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★

Spring 2011 anime - Nichijou

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!

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

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

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

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★