Kirari's Star

Poncho chapter 2 translation

2011-08-30T16:14:00.000-07:00

I dunno if you guys still remember the translation I did for this manga months ago. So I actually finished this at like, the start of Summer. But my blog was closed down by then and so I never posted it here. I forgot that I never shared it with you guys. I mean, it'd make sense for me to post it here, right? I figured I might as well post it now. Better late than never, eh? I should probably repost these on /a/ as well or something. I dunno how to get these up on manga hosting sites like Mangafox because I'm too lazy to research what you should do if you want your translations posted places.

This time around, I did take into consideration the feedback I've received from my last chapter (thanks for that, guys) and if there's something still not to your liking, let me know. I still dunno how I really wanna handle sound effects, but I guess it's something I'll eventually get more used to if I ever plan to do full scale translation projects. I usually never have to really deal with that sort of thing, because when I'm usually translating, it's a single 4koma or something that's simple and doesn't require heavy editing or complicated sound effects.

As I said before, I'm not really good with Japanese yet. Some lines could be translated better, some may be a bit mistranslated, but I'm confident that it's mostly correct, so don't worry too much. It's a really short manga anyway, and each chapter is like 5 or 6 pages, which is really short. Especially since it's 4koma.

Anyway, the download for the chapter can be found here.

~ Kirari ミ★

Has Kirari returned?

2011-08-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, it's been a while. I've had quite a few people asking when I was going to open my blog up again and why I even closed it in the first place. I'm not sure if I wanna talk about the reasons or not, but I figured I might as well give blogging another shot. I actually missed it. I've been trying to keep up with blogs, but I mostly lurk since I'm too lazy to sign into my account. Even still, I have a pretty huge backlog of your posts that I haven't read yet. I'll try to keep up a bit better, but I'm a bit busy now.

It's funny how I shut the blog down during Summer when I had no classes, and I'm not opening it up again right when classes are about to start. I essentially just closed it for Summer break, I guess, though that wasn't what I intended at all. To be frank, I actually wanted to close my blog down for good, but I guess I got around to just opening it up once again.

I'd be lying if I said not much has happened in my life as of late, but I guess at the same time I don't feel like diving too deeply into subjects. I guess one thing I can talk about is that I felt this Summer has been so busy that I've neglected my Japanese big time. I've still been reviewing frequently, but it's become something that I feel isn't even helping because I take so many "I'll just do a short review this time" days that I feel I've really just been left behind. My plans for the Summer were to really have cracked down, but due to unforeseen events I've been pretty preoccupied and unable to just make my full 3 month Japanese solitude bubble like I had planned. Instead, I feel my Japanese has gone nowhere sine the beginning of Summer. Then again, it's hard to tell progress. I guess today is a pretty nice day for me to just sit back and catch up on some animu that I haven't seen in a while. I think that's some of the only Japanese I've really been keeping up with decently, watching animu and various other stuff, subless of course. I still download the subs now and then but turn the subtitles off. If there's something I really didn't understand, I'll go back, turn the subs on, and then play the scene again without subs. It sometimes makes scenes a bit longer than they should be, but in the end I guess I have become accustomed to new words. I've still been pretty damn lazy though, I hardly even add sentences to my Anki deck and I focus more on reviewing kanji and sometimes neglect my sentence deck all together.

But I guess I'm trying to get back on track. And it's funny how I try getting back on track when school is about to start and I'm about to become even more busy. But that's fine, I guess.I'll just try to take it easy. Taking it easy is what it's all about. I'm disappointed in myself and at the same time I'm understanding of my own position. Though I sometimes feel I'm just making excuses.

In any case, I'll try to get back to posting, but I probably won't be posting as frequently as I once did. But I'll see how it goes.

See ya

~ Kirari ミ★

Finals next week

2011-05-05T23:09:00.000-07:00

I didn't even realize my finals were coming so soon. They're next week. I'm not really prepared, but I don't mind much. Japanese I'll have no problem with, I don't think History will be a problem since he gave us the essay questions so we can focus on making good essays. I'll just gather information up this week. The only final I guess I should be worried about is the Computer Science one simply because the professor likes using vaguely worded questions and "fill in the blank from this textbook sentence" stuff. Plus, failing it or getting a low grade secures me an F in the class since I missed the first test. This week I spent mostly catching up on a few things. I plan to make a (late) post regarding what I'm watching this season after I finish my finals.

On Monday, nothing really eventful happened aside from me having a headache on and off for the day. After Japanese I was of course followed by the girl from before. Don't remember much about what subject she brought up, aside from Mirai Nikki and asking me if I could handle a Japanese conversation. At my current level, I can't, but I kinda took the classes to strengthen my verbal skills. They are helping for that purpose though. We eventually came to the point where I usually head to my bus stop, since I've no class after Japanese on Monday. She asked if I wanted to have lunch with her, and I declined. I actually just wanted to go home and watch Densha Otoko anyway.

On Wednesday she told me she wish she'd spoken to me earlier since the semester is ending so she'd have someone to walk with after class, but she's too timid to do so. That, and the class is filled with Koreans that don't even speak English fully, and she's one of the few non-Korean Asians in the class, so not many people for her to talk to. We actually don't talk much when we're with each other, that's pretty fine to me. When I'm just on my laptop waiting for the next class we're fairly silent aside from when she occasionally brings something up for small chat. Then again she could just be scared to speak up due to me being such a closed individual.

What was really eventful on Wednesday was me passing up the opportunity to make an easy $100. I totally regret it now. How'd I pass this offer up? There were fighting game tournaments being held at my school. Although I didn't want to really participate, I was in the mood for a match or two so head over there. I played Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Ougon Musou Kyouku (yeah, they actually had this there, surprisingly). With Seakitties I got a perfect on the dude I was against, and in MvC3 I didn't lose any of my characters. Apparently I was up against the best that the school has to offer, according to multiple people there (mostly trying to get me to join their game club). I left and, wouldn't you know, the girl from my Japanese class just so happened to be in the area and was watching me play and decided to leave with me. She asked why I didn't enter the tournament since I had a high likelyhood of winning the ones held for those two games. I had no idea how long they'd take, and I really didn't want to end up home at 12AM just for some fight money, especially with the late night bus schedules. $50 for each of the tourneys, and glancing at the other matches it didn't seem I'd have a tough time with anyone (they're mostly just button mashers).

When I got home I was hit with a huge wave of regret. I wish I'd stayed for that, because I realized I have to make a payment of $92 this week to debt collectors and I really could have used that money. But, too late for that now, and no use crying over spilled milk. So I'll just deal with it. Maybe if there's another one I'll go through with it.

I don't want to make this shitpost too long. I'll end it here.

~ Kirari ミ★

Poncho translation done

2011-05-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

Took longer than I planned mostly because I was too lazy to really finish it. Hopefully another group can pick up where I left off. I worked with some of the suggestions given before. I may go back and rework previous text for consistency's sake if I plan on translating more chapters, but for now I'll see if a group decided to pick it up and they may even re-translate chapter 1 to fit their standards or something. It was fun, and it was the most I've edited. Poncho chapters are really short, so taking up chapter 2 in another week or two if nobody else does seems plenty doable for me.

You can download chapter 1 here.

I'll post pages from where I left off on my last post.

I know I was going to mention something else in this post but it's completely slipped my mind by now. Oh well, I'll just end it here. Hope you enjoy it. Leave feedback if you have any, I'll use them for when I make future released.

~ Kirari ミ★

Fill'er up

2011-04-29T23:38:00.000-07:00

Was planning on finishing Poncho translation this week, but I've mostly been spending it catching up on my backlog. So I was going to make a Spring 2011 anime post today, but now I feel it's too late for me to take the effort, even though I'm not sleepy and will most likely be awake for another few hours. It's just that after a certain time I lose the will to be productive in anything. Well, aside from Japanese, I guess. But that's because it's not really much work if I just space it out with breaks in between.

So I'll just do a quick filler for now. Earlier this week I ended up leaving Japanese class and got followed by the girl from last time. Or, rather, she actually ran up to me and tried to get my attention because I was so far ahead and had my headphones on. But I always have my headphones on when I'm outside. In any case, it ended up with her running up and literally having to catch her breath from running to me. I actually wonder where she came from, because after class I usually stick around because the professor likes asking me about my learning methods and giving me various little pointers on certain things (and sometimes just feels like testing me by asking a random word and seeing if I know how to write it). In that time there's nobody in the class, so by the time I leave everyone should be gone.

Well, I didn't notice at all really. I normally would have just kept going with the excuse that I need to do something before my next class; but I decided I'd chat about Madoka's end with her if she was that eager to catch up with me.

So we headed somewhere and talked for a bit. She brought up the Madoka wiki and we talked about various speculations we had through the series and such (she freaking told me what that black cat was in the OP). Discussion moved around for a bit, I happened to have my Madoka manga with me so let her see it , along with some of the other stuff I had. Among them I had Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria, which was the first one she opened up and then immediately closed upon realizing it wasn't a manga. I told her she shouldn't be too frightened of it and told her she should try reading more Japanese materials than the textbook and such. But she's one of the students in the class that notably have a decent grasp on the language, so I assume she puts some effort into learning outside of formal lessons.

The conversation drifted a bit to her asking me if I've read Saya no Uta. She was interested in it because of Madoka but hasn't read it yet. She's read various other visual novels before and we casually chatted about some of them, but she's only really read a handful. Somewhere along the line she asked if I ever visit conventions or cosplay. But I don't go to conventions nor cospay, she was somewhat disappointed because she though I'd make a great cosplayer. I've no idea what really makes one a "great cosplayer" but I'll take her word on it.

It was about 20 minutes until my next class started, and I certainly had more time to hang out more, but I decided to leave early. Since we were browsing the Madoka wiki on my laptop, and it was on hibernate from before, I did end up having Skype open. So when I was packing up she asked for my Skype name. In the end, I didn't give it to her. My computer was off at the time and I said I was in a hurry, so she just gave me her Skype to add her. I still haven't and feel a bit bad for it, but maybe this week I'll make a dummy account and talk a bit. But then I'd probably feel bad being signed off all the time. I did mention I don't use the account much when she asked. Meh, I'll think of what to do later, if anything I could always just actually add her to my account if she's not too talkative.

After that I was supposed to have a presentation in the next class, where I show a movie scene and such. Luckily, it got pushed to next class. My group was last, and everyone wanted to show scenes that are ridiculously long and ate up the whole class time. I don't mind going next week, but the clips were boring to sit through really. And everyone loved picking sex and rape scenes.

But how about something less shitpost related? Here's a small treat for visiting. Before, I made a music post that contained some Chirinuruwowaka songs. Well, earlier this week they released a new album titled 白穴（white hole) after about 5 years of no new releases as a band.. I thought it was just a side project that ended up dying out, but they've reformed it. I've been listening to the whole album all week. Very nice stuff, really like everything on the album. I'll just show 2 songs from the album. First is ホワイトホール (White Hole), the PV for it has actually been out on youtube for a while before the album was released.

Second one is やまみちにて...　(At the mountain trail), which is the second track on the album. I actually didn't know which one I wanted to use as the second post because I like all of them, so I just put my MP3 player on shuffle and let it pick which one I used.

Though, not entirely sure if anyone else will like them. I think they're pretty good, but I can never really tell how well my tastes match with others anyway. I'll see if I can get Poncho finished tomorrow. Or at least do a Spring 2011 anime post.

Take it easy.

~ Kirari ミ★

Poncho translation!

2011-04-26T18:06:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! I was a bit bored today so I decided I'd give a crack at quickly translating a few pages. I plan to finish chapter 1 and then post it on /a/ or something in hopes that translation groups (or individuals that have close ties to said groups) can gain an interest in picking up where I left off.

Keep in mind I'm not exactly fluent in Japanese or anything. I understand maybe 75% of what I read in this manga, and some of what I read I'd have the gist of what it means in Japanese without being able to really word it right into English. It's entirely possible there will be mistranslations, but they (hopefully) aren't big ones anyway. I'd translate the whole thing, but I'd rather have confidence that I can understand it at least 95% before picking up the whole translation on my own.

I don't even know how I'll handle stuff like honorifics. I decided to leave them out for now, I think those work better for certain translations. I do know for sure that I won't over-localize (for example, what GG does with their translations where "Call me Yuki-sama" turns into "Call me darling" or turning "tsundere" into "bipolar"). I'm not a very big fan of that. I do like wording sentences in a more natural manner, and that does occasionally require you to toy around with the literal translation a little and sometimes tweak it, but I hate removing the original connotation of a line, or inserting memes just because they kinda match what the character said ("Come at me, bro!")

Anyway, Poncho is a really cute slice of life 4koma following the every day adventures of Hiroshi and Pon. Hiroshi's just trying to spend time with his girlfriend, whom he's really lovey dovey with; but every time he goes to visit her house, she's busy working! Instead of spending time with his girlfriend, he ends up babysitting her little sister!

I was multitasking with this all day, so I've only got 3 and a half pages done (I'm lazy). When I finish the chapter I'll make a post of it and provide a download link, so just think of this as a preview for now. I'll be organizing the images to be opened left to right, but read them in normal manga format.

This one is a joke translation I made because someone asked me when the blood and fighting comes in.

I'll probably finish tomorrow, or at least sometime this week. Then I'll let it roam the net a bit and wait for someone to get interested in it. If anyone has any criticism to give, please feel free to post them.

~ Kirari ミ★

I don't think about the future

2011-04-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

I don't think about the future. It usually gets in the way of taking it easy. The future is a bit too complicated to think about at times really, and I'm bad at predicting. I'm also extremely indecisive. But for some reason I found myself thinking a bit about it last night before drifting to sleep. Maybe it's because of the debt I've been accumulating and the fee I have to pay by next month before it escalates into a legal issue (in which case the fees would have increased dramatically).

If I had remained a NEET I could have avoided this really. I feel as if I've fallen into a scam I saw miles away but disregarded anyway. But that's just how it works when you take everything in your own pace. I'm not sure what I'll even do. The plan was never for me to work, even though it'd be obvious from the fees I'd have to find a job at some time. Being at a 2 year college, at least the debt isn't so large, still I've no idea what happens after I finish those 2 years. I could continue language in another school, but I'm pretty sure the only other school around that has Japanese would be an expensive private school that's hard to get into. And then for what? It's not like a degree in Japanese would really open any jobs that would be able to pay for the large debt I have.

But if I just finish my 2 years and decide to start work after, what exactly will that lead to either? I guess it'd make nabbing an entry level job easier as resume fodder or something. But what the hell job would I work? For some reason I see myself working at a bookstore or something, through some entry level job like organizing shelves or working the register. And staying at this position to the point where 10 years from now I'd still be that quiet bookstore worker that occasionally knocks stuff over because of how clumsy I am. I'd still be paying off my debt by then due to my low pay and interest sprouting up. Of course, I'd still live with my mother, but this isn't something I've ever looked down on or thought was a bad idea. I find it more appropriate to live with your family, as it eases the burden of cash and you could always help support each other. But I guess some people find it as a sign that you can't walk on your own two legs so look down on it. Not something I care about really, I just felt like pointing out that I always thought it to be an odd idea to live on your own if there's no actual reason for doing so such as better job opportunities outside of one's hometown.

But as I was saying, it's hard to imagine myself doing anything more than small jobs. After all, I really don't think I've many skills. No, I really don't have anything special about me at all. People believe I'm good at computers, but I'm not really, I've just used them since a younger age than a lot of other people. In some cases some could say that experience alone counts as skill I have that others don't, but it's nothing that any employer would particularly find interesting. I know how to not be stupid with a computer, interesting skill I guess. I have a yellow belt in
Google-fu, which allows me to fix problems by stealing answers from other people. My family comes to me when they have computer issues and I usually just Google it and pick the first result to fix their computer. One could argue it's no different than learning information from a textbook, but I've no actual knowledge in how any of that stuff works most of the time. I guess what I'm trying to say is that anyone can do it, people just don't, so I'm not sure if anyone can call it an actual skill. I've gotten money for doing easy computer jobs from my father's technologically illiterate friends, but (no real offense to them) they're not exactly the brightest of the bunch anyway.

In the end I feel as if I can't really do anything. Maybe that's why I can only imagine myself at an entry level job that could be acquired without any college experience, and remaining at that position. A completely optimistic view of the future would be nabbing one of those nice translation jobs where I could work at home for a game company like Atlus or Capcom or something. Or maybe novel translations. Even manga translations. I can't even imagine this stuff paying much, but I'm sure it'd probably pay more than anything else in my head, and I'd have the benefit of not having to go outside. But I doubt this job has many openings, or that they'd be given to someone with no prior translation experience and only 2 years of classes to show for language proficiency. I guess if they actually tested my Japanese they'd know it was beyond the level I have a degree in, but that's not exactly something I expect them to do when shifting through resumes for a candidate.

But I suppose it doesn't matter too much. More money from a better job simply means I can get my loans paid faster. Besides, if I had too much money I'd probably stuff my room with too many figures and have a problem.

At least I've still got a strong goal and determination for learning Japanese. In my job working as a bookstore employee, or as a janitor, or as a cashier, or anything else, I can at least think of myself as being proficient in Japanese by that point. I don't think 2 more years on top of my current experience (which I've lost track of how long by now) would be an unreasonable time frame for me to be well versed in the language. I don't see myself dropping this determination. In fact, it's the only thing I've ever actually taken initiative and interest to sit down and study in my life. The only thing I really have a passion to learn. If I don't find success in Japanese, I really can't see myself succeeding in anything else. It'd be a huge fall, and a huge failure. But I'm not worried about this, because I've no doubts that I'll continue. I've come too far and I'm still far too determined to back out. That's why I can see myself being able to read novels and VNs fluently, even as a cashier. I can see myself taking my breaks in the bookstore to sit in a private corner and pull out a Japanese novel, reading through the pages at the rate I could read through with my native language (maybe faster, kanji makes reading feel fast even at my current level). Because I really think that no matter what happens to me by that point in the future, my hard work now would shine by then.

But that's enough for today's shitpost. I downloaded Solanin yesterday and I'm going to give it a watch right now. Thanks for reading. Or skimming, I understand since my post is such a wall and I don't even know when to properly highlight certain points with bold or italics.. Or even just coming to this page to look at my image, that's fine too.

~ Kirari ミ★

Back and sleepy

2011-04-22T23:35:00.000-07:00

In the clear again, I think. Still have 2 assignments due tomorrow, but I don't think they're major. Haven't started them yet though, but oh well. In any case, I'll mostly make this into a shitpost about my week.

First of all, it turns out the group project is due next week. It was supposed to be this week but I guess plans just changed. Oh well, it works better for me anyway. I didn't see the movie, just skipped through until I found a scene worth using for my essay. Unfortunately my partner asked what I thought of the movie and I lied saying it was good. She proceeded to try talking a hole into my head and asking me what I thought about scene X and Y. Eventually I told her I had a bus to catch so she understood and stopped talking as I left. The other members of our group didn't come that day though.

On Wednesday I had a Japanese test. I go into class and my professor put the seating arrangements up. I end up sitting pretty much opposite of where I always sit, but I still sit next to the same person. I wouldn't have paid it any mind really, but while taking out my pencils I hear her ask:

"Do you watch Madoka?"

Wat. I didn't really give an answer but she told me she saw a glimpse of my core drill key chain (the one without any tags on it indicating what it's from) once in my book bag. I never thought anyone would see it so never bothered removing it from my keys, since they're always in my book bag, but I guess someone was watching one day when I didn't notice. I suppose there was also a day where the lobby was empty before class and I was listening to Magia while she passed by and asked me what room we were in that day. I didn't think of it at the time, but even though I don't listen to my music loud, it was quiet enough that the sound could probably leak pretty noticeably. I don't talk with anyone, and it's not like she asked anyone else any sort of question like that (she never even made it known so watches anime actually) so it was really surprising to get asked a question like that completely out of the blue. She didn't say much since it was right before the test anyway, but I suppose this means on Monday she's going to want to talk to me about the finale that aired yesterday. I don't really have much of a problem with that, I guess. I'll try to keep it from being a foot into the door of getting to know me though.

And of course, ZUN released TH13's demo this week, as if he wanted me to be distracted from my work! Good thing its difficulty level was easy enough for me to not get hooked onto it. I still enjoyed it, and under normal circumstanced would have played more; specifically to get Youmu's shot type down, it has a lot of potential but seems like it needs you to play in a Shoot The Bullet kind of style. I admittedly didn't like the new music at first either, but it ended up growing on me after playing through a few times.

And today the plan was to go to my grandmother's house so my uncle could take a look at my computer. I pulled my tower out and as I unplugged it I realized something. I had the wrong cord plugged in. This whole time I was thinking I unknowingly pulled something inside when switching cables and went too braindead to fix it. No wonder I couldn't find anything wrong! It got enough power for the motherboard's light to turn on, but it wasn't enough power to actually start it up. I know, I know. Why would I have 2 identical cords, with 1 being incompatible with my power source (yet able to fit) and within such close proximity? I dunno! I didn't even know that cord could fit into my computer, because it's the cord used for my internal to external drive converter. Isn't that funny!? Hahahahahahahahahahah!

Okay, really. It took me way too long to figure that out. I was too focused on looking at my computer's guts to realize that I just had the wrong cord plugged in. Well, now I know! Unfortunately I already had a ride ready to take me to Gram gram's house, and I could have just explained the situation and turn the ride down, but I felt like it'd be kinda mean to say "well I only really wanted to go there to see what my uncle has to say about the computer" and cancel the trip. Even though I'm sure they wouldn't mind or think anything of it. So I'm in my grandmother's house right now. I wasn't able to work on my computer, but I assume I can get it working easily when I get home on Sunday to pop the XP disk inside and run recovery.

And since I'm up here I might as well go to a nice pizza shop I grew up on and get one of their huge calzones. I have someone reading Symphonic Rain right now and giving me his commentary of it every now and then. He just finished the 3 main routes and is on one of the secret ones right now, but the point is I got in the mood for calzones again from Symphonic Rain.

On another note, I've been keeping up with some blogs but haven't really had the time to comment, sorry guys. I could have commented, but I'm sure most of you have noticed my comments are sometimes quite lengthy. It's not like I do it on purpose, but they just come out that way. I didn't really want to lose track of time by writing long comments, so I held back. Since I have work to catch up on tomorrow I dunno if I'll be free then to comment, but I'll try.

Now to end this post in a semi-non-shitty manner, I guess I can combine it with the video of the week. This is the PV for Hyadain's (congratulations to him for his first professional debut, seems to be a recent trend for Nico singers to get picked up to do anime OPs) Kakakata kataomoi-c, the opening for Nichijou. I don't know why, but this PV seems so hypnotic. I blame the cube and dancers. Seriously, I keep watching it, and my attention keeps getting drawn to either the dancers or the cube, but I don't know which one is grabbing my attention more. And it's not even particularly eye catching either, but it's hypnotic for some reason!

Now I'm sleepy, so I'll probably just review the kanji I learned today, finish up the last chapter of Poncho, and go to sleep. Take it easy, everyone.

~ Kirari ミ★

Slight inactivity

2011-04-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

Yay, this week I have tons of stuff to do! So I'll be slightly inactive for a few days. I might be able to pop in and read a few blogs every now and then, but I'll certainly be too busy to post anything. I've got a test on Monday that I didn't know about until the professor announced it yesterday, and 2 projects due next week, one of which I need to watch a movie for; but I'll most likely just pick a clip from youtube and look up the summary to use for my paper. But I think I also need to keep in contact with my group members (ugh, group assignment) to find out what clip they picked from the movie. And can I really right a 3 page paper using a summary? I hope I don't actually have to waste an 1.5+ hours watching a movie this week.

I also need to try to get in contact with some Korean kid in my college as part of an assignment too. It's the first year they're trying this program, where transfer students can talk to native speakers on campus. Only it's required I do it for my class, which the professor just came up with out of the blue mid semester. Unfortunately, I gave the wrong email by accident, and apparently my partner did too. We have each other's phone numbers as well but I think we're both too awkward to call each other. Kinda makes me feel bad that someone got stuck with such an uninterested partner that's not taking the initiative to contact them. I just have to meet up at least 3 times, chat for an hour, and write a small log of what happened. It's supposed to be simple work but 1 hour of my day is a lot of my freaking time, especially if I need to spend it talking to someone. But it can't be helped. I need to get on it because the semester is almost over.

On a side note, I wanted to play Marvel vs Capcom 3 today for just an hour since it's been a while, and ended up spending my whole day on it. Oh boy! Well I guess I'll finish my kanji for the day and go to sleep so I can wake up early tomorrow and try doing something productive. And maybe text my partner or something as well.

~ Kirari ミ★

Spring 2011 anime - Nichijou

2011-04-12T22:47:00.000-07:00

What the hell did I just watch? I mean that in a good way. While looking at the list of anime airing this season, I didn't see much catching my eye at first glance. I forgot what exactly drew me to giving this a try, but I eventually watched it when someone recommended it. I already had it ready to watch by that point, so I decided I'd give it a watch. The art style of it is cute, it's something I noticed within the first few minutes. I forgot about what the description for this series even was by the time I watched it, so I was expecting..well, just an ordinary life! What I got instead was...

(On a side note, I've no idea why that youtube clip has the video mirrored, was it really like that in the subs?)

I didn't know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised. It has that "lolwut" humor, but I feel it does it in a right way. It's like an ordinary slice of life on drugs. It kinda reminded me a bit of when I watched the first episode of Cromartie Highschool, though it's obviously not as manly. It's like I'm watching a normal slice of life...but tripping on acid while watching it! Okay, most of the scenes so far aren't that out there, but they do a nice job in making the strange seem completely normal.

Nichijou follows around the every day life of different people, switching between a cute loli professor with a cute robot maid, a group of friends in school, and even (what seem to be) one shot skits every now and then. In the school setting we get the three above seeming like the main trio, with a few other reoccurring faces around the school.

You will never have your prince charming ride up to you on a goat and wish you a happy new year.

Look at these eggheads, what the hell are they doing?

Then there are the (extremely cute) scenes following a cute loli professor (was her name even mentioned?) and her robot. No, seriously these two are disgustingly adorable, I could want an entire spinoff series of just these two. Hakase (I'll call the loli that for now) at first reminded me of Becky from Pani Poni Dash, maybe it's the outfit and eye color, along with hair colors that are only a bit off from one another.

From the opening of the series, there's probably a few other characters that we only received a glance of in the first episode that will get their own spotlights later on. I'll be keeping an eye on this series. I wasn't expecting it, and I'm glad it was a nice little surprise in a season where not much catches my attention at first glance. I'm not sure how popular this series is so far, but if you haven't given it a watch yet and are in the mood for some slice of life comedy, I say give it a shot.

Okay, this is a bad pun, I'm sorry.

I feel I'm a bit late to the party. I've had essays to keep me busy, so haven't gotten around to seeing anything this season aside from this. I have Kaiji and EP2 of this ready for tomorrow's viewing pleasure though. There's also some blog tags I have open that I haven't gotten around to reading yet either, that'll probably be for me to read on the bus ride to class tomorrow. Ah, but I have an essay due this weekend as well. Ah, whatever. I'll just take it easy as always.

Hope you guys can take it easy as well.

~ Kirari ミ★

They came!

2011-04-11T15:45:00.000-07:00

Hey, what do you know, it's not a figure delivery this time. I came home and did some kanji grinding. Then I looked at the anime for this season and decided I'd try giving a few shows a try, even if I don't think I'd like them from the description (I've found many gems this way). After I loaded my downloads, I played some Pokemon and went into the kitchen to make some fried rice. I sat down at the table with my plate and realize my little brother didn't even tell me I had a package.

ドキドキする

( ﾟ∀ﾟ)o彡°

My dog got in somehow.

Ordered:
・のんのんびより　１ (Non Non Biyori 1)
・空ろの箱と零のマリア (Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria)
・ポンチョ　１ (Poncho 1)
・魔法少女まどか☆マギカ１ (Mahou Shoujou Madoka☆Magika 1)

I normally just get them from my local bookstore, but they didn't have Madoka in yet at the time (I'm sure they do now though) and Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria was sold out. I could ask them to order it for me and ship it to my house though, but when it comes to ordering books I go with BK1 since it comes out cheaper that way. I could have checked some other Japanese bookstores in my area, but was too lazy. Figured I'd just save myself the trips and just order my books online this time. Total came out to 2410円、which is about the price I'd pay if I purchased all these in my local bookstore (the markup prices tend to balance out evenly with the subtraction of shipping costs).　

Came here faster than I thought though. And once again, my bad memory creates nice surprises for me! I'd like to thank Tigoris for some recommendations. I read Non Non Biyori and Poncho and liked them enough to get physical copies. Madoka I got because I wanted to collect the series, and Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria is something I've wanted a physical copy of for quite some time already. Now I'll get back to doing some more kanji and take a break to read one of these guys.

~ Kirari ミ★

Another music post

2011-04-10T15:53:00.000-07:00

I was planning on writing up something else today, but considering I have a paper due this week that I keep procrastinating on, I think it's best I get it done today while I still feel energized. So I was listening to some music while looking up research material for the report and figured a small music post should be nice. But this will probably be the last music post for a while, I realize this blog is quickly heading down the path of becoming a music sharing blog. Though I was planning on doing one of these for VN background music, since I find a lot of these have some nice songs people overlook. I'll save that for some other post.

First is another song Mari recently showed me, but that's because it only came out recently. It's Another Dawn by Chouchou, a group of musicians that met up on Second Life and perform there. This is actually the piano version of the song titled Dawn, but I really find this one so much better for the feel of the song. They have a download of this version on their site for free here, though they do ask on the download page for an optional donation for Earthquake relief.

Next up is an orchestrated arrange of Spring Lane ~ Colorful Path from Taste. It's actually been a while since I've listened to this, but it popped up while my MP3 player was on shuffle and I forgot I even downloaded it, even though I do remember putting it on a list to remind myself at some point. It was a nice reminder, and one of the times where my crappy memory creates nice surprises for me.

I'll keep this post short by just adding this last track, but it is a bit long. This is from t=NODE, it's an rather unique arrange of Crimson In The Black Sea ~ Legendary Fish. The title of the song is Iku`s memory _ ある日常における出来事、which can translate to something along the lines of Iku's memory of everyday life.

Now I'll probably be tempted to do that post about VN music, but I'll really try to hold back from it for a few weeks. It'll give me some more time to pick which songs I want to use anyway, rather than just picking songs that are in my head at the time.

~ Kirari ミ★

Video of the week

2011-04-08T22:33:00.000-07:00

This video is from one of those Japanese shows where they show reactions of people to certain events in small boxes. I don't even know if there's a name for this kind of show actually, but they're always so goofy. This is a clip of them playing some pranks different breeds of dogs and rating their reactions.

I like how everything needs a cute little sound effect to accompany it. I was thinking of possibly tuning into one of these shows even if they mostly don't seem too interesting. They tend to keep things lively though.

~ Kirari ミ★

Taking it easy with the 3DS

2011-04-08T00:06:00.000-07:00

So I get a phone call from my mother earlier today asking me if there's any 3DS game I'm interested in. I told her the 3DS has no games at the moment, but she just got Street Fighter since she knows I play SSFIV. I'm still pretty spoiled despite being my age, it's kinda why I enjoyed the NEET life for as long as I did after I finished high school. I didn't ask for the 3DS, I was planning on buying it for myself later when some good games actually come out for it, but my family loves buying me electronics.

I've previously posted on how I lost my original DS (phat model, even though my mother really wanted to upgrade it for me but I insisted it'd be pointless because I prefer my phat). I've still yet to find it, so I guess this works out for me. It's probable I dropped it outside that day when my hands were numb and I placed it in my pocket. Perhaps I didn't quite place it in securely, but couldn't tell since my hands had no feeling. In any case, I'm here with my 3DS now. I have a new flash card since my old one was in my DS when it got lost, unfortunately I didn't realize that my other 2GB MicroSD card is lost somewhere in the black hole of my house. So I have a 250-ish MB MicroSD and a 520-ish one to pick from instead. Well the larger one is enough for me to throw the cart's firmware and Pokemon along with another game, so I fire that one up. I decide to go with Kumatanchi since I've wanted to play it for a long time but never got around to it (the English translation project for it dying did boost my Japanese motivation at the time by the way). I mean, it's not like it's an amazing game, but it's cute as hell and has character designs from Shigatake, the dude that did the Habanero-tan comics!

I'm also looking for some more DS games to throw on for when I get a larger MicroSD. I may throw in Japanese Chrono Trigger as a game to replay while practicing with. Coropata seems like a really cute puzzle game with, I'll probably throw that in. I've actually never played the Hotel Dusk games either, and I've been meaning to for a while. Might be a bit hard with my Japanese at its current level though, so I'll give it a try and hope I don't get stuck on something. Witch's Wish seems like another cute game I'll be adding. And Okamiden will be one of the first ones I place on as well. If anyone has any recommendations, feel free to post them. Since I'm only playing the Japanese versions of my games, untranslated ones work fine as recommendations as well.

But what am I doing talking about DS games when I have the 3DS, right? Well as I said, there aren't any real games for it out yet. SSFIV3D edition is pretty much the only real game out, rest really seem like tech demos. Rayman too, maybe, but I haven't liked a Rayman game since its 2D platforming days.

The 3D effect is nice. Nothing mind blowing, but I don't think anyone should be expecting that. Does it bother the eyes? Hmm, not really. I played for about 2 hours on Street Fighter and didn't really feel any effects from the 3D wearing my eyes. At some points I did see the 3D a bit fuzzy, but if I just adjusted myself a bit it was perfectly fine.

I'd like to get some of the Japanese 3DS games, since they have a much better lineup at this point. I'd probably get Layton and Blazblue Continuum Shift II, but the 3DS is region locked. So I guess I'll just sit back and wait for those wonderful people online to create dump tools so that roms can be uploaded. But that'll probably take quite some time, so until then I'll most likely be enjoying my normal DS games.

Ah, before I wrap this up I have to say there's one thing I'm disappointed in. I was glad to hear that the 3DS actually lets you use wireless protection other that WEP for its wifi. Funny thing is, for DS games you still need to use WEP. Even though your 3DS can connect with everything, it has to be using WEP if you're going online with a DS game. In the settings menu there are actually 2 wifi settings, one where you set up your 3DS and one where you set your 3DS to use for when it's playing DS games.

Why? Why Nintendo? What the hell? I'm going to assume that it's not as easy as just making the DS games use the connection settings on the 3DS, but couldn't they have at least made it so that the 3DS emulated the correct settings for DS games to connect through it? Like when going to the DS wifi settings in game and searching for an access point, having "3DS connection" always show up as one, and sort of tunneling the connection? I dunno, it's just a pretty big annoyance for me. I'm sure they could have made it work, but they probably figured nobody will care about DS games a year from no so there's no point in putting extra work in DS functionality. They almost make me want to pay for their stupid USB wifi adapter. Almost.

~ Kirari ミ★

Some more music

2011-04-05T19:46:00.000-07:00

Because I want to post something but have no idea what to post. But for anyone that wants to know; my presentation yesterday went bad, as expected, but maybe I'm just blowing things out of proportion a bit. I had lots of information that I pretty much just skimmed over, I threw the unfinished Powerpoint on my flash drive without realizing. I forgot I made one that just had images before later making one that had text along with it as well. I did okay explaining things even if I forgot to mention a lot of the stuff I wanted to. I forgot what I was going to say for my conclusion so ended up stammering on in circles trying to recall it (because I don't like looking down at my flash cards even though that's the purpose of them, too nervous to do so). At the end my professor told me I still had 20 seconds left and I thought for a second and muttered "I don't have anything else" despite knowing I had uncovered ground. She just smiled and said it was fine and clapped to mark the end of my turn. I know she doesn't mind but an ending like that is just awkward.

Anyway, here are some songs. First up is a cover that Mari sent to me earlier today, I thought it was pretty nice. I usually don't like male vocals for Vocaloid songs, but I thought he did a good job with it. Here's Miichan's cover of Clock Lock Works. If you've never heard the song before and like it, you can of course find many different covers (and the original) easily.

While we're doing Vocaloid covers, here's a nice re-arrange of Matryoshka, done with Pokemon Black/White related lyrics and with a nice Pokemon PV.

This is Kira Kira from Kishidan. It has a very...interesting video.

This next one is the opening from Sora no Woto. But I've never seen the anime actually. I just like Kalafina's songs. Though maybe I should try picking it up some time, I've never even really looked into the anime. Anyway, here's Hikari no Senritsu (Melody of Light) from Kalafina. small video since it's just a slideshow.

And finally I think I'll just throw this in because on my last music post Cpt.Awesome mentioned that he likes more lively Jazz. So I thought I'd throw this in here. This is from the jazz album Tokyo Active NEETs released C78, it's filled with lots of lively jazz arranges. Here's their take on Septette for the Dead Princess, 紅ノ館と紅ノ霧 (Beni no kan to beni no kiri) which can be translated to The Crimson Mansion and Crimson Fog.

I actually had a difficult time picking which arrange I wanted to use from their album. If you like it, they do have a sample of the album up. It starts off with the song I put here, but it transitions into short clips from the others on their album as well.

Alright, back to my Japanese now.

~ Kirari ミ★

My kingdom for strawberry fruit snacks!

2011-04-02T16:54:00.000-07:00

I'm about to reveal a story that still haunts me to this very day. You see, I love fruit snacks, I really do. I remember being younger and getting a pack of them at the corner store before heading to school. I love those little colored shapes of pure delight. However, I am plagued with a curse. For my packages always...always are filled with those little demons. More than half of each package is filled with those foul, disgusting, and utterly revolting things. Oranges. Pineapples. These are my least favorite of the fruit snacks, and yet they torment me so! Why, why must I receive so many of them in one pack and so few of my favorite flavor?! Why am I forced to the torment of eating these orange creatures before getting my satisfying prize? Why do I not simply throw them out? I feel as if I've given up if I throw them out, as if some divine force out there is waiting for that day, so that they may personally come before me and laugh in the face of the mortal who thought they could endure this fruity torture.

NAY, there is INDEED a divine force out there there that is preventing me from reaching my delicious goal! Some grand force that simply frowned upon my very taste buds! For there is simply no statistical way for it to be properly explained! I've come to the conclusion that I am being targeted. I am being personally watched over and toyed with, by this fruit snack god. Why, why!? Why am I denied the pleasure of a pack filled with strawberries!?

"JUST ONCE" I cried with all my heart, my hands clasped tightly together as I prayed to the stars "I'D LIKE TO EXPERIENCE THEY JOY OF A FRUIT SNACK PACK WITH MOSTLY STRAWBERRIES! IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR!?"

As if responding, the frightening boom of thunder cried throughout the skies. There was no lightning, there weren't even any clouds within sight; but somewhere out there, something had listened to my cries. My vision blurred, my body collapsed, and my eyes nailed shut. I woke up in what seemed like a full month later, though checking the date I could see it had only been a night. I didn't even brush my teeth. I didn't head anywhere near the bathroom. I ran straight into the kitchen. My legs trusted against the ground at a pace I've never felt them move at before, yet I was not controlling them. It was as if they were being moved by pure instinct.

I reach the pantry, and with one swift movement, throw the door open. There, in the center, a beam of light from a crack in the curtains shines a single ray right on what I seek. The box of fruity decadence, waiting for me to claim it. I pull the box out and open the flaps. My hands shake as I reach in and pull out a small plastic package. Every pore on my body tingles as my fingers fumble to the ends of the package and rip a small tear.

What's this? Pink? I close my eyes and gulp down what seemed like an anvil before opening them again. My eyes deceive me not, for there is indeed a pink fruit poking out from the very small tear I have created on this package. My breathing becomes heavy. My knees start rubbing against each other as if they've a will of their own. I further advance the rip to reveal yet another heavenly shade of pink. My heart races at a rate that makes me feel as if it's about to burst. My pants become violent. My glasses fog. My head becomes light. My body feels as if it's too weak to support itself. Yet my body straightens out until I'm standing on my very tiptoes. But no, it's too early, it can't happen now. I have to hold on. I need to wait longer. I lose control of my salivary glands and a trickle of drool seeps out from my agape mouth. But I mustn't focus on such little things. I must hold back. I must claim my prize!

I can no longer hold it in. It has to be now. A primal urge boils from deep within me. I rip the package completely in half within the blink of an eye, with the force of seven gorillas. The fruit snacks catapult into the very skies, soaking in the oxygen surrounding them. But I do not look. My eyes are closed. I extend my hands out and feel as they fall neatly into even piles within each palm. I close my hands and savor their feel for a bit. That texture, that soft stretchy feel, the slight coldness of each one. Yes, I feel them. I want them. I want them in me now. I shoot my eyes open and glare beams into my hands as I slowly open them.

My legs finally give in. The sound of a sickening smash and crunch echoes throughout the room as my kneecaps slam against the ground, undoubtedly either horribly dislocated or broken from the impact. However, I do not feel any pain whatsoever. I bring my hands up to my face. I press them with all my force against my skin. With a searing sound, I feel the snacks melt into my very core. The smell of fruit snacks wafts throughout a 40 mile radius, alerting all. Alerting them all of...my sorrow. I pull my hands away from my face. The hot, sticky goop thins out into small threads of liquid as I pull my hands further. The hot and sticky threads that drip down burn like molten lava. Rivers of tears fall from my eyes. However, nobody can see these tears, for they are hidden behind a coat of orange. I sit there, head bowed in defeat. Why? Why have I been denied once more? I was certain I'd get my wish this time. I was certain I'd achieve fruity goodness that would surpass the feel of any pleasure ever experienced in my life. I do not clean my face of this sticky goop. I wear it as a mask of shame, as an eternal reminder of the day I foolishly thought I could go against the fruit snack god.

There were indeed two strawberries within the pack, for they now stand as pink marks indicating where my eyes used to be. I've been toyed with. Never in my life have I faced such utter humiliation. And so I carry on, forever lost, denied the right to properly enjoy the luxury of the divine fruit snack pack.

This is my sorrow.
This is my pain.
This is my curse.
This is my story.

(Based on a true story of what happened to me this morning)

It sounds a bit odd considering all the typos I make (I notice them, yes), but I do sometimes writefag when I'm bored, usually in random /jp/ threads when I feel like it. some of them circulate occasional as pasta, but I won't point out which ones I've created. This story has nothing /jp/ related thought, it's just me writing down my tragic story. Since I can't think of anything to post about, I may think about just writing some stories here every now and then. But I think they'd be tl;dr and nobody would read them anyway, so maybe I won't. I have some assignment due tonight at 11 that I'm just procrastinating on, so it's all cool. It's an easy assignment anyway, but those are the worst because I end up thinking they're so easy that I don't have to jump onto it right away. Before I know it I have like 20 minutes to complete it, and even though it's easy to do, it becomes a race against time.

I'm going to get another fruit pack. It'll just be filled with oranges and pineapples anyway...

~ Kirari ミ★

Touhou dream

2011-04-01T11:08:00.000-07:00

I can't think of anything to post about, I'll just post on a dream I woke up from. I was in Gensokyo and I donated to Hakurei shrine. Reimu was happy and wanted to give me a tour of her shrine, but Suika was being playful and covering my eyes so I couldn't see. But Reimu started getting mad and got into a fight with Suika. I tried to calm them down but they flew off and started fighting. And then Reimu accidentally blew up her shrine and started crying because she finally got a donation but blew it up. I don't remember what happened after that. I know there was a bit more but I can't really it by now. I woke up a little after. I want to know what happened to Reimu...

And why weren't there any cows in my dream? I usually have cows in my dreams. Maybe RAYMOO and Suika's horns were enough for my brain to make a cow?

I have a presentation in Japanese on Asahikawa. I just have to talk about it, the tourist attractions, maybe the food specialty of the area etc. I should probably look up some more stuff for it, the presentation is on Monday. She gave us the choice of doing it in Japanese or English, but I'd stumble over my words giving a presentation in English, so I'd certainly feel even more nervous doing it in Japanese, even if my Japanese is at a high level compared to the rest of the J2 class. I'll probably forget 70% of the information I want to talk about when I get up to present, even if I practice a lot before hand, so I have to get 170%'s worth of information! Flawless logic, I know. I should be a mathematician. First I think I'll read a manga or something (and probably get carried away and waste the whole day).

Also, happy birthday to Teto!

~ Kirari ミ★

IDon'tKNowWhatToCallThisPost

2011-03-30T18:25:00.000-07:00

So I still haven't gotten my computer up, but then again I've been too lazy to really sit down and spend time with it. I tried taking all the jumpers out and replugging them into place and it didn't work (though the motherboard still receives power, just won't start up). I'm suspecting it's my power switch, but I've no idea how anything bad could have possibly happened to it when all I was doing was swapping the SATA cable from my Hard Drive to my CD Drive, and I also plugged it into the power source since I didn't have it plugged before. I'll probably spend more time with it tomorrow, I kinda wanna get back into my game so I can non-shitpost with a review of it.

As for other happenings, I've been amazed at how much kanji grinding has sped up my reading and overall increased confidence while reading. Even kanji I knew before, but took a second to remember because of manually fitting radicals, have come to my head easier from my grinding. I was reading through Mysterious Girlfriend X, which uses almost no furigana, and didn't have as much of a problem as I was having before bumping into unknown kanji and feeling discouraged. Even if I don't know the reading of the kanji, just being comfortable seeing it and having a name associated with it is enough to smooth things out.

I've been reading back through Negima 29, Mysterious Girlfriend X, Symphonic Rain (which is on my main computer so is stuck midway through right now), and a few other titles, but they're all stuff I've enjoyed previously in English. So I've been reading Non Non Biyori and soon will be getting a few other titles I've yet to pick up.

Hey, Symphonic Rain...maybe I'll do a review of that. But I don't have many English screenshots of it, and the English patch completely overwrites the Japanese exe. That is, if I plan on just putting it onto my laptop. It is one of my favorite VNs, being sweet and having 2 unlockable routes that add even more warm fuzzies to the story. I'll think about it for now.

Today might be the first day I don't complete 25 kanji. I came home rather late and tired out (bus wait times plus professor letting us out later than usual). I've only gotten like 5 kanji done right now and it's 9:30. Of course, that's not late, and I have no class tomorrow so can stay up will whenever just fine, but my eyes are pretty heavy right now. Might just do 10 more kanji and run Anki. I won't go hard on myself and try to force more kanji than I can take right now, there's no point if it's not properly retained. I'm going to go take a shower, maybe that'll wake me a little.

~ Kirari ミ★

What Kirari's listening to Pt. 2

2011-03-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

Something simple for my first non-shitpost in a while. Here's some songs that I've been looping recently, some old some new. First up is a song from Nitro+'s staff to cheer Japan on. It's a really nice song actually, I wish it was a bit longer. Soniko is kinda like Nitro+'s mascot, I thought it was really nice that they made something like this.

Next is Tete-a-tete by OSTER Project, using Rin's Sweet append voice. It's a really girly song, and it's incredibly cute (like most of OSTER Project's stuff).

Next is a easy listening Jazz arrange of Nue's theme. The song is called Labyrinth, by Con. The name of the album is Girls Apartment, whole thing is just smooth jazz, if anyone is interested. This is the only vocal track on the album though, if I remember correctly.

And I'll end the post with something a bit different from the other songs, which are all relatively soothing. The song is 生きる (Living) by Tokyo Jihen. I picked the live version because I actually like the piano and solo vocal for the start of the song, rather than the backup singer and lack of instruments in the album version. The drawback is that the louder part of the vocals do come out a bit more harshly, but at the same time I like that. My favorite part of the song is at about 2:40 when the song enters the second half. The video ends a bit prematurely, but it can't be helped. The end of the song is probably about only 3 seconds after the part it finishes though, so there's not that much time shaved off from the song.

~ Kirari ミ★

Computer sicky

2011-03-25T18:42:00.000-07:00

I blame the drivers I put in to use my Wiimote on my computer, it's the only change I made recently that I can really think of. I turned my computer on yesterday and it booted fine until the login screen, where it just hanged with a black screen and nothing else. Monitors still received signal, but no cursor or anything. I didn't panic because I know better than that. So I started it up in safe mode, and it did indeed start up perfectly fine. I didn't think it's the culprit, as I'm always too cautious to get them, but just to make sure, I ran some virus scanners. All clean, as expected, so I cleaned out my registry and checked small details here and there to try to isolate the problem. So I eventually thought I'd just try fixing the MBR with recovery console. Well, it didn't do anything, but I figured it was worth a shot. This time I figured I'd run CHKDSK. I didn't want it to come to that, since it's quite lengthy, but I just left it alone and continued with my day using my laptop instead.

When it finally finished, I checked and: hey, it booted fine. So I used it for the rest of the day, everything was fine. I shut it off for the night, turned it on this morning and face the same problem.I ran through the steps above one more time, but this time CHKDSK wasn't fixing the problem either. So it comes down to the point where I'll need to put in my XP disk and just run repair. This is something I really didn't want it to come to because I'd have to go through the trouble of hooking up my CD drive again (I don't have extra SATA cables so just unhooked my CD drive when I got my new hard drive on Christmas). Before it comes to that I tried the steps again one more time, wasting more of my day, and it comes to the same results. Well, I figured I should stop being lazy and start some physical labor. So I open my case, switch out my new hard drive and replace the cables for my CD drive. I boot up my computer and: no power. Fans don't run at all but motherboard has its light on. I mess with the switch in the back and take a quick glance at my jumpers. I don't know what happened, I'm guessing one of the jumpers came out while opening my case again and I didn't notice. In any case, the power button doesn't start my computer up right now. I've used up enough of my day trying to fix it, so I'll leave it alone for now and get back to it some other time.

Worst case scenario would be I don't know what the hell is wrong and will probably have to take my case over to my uncle's house to see if he can spot anything wrong with how everything's hooked up. And it'd probably be an obvious problem I'm overlooking as well, like one of the jumpers not being on securely enough. At least I know it's my own fault, even if I don't know what I did actually. I just worry having to take the trip to my uncle's place just to bother him, and my machine isn't exactly portable enough to just carry along. What really sucks though is that I now have a bundle of hard drives worth of data that I can't access at the moment, and I don't even know how long it'll be before I'm able to access them again.

I was going to make a non-shitpost today but I just wanna take it easy the rest of the day and continue with my kanji.

~ Kirari ミ★

Spring break so far

2011-03-23T22:54:00.000-07:00

All Spring break I've just been kicking it back, taking it easy as always. Kanji grinding's still going smooth, at 438 right now. Though, I guess it helps that I've already bumped into quite a few of them with my previous studies, helps make the path a bit more smooth. But there are some oddballs in there that I don't recall ever seeing and have some pretty odd keywords (who the hell knows what a brocade is off the top of their head?)

Today I decided I'd take something from my backlog that's been sitting there for a while. Decided I'd try Koumajou Densetsu II, which is better known as Touhouvania II. I only planned on playing for an hour or two but pretty much used my whole day on it. It's amazing I even managed to get in my 25 kanji today with all the time I used up on this game. I made it up to the last stage, but I keep getting my ass handed to me. I eventually decided I'd just stop before I really eat my whole day up on it.

I might do a review on it sometime this week. I would do one today since I'm already at the final boss, but I'd like to get more snapshots of more stages and don't want to erase my continued data right now. I have to try a 1CC playtrhrough sometime anyway so I can do the extra stages (though I doubt I'll be able to do that without practicing boss patterns like crazy). Tomorrow I'll think of something to post here.

Spring break's going by too fast, it's already almost over. I guess it can't be helped though. On the bright side I can say that another day that passes is another day of experience gained with my Japanese.

Now I'll do some Anki reps and then take a nap.

~ Kirari ミ★

REAL final midterm is tomorrow. Also, video of the week.

2011-03-19T21:37:00.000-07:00

If you want to avoid the cool story, the video is at the bottom.

So I said in my earlier post that spring break doesn't actually start for me until Monday because I still have a midterm for an online course due tomorrow. I do at least know some of what's on it, but I can't say I'm too confident on all the material considering how she does her quizzes. A lot of her questions are worded vaguely, and since it's not multiple choice you just have to pretty much deal with her wording. I also don't really feel like trying too much in the class.

She has her tests planned on such awkward time frames, and I'm so forgetful that I forgot the date of our first test so got a 0 for it. Considering tests make up about 60% of our grade, that one test alone is almost the death blow of the class grade, which pretty much makes me lose motivation for even trying hard in it. I don't like the idea of busting my ass studying and still getting a poor/failing grade, wasting valuable time I could be using to focus on what I really want to learn instead. So I was supposed to study a bit today, but ended up spending almost the entire day on Japanese instead while procrastinating. I don't really mind, taking it easy is my thing. No need to stress over small stuff, it'll get me nowhere. So just taking it easy. I'll probably fail that course, but it can't be helped.

I got some laminated kanji poster to hang on my wall and help me keep track of my progress. Works pretty well, looks nice, and I can easily write on it and highlight troubled ones that aren't clicking with me so I can review them first thing when I wake up and look at my wall.

But enough about me. Here's the video of the week.

Video contains Madoka spoilers

Here we have a nice little parody opening of Hidamari Sketch (Chidamari Sketch, where chidamari means blood puddle) using Madoka's cast.

~ Kirari ミ★

Start of spring break, and free from the chains of midterms. And Patchy.

2011-03-17T13:52:00.000-07:00

I now have more free time with midterms finished. Spring break has started for me, so I'm taking it easy right now. Well, actually, it doesn't officially start until next Monday, and I have a midterm on my online course that's locked until Saturday (and then I have 1 day to complete it), but I'm not going to stress over it. My days have been super busy because I've been trying to fit everything together. I usually don't study, because I end up actually doing worse on tests when I do study (because I end up second guessing myself a lot during the test only to find my gut instinct was correct), but considering I knew absolutely nothing on the material for 2 of my midterms, I decided I'd look into it a bit. Of course, I procrastinate so much that it was a pain to handle. I also put daily Japanese studies above everything else. My days last week consisted of Japanese studies, try to study some school stuff, anime/Jdrama break, Japanese studies, food, Japanese studies, break, try school stuff, Japanese studies, and sleep.

Now I have more time to focus on Japanese studies, I guess. My Japanese professor was trying to think of ways she can help out Japan. Her family is fine, living in Tokyo and all, but she planned on going out there during Spring break and giving a hand. But there are pretty much no opportunities for individuals to go over and help out. I suggested she donate the money she'd use for travel expenses and such instead, and she agreed that was the best idea. While I was packing my stuff at the end of class she gave me a bear hug for emailing her the week before make sure she's okay. I'm glad she didn't decide to do that during class after giving her the donation suggestion.

And then after, I went to the cafeteria. I don't usually eat at my school since the prices are usually high, and I don't really eat much, but I figured it'd be best to have something in my stomach before taking he midterm that I had the next class, which started in about an hour and a half. Last time I ate, there was some jazz band performing there, it made for some nice background music while I munched. Didn't even turn my MP3 player on because it was okay to listen to. But this time, apparently the anime club was doing karaoke. They had a projector set up to play videos. Tomare!, Brooklyn Rage, On A Blimp, Mottoke! Sailor Fuku, some Dragonball Z parody of Make A Man Out of You (along with also doing the real version, kinda out of place). I did put my MP3 player on for this one, actually, but from the videos alone I could tell what they were singing. I came in during the Dragonball Z parody and didn't know what the hell was going on. Didn't bother me much, and not too noteworthy (aside from the random black kids in the center table getting up and dancing during Brooklyn Rage), but I guess I picked an odd day to eat at the cafeteria.

Oh, and my Patchy plush came in quite some time ago but I never made a post about it. Her hat, sadly, her hat doesn't fit on Beatrice's big head.

Hat actually topples Mew off balance.

This one is actually from Mari, but it's so cute.

~ Kirari ミ★

NEET Eats 2!

2011-03-11T19:38:00.000-08:00

So, I decided I'd do another one of these. Okay, not really, I was just cooking today and thinking "What should I make a post about?" and then realized that there was material (shitty material) to make a post on right under my nose as I was cooking the chicken in my pan.

Making one blog post sometimes opens the door for me to make more, and since I've been so focused on my studies (Japanese and studies for the upcoming midterm...and 2 other tests) that I've just been popping in to check up on some blogs and then getting off.

So, I the dish I'm showing off today is something I often make, provided I can wait long enough for some chicken to defrost. Spicy instant noodles with chicken!

Of course, it's nothing too spectacular, but that doesn't matter! What matters is if it's cheap, quick to make, and adds some spice to an otherwise boring meal! Like last time, I won't give measurements, just put the amount you think you'll enjoy, and experiment a little. After all, most of this stuff I just make from experimentation, without looking up recipes. In preparation for this, all you'll need is:

Some chicken breasts
Some instant noodles (I use Maruchan chicken noodles for this dish)
Canola oil or vegetable oil
Hot sauce
Whatever extras you think may be good, usually some veggies. In mine I have carrots, peas, and corn.

So, simple enough, right? Only real hassle is the chicken, having to wait for it to defrost. But if you're patient enough to wait 30 minutes while it rests in a bowl of water to defrost, then it'll pay off with a meal that cooks in about 10 minutes or so.

What you'll want to do is cut the chicken into pieces while the water boils your instant noodles. You'll want to keep the seasoning packet until after, if you want to keep that flavor, as most of it will go away when you drain the broth from the noodles later. If you have extra ingredients, it's nice to prepare them at this stage as well. By the time you finish everything, the noodles should be close to completion. At this time you can heat up a skillet or wok, and place enough oil on it to leave a very light layer on the surface. It doesn't matter if there are a few dry spots here and there, so long as it's mostly covered in oil. I normally use canola oil, but vegetable oil is probably more common in most households, and works fine as well.

Throw in the chicken pieces and extra ingredients to start cooking over a medium-high flame. Make sure to stir it around a little so that the chicken whitens on all sides. Keep an eye on your noodles so they don't get soggy. You'll want to take them out when they're done and drain the water from it before the noodles absorb too much of the water. Unless you're into soft noodles, that's fine then, but if you want them to be crispy or crunchy then you'll want to get them before they reach that soft point. If your chicken is white on all sides, then it's fine to just toss the drained noodles into the pan along with them. You'll want to constantly stir from this point on, or flip if you're experienced enough to do so (it's fun with a wok). From here you add some hot sauce and seasonings on top. Usually the seasoning packet that comes with the noodles is enough, but if you find the flavor too concentrated you can experiment a bit with other seasonings you'll like. For some ideas, I sometimes use soy sauce with a tad bit of sugar, and sometimes I use some Adobo all purpose seasoning (this thing works on everything, seriously).

Your seasonings should naturally mix in as you're cooking, since you're stirring the noodles constantly anyway. I usually like my noodles crispy and cook the chicken until it's a bit more brown, but today I made them a bit soft for a change of pace. And with that, you're done. It's relatively cheap, using maybe one slice of chicken breast per noodle packet (or one and a half if you really like your meat), and instant noodles are a STAPLE in a penny pincher's diet!

Enjoy!

(Or not, people tell me my dishes are strange, but this one is one of the more normal of the bunch)

~ Kirari ミ★

Biting the bullet and changing my methods

2011-03-07T20:32:00.000-08:00

So, I've been learning Japanese for quite some time. I do have quite a bit of work to show for it under my belt. While I'm not the best at forming my own sentences, I can comprehend and write pretty decently. I do study diligently, and I study daily, but there's one problem I've had really. My approach to learning is the "learn as you go" method, which is what I thought was more logical at the time, despite the fact that pretty much everyone that's actually made it far with the language have taken other approaches. I figured it was better for me to do it in the way I imagined. While it certainly hasn't gone fruitless, there are certain things I have a deeper understanding of that would have taken longer to get (I think) if I took a different approach, I do notice that I do move along rather slowly compared to everyone else.

I don't like comparing myself to others when it comes to language acquisition, because doing that usually just makes you try to push yourself until you burn out, and that's not really good. What's important is not to rush past all the information and try to cram it in, but to actually understand it and actually keep it stored in your head. Of course, I studied Japanese before I started taking Japanese classes, and I can see why people usually put down Japanese class as a means of actually learning the language. But I use it more as a means of cementing some of the core grammar a bit more in my head, for foundation, rather than relying on class as a full blown means of learning the language.

But I'm digressing a bit from what I really felt like posting. I've known it for a while now, but never took the plunge. I've known that my way of learning is rather slow. I've always had thoughts in the back of my head that maybe I should have given the AJATT dude's advice another look before thinking it's not what would work for me (I disagreed with some of what he talked about, but some stuff I did agree on and actually incorporate into my study habits). But I looked at many different methods of learning, and picked up one I thought sounded more logical. That was, pick up kana first, take some grammar from Taekim, and learn vocabulary with kanji. I did try the kanjidamage thing at first, but decided it was too much information to take in at once, and it'd be better to learn the kanji used in words that are used within real sentences for better understanding of context. This is what I've based my studies on. It works nicely, but I can't help but feel I should have thought more about the alternate study paths.

So, I decided it's best to do it now. Everyone says it's easier to learn vocabulary and easier to read if you just get your kanji over with before anything else. Or at least, everyone that's actually made it somewhere decent in their learning. So I decided I'd put my current methods on hold for a bit. I'll go through the kanji first. At 25 a day I should finish in about 3 months, and then I'll start picking up where I left off, assuming everything goes smoothly and I don't bump into any unforeseeable hills on the way. I'm already familiar with a lot of kanji, how they're formed, what the stroke order should be (even for kanji I've never seen before, simply by following rules I already have in my head). Hell, I may even just go through with the AJATT method after that and do that 1000 sentence SRS step so I can get a better feel for more "natural" Japanese.

As it is right now, I over think too much when it comes to forming my own sentences, and that's not very good. It's not as if I thought his methods were "too extreme" like most people think when they read his stuff. I do some of the stuff he talks about, but I don't even have to force myself into doing it. I just didn't think his method made sense at the time. Learning grammar without actually picking up a grammar resource? Just naturally letting it sink in by learning sentences? What the hell is that? I still think it sounds a bit strange, but at the same time I feel it makes sense, in its own way. Obviously, it's not good to follow the guy's stuff as if it was a bible, but nice to take some of his advice and adapt it into your own way.

So, I'm just doing a reform of my learning a bit. It's not as if it wasn't working, I just thought over my options a bit more and felt that changing the way I learn might better benefit me. As it is now, I do notice myself relying heavily on furigana for kanji I don't know, and only taking a slight glance at them to note their radicals and going "oh, okay, that's nice" before completely forgetting them. If it's a word I know, I'll probably write down the kanji for future reference, but if I did this for every single kanji I came across and didn't know, I wouldn't be able to read without multiple interruptions. So, I've decided I'll take the plunge and just learn them all. Learn the kanji, even if I don't know the readings for them yet. At first when I thought about learning kanji separate from their readings and what words they're used in, I thought of it as a waste of time, because you'd still have to just learn them over again to learn how they're used. But I realize that it probably is for the better to have a great understanding of all of the most commonly used kanji before digging deeper into the language. I do notice that if there's a word that uses kanji I already know, I tend to learn the word much faster, and memorize it much better; and when I bump into a word with a kanji that's new to me, it takes longer, mostly because I have to write the kanji over and over to memorize the kanji, then memorize the meaning and reading, etc. It's a lot of work to cram in.

It can't hurt me really. Not having to deal with learning kanji at the same time as vocabulary seems like it'll make things run smoother. And no more completely ignoring kanji I don't know when I bump into them. Unless it's a oneshot web comic or something, I usually don't try hard to learn new kanji I bump into while reading, and that's something I hope to avoid.

And just because I feel he deserves a mention, I want to thank Tigoris.

Seriously. I feel like it comes off as me kissing your ass or worshiping you for your knowledge, but I really just find a lot of your posts rather inspirational. I really do have an interest in a lot of the recommendations you've been making recently.It was some of your posts that helped give me a push in trying to go down a different study path. So far it seems to be going pretty well.

Though, I do realize it's a bit strange to do something like this when I'm supposed to be studying for a midterm next week that I still don't know much on. At least I looked up videos for one of the topics! Eh, doesn't really matter too much to me. My primary focus is what I really want to learn, and I don't think I should take away from that determination right now.

So, wish me luck.

~ Kirari ミ★