One Friday night not long ago, Esther, Lifang and me had a very enjoyable chat over Starbucks coffee on Japanese drama and anime that ended in a raging thunderstorm delivering us home at one in the morning. The chat spurred us to rewatching old Japanese dramas again, reminiscing on our initialization into the world of Jdrama and Jpop back in our secondary school days.

Following up on the chat, Esther and I decided to exchange our old vcd dramas and as I potter around collecting the assortment of dramas and anime I bought over the years, I am astonished by how many I have bought and yet watched. This will be a ongoing list of my purchases of Japanese anime and drama. Friends, if you see any that you would like to borrow, just drop me a message. =)

Dramas

ムコ殿2003 (Mukodono2003, 2003) - Nagase Tomoya, Sakai Noriko
ルーキー! (Rookie, 2001) - Domoto Koichi,
天使が消えた街 ( Tenshi ga Kieta Machi, 2000) - Domoto Koichi, Fujii Fumiya, Uchida Yuki, Sakai Noriko
遠い親戚近くの他 人？ (Toi Shinseki Chikaku no Tanin, 1999) - Sakai Noriko
ロングバケーション (Long Vacation, 1996) -Kimura Takuya,Yamaguchi Tomoko,Takenouchi Yutaka
續。星の金貨 2CD Special
續。星の金貨 (Heaven's Coins 2 / Die Sterntaler 2, 1996) -Sakai Noriko, Osawa Takao, Takenouchi Yutaka
星の金貨 (Heaven's Coins / Die Sterntaler, 1995) -Sakai Noriko, Osawa Takao, Takenouchi Yutaka



Anime
Detective Conan- Case Closed: The Time-Bombed Skyscraper
Detective Conan- Case Closed: The Fourteenth Target
Dragon Ball GT Andriod #17
Macross 7 - Volume 1-3
RG Veda
Spriggan
Tenchi Muyo! in Love
The Vision of Escaflowne
Tontoro

'Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, and they are more important than them all'

I really enjoy my lessons and the knowledge and thinking that is opened up to me. Take for example the quote by Edmund Burke, 19th century Philosopher. The observation describes the important role of journalists or media. In case you have heard this the first time, like me, the other three estates, or group of people, are the church, the nobility and the commoners.

The more I learn though, the more I find being a public relations professional a trying profession to be, what with the many roles they juggle and the amount of respect they receive. I may have to really review if I want to tread the path of a PR person but in the meantime I will enjoy the sights and sounds.

Anyway I really like the way Mr Burke (Sir? Lord?) thinks. MaybeI will give him a google after my examinations. But I should digress now for my journal is due but in a fortnight and I have yet to start on this arduous task. Yikes.

I have fallen in love with another aspect of graphic design - Infographics news.
Gone are the days where I think piecharts and stats bar look good. =)

Infographics News - Flickr Group

 

http://www.flickr.com/groups/856209@N23/pool/with/3815031684/

Info Graphics - Flickr Group

 

http://www.flickr.com/groups/16135094@N00/pool/with/930343189/

Here's a list of logo galleries to inspire me in the event logos:

http://www.logogalleria.com/
http://logopond.com/
http://www.logomoose.com/
http://www.logospire.com/
http://logofaves.com/

Being in high morale over the start to my degree, I began clearing the dust and clutter on my desk. I had so many pieces of paper lying around, with scribbles of the things I had to do that I decided to take a serious organizational approach and to do a consolidated online list instead.
Here's the list of good to-do-lists recommended online:

http://www.rememberthemilk.com/
Todoist.com
http://hiveminder.com/tour/


Decided to try out Remember The Milk as its pretty much popular but hiveminder sounds good too. Lets see how long I can keep this up. Gotta be more organized!

Life's been really busy, I'm starting my bridging modules today, after a long 5 year hiatus from school(not counting the 2 embarrassingly short semester i did at JCS for basic japanse). The decision to choose a degree from the different schools available was a hard one but i believe i had made a right choice. I'm really excited about it, knowing that it will be a good investment for my career switch and is determined to give my best. Gambatte Keri-chan! In 2 years time, you'll be a degree holder in Mass Communication!

A recent discovery of useful firefox extensions.

http://getfirebug.com/
http://mashable.com/2007/08/27/30-firefox-add-ons-for-web-developers-designers/
http://css.weblogsinc.com/2006/02/14/firefox-extensions-i-couldnt-live-without/

I'm on a roll for beautifully designed stuff. This list here comprises links to great-looking, and more importantly, free icons.

http://speckyboy.com/2008/03/04/top-40-free-icon-resources-for-web-designers-updated-speckyboy/
http://webdesignledger.com/freebies/21-best-icon-sets-for-designing-web-apps
http://www.vistaicons.com/


Free templates (with linkbacks)
http://www.templateworld.com/free_templates.html

Its amazing how much web design has evolved this recent few years. There's so much awe inspiring work that motivates me to make my work better. Here's a list of sites that I troll whenever I need my creative juices flowing

CSS web gallery:
http://www.csselite.com
http://www.csscase.com
http://www.cssrank.com
http://www.css20.com
http://www.cssdrive.com/
http://cssbeauty.com/
http://cssremix.com/
http://creamycss.com/
http://cssmania.com/
http://www.cssheaven.com/

Web (html/flash)
http://bestwebgallery.com/
http://www.designsnack.com/

Design Gallery (general)
http://www.designmeltdown.com/
http://www.faveup.com/
http://welovewp.com
http://www.httpartist.com/beta/
http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design-inspiration/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/12/the-ultimate-collection-of-free-photoshop-patterns/

Design Tutorials
http://psd.tutsplus.com/
http://css-tricks.com/

Well, I finally managed to download one of the shortlisted games, Perfect World. Played quite a number of hours at the beginning and created a total of 3 characters. I must say, for a free MMORPG, the graphics are certainly superb, definately as good as WoW.
Have rather enjoyed the customization of the characters, the engine reminds me of the Sims, which i need to install all over again if the mood to play it comes. The pretty graphics and not too bad quests should be able to keep me occupied for awhile. :D