This was one of those dreams that began with me not being myself.

There had been a story for the past few years, a sort of myth that had been going around. Women and girls who were alone on the train or anywhere were abducted and simply disappeared. In their place, there would be a small Barbie doll, which looked a little bit like them.

So a young, working woman who was going home late one night was attacked. She fought back hard, not giving much ground until her assailant managed to drag her into a railway car, and then she was beateN into submission, I think. In her place they left a small brunette Barbie.

The scene cuts away into a cabin, where the “son” has taken the girl as his own. In the room there’s a pasty-white, pale like anything young teenager. She cowers in fear as the “father” looms over her, and then picks her up and puts her on the bed. The teenager’s eyes turns glassy as he does that. The father plays with his knife around the girl’s throat, and the camera looks towards the “son” and his new plaything. The woman looks fearfully towards the bed, but the son uses the flat end of his knife to turn her face away from what is happening on the bed. He doesn’t want to watch it either.

The teenager is killed, and unceremoniously dumped.

For a year, the woman is kept in slavery around the house. She has become the “wife” of the son. No escape attempts were made by her, at least not in the beginning, because she wanted to know how to get to a city first before she made the attempt.

The perspective changes to my own when a homely-looking woman comes up when the men are away one day. She insists that I follow her in the car. I knew I had to obey her or risk punishment, so I did. She drove the pickup to a restaurant area, and gave me RM5, asking me to run away. They would kill her, maybe, but she wanted to ensure I had a chance to escape.

I knew we were in the city area, and I immediately begged a guy to lend me his phone to call my dad. He looked at me weirdly and I did, but his phone was not working. As I was about to walk down to the payphone, the “father” suddenly appeared and shouted at me. I ran back to the restaurant area and screamed for help. The “father” stood at the end of the road, not willing to come after me in a crowded area.

Suddenly my dad turned up, and we were sort of reunited. The “father” now came up to my dad and they got into an argument about how I was the other’s daughter before punches started flying and I was shouting for anyone to call the cops.

They didn’t, but the “father” and my dad were finally pulled apart. I took dad’s phone trying to call the inspector in charge of my case but the number wasn’t in dad’s phone. I didn’t get enough time to open Google Maps to call up the police station there either.

The “father” and his “son” started sitting down to their own family dinner with the extended family, and I remember staying far away from them, in the light, with other people whom I knew would protect me but wouldn’t call the police for some reason.

I called bro and mom to tell them I was safe. We went to pick mom up. At mom’s “workplace” there was a customer who had known me from work who had the name “Melissa” something something who was complaining about the vase. Then I woke up.

© Naoko Kensaku for Ink to Screen, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Filed under Dreams on 14-06-2013|

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

When I brought her home on Saturday, I had a bit of a panic when she wouldn’t charge. Took her back to the Fair on Sunday (that’s why I love going to PC fair on Saturdays; you have an extra day to return if you have to), and as it turns out, it was definitely a PEBKAC issue. The charger comes in two parts which can be disassembled for easy storage. I didn’t assemble them properly, and the salesguy helped me both assemble the charger AND charged my tablet.

I brought Tabitha home, a happy camper. :D

So how was life been since she came into my life?

Well, as it turns out, Tabitha was much better for Ingress than my poor Kuro is (the boy is starting to show his age, the poor thing). She’s also great for me posting stuff on the go, particularly for Facebook (I’ve removed Facebook on the phone as it was taking up space and was far too distracting).

Because Tabitha came with a keyboard dock that doubled up as a battery, I’ve not had any real worries and issues about battery life. I use her mainly when I am out and about, either to take notes during meetings or to write when the ideas strike me. Springpad and Google Keep on her ensure that I can write notes quickly and efficiently. I use Springpad mainly to write longer ideas in a specific notebook that I don’t want to keep on Google Docs, and I use Keep when time is of the essence.

I also made the mistake of downloading this addictive card game from the Play Store called Valkyrie Crusade. There’s something about this game that has me playing it before and after work. I suspect it could be the “harvest your gold and randomly grind” aspect.

Right now she travels with me mainly to work and back. I don’t usually bring her out unless I’m testing something, or if I’m going to be in a meeting where I know I may need Internet access. Joel (my phone) is great at sharing his Internet connection with Tabitha even though he’s slow in booting up the same application, so I have switched most of the tasks I usually do to Tabitha instead.

The only exception is Waze, Foursquare and Keep. I use Keep when I want to write in the gym very quickly (usually these are my machine workout counts for Fitocracy) while Waze and Foursquare are rather obvious.

I do have a few complaints about Tabitha. However, I’m not sure whether this is an Android issue or if it’s a hardware issue (I’ve noticed similar behaviour on Joel, hence why I’m unsure).

Tabitha’s keyboard tends to take a few seconds to load. If I’m on the dock, I can’t quite type as fast as I do on the PC because there’s a very slight delay. On the tablet itself, I can use the swiping option to type, though it’s not as good as the Swype Beta I had on my phone a few months ago.

The keyboard dock also lags. A long time ago, someone once tried to teach me to use the Shift key to caps things; I instead always defaulted to the Capslock instead. Well, with the lagginess that Tabitha’s keyboard exhibits, I’ve finally decided to learn how to type with the Shift key instead. It got to a point that my fingers were actually confused when I went back to typing on the PC. I actually hesitated with my fingers over both the Capslock and the Shift key. Suddenly I was typing like THis because I’d hit both Capslock and the Shift key right after that.

That said, I really like having a tablet. It’s been quite an interesting experience. However, I’ve taken out my tablet in only very specific cases; I don’t dare walk around with my tablet in hand because I’m too afraid of getting robbed. ><

For those who are considering getting the Asus Transformer TF300T, here are some things to note.

- If you plan to connect to a lot of cloud services, make sure you get the version with 3G. This is usually called the TFT300TG (the G kinda stands for 3G, I think). Basically this means you just insert a SIM card and switch on the data.
- If you have either an unlimited mobile plan that allows tethering, or you’re going to be using the Internet only sparingly, then the Wifi model may be for you.
- If you’re not planning to use the Internet at all… why are you considering an Android tablet again?

With that, sleep!

© Naoko Kensaku for Ink to Screen, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Filed under Geekiness, Tabitha on 09-06-2013|

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Eight: *stares at me judgingly*

Me: ?…. *starts laughing*

Marauderz: I never expected you of all people to say something like that.

Context under cut: (...)
Read the rest of [Copywriter's Chronicles] PC Gaming (29 words)

© Naoko Kensaku for Ink to Screen, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Filed under Copywriter Chronicles on 31-05-2013|

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Been having them the past few weeks. On and off I’d get some random, lucid dream just before I’m due to wake up. Some of them were dreams caused by the alarm; my phone starts beeping very gently before my actual wake up time. Others I have no idea.

And most of the time, when I wake up, it’s with the feeling that yes, I had a lucid dream, but the details all escape me.

Today’s was slightly different. Basically entire family went on a vacation (including my extended family on my dad’s side) and after trying various activities we all got on that trip for a one-day overnight trip in an old pirate barge. You know those ships we use to think as belonging to pirates? Yup, those kinds.

Well, one thing led to another and the next thing we know, we were sailing. And so we did. Each stop we made had a different mission to accomplish. The one we were having when I woke up required a female relative (the woman is actually a random person, she just happened to be in my “family” at the time, and no, I have no idea who she was) to seduce the giant to tell us where his base was.

The giant, meanwhile, was being pursued by this man who was the creator of all the things. He wanted to undo his creations, but they were smart enough to go into hiding, so he used us instead. He could take many forms and shapes; at one point he was an ex-employer.

So the woman and the giant decided to turn the tables on the guy. After a “talk” the giant went away. And we on the ship went looking for food. As me and my cousins were making our way back after loading our small ship with food (lots of bananas, watermelons and random fruits, I think), the creator guy appeared.

And he was quite displeased with our progress. We all rushed back to the ship and tried to cast off (we were beached, apparently, for a quick while) and the creator guy apparently waited behind us to do so. There were two boats at this point; the main, sailing wooden barge and a hollowed out ceramic boat that looks more like an art mug than a boat. We tried to shift everyone from the ceramic boat to the main one, and while that was happening, the creator guy somehow overtook us and parked in the parking lot nearby.

I told my dad that I was going to go sabotage the guy’s car, used my bro’s screwdriver for it, and came back successfully. Dad followed me but for once did not interfere. The guy’s front wheel had a solar panel on it, so I couldn’t stab at the wheel.

Then I woke up.

I wonder how many worlds has my dream self been banned from now?

© Naoko Kensaku for Ink to Screen, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Filed under Dreams on 31-05-2013|

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

© Naoko Kensaku for Ink to Screen, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Filed under Copywriter Chronicles on 30-05-2013|

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

© Naoko Kensaku for Ink to Screen, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Filed under Travel, Writing Thoughts on 30-05-2013|

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

• Ace Attourney 5 (C’MON, MILES IN GLASSES!)
• ALL the Layton games available
• Devil Survivor… the Overclock versions, even though yes, I have already finished them.
• Animal Crossing… and finish it for real
• Fire Emblem (the amount of squeeing on my timeline…)

I like the fact that I can get the games semi-legally through the Nintendo e-Shop, though I am really unhappy that the games are tied to the device rather than the account. This means if something happens to the device, all my games are gone ARGH.

I’ve been told that it makes more sense to get the 3DS before I go to Japan because then I’d get more Street Passes. Someone remind me again what do they do?

This hole is deep… but not deep enough.

© Naoko Kensaku for Ink to Screen, 2013. | Permalink | 3 comments | Filed under Gaming on 29-05-2013|

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

• If I have a light meal for dinner the night before, waking up and showering causes me to feel really hungry
• Went for Muay Thai class yesterday. The class started off by being very exhausting (we had to do a bunch of stretches and the like) and ended on a high note. Woke up this morning with pain in my lower right back and both my calves ow ow ow ow. Still want more though.
• My body is over-sensitive to stimuli when it comes close to the time I want to wake up. The slightest noise/heat/pain will do. Else this is because of the app I’m using
• My hips have grown wider. :(

© Naoko Kensaku for Ink to Screen, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Filed under Gym and Exercise, Health on 27-05-2013|

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

5 Ways To Beautify Your Skin Even While You Sleep (via http://www.stylecraze.com)

At least 8 hours each night. Sounds familiar? Well, you must have heard this countless times from your mother, your doctor, and read it in books and articles related to health. If there is one rule that you must absolutely follow for leading a good and healthy lifestyle, it is to get at least 8 hours…

© Naoko Kensaku for Ink to Screen, 2013. | Permalink | 6 comments | Filed under Health on 23-05-2013|

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Why am I so pissed off. What has made me so angry, so bitter? It turns out that the answer is easier than I thought, once I let it hit me in the face.

I want to be live without worrying about the consequences. All my life, my decisions have been motivated by the consequences, by worrying about what others will think of me, by worrying and waiting for others to give their consent for me to do what I want to. I don’t have the image or the belief that my life belongs to me, but I know that one of the drivers of my life is the thought and belief that my life does not belong to me. That I am responsible for ensuring the people around me are kept happy.

Even if that means a shallow, sad, superficial life for me.

I know what kind of belief I want to have. I know what kind of drivers that I want to have. At the same time, I am terrified. I am terrified not just of change, but of losing the perceived privileges that I already have and enjoy. I am a creature of comfort, I want to do things without inconveniencing others and myself.

Conflict does not convenience me. It stifles me. Or so I use to feel.

I no longer have a reliable barometer and belief by which to test just how alive I feel.

I know the road I want to take. I know what I want to be by the end of that road. But how do I get on the road, and when I am on it, how do I begin taking my steps?

It’s like knowing the end of the game without actually playing the game at this point.

I’m afraid of losing what I already have but if I don’t move, I will lose it anyway. So is it better to stay still and enjoy it while it lasts, or to cut myself deeply to the point I don’t recognise who I am any more for a gain I don’t even know exists?

© Naoko Kensaku for Ink to Screen, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Filed under Personal, Ramblings on 21-05-2013|

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh