すき焼き

Lately all my blogposts have been kind of long and heavy and tiring to write. :) So for a change, I think I'll type up a post in Japanese just for practice. :) Here goes. :)

２年前に、友達と一緒に日本へ旅行しました。日本のレストランですき焼きを作ってみました。でも作る方法がわからないから、牛肉が焦げました。結局すき焼きが食べられませんでした。残念でした。上の写真は食べられないすき焼きでした。

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika - ep3 - continued

I was thinking of writing this post last night since it is easier to write long posts and organize my thoughts at the desk rather than on the milestone.  However, I got home really late after watching Carmen at the Esplanade and I'm partly noting this fact down so that I do not forget that I did watch Carmen at the Esplanade.  Last night, it took me forever to remember that the first opera I watched at the Esplanade was La Boheme, so I think it's best to note it down while I remember. :) [note: in the end, I only wrote part of this on the milestone, am finishing it up at my desk. :) ]

Okay, back to business... I had some thoughts on Mami Tomoe and her relationship with Kyubey  and other miscellaneous thoughts which didn't make it into yesterday's post.  I'll try and recall what they are now, although they are likely to change and develop over time since we're only up to Ep 3.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS...

It's in the first episode when Madoka and Sayaka first meet Mami.  They first meet her in the magical world after Madoka was lured there by Kyubey's cries.  Mami quickly takes on the role of a mentor of sorts.  She's been a magical girl for a while and she appears confident, beautiful and poise.  She seems to be working in tandem with Kyubey, a cute and hug-able talking soft toy of sorts.  I call him that because he is really not that different in appearance from the classic magical creatures that grant the girls their magical powers.  In one shot in Ep 2, we even see Kyubey seated quite inconspicuously among Madoka's collection of soft toys.  And to reinforce this creature's innocence, Kyubey is white, a colour often associated with innocence, and has what seems to be a permanent smile etched into his face.


In the beginning, in Ep 1, it seems like his relationship with Mami is no different from that of many other mahou shoujo series.  Like in other mahou shoujo series, he is the creature that grants the girls their powers and he is the agent that will open the doors to these powers.  However, by Ep 2, Kyubey's relationship with Mami takes on a more ominous tone, in part because of the scene where the contract is explained to the two younger girls and reinforced later by Goethe's Faust quotations on the walls.

From Coleridge Translation

Woe! woe!
Thou hast destroyed it.—
This lovely world
Thou but crushed into ruin!
It totters—reels—and falls:
A demi-god has crushed it.!
Mournfully
We bear its fragments oft to vacancy,
And weep
Over its ruined beauty.








 From Coleridge Translation

Son of the Earth!
As thou art powerful,
In splendour build
The fabric up again:
In thy own bosom build it up!
A renovated life
Begin with clearer sense,
And let new songs resound!

I'm not fully certain yet why they used this particular portion of Goethe's Faust.   The reasons may not fully present itself either till later in the series. What I think is certain is that they introduced Faust at this point in time to let the viewer know that the contract with Kyubey is not as innocent as it seems.  The contract will grant the magical girls untold powers, powers that will make her almost god-like but will also lead to destruction and ruin.  Very Faustian indeed because in Gothe's Faust, it is precisely because Faust sought the ultimate knowledge which would make him god-like and that led to his ruin.

The first section of the verse was introduced to us right after the woman who seems possessed stumbles pass that wall on her way to the top of the building where she will throw herself off.  The woman " totters—reels—and falls", making it kind of a nice visual match with the quotation.  The demi-god at this point in time is likely Mami Tomoe who will enter the strange and fantastical magical world and proceed to destroy it.  At this point in time, we do not yet know for sure if this magical world is a good place, a bad place or simply just a place but what is certain is that it is a fascinating place and way more beautiful in its chaos than the "real world". Mami with her super-human strength will enter this fascinating place and reduce it to ruins.

What I do find interesting thing is that the second half of the verse sung by the hidden chorus in Faust's study  appears at the point when Homura Akemi walks into the building.  The second half of that verse is clearly positive and talks about renewal and hope.  Perhaps Homura Akemi plays the role of the "angels" in Goethe's Faust.  It seems that currently Homura is there to act as a cautionary voice and to attempt in some way to prevent the girls, in particular Madoka, from entering into a contract with Kyubey.  What is likely is that Homura will become Madoka's mentor in the future.  Unfortunately, the cover to the anime version of Kalafina's Magia single release kind of gave it away.  Still, there is a lot about Homura that we do not yet know and we still do not have clue what her relationship is with Kyubey and why unlike Mami, she seems to function quite differently from them.  What I am curious about too is if Homura did enter into a contract with Kyubey too or did she do it with another magical creature?  There is no rule in a Faustian tale saying that there should only be one agent of the devil.  Of course, why Homura chose to become a Mahou Shoujo is of utmost interest and is likely to be crucial to the story.

Goethe's Faust is by no means the only version of the tale in existence.  Not all versions of the tale leads to redemption for Faust.  However, Goethe's version of Faust does have a happy ending of sorts even though the getting there is by no means easy and I'm not even certain that the ending is that "happy" an ending.  Perhaps, this verse is foreshadowing a positive ending for the magical girls?  That is certainly a possibility, although it is definitely not a certainty.

Gosh... I keep running out of time. :(  I need to sleep... I'm really feeling the effects of too little sleep and I know I need to try and rush one shot to send for approval by hopefully lunch, so tomorrow morning will be busy busy busy.

Hmmmm... maybe I'll just quickly outline what I think of Mami Tomoe and leave the other thoughts to another post or incorporate them into a later post or something.

What I find really interesting about Mami Tomoe is that it is not quite clear yet what her true relationship is with Kyubey.  In the beginning, it seems like Mami and Kyubey are working in tandem and that Mami, who has already sold her soul so to speak, has reached a level of corruption where she too wants to lead others into ruin.  She, like a good saleswoman, presents and represents all the positives of becoming a Mahou Shoujo and the two girls are fascinated.   However, in Ep 3, Mami talks about not pressuring the girls into a decision because she was not given the time to make her own decision when she entered into a contract with Kyubey.  While she lay mortally injured after an accident, Kyubey approached her and Mami had to make a very quick decision and obviously, she chose life and lost her soul.  This seems to cast Mami in a far more sympathetic light and the moment where she seems to reveal her true self to Madoka are likely calculated moves by the makers of this anime to give Mami's "demise" at the end of Ep 3 greater emotional impact.

By the way, don't you just love that screen capture of the moment Kyubey appears to Mami?  Very dramatic and symbolic of their subsequent relationship.  Kyubey is obviously standing over Mami which indicates a superior position, especially since Mami is also at the same time reaching out to him for help.  Kyubey's strong and clear shadow cast on Mami is perhaps also a nod to who is the true master in this relationship.  While it is Mami who appears strong, confident and in-charge to the girls and while Kyubey just runs around and looks cute, one must not forget that the key to this power is Kyubey and unlike other mahou shoujo series like Card Captor Sakura for example, he is no innocent and possibly the one who makes most, if not all, Mami's decisions too. 

I have my doubts about the true nature of Mami's death.  Did Kyubey allow Mami to "die" because he wanted to create a situation where Sayaka and Madoka are rushed into a contract with him?  Or was Mami an active agent and either allowed herself to be killed or has simply disappeared for now so that both Madoka and Sayaka will chose to enter into the contract with Kyubey.  If the series wants to play it out in a simpler manner, than Mami was a passive agent in this incident and she did not expect Kyubey to sacrifice her.  But if the anime wants to be sneaky, then Mami is like one of the witches in Faust, she is a temptress and deceptive and serves only one master and hence, she either allowed herself to be devoured or she has simply gone on a little hiatus till Madoka and Sayaka become mahou shoujos themselves.

All will be revealed soon though in the coming episodes but I am finding all this thinking and speculating fun. :)  Hopefully, I will get to writing down even more thoughts regarding this anime.  I do have a ton more stuff I would like to say but time will not allow it.  I'm not going to proof read this... at least not for now... for now... it's oyasuminasai. :)

Mahou Shoujo Madoka - ep3

Initially, I thought that I would write my planned post on Mahou Shoujo Madoka much later however, after watching Ep 3 yesterday on my way to work, I changed my mind.

Ep 3 of Mahou Shoujo Madoka is very good and it would not do to not at the very least say something about how the story is unfolding. FIRST - SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. If you don't want any spoiler info, please do not read on.

The opening of Ep 3 begins innocently enough and seems to be taking a pretty standard path of a mentor-disciple type of story where our heroes are shown the ropes and learn the skills and expectations of their new role. The ending act of this episode, however, turns everything around with a dramatic and very unexpected event.

Mahou Shoujo Madoka is a magical girl series and only 3 episodes have aired to date. Although the series has hinted very strongly at its darker undertones, I wonder how many people actually expected Mami to "die". I place "die" in quotation marks because the episode ends with what seems to be her demise. However, we will most likely not know for sure all the details till Ep 4.

From the very beginning, by using a strong and unusual visual asthetic, this anime has already signaled its intention to be an atypical magical girl series. This is further emphasized in Ep 2 with the german inscription on the wall in the last act. The quotation from Goethe's Faust reveals that not only are the makers of Mahou Shoujo Madoka going for a different visual aesthetic, they are also going for a different tone and a darker, potentially tragic story. Perhaps it should have come as no surprise that one of the magical girls would suffer such a calamitous fate in Ep 3. Still, it is pretty fast for the series to plunge it's viewers into the deep end of tragedy.

The reason I say plunge is precisely because it really felt like a plunge. The scence before Mami's disastrous fight was light hearted and fun. Kajiura Yuki's music also gave no indication of the violent outcome of the fight to come. Even though Homura does warn Mami, Sayaka and Madoka that this latest witch is no ordinary witch and even though the audience is prepared for a different kind of fight, still the light hearted moment and Mami's and Madoka's sweet moment of bonding will not prepare you for what comes next. The impact is very well calculated and executed.

Ep 3 continues to build on what has already been revealed in Ep 2. It is likely that the cute Kyubey is Mephistopheles, the devil's representative and he is here to tempt both Madoka and Sayaka with anything they want. It is interesting that while Sayaka considers entering into the contract with Kyubey because of someone she loves, what Madoka wants is somewhat different. Madoka wants only to be a magical girl. She is Faust, at least for now. What she wants is knowledge, exactly what Faust wanted.

The are many versions of the Faustian tale, hence, there really is no way to say how this tale may end. What seems pretty much confirmed by now is that Homura Akemi's role is pretty much like Kruger Natsuki's in Mai Hime's first episode. She is there to warn and to try and stop what we know will be the inevitable. It was never that hard to guess her role even in Ep 1. Mami Tomoe on the other hand is quite interesting. Just how much she of her is a passive or active participant is any one's guess right now.

I will end it here for now and write more later today or tomorrow morning with regards to Mami Tomoe. Now I need to dash. Work calls. Cheers.

Ps. Will check grammar later. :)

空の境界, Madlax, Kajiura & Kalafina

Lately, I have been far too busy and tired to write my planned post on Mahou Shoujo Madoka. :( I actually started writing it but had to stop and just haven't been able to get to it. The third ep has already aired and I have already obtained it but I have not watched it yet because of my planned post. I might just end up writing that planned post after I have watched ep 3 or maybe even ep 4.

Meanwhile, I have been watching the Kara no Kyoukai series of animated movies while on my way to work and even during my lunch break. I must say, they are rather interesting movies. I finished ep 4 on friday and I can't wait to get to the rest.

The first ep was a little creepy for timid old me so I usually will not watch Kara no Kyoukai at night. :) Hence, I have been a little slow in finishing this anime. Of course, this series of movies isn't that recent at all but I've only just returned to watching anime now that I have a different job and am no longer a student so I have been able to schedule some anime watching time here and there.

The biggest reason why I decided to watch this anime is because of Kajiura Yuki and Kalafina. Hahahaha... these days it almost seems like that is the reason for my anime watching choices. :) Kajiura wrote the score for all 7 movies and also wrote the end theme songs which are performed by Kalafina. Now since this is the reason for Kalafina's existence, it would be strange for a fan of the music to not watch the anime, wouldn't it? :)

The music for the Kara no Kyoukai series, both the soundtracks and the end themes, is in my opinion one of Kajiura's best work. The soundtrack is amazing and used beautifully and evocatively at so many moments in what I have seen so far.

Except for Kajiura's music, I am usually not familiar with the soundtracks of any tv series, movie or animation before I watch it. But I am very familiar with almost all of Kajiura's work so it makes the experience of watching any of these series somewhat different and interesting.

At the time that I started watching Kara no Kyoukai, I also started watching Madlax, another series that was scored by Kajiura. Interestingly, while watching Madlax, I caught myself paying quite a bit of attention to the music and on occasion I might even pay slightly more attention to the song over the visuals. It isn't like I completely stopped watching but it is almost like I switched to a more mtv watching mode where I stopped to enjoy the song more or sometimes to wonder or critically try and analyze whether the music worked in a particular section. It wasn't like that with Noir, another Bee Train - Kajiura collaboration and I wonder if it might have been different for me if, like Noir, I watched Madlax without having first heard the music.

With Kara no Kyoukai, I had no such reaction. The story, the visuals, music and audio design seem to work in perfect harmony. The score and the haunting female vocals were design to lead you deeper into the moment and evoke all kinds of emotions in the viewer. While Madlax's music seemed to me to contain signature songs, Kara no Kyoukai's music seemed more like sound design then just simply music. I would have to watch the movies again to be sure but I don't remember there being a very complex sound design for sound effects. Kajiura's evocative score was used in its place instead. It's strange, the music would be in the background and I know I am more interested in the story and visuals, yet at the end of each movie, the music continues to leave a lingering sense of sorrow and longing which is why in my mind, the score for Kara no Kyoukai is to me one of Kajiura's best work to date.  I still really like Madlax's music but Kara no Kyoukai's is outstanding in my opinion.

Before I go, I would like to just mention a thought I had about the end theme for the second Kara no Kyoukai movie, "Kimi ga Hikari ni Kaete Iku". At the end of the second movie, I was struck by how appropriate it was that this song was sung by two women. At that point in time, Kalafina was still just Keiko and Wakana. This part maybe a spoiler for some so stop reading NOW if you have not watched the series. Anyway, it seems to me that this song, sang by both Keiko and Wakana was representative of the dual personalities in Shiki the protaganist of the series. It worked very well for me that the two women's voices were so distinctly different and it worked very well that it was Keiko the contralto who started the song and Wakana the soprano who finished it, given the way the second movie ended with the dominant personality choosing to leave. If I remember correctly, there is an acapella version of this song which Wakana sings by herself. I never really cared for this version and tended to skip it a lot in my mp3 player, hence my vague recollection of it. After watching the second Kara no Kyoukai movie, I think the only version I will truly like will be the movie version which opened so powerfully with Keiko's solo and ended so gently with Wakana's solo.

Okay, I really need to go. Have been typing this on my milestone and the battery isn't very happy with me. :) Have a good week y'all and here's hoping I will get around to finishing my closer look at Mahou Shoujo Madoka soon. Cheers. :)

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika - ep2

I watched ep2 of Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika on the way to work yesterday morning.  I finally got around to encoding an mp4 to put onto the milestone so that I can watch it on the way to work.  These days, it seems like "on the way to work" is turning out to be one of my more productive non-work moments in the day. :)

Anyway, back to the anime. :)  Not a whole lot of stuff happens in terms of the story in ep2 but it's still pretty interesting as ep2 pretty much outlines what it takes to become a mahou shojo.  And some of what is said seems to indicate some very dark possibilities.

Gosh if it wasn't so late at night, I would write a much more detailed post but it's almost 3am and I really will need to sleep soon.

So I'm going to try and outline quickly what my thoughts are and maybe if I get a chance expand on them tomorrow.

The visuals in this anime are quite impressive and different.  It seems to lean very heavily towards modern art both in the architectural designs and the use of surrealism and collage in the magical world sequences.




Common visual motifs used in this anime are:

1) Large spaces and small characters

2) Lots of reflections

3) Lots of doorways and long corridors

4) Lots of glass

If I have some time tomorrow night, I would like to write a more extensive post partly because I actually watched ep2 again tonight and paid far more attention to the visuals rather than the story and music and I kind of want to talk about it.  But for now... this will really have to do if I hope to be able to function at all at work tomorrow. :)

Just one thing before I dash.  It seems like Kalafina's Magia will be use as a sort of battle theme.  This particular rendition of Magia in ep2 seems to have undergone some kind of pitch change and it doesn't sound quite as deep.  Weird.  Oh... and Kajiura Yuki's bgm is totally working for me in this series.  I like it very much. :)

Night guys. :)

lunch box of love

This is my mum, busy in the kitchen as she often is. I was messing around with the android phone app, Vignette, when I shot what turned out to be a pretty representative picture of my mum and how she expresses her love for me each and every single day.

Each day I carry a little lunch box to work. I don't pack this lunch box myself. My mum does it. It's also not filled up with left overs from dinner. Instead, mum would wake up 6 every morning to prepare me a healthy and delicious meal each day.

Sometimes she would pack in little treats like jello, or heh heh a bottle of birdsnest. She'll also boil fresh water and make me a flask of hot tea to take with me each day.

Chinese parents aren't like western parents. They don't say they love you out loud. Instead they express their love in the little things they do. They express their love through the food they make for you or buy for you. Each day when I eat my lunch, I am reminded of just how loved I am. :)

Ah... ... ... I am a fortunate person. :) And both my parents are great and are the biggest reasons why I came home from the US and why I chose to stay. Home is truly where the heart is. :)

magia - kalafina cd covers

The covers for Kalafina's latest cd single release are out. The first picture on the left is the cover for the regular edition of Magia, the end theme song for Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika anime. The middle picture is the limited edition which comes with a dvd and the last picture is of the anime edition.

I must say I quite like these new cd covers and the new look that the girls are sporting. Keiko does look quite striking with the short hair which gives her what seems to me a European gentry air, a la Kristen Scott Thomas in Four Weddings and a Funeral. She looks nothing like Scott Thomas but for some reason when I first saw these pictures, I just thought that. :)

I actually rather like Keiko's stiff and upright poses and liked it very much that she looks intently at the camera in both photos. Her poses remind me very much of studio silver gelatin prints (at least I think they are silver gelatin, or maybe they were on plates, my photo history sucks) of upper crust Europeans in the early days of studio portraiture photography when the subjects had to remain very still during photo taking, hence often acquiring a stiff look in the photos.

For some reason, Keiko just seems to me to have the most old world European feel of the 3 girls in these photos which actually is really quite a perfect match for the the old world European gothic image that Kalafina has. Hikaru in the centre probably comes next closest to that feel, especially in the cover for the limited edition.

Aside from the colour photo, the clothing design too will immediately signal that this is not old world nor is it trying to be a replica of old europe. It's more like a strange pastiche of styles which works for me. This particular look, especially Keiko's jacket design with the stiff broad shoulders makes me think Sci-fi Fantasy. The shoulder pads and that very proper posture... just makes me think evil imperial officer or arrogant little princess in a galaxy far far away or something. Hahahaha...

Of course I could be just spouting crap since I'm a little high on medication :) or maybe because I never really took to their previous image which seemed more Romani inspired.

K, think I am going to go look for a bed and sleep for a bit... must be the medication and lack of sleep... ... ... :)

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika - first impressions

I've had a really busy time at work lately and as a result have been too tired to do too much of anything at all.  It's taken several days since the first ep aired in Japan but I finally did go locate a Chinese subtitled version and just finished watching it.

Looks like I might enjoy this anime since I do enjoy magical schoolgirl animes like Card Captor Sakura and darker stuff like Mai-Hime etc.

I really want to try and keep this short because I need to go sleep in about 10 mins and I know that I can be quite verbose when I write.

So although this will sound disjointed, it's going to have to do because my brain isn't quite working and I'm too tired to try and write better. =)  So... here are my first impressions of the series and Kajiura Yuki's music.

I'm not really in love with the character designs in this series but as long as the story works, I'm not too bothered about character designs.  Maybe that's why Character Design was not my best subject in school. =)

What I do like about the visuals in this anime is the "magical" world the girls find themselves in in the last third of the episode.  In the beginning, the visuals seem perhaps more akin to a light water colour look.  Interestingly, the locations, Madoka's home and her school seem quite plain, almost minimalistic and some of the designs depict a lot of space.

The reason for all that becomes immediately clear when Madoka and her friend Sayaka enter the magical world.  Suddenly, the visual design becomes more claustrophobic.  It's not just that the world has suddenly become more cluttered, it also seems to have become quite flat.  The creators of this anime chose to use cutout style animation to give a feeling of a lack of depth and suddenly our "3d" world has become more "2d".  Yet, they weren't content to just leave it there.  Stylistically, none of the girls in this new world have become cutout like, they retain the way they look in the "real" world.  So what they tried to do was to combine the cutout out look with perspective.  Which is kind of strange but interesting and I kind of like it.  I'm not sure if I'm describing it properly but what is certain is that I rather like it.

The other thing that seems certain to me is that this anime is likely to be "not for young children".  The opening sequence with Kalafina's powerful and dramatic song pretty much underlines the menacing undertones in the latter half of the first episode.  This is underlined quite well by Kajiura with the chimes and heavy base in the sequence when Akemi Homura and Madoka walk down the corridor towards the sick room.  It doesn't sound anything like Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells but if you know Tubular Bells, then you know what I mean by the chills something as innocent and clear sounding as chimes can give you.

The other two pieces of music that I rather liked are used later in the episode.  One was used right after the sequence mentioned in the previous paragraph.  This piece is classic Kajiura.  It's Celtic inspired which isn't new to Kajiura but it's not similar in tune to her previous compositions and since I like this kind of music. I like this piece quite a bit.

And the last piece of music that I really liked is the creepy, probably Middle Eastern inspired piece that was used as bgm when Madoka and Sayaka are in the magical world.  The visuals here are also quite striking and combined with the music, this scene would certainly be very scary for younger children.

That's it... I have exceeded my ten minutes by half an hour. :)  I will stop now and go to bed.  My week at work isn't going to slow down at all and I'm a little sick too, so I really need to rest more.  I'll just end with this.  I think so far, this anime is my cup of tea.  It seems interesting and is a darker magical schoolgirl anime which makes it closer to a Mai-Hime series which means that I will very likely enjoy the series even if I don't love it.  And I like Kajiura's music and I like what she's so far done in this anime.  So far, it's all positive for me. =)

Oyasumi. =)

magia is magic

I just watched the opening of Puella Magi Madoka Magica and heard Kalafina's song Magia again. And I am happy cuz Magia is magic. It is better than I remembered it from the live.

I did remember correctly that it is different from most of Kajiura Yuki's songs, especially her more recent stuff. It's definitely heavier and it begins with a rousing drum and heavy electronic guitar sequence accompanied by some violin and Kalafina's soaring vocals before dropping to a much deeper register. At the live, I remembered the drum sequence more because I was standing at the side where the drummer was located.

I must say even though I know all of them are singing deeper than usual and the deepest voice must be Keiko who is the contralto in Kalafina, still, even the alto sounds more like Keiko then Hikaru who is the alto. It may simply be that I seldom hear Hikaru sing that low while I am accustomed to Keiko singing that low and lower. Maybe that's why at the live I felt that Keiko's voice seemed to come out strongest. Anyway, that's really not that important to me, just an odd observation. :)

I really like this song and being a Kajiura, FictionJunction, Kalafina fan, I have of course pre-ordered the single. :) And I look forward to watching this anime once it has been subtitled. The opening transformation sequence reminds me of Mai Hime which was pretty dark in parts for a magical schoolgirl anime. Mai Hime was one of favourite animes ever and I still collect Hime figures whenever I can find them. Puella Magi Madoka Magica's open is also pretty dark for a mahou shoujo anime, it looks like something I might enjoy.

Ahhhh... this just makes me want to go to the Kalafina's Spring lives in Japan even more. I have been trying very hard to resist the temptation because I just don't know if I should be taking leave in April. I am saving now for my next trips. So I definitely can travel at least once, maybe even twice this year. :) We'll see, maybe there will be a FictionJuntion live later in the year and I could go for that instead even though after the Kalafina live in december I have been super interested in going to another Kalafina live.

Going to Japan again this year is very much on the cards. And all my saved money from my packed lunches is going there... hahaha... I miss Japan and I would like to see my friends again and if possible another live and travel to another part of japan I have yet to visit. That would be perfect. :)

On btw, I did buy the blogger-droid ap. It works great and is perfect for my new schedule as I now mostly mobile blog as that is the only real time I have for blogging and since I have a limitless data plan in the milestone, I don't have to care about bandwidth which is what I would need to consider if I mobile blogged from my SE cell phone. K, need to go. Changing trains now. Please excuse any grammatical and spelling errors. Will not proof read till I get home after work. :)

あああ... 疲れた

Ahhh... so tired today. Am happy i managed to get a seat on the train home. But am unfortunately stuck between a tired schoolboy who keeps nodding off and hitting my shoulder and, an aunty who has a huge bag of stuff and is kind of pressed up against me. It doesn't help that the school boy's music is so loud and his earphones so crappy, i can hear his music through my earphones. Annoying. :(

I'm getting use to the work schedule and have currently worked out a schedule outside of work that will include some time for me to do stuff i enjoy. Currently, i only manage to reach home at between 830 to 9 pm each day. After dinner, a short catchup chat with my parents and a shower, i make myself a cup of coffee and watch anime. :)

It has really been a while since I've had time to watch anime. Actually it's been a few years. Meanwhile, i keep collecting anime wiithout watching them. :) Between work and studies, i've only had time for tvb or japanese dramas which i watched with my mum as she doesn't watch anime.

The new work schedule, however, means that i don't watch stuff with mum until the weekends since i return home so late anyway. And mostly we watch short japanese dramas, specials or movies.

Hence, this year, after several years of not watching anime, i have finally finished Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu which i really enjoyed. The anime had a rather experimental way of telling the story. The broadcast order of this anime was not in the same order as the episode numbers which means that the story was told in a completely non-linear fashion. I'm not sure if this works better for this anime but it is an interesting idea and each episode was strong enough on it's own to keep one watching even if you're wondering why you have some missing info.

Anyway... i'm a little tired today. Work was kind of tiring. So i will continue this discussion on my new schedule and the animes i've been watching in another post. :)

One last test.

This will most likely be my last test for the android ap blogger-droid. I want to see if i can change the default way blogger-droid places multiple images on the page. I liked it that it handled so many photos so well in the "Ministry of Food" post but i didn't like it that it placed them all with paragraph breaks, hence stretching out that post unnecessarily.

For this test i'll try and place 3 randomly chosen images and use the advance editor function and see if i can figure this out by myself first before searching the net to see if there are any instructions or sugestions.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Ministry of Food

Today we had lunch at a Japanese Izakaya styled retaurant called MOF at the new shopping mall Nex. I'm pretty sure the name Ministry of Food was inspired by the dance club Ministry of Sound.

Previous to this visit, we thought that MOF's food wasn't very good or interesting and the only thing worth eating there were their deserts. However, we were wrong because the menu at Nex is quite extensive and different now . They must have expanded or modified their menu as i don't remember it being so interesting at the Bugis Junction branch. The food was actually quite tasty too. Thank you HT for the treat. :)

One more thing, i'm going to post all the photos of food taken at lunch today. I'm still testing the software and i'm interested in how well it handles lots of attached photos. :)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

p.s. I couldn't stand it that my earlier test with blogger-droid laid out all the photos in one vertical row, making this post really long and ugly. Hence, I returned to this post on my comp and made changes to the html so that it's laid out better. :)

テスト 二回 and "magia"

I've just returned home right now and hence have some more time to test out this blogger-droid software a little more. So far it seems to be working better than blogaway which has problems publishing my posts more often than i like.

I have discovered that blogger-droid doesn't like it when i try and edit the post. But this is still better than blogaway which would allow me to edit the post but would destroy the formatting in the process.

Anyway, i thought that since i would like to test how well this software works so that i can decide if i want to purchase it, i might as well change some of the preference settings and write a proper post. :)

So... attached to this post is a scan of an A4 size leaflet announcing the soon to be released anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica. My major interest in this anime is the participation of Kajiura Yuki and Kalafina. Kajiura is the soundtrack composer and Kalafina will sing the end theme of this anime. The title of this track is called "Magia" and i was one of the lucky ones to have heard the song already. This song has not been released to my knowledge and it has only been sung at the lives held in Dec 2010. I received this leaflet at the concert in Dec.

To tell you the truth, i don't remember the song in detail because i was too busy just listening to it. Hahaha... it may sound strange but that's the way i listen to any song, i just listen to it first to see what my general reaction is and then listen to it again if i like it. My first impression of "magia" is that i rather like it. If i remember correctly, it begins with a rousing drum sequence and the song seems particularly suited for Keiko's deeper and more powerful vocals a la Joan Jett, one of my favourite rockers from the 80s. The song seems to be a rock song closer in spirit to Kalafina's song Ongaku which is nice since Ongaku was one of my favourite songs performed at the live. Although "magia" has a heavier beat like Ongaku and some of Kajiura's heavier songs, i do remember thinking that it was still relatively different from most of Kajiura's music with the soaring operatic vocals etc and this was a nice change of pace. Still i will need to hear the song again since once is certainly not enough for me to say anything in detail especially since i was also caught up in the atmosphere in the concert hall and the excitment of being at the live.

I'm not sure how well "magia" will fit as an end theme song for a magical girl anime but it the anime is closer in spirit to Mai Hime, then it may work very well. I am totally looking forward to the release of the song regardless. :)

K, that's it for now. Let's publish to see how well this software works. :)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

テスト

おはいよ！ 今日は新しいsoftwareをテストです。I've been having some trouble with the previous software that i was using to update this blog when updating via android on my motorola milestone. So I have decided to try this new software called blogger-droid and see if it works better.

Yeah, this is pretty much a nothing post. :) I will be posting some photos shot on the milestone using the vignette software to acompany this test post. They were shot in mind for a post on the vignette photo software but i never got around to writing that post. So here they are now. :)

If blogger-droid works well , i may purchase it from the android market to both support the software and get rid of the ads. Let's see how this goes. :)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

明けましておめでとう !!

Hello everyone, this is my first post of the new year. :) Happy New Year everyone. :)  My parents and I celebrated by watching the countdown on tv late last night and then toasting each other with Umeshu Soda and wine.  Our Umeshu Soda is not as good as the stuff we had in the sushi restaurant in Ebisu but it was yummy all the same.  :)

It's Manami's fault SY, Danielle and i are in love with the drink.  She introduced it to us and made us umeshu soda-holics. :)  We liked it so much that we each bought a bottle of choya from DFS.  And when SY, Danielle, Darlene and I met for dinner on the 30th, we drank half my bottle of choya. :)  I also just bought another bottle of choya earlier today since my bottle from DFS is going fast. :)

By the way, the pix above is a photo of choya (royal honey) mixed with soda water.  Yes, i know it says heineken on the glass but it's not beer inside. :)  okie dokie, i am off to make myself a drink and watch anime.  Cheers :)