.Delphiz@Blogspot.

Hiatus

2012-05-19T22:55:00.003+08:00

Temporary off from blogging. Will figure out what I am going to do with this blog.

New beginning, New age

2012-01-08T22:24:00.000+08:00

2012... how time really flies. I didn't really manage to complete last year's resolution list. This year, on the other hand, well I do have a list of things that I want to do before I reach that *particular* age. Though some of it might be impossible, but there are certainly few things that I can make it happen if I want to. So I'm looking forward to these "events".

Yesterday, I officially turned a year older. Am I much wiser? Do I feel old? Well, frankly, I don't feel any different at all. Though I must admit that there's a little bit of bitter-sweet feeling. You know, that kind of mix feeling whereby you're feeling grateful but still can't help thinking that you should have done better at this age. Anyway, I'm just going to go with the flow. There are some things that I can control, and some that I can't. So if certain things were to happen then be it. Right?

Well, Happy birthday to me, and happy new year to all.

Happy Holidays

2011-12-25T15:20:00.000+08:00

It's the time of the year again. Have a good break everybody.

Happy Christmas!!!

Yotsuba received a gift from Danbo. ^^

Yotsuba-chan:- "Heyyy, isn't this my hat!!!"

Yotsuba and The Origami

2011-12-11T17:19:00.000+08:00

Yotsuba-chan : "Are you sure this looks ok Danbo?"
Danbo-kun : "Yea, it looks great Yotsuba. Though one of its wings looked slightly crooked. ^.^"
Yotsuba-chan : "Hmm.. well I don't think she will notice THAT right?..."

Yotsuba-chan : "みてみて。Look at what me & Danbo did together. =D"
Me : "Hey, that looks awesome Yotsuba!"

Ya, and that's how I spend my weekend.

A weekend with foreign language and pancakes.

2011-11-20T15:34:00.000+08:00

You know, I really enjoy my Japanese classes. I really do. But I hate exams. As much as I love learning, I really hate it. Yay, it's a love-hate kinda relationship. So yes, my lessons are over and I'm having my exams now, last paper on Grammer will be this Wednesday. Oral went "ok" I guess, I was too nervous to even recall if I answered them correctly (though I think I did.. hmm.). However, listening is my weakness. If you don't get what they are saying, that's that, there's no way to answer the questions. No matter how many times the CD player keeps repeating, you just have no time to even think. The moment I stopped to think on how to spell a particular word or "digest" that one phrase, I would have missed a whole chunk of conversation!. Damn stress sia. So I pretty much screwed up. Yes I beginning to wonder why did I signed up to stress myself. What was I thinking. (ok exaggerating, I would still love to continue to the next level IF I made it through).

It's only elementary, but むずかしいですね (difficult)。

So anyway, it has been a lazy weekend for me. Still way behind with my revision. Le Sigh! Nico went for his sterilization yesterday, it went well. Though his appetite seems ok, he was still quite lethargy. Poor boy.

Yes Yotsuba! I know it's the weekend, but I need to study!

But pancakes make me happy for a while.

Nom Nom Nom.

Otaku Unite

2011-11-19T23:50:00.001+08:00

Ok I'm not really an Otaku. I know animes, love to collect certain figurines and stuff, but I don't consider myself as a fan-girl, anime geek, etc etc. Not to that extreme. So anyway, last week was the Anime Festival Asia, and it was held at Suntec. Though it was my virgin experience, I had fun (well not the crowd part obviously). All the cosplayers were awesome. I'm quite amazed by their effort - from costumes to make-up - and photographers love them!

There were also famous guests hanging around throughout the event, unfortunately I didn't manage to catch anyone, except someone from the AKB48 (I think). Well I don't know them, but I was around the AKB48 official store/booth when suddenly people just gathered around and start taking photo. Of course, as a ~~proud~~ typical Singaporean, I know if there's crowd.. it must be something good. So I guess I've managed to catch a glimpse and took few photos of the girls (though really, I still don't know if it's them - but I've posted their photo on FB so have a look). Anyway, the photo album is set to 'Public', so go. [ LINK ]

Anyhow, I also managed to grab hold the figurines that I've been searching for quite a while. Yup, they are the Yotsuba! and Danbo figurine. Damn kawaii le. Burned a hole in my pocket but proud owner of both.

Ahhh.. I need to stop spending recklessly.

A night in KL

2011-10-22T23:22:00.002+08:00

My recent ("virgin") trip to KL with friends from Uni was extremely fun. Though it was too short - was there for 2 days, I really had a great time with them (yeah it was corny of me saying this but it really was). So what did we do when we were there? - Well, the usual - Eat, shop, eat again, coffee, laugh, shop, walk, eat, eat, and not forgetting we took lots of photos.

Flew in Tiger Airways - Photo taken by HuiHui (nice capture btw)

First meal in KL - Chicken Rice with Mushroom in Claypot

We stayed in The ZON All Suites Residence on the Park, KL. It is located near to KLCC (only few minutes walk - well provided you take the RIGHT path/direction haha). We took 2 rooms and each room has 2 bedrooms, 2 toilets, a living room with dining table and a kitchen. Quite comfy, spacious, great for family and group of friends and it has a nice view of the city.

View from our hotel room.

Hotel location is quite near to KLCC. Photo taken by Afra (nice capture)

If you love shopping, KL is definitely a place for you. Somehow, walking around the shopping malls there kind of reminded me of Orchard Road, while the street market (like the Petaling Jaya) is quite similar to Bugis Street. The shopping districts are conveniently located near to the MRT/Rapid train thingy. I'm not really a shopper (yes I had problem spending money - perhaps I just don't know what to buy lol), but it was a nice experience still. I particularly enjoyed the street market coz I find it more "adventurous" haha.

I think this is near the Central Market (?)

One of my favorite photo - The Petronas Twin Tower.

Like I've mentioned earlier, it was a fun trip, especially with "crazy" friends around. You can view all the photos taken during the trip in my Facebook page (that is if you're in my friend list).

So cheers to us. Here's to the many more gatherings to come. ^^

The 8 crazy people. 8.5 & "Sarah" not in the photo (our internal joke)

Now I shall end this post with my self-portrait photo. I rarely do that cam-whoring stuff but I really like this photo. Cute wor (lol).

Cam Whore time.

In Monochrome

2011-10-09T23:38:00.001+08:00

I have had so much fun playing/experimenting with my new toy. It is an amazing piece of metal. So anyway, here's a few photos taken today (Sunday 9.10.11) around Bugis/Arab Street area. Took quite a number, but these 3 are the ones that really stood out (imo that is). These were taken using the Grainy-Film art effect.

That pair of Specs

2011-09-28T22:41:00.001+08:00

Got myself a new pair of specs since the old one gone kaput. It's been a long time since I last had my eyes check, so I'm not surprised that my deg+astig has increase. Bummer

Oh well. Anyway, I kinda like this pair, but apparently it's too big for lil "Danbo". Hmm...

I am PEN ready

2011-09-25T22:52:00.002+08:00

I just couldn't resist it. I am now $1180 poorer. I know with that money, I could use it to travel somewhere (near), or buy nice branded bag/clothes/shoes, or whatever. I am doomed to be a gadget geek for life!!!11!!!.

Yea, that's a lil exaggerating, I know. Anyway, yes, I am PEN ready. I got myself the Olympus PEN EP-3. In sleek silver. Damn, can't wait to customized it with some leather skin and straps and retro lens hood and and and...

Rather than resisting it, I've embraced it.

So today, on a hot lovely Sunday evening, I decided to bring my PEN for a walk around my neighborhood. One thing I realized is that I feel more "confident" carrying this than my dslr. Perhaps I feel intimidated with those who are using pro-dslr (?) - ok not really but God knows. So yea, I did a few test shots, played around with the Art Filter and here's some of my better shots. All shots taken were in JPG - straight from camera - without any PP done (except for borders & watermark). Seriously, it's been a long time since I last shot in jpg (always in RAW & process in PS), but I loving what I've captured so far.

Testing some bokeh using the kit lens (14-42mm).

As I was walking around the park, I spotted this adorable dog. You see, I've never done this before, but I went ahead and approach the owner asking his permission to take a shot of him. Luckily, he was quite friendly and allow me to. (well he looked friendly enough for me to approach at the first place). ^^ After a couple of shots and a friendly chat, off I go to my next "victim".

Test shot using the Art Filter - Dramatic Tone.

Test shot using Art Filter - Grainy Film.

Test shot using Art Filter - Pin hole

That's it for now. Mum asked me yesterday if it was a waste of money to buy another camera since I already own a dslr. I told her that this is not just a camera, it's a PEN camera plus it's more convenient for me to bring this everywhere I go - not to mention it comes with full HD recording. Yeah.

Kimi no Kakera

2011-09-07T23:02:00.000+08:00

This song is awesomely beautiful la. Heard it from the ending theme song of the anime Natsume Yūjinchō San. Even the singer is gorgeous.

~ Atari Kousuke - Kimi no Kakera featuring Emiri Miyamoto

Also, through this song I get to know (or rather listen to) Emiri Miyamoto... superb violinist (You know I got this tiny weakness for violinist).

So yeah, there you go.. introducing two superb artists (though they are not really newcomers).

The Ramadan Bazaar

2011-08-31T00:19:00.001+08:00

Every year, in the month of Ramadan (or the fasting month) Geylang Serai is bustling with activity. There will be a huge bazaar (Night market) along the road and you can find everything you need there (well almost everything) from carpets to (fake) flowers, from clothes to weird looking sandals... and of course there's also lots of food -such as Ramly Burgers, Deng Deng (thinly sliced bbq meat - tasty but expensive!!!) and Ayam Perchik (chicken infused with various spices - I don't really fancy this though)

Nom Nom Nom.

One thing I absolutely hate about the bazaar is the crowd. It's totally insane, especially towards the end of the fasting month. Even the Ice Cream man is busy.

So anyway, Ramadan has ended, and Syawal is here. Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all Muslims. Maaf Zahir dan Batin. Be safe, have fun but don't forget the less fortunate ya. =)

Fix me up Tiramisu

2011-08-17T23:02:00.001+08:00

I've been "enjoying" my last few days of freedom. So Yes. I finally got a full-time job. After countless delays, I am finally fit for duty. *Phew*. Only God knows how thankful I am when this finally came. The long wait is definitely worth it. I was practically grinning from ear-to-ear after I've signed that dotted lines.

Anyway, so today is one of those days that I feel like making something. So I decided to make egg-less, non-alcoholic, Tiramisu. This is my second attempt and I don't mean to blow my own horn, but this time it turns out better. I love it. LOL.

The photos captured wasn't really that great. I hate shooting food at night - bad lighting and stuff. Well, not that I'm good at it anyway. So like I've mentioned, this is based on egg-less, non-alcoholic Tiramisu recipe. It may not be the same as the traditional Tiramisu, but I would say it's quite close. The reason why I prefer egg-less version because I am still not that confident to handle raw eggs and consume them w/o baking. That's just me. So here's the recipe/steps I used if you're interested.

A. Whisk approx (can't recall) 50g Thickend cream till smooth
B. Whisk 250g Mascarpone Cream, 3-4 tablespoon espresso/coffee, 3 tablespoon caster sugar, and Vanilla Essence.
C. Fold B to A till smooth.
D. Dip the Ladyfingers to the espresso/coffee, line them in tray or glass (your creativity), pour mixture C. Repeat to your own preference.
E. Sprinkle cocoa powder.
F. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours or so. ^^

Yeah, I'm not that good in writing recipe either but I can assure you that it is quite simple. =)

Nico & the Lifeless Lion

2011-08-09T16:06:00.004+08:00

Nico and the lifeless lion, originally uploaded by Delphiz.

It's been a little more than a week since I adopted Nico. He is getting more playful, loves to play chase, exploring, sleeps everywhere other than his own bed, and not to mention, I think he is going through some teething issue (adult teeth growing). So he practically bites anything that moves, which really scares my mum sometimes.

Nevertheless, he has been such a sweet angel. *(^_^)*

Anyway, Nico has his own photo album on my Facebook. It is a public album, so anyone can view it here >>
Nico The Neko Album

Nico the Neko

2011-07-31T23:44:00.000+08:00

Yes everyone, meet my new cat... Nico. He's about 3-4 months old, playful little chap, but very adorable. Found him through the cat welfare society website and adopted him from a great fosterer/family. Vet check went well, but because of one episode of him coughing, vaccination will be done in about 2 weeks time. Everything is great. I'm happy, Mum likes him. Though he can be quite a handful, but he's obedient too. Aaahhh.. かわいいね。

So anyway, I haven't really update much about my personal life. Things have been going quite ok. Some of you might already know that I've been taking nihongo lesson. Obviously elementary level. It's tough and learning language is my weakness (as compared to other subjects), so no surprise there when I flunk my quiz lol. Just a minor setback anyway, I've been working hard to improve and I really do enjoy learning (though my brain hurts after every single lesson lol).

Other news, well I am anticipating, hmm hopefully, another good news this coming week or so. I've already been told in "black & white" that sort of thing, so if all goes well... it should be 90% confirm..?.. BUT yea praying that there's no other issue and hopefully I'll be able to share this good news soon.

Anyway Nico has been sleeping a lot!! but I am truly amazed with his "hunting stance" thingy. Quite cool and I will try to capture that on video one of these days.

Salam Ramadan to my family, friends and all Muslims around the world. ^^

Apple-Cinnamon Popiah

2011-07-24T02:59:00.002+08:00

Mum loves to buy apples but I don't really fancy them. And the problem is she keeps buying them, so we end up having lots of apples in the fridge. Most of time, my mum will make fruit juice or smoothies using the apples that has been in there for too long. That's totally fine with me, I rather drink than eat them. So anyway, last week I decided to cook something up. Initially, I wanted to bake apple pie, but I caught the lazy bug, so I ended up buying popiah skin and make a dozen of apple-cinnamon popiah(s). Not really sure if anyone has done this before, but this is the first time for me and it turns out fine. Simple, fast, and quite tasty I must say. Ingredients you need:
Diced apples, cinnamon, popiah skin, tablespoon of sugar and a pinch of salt.

So what you need to do is to stew the diced apples with cinnamon, sugar and salt on a medium heat for ~20 minutes (depending on how many apples you used - more apples = longer time). Don't overcook them. They should be soft but not "mashed-like". Ok ya, I'm bad in describing, but heck I didn't take picture. Once done, cool it, spread the popiah skin, put a tablespoon (or so) of the apple sauce/stew and roll it up like normal popiah. Brush a little butter on them and baked it (no need to brush if u prefer to fry them). Though fried popiah is definitely better, I find that baking them in the oven turns out quite alright if you eat them right after, but as it gets cold, it became more "chewy" than the fried version. Hmmm..

Anyway, it's not really a 5-star dessert, but it's easy, doesn't take much time and much healthier than junk food. So have a go.

On a side note, I've made some changes to my blog. So do please let me know what you think. ^^

That Neko behind the bars

2011-07-15T13:30:00.004+08:00

Taken from my last visit to the SPCA. There are so many beautiful & かわいい (kawaii) cats waiting to be adopted.

I've been lurking around the cats adoption sites and places because I really do feel like having another pet. Having pets around us can be quite a therapeutic thing you know, but not many understands that. So yea I'm considering to have one but of course I'm not really in the hurry to own one, so I'm going to take my time to find a "perfect" match for me (& my family).

Ahhh.. they are so adorable.

Chasing the Sunset

2011-05-05T18:55:00.002+08:00

I love watching the setting of the sun. So few weeks ago I've managed to catch an amazing sunset. It was a beautiful day and everything else was perfect. Praise the God for His creation & the beauty of nature.

"When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon,
my soul expands in worship of the Creator" -- Mahatma Ghandi

Meet Danbo

2011-04-24T23:06:00.003+08:00

Ok he is not exactly the original Danbo figure. I made him (her - since the person who "wore" this is a girl) from paper/cardboards based on this particular template [ Link ]. Totally love it.

Well, I do in fact totally adore anything related to Yotsuba&! - The manga is about this kawaii & carefree girl with a green hair called Yotsuba Koiwai. And in certain chapter (or volume), she met Danbo and believe it was a real robot, which in fact it was actually a "cardboard costume" worn by her friend Miura Hayasaka. Unfortunately, being so young and naive, till now, she is still in the dark. Love reading the manga. And I've been wanting to get hold of their figurines (particularly the Yotsuba&! Summer Vacation set), which seems to be "discontinued". Oh well.

So for Easter, being resurrected from papers and cardboards pieces, Danbo wants to find some Easter eggs. But what I forgot to mention to her is that, I don't celebrate Easter...

Eggs???!!, originally uploaded by Delphiz.

Ahhh... I got to fix those eyes..

Footprints in the sand

2011-04-12T23:56:00.005+08:00

One of the things that my parents enjoy doing is taking a stroll at the beach. And of course, sometimes they will drag me along. Heh.

So last week, as we were enjoying the sea breeze under the clear blue sky, something out of ordinary happened. For the first time in my life, I spotted Otters at Changi Beach. Yes. OTTERS!!. 3 of them. Well, my dad spotted it at first and he thought it was a dog. So being excited and all, as quietly as I can, I went closer. They were under this tree, moving around cautiously. Then, as I got a lil closer (but still at a good distance) before I could press my shutter (camera), they spotted me and quickly dash & dive into the sea. Once again, being excited about it, I rush towards the sea and walk along the coast, and then I saw the cutest moment ever. As they swam under the water, they would swim back up, look at my direction and dive back in. It keeps repeating until I stopped following them, and since then I never see them again.

Otters can stay around 5-8 mins under water. I'm not too sure of the species, it could either be an Oriental small-clawed Otter or a Smooth-coated ones (though the latter is much more possible). I believe they came from Pulau Ubin and they say otters are generally shy and tend to stay away from places where there's human around. Well if I'm an otter I would to. But whatever it is, it's really awesome!! They are so kawaii!

Forgive me, but I really do find all animal amazing, especially the cute furry ones. Sometimes looking at them makes me wonder about what would they "talk" about when they are together, what's in their mind, what kind of dream do they have at night, what do they think of human, etc etc etc. Ahh the wonders of nature and God's creation. ^^

So anyway, other than the fact that I saw *kawaii* animals, I really do enjoy spending my time at the beach, especially on a perfect weather like this. It does help to clear some things off my mind. Though I wish it would be permanently cleared like how those footprints left in the sand being washed away by the wave and forever gone, but well... that's life. Right.

Slow - Crossroads ahead

2011-03-22T00:40:00.001+08:00

Time has been passing by so fast. I know I've mentioned this many times before, but I just hate it. Unlike most people who are anticipating their "knock off time" or the weekends, I'm so not looking forward to my weekends. Week after week, when Friday comes, I will let out a huge sigh and say "It's a bad week. Bad bad week. No calls. Wwhhhyy..!!.." and then sigh once again. I don't know about this week though, I actually intend to write this post on a Friday (seems more significant that way) but I'm still hoping that this week will be much much better.

There's this quote that says: "All of life is a journey which paths we take, what we look back on, and what we look forward to is up to us. We determine our destination, what kind of road we will take to get there, and how happy we are when we get there." You know, as inspiring as it sounds and if it's really true, why can't I be on the road that has the "Slow" sign on it. I would rather slow down, breathe and decide my next path than to panic and only to find myself stuck in endless crossroads. It's tiring.

I just want time to stop, because seriously, I really don't know what to do. Sigh.

And.......

On the lighter note, I've stumbled upon a great work of art by a street photographer (the late) Vivian Maire. I'm totally impressed with her galleries. The story behind this is that she was an unknown photographer, spending her days walking and taking pictures mostly of the streets of Chicago (and some other parts of the world). No one has actually seen her work, so she wasn't famous until after her passing. I think around 100000 prints and negatives belonging to her were actually bought from an auction house and it was the buyer who've made this wonderful discovery and share them to the world. By the time the buyer knew who she was, she has unfortunately passed away. Anyway, check out her work at the blog & website below.

Links:
Short wiki entry [ Link ]
Blog [ Link ]
Website [ Link ]

M9.0 & Human Idiocy

2011-03-19T00:33:00.000+08:00

It's been a week since the devastating M9.0 Earthquake and Tsunami struck Japan. I remembered watching the news on NHK and it keeps replaying the destruction over and over again. It looked so surreal at first. It was like all these houses are only sandcastles waiting for the wave to come and wash them away. It was tragic, and on top of all this, there's that issue with the Nuclear reactor. I won't talk much about this since you can just Google it, and I believe there's a Wikipedia article on this event as well. So what I really want to talk about here is on how the world react to this natural disaster.

Some of you might have heard of people, maybe someone you know or not, whining about their wasted trips and they became defensive when friends commented that they should be thankful instead. I understand the disappointment of having to look forward to your vacation and only to have it cancelled in a sudden. And I totally get it with "myob" and that "so-called-freedom-of-speech" thingy, because it is your problem not mine. It ticks me off, but no issue because fortunately, this common "scenario" is nothing as compared to what I've read all over the net.

The issue with whiners is that they just whine and that's that - no problem. But the real issue lies when people cross the line with their insensitivity and ignorance, as if they are showing off their idiocy to the whole wide world. There's a fine line between "free speech" and "hate speech". When people start to abuse their "so-called-freedom-of-speech", whether knowingly or not, they become more bias and their opinions/judgement becomes offensive and worst is when they say things without prove or fact. So what does "hate speech" got to do with the disaster in Japan. Well believe it or not, I've read comments that totally pisses me off. There are people who say that Japan deserve it and that God is punishing them, so keywords like Karma, Whaling, WWII, Pearl Harbor, Katrina, etc.. are frequently mentioned in those post. I mean, seriously, where the hell did that come from?!?!. I am against whaling or eating anything that human are not suppose to eat or hunt, but getting this from someone who is from a country where there's such thing as "hunting/open season" - seriously would you say that your country deserve to be hit by a hurricane as well??? if you're into animal rights or if you're animal activist then do something, join the Sea shepherd, not hiding behind that monitor and clapping happily saying that they deserve it. Do you deserve to be happy? do you deserve a pat at back by God? What have you done to stop the whaling? And Pearl Harbor/WWII.. that was the past. Many nations were involved. There's a lot of casualties in all sides. If you say Japan deserve it, so does any other nation that were involved including the US (btw there were more fatalities in Hiroshima & Nagasaki as compared to Pearl Harbor). It's a war, and tend to have innocent casualties (both allies & axis). So many things have happened since then. As for Katrina, well just Google "International response to Hurricane Katrina" and not forgetting individual from other countries who donated. Sheesh people, get your facts.

[You can check out this and this]

And so it goes on and on and on. What we need to understand is that this is a natural disaster. It may be God's wrath, but that is His secret, what do we know, we're not Him. Disaster like this can happen to any nation, just like road accident, an innocent child can be hit by a drunk driver. Does she deserve to be hit? No, right. I totally understand it's a freedom of speech, you have your rights to say what you want to say. But do be aware of the consequences especially when your "voice" crosses the line. Saying something is fine, but being ignorant and/or prejudice towards something, well that really does show your character. Not that I care, my life still goes on even if your character sucks, and I'm not a saint I'm not here to preach. But as part of MY freedom of speech, this is all I got to say. Oh and by the way, do you know that your tweets are being archived in the Library of Congress. You can read up on your own on what that means, but I have that feeling all those shitty tweets you made, well they are not forever lost - unless they are private of course. [Source]

So I end this post with my sincere thoughts and prayers for people who are affected by the devastating disasters, not only in Japan, but in New Zealand, Australia, and rest of the world.

リフレクティア

2011-02-22T00:55:00.000+08:00

Gotta love this song.

Sigh.

Lost in Translation

2011-01-17T18:45:00.001+08:00

Konnichiwa Watashi wa Ita desu.

Ok, I've been (self) learning Japanese for close to a month now. Though I don't think I have progressed that far.... yet... but I can confidently say that I can recognize at least 10% of the Hiragana characters. It's not that much really, and it's been tough for me since I'm not really that good with memorizing, especially symbols/characters. But heck, 10% is at least something right..??..

So in today's blog topic, I'm gonna share a lil bit of what I've understand about the Japanese language - the most challenging language eva!! (ok not really, I find all foreign languages that are not romanized as challenging). I'm doing this not because I think I am an expert but I guess it helps me to recap what I've learnt so far, since I don't really have anyone to practice with (or correct my mistakes) and as mentioned in the past entry, I think it's good to share what you're aiming to achieve sometimes, because the stress of knowing that someone is following your journey to reach that certain goal will perhaps give you a lil push to go all out and work hard. Though I think a video blog will be much better, but I just stick to the 'typical' way for now.

The first thing I wish to talk about is the hiragana. Hiragana is one of the most basic component of the Japanese writing system, followed by Katakana and Kanji, so for people like me, who know nuts about the language, will be better for us to start with hiragana. Basically hiragana consists of 5 vowels, a, e, i, o, and u, which is pronounced quite closely to as ah, eh, ee, oh, and oo, respectively. It is useful to understand how they were pronounced, and if you're a beginner like me, and you are self learning only from the textbook - stop, go online (youtube or smart.fm) and listen. It really makes learning much easier. A friend lend me her textbook and I am truly grateful for that, but I find that the more I read it, the more confused I get because I really need to listen to what I'm studying and I can't read it out loud coz I dunno what's going on. Maybe it's just me, I always study by talking out loud to what I'm reading (whether it is theory or formula), but yea my point is.. some audio can make a difference. So for this, check out this link and play the audio [ http://smart.fm/goals/24666 ]. Once we master these 5 vowels, we can proceed by practicing a consonant + a vowel. For examples: consonant 'k' with the vowels - ka, ke, ki, ko, and ku, which again pronunciation is closely resembled to car, kay, key, koh, and kuu resp. But do note that while you're practicing, there are some other consonant+vowel that has a different speech/sound pattern. Like for consonant 'S' and 'T' with the vowel 'i' we have shi and chi, pronounced as sh-e and chee (as in cheeze w/o the ze. So this is quite different from the typical consonant with vowel 'i' - ki, ni, hi, mi, ri and wi, respectively pronounced as key, nee, hee, mee, lee and wee . Awesome so far..??.. Right now this is where I am, which is all the basic kana. Have yet to go through the yoon and syllable with dakuten.

Now how do I learn the strokes. This is obviously much tougher for me. One way is writing down while going through each of the character. Like they say practice makes perfect, but I find it a lil boring too. Another way is to write in kana with the Japanese words you're familiar with. This way I can learn how to spell and pronounce them correctly at the same time. There are still some other characters that I do not recognize, so I will 'circle' them and refer to them later. This approach is quite useful coz you're already familiar with the word. So let's take 2 different words for example, Arigatou and Itadakimasu. What we can do here is to break them into units of vowels and consonants.

So for Arigatou we have - a - Ri - Ga - To - u
Hence looking at the hiragana chart we have
あ - り - ガ - と - う
Since I've yet to master the syllables with dakuten, I will mark Ga - ガ and refer to it again as I progress.

Again for Itadakimasu we have - i - Ta - Da - Ki - Ma - Su
From the chart it is -
い - た - だ - き - ま - す

Yup, so that's how I learn. Perhaps in the near future I will share other stuff, for now this is all. You may wonder why the sudden interest. One of the reason is to be able to watch anime and read manga w/o subtitles or translation. Ok I'm kidding. Right now I seriously unsure what to expect in the future, and since I have the time, I would rather spend it wisely. So I've started learning Jap and a bit of Chinese from smart.fm and English through books. I find that it is good to at least get myself prepared for what's to come. I mean I might get myself a career in Engineering line and find myself in situation whereby I need to present/support my client UK or Japan or China or maybe I might end with a job (admin/exec/teaching/etc) which requires me to be confident in conversing English fluently (I'm not that bad, but I'm not perfect too). You never know right. Plus even if I don't require all these skill at the end of the day, it is still fun to learn anyway. Win-win situation.

Till then let's Pray for the best; Prepare for the worst.

Oh oh.. just wanna share with you guys something amusing. ^^

Wallpaper Wednesday

2011-01-12T13:38:00.001+08:00

Just recently, I was browsing through some Photoshop tutorials online (such as abduzeedo.com and psd.tutsplus.com) and I really do envy those who are really creative and able to display their skills to the rest of us. I can't draw at all. I like to think that I am creative, but I can't do it. The only things that I can 'sketch' in details are perhaps the human organs like heart, eye, kidney, lungs, urinary bladder, etc. Other than these, I really can't draw. Hence, that's why sometimes I feel kinda 'jealous' for those who can really project their feelings or thoughts through canvas. It's an amazing gift.

I have CS4 and most of the time I only used it to process the raw photos that I've captured through lens. Well, once in a while I used it to design my blog as well. So I decided to give it a shot. Nothing too dramatic, just a simple minimalist design that I have learn so far.

Yup, so I've created a Desktop wallpaper. Cool or not. ^^ Anyway, to get this wallpaper, you can download it from my Deviantart page - http//delphinuz.deviantart.com/#/d36zdqq

It is in a zip file, and the sizes available are:
1920x1200, 1680x1050, 1440x900, 1280x800, 1024x768 and 1024x640

This is also my first time uploading on Deviantart (despite being a member for 2 yrs lol) so I think it should be ok lol. Let me know if you need other sizes. ^^

Hope there's more to come. Till then.