Aino Minako-chan

• I'm working on the world's saddest rewriting job right now. Basically, some poor woman at Company A worked super hard to put together an English Power Point presentation, complete with narration, to be used for sales to potential foreign buyers. They sent it to us in hopes that we could spice it up a tad, and our overwhelming response was, "This is the worst Power Point presentation in the history of Power Point presentations." It's literally a textbook example that could be included in a guide entitled "How NOT to make Power Point presentations for Dummies". We've got 0 animation or even transitions. We've got bad English. We've got pages literally crammed with detailed information on complex charts while the narration goes "This is a chart. Next page." The narration itself, in poorly pronounced and difficult-to-understand English, is even bracketed by loud "clicks" when the recorder was turned on and off. It's almost horrifying, only made more fascinating by the poor woman's apparent denial. She apparently wants us to change "as little as possible", since she plans on re-recording the narration herself. Lady, I will throw in the narration for free. Please, for the love of god, just let us do our jobs. Or, at the very least, never ever mention our company's name in conjunction with your product. Thank you.
• In better news, the Senshi Gakuen is back online. Yeay! If you're really curious it was basically a super-lame computer goof where our provider's system didn't send all of the required information to the bank when charging us for renewal, which obviously caused the bank to reject the shady shady attempt to squeeze money out of kinomakoto, which caused the provider to cut off services for us deadbeats. It's all fixed and it's actually kinda funny, so it worked out in the end.
• Now that Mako-chan finally got her super sekrit gift, I can announce that "Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 2nd Season" came out for Nintendo DS on Valentine's Day. It's SO EXCITING like you wouldn't believe. Skinship is back and better than ever; I had forgetten how much the lead guy Saeki-kun cracks me up; you can totally sexually harass your underaged next-door neighbor. It's a weirdly awesome game and anyone who enjoyed "Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 1st Love" needs to check this out. Srsly!

Okay, so I'm translating a catalog right now, and one of the items for sale is 500 ml of Scotch sold in a plastic water bottle. I'm supposed to be writing this crap about how it's so nice and convenient in a trendy portable size, but all I'm having trouble coming up with a way that doesn't make it sound completely cheap and sleazy. "Comes with free paper bag to hide your shame from the world as you glug your cares away in the middle of the park!!" I'm sorry, but it's a freaking plastic bottle of Scotch. It doesn't get much tackier. At least it doesn't come with one of those squirtable sports drink tops. THAT would be awesome-tastic.

FYI, as some of you may have noticed, Senshi Gakuen is completely down. Yes, we know. No, we don't know why. I can't really help from Tokyo, so poor kinomakoto has to try and fix things all by herself. Ganbare, Mako-chan! Faito, Mako-chan! I will, of course, post something once I know what's what. We've never had major problems with the web site before, so it's really strange to have everything crap out within the past few months. ^_^;

Well, my family is gone, I'm back from visiting

kinomakoto, and I'm leaving again for Japan in a few days. How to sum up the holidays with my family? Busy, loud, incredibly fun. The kids are great, but they're related to me, so we already know that. ^_^ They seemed to enjoy the presents I got them for Christmas (thank goodness), and I got lots of DVDs and things that I had wanted. Hurray! (I also got some extra LJ time from lenariel... Thank you! *^_^* Want, er, a translation or something?)

New Year's with Mako-chan was fun, especially when we found out that the Senshi Gakuen had been hacked to become a portal site for a prescription drug company. We got it fixed and didn't lose anything, but still, that's bad. (BTW, thanks to everyone who wrote or left a message on LJ. Who knows when we would have noticed if left to our own devices.) Therefore, I have decided to make a few New Year's resolutions after all:

 

1. Update SG.com
   The only thing I've updated recently has been, well, my Tokimeki Memorial page, so this year I vow to update some of my old obsessions, like my V6 and translation pages. And maybe add some more manga reviews. Because everyone deserves to know when I'm horrified by New York, New York.
2. Study Japanese
   Because I want to take the Level 1 proficiency exam this year. Actually, that means the real resolution should be:
3. Don't miss the cut-off date for the exam
   That was technically my problem this year. I think I need to sign up by August.
4. Study vacation language
   Mako-chan and I are pretty much decided to visit Europe next Fall, so I want to study the local language a bit. Just so I can say things like, "Where is the bathroom?" or "Get your hand off of there, you bastard." You know. The important stuff.
5. Continue reading and excersizing
   These are two good habits that I started in 2007, so I really hope to keep it up. Good way to keep both my brain and body fit!

Anyway, hope everyone has a good 2008!!

There has been an update to SG.com, and in the weirdest way possible. Love and Numerology, my site dedicated to Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 1st Love, is officially online. I dedicate this page to all... one of you out there who will appreciate it. (lol) SUCH a geek.

Quick lyrics update at SG.com with five songs from Gackt, two from Porno Graffitti, and one from Coming Century.

Yup, it's V6's 10th anniversary today. I've only been a fan for half of that time, but I'm still very happy for them. So happy in fact... I updated the V6 Degrees of Separation shrine at the Senshi Gakuen!! Shock! Horror!! Only one warning for you folks before you visit. The name of V6's 10th anniversary single is "Orange". The page... Hm. LOL When I find a theme, I stick to it.

On a (T_T) note for this very happy day, I fell down the stairs at the train station coming home. (lol) It really wasn't nearly as serious as it sounds; there were only 4 stairs and I tripped when I caught the toe of my shoe on the 3rd one. However, my dance training came in handy... I may have tripped, but I didn't lose my balance. I caught the toes of my shoes, so I ended up rolling over to the front of my feet, hit my knees on the second step, and slid on my knees perfectly smoothly until I hit the bottom. I kinda knelt there in shock for a bit, but I wasn't actually hurt; just minor scrapes. Oh, and my feet slid out of my shoes, but luckily(?) they were still attached by the ankle straps. I feel really silly and the front of my right leg still hurts where I lost some skin, but no harm done. Oh, and as I slid gracefully down the stairs on my knees, a kind salaryman reached out and grabbed my arm to make sure I wasn't going to topple over head first. Good deed-ness! So all in all, I'd say it all evened out.

Shock! Horror! It's an update at the Senshi Gakuen!

Check out my page of translations for some new Gackt lyric translations.

Yes, I managed to update the Senshi Gakuen all by myself... and through ftp this time. Ooooo~! See me and my mad html-ing skills~! I updated my Gackt page, I updated some manga, I updated my FAQ which no one reads~! SO proud, SO proud....

For the first time ever, I uploaded my very own html into the Senshi Gakuen. I'm sooooooooo proud of myself~! Not a whole lot, but check it out and tell me if anything's broken (or misspelled or anything... happens to me a whole lot). I know I should have let Mako-chan proofread first but... What the hey. I DID IT ALL BY MY SELF~!