Around this time last year, after months of self-bickering on how to drive my PC upgrades forward, I decided to buy a blu-ray writer disc drive. This was a big leap that emptied my wallet for quite a while. It was priced around 250$ then. Nowadays you can get similar drives for almost half the price, and I might say that it's a rather good deal. Unfortunately, the format in itself still seems to be so unpopular. And even I myself deem it unpopular in my own usage, as I own only a handful of blu-ray movies because of certain unattainable price points. Yet with these conflicts, I still wanted to defend the format as a way to move technology forward, or at least to make me less sad about something that still has a chance to become a "useless purchase" for me.
What are we at right now anyway? We're just rising from recession just now, so I think more and more people are going to buy TV sets. LCD and Plasma sales are on the rise. We recently bought a modest LCD TV ourselves, and now I realize why regular consumers aren't buying blu-ray. The basic answer is that DVD quality is enough for them, sure. Another reason which is sometimes unmentioned is how people will watch quite a distance away from the TV. Coupled with the fact that consumers will want a cheap set, so I think an extreme majority own the small 32" screens. At those distance and sizes, even I don't see the pixels. DVD is really enough after all. Screw me who always watches video on the computer only a couple feet away from my LCD monitor. A TV isn't meant to be viewed this close. And so for our set, I conviced my parents to move the TV around for it to become closer to the sofa to better appreciate the visual quality.
The first blu-ray movie I bought would be the BBC Planet Earth documentaries. I would highly recommend this series as a prime gateway to the beauty of blu-ray. After that though, I really hadn't bought much else. Just a couple samplers and some blockbuster movies (Iron Man for instance). I have a grand total of 10 titles… for an entire year of having the format. My main enemy would be both price and region inferiority. I think by now in the US blu-ray movie prices have dropped near DVD levels, which is quite nice. Unfortunately I'm NOT in the US, so I have to make do with those prices + 12% tax + markup. A 20$ movie there will become 36$ here, which is freaking ridiculous. Prices in Japan are as horrible as ever too, some in the 80$ range even. I can import some because I know people in Japan but still I can't just blast my money just for some odd anime or two.
I think anime is the best showcase for blu-ray because you will noticeably see the difference. Lines are thinner in character designs and the colors become richer because you see more detail in the backgrounds. Japan knows this as most of their top-selling blu-ray movies are anime. Unfortunately, blu-ray anime in the US is almost endangered. With all the problems they have in selling anime DVDs, I don't think some localization studios will even move to the format. Such a shame, because part of me holding up to buying anime DVDs all-in-all would be because there is a slight chance that they would move to blu-ray someday.
Another problem in the horizon for blu-ray will be digital distribution. While today there doesn't seem to be any threat because of the competing formats and small libraries, we go back to the quality case. If DVD is enough, won't HD be enough even at low bitrates? Right now people enjoy their youtube at supposed HD format, which is no more than a 720p video with a low bitrate which degrades quality. Still, enough to whet their appetites. The second one would be piracy but I don't think this is as strong today. It's such hassle to download and move around a 4 or 8GB file, even if you say broadband is fast and hard drives are cheap. Also, to enjoy those on your big TV you still need an HTPC or media streamer of sorts, so the piracy audience are more of the techie types rather than the bulk of consumers who just want to plug-and-play.
The only savior of the format that I can think of is the Playstation 3. While still the sore loser in terms of video game sales, that box freaking does everything, including blu-ray. If it were not for this console, blu-ray may as well be dead two years ago. With the recent introduction of the PS3 Slim with its competitive price, I even think this is a second coming for the format. I don't have a use for a PS3 since I have my computer for high-quality gaming, but it really fits the bill for an all around entertainment device.
This holiday season will be a crucial one for the format. Personally as well, because I will go stock up on blank blu-ray discs for recording and backups. I just hope that locally the price comes down for the movies so that I can buy more. It's a really interesting battle in the video space nowadays, and I hope blu-ray gets a piece of that pie. At least, to justify my purchase of this blu-ray drive. Heh.
"letter song" is created by unformed which consists of doriko and nezuki. They also made a number of other popular Vocaloid original songs like Romeo and Cinderella, Uta ni Katachi wa Nai Keredo and Yuuhizaka (to which letter song seems to be the sequel). This song in one instant became my second most favorite sentimental Vocaloid song ever (Sakura no Ame is still the first).
Actually I heard this just a month ago, and I have been in love with it ever since. The song's message caught into me so quickly: A letter addressed to oneself 10 years into the future, asking about life and love. While I don't have any self-reflection letters and stuff like that, I do frequently look back to whatever I have written in the past (be it on paper or in my blogs) and wonder what kind of person am I right now compared to myself years before. You know, I honestly can't imagine who or what would I be 10 years from now, but surely, like this song, I would want to ask. Maybe I'll start a time capsule thingy eh?
Yes there was already a sub of this song somewhere out there but I found it to be sorely lacking in accuracy because it was cross-translated from Japanese to Chinese and then to English! Horrible things will obviously come out of that, so I had to do this myself. The lyrics seemed easy enough after all. But heck… I spent a whole HOUR on this. Considering that the song is slow, minimal lyrics, and 5 minutes long, I realize that it wasn't that easy at all! I had a number of translation tools to my disposal (my stock knowledge, online converters, dictionaries) and each conflicting result confused me. I appreciate fansubbing more again. Of course, anime episode fansubs are abundant not only in quality but also in piracy controversies. But as for me, I think we need more of the copyright-free Vocaloid, Touhou, Niconico animeme in English fansub variety as well. There is still a wealth of entertaining doujin content out there that deserves to be seen and heard by us fans.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure I got many of the lyrics right, so there it is in its full glory… my second fansub which is really my first because you still needed the raw video for my first one. Please turn on the Captions feature in the YouTube video to see the subs. Seeing my Shugo Chara 10 sub, I think that I got a better handle of my Japanese proficiency this time. I would like to thank a couple of people who checked the translation, one of them was Hinano. If there are further corrections, or if you liked the song as I did, feel free to contact or comment.
Sorry, this is not so much about Shugo Chara, as I have been backlogging that series since the first few episodes of Doki disappointed me. Well okay, let's just say I can relate with Amu-chan in some things, especially the fact that she has some sort of multiple personality issues. When I left the story in the first season, she was conflicted with that fact that she has multiple "would-be selves" represented by 4 or 5 of the Shugo Charas. In due time, I'm about the enter the same phase. (more…)
In a nutshell: Congress thinks ALL cartoons with explicit sexual content are considered child pornography.
More of the "this is why we can't have nice things" and "won't anyone please think of the fictional children" variety.
Okay, I'm not the kind who can defend hentai. I don't watch them, frankly. I'm not trying to prove myself innocent by saying so, but I am not the type of person who watches pornography, in all definitions of that word. Sure, I have eroge plenty here, but I skip the H parts. They are not relevant to me.
Now I have questions:
- Mere possession? Isn't that an invasion of privacy or some other human right?
- I think press releases are too broad. I need details. If I has loli girl in swimsuit, is this safe?
In my opinion, I think legislators are getting too ahead at anything. To my eyes, they can't even enforce anti-piracy bills or anything related at all to the internet. Well, if that's the case, maybe all hentai-loving Filipino folk are still safe… as long as they are not selling or distributing any kind of hentai that is. This is actually a good bill (I mean its overall intent is good), and I agree with some parts. There is no such thing as a hentai industry in our country. No eroge or ero anime are being sold here legally. If they crack down on animated erotic content, they're hitting two birds with one stone, because those stuff are also pirated. But I need my questions answered. If a person possesses it without any intent to sell, promote or distribute, they shouldn't be sanctioned. This one's easy, we have clear human rights and privacy laws that protect us. Also, the line between "fanservice" and "explicit content" must be clear. This latter part would be fun to debate on. If Japan, UK, or America can't get those definitions right, what more with the Philippines.
In the first place, "hentai" as a word does not mean "Japanese pornographic cartoon that depicts children in explicit sexual activity". It's a disservice to a language, having definitions wrong. And additionally, a disservice to the people of the Philippines, giving us wrong and inconsistent information.
Sono yume no naka ni, kaze no youna, kasuka na koe ga takai sora kara boku wo yondeiru. Kimi no koe dake kikoeta. "Sora ga aoi yo ne?" Kimi ga hohoenda. Demo, yawarakana kaze ni dakare, anata omou kokoro setsunaku naru. Mou modorenai kana? Anata no ude ni tsutsumareteita yasashii hibi. Yasashii koe. Yasashii na basho. Anata wa ima doko de nani wo shite imasu ka? Kono sora no tsuzuku basho ni imasu ka? Kawashita yakusoku kokoro ni mada aru kana?
Tsumetai hitomi no mama ningyou mitai ni hohoemu, zutto kono mama de tooku wo miteiru. Me wo tojite miete kuru, kaze no yuku michi. Miagereba hibiki dasu, hoshi-tachi no uta. Nijuuyo jikan zutto, kono mama de, ikiteimasu.
Anata no soba ni iru dake de, tada sore dake de yokatta noni…
Kaze to utau you ni, doko made mo issho ni tonde yuketa nara ii nanoni…
Doushite? Doushite suki nan darou? Konna ni namida afureteru no. Kimi no koe kanashii hodo hibiiteru no. Ima made nani ga sasae datta ka tooku hanarete wakatta no. Namida tomaranai. Tomaranai. Konnan ja, kimi no koto shirazuni ireba yokata. Dareka wo suki ni naru kimochi shiritaku nakatta yo! Kuyashii yo, tottemo. Kanashii yo, tottemo. Jibun ga warui no. Konna jibun ga mijime de yowakute kawaisou de daikirai! Soredemo, anata wa watashi no daisuki na hito. Zutto, zutto, daisuki na hito.
Matteru. Nijuuyo jikan zutto matteru. Kono basho de matteru. Kono michi de matteru. Modorenakutemo matteru. Wasurenaide ne. Wasurenai kara. Itsumademo oboeteru. Kono machi ga kawattemo. Nani mo ka mo kawatte mo. Sono yakusoku wa ima mo kono mune no mannaka ni imasu. Modoritai. Ano hi wo modoritai. Mada shinjiteiru. Anata to no yakusoku dake, tada shinjiteiru.
Yume no naka ni imasu. Korekara mo zutto, imasu.
No matter how hard it hurts me, I'll never say goodbye. Your presence will always linger in my heart. Wanna see your smile again.
I’ve gone to the point where I care less what people think, and at the same time worried on what people think. It’s this impossible duality that boggles my life lately. I have this unbearable feeling that, because of so many factors, I may have forgotten an important human feeling. Hmm… that sounds Skip Beat-ish.
With my inherent weakness in dealing with people, I am unable to control the world around me. I would always think a lot. Worry a lot. Trouble myself a lot. Sometimes I wish I could read minds, because I can’t finalize my decisions on my own if I don’t have the big picture. Maybe I’m just a computer that needs input in order to give output. I can’t do anything on my own.
I am not an otaku. I don’t lock myself in my room. No matter how I wished to be alone, I am not. But in being so, I am hurting, because I’m sure that whatever I do, it would reflect to the ones close to me. If I have a tainted reputation, the reputation of my family, my friends, other people I know, may be tainted because of me. Am I thinking too outward? Or am I trying to just lose the burden on me, thinking only of myself? If I have a tainted reputation, I could care less, but still want to be happy. Me me me. Am I thinking too inward?
This blog was, to a certain extent, a vital outlet of my emotions. I was, and still am, thankful for the few views and comments. At some point, for some reason, I wanted to know more. I wanted to put faces in, meet a few bloggers in real life, look at what makes them tick. I lurk heavily on their blogs, their twitters, their sites, in the hopes of getting myself closer to them, because in the end, I am mostly alone. Even with my real friends, I feel alone. Even with myself, I feel alone. And despite my hope for closeness, I sometimes turn away with a (Shinji) hedgehog dilemma. I just hurt myself in the process.
Now I’m losing everything. Look how empty this space is. If this post won’t have comments, how would I feel? Further into darkness? The problem is not just this blog not being updated often. This blog is an extension of what is really happening in my life. I’m not “updating myself”. I’m not moving from this spot. I’m not changing. This seems comfortable. But in the end, I worry about myself. This is not about love anymore, this is about life. How, despite my desire for change, can't just start anything that easily.
I won’t try to put on a fake mask anymore. Beyond sweet words, lol expressions, emo thoughts, whatever the season is. In the end only true feelings matter.
I am lonely.
Would you share in my loneliness?
"I fear the turning of the pages, the difference of the new. In the end, I refuse change, no matter how much I desire it"
- myself
While everyone in the anime blogosphere is busy arguing about subs-srs-bsns and rawwatching=imawesomekneelbeforezod, I’m here kinda reflecting about how I myself am continually losing my proficiency because I don’t have anymore real-world outlets to refresh or retrain myself. Oh, and I decided to skip the JLPT3 this year because of personal scheduling conflicts. It’s true for me (at least) that anime or any other Japanese visual culturing alone cannot make me brush up on my Nihongo. There really has to be some sort of two-way conversation.
Video, audio and text can only give me “half” a conversation. It improves my listening skills, trying to pick up every word and process them on the fly to hopefully make a coherent understanding of whatever has been written or said to me. But the other “half” of it is primarily answering back. Me, talking or writing. It’s definitely HARDER. So there I was back in mid-2006, on the way to Japan. I really expect this to happen to me. I know fully well that no matter how many hours I expose my eyes and ears with kanji madness and moe~ seiyuu speaking, the real way to learn the language is doing it MYSELF. No more fiction, I have to apply it in real life.
So indeed, my early months were a nightmare. I was trying to speak with the Japanese folk in my workplace, but I was frequently corrected by them in terms of speaking the right words, the formality, timing, diction, etc. I’m thankful they were patient enough, but I still don’t wanna trouble them too much, so I decided to sign in the slightly formal Nihongo schooling a friend recommended. Every weekend I go by train to somewhere in Meguro, attending lessons. I had initially requested to skip the very basic lessons because I already know something. But because admittedly I only am capable in the hearing part, I had to cram to keep up with the kana and some basic kanji. It was fun because not only can I practice conversation with a teacher, but also with my fellow students. My classmates were of different nationalities, so there’s definitely no (English) cheating in conversations, I really have to think and speak in Japanese because this is the only common among us. And it’s a small group of students per class so it is easy for the teacher to nitpick about our strengths and weaknesses. I attended those sessions for two seasons (26 weeks), and from there life in Japan was a bit easier.
I was in Japan for about a year, and finally I went back home to the Philippines in mid-2007. With those lessons (and Japan-life in itself) as a foundation, I passed JLPT4. Now I have a certificate to brag right? Well wrong. It doesn’t end there of course. I continually have to find outlets to maintain the skill that I had. Unfortunately, I have no Japanese friends, and I can’t continue schooling because I am busy. I was able to take lessons in Japan, well because, heck, what “else” am I supposed to do there? Aside from work, there is nothing over there. I just can’t hop the densha to be an otaku in Akihabara every weekend, nor do I have the finances to hop the train to be a tourist elsewhere. Back home, weekends can be a million other things because I have more friends to be with, transportation is cheaper, and what the hell, it’s MY COUNTRY and I know it! Another bummer is that there is little chance that I would be able to go back to Japan by my employment. My resignation is more probable than that.
So without an outlet of “real” studying, I had to relegate myself to consuming anime and related stuff. This is where I discovered how it goes down like the economy. The first casualty was about the To Heart 2 ~Another Days~ game. I was supposed to play it and post summaries like before but the extreme complexity of the dialogue astounded me. On that note though, kudos to Leaf. I was able to finish Circus’ Da Capo II without much fuss, and I’m going through Key’s Little Busters without problems today. But TH2AD was nightmarish, it has more complex sentences and words. Good writers, Leaf has.
The second thing I discovered was I am watching more subs than raws. I could argue that my anime watching has undergone a bit of a diet, but I was a bit overwhelmed by some anime series, namely Strike Witches, Lucky Star OVA, and Special A. Okay, there’s military-speak in SW, otaku-speak in LS, and odd shoujo-speak in SA, so it was a bit off of real Japanese conversation material, but for these shows I was willing to wait for the subs. I was fine though in Shugo Chara, Naisho no Tsubomi OVA and Itazura na Kiss, among others, but they feature simpler conversations.
Thirdly, I got tired watching jdorama. I don’t have much interest in those anymore, especially since I am not frequently exposed to Japanese TV anymore unlike when I was in Japan. Back in Japan I “always” have the TV on, and so I absorb things like the quirky variety shows, random owarai, dramas, movies, showbiz gossip, etc. How I miss the gossip part lolz, especially when the trend is that many idol girl celebrities have owarai comedy actors as boyfriends. I noticed more of those than having a jpop or regular actor boyfriend. Cute girls go more for the funny not-so-handsome man eh? (self: chansu?) Similarly, my jpop music consumption has been lowered, with Animax-Asia not showing Music Station lately. Have they canned that already?
The active and passive form of my Japanese training fails me, so today I’m witnessing my return to innocence, and at this point, I’m still not sure what kind of solution I’ll take. Well… maybe I can relate this to the recent US Election perhaps? Suppose my time in Japan was the Clinton era, and after that, my Japanese skills going downhill is the Bush era, perhaps this is the time for “change”? Maybe a different kind of outlook, a higher purpose and a greater sense of responsibility.
Self-reflection: So why was I learning Japanese in the first place?
Yup, it was the animu. I was too engrossed in Japanese entertainment in general, that I want to understand more, consume more, and enjoy more of those things. As I grow up, and my real-life responsibilities increase, I had to sacrifice some time away from my hobbies, resulting in some lack of interest in the entertainment. You can also notice that in my sparse blogging. And so that kind of answer, “all because of the animu”, doesn’t apply anymore. So the solution is change… a change in the answer to that question of self-reflection. Do I still have a reason for learning it? For now… I’m not sure yet. Who knows, maybe I’ll have a Japanese girlfriend, or another job going to Japan, or taking interest in other aspects of the culture aside from animu. Whatever reason it may be, it’s not there yet. Just like Obama, all I have for now is “hope”, that I can revive my interest in learning the language through another reason.
Quite busy these few weeks. Possibly until after holidays. Blog and twitter will probably be as lifeless as ever. Hope to be active soon. >>>2009/11/20
A bunch of 2's: DiRT 2 preordered. Still skipping Left for Dead 2. Enjoying Modern Warfare 2. Don't care about Assassin's Creed 2 yet. >>>2009/11/18
I guess they didn't expect the network to be bogged down. WELL DUH IT'S FREAKING PACMAN. >>>2009/11/16
Wasn't able to say it yesterday, but PLDT Watchpad was EPIC FAIL with the boxing match. It did run well in the days that I tried it... >>>2009/11/16
