Category: general

He’s just so dreamy :>

At this point I’m wondering if it’d feel better if I bashed it into the doorframe a few times.

No spoilers here, just hilarious pictures, and a sound effect to go with them. If you’ve seen episode 45, all the better, but if not…eh, you can imagine what might be happening ;>

(Yes, yes I am bored. Why?)

My left foot hurts. It’s like a shooting pain going up the side of it. It feels like it needs to pop, but popping does no good (and it’s hard to pop one’s feet, anyway). I was hoping that going to Sam’s and walking on it a bit would help, but no…that had the opposite effect.

I don’t know if there is something wrong with my shoes, or if there is something wrong with my foot. I do know that this has happened before, and I guess it just goes away after awhile.

I explored the Microsoft Input Method Editor options today, searching for a way to assign key commands to the various writing styles. I basically wanted a way to switch from hiragana, katakana, and regular English without having to use my mouse. After scouring the Japanese-language dialogs for awhile, essentially clicking around and reading what little I could, I discovered the proper area:

From there it wasn’t too hard to find the functions I needed and assign them key commands. I made CTRL-8 switch to katakana, CTRL-9 switch to hiragana, and CTRL-0 turn off the IME. (This is different from the standard Alt-Shift, which switches input locales.)

While I was in there I also found a way to make the IME toolbar “chisai”, so I did that too. It’s really not all that smaller, but at least now it doesn’t overlap any part of a webpage in IE.

I gained my vocabulary purely through reading. I was not one of those people who sat around studying vocab flash cards…not even before the SATs. Instead, I used the old fashioned method of picking things up through context.

However, this is an imperfect method, which has led me in recent years to add “looking unfamiliar words up in the dictionary” to my learning routine. Even now I find words that I have learned incorrectly.

Today, for example, I realized that I didn’t know the proper definition of the word “bemused”. For some reason I always thought it was a different way of saying “amused”, when in fact it means something like “bewildered”.

Ah, language.

CNN: George Lucas’ latest project(s)

Lucas is producing his upcoming series “Clone Wars” in 3D animation and building a facility in Singapore to “use the amazing artistic talents in the Asian community,” he said. “A lot of (Asia) is still trying to move into the 3D age. I set up a plan to speed up the process and to build up the community there. I also look at this as a way to get my foot into anime,” he said.

By “3D”, does he mean stuff like ReBoot? Also…I wonder what kind of anime George Lucas would make.

I have come to the conclusion that there is really nothing to do at this time of day.

As an exercise I decided to try to transcribe Yozak’s song about the island from episode 6 of Kyou Kara Maou. I searched Google for バンダービーア and saw that Japanese blogs are calling it ヴァンダービーア instead, so I’m going with that spelling. This indicates that the island should be spelled Vandarbia in English, instead of Bandarbia, as the fansubbers have spelled it. (To their credit, it sounds like Bandarbia…)

I’m including the fansubbers’ translation of the song, because I based my Japanese transcription on it. (They may be wrong about who is crossing or not crossing the ocean and seeing the moon, but who knows. Japanese, the language of no pronouns.) I have no idea what “akorya” means. The fansubbers’ translation indicates it’s like saying “Oh”, so…I just wrote it in hiragana. *shrug*

If anyone out there speaks/is studying Japanese and see an error, let me know!

ヴァンダービーア (今日からマ王)

島の乙女に恋をすりゃ
ヴァンダー火山の大噴火
共に海は渡れねど
見上げる空に同じ月

あこりゃヴァン、ヴァン、ヴァンダービーア
夢の島
一度来たなら
忘られぬ

Vandarbia (Kyou Kara Maou)

shima no otome ni koi wo surya
vandaa kazan no dai funka
tomo ni umi wa watarenedo
miageru sora ni onaji tsuki

akorya Van, Van, Vandarbia
yume no shima
ichido kita nara
wasurarenu

Bandarbia (Kyou Kara Maou, translation by AonE)

If you fall in love with the girl on the island,
There will be a great eruption of the Bandar Volcano.
We won’t be able to cross the ocean together,
But when we look up at the sky, we see the same moon.

Oh Ban, Ban, Bandarbia, the dream island.
Once you come, you will never forget it.

Download the song, complete with background noise from the episode!

Update 2005/08/02 10:45 am: I was reading the information for Geneon’s Kyo Kara Maoh Volume 2 yesterday (then, I bought it!), and I discovered that they apparently named the island “Van Da Via”. Geneon’s research into the odd names in this series has been mostly good, in my opinion, so this may in fact be accurate. (Somewhat related note: Volume 3 and Volume 4 are available for pre-order! I will own them!!! Also…thanks to this series, Amazon keeps recommending me a lot of yaoi…)

Another Update 2005/08/02 11:59 pm: I am really looking forward to seeing how Geneon translates the song. I am not sure about AonE’s translation. “忘られる” seems to me to be saying “you will be able to forget” or “it will be possible to forget”, although it could, possibly, be meant as an inquiry, such as “will it be possible to forget?” Also, AJ remarked to me that it’s very possible there is an element of double entendre to this song. (His words: “Fall in love with the girl on the island. A volcano erupts. :> And then, Once you come, you will never forget it. ;D”) Given the nature of the series, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. Perhaps further evaluation is in order. At this point, I don’t think I can venture my own translation.

Yet Another (Late) Update 2005/12/08 4:54 pm: Here are the translations Geneon used in DVD 2:

Van Da Via (Kyo Kara Maoh, translation by Geneon, sub version)

If you fall in love with an island girl…
Mount Van Da will erupt.
You may not be able to cross the ocean together…
but you’ll see the same moon up high.

Ah, this is Van, Van, Van Da Via…
island of dreams.
Come once and you’ll never forget it.

Van Da Via (Kyo Kara Maoh, translation by Geneon, dub version)

If you fall in love with an island girl
Mount Van Da will erupt
You may not be able to cross the ocean together
But you’ll see the same moon up high

Ah, this is Van Van Van Da Via, island of dreams
Come once and you’ll never forget us

So, they only changed one thing between the sub and dub versions: the last word. Why? The world may never know.

In any case, AonE and Geneon seem to be in agreement about what the song means.

Amazingly, Another Update 2006/09/10 4:42 pm: I’ve made some changes to my transcriptions based on corrections in the comments. Thanks, bananam00n!

The father of Moxie CrimeFighter has put out “the most foul-mouthed movie ever“. CNN is so coy about the nature of the jokes in the movie that I really, really want to see it now.

“This film has more affection and love and world peace in it than any Disney film ever made,” said Jillette, best known as half of the magic act Penn & Teller. “This is a truly feel-good movie about (an unprintable family activity).”

More accurately, this movie is about a variety of unprintable family activities, some involving pets, limited only by the imagination of the person telling the joke. The bit is vile, vulgar, obscene and offensive; it’s a gag that could make you gag.

But as related by Robin Williams, Chris Rock, Martin Mull, Whoopi Goldberg and dozens of other brilliant comedians, this low-rent humor helps “The Aristocrats” hit rarely reached comedic heights. It delivers on the promise of its promo:

“No nudity. No violence. Unspeakable obscenity.”

I mean, come on, Bob Saget‘s in it!

Sid met someone really cool the other day, a homeless writer who has traveled extensively selling photocopies of his work. Here’s his website.

Like Sid, I love this haiku:

Fear makes one half-dead
Eat well and drink well to fight
To die is to live

I like it so much I’m not even going to quibble about how it’s not a real haiku.

Much.

About.com’s Japanese Recipe of the Week is “Bukkake Udon“.

Bukkake?!?!?

According to Jim Breen’s WWWJDIC, the verb bukkakeru means:

打っ掛ける; ぶっ掛ける 【ぶっかける】 (v1) to dash (slosh) water (or other liquid) on a person or in a person’s face

Some of you may be familiar with the slang (Internet?) usage of the stem bukkake, referring to a genre of pornography. I actually wrote an explanation of it just now, but this is a family website (except, of course, for all the cursing), so I deleted it. Go look on Google if you’re curious.

Why is there an udon recipe called bukkake udon? Is the idea that when you eat the noodles, the soup splashes you in the face? I think, given bukkake’s other meaning, they ought to change the name…

…then again, this could just be one of those cases where what was once a normal, innocent word has been co-opted. Maybe bukkakeru was a completely harmless word until recently. In which case, bravo, bukkake udon. Be proud!

(I would really like some books on Japanese etymology. Actually, I used to think it would be fun to focus my research on that, and teach a course, and write my own books. Heck, maybe I still think that.)

Edit 2005/08/02 6:15 pm: Found a good explanation here.

Indeed, bukkake is more commonly used in Japan to describe a type of dish where the toppings are poured on top of noodles, as in bukkake-udon and bukkake-soba. Here the word bukkake is used in an adjectival sense to give the impression that the soup is fresh.

So it’s kind of like…yakitate!

Ampontan at Japundit has written a piece about yukata, the Japanese “summer kimono”. I love those things. They are so comfy. I always slept in mine, at the ryokans. They are really nice to pull on right after a bath, too.

I’d like to get a few pretty ones :)

I went out to pick up a prescription tonight. On my way out I saw a large orange-ish cat lurking just between a car and the curb; the streetlamps refracted golden in its eyes and I thought about how I’d said I’d never experienced anything supernatural. Cats’ eyes are about as supernatural as things get around me. Which is not to say that they’re not spooky, because they totally are.

I got my prescription and then picked myself up some dinner. When I got back there was a cat in the middle of the parking lot, and I had to be careful to avoid it. Initially I assumed it was the same one, but when I got out of the car I saw that this one was smaller, leaner, and more of a grey color.

“Hi kitty kitty,” I said. “Aren’t you cute!” It approached me, so I put my bag down and petted it. It was so sweet.

I cooed at it a little, then headed towards my apartment. The kitten followed me. I would stop every now and then and turn around and look for it, only to have it zip around in front of me on my other side. It followed me up the stairs all the way to the third floor, and when I opened my apartment door it came right in with me.

(I must confess that I did nothing to discourage the cat. I thought it was absolutely adorable.)

Heading into the office, I put my stuff down and informed Sean, “A cat followed me home!” He got up and looked around. “It’s in the living room,” I said, and he headed out there.

“Where’d it go?” I wondered, looking around, and then called for it. “Here, kitty kitty kitty! Where’s the pretty cat?”

“There she is,” Sean said. (Was it a girl?) The cat padded out of our bedroom and Sean stood there looking down at it.

I approached, crouched down, and petted it again. “Good, sweet thing,” I said. Then, to Sean, “Do you think cats eat French fries?”

“Only if you want to keep it,” Sean responded.

“Bah, all right,” I said. “Do you have a mommy? Go find your mommy,” I said, and opened the door. The kitten headed out, not in a hurry but not reluctantly either, and it turned around to watch as I shut the door behind it.

Sweet little kitten face!

I just read an interesting article by Michael Barone of US News and World Report. Unfortunately, I’m not sure I follow all of his lines of thinking, mainly because I don’t think I know enough about the situations he’s detailing. Specifically, I’m unclear on the logical progression of his arguments concerning Karl Rove. Could someone maybe elucidate for me? Links to further information would be great.