Phone Upgrade

It turns out all my problems with the iPhone was quickly solved by an upgrade to iPhone 7.

Lack of storage? It got increased to 256 GB. No more storage problems. No more clutter. Perfect for a pack rat like me.

An... other Android vs. iPhone Comparison

Thanks to iOS 10 I was finally able to declutter my iPhone 5. But I still have a lot of miscellaneous items taking up space that I have no idea what they are. Deleting apps did not help solve this problem. How do you get rid of these mysterious files???

It always amazes me that my Android has music, photos, videos, and over 150 apps but still maintain a good 3gb of free space but iPhone can hardly spare me 1gb without any multimedia files downloaded, and with only 62 apps. (After deleting all the apps I don't use, Apple tells me my phone capacity is 13.15gb instead of 11.2gb but my available storage is still 1.6gb with 0 songs, 0 videos, and 12 photos (recent screenshots; so very lightweight compared to jpg files. I was trying to make space for the update so all my photos were completely removed.).) Both phones are supposed to have 16gb storage capacity.

On a side note, iOS 10 is basically the result of iPhone taking a peek at Android's success and finally realizing what works! I was delighted to find out that the new homepage widgets lets me use iPhone like how I use Google Now (well... Android in general).

Thoughts on Malaysia

I was back in Malaysia for about a month and have just returned to Japan this week. It was truly a time for relaxing and slowly enjoying my days in Malaysia.

I have not returned home for 3 years since I came to Japan. My excuses were always that I had not enough cash or time but really I think I wanted to explore Japan more. I was just checking out my jalan.net history and was pleasantly surprised to see that I have visited 30 out of the 47 prefectures in Japan and that the total number of districts I have visited was an astounding 1,741. (It's astounding at least to me).

But I digress.

I had intended to share about my feelings on returning to Malaysia after being in Japan for so long.

I've always said that the public transport system and Japanese manners were top notch when asked about Japan. There is so many more things I wish to experience in Japan and places I want to go. Because of that, I have very little room to think about Malaysia or the things I might have left behind. I talk to my family and friends every day through various software and applications so that even when I meet them back home it felt like all I was doing was to continue our conversations. I do however enjoy them.

The one thing that I wanted to do in Japan that I couldn't do was actually to drive. I miss driving so much. In Malaysia, if you can't drive, you didn't go anywhere. It was a country where driving a car was cheaper to maintain than using public transport. Which was why I made it a point to apply for an international driver's permit. I recently drove up to Wakayama from Osaka and enjoyed the breathtaking view from Mt Koya. I truly felt how convenient it was to be able to drive and wondered if I would still think of trains and buses the same way. I'll be moving to Chiba when I start work next month so I think I will definitely be leasing a car.

I love Malaysian food. If it's one thing I love it's food. I had so many favorites that I could never be sick of eating Malaysian food. I made sure that I sampled all my favorites before returning to Japan so I have no regrets.

People-wise, I might be missing the way my country is so easy-going and somewhat lackadaisical nature when it comes to rule-keeping and manners. (Although I would never agree it's a good thing.)

Driving, food, and attitude... I think I've covered everything.

Where should I go to next?

Feature Request: Copy Text to Clipboard

Looking through my past feature request post I found a solution to one of them. I found a keyboard shortcut that works with rikai-kun (for chrome) that lets me copy the words that pop up. Here's a list of all the keyboard shortcuts for rikai-kun. The copied entries are tab-separated so you can paste it directly into Excel or a text-based file to export to flash card software or applications.

Keyboard shortcuts when popup is visible

A	Alternate popup location
Y	Move popup location down
C	Copy to clipboard
D	Hide/show definitions
Shift/Enter	Switch dictionaries
B	Previous character
M	Next character
N	Next word

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Japanese Dictionary
jisho.org

I was using Weblio for translations but it has a lot of advertisements so loading the page takes too long. Jisho.org is a simpler site that loads faster. Kanji characters have furigana so you can read the example sentences or words you are looking up. The site also uses hash tags to help narrow down searches. You can even use them to call up specific word lists for studying.

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Japanese to English Translations
Linguee

Linguee comes up with common translations for words and this site also gives example paragraphs of how the words are used. You get the context in which the words are used.

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New link for Jim Breen's WWWJDIC EDict
wwwjdic word search

2015

It just occurred to me that it's the end of 2015. Today is the last day of the year 2015. 

All I knew about today was that it is the only day I planned nothing on my itinerary and it's the only day rain was expected all day. It didn't occur to me that this was the last day of the year. 

Perhaps I thought I would be washed over by a wave of nostalgia or that I would be reflecting on my year this very day. But nope. I'm too preoccupied with my winter trip to notice. 

Overall it was an okay year. It was more of a roller coaster ride. I've been to more places this year than any other year. I keep forgetting that I've now been to at least 4 countries instead of 3. In 2016, I hope to visit one more country. 

This year I forgot myself. Forgot who I was and what I can do. Forgot why I am who I am. I sought to appease an inner conscience that had no care for my future or my life. An inner conscience that could take over my entire being without difficulty and wreck my life. 

In 2016, I hope to remember how to be myself again. To find joy in the pleasures I enjoyed. To find peace in the comforts I seek. To find stability in the rolling waves that come my way. 

I wish that remembering was a choice I could make instead of something I can only hope for. 

Whatsapp Web

Why does whatsapp only work when my phone is connected to the Internet? What's the point?

Should I start a tour company?

Planning holidays is kinda fun. Should I help people plan their holidays?

Halcyon

An old man watching his grandchildren play might look back fondly on his halcyon days, remembering the peaceful, happy time of his youth.

The word halcyon comes from a story in Greek mythology about the halcyon bird, which had the power to calm the rough ocean waves every December so she could nest. Like those calm waters, halcyon has come to mean a sense of peace or tranquility. People often use the phrase halcyon days to refer idyllically to a calmer, more peaceful time in their past.

Brought to you by vocabulary.com

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You know you're procrastinating when you publish multiple blog-posts in half a day!

I need to finish writing my thesis or I can't move forward. I need to get this done!

Mendeley Desktop now has a "Recently Read" tab!

This very short post is a few weeks late. Maybe months. Anyway.

I am very happy that Mendeley has a "recently read" tab now. At least I can track my reading history per session. If they kept a history log of when I read each article last that would be great too.

Google Inbox

So Google made a new email app. Inbox. You can either download the new app from the AppStore or you can access the PC version through inbox.google.com. Provided you're invited to try it out. 

I'm assuming it's not available for everyone yet. 

The great thing about Inbox is that it allows you to sort your mail based on importance. And by importance, I don't mean just by labeling an email important. 

Inbox lets you add a reminder to your emails and have the emails reappear in your inbox at the time you will be ready to deal with it. It lets you deal with important tasks first (tasks, not emails) and you can either snooze or set reminders on the rest for a later date. Once you're done with the task you can simply archive the email by selecting "done". 

Inbox allows you to handle emails as a to-do list. Which is great because I am sure most emails are just that. Something you have to deal with when you have the time. 

What I don't quite like about this system is the way it handles labels and incoming messages. On my mobile app, I no longer know which account has the new email. A notification will be apparent on the app icon but once you've opened the app, you can't tell which account that notification is for without checking everything. 

Next, I label all my emails because it's just easier to browse through them when I'm looking for information or things I need to do. I do not enjoy having to double check if every email is labelled. This is important to me because I have people coming to me asking about when certain emails were sent or received or if certain documents have been sent out. 

If these two issues can be fixed I'll be very happy with the new changes (that may replace gmail). 

Activating a Dormant Malaysian CIMB Savings Account whilst Overseas

This issue has been resolved!

I got an e-mail today from my customer service representative. She had been giving me weekly updates about the status of my account.

Today, she e-mailed to inform me that my account is now active. Thank God!

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What I did:

1. Posted my problem on CIMB Malaysia's facebook wall, explaining my circumstances and why their solution is unavailable to me.

2. Wait for a customer service representative to contact me.

3. Sent my contact details to the customer service representative to formally submit a complaint. (A reference number or case number will be assigned to you. Use it for further correspondences.)

4. Sent a formal letter (physical and electronic PDF copy) addressed to my home branch.

5. Wait for news.

6. Receive good/bad news. (In this case, it was good news for me.) ^^

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Initially, I had asked my brother and another friend to ask the people at CIMB (face-to-face inquiry) on my behalf but they were both told I had to be physically in Malaysia to activate my account and that there was no other way. But, deciding not to give up or to resort to other... err... ways to "be" in Malaysia without actually being there, facebook turned out to be another reliable channel for customer service complaints.

SNS, people! If they are properly manned, they should be a good channel to submit your complaints and have the right people deal with your problem.

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Previous Posts: [1] [2]

Activating a dormant CIMB account overseas (Part 2)

:: Updated! Issue Resolved! See Latest Post! ::

So the Internet had no answers for me. I opted therefore to look for a Facebook page. Yes, I turned to Facebook.

Turns out, CIMB did have a facebook page and people do post their problems on their wall. I decided to post my problem and it turns out this Facebook page was properly manned and a customer service representative was assigned to me almost immediately.

They requested for my contact particulars, which I happily gave. Since then we've exchanged two e-mails, requiring a formal request letter from me to my CIMB home branch. I have sent both a PDF and the actual physical letter to CIMB.

I now await news of its arrival and the resolution of this problem.

Until then.

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Previous post
Latest post

Anime I just found out about

I was browsing Gyao on Yahoo Japan last night when I clicked on one of its free episodes without thinking. The title seemed interesting. Unfortunately, the scene I saw was almost horror-like with protective charms, stuck all over a creepy wooden door, suddenly moving from a passing wind that disturbed nothing else. I had to finish the episode if I wanted to go back to bed.

The anime was Seraph of the End (Owari no Seraph, 終わりのセラフ). And it was good! I haven't been hooked on anime for awhile now. It's nice to have something to follow.

Another series I ended up getting hooked on was The Heroic Legend of Arslan (アルスラーン戦記).

Activating a Dormant Malaysian CIMB Savings Account whilst Overseas

:: Updated! Issue Resolved! See Latest Post! ::

Googling this title might not bring up a lot of information for people who need to know but many people are certainly familiar with getting notices about inactive accounts and steps to take to activate dormant accounts within the country.

But what if you weren't in the country when the bank notifies you?

I recently found out that my CIMB savings account became dormant (just two days ago) and not only did I not know it was about to become dormant, I had money transferred to that dormant account to pay some bills. Now I can't use that money.

What should I do?

Situation:
1. Bank probably sent notification to my address in Malaysia (but I wouldn't be able to get it anyway because I'm not in Malaysia).

2. 1.5 years ago, I informed the bank that I won't be in the country and would like to be able to access my accounts from overseas. Was told this was possible and that I won't have anything to worry about. Yet, they fail to inform me directly of my account becoming dormant.

3. Online sites suggest that I make withdrawals from my bank account to activate it... at any branch in Malaysia. (I'm not coming home just to make a bank withdrawal.)

Solution:
1. Call CIMB International and tell them about my current situation. (Problem: No one is ever available at the customer service center and it's freaking expensive to make phone calls from Japan just to wait for an hour for no one to pick up.)

2. Make a withdrawal myself.


I mean, I don't really have much choice here. Where am I going to go for help? CIMB won't pick up my calls. I can't get my family to do anything for me. I've tried with the Maybank account but no luck. They say that I need to be there in person. Which is bull.

Banks these days have to consider people who need to travel for their jobs. I think, I may never want to come back to Malaysia.


+ Updated +
Part 2
Latest Post

Most Viewed

I just found out my most viewed page is "How to split tables in Google Docs".

Apparently there are no good tutorials out there to teach you how.

How to Split Tables in Google Docs

I recently made an attempt at video-making. If you'd like to see the video version of this very simple tutorial, click here.

(Edited April 23, 2016.)
*****

I have recently started to seriously use Google Drive for my job and was quite upset at first when I found out that making tables in Google Docs isn't as easy or straightforward as in Microsoft Word.

One of the problems I had was with splitting tables. Especially across pages. I finally found out how to do it.

All you have to do is to highlight the part of the table you want to split and drag it to an empty space above or below the original table. Drag and drop! By doing a simple drag and drop, you can finally split a table in Google Docs easily!

Step 1: Highlight all cells from the point you want to split. (I.e., if you want to split the bottom half of a table from the top half of a 2x4 table, highlight the bottom 4 cells.)

Step 2: Click and hold on the cells you have highlighted and drag to an empty space at the bottom of the table. (Use the "enter" key to create the empty space. A minimum space of 3 empty lines will result in an effective split.)

Step 3: Observe that your table has miraculously split!

Part of My School Getting Destroyed

... For better things.

The school has been under renovation for awhile now and the new buildings look amazing!

I can't wait till they're ready and I can't wait till the school tells us we can move to a bigger laboratory to accommodate our growing numbers (both members and equipment).

Power Sleep App

Your phone probably has a good deal of processing power and when you're not awake, its idle state may be put to good use.

Read about the power sleep app here: Quartz on Now your phone can fight cancer!

It only applies to Android phones (not the iOS) and only works when your phone is plugged in and on WiFi. (So there's apparently nothing to worry about extra data transfer costs.) What you're doing with this app is to "donate" your phone's processing power to research programs while it's idle. Think of it as one part of a million processors that is working for a super computer.

Not a bad idea on the part of the researchers. I might be tempted to assist if android phones didn't require so much battery power during the day.

If you're interested, here's a link to the download site: Power Sleep App

Online Jobs for the International Student Living in Japan

As an international student with a college visa and a work permit, you can only work up to 8 hours a day during vacation or 28 hours a week at any other time (that's 4 hours a day). If you're like me, a graduate student who works from 9.30am to 7pm in a laboratory (usually interpreted as 9am to 7.30pm), you won't be able to take up normal part time jobs available to most people living in Japan. So, that sorts of narrows down your options to midnight jobs, online jobs, or tutoring jobs. Now, I can't work as a tutor in Japan since I have no knowledge of Japanese schools or their education system. (I can't teach English very well unless people don't mind me drilling the language into their heads.) Midnight jobs are quite acceptable actually but I have reached a point in life when I can't seem to go without sleep anymore. So! That leaves me with online jobs. I managed to snag one and I hope it'll pay well. I've also considered other jobs but have not started on them. (Perhaps the lack of motivation is what's driving me to the point of 'cashlessness'.)

These are some sites that may be of interest to you (whether you're living in or outside of Japan). They're online jobs so you can do them as long as you own a computer (and since you're reading this blog, I'm assuming you own one).

Translation jobs
The following sites are for translators. They're mostly Japanese-English jobs but there's quite a few other language pairs. (Chinese-English for starters, something I'm considering if there aren't enough Japanese-English jobs to do.)

+ Minna no Hon'yaku +
You start off as a Level 1 translator paid 0.9 yen per character translated but after 2500 characters you get evaluated to see if you're qualified to level up. Prices and bonuses paid increases with each level. The type of translations you will be doing are mainly product descriptions but as you level up and are more confident with your skills there are news articles, blog entries, and other more challenging texts.

+ Gengo +
Basic pay begins at USD0.03 per character so it pays rather well. But the tests you have to pass are quite difficult. The articles you have to translate on this site are usually of a certain level of difficulty so you need to be confident in your skills to work here.

+ Translator Base +
A paid, out-sourcing website for freelancing translators. Not exactly a steady source of income. You have to bid for jobs here and you actually pay for a subscription to this website to get better jobs.

Freelancers: Online Projects
Project based work paid hourly or per project for freelancers.

+ oDesk +

+ elance +

Tutoring
Yeah, I know I said I can't tutor but I decided to try anyway.

+ A Power Academy +
Long term teachers only.

Teacher-Student Matching Service
These sites are basically for teachers to advertise themselves and for students to look for teachers. They're mostly promoting language tutors so... who knows.

+ Hello Sensei! +

+ Find Students +

+ My Sensei +

+ International Language Academy +

Jobs for Foreigners
Now these sites are mostly for full time jobs but they also have contract, part-time and freelance jobs on occasion.

+ GaijinPot +
The good thing about this site is that it's in English so you know they're looking for people who knows English.

+ A Power Now +
Jobs aimed at foreigners in Japan. There's also a link for international students who wish to work part time.

+ Baitoru Dot Com +
As the name suggests in Japanese, it's a job site for part-timers.

+ Job Sense +
Another job site that has a special foreigner category.

+ Town Work +
Mostly actual work but you can search for part-time jobs aimed at foreigners too.

+ Baito College +
Part time jobs for the college student.

+ Work in Japan +
A free site for employers to post jobs.

+ Craigslist: Tokyo Classifieds +
Not sure if this is a reliable source but like any other online site, just be careful and wary. Don't give out your personal information or anything compromising and you should be fine. This site doesn't just advertise jobs but it's basically for people to buy and sell stuff too.

Sushi Shops I want to Visit

元祖寿司
+ was here before but forgot where it was +
+ will visit again~ +

寿司折鶴
+ always wanted to visit but could not find the place +
+ the place is now starred on google maps! +
+ they provide delivery service! +