Monday, January 27, 2014

National Chocolate Cake Day!

Mood::iconchibiaustriaplz:

I love chocolate with pretty much anything!:dummy:There's such a variety of chocolate cakes out there. Makes it interesting that they made it vague like that. Probably my all-time fave cake in general would be Black Forest. I love it so much!:iconchibispainplz:Had it a few times as a birthday cake. What's better than putting one of my fave fruits, cherries, together with whipped cream, and chocolate? It's like the perfect dessert to me. 

Finished watching Tokyo Bandwagon. It was a really good series. Overall, it had a very positive feel/message. I wish it had continued though...:iconpolandplz:They kind of rushed things in the last 10 minutes. Ganato, Ao's father, decided to try and live longer. Don't know if he started treatment or not, but he left for a while again. (Beforehand, he had agreed to getting treatment when Ao tried to convince him. There were many people that tried to convince him, and he may have just caved with Ao.) Ao and Suzumi had a baby. It went from her finding out (about a couple of months of being pregnant already), to having the baby be a few months old in a really short amount of time. Ao's brother Kon and his wife Ami also had a baby at the same time. So, it was a 'double pregnancy'. They looked really miserable in the snippets they showed of them being pregnant. Ao and Kon kept thinking something was wrong with them every few minutes. They found the book that Ao's grandmother was desperately searching for. She was searching for it even while she was dying. It was very important to the family. It was her father's diary. Apparently it had been stolen. Aiko, Ao's sister, went on an exhibition with her paintings in London. Mudoch suggested it, and Fujishima tagged along. Murdoch had wanted to go alone with her. They are still fighting over her. But, they're civil about it. She didn't know they felt that way until the last couple of episodes. I think she felt as a single mother, no one would want to be with her. (She might have actually said that during the first couple of episodes.) So, things ended up really nice for everyone.

I also finished Kasuka na Kanojo or She's Faint. I liked it a lot. Not one of my absolute faves, but it was good. The ending was kind of mixed for me. They made this huge deal about Akane leaving and going to heaven. Then during the last few minutes she said she was too distracted by life/earthly things, she couldn't leave. She first went to a castle, and realized she hadn't seen as much as she wanted to of the world. Good to have her back, but not so great having us go through all that while thinking she's leaving. Kamiyama had actually died for a brief amount of time. While he was a ghost he appeared in his apartment with Akane. Since he was a ghost as well, he was able to touch her and interact with her more. He had previously confessed that he loved her. He said he wanted to stay a ghost so he could be with her. She wanted him to live a good long and happy life. After some talking to, he came back to life. He managed to change the way students and teachers look at each other at his school. When he started, there was a great deal of distrust on both sides. In fact, he had felt that if he didn't help solve a student's personal life/crisis or care about their well being, he could avoid conflict with them and just teach. It came off as cold. He cared about one student during his second year of teaching, tried to help her but made things worse, and she attempted to commit suicide. He didn't want to feel that pain again. But, ever since he met Akane, all that changed. He thought more about his actions when he wanted to help a student. He basically grew along with his students. 

Dad and I met with a Modern Orthodox Jewish family. The only experience I had with Orthodox Jews was with my aunt's family. They're (at least she is, might be slightly more lax now) Ultra-Orthodox. It's like super super strict. About as strict as you can get. Modern is apparently quite different. They don't try to monitor what you say, even to their children. They're more open to things, and really not as extreme. It was very interesting to me. I almost feel like I 'connect' with it. At least, from what I've read and how they interacted. There's apparently a new term floating around online called Reformadox. It sounds very similar to this. I feel like I need a stronger connection of some sort to my Judaism, but not sure if I'd go Orthodox. I like being Reform, since you can decide how strict you want to be about things. A lot of people say you can pick and choose. The weird thing is it doesn't sound like many want to 'observe' as much or know as much as I do. So, I don't know. I'm betwixt in between right now, I guess.:iconthinkinghkplz:

Anyways, we chatted, enjoyed a really nice Shabbat lunch, went for a walk around their neighborhood (met some of their neighbors, they were very nice), went to a lecture on gematria (a Jewish system that assigns numbers to the Hebrew alphabet. The numbers in a word or phrase add up to a certain number that may hold some symbolism or show a connection to other words or phrases. I read that the word chai (life), its 2 letters added together is 18. So, some people feel that 18 is a lucky number because of that. Others can be about the number of days in the year in a word. It's fascinating stuff. Not sure if I believe much of the superstitious side. 13 by the way, is also a lucky number for us.) and how some words in English seem to have connections to Hebrew ones, did Havdallah (ending mini-service for Shabbat) at their place, and left pretty late. Didn't know we'd be there for so long.:iconseychelles-plz:Their kids were pretty rambunctious, but nice. They had 3. Earlier they had a friend join them for lunch, so that was nice for them, too. 

We also had a chance to peek into 2 Orthodox synagogues. (I think it was my first time in one.) They were basically across the street from each other. One was an Ashkenazic one. Ashkenazic Jews come from German and eastern European ancestry. (I'm an Ashkenazic Jew.) The other was Sephardic. Sephardic Jews come from Spanish/Mediterranean ancestry. (Some are from northern Africa, and a lot of South American Jews identify as Sephardic.) Despite Sephardic Jews covering a larger area, the Ashkenazic Jews outnumber them in population. There are also several other cultural divisions between Jews, but these are the main ones. The Ashkenazic Jews came up with Yiddish (a mixture of German and Hebrew), and the Sephardic ones came up with Ladino (a mixture of Spanish and Hebrew). They all have different dietary laws when it comes to holidays like Passover. They also have different customs/traditions. Even when speaking Hebrew, they have slight differences. Like a 't' sound becomes an 's' sound, or vice a versa. It's all very interesting. Anyways, it was interesting to see that they were divided that way. The family we were with for the day likes to go to both. Both of the synagogues are huge! 

In Jikou Keisatsu it was about an identical twin being murdered. The twins were adopted together, and acted in a drama once they were old enough. Eventually, they found out they had 3 other identical sisters. So, they were actually quintuplets. One of the original 2 had wanted to have the others live with them. The other one didn't agree to it, and blew the money that they were saving up for them on gambling. The one that wanted to live with all of them killed the other as soon as she found out. She used her sisters to her advantage by acting like she had many alibis. The police were too confused with the case. They even questioned if the one that was killed was actually dead, since the body disappeared. The surviving main sister got into acting in horror movies/shows, even though she was terrified of stuff like that. Directors hired her for these roles since they figured she was 'cursed' because of her sister. The other sisters would have fun acting like their deceased sister's ghost and posing for photos and such. They loved to make people guess who was who. The weird thing is only one of them wears glasses, so that one's easier to guess, unless she takes them off...:iconwtfromanoplz:It was funny, but probably not as funny as last week's.

In Log Horizon, they're still strategizing about what to do with the goblin king and its minions wreaking havoc. The princess of the People of the Land got enough nerve to step in and give her piece. It was the most useful. The reps for the adventurers and the People of the Land's lords were at odds with each other. It's interesting that an NPC/the princess has stepped in and actually wants to personally persuade adventurers to volunteer to join an army to fight the enemy. The preview shows her going to Akihabara, one of the main adventurer towns. It's the town Shiroe revitalized after the 'Apocalypse'. She seemed very surprised by it all.
Started watching Ranma 1/2 on Friday. I remember hearing about it for a very long time, but I never actually watched it before. I had seen amv's (anime music videos) of it, but that was it. It's created by the same person who did Inuyasha. I used to be really into watching that show, then it got very old. Ranma is drawn in a similar way. Or, I should say Inuyasha is, because this is older. I think in most of the creator's works the characters all have similar designs. She's one of the most successful female mangakas. Popular not only in Japan, but worldwide. All of her works have been translated in many languages. Ranma's manga started in 1987 and ended in 1996. The anime started in 1989, but after 18 episodes, they canceled it due to low ratings. One month later, the series was relaunched and went until 1992. The relaunch ended up being 143 more episodes. It's a monster of a series.:iconitalyishorrifiedplz:There's also a few movies to the series. One of them was a 2011 live-action one. That would be interesting. I'll just see how this one goes. Ranma and his father Genma are martial artists who traveled to the 'cursed training ground' of Jusenkyo in China. While there, despite the warning of a Chinese guard, they fall into the cursed springs. Genma falls into one that a panda had drowned in. Ranma fell into one where a Chinese girl drowned. So, every time Ranma is doused in cold water, he turns into a girl. Every time Genma is doused in cold water, he turns into a panda. If Ranma's in contact with hot water he changes back to being a guy, and Genma turns back to being human. Genma engages Ranma to Tendo Akane. She says she absolutely hates boys. Ranma wants to find a way to undo his curse. 

Wrote more of the 5th short story for my nightmare anthology. I might be done with this one. I have to edit it again and fix one thing that I know of. So, other than the editing, I'm done with this one. Next, is the 6th! Yay!:iconyayhanatamagoplz:

Played my clarinet. Did a lot of Irish tunes. Sounded better than last time. 
日本語
Studied more compounds for . 発展 or はってん (hatten): development, growth, advancement, unfurling; expansion, extension, enlargement. 発熱 or はつねつ (hatsunetsu): generation of heat, (attack of) fever. 発破 or はっぱ (happa): explosive blast (in construction, mining, etc.), blasting. 発表 or はっぴょう (happyou): announcement, publication. 発憤 or はっぷん (happun): inspired, stimulated, roused. 発明 or はつめい (hatsumei): invention. 発令 or はつれい (hatsurei): official announcement, proclamation. 発露 or はつろ (hatsuro): appearance, expression, manifestation. 発作 or ほっさ (hossa): (med) fit, spasm, attack, seizure. Translated more of a You Maga article. Next time, I'll put the paragraph all together, and make it so it makes sense in English. Read a few articles in Japanese on Asahi's site.  

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