coolohoh: Biohazard (Biohazard)
One day fine day... We were talking about making a Jun/Ohno fic exchange on LINE chat - that ended up becoming FishingMJ, and them folks were asking around for mods when I came up with a new idea for a revival of a comm similar to the arashi rainbow exchange. So the topic turned to one of LJ mods and what they do. Many people were curious, because they've never been mods before.

What exactly does a mod do?

Answer: Everything and anything. There is no one single answer because it differs for each community.

But since I have a bunch of communities under my belt, either as owner or mod or one of the creators... I thought I'll answer some of the mystries.

This post is also coupled with the fact that we mods at [livejournal.com profile] storm_freaks are pretty desperate to hire new mods. So if you are interested, please read this post on SF.

Let's see... How many comms am I in charge of? I've kinda lost count...

First I need to apologise though. [livejournal.com profile] arashi_bangumi has gone inactive again. I've not done anything there in a long while... I know... I'll try and look at it someday before the year ends.
So since I mentioned that... I'll start with arashi_bangumi. It's basically a community for everyone to post their Arashi reviews there. And there's nothing much for me to do besides maintaining the masterpost. I also made a twitter account and tumblr account for the site, so ideally I would post/reblog something random on tumblr (which then crossposts to twitter) every few days, but I've been pretty busy, and no one has posted a new review in quite a while... (Since 27th of Feb gosh!)

Oh wells. It's not a really active community but... Hey, all those old reviews are there to stay. At least fans can still look at the old reviews and maybe discover a little something.

Then there's my now inactive subbing comm. Don't ask for a link, you'll just be ignored. It's completely inactive now anyway. I'm even more than a whole freaking year behind on my Arashi shows. Time to sub or translate? Pfft. None. And as much as I try, I really don't see myself having the time for it anymore. But it'll still be there and I'll keep the links alive but don't expect anything much new.

Oh but we're talking about what the mod does right? Well, I'm the owner of the comm, as well as the translator. So I translated stuff. And did all the posts. I did some random posts, though J and octavia did some random posts too. I credit those random posts to the start of what became Storm Freaks... I organised the occasional contest too. What else? I posted some article translations, but those translations are right here on my blog too. Oh and member apps. I do all those too. At the start it was a nightmare. Like over 100 applications overnight and I did them all. J and octavia did the comm layout since I was too lazy to learn and fiddle with the CSS... But the intro and all the content... Yeah I did those.

Then there's [livejournal.com profile] nutty_arashi. The fic comm. Again, nothing much for the mods to do after the initial set up. Like posting the intro and masterposts and transferring all our fics there. And J did the layout again (yes, she's the layout master), as well as the banner and wonky nutty cursors and avatars. Yeah it was my idea I think, but we all brainstormed together and J/octavia were to ones who executed it. Nowadays I just update the masterposts when I have a new fic. And promote the fic to arashi_rabu and kotobayori of course.

So that's three comms down.

Next we have... Hmm, the most recent one, [livejournal.com profile] fishing_mj. I helped to write the intro and rules posts and some advertisement posts... That's about it. The other hardworking mods did the match ups and answering the emails. I've been quite a lazy mod yeah... But then SF takes up so much time...


Finally, the elephant in the room! Storm Freaks! It started off as a comment in sholicious and wanting a similar comm for all of Arashi. A few people replied that they wanted to do it too. So we did. And we dragged people we knew in. Once again, J did the layout - and has been doing one for each new cycle! I wrote the content of the rules and intro post (yes, that's basically the same formula repeated each time), I did the advertising... J did the avatars. I came up with the points system... And set up the google docs for counting the points and stuff. The rest of the mods helped with the membership and posting. In the beginning we had a schedule. One post per mod every two weeks. There were 8 of us so we'll get 4 posts in per week. Then I came up with the idea of games, which I slotted in between the regular posting days.

Then I disappeared.

It was a particularly rough patch at work so I just disappeared from LJ for a bit. Thank goodness we started out with so many mods. They filled in a posted for me. Particularly all the news, because even on my good days, I'm still NOT updated with Arashi news. Like now. I hardly do any news. But people get busy in RL and our mods have been disappearing one by one. I don't blame them, but unfortunately we really need to hire more mods. Like whole weeks would pass by with nothing but games from me. Which really detracts from our original goal of making SF a one stop shop for Arashi news and discussion.

What the mod does in SF is really varied. Initially we counted all the points ourselves but that got too much, so we now have two volunteers to help out. The mods still has to manage the membership applications though. And gather and post all the news you see on the community. The games too. They don't appear by magic. I make them. Think of the words to hide for word search. Or words plus clues if it's a crossword. Or take photos for Guess Which Item (I went out to buy those sushi/food erasers just for this too). Or roll the dice. And then the points have to be tabulated and entered (reasons why I now have volunteers for all those things!) Of course, at the end of the cycle gifts need to be bought/made and sent out. (Also why it's still not been sent - I've been busy... I think I'll give up and just go with simpler gifts...) The money for the gifts comes from my own pocket too, and previously someone else got the magazine, which they paid for. I have a really bad memory and I forgot who is it now. We've been talking about having an SF paypal account and all to pay for the gifts but... Who's going to donate? :X It's not like we can solicit for donations because that's generally frowned upon in the Arashi fandom. Maybe we could sell some merchandise but... Nah. What we really need right now is just fresh mods to keep the community going. No mods, no community. It's that simple.

In short for SF, we need mods to post Arashi news, posts to stir up friendly discussion... Maybe even post mag scans, screenshots and what not from weibo, their shows and so on. We could certainly use more activity there... And I can't promise when I'm around to post too. Many a times I forget to post something all week...


It seems like it's all giving, with nothing in return. Well, I guess you can say that. Then again I've gained much too. I made new friends. If I have something to rant about I have chats to rant to. And even though we've never met, having someone just say a few kind words helps. Even if just a little. I started out doing things I never thought I would do because of people like J and octavia. Yeah, maybe I'm famous in LJ now? I don't know. But what is that fame for anyway? I didn't do this for the fame. And if you're one of those who's out seeking easy fame... Then shame on you. It's a lot of hard work. (That's why I've been posting on SF over and over about hiring new mods.) But what I do get is new friends, a place and outlet to write about Arashi, to discuss, to have fun, to practice my writing skills... To pick up some Japanese and learn how to translate from Japanese to English. It's been a lot of fun, but also a lot of work gone in. Personally I focus more on the other thngs that I can gain from doing all these, so to me that's what makes it worth while, and that's why I'm still continuing with what I do. When I made dna, right from the very start, I told J and octavia. Let's make this the very best comm that we can. With the best translation, typesetting etc. Because someday we'll quit doing subs and although we can't put all these illegal crap in our CVs, the skills that we learnt and hone will come with us. I improved my Japanese (and English too), J improved her typesettng skills - and tried out new software and all that came along with it. Octavia... Well, she was an annoying mascot. Lol. So while I don't know if I'll still continue subbing, I do know that I've learnt stuff and the time was never wasted.

So if you have some time, and want to challenge yourself to do somethng new, why not become a mod at SF? Not good at writing posts? Then practice! And what better place than SF, with a bunch of friendly mods and members to encourage you.


So that's all. Now you know what a mod does. At least what this mod does anyway.

Oh yeah... The comm idea. I'll just share it here because heck, why not? Just like the Arashi rainbow exchange, but with all 10 Arashi pairings. Something like 10shades for the name perhaps? :P So fic authors will have to write all 10 pairings to complete a card. Maybe we'll give them a bunch of prompts to choose from. Or maybe we can have a variation of the theme and give points for each pairing completed, but structure the points according to the popularity. So that each author will be forced to write fics for the rare pairings. I've yet to hash it out properly but the key point is that, I CANNOT do this alone. It'll just die a miserable death (or I would). If anyone thinks that this is a good idea, and would like to take part, let me know! I just feel sad that the rainbow exchange is pretty much dead now... I wonder how many authors would take part though because I've been told that some people write certain pairings and certain pairings ONLY. And refuse to write other pairings... *shrugs*

Personally I've gone past that stage and I can do things both ways. Either start with a pairing in mind, or as more often is the case, start with the plot in mind and the do a 'casting' among the five and see which member fits the role I have in mind best.

Alright. It's Friday. Time to head home!
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
I guess I've been pretty productive tonight. Managed to write a few new pages for Nihongo Manabu... including an intro to japanese page. Decided to name the site Nihongo Manabu instead of Nihon Manabu... I think that'll show up better on the search engines too... and would be a more appropriate name for the site. I might change the url when we shift too... I really don't think I'll stay on wordpress.com for long. We'll see. For now... I have to write more content.

Been busy with the upcoming Australia family trip. Ah yes, I think I've not talked about it on LJ yet. I'll be in Aussie from the 6th till the 21st... and arghs... dad's sho-like detailedness in doing things just don't go well with me. And arghs... after so long we finally booked the hotel... the past whole week, every night... has just been bad. Even today too. Gah. Don't wanna elaborate more. But basically I was just busy. And like tonight when I'm not, I'm not even in the mood to watch any video, much less sub anything. So no, I'm afraid you wont see any update on DNA this week either.

I've got loads of plans for the Nihongo Manabu site... and there's loads of things I need to learn too. On both the tech side (things like SEO, using wordpress...), and the language side. I'll be writing lessons after all. Vocab lists are easy peasy. It's the lessons that's troublesome. Esp with that extra touch/idea that I have in mind. It'll take me a while to execute properly...

Gah... getting sleepy already. Guess I'll head to bed soon. Hope to have some update here soon... and see you on Nihongo Manabu perhaps? XD
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
1) Finish reading my library books. Which are now OVERDUE.
SHIT. They are EVEN MORE overdue now. Fines... T.T

2) Fics. No fics last week... CNY, busy week and all... but I don't seem to be having much inspiration this week either...
Did manage to write one last week. But I'll still need two fics this week ><

3) Repost fics from RNA to this journal.
Done. Save for last week's fic.

4) Postcards. And mailing out the prizes. Again, long overdue.
FINALLY FINISHED. The contest prizes are all sent out on my part. Octavia's gotta send out the calendars. BUT AT LEAST MY PART IS DONE. Yay! Then I need to figure out how to send $$$ to octavia ><

5) Mirrors. Gotta mirror a lot of files...
Mirrored. But now there's even more files to mirror.

6) Posts... got a lot of files to post too
Posted some today. Sorry for the flood of posts hehehe! Still got more to post though!

7) Subs... drowning in subs to do. It's always like this! Interesting episodes/stuff appear all at once!!!!
Still drowning.

8) Not yet posted my AnS review... well it's still half complete....
Status quo

9) Not yet posted my AnS vocab review either...
Still not posted

10) Watch Arashi shows. Now I'm almost 2 weeks behind again!
Still got a lot of shows to watch. Even more now... ><

New stuff:
11) Translate tweets

12) Translate music station blog entries

13) LJ inbox is always flooded. Emptied it before leaving work, now barely 4 hours later, there's over 30 new messages. I was shocked, to say the least... didn't expect to be flooded today. Then again, I made a bunch of reposts.

Phew

Feb. 9th, 2015 11:03 am
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
What a busy weekend.

And I never do get to do any of the things I should have done.

Tweets not posted - heck I still have two tweets to translate.

Postcards not written, and gifts not sorted and posted.

Holiday photos too. Maybe I'll post them on work time...

All I did get done was THAT subs. Which... not sure if J has finished working on it yet. And I gathered a whole, long list of words from that one episode, maybe if I'm free this afternoon I will sort them out and post them. Got more mail in my inbox to reply to too.

Meet up with my sec sch CCA mates last night and we had great fun. We basically just talked and talked for like... almost 5 hours? It's been so long since the three of us last gathered together. It was crazy fun. Talking about then and now. And politics... and what not. We talked till it was past 11pm... before we finally decided to go before the trains stop. I'll like to hit them up again soon. Maybe a couple of times a year would be great.

Finally cross posted my recent fics here... it's been like two weeks since I last posted anything? And there was so many fics! Hahaha! So far so good in terms of keeping up with my one fic a week resolution. In fact last week I had two. I'm still keeping that 1 week piority on RNA though, please check Random Nutty Arashi out if you have no already! Membership is open! XD Octavia writes some really good fics there. And in a completely different genre and style from me! I really like her cracks, they are first class I tell you. And if you are in the mode for some dark stuff, she writes a lot of that too! XD 
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
On my way to work:
I'll try and clear/visit those games/apps that needs daily 'care'. Also I'll find some picture in my camera roll to post to instagram and weibo. So far so good. Been making my daily two posts to weibo to earn those experience points so far. Sometimes just a short post with a random sentence in Chinese. Totally random sometimes because I have nothing to say. Maamaa. It's letting my practice my han yu pin yin a little. BUT with the unwanted side effect that sometimes instead of typing romanji into jisho.org, I end up typing han yu pin yin. Which obviously doesn't work. Like, liu instead of ryu for example. -.-'''

Still. Loads of interesting stuff on weibo. Like just today on the way back home, I read a fan report on the filming of today's VSA. In Chinese. It was really interesting and I do feel like translating it. Maybe.

When I'm too free at work:
Like it has been recently. I either write loads of fics, or read loads of fics, or try and find something to translate... or end up bumming around... spamming aibakaland and mobilism.org maybe. Or reading ebooks. Yes. I love ebooks. Or reading the news. I read techland daily (at least daily when I'm free). And today I read this long report on huffpost on the sad state of the US health care system for heroin addicts. It was really freaking long! Took me so long to finish reading, much longer time spent on that one article than I originally intended, still, it was interesting.

And yeah. I find stuff to translate... stuff to put on this blog. Or fics to write and finish and post on RNA. Then I look at the rankings. Of my blog. Of RNA. I look at the visitor counts. Because I have nothing better to do...

Speaking of rankings.


My post was freaking ranked 4th! And it was only advertised to a_ra_shi. I posted to arashi_on of cos, but it needed approval. PLUS. Somehow I've been getting more absentminded lately. Maybe cos I've not been sleeping enough or something. I keep forgetting to put things in my post (like webclap buttons etc)... and yes, after posting to a_ra_shi, I copied the html text over... and FORGOT to put in tags. And it's been so long since I posted a photo to arashi_on that I forgot they have a picture width limit. *face palm*. Silly me. Of course I had to repost later on. The power of Arashi! Thank you everyone!

Been thinking of... translating some magazine scans... I'll try that someday. But I have no idea which mag scans to translate. And I don't really know which ones have been translated already... hmm...

When I'm at home:
Either... watch Arashi shows, or try and finish that vacation posts. Day 4 is only halfway done. Or less than halfway. I did manage to catch up to all my shows though! Except for VSA of course, but that JUST got aired! So yay me!

Alrights. Time for a bath now. Got library books to read and posts to make after that!
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
Good:
Cleaned up a part of my room - and that's the most difficult part to clean up, I think.
Wrote two fics for Sho's bday. I think I'm getting better at writing now? I can write fics faster... Yet at the same time I still have trouble finishing fics... ><
Finished up AnShi subs. Finished it on Sat as planned.
Finally managed to post day 1 and 2 holiday photos.
Watched Aiba manabu, Tokyo live, and Nino San from the week before
Actually copied down a bunch of noteworthy words from AnShi. And it was really well received so I'll definitely keep it up.

Bad:
Didn't read anything last week. Got two library books that I need to read! I can't return them untouched again!!!
Didn't read any of my Japanese guide books or story books or Manga. Still! And I just vacuumed off a layer of dust from those books yesterday...><
Still nowhere near done with my holiday posts. I really need to finish those posts up... Because it's been one month already and the longer I wait the more I forget! And really... I need to write these posts so that in a couple of years I'll be able to read it and actually remember the trip.
Didn't get a chance to watch last week's vsa and ouroboros. Of course, everything else after that is unwatchable as well.
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
Bad news. I didn't manage to finish a single post on my holiday again. Yes. Again!

Good news. I managed to hit, and even exceed my subbing target last night. Despite having wasted the whole afternoon away at trying and failing to take a nap. Not too bad. I think this episode is much easier to translate too so that helped a lot. Now to continue the work and finish the episode by Saturday.

Another bad news. I'm so freaking sleepy today. Should have slept earlier but I was trying to hit my target. I'm always back at work on Mondays more sleepy then ever... Instead of feeling refreshed after a good rest during the weekend... Its always the opposite for me? Sigh. I should try and change that ne? Doesn't help that I signed up for an equipment training later on so I need to be awake. Cos I do want to learn how to use that thing. I think I'll wake up later though. Once I have something to occupy my mind. And tmr I'm going for some seminar too. And next month... I signed up for some seminar as well. We'll it's a good thing you get to learn something and it's a good change from just lazing around. Or running around the lab... And it's interesting stuff too, else I wouldn't have bothered signing up.

Back to the equipment training. It's a cryostat that was actually bought by my former group. Apparently they didn't even use it once though lol. I wonder if I'll have chance to use it next time...

Phew

Dec. 15th, 2014 11:33 pm
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
I'm been missing from LJ for a long time! It was another busy period for me again! Last week in particular was crazy! Did a grand total of 14 plates of qpcr. Together with gel electrophoresis and stuff. Gotta do another 3 plates tmr...

Last weekend was spent packing... so much so that I didn’t have time to read aya's fic at all! And I had promised her to beta it last weekend. Sigh. Tmr is gonna be a bad day. I needa finish those 3 plates AND still have to go to the health services for my hep a/b vaccine. Went today, paid but, and then the nurse tells me they have no stock. Says the stock will be here tmr. They are so freaking disorganized. Seriously. The first time round, the nurse wasn't around and I had to go back the next day too. ZZZZ! So freaking troublesome! And I'm on leave from Friday till next year! Going on holiday this Sunday till the 29th Dec, going to Beijing and Harbin! It's gonna be cold! So yeah, been buying stuff for the trip and all.

Finally updated the masterpost on RNA with the fic octavia posted days ago, and finally did the membership requests on DNA. J's been doing some for me, thanks J! So yeah, with the holiday, I wont have any new projects out for DNA till next year...

Right... that's all for now I guess!

Fifty!

Nov. 18th, 2014 10:37 am
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
Including the latest two fics posted to RNA, I now have finished and posted a grand total of 50 one shots and drabbles! That's not counting Spy Arashi.... since that's not really complete yet. But 50! Whoo hoo! And I still have so many more fic ideas that needs to be completed...

Ahhhhhhhh!

Finally, finally finished that 'birthday' fic.... for... *drumrolls* Matsumoto Jun! Hahahaha! Nope not Ohno. Gosh speaking of which it's his birthday really soon... o.o

But well... ended up doing my fic last night instead of catching up on my TV watching. Oh wells. At least I finally finished that 1000% smutty fic. It's like what... 6-7k words of SMUT. That's minusing the non-smut parts. No wonder I took so long to finish it hahahaha! It's been in the making for what... almost 3 months now! *phew* At last it's completed hahaha!
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
Because you know, I'm a sucker for stats.

In three days DNA will be 4 months old.

And so far, as of writing, we have...

4,921 comments received.

458 members.

61 entries.

20 video releases, totaling over 5 hours.

15 translations, of varying lengths.

12 random posts.

Well if octavia finishes up and posts the random post she's been working on since last week, it'll be 13 random posts.

I'm glad for all the comments our members have given. For all the people who enjoy my translations, and choose it as the version they keep. It's really... tough... Hmm. How should I put it?

Subs is like news. And yes no matter how I try and sugar coat things, I still am competitive. I like it when we release things fast, first. But unlike some, I value quality as well as speed. I won't say I value quality more because... well, somethings I'd probably never be able to get, or by the time I figure things out it'll be weeks later, if at all. I give up on some stuff because otherwise we'd never be able to release anything. And as much as we are perfectionists, we aren't THAT anal about things either. Like if we spot a mistake after encoding is done, I'd rather put it as a note in the post than make J re-encode the entire thing. Which takes really, really long, unless it's a super short video (like 1 min or so) then I guess she'd just re-encode.

Well you can say that we are balanced perfectionist? Ha did I just make up a new term? We take into account things like timeliness too. Some clips needs to be subbed fast. Strike while the iron is hot. E.g. News of Arashi say... going to host kouhaku. Everyone would have read the news a million times otherwise. And then you'd lose your audience.

Even though we have gone underground and now our membership is closed. Ha.

I guess it's because even since I got on the Internet that's what I've been doing. From the time in primary school when Neopets was all in the rage. How do you make your shop stand out? How do you attract people to look at your pet page. Or the website you made? Granted I wasn't thinking much about how to actually get an audience then... but you bet I was when I managed the Heroes Lounge in the Warrior's Hall of MapleSEA forums. Or when I made guides. Or sales threads. Or managed Facebok pages. Or helped in the HiddenStreet database. Timeliness is an extremely important thing.

But when it comes to long videos. Of their regular shows... I just can't do it fast. Or fast enough. My stamina is getting less and less in fact. I guess I'll always be slow when it comes to those. Yet I can do things like the PV making and do it pretty fast too. So are we fast, or slow? I'm confused myself as well haha. I'd think, 'yup, sorry, it's a one man translating operation so we are slow'... but hey we can work fast at times too. Even when we aren't as fast as I would have liked, we were still faster than the rest. Which makes us fast. Sometimes you don't have to truly shine. You just have to shine in comparison. In fact, it's pretty darn hard to be the brightest out of all the stars in the universe. You just have to shine the brightest out of whoever you are comparing yourself with.

I've been wanting to write the following for a while now... and since I'm *still* not in a mood to sub, I'll dive right in.

There's so much competition in the subbing arena now. Granted, groups have gone on official, or unofficial hiatus, however at the same time, more groups are springing up. Still springing up. They say when the competition gets tough, the tough gets going. Indeed. It just means I need to up my game. And me trying to read stuff in Japanese - news, Jweb entries, any random thing, and then translating them, is part of my efforts I guess.

Some people give the advice that, you should always work in aplace where everyone is better than you are. When you get there, learn from others, work hard, become the best. And then leave for somewhere in which you are the worst amongst all the rest again. So true indeed. Especially for someone like me. It's both a good and a bad habit. I automatically adjust my game according to your game. Of course there is a limit as to how much I can adjust, but it's only when I'm at my upper limits, and pushing at it, that I improve. It was certainly the case in weiqi last time. If my opponent sucks, my game sucks too. I merely play well enough to win and that was that. I don't bother putting in more effort than needed. Why waste the energy?

And so it was really a good thing that I need get into my secondary school. Where just about everyone was smarter than me. I can't even began to tell how much I learnt out of it. My English used to be disastrous in primary school. I can't spell, I can't write, I can't even speak it properly. Then enter secondary school. Where everyone spoke English. And I found that I loved fantasy stories. I visited the school library so often, and borrowed so many books. My reading speed - for fantasy stories at least - improved greatly. I could finish a Terry Brooks books in a day. Well, sort or a day? From the time I get home after school and have lunch - that'll be late afternoon, till the wee hours of the night.

Would you believe me if I tell you, languages are one of my weakest point? I sucked at English, (yes, even then, my school results were just bad, bad bad) I sucked even worst at Chinese. There I was, thinking that all those other students coming from an English speaking family would suck at Chinese. I couldn't be more mistaken. They were good. Very good. Most of them were way better than me. And they were not the 'memorize the guidebooks' type of good. They genuinely mastered the language. They could speak it well, converse well, write well. Listening is a given of course. Me? I could only speak. Writing? Epic fail. Just like my English. Or Japanese for that matter. Everyone was just freaking good. It was natural for me to be just listening in awe of their achievements. And seriously that was something that would not happen elsewhere. That did not happen in uni for example. I had a reunion with two of my juniors last year, and really, the things they talked about... it was so nostalgic, the feeling of being back in secondary school again, listening to other people talk about their achievements that was nothing to them, but will never be achievable for me. Perfect GPA in uni for example? That's absolutely nothing to them. And where was I? "Struggling to make ends meet." Scholarship holders and what not. That's their world. And the world I used to be in too. But then I couldn't make it. A failure among all the successes, that what I am. Well... whether this failure turns successful in the end is still a story in progress... let's hope we get some sort of happy ending in the end eh?

I guess that's why I'm doing things like subs... maybe that's why I played maple so much last time too. I need something to occupy my time with. All that brainpower needs to be spent somewhere, on something. And no I don't like looking at cat photos or random vine videos.

I guess that's why I left my previous company too. Even if those fights did not occur, that place could not keep me there. I was too good for that lousy company, the director too useless, too unscientific for me to learn anything from. Heck, she was nothing. Not a scientist, and an even worst businesswoman.

Now in my current job, certainly no such problems. People are experts in their fields. They clearly know what they are talking about. And the Prof/director. He's good. Learnt so much from him even though the only contact I've had with him was just a few meetings. But he knows what he's talking about and I truly respect that. He has that... aura, the charisma needed of a leader. That cranky lady from my old company? None of it. Just a false pretense that gets broken through really fast.

I think it was a real privilege to have been in my secondary school. There we could be whoever we were, however bright you want to be. Sure people do say things like "wah you're so smart" and all... but all out jealously? No. Do they ostracize you? That would just be plain stupid, because everyone else is equally smart, if not even smarter. And because everyone else is smart too, there's really nothing to be jealous about. We say things like, "X person is really smart, and very consistent with her work too. I heard spends an hour revising her work everyday that's why she's the top of the cohort... it's a really good habit but I can't do that." So there you have it. Jealous? Sort of? But then again, we can't bring ourselves to revise everyday. Or even start revision a month before exams. We don't put in as much effort, so what's there to complain about?

Maybe I'm just lucky. My batch, the people I knew, were nice and genuine. I don't know how the current students are like for sure. But you know, it came as a total surprise to me when I found out, in my last year of education (that's the 4th year), that one of the prefects was the grand daughter of the then Sg president. And only because the school invited the president and first lady to our school's 125th (I think?) year anniversary, and they forced her to present the flowers to her grandmother. She didn't even want to do it. Well I wouldn't either if I were her. That'll be just so awkward. Ok, now I can't remember if that took place in sec 3 or 4 anymore. But still. Even though we were in different classes... She clearly didn't go around boasting her status. Nor did that girl from the next class, whom I even did internships with. Only years after graduation, when my sister was in the same class in JC as her younger brother... and my sister realized after a while, and from others, that the said boy was the son of one of the well loved ministers in Sg... and I went to check his facebook... and lo and behold my friend's face was there. In their family shot. I checked with my best friend later and she told me she knew, but that girl doesn't like spreading it around. That's the kind of people you have. Those who are smart aren't boastful either. Nor those who are rich. A lot of them you can't even tell they are rich. They still take the bus home themselves... when in truth they stay in landed properties and hire chauffeurs. Chauffeurs! Or those with houses bigger than community centers. Crazy rich. And on the other hand we have all those living in HDB flats, studying in the school on bursaries and scholarships. I was, well still am, the sandwiched middle class. And as far as I encountered, we all got along well with each other. Nobody was ostracized because they were poor. Even when picking restaurants for our annual class gathering we picked affordable places. We ordered pizza and ate in the shopping center rooftop with our extra class funds. And no we don't pay exorbitant class funds, nor did we pay it frequently. We seriously suspected that the class treasurer paid out of her own pocket for the pizzas. Because I only remember paying twice to the class fund in the whole year, and it was something like... 2 bucks, 5 bucks each time? And the funds was collected because it was being used for something, though I can't remember what anymore. Could the leftovers really feed everyone pizzas? I don't think so... Granted, she's rich - she had a 400 bucks pocket money monthly in sec 1, which was just about 5 times more than what I get. But still, that was nice of her.

Oh, there was loads of cultural diversity too. We have Malays, Indians, people of mixed ancestry, loads of scholars from China (and many others from China who weren't scholars)... quite a handful of Malaysians, a number of Indians from India (i.e. not locals)... I had a classmate who's a scholar from Thailand...

But where they came from really didn't matter. Well I'd bug them with questions like how they find Singapore, where are they staying (which hostel)... but well. What else? Sure, some of those from China had bad English initially. Then they got special English classes every freaking day after school. I was so jealous. Like hey? I NEED those English lessons too? Indeed. In what, one year? One of my friends under that special classes program scored better in her English comprehension than me. Like... !#%%U!#%!$185*&!)$!$2!!!!!

Seriously. Country or background didn't matter. Everyone had good English. Everyone was better than me. It didn't matter if they came from Malaysia, Thailand, or China. They were freaking good. And better than me. So I really don't judge people by their country. Because I know of people from many developing countries who are seriously, way better than me.

But of course. Just because the top people in that country is good doesn't mean everyone is good I guess. Reality check in uni once again. People from other countries with really poor English, some even admit that they don't understand a single thing the lecturer was saying (she spoke accented English. Some European accent... which was fine for me to understand, except that she doesn't know how to use the mic properly, and she mumbles, so most of the time I can barely even HEAR what she's saying.) That poor guy didn't even bother going for the lectures. At least I can understand what she's saying when she speaks up and I can actually hear her.

Again, you get reality checks whenever you're not with groups of smart/understanding people. Being smart is both a good and a bad thing. People hate you for being so smart. They get jealous, and they give you the cold shoulder. Yeah, I've got an ego. I love flaunting at times. But really, normally in real life I'd prefer that you don't know anything about my history at all. Because once you do, you'd start judging. You'd think I'm so and so. Which may or may not be true. You'd think I'm really smart, aced all my exams so on and so forth. But in truth I did a lot worst than the rosy picture you automatically have of students from that school. I feel that I'm a failure. But how could I tell you that? You already think the world of me. I'd say I did badly in my A levels, which is true, but you won't believe me. "How could it be? You're joking right? You're from XXX school after all." *shrugs* True I do believe I'm better than a lot of the people out there, the general public. But I wasn't even half as good as you'd imagined exams wise. Well I just suck at exams. But that's all that mattered in Singapore isn't it?

Better that you don't know at all. And better that I just keep it to myself when I think whatever problems you are having is really trivial, and can be easily solved. Better that I just pretend and nod when you say a particular science concept is really hard to understand, but really, I learnt it all in secondary school already. In this aspect, it's probably easier to be dumb than to be smart. You won't know my true self unless I judge that you won't judge. You won't know unless we are close enough. For the longest time everyone on the MapleSEA forums thought I was a male, which was exactly what I wanted them to think. It's fine. I'd rather things be that way.

Looking towards my future... I don't know. Where can I find that place where my light shines the dimmest? Where can I find a place where everyone is smarter, and more hardworking than me? I have a feeling that the answer to this question lies outside of Singapore.

Just yesterday, the PI gave me that lit review to do, and in searching I kinda missed my usual lunch timing. So I went and took the same bus as the PI did - she was eating lunch with another RF. And during their conversation she mentioned me. The other guy was lamenting about having to write proposals, and she said that he should stop complaining, and she was even getting me to write a proposal - well she isn't though. But I wouldn't mind if she did, or trusted in my ability enough to do so. The other guy was like, but she's just a young little girl (well it's their way of expressing things in Chinese). She said 'But she's really good though, she knows what I want, not like other people who just come back with a pile of rubbish."

So that's it. Demystified. She's using me because she likes that work I did. Well on hindsight I guess that's pretty obvious right? You won't keep asking the same person so do random task for you if they did a bad job. But I didn't think I was doing an exceptional job either. I didn't even do much? Nor anything really that important? And for all I may know she was only picking me because I'm sitting right next to her. She only has to stand me and look over the partition to ask for my help, which was exactly what she did. Who's to say that she wasn't just calling on me out of convenience? Or because, as it happened with the lit scan, the other person(s) she was looking for was not in the office yet?

And no, I don't think she purposely said that to flatter me. The tone and flow of the conversation and her character. It's all good then. Somehow I've been able to make my tiny mark. I found some footing. The life sciences student in a sea of chemistry and civil engineering grads might actually be able to find her place after all.

Better still. She revealed that I would actually be working on that new project together with one of the sups in the old project. That project that she asked me to do a lit scan of. This is it. I really hope it'll work out well. That I won't be dragged into another project as I initially thought I would be. This would be it. My time to shine. The experience I'd get from following a project from inception to the end would be phenomenal. Rather than being thrown into a project halfway as it happened previously. I'd actually know exactly what is going on. I really hope I'd be part of the proposal writing process and all. I want to be a part. I hope there's no rule that only RFs can do those things. Because I frigging want a piece of that pie. It excites me till no end. Knowing the entire story, doing the lit scan and being able to read up... I'd actually know what's going on, and I'd actually be able to contribute stuff. I might even be able to think up of some side experiments that could lead to a paper. I want that. With this previous project... everything was just a half effort. Even the qpcr. On my end I've done my best, but there were too many things out of my control. The protocols, the kit used... it was all taken from the PhD student, from what the group had been doing before. And now that I've learnt a little more, I certainly don't agree with the way he carried out things. The results... aren't really reliable...

But well... from what little lit scan that I've done... I think there's quite a lot of bio, life sciences to be had in that project. My field. Even if I'm not really well versed in it. But still, it's my field. And I can always learn. That project could end up being really good for me. Let's hope things turn out well.

To do list

Nov. 3rd, 2014 11:06 am
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
1) Sub AnS. Went out yesterday with my family and that was pretty much my whole afternoon gone. And since I woke up really late, my whole morning was gone too. In the end I only did FIVE minutes of AnS. FIVE MINUTES. Trying to finish it before the next one comes out on Thursday is almost mission impossible now. I did copy the vid to my phone but... see the next point.

2) Lit review. I reached the office really late... at what, 9:40am? But well the rest of the ppl were even later! Beside the senior research fellow (who's now an assistant prof or something). She was looking around the office for ppl to delegate tasks to, but there was no one around. And well... since my experiments are all finished besides the ones waiting for the machine to be fixed... I got a lit review to do now. Lit scan more like? Either way. Work. *groans*

3) Fics. Loads of half written fics...

4) Reply to comments in DNA, and clear my LJ inbox. I cleaned my inbox down to 450, and now it's back to 500 again...

6.3k comments posted! Whoo hoo! And what? Crazy! I'm under 900 in user ranking?! Since when! Last week it was still 900+++. Wah! Thanks minna! For visiting my LJ and reading my random posts. How did that even happen? I've not even posted anything particularly exciting in my LJ recently. No news translations of any sort.

Speaking of news translations. Remember the news article I translated about the AnS Hawaii special? I was struggling with the part on Aiba and the surfboard. I couldn't figure out (see, my Japanese grammar still sucks) if it meant Aiba went with Jun, or he bought it for Jun, or whatever else. After watching the episode, clearly they meant he bought it for Jun. Oh wells. I'll go back and check on my erroneous translations again. Edit: Reading the article now, it all seems so clear. How the sentences were 'split' and all. Arghs. Hindsight hindsight hindsight. It's always much easier to understand when you already knew what happened. Tsk.

And I just checked, RNA is at what, 613 ranking? Crazy! It was 700s last week! Darn. I so very much wanted to be post more on LJ this week. Like actually upload and post all the photos that I've been promising since weeks ago. But I really should shut up now and work on that lit review. *hhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa* *sighs like Sho did in Abunai*

Dang it!

Nov. 2nd, 2014 02:14 am
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
Sigh. So I finally started trying to catch up on my Arashi shows... was watching the 11th of Sept VSA, and guess what? They mentioned V6's butai, and that was when Nagano asked Arashi about watching the concert. Seriously! If I'd watched it I would have lesser problems with the Music Station subs! Sigh. After this Hawaiian stuff I really need to catch up! And I shall try not to lag behind so much again!!!

Right now, I shall just start uploading my mirrors and then get to bed! Oyasumi!

Hurrah!

Nov. 1st, 2014 08:30 pm
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
I finally, finally finished abunai today.

And I was starting to watch some arashi shows... from two months old hahaha! Starting with that k8 24hr tv AnS episode hahaha! Was watching halfway when my dad came to tell me... my sis's macbook pro - with retine display, is here! Hahahha! Hurrah!

And we thought it'll only deliver on Monday! Hahaha. My sis just got an sms from apple saying that it'll deliver today... and before she even got to check the delivery status the doorbell rang! HAHAHHAHA. So I spent bulk of the afternoon helping her set up the stuff... it's still an old stock, OS X Yosemite wasn't installed! So we got that done, I help her update her iOS too, and we tested out some of the continuity and handsoff features. XD Neat! XD And she has keynote, numbers and pages. Yet to see if I can get it on my lappy too... hehehehe. I've still yet to change back some icons after I updated my lappy to Yosemite.

So well... I couldn’t watch as many Arashi shows as I originally wanted to, but no regrets, I do enjoy tinkering with computers and showing my sis some stuff after all. And then... AnS tonight. Ahhhhhh. I'm ambivalent about it. Of course I'm really excited to watch it. But that means... work. Arghs and I can't wait to watch VSA, and the NHK documentary too. Loads of work coming up. Oh wells. It's gonna take me a long time to finish them all!

Rights. Shall check out the app store, and then finish watching that old kungfu (6th sept) AnShi video!

EDIT: YATTA! Got it! Hahaha! Finally have my iWork suite! Nice! Azas! YAYYYYY!!!!
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
Found an ebook version of The Devotion of Suspect X. Yay! Now I can start reading the Japanese version while comparing with the English version. *wonders when I willa ctually get round to doing it*

In other news. This is what happens when I don't spend sufficient time cleaning my LJ inbox for two weeks.

Gotta get cleaning soon... >< Have not replied to comments on DNA in quite a while T.T

jweb

Oct. 29th, 2014 06:58 pm
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
Ahhh. I just took a closer look at the new Topics on jweb. Three entries as of now. One on Aiba's new movie. One on the music station zero G perf, and one on the Tokyo international film festival opening. Ahhh interesting! It'll be nice if I can translate it by today, before their official trans is out. But alas the entries are really long! Hahaha! All these translations will only be going to DNA though...

Tired!

Oct. 16th, 2014 12:52 am
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
Watched kenshin today and it was good! Loved it!

Great news. I finally drew a Nino Arashimikuji lot. Bad news, I'm too tired to translate anything now.

In other news, I managed to hit almost 50% of abunai last night!

Not too bad...

I *might* actually be able to finish it on Friday night or something.
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
So it opened last thursday.. and guess what? It's ending tmr! So I gotta go book the tickets for the last show tmr after work today. Why not book online? Because there's a freaking booking fee. Plus no further discount from cards and what not. And I don't mind bring by and shop a little on the way... hehehe...

Thank goodness my sis did check. Else I'd miss it again. Hahaha.

Why is it on air for a freaking 6 days only?

Anyway, I totally slacked last night. And that's bad because I'm going out on wedn too. When will the subs ever get done? Hahaha!

S5S is active again! Yay! Revival! And competition! Hahaha! Nah. Competition is fine. As long as it's not half baked subs full of mistakes I'm happy.

Gosh.

I watched it. Last night.

Zero G preview

Love it.

The HIPS. The HIPS. Ohno's trademark hips shaking move. The way he moves his hips is just different from the rest! Arghs can't wait to watch it! The full PV, the making! Ahhhhhh! Ahhhh the making! I wonder if I can finish abunai before the making comes out.... hmmm... probably not hahaha. Totally slacked last night instead of doing abunai as I should have been.... opps!

Sigh

Oct. 13th, 2014 09:27 am
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
This is bad. I'm only 1/3 done with that dangerous work. And I have another half done episode. And another episode that I'm about 5 minutes done. And another episode that's one minute done. Seriously... arghs.


The good news is that I'm a little free at work now. Because I don't have any pending experiments to do till my sups get back to me... the bad news is, I can't do subs at work. The other bad news is, I will probably have properly work kind of work to do soon.

Ah. No luck with the jweb entries still. All I'm getting is repeats now. Not even new entries from the members! I think after 4 or 5 days I only got a single new entry on a first day, and the rest were all repeats. Sigh.

Maybe I could try working on some fics. Or some translations. We'll see.

News

Oct. 11th, 2014 05:55 pm
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
Good news. DNA will have a release today.

Bad news 1. It's a really short release.

Bad news 2. I am, no surprise, totally behind my self created schedule again. What's new? :X

That's the reason why I don't ever announce what we are working on. Or promise to work on something. Or take requests. Because chances are I won't be able to do it in the time frame promised. Heck, I can't even fulfill our internal Mafia requests already hahaha.

Totally was not in the mood to translate today after waking up with that Sho dream. And I must have missed 'spamming but not actually spamming' on forums because I went from 0 (or was it 1?) posts on Aibakaland to... 12x in a day.

And bad news is that it distracted me from subbing. The short video ought to have been finished ages ago but I only just finished it. Oh wells.

Going out with my family again for dinner. Ciao!
coolohoh: Biohazard (Default)
I'm tired. And kinda feeling like a zombie. But I guess I should make the obligatory bday post so here it is! Well... not that I did make one for Nino but anyway... I just suck at remembering ppl's bdays ok? And I don't have anything special to post anyway. Not even a screenie...

But well... I do want to update a bit about my week, and post some photo spam (mostly food). But tmr I guess? Too lazy now. And tired. I slept almost 9 hours last night but I'm so tired. Tch! Forever #notenoughsleep.

Well Nep league did eat up quite a bit of my sleep time last week... maa. I still have a short clip that I planned to do today... so ja ne! I think I should slow down a little. Suddenly my random mafias are drowning me with requests. That's why we don't take requests from members. We don't need to! I feel that I'm releasing a lot! Maybe its just an illusion hahaha! But hey we have over 3 hours worth of videos subbed now!

Ah... got side tracked and watched bits and pieces of the nep league we did... J did a great job with the type setting! Love it! <3

Okays... bath, then subs...!

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