PonPonPon

Mood:

Sung by the Len Kagamine vocaloid. The original was sung by Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. I didn't like the original as much as I liked this cover.It's supposed to be cute and weird. (According to the original artist.) The original video with Kyary is pretty trippy. It kind of creeped me out. I think it's a fun song, though. There isn't that much sense to it. Pon can be onomatopoeia in Japanese for the sound of clapping. (Sometimes it's the sound for something that's popping.) Although, I've also seen it as 'pan', which is also the word for bread...Some people translate it as the clapping song. Somehow his voice sounds better to me for it. With the vid I found, I don't particularly like the pics they use. But, they are based off of what Kyary wore in the original. Kind of odd to see him in a similar get-up, I guess. It has the Japanese, Romaji, and English lyrics which is kind of nice. Be warned, it will get stuck in your head...

Found out that our friends are having their seder on the 2nd night of Passover, so we're having ours on the first night. (Feels like a more important one considering it's the first night. It starts it off. Also, it starts the night of April 14th.) I invited the 3 people I was going to for our seder. They said they'll be there. Yay!I told them to bring either a salad or fruit. They seem like they'd be easy for people to bring. I didn't want them to bring something too different than that, since it runs the risk of them bringing something that we can't have on Passover.I told them if they bring a salad to obviously not put in or bring croutons. That's a big one. One person asked if corn was ok, and since I'm Ashkenazic it's not. (It's also best if they don't bring dressing, and we just provide it.) I think fruit would be the easiest, and I love fruit. You don't have to mess with it. One of them said they tend to bring desserts to these sort of things (according to her she's been to many different kinds of cultural 'feasts', never to a seder though). I told her fruit's a dessert, why not bring that? 

In addition to them we might have people from the support group coming. I'm not sure if they'd even be interested in it, but we'll bring it up at the meeting tomorrow. (Or on the fb group page, not sure.) If we do have people from it, it's going to be a pretty packed house.I suppose we could get the extra picnic/card tables out or something...We have quite a bit of chairs, too. We'll have to prepare the food and such for more, too. I like to have people over for it, but hope there aren't too many people coming. Plus, there might be a ton of salad and fruit if we have a lot. That'd be kind of funny, yet awesome. 

I wasn't sure if even those 3 people would be interested. So, the seder is becoming more 'real', I suppose.It's different when it's just the immediate family. It doesn't feel as formal, I guess. I'm telling people to dress casually, by the way. I will too like usual, but the rest of the stuff feels more of a 'to do'. It's kind of motivating though.I haven't really hosted at home before. (I did host a few times while I was living in the dorms in college. Those were fun, but not quite the same.) Dad's usually a great help with the seder. It's usually been Mom who hosts it. There's a lot of cleaning that has to be done before people come...I'll do a little at a time, though. It won't feel as overwhelming then. (Plus, traditionally part of preparing for Passover is cleaning. So, I'd be following some of it.) Also, one of the people I invited said that if I needed help with anything, including cleaning, she's there for me. That was incredibly nice of her.

I also started a list of things we'll need for the seder, and another one for the rest of the holiday. (It is 8 days long.) After my therapy appointment on Friday, we're going to the QFC that has a ton of Passover stuff. It'll hopefully be early enough that there's still quite a bit of stuff there. People tend to start getting their holiday stuff roughly a month before the actual holiday to make sure they have it in time. The stuff goes by quickly that way.They always have something new each year, so that should be interesting to see, too. I find it fascinating to see what can be done for Passover with these things. Some of it tastes better than the stuff we have the rest of the year. I still have to look through our cookbooks beforehand for the recipes we usually use for the holiday before we go to QFC. I'm kind of getting excited about the whole thing!I thought I'd be too nervous. 

Oh, I also think I should look online for better recordings of Passover songs. The ones we have on tape and that Mom would use during the seder, are kind of too hokey for me.I might be the only one singing (Dad at least might be singing with me too, but there may not be any Jews coming who know the words), so it'd be nice if I could sing along with something. I want to hear the songs this time, too. Last year I don't think we sang too much. It makes it more 'festive' and entertaining. 

Also, found a Passover seder 'planner' on top of our Hagaddot (plural for Haggadah. Lit. means 'telling') books. We go through/read the Haggadah during the service, it lays out the 'order' of the seder. It's a mitzvah (commandment) for every Jew to retell the story of the Jewish liberation from slavery in Egypt. It also explains the symbolism that's laid out, like what's the roasted egg for? Or, the shank bone? There are prayers, songs, times we drink (we don't drink alcohol, so we'll have grape juice), etc. It's basically the foundation of the seder. 

Anyways, the 'planner' was very interesting. I didn't think we had something like that. It lists things to get for the seder, ideas, what's permitted and what isn't, etc. Apparently, you're not supposed to change too much of your family's own service/traditions from year to year. You can add a few things to make it more interesting, though. I'm thinking of adding an empty chair to it. It's supposed to symbolize people who aren't able to attend a seder because they may still be enslaved or oppressed in some way. I like that. Kind of like they're there in spirit.We'll probably put out an orange like we have the last few years. It symbolizes the LGBT community, women in general, and people who just feel like they don't belong or are 'punished' by society because they are different. Someone said that a woman belongs on the bima like an orange belongs on a seder plate. This was in opposition to the first female rabbi. It stuck, and many people have related to it. It was supposed to be an insult, but it was turned around to empower people. We also have Miriam's cup that's full of water, in addition to the traditional Elijah's cup. Kind of cool and interesting things. Went through the actual Haggadah we might use, and there's quite a lot of stuff. We only have 5 of them, though. I think there may be 2 more, but they're from a different edition. If we have a lot of people, I guess we can double up. Although, Mom might have made some copies of them under the Haggadot pile. (We have a few different Haggadot, but we seem to use one in particular more often and there aren't that many of the others.) I guess I'll have to see.

I'm doing 55 sit-ups twice a day this week. My morning ones today seemed easier than last week's. Yay! I'll definitely do both of my 2-mile walks tomorrow. 

I tried to fill out the application for the state healthcare insurance program, but ran into a few snags. I submitted it anyways, and got a response the next day saying it wasn't finished. But, they gave me an extension to have it done by April 10th. I called them and talked a bit about it with someone who seemed to understand, but she said she can't do anything but will patch me through to an enrollment officer who could. She told me that it may be a bit of a wait. I was put on hold, and the automated message system said that the estimated wait time was 111 minutes.I don't have that many minutes on my phone, so I ended the call. Later, I got another email saying that since I have an extension, it'd be advisable for me not to call until after the 31st. Kind of funny. I might try them again tomorrow, then. I kind of need the dental/vision insurance plans. They're supposed to be separate from the regular health insurance plans. I'm covered by a regular one, they just don't cover dental and vision.

Watched a teaser for the anime Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei. I thought it was the actual first episode. But, it doesn't start until next week. The main characters were drawn in a chibi style for it. They aren't usually. They explained parts of it. From the explanation, it sounded interesting. Still unsure about it, though. I guess I'll see when it actually comes out.

Finished reading Hiiro Ouji or Scarlet Prince. I really enjoyed this manga, and it's sad that it's over. Kind of felt short. Only 3 volumes. But, then again I'm used to ones like 666 Satan (also called O-Parts Hunter), Tripeace, and Hitman Reborn. Those are all pretty long. Awesome, but long. It would have been cool if they had continued this one. Still don't know much about the rest of Akira's family, or even much about Mana's past. But, at least Akira (he's the furthest to the right in the pic) confessed that he loved Mana (second from the left in pic, she's an exorcist). Mana feels something for him too, but is still in the denial/starting to realize stage. They were about to have a sad ending. Mana thought since the church told her she doesn't have to observe and research Akira anymore (he's a vampire who gets his blood through an IV transfusion that he carries around with him most of the time. The hospital donates the blood for him and his wealthy family), that they'd transfer her to a different school. So, they all said their heartfelt goodbyes and Akira confessed. The next day she shows up at school saying the church can't afford the money for her to transfer, so she's stuck with them.Wataru (at the far left in the pic, he's also an exorcist) told them that he'll transfer in so he can protect Mana. If I remember correctly, he's passed high school age. Plus, not only was he forbidden from the school, but the church doesn't have enough money. Seemed fishy. I want to know more about Mamoru (he's an incubus, and is second from the right in the pic), he's an interesting character and it kind of feels like he was pushed to the side. I like how this manga made the 'monsters' people are afraid of into seemingly normal people. They don't want to hurt anyone, and aren't at all like what's in folklore. Although, Akira's brother Kazuya sucked Mana's blood to keep her quiet. He was the only one that forced his victim into something. He hated her blood though since she's an exorcist, but felt that if she didn't keep quiet and he didn't erase her memories he'd be in big trouble. His regular victims willingly give their blood to him. Although, he's a bit of a player, and they're all young girls. I know the least about the 3 humans in the middle of the pic. They were kind of like ghosts, and rarely popped up. You knew they were apart of the group and were friends, but didn't have much of a role. I'll miss this one! 

Wrote more of the 7th short story from my nightmare anthology. I was stuck for a bit, but managed to come up with some interesting ideas for it. It might be turning out to be trippier than the nightmare it's based on.Not sure where it's going, but I kind of felt like that while the original nightmare was happening. I had no idea what was going on and woke up confused. 

Played my clarinet. Did some Irish tunes and lots of Klezmer tunes. Sounded pretty good with the Klezmer ones. Better than I expected. Maybe I'm getting used to the new reeds. Although, I haven't been playing with them for very long and there have been long intervals between those. Oh well, it was a nice feeling.

日本語

Studied 2 kanji today. 福 or ふく (fuku) means: luck, blessing, fortune, wealth. 幸福 or こうふく (koufuku): (mainly literary) happiness, blessedness, joy, well-being. The other one was 物. I knew about this one already, but haven't gone over it with the method I'm using now with writing it, hearing the pronunciations and compounds, finding all the common readings, common compounds, the other meanings that I hadn't gone over (tend to look for as many meanings as I can), etc. (This method has really helped me so far.) When pronounced as ぶつ (butsu): stock, products; (usually in katakana) (slang) stolen goods, loot, spoils. Pronounced as もの (mono): thing, object, article, stuff, substance; (as ~のもの [~nomono]) one's things, possessions, property, belongings; things, something, anything, everything, nothing; quality; reason, the way of the things; (formal noun often used as ~ものだ [~monoda]) used to emphasize emotion, judgement, etc., used to indicate a common occurrence in the past (after a verb in past tense), used to indicate a general tendency, used to indicate something that should happen; (suf) item classified as..., item related to..., work of...; (pref) somehow, somewhat, for some reason; really, truly. In some compounds it's pronounced as もつ (motsu). (This is obviously a very common kanji.) Next time I'll study a few of its compounds, and maybe the next kanji on the list. I really thought this one was a grade 1 one, not grade 3. Interesting. After that, I practiced, took quizzes, and went over my weak kanji on JapaneseClass' website. I'm at a high B+ now for my overall grade. Yay!Hopefully I can get that up into the upper A range. I'm learning a lot through them too. I hope to go over more grammar stuff and sentence structure soon, too. Started to go over translating part of a You Maga article. This one's on inner ear inflammation. It's a short paragraph. So far, it's been interesting. Read a few articles in Japanese on Asahi's website. Apparently I can't read too many of Mainichi's without having to pay. Sad.Most of Asahi is free on their site. Plus they have a video section where they have the news, cultural programs, sports, etc. It's fun.

Went to Elmer's for dessert tonight. They apparently only have 2 things available for dessert: apple pie and sundaes. Not much, but they do have crepes and French toast on their regular menu. That was too breakfast-y for me though.I got the apple pie. It came with a huge scoop of ice cream on top. Our waitress asked if we wanted cheese on it beforehand. Why would you put cheese on it? It kind of feels like it desecrates the cheese and the pie.I also got a hot chocolate. It was really good. Especially towards the end where all the chocolate concentrates and the whipped cream mixes with it. It was good overall, too.