Special Illusion

Mood:

This is one of Fran's character songs from Hitman Reborn. He has an interesting voice. And, like a good majority of the male characters (including the main ones), he's voiced by a woman. She sounds pretty talented. And, somehow I find it cool that there are so many female voice actresses that were apart of it. In the anime itself, there aren't that many female characters. Anyways, Fran is one of my fave characters from the series.He didn't really have much screen time, and I've got a ways until he appears in the manga, but for some reason I really like him. He's Bel's partner in Varia. He replaced Viper or Mammon, and Bel told him he had to wear a frog hat to signify it. He loves to mock/verbally attack other members of Varia in kind of a calm demeanor. He especially likes to provoke Bel. And, Bel is constantly throwing knives at him. He's come up with nicknames for members of Varia. Like Bel's is 'Fallen Prince', 'Old Lightening Pervert' for Levi, and others. He's kind of a prankster, and specializes in illusions. This song fits him so well.

In Tokyo Bandwagon, it turned out that Ao's father has cancer of the voice box or larynx. That's pretty disturbing for most people, let alone a singer. At first, he told the doctor to act like it was just a stomach ulcer when they talked to the family. The doctor told them that he'll stay for a little while at the hospital to get better. That was a lie, and after about a day he checked himself out then went missing for 5 days or so. The doctor had told him that if he gets surgery to get rid of the cancer, he might lose his voice. He has this thing about saying what 'love' really is about all the time. (Says the love part always in English.) He said that dying isn't love, but taking away his ability to sing isn't either. Really sad. He turned the doctor down about the surgery, but from the preview of the next episode, he might go through with it. He did say that the song he sang at the end of the episode might be his last.

I tried to start one of the new anime shows this season. But, sadly none of them looked that great.I had high hopes for Pupa, but it turned out to be really horrible. They had kept postponing it. It was originally supposed to air during the summer of last year or something. Ended up only being 4 minutes. About 2 and half if you cut out the intro and outro.Just a lot of crazy stuff thrown together with seemingly no rhyme or reason. A lot of people commented saying that the manga is far better. So, maybe I'll give that a shot in the future. 

I also tried Hoozuki no Reitetsu. It seemed very bland. It's supposed be a dark comedy series. The premise seemed interesting. Hoozuki is the aide to the great king of Hell, King Enma. He resolves various problems that come up in Hell. (And, there are many different divisions of Hell, so he's usually very busy.) He tends to be calm and very sadistic. When he has time, he has several hobbies, and loves to visit zoos and such. He loves animals. He raises goldfish flowers. And, since it's Hell, you can count on it being at least a little trippy. I got all the references and jokes, but they fell kind of flat. It's kind of like a very watered down version of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, which I absolutely loved. That kind of dark comedy is great. But, water it down too much and it has no substance.I also tried Witch Craft Works, but I only lasted about 5 minutes into it. One of the main characters' breasts seem to grow every time it panned over to her. It seemed very cliche too. So, since I didn't find any new ones for this season, I might start watching Ranma 1/2 next week. 

In World Embryo, Riku had to duel Rena, his new partner. He didn't know anything about being a Jinki user and she easily beat him. But, at least he found out how to use it. Riku is unique in that the kanshu took over most of his being, and yet he still has his ego intact. So, in a way he can become stronger than her. So, now she's training him. Should be interesting to see how it turns out. 

Wrote some more of the 5th short story of my nightmare anthology. It's getting creepier and creepier.Should be interesting how this one ends up. It's definitely 'different'. 

Played my clarinet. Did more of my advanced classical music solo book, and some jazz tunes. Sounded pretty good this time. Drew the entire 'sad' section of the meme for Junko. It was odd to see her exaggerated sad expressions, since it's so not her. But, eventually she does have to be sad. She did have a tragic, weird, and mysterious past. 

日本語

Studied more of the kanji: 発. If pronounced as はつ (hatsu): (n, suf) departure, departing (from...), departing (at time...); sending, sent (by...), sent (at...); (ctr) (also ばつ [batsu]) counter for gunshots, bursts of gas, etc.; counter for bullets, bombs, etc.; counter for blows (punches). As 発く or あば.く (aba.ku): reveal, expose, uncover. As 発つ or た.つ (ta.tsu): to depart (on a plane, train, etc.). Occasionally, it may be pronounced as ほつ (hotsu) in compounds. 発案 or はつあん (hatsuan): idea, suggestion, initiative. 発意 or はつい (hatsui): idea, suggestion, plan. 発育 or はついく (hatsuiku): (physical) growth, development. 発煙 or はつえん (hatsuen): emitting smoke, fuming.

Tu B'Shevat!

Mood:

It's our New Year's for the Trees. One of my favorite, yet underplayed, holidays. To celebrate we eat a lot of fruit and nuts. Some do a 'seder' or ritual dinner/get together based on trees. (Lit. seder means order. So, things have to go in a certain 'order'.) Lots of symbolism throughout it. It's fun, and reminds us of how important they are.

Tuesday, I got up late because I had stayed up later than I should have...Ended up going through a bunch of messages I had put off. My email accounts were flooded, the deviations I get from dA were overflowing, and several other places with a message system were full. Felt good to clear them out at least. 

I also found out that someone I knew from elementary school up until our graduation in high school is moving in to the house next door. I'm not really sure what to make of it.For one, I'm happy to see someone I knew and might catch up with her. Another, don't know if she'd care about me living that close. She also has 2 little kids and a husband now. I think her husband went to school with us, but he doesn't look familiar to me. There are other factors, I guess. But, it's an interesting development. We saw them when they were checking out that house at first. I thought she looked familiar, and said she looked an awful lot like someone I knew. (They might have thought the same thing. They kept pointing towards our house that day.I don't know...) Later, since we have a lot of mutual friends on facebook, I saw a recent post of hers where she said that they're finally getting their first house. It was all ready to go. They just need to move in. I did a double take at the pic. You could tell that it had all the same details. Like the little green bunny near the garage door that faces our green bunny. 

Another interesting thing is my friend who moved to the east coast a while ago is going to be visiting the area for a month before she moves to Wales. She used to be my best friend through elementary school. Still were kind of connected off and on in junior high and high school. After we graduated, I don't think we connected again until a couple of years ago through facebook. Facebook's been amazing that way.It'll be interesting if I get to see her during that time.

I decided to drop the second season of Doctors. It was just the same stuff I got tired of by the end of the first season. It gets old.I'll look into a new one next week to replace it. Caught up on the episode I missed of Toshi Densetsu no Onna, though. That series never gets old. Plus, they switched up a few things. 

Tokyo Ravens has been very interesting. I like it more than I expected. There's still a lot that hasn't been explained, and I saw that it apparently has a ways to go. So, it's not ending at the same time many are for the season. Kind of like Log Horizon. Although, I like Log Horizon more. I think with Tokyo Ravens they're trying to make it more complex than it is. And, people are saying they're confused. Log Horizon is very complex, and they're constantly growing on it. It makes sense, too. Still, 2 very interesting shows this season. 

I'll finish up Kyoukai no Kanata this week. It's been really good, but the last episode was really crazy. They must have been trippin'.The finale shall be especially interesting then. I finish the last episode to the first season of Tsubasa Chronicle this week as well. I think there's another season that's just about as long. I've liked it for the most part. I still like xxxHolic more. That was another series done by the all women's mangaka (manga artist/creator) group, CLAMP. But, I want to try their other shows as well. They like to meld story lines and characters from other anime/mangas they've done in the past into newer ones. A lot of the time the story lines actually overlap. So, it's almost like all their work is just one giant series. It's fascinating. 

There was another update of Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge. They were updating once a month, but there were 4 months in between this one and the last. I love this series! There's a new character named Ichirou Jinkei. His 'Killing Good' is called Rapid Shot of Pinpoint Penetration. He's an Order-Made just like Emily is. Only Emily realized she was in the wrong and became an ally. Order-Mades are scarier than regular authors, since they have original weapons that use their own ability. They weren't used by some previous mass murderer, that somehow gets handed down through the generations. Once he shoots, and his target sees him the bullet will go directly through their heart or brain. Even if he didn't aim correctly. He's a ruthless sniper. Anyways, he thought he could kill Iwai or the 'Hair Queen' easily. The bullet went straight through her hair instead of those areas. He was aiming for her head. Apparently, his bullets sensed her life force was her hair. Her hair is constantly growing, and only one pair of scissors will cut it. So, after seeing that it went through her hair, Iwai suggests that she can be used like a shield for both of them. They run for a while, and then take a rest. (I don't think I'd take a breather if some crazy sniper was after me. I'd get out of there as quick as I could...) Witchy finds them, and tells them that the holster she gave to Kiri earlier was from Iwai's father. He had it just before she executed him. (Witchy is head of the Gossip organization. Gossip is pretty much behind everything. She knows about almost every author, good, instead, and order-made. Her ancestor killed the 'Hair Queen' or Iwai's ancestor. Before Iwai's ancestor died, she put a curse on her. So, there's this weird grudge thing going on with her.) Later, Ichirou catches up, and is about to attack Kiri, then Iwai throws him the holster and his pair of scissors back. Ichirou was killed brutally at the end. At least, that's what it looked like. If he's not dead, he's close to it and in a great deal of pain. Besides having a G-d complex and the killing, I liked his personality. It was a little too 'cute'/happy, and yet scary at the same time. You didn't know what he'd do next. It'd be interesting to see what happens next in the story. Something needs to happen to Witchy, at least. 

Wrote some more of the 5th short story to my nightmare anthology. It seriously is one of the most gruesome. But, hopefully it's also thought provoking to people. It, I guess, has more of a philosophical feel. The scary thing is I'm imagining it all in my head as I type it out. It's kind of creepy. 

Played the clarinet. Did some pieces from one of my solo books, a few Gershwin tunes, some Duke Ellington, and some from my 'advanced' classical solo book. Quite a bit. Sounded pretty good. 

日本語

Yesterday, I studied the kanji: 畑. It can be pronounced as either はた (hata) or はたけ (hatake). はたけ (hatake) is preferred though. It means: field (for fruits, vegetables, etc.), cultivated land, vegetable plot, kitchen garden, plantation; (n, suf) (はたけ [hatake] only) (ばたけ [batake] when suf) field (of specialization), sphere, area; (はたけ [hatake] only) (col) womb, birth, birthplace. I started to study the kanji: 発. It generally means: departure, counter for gunshots, discharge, disclose, emit, publish, start from. Next, I'll study more details on how it's pronounced for certain meanings, and compounds. There are quite a bit of common compounds listed. 

Last night I decided to try and make something from my Jerusalem cookbook. I had been itching to really cook something for a while. I made what they called sweet and sour fish. It was pretty tasty. But, the more I think about it, and after having some of the leftovers, I didn't really like it.The sauce itself tasted amazing. But, the coriander seeds kind of threw it off a bit. There were so many of them...The way they had me lightly bread the fish didn't really turn out. The breading slid off as I cooked it. I don't really need that much fry, though. I used cod. The sauce also had bay leaves, tomatoes, onions, garlic, sweet bell pepper strips, vinegar, sugar, curry powder, and more. It smelled very curry-ish. Kind of like a hybrid of the eastern European sweet and sour sauce used for stuffed cabbage (which I'm pretty familiar with), and an Indian curry. Interesting to say the least. It was great to try the book out, too.