Addicted to.... Anime

I must admit, I am addicted to Japanese Anime.

Ever since Huey Ing introduced me to Naruto, I'm hooked. I've been faithfully downloading Naruto every Thursday nights. Then a month ago, my colleague introduced another anime, Bleach to me, and now I'm doubly hooked. So every Thu night, I will be online, faithfully downloading both Naruto and Bleach..

With this, the floadgate has been opened. I am now searching for the next anime to download.. I have all episodes of Ghost in The Shell: 2nd GIG. Haven't finished watching them. I have Season 1-8 of South Park, which I only watched up to Season 4.

With the intro of BT (Bit T.), I am getting more than enough dossage of Japanese Anime. I'm catching up on those TV series that I've missed too. I have the full Season 1 of LOST, and up to Ep8 of Season 2 (which is up to date, same as what the US TV is showing). Now getting Six Feet Under, Season 1 and 2 before getting the rest of the other seasons. With my new PC, I'm catching up on the things I've missed out so far.. :P

To add to that addiction, I am trying very hard not to start on any of the MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing) Games like WarCraft or Lineage II, which most of my (male) colleagues are (obsessively) playing currently. Previously, I used the excuse that my poor P3 600MHz PC was too old to support such rich graphics that needs tons of CPU/memory. Now I can't use that excuse anymore.. But I am resisting the temptation.. I shall not go over to the 'dark' side... Hope that my resistance is NOT futile.

I Know What I Did Last Weekend...

Last weekend was the one of those relaxing weekends... Did nothing except things that I liked... I surfed the Net, downloaded and watched some Japanese Anime, read 2 books (Harry Porter I & II, and some of III) and had some (of my own) home cooked food..

Peace and Quiet.. Suprisingly my neighbours (both sides) didnt make any noise... No shouting to ask her daughter to do homework/bath/eat/whatever, no baby crying, no kids running up and down the corridor screaming and shouting... No translation job from Kuan (actually there is, but it was a small one, one that I completed in about 2 hours)..

A jug of Ribena by my side, and newspapers, magazines & books all within my reach.. Lying down on the sofa, head propped up, fan blowing, radio playing, stop reading and taking short naps in between.... I read the whole Sunday... How I wish I have more of such weekends..

All weekends booked!

There are 6 more weekends left in 2005. And almost all of them is booked for something....

Weekend of 26 - 27 Nov: To work on my last module's assignment and do a much needed house-cleaning.

Weekend of 03 - 04 Dec: Running at the Standard Chartered (Quarter) Marathon on Sunday, so Saturday is an all rest day, revising on the final draft of my assignment.

Weekend of 10 - 11 Dec: Examination of my last module.

Weekend of 16 - 17 Dec: Need to go back office to work on both days (Application upgrades).

Weekend of 24 - 25 Dec: Free to do my stuff as it is my BD!! :)

Weekend of 30 - 31 Dec: Might need to work OT (website re-launching). Have yet to confirm by my colleagues.

My last 2 weekend was such a ....

Just got back from Taiping this morning. Went back to get my Msian IC renewed before the government start imposing fines... Took a bus on Sat nite, reached on Sun morning, had a bad cold the whole day, had to finish Kuan's translation job by Sunday night, went to Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara on Mon morning and got my IC renewed, went thru some of the old stuff at home to find a few Chinese books, and back on a trip to Singapore again (by coach) on Monday night . Whew! What a mad rush... Slept the most of today... Luckily I took leave for today too, else I'll sure have to take mc. Need to catch up on my sleep...

The weekend before that, I had class, my last module for the translation course. I got the result for the last 3 module's exam, not that fantastic: 84, 80, 74. So far, I have 1 A (90-100), 2 Cs (70-79) and 4 Bs (80-89). A 'B' average in total. I'll try my best in the last module's exam and assignment. Hopefully score an 'A' to balance up my 'C'. Gambatte!!

Final module... and then I will have completed!

Yes, one last module to go.... before I get my Specialist Diploma in Translation, awarded by Nanjing University... One step closer to my dream of getting out of IT..

Have yet to receive my results for my last 3 modules. Hopefully they will not dip lower than 80 marks.

Eventho the classes will be ending soon (the Monday after next), the road of translating (as a career) has just began. It is one of those careers that practice do makes perfect. Unlike IT where one needs to constantly updates, upgrades and familiarisation with new emerging technologies, translating requires constant practise on the same things over and over again, until it becomes 2nd nature.

Although I have yet to decide whether to totally forgo IT, it is always good to have a Plan B, a backup plan just in case. And although the translation market is getting crowded by the day with the vast interest and participation by China's young people, there is way too much potential in translation to ignore it. Thus it will be good to keep increasing my value in this line. I plan to take IoL and NAATI in 2007. These 2 are world recognised translation certificates. Both will definitely open doors in the translation circle if I were to go into it. And next year, I plan to take Japanese classes next year by the Japanese Cultural Society in Singapore. It's good to keep on learning, especially learning more about the things one is interested in, rather than learning because one has to. 不是因为必须学而学，而是因为想要学而学。

I can clearly differentiate these 2 kinds of feelings. It feels like a chore going to IT courses that the company is sponsoring, dragging myself to that class, but the feeling is totally different when I'm having my translation class. I couldn't wait for the next class to start! I looked forward to every single class. Eventhough I was dead tired, the excitement and enthusiasm in me was boiling over! How I wish I did this for my undergrad studies! Again, it is never too late to enjoy it now. Can't wait for my last module to start this coming Thursday...

Leisure Week

The past week was good.. 2 Holidays within a week. Too bad Spore gov only granted 1 day holiday each for Deevapali and Hari Raya Puasa, unlike Msia. But I'm not complaining... It's so rare that one can go to work alternately for a week..

Jogged on last Tue and Thu. Could only managed 6.5km each time. Aiy.. need to gain it back for the marathon on 4 Dec.

Recently, I got hooked on anime. First it was Naruto, now it's Bleach. And in between some other misc anime (Vampire Hunter D, etc). I downloaded Ghost in the Shell, have yet find time to watch them. It's amazing how addictive these anime can be. Just finished watching the first 25 episodes of Bleach today. Need to get hold of the next 25 episodes that my collegue promised to burn for me and I'm downloading episode 51 to 57 now...

This is not good... this addiction.. Realised that I do not have time to read anymore! With all these anime and translation jobs that Kuan passed to me, I barely have time to read, even my sleep time is being sacrificed. This coming week will be another challenge, with my last module's lessons starting this Thu and runs throughout the weekend til the following Monday and the possibility of another big job from Kuan that usually has a very tight dateline. Hopefully, my work do not suffer...