Appa's Thoughts

SO. Just finished with End of Evangelion.

Haha, wow. I rather enjoyed that, even though I'm not going to try too terribly hard to make sense of it (and by 'it', I mean the whole thing or just how the final scene didn't exactly fit with my understanding of the rest of it).

On a character to character level I found it a highly satisfying series & ending, and I liked pretty much all of the characters (though I can see why there are some dedicated Shinji-haters and Asuka-haters and so on). Hard to say still if it's going to be one of my favorites (currently I have no desire no rewatch any parts of it), but I can see why the hype even if I can't give it all the same praise as others I know do.

Watching it with my sister was fun, though--mostly because she seemed to hate it. XD

Good news: I passed the JLPT level 2!! ^__^ Now to start studying with purpose for level 1. In the meantime I've done over 400 kanji in my workbook (each kanji: 72 times). I was hoping to get to #1000 before seeing my results, but I'm not complaining (I'm at #920 or so right now).

And the fun stuff: Ask me a question about any of my fandom interests (not limited to my profile)! Any question~~~

Okay, so... here I am, being my usual down-to-earth self and looking at graduate schools and ways to pay for them. And what do I find? A list of universities which offer courses in manga and animation. (http://www.jasso.go.jp/study_j/documents/animation_manga.pdf)

*wibble*

I found programs I could get into--as a (Japanese-speaking) foreigner, yes!--and learn to write manga professionally. Or I could just do graduate studies about manga, and geez, we all know how much I'd love to do that. Or rather, a few of my classmates who have had lengthy academic discussions about the medium with me certainly know how much I'd love that.

*swoons* Sure, they don't typically have Westerners get in, but it's not impossible. Maybe if I were to be in Japan for at least a year for something else and could just give it a shot---but ack, I should be serious! I must plan seriously for my future, and manga is a hobby! Albeit a little bit of a self-possessing hobby. And I have loans already which need repaying!

*glitter*

But... but what does one do with a degree in manga studies!? This is a serious question.

I woke up yesterday morning with a new idea for a manga-esque plot and was giddy all day with ideas. Isn't this my joy?

I am such a conflicted individual.

Watched Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones last night because I was curious, and thankfully it was many, many times better than the last teenage-ghost movie I was curious about (do yourself a favor and skip The Invisible). And yes, it did have from LOTR-style elements, enough that I was tempted to call the girl Frodo.

I'm not going to say it was the best movie ever and it had a couple annoying elements, but overall I liked it a lot. I got emotionally involved, and didn't expect the conclusion because I was rooting for something happier even though I tend to like tragic endings, too. It was a more delicate plot than the "blargh find Susie's murderer!!" plot I expected.

What I really loved was the sublime images. <3 <3 <3 I really am an imagery-oriented person.

_____

Have you ever stood in a theater all by yourself? It's kind of neat. For some reason I tend to enjoy the rareness of being in places all alone where you typically expect there to be lots of other people. An empty airport or shopping mall has much different character than a full one--not necessarily better, simply different and therefore intriguing.

~____~;; やれやれ。

What's happened to me? My siblings and parents are shocked to see me like this. It's normal for a lot of them, and a lot of my friends, and even though they've heard me complain about others' habits...

I've gotten sucked into an role-playing game. >___<;;

I've just seen bits and pieces of different games my siblings, especially my older sister, have played over the years, but I've never wanted to try them out myself. If anything, I was content just to curiously watch and ask questions or roll my eyes at how much time they spend on them. But when she found Grand Fantasia, she said "Hey, it's like a digimon!" and I had to come watch.

So, you choose different classes and go beat up monsters and stuff, right... but you raise a little sprite--which I've been half referring to a digimon--while you're doing all that. It's probably not unique, but it's a cute little thing and I like reading it's little comments. And I'm curious what it's like after it digivolves! So for about 3 days so far, I've been playing.

It's a little sad... I'm so disoriented with it.
I keep having to bug my sister every few minutes with questions about what to do and I keep getting lost. She and a few of my brothers say it's like watching someone learn how to type. I'll just do the simple things like raising the sprite and beating up monsters, she can make the other decisions for my character. Speaking of, she set me up as a acolyte, I guess? It wouldn't have been my first choice, but I like that I can heal myself. I've died so many times...

I'm only level 12 but my sprite is doing pretty well. I probably need to level myself up a whole bunch more before it'll change, though. I need to be level 16 or so before I get a blue robe, which would look so much better than the creamy orange one I have now...

Gaaaaaaahhhhhh I wish I'd hear back about that job. I need to send a follow-up... >__<;;; I don't know what to do with myself but read manga, study kanji, play computer games and wait, wait, wait!!!

Thanks to YouTube, I finally got to watch a staging of Pacific Overtures, which has some of my favorite Sondheim musical numbers (he also wrote the scores for Into the Woods and Sweeney Todd). It takes a special kind of audience to appreciate a Broadway musical of this natural, what with how much it borrowed from Kabuki and a little from Noh and Bunraku.

If you are familiar with Kabuki, it's easier to appreciate a lot of the theatrics, such as the hanamichi leading to the stage and the oni-like appearance and dance of Commodore Perry or the women all being played by men. Most American theater goers are not familiar enough with it to find any pleasure in the East/West style, I think, which is why it's a bit like a lost musical.

As for the over all play, meh, I can't say it was my favorite, but I still love a good handful of the songs and theatrical techniques. It helps that I'm familiar with the parts of Japanese theater that they were parodying, but some of the songs stand alone as just being amusing or beautiful.

The title theme is a good one to be familiar with Japanese culture for, whereas songs like "There Is No Other Way" are just wonderfully composed. (Will upload a few songs upon request.)

This song, however, is my favorite. Being a little annoying is part of it's charm, I think, and I've been a little attached to it for a couple years now. A classmate of mine appreciated it as much as I did so we could make jokes about it together, but pretty much everyone else I've had listen to it all give me the same "are you serious?" look and then they groan whenever I happen to mention it.



I feel so alone in some of my tastes! I'm also a bit of a fan of American parlor music from the 1900's and 1910's which borrow from Japanese styles (or their understandings of them) and have subject matter about geisha and such. (Will also upload a couple upon request.) Of course, I've given strange looks when I start singing lines from those, too... am I the only one who finds the idea of a ragtime geisha funny and somewhat tempting to design?

I would love, love, love to perform in a production of Pacific Overtures, or even just a single musical number (because they might be more interesting as stand-alone performances).

Just now finished the Evangelion TV series.

Wow.

...So that's why people keep pets, isn't it?

I rather liked it and will post a more thorough response once I see the movie. In the meantime, while I'm embracing classic anime/otaku culture, I'm doing the Moe Meme.

( My inner stereotype is... )

I've never had any interest in Dan Brown whatsoever. I've been completely indifferent until now, but I stumbled upon a rant a linguist friend of mine posted, along with this link (it's a quick read): http://www.hanzismatter.com/2009/03/painful-excerpt-from-dan-browns-digital.html

The sheer lack of understanding of his material is astonishing.

I thought the whole "I have the real scoop on the Vatican, LOLZ!!!" thing was dumb to begin with, but this takes away any kind of respect I could have possibly had for him possibly having done any research.

"Kanji language"... I don't know whether to laugh or cry. There's plenty more I could buzz him on, but what really gets me is how royally messed up their translation of that code is going to be.

I like to say it means nothing, but in all truth I was flipping through a Japanese dictionary when I was 15 or 16 and found it. I liked the look and sound of it and thought it'd be funny to use a name which means "oppression".

Today I came across the word "Kogane" and it made go into fangirl mode over how much fun Flame of Recca was. It could be a little predictable, but it was easy to get attached to.

Tee hee hee. Five years ago, my sister and I were borrowing the series and finished it off in a few days. Seeing as it was made by Studio Pierrot, the animation styles would change over the course of the series--to more of an extreme than other Pierrot series. We starting playing two games with each episode (and new style): "Name the animation" (relating it to other styles, like Fushigi Yuugi or Dragon Ball Z), and "Name the Favorite Character" (the one character who would look really good in that style).

The opening theme is one I always want to sing along to. Haven't listened to it in a while, though.

Plot and character-wise it was fun. :D Sure, the battle royale took up most of the series, but we certainly enjoyed it. It stayed interesting. I liked a whole bunch of the characters (even though their names make me laugh because of how Sailor-Moon-style fitting they are) and their relationships. The ending of the anime, though... XDDD BAM! Car crash! So random!

I poked around the rest of the manga to see what happened, and the ending was really sweet. X3 It still makes me say "awwww" without having to even go back and reread it (it was one of those endings I reread a couple times, though).

Now back to writing a economics test. >_>;

EDIT: *read back over the last few chapters anyway*

kirarakim suggested the Chinese documentary Please Vote For Me, which is about an elementary school class which votes on their class monitor (the ultimate position of authority for a grade schooler), with a democratic election.

...Wow. My mom and I laughed the whole time but still had to take it pretty seriously.

The kids were adorable, and but some of their behavior just makes you want to cry for humanity, because you know kids are going to act like that everywhere when they are given the power. What's funny is that we got more sympathetic to Cheng Cheng as it went on, and although we liked Liu Lei at first there was something ominous about him later (dictator-like? XDD), but maybe we read into it too much. Felt bad for Xiaofei the whole time.

I'm really curious why the teacher decided to set it up that way. It must have been someone's experiment if not hers. I think what's funny is that it while it was supposed to be a lesson in the (albiet flawed like any other) system of democracy, it had more a basic lesson of Chinese society at heart: if you want to get anywhere in life, you have to learn how to make people like you.

---QUICK TANGENT---

You know what's funny about classrooms of Chinese students? If you visit, you're likely going to be asked to sing a song. I'm totally serious! Thankfully I was warned about this before I went. When I was asked to sing for one of the groups of students, I sang the Magic Knights Rayearth opening. XD Thankfully that was become someone else told them I can sing in Japanese and they egged me on.

The other American guy with me? He sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." The students seemed a tad disappointed. Then one of the guys in the back asked if he could sing a song for us, and the others all cheered, so he went to the front and stood next to us as he sang us a full English love ballad--very well, I might add!

So, if you ever visit a Chinese school, have a song prepared: especially a popular love ballad!

---SORRY!---

Anyway, I didn't find anything too surprising, but it was an insightful and enjoyable documentary (you can find it on Netflix, like I did!). My mom is going to make a bunch of my siblings watch it, too.

*stares* Didn't LJ just have a prompt about Haiti up a minute ago? Whatever, I'll post without it.

I am a Dragon at heart and a Capricorn in the head, so although I decide to do charitable donations somewhat impulsively, I do my research to try to make sure my contribution will not be wasted.

For those of you who would like to support the relief effort in Haiti, I'm asking you to do your research and chose a venue to donate through which will use a large portion of your money for the actual effort, and be likely to do effective work. One thing you might check on is how much money goes towards overhead costs, and even if it's not much, you should see how much their top executives if this helps you decide between organizations.

Also, if you have political disagreement with some kind of charitable work, do your investigation. That is not to say that if an otherwise fantastic charity provides services I am morally opposed to they are evil, but I cannot financially support them as a matter of principle.

These suggestions are NOT meant to rip on any particular charity.

This is helpful site to get you started: http://www.charitynavigator.org/

After much investigation through a variety of reviews, my mom and I went with this one for the Haitian effort: http://crossinternational.org/index.php?src=

Also, when the world is not in the state of emergency it presently is, you can still make helpful contributions. I wholeheartedly suggest this organization: http://www.kiva.org/

It is not a charity, persay, but an interest-free mircoloan service to entrepreneurs. They go through an application process to help ensure that they have adequate business plans, and the repayment rate is high. Field partners check up on the progress of the businesses as they repay the loans.

You can look through profiles to choose what kind of business or person you want to support, and you only need to contribute $25. More often than not, the money will be repaid to you, so you can withdraw it or put it back into another microloan. They also have gift certificates!

</ commerical>

Back on the Haiti topic, though, I totally love this fundraising idea: http://dustthouart.livejournal.com/411327.html

____

And while we're on the topic of being generous, I should be allowed to donate blood come March (they wouldn't let me last time I asked because I had been traveling--but I sure didn't pick up malaria!). *shakes fist* Someday, I'll do it! I'll bring the blood and the guts!

Thanks to the Muppet Studio channel on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/MuppetsStudio), my 5-month-old brother now sings Carmen's "Habanera" in 'mi', complete with Animal-style 'lalalala's.

So besides drawing another version for a shoujoesque commission, taking the dogs for a walk, babysitting, planning an econ course for my brothers and all that jazz, I spent the whole day reading Rinko Ueda's Ryou.

Eheheheheh. ^^; I am such a sucker for these kinds of stories. I'm usually game for any of those kid-goes-to-other-world plots, and even more so when they're ancient China or Japan, and even more so when they have historical characters. Unlike many others is that while I'm reading, I get that "wow, I wanna be Ryou!" feeling.

( Little tangent )
If it weren't for the whole Heisei/Genji war, though, I'd totally take Koremori over Benkei. *nods in agreement with self* Although he's kind of gone the angsty Nozomu-route, but not as scary. Yeah, I'd take Koremori over Nozomu, too. (Nozomu is from a later Uerin series, Hadashi de Bara o Fume, which I love any updates from!)

Reading this gives me all kinds of ideas for places I want to visit next time I go to Japan someday. Definitely Hiraizumi. :D Even though I only read bits and pieces of Tsuki no Shippo, that still made my trip to Iga-Uena much more interesting. I really have become such an Uerin fan...

Your result for The Fan Fiction Personality Test...

The Mindgamer

Everything is possible, nothing is ever really over.

Take The Fan Fiction Personality Test at OkCupid

Further Analysis:
I scored 41% on Slasher, higher than 11% of my peers.
I scored 48% on Weirdo, higher than 11% of my peers.
I scored 77% on TrueFan, higher than 80% of my peers.
I scored 82% on Mindgamer, higher than 91% of my peers.
I scored 80% on BarelyFF, higher than 98% of my peers. (Barely Fanfiction? What? What is FF?)
I scored 27% on Immature, higher than 7% of my peers.

Pretty accurate. ^^; And a pretty well made quiz, too. Besides editing Normal as I was posting, though, it's been a while since I wrote any...

1. Unearthed my big old box of manga the other day (both English and Japanese), and I'm thinking I need to try my luck with selling some of it. I don't think my Ribon magazines will sell at all, but maybe I should hang out in the library or at the bookstore or something and I could find a young fan who would like them. I know that seven or eight years ago I would have been overjoyed to have someone approach me and say "would you like this stack of colorful shoujo goodness? It's assorted~!" (But I don't want to come off like a creep either.)

2. While looking up whatever happened to Miho Obana (maternity leave as of a few years ago is the last I've seen!), I stumbled upon Yuu Watase's blog, but haven't gotten around to reading much of it yet: http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/wataseblog/

3. I (finally) started watching Evangelion. 10 episodes into it so far, and enjoying it a lot. I do expect things to get much weirder. Hoping to get through this one fairly quickly.

4. I need to start studying Chinese again. Come on, self, get motivated!!

Does anyone recall the Little Nemo movie? Not Finding Nemo, but Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland.

It was one of my favorite movies as a kid, and my sister found the DVD, so I rewatched it today with my nephew. Waaahhhh, I feel like drawing group fanart again! Granted, there are songs and characters who annoy me instead of entertain me now, but overall, it's still such a charming, well-animated movie.

And it figures most of the animators were Japanese, even though it was produced in Canada. XD

I miss Oyayubihime Monogatari, too... I watched a dub version of it as a kid and it became my entire understanding of Thumbelina, and didn't figure out until many years later that it was from Japan. ^^; Sadly that video tape perished a while back, but perhaps more sad is that I still know most of the lines and songs.

Argh... I want to try doing fanart for that, too! >___< My drawing bug is back, but I would need so much reference for practice.

I went a little Princess Tutu kick. It is such a lovely series, but dang hard to do fanart for. >_< You can bet that given the time, I might read up on some ballet poses and do a bunch of practice sketches just to do one nice piece of fanart. But we'll see how much time I get. -_-;

I was just helping out my brother with some college application essays. You know, the whole process of struggling to get something down to answer a boring prompt, and then having every ounce of confidence grinded out of you as someone reads it to give you constructive criticism? Yes, that process. I sure don't miss it. I was trying my best to be helpful, although I felt cruel. It was just so strange to be on the giving end of it instead of the receiving side.

( Stolen Survey! )

So I'm home now... and I guess my parents got tired of paying for a newspaper which has been getting thinner and thinner and mostly had AP articles, so they decided to stop getting it. I was kind of looking forward to following newspaper comics again, but I guess it's not a big deal.

It's just weird. I supposed the physical newspaper is going the way of the dinosaur, but it'll be strange someday when I can tell kids that "yes, I remember having a newspaper delivered to my house every morning. My siblings and I were so primitive that we would fight over sections of it, but usually we'd have to use it as a sacrificial morning offering to our mother."

Maybe the kids respond, "What's paper?"

So I had that Chinese interview today. I was so nervous that my conversational skills went a little kaput (well, when it comes to Chinese they're always a little kaput). My reading skills are pretty good, but being nervous made be blow through those paragraphs... x___x;;;

They said my tones and pronunciation were good (;_;!!) but my pacing was a little... Japanese-sounding.

*headdesk* It's so hardwired. At least I didn't say あのう (today).