira</a> said she does too, lol). So pwettyyyyy!!! (Extra points for being Malaysian :3)

- Aren’t their Yamamoto and Gokudera awesome? ♥♥♥ -
(More pics) もっと取った写真はこちら～

I should be posting this to Junjou, but I’m still having the blasted disappearing post body problem (even after reinstalling), so I’ll post it here instead. Although I was (and am still) sick like whoa, I still went to Doujin Overload. Well, what the heck? The venue was Hyatt Regency Hotel, which is only around 5-minute walk (maybe less, but definitely couldn’t be more unless I walk like a real zombie). Anyways, I went there at around 11am with Mira to submit a very crackish art entry to the art competition before midday, lol. We missed the first dance performance, but we were just in time for DO Band. Oh, the band was awesome. The songs performed were from Nana and Full Moon wo Sagashite. The one singing had such a nice voice~

And then we started browsing randomly. So many shounen-ai/yaoi items this year I’m so happy! Apparently, this year is all about Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Hetalia, Kuroshitsuji and Vocaloid. I’m surprised at the lack of Reborn and Dino’s popularity. I’m so not surprised at the abundance of Yamamoto/Gokudera, hehe… Speaking about Yamamoto and Gokudera, refer to the picture above :) My eyes have been following them (agh, I feel like a perv!) from the moment we arrive. No, I’m not turning into a stalker. Really. So, um, if you  guys happen to be reading this by chance or whatever, please don’t mind me. I’m just a happy and delirious fangirl~

New haircut... Does it make me look younger? Hehe. After looking around, we went to Mid City to have lunch. It started out okay until everything I was eating suddenly tasted bitter. I had to stop eating and throw my lunch away. On the way back, I got myself a haircut.

This new haircut suddenly caused a girl to speak Chinese, and a guy to speak Japanese to me at the event. Hmm, why exactly? I’d like to think I still look very, very Malaysian even after this new haircut, thank you very much :P

Before going back to Hyatt, we went home to drop off a few things. And then we walked back up to the venue and started spending money on small stuff.

I’m proud of myself for not spending more than $50 for this year’s event! I’ve got to save some for Comic Fiesta this year (cosplay too?) as well. I can’t remember how much I spent last year, but it was efinitely over $60. Maybe even $100, I don’t know.

I’ve already established that the DO Band was awesome. The last dance performance was cool too. I cannot unsee Japan dancing, though. No, seriously. I wonder if it would be cuter if young Holy Roman Empire and young Italy were to join in (I was actually secretly hoping for Gokudera to dance as well *sobs*). We then practically hunted down people to take pictures with. Well, I wasn’t complaining at the cute interaction between two Gokuderas and a Yamamoto (imagination, imagination!). After snapping pictures of/with a few cosplayers (I missed taking a picture with TYL!Squalo ;_;), we headed back home.  That was when I realised that I FORGOT TO CLAIM THE MUKURO BADGE I RESERVED!!! So disappointed. All in all, today was a fun day. Now I’m back to being semi-bedridden because of my sickness. Ugh.

p.s/ Read a longer post on Mira’s blog, Sweet Choco HERE~

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In Which Hate is an Understatement

Posted on July 22, 2009 in: Life Experience, Rant

depressedI’m wishing for a clearer vision. Maybe I’m talking about my eyesight, of maybe I’m talking about my goals in life. I don’t know. I can’t be too sure. It has come to my attention lately that my habit of getting bored so easily is not very favourable. It’s not about getting bored in lessons. It’s about getting bored at things and people. I may love someone to bits today, and gets tired of hearing his voice tomorrow. I may treasure an expensive fountain pen so much today and forget all about it, maybe even misplace it the next day. I’m currently distressed and distraught over a new dispute with Wellesley Student Apartments.

My friends know how I openly hate the AUT managed student accommodations. The staff are unfriendly, and they charge money like there’s no tomorrow. You can’t even have a small speckle of dust in your room, or you’re going to have to chuck out $50. If it’s your housemate who’s at fault, you’re going to walk in shit as well. You can’t even do anything about your housemate next door who snores like a pig every night, runs and stomps her feet along the corridors at night, opens the light because she’s scared of the dark (and wastes the goddamn electricity), brings friends into the house and tells said friends “It’s okay, you don’t have to take off your shoes” when it’s a rule that we don’t tolerate people walking the corridors with their shoes on, throws a party that interrupts the peaceful evening, keeps her door open with a guy lying on her bed at the door where her Muslim housemates walk by, and many other things. If there’s one thing I hated as much as WSA last year, it’s June (who found my blog post last year and bitched about it to someone else, who then told me she complained about it. Lol.)

But hey, I’m hating WSA more than anything now. The statement says I owe them $458.56 of rent money. I remembered paying cash at the counter, so technically, what was paid by cash doesn’t show up in my bank statement (once, when I withdrew money my mom deposited and spared some for rent. I was alone, not with Mira at that time. She paid one or two days before me, if I remember correctly.). So now I’m expected to pay for it, maybe before September. I want to just go to O’Rorke Hall right now and smash down a $500 bill on the counter, ask them to call the management next door and settle the damn thing and then leave with a disgusted “Keep the change, bitches” remark. I can still control myself, though.

Until today, I’m still angry at the people who managed our accommodation for last year. Angry at the ones who arranged for us to stay there too. We were University of Auckland students living in the Auckland University of Technology accommodation because the Malaysian government didn’t give us enough money to stay in our own University’s hall of residence, which is ironically just next to AUT’s. How stupid is that? We didn’t have a choice. We were almost strangers there. WSA people don’t have to try to clear shits up by saying that they don’t treat us any differently. I know better because I’ve experienced it (what, you think I couldn’t see how trashy the next door apartment was on the day of inspection? Bluff.)

Even if  I do owe them money, why didn’t they inform me earlier last year? Why not before I go back for a long summer holiday in Malaysia? They could have told me on the day I checked out: “Oh by the way, you still owe us money.” No, no, no. What they told me was “Okay, that’s all there is to it! Have a safe trip, bye!”

I’m so tired of all this. I just want to go back to Malaysia. I suddenly want to hug my parents so badly.

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Wordpress 2.8.1 and Disappearing Post Body?

Posted on July 18, 2009 in: Musing, Nerdy and Geeky, Projects, Rant, Screencast

I ran out of internet bandwidth while doing this, so the page load was SLOW. This is a problem on one of my WP blogs after upgrading to 2.8.1. The other blogs, while hosted on the same server, are all fine.

Right. A screencast, for once. This just shows how pissed I am right now at Wordpress and whatever glitch it just put me through. It even pissed me off more than this pissy internet connection I’m experiencing (been two days). I was writing a new post at Junjou when this happen. The screencast shows only the editting, but the same thing happens when I try to publish a new post. Once I hit publish, everyhing would disappear, leaving only the title, catagories and tags.

Going to post revisions is totally hopeless because I’ll be greeted by blank posts. So far, Junjou’s the only blog experiencing this problem. I can’t for the life of me figure out what’s wrong with it. Could it be one of those many bugs in WP 2.8.1? Could it be one or some of the plugins? I don’t think the latter is the case because all of the plugins over at Junjou are almost the same ones I installed on Caramel Toffee. Losing a long post is so frustrating. I don’t feel like writing another version anymore.

On a happier note, I’ve just released a Tabula Rasa theme for Dreamwidth:

tabularasa-coloursburst

Live Preview: [info - personal] affogato // Info: Le Petit Graphix

I’m currently trying to make a Wordpress version of it, one-column and two-column versions.

p.s/ I currently have over five Dreamwidth codes to give away.

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Moving and Choosing a New Web Host is Taxing

Posted on July 16, 2009 in: Interests, Life Experience, Nerdy and Geeky, Projects, Rant

Time for another long rant. I’m trying to save money by moving to a new host. Media Temple has been VERY wonderful to me that the only thing I worried about was money (hahaha). I worked last year, so paying for the site isn’t so bad. This year, though, I just did a little bit of work for very few clients before stopping completely. I’m in my last semester of university before I’ll be flying back to Malaysia for my last year teacher training (dread, dread, dread!). I like repeating that last sentence. It gives me a reality check aaaalll the time.

I actually have no idea why I’m being extremely picky about choosing a new webhost. Maybe I’m creeped out by the WP-Memory-Usage plugin showing me that on PHP 5.2.6, a very small blog like Caramel Toffee uses at least 20.2mb memory. Imagine throwing two more WP blogs, one Wacintaki Poteto board and one SMF board into the pit. The ease of mind only comes because I know at least 99mb memory is allowed by my current host. On Tektonic, I was always reduced to tears because of the VPS memory issues. On Hostgator, I was asked to either upgrade to a dedi or leave because of memory issue PLUS server load.

Oh, the heck? Caramel Toffee only gets 300 visitors at most per day. On normal days, it’s either 50 or 125 or so. Even Junjou only gets 500 to 1000 visitors per day and our forum isn’t as active as it once was. So what’s killing the memory? Poor scripts?

Oh, back to the memory usage stuff. On PHP 4.4.8, Project Catharsis uses up 15.6mb, but that’s understandable because I’m using NextGen Gallery plugin. I still need to be careful, though because Lax Host only allows 32mb memory limit. I don’t think I’ll move PC from Lax Host. It only costs me $10/yr with the free domain. The only dissatisfaction I have with Lax Host is that I have to manually CHMOD folders to 755. By default, new folders would be assigned to the permission of 775. I realised this when I was trying to get my CGI scripts to work. I kept getting 500 error page. Ugh.

I installed Akismet too late from getting Project Catharsis to accumulate over 1,800 spam comments labeled as ‘Awaiting Moderation’. Thank goodness for Akismet. Got it to check for spams, managed to get all messages labeled as spams and delete them all in one go. I need to remember to disable comments because PC is only using WP as a CMS, not a blog.

Basically, what I’m looking for in a new host and what I need are: Apache 2.2 or Litespeed, PHP 5.2.x, MySQL 5.0.x or 5.1.x, CGI/Perl, SSI, extra bonus if the server supports SQLite. If t supports multiple domain hosting, I want each domain to have its own root, not just an add-on domain where it points to public_html/addondomain. In other words, True Multiple Domain Hosting. SSH is a big plus because I’ll be needing it to do SQL dumps and direct file transfer from good ‘ol {mt} to the new host. From what I’ve read, most free site migration services only extend to sites previously hosted on WHM/cPanel. Well, what the hell? If I’m on WHM, why the hell would I even want to waste time waiting for them to migrate my sites when I could damn well do it on my own easily from the control panel? Somehow, the offer sounds very unattractive.

I’ve been offered reseller accounts, but I don’t need a reseller account. I don’t even need unlimited anything because well, it is limited (inodes, CPU, whatever else – what’s the point of having unlimited storage when you only have, say, 50k inodes?). I only need around 2-10GB of space with at least 10GB monthly data transfer (50gb-100gb at most).

Although paying for a whole year of hosting is money-saving, I don’t think I can do that. This is not about chucking out a lump of money. It’s about satisfaction. I like being able to pay on a monthly basis because then I could cancel my account and look for other hosts if I’m not satisfied (or need more features) after 3 to 6 months. I’m capricious that way. If I don’t like it, I move on.

I was seriously considering going for Vector Level until this evening when I get the glorious Page Load Error message. Their main site was (and still is at the point thentry is being writen) down. So much for still having 100% uptime for July (I checked their Pingdom). Hosts I’m still considering now are: Crucial Paradigm, Site5 and Webfaction. I’ve been considering A2 Hosting too, but then I won’t get the multidomain hosting that I want although their PHP memory_limit is set to an atractive 128mb. Aquarius Storage has 100mb initial memory limit which you can ask to be raised, and Pronet Hosting has the limit of 64mb, but the latter’s offering super cheap 1 year of shared hosting for signups in July – I figure they’re going to get heaps of signups. Then there’s AnHosting and Midphase, Pivotal Web and a bunch others which promise high performance hosting. I also looked at Malaysian hosts like DataKL, Mercumaya and Serverfreak, but of course they only offer yearly signup (like AnHosting and Midphase).

I need something of high performance because I’m developing something (more like experimenting) with RoR (pretend you didn’t hear that from me). Searching the web for something like ‘Top 10 Webhosts‘ is of no help. Most of them are listed as TOP 10 because they offer very attractive affiliate rewards. I believed them, once, and went for Hostgator. It brought me to tears six months later and I started cursing ‘unlimited plans’ like there’s no tomorrow.

This post is getting too long for my liking. I shall go back to lamenting and searching and comparing, then.

p.s/ Webfaction is winning my heart like WHOA at the moment~

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