Illucia - Blogging From The Bathroom

日本語の能力を上達する為に漢字

2006-01-12T14:46:00.000-08:00

激ーはげ・しい、ゲキーviolentー刺激ーしげきーstimulus
刺ーとげ、さ・す、シーthorn, stabー刺激ーしげきーstimulus
娯ーゴーpleasureー娯楽ーごらくーfun
巡ーめぐ・る、ジュンーto go aroundー巡礼ーじゅんれいーpilgrimage
芝ーしば、シーgrassー芝刈り機ーしばかりきーlawnmower
根ーね、コンーrootー息の根ーいきのねーlife
稼ーかせ・ぐ、カーto earnー稼動ーかどう「する」ーto operate (machinery)
催ーサイーto holdー開催ーかいさい「する」ーto hold (an exhibition)
耐ーた・える、タイーto endureー忍耐ーにんたい「する」ーto endure
差ーさ・す、サーgive, holdー格差ーかくさーdisparity
挑ーいど・む、チョウーto contendー挑戦ーちょうせん「する」ーto challenge
拠ーよ・る、コーto base onー証拠ーしょうこーevidence
疑ーうたぐ・る、ギーto be suspicious ofー容疑者ーようぎしゃーsuspect
灯ーあか・り、トウーlightー電灯ーでんとうーflashlight
唯ーただ、ゆいーonlyー唯一ーゆいつーsole
抗ーコウーconfrontー対抗ーたいこう「する」ーto oppose, antagonize
災ーわざわ・い、サイーdisasterー火災ーかさいーfire

ラジルギ and Under Defeat

2006-01-11T08:33:00.000-08:00

The annual flood of good games never seems, to me, to hit until about february/march. Most companies release their big titles; the new Prince of Persia's, Grand Theft Autos and this years first-person shooters. I have very little interest in playing any of those games (especially at full price), and usually wind up picking up the new Dance Dance Revolution and whatever RPG doesn't look like crap this year.

However, come february things usually change. Most publishers seem to hold the more niche titles until just Q1. In the past we've had things such as Xenosaga, ESPGaluda, and 怒統蜂大往生. This year I was looking at Beatmania, 鋳薔薇, Wild Arms 4, and Shadow Hearts: To The New World, and hoping that I might get off easy when some of those turned out to be terrible.

Yet, in the unofficial compitition to release the last game for Dreamcast continues. Unfortunately, it's not a crap-tastic dating sim. It's not even just one game.

ラジルギ (rajirugi) - A cel-shaded, cel-phone themed shooter from Milestone. Supposedly the title is a transliteration of Radiology; they obviously took their english classes in Japan. The videos appear to combine Jet Set's sense of graphic style with a gameplay mix of Radiant Silvergun's sword and a shield mechanism.
Check out Milestone's webpage for videos.

Under Defeat - A spiffy helicopter shooter, which has an incredibly tempting limited edition (soundtrack!). The videos make this look a lot better then the last G.Rev game I played (2003's "Last Dreamcast Game" Border Down). They removed the checkpoint system, and most of the "Darius" from the game.
This time jump to Sega's Arcade site for videos.

At least they drop a month appart...

Off-topic aside: I spent Christmas and New Years in Japan, and I'd like to write about it. However, I'd like to use photos which are (as Yuta points out) a total pain. Anyone know any good tools for doing photos with blogger?

Dragon Quest VIII

2005-12-09T14:49:00.000-08:00

I play a fair number of RPGs. That is to say: nearly every one that comes out. Unfortunately, the number of entries in the genre this generation that I feel merit a recommendation is scant at best. Final Fantasy X, Wild Arms 3, Shadow Hearts 1 & 2, Digital Devil Saga, Okage, and Dragon Quest VIII are the extent of it. The PS2 is over 5-years old and has barely been able to maintain one good RPG per year. A quick reflection on the number of PS1 RPGs I feel merit playing makes for an even more depressing case: Final Fantasy 7, 8 and 9, Valkyrie Profile, Persona 1 and 2, Wild Arms, Suikoden 1 and 2, Grandia, Lunar 1 and 2, and do I really need to bring up import-only entries?

I feel that dearth of product is largely due to what I consider to be a lack of understanding on the part of modern designers. For whatever reason, it is believed that the qualities that make an RPG desirable are the concepts of levels and a story. Most other hallmarks of the genre, an over-reliance on cinema and sweeping soundtracks, are not considered to be unique. Above all, the idea behind a turn-based, strategic battle-system seems to have become anathema to the modern RPG. A pervasive idea is that games such as Final Fantasy X do not require quick response times and are therefore less exciting is impressively prevelant. Nor does such a game offer a so-called believable abstraction of combat, and this is therefore a detriment towards such a style.

As evidence I present the unending flood of brawlers posing as RPGs: Star Ocean 3, Radiata Stories, Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Destiny 2, Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Legendia, Rogue Galaxy, .Hack 1-4 even Final Fantasy 12 and Devil Summoner Kuzunoha Raidou. How does taking a terrible brawler and adding in a useless leveling scheme along with amazingly incapable A.I. constructs qualifies you as an RPG?

The appealing thing in a turn-based system is the amount of flexibility and depth of strategic possibilities that it is capable of giving to the user. Suikoden allows you to explicitly control 6 party members. Baldur's Gate allows you to give general hints to 6 characters who may choose to execute your actions by first sojourning around the map. The idea behind levels and RPG-styled character development is at its most enjoyable when it is an integral part of the gameplay. Mindlessly mashing the X-Button in Tales of Symphonia doesn't become more fun when your character starts to animate differently, it reinforces the fact that this game is hollow. Having status-ailment-inflicting skills in .Hack is useless because you are not capable of controlling the timing of how those attacks are brought to bear.

Simply put: a traditional turn-based RPG system is a halfway point between the random frustration of Kingdom Hearts and the micro-managing of a strategy RPG such as Disgaea. However, turn-based RPGs can offer something that a strategy RPG can not easily provide: exploration. Sure, Disgaea could give you a giant map to explore, but if it was filled with random encounters it would be so time consuming that it would cease be much fun. Similarly, a lack of combat opportunities would starve the feeling of danger and high-adventure that accompanies a deadly trek to the edge of the world.

It is Dragon Quest VIII that best exemplifies this notion. Battles are completely turn-based, your four party-members vs. up to 8 enemies. A deceptively deep skill accrual system helps to ensure that unless you like mindlessly leveling up for hours at a time, that you will learn to balance your parties equipment, skills and even strategy to progress. It may not be adrenaline-inducing, but it is amazingly engaging. So much so, that even after a 68 hour playthrough all I wanted to do, was to start over and play the game again. To see what skills and play-styles I may have missed. That's an incredibly rare feeling to have after finishing an RPG.

The world of Dragon Quest VIII is enourmous. It is thoughtfully put together and gorgeous. Battles are frequent and deadly enough that there exists a sense of danger at all time, yet not so time-consuming and frequent as to impede one's desire to explore. It is nearly seamless, towns appear as there actual size on the world map, and you can see for miles around you. The sense of scale and wonder is something that is prevalent throughout the game.

It are these two elements (a fast, flexible, strategic and controllable battle-system that is coupled with a vibrant, expansive world that encourages exploration) that together help propel Dragon Quest VIII to the upper echelon of gaming. They are of course assisted by a compeling, fully-orchestrated score, amazing visual aesthetics, and unique, believable characters.

This is, without a doubt, the finest RPG created this generation.

Long Time, No Kanji

2005-10-13T11:32:00.000-08:00

網ーあみ、モウーnettingー網戸ーあみどーscreen door
厳ーきび・しい、ゲンーstrictー戒厳令ーかいげんれいーmartial law
威ーおど・かす、イーintimidateー威圧ーいあつーcoercion
脅ーおど・かす、キョウーintimidateー脅迫ーきょうはくーterrorize
乏ーとぼ・しい、ボウーpoorー窮乏ーきゅうぼうーpovert
抽ーチュウーextractー抽象的ーちゅうしょうてきーabstractly
諺ーことわざ、ゲンーmaximー俗諺ーぞくげんーsaying
痴ーし・れる、チーstupidー音痴ーおんちーtone deaf
提ーさ・げる、テイーto carry in handー提出ーていしゅつ「する」ーto hand in
甲ーコウーshellー亀の甲ーかめのほうーturtle shell
幕ーとばり、マクーcurtainー字幕ーじまくーsubtitle
徹ーてっ・する、テツーpass, penetrateー徹夜ーてつやーall night
徒ーあだ、いたずら・に、トーvain, in vainー生徒ーせいとーstudent
稚ーチーimmatureー幼稚園ーようちえんーkindergarten
笊ーざるーseive
易ーやさ・しい、エキーniceー貿易ーぼうえきーtrade
潔ーいさぎよ・い、ケツーmanlyー清潔ーせいけつーclean, neat

The Curse of Pheonix

2005-09-06T09:27:00.000-08:00

I don't think I'm going to be permitted to drive in Pheonix again. I have no recollection of ever doing anything to offend the city, yet everytime I pertrude inside it's borders some sort of vehicle-related incident becomes inevitable.

On my first journey to the city I had a tire inexplicably rupture on the highway. I then wound up having to pay some obscene amount of money, in the neighborhood of $100, to get o-n-e tire replaced.

Most recently I passed through Pheonix on my way out to Los Angeles, this was one-hundred per cent vehicle-related-incident-free. I assumed that whatever karmic debt I owed to the city had been paid in full. Pheonix, on the other-hand, merely knew that I would be passing through again on my way home and started charging up it's sonic boom. The return trip. Approximately 30 miles outside of Pheonix. It hits. I lose 2 cylinders out of a 4-cylinder car.

The next day, when I'm supposed to be at work, the mechanic gives me an estimate of $2000 and 2 weeks to fix the car. Time to find a way home. Car rental places won't rent me a pick-up with a hitch on it so I wind up having to pay $415 for a piece of crap U-Hual and trailer to try to get me and el caro home.

Anyway, I made it home that day at about 11:30, and ran the top of the truck into the neighbors Mexican Elder Tree. I knocked a decent-sized, 50-pound branch off. Thankfully, the neighbor wasn't too furious when he found out. The car is currently at a local mechanic getting fully diagnosed.

I see the beginnings of a pattern of increasing aggression on the part of Pheonix here. I expect that explosions and deformed chasis will be involved if I ever drive into Pheonix again.

これで二級。。。

2005-08-19T13:23:00.000-08:00

境ーさかい、キョウーboundaryー環境ーかんきょうーenvironment
貿ーボウーtradeー貿易ーぼうえきーtrade
独ーひとり、ドクーaloneー独身ーどくしんーbachelor
均ーなら・す、キンーaverageー平均ーへいきんーaverage
銅ーあかがね、ドウーcopperー銅メダルーどうめだるーbronze medal
祖ーそーprogenitorー先祖ーせんぞーancestor
捜ーさが・す、ソウーsearchー捜査ーそうさーinvestigate
湾ーいりえ、ワンンーinletー湾岸ーわんがんーgulf
爆ーは・ぜる、バクーto burstー爆弾ーばくだんーbomb
忙ーいそが・しい、せわ・しい、ボウーbusyー多忙ーたぼうーbusy
肯ーうなず・く、コウーto nodー肯定ーこうていーaffirmative

もうちょっとだけ。。。

2005-08-18T13:55:00.000-08:00

否ーいいえ、ヒーnoー拒否ーきょひーveto
粒ーつぶ、リュウーgrainー粒子ーりゅうしーparticle
豊ーゆた・か、ホウーbountifulー豊富ーほうふーabundance
節ーせつーnodeー関節ーかんせつーjoint
臓ーゾウーinternal organー心臓ーしんぞうーheart
沈ーしず・む、チンーto sinkー沈没ーちんぼつーsinking
幼ーおさな・い、ヨウーinfancyー幼児ーようじーinfant
療ーリョウーcureー医療ーいりょうーmedical treatment
複ーフクーduplicateー複雑ーふくざつーcomplex
志ーこころざ・す、シーto aspire, planー意志ーいしーvolition
損ーそこ・なう、ソンーto damage, harmー大損ーおおぞんーheavy loss

勉強の調子がいいぜ

2005-08-17T07:16:00.000-08:00

労ーいた・わる、ロウーto feel sympathyー御苦労ーごくろうー"good work"
層ーソウーstratumー何層ーなんそうーheap
象ーかたど・る、ゾウーto model on, elephantー象牙ーぞうげーivory
諸ーもろ、ショーvariousー諸君ーしょくんー"ladies and gentlemen"
法ーホウーmethodー方法ーほうほうーmethod
板ーいた、ハンーboardー黒板ーこくばんーblack-board
未ーまだ、ミーnot yetー未使用ーみしようーunused
肩ーかた、ケンーshoulderー肩甲骨ーけんこうこつーshoulder-blade
畜ーチクーlive-stockー家畜ーかちくーdomesticated animal
敗ーやぶ・れる、ハイーto be defeatedー失敗ーしっぱい（する）ーto fail

連続漢字

2005-08-16T09:19:00.000-08:00

預ーあず・ける、あず・かる、ヨーto entrustー預金ーよきんーdeposit(bank)
販ーハンーsell, tradeー市販ーしはんーmarketing
予ーヨーbeforehandー予約ーよやくーreserve
賢ーかしこ・い、ケンーcleverー賢者ーけんじゃーphilosopher
翌ーヨクーthe followingー翌日ーよくじつーthe next day
突ーつ・く、トツーto thrustー突然ーとつぜんーsuddenly
喫ーキツーto consumeー喫茶店ーきっさてんーcafe
賄ーまかな・う、ワイーpayー贈賄ーぞうわいーbribe
在ーあ・る、ザイーexistー存在ーそんざいーexistence
幅ーはば、フクーscrollー一幅ーいっぷくーscroll

Slow Days Are Good For One Thing

2005-08-10T14:15:00.000-08:00

漢字！

塗ーぬ・る、トーto paintー塗装ーとそうーcoating
探ーさが・す、タンーsearchー探索ーたんさく（する）ーto search
末ーまつーendー期末ーきまつーend of term
湯ーゆーhot waterーお湯ーおゆーhot water
柱ーはしら、チュウーpillarー円柱ーえんちゅうーcolumn
査ーサーinvestigateー検査ーけんさ（する）ーto examine
編ーあむ、ヘンーsew, compileー一遍ーいっぺんーone piece of poetry
程ーほど、テイーdegreeー音程ーおんていーmusical interval
築ーきず・く、チクーto amassー再構築ーさいこうちくーreconstruction
富ーと・む、フーto enrichー豊富ーほうふーabundance

一級までやれるかなぁ

2005-08-09T14:52:00.000-08:00

So, I seem to have misplaced a stack of flash-cards that I made, have of them where from the last update. They can be easily remade. The other half can't, as I have no way to figure out what they where. Anyway...

郊ーコウーsuburbsー郊外ーこうがいーsuburbs
挟ーはさ・む、はさ・まる、キョウーto pinch, be caught up inー挟撃ーきょうげきーpincher attack
濃ーこ・い、ノウーthickー濃紺ーのうこんーdark blue
燥ーソウーparchー乾燥ーかんそうーto dry
律ーりつーcommandmentー法律ーほうりつーlaw
紹ーショウーintroduceー紹介ーしょうかいーintroduce
然ーしか・り、さ・り、ゼンーalike, affirmativeー自然ーしぜんーnature
濯ーすす・ぐ、ゆす・ぐ、タクーto rinseー洗濯ーせんたくーlaundry
賃ーチンーfeeー運賃ーうんちんーshipping fare
耕ーたがや・す、コウーplowー耕作ーこうさく（する）ーcultivate

I'm A Bag-Passing Man.

2005-08-05T15:58:00.000-08:00

Without modifiers. I got a B. That song = t3h 1337|\|355. I'm still not able to reliably pass Cartoon Heroes though, and MaxX Unlimited has slithered back out of reach. More practice. Less donuts.

Kicking It With The New Mixes

2005-07-30T20:18:00.000-08:00

My copies of DDR Extreme (the Japanese version) and Festival finally arrived. Played three hours yesterday, and two today. I can pass Paranoia Survivor, and Sakura; which is awesome. I think I should be able to full-combo Sakura, and maybe Survivor. Bag still gives me as much trouble as it did two years ago when I first tried it. I guess being able to read masses of bullets in shooters doesn't translate to beind able to read masses of arrows. If I recall correctly, there are at least 2 more level-10 songs spread over these mixes, hopefully they'll be unlocked soon.

I'll talk more about them, much to anyone who still reads this blog's potential dismay, after I've put a fair amount of time into them.

カンジ・タイム！

2005-07-30T20:11:00.000-08:00

今日のリストが短いな。

敬ーうやまう、ケイーto show respectー尊敬ーそんけい（する）ーrespect
湿ーしめ・す、しめ・る、シツーto moistenー湿度ーしつどーhumidity
授ーさず・ける、さず・かる、ジューto impartー授業ーじゅぎょうーclass
歳ーサイーageー歳月ーさいげつーtime
防ーふせ・ぐ、ボウーto defendー消防ーしょうぼうーfire-fighting
齢ーよわい、ネンーageー年齢ーねんれいーage
婦ーフーwomanー婦人ーふじんーlady
緒ーオ、ショーband, cordー一緒ーいっしょーtogether
展ーテンーunfurlー出展ーしゅってん（する）ーto exhibit
雇ーやと。う、コーto employー雇用ーこようーemployment

Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince

2005-07-16T23:10:00.000-08:00

Wow.

この勉強が久々

2005-07-07T15:19:00.001-08:00

抜ーぬ・く、バツーto pull outー海抜ーかいばつーsea level
善ーよい、ゼンーgoodnessー偽善ーぎぜんーhypocrisy
硬ーかた・い、コウーhardー硬球ーこうきゅうーhard-ball
呼ーよ・ぶ、コーcallー指呼ーしこ「する」ーbeckon, hail
乱ーみさ・す、みだ・れる、ランーto disturbー混乱ーこんらんーconfusion
総ーそう・じて、すべ・て、ソウーgeneralー総会ーそうかいーgeneral assembly
図ーはか・る、ズーto diagramー地図ーちずーmap
補ーおぎな・う、ホーto compensate forー補助ーほじょ「する」ーto aid
純ージュンーpurityー清純ーせいじゅんーpurity
骨ーほね、コツーboneー接骨ーせっこつ「する」ーbone setting
被ーかぶ・る、こうむ・る、ヒーto wear (hat), feel painー被害ーひがいーdamage
欲ーヨクーdesireー欲張りーよくばりーgreedy
凍ーこご・える、い・てる、トウーto freezeー解凍ーかいとうーto thaw
順ージュンーorderー手順ーてじゅんーorder
猫ーねこ、びょうーcat
殿ーどの、デンーyou (hon.)ー宮殿ーきゅうでんーpalace
能ーノウーabilityー才能ーさいのうーskill
怒ーおこ・る、ドーto get angryー怒首領蜂ーどどんぱちーdodonpachi
将ーショウーleaderー将軍ーしょうぐんーshogun
満ーみ・ちる、マンーto fill upー満潮ーまんちょうーhigh-tide
領ーリョウーleaderー大統領ーだいとうりょうーpresident
章ーショウーsectionー文章ーぶんしょうーsentence

もっとダイエットが要るのを承知しちゃったさぁ。。。

2005-07-06T20:53:00.000-08:00

I can imagine this conversation between two producers at Konami:

"Well, we've created the best game in the past 10 years."

"How are we going to screw it up though?"

"How about making the scoring incoherrent?"

"Or what about having a rage inducing announcer that you can't turn off?"

"We could bone the interface!"

"How about carrying over so much content in between versions that Capcom would be embarrassed?"

Only 1 today: Long Train Running.

And I think I'm going to swear off mexican food forever. It's a big chunk of not particularly tasty DDR-skill killing bunk. Except for La Fuente's gorditas, now those are extremely tasty DDR-skill killing bunk.

I couldn't pass MaxX Unlimited today, and the AA I got on A Little Bit Of Ecstasy refused to hold. I'm in a pretty sour mood.

Wrecking Designsの影響

2005-07-06T15:08:00.000-08:00

I've been playing a fair bit Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana and feel like commenting on something: the translation. There are two schools of thought on what a translation of pop-culture entertainment ought to contain. The first is that the translation should be as direct as possible; it should attempt to deliver not only the content accurately, but also the cultural and linguistic subtext present in the original. For reasons which should be obvious, this is the harder of the two, at least from a language fluency and capability point-of-view.

The second method involves "translating" a scene by rewriting any lines which wind up sounding ackward in the target language. Proponents of this type of localization state that it will result in a more fluid script. For the most part they are right. However, it seems that giving translators the option to rewrite things, starts to give them delusions of grandeur in which they think they know best how a given scene should read; even more than the original author.

I submit as evidence the following line from Atelier Iris; in the original Japanese, directly translated into english, and finally the actual reading of the script.

The main character tells a friend of his grandmother's that he feels as though a Mana Spirit that he has been with since childhood is his brother. Her response is basically:

その兄弟の心を忘れないほうがいい。　Which basically translates to: "You shouldn't forget that feeling of brotherhood in your heart."

What the English reader is presented with, as if to offer us some kind of warning, is: "Don't forget that he is a Mana Spirit."

There are numerous other incidents that I can't remember the exact dialog for. Usually it happens when a translator decides that he or she wants to add more humor or wit to a patch of dialog.

In the case of Atelier (and every game from Working Designs) this results in the characters becoming more shallow, as they are slowly reduced to a bunch of Hollywood-styled, one-liner spouting gits. Characters who like alcohol are made into chronic alcoholics to serve the whims of the translators, attraction to women becomes perversion, etc.

While these characteristics exist, and while I feel that humor can be produced from them, I find the lackadaisical nature towards character and plot development that this encourages that I dislike. What makes it even more frustrating is the sycophantical nature in which this is praised; usually by those who have no understanding of both languages.

Here is good example in which a joke was created ferreted out by the translators at NIS:

「俺の酒！」
「あれが高かったぞ！」

or literally:
"My alcohol!"
"It was expensive!"

NIS Version goes something like:
"My HOOOOOOCH!"
"That stuff was top-shelf!"

This preserves the literal translation of the original, and manages to be clever. I have no qualms with this.

It is when a characters sigh is "translated" into a terribly, cheesy pick-up lines. When angry generals are made into incompetent louses. Or in the case of Working Designs: when random jokes about Depends, and going blind from masturbating are inserted where they where not present before...

It sometimes makes me wish that we didn't get these games at all.

飽食

2005-06-30T16:20:00.000-08:00

I had serious trouble passing Max 300 today; I even failed Orion .78 twice in a row... I need to stop eating and drop some weight if I'm gonna get better at this game... Pretty pathetic today.

AA'd:
Secret Rendezvous
Gentle Stress Sensual Mix

Only 8 left on MAX1:
Trip Machine Climax
Broken My Heart
Exotic Ethnic
Insertion
Healing Vision Angelic Mix
Orion .78 Civilization Mix
Max 300
Gradiusic Cyber AMD G5 MIX

I'm no where close to AAing: Trip Machine Climax, Insertion, Orion .78, Max 300 or Gradiusic Cyber.

勉強しようかな。。。

2005-06-21T20:58:00.000-08:00

最近、日本語の勉強に際して復習しかしてません。　多分仕事に慣れてたと思いますけど、ちょっと後悔しますね。　もうちょっと、このブログで練習しようと考えてますと、何かゲームに関するフォーラムを日本語で参加しようかなぁ。　最後に寝る前に15分ぐらい漢字や語彙を覚え始めます。

Only two today...
-----------------
Love That Feeling
I feel...

Striving for the 1CC...

2005-06-20T22:26:00.000-08:00

I spent a few hours playing Gigawing 2 and Gigawing Generations today. I think I have a good weekend in each before I hit the 1-credit-clear. Maybe a little less for Generations.

I've done every stage in Gigawing 2 without dying or using bombs, so I ought to be able to pull out a perfect survival-run. I decent scoring-run is still quite far away.

For Generations, I've decided I need to change which ship I use. The yellow one is too fast and I can't get it to reliably manuevre the bullet-spam of the next to end guard (who is substantially harder than the end guard). I'm going to practice using the blue ship, as the red one is too slow, and the green one appears to be a piece of crap. The blue ship has a much wider shot column, so I'll have to adjust a number of my level strategies, but I don't think it'll be a problem.

I'll probably try for Generations first. It's the easier, and more simplistic of the two.

またダンレボに関するポスト

2005-06-19T16:37:00.000-08:00

So, I've been hitting MAX2 pretty hard
--------------------------------------
Celebrate Nite Euro Trance Style
Feeling Of Love
Breakdown
D2R
Conga Feeling
Destiny
Can't Stop Falling In Love
Celebrate Nite
Drifting Away
Ghosts ~Vincent De Moor Remix

I'd play more, but my feet hurt from this absurdly hard floor. I think this leaves me with somewhere around 15 songs to AA on MAX2, with only So Deep and MaxX Unlimited not being As; they're B and C respectively. However, I failed to pass Unlimited the last two times that I've tried it, and I can't seem to make the rythm switch in So Deep. I think it may be time for more practice mode at 1/2 speed. Sticking to my diet wouldn't hurt either.

Though I shouldn't be in a hurry to finish MAX2. All that is remaining on MAX are a bunch of songs that I hate: Secret Rendevous, Graduisic Cyber, Love This Feeling, etc. And well, Extreme is unbelievably bad; though there has been worse.

My take on the DDR US Mixes:

MAX > MAX2 > UltraMix2 > UltraMix = Extreme > Disney > Konamix > DDR

Maybe I'll sound off on the Japanese releases later.

CCR?

2005-06-16T16:47:00.000-08:00

I hate that you can't turn the announcer off in DDR.
I hate that you can't choose event mode and be allowed to fail songs.
I hate that a high grade does not equal a high score.
I hate that Konami won't sell their dance pads outside of with-game bundles.
I hate that 5 year-old, used, Japanese Konami pads are better than the new US ones.

Today's Fallen
--------------
Paranoia KCET ~clean mix~ 2MB
Super Star (From Nonstop Megamix)
Bizarre Love Triangle
Keep On Movin (A*)
Like A Virgin

I had two more full combos, but in Extreme: grade != score. Thus, they weren't counted.

Batman Begins quickie review

2005-06-15T18:30:00.000-08:00

Story - excellent.
Acting - excellent.
Music - excellent.

It was very similar to Frank Miller's The Dark Knight in tone. All the actors seemed to understand their characters particularly well, especially the 5 or 6 main characters. They even managed to keep romance largely disparate from the film; it's nice to see a film in which the motivations of characters can't be traced directly to their privates.

Directing - complete crap.

Seen that Born Supremacy film? That's about what you'll get out of the cinematography. My head still hurts.

Unfortunately this takes what could have been the best movie of the summer and demotes it down to "pretty good".

Slightly more interesting than Star Wars from a straight story perspective, but with no where near Star Wars' level of polish and cinematography.

Neither films can hold a candle to Sin City.

Edit: The director of Batman Begins also did Memento?! Did he suffer some massive head trauma that caused a retarding of his directing skills?

Today's victims:
革命 - I didn't realize that this had both Maniac, and Challenge steps.
Radical Faith - I got the AA without full-combo-ing, which is kind of surprising.

Today's Victims

2005-06-14T17:58:00.000-08:00

- V
- Wild Rush
- Ladies Night

The last too where only A*'s so they'll have to be done again; Wild Rush's didn't even hold as it didn't beat out the previous score.

Despite being really tired I managed to stumble through Maxx300; which is some level of satisfaction. Legend still threw me to the floor.

DDR

2005-06-11T12:48:00.000-08:00

I've been playing a lot of DDR lately. That game is great. What isn't great is the US version of DDR Extreme. The interface is now complete crap, even worse than the XBox releases. The song selection is pathetic, and you still can't turn the announcer completely off. Instead of making the game better they did stupid crap like add characters back in, a stupid challenge mode in which you are rewarded for playing poorly, and about 20 recycled songs. Ugh...

Fortunately, I've been able to climb up past my old level of play. I can pass Max300 consistently with a B or an A. I have passed MaxX Unlimited (but only with a C) and I can get to the last refrain in The Legend of Max.

Across all 3 US PS2 releases I think I probably have 40-50 songs left to get AAs on. Over half of those I know I can do, or have done in previous mixes.

Good stuff.

Star Wars

2005-05-20T06:38:00.000-08:00

I don't really have anything that hasn't been previously said to add to the discussion about this movie. It's good. You should see it.

However, I do have a few comments, potentially spoilerific, to make:

1) The story is held back considerably by the lack of development in the previous two movies. Anakin's fall would be considerably more believable if the "evil Annie" parts in the second film hadn't been so comically bad. To be fair, what is present is a far cry from bad.

2) Apparently all that is needed to kill the greatest Jedi in the universe is to shoot your blaster at them. I guess previously the tactic had been to shoot the lightsaber?

3) "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" <- Most poorly delivered line in the movie, and it comes at one of the most important parts...

Ok. I'm done.

A Tale of Three Sticks

2005-04-26T08:01:00.000-08:00

Yokushin Gigawing Generations came out for PS2 recently, and illuminated my complete and utter lack of a good PS2 joystick. My first thought was just to buy one along with the game. Shipping prices of $40+ convinced me that was a dumb idea.

Plan, the first: Take old DreamCast sticks, purchased used for $5-$10 each, and attach a PlayStation controller board to them. After 3-4 hours of wasting a friend's time, it was concluded that this plan wasn't going to work.

Plan, the second: Purchase Street Fighter 15th Anniversary Joystick, pray that it is good, or easily modifiable. A craptacularly, unresponsibe circle-gate stick, coupled with even worse buttons make for an atrocious combination. However, since the stick uses arcade parts it could be upgraded... if it wasn't uncomfortably large. This was one of the worst arcade sticks I've ever used, and it went right back to the store in preparation for...

Plan, the third: Namco's recently released Tekken 5 has a special edition box which includes the game, a very sly DVD-case designed to sell older editions of the series, and a Hori joystick. It's not their Real Arcade Pro (ie, no Sanwa Stick), but it is a cherry-top, sensitive, square-gate joystick. The buttons are hyper-sensitive. And it's about the same size as my DreamCast sticks. The only downsides are that it has some pretty fugly Tekken characters on it, but that may be fixable.

So, is anyone interested in buying a new copy of Tekken 5. I'll even throw in a DVD case.

Obscurity

2005-04-19T09:53:00.000-08:00

There is some obscure stuff when it comes to Megami Tensei. Random browsing of Japanese sites (looking for info on kyuuyaku, if..., and a place to procure actual Digital Devil Saga books) and stumbled across at least 3 games in the series that I didn't even know existed; one of which was released in the states.

Jack Bros - Of all things, a Virtual Boy game staring Jack Frost, Jackolatern, and Jack The Ripper. A fairly innoculous and plain psuedo-Robotron rip-off. Not bad, just boring.

Giten Megami Tensei Tokyo Mukushiroku - An obscure PC'98 game developed by ASCII. BitTorrent isn't being nearly as helpful with this one as it was with Jack Bros...

Another Bible - Another Last Bible game (bringing the total up to 4 or 5 depending on if you cound Last Bible and Last Bible Special as seperate games). I loved the first one SO much that I haven't gotten around to this.

Crazy Atlus.

Need For Speed Underground

2005-04-18T12:45:00.000-08:00

I've been trying out a lot of different games lately, and I've been meaning to bag on just about all or them.

This is perhaps the most depressingly horrid game that I've played in a long time. I guess most of that can be attributed to me being entirely outside of the target demographic of this game. I hate rap, and everything related to it. Thus, this games soundtrack, graphical stylings, and general atmosphere are beyond intolerable to me.

However, there are a number of gameplay-related complaints that I had with the game. I particularly hate how the game forces you to participate in all aspects, even those that one might not enjoy. I want to race through a city, and slide around corners. I do not want to drag-race. I want to but a turbo on my car, not the ugliest decals ever. I'd like the option to backtrack and redo races that didn't actually suck.

I despise the 10-minute races that the game imposes on you; to say nothing of the series' of 4 10-minute races it starts pulling up later. Given the way the AI works you either win a race in the first lap and keep pulling farther ahead, or you fall behind and never catch up.

This is one of the worst excuses for a game that I've played in recent years. I can't begin to understand its monstrous sucess.

Sin City

2005-04-04T10:29:00.000-08:00

I wasn't originally planning to see this film: it looks like a poorly-done summer-action film, AND it has people like Jessica Alba in it. However, when a friend promised to pay for my ticket if I wound up hating the film, there wasn't much to lose.

Frank Miller is someone who genuinely seems to want to expand the medium of comic books, anyone familiar with The Dark Knight Returns would know this. His books combint deliberate pacing with scenes of explosive violence to create something not entirely removed from film noir.

It is in the realm of being a Frank Miller comic that Sin City suceeds, spectacularly. It is a solid middle-finger to every craptastic film-maker that has said movies can't be like the comics, or novels they are based on. Even X-men and Spiderman, films reknowned for capturing the essence of their paper forms, appear almost heretically changed when placed beside Sin City.

The film is almost entirely an artsy black and white, with color used to accentuate certain elements, just like the comic is. The story is thick with narrative, there is hardly a minute where someone isn't narrating their thoughts. Comic-style angles and poses are continually used. This IS the comic; which is unsurprising as Frank Miller was co-director of this film.

The question then is: "Do you want to watch a Frank Miller comic?"

You might. You might not.

Sin City is one of the most violent films I have ever seen, certainly eclipsing Kill Bill, Dawn of the Dead, and most recent films. It is stylish, wholely unrealistic violence.

You could say that it's exactly what you'd expect from a film titled "Sin City".

The film is divided into three loosely related individual stories. Similar to Big Fish, the film must then endeaver to make multiple intesting mini-movies, it must make us care about each of them, and it must finally make us realize that all of these disparities needed to be told to us at the same time.

It is quite an ambitious task, and one that Sin City performs about as well as Big Fish: better than expected, but not perfect. Where Big Fish had about a half and half mixture of interesting stories that where all tied together very well at the end, Sin City contains 2 great stories, and 1 not-so-great thread. Nothing ever really comes together though. This movie has three seperate stories because no one could make any individual one last for the film, or combine seamlessly with the others.

We have:

1) Revenge for the murder of a whore and the subsequent framing of an ex-con whom she was with.
2) A battle to protect some whores.
3) The sacrifice a honest cop must make to protect a young girl from a child rapist in the corrupt city.

The length of these discriptions corresponds to the quality of them.

The first and the third act are gritty, painful windows into classic film noir tragedy. The middle, self-serving violence, peppered with exploitative nudity, and painful dialog.

Most films that make pretense at being gritty don't do a very good job at it. Their heros are too easy to relate to, we live vicariously through them and wish deep down to be them. It's why Fight Club, Payback, and Dawn of the Dead are fun films. Even when the film ends and the characters are essentially screwed, we look back and think about all the great things our characters got to do and we are satisfied. The same holds true for the second act of Sin City.

The first and third acts rise above this. They are interesting stories, ripe with exciting action scenes. However, never once do we wish to be Detective Hartigan like we'd enjoy stepping into the shoes of Tyler Durden. There is some truly gripping tragedy happening here, and for once it's unflinching. There is nothing enviable about the violence here.

The chance to see such unrelenting, albeit narratively simplistic, tradegy on display is worth the admission. Even with the sensationalist, snore-inducer of a second-act.

Work

2005-03-31T21:53:00.000-08:00

So, yes I'm working a new job. If I didn't have to get up at 6:30-7:00 in the morning I'd probably like it a lot more than I do. As it stands I'm still adjusting to having no free time at all. It's reinforcing my belief that the best job for me would be "retiree".

The 8-hour work day is the stupidest thing ever. You get home and have 4 hours to actually do something before you have to go to bed to get up for the next day. I can understand wanting 40 hours of work from a person a week (though it takes a lot strange substances before the logic truly manifests itself). However, why I can't do this is four 10-hour days (or better, 3 13-hour and 20 minute days) frustrates me to no end.

I don't dislike my job, it is interesting and I like the people I work with. However, it is consuming far to much of my life...

I hate the thought of being defined by my job.

Though if it isn't obvious, I certainly enjoy pretentious bitching.

日本語能力試験の結果

2005-03-29T22:53:00.000-08:00

語彙６８
聴解８９
読解・文法１３７
全部　２９４

５４点超えて合格！

Pop Quiz!

2005-02-23T12:16:00.000-08:00

The following should test your nerdity quotient. Download this MP3.

Who wrote it?
What game is it from?
What system?
Most importantly, why is it important in the grand scheme of videogame music?

Hint 1: While the name of the file does include an abbreviation of the games title (BK) that is the Japanese and European title.

I suppose you could root around on the site the link is to, but where is the fun in that...

Constantine (aka The Prophecy: Matrix Edition)

2005-02-20T23:39:00.000-08:00

The title of this post says it all. Parallels between The Prophecy and Constantine are almost impossible to miss, but for the sake of those who may wish to see the film I won't elaborate.

Similar to The Matrix, Constantine is incredibly stylish, pretty and stars Keanu Reeves. Similar to The Prophecy, the story is all about Angels and Demons. That's more then enough to get me to the theatre.

The director shows his music video origins quite strongly, it's a very well directed film: audio and visually speaking. Plotwise, there is a story and it happens to be quite good (thanks largely to the comic that things are based on). The presentation of that plot leaves much to be desired. It's slapdash at best, and entirely non-sensical at worst. Very much like most comic book adaptations.

So, should you see this movie? If I say: Ofanim, Nefalim, or Balseraph, do you have any idea what I'm talking about? Have you heard of Good Omens? How about In Nomine? Catch my drift?

The Dark Side

2005-02-11T16:15:00.000-08:00

I've been offered a job in a battlefield simulations group working for the Physical Science Laboratory. It's a full-time position, so I'll be cutting back to 2 classes. I'm quite excited: good job, and I can get out of debt.

Yay, for shooters!

2005-02-10T13:07:00.000-08:00

I just beat stage 7 of Gigawing 2 without losing a life or using a bomb. Now, I only need to be able to finish stage 4 that way and I will be able to 1-credit clear (1CC) Gigawing 2. It may be time to look into some video capture equipment...

Massively Multiplayer Online Games

2005-02-08T21:14:00.000-08:00

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the massively multiplayer online genre. City of Heroes, FFXI, and World of Warcraft apparently don't suck; at least not so hard. Especially as Final Fantasy fixed the genre's previous complete lack of music and plot. However, the genre as it stands presently still suffers from some major problems in my opinion:

1) Stupid people.
2) Slow pacing.
3) Constant server problems that extend for many months after launch.
4) Lack of actual entertaining combat.

It shocks me that no one has tried implementing a MMOG that controls like a geniune action-rpg. However, that isn't what I want to talk about.

The first three however could be solved in one fell swoop: let players manage the servers. I could have a server for my friends and refuse to let others in (IE the stupid people).

Since fans would be running the servers the fans could control their configuration. I see a bunch of sliders to control monster level, experience rate, drop rate, etc, etc.

This obviously solves (well, transfers) the problem of down servers.

Then by requiring users to pay for updates online the companies could effectively keep their current subscription model. That is the companies could keep patch/content servers running that people would have to connect to do download the latest updates. This would also allow us to plan MMOGs at LAN parties without a mammoth internet connection.

I see very few downsides to this arrangement. Fans get a better more flexible project then they had before. Companies get to stop maintaining expensive, unreliable server farms while still making buckets of cash through regular updates.

Metroid Prime 2

2005-02-02T01:33:00.000-08:00

I just barely finished Metroid Prime 2. I don't feel strongly enough to write a full review of the game, nor do I feel that it is particularly needed. However, a few thoughts as to why it isn't as good a game as the first one:

1) It's smaller, but not shorter. The world seems to be about two-thirds the size of the first game, however due to some extraordinarily convoluted level design the game is about 5 hours longer than Prime (19 hours compared to 14). Couple this with less varied environments and Prime 2 feels significantly less varied than Prime 1.

2) The Dark World. The game steals Zelda: A Link To The Past's two-sides to the world motif. Unlike in Zelda it doesn't work at all here. The enemies certainly look cool, but the environments are all the same dark, drab purple. Since the geography of the worlds is so similar it starts to feel like this flip-side routine is all a grab at saving time. Additionally, the dark world causes physical harm to you for most of the game, taking the emphasis off of exploration. Decidedly un-Metroid-esque.

3) Keys. In the first game you had to collect 12 keys to fight the end boss. In this game you must collect 18 keys, 3 to gain access to each of the first three bosses, and 9 for the last. In the first game this served to muck up the pacing towards the end, making the exploration, that many might have done willingly, feel forced and unorganic. Prime 2 feels this way for the entire game.

4) Prime has better music. Perhaps saying that Prime has a greater variety of music then Prime 2 is more descriptive. Prime 2's environments are all fairly drab, dark and depressing, and so is nearly all the music. The themes are all to similar to each other; though fortunately, still good.

Metroid Prime 2 does do a few things better than its predecessor:

1) Bosses. There are many (probably a 3-5 fold increase over Prime), and most of them are creative and fun. A few of them are agonizingly long, but none are as bad as the fight with Metroid Prime in the first game.

2) The new gadgets are all pretty spiffy. The screw-attack is a pain to control (it does a highly irritating auto-wall-jump). But the Sonic Visor is a stroke of genius.

I haven't tried the multiplayer. If I do, I'll write about it. But it had better be amazing. I'm sure they took out a lot of content from the single-player game to make it fit in the development time-frame. All the problems with the game could have been solved with more time to increase the variety of the environments, and decrease the dependency on keys. Furthermore, Metroid Prime had the first Metroid game as an unlockable extra. Here we get nothing.

This isn't to say that I didn't enjoy Prime 2. It just isn't as good as the best game of this console generation.

This Blog Needs Not Your Confining Post-Titles!

2005-01-31T09:06:00.000-08:00

I think my interview went fairly well. They were telling people that the hiring process would be beginning next friday, so I guess I'll know by then.

Homework for my Analysis of Algorithms course is quite annoying. It's weekly, and tends to take about 4 hours to actually do, yet it's only worth 10% of our grade while the 10 minute, super-easy, weekly quizzes are 20%.

I wish I had more time to practice Japanese. About the only time I can do so is when I'm on instant messenger while working on homework. I guess that's the consequence of coming back to a country where they expect work out of those in academia.

I think I've played every so-called worthwhile game for the Nintendo DS. It's a piece of crap. The stylus is the worst input device I have ever used. The games are also pretty damn boring, though I should state that I hate Wario Ware on GBA and GC just as must as on the DS.

Not that I intend to buy Sony's our-design-flaws-are-really-intentional-features PSP, but it'd be nice to have a hardware launch for a system that doesn't make me wonder if the designers ever used what they were building.

There are enough cool GBA games that I haven't played that a GBA-Player and a SNES form-factor GC pad may be in my future... Anyone know if they can play import games?

I think this is the bloggiest post I've ever done.

Of Things, Pertaining To Life, Recent

2005-01-25T01:47:00.000-08:00

Returning to America has sapped some of my desire to blog, but perhaps more importantly it has eliminated a lot of my free-time. If anyone still reads this thing, I'll try to update more, but I doubt that it'll happen.

I'm taking graduate-level courses this semester. Which, despite having been a grad. student for a year I have never taken. Thank you Japan. Anyway, I have:

Machine Learning
Advanced Software Engineering
Analysis of Algorithms
Computer Architechture 2

All of my classes seem interesting, which is a surprise given how much I hated the undergraduate software engineering course.

Machine Learning will be very, very difficult, the class is filled with professionals working in the field of simulations. Why they are taking the class, I don't know.

Computer Architecture 2 will be over half presentations by class-members. Not sure how I feel about that yet.

*Really Interesting Segue*

In my quest for a employment I have gotten my work-study re-instated; it didn't do me any good in Japan. This has allowed me to get a job as a graphics programmer for one of the professors. The job is still making its way through the system though.

Additionally, I have an interview this friday for a full-time position at the Physical Science Laboratory this friday. It would be as a JAVA programmer for their simulations team. It sounds interesting, pays well, would allow me to keep going to school, and even pay for me to go to said school.

However, I would have to cut back to 6 or so credits per semester to have any chance of passing. BUT, if might be able to use 9 credits of undergraduate work that I completed-but-did-not-need-for-graduation towards my graduate degree. If I can pull through this semester without dropping any classes that would put me at 21 credits, which leaves 12 credits plus my master's thesis; 3 semesters. If I actually get hired I would expect to have to drop down to 6, maybe 9, credits. This would obviously push back my graduation another semester.

If that falls through, it was mentioned to my by one of the professors that White Sands Missle Range might be looking for some programmers in the 10-15 hours per week range.

Make-up Kanji

2005-01-25T01:19:00.000-08:00

I was prompted to examine some kanji textbooks for 3 and 4th graders. Here is what I was missing.

章ーショウーchapter, sectionー文章ーぶんしょうーsentence
童ーわらべ、ドウーchildー児童ーじどうーjuvenile
欠ーか・ける、か・く、ケツーto lackー出欠ーしゅっけつーprescense or absence
衣ーころも、イーclothingー衣服ーいふくーclothes
刷ーす・る、サツーto printー印刷ーいんさつーprinting
囲ーかこ・む、かこ・う、イーto surroundー周囲ーしゅういーsurroundings
児ージ、ニ、コーchildー育児ーいくじーchild-rearing
臣ーシンーadvisorー家臣ーかしんーretainer
芽ーめ、ガーsproutー発芽ーはつが（する）ーto burgeon
径ーケイーdiameterー直径ーちょっけいーdiameter
牧ーまき、ボクーpastureー牧草ーぼくそうーpasture
隊ータイーgroupー軍隊ーぐんたいーmilitary
巣ーす、ソウーnestー巣立ちーすだちーbecoming independent
挙ーあ・げる、あ・がる、キョーraiseー挙手ーきょしゅーsalute
害ーガイーdamageー公害ーこうがいーpollution
粉ーこな、フンーpowderー粉末ーふんまつーfine powder
脈ーミャクーpulseー動脈ーどうみゃくーartery
唱ーとな・える、ショウーto chantー合唱ーがっしょう（する）ーchorus
票ーヒョウーmarkー伝票ーでんぴょうーvoucher
陸ーリクーlandー大陸ーたいりくーcontinent
給ーキュウーgiftー給食ーきゅうしょく（する）ーto provide a meal
景ーケイーseeー光景ーこうけいーspectacle
旗ーはた、キーflagー国旗ーこっきーnational flag
種ーたね、シューseedー種子ーしゅしーpit
積ーつ・む、つ・もる、セキーto pileー面積ーめんせきーarea
養ーやしな・う、ヨウーto maintainー休養ーきゅうようーrecreation

Back Home - 帰国

2005-01-10T06:13:00.000-08:00

I am back in the U.S. now. I'm even back in Las Cruces. It's kind of strange being back after 9 months. It certainly didn't help that the first American city that I visited was Detroit; motto: we hate you.

Nothing seems to have changed, at least nothing significant. It's like the changes that occur between seasons of Buffy, Angel, or 24; cosmetic and unimportant.

I still haven't registered for classes, I haven't found a job, and I haven't finished moving in yet. But I guess I'm making progress.

Without further procrastination, here are my truncated answers to the questions I've been asked 9 million times already:

How was Japan? Expensive, and very Japanese.

How was Japanese school? Worthless.

How where the people? Boys = stupid. Girls = awesome. Exempting the other exchange students of course. The older generation is also a totally different matter.

What do you miss about Japan? Coco Ichibanya Curry House, Yoshinoya, Yuta and my other friends, endless opportunities to practice Japanese, Book Off and miscellaneous used videogame stores.

What do you not miss about Japan? Expensive crap, being repeatedly shafted by Chukyo University, my horrendously crappy apartment, and people who think that I am obligated to teach them english.

Do you want to/plan to go back? At some point. I would like to return to Japan after I finish my master's degree. Perhaps to teach english and earn money.

Are you glad to be back? I guess. I'm glad not to be piling up dept. I'm glad that people don't treat me like I'm retarded. It's good to see friends, and have a place that feels like a home; my crappy apartment in Japan never did. I think I just needed a break from studying Japanese all the time, and that's why I'm glad to be back.

Magius redux and other random thoughts

2005-01-01T04:11:00.000-08:00

So, the more I read about this Magius game system the more it seems like some sort of role-playing game for retards; the typical anime fan. The game system is far from universal as the skill set is retooled for each setting it is ran in. Additionally, there is not a character creation system. At all. I presume this is done to allow the game to be played by one's lonely self. This makes it somewhere between a real RPG and choose-your-own-adventure book. In other words complete crap. But still better then Big Eyes Small Mouth.

I'm going to Osaka tomorrow, and since these RPG books are cheap and easy to read I bought another one for the bus-trip. It's called Arianrhod, and it does appear to be an actual RPG.

Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne is one of the most difficult RPGs I have ever played. Apparently it was toned down drastically for the Maniacs re-release; the one that came to America.

Dodonpachi Daioujou is also one of the more difficult shooters that can be found. Those who insist that games are getting easier just aren't looking in the right places...

Even when Japanese television is in special end-of-the-year special pull-out-the-stops mode, it sucks hardcore. I can't understand how anyone can be entertained by it. If I wasn't a guest in another person's house right now...

Spiderman 1 is much much better than Spiderman 2. Unfortunately, it still has Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane and is thus nothing more than a mildly entertaining action movie. The green goblin also looks like a retard. However, the action scenes where infinitely better then the over-directed crap that infested the second film. I don't actually regret seeing it.

The Dark Side Of The Moon - 伊勢神宮・浜島

2004-12-30T03:46:00.000-08:00

So, I've been away from a computer for about 5 days. Traveled down to 浜島 (Hamajima), which is about 3 hours into the next prefecture by local train. It's quite the little resort town; fairly reminiscent of Cloud Croft, New Mexico, with a beach. As you can see, it's got quite the view.

I stayed with Yuta's family. I learned how to play shogi, but not very well. It's definitely a game that I'd like to continue learning. Imagine chess in which captured pieces can be placed back on the board and you are halfway there.
I also had a chance to eat King-crab. Pretty good stuff.
I've additionally heard all the Kansai-ben I need to, and I'm going to Osaka in 4 days.

The only cultural outing we went on was a soujourn to 伊勢神宮 (Isejingu). It's the birthplace of the Japanese people, according to Shinto. The closest Shintou equivalent of God, 天照 (Amaterasu), was "born" there. Apparently this is best celebrated every year with a LOT of sake.

Back To The Grind

2004-12-30T03:13:00.000-08:00

I've taken plenty of time off from studying. It's time to head back to the grindstone:

息ーいき、ソクーbreath, lifeー消息ーしょうそくーthe word, news
党ートウーpartyー党員ーとういんーparty member
勇ーいさ・む、ユウーto be braveー勇気ーゆうきーcourage
迎ーむか・える、ゲイーto meetー歓迎ーかんげい（する）ーto welcome
極ーきわ・まる、キョクーextremelyー究極ーきゅうきょく（の）ーsupreme
移ーうつ・す、うつ・る、シャーto reflect, copyー写真ーしゃしんーpicture
等ーひと・しい、トウーequalー平等ーびょうどうーequal
任ーまか・せる、ニンーto leave toー任天堂ーにんてんどうーNintendo
担ーにな・う、かつぐ、タンーto shoulder, carry on your backー負担ーふたんーresponsibility
荒ーあ・れる、あ・らす、コウーto destroyー荒野ーこうやーwasteland
余ーあま・る、ヨーleftoverー余儀ないーよぎないーunavoidable
型ーかた、ケイーform, moldー文型ーぶんけいーsentence pattern
周ーまわ・り、シュウーaroundー円周ーえんしゅうーcircumference
袋ーふくろ、タイーbag
率ーひき・いる、リツーto command, rateー円周率ーえんしゅうりつーpi
張ーは・る、チョウーto stretchー出張ーしゅっちょうーbusiness trip
値ーあたい、チーdeserveー価値ーかちーvalue
珍ーめずら・しい、めずら・しがる、チンーstrangeー珍味ーちんみーdelicacy
途ーズ、トーroadー一途ーいちずーsingle-minded
恵ーめぐ・む、ケイーto bless, show mercyー恩恵ーおんけいーgrace, priveledge
府ーフーgovernment, warehouseー政府ーせいふーgovernment
漁ーぎょーhuntー漁業ーぎょぎょうーfishery
庁ーチョウーbuildingー県庁ーけんちょうーprefectural office
尊ーたっと・ぶ、ソンーto revereー尊敬ーそんけい（する）ーto respect
保ーたも・つ、ホーto preserveー保険ーほけんーinsurance
警ーケイーwarn, adviseー警告ーけいこくーwarning
状ージョウーform, figureー状態ーじょうたいーstate, condition
製ーセイーmakeー製品ーせいひんーproduct

Magius - マギウス

2004-12-20T05:41:00.000-08:00

While attempting to find a The Slayers in Book Off today I ran across what is apparently the Japanese equivalent of GURPS (Generic Universal Role Playing System), MAGIUS (Multiple Assignable Game Interface for Universal Systems). The "Start Book" was 250 yen. The wallet was no match for the fully aroused nerd-brain.

I've read the basic rule section of the book (about 30 pages). I found it very interesting to read, so I'm going to summarize here on the off-chance that someone out there in reader-land feels similarly.

*Magius' characters have 3 main statistics (body, mental, technique) that govern two types of skills (skill, and specialized skill).
*Statistics never increase. Skill levels can.
*A character may use a skill untrained, while they may not do so with a specialized skill; there is no other difference.
*Each skill has a corresponding statistic.
*All checks are done on 6-sided dice.
*To perform a check for a untrained skill, one rolls 2 6-sided dice, adds them together and then adds in the characters relevant statistic. If the result meets or exceeds the set Goal Level, the check suceeds.
*For trained skills you roll 3 6-sided dice, choose 2, adds those two together, plus the relevant statistic, plus the level of the skill and compare it with the Goal Level.
*The DM may rule that certain actions are impossible and not allow checks; instant failure.

I haven't gotten to anything about how the statistics are initially defined, not anything about hit points, mind points, contests, aquiring more skill points, equipment, starting skill points, etc.

Other observations:
*The book is written in fairly simple Japanese, I did not have to stop reading once in 30 pages to look up a word.
*There is a lot of english words brandied about: NPC, PC, Scenario, RPG, Skill, Check, Body, Mental, Technique, etc.
*I get the impression that this is more than loosely based on at least one English game. I don't know which one however.
*Playing by yourself, not in a group, is frequently discussed and alluded to...
*The rules only appear to extend another 40 pages. The remaining 200 are dedicated to an scenario/setting.
*The book is copyright 1995 with a suggested retail price of 430 yen.
*Other available MAGIUS supplements include: Record of Lodoss War, Slayers, Tenchi Muyo, Kamen Rider, Evangelion, Pocket Gals, Monster Maker Acadamy, Dragon Half, Sword World, and Five Dragons. Most of these carry a suggested retail of 700 yen; placing them at 350 yen at Book Off.
*Over half of the available books where "Replays". That is, transcripts of campaigns. They sound as if they could be interesting, horrible, or interestingly horrible. I'm not quite sure as to their actual use though.

I'll write more, when I've read more.

Nerd Stuff

2004-12-14T21:55:00.000-08:00

Are you familiar with http://www.zophar.net? If not then I highly recommend you go there and find your way to the PSF sections, a spiffy Playstation and Playstation 2 audio driver or sorts. Long story short, you can download lots of game soundtracks.

The music files: http://www.zophar.net/psf/
The software you need: http://www.neillcorlett.com/he/

24

2004-12-13T04:59:00.000-08:00

Brief overview of the tv series 24. If you don't know, 24 is a TV series that proceeds in realtime (1 episode is 1 hour of time) each season covers one day. It focuses on the Los Angeles Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU).

Season 1 (Good) - An assassination plot threatens the life of the first serious Black contender for the presidency of the United States of America. An amazing cast, great pacing, a very good story and some insanely high, for a TV-show, production values are the highlights. The bad includes the adventures of Kim Bauer, the tragically stupid daughter of CTU agent Jack Bauer; it's a contrived stab at giving young high-school aged people a character to relate to. Despite this, 24 still has the best first season of any TV series I have ever seen.

Season 2 (Better) - A terrorist nuclear strike threatens L.A. All the characters return, keeping the cast one of the best on TV. Kim's retarded adventures continue to drag on the series. A far superior story make season 2 even better than season 1.

Season 3 (Best) - A biological agent is about to be released in L.A. Kim's started working at CTU, thus removing her retarded adventures from the story. The seasoned cast pulls off one of the best seasons of television ever created. Emotions run unusually high, and memorable scenes are frequent. Of particular merit is the continuing evolution of David Palmer (the previously mentioned black candidate) and his presidency.

I can't recommend 24 high enough. The acting, storytelling, and production values run circles around nearly everything else out there. Production values are orders of magnitude above Buffy, Angel, or CSI. Acting is in a class of its own. The story is wildly different from those told in Buffy and Angel. 24 utterly decimates the first several seasons of Buffy. It's level of addictive story-telling is about on par with seasons 2-5 of Angel, and 3-5 of Buffy.

Best. TV-Show. On-The-Air.

Howl's Moving Castle

2004-12-12T20:07:00.000-08:00

I finished reading the book, "Howl's Moving Castle". I've already made my feeling for the film clear, and thought that I'd weigh in on the book: it's not any good either. It's far to slow, plodding, and bereft of action to make a good children's book, and it's far to predictable, shallow, and poorly written to make it a book recommendable for adults.

The book is massively different from the film. For every good thing contained in the book that wasn't carried over to the film, there is something that I am glad was left out. The story is certainly more cohesive in the novel. This leaves it less random, which is good, but it exposes the plot for the boring tripe that it is. Even more so than the film, the book attempts to be about character development over plot development; mostly based on the amount of dialog that doesn't directly go into the plot. However, the characters don't develop. Howl doesn't change over the course of the entire book, neither does Sophie, or any of the other characters.

The plot revolves around the Witch of the Waste's plot for Howl, and the mystery that goes with it. Most of this was brushed over in the film, but it was covered, so I knew almost all of it. I suppose this ruined whatever surprise there was. However, judging by what surprises weren't spoiled by the movie, I didn't miss much.

At 330 pages of large-print, double-spaced font, there isn't a lot to the book. It makes the movie look even worse, that it couldn't properly incorporate a sizable portion of the novel. In the end both the film and the book come out to be simply sub-par. The film is random and incomprehensible. The book is plodding and insipid. There are some interesting characters contained in both, and the seeds of a good story, but perhaps more capable entertainers are needed to bring them to a level of cohesion.

The Incredibles and PSP vs. DS

2004-12-07T09:03:00.000-08:00

I went and saw the new Pixar film "The Incredibles" recently. I thought it was excellent. I don't really have much else to say about it. I felt it was better than Finding Nemo and Toy Story 2, and until I have more time to think about it: about as good as Toy Story and Monsters Inc.

So, the Nintendo DS appears to be a piece of crap. Played with some demo units in Toys R Us. Pokemon Dash = Crap. I Would Die For You (aka. Feel The Magic) = Crap. Touch! Made in Wario = not crap, but quality. Mario 64 DS = great game on some terrible hardware. I have not seen a single good use for two screens, and certainly not for the touch-screen.

Now, the PSP, while I haven't played it, actually has some launch titles that might be good. Metal Gear Acid is a Metal Gear game, and so I have high hopes. Gahrgav Trilogy is by Falcom, makers of Y's and Legend of Heroes. I expect 2D RPG perfection. Then we have Ridge Racer, and Armored Core. Both should be okay.

A year ago when the PSP was revealed, when asked for comment about what they would do to counter the PSP, Nintendo asked, "What will Sony do to make it successful?" Answer: "Not make a hand-held that sucks."

Grrrrrrr....

2004-12-05T01:29:00.000-08:00

It has come to my attention that I have the "Dominator" version of Shin Megami Tensei 2. Appartently this is Japanese for "made by crappy PC game programmers". The game has a few bugs:

-If you unequip an item, that item is usually permanently discarded.
-Summoned monsters use incorrect amounts of magicite; making it nigh impossible to keep them in play.
-Bosses do not give magicite.
-Weapons and stat-increasing items found in treasure chests or recovered after fights are not placed in your inventory.
-Group attacks that hit your group ALWAYS hit your main character TWICE.
-Guns are ineffective against bosses; bosses that they should in fact decimate.
-Auto-battle (which is supposed to mimic the last turn) randomly switches characters off of guns onto melee attacks.
-Guns which are supposed to have multiple attacks do not work if you are fighting more than one type of enemy.
-Summon Monsters leave play for no reason.
-If you do not have 9 Magic Stones (common healing item) you can't level up.
-When negotiating with monsters, yes occaisionally means no, and vice-versa.
-Monsters do not seem to respond appropriately to negotiations.
-another 20 or so that I'm not going to bother translation.

The game also contains no less than 8 critical bugs; they freeze the system. Several of these bugs are during required story scenes. There are additional bugs having to do with random deletion of save files(!) and plot triggers not working.

Even better though is that there is no way to tell which version you have from the box, though a new version will have a differences in the shrink wrap. Looking at the disc will yield results by looking at the print-run numbers on the underside of the disc or the placement of the Atlus logo.

Unfortunately I don't know what I'm going to do. I played about 11 hours of the game before I finally figured out that something was really screwy (it was the losing items when unequiping, and not retaining status-increasing items). I've kind of screwed myself into a corner from which it may take about 3-5 hours of leveling to emerge; if I can find a non-buggy version.

Fixed hardware and outside quality control (Sony in this case) are supposed to prevent crap like this from happening. I think I'm going to sit here and fume for a while.

The Climactic Conclusion ・終わっちゃった

2004-12-04T22:14:00.000-08:00

The great test was this morning. 35 minutes of vocabulary/chinese characters, 40 minutes of listening, and 75 minutes of grammar/reading. If I had to give an honest guess I'd say that I was around 65% on vocab, 75% on listening, and 40% on grammar. This yields a failing grade, or barring that, one that is just barely passing.

I find it ironic though. I consider reading to be my strong suit. I can't understand my teachers well, I certainly can't watch Japanese television (even children's programming) without getting exceedingly frustrated at my lack of ability; I can't even converse well with other Japanese people. However, according to this test I will have a more than adequate listening ability.

Contrast this with the fact that I can read manga with some effort, and have played through 5 RPGs. Yet, according to this test I will said to have little to no ability.

I don't object to questions, or the style of them. I object to the difficulty. The listening section is far too simple. For the level 2 test it is stated that, "The examinee has the ability to converse about matters of a general nature." I've done my fair share of conversing about matter of general natures. I've listen in classes pertaining to matters unrelated to general nature-ness. I have never heard a Japanese person speak like the idiots on the test, it's unnatural, slow and stilted. It is not indicative of someone who is half-way to mastering Japanese. However, in all my reading, including those for classes, I have never ran into most of the grammar tested today.

In short, the listening was geared towards an elementary level, and the reading towards an advanced. I know my ability and I should have gotten a 70 on the reading, and a 12 on the listening... Maybe I'm only bitching because I didn't do as well as I wanted to, and my pride is hurt. Be that as it may, I'm still right; and more importantly: they are still wrong.

At least now I can get back to studying Japanese that is actually useful. By that I mean: Kanji.

Howl's Moving Castle - ハウルの動く城

2004-11-30T04:19:00.000-08:00

Recently, I attended a late showing Hayao Miyazaki's adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones' novel "Howl's Moving Castle". Miyazaki is the writer director behind such animated films as: My Neighbor Totoro, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away. He's living legend in the animation industry. Respected in Japan like Walt Disney is in America. His movies are often the first thing that people enumerate when discussing why animated films are just as good as live-action.

His newest film reconfirms something I've known for a long time: he's lost it. Howl's Moving Castle is not a good movie. It has good parts, but in the end it is a failure as a film. It's beautiful sounding mess. A gorgeously animated dud; Miyazaki actually turned out some original looking characters this time around instead of his usual stock ones. It's not enough.

Princess Mononoke was the beginning of the end, if you will. The film had an interesting setting, and characters. It then proceeded to eschew developing any of these characters to become incredibly ambitious, and in the end left the screen with an ending that was almost unbelievable its stupidity. However, Mononoke only really lost it within the last half an hour, and true to Studio Ghibli tradition it was gorgeously animated with an exemplary soundtrack. It was a fun train wreck to watch.

Spirited Away was next. An interesting story. A great story, for a TV miniseries. It contained about 5 hours worth of character developement all compressed into 2 hours. It led to a complete lack of empathy from the audience, and comparisons that tried to liken the film to Alice and Wonderland due to it's bizarre, non-sensical, almost deus ex machina pacing. A movie that I enjoyed watching once, but have no intention of seeing again.

This brings us to Howl's Moving Castle, originally a multi-hundred page novel. Anyone familiar with Miyazaki's directing style knows that he likes to draw things out at best and his films are painfully boring at worst. This style leads to a film that couldn't capture a quarter of what is contained in the book. This leads to a story that is disconnected at the best of times, and completely illogical and the worst.

What the film does best is to explore the personality of the leads: Howl and Sophie. They are geniune, unique characters. Possessing of desires, fears, and weaknesses, they are interesting to behold; save for some atrocious acting on the part of Sophie's actress.

However, the story in which they are enveloped makes little sense. There's a war, a violent war, of course the reason for this war is never disclosed. Nor are the identities of the participants, or any sort of reason as to why Howl or Sophie care about its outcome. Sophie is cursed to inhabit the body of a 90-year-old woman, a curse whose effect ebbs and flows, inexplicably. Howl has a seemingly random transformation in the middle of the film, it is pointless, unexplained, and makes no difference to the story, or the relationships of the characters.

One gets the impression that the original novel must be very good, and if appropriate screen-time had been allocated, so would this film.

Angels and Demons - Dan Brown

2004-11-30T03:56:00.000-08:00

Dan Brown is an author who has been getting a lot of attention as of late. His book, "The Da Vinci Code" was, if I may abuse understatement, popular. Now, he has a prequel: "Angels and Demons".

Reading Angels and Demons is akin to reading two books: a very good history book, and a very bad Tom Clancy novel.

The history book concerns itself with obscure Roman Catholic mythos. Organizations such as the Illuminati are discussed in detail. It might be better to describe it as a large collection of Roman Catholic trivia, but it's interesting. Brown is adept in his descriptions, they are delivered in a succinct, dry style that is similar to H.P. Lovecraft.

Unfortunately, unlike Lovecraft, Dan Brown has no imagination. The story that surrounds the trivia starts out strong enough, but quickly deteriorates into something that would be better served in a summer Hollywood blockbuster.

He unsuccessfully attempts to borrow storytelling devices at every turn. A time limit very similar to 24's is introduced. However as we don't read the book in realtime like we watch 24, it's not nearly as effective, and only serves to act as chapter breaks. A standard buddy-movie archetype is rigidly adhered to between the two main characters. Why have clever, descriptive writing when you can just have one character lecture the other anytime you need some exposition?

Angels and Demons contains numerous scenes that will make any consumer of popular culture grimace. From characters hanging from balconies to faking drowning, it's all here, and it's all bad.

It bears repeating: what sets Brown's novel apart from complete trash is the amount of historical research he has put into this book. It is all down with such aplomb that the book is actually worth reading, but just barely. I would personally love to read a history book writen by Brown. However, until the conspiracy surrounding these books (you know, the one stating that they're good) is dispelled it seems that I'll have to endure Brown's dellusions of being a novelist, instead of the historian that he is so obviously called to be.

真・女神転生 - The True Reincarnation of The Goddess?

2004-11-27T13:07:00.000-08:00

I remember playing Revolutions: Persona (女神異聞録：ペルソナ "The Record of Another Strange Tale of the Goddess: Persona" - Atlus shouldn't be allowed to name their own games...)as one of the first several RPGs I bought for the Playstation (after: Wild Arms, Final Fantasy 7, and Suikoden). A number of things stood out to me about Persona: the atrocious script, the hidious CG cutscenes, boring spell animations, and time-consuming battles. In contrast, it did posess a brilliant, unusual soundtrack, a superb, strange visual design, and an extremely solid, yet weird battle system. In fact, unusual, strange and weird are probably the three best adjectives to describe any game in the Megami Tensei series (aka Megaten, SMT, Revolutions, or Digital Devil Story).

The original Shin Megami Tensei (not to be confused with Megami Tensei, Majin Tensei, or Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei) was a fairly early Super Famicom release. It was a standard first-person dungeon crawl that happened to be set in modern-day Tokyo. Of course it wasn't just plain, old Tokyo, it was demon-infested, about-to-be-blasted-with-ICBM-Missles-by-offshore-United-States-warships Tokyo.

This is fairly indicative of the standard Shin Megami Tensei setting: a modern Japanese city on the verge of collapse, and filled with demons. It's one of several defining characteristic of the series. This along with Devil Summoning forms the crux of what most people think of when they hear Shin Megami Tensei; that is, if it isn't: "what?".

The origins of the series began at Namco (back when they where called Namcot) with a pair of Famicom RPGs titled Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei 1 and 2. The idea being is that you have this computer, and it can, umh, control, summon and store the emissaries of heaven, hell, and numerous other beings of myth (collectively called Devils in the game). Provided you can convince them to agree to it. To fill out the ranks of your party of intrepid adventurers you negotiation with the enemy is necessary. Be it attempting to sway them to your side, convince them to give you money and items, or just plain leave you alone.

The MegaTen games, particularly those games canonized in the series-proper, revolve around conflict between Law and Chaos. You have the choice to follow Law, Chaos, or potentially even Neutrality. Despite being released in the early 90s Shin Megami Tensei brings the concept of real choice to the table. A so called innovations of later RPGs such as Fable (2004), and Knights of The Old Republic (2003). Every decision you make will push you towards law or chaos. Every devil you use as an ally will affect your alignment. The priests you choose to be your healers. The order in which you approach the in game events. The enemies you kill as opposed to those upon whom you exercise diplomacy. Everything pushes you in one way or the other.

At first glance it may just seem to be Good vs. Evil, but after a few hours things become substatially more difficult to call. The forces of Chaos, led by Lui Cypher (no really, I'm not making that one up), wish to allow ultimate freedom. Of course this means that the strong will do as they wish: oppress the weak. However, the solution presented by the side of Law, known as YHWH, method of dealing with Chaos involves genocide with guns, or genocide by way of tactical nuclear missles.

The heavy emphasis on the choices of the player is one of the game's strongest points. An extraordinary battle system is the other. Battle's are fast, and for the most part challenging. An auto-battle function allows you to speed through the easy fights. Couple this with the negotiating system, the ability to fuse multiple Devils together to form new breeds, dozens of unique items, and a leveling system that the as the player you have complete control over, and you arrive back at the heavy emphasis on choice.

This Cause & Effect style of game design piked my obsessive compulsive gene and led me to the path of Law. And thus, what was the most frustrating part of the game, in which Shin Megami Tensei falls prey to a fairly common problem in the Role Playing Games: the end. The final stretch is stiflingly linear, bereft or save points, overflowing with random encounters, and most damningly, boring.

It all goes down in 16 floor dungeon, 8 above the ground and 8 below. For good measure, the encounter rate is doubled. There is are two save points; both on the ground floor. As you will climb the tower several times, especially if you eschew the use of GameFAQs, the whole ordeal takes somewhere around 8 hours to finish.

With a game time of 38 hours, and the number of dungeons outside of the final one numbering at over 30 this final stretch not only serves to smash the spry pacing that the game had, but it also serves to shine a bright light on all of Shin Megami Tensei's faults:

The game's difficulty curve peaks during the first half. So much so, that I only needed 3, of 6, characters to defeat the final guard. This is a big problem in dungeon crawls such as this where the main goals is power-leveling. Tweaking your party, acquiring the best gear, learning what spells to use, how to negotiate, etc. But when all the fighting, negotiating, item-creation, and demon-fusing are for naught because a lack of difficulty makes it hardly worth the time, what's to keep the game interesting?

For a Super NES game the graphics have aged fairly well, mostly because there is very little animation, mostly still frames. They are, however, of a relatively high-quality. The Playstation version received much needed smooth scrolling dungeons. They are, however, still madeningly repetitive in their presentation, and thus incredibly easy to get lost within. The game at least contains an automap, however it must be accessed through the menu or placed on screen, for a limited time, with a spell. This is only a large problem in the larger dungeons.

Due to the fact that SMT was an early Super Famicom release, its soundtrack is spartan by today's standards. What music is there is quite good. It's heavy techno, almost industrial, but sent through a Super Famicom's sound chip. It's not bad, I'm quite fond of it, but it does start to wear thin in larger dungeons.

Despite all the innovation contained in the non-linear narrative, it is a very sparse narative. If you've played the Baldur's Gate games the presentation and style of story-telling is quite similar. Concessions need to be made for the non-linear nature of the game, however Final Fantasy 6 did it better, albeit a few years later.

These points are all made relatively moot before the fact that the Megaten series has always filled a very specific niche in gaming. A niche that, if it is not apparent, appeals directly to me. It has a soundtrack that I very much enjoy, a fast and flexible battle-system, and an edgy unique setting. I am more than willing to forgive the games all their faults, but must objectively admit that the game is unlikely to appeal to a wide audience. It is a dungeon crawl. If leveling, and exploration in RPGs aren't your thing, nothing will make you like this series. If you think the idea of modern-day turn-based RPG sounds silly, please skip this one.

Additionally as a fan-translated ROM of the Super NES version is the only way to play the game in english, it becomes even harder to recommend the game to anyone that is not already excited to play it. The Super NES games 3D dungeons support a blistering frame-rate of about 5 per second and are headache inducing, the map is painful to access, it contains numerous bugs, and the menus are slow and poorly laid out. Most of these where fixed in the Japanese-only Playstation release.

The highest praise I can give the game is that I was motivated me to keep playing, even with my level of Japanese comprehension, even with the crappy final dungeon. I was engrossed enough that I started playing Shin Megami Tensei 2 the day after I finished part 1.

If you are at all interested in the game the Super NES version can be had for about $2, with the PSX version runnning as high as $20, though it can be easily found for about $10.

Final Value
-----------
Value to Adam - $50
Value to most gamers - $20

Bonus: MegaTen games listed by system

Famicom
-------
Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Story
Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Story 2

MSX
---
Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Story

Super Famicom
-------------
Shin Megami Tensei
Shin Megami Tensei 2
Shin Megami Tensei if...
Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei
Majin Tensei
Majin Tensei 2
Shin Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible 3

PC-Engine CD
------------
Shin Megami Tensei

Gameboy/Gameboy Color
---------------------
Shin Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible
Shin Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible 2
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children
Shin Megami Tensei: Card Summoner

Game Gear
---------
Shin Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible
Shin Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible Special

Gameboy Advance
---------------
Shin Megami Tensei
Shin Megami Tensei 2
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children: Red
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children: Black
Shin Megami Tensei: Puzzle

Saturn
------
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner
Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
Majin Tensei: Ronde
Compedium of Devils 1 & 2
Soul Hackers: Bonus Dungeons

Playstation 1/2
---------------
Shin Megami Tensei
Shin Megami Tensei 2
Shin Megami Tensei if...
Shin Megami Tensei 3
Shin Megami Tensei 3 Maniacs
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children
Megami Ibunroku: Persona
Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner
Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2

XBox
----
Shin Megami Tensei NINE

Rapid-fire Initial Thoughts on Capcom Fighting Jam

2004-11-21T01:33:00.000-08:00

The local arcade purchased a copy of Capcom Fighting Jam, and I decided to give it a whirl. I was mainly looking to see if they eliminated the issues that I had with their recent offerings. Namely:

1) Horrid presentation (offenders: everything after Alpha 3; not including Street Fighter 3). Games like Capcom vs SNK and Marvel vs Capcom look and sound horrible for the amount of technology available to the developers. Part of the reason to buy new fighters is for the graphical upgrade. Ever since Guilty Gear X came out all Capcom games except Street Fighter 3 have looked embarrassingly bad; Street Fighter 3 insane animation quality helps offset the insane resolution a detail of Guilty Gear X.

2) Balanced for Tekken players (offenders: every damn Vs. game). I hate combos, I can live with 2 or 3 moves strung together, but when you have Marvel Vs Capcom levels of two and three digit combos, my soul bleeds.

3) Special moves becoming more and more difficult to perform (offernders: Street Fighter 3). I prefer playing the games for strategy and reaction, not being able to twirl the stick in overly-precise, time-constrained motions.

Capcom Fighting Jam looks better then all of Capcom's fighters to date that don't have "Street Fighter 3" in the title. Almost all of the characters have had their resolutions increased (but not enough), and frames of animation have been added (but not enough). The backgrounds look fantastic. The music and sound effects where similar to those in Street Fighter 3 Third Strike. Finally, in order to cover up for the lack of animation ALL the Street Fighter 3 characters have had their animations significantly slashed.

I only played the game single player with Guile and Ryu so I can't speak in definite terms about the balance. However, despite picking two characters there is no in-round tag-team action. Coupled with the fact that Capcom has repeatedly stated that a high-degree of balance was the first goal of the game, and you have a game with some potential to become competitive like Third Strike. Time, and players much more skilled than me, will tell.

Moves are about as difficult to perform as Third Strike. This makes me unhappy.

If, as expected, my crappy writing has not made my thoughts clear, I feel that the graphics are acceptable, but only barely, the balance is initially promising, and the play control is, once again, stupidly difficult. This averages out to a fighting game that while I am interested in playing more (unlike Guilty Gear, or anything with Vs. in the title) I'm not expecting to like it like Garou: Mark of the Wolves, or Alpha 2 and 3.

It's really sad. I think that Capcom could produce a fantastic fighting game if they'd just stop doing everything half-assed. Re-do your animation in high-res, and make it smooth. Take some cues from King of Fighters and Guilty Gear about how special-move input should work. Then balance, balance, balance.

Of Happenings, Little

2004-11-17T03:22:00.000-08:00

I put up 80 kilograms on the benchpress today, and with my weight holding steady (grrr...) at 77 kilos that fulfills one of my fitness goals of being able to lift my body weight.

I've been taking some practice tests for the Proficiency Exam, and averaging approximately:

Kanji/Vocabulary - 68%
Listening Comprehension - 85%
Reading Comprehension/Grammar - 50%

The way these three are weighted winds of giving me about a 60% on the practice exams (245/400) which is exactly the cut-off point. While it's kind of nice to know that I might be able to pass the exam, one jerk-off test author will sink me. I've still got about 2 1/2 weeks until The Day. I'm going to review all my kanji, and study a whole ton of grammar.

Note to the developers of Wild Arms Alter Code F: If you don't cut it out with the auto-scrolling text, I'm afraid we're going not going to be able to see each other anymore!

I had to analyse a very esoteric piece of jazz music for my Music and Information class. I hated it the first time I heard it, however after mapping out the melody visually, as was the assignment, I came to find it really interesting. At least the trumpet. I still the the keyboardist, bassist, and drummer are having seizures while holding their instruments.

This week Pop-Culture Class was combined with the World Cultures Class. The subject matter: American Comic strips. The teacher covered Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, Doonesbury, and some other REALLY old stuff like The Yellow Kid. However, the bulk of the class was spent explaining humor methods of The Far-Side. Quite and interesting class, and it was nice to be able to understand things faster than the other studentds. It also taught me one thing: the Japanese have absolutely no appreciation of morbid humor. Also: Gary Larson is, was, and will always be: a genius.

最後。。。？

2004-11-17T02:59:00.000-08:00

This will be my final kanji update before the Proficiency Test. I'm going to fall about 100-150 short of the necessary 1000 characters. However, I do think that I know about 1100 characters, just the CORRECT set of characters. Basically, I want time to review in these final two weeks before my judgement day.

件ーくだん、ケンーeventー事件ーじけんーcase, incident
想ーおも・う、ソウーthinkー感想ーかんそうーimpression, thoughts
倍ーバイーtimesー倍音ーばいおんーovertone, harmonic
師ーシーinstructorー教師ーきょうしーteacher
略ーほぼ、リャクーabout, approximatelyー省略ーしょうりゃくーabbreviation
貯ーた・める、たくわ・える、チョーto storeー貯金ーちょきんーsavings
滴ーしずく、したた・る、テキーdropletー水滴ーすいてきーwater droplet
絶ーた・える、た・やす、ゼツーto die outー気絶ーきぜつ（する）ーto faint
暴ーあば・れる、ボウーoutburstー乱暴ーらんぼう（する）ーto employ violence
震ーふる・う、ふる・える、シンーto shakeー地震ーじしんーearthquake
修ーおさ・める、シュウーto masterー修士ーしゅうしーmaster's degree
鈍ーにぶ・い、にぶ・る、ドンーbluntー鈍器ーどんきーblunt weapon
任ーまか・せる、まか・す、ニンーto entrust toー責任ーせきにんーresponsibility
条ージョウーclauseー条件ーじょうけんーcondition
頂ーいただ・く、チョウーreceiveー頂戴ーちょうだいー"give to me"
叫ーさけ・ぶ、キョウーshoutー絶叫ーぜっきょう（する）ーscream
況ーま・して、キョウーnot to mention, conditionー状況ーじょうきょうーstate of affairs
犯ーおか・す、ハンーto rape, to commitー犯人ーはんにんーcriminal
評ーヒョウーevaluateー評価ーひょうか（する）ーto evaluate
輸ーユーtradeー輸出ーゆしゅつ（する）ーto export
球ーたま、キュウーballー地球ーちきゅうーEarth
兵ーヘイーwarriorー兵士ーへいしーsoldier
固ーかた・まる、かた・める、コーhardenー断固ーだんこ（な）ーresolute
努ーつと・める、ドーto serveー努力ーどりょく（する）ーto employ great effort
精ーセイーenergy, vitalityー受精ーじゅせい（する）ーto fertilize

A New Kind of Japanese

2004-11-09T04:15:00.000-08:00

I've been studying a new kind of speech pattern in Japanese. I guess you could say that it's kinda like 尊敬語 (Japanese respect speech). It's called 旅行会社語 (travel-company-ese). It's also similar to the respectful style of speech in Japanese in that you really only swap in and out words. Take for example (the left is what the travel company will tell you, the right is the appropriate translation):

"We have tickets to El Paso" = "We do not have tickets to El Paso"
"54,000 yen" = "246,000 yen"
"We do not have tickets to Albuquerque" = "We have tickets to Albuquerque"

Similar to spoken Japanese, Travel-Company-ese uses a lot of omission. Thake the following for example (again left is Travel-Company-ese and right is the full sentence):

"You can pay with a credit card" = "You can pay with a credit card from the moon, but not from Earth"
"One-way tickets to Las Vegas are 120,000 yen" = "One-way tickets to Las Vegas are 120,000 yen and round-trip ones are 80,000."

This concludes today's lesson on Travel-Company-ese, there may be a quiz next week, so study hard.

白糸の滝・富士山

2004-11-06T04:07:00.000-08:00

Rising at 6 in the morning and riding a bus for a cummulative total of about 10 hours has given me the most stereotypical of Japanese tourist experiences: a trip to Mt. Fuji; in addition to a quick stop at Shiraito Falls. I think I'll let pictures do the talking, as I had approximately zero revelations apart from the fact that I still hate buses.

Mt. Fuji from the parking lot of Shimaito Falls. Definitely the most majestic thing I've seen during my sojourn in Japan. It really is surrounded in fog nearly all the time.

Shimaito Falls. Definitely the prettiest place on the trip. The falls are about 5 times wider that are depicted in this picture. The name roughly translates to "White Threaded Falls", a little overly poetic, but I guess that is Japan.

Fuji from 2600 meters. I thought it was an appropriate height. I'd never been on a volcannic mountain before, especially not above the tree line. It's quite barren and dry up close, not altogether disimilar from New Mexico.

また漢字じゃん！

2004-11-06T03:40:00.000-08:00

処ーコ、ショーplace, dealー対処ーたいしょ（する）ーto cope
巨ーキョーbigー巨大ーきょだいーenormous
職ーショクーemploymentー求職ーきゅうしょく（する）ーjob hunting
減ーへ・る、へ・らす、ゲンーdecreaseー削減ーさくげん（する）ーcut, reduce
郵ーユウーpostal serviceー郵便ーゆうびんーmail
勢ーいきお・い、セイーmomentumー大勢ーおおぜいーcrowd
軒ーのき、ケンーeave, counter for houses
判ーわか・る、ハンーunderstand, judgeー公判ーこうはんーtrial
資ーシーassetsー出資ーしゅっし（する）ーinvestment
軟ーやわ・らかい、ナンーsoftー柔軟ーじゅうなんーflexible
麦ーむぎ、バクーgrainー小麦ーこむぎーwheat
武ーたけし、ブーbraveー武器ーぶきーweapon
技ーわざ、ギーact, craftー演技ーえんぎーacting, performance
布ーぬの、フーclothー画布ーがふーcanvas
貧ーまず・しい、ビンーpoorー貧乏ーびんぼうーpoor
腹ーはら、フクーstomachー空腹ーくうふくーhunger
旧ーふる・い、もと、キュウーoldー復旧ーふっきゅう（する）ーreconstruction
令ーレイーorderー命令ーめいれいーorder
収ーおさ・める、おさ・まる、シュウーto sheathー吸収ーきゅうしゅう（する）ーto absorb
照ーて・る、て・らす、ショウーto illuminateー照明ーしょうめいーlighting

高山・白川郷

2004-11-02T08:44:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I participated in an expedition to Takayama and Shirokawagou. Both are quite historic; with Shirokawago being recognized by the United Nations as having significant cultural heritage to the entire world.

Takayama is about 3 hours from Nagoya, in the neighboring prefecture of Gifu. We spend about 5 hours wandering around the city. It's well known for having a rediculous amount of temples and shrines. A 3.5 kilometer path connects about 15 of them. As if to accentuate this fact we stayed at a youth hostel that was run by a Buddhist Temple (天照寺ーtenshouji). It was enormous and quite the experience. Made all the more interesting by two facts:

1) there was porn in the bathroom.
B) We had Sharp SF-1 televisions in our rooms. For the un-incredibly nerdy, these where televisions constructed by Sharp under contract with Nintendo of Japan. They had build in Super Famicoms in the top. Controller ports where situated at the bottom of the set. Unfortunately, we didn't know this ahead of time, and all SF games where left languishing in Nagoya. How we could have used some retro action...

Takayama is also famous for: Apples, ramen, and beef. It did not dissappoint on any of these. Apples where enormous, clocking in at around 5 inches in diameter. Additionally, the ramen was hands down the best I'd ever had, and at 550 yen it was on the cheap side too. Finally, the beef wasn't a record setter, but as it was good, and Chukyo paid for it, I am unable to find fault.

Shirokawagou is an ancient Japanese village. It contains: many traditional rice-fields that are still in use, a trout stream that was diverted through the center of town, a shrine, and dozens of old-style, insta-burn, thatched roof domiciles. As it's a hard place to describe, and as I'm feeling lazy I won't.

Instead I'll end with the first, and potentially last, picture for this blog.

漢字

2004-11-01T05:58:00.000-08:00

昇ーのぼ・る、ショウーto climbー昇給ーしょうきゅう（する）ーto promote
断ーことわ・る、た・つ、ダンーrefuse, severー切断ーせつだん（する）ーamputate
偶ーグウーaccidentally, evenー偶然ーぐうぜんーcoincidence
棒ーボウーstick, rodー泥棒ーどろぼうーburglar
般ーパンーall, carrierー一般ーいっぱんーgeneral
伸ーの・ブル、の・ばす、の・べる、の・す、シンーstretch, lengthen, smooth outー追伸ーついしんーpost script
群ーむ・れる、むら・がる、グンーflock, groupー魚群ーぎょぐんーschool of fish
溶ーと・ける、と・かす、ヨウーmeltー溶岩ーようがんーlava
副ーそ・える、そ・う、フクーduplicate, copyー副大統領ーふくだいとうりょうーvice-president
康ーコウーease, peaceー健康ーけんこうーhealthy
姓ーセイーsurnameー姓名ーせいめいーfullname
標ーしるし、ヒョウーsign, markー指標ーしひょうーindex
芸ーゲイーtechnique, artー芸術ーげいじゅつーfine art
効ーき・く、コウーmerit, effectー無効ーむこうーinvalid
続ーつづ・く、つづ・ける、ゾクーcontinueー連続ーれんぞくーserial
迷ーまよ・う、メイーto get lostー迷路ーめいろーmaze
担ーかつ・ぐ、にな・う、タンーto shoulder, to carry on the backー担架ーたんかーstretcher

More On Foreign Languages

2004-10-24T09:10:00.000-08:00

A while back I received an email from my father that in was mainly just some text written by an anonymous language expert. I'll reprint it here because: it's interesting, and I want to respond to it.

“Languages have a huge, seemingly endless supply of new words, idiomatic expressions, and unpredictable grammatical constructions, and they come from unfamiliar systems of politeness and culture…..To be perfectly honest, teaching a foreign language to adult learners is just about as frustrating as learning one is. We are a profession with an almost spectacular level of failure. Large numbers of bright-eyed, excited students enter our classes every semester, eager to ‘learn Arabic’ or some other language, but despite our best efforts something doesn’t click with a good percentage of those students and they end up quitting at some point well shy of reaching their goal.

I would like to refer specifically to two of the major sources of frustration in learning a new language as an adult. The first is that direct teaching and learning of the facts about the language has limited usefulness in actually learning the language. This realization dawns on students slowly, and at first it can even anger them. When they have put in hours memorizing vocabulary and grammar rules, they really expect there to be an immediate payoff, but it doesn’t happen that way. Knowing a language is not just knowing facts about the language—it goes well beyond that to being able to understand and use the language like a native speaker does in real time and in authentic cultural situations.

It is much harder to teach for this kind of learning. The fact of the matter is, we don’t really know how to do it so that it is 100 percent successful, given our spectacular failure rate. It does seem clear, however, that the methods that work the best are a combination of a little direct teaching of the facts and a lot off creating situations that allow students to practice using the language inside and outside of class. These latter methods are relatively indirect, and they don’t have an immediate payoff. Students often feel frustrated and feel they are not making progress. The students who eventually do make the break to a kind of fluency, however, are the ones who throw themselves into these activities and simply try to communication with abandon, working around and through their frustration until a breakthrough finally comes. There is a kind of mystery involved here: moving from a theoretical knowledge to a practical one, figuring out how to develop those habits of tongue, mind, and heart that allow them to function as native speakers do. It is not a direct process.

The second frustration of adult language learning I would like to refer to is the dawning realization that comes to honest learners—even after they are very good at the language—that there is an almost infinite amount left to learn. Even very fluent speakers are constantly made aware of how imperfect their accent is, how many words they still don’t know, how awkward their constructions are, and how unnatural their production is. The gulf between even a very proficient speaker and a native speaker seem huge indeed.

I give myself as an example of this phenomenon. People tell me that I speak Arabic well, and I happen to be an expert on the complicated system of Arabic case markings. Arabs have often told me that I know Arabic better than they do when they notice how good I am at the case markings. But, of course, they are completely wrong, and this becomes embarrassingly apparent as soon as I open my mouth. I do things that I know are wrong. I find myself using incorrect forms in the heat of a conversation, breaking rules that I have known for years. I know the rule as well as I know anything, but somehow I still don’t know it well enough. Why do native speakers never make mistakes like the ones I make? What is the difference between their knowledge and mine? Why does theirs seem to be so ‘deep wired,’ so much a part of their very beings that nothing can come out of their mouths that isn’t in accord with it, whereas my knowledge seems to be more superficial, more imposed, less a part of me? Even when I manage to produce something that is grammatically perfect, why does it take so much intellectual and emotional energy from me to do so, so much active energy from me to do so, so much active managing and monitoring of my performance, where native speakers produce perfect language without really thinking about it at all?

One of the clearest results of language teaching research is that when a student becomes satisfied with what he knows, when he feels he ‘knows the language,’ he almost immediately ceases to make progress.”

The first point I would like to raise is how whole-heartedly I agree with the final paragraph. After living with three exchange students, dating a Japanese girl for 3 years, and now studying in Japan with others who are trying to learn Japanese, I can tell you that it is one-hundred percent true. I remember when Misato, the afforementioned girlfriend, stopped learning English. It was about a year into our relationship, she just seemed to have learned all the grammar she wanted to use and from that point on her command of the english language entered a kind of stasis. She continued to amass a vocabulary, quite a substantial one, but the way she spoke, her command of the language, stayed the same.

It is because I understand this fact so very well that I am as hard on myself as I am. Most of my friends here compliment me on my Japanese, my father has told me how difficult the language is, and friends back in America have told me that the kinds of words I am posting in this blog are relatively advanced. My own analysis of my Japanese ability compared with the other exchange students leads me to believe that I have improved the most out of our group of over 20 students. However, the moment I allow myself to truly acknowledge these facts is not only the instant that I become a truly arrogant bastard, but it is the juncture at which my Japanese skills begin to plateau.

I'm still improving because I refuse to stop smashing my head against this language. I can spend entire days with people that speak no english and have very few communication problems. I can keep up with Professor Moria's theories on the neurosis of horror films; albeit with a dictionary. This is irrelevant to me. There is something that I can still learn. I haven't mastered those elusive "10-footers" of Japanese, and the fact that I refuse to quit before I do propels me forward.

We have now arrived at the point where my opinion differs dramatically from this author. Similar to most modern linguists the author derides the usefulness of classroom learning and heaps praise upon "immersion-learning". I find both views to be impressively short-sighted, weak-minded, and above all, wrong.

There is nothing wrong with immersion. It is a useful learning tool. That is all it is. There is nothing magical about it. Sitting on a corner in Paris will not teach me French. Living in Japan will not teach you Japanese, and if you need proof go to any private English-language school in this country. To me, immersion is useful for cemmenting the concepts I have learned in the classroom. I do not glean words and grammatical constructs from thin air; I learn them by studying. It is through the usage of those concepts that I commit their usage and meaning to memory.

In disecting this piece I can not help but try to draw attention to a major failing I have noticed in every foreign language program: a twisted moral desire on the part of teachers to teach "good" Japanese (or English, Spanish, French, etc.).

The author implies that the goal of language programs is to prepare students to go and live in a country that speaks the language of their choice. My language of choice was obviously Japanese. I spend most of my time speaking Japanese with my friends, or failing to understand its usage in the mass media. Do my friends speak politely? Does the TV stay far away from sex and violence? Do Japanese teachers really believe that keigo is important?

Ask yourself a question: do my friends speak like characters from Dawson's Creek, or from a Kevin Smith movie? You find me a college age student who doesn't hear about sex, drugs, and violence everyday. One who doesn't here: fuck, shit, piss, dick, cocksucker, etc as often as "please" and "thank you", and I'll show you a college student living in a religious commune.

Despite any and all moral objections that people have to those topics and words, they ARE in wide usage. It is not possible to interact in english-speaking society, as a native would, without a knowledge of those words. However, the authors of language textbooks, dictionaries, and the teachers of language courses would have us believe so. I hired you to teach me Japanese, not impose your moralistic idea of what the language ought to be.

I can't look up words that I hear every day because I am bound by the morals of whoever compiled my dictionary. The english students here can't easily speak with us because the teachers won't even teach them something as innoculous as: "what's up?"; to say nothing of "fuck off!". Which is about all I have to say to most language instructors.

再漢字

2004-10-22T20:20:00.000-08:00

I am starting to be driven by blind panic in regards to the crazy test coming up. I think I need to at least go over all of the kanji that will be on the test. To do so I intend to introduce myself to as many kanji as possible, and as fast as possible. This will be fun...

募ーつの・る、ボーto recruitー応募ーおうぼ（する）ーsubscription, application
賞ーほ・める、ショウーprize, praiseー一等賞ーいっとうしょうー1st place prize, blue ribbon
停ーと・まる、と・める、テイーstopーバス停ーばすていーbus stop
拾ーひろ・う、シュウ、ジュウーpick up (person, cab)ー拾得ーしゅうとく（する）ーpick up
枯ーか・れる、か・らす、コーto witherー栄枯ーえいこーvicissitudes
財ーザイーproperty, wealthー家財ーかざいーhousehold goods
清ーきよ・める、きよ・まる、セイーpurify, cleanseー清純ーせいじゅんーinnocence
議ーギーdeliberationー会議ーかいぎーmeeting
皮ーかわ、ヒーhide, leather皮膚ーひふーskin
秒ービョウーsecond (1/60 minute)
鉱ーコウーoreウラン鉱ーうらんこうーuranium ore
算ーサンーcalculateー計算ーけいさん（する）ーto calculate
録ーロクーrecord登録ーとうろく（する）ーto register
示ーしめ・す、ジーto point out暗示ーあんじ（する）ーto hint, suggest
捕ーつか・まる、つか・まえる、ホーto catch逮捕ーたいほ（する）ーto arrest
操ーか・える、ソウーto change体操ーたいそう（する）ーto stretch (muscles)
傾ーかたむ・く、かたむ・ける、ケイーto leanー傾斜ーけいしゃーleaning
求ーもと・める、キュウーto demand, requestー欲求ーよっきゅうーdesire
整ーととの・う、ととの・える、セイーto put in orderー整頓ーせいとん（する）ーto arrange
誤ーあやま・る、ゴーto screw upー誤解ーごかい（する）ーto misunderstand

A New Blog

2004-10-21T00:32:00.000-08:00

I've started another blog. This one is entirely dedicated to my experience learning to programming OpenGL. Check it out if you are so inclined: http://illucia-gl.blogspot.com/

The Strangest Feeling...

2004-10-20T22:28:00.000-08:00

... is sitting in a class taught in a language that you do not understand, and being the first one to understand what the teacher is talking about. Sometimes I love my math degree.

We where discussing methods of image-filtering for use with robots to assist in image recognition. One of the methods we covered was a edge-finding algorithm that used partial differentiation over color-intensity to isolate edges.

More concretely: each pixel (x,y) has a function f(x,y) to determine its intensity. Define the vector (fx(x,y),fy(x,y)), with fx and fy denoting the partial derivatives with respect to x and y. The length of the vector denotes the intensity of the color; the brightness. The direction of the vector coincides with the direction of the most rapid color shifting; similar to a heat-flow diagram. Finally, critical points in this function are indicative of edges. That is to say, the function will pick out when colors move from dark->light or from dark->light. There's a bit more to it. Namely, what f(x,y) IS, and the order and degree to which partial differentiation is required.

Cool stuff.

Two In One Day!

2004-10-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

There are a couple things that I want to talk about, but as I like using seperate posts to cover seperate topics I'll just have to get back to them at some other time.

The topic of this post? Random life-related crap. Feel free to skip it.

I've finally been to all of my classes, and I have to say that I actually like them all. This was rare for me at NMSU when I only had to choose 4-6 classes a semester. As I'm now taking 11 it's pretty shocking.

Computer Graphics. A graduate level computer graphics course. A Japanese graduate level computer graphics course. A Japanese graduate level computer graphics course taught by a professor whose last name should be Laissez-Faire. His response to an inquiry as to how we would be graded: "uh... wasn't really planning on it." To the subject matter of the class: "uh... what do you want to learn?" Looks like I'm going to have study-time for OpenGL once a week. Not necessarily a bad thing.

There's a saying in Japanese, that as I remember it: 地震・台風・雷・親父. Roughly translated: Earthquake, Typhoon, Thunder, Father. It's said in relation to the four most terrifying things in all of Japan. During my stay here I have experienced: living for a week with the father of a girl I just broke up with, 5 earthquakes in the span of two days, lightning striking a car outside my window, and now TWIN typhoons. If this is as bad as the country can get, I have got to say, I'm dissappointed.

If I hear one more: "地震が怖かったねぇ？", or "すごい雨から、やめとくわ。" something is getting hurt. If you are in Hiroshima, you have permission to worry about the typhoons. Worrying about Typhoon's in Nagoya is about as useful as worrying about hurricanes in Dallas. If you where present in Kobe for "the big one" you are allowed to be afraid of earthquakes. Not an earthquake that fails to knock over my pile of empty Aquarius bottles.

I hung out at Yuta's all day today as school was canceled (すごい雨！). She has cable, and as such I had the opportunity to injest some American cartoon's dubbed into Japanese. Specifically old Mickey Mouse cartoon's. Quick rundown:

Mickey - Sounds pretty darn similar to his english voice.
Donald - I can't tell the difference. It's frightening.
Goofy - Similar to our Goofy, if he was voiced by Dan Castenella.
Minnie, Daisy, and every other female character Sounds exactly like Mine Fujiko. Not quite the mental image I want when I hear a cute talking animal.

I think I hate Mario Kart. I used to be able to say, with incredble amounts of pompousness, that I only liked the SNES version; not these new hippy N64, Gameboy or Gamecube ones. It doesn't have random spin-outs like the N64, or a sadistic sense of item distribution like the Gamecube version. However, it still irritated me immensly. Cheating AI, over-riding luck factor, and crappy controls. At least the Super Famicom version has good music.

Still no absentee ballot for the election, nor have I received my test ticket for the Japanese Proficiency Test. I sense frustration in the future.

漢字

2004-10-20T09:35:00.000-08:00

畳ーたた・む、ジョウーto fold, tatami mat, counter for tatami mat
炭ーすみ、タンーcharcoalー石炭ーせきたんーcoal
深ーふか・い、シンーdeepー深海ーしんかいーdeep-sea
健ーすこ・やか、ケンーhealthー健康ーけんこうーhealth
憎ーにく・む、ゾウーto hateー憎悪ーぞうおーhatred
拝ーおが・む、ハイーto prayー参拝ーさんぱいーworship
劇ーゲキーperformanceー演劇ーえんげき（する）ーto perform
建ーた・てる、ケンーto buildー建設ーけんせつ（する）ーto construct
初ーはじ・める、ショーto beginー最初ーさいしょーthe first
級ーキュウー"level"ー上級ーじょうきゅうーadvanced level
浴ーあ・びる、ヨクーto wash oneselfー入浴ーにゅうよく（する）ーto enter a bath
救ーすく・う、キュウーto saveー救急車ーきゅうきゅうしゃーambulence
競ーきそ・う、キョウーto competeー競争ーきょうそう（する）ーto compete
偶ーたま、グウーoccaisionallyー偶数ーぐうすうーeven number
膚ーはだ、フーskinー皮膚ーひふーskin
舟ーふね、シュウーboatー舟運ーしゅううんーshipping by sea
存ーソンーto be aware ofー存在ーそんざい（する）ーto exist
署ーショーofficeー警察署ーけいさつしょーpolice station
刻ーきざ・む、コクーto chop, wittleー刻印ーこくいんーcarved seal

Tunnel Vision

2004-10-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

It was about one in the morning, I was standing in the middle of a mile-long tunnel in Toyota city, crouched in the corner of a emergency pull-over zone. Hunched over so as to be less visible to potential patrol cars, I clasped a digital camera in one hand, and a cel-phone, waiting for the signal, in the other. Not possessing neither an international liscense, nor a car in which to strap myself into, I had been chosen to record the heat for posterity.

The signal was supposed to be the simultaneous sounding of the horns of both the RX-7 and the 180SX. However, the combination of semi-truck and tunnel acoustics had rendered the klaxxons inaudible.

So, there I was, staring at my celphone. Impressed that I was getting a signal inside a mountain, and anxiously awaiting the one-ring-signal that would indicate the start of the race.

I got the call. Stepped out around the corner and shot some 30 seconds of video, about 3 seconds of which where identifiable as being cars engaged in a drag race, and then sat back in my corner to wait 10 minutes for the drivers to circle back around and pick me up.

Afterwards a strapped myself into the back of the 180 to take an in-car version. It was really bumpy.

Finally we got to return home, around two.

Drag Racing is the most boring thing you could possibly do at speeds in excess of 120 miles an hour.

Frisking Kanji

2004-10-11T00:14:00.000-08:00

沸ーわ・く、わ・かす、フツーboilー沸々ーふつふつーsimmer
装ーよそお・う、ソウーto dress, disguiseー改装ーかいそうーremodel
孫ーまご、ソンーgrandchildー子孫ーしそんーdescendants,offspring
召ーめ・す、ショウーcallー召し上がるーめしあがるーeat(honorific)ー召喚ーしょうかん（する）ーto summon
燃ーも・える、も・やす、ネンーburnー可燃ーかねんーinflammable
権ーケン、ゴンーright, authorityー人権ーじんけんーhuman rights
杯ーさかずき、ハイーwineglassー乾杯ーかんぱいーto make a toast
承ーうけたまわ・る、ショウーlisten(honorific)ー承知ーしょうち（する）ーto realize
採ーと・る、サイーpickー採掘ーさいくつーmining
福ーフクーblessingー福利ーふくりーwelfare

Hard Off

2004-10-06T06:38:00.000-08:00

There's a chain of pawn shops in Japan called Hard Off. The unique thing about them is that they have large "junk" sections: electronic items that might work, but haven't been tested and thus carry no guarantee.

I found a DC Joystick. 210 yen. It works perfectly. I believe the word that's hip with the kids is: "booyah"

Look a New Post!

2004-10-05T20:43:00.000-08:00

I tend to post here when I have free time. During school, I don't. Lousy excuse, I know. But I don't care. I do have a couple things to talk about, but I'll break them up into seperate posts; I like mine to remain somewhat topical.

So, I've been to all my classes, save for Computer Graphics.

Intermediate Japanese - I'm mostly taking this class for some listening practice and because I love the teacher. She does an excellent job of explaining nuances of Japanese, in Japanese, to people with little skill at Japanese. I find it very impressive. I don't usually learn much, though sometimes I get some good clarification.

Advanced Japanese - My most tiring class by a large margin. Like Intermediate, and unlike the other classes, this one is 3 hours. The first 2 hours is spent introducing grammatical structures, usually 6-10 a week. The last hour is spent on reading practice. Really, really hard reading practice. Two weeks ago we read an article about the founder of Panasonic, and his ideas about spirituality. I can't tell you what they are. This week we read about a Japanese physist who did work into proving the existance of atoms, and other such particles that couldn't be seen with conventional microscopes.

Japanese History - The teacher isn't very good: she speaks very quitely, refuses to take control of the classroom, and stops every minute to check if the gaijin are following along. We're studying the rise of the Kamakura Bakufu right now. At least the class seems easy.

Fitness - We lift heavy objects.

Music and Information - We've been analyzing musical structure from a very abstract level. Attempting to break down patterns in melody and identify musical components from, again, a very abstract level. Interesting but we haven't really done anything yet.

Robot Software - This seems to be an overview of what software there is for controlling robots. No programming. No engineering. Nothing remotely technical. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Media Collaborations - Only five of us showed up to class, all foreigners. The teacher speaks excellent English, and is very good at explaining things in Japanese. We'll be investigating methods of distance-learning. I've only had the class once.

Contemporary Popular Culture - Professor Moria has the most difficult Japanese in the world to understand. He has a high, nasal voice, and he speaks very fast. Similar to my History teacher he'll translate select words into english for the gaijin. However, where our history teacher will say something akin to: "Genji, with the help of his little brother, murdered the 3 sons of a competing clan" and then stop and say: "Little brother. Can you understand it?" Moria-sensei on the other hand will stop and translate such gems as: transcendentalism, dualism, and surface-level cross-referencing. I REALLY wish I could understand what he's talking about.

We've been investigating level's of parody in popular culture. We started with easy examples like Najaa's blatant stealing from Aliens and Alice and Wonderland. An obvious parody. Then we observed Evangelions simultaneous pastiche (yay, for learning English in Japan!) of Kamen Rider, and Synchronized Swimming. Finally we've studied some dualist homages. Dualistic in the sense that there are some VERY subtle hommages and some blatently obvious ones. We took Nadia as an example (I HATE how he always uses Gainax's work!). There is a scene where Nadia and "popular main-characters" are reunited with the red-shirt crew of the Nautilus. The scene is a very very big homage to Space Cruiser Yamato. Obvious elements are that the Captains of both ships look identical, as does the enemy that is soon encountered. The subtle elements include an elevator that tilts 30 degrees when it is engaged, and the angle the Captains face is shown during the launch sequence...

I'm not sure that I agree that some of the more subtle stuff isn't just coincidence, but it is interesting.

Anime Musings

2004-09-26T08:51:00.000-08:00

Despite being in the country it's made in, I don't watch a lot of anime. However, that being said, I still watch it occaisionally. Here's a short, poorly written roundup:

Hunter X Hunter: GI Final - Fortunately this is the last of the Greed Island story because it was really really lame. Combine Dragon Ball with Pokemon and a steadily decreasing budget and you have the Greed Island crap. If the series manages to survive after this hopefully the interesting characters (Leorio, Kurapika, The Geneiryodan, etc) will return under the guise of a decent story.

Initial D 4th Stage - It's Initial D, the 4th time. If you liked the previous adventures of the resident racing genius Takumi than you'll like this. The only thing that's changed this time around is that there isn't quite as much europop (boo!) and the show actually looks good (yay!). I was hoping that the show would begin to focus on racer's other than Takumi, as was strongly hinted at in 3rd Stage, but it doesn't.

Rumik Theatre Series 1 - Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap. Maison Ikkoku - Every-Thing-Good-In-It = Rumik Theatre 1. Though all those annoying characters might make for some pretty convincing "use contraceptives" ads...

Rumik Theatre Series 2 - This is Rumiko Takahashi's Mermaid's Forest. It's basically a vampire show with mermaid's replacing "the lonely ones". It's awfully low-budget in nearly every way. However, the episodes, while not serial, are generally interesting, dark, and feature some good plot twists. The exception would be the final 2 episodes, a remake (in the George Lucas sense) of Mermaid's Scar; it isn't pretty.

Samurai Champloo - It's from the creator of Cowboy Bebop and Witch Hunter Robin, so why don't I like it? The "champloo" in this case refers to the melding of rap/r&b music and design with a fairly drab, poorly scripted samurai script. I hate rap. So, all that leaves this show with is some positively gorgeous animation and fight scenes. Gorgeous enough to watch the show for; though not enough to tolerate the opening credits.

Fullmetal Alchemist - Brilliant. Superb. Fantastic. I will write more when the series finishes in a week or two. It BETTER have a good ending.

Pleasure Most Fine

2004-09-24T23:16:00.000-08:00

I had SO much FUN this morning. I got to wake up at 10 on saturday (JOY!), put on a suit (RAPTURE!), and go be interviewed for a scholarship (YAHOO!). It was so TOTALLY awesome!

There where 12 interviewers, 4 observers, and the interview group. That's right children! They increased the fun-quotient by making the interview as competitive as possible! Fortunately I only had to go up against Chinese people working on the doctoral dissertations in fields the interviewers cared about. I'm also glad that they took the time to make sure that I was with a group of Chinese people that had lived in the country for 4 years, thus speaking fluent Japanese. I would have felt REALLY uncomfortable if I was communicating on the same level as my colleagues! Thanks guys!

I'm so exorbitantly PLEASED with my performance.

Life In The Fast Lane

2004-09-24T22:56:00.000-08:00

Last night we proved without a doubt that boys from every country in the world (USA, Japan, Finland and France) are stupid, and want to die. We went drag-racing. The word "illegal" should probably be in there somewhere.

We had a Nissan 180 SX Single Turbo and a Mazda Twin Turbo RX-7. Horsepower-wise they where probably about equal, somewhere around 180, but the RX-7 was significantly lighter. Well, that's not entirely true; when both turbos kick in on the RX-7 it has significantly more power, but that requires a little more red-lining than the driver seemed to be willing to do.

We raced quarter-mile of course. On average our times where from about 14.5-16 seconds. It was kinda fun. If I'd been driving it might have been very fun.

A Return to Normalcy

2004-09-23T00:33:00.000-08:00

I'm gonna use this blog as a study aid again. Today, the topic is grammar... of justice! These are from what the Japanese Proficiency Test deems: Grammatically Functional Language (文法的な機能語)

～あげく・～あげくに "After, upon"
Indicates a that after the preceeding clause, and implicitly because of it, the following clause is true.
考えたあげく、その計画を実行にうつした。
"After considering it, I implemented the plan"
コンピューターを物色したあげく、友達より＄３００安いで買った。
"After looking around for a computer, I was able to buy it for $300 less that my friend."
It's usage is similar to 結果 in Japanese. 話した結果 "Upon talking" 考えた結果 "after thinking"
Another usage of あげく is in the phrase あげくのはてに which is roughly equivalent to "on top of all that," あげくのはてにクビになった。 "On top of all that, I was fired."

～あまり・～あまりにも "so... that..., too much"
This is quite different from the あまり that means "not really". This one corresponds very closely with 過ぎる to over-do. It can be appended to the base form of verbs, or to nouns with the の particle.
私はその晩こうふんのあまり寝れなかった。"I was so excited that night that I couldn't sleep."
私は喜びのあまり思わず隣の人に抱きついてしまった。"I was so excited that without thinking I embraced the person next to me."

More to come soon...

D-Day

2004-09-21T01:29:00.000-08:00

Today, my first day of class, could be described as: good. I only had two classes: Advanced Japanese followed by Advanced Japanese. The teacher seems pretty good. I loved the grammar lesson, but got lost in the reading. Someone I vehemently dislike also looked like a complete idiot in that class! Karma in action!

I found out that I should have enough money in my account to pay for my phonebill. Of courses I also found out that transportation should be about 10,600 yen, so I'm still worse off then when I started...

It certainly feels good to be doing something again. Even though I studied some an average of 10-20 hours a week this summer, it still felt like I being worthless.

Tomorrow I have a meeting with Carl Stone, who will tell me what I need to do to catch up for his music class. Fortunately, the class doesn't meet for over a week, so I ought to have time to do that.

With that, I'm gonna heat up some curry, and watch some Full-Metal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師).

The Eve of Impending Doom

2004-09-20T08:16:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow school starts. The first day of a new semester. I don't know if that well mean more or less (if that's possible) updates. Things I've learned this summer:

1) That I don't really like traveling. Especially if it isn't with good friends. This may have something to do with the next point...
2) Traveling is REALLY expensive.
3) Around 200 kanji; which is, coincidentally, no where NEAR enough.
4) Some 400 vocabulary words. Again, no where NEAR enough.
5) A few grammar constructs. See previous statements.
6) More reasons to continue loathing the opposite sex; and if I haven't told you already, I'm not about too.
7) Just as many reasons to continue being embarrased for my own gender; see above.
8) that I hate The Financial Aid Department.
9) E.S.P. Galuda is great.
10) Chukyo teachers are un-contactable

Still ahead of me:

1) 250 kanji
2) 1500-2000 vocabulary words
3) ~200 grammar constructs; functional words (機能語) for you linguists.
4) interview for scholarship
5) potential part-time job hunting
6) if I don't here from NMSU Financial Aid soon: voodoo.

I've noticed that when I am in GENIUNELY bad mood, I don't post here. So: cynisism, bitching, and constant whining = content. Silence on the western front = something's up.

Meh.

I have about 12,000 yen to my name. There are two weeks until I get more money. I have to put some money in my account to cover my phone bill (appoximately 2000) pay for transportation to Toyota campus (round-a-bout 8000), and buy food (somewhere around 2000-4000). If that sounds a little tight, well, that would be because it is. I would have severe trouble being empathetic to a mass-murder that took place at NMSU administration. Something else not factored into that amount: doing stuff. It is literally impossible to do anything without spending money in this country. So, it looks like I may be stuck at home during the first few weeks of school... ugh. Murderous. Rage. Building!

Schedule Musings

2004-09-15T22:57:00.000-08:00

I got a quite a bit done on my schedule for the fall semester today. Right now I have 9 maybe 10 courses lined up:

-2 Intermediate Japanese courses. These where awesome last semester, so they should be awesome again.
-Contemporary Pop-culture. I took Advanced Japanese instead of this class last semester; I really regret that.
-Fitness. Heavy lifting for justice!
-Japanese History. I have no idea what to expect.
-Computer Graphics. It's a graduate-level course taught by a teacher that has CG as his emphasis. Needless to say, I'm very excited.
-Information and Music. A class about computer sound and music. I'm VERY excited about this one. It's taught by Carl Stone; a famous, live-computer-music performer.
-Communication Media. CS-tinted research into teaching foreign-languages. Things like chat-rooms and translation programs. Again, this sounds interesting.

After that I am planning to take another computer sound course, a robot programming course, or a 2-period Hardware Experimentation class.

However, this leaves me with no classes on tuesday or wednesday. I think I will try to take some random classes with the other exchange students. Hopefully something in which I can practice Japanese.

Now, I just need to convince NMSU's financial aid department to give me the rest of my money.

Newsitorial Time

2004-09-14T01:19:00.000-08:00

I regularly listen to NPR (National Public Radio) online through their webpage. Specifically I listen to the 5-minute news and All Things Considered. As this is a presidential election year, there is a lot of coverage of the presidential election. Their coverage is quite interesting when compared to much of the rest of the media.

There has been no lengthy discussions of anyone's military career, or even of their "character". Heaven knows that it was "character" that made Bill Clinton one of the nations most popular presidents. I fail to see what a person's "character" has to do with their ability to think rationally. The most important things about Kerry is what he is proposing and what he has done as a senator. Similarly, deciding factors for Bush should only consist of how he has raped America and how is planning to give us Rohypnol and rape us again.

I don't know a thing about Kerry. All that matters is that he's not George Bush. Kerry has not:

1) kept us out of The Kyoto Accords
2) destroyed the balanced budget with tax-cuts for the rich
3) refused to strike down the Digital Millenium Copyright Act
4) created the invasive Patriot Act
5) waged war under false pretenses
6) sullied our name, perhaps permanently, in international politics

I don't care if Kerry aspires to sleep with Ashton Kutcher. I don't care if he fought in Vietnam against them, or against Cobra (an evil terrorist organization with plans to take over the world!) in his mother's living room! These things have no relation to his proposals with regard to health-care, gun-control, tax-reform, and international policy.

This is what NPR covers. They had an in depth report on Kerry vs. Bush in the realm of health-care. Unlike Fox News, and the rest of the internet, they aren't worrying about what keys a flipping type-writter had during the 70s. They examined the expiring ban on assault weapons, and how the candidates differed.

All of this goes to show me why NPR has to be publically funded. To compete for the capitalistic dollar one must pander to the masses. Those that watch fox news. Those that listen to political advertisements on TV. I find it ironic that it is the rich and successful that keep NPR on the air.

If this is all just seems like part of another poorly worded arguement for a meritocratic voting system. Anyone that quotes a political advertisement outside of a joking context should not be allowed to vote. Ugh, I hate American politics.

Biohazard: Apocalypse aka Resident Evil: Apocalypse

2004-09-12T08:02:00.000-08:00

Went and saw the new Biohazard film today, and figured that I would chime in with my thoughts. In brief: fans of Biohazard should see the film. If you don't know what Biohazard is, you might want to stay away.

While the first film's time frame is around that of the events in the first Biohazard, the second film is practically a replacement for the 3rd Biohazard: Nemesis. More on that later. The film, like the later games, generally echews horror in favor of a suspense-action film; not unlike Aliens.

Except for a few instances, many of which are arguable, the film succeeds remarkably well. I'll try to keep these fairly spoiler-free. Umbrella's information network is almost, but not quite, preposterous. Alice's meeting with Jill is slightly more than serendipity at its most obscene. Finally, the climactic fight scene, while cool in premise, is completely ruined by The Shaky Camera. This is very unfortunate as it is employed quite deftly in the rest of the film.

Apocalypse never forgets where it came from: a videogame. The film nails the pacing, sound, look, and perhaps most importantly the story of the videogames it purports to be based on. The best compliment I can give the film is that it feels like Biohazard/Resident Evil; and I think that's what really matters.

Cute.

2004-09-10T20:12:00.000-08:00

My links don't display correctly. The work in Opera and even in IE.

Comic-book-guy says: "Your powers of good-programming are amazing! GO OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE! FOR THE GOOD OF CITY: GO! GO!"

This Bitching Goes to Eleven, Baby!

2004-09-10T20:10:00.000-08:00

Apparently Blogger and Opera are the two retarded kids that can't be in the same class. However, I'm inclined to believe that it's Blogger. I've been having intermitent login problems since I started using this hippy-crap. I e-mailed blogger technical support, and got a response that my cache must be configured incorrectly and that I should stop using Internet Explorer...

So, I pretend that they missed the part in my email where I said I was using Opera; maybe I typed it like this: オペラ? Anyway, my cache and cookies (mmm... cookies) where fine. As Opera works with every other site I visit this was no surprise.

Then blogger started deleting my posts when I would go to post them. Apparently taking 15 minutes to write one of these is blogger語 for "I want to logout and lose all my data".

Not-so-long-story made even shorter: I'm using Firefox for my blogging now. It's ugly. Has no mouse-gestures. I don't like the way it does tabbed browsing. Opera let you use all the windows "alt" commands with a "ctrl"; like ctrl-F4 to close a tab, or ctrl-tab to tab through the tabs... wow, I sound like an IGN reviewer. BUT, if this stupid browser lets me consistently login, post my posts, and stay out of IE-land, it'll suffice.

Randomness, Blogified

2004-09-06T20:46:00.000-08:00

I finished all my scholarship application stuff. I think. I supposedly needed a reference from a full-time teacher, but I couldn't find anyone, and more importantly, they took the application without it. The staff offered to help me track down one of my astranged teachers should it become necessary.

Tomorrow is my birthday, and I will spend it buying food and applying for the Proficiency exam. Hopefully financial aid will come out soon. I'm gonna have a lot of expenses this month.

Yuta comes back from Canada in two days. Should be good fun, as this will mean that most people I know will soon be around. Life will pick up, and I'm relatively sure that I want it to.

最後の能力試験三級の単語

2004-09-04T18:16:00.000-08:00

灰皿ーはいざらーashtray
はるーto stick, paste
冷えるーひえるーget cold
引っ越すーひっこすーto move (house)
拾うーひろうーto pickup (a taxi)
踏むーふむーto step
貿易ーぼうえきーcommerce, trade
放送ーほうそう（する）ーto broadcast
またはーor
湖ーみずうみーlake
迎えるーむかえるーto meet, pick-up, go to greet
最もーもっともーthe most
木綿ーもめんーcotton
八百屋ーやおやーvegetable store
やむーto stop (weather)
ゆうべーlast night
輸出ーゆしゅつ（する）ーto export
輸入ーゆにゅう（する）ーto import
揺れるーゆれるーto shake
旅館ーりょかんーryokan
冷房ーれいぼうーair conditioning
廊下ーろうかーcorridor
沸かすーわかすーto boil
沸くーわくーto be boiling
割合ーわりあい（に）ーproportion (proportionally)
過去形ーかこけいーpast tense
否定ーひていーnegative tense
肯定ーこうていーaffirmative tense

As the title hints, this is the last of the words I need to memorize for the level 3 proficiency test. I'll study this, and review the previous 3 lists for about a week. Then I'll find some way to test myself. After that all I have is some grammar to review, and I will be prepared for the test that is one level lower than the one I will take... Well, at least it's progress.

I have about 250 kanji to memorize for the level 2 exam, a plethora of grammatical constructs, and in all probability some 3000 vocabulary words. However, I haven't confirmed the vocabulary words yet, it may be more or less, but I like to be pessimistic.

再再単語

2004-09-03T21:30:00.000-08:00

だいたいーabout, approximately
たいていーgenerally
足すーたすーadd (math)
訪ねるーたずねるーvisit
～建てー～だてーstorried (eg. a 2 storried building)
暖房ーだんぼうーheating
ちっともーnot at all
ちゃわんーrice-bowl
注射ーちゅうしゃ（する）ーto inject (needle)
地理ーちりーgeography
漬けるーつけるーto pickle
都合ーつごうーconvenience
手袋ーてぶくろーgloves
電灯ーでんとうーelectric light
懐中ーかいちゅうーtorch
展覧会ーでんらんかいーexhibition
とうとうーfinally
とこやーbarber shop
取り替えるーとりかえるーto replace
亡くなるーなくなるーto pass on (die)
～などーand so on
苦いーにがいーbitter
塗るーぬるーto paint
温いーぬるいーlukewarm
ぬれるーto get wet
熱心ーねっしんーeager
乗り物ーのりものーvehicle
～杯ー～はいーcounter for drinks
倍ーばいーtimes
拝見ーはいけんーto show

More Movie Thoughts

2004-09-03T06:50:00.000-08:00

I watched Dogma again with some friends today; one of them hadn't seen it. That film does not get its due. It seems to me to be a classic case of the Shakespearean Jester; wrapped in comedy, and often obscenity, the movie addresses real issues with Catholisism, and Chritianity in general. The film always has the good-sense to shift gears when it is just about to get too preachy.

I consider myself, if not a spiritual person, than an ethical one. I never had any of the "issues" that Dogma tries to raise, but I appreciate the frank, and logical manner that it attempts to use to answer these querries of faith. Religiously speaking, most faiths seem to spin a lot useless sappy stories in order to makes sense of the more contrary notions in their dogma. As such, I have great respect for people that can solve their theological problems with the employment of thought and not blind doctrine.

Also, as an In Nomine fan the movie is even more interesting. Obscure Christian mythos can be quite fascinating in both its obscurity and its brutality.

I think my favorite scenes are when everyone is getting drunk on the train, and when Loki accuses Bartleby of being like the Morning Star.

This is getting more and more random...

I understood the shock-value-point of Alanis Morrisette as God, but why couldn't they have chosen a woman that I:
a) have respect for
2) think is hot
III) can act.

Seriously, has Alan Rickman been in a bad movie? Best. Metatron. Ever.

Doesn't Ben Affleck suck? Worst. Second Lucifer. Ever.

I did find it interesting that they had J. say the most offensive stuff; at least that which they had no intention of ever addressing.

I don't feel like writing a coherent review. So, this is my preliminary thoughts.

Add on that the soundtrack sucks, the special effects are a complete mixed bad, and Selma Hayek is the "Worst. Actress. Ever."

Big Thanks Are In Order

2004-09-03T06:46:00.000-08:00

I've got to send the mother of all shout-outs to Junko. She helped me with a scholarship application today. I had to write about my, nonexistent, master's thesis. The point is, she dealt with what was probably 3-4 hours of excruciatingly terrible Japanese.

So, yeah. Junko. You rock!

再単語

2004-08-31T21:44:00.000-08:00

さすーto hold an umbrella
騒ぐーさわぐーto make noise
産業ーさんぎょうーindustry, production
支度ーしたく（する）ーto prepare
しっかりーtightly
辞典ーじてんーdictionary
字引ーじびきーkanji dictionary
事務所ーじむしょーbureau
習慣ーしゅうかんーcustom, tradition
柔道ーじゅうどうーjudo
正月ーしょうがつーnew years
招待ーしょうたい（する）ーinvite
承知ーしょうち（する）ーrealize
丈夫ーじょうぶーhealth
水道ーすいどうーwaterworks
ずいぶんーvery
～ずつー"by" e.g. by two's (二個ずつ）
すべるーslide
隅ーすみーcorner, nook
すりーpickpocket
～製ー～せいーmade in-
生産ーせいさん（する）ーto produce
せっけんーsoap
背広ーせびろーsuit
祖父ーそふーgrandfather
祖母ーそぼーgrandmother
それほどーso, as such
～台ー～だいーcounter for vehicles
～代ー～だいーfare, charge
退院ーたいいん（する）ーto discharge from a hospital

The OG Alien

2004-08-31T14:53:00.000-08:00

I watched the new director's cut version of Alien recently. Having eviscerated AvP recently I felt it only fair to provide a review of the Original Giger.

Alien is one of the greatest horror movies ever made. It stands with other seminal greats such as Psycho, and The Thing. It suceeds in every place that the new movie fails; and many places that AvP didn't even try.

This is TOTALLY NOT spoiler free.

I saw Alien for the first time when I was about 15. I watched it in the middle of the day, and it still terrified me. Perhaps this movie is the reason I don't really like eggs, and science fiction?

If you've never seen Alien (shame on you!) it's a creature-feature similar to Dracula, Frankenstein, Jaws, The Blob, etc. Big-N-Nasty spends 2 hours devouring Joe and Jane Average.

Our resident evil (har!) this time is The Alien, designed and created by H.R. Giger, and thus almost ashuredly influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. The alien begins life in an egg, when a suitable host appears near the egg the creature emerges hence and attaches itself to the victim's face. The face-hugger, as they are known, implants the real alien into its host. This creature will burst forth sometime in the future and begin attempting to find a host for a Queen; the creature capable of laying the face-hugger eggs. A nasty, disturbingly scary creature if there ever was one. However, the beauty of Alien is that this design is largely irrelevant to what ultimately makes the movie scary; it's still highly important though.

Your imagination is what terrifies you in Alien. It's what terrifies you in H.P. Lovecraft stories, it's what Alfred Hitchcock understood when he made Psycho, and it's something that modern horror movies do not understand. Throughout the entire movie we are never given a clear shot of the Alien. We see the face-hugger attached to someone's face plenty, but never is there a great "revolving porno shot" to get us aquainted with the real killer. That's where the film works its magic.

The human imagination is a powerful thing, and a useful tool. By showing only parts of the alien, a tail here, and maw there, the film forces us to use our imagination to fill in the remaining, unknown bits. What IS shown is so disgusting, and scary, that our imagination fills in the remaining portion with something MUCH worse.

The second thing that benefits Alien as film is the writing. More specifically, the scripting of the characters. There are no cliche's. There are no slutty blondes to be the first victim. There isn't an incredibly "smart" (read: mouthpiece of the writers) scientist constantly explaining what's going on. There isn't a gun-nut, a pervert, a bratty kid. There aren't any stereotypes, just a crew aboard the semi-truck of the future. They all react to each other as human beings before the alien attacks begin, and they all continue to be stark examples of humanity even as they are eviscerated.

This wonderful writing provides us with two things that allow our subconscious imagination to begin working on that imaginary alien that will keep us up all night. This isn't 007 or Snatch the movie doesn't force us to see how awesome these people are; it repeatedly bludgeons us with sights of how normal they are. This keeps us in a "human" mindset, one that is more suceptable to pokings of horror; decidedly different from the adrenalin-induced high that summer blockbuster #327 places us in. Secondly this allows us to relate to the entire cast EMPATHICALLY, the opposite of the envy that we feel towards Pierce Brosnan as James Bond and Tobey Maguire as Spiderman. This empathy allows us to care, just a little bit, that these people are getting devoured in very sexually imitative situations. More importantly this keeps us from being able to predict the movie, this fear of the unknown is, again, used to toy with our minds.

Finally, the film succeeds by not breaking our suspension of disbelief and by realizing that the devil is in the details. What is presented is done so in a realistic fashion: physics is consistent throughout the film, the alien's life-cycle is believable, there's no winking at the camera, no slow-motion, etc and so forth. The spaceship Nostromo is not a movie set, it is a working vehicle from 150 years in the future.

I guess there's also the fact that the special effects, music, acting, and pacing are above-average at worst and brilliant at best. But those are the easy points to see; and did those factors save Alien 3, 4, and Alien Vs Predator? Those films had all had great special effects, and music. Alien 3 and 4 had good pacing, and... not... terrible... acting. Okay, I'm lying about 4. The point is: it's not the easily identifiable aspects that cause the best movies in all of creation to be different from the really-good ones. Jaws, The Seven Samurai, Se7en, Fight Club, The Sixth Sense, Monty Python and the Holy Grail... All these movies had these technical points right. So did Unbreakable, Monty Python and the Meaning of Life, and The Magnificent 7. However, the previously mentioned movies brought something new and unique to their experience, and for that, like Alien, they will be remembered as classics.

Bonus Content - Other Recommended Horror Films
----------------------------------------------
-The Thing - brilliant for it's more psychological look at fear; and for making Kurt Russell appear like he can act.
-Psycho - There's only ONE person that the murderer can be, but the brilliance of Hitchcock makes you question yourself for 2 HOURS.

Las Uchujin 対　Las Predatores

2004-08-29T20:34:00.000-08:00

So, this AvP (Alien Vs. Predator) movie. Hmm...

First a little background about me, your cynic... I mean reviewer.

I am a capital w Wuss. There is a reason Doom 3 is installed on my computer and I haven't played more than 4 hours of it. It scares the poopsies out of me. Here's a quick list of things that I find scary:

*Resident Evil
*Alien
*Predator
*the dark
*dentists
*Acclaim(tm)

You could probably scare me with a video of a sleeping cat, provided you used dark lighting and an ominous soundtrack.

AvP is not scary. It isn't much of anything. That's a lie; it's a lot of a mess. The chief issue with the film (it was hard to pick just one) is that it's too dark! Alien and Aliens were dark films too. However, they used good directing to keep you from getting lost. This directing is abscent. It kills the suspense (you have no idea something scary just happened), it kills the action (you can't see the action), and it even occaisionally kills the plot (you can't see what is being discussed).

Speaking of the plot, it's stupid. Very stupid. Anyone going to this movie knows what an Alien and a Predator are. The entire story could have been unvieled star wars style:

A Long Time Ago
In A Galaxy Far Far Away
Two Bad-ass Civilizations Beat the Living Pee Out of Each Other
What Follows is the Highlight Reel

There. I wrote your plot. It's much more cohesive and believable then the one that the film presented.

I don't feel like being coherrent, so here's a bulleted list of what else went wrong:

*the stealth-like predators slunk about and fought with all the finesse and subtleness of the Dallas Cowboys; including a great Predator Vs Alien Monday Night RAW special.

*It's hard to see what's happening

*horror movies pay tribute to other horror movies. It's the way of the world. Resident Evil "payed tribute" to Aliens. However, WHY someone would choose Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World to "pay tribute to" (especially for the final battle) is beyond me.

*PG-13?! PG-lack-of-exploding-entrails-13??!!

*Why do we need a 50 minute introduction before the killing commences in earnest? Perhaps a better question is: "has there ever been a more pointless 50-minute-long introduction?" (videogames and Steven Spielberg movies excluded!)

*The lighting SUCKS!

Skies of Arcadia

2004-08-29T17:02:00.000-08:00

I just finished disc 1 of Skies of Arcadia: 24 hours. Having heard that the game is exceptionally long I must assume one of two things:

1) This game defy's the Logarithmic Law of RPG Disc Lengths.
-or-
B) The internet is filled with bloody, stinkin' liars!

I wonder which could be true...

Smurfing Insomnia

2004-08-29T14:40:00.000-08:00

Hey, lookit that! It's 7:40 in the morning. Insomnia is certainly wonderful. Despite getting 6 hours of sleep yesterday, running somewhere between 3-5 miles (about 40 minutes), and studying for 2 hours I'm still... not sleeping. Oh, I'm DELIGHTFULLY tired. My eyelids droop, my brain slows down, etc. Then I lie down, and then 30 minutes pass, then an hour. Around then I usually get up, do SOMETHING for an hour or two, and try again.

While this strategy has yielded me getting to sleep, it has also yielded me getting to sleep later and later every night. I think I will stay awake as long as I can today. I only have one thing planned: a short english practice session. Then, maybe I'll go buy food. I'll probably crash out around 3-5, and then wake up at 2-4 in the morning. Hopefully the repitition of this plan will yield my return to normalcy.

I'm still not quite sure how to lock in a sleep schedule when I get around to one I want... School will start soon, and then I can return to my sleep deprivation filled weeks, followed by excessively sleep-filled weekends.

漢字第六

2004-08-29T12:42:00.000-08:00

This will probably be the last kanji update for a little while. My brain is starting to push out other recently-learned characters to make room for the new ones I am throwing at it. So, with this new set I'll let them sink in for a week or two.

＊苦ーにが・い、くるし・い、クーbitter, painfulー苦痛ーくつうーpain
＊老ーあ・いる、ロウーto ageー老人ーろうじんーold manー敬老の日ーけいろうのひーrespect for the aged day
＊単ータンーsimpleー単位ーたんいーa unitー単数ーたんすうーsingular number
＊港ーみなと、コウーport, harborー空港ーくうこうーairportー出港ーしゅっこう（する）ーleave port
＊設ーもう・ける、セツーfound, establishー設立ーせつりつ（する）ーto establishー設計ーせっけい（する）ーto plan, designー設備ーせつびーequipmentー建設ーけんせつ（する）ーto construct
＊完ーカンーcompleteー完全ーかんぜんーperfectー完成ーかんせい（する）ーto complete (a physical thing)ー完了ーかんりょう（する）ーto complete (a more abstract thing)
＊費ーつい・やす、ヒーspend, expenseー費用ーひようーan expenseー交通費ーこうつうひーtravel expensesー食費ーしょくひーeating expenses
＊放ーはな・す、ホウーrelease, let goー放送ーほうそう（する）ーto broadcastー放出ーほうしゅつ（する）ーto release
＊位ーくらい、イーposition, approximateー学位ーがくいーa school degreeー地位ーちいーpositionー第一位ーだいいちいーfirst place
＊原ーはら、ゲンーfield, origin, basicー原子ーげんしーatomー高原ーこうげんーhighlandsー原因ーげんいんーcause, factor
＊平ーたい・ら、ひら、ヘイ、ビョウーplain, flat, evenー平等ーびょうどうーequalityー平日ーへいじつーweekday
＊配ーくば・る、ハイーsupply, deliverー心配ーしんぱい（する）ーto worryー配達ーはいたつ（する）ーto deliver
＊術ージュツーart, skillー手術ーしゅじゅつーan operationー技術ーぎじゅつーskill, artー美術ーびじゅつーfine artsー芸術家ーげいじゅつかーartist
＊退ーしりぞ・く、タイーto retreatー退社ーたいしゃ（する）ーleave the officeー退院ーたいいん（する）ーleave the hospitalー退学ーたいがく（する）ーleave school
＊効ーき・く、コウーeffectー効果ーこうかーan effectー有効ーゆうこうーvalidityー無効ーむこうーinvalidity
＊民ーたみ、ミンーpeople, folkー難民ーなんみんーrefugeesー民俗学ーみんぞくがくーethnologyー市民ーしみんーcitizenー国民ーこくみんーa people, a nation
＊訪ーたず・ねる、おとず・ねる、ホウーvisitー訪問ーほうもん（する）ーto pay a visitー訪米ーほうべい（する）ーto visit america (in a somewhat official context)
＊実ーみの・る、ジツーbear fruit, realー事実ーじじつーa factー実験ーじっけん（する）ーexperimentー実用的ーじつようてき（な）ーpractical
＊調ーしら・べる、チョウーresearch, toneー調子ーちょうしーcondition, toneー調和ーちょうわーharmonyー調査ーちょうさ（する）ーinvestigate
＊類ールイーgenus, sortー書類ーしょるいーdocumentsー親類ーしんるいーrelativesー分類ーぶんるい（する）ーclassifyー類義語ーるいぎごーsynonym
＊失ーうしな・う、シツーloseー失礼ーしつれいーimpoliteー失業ーしつぎょう（する）ーto lose one's jobー失敗ーしっぱい（する）ーto fail
＊礼ーレイーbow, graditude, ceremonyー無礼ーぶれい（な）ーrudeー礼服ーれいふくーceremonial dress
＊以ーイーfrom, thenー以上ーいじょうーmore thanー以下ーいかーless thanー以前ーいぜんーpreviouslyー以後ーいごーafter that
＊替ーか・える、サンーapproveー賛成ーさんせい（する）ーagreeー賛同ーさんどう（する）ーto approve of
＊喜ーよろこ・ぶ、キーjoy, pleasureー喜劇ーきげきーcomedy
＊直ーなお・る、なお・す、ただ・ちに、チョクーdirect, just, straight, at onceー直流ーちょくりゅうーdirect currentー直接ーちょくせつーdirectー直後ーちょくごーimmediately after
＊制ーセイーcontrol, systemー制度ーせいどーsystemー制服ーせいふくーuniformー会員制ーかいいんせいーmembership system
＊課ーか・す、カーassign, sectionー人事課ーじんじかーpersonel departmentー博士課程ーはくしかていーphd course

My Lack of Life

2004-08-29T03:26:00.000-08:00

My last couple of days have been fairly... routine. I went to Sakae with some friends on friday; they'd finally gotten over tonsilitis. Then on saturday I went to a foreigner bar at which there was an open-mic comedy night. "Not funny" doesn't even begin to describe it. "Distrubingly ackward and not funny" however, that works. Today I woke up... I working on thinking about considering doing something. I'll probably go running, study, and then watch the Simpsons and play videogames until the sun comes up.

Those people at the International Center, the ones in control of my life, should be back sometime this week; wednesday at the latest. Then I can finally get my schedule, and thus my financial aid, taken care of.

So, Shin Megami Tensei KAHN would be readable except for a complete lack of furigana. It's not that the lack of furigana is what makes it unreadable. It's the lack of furigana and my lack of desire to look up MORE kanji. I can actually follow most of the story, but this is due to there being a profound lack of story, and not having anything to do with my skills.

Shin Megami Tensei KAHN Plot Outline
-------------------------------
-There are demons.
-There are peoples who dones fightses the demonses.
-These person peoples are high school estudianteseseses.

That pretty much summarizes the first 100 pages. The amount of text does increase towards the end of the story. Maybe it'll get better.

More Musings

2004-08-26T16:00:00.000-08:00

Dirty Vegas = Totally Awesome. I may be just a wee bit late on figuring this one out... Though it is better then my usual popular-music-discovery-lag-time of 2-4 years. I'd heard "Days Go By" before of course (I do play DDR ^_^) so I knew that I liked at least one of their songs quite a bit. However I was totally unprepared for how consistent their album is.

Granted, "Days Go By" is the best track. However, there isn't the level of disparity that you find on albums by other contemporaries like The Offspring, and Maroon 5. This makes for the 3rd techno album (of those that immediately comes to mind) on which I've liked every song; the other too being Eiffel 65: Blue and Robert Miles: Dreamscape. "Throwing Shapes" needs to be in DDR.

I keep meaning to listen to the rest of Daft Punk's Discovery and track down some TAQ, and Darude...

I finished looking over the lists of grammar for the level 3 and 4 tests. Shouldn't be too difficult to get up to speed. I need to review some 28 grammar points; out of several hundred. I've seen all of them before and understand their general meaning, I just need to make sure that I am familiar with the nuances associated with them.

With luck, I'm about a week away from actually being in the state of preparing for the level 2 test.

Vocabulary, For JUSTICE!

2004-08-26T15:49:00.000-08:00

These are from the level 3 and 4 proficiency test.

飴ーあめーcandy
上着ーうわぎーjacket, coat
おいでになるーcome (formal)
～おきーevery other
押入ーおしいれーcloset
おつりーchange ($$$)
おととしーyear before last
折れるーおれるーto snap (intransitive)
かけるーwear (glasses)
かむーblow (nose)
季節ーきせつーseason (the 4 seasons)
規則ーきそくーrule, regulation
絹ーきぬーsilk
競争ーしょうそう・するーto compete
近所ーきんじょーneighborhood
具合ーぐあいーcondition
暮れるーくれるーset (sun)
警官ーけいかんーpolice officer
景色ーけしきーscenery
消しゴムーけしゴムーeraser
決してーけっしてーnever
～軒ー～けんーdoor
原因ーげんいんーcause, origin
見物ーけんぶつ・するーto sight-see
郊外ーこうがいーsuburbs
工業ーこうぎょうーindustry, production
講堂ーこうどうーauditorium
公務員ーこうむいんーpublic servant
この頃ーこのごろーthese days
盛んーさかん・なーprosperous