Aku no San- Satsui no Uragawa (A Theme of the Dark Side of Your Heart)

Mood:

Or: Evil 3- The Other Side of Murderous Intent. This is from the first Rurouni Kenshin soundtrack. It's one of the fighting themes. Really cool sounding.Except for the "Danger Zone" part, and it being repeated. The beats and guitar riffs are great and bold. Awesome music to listen to while on my walks...

For the last couple of weeks, I kind of stopped doing my sit-ups.I was trying to clean my gut out, so it's understandable. Didn't want it to be even more upset. Now that it's better, I decided to get back into it this week. But, instead of starting at 50 twice a day like I have been when it's been a while, I'll start with 10 twice a day. Basically starting from scratch again.I think it's harder to rush into it with the 50. And, might not be all that healthy for me to begin with. Might bulk me up more in that area. I remember when I started these sit-ups, I slowly added more little by little each week. (I would do that when I started with the 50, but it seemed a lot more each week that way.) I felt a bit leaner this way. I eventually got up to 90 twice a day, but it didn't feel that way because I slowly reached that point. Adding 5 twice a day to each week really helped make it feel almost effortless. It still felt like a workout afterwards, though.So, hopefully it'll work out like that again. 

I've been sticking more closely to my walks at least. But, I still have to make it a habit to stick to those 2 2-mile walks a day.Things would go a lot smoother if I did. It's hard sometimes when it gets warmer, and I have to remember to go in the morning and late afternoon. Times where it's not the warmest. Went on one 2-mile walk yesterday. (Almost 2-miles, it was a bit too warm for me to finish...) I was going to go out again, but my feet hurt. Apparently they're not used to sandals yet.(I wore sandals the day before, so I felt it yesterday.) Hopefully, tomorrow I can do a full day's worth of walks.

I'm also sticking more closely to the way I want to eat, too. Looking at labels more closely, and at the nutrition info restaurants post online. Even if some are surprising with the amount of calories, it just means I'll be able to have it for a longer period of time.I feel really good when I stick to the calorie range I set for myself for each meal. I'm not starving myself, and in a way it feels like I get to eat more or enjoy it for a longer time. Kind of makes me appreciate it more. 

While we were out at Costco on Sunday, we bumped into a couple of people we knew. They said they could tell I lost even more weight from the last time I saw them. Which I think was only a couple of months ago.Kind of made me feel better. They told me that I have a very beautiful face, and that the rest of me is getting more so as well. I'm flattered, yet at the same time feel odd about this. I wasn't beautiful before? Or, am I just looking even better? I think it can always be tricky when people 'compliment' others like this, but I always try to think that it's meant in a positive light.I do feel a lot better now that I've lost all that weight, and that in turn might have made me look better too. I did lose over 100 pounds.That was the last time I accidentally looked at my weight from a recent doctor's visit. That's like a mini person.According to that, I'm slightly less than I was at the end of high school. Might be more so now. 

I looked at the upcoming new season of Jdramas, and none of them looked appealing.So, I might go through my unfinished dramas list. A lot of them are updated, and have the rest of the series on the recent site I've been using. I might also look at the list of ones that were previously unavailable, but are up on this site as well. They'll still be 'new' to me.Should be interesting. 

Feeling a bit indecisive about which to start yesterday, I just watched an episode of Switch Girl 2 instead. The second season, I think, has been a lot better than the first. Rare to find a show like that.

Fairy Tail has been awesome!Not sure exactly what will happen. The 'future' Lucy went back in time to try to stop a horrible event from happening. Still don't know entirely what happens in her 'time'. She said that 10,000 dragons will wreak havoc on the town while the Grand Magic Games are still taking place. But, she's not giving many specifics about it. So, Jellal and the princess' knight are weary of her. They feel that she's not telling the truth, and that she might be setting up some sort of trap. Something took over Rogue as he was about to give up and let Gajeel win. It kept referring to itself as a simple shadow, but it possessed Rogue. He's a shadow-based Dragon Slayer, so why doesn't he just eat it or something? Gajeel eventually does eat most of the shadow emitting from Rogue, but he's normally an iron-based Dragon Slayer. So, he gained another special power from it. Interesting. It certainly surprised whoever this 'shadow' really is.

Finished editing the 9th short story of my nightmare anthology. Ended up still being the longest story in it.But, it still fits under being a short story. I get to move on to the 10th one next time. Kind of cool to see that.Not sure how many I'll end up putting in. I thought 13, but I'm unsure. Played my clarinet. Did a lot of Irish and klezmer tunes. Stumbled a few times, but wasn't bad. 

日本語

Studied the kanji: 旅 and 両. When 旅 is pronounced as たび (tabi): travel, trip, journey. Pronounced as りょ (ryo): 500-man battalion (Zhou Dynasty Chinese army). So, pronouncing it as りょ (ryo) is not used all that often by itself, but is used mainly in compounds. 旅先 or たびさき (tabisaki): destination, goal (of travel). 旅路 or たびじ (tabiji): journey, route of journey. 旅人 or たびびと (tabibito): traveler, wayfarer, tourist. 旅館 or りょかん (ryokan): ryokan, Japanese hotel, inn. 旅行 or りょこう (ryokou): travel, trip. 両 can either be pronounced as りょう (ryou) or ふたつ (futatsu). りょう (ryou) seems to be more common. I tend to think of 二つ for ふたつ (futatsu), and I've seen it more often used this way. (Has pretty much the same meaning...) When it's used as a prefix: both (e.g. both shoulders, etc.); ryo (obsolete unit of currency); (ctr) counter for carriages (e.g. in a train), counter for vehicles. 一両 or いちりょう (ichiryou): one vehicle. Next time I'll cover more of its compounds. There are a lot of common ones listed. 

Also, practiced my kanji/vocab through JapaneseClass' site. Did pretty well this time.Tried to take a kanji chapter test, but the site kept having issues and wouldn't let me finish it. I tried to finish it many times. Sometimes their new system gets stuck on certain questions. I hope I can finish that one soon, though.It's a simple one, and I might have gotten one wrong out of the whole thing. Not bad. 

Also, read an article in Japanese on Asahi's site. It was about a defect in a personal massage chair. It killed 5 people before the company was told to recall them.(And, injured many others.) Apparently, the cover would fall off and expose the rollers inside.Sometimes, when it was exposed, the rollers would get caught in the clothing the person was wearing and just continue to pull until you turned it off. So, it strangled them to death. So scary! 

Last Saturday, one of our local congregations had their last services led by our current rabbi and a luncheon afterwards to celebrate his time there. He's going to Colorado, I think. Kind of seemed like he was forced out...The new one will lead his first service in a couple of weeks. He apparently had spent most of his life in Germany, and led a congregation there. His wife is originally from this area, though. He sounds interesting. 

Anyways, I was hoping to go because it was his last time. Then, we just couldn't go to it. I realized that it might have been for the better.I really don't feel like I belong with that group anymore. They're not that inclusive, and tend to judge others behind their backs. (Not a very Jewish thing to do.) Mothering me and treating me like a mini version of Mom, wasn't cool either.Ever since Mom passed away, it seems that the congregation is falling apart. Apparently, we're not the only ones who felt this way towards the congregation.There are many other reasons people have told me lately about why they've decided to leave it. 

It's sad, because we've been with this group for most of my life.The rabbi that's leaving was there for about 10 of those years. Before that, we had a lot of student rabbis and cantors step in. And, traveled around from church to church since we didn't have a synagogue of our own. Even further back, I still remember the rabbi from when I was starting out with Sunday school there. I think he was there until halfway through my time in Sunday school. I remember his 2 sons were only slightly older than me, and occasionally in good fun, would tease me. We still didn't have a place of our own. Although, we rented out an actual elementary school for our Sunday school. It was interesting. So, I do have a lot of fond memories of the congregation over the years, just not of recent times.At least I have those. I'm also 'friends' with both the rabbi I knew back in Sunday school and the one that's leaving, on facebook. Kind of funny. I'm hoping to eventually look at places in Seattle. So, I'll see if there is anything better. I've already been to at least one of the places I'm thinking of. I think they're the ones that hold the annual LGBT Pride Shabbat. That's actually really fun, and they seem incredibly nice. 

We got some more awesome stuff at Costco and another local store on Sunday. There was a huge thing of individual chicken salad cups. I think it's 8 of them. I didn't really think about the part that it uses Greek yogurt instead of mayo.So, it's a bit more 'sour' than I'm used to for something like that. That's ok, I can just add sweetener, sugar, or honey. They're pretty good sized servings too. It seemed like so much to me that I ended up only using half of one serving on a sandwich already, had the other half later for a snack that day. It seems like a lot, but isn't very many calories. That's a good thing.

Also, got hummus that was in 16 individual serving cups. It has a good amount per thing, too. I love hummus!It's good in sandwiches as well, and isn't bad with the calorie count either. Got a ton of awesome fruit. I love cherries, strawberries, grapes, plums, etc. Got a small watermelon, and it still looks big to me. That should be good, too. Also, an interesting Asian-inspired salad mix. Apparently it doesn't come with the greens. You have to add it yourself, but it was pretty good. I think if I had it without the dressing, it'd be kind of bland, though.The dressing was sesame seed based.

Also, got a big bag of my fave chip variety bag. They only have 2 variety 'themes': classic and flavor packed. I don't know about you, but 'flavor packed' sounds a lot better than 'classic'.It has regular crunchy cheetos, BBQ potato chips, sour cream and onion potato chips, Spicy Nacho Doritos, Cool Ranch Doritos, Chili Cheese Fritos, and I think that's it. But, it's a nice mix. (Plus each one is an individual serving. So, I don't have to count them out or anything.) The nacho Doritos aren't that spicy, so I can allow myself to have it. (I have to stay away from spicy foods. Long story...)

Also got a pack of 4 breakfast sandwiches. The type of 'bread' that's used is a croissant. It has cheddar cheese, fried egg whites, and a turkey sausage in it. It's really good.I think I've had their English muffin version a while back, but this one's better. 

Also, went back to playing the Sims 2. I kind of forgot that I had just made a family last time, but didn't make a house for them yet. It's a 3-generation family. 2 grandparents, 2 parents, and 2 teens. Not used to playing with the grandparents' generation, so that's been interesting. (Also, with 6 people at once.) I made their house pretty big at first. Realized it was WAY out of their price range, and had to take out things and cut things down. It looks a bit more cramped. But, I can expand it once they make money. (Which should be quick if they're all making something.) Had to put a lot of the kitchen stuff outside for the time being. And, instead of a stove I was stuck with giving them a BBQ grill. They seem to love making hot dogs, and the neighbors seem to like them because of it. Everyone managed to find a job in the newspaper except for the son. Nothing interested him. (He wants to go into the science career track.) I'll have him check again the next day. The grandpa wanted to be in the criminal field, so he's starting on that path. The mom wants to become a cop, and she's starting down that road, too. Should be funny to see what happens with them.Both the daughter and father are going into athletic careers. And, the grandma hopes to become a chef. Interesting. I kind of tried to base it off of my main character and his sister's family. They're the teens. Makes it even more interesting. 

Since I haven't watched a Japanese movie in a while, I decided to watch Platina (or Platinum) Data. It was much better than I expected.One of my fave actors, Kazunari Ninomiya, plays the lead. He's also a member of Arashi. I find their acting better than their music. Although they do have some great songs, it's just that their acting seems to exceed that. All of the members have won some sort of award for their acting. The movie is set in 2017, the Japanese government is trying to secretly control the DNA of its citizens. Ryuhei Kagura is a top scientist in the field of DNA analysis. He works at the DNA analysis institution run by the National Police Agency. When the inventor of the DNA analysis system is murdered (along with her assistant), Ryuhei's DNA is found at the scene. Ryuhei becomes the prime suspect and then a fugitive. A veteran detective, Reiji Asama, goes after him. (He later helps Ryuhei out, and gets to know him better than he knew of himself.) It's a very intense one. Lots of twists and turns. Also, deals with mental illness. Seemed like that was just a side thing until close to the end. It was a very complex and interesting story.The movie's based on a novel of the same name. 

Voice

Mood:

By Perfume. I just found out why they call themselves perfume...The original 3 members all had the kanji character for fragrance in their names. (One dropped out almost right away after they formed the group. Another girl replaced her a year later, and has been with the group ever since.) So, it makes sense. I don't like too many of their songs, but there are some good ones. The band is very popular worldwide. They use elements of electronic dance music, synthpop, and house music. Some have called their 'style' techno-pop. This is an interesting song. Basically talking about getting in touch with our inner voice. The video is kind of fun and creative.

Went to the support group last night. Had one new person, so that was nice. During the 'discussion' part we kind of went off on tangents that weren't entirely relevant.Seemed like everyone was kind of distractible this time. For some reason me being a 'unicorn' kept popping up.Since I'm the child of a trans person, I'm apparently considered one. Since many think we don't exist. We're magical!~Kind of funny. Oddly I haven't seen very many of us either. I'm not sure if I've ever talked with another 'unicorn'. I've heard of others, but they seem to never go to these things. Which makes me feel even more 'unique' and/or alone.Anyways, they were talking about how I should apparently get a unicorn horn and wear it during meetings and to any other trans things I go to. I would think that would be distracting in itself...One person showed me one that was from Etsy. It was very elaborate. I didn't know that they'd have such over the top ones.

After the meeting we went to Shari's. I was just going to have scrambled eggs with cheese, and a fruit platter. But, I was kind of suckered into getting the new pie special this month as well. It has chocolate ganache, strawberries, and strawberry jam in it. It was really good, although intense.I had BBQ sauce with my eggs. The sauce was a bit spicier than I'd like, but was still good. The eggs and fruit would have amounted to a decent amount of calories for a small meal. Which is what I'm trying to get back to. The fruit platter had strawberries, melon slices, and grapes. It seemed like a huge amount of them to me, but was also a good mix.

Most of the rest of the group that joined us there was trying to make me have a laughing fit.Sure it's more than ok to laugh, but when it gets to be a long time it's not that great. Also, I've thrown up from laughing too hard before.You can actually die from that. Won't go into detail on how, because it's disgusting. Usually just before that I can't breathe either. It's like my lungs shut done from all the violent movement around it. All that can be serious.Even after we told them this, they essentially said we don't care and continued to try and get me to laugh harder. That's just cruel.I was having a hard time eating my pie during all this. 

日本語

Studied the kanji: 落. It tends to be pronounced as らく (raku) in compounds. As 落ち or お.ち (o.chi): slip, omission; outcome, final result, the end; (usually in kana) (often as オチ) punch line (of a joke). As 落ちる or お.ちる (o.chiru): to fall down, drop, fall (e.g. rain), sink (e.g. sun or moon), fall into (e.g. light or one's gaze), be used in a certain place (e.g. money); to be omitted, be missing; to decrease, sink; to fail (e.g. exam or class), lose (contest, election, etc.); to crash, degenerate, degrade, fall behind; to become indecent (of a conversation); to be ruined, go under; to fade, come out (e.g. a stain), come off (e.g. makeup), be removed (e.g. illness, possessing spirit, name on a list); to fall (into someone's hands), become someone's possession; to fall (into a trap), fall (for a trick); to give in, give up, confess, flee; to fall, be defeated, surrender; to come to (in the end), end in; to fall (in love, asleep, etc.); to consent, understand; (comp) to crash, freeze; (of animals) to die; (of fish when it gets cold) to move the depths. As 落とす or お.とす (o.tosu): to drop, lose, let fall, shed (light), cast (one's gaze), pour in (liquid), leave behind; to clean off (dirt, makeup, paint, etc.), remove (e.g. stains or facial hair), lose, spend money at a certain place, omit, leave out, secretly let escape; to lose (a match), reject (an applicant), fail (a course), defeat (in an election); to lower (e.g. shoulders or voice), lessen (e.g. production or body weight), worsen (quality), reduce (e.g. rank or popularity), speak badly of, make light of; fall into (e.g. a dilemma or sin), make one's own, have one's bid accepted, force surrender, take (e.g. an enemy camp or castle), forcefully convince, press for a confession, deal with; (comp) to download, copy from a computer to another medium; to finish a story (e.g. with the punchline); to finish (a period, e.g. of fasting). I'll go over it's common compounds list next time. This one seems to be used a lot. Although, 'fall' (and words relating to it) can be used for a lot of things in English as well. 

Practiced my kanji/vocab on that JapaneseClass' site. I made it to the 2nd highest rank for the day, but it was early in the morning. Someone probably beat me right after. But, it's still nice.Started translating the current section from an article in You Maga. The topic kind of gives me the creeps, but I'm also kind of interested in what they say about it.Read an article in Japanese on Asahi's site about how a lot of the most popular books in Japan are criticizing China and South Korea. And, as a result there was outrage online from people on social media outlets. There was a meeting of publishers recently to discuss the problem. Saying they don't support hate speech, and are looking into it. They may take those best sellers off the shelf. One person said it was about time they are at least discussing issues like these. Very interesting on how they're dealing with it. 

There's a channel on Youtube that I subscribe to, that puts out vids of commercials from Japan every couple of weeks. It's really cool.So, I watched the one that was just put out a couple of days ago. It was just about as weird and interesting as always. There were a couple of them this time that are also shown here in the US. So, that was interesting to see. I kind of want to try those fruit ice cream ball things now.They sound good. Came up with more sentences to practice my Japanese with. It was kind of fun, and it's coming quicker/easier for me. 

Rurouni Kenshin is getting more and more intense. It certainly seems like a mature show now. (drug references, violence, etc.) It started off kind of lighthearted. But, it's also getting more complicated and better, including the animation. They're finally delving more into Kenshin's past. This time they introduced the Shinsengumi, which was a special police force. (Shinsengumi lit. means the New Squad.) He had a few run-ins with them. A lot of them were corrupt. Historians have described them as a 'ruthless murder squad'. (They're also featured in Gintama. They do seem slightly corrupt, yet good at heart in that show. Kind of hard to describe. They also have similar names to the actual people that were in it, their characters are loosely based off of them.) Currently in the story, they've disbanded, though. One of the main squad leaders works as an assassin for hire. His next 'job' is to kill Kenshin. They've fought before, but it ended up being a tie. Kenshin made a vow not to kill people anymore. But, he's unsure if he'll be able to keep that if he runs into him. That former squad leader already fought Sanosuke to send a 'message' to Kenshin that he's serious. Sanosuke didn't stand a chance, but luckily will pull through. 

Wrote more of the 9th short story from my nightmare anthology. I keep thinking it's ending soon, and then I come up with more.I really do think it's close to ending this time. It's the longest one so far. Might take out a little when I edit it after I finish the writing part. Although, it's not really that long. We'll see. 

Played my clarinet. Did some Gershwin, tunes from my advanced classical solo book, and some tunes from my general jazz book. Didn't make that many mistakes. I'm getting better and better as I go. 

Drew out all of Nico's clothes/accessories. (Nico's from my story, Alliance.) He has a lot of accessories, and 2 different outfits. It was kind of fun, though. Next time will be Rakesh's stuff. That should be interesting. Edited more of the exaggerated expressions meme in Photoshop. Finished the first 'sad' panel. Started editing the second one. Weird to see Junko this way. (Junko's also in Alliance.) Fixed up Shadow's face, and am in the process of drawing his hair. That's been one of the hardest things to draw of him.(He's the main character in Alliance.) But, maybe I'll come up with a better design for him this way.

Shinigami-kun has been kind of a tearjerker.You learn to really grow fond of the person who's about to die, and then it gets even more emotional when they do. No. 413 is still struggling with not giving in to sympathizing with humans. With the episode I just watched, he did pretty well. But, his supervisor ended up sympathizing with one of the humans. She was supposed to stop an unscheduled death of a woman who was trying to kill herself. The person that was supposed to die was running a marriage scam and leading on several women. It was especially easy for him, because he had a little daughter. He had a relationship with the woman who tried to kill herself, and then stopped all communication with her. Thinking she would never have anyone, and that no one cares about her, she was serious about ending it all. Yet, she was an extremely successful businesswoman who was in charge of a women's magazine that was about strong women. Women who aren't dominated by men, and who can do perfectly fine without a man in their lives. Finding out that he'll die soon, he called her again. He didn't want his daughter to be alone. Later, she said she knew she was being used, but was using him in order to feel like she was living a dream. They finally settled their differences, fell in love, and got married with only 24 hours left for him to live. His daughter genuinely liked her, and she was able to take custody of her since they had just gotten married. The shinigami's supervisor sympathized especially with the woman. She tried to rewrite the date of his death for a year into the future, so the couple could be together for a little longer. For her punishment, both her's and 413's life candles diminished a lot. Usually it was 413's problem, but he thinks better of her now. She's usually so mean to him. The Devil is waging an all out war on the shinigamis. He's making their candles blow out by tricking them into things. The next episode looks like he'll go up against 413 again. Should be interesting.