Tag: english

Days before the first

So since my parents left I’ve been so busy as if I was already working at least. Every day I’d start out in the morning (my flat in Hikone no longer had curtains so I’d wake with the sun – nor a bed, by the way, so I was using a sleeping bag) and walk around all day long checking out stuff one after another on my list of twenty-something items, ranging from cancelling my internet subscription to getting a “hello present” for my new landlord.


Weird bugs

There are a few weird bugs in my system that I can’t figure out how to fix. I have an Ubuntu (always updated) and Windows 7 dual boot. One of the bugs is that when I reboot from one system to the other, the system time is totally messed up. When I reboot from Ubuntu to Windows, on Windows I get a system time 8 or so hours behind my timezone (I suppose it displays UTC but I didn’t check), and when I return to Ubuntu, I see the other way around: the system time is 8 or so hours ahead of what it should be. The problem is, I have no idea which system is bugged.

Edit: this can be solved by setting the UTC option in /etc/default/rcS to “no”.


My problem with education

My problem with education is that they don’t teach kids what they need to know. They teach in depth about specific stuff – for some reason stuff that you will never ever need in your life.

Will you ever need to know how to calculate the derivate of a function? Unlikely, unless you’re an engineer or economist. Will you ever need to know which year some king signed some tax decree? Never, unless you want to be a historian. Will you ever need to understand the chemical process how mitochondria in cells convert energy? Not unless you’re a med major.


Muster the force

My highest level ship is at this point Kitakami at level 97 (20-something thousand xp to go to 98), closely followed by I-168 and Ooi, both also at 97. As for torpedo cruisers, there isn’t really a race: even number three, Kiso is in the latter stages of level 96 at this point.

The field of subs is more spread out, Imuya having a two-level lead ahead of I-19, currently at 95, the rest following in the mid-80’s with the latecomer I-8 quickly catching up. She’s currently 66.


Me, Japanese and I

My memories from my high school days are quite limited, mostly just socializing and parties are what I can recall (and the occasional school event). I must admit I don’t remember anymore why or when exactly I started learning Japanese, but looking at the blog’s archives (currently offline) it must’ve been sometime in 2006.

I recall trying to write blogposts in Japanese, and just falling back to using Google Translate (and Babelfish) when I failed. Thing is, while I learned some words and basic grammar, I couldn’t make that next step forward, after which I could’ve said I know the language.


That addiction

I’m always in severe need for some entertainment. In the years before, that was fansubbing for me: translating was perfectly enough for me. Translating, being a part of the community, then later writing reviews even was great. But even then, I always had problems clearing my backlogs, since I simply couldn’t get myself to work on stuff unless I was doing it on the usual weekly scheduled timeslot.


陰の伝承歌 / Lay of the Shadow

第一部

郷の奥 続く道
虚を数えて 辿る道
つづら折り 見え消ゆる
友の影追い 参りけり
深き森のお社へ
山の端 日陰りて
影は虚にとなりにけり


ESO (beta) second impressions

After the rage-inducing installation of the ESO beta finished, I was more than skeptical as I dove into the world of Tamriel. Luckily the gameplay itself wasn’t as insane as the installation, but it sure took a good time to get used to. So I can say that my first second impressions were mixed, but definitely still better than my experience with WoW was.


ESO (beta) first impressions

Horrible. I didn’t even get to play the game yet, and I can already say that much.

I’ve been staring at the installer’s screen for no less than five hours now – I’m positive that in this time I could torrent Windows 8.1, burn it on a bluray or DVD, completely format my entire hard drive and finish installing Windows. Seriously, if you can’t provide a normal bandwidth for downloads (and this 4 gigabyte thing here at the 70% mark, which is about the third download in the process by the way, is downloading at a mighty 200 kB/s), then just outsource it. Include a limited-functionality torrent client in the installer and make the users download from each other. It’s not such great magic – it’s been done before (sadly, googling “torrent based installer” doesn’t return any relevant results so I can’t provide any actual examples, but I remember such).


On definitions

During my winter break I had the same argument twice, about definitions. People said that definitions can be disproved, and I said that that doesn’t make sense, since definitions have no truth value.

What do you call a definition (haha, define “definition”)? To put it simply, it’s giving something a name. The thing is described, and a name is assigned to that description. So a definition has no truth value, it’s just a naming. It can’t be true or false, it can only be different from other definitions (whether of the same term or the same thing is irrelevant).