Tag: english

Spice and Wolf

March 16, 2011
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I couldn’t really get myself to work today, instead i watched another anime i was planning to watch for a very long time, Spice and Wolf (狼と香辛料). I finished the first season just now, and it was…

So beautiful. It’s set in the fictional middle-ages in a fictional land, but the whole story doesn’t feel like your usual fantasy story. It has lots of economy talk, since Lawrence, the male lead is a merchant, and there aren’t fairies or mages running around. Even when gods show up they feel real.

I usually don’t listen to the opening songs of anime, but in the case of Spice and Wolf the reason was different from usual: the song is very good, actually way too good. It feels so full of emotions i just couldn’t listen to it every time.

Generally the whole anime is touching on a level as tearjerker dramas, without being so sad. It’s just the story, the art, the characters, the music, it’s all so warm-

I lack words, sorry. Watch it and you shall understand.

Bakemonogatari

March 16, 2011
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I had some free time yesterday, or not, but that doesn’t really matter, the point is i did an anime marathon and watched all 15 episodes of Bakemonogatari (化物語).

I won’t go into details because i realize i’m not good at writing reviews, so just the main characteristics: amazing art style, great story and character designs, a lot of word play and much humour. And action, and romance, and pretty much everything that can make an anime good, and this anime is good.

Or more than that, but “well, that’s like, my opinion”.

On the earthquake

March 11, 2011
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I didn’t even feel it. I was busy headbanging to the performance of an Ozzy cover band by the graduates, so i didn’t even realize there was an earthquake until someone pointed to the lights—which were swinging quite much.

Otherwise, i’m glad i chose to come to an university in Kansai, because instead of being thrown to the ground and impoverished by an earthquake, i could enjoy some nice heavy metal.

Damn cold damn tired

March 9, 2011
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Today was the first day of rehearsals for the weekend live. Instead of rehearsals it’s more like just getting the sound and stuff right, but nevertheless, it’s “rehearsals”. I didn’t know exactly what time it starts so i showed up there like twenty minutes before 10 am (at which time on better days i’d still be snoring, if i were snoring at all). I was shaking of the cold, but i attributed that to the fact that i woke up much earlier than usual so my blood pressure is low. Luckily (?) i met with third year guy who told me we only need to be there an hour later. Which time i spent trying to wake myself up, with less success than more.

That time we packed all the amps and every other stuff too into a van and walked to the place of the rehearsals, some event hall in a part of town where i’ve only been once if at all. The building is a piece of modern architecture of the tasteless style, meaning concrete and only concrete, with much glass, but generally very cold. So all day i spent shivering, practicing and listening to the others rehearsing – of course we were sorted last so it was way after 8 pm by the time it was our turn.

What else happened: i had lunch of two onigiri and some Pocky. It snowed. It rained.

Now i guess i should be translating the 30th Xros Wars episode but i hardly have the energy to stay awak-

Stratovarius + Helloween @ Namba Hatch

March 1, 2011
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Sunday was the day of my first real gig in the year, Helloween with guest Stratovarius in Namba Hatch, Osaka.

Getting there was a bit troublesome, because i started out late and i also forgot my ticket at home so by the time i got there, Stratovarius were already in the middle of their first song. Shame on me.

The Stratovarius tracklist was pretty amazing. They played great songs, like Legions, Twilight Symphony, Forever and Hunting High and Low among others. The only problem was it felt way too short, they played “only” for an hour or so.

After a break came Helloween. I couldn’t really enjoy the first two songs (both from the most recent album), because some guy behind me was screaming into my ears like a madman. Later however i let a six-or-so years old little boy sit on my shoulder so he could see at least one song.

The Helloween tracklist wasn’t as good as i hoped, but it had many of their classics, and also a medley of their longer songs like Keeper of the Seven Keys and Halloween. Even after the so-so start with recent songs, later the show turned great. The japanese seemed unfamiliar with the “happy happy Helloween” chant, so i showed them that too.

To put it short: fun!

Stuff to watch and translate, spring 2011

February 26, 2011
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Looking at what’s coming in the spring season, there’s plenty i’d want to check out, watch and possibly translate. As for the last, i’d do japanese to english on stuff that’s not simulcasted and i have the opportunity, and do english to hungarian on the stuff that’s simulcasted or someone else is doing it.

  • 俺たちに翼はない (Oretachi ni tsubasa wa nai)
  • 神のみぞ知る世界2 (Kami nomi zo shiru sekai 2)
  • 青の祓魔師 (Ao no exorcist)
  • 電波女と青春男 (Denpa onna to seishun otoko)
  • Deadman Wonderland
  • C
  • A Channel
  • Sket Dance
  • 被弾のアリア (Hidan no Aria)
  • 花咲くいろは (Hana saku Iroha)
  • Steins;Gate
  • ロッテのおもちゃ! (Lotte no omocha)

And of course finish Xros Wars.

COICA and the net

February 17, 2011
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I hate it how the US tries and so far could control the internet. I wonder how many crazy laws they have to make to protect the record and movie industry lobby that would make Google offshore itself to some tiny island country where it alone would produce three times the GDP before.

It’s damn annoying that whenever i register on a phpbb forum i have to confirm i’m over 13 years old, because some american law requires that. How do i care?

Anyway, just now i was reading an Ars article on how copyright holders still cry for more tools to censor the internet. On the one hand it’s scary, because as the article points out, the law will most probably be passed, and i’d bet a substantial amount of money on that it won’t be as narrow-tailored as sen. Franken wishes, no, it’ll be as wide as the pet RIAA’s owners will want it. That would suck, because although they would get their beloved protection from pirating, but it’d cripple the net and not just the american part of it.

If it passes as they want it, i can foresee a mass of trolls heading out to politicians’ blogs, flooding them with links to russian warez sites. I wonder what they’d do then.

On “Seishinism”

February 15, 2011
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Are you familiar with the title Shiki? There was an anime running last year with that title. It’s a really interesting and often disturbing horror piece. And there’s a character, a buddhist monk called Seishin, who has really… unique views on the world. If you didn’t watch the whole of the series yet, don’t read on.

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Microblog archives

February 15, 2011
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It’s a shame how it’s pretty much impossible to check older entries on microblogging services. I use twitter and plurk, and every now and then i’d like to check my or someone else’s older entries. Right now i’d be interested about what all those tweeties going on so much nowadays about the riots and general unrest in the middle east wrote when there were riots in Europe (Britain, France, Hungary…). But manually scrolling back thousands of entries only to go back months in the archive? No thanks.

Running Windows Vista

February 13, 2011
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I think i am, seeing how slow i am to boot up after i wake up. First, i hardly ever react correctly to wake up signals, which means that even if i acknowledge the signal, i hardly get to boot up. And even when hours after the last signal i boot up, getting the system to an usable speed takes ages. Usually at least an hour, sometimes even more. By that time i usually feel like i need a quick virus check and defragmenting, which takes another roughly two hours. By that time the hardly achieved speed runs out as the swapfile somehow drops in size. When i manage to get it back normally, it starts to feel like i need a reboot, but i can usually handle that and get to work just how i want. And once i start, it’s not easy to stop, resulting in late night overloads, because of which i need some time offline, usually more than how much the wake up signals would allow.

Vicious circle.