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★

Short rant on dakimakura prices

Want a dakimakura? Sure, pay up 9,000円! You know, everything in Japan is so expensive, but do they really have to milk otaku for that much cash? There's no reason for printed pieces of fabric to have such a hefty price tag. The manufacturing costs of these things are at most $20, and that's if you're just making one and not mass producing. Yes, the material is soft (and differs, so it's hard to give an exact breakdown of this), but they're not weaving gold into your case. Really, the official ones are really similar in feel to the Chinese bootlegs you find on E-bay and such. Those I find priced fairly. If only they stopped picking such crappy artwork for their bootlegs. I assume it's because they're essentially made from the same crap. Really, it's just 2 strips of fabric with images printed on them, sewn together, and a zipper added. This isn't something that should cost more than my jeans.

You can make your own dakimakura for fraction of the price it'd take to buy an official one, but that assumes you want to walk into a silkscreen shop and ask them to print out a loli on a pillowcase. But they're able to sell them at that price because people are buying them at that price. So they'll be staying at an unreasonable level for quite some time. 

~ Kirari ミ★

Thoughts on 2D love

I'm sure you guys are very familiar with 2D love. I'm sure some of you find it silly while others take it seriously. I felt like writing down some of my thoughts on it all, but I'm also using some personal examples and experiences, so be prepared for a slightly biased view on it all. This isn't meant to be a persuasive blog post or anything, it's just me free writing my thoughts a bit.

First of all, I feel I should get the misconception out of the way that 2D lovers are actually in love with "ink on a page" or anything of that sort. I tend to see this comment quite often. Troll or not, it's showing ignorance. I'm sure there are some 2D lovers who do actually love the ink on the page, but a majority of us, from what I've seen, don't think this way. It's as if you have a photo of your wife. If someone points to that photo and asks who that is, the logical response would be to say that it's your wife. Of course, you're not saying the photograph is your wife, but the person in the photo. That's how 2D love is. It's the character that you'd be in love with, the one that the image shows. Everything about that character that makes them who they are. When you have a 2D lover, you love a concept, not a physical object. You love everything that the character represents. 

"But she was made by some fat sweaty dude who wants you to like her, so he gets sales!"

And what if your girlfriend's father was some fat sweaty dude who made her for the purpose of hopefully getting into a rich family? Hypothetical of course, but does it really matter? Your girlfriend isn't her father. It doesn't matter who made her. She could have hideous parents and really hit the genetic jackpot to graze past all their bad genes and come out beautiful. Does that mean you love her less because her parents look like the back end of a horse?

"But she's not even real!"

What's the point here? We know this. You're not saying anything that will lead us to some kind of epiphany. We know this, and accept it. Some of us are glad about this fact. You're implying that you can look down on someone because they don't have a physical object to channel their emotions to? That they don't have a real person to lust over? This isn't even an argument, it's just someone thinking they can throw this as some sort of insult. It's a childish attempt to sling mud at someone.

Furthermore, most people into 2D don't want real. They realize that in reality, "happily ever afters" doesn't happen very often. Without diving too much into the subject (this could be a whole blog post on its own), people love 2D for many reasons. I often see people say that 2D lovers only love 2D because they can't get 3D, as if it's entirely ludicrous to love a character unless you're in the depths of depression. You can't summarize the human psyche like this. When it comes to the human brain, there is no clear cut path. I'm sure there are some who don't really like 2D, but turn to it as a form of happiness to divert their attention from a depressed life. These are the kind of people that, if given the chance, would absolutely leave their 2D lover for a real relationship. However, this is one case, and from the looks of it these people don't make up the majority of 2D lovers. 

There are even those who love 2D and try to get attention from it, such as the dudes who marry their DS or dakimakura. I won't really judge them, but I personally feel as if they're just making fools of themselves, but perhaps my perspective on them would change if I actually talked to them and asked a few questions myself. Seems more like they just want to show everyone that they're "different" from the world.

Anyway, I'll save some more of my thoughts in some later blog entries. For now I'll just end this blog post with an obligatory video:

~ Kirari ミ★