making some changes

Realizing on how large the file size the images are on my main blog, with the blog title image alone taking up around 500kb, I don't think it would be practical if it would to view it on a portable device as by the fact that, on my PSP internet browser, the chase keeps running out of memory despite the memory conservation turned on. On my prepaid mobile phone the amount zoomed from 1120 to 8 in a short time.

As a rough guide, the image you see at the bottom corner of my blogs, would fit on the PSP screen nicely. I also started by replacing the memory-hungry image and temporarily put up an image. Changes to the Japanese version would take place when the English version is done.

Changes to colour theme

I have changed the colour theme for both the English and Japanese versions of my main blogs.

Both: Created links to my other blogs above Blogger's navigation bar. Currently viewing blog would have the name in English instead of Japanese and would not have any links for it. This replaces the earlier link lists (except "More profiles and blogs"). The title immediately below the navigation bar would have the links removed (replaced by the above), image resized and changed to the icon you had already seen next to the address bar (IE7, Firefox & Safari only) instead of the standard one.
All of this changes may apply to the other blogs.

English version: The colour theme has been changed to various shades of pink/red from the previous maroon/white/black. The sidebar and post titles remains largely unchanged as there wouldn't be much of a difference if I had. Background and text colour of some of the 3rd party widgets (like the music player) are changed to match the new theme.

Japanese version: Colour theme has been changed from maroon/white/black (same as the above) to various shades of blue/cyan. Colours for 3rd party apps (except for like the chatbox which is shared with other blogs that has themes with pink/red/white) are also changed to match the theme.

Known problems: The new links at the top faces difficult-to-see colours due to the colours used for links throughout that blog. (I don't want to use #fffffff (white) or #000000 (black) at all) It's hard to find a colour that is close to the theme and still be able to see it with different background colours.

Made slight changes to profile layout

I have upgraded the layout of the Japanese version to the newer Blogger layout to match the English version. On top of that, I have removed the background image of the post and sidebar widget and replaced it with a solid colour. The font size of the header has increased (even larger for the Japanese version) and has been un-bold. Replacing the RSS link is a smilar one currently only found on Blogger Draft. Alternatively, you can also lookout for the RSS logo that appears in your browser (it's normally absent or greyed-out if there are none).

The HTML of the layout had to be modified from one of the original Blogger layouts (Sand Dollar). Examples include changing of colours, adding background images, adding of the list of fonts used for this blog (like Segore UI) and creating new colour allocation areas that wasn't included in the original.

I had created a Malay language version, but deleted shortly afterwards. My command in that language is very poor compared to other languages and I want to replace what I have known about it with Japanese and English. The freakingly long sentences like "Pintu Kechemasan" (Emergency Exit) and compare it with just "非常口" in Japanese. I just don't want to blog in a language that I want to forget.

Ancient website front page updated

I have made some changes to the index page of my website that predates my earliest blog post (here actually) by several years.

• increased the width of the page from 800px to 1000px.
• added image background
• rearrangement of page elements
• added links to my blogs
• modified info at the bottom
• deleted links to Neopets pages and pkmn.co.uk

I currently have no plans to make changes to the other pages. However, I am thinking of putting up something relating to anime that I had watched since 2006. I'm going to use a HTML template from "somewhere" instead of the outdated and user-unfriendly page editor that came with it.

As the capacity has a total of 15MB (compared with todays 1GB), images are mostly to be hosted off-site like photobucket.

Of course, I can't gurantee that I would actually do that with my time commitments to other things.

myspace updates

I'm currently making some changes at MySpace as I haven't been logging into it since February (5 months ago).

For now, I shall only change the display image, anime watch list, and maybe the background image too (the ones you see now are either unchanged for months or are previously used elsewhere). Other changes will come sometime after MySpace have done their major revamp.

Constructing a new blog

Technically, it's not a new blog. It replaces "Archives of the School Papers". No point letting it rot but create a new one from scratch.

The current template is of the classic type previously used here, so to modify stuff, I have to go to the lengthy HTML layout. I currently have no clear idea on how the blog will turn out though.

Unlike the English and Japanese anime blogs (or Yukari's), the blog's post will not have any direct translation of what appears on the main blog (and vice versa) which will appear randomly. I don't want to be preassured on doing both to the point that I don't post anything at all.

As the URL of that blog will most probably change somewhere along the way, I shall not bother linking to it here. Just look out for the Japanese name of this blog listed in my blogger profile or click on the old link under the old name and hope it's still there.

Condition of my PCs

Note: This post was originally on my main blog but was moved to here 6 hours after posting as it was unsutable.

Brief summary: My main PC is getting closer to being unusable

Detailed summary: My 2002-era desktop computer seems to be failing as it has lately been making a lot of noise from the processor fan and primary hard disk drive. Also, the on board local area network port has malfunctioned and the only way to get on the network is via the universal serial bus port adapter. (Unfortunately, this also means that the maximum transfer speed is 12Mb/s instead of the intended 100Mb/s due to the USB2.0 limitations) Installing Linux or using another hard disk is not an option as a prompt message appeared saying that files needed to run Windows XP are missing and won't even allow me to boot from the CD. Due to the lack of space and non-standard AT-X power casing, placing it on another casing is out of the question, and I can't put primary or secondary slave drives.

Strangely enough, I was able to install Windows XP SP2 on a PC that came pre-installed with Windows 95 and installed a faster CD reader (that had been replaced by a DVD burner on a PC mentioned earlier) and several larger capacity hard disk drive (14 & 32 GB) on top of the existing one (4GB). I had also installed a sound card and a LAN card (10Mb/s instead of 100Mb/s sadly) too as it did not come with them. Mouse that uses a ball to detect movement, keyboard and display from that era are also use, though it can use the today's wireless USB ones with optical LED/laser detector and LCD display, though not with the DMI connection.

I couldn't think of anything to type at the moment. Sorry for the many technical terms that might have been used. I might also might not be going online until Thursday for various reasons that I might have mentioned earlier. Since I would be not staying at a hotel when overseas, finding an internet connection can be quite tricky, though not so if someone's home network is not secured.

English edition anime blog: Changed layout

I have changed the layout for the English version of the anime blog to match that of the Japanese version, which has been there for quite some time now. The navigation bar is blue instead of black to tell apart from each other without scrolling down.

In case you were wondering, the layout is a modified version of "Sand Dolar", one of blogger's default layouts. As for the one you are currently seeing on this blog, it is based on "Harbour", another modified default layout of blogger, was originally designed for my main blog. I spent a lot of time editing it until it doesn't resemble the original. However, due to limitations with the layout, I decided, at that time, to change the layout and dump the layout to here, which previously had an unmodified default layout.

Speaking of the above, the current layout is not permanent: I have plans to change the background to something that is nice, but yet readable with the text on top of it. For the header image, I have plans to use a non-anime related image with a layout smillar to the anime blogs: a spillover effect above the Navbar and the sidebar, but on the right instead of left.

Major changes to friendster profiles

If you had visited all of my profiles today, you would have noticed that there are changes to the display images and in some cases, change of name/url.

Do note that the following has been changed (profile no. remains unchanged):
# 西沢雪穂 Yukiho Nishizawa (42670116) >>>>> ￜ小林春奈 Haruna Kobayashi (42670116)
/nishizawayukiho (4623690) >>>>> /hashimotokonomi (4623690)
/hashimotokonomi (42670116) >>>>> /kobayashiharuna (42670116)

You might have also noticed that ￜ高橋陽子 (54253582) no longer uses anime images and instead uses photos, somewhat like my main profile (32399691) these days.

Due to growing number of people wanting to add me and the limited time and space to accommodate everyone (as you can tell from me not logging into all of them, except the main account, between February and May), I am going to let you know how I handle them:

• I only read the 10 most recent testimonials, after deleting duplicates
• I don't check the message inbox because if I do, I would see forwarded messages making up a large majority of it anyway
• I am very particular on the primary display image. For all cases, I should be able to see it clearly on both the thumbnail (45x45) and actual size (the latter should be larger than the former), with a face (if any) visible in the thumbnail-size version.
  
• For anime images, , and are acceptable, but and are not because they are: a) images are more suitable as wallpapers and are therefore too small as display images, b) for the 4th image: the characters in it are too common, c) for the 6th image: I see it almost everywhere and I don't want all the emo or gothic stuff to appear d) there should only be between 1-2 people in an image and their heads and/or the upper part of the body should make up more than 50% of the image, as you can tell from the first 3 images.
• I would appreciate if characters from the following anime are not used: Cardcaptor Sakura, Maria-sama ga Mieteru, Prince of Tennis, Naruto, Bleach, Gundam Seed series, Tengenn Toppa Guren Lagann, Shaman King, Pokemon, Digimon, Inuyasha, Detective Conan, Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball series, Touhou (game) series, Shuffle!, Jigoku Shoujo. Others, including Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu and Hatsume Miku, are acceptable.
• For others I would accept , and but not , and . You should get the general idea behind it: The rule mention above, lighting, how people pose at the camera (including how close), decent camera quality (picture taken at VGA quality (0.3MP) is not the same as one taken taken at 7MP and resized to 640x480), text on the image. Borders should also be avoided
  

change of display image

I have changed the profile images of Blogger (1, 2), Friendster, and Facebook to several different images that all used to have the exact identical image. Part of the reason is that the replaced image has been there for quite some time. I do apologize for the confusion that may have been caused due to this change.

Profile images elsewhere (eg. imeem, myspace, flickr) remains unchanged.