Cover: PLEDGE by the GazettE (short piano version), デコデン

I had a mega-productive day yesterday. I wrote and sent two letters, drew L from Death Note with copic-style markers, and recorded this! ...ok, not very impressive, but those were all things I had been stalling for some time. Coming soon: decoden! Here's my first attempt:



Gonna be using epoxy instead of cyanoacrylate, and I acquired more varied rhinestones and cabochons.

Covers: Coming Soon!

FFVIII's Liberi Fatali and an improved version of Bella's Lullaby on the way!

Pokémon FireRed: How to beat the Elite Four at level 44

Underlevelled, yet impatient to fight the Elite Four (or just bored of training with level 30s)? Despite being at least 10 levels below the Elite Four's Pokémon, you can still win (I did)! Play to type effectiveness. My Pokémon were all level 44 - 46 when I faced Lorelei. Here's my team:

TAKA/Raichu - Thunderbolt, Double Team, Quick Attack, Thunder Wave JUJU/Vaporeon - Surf, Sand-Attack, Aurora Beam, bite
MARMEE/Pidgeot - Wing Attack, Fly, Quick Attack, Sand-Attack
DIJKSTRA/Kadabra - Psybeam, Reflect, Recover, Psychic
WUKONG/Primeape - Karate Chop, Low Kick, ?, Strength
ZACK F./Charizard - Flamethrower, Cut, Slash, Smokescreen

Note: These are all one-hit KOs, unless otherwise specified. In between battles, make sure everyone has full HP and no status problems - some of them will be used as temporary switch-ins while you heal the more effective ones (basically acting as human - er, Pokémon shields - accuracy-lowering attacks are good for them to have). Since you are underlevelled and therefore may not have the stats to strike first, make good use of the Quick Claw. Don't bother with Leftovers. Make sure you have about 30 Revives, 30 Full Heals, 30 Lemonades, and 30 Hyper Potions. If you have the money, stock up on 50-or-so Full Restores instead. I hope you've saved up your Max Revives too. The Elite Four will annoyingly use Full Restore as soon as their Pokémon's HP goes red, unless you're lucky. Some of their Pokémon also hold Sitrus Berries.

--

Lorelei: I made TAKA hold the Exp. Share.
Dewgong - Thunderbolt, it may take two hits. A lot of guides say not to bother raising a Pikachu, but my Raichu's type effectiveness has come a long way.
Cloyster - Thunderbolt, it may take two hits.
Slowbro - Thunderbolt, it may take two hits.
Jynx - Flamethrower - fire melts ice.
Lapras - Flamethrower. This is quite an easy battle if your Thunder type has at least 150 HP.

Bruno: I made MARMEE hold the Exp. Share.
Onix x 2 - Surf. The types that Rock types are weak to, they're really weak to. Alternatively, use Psychic, Low Kick/Karate Chop or any strong Grass attack (i.e. not Absorb).
Hitmonlee - A few of my team got wiped out by him, but Fly works best. Flying types are good against Fighting types. Psychic types are too, but my Kadabra has awful HP and defense, so he gets knocked out from one attack.
Hitmonchan - A lot easier than Hitmonlee, use Fly.
Machamp - I had trouble with this one too, I was basically running out of Pokémon. I think I used a combination of Fly and Surf here.

Agatha: I made DIJKSTRA hold the Exp. Share, but he actually got killed first.
Gengar (with Double Team) - I had a LOT of trouble with him, mainly because he kept using Double Team until his evasiveness was maxed and I couldn't touch him. I resetted at least 5 times. I used Bite (Dark type) at first, but figured out that Fly is good against the second Gengar (and should work for this one too). Ghost types are weak against Dark (Bite) and Psychic, but Psychic types are weak against Shadowpunch. Remember not to use Ground, Normal, or anything that can't touch Ghosts. This Gengar really emphasises luck. Try to kill him before he uses Double Team more than twice - abuse soft reset if he does, it's pointless to go on.
Gengar (with Hypnosis) - Use the Pokéflute (or Full Heals, whatever) once you get put to sleep - do not delay. Same with Toxic, at the very least after one "hurt by poison" episode. This took a while because I had to keep healing, but use Fly - this will waste his PP. He will try to use Nightmare after Hypnosis, but if you use the Pokéflute like I said, he will waste that move because it fails.
Haunter - This one is easy, use Bite.
Golbat - Thunderbolt, it may take two hits.
Arbok - Psychic.

Lance: I made TAKA hold the Exp. Share.
Gyarados - Thunderbolt. WATCH OUT FOR THE PP.
Dragonair x 2 - Aurora Beam: they're weak against Ice. Takes two hits. Watch out, they might hit you with Thunder Wave or Hyper Beam (apparently 150 attack no matter what, but my Vaporeon only took 107 from Aerodactyl...).
Dragonite - Thunderbolt. I unfortunately got most of my team wiped out here because of Hyper Beam, so what I did was get my HP-high Charizard to repeatedly use Smokescreen while reviving and healing, and finally keep using Slash to lower its HP (very slowly). Then switch back to Raichu for Thunderbolt.
Aerodactyl - Surf, or Thunderbolt. He has Hyper Beam as well - the worst thing about being underleveled is that your HP may not be above 150.

Last battle...YOUR RIVAL: My starter was Charmander, so his team follows from that. His levels are slightly higher than the Elite Four's Pokémon. Mine were all at least 12 levels lower than his, but his dudes don't have annoying attacks like Agatha's, so it should be simple enough. Should any of your team faint, just use a body shield (I mainly used my Primeape and Kadabra), revive, and heal up.

Pidgeot - Thunderbolt, twice.
Rhydon - DON'T use Electric type attacks, they won't hit. Use Surf instead, which takes two hits.
Blastoise - His Blastoise has very powerful attacks (Hydro Pump, Skull Bash) so you should lower its accuracy/raise your evasiveness as much as possible first; preferably the former, at least 6 times, until it starts missing a lot. Then use Thunderbolt. If it uses Rain Dance, switch to Vaporeon or any Water/resistant type you have and kill some time with Surf - believe it or not, it actually works pretty well, despite the fact that "It's not very effective..." - Rain Dance increases the power of Water type attacks. Heal often so that you don't get killed and have to revive. Once the HP gets low enough, switch back to your Electric Type and use Thunderbolt. Slightly long and tedious, but that's what you get for being underlevelled...
Exeggutor - Flamethrower, or Aurora Beam, twice.
Alakazam - Psychic types are weak against Bug, Dark, and Ghost. Since I don't have a Ghost and Bugs are crappy, I used my Vaporeon's Bite (wish I had a Mightyena...), which took three hits. It killed my Vaporeon, so I switched to Charizard and used Smokescreen for a bit. Flamethrower and Surf actually work better than Bite, as Abra's evolutions all have really bad SP DEF. After my rival used about 5 Full Restores, along with 2 Recovers from Alakazam, I finally beat it.
Arcanine - Surf. Its Extremespeed sounds scary, but it's not that strong. I beat him with one Pokémon left, at 31 HP. I like to cut it close (don't do that).

--

I know I was very specific with regards to the Pokémon and attacks I use, but you can use any Pokémon with any attack as long as it's the same type and with high attack. Might as well use up all of your stat-increasing nutrients too, before the battles.

Gonna get Pokémon White next month, can't wait! I think I'll pick a girl, and I definitely want Oshawott. LOOK AT THIS:



BONUS: Want to know about my Pokémon's nerdy/dumb/weird names?

TAKA/Raichu - ???
JUJU/Vaporeon - Named after JUJU Cosmetics, famous for their inclusion of the hydrating component, hyaluronic acid (hydration - water - get it?).
MARMEE/Pidgeot - I don't know why I chose this, but it's after the mother in Little Women.
DIJKSTRA/Kadabra - Since my rival kept going on about how his newly-caught Abra was smart, I tried to think of a smart person's name. Dijkstra was a Dutch computer scientist.
WUKONG/Primeape - Named after Sun Wukong, the Monkey God.
ZACK F./Charizard - Named after Zack Fair, one of my favourite Final Fantasy dudes. Other favourites include Squall in FFVIII, Cloud in Advent Children, and Shiva, the GF in FFVIII. And of course, Noctis in Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which probably won't get released until a million years later...but still!

LMF 國際人渣 Lyrics English Translation

LMF - 國際人渣 (International Scum) English Translation

Chinese lyrics: YinyueABC
English translation by z.ky. Do not reproduce without permission.

One human life, one bullet, scum
One plan, one bomb, scum
Your clever plans cause suffering and misery
You get to mess around
No one has a choice
One nation, one principle, scum
One big country, one excuse, scum
Even having grown up here, you get smashed to pieces
Even if you're in charge,
It's not your turn to mess around

Humanity, a couple thousand years; civilization, war, destruction, never stopped
If it's not me attacking you, you're attacking me
History's lessons have never been absorbed
How come once something happens
People with guns come in to keep the order
Keeping other people's order
After planning in advance, sitting down, discussing; going on to beat people, frame people
Lots of innocent people have been condemned
Right and wrong, black and white, can't it be defined again?
All that remains is a line of grey area
So many differing intentions, ideas which can't be agreed upon
Contradictory conflicts, gathering prevents change of mind
Seems impossible, but they have the most excuses
A big Western country still standing, cheating Iraqi oil
America still has the world's biggest weapons industry
So, we have reasons to hate you
You're still mouthing off
One human life, one bullet, scum
One plan, one bomb, scum
Your clever plans cause suffering and misery
You get to mess around
No one has a choice
One nation, one principle, scum
One big country, one excuse, scum
Even having grown up here, you get smashed to pieces
Even if you're in charge,
It's not your turn to mess around

Anthrax damages, but probably not as much as Coca-Cola
The invasions of military bases on all four sides
May not be as lowly as all of the McDonald's
Which is the one who wants to invade this world?
Which is the one who wants to take over this world?
Doesn't a big country still need basic manners
Not bombing someone's embassy
You tell me whether an apology is needed
Can't even buy a Cuban cigar
Microsoft's monopolizing technique is like robbery
The Waco siege
The Rodney King case
The Amadou Diallo case
The hanging of people
Within these many cases, can we learn from them:
Nothing is ever as simple as it looks
There's more than one side to the story
No matter how big a country is, it has its problems
Expand your vision and look at things more objectively
Don't just think about money
Like an ignorant imbecile
"The Ugly Chinaman and the Crisis of Chinese Culture", buy a copy and read it
One human life, one bullet, scum
One plan, one bomb, scum
Your clever plans cause suffering and misery
You get to mess around
No one has a choice
One nation, one principle, scum
One big country, one excuse, scum
Even having grown up here, you get smashed to pieces
Even if you're in charge,
It's not your turn to mess around

One human life, one bullet, scum
One plan, one bomb, scum
Your clever plans cause suffering and misery
You get to mess around
No one has a choice
One nation, one principle, scum
One big country, one excuse, scum
Even having grown up here, you get smashed to pieces
Even if you're in charge,
It's not your turn to mess around

*repeat once


Notes: A criticism of America, and an implicit criticism of China.

flyktighet Translated Lyrics Archive

I continually change and improve these, so don't be shy with feedback (I request it for reasons other than egotism).

I started doing these after exhaustive Google searches for translations, i.e. these should be the first of its kind. I really don't want these to end up on random lyric sites either, so please refrain from reproducing them. Enjoy 'em here!

Original lyrics copyright to their respective owners. No copyright infringment is intended or implied. I claim ownership of the translated lyrics only.

*Artist information to come.


== my little airport ==

album: 《我們在炎熱與抑鬱的夏天，無法停止抽煙》 / "we can't stop smoking in the vicious and blue summer"
03. 我愛官恩娜，都不及愛你的哨牙
04. 馬田的心事
06. indie悲歌
14. 和陳五msn


== LMF (Lazy Mutha Fucka / 大懶堂) ==

album: 嘻武門
01. 1127
07. 國際人渣
15. 返屋企

album: Finalazy
03. WTF


== 24HERBS (廿四味) ==

album: self-titled debut - Disc 2
01. 照做 Feat. Jin

Shoutout to blog visitors

I've noticed that this blog has been getting quite a few hits over the past two months, the most popular posts being my LMF translations. Dear visitors: don't be shy, leave a comment or two, and follow so you can be notified automatically of new posts!

I'm nearing the end of my degree so I can't post until the end of this month, but here's what's coming up:

• Pokémon FireRed Elite Four strategy guide - how to beat them at 10+ levels below
  
• More my little airport translations: the rest of the 《我們在炎熱與抑鬱的夏天，無法停止抽煙》 (we can't stop smoking in the vicious and blue summer) album
  
• Translation of Superstar by 24HERBS
• I've stopped working on my translation of Purikura Pocket 2: Kareshi Kaizou Daisakusen, but it will pick up again in the summer!
  

À bientôt!

LMF 1127 Lyrics English Translation

LMF - 1127 English Translation

Chinese lyrics: JustSomeLyrics
English translation by z.ky. Do not reproduce without permission.

Through his teachings, we know we're not the sick man of East Asia, with yellow skin; we can be ourselves
No need to copy others, follow others, we're Chinese, won't look down on ourselves

*repeat once

MC YAN:

2000AD, China, 5000 years
60 years ago, a man appeared
Does everyone know, what he's done?
The road he took? To let the whole world know
What it means to be Chinese, Chinese spirit
Made some movies, 4 or 5, presented an image, an energy on the screen
Unprecedented action, speed, skill, form, philosophy, point of view
A point of view unlike any modern film
To explain to the world, the culture of Chinese kung fu
Took a path, a fresh approach
Jeet Kune Do, all LMF wants
Is for you to be a presentable Chinese person
Learn from others, there's no need to copy all the time
Just use your heart to understand how it's done -
Try it, and ask:
What caused those guys to fail?
Didn't support their own people, always pretended to be other people

Through his teachings, we know we're not the sick man of East Asia, with yellow skin; we can be ourselves
No need to copy others, follow others, we're Chinese, won't look down on ourselves

*repeat once

PHAT:

A big China, a Bruce Lee
There's no one who isn't proud of him
Western fists and swords, judo, Wing Chun, Northern 12-Road Tan Tui
Every type, every way, every style, every one, every each move
He also used pen and paper to record
No need to become a student of any martial arts school
From being uncapable to able
You yourself is the best method
Truly express your own abilities
That's your best weapon

KIT:

Having chosen this path, this is how he stepped out
Established a method called Jeet Kune Do
Remembered to have his own attitude
Didn't stick to what was known, walked his own way
If you just stand there without acting, and think
You'll just think of inconceivable ways
If you want to do it, just do it, but keep on the right path
As with Jeet Kune Do, he would never do evil or betray

MC YAN:

Don't cheat yourself or be someone improper
Bruce Lee's spirit never dies, Chinese people won't forget
Don't cheat yourself or be someone improper
Bruce Lee's spirit never dies, Chinese people won't forget

WAH:

As Chinese, we need to know our faults
We have 5000 years' history, what about you?
In order to face the White Terror, we've changed
Ask yourself deeply, what about you?
I want to know as Chinese, what are our faults
You say I've put up a front, I say I know what I'm doing
What's wrong with contributing to the world?
It's intuitive to everyone, can you do it?

Through his teachings, we know we're not the sick man of East Asia, with yellow skin; we can be ourselves
No need to copy others, follow others, we're Chinese, won't look down on ourselves

*repeat x3


Notes: LMF's lyrics may read as very patriotic and Chinese culture-centric to someone who does not share the same background. Essentially the message is to be proud of who you are, but don't demean yourself or do improper things. Bruce Lee was a great philosopher as well as martial artist, and they draw on his influence as an example. "Sick man of East Asia" was a phrase used during the weakening of China during WWII. Wing Chun and Tan Tui are styles of kung fu. White Terror (白色恐怖) was a period of political oppression in China starting from 1927.

StyleMint - join now!!

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are launching StyleMint. It is being touted as being similar to book-of-the-month clubs - a fashion-of-the-month club, perhaps, featuring an exclusive t-shirt collection designed by MKA themselves.

Launching in July, membership is limited. Join now!

http://launch.stylemint.com/
http://launch.stylemint.com/
http://launch.stylemint.com/


More my little airport and LMF lyrics on the way.

Purikura Pocket 2 Kareshi Kaizou Daisakusen class test

I've been playing this game before I was ten, and it's still fun for some reason. Despite the fact that it's for the Game Boy Color and looks like this:



It's essentially a very low-level dating sim/Tokimemo-type game, where there are a few minigames and choices of answers to give. Thankfully my Japanese has improved (also in-game lack of kanji appreciated) and I no longer guess everything and inevitably lose. Of course I have to keep a dictionary open, my Japanese isn't that amazing...

The class test minigame during school is actually not that simple. I got some questions like: what's another name for the African violet? What type of dogs do the police force use? What does kitsune no yomeiri mean?And something about an animal in Indonesia, Taiwan and Japan which I didn't bother translating.

As there is absolutely no info on GameFAQs or even the rest of the web, would anyone be interested in a full translation of the game? (I suppose the GameFAQs community might, and it would be great to give back.) Although I may struggle with 100% correct grammar, I got over 80% in the test minigame I just talked about! Go NANA OOSAKI (the name I've chosen for my character)!

Weka: "Train and test set incompatible"

Scenario: A training and test set, both .csv files. Weka does not like. Deems them incompatible.
Search engine magic fail: According to Google, the attribute names are out of order. If you, like me, spent hours staring at them side by side as a .csv file and seeing no difference in order, spelling, spaces, etc., do not fret like I did!

SOLUTION:

1. Open both training and test set files in Weka and save as .arff files.
   
2. Open them with a plain text editor (Notepad, Notepad++, etc.).
3. Check the nominal attributes (i.e. not numerical), which Weka has put into arrays of this format: {..}.
   
4. Compare the attribute arrays of the training file against test set. The order depends on how they appear in the file, so just rearrange the arrays in both training and test set for matching attribute arrays. It should now run without throwing an "incompatible" error.

my little airport indie悲歌 Lyrics English Translation

my little airport - indie悲歌 (indie lament) English Translation

Chinese lyrics: my little airport
English translation by z.ky. Do not reproduce without permission.

Professional musicians, they don't want indie music to take part,
Similar to rich people, will always ignore our poor hearts.

But I don't mind, although my heart is full of bruises, mainstream media is full of darkness.

Hating your people, will only continue to make you rage,
Liking your people, won't cause everyone to surface.

But you keep walking on, there's no point in asking how far, there will always be those who stay with you.

I want this song, to reach the airwaves, get the DJ to air a different sound.
But they have no sense of responsibility, I'm lucky if they air it, I can only blame my sound for sucking,
I can only blame my company for lack of funds,
I will never reach the public.

Even if I can't be popular, I want to carry on.
If I put out a CD, remember to help out.


Note: The woes of indie artists, humourously laid out. Buy their CDs!!

Not Quite That Cute

I'm a bit late because the collection already came out yesterday, but the promo pic for MAC Quite Cute just looks like second-rate 6%DOKIDOKI. And check out that distracting mod feel going on around her midriff.

As for the collection itself, I'm not a MAC slave and I don't wear any of those colours. LOOK! It's an anti-summary!

The promised layout overhaul will probably happen in late May.