Monday, September 1st, 2008
My blogging seems to need a certain amount of reorganization.
My experiment in microblogging has been going on for quite some time, and it seems safe so say that the system is here to stay, so here's my Twitter account again:
http://twitter.com/bluemistanime
As for my main blog, it may be time for something major. I'm not so sure whether I'm going to lead it to something better or worse, but I hope you would still stick around like before. Nope, I'm not announcing a hiatus or quitting or anything, but please do watch out one of these days (or weeks, hopefully not months though). I hope my plan for remaking this blog goes well.
Well that was just a quick update to refresh things a bit. Until next time.
Posted in General | Comments Off
Friday, August 15th, 2008
This season… the stakes are higher… well not exactly.
I'm aiming for the JLPT3 this coming December. After my little victory last year with JLPT4, I seem to have a measure of where I am now in the hopes of living the Japanese Dream (?). Why not level 2? That one is downright impossible right now. There is indeed a huge gap of skill between level 3 and 2, something which would be addressed by 2010 when the test format will be revised.
This won't be as smooth a ride as last time. With me losing some of my knowledge and not being able to immerse myself in Japan during this past year, things will be tough without proper training. Any kind of entertainment (anime, manga, game, drama) won't be enough. I should start reading textbooks, and hope to find someone to converse with in Japanese.
And this is one test I really want to pass, as this is related to my career path right now. I may have been airing some of my work complaints on Twitter, and to tell the truth, I want to resign and find a better job. I don't know if attaining a bit more Japanese proficiency can help in my CV credentials, especially if the companies I'm applying to don't care about that. But hopefully, this would say to employers that "this guy can achieve something"…
…or would it backfire? "This guy is an otaku." lolz. Hope not.
Posted in Asides | 9 Comments »
Saturday, August 2nd, 2008
RenAi Blogger
.jpg "Play it, or else...")
I'm not usually into doujin visual novel games but this one's different. I mean, female anibloggers as bishoujo game charas? Where do I sign up?
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Posted in Bishoujo | 5 Comments »
Monday, June 30th, 2008
Do you want to hear less from me, or do you want to hear more from me?
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Posted in Blogging | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
My condolences to all the people affected by this incident.
People die everyday, but modern media tends to lean on the more controversial ones rather than focus on the needs of the hungry and war-torn in other parts of the world. I guess they were having a field day when this happened. After all, shock happens when it's rare and one-in-a-million.
It's a perfect recipe. Akihabara, massacre, otaku culture. Same thing with the US version. Columbine, massacre, video games. That's two of my own hobbies there. So, in the "impossible" event that I freak out, get tired of life and start killing people on the streets, pundits will only need to refer to my non-conformities to find out what kind of person I am. Great.
Continue your idiocy you stereotyping, typecasting, racist people.
But by saying that, am I not the same stereotyping, typecasting, racist person? You throw stones at me, I throw stones too. What a fundamental problem in modern society. This kind of behavior can't be helped, really. A hopeless case for someone who strives for peace in this world.
While other people would say that this story will just die out, I say never. It doesn't deserve to die. Let the debates continue. Issues like discrimination should always be talked about. I am not a US citizen, but I like that you have a non-conformist guy to potentially be your President (please vote Obama).
I guess the Tragedy, Hope title would have been better applied to this story. Let me connect a bit of the Sakura factor in this one too. Remember, Sakura was different. She was eternally young. Wouldn't that be an issue of discrimination/envy in their Da Capo world? We don't see that in the games. I imagine that sometime between those 50 years, there came a time when people had become suspicious of Sakura. People may label her as a witch, deep inside feeling envious that she can never grow old… or not die at all even. But I also imagine at some point, people start seeing her beyond her physical appearance. As a person. As the same human being that they all are, despite the minor difference. Eventually they loved her, elected her as school principal, and possibly be a huge contributor in society. Her sakura magic research may even be more useful someday, and somehow people may trust her in searching for the truth in the magic. This is the hidden story that I wanted to believe. I hope society can learn from this too, accepting differences of other people instead of persecuting them. Maybe the Akihabara tragedy may have been avoided if the world, and all the people in it, were in a more open-minded state of being.
Posted in Asides | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
Knowing about the true story of Sakura in anime form was unprecedented for me. Even if I had already skimmed the surface, I guess the tale can still be told effectively in another way. The most important part of the experience though, is that I can relate somewhat to the character. Yes, Yoshino Sakura's trials, tribulations and tragedies reflect my own set of current real-life problems. As a result, my heart breaks yet again for this fictional character, and in part, this fictional character gave me a source of reference, reflection and inspiration of myself.
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Posted in Da Capo II, Live | 3 Comments »
Saturday, May 31st, 2008
If you are an old reader of my blog, you would certainly notice that I do inject a lot more terms in Japanese today. I understand that this is indeed a bastardization of both languages, English and Japanese, but sometimes I can't help it. How do you translate "tsundere" in English anyway? It's hard to provide banter on new trends in anime without adhering to those new trends themselves.
This recent documentary about how bad anime fansubs are nowadays also was a bit of an eye-opener for me. Clearly the guy who made it has raised some spot-on points, although I would argue that he's a bit barking at the wrong tree. Fansubs are NOT professional subtitling jobs! Hence the "fan" in fansubs right? Well he did mention that old fansubs are better, and I have no qualms about that. He's right too, many old fansubs are on par with professional subtitles. The problem is, in this modern age of information overload, the term "fansub", and maybe even "fan" itself, will have changed.
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Posted in Anime, Blogging | 8 Comments »
