Tag: english

What to sing?

January 11, 2010
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It’s not an easy question for me when we’re going to karaoke. There are very few people who listen to or just at least appreciate the music i listen to mostly, the usual favourite being the “recently” emerged country, indie or “myspace” pop, call it however you want. And there i go, with unlimited amounts of rock, metal, punk, alternative and all the progressive versions of these, with some electronic, a few indie songs and even those are either of a totally unknown past Chicago indie band or from the selection i got from my exchange partner there. There are a few “must do” songs, the two sure being Hot dog by Limp Bizkit and Nellie the elephant by the Toy Dolls. And there i am, with two whole songs for a whole night. Usually i start going all over my “mixed” playlist, which has songs that i love though the music’s not my favourite kind, simply because these songs tend to be more popular.

And then, a few times ago i realised one more thing. I just have to go back six years, and i can find songs that people know, or at least can sing along: six years ago was the season of blink-182, Sum 41, the Offspring or Green Day, just to mention a few. I still sometimes listen to blink, and occasionally look up a few songs of Offspring on Youtube, but it’s no more in my usual (although in the case of Offspring i’ll try to make it again so). But these are easy to sing, popular, catchy, and i don’t care if someone joins and messes it all up (i do mind that in case of my favourites, like Fear of the dark, which still i try to put on every time), and noone will hate me for singing “songs that no one knows or cares about” (even if that’s unproved by millions of plays on last.fm). Interesting to note, that although the style is quite similar, Rancid is already “underground”, no one sang along when i had Red Hot Moon last time, though that’s pretty catchy too…

Karaoke made easier.

The day

January 11, 2010
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The relief to my panic came when my senpai texted me that our games will be much later, hers being first at earliest two pm. So i luckily got there on time, roughly one hour after the agreed time… Still i had much much time to sit and watch people playing, the whole sports hall was full of pingpong tables—at least the main floor.

I was still reading Twilight (except when i could no longer concentrate enough) when the announcer called my name for the game, which lasted way shorter than i wanted it to. Apparently i wasn’t in any appropriate mental state for a table tennis game, and that showed in the three-four missed serves each set, the stupid mistakes and the scores of course.

It was around four that we finished, and with Sasaki senpai we set off together. Kobayashi senpai was going some other way, but i was going to Kamakura (though the sun was already setting, i wanted to give it a try), and Sasaki senpai lives that way. I tried to make many photos in Kamakura, though i couldn’t get to the big Buddha statue of our spring term memorised silly conversations, because the temple it’s at was already closed that time. Still i walked around, made many photos with the built-in camera of my phone (just so you don’t expect any special quality), had one more coffee in the local Starbucks, because it was only 100 yen (second one the day, this time home blend), some really bad tasting nuts (ginnan or something like that) (the reason why i’m not going to write about the coffee, i couldn’t really feel its taste properly) from a stand near a temple, and set off home.

The morning

January 11, 2010
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I woke up at half past six in the morning. Anyone who knows my sleeping habits, probably also knows that this kind of early “morning” is not my style. I brew myself a coffee, of my new one, Gold coast (i’ll write about it later), had cereal for breakfast and left a bit early. I had to pick up a few stuff Sasaki senpai forgot in the club lockers, also to take some money from an atm, but i was still well in time. At least until Oofuna. Fujisawa open (japanese pdf), as the name suggests, was one more station further, in Fujisawa. But i was reading (still Twilight), and got off at the wrong station. Of course the name of the station was written nowhere where i could see it in time, so i was already twenty minutes late when i realised my mistake thanks to the senpais looking for me—one station away, where i thought i’d be. But it got worse. I rushed to the platform and got on the first train—which happened to be a special express (just my luck), meaning the next station it stopped was not Fujisawa, but Odawara. I was kind of in a panic, then lethargy, especially when i saw Mt Fuji nearing closer and closer from the windows—that meant i’m getting very far from where i should be. Lucky me, trains in Japan go faster, than at home. (Check on a map, where these stations are, Google or Yahoo, and you’ll get the idea.)

Shopping

January 8, 2010
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Today i went shopping. Originally i only wanted to buy myself coffee (Starbucks again, i’m being globalised), bread and maybe cornflakes, but ended up with so much stuff that it took quite an effort to carry them all home. I went to Sengawa, because i found out there’s a Starbucks there, so i checked—will write about my experiences later. Of course got my coffee, and then i went for the food (i saw a Seiyu on the way, there). I stumbled upon a place where they were selling everything under the cheapest price i’ve seen so far, so i got loads of fruit and a few veggies, meat and fish. But the bread was double the Seiyu price, so i went over there too—and ended up with bread, cornflakes, curry. And a heater. It was so cheap (under 1500 yen) that i couldn’t leave it there. It’s just perfect for my feet under the table as i’m sitting at my computer. I’ve also checked a phone shop, the iPhone offers are way more tempting than they ever were, and i’ve also seen a shoe store where they were selling my kind of shoes for 3-4000 yen (Vans, Converse, Adidas, Nike). Will have to go there back once. Somehow Sengawa seemed very lively and young to me, although it’s definitely suburbia just one street behind the station. The prices show that too. But ah, i so understand the old japanese farts stalking high-school girls. They are hot. (Of course, it means that there are plenty hot ones, but it sounds better this way.)

A little soul

January 7, 2010
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A little soul by ~Mis-shaped is the second in The Series, and not the last for sure. To look at the picture, and sure it’s worth looking at, for innumerably many reasons, among which are a cute pose, a beautiful girl, big headphones, blonde, the eyes, the legs, and of course the socks, i have to add, different colored, one huge plus point, but both are… well, just see.

Jetlag

January 6, 2010
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I’m here. I just woke up. It would be normal for home, but there’s eight hours of time difference, meaning it’s way past 3 pm already. And i can’t say i’m all cheery about that, becaue i wanted to study now. I have roughly three chapters of kanji homework to do, which is not all that difficult, but i want to take my time and review at least some of the last trimester. I also wanted to go shopping for food, because naturally after this much of ingredients, except for meat (frozen), lettuce (didn’t rot, to my greatest surprise) and olives (unopened) and the tons of various spices i had or brought from home. (Now that i wrote it down, this seems to be enough for one or two lunch.) Naturally i also have a reason, other than being jetlagged and hardly have slept any for the past three days, for waking up so late, that is that i went to bed at three (ante meridiem). We were talking, chatting, jabbering, catching up and stuff. And of course today, when i’m finally here, the sun’s not shining, and i managed not to wake up on my phone alarm (it’s still the same from the home freshmen camp, shouted by Vestator), which is quite loud, so to say. I don’t know if i woke up, walked across my luggages to my phone in the other end of the room (that would be the point, so that i couldn’t stop it quick enough and i’d wake up), or just my sleep was so deep that i didn’t bother. Whatever, now’s the time to activate myself with a coffee (it smells so similar to my mom’s) and “breakfast”. And study. Really.

Rainbows

December 30, 2009
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It’s been a while since i last posted, sorry, reblogged (i’ve to keep up with trends) a deviantArt picture, but when else, if not the start of my sockseries would be a better time? So here goes the first one (selected as first by the php random function), rainbow legs by ~missbecca. The colours are intense, the lines and forms are intense, the position is as perfect as could be…

But do i really need to write all this? Just watch and see and love.

Stripes and legs and stockings and girls

December 29, 2009
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I had a note in my phone for a very long time, to remind me to write about a topic. I was reminded of it again, when someone commented on my favourite Maximum the Hormone song‘s Guitar Hero video, saying it’s “the best thing since women’s striped stockings”. Others say “striped socks turn me on”. I can’t help but agree… (I guess everyone has these “knacks”, and here i go coming out.) I browsed around deviantArt, and made a little collection of “instant love” pictures of the kind. For others interested in these most very delightful of women-wear, there is a specialised club on dA with a really nice (though naturally incomplete) collection. My collection is a bit in contrast with what i wrote about in the previous post–these pictures include most (probably all) of the possible positions to take photos of legs, and all are great. All. Period. I’m seriously considering posting each and every one of them on the blog just for the sake of it. At least then i would have the proper space and time to detail them, which of course i would love to do. Also, while browsing, i stumbled upon two more photos, which caught me. I guess way too many people would debate about one of them (and you know which one), to what i could only say that it has all needed. Who knows, maybe you’ll see more about those too later on. じゃね～

A rant

December 29, 2009
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Now before the good parts i write about the bad, so that i could focus clearly on the beauty in the next post. It won’t stay secret for a long what it’s about–you can already check it out. To gather “material”, i was browsing deviantArt, and realised two (as for me) annoying kind of pictures. They are not annoying in the common sense, i just lack a better word. First are upside down pictures of a girl (typical example included). They usually seem really good. One is almost hesitating to click the favourite button, but just hesitate a bit longer. There are two choices: click that button, because the pic as it is probably worth it. Or you could give a try, and rotate it. A whole different world. Usually it’s not that much of a nice picture. Rather ordinary, or in many cases, the model is plain ugly. I couldn’t really believe my eyes when i first desecrated a photo like that, but that hundred eighty degrees of rotation can do wonders indeed.

The other one is related to socks’ or stockings’ photos. It’s probably only me, judging simply from the massive amount of such pictures, but i can’t stand photos from top. As seen in any example, these photos are (probably) taken by the girl herself (i at least very much hope that guys are not shooting such photos). The legs are in a few certain positions, probably considered very sexy, but from this angle, to me it’s just creepy. My idea of such photos is that the feet are closer to the camera or taken from the side. But not from the top. Never. Okay, hardly ever. There are counter-examples as well, but then those are simply breathtaking.

Artemis Fowl and the Opal deception

December 27, 2009
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First impression: nice cover (see full post for pic). Second impression: why the heck do all books in series (see Harry Potters) have to have “Something and the Somethingy Something” (or in the case of HP “and the Something of Something”) titles? It’s a bit… cliché. Anyway. My brother wanted to borrow this fourth instalment of the Artemis Fowl series, and i decided that since i’ll be a bit overpacked (as usual) on my return to Japan in hardly more than just week, why not read it and let him borrow. So i did. It really felt good to be able to read two books in an afternoon, after the disillusionment of a mere hundred pages from Twilight in japanese during my lengthy travel home. Two, because i read the Arctic incident as well (second of the Fowl series), which i couldn’t really remember (though i surely read it sometime earlier). I had no problem remembering the first one, and i could more or less recall the Eternity code one (read it in english years ago). Now looking back, all the books have kind of the same structure, much like the Potters (not comparing qualities, different genre, just structures).

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