Meet my dog

This is my dog, Monty. He's a 7 year old Cockapoo who loves belly rubs and sniffing one single part of the pavement for 10 minutes whilst out on a walk. His birthday is September 2nd. His two favourite people are my Dad and my Nana. He hates going for walks in the rain and is a little bit of a scaredy cat. On the other hand, he loves having a cuddle whilst sleeping and takes great joy in stealing the kitchen doormat. Some of his favourite food includes cooked chicken, bananas, and broccoli stems.

Selling off anime figurines

I'm currently selling off a bunch of figures. Please note that I am not interested in scalping these figures. I haven't really been into the series these figures are from for years so would like for them to go to homes where they'll be more appreciated. I believe have priced them at a fair price, and at this moment in time I will not be changing the prices that I am selling them for. All figures are genuine and have been ordered directly from Good Smile Company or from AmiAmi. Prices of figures do not include shipping.

Figures for sale:

  • Nendoroid Petite: THE iDOLM@STER CINDERELLA GIRLS - Stage 02 by Good Smile Company (contains duplicate Normal Miku Maekawa figure) [£25]
  • Cu-Poche Hibiki Ganaha by Kotobukiya [£30]
  • 1/8 Scale Madoka Kaname and Kyubey by Good Smile Company [£50]
  • 1/8 Scale Hibiki Ganaha by Phat! [£40]
  • 1/8 Scale Yayoi Takatsuki by Phat! [£40]
  • 1/8 Scale Makoto Kikuchi by Phat! [£40]
  • 1/8 Scale Mio Honda by Good Smile Company [£40]

All figures come with their original boxes and accessories. Not all boxes will be in pristine condition, and some may contain dents or marks. Figures that have moveable and additional parts also come with their manual. All figures have been opened and displayed at some point. Figures come from a smoke-free home. We do have a dog (see above!), but he hardly sheds fur and is not allowed in the room where the figures and figure boxes are kept. I'm based in the UK, but would be willing to ship worldwide (international buyers must be prepared to pay the cost of the figure and shipping, as well any import taxes, custom duties, etc.). Domestic shipping will be shipped via Royal Mail 2nd Class Signed For, international shipping will be shipped via Royal Mail International Tracked. Payment will be handled via PayPal invoice, and figures will not be shipped until full payment is made. Can provide more photos of the figures and their boxes if requested. If interested in purchasing, please email me.

Language learning stuff

This section is mostly for my own benefit in case I lose access to my computer and Google Drive and can't access my language learning resources, but I figured it may be helpful for some other people too.

I'm currently self-studying Japanese. Below is a list of (free) programmes and websites/guides I've used to help out with my studying. Programmes marked with a ☆ indicate that it can be used for learning any language, not just Japanese. Please keep in mind that I use Windows as my PC operating system and Android as my mobile operating system, therefore I'm unsure if the following applications will work for other OSs.

  • Anki (☆): A very powerful and probably the most well-known flashcard application. Can be used to make your own flashcards, or you can downloaded premade decks from the internet. Flashcards can be highly customised. Can also install various add-ons for it to customise your flashcard experience even further. Can download as an app for Android.
  • mpv (☆): A lightweight video player. Has a bunch of functions, including the ability to time subtitles.
    • mpv-selection-blur (☆): A script for mpv that blurs part of a video. Useful when needing to blur hardcoded subtitles in videos.
    • mpv-lang-learner (☆): A script for mpv aimed at language learners. Has a few different functions, like being able to quick seek to the begining of a current subtitle or continously looping one line of a subtitle.
  • Textractor: Used to hook and extract text from video games and visual novels.
  • mokuro: Used for processing manga so that it can be read via OCR.
  • Yomitan: A pop-up dictionary for your web browser that can also automatically generate Anki flashcards. This add-on is a community fork of Yomichan, but works in the same way. Can be used on Android via the web browser Kiwi Browser.
  • AnkiConnect: Required for Anki integration in Yomitan. An unofficial Android version is available here.
  • Clipboard Inserter (☆): A Firefox add-on that automatically inserts contents of your clipboard onto a selected page.
  • HTML Page (☆): An empty HTML page where the contents of your clipboard are inserted.
  • ShareX (☆): A programme used for generating screenshots, acquiring audio, and OCR stuff.
  • jidoujisho: An incredible Android app that can be used to mine Anki flashcards whilst reading manga and light novels pre-processed with mokuro, as well as anime and YouTube videos with Japanese subtitles.
  • yt-dlp (☆): Used for downloading YouTube videos and videos from other streaming sites. Videos can be downloaded with subtitles too.
INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO USE YT-DLP BECAUSE I'M FORGETFUL:
1. Make sure yt-dlp and ffmepg are in the same folder (for me it's called "YouTube videos").
2. Hold down the Shift key and right-click on the "YouTube videos" folder > click "Open command window here".
3. Type yt-dlp.exe -f 22 --embed-subs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8E1RNC4Zus (right click on cmd to paste in URL).
4. Hit the Enter key to download the video (or playlist).

Note: In the example, the format quality is 22 (downloads videos in .mp4 format at 720x1280 resolution) and --embed-subs adds caption subtitles. Use yt-dlp.exe --list-formats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8E1RNC4Zus to generate a list of available formats. Add -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s %(title)s.%(ext)s" to download playlist videos in the correct order and with a numbered file name.

Command for copy and pasting: yt-dlp.exe -f 22 --embed-subs -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s %(title)s.%(ext)s"
  • AntennaPod (☆): A simple podcast listening programme that has some handy features, like showing which podcasts you've listened to previously and being able to suscribe to your favourite podcast channels. Can download as an app for Android.
  • Condenser (☆): A programme that allows you to extract audio from videos based on subtitle timing. This allows you to create a .mp3 file that only contains the speech from your selected video, cutting out any other extra fluff (e.g. music, OPs and EDs, fighting and explosion scenes, etc).
  • Musicolet (☆): A no-nonsense music player for Android. Has no ads and doesn't require an internet connection to work. Has a bunch of useful features, including an audio cutter and the ability to change the pitch and speed of a track. If you're looking for an open source music player for Android, consider checking out Music Player GO.
  • JP Lazy Guide: A fantastic guide on how to setup programmes and applications in order to read and mine Anki flashcards from manga, visual novels, light novels, and anime on both Windows and Android.
  • Animecards: Another useful guide, has good starter Anki decks you can download and explains how to setup Anki properly. Also explains how to mine Anki flashcards from anime and visual novels.

scans and other stuff

The following scans were originally scanned by me at 24-bit 1200dpi in .PNG format and have not been edited aside from cropping and rotation. Unfortunately due to a lack of space and my poor upload speeds, I cannot readily upload the original versions of the scans. Therefore these scans have been converted into .JPG and shrunk down so that they're a more manageable file size. If you would like the original version of a scan, please contact me and perhaps we can try to figure something out. Clicking on a link will take you to a Google Drive folder where you can look at and download the scans.

Extracting content from the Lost Odyssey games files was possible thanks to a script created by chrrox at Glidor's Forums, and audio extraction was possible thanks to a script taken from the now defunct XeNTaX forums.

To be scanned: Lost Odyssey Japanese boxart + game booklet, Lost Odyssey European boxart + game booklet, Lost Odyssey Switch volume, Lost Odyssey strategy guides...