Monday, August 20, 2007
ZOMG DIGIMON
This is brilliant. There was a period of time in high school when I listened to this song multiple times in a day. I guess I either didn't realize or had forgotten that this was the theme to the first movie. Wow, it's so good though. The video there is someones carefully put together amv, but I'm just so into the song.
Anyhow I watched Digimon Adventure (the movie from 1999) and actually liked it. Taichi and Hikari are adorable. I'm supposedly researching for this game I am playing, since I've never done anything Digimon before, but now I sorta just want to watch some Digimon anime, as if I'm not watching enough things already haha
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Photo Dump
If you go to flickr and search for "Company Halt" (under people...with the space between "Company" and "Halt") you will find that I have added a crud bucket and a half of pictures. In sets, even. These are the long lost zoo and bay cruise pictures, as well as the most recent pix from the Palm Springs trip I took.
None of them are terribly exciting or of any consequence, really. I feel like I take very drab pictures. I am uneasy photographing people I don't know, so unless my friends and I decide to have a photo-op, I don't generally take pictures of them. And I would never ask someone to take a picture of me, and sort of forgot to do the self portrait myspace thing...
Ah well :D
Enjoy if you would.
None of them are terribly exciting or of any consequence, really. I feel like I take very drab pictures. I am uneasy photographing people I don't know, so unless my friends and I decide to have a photo-op, I don't generally take pictures of them. And I would never ask someone to take a picture of me, and sort of forgot to do the self portrait myspace thing...
Ah well :D
Enjoy if you would.
Friday, August 17, 2007
さよなら絶望先生
I'm in love with this show and I know I've spoken of it briefly before, but here I will try to maybe describe some of its appeal and brilliance, and maybe some of its oddities as well.
First off...
It's still on TV in Japan. That means that as fast as the fansubbers can crank them out we will see them. Or at least I will, but I doubt you will not be able to stop watching once you start.
The premise is wonderful: a teacher who is incredibly negative and depressed (as you may be able to guess from that flattering shot of him hanging from the tree by his neck) and a student who is positive to the point of ridiculous naivety. In fact, she suggests (and you get the feeling she's almost OC positive because of her past, maybe...could be some interesting developments in store, either that or it's just more goofy fluff) that he is only trying to make himself taller, and not attempting suicide at all.
As the show continues it becomes a parade of strange classmates such as...
in episode two. There is also an exchange student, a bandaged girl (which is apparently out of style according to), a crazy cell phone girl, and others. You may notice they are all female. It seems only incidentals are male. OH, let us not forget the stalker! That episode was terrific.
The opening and closing themes are rather emo and a bit punk, or at least alternative. Definitely not your typical happy fly J-Pop love and bunnies. Of course, if you couldn't tell by now, the show is primarily dark humor.
Each episode also features a moment like this:
wherein our handsome scholarly hero descends into despair, crying, 「絶望した！」And followed with the reason. He really does get upset about everything and even visits the school counselor regularly, to her annoyance.
Apparently the show started off as a manga, and the creators are very open about the fact that they won awards and have met with much success. Comments are included that almost make you think they are a little put out to be doing an anime, but I'm sure it's meant jokingly. Hopefully they'll get over the little asides, though, because it's a bit tiring. I'd rather just enjoy their work.
Also of note are the censor icons, which are not little black bars, but the face of...the director? Someone. Maybe just some random fellow. They are used sporadically, sometimes to shield an innocent's panties or the nipples of someone's daydream, but at other moments panties are flying with wild abandon, so it just depends on the context, really. It's more a joke in and of itself (he is often glancing off camera) than it is actual censorship.
Anyways, I feel like I've already said too much, but hopefully it will entice you enough to want to see the show. Episode five has just recently been subbed, so off you go to catch up.
The awful dream and its sequel
Well, of course I'm still behind on my blog. Quite behind. But I'm awake early enough that I don't necessarily feel compelled to start working right away (which is bad, because I really have way too much stuff to do) SO I'm gonna describe the creepy dreams I had.
First of all, there were two and I'm pretty sure they took place in the same city. What city that was or if it exists (doubtful) I have no idea, but in the first dream it was also apparently part of a video game. There were various characters, most of whom I seemed to trust, but with one in particular our relationship degraded severely over time.
Getting around the city was fun, except when you were bombarded with salespeople handing out fliers. This happened on occasion and it seemed to me (even in the dream) that these were the fodder enemies of the game. Just there to be obnoxious and slow things down a bit. But they could also come at you in huge groups and be very overwhelming. In fact, when I woke up (with an audible yelp, so you know it must've been pretty bad) I was struggling to get through a doorway and they were all holding me back, trying to pass me free samples and pamphlets.
That was not nearly the most disturbing part of the dream though. There was one point (I assume there was some kind of storyline, since it was a pretty detailed dream, but I only remember the most harrowing portions) where I was sitting with two guys. One was across the sitting area, but the other was on a couch next to me. The latter was upset for some reason. Can't remember why. Anyways, he started crying and I felt bad so I was trying to hug him and say something encouraging. I don't remember. Next thing I know he's not crying, but pawing at me. Like, literally. Scraping his fingers (and then teeth) over my ribcage. And it wasn't like a, "haha I'm joking this is silly" more like a "haha I'm going to rape you and check out my creepy fetish of wanting to rip you to shreds with my bare hands" It was immediately obvious that that was what was going on. He was trying to dig a hole in my torso and it was super disgusting. So anyhow I screamed bloody murder and somehow kicked him off (the other guy did nothing at all) and then ran away.
I ended up meeting one of my friends (in the dream, anyhow) and told him what happened and that's how I learned it was a game. He said there are some characters in there that are challenging, so you have to just learn how to deal with them. And I told him something along the lines of that yeah, I understood that, but it was just really distressing. He didn't seem to have too much sympathy, but by then he was one of the only characters I felt like I could talk to.
There was one other character near the end that I started trusting, but I don't remember what the scenario was. I ended up inviting him to my house for some reason, an Asian guy, I think he was in trouble and needed help as well. I forgot what happened, though...
Then came that scene where I woke up. I was pretty creeped out, mostly about the fetish rapist, so I wanted to wake up the boy and get a hug, but it turned out that I woke him up out of his own nightmare, so we really didn't talk much, but just tried to go back to sleep.
I ended up having another dream, and like I said, it took place in the same city, but then this time I don't think it was a videogame.
I was actually a games journalist (person, thingy whatever the hell) in there, too, but a friend and I decided to join a theater group. Well, I think we were sort of tricked into it (somehow, dunno how) but after the fact we decided it might be fun. My character was actually one of the main ones, named Quitty. The premise, or at least the opening premise, of the play was that my character was transformed to resemble a slightly larger version of this mouse-sized person with no legs. Then I guess the rest of the thing was the trials and tribulations or something of being in that situation. It seemed compelling at the time, probably because that little mouse-sized thing was real.
It turned out that practice was going to be from like 12 to 7 or 10 or something, nearly everyday until the show came out in...October? So we had like a month and a half or so to practice. I had no idea how I was supposed to do that and get all my tons of work done, but I decided it would be worth it.
Some other things happened, like there was a restaurant or a convenience store, but I can't remember what went on there. Also I remember going home, but I don't remember what it looked like (although I think there was a garage??) or what I did after that...
Needless to say, the second dream was much better than the first, even though it challenged my ability to get things done even further than I already am irl.
First of all, there were two and I'm pretty sure they took place in the same city. What city that was or if it exists (doubtful) I have no idea, but in the first dream it was also apparently part of a video game. There were various characters, most of whom I seemed to trust, but with one in particular our relationship degraded severely over time.
Getting around the city was fun, except when you were bombarded with salespeople handing out fliers. This happened on occasion and it seemed to me (even in the dream) that these were the fodder enemies of the game. Just there to be obnoxious and slow things down a bit. But they could also come at you in huge groups and be very overwhelming. In fact, when I woke up (with an audible yelp, so you know it must've been pretty bad) I was struggling to get through a doorway and they were all holding me back, trying to pass me free samples and pamphlets.
That was not nearly the most disturbing part of the dream though. There was one point (I assume there was some kind of storyline, since it was a pretty detailed dream, but I only remember the most harrowing portions) where I was sitting with two guys. One was across the sitting area, but the other was on a couch next to me. The latter was upset for some reason. Can't remember why. Anyways, he started crying and I felt bad so I was trying to hug him and say something encouraging. I don't remember. Next thing I know he's not crying, but pawing at me. Like, literally. Scraping his fingers (and then teeth) over my ribcage. And it wasn't like a, "haha I'm joking this is silly" more like a "haha I'm going to rape you and check out my creepy fetish of wanting to rip you to shreds with my bare hands" It was immediately obvious that that was what was going on. He was trying to dig a hole in my torso and it was super disgusting. So anyhow I screamed bloody murder and somehow kicked him off (the other guy did nothing at all) and then ran away.
I ended up meeting one of my friends (in the dream, anyhow) and told him what happened and that's how I learned it was a game. He said there are some characters in there that are challenging, so you have to just learn how to deal with them. And I told him something along the lines of that yeah, I understood that, but it was just really distressing. He didn't seem to have too much sympathy, but by then he was one of the only characters I felt like I could talk to.
There was one other character near the end that I started trusting, but I don't remember what the scenario was. I ended up inviting him to my house for some reason, an Asian guy, I think he was in trouble and needed help as well. I forgot what happened, though...
Then came that scene where I woke up. I was pretty creeped out, mostly about the fetish rapist, so I wanted to wake up the boy and get a hug, but it turned out that I woke him up out of his own nightmare, so we really didn't talk much, but just tried to go back to sleep.
I ended up having another dream, and like I said, it took place in the same city, but then this time I don't think it was a videogame.
I was actually a games journalist (person, thingy whatever the hell) in there, too, but a friend and I decided to join a theater group. Well, I think we were sort of tricked into it (somehow, dunno how) but after the fact we decided it might be fun. My character was actually one of the main ones, named Quitty. The premise, or at least the opening premise, of the play was that my character was transformed to resemble a slightly larger version of this mouse-sized person with no legs. Then I guess the rest of the thing was the trials and tribulations or something of being in that situation. It seemed compelling at the time, probably because that little mouse-sized thing was real.
It turned out that practice was going to be from like 12 to 7 or 10 or something, nearly everyday until the show came out in...October? So we had like a month and a half or so to practice. I had no idea how I was supposed to do that and get all my tons of work done, but I decided it would be worth it.
Some other things happened, like there was a restaurant or a convenience store, but I can't remember what went on there. Also I remember going home, but I don't remember what it looked like (although I think there was a garage??) or what I did after that...
Needless to say, the second dream was much better than the first, even though it challenged my ability to get things done even further than I already am irl.
Monday, August 06, 2007
AH ha ha
SO at least ONE avid reader has called me on my failure to inundate, although if you look closely you'll notice I wasn't really promising so much at all!
The real problem here is that I am much keener on being out doing things than writing about them. Writing is certainly important, but being out doing things is MOREso. In fact, if you never did anything, you wouldn't have much to write about.
So in the case of today I was off eating a mountain of cheesecake while pretending to know Japanese and messing up on the movie times, causing us to instead end up in my living room with a Genki II book between us, translating dialogs for bilingual practice. YAY!
Also applying for that Nintendo job finally NOT after being endlessly pestered-- although I did try last night to no avail-- NO, the final straw was that one of the OTHER ripten writers got a phone interview. That's INSANE. I would very much like in on the action, so my hand is on the table. We'll see what happens!
AS FOR:
my personal anime club - I wanted to spend some time taking screenshots of the appropriate shows, but this is time consuming and ultimately not that important besides a little jazz on this otherwise TERRIBLY WORDY blog. So, erm, not happening. The crux of the post was going to be how I was introduced to this GREAT WEBSITE by my friend who is now in Japan. With all the streaming anime and drama goodness, my schedule is...well, actually my schedule is pretty manageable at the moment. This is two days in a row that I have worked, watched anime, studied Japanese, and read more Harry Potter--way to go!! *flash of the two-fingered victory*
There are so many shows to watch and I keep finding more and more that are MUST SEES. For instance, Kayo told me today that for those 25-30 (or for those who would be culturally aware of the...erm...generation?) Touch is a must-see/read. Currently, I'm checking out Kimagure Orange Road, which I've been wanting to watch for just about ever. Retro anime ALL THE WAY. Or rather, half of the way, because the show I'm watching it back to back with is Denno Coil, which as you could see if you clicked the link, is brand spanking, not-even-through-its-original-run new. How exciting!
Both are wonderful in their own special ways. The former in that ORIGIN OF ALL CLICHES way and the latter in that funky character design, fluffy cyberspace way. Maybe I'll talk about them more later. I'm only up to the fourth ep...
three weekends ago (or whenever that was) - The problem with this post is that I am too lazy to take the pictures off of my camera, fiddle around with them, and post them finally to the Internet. What happened is actually quite simple. The boy and I had an outing to the Zoo, which was pretty brilliant besides their near complete lack of reptiles. We also ate Chinese food!
Then the very next day I forgot to wear sunscreen ON A BOAT (!) with Ian and his visiting friends. We sailed around the bay like a band of merry rogues and then indulged in Ghiradelli sundaes. After gallery-hopping down the street, we decided it was time to head further afield, but not so far as J-town. Eventually settled on Washington Square Park, which according to Ian looked bigger in the painting (or was that his friend who said that? Someone was dissatisfied with the size of the park...hmm hmm hmmmmm) In any case, we weren't there long because the idea had been to have a walk to get hungry for dinner. But after that we decided not to have any, so I got a ride home and put aloe on my face!!!
THE END :D
The real problem here is that I am much keener on being out doing things than writing about them. Writing is certainly important, but being out doing things is MOREso. In fact, if you never did anything, you wouldn't have much to write about.
So in the case of today I was off eating a mountain of cheesecake while pretending to know Japanese and messing up on the movie times, causing us to instead end up in my living room with a Genki II book between us, translating dialogs for bilingual practice. YAY!
Also applying for that Nintendo job finally NOT after being endlessly pestered-- although I did try last night to no avail-- NO, the final straw was that one of the OTHER ripten writers got a phone interview. That's INSANE. I would very much like in on the action, so my hand is on the table. We'll see what happens!
AS FOR:
my personal anime club - I wanted to spend some time taking screenshots of the appropriate shows, but this is time consuming and ultimately not that important besides a little jazz on this otherwise TERRIBLY WORDY blog. So, erm, not happening. The crux of the post was going to be how I was introduced to this GREAT WEBSITE by my friend who is now in Japan. With all the streaming anime and drama goodness, my schedule is...well, actually my schedule is pretty manageable at the moment. This is two days in a row that I have worked, watched anime, studied Japanese, and read more Harry Potter--way to go!! *flash of the two-fingered victory*
There are so many shows to watch and I keep finding more and more that are MUST SEES. For instance, Kayo told me today that for those 25-30 (or for those who would be culturally aware of the...erm...generation?) Touch is a must-see/read. Currently, I'm checking out Kimagure Orange Road, which I've been wanting to watch for just about ever. Retro anime ALL THE WAY. Or rather, half of the way, because the show I'm watching it back to back with is Denno Coil, which as you could see if you clicked the link, is brand spanking, not-even-through-its-original-run new. How exciting!
Both are wonderful in their own special ways. The former in that ORIGIN OF ALL CLICHES way and the latter in that funky character design, fluffy cyberspace way. Maybe I'll talk about them more later. I'm only up to the fourth ep...
three weekends ago (or whenever that was) - The problem with this post is that I am too lazy to take the pictures off of my camera, fiddle around with them, and post them finally to the Internet. What happened is actually quite simple. The boy and I had an outing to the Zoo, which was pretty brilliant besides their near complete lack of reptiles. We also ate Chinese food!
Then the very next day I forgot to wear sunscreen ON A BOAT (!) with Ian and his visiting friends. We sailed around the bay like a band of merry rogues and then indulged in Ghiradelli sundaes. After gallery-hopping down the street, we decided it was time to head further afield, but not so far as J-town. Eventually settled on Washington Square Park, which according to Ian looked bigger in the painting (or was that his friend who said that? Someone was dissatisfied with the size of the park...hmm hmm hmmmmm) In any case, we weren't there long because the idea had been to have a walk to get hungry for dinner. But after that we decided not to have any, so I got a ride home and put aloe on my face!!!
THE END :D
Catch-up blog day
PREPARE TO BE INUNDATED. Ok, not really. But I'm hoping for like three posts today of which this is clearly the first.
1 (this one) - most recent happenings
2 - my own personal anime club
3 - three weekends ago (or whenever that was)
Obviously I've been REALLY BUSY. That seems to be what I tell people, what goes in my blog, and how I feel. QUITE busy. This weekend I finally got to a point where I had some free time and it was weird. I studied, I read some Harry Potter, I got ahead on work, I played a game that wasn't work, I watched anime (to be elaborated on later), and even got ahead on work because I was BORED.
The thing I really meant to blog about, though, was how my friend left for JET on Saturday. It's a weird feeling, because I probably could've been going right with him if I had applied. It's pretty much the same feeling I get while not applying to this Nitendo job that I stupidly explained to everyone (so now they expect me to get it). Just because you think you're good enough for something, does that mean you have to do it? I like doing what I do now. I'd rather be doing it full-time for someone, or at least I have an idea I would, but writing reviews and especially previews of videogames is a job I can continue doing for quite some time. Maybe that makes me boring.
We went out for lunch in J-town, before his orientation on Friday. He had beef curry and I had some fusion spaghetti. For dessert, we split the most insane crepe (which I believe I have had before with Scotty and which is probably the only one I will ever order at that place because it's delicious and amazing) with green tea ice cream, red bean, kuromitsu, strawberries, and whipped cream...am I forgetting anything? It's pretty intense. Anyways, the point was, he was leaving the next day for a year+ in Japan and I was not. Well, no, that wasn't the point, but it's my point now. It just felt weird, like I wasn't living up to my potential or something. Not like JET is a measure of THE MOST EXTREME POTENTIAL LIMIT or anything, but I had always envisioned myself living in Japan, at least for a while, and I'm not there.
I'm here, of course, which is something I had never imagined. Well, I guess I did at some point, since that's how it all happened, but it wasn't something I had ever wished for on a star in high school or something. My life pretty much rocks, so I feel like things are good. Am I getting stuck in a rut? A six month rut? Is that even possible? I dunno. Change is great, but I want to make sure I'm moving in a direction that goes somewhere. Ideally, living in Japan doing what I'm doing now. That would make sense. But I wonder if I'm screwing myself over by not trying to get more opportunities.
But that's ridiculous anyways. I've made myself a ZILLION opportunities in the last month alone. I dunno. When it comes down to it I'm partly envious, but I know it's dumb to be envious, especially with a job like mine. My friend said I could always apply later and that's totally true. I dunno. It's just a weird feeling, seeing other people carrying out plans you used to have.
1 (this one) - most recent happenings
2 - my own personal anime club
3 - three weekends ago (or whenever that was)
Obviously I've been REALLY BUSY. That seems to be what I tell people, what goes in my blog, and how I feel. QUITE busy. This weekend I finally got to a point where I had some free time and it was weird. I studied, I read some Harry Potter, I got ahead on work, I played a game that wasn't work, I watched anime (to be elaborated on later), and even got ahead on work because I was BORED.
The thing I really meant to blog about, though, was how my friend left for JET on Saturday. It's a weird feeling, because I probably could've been going right with him if I had applied. It's pretty much the same feeling I get while not applying to this Nitendo job that I stupidly explained to everyone (so now they expect me to get it). Just because you think you're good enough for something, does that mean you have to do it? I like doing what I do now. I'd rather be doing it full-time for someone, or at least I have an idea I would, but writing reviews and especially previews of videogames is a job I can continue doing for quite some time. Maybe that makes me boring.
We went out for lunch in J-town, before his orientation on Friday. He had beef curry and I had some fusion spaghetti. For dessert, we split the most insane crepe (which I believe I have had before with Scotty and which is probably the only one I will ever order at that place because it's delicious and amazing) with green tea ice cream, red bean, kuromitsu, strawberries, and whipped cream...am I forgetting anything? It's pretty intense. Anyways, the point was, he was leaving the next day for a year+ in Japan and I was not. Well, no, that wasn't the point, but it's my point now. It just felt weird, like I wasn't living up to my potential or something. Not like JET is a measure of THE MOST EXTREME POTENTIAL LIMIT or anything, but I had always envisioned myself living in Japan, at least for a while, and I'm not there.
I'm here, of course, which is something I had never imagined. Well, I guess I did at some point, since that's how it all happened, but it wasn't something I had ever wished for on a star in high school or something. My life pretty much rocks, so I feel like things are good. Am I getting stuck in a rut? A six month rut? Is that even possible? I dunno. Change is great, but I want to make sure I'm moving in a direction that goes somewhere. Ideally, living in Japan doing what I'm doing now. That would make sense. But I wonder if I'm screwing myself over by not trying to get more opportunities.
But that's ridiculous anyways. I've made myself a ZILLION opportunities in the last month alone. I dunno. When it comes down to it I'm partly envious, but I know it's dumb to be envious, especially with a job like mine. My friend said I could always apply later and that's totally true. I dunno. It's just a weird feeling, seeing other people carrying out plans you used to have.
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