Tag: english

Starbucks Guatemala Finca el Faro

January 24, 2011
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Those guatemalans know something.

Finca el Faro is also a limited edition coffee produced on one certain farm in Guatemala for Starbucks (though it’s strange i can’t find anything about it on their or any related website), but in general it’s a different sensation than Casi Cielo was.

While making the coffee i tasted a bit of the ground beans, and it reminded me of two things at the same time: nuts and popcorn. The aroma of the fresh brew is first of all lively and fresh. It’s like an autumn campfire, not all so soft but an overall warm feeling. Also a touch of cocoa.

With just a bit of sourness (most of which comes back after finishing the coffee) and a really nice, soft and full, i would even say buttery if i dared to. Its sweetness is really well counterbalanced by the boldness, so it matches my preferences (though not as much as Casi Cielo). This coffee also leaves a cover of pure coffee taste on the tongue, so its taste lingers around for a long time.

Like.

Best anime openings?

January 23, 2011
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What are the best anime openings ever? The first few that came to my mind were…

Any suggestions?

Digimon Xros Wars 23 english sub

January 23, 2011
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The 23th episode of Xros Wars, titled “Ninja Zone, the ninja battle of laughter” marks a significant point in my path as a fansubber. This is the first sub that i myself release as a video (720p mkv thanks to CASO), and also the first subtitle that i timed all the way. It took hell a lot of time, but i think it’s at least enjoyable.

Starbucks Guatemala Casi Cielo

January 21, 2011
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A limited edition coffee now sold in probably all the Starbucks shops around the world (they surely sell it in hungary), Guatemala Casi Cielo is really how its name suggests: almost Heaven.

The ground beans and the fresh brew have a sweet but bold aroma, that somewhat reminds me of a well done tiramisu cake. You can also smell the smokiness of a well roasted coffee. It really makes you want to drink it.

And the taste… It just hits the spot. I can’t recall drinking a coffee so fit to my tastes ever since the italian blend (and before that, Verona). It has just the mix of sourness, sweetness, characteristic aromas (a hint of chocolate-ish, a hint of rum-ish, a hint of some latin spice-ish) and smoothness. I like how thick it is even for a medium coffee, it almost makes me forget that i’m a fan of extra bold ones usually. A perfect, easy sting of bitterness in the end tops it all.

People trying to stop smoking, be careful: this beauty will make you want to smoke.

#hellyeah.

Super-r net not so super?

January 20, 2011
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Last spring i got the first internet provider i could find: Super-r. As apparent from my plurk and twitter streams, it’s often more of a disconnection than a connection.

I was for example not aware that i had some limitations or rules on my traffic. Apparently there are, because for a day now my internet was cut. After i couldn’t reconnect this morning, i now decided to call the support. Surprisingly they answered at first try, but what they said was more surprising. My net was indeed cut, because i was generating too much traffic.

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Dream Theater

January 18, 2011
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According to my last.fm charts, Dream Theater is my second most played artist with about three thousand scrobbles as of now. According to Normalisr though, DT is my most listened artist with about two weeks’ worth of time.

I always had some Dream Theater music around, though until Octavarium, this was limited to two albums, Six degrees of inner turbulence and Train of thought. To be honest, the song As i am from Train of Thought was the one that made Dream Theater stay, even when i wasn’t yet that fond of prog metal. But then Octavarium came, and that and my then-newfound Stratovarius pulled me in. But even though i was at two DT gigs before the release of Systematic Chaos, that was the album that i just couldn’t stop listening to, and i still consider that my favourite DT album, whatever the “hardcore fans” say about it.

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Yumekui Merry

January 18, 2011
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Yumekui Merry (夢喰いメリー, Dreameater Merry) is a great anime. It centers around a dream demon called Merry Nightmare (what a contradictory and almost impossible to translate name) and Yumeji, a guy who has the ability to predict people’s dreams based on their auras. Merry tries to get back to the world of dreams, but for some reason, she can’t, and this is where the story starts.

Oh, did i say it’s a great anime? First, amazing graphics. Second, amazing music. Third, it’s just great. I can’t really remember any anime that could almost make me cry (it made my heart cry for sure) over the death of a minor character who only appeared like half an episode earlier. It’s… great.

Of course we’re subbing it. I can’t miss a chance to work with such a great (yeah, i’m lost for words) material. You should totally watch it.

Ore no Imouto

January 16, 2011
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Ore no Imouto (full title 俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがない (ore no imouto ga konna ni kawaii wake ga nai), usually translated as “there’s no way my little sister is this cute”) was one of the best drawn anime in the 2010 autumn season. Had the competition been weaker, it would be the best without question, but Star Driver and a few others can be compared. And not only graphics, generally it was quite interesting and actually much more serious than one would expect from an anime centered around incest games and a similar situation “real life”. It was easily the best anime in the season that had some meaning to it (thus sorting out the likes of Panty and Stocking and Squid Girl). And it’s even funny.

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Recent in music

January 16, 2011
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Not so recent by the way, but it was very shocking news for me when not so long ago i found out that Mike Portnoy left Dream Theater. Which means that i was there on their last gig in Japan where Mike was drumming. I will be very interested, first to see who the new drummer will be (though probably i’ll have never heard of him/her before), second to hear what kind of musical direction Dream Theater will turn to from now on. It’s undeniable that Mike was a very defining character in the band. I don’t know if they have written the music for the album coming out this year before he left or they will write it with the new drummer, but either way i’ll be interested to hear it.

Yesterday i bought my ticket for the march Iron Maiden gig in Tokyo. I find it outraging that even though it’s a two-day event held in the biggest arena in Japan (Saitama), standing tickets were already sold out–please note that the tickets only went on sale yesterday! This is what i can’t stand about the japanese way of pre-sale, and pre-ordering the stuff on pre-sale, and reserving a place in the queue for pre-ordering the pre-sale. And that i have to feel lucky to have gotten a ticket at all with all the fanclubs enjoying absolute precedence. People like me, who like the band but wouldn’t want to get daily n+1 spam ad mail on their phones can gtfo.

(Not) lazy saturday afternoon

January 16, 2011
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Today i was a good fansubber boy. I translated Gosick 02 for Tokimeki, Shiki 10 for WoF, and also did the editing of Mouryou no Hako 02 (also for WoF).

Not to mention i went to help a chinese friend who was about to buy a computer, but stopped her when it turned out that the “only problem” with it was it being slow – which isn’t all that surprising from an old, never-cleaned XP, is it now. And i got a nice pork soba in exchange, worth it.

Written down now this doesn’t seem that much, does it. But it did take all my time, and now it’s late again…