Fanfics reposted without permission

Well I think it is all over LJ now. But if you've still not heard the news, here it is.

Someone has made a website: http://fanfic-journal.com/ that is using a bot to search the web for fanfics (from all kinds of fandom) and the entire fic post is being reposted on that website, without permission, so even so much as a squeak to inform the writers. This is absolutely intolerable.

As far as I can discern, the only thing we can do is...
1) Use the search field to see if your fics have been reposted there. Search your username, fic titles etc.
2) Leave a complain here http://fanfic-journal.com/complain-here/

I would seriously want to get that site shutdown. Stealing people's work like this. I don't even see the point for having such a site.

Apple

Well well well. No new lappy from Apple in yesterday's announcement. My sis certainly feels cheated cos she's been waiting in case Apple released a new lappy. But well now it turns out that she needn't have waited.

New 5k high res screen for the 27 inch iMac. But it's pricey though. And 27 inch... Starting at 3.4k SGD! Maybe I'll just get the cheap 21.5 inch? Idk. Do I even want to get a new iMac? That's a big question. The cheapest 21.5 inch iMac... the specs don't look much better than my current lappy? The thing is, I'll need to get a ram upgrade though. 8gb of ram isn't enough for me. Which means more $$$. $280 more in fact. Unless the stores are giving out free upgrade promotions. Ahhhh. I'd definitely miss my trackpad if I switch to a desktop though. Buying the magic trackpad? That's 98 bucks. Or well, I could get the magic trackpad and use a normal wired mouse as I always use. Maybe I'd do that. Idk. But I do want to try the multi touch apple magic mouse. Oh wells. It's not even decided that I will get a Mac yet. I can slowly debate this out if I do decide to get a mac. Sigh. It just has to be that my lappy micro hangs at all the times when I'm actually trying to get something done, like doing subs. And that really pisses me off. Just normal web surfing? No problem. Streaming the live broadcast yesterday? Which means running safari, and firefox at the same time, plus I have VLC, word, AND marsedit open at the same time. No problem. Ahhh firefox tends to die after I download a few things off mega though. That is a problem. It just sucks up all the ram and die. Chrome uses so much ram too, it takes super long to start up and tends to hang midway, so I've given up on it. Ahhh where are the good old days when I ran all three browsers in parallel? It used to be able to take it!

I get what my friend meant when she said she used her old mac lappy for what... from secondary school (or was it primary?) to uni? In the end she finally got a new mac lappy in uni. But NOT because her old one spoiled. It's still perfectly usable (minus the super low by current day standards specs). Her whole family uses mac and none of her mac computers have spoiled before. I fully trust Apple on their reliability. The thing with technologies is, you don't buy it till you ABSOLUTELY need it. Because it changes so fast. In another year apple would probably have tweaked their line a little. Things that you won't even notice unless you are following really closely, like a better processor or something. I'll need a new lappy, or desktop, whatever sooner or later. The question is do I absolutely need a new one now, or should I hold out for the next refresh? Do I want to buy one NOW and lock myself in to this technology for the next 4, 5 or longer years? Or do I want to hold out a little longer. That's the question.

(no subject)

I would love to say that Friday is a slack day. But it's not at all that slack. Spent the morning washing all the tubes that i've been using the past week or so. Then I needa put them in the washer later, since it was all occupied just now. And then there's uv-vis to do. And then after that there's the usual cleaning up. Washing and soaking of tubes. That takes me longer than the measurement itself seriously. And results to be keyed in. Managed to do a lot of sets this week. GC is still down so I can't do the other test. Sigh. Also another group asked if I could help with qpcr in two weeks. I can't say no can I? That's like my forte, I should hopefully finish with all these backlog in two weeks - provided that the GC is working - and I think its pretty likely that I will be put into their group in the future anyway. I do need to give them a reason to keep hiring me. And in this chem and engineering oriented environment, qpcrs are about the best choice and chance I have. No matter how nice and slack this place may be, I still need my own niche to survive here. Not just here and now, but for the future too. While trying to go as broad as possible, you need depth too.

Ah. Another lonely day. Having lunch alone again cos my usual lunch buddies took the 11:30 bus out. They asked me to join but I had that bit of washing to do, and I really hate leaving just that not of incomplete work like that. Oh wells. It's just yet another #foreveralone day. What's new? At least I've already talked to one person today, so it won't be one of those rare 'I didnt talk to a single person besides the stall holder day'. I don't think I even uttered five words but it counts ok?

This week...

Is just going badly. So, the GC is down, and I needa repeat those experiments. It's been down the whole week already. And then today, the UV-Vis is down. Arghs. I gave up. There is another UV-Vis but it's reserved for the group who bought the machine after 2pm, and I was there at 1:40pm, with a whole lot of sample IDs to fill in, and enough samples to take me at least 40 mins to complete. Nah. I just decided to leave it till next week. In the machine I normally use, I have an excel sheet already made with all my sample IDs keyed in, I just had to copy and paste. (No internet, no thumbdrive, no way of transferring that excel file.) Not gonna start on a new set of that experiment today either. So while it means I'm now free to spam everyone on LJ, it also leaves me feeling rather pissed.

Everything seems to be against me finishing that backlog.

The bunch of FYP students working at my bench - my group's bench! Using our micropipettes and stuff without permission from us - their mentor told them to use it... arghs they are just pissing me off. It's not exactly those student's fault, more on their mentor who did not teach them properly, but it's pissing me off so much. They are really ignorant of basic lab rules too. First day and I spotted on of them DRINKING in the lab. Right at the benches. And they just leave their bags and belongings all over the place till I told them flatly to put in underneath the labcoat racks. Do you know what sort of place the lab is girls? It's not a freaking play area! Basic lab rules like no eating and drinking in the lab! And your belongings! Just throwing them all over the lab chairs like nobody's business. Seriously! Their mentors didn't tell them to put their bags elsewhere too! All of them! Gosh! And you know where they put their bags? Right in front the place with the bottle of Ag2SO4. That exact same bottle of chemical responsible for the ton of holes in my brand new jeans - I took a photo, shall share it this weekend. I feel really sad just looking at my jeans. And they freaking just threw their bags and things all over the place. Freaking dangerous. Obstructing the way too. Arghs they make me really pissed off. Like some girl even asked me at the start how to change the volume of a pipette. I was like WTF? YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO USE A MICROPIPETTE? Hello! You are in UNI already aren't you? I learnt how to use that in secondary school! Sure it's a 500ul - 5ml pipette, but it works EXACTLY the same way! Plus you are using my group's pipette without permission. They wanted to take our cuvettes too but I stopped them. Yeah they are quite poor things because their mentor didn't prepare anything for them. They don't have enough disposable plastic cuvettes and had to keep washing and dying them. Disposable syringes too. So they were taking up all the space on the bench to air dry their stuff. I don't want to scold them for that because it's not their fault they need to reuse those disposable stuff. But it's just the whole way they are NOT taking lab seriously and all that irritates me. And there's this new girl who just appeared yesterday, that's again, putting her bag on the chair (and no one tells her where to put her bag! Like seriously!), taking up someone else's bench, and even using her macbook right on that person's bench. I'm pissed up I really can't be bothered anymore. It's not my bench and that guy isn't even in my group anymore, so I don't really have a right to chase her off that bench I guess. As for her belongings. I don't give a shit. If someone accidentally gets some acid or sludge on it, it's none of my business. You're freaking in university now. You should know better than to put your belongings there. Seriously. Freaking, freaking pissed.

Jweb - Arashimikuji Part 3

Okay. Let's have some Arashi related things because I need a change of mood.

Got a few new lots from Arashimikuji. Including one from Nino. Yeah, I know there are official translations of everything on jweb. Their translations isn't perfect, neither is mine, I just want to be 'extra' and translate it ok?


( Lot no. SS-00002 )

( Lot no. SS-00006 )

( Lot no. NK-00003 )

( Lot no. OS-00004 )

Jweb. What's paid and what's free.

OK. I'm slow. I know, I know. I've paid for jweb for like half a month before I finally could differentiate which parts of the site is free and which parts aren't. Had to use another browser besides my stock Safari in iOS to test it out and make sure...

But well, I bring you some jweb news (some not that new though)!For people like me who have never explored jweb mobile before!

First thing first. It's a mobile only site. If you access it from your desktop/laptop, it'll show an error message asking you to access it from your phone. I'm sure there are ways to get around this... without even googling I can tell you that there are android emulators for the PC around and you could probably open the site using that. There's probably loads of mobile browsers emulators too. But if you have a phone, just pick that up instead? It's the most straightforward option. So, all the links that I shall here will only work on mobile.

http://i.johnnys-web.com/page?id=2&artist=10
That link will take you to the Arashi homepage. If the site is not in English, you can hit the menu button the top left hand corner. Under the support section (very last section), pick the very last option, that will take you to the language selection page. As you probably already know, the site is available in Japanese (of course!), English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean.

What's there to see right now then? First up, there's the video message. Just tap on the big 'Message videos currently available!!' button and hit Arashi up. The short version, just advertising their Dig Italian album, and a little about jweb. Well that's a week old now, posted originally on the 10th of Oct. But if you've not seen it yet, no harm taking a look. Just a short promo since we don't get to see the full, long video unless we are Family Club members. But hey, Arashi dressed up redder than Santa Claus, and Aiba making little mistakes and everyone laughing it off is adorable right? On the first day of airing the English subs weren't available, but it's up there now.

There's also "THE DIGITALIAN" Special release site. In a big button right near the top. You can't miss that right? There you can see the album info, such as the price and tracks, and the messages from the members. This morning there's only Jun's message, but Aiba's message appeared when I checked at noon, so I'm pretty sure messages for the other members will be up soon.

They have a melody section there too, but that's for jweb subscribers only. Basically, music box/melody versions of their songs (Zero G, GUTS, bittersweet and daremo shiranai). I still have not listened to them yet though... :X

Anyway. In Aiba's message, he promises that the album is not a filled with digital songs only. So that's good news for all those who aren't that fond of digitalised songs :).

There's also this additional "Topics" section that's only available on the Japanese version of the site, but it's empty right now, so I have no idea what will be inside. I *may* translate it if there's something interesting next time and it's still not around in the English version.

Right, that's all for now!

[One shot] This is it

Title: This is it
Length: One shot
Rating: G
Pairing: Matsumoto Jun
Summary: Jun's thoughts in Hawaii.

A/N: I don't know what got to me, but I suddenly had an urge to write a fic from Jun's POV. My first first person fic. I hope it's alright... I finished it so long after I got the urge that I can't remember what I wanted to include in this fic originally anymore.

( This is it )