I've just gotten another entertainment device. I've realised, that since coming to ITI, my entertainment options have just kept growing and growing. So has my personal technology level (i.e. my proficiency in IT which helps me to get more entertainment systems). Not that ITI's the particular cause of it. I'm sure if I was in other units I'd also move toward this direction, and also because I started moving in this direction the moment I OOCed in SISPEC anyway.
Lemme review this movement so far. Around late June last year I OOCed. Then, I was using the crap $50 army phone that most others were using, with a ringtone and alarm so soft, it defeated the purpose of actually having the alarm function. By July I was bringing my iPod Touch into camp already, loaded with then, only Tap Tap Revenge, which I played quite often, but not too often, since there were only 2 chargers in bunk which were quite used quite often. Other than that, I started to gain interest in learning Japanese as well with a manga on Lucky Star that one of my OOC mates had. Realising I had alot of time on my hands since then, I decided to revisit Pokemon and maybe start on Anime.
So I downloaded Pok�mon and started watching it at home, and then I decided to step into watching Anime, for good. Lucky Star was my first, and after that the list just goes on (and is still ongoing XD). So not long after this, I received my posting to ITI.
Of course, initially I had no idea what this place is like, and hadn't grown into it yet, so my entertainment systems did not fully come online. But a week later, I was already bringing my iPod Touch again, and this time, I had managed to find the appropriate format for the iPod Touch and converted many Pok�mon episodes to fit into the iPod Touch. This was when I was really whizzing through episode after episode. 3 on the way to camp, 1-4 in camp itself, and 3 on the way back home. Of course, I had much time because I didn't know enough to help around yet, and it was busy, so they couldn't teach me how to help around either. I also really started to learn Japanese by first learning the kanas. Progress is ongoing, even through now.
Another 2 months later my Pok�mon watching decreased, and is the same rate as of now (around 2-3 per day in total), simply because I knew more and was called to do more stuff more often. I also mostly slept in the train on the way to camp, so I didn't have my usual 3 episodes in the morning thing. I also had realised the need for a portable AA battery charger, which I then managed to modify from old forgotten chargers at my disposal. This meant my iPod could last longer outfield, and thus I could do many more things.
By then I was also actively looking for the Nokia E51 since that had no camera and had GPRS function. A month later, I decided to heck it, and just brought my N78 down to Little India to get its camera removed. Since then I've been enjoying 3G function even outfield and in camp (when not on internet enabled computers). A week later I also got my hands on a software that allowed the creation of a mobile hotspot with my phone. WiFi tethering to put it technically. That meant my iPod Touch had internet access, essentially turning it into an iPhone sans phone function (sms function could be emulated using IM software like fring).
I was also actively applying to uni apps by then, and needed to read up stuff, so in came the PDF reader which stored PDFs on my iPod for me to read later.
By the end of last year, I was already quite powerful, as you might read in this post. I thought I was satisfied, and I really couldn't go any further. Turns out I was wrong.
While I was concerned with mostly productivity at first, it was mainly because of uni apps. And for now, while I'm still waiting for all the results to come back, there's not much to be productive about. Mostly, I'm concerned with enriching myself, which I have done by like, continuing to learn the Japanese language, and learning Japanese mahjong. And of course I've read alot about, and spent some money on getting to know the Otaku World. Then lastly, all that's left is to enjoy as much as I can, basically using the excuse "I'm in NS, full time. There's not much time outside which I can use to do something really productive." And others also can't ask why we're wasting our lives away not doing anything. It's the law of course. We're defending our country! Hence, my priority shifted towards entertainment.
Just recently, Pok�mon Black and White versions have been released. That didn't really affect me that much, or so I thought. But when a new guy got posted in and he showed me how to get a GameBoy emulator (which coincidentally was just the day after I finally jailbroke my iPod Touch. Trust me I didn't jailbreak it for Pok�mon. It was for JuBeat actually), I started playing Pok�mon Emerald, and realised, hey, there's alot I missed out (I had only played Pok�mon Blue and Pok�mon Crystal then). The GBA emulator wasn't doing me good service on my iPod Touch, draining the battery in like 4 hours, and not giving good quality 8 bit sound (yeah, you CAN have BAD 8bit sound! And I am one person who likes things as true as they are. If you give me 8bit sound, I want it as good as it can get). So I searched around a bit for options, and settled on getting the GBA cartridges. GBA isn't very available anymore since it stopped production a long time ago, and there's a current market device that can play it too...
So yeap, you can guess, I've gotten an NDS Lite (along with Pok�mon White since it was too hard to resist now that I've gotten an NDS Lite). Now, I've been debating over the PSP and NDS Lite. I've done so much analysis regarding the utility that each of these two offer that I basically couldn't decide based on hard facts, e.g. figures (which there aren't any to begin with but you get my point), which one to get. In fact, it looked to me like PSP was the better choice for its faster processor, bigger RAM, and possibility of emulating the NDS. But there was, again you can guess, Pok�mon, which I haven't heard of any emulator on the PSP that could play that. And then there was the fact that I didn't need to go through any complications to play Pok�mon on the NDS, from gen III to gen V. The PSP and NDS were basically an entire parallel line to each other, with little crossover. With that, I couldn't decide at all which one was better and so threw everything to how I felt (which was that Pok�mon is a better choice). So here's to an upgrade in my aresenal!
(Pardon if this post sounds a little weird. I'm getting rather sleepy typing this, and hence can't make some of my ideas that clear.)