So, it’s finally over. More than a week of practicing in hot tropical sun, decked out in full anti-riot gear, finally came to its conclusion today. We’re not completely sure but it seems the Director of Manpower was impressed. GOOD. he better have been, for all the work we put into that demonstration.

I gave up on Grandia II, or the PC version at the very least. The 3D graphics are sharp. Too sharp. They don’t mesh well with the rather pixelated and overstretched bitmaps and textures. And of course my LCD monitor can’t handle any resolution that isn’t 1024×768. Hopefully I can pick up (or download, heh) the PS2 version sometime. In the meanwhile, I’m maybe a third of the way through Xenogears (for the umpteenth time). I hope to finish it soon, but that seems rather unlikely, the way my schedule’s been acting up lately. After Xenogears, I should be able to complete Valkyrie Profile (at last!) and then probably get started on Wild Arms 2.

I also just acquired Final Fantasy Tactics, and suffice it to say that the method of that acquisition was somewhat less than legal. I’m not entirely sure that I’m going to play it, though. The GBA remake of FFT is definitely in the works, and I’ve heard tell that it’ll be released in June. I seriously doubt this is true, as the remake was only confirmed a short while ago, but then you never know. I’m definitely going to have to start saving money (after this month :P) to buy a GBA, as well as FFT when it comes out.

I’ve finally gotten some work done for Odex, heh. Edited the Battle Athletes OVA script last week… and in the process, I found out why the Odex subs have been so bad. They don’t translate from the actual Japanese dialogue, apparently. They get a Chinese translation script from Taiwan or Hong Kong, and have their people translate from that into English, introducing a large number of translation errors in the process. Kanzaki Akari says “Sugoi!” in one memorable scene in the third episode of the OVAs, which their translators transmogrified into “The wind is so strong here!”. Talk about reading too much into a line.

I just started on the Fushigi Yuugi OVA, the second one, and it seems the situation may be worse than I expected. They gave me an HKDVD to use as a reference, and it appears that in an amazing cost-saving move, they decided to copy the HK subs wholesale. Brilliant. It saves me a lot of work, though. I think.

Once Fushigi Yuugi is done (9 episodes of shoujo madness) I get to start work on Vandread, which looks really promising. And speaking of good animes, I just finished watching Scryed. IT WAS AWESOME. ’nuff said.

Madeline L’Engle remains one of my favourite authors. Her writing is timeless. I’m reading a book of hers now about story as a Biblical device. I really wish I had the chance to attend one of her workshops about writing techniques. There’s so much I could learn from her.

I’ve decided to cancel on the Malaysia trip I was considering about taking with Shaun and Bean and Leanne. Instead I plan on going for the church camp from June 9-12. I haven’t been to a church camp since 1997, and it really is high time I started going again. I’m so out of touch; with church, with God… perhaps even with myself. It’ll be good to take a few days away from the army, away from Singapore, away from the Internet. Though not away from a computer.

I’ve been using the old Jornada 820 prototype that my dad was using a while back, but which he abandoned when he picked up his Fujitsu Lifebook. It’s great being able to type on a near-full-size keyboard, on a Windows CE device. Jenni, my Pocket PC Jornada 540, lies unused on my desk, but I will likely begin to use her again for my daily organisational needs once school starts in July. In the meantime, Tessa serves my writing needs wonderfully. If only the phone network in camp would allow me to log in to the Internet, I’d be an extremely happy man.

I haven’t named my PS2 yet, have I? It’s been rather difficult. I’ve been trying to think of a nice female name that incorporates both the ‘p’ and ’s’, but haven’t really been able to. And then there’s the feeling that maybe, just maybe, I ought to give the PS2 a male name instead. I can’t quite decide.

Esther returns to Singapore in 3 days time! Yay! I can’t wait to see her again; it’s been so long. A year now, or thereabouts. And I owe her a present, for Christmas, so I’ll have to make it up to her while she’s back. She’ll be gone for a month during her holiday, on a mission trip, which I think is really great for her.

Spiderman came out a few days ago, but I can’t watch it, not in my current financial state. Blarg. I guess I’ll have to wait till the 10th, when I get my pay… and after that of course Star Wars Episode II will be out, which I fully intend to watch a minimum of two times, and preferably more.