Monday, November 30, 2009

Oyaji no Seichi Snack

By Kamagata Eiichi from the original Gintama soundtrack. It's the background music to the snack shop that caters to old men. :P I found out this morning that my psychiatrist isn't in until tomorrow. So, her nurse is going to go over my records and talk to her over the phone. They told me they'll get back to me later, saying it will be soon. I still haven't gotten a response back, and that was early this morning. :( Hopefully they'll get back to me tonight.

日本語
I reviewed up to the middle of the し or shi section of the vocab. Went over some of the grammar again. Also, came up with 2 more sentences for the letter. There's actually 2 versions of this first sentence. Both are ok, but I like the 2nd version better. Here's the second one:
あなたは少しもペットを」おもうですか。
English: Do you have any pets? The other one was from the website I use, but it comes out more as a livestock or farm animal type question. The one I like more made a lot more sense to me. Next sentence:
私の猫の名前はナタシャです。
English: My cat's name is Natasha.

Naruto Shippuuden just keeps getting better. They showed how Madara obtained the 'ultimate' Sharingan, and how he figured out a way to never go blind from using it. He gouged out and took his brother's eyes. O.O Over time, they evolved into something different. Eventually he formed the Akatsuki. Itachi wants to surpass him. He 'spared' Sasuke, after killing his entire clan, because he wanted to make his eyes stronger over time, and eventually take his eyes. (I think in order for it to work the other user has to be almost as strong with their Sharingan.) So, Itachi and Sasuke are fighting throughout most of these episodes. An awesome fight! (Knowing that they both use Genjustu or Illusion techniques.)

Gintama was hilarious, yet again! Finished the popularity poll arc. Apparently, Yamazaki was the one behind lowering everyone's ranking. He wanted to show what humans are really like when the become greedy. He thought no one deserved to be at #1. After Shinpachi knocks some sense into him, they both go up in rank to #1. When they do, everyone else picks them up and tosses them over the hotel roof. XD The ending of that episode had a montage of past characters. I had forgotten about some of them. :P It was cool to see. The next one was about Toshi trying to go to the Mayorin factory. Mayorin, in their world, is a brand of mayonnaise. If you don't know this yet, he's completely obsessed with it. He has it with everything or by itself. Pretty disgusting. The whole episode is like a parody on Charlie and the Chocolate factory. He forces the Sinsengumi to eat it, bathe in it, use it like toothpaste, use it as shampoo, etc. O_o After all that, he finally gets a chance to go, but it's not what he had hoped for. Just looks like a regular factory, instead of a place similar to Wonka's factory. Kind of funny. XD The next one was about alien bees. They look just like humans, except for their wings and stingers. They live in humongous hives, the size of a large house. Each hive has bees from different planets that landed on Earth. The Yorozuya (Gintoki, Shinpachi, and Kagura) are told by a monk to get rid of them. They end up killing all but one queen. The other bees get furious and say if they don't find that last queen, they'll destroy Earth. They find her, but just as they start to talk to her, all the other bees arrive. Since they don't understand the situation, all the bees attack each other. In the end the other queens show up, they had just been knocked out. Kind of sad, but funny at the same time. :P Gotta love Gintama for being able to do that in almost every episode.

In Hetalia, Russia's sister, Ukraine, is still looking for friends in the EU. Russia remembers what it was like when everyone lived in a big house called the Soviet Union. The only one left in that 'house' is Russia. Belarus comes back after leaving with her sister Ukraine, saying it just wasn't 'right' without him. Since Italy's and Russia's superiors are getting along well, Russia decides to try and become good friends with Italy. As he tries to, his sister Belarus pops up and scares them away. The 3 Baltic states aren't very close. But, one of them wants siblings. He's the one who purposely stays away from the other 2. :P Russia sends a letter to France's radio station asking what he can do to make people like him. France's response is to offer your love and he suggests a pick up line. XD Liechtenstein and Switzerland come to an agreement on tariffs. People are free to come and go between the 2. Switzerland deals with the immigration 'procedures' in both countries. He also starts to teach Liechtenstein some self defence strategies. (Liechtenstein is pictured above.) She doesn't really listen to his lecture because his drawings are too 'cute'. :P Japan and America try to get to know each other and become closer friends by visiting each others countries. Japan thinks there are strange desserts with weird colors and cakes named 'Devil's something' in the US. ^_^ Canada is holding a grudge against America, because of Cuba mistaking him for America. He tries to confront him, but is too scared to say anything. (It could be that America was wielding a saw around. :P)

I played a game called Kiwitiki: Flower Paradise. It was really trippy. O.O You're a kiwi (bird) running around trying to find all the flowers. The faster you go the higher the score. The really trippy parts were falling through the ground and walking inside walls where you can't see anything. It was oddly addicting. :P So, all caught up on the shows I watched. (And, no they weren't all in one day. :P)

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Yami Yo

No Mushi Wa Hikari Ni Tsudou by Kamagata Eiichi from the Gintama Original Soundtrack 2. It roughly means A bug's dark night will find its light. Kind of cool. Goes with the series well. :P Today was just a weird day. -_- I decided to go with my dad to go get some more coffee, but only realized when we got into the car that I had stepped in dog crap. It happened earlier after taking care of the recycling. I thought I had just slipped. It was so embarrassing and stinky. After that, apparently people decided to email me all at the same time. It's funny I won't get things from people for a while, and then all of a sudden they all send something to me. What's up with that? :P Oh, yesterday we watched the Apple Cup. I was a student at WSU or Washington State University for a while. So, I feel very strongly for WSU. This is a rivalry football game between the 2 major universities of the state: WSU vs UW (University of Washington.) It was such a horrible game for us! We lost 30 to 0. That's pretty bad. :( It could have been a lot worse, though.

When I got my internet back, I decided to start another series. It's called Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Which means Repent: Goodbye, Mr. Despair. This is the 3rd series of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. I started with the 2nd series a while back and loved it. This anime is just awesome. Although, if you don't like dark humor and satire you probably wouldn't like it. The sensei's name, when written horizontally, is read as Zetsubou, meaning despair. Normally, his name is written as Nozomu. He takes all aspects of life in the most negative light possible, and he tries to teach his students about it. His students seem more crazy than he is! O.O

Kafuka: positive person, exact opposite of Nozomu. Chiri: demands everything be organized, precise and equal. Abiru: always wrapped up in bandages, people assume she's a victim of domestic violence, in reality she has a fetish for pulling animals' tails and her injuries are caused by them. Kiri: hides behind her long hair, wears a blanket, takes up permanent residence in a room in the school. Matoi: Nozomu's stalker, follows him everywhere. Nami: 'ordinary',takes great offence when called normal. Harumi: into yaoi and cat ears, very athletic. Maria: an illegal immigrant, unknown nationality, fascinated by food, positive attitude. Meru: very shy, only communicates through text messaging, when forced to speak sputters coarse language, name means mail and her father calls her Merumeru. Kaere: suffers from dissociative disorder. One: a 'Japanese' woman Kaede, gentle personality and is into Japanese culture. Other: Kaere disgusted by Japanese culture, boasts about the country she's from, unknown country, easily offended and threatens to sue everyone, suffered a psychotic breakdown after meeting the other students. Ai: shy, constantly apologizing for things. Manami: married, works multiple jobs to help pay off her husband's debts. Mayo: evil looking girl who commits malicious acts, assumed she's not as evil as she looks, loves to harm Nozomu. Kagero: actual class president, constantly ignored, to the point where he vanishes, only notice him when his bald head is visible. Jun: 'genius storyteller' and is 'a good-looking guy' according to his classmates. There are a lot of other minor students. O.O

This last one was about Nozomu telling his students that being too superstitious can never turn out well. People throw him in jail thinking they'll bring them bad luck. His students bust him out and tell everyone else that he's really a good luck charm. It changes their view on him entirely. Next, was about noticing the bad signs that spring has started. XD I'll talk more about the other shows I watched tomorrow. ;)

日本語
I reviewed more of the vocab. Wrote out the vocab up to the さ or sa section. Since I don't have much time, I plan to have half the time tomorrow for reviewing vocab and the other half for reviewing the grammar. I only have exactly a week until the test. O.O

Youtube:
700 musicians:
This has happened to me too!:

Friday, November 27, 2009

I'm Back! ^_^

Hi! Sorry, I lost my internet connection and that's why I haven't posted in so long. I just got it back late Wednesday night. We had to get a new router and new adapter for me. Now it runs smoother and faster than before. So, it's new and improved! XD

We had a pretty good Thanksgiving. We went to a friends of the family's house. My mom made beef Lit'l Smokies cooked in vinegar, soy sauce, and other tangy type things. It was very good! Dave smoked a turkey again, and that's always good. They made gravy too. Also, some asperagus in a bread crumb dressing. I like it, but my parents didn't. Also had cranberry sauce from a can, which is far better than their cranberry relish in my opinion. :P Mom had also made a salad with some dried cranberries on top. The stuffing was good, except for it being really hard and dry. They also made candied sweet potatoes which I hate, but everybody else seemed to like. For dessert, Val made her fudge- like brownies and pumpkin pie. Was really good. After that we played Trivial Pursuit. Guys against girls. It was actually close this time, but the guys won. I think they had the easy questions. XD Towards the end of that, I got tired of it, and played with their dog. Her name's Zoe, and she's only 2 years old. I think she's a German Shephard and Husky mix. (Could be wrong, but I think I remember them saying that.) Still has her puppy energy! :P We played a game similar to soccer with her tennis ball. She was very good at it though. She would catch the ball before it even hit the ground. At one point, I kicked it behind me. I tricked her so well she didn't know where to look. It was funny she must have spent 5 minutes searching for it. Eventually, I pointed her in the right direction. She was so happy and wanted to play even more. O.O I thought I would make her angry at me or something. She looked so out of breath when I stopped when we were about to leave. But, she still wanted to play some more! I think I would have played with her all night, but we needed to leave. :(

I wrote more of my story this week too. I think I'm up to about 45 pages now! ^_^ It's awesome how much I've written. It's really fun to me. At some point, I hope to draw the characters out. I know it will be soon, but I want to draw my holiday themed ones first. :P I do have such a vivid image of each character in my head, which makes it a bit easier to draw. Doesn't mean I'll get it perfect the first time I draw them. :P I also read some of my grandpa's story. Since a lot of people asked about his life, he decided to write it out. The beginning was interesting. His aunt and uncle were taking care of him and his older sister. His younger sister was put in an orphanage and later taken in by them too. Eventually, his actual parents said they were going to take care of all 3 of them. The reason they were living with his aunt and uncle for a while, was because their mom was in an asylum. She had a nervous breakdown. So, after she was better they thought they could finally take care of their kids. The older sister didn't want to have anything to do with it and demanded to live with their aunt and uncle. So, it was just him and his sister. I didn't want to read it, because the little I read before seemed kind of weird. I don't know I guess it was bad of me, but I didn't feel up to it. It took me not having the internet to actually read it. :(

I also had some fun with the Sims 2, because I was just bored enough when I didn't have the internet. I haven't played that in ages! The funny thing is I made one of my sims so crazy that a therapist came flying in using an umbrella. When he got to her he made her look into a spinning wheel. She made a lot of weird noises. Then, he shook her a bit. After that, he flew off using his umbrella again. O.O It seemed like she was fine after that. Although, a few minutes later she started to talk to what she called Mr. Professor Ball. XD It was too funny to see her talk to it! I tried to cheer her up by having her talk to her boyfriend. But, it seemed to only make her frustrated. The other family, was just a wreck after only going through a couple of days with them. One of the teens fell asleep in the middle of the road. Another, just couldn't get his fun meter up. The only one that was doing ok was their dad. But, then he started to go crazy too, since he was so worried about them. I don't think I should have made him have 2 teenagers. :P The whole thing was just hilarious to me.


The parts of Orochimaru that Kabuto used have already taken over a third of his body. Next, it was Sasuke vs. Deidara. Was a pretty cool fight, just like the anime. They showed a bit of Deidara's past too. He was originally hired by terrorists to blow things up with his sculptures. He fought Itachi and had made a deal that if Itachi wins he'll join Akatsuki. Obviously, he wins. :P He was captivated by Itachi's eyes, and worked hard to perfect his 'art' to beat him. He also trained his eye to counter the Sharingan, so he can slowly see through any Genjutsu they use.

日本語
I've been reviewing all of the vocab from the list by handwriting them out. I'm already to the end of the く or ku section. That's another thing, I'm beginning to write faster in it. Kind of cool to see. :D I hope to review more of the grammar when I'm done writing out the vocab. After that, I hope to have some time to keep going with the letter I'm making. I only have until the 6th. So, I'm getting a bit nervous. But, in a way I'm really excited and happy about the whole thing. I guess that's normal for something like this. :P

Since, I watched so much anime lately, I think I'll tell you about them Sunday. Well, I just told my psychiatrist about how I haven't really felt normal or 'stable' since I missed a dosage just before Halloween. I asked her if she could up my dosage, because I think it will help a great deal. I feel so weird about asking for something like this though. I know I shouldn't, but I still do. The downside of that is my insurance runs out on the 1st, so I need to get a new prescription before that. I'm hoping she'll respond quickly. Also, I won't be able to go to the next appointment with her because of it. (Without it costing a buttload of money.) Hopefully this will work out though. Oh, almost forgot! My dad gave me awesome speakers for my computer. The sound's so clear! :D He also gave me his sub woofer. XD I can feel it vibrating through my feet!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Stairway Generation

By Base Ball Bear on the Gintama Soundtrack. Hi! I felt a lot better today. ^_^ My mom was prescribed new pills to help with her stomach pains yesterday. They worked wonders and now she's feeling pretty good too.

For Japanese, I looked over more of my vocab list. I think it was nice to review since I got a little confused with a couple of words. (The ones that have more than one meaning. :P) I kept hearing the word かんじ or kanji on TV Japan. The only thing that came to mind when they said that was the Chinese characters they use as a symbol for a word. For instance, one would be 国 or kuni (くに in Hiragana) which means country. But, I had forgotten that there are many meanings for the word kanji. (And many different kanji symbols for them.) Another meaning is feeling, sense, or impression. It could also mean organizer, smiling (which I remembered that they have a 'word' for the 'sound' a smile makes, niconico, but it's not actually the word for smiling. :P), government business, the Kanji era, manager, and more. Most of the time, I've heard that it means a feeling or impression. かみ or kami has many meanings too. It means G-d or spirit, hair, paper, seasoning, delicious taste, and more. I have to remember the context of things more. :P I also, just for fun, translated part of a website into English. It's a Japanese shop online called Rakuten. It's really a very interesting place. They sell their own brand names, and some other popular ones in Japan. They have a wide variety of merchandise, which was kind of fun to look at. ^_^ Things like clothes, musical instruments, food, computers, gardening tools, pet food and supplies, and more. Most of the stuff was extremely expensive! (Although, once I realized the food was like 16 packages per order, I realized that wasn't too bad. But, the clothes were outrageous!) They even had anime products. Really nice to look at but I wouldn't buy from them. XD Their English was hilarious! I'm glad I could understand a lot of it in Japanese, because most of the English didn't make sense.

Next month I get to see my grandparents! Wahoo! Haven't seen them in a very long time. They called to see what we like to eat, and about the sleeping arrangements. It was kind of sad to tell my grandpa that I don't eat sweet potatoes, because he was going to make his famous candied ones. I wish I loved it, really I do. But, it tastes nasty to me. They were surprised to hear I get up early now. They said it's probably best that they had planned for me to sleep downstairs, anyways. No one will be woken up, at the wrong times, this way. Also, they can't make anything where the main ingredients are either cheese (or dairy) or eggs. My dad doesn't like either one. He'll have them mixed up in things, though. Also, I've never been to Florida! So this should be fun! XD

Youtube:
Poor Sensei

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Fighting Scene

From the Naruto soundtrack. Hi! Well, today I didn't feel too good, so I took it easy. I watched most of the new episodes (or the one hour special) of Naruto Shippuden. Each episode keeps getting better and better! It started with Itachi remembering his past, and how he 'snapped' and killed most of his clan. It seemed that the only one he let survive was his brother Sasuke. He didn't kill him, simply because he wanted to fight him in the future. They finally meet again and fight. They have this Genjustu 'standoff' for a while. (Genjutsu literally means illusionary techniques.) Eventually, Itachi realizes that Sasuke has become much stronger than he thought. Sasuke stabs him with his sword through his chest. Sasuke wants to know the 3rd person who can use the Mangekyo Sharingan is. Once he finds out from Itachi, he plans to kill him too. The 3rd person is Madara Uchiha. He was the first person to possess the Mangekyo Sharingan. Madara was the one who helped Itachi kill the clan. If a user uses this eye jutsu too often, they'll go blind. Madara was also the first to tame the Kyuubi with that eye. Itachi shows Sasuke Madara's past through his Genjutsu. Madara and his brother would kill anyone they were close to, just so they can hone their ocular skills. Stopped there only because I had a horrible internet connection. Oh well, I'll pick it up again soon. ^_^

For Japanese, I watched some of TV Japan. Picked up a lot more than I thought. (Yet again.) It's always fun to figure out most of what they are saying. Makes me feel more confident about the test coming up. :D Oh, and I found some good Youtube videos. Yeah, I know it's been a while. (It really calms me down too. I should look at them more often!)

Youtube:
Funny one about raccoons
Cats dancing (or singing) to songs
What's under Kakashi's mask? XD
Brain Training game- Another hilarious skit by Jinnai Tomonori

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Wake No...

Wakara Nai Yatsu Ne by Kamagata Eiichi on the Gintama Original Soundtrack. Hi! Yesterday Mom helped me out with how to fix my permanent retainer. The wire was really twisted and bent out towards my tongue. She pushed it back with some tweezers, and it did the trick! Now, it's surprisingly smooth. (Although, it hurts a bit. That should go away soon, though.) I wrote more of the 6th chapter. I had some more fun figuring out a name for another thing in it. You won't know until I post it on deviantART, which might be a while. ;)


Jugo went to Orochimaru thinking that he could stop his urges to kill. Jugo's blood is the origins of the cursed seal. Konoha finds out about Orochimaru. All the prisoners (or experiments as Orochimaru called them) in the north hideout (where Jugo was held) riot and escape. Jugo immediately attacks Sasuke. Normally, Jugo doesn't want to hurt anyone. Kimimaro was the only one who could calm him down when he had these 'urges'. Now, that he's gone, he believes Sasuke took his place. (Since Kimimaro sacrificed himself for his sake.) Eventually, he joins the team. Sasuke calls the new team Hebi or snake. Their purpose is to help him kill Itachi. Both Naruto's team and Sasuke's are going to look for Itachi. Itachi and Kisame capture the yonbi or 4 tails. Akatsuki finds out about Sasuke killing Orochimaru. He was left the group 10 years ago. They believe Sasuke's team to be a threat. Pain warns that Suigetsu is probably after Kisame too. So, their team should be careful. (Suigetsu's after Kisame's sword, the Samehada.) Team Hebi goes to the Uchiha storehouse where there are ninja cats taking care of it. His gift to them is catnip. :P Kakashi forms a team which has 8 members in it. Kakashi's dogs act as communication and guards for the group. Jugo can communicate with animals. Kabuto finds Naruto. Deidara fights Sasuke. Kabuto gives all his info on the Akatsuki to Naruto. He fused part of Orochimaru's soul into his body. He wanted him to live on inside him. O.O

日本語
I mostly reviewed today. The test is coming up pretty quickly (in 18 days!) so I'm going to mostly be reviewing things. I did get one sentence done for the letter.
あなたの大好物は何ですか。
English: What's your favorite food?
Working on: Do you have any pets?

In Mai- HiME, things got back to normal at the academy. Mai's alive. ^_^ Midori believes all the HiMEs should work together as a team to defend the school from Orphans. Everybody agrees, it's better than working alone. The HiMEs go to a Karaoke shop, and have a fun time with everyone. (Midori and the nun get drunk. :P) Meanwhile, Takumi makes a huge feast for Akira, but ends up tripping and spilling all the soup all over her. Thinking Akira was done cleaning up from it, Takumi walks into the bathroom and sees her bindings on her chest. He runs, but is attacked by her because he 'found out' that she was a girl. (I thought he already knew a while ago. O.O) Nagi tells the HiMEs that the Orphans won't appear anymore. Then, he tells them that they must defeat each other's Childs. O.O (If you remember their 'Childs' aren't children they're these creatures that fight with them.)

I played a game called Pandemic American Swine. It wasn't as good as their first game Pandemic. You have to prevent the spread of the H1N1 from infecting everyone. Each state has its own hospital, main city, etc. This one was just laid out too weird. :P

I finished with last minute touches to my drawing and posted it. The scanned version looks horrible, but I posted it anyways. The colors are all washed out and grey on the girl and her kimono. The mountains look fine though. I don't think I did too badly, just messed a bit up on hands. Again, the link to my deviantART account is at: http://rcmacdonald.deviantart.com/ The next drawing I think I'll do a Halloween theme. I know it's late, but I like the holiday, so why not? ^_^

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Marukaite Chikyuu (Russia Version- again)

By Yasuhiro Takato on the Hetalia soundtrack. Hi! Today was a much nicer day! :D My contacts are pretty clear and I've avoided ripping my tounge out with my permanent retainer. XD I started the 6th chapter. Although, I spent most of the time trying to figure out the name to the school's newspaper. :P I think I settled on a good one.

Shikamaru traps Hidan with wires and explosive tags. Then, he throws his blade at a spot in the ground, it gives way and makes a pit under Hidan. Shikamaru's clan 'takes care' of the forest they're in, and they are the only ones allowed into it. The deer who his clan takes care of will keep Hidan there forever. (By the way, Shika means deer. Nara, which is his clan name is the name of a park in Japan that's famous for its deer.) Shikamaru throws his lit cigarette at an explosive tag, which sets them off all around Hidan. His remains fall into the pit, his head is still in one piece and he still yells at him. Shikamaru throws more explosive tags and fills the pit up. Naruto goes up against Kakuzu. His first attempt with his new jutsu doesn't work, but the second one kills Kakuzu almost instantly. O.O Sasuke kills Orochimaru, because he grew sick of him and thinks he doesn't need him as a teacher anymore. The 5th tells Kakashi that Naruto can never use his new jutsu again, since it caused so much damage to himself. Sasuke frees Suigetsu and asks him to join his team. He emerges out of a pool of water. O.O (He's essentially made out of liquid, but still can return to his solid state. He can also change his body's shape. He's in the picture above.) Suigetsu is trying to collect all the swords that the 7 Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist use. With Sasuke, he finds Zabuza's sword. It's called the Decapitator. (Also, in the picture with him.) They find Karin and ask her to join their team. Suigetsu frees all the prisoners that Karin was in charge of while working for Orochimaru. Eventually, she joins the team. Next, they're going to find Jugo and ask him to join.

日本語
I reviewed more of the vocab and made 2 more sentences for the letter.
あちらに、何を翌休みですか。かんじゃちいはわが国を翌休みです。
English: Over there, what's the next holiday? Thanksgiving is our country's next holiday.
I found it incredibly interesting they have their own word for our's and Canada's Thanksgiving. It even has its own kanji. Didn't write that out, since it looks really complicated.



Mai- HiME, was just crazy! Nagi was telling Alyssa that she messed up his home an disrupted his plans. O.O (He's in the picture above.) The Searrs Foundation wants to monopolize the HiME's star. Alyssa's Child is a satellite named Artemis. After meeting, the HiME's mission is to distract the soldiers so the students can evacuate, and take out Alyssa. The school's director calls it Operation Fuka Academy Recovery. After the HiMEs knock out most of the soldiers, Tate comes barging in saying he wants to help. The students slowly evacuate. The HiMEs find Alyssa, at the same time she moves Artemis directly over the school. Mai stops the 'Golden Lightening' that Artemis shoots. Her and her Child survive, but her Child goes through a transformation. Similar to a phoenix, and becomes rocket a space ship type thing. O.O It flies into space while Mai's still on it. Eventually, it reaches Artemis, and destroys it. The Searrs fire missiles at the HiMEs. The only ones that don't move are Alyssa and Miyu. They survive, and try to make it to the mountains, but a priest (from Searrs) shoots Alyssa. Miyu kills him, but Alyssa dies. The Searrs plan to attack again in 300 years. O.O Miyu kills herself by walking through the water in the lake, and freezes, with Alyssa in her arms. :'( It was very sad, even though they were so evil. All the HiMEs assume Mai is dead, but they're not really sure.

I played a game called Creeper World Training Simulator on Flash Ninja Clan. I love tower defence games, but this was a bit more complicated than I was used to. Apparently, the creeps are this weird goo, and you have to defend your city at all costs. Seems simple, then they add in you have to collect energy from the area, build connectors all over the place, and these things called blasters. It gets more complicated as you go, wasn't as fun as I thought. Ended up getting frustrated.

For drawing, I finished coloring the mountains, and colored all of the sky. Still not sure if I like the color of the sky. That's why I don't feel like posting it today. But, other than that, I'm finished. I don't think it turned out too bad. Doesn't look anything like it did in my head, but I don't think I'm that good yet. :P Hopefully, tomorrow I'll post it on deviantART.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Marukaite Chikyuu (Italy Version)

By Daisuke Namikawa on the Hetalia soundtrack. (The original version of the song.) Hi! Well, today was weird! :P Feels like my permanent retainer might actually be falling out! O.O We can't do much about it until Wednesday. Wahoo! -_- My contacts just aren't clearing up very well today, and I had to throw away my last contacts. I only used them for a week! Hopefully tomorrow they'll be better. Also, the internet had a horrible connection. Seems like something was against me this morning. :P My mom's not feeling good either. She got to play some in her Mah Jong group. She won a few hands! ^_^ But, on the way home she felt the same as she did a couple of days ago. Where there's massive pain building up in her stomach, almost like severe heart burn and a lot of gas all rolled into one. She might also have a fever. Not very fun. :( I hope she feels better soon. Oh, on top of this it's been extremely windy and rainy. I think they said the wind is going to hit up to 25 to 50 mph in our area. I think it's already been at the high end of that.

I finished correcting chapter 5 and posted it to my deviantART. If you don't know the link here it is: http://rcmacdonald.deviantart.com/ I kind of like how it turned out. Didn't expect it to mostly be about the restaurant. Next chapter should be interesting too. ;) I can't wait to start it!


Shikamaru immobilizes Hidan and Kakuzu with his shadow mimic jutsu. His plan from that point backfires though. Naruto learns that the elemental chakra have vulnerabilities. Fire is stronger than wind, but weak against water. Wind is weak against fire, but strong against lightening. With this reasoning Yamato says Naruto's new Rasengan jutsu (uses wind) can defeat Sasuke's Chidori (uses lightening). Kakuzu can harden his body like steel. Kakashi rips out Kakuzu's heart while he's distracted. Doesn't kill him though. Masks come out of his body with threads that make their 'bodies' and connect back to him. One of these 'masks' is dead. Each mask uses a different element. Plus, each one has their own heart. So, altogether Kakuzu has 5 hearts. O.O Each heart is from a ninja he's killed. Shikamaru distracts Hidan and attaches his shadow mimic jutsu back to him. He starts to run Hidan into the forest. Kakuzu was the one who killed the Shodai or the first Hokage. He takes hearts from people as soon as his stops from old age. Hidan thinks he has Shikamaru under his jutsu, but he slipped some of Kakuzu's blood on the scythe. So, when Hidan stabbed himself, he stabbed his partner in one of his hearts. (So, 3 more hearts to go.) Shikamaru tries to decapitate Hidan but only leaves a deep gash. The team that's battling Kakuzu get wrapped up in his threads freezing them from moving. Naruto comes in just in time with his new jutsu with Yamato, Sai, and Sakura. (The team's in the picture above.)

日本語
I reviewed a bit more on vocab and figured a couple more sentences. Here's the entire letter so far:
田中さんへ

今日は!お元気ですか。結構です。今日の天気はどうですか。今はとても寒い。何歳ですか。私は二十五歳。あなたは音楽が好きですか。私は音楽がとても好きだ。私はクラリネットを奏でます。ゲームは好きですか。面白いですね。最近映画を見ましたか。この間、私は「X- Men Origins: Wolverine」をみました。いいレストランをごぞんじ近間でしょうか。何か物近間に出来事ですか。何処があなたをから居ますか。
The last sentence, which is basically the new one in English means where are you from? It looks kind of cool so far. :P


In Hetalia, Russia introduced his two sisters. Ukraine who's the oldest, poor, a crybaby, and reliable. Belarus who's the youngest, pretty, wants to 'become one' with him, scares him, strong- willed, but not in a good way. :P (She's the one on the left, obviously. Not a very good picture of her, but it's something.) Russia wonders why Ukraine avoids him. When Ukraine became independent in 1991 she tried to avoid Russia even more, and becomes friends with other European countries and America. Belarus is apparently the last dictatorship in Europe. Economy is weak but she spends all her time and effort on agriculture, and believing: "As long as there's something to eat, we'll be ok." She loves Russia so much, she's forgetting her own native language. Russia hates it, doesn't think anything good will come from them being together, but it'll also be bad if she makes friends with America, so he's in a tight situation. XD

I did some new escape games from Gamershood. None were all that exciting. I hope they'll get better ones soon. For drawing, I came up with a better color scheme than before. It's a lot better looking now for the mountains. Although, I messed up part of the mountain on the left side, because I had already started on the weird scheme I had before. But, it actually seems to flow a bit into the new one. Maybe it's better than I think. I made the tops of the peaks look more like glaciers with shadows. I like how that turned out. :D I'm pretty close to finishing it. Wahoo!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Marukaite Chikyuu (America Version)

By Konishi Katsuyuki on the Hetalia soundtrack. Hi! I wrote some more of the 5th chapter, I'm realizing it's even longer than the last one. Don't know if that's a good thing. :P I'm not sure if I'm going to stop there for this chapter. I probably should, because it's moving to another phase. So, I guess I'll go over it tomorrow, and probably post it then on deviantART.

Ino and Chouji come in to save Shikamaru, along with a couple of other ninja. Just when Hidan and Kakuzu were going to kill off Asuma, Pain tells them to stop and help seal the sanbi. In Asuma's last moments he tells Ino to take care of Chouji and Shikamaru. And, not to lose to Sakura in ninjutsu or in love. XD To Chouji, that he'll become the strongest ninja, to always believe in himself, and to go on a small diet. :P To Shikamaru, he'll probably be Hokage someday considering how bright he is. He can never beat him at Shougi. (Like Japanese chess.) Finally, he asks Shikamaru for one last smoke before he dies. He smokes a bit and then dies. :'( After that, Shikamaru takes up smoking, at least until he 'settles' things. Akatsuki's goals: Gather money. With that money make a mercenary organization that will have no allegiance to a country. That way they'll eventually have a monopoly on war. Finally, they will be able to control the world. (All the Akatsuki are in the picture above.) Naruto finally figures out a method of learning the last step. Shikamaru tells Kurenai about Asuma. She immediately breaks down. (I think she was pregnant at this point with Asuma's kid.) Team 10 along with Kakashi go off to 'settle' things. Naruto's team is going to be their backup if Naruto can finish creating his jutsu in 24 hours. The Akatsuki have extracted all but 3 bijuus.

日本語
I reviewed a bit on the vocab list, and continued the letter.
いいレストランをごぞんじちかまでしょうか。何か物ちかまに出来事ですか。
English: Do you know a good restaurant nearby? Anything happening nearby? Next, will be where are you from? I know the second question doesn't come out exactly the way I wanted, but it's close and I can go over it later. :D Maybe next time I'll type out the whole letter so far. ;)

In Gintama, the author's apparently ok. But, some other manga artist decided to do the very beginning of the episode. Looked really messed up. I could barely watch the opening credits. O.O The whole town goes after Shinpachi because of his rank in the polls. Saved by Gintoki and Sougo and put into a room with them. Kagura is there. Toshi shows up too, only when he says he doesn't care about his rank, he's thrown outside. Madao and Kondo try to dress like higher ranking characters in the room too. Katsura's in a corner handcuffed. O.O Sadaharu's beating up Elizabeth. They move to a hotel, apparently to wait out the situation. Eventually they split up. Gintoki being the leader of one, and Toshi of the other. Tsukuyo's walking down the street and meets Otae, Kyubei, and Ayame. Otae loses her 'sign' that was over her head by 'accident'. Tsukuyo rips off her own sign and splits it into 4 pieces, making all of them go up to 9th place. They plan to absorb Kagura's rank next. (#6) Madao was attacked and sunk in rank.

We went to the mall next to get jeans for Dad. After that, went and got groceries. We ate there too. I ordered the Philly cheese steak. Surprisingly it had a ton of onions and mushrooms. I understand the onions (sort of), but mushrooms? It was bizarre, but the rest was good. ^_^ Yesterday we ordered stuff from Burger King and ate it at home. Funny thing is they screwed up my mom's order big time. She ordered a regular Whopper with cheese. It came back as just a patty with cheese. Not really a Whopper. They gave my dad a bit of grief when he went back to get what we paid for.

Oh, another fun thing is I have a permanent retainer, and it's losing the wax or glue that make it so it doesn't rip my tounge apart. So, half my mouth has daggers shredding up my tounge. We looked for that dental wax that's supposed to help, but didn't find any. My mom gave me her wax earplugs to see if it could help. The stuff doesn't stick to my teeth. :( So, I decided to put bits of a paper towel around it, only it dissolves pretty quickly. (Tried gum too, but that dissolves even quicker.)

Yesterday, we saw X- Men Origins: Wolverine. It was pretty cool. XD Tonight we watched the first part of the Prisoner. It's a remake of a late 60's TV show. Apparently, used to be my dad's favorite show. :D It was interesting. A bit boring at times, and had it's funny moments. I like how at the end of this part number 6 looked like he went crazy. I like the story, even if it's a bit twisted.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Seven Weeks War

By the Gakupo and Kaito Vocaloids. About the war between Prussia and Austria in 1866. Austria is represented by Kaito and Prussia by Gakupo. Hi! I feel kind of crappy today. I'm hoping my 'monthly friend' shows up soon, so I don't have to deal with this again for a bit. At least it seems to be happening at normal times now. A lot of them were every week, recently. I was scared that my 8- month period thing was going to happen again. (Yeah, if you haven't heard, it was every day, heavy, basically hemorrhaging the entire 8- months. That's when I started to become aware of it! O.O) My mind likes to play with my emotions during this, so it makes it worse. -_- I got up late, and just wanted to cheer myself up, since I stayed on top of things for most of the week. I thought I'd go on the forums and watch some Youtube videos, but I was sidetracked by things on Facebook and Gaia. Oh well, still had some fun! :P

I played Farmville, and didn't notice that everything would need to be harvested. O_O My animals keep moving around, even though I tell them to be at a certain area. I like how the pigs give you truffles. :P

Then, I played Wordbump on Gaia. Made it to around level 43. Silly internet went out just then, which ended the game. Next, I played some pinball. Made it pretty far with my score. That game's always so addicting! XD After that, I played Electric Love Factory. I always lose around level 6. It's still funny to see what the little robot says after each round. Then, I decided to look around the Towns chat. I usually find them boring, because no one really wants to talk. Just as I was about to leave someone came up to me and we chatted for a bit. I played zOMG, too. Didn't get very far before we had to go grocery shopping.

At some point I watched TV Japan. They had, I guess, what we'd call a one man play. It was interesting, kind of boring towards the end. Also, I watched a bit of Pop Music Club. Their pop music is just about as hokey or funny as ours are. They were catchy tunes, just not my favorite type of music. Although, I do like some pop tunes, just not many. :P I think I'll feel a lot better tomorrow. We'll see. :D

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Dancing Samurai

By the Kaito Vocaloid. ^_^ Pretty funny song. Also, he's providing his own music in the background. (No instruments. Acapella?) Cool harmonies, with many different versions of his voice. All in all the effect is cool! Hi! This is my wallpaper for this month. (Yeah, I know it's late. :P) Has Naruto, Kakashi, and Yamato. Naruto just finished learning how to split a leaf in half with his chakra. I wrote more of chapter 5. I'm surprised at how much I'm coming up with for the restaurant in my story. The restaurant itself is becoming very detailed. So, if I ever get a chance to draw the restaurant, it might take forever. :P


In Hidan's jutsu, whatever pain or wound he inflicts on himself, it goes back to the victim. Hidan calls pain a decadence. O.O Shikamaru uses his shadow jutsu on Hidan, and gets him to move out of the circle. After finally getting him out of it, they start attacking him. Asuma makes a sword with his chakra blade and decapitates Hidan. Even after falling to the ground, he still talks, or more like yells. O.O He sure has a foul mouth! Kakuzu grabs the head but holds it, despite his partner's protests. (Kakuzu's in the picture above.) After letting Hidan yell his head off some more, he sews Hidan's head back on with threads that come out of his body. Eventually, Kakuzu attacks the team. I like how they put a bunch of horror aspects to this duo. It's almost funny.

日本語
I reviewed a bit of what was on the practice test. Then, worked more on my letter.
この間、私は「Defiance」を見ました。
English: Recently, I saw Defiance. This is after I asked, have you seen any movies lately? Next sentence I'm working on is: anything (or any events) happening in your town or city?


Naruto Shippuden's apparently not running this week's episode. But, next week is a one hour special. That should be fun to watch! Although, I wish they'd keep it to every week instead of this skipping a week stuff. Instead, I tried looking for an anime movie to watch. I took too long on deciding, and gave up on it. :( For drawing, I shaded more of the railings, colored the rivers, and started coloring the mountains. The hardest part yet again, was trying to come up with the right colors. Still not sure if I like what I'm using. The glacier parts look cool, but the tree line down so far looks a bit weird. I guess I'll see how it turns out. Also, I might do some shading on it to get the right color and effect. It's not turning out like I imagined, but I don't think I'm that good yet. Maybe after I'm done, and after practicing with several other drawings, I'll try it again. :P Hopefully by tomorrow I'll find really good Youtube videos to post. ^_^ I haven't really been looking at them lately. They're a good stress reliever, and I could really use that now.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

King of Darkness

By the Kaito Vocaloid. Hi! I worked a bit on Chapter 5. The ideas were flowing so much I didn't have to stop and think what to write next. I love when this happens. :D I ended up writing more than I usually do.


Kakashi tells Naruto that the next step can't be taught, he has to learn on his own. He believes Naruto can surpass the 4th. Naruto thinks he can finish this step by combining both his normal and Kyuubi chakras. It backfires, but Yamato was able to save him. Asuma, who's a chain smoker, only stops when someone close to him dies. Only this time it's to cut down on distractions. Asuma's team starts fighting with Hidan. (Hidan's in the picture above doing his 'ritual'.) When they think they've killed Hidan, they soon realize he's immortal. Kakuzu ambushes Shikamaru, and Asuma steps in just in time. Asuma gets caught in Hidan's 'ritual' or jutsu.

日本語
I continued writing more of the letter, and corrected part of it. Revised and new parts:
ゲームは好きですか。面白いですね。最近映画をみましたか。
English: Do you like games? It's (or they're) interesting! Have you seen any good movies lately?
I was working on a sentence about what was the last movie I've seen, just didn't have time to finish it. :P Oh, and I finally got my voucher for the test! Wahoo! XD

For Mai- HiME, there was a huge explosion at the end of the festival. The Searrs Foundation sent their soldiers and tanks to take over the campus and find the HiMEs. Miyu tries to kill the school president, but she ends up fighting a dummy of her. If Alyssa doesn't find all the HiMEs, she plans to blow up the entire academy. O.O In order to find them, the soldiers are only 'examining' the girls of the school. When found the HiMEs start fighting back. After Tate sees the Orphans Alyssa unleashed he demands Mai to tell him what's going on. She tells him, and takes him and Shiho to a cave to hide. The underground shrine is the only 'safe' place for the HiMEs. All of them make it there.

For drawing, I colored everything but the mountains and sky. The stone platform on the overlook came out really interesting. I combined colors and shading, and now it looks more like stone. Wahoo! Also, did the railing, but I think I need to shade it a bit more. Kind of looks dull right now. :P It should be really interesting drawing the mountains, since I want kind of a green color theme to them and some haze or fog.


Here's an interesting picture of the heavy metal themed Gakupo Vocaloid. Supposedly all the Vocaloids have a different 'look' with heavy metal songs. :P I think it's interesting to see all of them in different styles.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Uchuu Ichi...

Baka Na Samurai Da Kono Yaroo! by Kamagata Eiichi from the Original Gintama Soundtrack 2. It roughly means This Samurai seems to be the biggest idiot in the universe. :P It's kind of an uplifting song though. It's played in the background, I think, when a character overcomes some sort of struggle. Hi! Today I seem to be a little distracted by things. I woke up a bit late and wasn't able to do everything.

日本語
For Japanese, I looked a bit through my Bilingual Tokyo city map. I haven't looked at it in a while. It's funny that the kanji for areas are pronounced different than what they look. For instance, in the name 東京 or Tokyo, the first kanji means East but is usually pronounced as higashi. The second kanji, ok, sounds like its supposed to. It's kyou which means imperial capital or just capital. So if broken down it's East capital. Makes sense since Kyoto used to be the capital. Some of the other names didn't make as much sense, but there might be more behind them. :D As I was trying to work more on the letter, the online database I use for referrence was down for a bit. I guess people are overloading the system, because they're worried about the test. I am too, but I didn't think everyone used this site! Luckily, they fixed it eventually, and I was able to work some on it.

ゲームの面白いですね。
Games are fun (or interesting)!
最近映画を見ましたか。
Have you seen any movies lately?

I hope to get more done on this letter tomorrow. So far it looks good, though. XD Oh, another thing is, I was searching for a better explanation of what ね at the end of sentences mean. It can been used like the Canadian eh? (Similar to huh? or right?) Or to add emphasis, or emotion to a sentence. Also, when talking to friends, at the beginning of a sentence, it's like saying Hey! Very interesting. I kind of figured that, but wanted to make sure. ^_^


In Hetalia, America and his 'superior' are talking about coming up with ways to take away Japan's willpower to fight. America says if the statue of Liberty were to suddenly turn into an ugly chick he would lose his will to fight. So, they think about what's the biggest national symbol of Japan. They decide it's Mount Fuji, and come up with a 'plan' to dye it red. :P Really stupid idea! But, they try anyways. XD Next they try to think of how to take Russia's willpower away. They ask Russia to send what America considers to be large condoms. The package that's sent says XS. It was pretty funny! XD France and England try to spread rumors about Germany. (He's in the picture above.) When England suggests spreading rumors about Italy, France is crying and says he's not a bad guy. So, England gets the idea of spreading rumors about Germany to Italy. It back fires and he becomes depressed, saying he's pissed that they have such a good relationship.

I colored the kimono the girl in my drawing's wearing. If I see another sakura petal I think I'm going to kill someone! XD I think this part was the most painstaking thing I've colored so far. The end result is really growing on me though! Much better than I thought it would! Next, is shading and coloring the background. That shouldn't take as long, but we'll see. :P I might try and write more of my story tonight. Although, I highly doubt I'll have time for it. Hopefully I won't be as distracted tomorrow.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Heroes Come Back!!

By nobodyknows+ from the Naruto Shippuden soundtrack. Was the first opening theme for Shippuden. Another cool sounding song! :P Hi! My story's coming along nicely still. Getting pretty far into the 5th chapter. Surprised that I'm still coming up with things. Oh, another cool thing: my contacts lasted for 18 days! A new record for me! ^_^ Naruto quickly learns how to rip the waterfall in half. O.O Asuma's one of the 12 Guardian ninja. Which later I'll explain who they are. Apparently, Naruto's one of the few who can use both nature and shape manipulation. He hasn't combined them yet. Kakashi says that the Rasengan is an incomplete jutsu, the 4th didn't have time to finish it.

日本語
Today, I kept going with the letter from before.
何はゲームのあなた好きですか。
English: What games do you like? Still not sure if it's exactly right, going to look it up more tomorrow. Also, worked a bit on saying games are fun!
Gintama was about character popularity polls. Apparently this was the second poll they've shown. The first was in the manga. They also compared the characters' ranks from last time. A lot of the characters were new, though. I love almost all the characters, so it would have been hard to rank them, to me. A few of the rankings:

22. Justaway (It's not even a person, it's a toy turned into a weapon. They haven't used this joke in a long time!)
16. Hideaki (The original creator. :P)
13. Sadaharu
11. Elizabeth (She hasn't changed in ranks.)
8. Shinpachi (The guy in the picture)
6. Kagura
5. Katsura
3. Toshiro
2. Sougo
1. Gintoki (Obviously!)

The actual title of this episode was Screw Popularity Polls. I like that they're getting back to the funnier side of Gintama. Yamazaki and Shinpachi are complaining about how horrible their ranks are. (9th and 8th) Later, they find out that someone's trying to alter the poll. This person made Yamazaki's rank plummet to 93rd. O.O Everyone ends up accusing each other. Kyubei tells Otae and Ayame she plans to 'eliminate' everyone who ranks higher than her. Afterwards, she plans to kill herself so Otae can become top ranked. They later see that a new character (Tsukuyo) was ranked higher than any of them. Ayame gets pissed when she hears that Gintoki has been spending a lot of screentime with Tsukuyo lately. Otae, Kyubei, and Ayame all agree Tsukuyo has too many 'hooks' that draw the audience in. Kyubei and Ayame decide on 'dealing' with Tsukuyo. Otae is going to 'take down' the creator Hideaki. Shinpachi immediately says that will end the anime if the creator's dead. :P I like how in the ending credits they show all the characters' ranks next to them.

I started coloring the girl in my drawing. I don't think I got her hair dark enough. I can change that I guess, by using some of my shading pencil. It's actually turning out a lot better than I thought. So, now I have the hair, skin, socks, shoes, face, and parts of the flower patterns on her kimono colored. But, that's really not much of it. Took me a while to figure out which colors to use. It took a while last time too. ^_^
This was an extremely cute game about a baby dragon trying to find its captured mother. It was cute but scary at the same time. It was a point and click game where you help it by switching on things, figuring out puzzles for it, etc. At some point he has to go through gas chambers and fly a helicoptor over things that stick down from the sky and things jutting up from the ground. Quite an entertaining game. :P Also, the Cool Japan thing was very interesting. They pick a topic and ask a panel of 10 people from different countries about products from Japan. Last night's was Child Rearing, comparing it between Japan and other countries. The first couple took their kid to the parks. One park was where a kid can draw with sidewalk chalk all over the area. Another place was a tire playground. It was kind of cool looking. The next part was about clothes for nursing women and how some companies there let them bring their kids to work. The last one was about the guy who created pull- ups. Pretty funny to see the dramatization of his tests. Everyone agreed the best product was the pull- ups. (Not my kind of topic, but they say they have a variety of others.)

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Birthday

Hi! We went to a brunch for my Birthday at a place called the Oak Table. I decided to get an apple pancake. This is no ordinary pancake! I guess it's more like what my mom described it as a souffle. It's about 4 inches tall, has apples baked into it, very eggy, lots of different spices in an apple syrup drizzled over it and cooked into it, and I think brown sugar bits all over it. It's really good! I couldn't even eat half of it. Everytime someone orders this, they ring a bell. Of course, when I couldn't eat anymore, they came out with another thing they give to people who are celebrating their Birthdays. This was an icecream stuffed crepe with chocolate drizzled over it and whipped cream on the sides. I could only stomach a bite of it. So, we had a lot of food to take home. :D Just means I can have a couple of delicious lunches this week. ^_^

I also got a makeup kit. It has 9 good eyeshadow colors, 6 lip glosses, and 3 lipstick colors. Awesome, since I didn't have much variety in colors for eyeshadow, lipgloss, and lipstick. Another thing I got was a book called A Jewish Woman's Prayer Book. I forgot I wanted this a while ago. So, that was really nice.

Last night, we also watched a very good movie called Defiance. It's about these group of Jews that hide in the forests of Lithuania during the Holocaust. They also fight against any Germans that walk into the forest. I like that they fight back against them, since there aren't too many stories being told about them. They always paint the Jews as a bit weak and not wanting to fight for their rights. Kind of an uplifting story to me.

Today, I slept in a bit, because I was still extremely full. I also had a hard time falling asleep, but once I did I was out like a light. I mostly watched TV Japan.



The first thing I watched was the tail end of J- League Soccer. It was Kawasaki vs. Chiba. Kawasaki won, but it seemed like a really close game. Both sides were very good.
Then, I watched Children Around the World. They followed a Malaysian girl's day. She's Muslim, so she has to put on a burka. (I think, but it doesn't cover the mouth.) She wants to become an English teacher. Her family's all for it, as long as she's successful. The morning announcements for the school was interesting, they always end it with a prayer. A lot of the time the girls take their burkas off, and are told by the teachers constantly to put them back on. :P Once she's home, she doesn't have to wear it though, which is nice. Was a very interesting show. ^_^

Next, I watched some of NHK News: Good Morning Japan. Similar to Good Morning America. (Really interesting how many similarities there are.) They had the weather, a thing on a scam that targetted seniors, in Hokkaido there are people still missing after an avalanche, and other topics. Very interesting to see what's going on over there. :D

Next was a program on hot springs (or onsen). It was about the owner of one. She took over after her mother died. It looked so relaxing to see when people were using them. The people who work there went through a ceremony where a Shinto priest blessed them and I think the spring, too. They also showed that they grow their own vegetables there, and showed some of the food they serve. It looked so good! XD


Then, there was a show called Nature Wonderland. The animal they showed this time was an Osprey. They showed them hunting for fish, where they nest, taking care of their young, where they are found, etc. It was cool to watch when they used slo- mo to show how the bird attacks a fish. Kind of scary for the poor fish, but still looked cool! Their talons are huge too! They also go by the name 'Sea Eagle'.

Lastly, I watched Pets Pochi and Tama. It's a show where they talk about people's pets. The longest story was about a little kitten. The kitten along with its siblings were abandoned. A person found them and took care of them. After a while they decided to sell them. The kitten (I think his name is Pachi?) found a nice family in the end. Showed them playing with him, holding him, taking pictures, and just spending time with him. It was a nice story. :D So, it was all incredibly interesting today. ^_^ Tonight, I think I'm going to watch a thing called Cool Japan. I've heard it's one of the best shows on this channel, so we'll see how good it is. :P

Friday, November 6, 2009

Water Dragon

By Yasuharu Takanashi from the Naruto Shippuden Movie Soundtrack. Hi! Today I took it a bit easy, since this week has been going well. (So, it will be a short post.) I finally got a chance to go on the forums, which I haven't done in a while. :P People were wondering where I went. I still have so many ideas coming at me for my story and drawing, even though I didn't work on them today. It's really awesome! XD

日本語
I thought it would be good if I reviewed a bit of the particles, since there are a couple I get a little confused about. Doing this made me sort them out even more. (I already knew it well enough to answer the practice test questions correctly. I guess I'm a bit nervous since the actual test is next month. Good to review anyways. :P)

は: is a topic marker, shows contrast, adds emphasis.

が: but, sentence subject (occasionally object), however, still, of?, that?

に: indicates a person's (or thing's) location, in, indirect objects (usually 'to'), direction ('toward', 'to', 'by'), purpose or intent ('for' or 'to').

で: at, at location, in, time of action, and then, so, by.

と: and, if, when, with, used for quoting.

を: the, indicates direct object of action, subject of causative expression, time (period) over which action takes place, point of departure.

や: such things as, and... and, no sooner than...

も: also, too, words of similar weight, about (emphasizing an upper limit), as much as, even.

の: possessive, substituting for が in subordinate phrases, emotional emphasis (sentence end- usually a feminine), question (sentence end).

へ: direction or goal (e.g. 'to').

So, on Sunday I'll continue the letter. :P Tomorrow's my Birthday! Wahoo! I'll probably know what my mom's planning tonight. I can't wait! Hopefully, it's something fun. I keep wondering what she has planned, but I'm not coming up with much. :P Oh, and I got a nice card from both my grandparents and the congregation. Although, the one from our congregation misspelled what Happy Birthday is in Hebrew. In fact, it came out as just jibberish. Even the transcription was a bit messed up. XD By the way, to say it in Hebrew it's transcribed as Yom huledet sameach. Which looks like this in Hebrew:
יום הולדת שמח

A picture of the Gakupo Vocaloid. He always looks like a Samurai. He looks kind of cool. Gackt, who's a very talented Japanese musician who used to be the vocalist for a group called Malice Mazer. He's also a poet, actor, designer, composer, and model. O.O He's performed in English, Korean, Mandarin, and Cantonese. So, he's a bit of a linguist too. :P He lent his voice and stage name for Gakupo.