Fill'er up

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★

I don't think about the future

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

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

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★

My kingdom for strawberry fruit snacks!

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

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

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★

Computer sicky

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

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★

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

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★

Workload woes

So I thought I was caught up on everything until I realized I have a midterm in about a week and I know absolutely nothing on the topics being brought up in it due to the fact that I never cracked the textbook open. I was lazy, yeah. I tried reading it though, but I always hate reading textbooks. I read a pargraph, but it's so dull that my mind wanders off on its own. So even though I'm reading the words on the page, my mind isn't absorbing them because I'm too focused on other things. 

Because of this, it takes me like an hour just to read one page, because I constantly have to go back and re-read what I wasn't paying attention to. I'm usually like this with textbooks, especially History textbooks. I'm just much more of a visual learner, I guess. I don't like learning from texts, I'd rather learn in video form or something. So I was thinking I'd just look up a documentary for the subjects I'm supposed to be studying. Nothing on youtube but a bunch of kids that uploaded their history project online (and it seems like the whole class did it, and all of their results show up as the first thing, isn't that just nice?)

So I guess I could search the web for some videos. Maybe the History Channel website has some of the stuff I'm looking for. I just don't want to take the chance that I spend time looking for these videos, and in the end find nothing that goes deep enough into the topics for me to really build an essay around for the exam. At least the review sheet tells us what essays will be on the test. The problem is he gave 8 essays and said of those 8 he'll only use 4 maximum on the test, and of the ones he picks we choose 2. Not a bad bargain really, but knowing my luck he'll pick the questions I focused least on studying.

On the bright side, I ended up procrastinating on my History studies by focusing more on my Japanese studies. That's fine, I guess. Not good for my History class (or really my Japanese class either since my studies are usually learning stuff not covered in my course at the moment) but at least I didn't spend most of my time procrastinating on the internet.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go procrastinate more by doing some kanji grinding.

~ Kirari ミ★

Work work work

So I calmed down on Marvel vs Capcom, but didn't realize how much work piled up. Been inactive (again) after coming back because I realized this. It's mostly out of the way though, so I should really be back tomorrow. Now to think of something to post about. Been reading a manga I heard about quite some time ago but never picked up, it's Koko Ni Iru Yo (I Am Here). The main character looks like Saya from Saya no Uta, but with brown hair, which is kinda the only thing I knew about the series before picking it up.Well, that and the fact that it was shoujo romance. But seriously, she looks like Saya. It doesn't help that the manga pages are obviously in black and white. She doesn't have the same eyes as Saya in the manga though, for the most part.

It's about a girl that's so unnoticed that she's literally invisible to others sometimes. But she's used to it and blogs every day, and have 2 frequent visitors that comment on her posts and such. I'd go more into detail, but I might want to save that for an actual review post than sticking it into a crappy filler post like this.

Anyway, I'm actually a bit disappointed in myself because I picked English chapters of it to read even though I'm trying my best to stay away from that. I guess I just have so much work right now that I want to use my free time to breeze through chapters and understand a majority of what's said. I still haven't picked up Poncho (introduced by Tigoris) either, which I really do plan on doing sometime this week. I took a glance at the first few pages that were in color, but didn't get past page 6 or so since it was about 4 in the morning and I realized I didn't do my daily SRS reps at the time.

So, normal blog post tomorrow unless I'm forgetting something. I already missed 1 test and 1 quiz from my online course, that that's more from the fact that I have a crappy memory and the professor put them at incontinent times. Last semester my professor gave us a week to complete assignments, but this time my online course has a professor that just assigns stuff whenever and usually gives a 1-3 day window to complete it. Don't really mind much though, if I fail the course then I just fail it, bot like I won't already be in debt that I won't be able to pay of by the time I get out of classes. Why did I decide to enroll in College again? I probably would have done better just looking for a language center and take Japanese there. It'd give me more time to focus on what I really want to learn anyway, and get the other crap I'm not interested in out of the way (and save money). Kinda too late to back out now. Or maybe not? I dunno, don't like thinking about the future too much. Oh well, whatever happens will happen.

~ Kirari ミ★

Review tomorrow

Took it too easy today and now I'm sleepy. I'll do my Flandre Nendoroid review tomorrow, and catch up on missed blog posts today. For anyone wondering, I did get the charges of my case dropped. I'm surprised that I actually did, but I always have a pessimistic view on everything, especially something like this. I was prepared to pay the fine, I guess, but it all worked out so I can keep my money. It was quicker than I thought too. I figured I'd be stuck in the court for hours waiting for people ahead of me to finish, and then have my date rescheduled when I pleaded not guilty so they could bring in the officer that ticketed me to provide his side of the story or something. But it seems the proof I provided was valid enough to clear my name. 

Today I've just been really lazy. I didn't even play MvC3 all day. For some reason I wasn't at top performance today, so just ended my game early. The rest of the time I spent lounging around and studying Japanese every few hours. Right now my dog is sleeping on my lap and not allowing me to move.

I did see Madoka episode 8 today, and enjoyed it a lot. I then proceeded to spend the rest of my day pretty much lurking Madoka threads on /a/ to see what they're talking about.

And I want to pay for my Patchouli plush that I managed to get off Amiami, but my paypal won't sent the text to my cellphone for me to sign on. I don't know why really. I have until the 3rd to pay, so I'm not too worried, and if worse comes to worse then I'll just fill out the security questions to bypass the text key, but I hope I don't have to go through the extra work.

Oh well, lazying it up. Time to go look around to see what you guys are up to.

~ Kirari ミ★

Kirari returns with cool stories with a side of Takoluka

Alright, so I'm past the initial hook of my Marvel vs Capcom 3 addiction and settled down a bit so I don't have to stay on the game all day. I should continue normal posting starting tomorrow. I have a few images from my Flandre Nendoroid that just came in last week, so I'll be doing a review of her. I was thinking of reviewing Takoluka, but there's not much for me to really talk about, so I may just make a brief post tomorrow with cute pictures of her if I feel like doing so.

I might as well use this post to stuff in a few short cool stories to fill some space up. First of all, yesterday I went to my usual Japanese bookstore to pick up Yotsubato volume 10. I was also looking to see if they had that new Madoka Magika manga, but sadly they didn't have it in stock. I asked at the counter for them to special order it for me though, so I'll go pick it up whenever they receive it. 

I remember /jp/ had a thread about places in New York and mentioned that another bookstore called Bookoff is just a few blocks away from Kinokuniya, and sells Japanese books at very low prices. Well, I decided to give it a look, and wow. They're used books, but they're mostly in new condition, as if taken right off the shelf of a new bookstore. I managed to get Oyasumi Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei 20, Mirai Nikki 3, and Kodomo no Jikan 1-5 from the $1 section. All in good condition. Also picked up Oyasumi Punpun 2 which was about $5, if I remember correctly. I'm very satisfied with the store, and will of course be doing business with them again.

I missed the deadline on a test from one of my online courses, but I didn't make a big  deal about it. Taking it easy, it's just something that can't be helped. The professor is a crab so I don't even feel like emailing her to ask if there's any way I can take a makeup exam. It does annoy me that she also gave a research topic that's limited to 1 internet source and 2 library sources. Honestly, I don't really understand the logic behind this. If you can find the information needed, it shouldn't really matter where you got the information from. Information is information, regardless of where you get it. I really dislike when instructors live in the past like this. I'm in no way belittling printed books by insinuating that they're no longer useful. Of course there are still things that are simply better found in books than on the internet, the internet doesn't have everything on it. But at the same time, the internet certainly has enough resources to complete a research paper in depth. I supposed if I was doing a thesis on something, I'd want to dig deeper into as many sources as I could get, but if it's just a simple essay then I shouldn't have to go out of my way when everything I need is at my fingertips. 

What makes this whole situation even worse is that the class this essay is for is, ironically, a Computer Science course. Now tell me, why the hell would I go to the library and pick out a printed book to do research on web design? What is the logic behind this? Literally everything I need for this research topic is right online for me to look up. I really doubt there's any books I can find that will tell me something about web design that I couldn't find out already on the internet. If I was doing a history paper? Sure, I may not agree with getting information from books if I can find it on the internet, but at least books give the chance of boring old dudes that write personal experiences of their time in World War II or something. But web design? Come on. I guess I'll just download am ebook or something, because I'm too lazy to go to the library just to pick out a PHP guide or something for reference.

That aside, tomorrow is my court date to fight the ticket I mentioned in a blog post last month. It was moved 3 times, but I haven't gotten notice of a new date yet, so I'm assuming that tomorrow is the real final date. I'll head over there tomorrow and hopefully get this settled so I don't get legally robbed of $75. I'll watch the newest episode of Kimi ni Todoke and get some sleep. Win or lose the case tomorrow, I'll probably just come home and celebrate, or take it easy, by playing some Marvel vs Capcom 3.

Until then

~ Kirari ミ★

Inactivity

 Expect some inactivity because Marvel vs Capcom 3 is taking up all of my time. At least a week of no posts.
 Here's a cute image from Siro (Symphonic Rain artist) for coming.

~ Kirari ミ★

Short rant on procrastination

Me being a lazy ass cat. Cats are professionals at taking it easy.

So I realized I had this essay due this weekend that I completely forgot about. I was a relatively easy essay though, but because it was so easy I pushed it back so far. The thing is, when I procrastinate I try splitting my free time in increments. So, I'd wake up and browse around online for an hour, let's say it's 1 PM by now.

 

"I'll start my essay at...2" is what I say to myself, because I haven't satisfied myself yet. But I don't do anything important in this time frame, or anything interesting, like watching anime (if I get too into it, I'll want to watch more and it will distract me), or reading VNs (easy way to lose track of time). So what am I left with? Just browsing online, lurking 4chan and constantly refreshing stuff for a full hour. An hour I could have spent doing something else, at least playing games or something. But by the time it's 2, I don't feel ready to do the essay yet. "2:30 then, really."

So I go and maybe take a shower or something to increase blood flow a little. But wait, I haven't eaten yet! No worries, at 3 I'll get started! Oh no, I suddenly feel sleepy now that it's 3, maybe I should nap a bit. I mean, there's no use in doing an essay while sleepy, right? I'll make sure it's just a 15 minute nap. Damn, 15 minutes passed already? I'm still sleepy. I'll just set the alarm for another 15 minutes.

Crap like this goes on the whole day. I know I'm making excuses to procrastinate, and it does more harm than good anyway because I waste the day for an essay that I could have done at the start of the day and be over with, leaving me the rest of the day to do whatever I want without worrying about meeting a deadline that I set for myself. I usually get stuff on time, but last minute. 

I was supposed to do the 999 review this weekend, but I kept saying "after my essay because I don't want to get caught up in writing it up" which is kinda how I keep myself from watching anime or playing games or something while in my procrastination stage. Maybe if I actually satisfied myself by playing a game or watching anime, or whatever, I'd actually stop procrastinating because I'd feel more relieved. But I never do this.

So tomorrow is class for me, but I don't have anything after, so I should have my 999 review up then. I actually wrote it up a bit before doing this entry, but realized I had to go in game for a few screenshots I wanted and didn't feel like doing that right now. I have to head off it a bit to wake up early for tomorrow's classes anyway, so I'll do a quick daily Japanese study session and maybe watch an episode of Aria to calm me down before I sleep.

~ Kirari ミ★

Amiami filler stuff

Just posting something filler for now. I plan on making my 999 review today or tomorrow (posting this now so I have more incentive to not procrastinate on it). Just taking it easy, as usual, perhaps a bit too easy, if there's such a thing. I'm in a slightly good mood because my Flandre Nendoroid shipped yesterday and I managed to secure some stuff from Amiami I thought I'd lose. I also got a call from one of my father's computer illiterate friends asking me to enable tethering on his cellphone to work with his computer, offering me $50 for the job. Last time the dude paid me $100 to pirate Photoshop for him, so I certainly like taking jobs from him, because of how high he pays for such simple tasks.

Moving on to the main topic; Amiami apparently didn't get my email, or hasn't responded yet anyway, about me not having access to my old account anymore for my pre-orders. I changed the email associated with the account, but after I did that neither my new nor old emails worked on Amiami's site (which I made sure to also detail in my mail). But I saw Takolukla finally on sale, and saw I had no message in my inbox regarding my pre-order, so I knew that I'd lose my pre-order for her unless I got access to my old account (as soon as I remember where I had my first honeymoon for the security questing, I'll be glad to hop onto my email again). So I thought I lost my chance to get her, and that I'd have to wait for her to restock. But then I thought that if I can time it right, I can snag her when my pre-order expires and the one I reserved becomes open again. So I loaded up my trusty Check4Change addon to stalk the page and tell me when there's some in stock again. I was about to go to sleep last night when my updater told me that there were 2 in stock! So I quickly took the opportunity to create a new Amiami account and snipe the buy before it was too late.

What's funny is that I used the email that I already used for my previous account as the email for my new account. As in, I used the newer email I created after losing access to my old email, and it still let me go through with it. It's odd, because I even have a notification in my box about the email change, but it seems Amiami's system just bugged up and my old account had no email at all assigned to it after I switched, despite the fact that they sent a confirmation email.

Regardless, I  decided to pre-order whatever i could (thankfully everything I previously pre-ordered was still open). Now I just need to try and snipe a Patchouli plush when she's up for sale again. A handful of people never went through with their Takoluka plush orders (me included, though not by my own fault), so I'm hoping a handful will skimp out on their Patchy order and allow me to get one. I was going to get one as well, but Amiami put pre-orders for the restock up at the worst time for me (after I get a ticket and have to pay a $70 fee for being late on my rental textbook return).

Curse my indecisiveness making me miss the opportunity to buy Patchy (again).

~ Kirari ミ★

Bad start of the new year, cool stories inside.

So I'm sure anyone that cares has noticed, I haven't really made many blog posts lately. I'm sure by now I've lost a sizable amount of my previous visitors, but that's fine. I blog to blog, so don't mind if there are only a handful of people keeping track of it all.

I'm not mad, I'm still taking it easy despite recent events, but I just haven't been in the mood to blog because I wanted to ease myself a bit with my backlog and relaxing cups of tea. Of course, my streak of misfortune is entirely my fault, so I don't plan on blaming anyone else.

So, it starts off with me recently remembering that one textbook from last semester's courses was a rental. I have horrible memory, I've always been bad with keeping track of things. It took me almost 2 weeks to realize that I had a rental, and that it was due at the end of the semester. The fee for not returning the book on time comes out to $80. I haven't been called yet for the money, but I'm sure they'll eventually come after me. 

I had something to settle at school with my classes next semester and took the train to my school. I forgot my monthly train pass at home, so I purchased a 1 day ticket and got it stamped. The stamp machine smudged the ink horribly, but I didn't notice because I don't take the time to look down at my stamped tickets all the time. I got on the train to school fine, but when coming back they did random ticket inspection. I showed my ticket, but apparently the ink was so smudged that it was just a glob of black on the ticket. The officer said it was entirely illegible, and proceeded to write me a $74 ticket. I guess I can try to fight the ticket, the court date is on the 28th at 8 AM (ugh), so I guess I'll head in and hope there's a judge that will let me pass through. After all, it's my first offense, and I do have a monthly pass that I purchased long before that ride, with the pass issued under my name, and I even still have the receipt for it. But I doubt I'll win anyway, I'm too unlucky. I'll most likely end up with a judge that simply doesn't care, because I didn't have the pass on my person at the given time of inspection. Police are truly one of the many dangers of the outside world.

I also lost access to one of my email accounts because I deleted my saved passwords by accident while doing a routine cleaning of my system, and my memory is too bad to remember what my password for the email was. Even worse, I apparently put in a random security question, so can't even recover the account. 

"Where did I go for my honeymoon?"

What the hell was I even thinking putting that security question? I dunno, but apparently I put that question in 2 years ago, and there's no way I'd remember what was going on in my head back then. It's possible I used some kind of secret code that I thought I'd remember long into the future, because I do sometimes do stuff like that when the answers to the secret questions I can remember are too short to be used (why does my father's middle name and mother's maiden name have to be so short?!). It's the account I used for many Amiami pre-orders. I changed the e-mail on my Amiami account, and they said all future purchases will use my new email, but I have no idea what that means for my current pre-orders. Will they send the verification email to my old account, or my new one? I guess I'll drop Amiami a email and see what they say. Hopefully they respond before my Takoluka plush go in stock.

But I don't really mind much.I got a huge dent in my wallet and lost an account I associated a lot of things with, but I can still take it easy if I just lazily lounge around. Good thing this all happened while I was on break, or I would have had the stress of course work piled on with my bad luck. By the time classes start, I should mostly be over everything and have moved on.

As for my blogging, I'll most likely (assuming I don't run into another misfortune) start blogging again on a regular basis tomorrow. I have some blogs that I wanna read too, but haven't gotten to them because I feel that if I open up Blogger, I shouldn't leave without writing something; and because I wasn't in the mood to write anything, I didn't even check up on what all my blogbros have been up to. 

I already have tomorrows blog planned on something simple, just my first look and thoughts on a few Winter 2011 anime, then after maybe a review of 999 (which I finished while in my absence of blogging) and maybe talk about how the new patch for wrestling kitties with scuba gear does for the netplay issue it was having before.

All in all, I just hope you guys are having a better 2011 so far than I am. I'm usually an unlucky person, but this has been a streak of bad luck that's literally been costing me greatly.

Until next time.

~ Kirari ミ★

BACKLOGGIN, EVERYDAY~

Still alive, just working through C79 and Christmas backlog a little. I'll do a non-filler post n a few hours, just felt like popping in and making a really small update in case I don't finish my post within a few hours and it's delayed until tomorrow. 

I've been mostly playing the Umineko fighter, making a few combos and such. The online play in it is pretty bad, but hopefully there'll be a fix for it. Someone on /jp/ already said they were working on one, and apparently it worked well enough that they could do 6 matches lag free before disconnecting, which is much better than my streak of 1 full match every 6 disconnects! Unfortunately, he said he's not releasing it. No idea why, but if a fix exists and was found this quickly, I'm sure someone else will give it a try. Someone said Hamachi seems to drop connections less than direct connections, which is ironic but I guess I'll give that a try later and see if that's true.

Also, I recently ordered this Dead Master figure. It should be sent out some time next week, but who knows when it'll actually make it to me. I missed out on it last time because of my indecisiveness, but decided to take this opportunity of the reprint to actually get it, now that I have Christmas funds to help me in getting it.

Just a slight update on a few random things. I'll make an actual blogpost later tonight if I don't get caught up in marathoning a series or finishing up a game or something.

~ Kirari ミ★

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Obligatory New Years filler post because I have too much C79 stuff piled up on my backlog to start up. Been downloading left and right, I don't think I'll be getting much sleep this week. You guys pick out anything good from C79? Right now I'm playing some Umineko Ougon Musou Kyoku. Haven't touched C79 albums yet, but that's going to take up some of my time too, if I ever free up time from listening to /jp/ radio.
 And what's the deal with New Year resolutions? Do people ever take those seriously?

~ Kirari ミ★