SSD

Dell fucked me up for the second time. Sigh.. Less than 4 years old and this laptop already killed 2 HDD. I was frustrated when my laptop was acting up again 2 weeks ago. That turned out to be a blessings in disguise: it made me back up most of my data and that made me not as emo as the previous HDD death.

It seems that getting 100% disk when nothing is running is a sign of imminent death of the hard disk. I should take note of this instead of googling and killing all the various applications. Similar to previously, initially I thought a failed Windows Update was the culprit. It was sudden again: the laptop was still working fine in the past two weeks and I was still in the middle of watching videos on Saturday morning when it suddenly became super slow. Restarting a few times did not resolve the slowness and by Sunday morning, it was no longer able to load Windows. Booting up triggered disk check and repair and subsequently, advance troubleshooting which none of the option worked.

I was thinking of using my office laptop to create a Windows installation media but I do not have 8GB and above thumbdrive. I borrowed from my landlord and then I realised my office laptop is secured and preventing me from opening any .exe. After this, the laptop completely died. I had to consider myself lucky because at the very last minute, I still managed to transfer the last bits of the files through notepad that was opened via command prompt. I did not manage to transfer remaining 4 giant folders but I think I should be able to redownload them anyway. 2 of them are Dissidia NT soundtracks that I did not even unzip yet.

I attempted to call the carousell guy who helped me 2 years ago but somehow my message did not go through. I ended up searching and found other service provider with many hundreds good reviews. I contacted 2 and only 1 replied. It was already past midnight so it was lucky that the guy still replied. Based on description of my problem, he was sure that HDD was the issue and advised me to change to SSD.

He was not contactable until yesterday around 6pm. He called me and came down last night. Due to busyness, he only reached me at 1245am. I thought he would return it to me another day but he did it immediately in his car and by 105am, I got my laptop back. I am irritated with myself now because in my rush, I forgot about the protector sheet (between the screen and keyboard). It is a minor thing and I normally only use it when I have to bring my laptop around, which is maybe only once or twice a year when I fly home, so it should affect me that much. Can't help the perfectionist side of me..

I forked up $160 for 250GB SSD and his service. That brought up the total cost for this Dell fucker to $1210 in less than 4 years.

The aftermath of this incident the thought of paying more attention to my portable HDD that I am using as back up. My 1TB wa bought in 2012 (wow! that is more than 7 years old) and is left with 70GB-ish so it is time for me to buy a new one. SSD is almost 4x more expensive than HDD so I am giving myself a break until this weekend to decide with a calmer state of mind. This weekend is May and I need to plan my credit card spending to maximise the points -that is my reason. While searching, I see that 250GB SSD for laptop is below $100 so I actually paid more than $50 for the guy's less than half an hour service -_-"

Glory of the Losers

The birthday present from myself for myself fully arrived belatedly on Friday. I ordered all in one order at Book Depository but each book was sent individually, even for those notified as sent as a group by email. That is why the books were sent and subsequently arrived one by one.

I have been excited with the new Gundam Wing manga which bears the title Glory of the Losers now. I got even more excited when a US publisher picked it up for translation but I promised to wait until all volumes were translated before buying. Honestly I was hoping for a boxed set but after realising that Vertical Comics seldom has boxed set, I decided to buy. In fact, I knew about its completion rather late. The final volume was released in November last year but I only knew about it last month just before Circuit Breaker.

The original Gundam Wing manga only has 3 volumes. It was released in Japan in 1995-1996 and Tokyo Pop did the US version in 2000-2001 (for $9.95 each). Epizode Zero is a prequel and the US version was done by Viz in 2002 ($16.95).

Glory of the Losers covers the original story as well as some elements from Epizode Zero. Still, it is quite impressive on how a 3+1 volumes originally can become 14 volumes now although certainly the original 3 volumes are too condensed considering the story in anime is 49 episodes long. The Japanese manga ran from 2011-2018 while thank goodness Vertical Comics published the English version quite quickly from Jul 2017-Nov 2019 (for $12.95).

The mystery of the title is answered in the manga. It is quite interesting to note that actually in Gundam Wing, the protagonists keep losing and that is how the title is derived. The G-team is initially sabotaged by OZ on Earth which results in them being disowned by the colonies which they think they are fighting for. Subsequently they are captured by OZ in space and when they return to Earth to protect Sanc Kingdom, Relena surrendered to Romfeller to stop the war. The G-team escapes to space again while Relena is soon disposed by Treize just before the final war. Only in the final war that the G-team stops the madness from both White Fang and Earth, while Relena subsequently becomes the central figure of the ESUN in the aftermath of Eve War.

There quite a number of differences in the details of the plot between the original 3-volume manga and the Glory of the Losers. I cannot really remember the full anime so I am not sure if they also differ. I am not that bothered with the minor changes with details of the plot (as the main plot is unchanged) but I am quite irked with the most stark difference which is the mobile suits. In the last part of the Glory of the Losers, the G-team is already using the Endless Waltz versions of their mobile suit. In my head, these cool versions are always the Endless Waltz versions so it is quite peculiar to see them before Endless Waltz. To add to the confusion, the full title is Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Endless Waltz: Glory of the Losers but the story does not include the original Endless Waltz.

I am very happy with the Glory of the Losers as the art style is prettier than the original manga. I miss the gag manga strips included in the original manga, though. Anyway in terms of the story, I think it is a very good re-telling and now it makes me want to buy Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin which is also by Vertical Comics.

My reason for including the price (the $ is USD by the way) is to make a point about the price. Indonesian comics almost tripled their prices now compared to 2000. Compare that with US comics which hardly changed in price. In addition, these comics are printed in US and not in China to suppress the cost.

Just for further record, the other old Gundam Wing mangas are: Blind Target ($12.95 by Viz in Nov 2001 for first print and Jun 2002 for second print), Battlefield of Pacifists (1997 release in Japan; 2002 release by Tokyo Pop for $9.99), and Endless Waltz (1997 release in Japan; 2002 release by Tokyo Pop for $9.99).

Note: for those I do not indicate the original Japan release, it is because the US version did not indicate so. Anyway let's enjoy the art of the manga covers hehe...

Episode Zero and the original Gundam Wing Manga

Glory of the Losers 1-4

Glory of the Losers 5-8

Glory of the Losers 9-12

Glory of the Losers 13-14

Blind Target, Battlefield of Pacifists, Endless Waltz

I normally do not consider comics as my precious toys or collectibles but Gundam Wing is my bias so this is an exception haha.. After all, the new covers are really pretty :D

My Lord and My God

The second week of Easter is the week of Doubting Thomas. It is one of the readings that usually stab me quite hard in the heart because my faith is weak. While it is easy to say "I believe", "I trust",  "I surrender everything to God" when things are well, that is not the case when time is hard. Since the past week, I received the news that my dad was unable to walk due to increasing weakness and numbness on the legs, followed with loss of bladder control, and finally with the tumour metastases to the spine.

Of course I am far and there is nothing I can do. In fact, ever since his colon surgery in 2015, I sort of surrender everything to God. I am not an expert but I learnt a bit about cancer and based on the condition described by the surgeon at that time, every additional day is God's blessings. After hearing the news, there is nothing I can do, except to pray so that God will be with my family back at home. I am also more worried about my mum and my sisters if they are prepared for the worst possible outcome since after all, this is a spinal surgery. However, even though I know that there is nothing I can do but pray, worrying does not help, bla bla bla, from the moment I heard of the confirmed timing for the surgery until the end of surgery, my heart simply could not palpitating. The fear, the worry, the anxiety, the dark thoughts were all there despite all the praying.

Thank God that all our prayers have been heard. I was so relieved when I heard that the surgery only took about 90 minutes. Now the concern changes to the recovery and if he can walk again. I continue to pray that God will be kind and merciful. I still dream of going overseas to have fun with my parents at Disneyland leh :(

I am feeling a bit torn. A part of me prefers to be heartless: I don't bother to ask for news and updates and I take it as no news means good news. Perhaps they are busy or perhaps they do not want to trouble me. However, another part of me feels quite irked with the lack of updates. No matter how heartless I am, I am still concerned about my dad mah. I felt more at peace after reading my old post during my dad's previous surgery: they are really useless so don't bother about stressing them more for info lah.

Thanks to the circuit breaker, I finally dusted my toys on the Saturday before Easter. I have been procrastinating about it for God knows how long. I will keep the emo parts about my toys for another post. Usually I will not really bother about dusting the shelf where I put all my prayer stuff. This time, however, I really cleaned all my shelves and it made me open a prayer collection book that I received from my aunt many years back. I cannot even remember if I have ever used it before. I flipped it open and prayer cards for asking intervention to St Jude. I don't even know if I bought the cards previously or they have all the while been there.

After hearing about my dad, there is really nothing I can do except prayer so this prayer book has been a miracle for me. I randomly tried to find a suitable prayer and in one, there is a mention of St Peregrine. My first time encountering this name was prior to my Baptism when I was shopping for souvenirs in exchange of the gifts from people who congratulated me on my Baptism. Ever since, I always remember him as a patron saint for cancer patients. 

St Jude is the patron saint for hopeless/desperate cases and yes, I was very worried for my dad's surgery. Now that the surgery was over with little concern, that means what I feared the most did not come true and my prayer has been granted. According to the prayer cards, if the prayer is answered, I am supposed to send a testimony to someone (whom I do not even know if he is still alive since I do not know how long ago this card was distributed) or to distribute or leave behind 9 copies of the prayer cards in Church (this is in the Indonesian prayer card so noone will understand if I leave it here and now we are in lockdown). Since I am not able to do both, the very least that I can follow is to write this experience now. I do not think people are reading my blog but I will never know God's plan. If it is His plan, perhaps this story in this obscure blog may be chanced upon by someone in need.

I will close with a funny thought that perhaps Thomas is the source of the exclamation: Oh My God! Hahaha. Somehow I suddenly had this thought only this year.

Conan Town (Hokuei Town)

This is the last post to share the photos of my trip to Hokuei Town (aka Conan Town) from LAST year. Yep, it is late for more than year but it is better late than never. Haha.. I was procrastinating of of organising and taking screenshots of the photos that I want to put up so that I save up space with the photo uploads.

I organise the photos from the start of Conan Street in front of Yura Station to the end of Conan Street which is the Gosho Aoyama Manga Factory (GAMF). I made 2 separate trips (one in noon and one in late afternoon) so some of the pictures may have more sun and exposure.

The first important landmark as we walk along the Conan Street is Hokuei Town Library. Before reaching the library, statues of the Detective Boys group are lining the street. The library has a giant Conan plaster and bronze statue of Shinichi waiting. Apparently there is a complementary Ran waiting statue which is not located along Conan Street. I did not find it because I only know its existence after reading the town guidemaps after the trip. Huhuhu T_T

Hokuei Town Library

Bronze statue of Shinichi waiting

The next landmark after the town library is the Town Hall which has a statue of Conan eating watermelon, one of the town's famous produce.

Close up of the statue

A huge town map in front of the Town Hall

After this, we need to cross a bridge to reach Conan's House / Beika Shopping Street which I would say is the mid-point of the Conan Street. The bridge has a nice view and it also has Conan decorations.

Left side of the bridge.  The house further up is Conan's House. Its side is lined with sakura trees which will definitely look amazing in spring.

The view of the right side of the bridge

Metal plates of Gosho Aoyama's illustrations at the bridge railings

 Conan bronze statues at the 'ends' of the bridge

Even the lamp post has Conan's skateboarding statue

Conan's House Beika Shopping Street has a few things to see: Shinichi's house, Conan Department Store, Bakery, Cafe, Gelato Shop, and statue of Shinichi and Ran dating. Conan Department Store carries some unique merchandises that cannot be found elsewhere be it in GAMF or the souvenir shops around Tottori. Unfortunately I did not have the time to try any of the food stuff.

Bronze statue of Shinichi and Ran

Shinichi's house is not an attraction to enter. We can only press at the door bell and there is a reply from the intercom as if it was Shinichi answering.

Past Conan's House Beika Shopping Street is a toilet, another Shinichi bronze statue, and a bus stop with Conan and sleeping Kogoro.

Another town map

You may wonder why the toilet gets special mention. That is because it is also themed with Conan decorations.

Shinichi at door

Bus stop with Conan and sleeping Kogoro

After the bus stop, the attraction will be the GAMF although it still quite a distance. However, remember to walk past GAMF to the rest area since there is another statue of Conan that I missed during this trip. Sigh...

While the above are the 'major' attractions, there are still plenty of things to see along the street. There are small stone tablets at the road side with the cover of the manga. The cover for volume 1 is in front of GAMF while the one in front of Yura Station is volume 23. Perhaps, we are supposed to enjoy the street from GAMF? Haha.. Anyway with the manga almost reaching volume 100, they can even decorate more of the town.

Yeah I missed the volume 22

Manhole covers and directional stickers along the road are decorated with Conan.

Manhole covers

 The whole stretch of Conan street is about 1.3km long

The Daiei Elementary School, where the statue of Conan and Ran is, needs a detour from Conan Street

3 of the road markings which are still in relatively presentable condition for me take photos

I also saw taxis and buses plastered with Conan decoration. I was actually worried if I did something 'illegal' when taking photo of the taxi as it was after operating hours so perhaps this was the depot or the driver's garage. Anyway there was no gate or anything and the taxi location was just outside the station.

The bus was operating so this was definitely legal hahaha

I would definitely love to return here someday because I have not fully explored the town. One thing for sure: I will definitely spend one day here to enjoy taking photos of the town, the street, GAMF, and trying food at the Beika Shopping Street.

Phew.. Finally done with this which is my longest post ever with 63 photos and more than a year to complete. Hahaha...