Aino Minako-chan

And a quick note to translation companies: if you are trying to encourage people to contact your company, you might want to avoid having TWO major typos on the "Contact us" page alone. (Or should I say, the "Contac us" page.) Le sigh. In other news...

( Video Games Part 1: Valyria Chronicles 2 )

( Video Games Part 2: Bayonetta )

( Video Games Part 3: Final Fantasy Dissidia )

( Senshi Gakuen.com )

Holy cow, I'm exhausted. The filming today took no time at all, but I still spent half of the day in either a car or train, so I chugged a very sugary latte in an attempt to wake up. (Note: Backfired big time. Caffeine is a total crap shoot with me: I'm either insanely wired for the next 6 hours, or I immediately want to curl into a ball and go to sleep. Guess what happened. >_<) Anyway, the video was pretty hysterical; it involved me 10 seconds of me pretending to take money from an ATM, and then getting into a tug-of-war fight with my co-worker Miokawa-san (dressed in all black and looking hysterically suspicious) over my bag. It was pretty awesome. After some debate over when I should shriek and how long we should wait until Miokawa-san started attacking, we got it done pretty much in one take, so I went back to work. (Well, I took the train for an hour and THEN got to work.) But luckily, I had plenty to keep me occupied! And with that, here are my three big video game news items (because good things come in threes):

1. Final Fantasy VII (PS3/PSP). They just brought this out on the Japanese Playstation Store, so I was able to download the game. Now I can play it on the go with my PSP (as I did today), or at home on my PS3 (note: FFVII on a large high-definition TV is HYSTERICALLY overkill; each pixel is like the size of my thumb). I played it during my long travel time today, so I just got Tifa in my team and we're about to go off to take down Tower 5. It's pretty darned awesome, and I'm totally excited to get further along so that I can just run around and level-slut on my commute. Good times!
   
2. Final Fantasy XIII. FFVII:AC comes out on Blu-ray on... Wednesday? Thursday? In any case, I've got a copy on reserve with the FFXIII demo, and I'm totally excited. It looks very very purdy and lots of fun and it's going to be pretty hysterical to play it back-to-back with FFVII. ^_^
   
3. Valkyria Chronicles. I had been interested in it when it first came out, and then I forgot about it, but recently I picked it up due to a recommendation from kinomakoto. And, well, I adore it. It's a turn-based RPG strategy game with surprisingly little actually strategy required (lol). Essentially all you need to do is accomplish your goal (normally a capture-the-flag type deal), but you're mainly graded on speed. You can get bonus points for killing leaders and tanks and getting aces and all that, but your main points come from your rank in the battle, and your rank seems to mainly depend on how fast you capture the flag. So while you have five classes of soldiers and a tank, essentially all you really need is about two good soldiers to carve a straight line through the enemies and get to the flag as quickly as possible. And to be entirely honest, plowing through the enemies while attacking like a mad-woman, completely ignoring defense, and focusing solely on the end goal is how I normally play strategy games, so this is a perfect match for me. Add in the beautiful artwork made to look like painting instead of CG and the somewhat hysterical storyline (as Mako-chan described it to me, "It's set in Gallia, a neutral country stuck between warring NotRussia/Germany and NotBritishEmpire. (By location, it would be Poland, but it acts like Switzerland and the people are Austrians. Large plotpoints center on Edelweiss.)"), I really love the game. Two thumbs up so far!
   

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In non-video game related entertainment news, johnabe dragged me to "Frost/Nixon" totally against my will, and would you believe it, it was an awesome movie. I thought it would be rather dry and dull, but instead it's suspenseful and exciting, and despite the fact that it's based on true history, you still spend the movie on the edge of your seat. "It's the final interview... will Frost get a leg up over Nixon!? I just don't KNOW!" It was suprisingly good. Recommended!

Long story short, I passed the Level 1 JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test)! I was busy at work and didn't really study for the test (my studying basically invoved cramming kanji on the train ride to the testing location), but I somehow squeaked a win. Hurray!

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In completely (and I mean COMPLETELY) different news, does anyone remember an April Fool's joke on one of the internet gaming magazines sometime around, say 1998? They printed up a fake article about how FFVII, after being ported to the PC, would be enjoying a new port on the Atari (or something like that) taking up only 64 cartridges. They included a "movie" from the game, which was an animated gif of blocky Sephiroth killing blocky Aerith, climaxing with a single green pixel slowly bouncing away. It was horrifying funny, but I can't find it any more. (I can't even remember which online magazine it was... I believe that it changed names since then?) Does anyone remember this?

ETA: FOUND! Or, the animated gif, at least. It was ironically reposted recently. Enjoy!

http://www.gamesniped.com/2009/02/04/final-fantasy-vii-for-the-atari-2600/

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I'm unfortunately having a falling out with the video game Demon's Souls. And it's not because it's too hard or frustrating or anything... it's because it's starting to scare the crap out of me. I finished the first part of the first area, which unlocked all of the other areas, and two of them scare me half to death. I was doing well with one area, killing slow, stupid zombies, but I could hear banging from the next room. "Hm, wonder what that is!", I thought to myself. The answer came quickly when three zombie doggies burst out of the room. I literally turned and sprinted all the way to the exit while screaming, "AHHHH, EVIL PUPPIES!!!". (Note: this is the exact same thing that happens when I play Resident Evil games. I hate zombie doggies!) And then another area? Is the dungeon area, making it dark, narrow, and filled with torture equipment. It's creepy enough, but what makes things worse is the fact that every so often, you can hear a man's voice calling out, "Oh god, please help me! Someone, save me!" I basically ran from that level, too. It reminded me of when I played Silent Hill 2, a task that I was only able to accomplish by playing in full daylight, with all of the curtains open, while my roommate was home. Without a roommate, I honestly don't think I'll be able to play the dungeon area. (T_T) Too scawy!

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And in final news, Utada's second CD will be dropping in a few weeks. Hurray! You can check out the first single from the album here. On one hand, it's a bit too mellow for my tastes, but on the other hand, I have a tendancy to start singing it to myself at odd times, suggesting that it's surprisingly catchy. Not that I'm sure how people become famous for music these days, outside of T&A or American Idol.

I'm attempting to set a record for "topics that you will never ever see together in any other blog post." (^_^)v

High School Musical 3
John and I went to see the High School Musical movie in the theater on Sunday. I thought it would at least be unintentionally entertaining like past HSM movies, but it was also more intentionally entertaining than I thought it would be. Long story short, they apparently spent all of their money on big set pieces and dance boot camp. The choreography was very well done (not a single scene involved running over a golf course!!), so my dancer heart loved it. Plus, it's always fun when you can play "predict the choreography". (Like, "You know what? In this scene, I'd totally do a back roll into the splits. ...And they did it! AWESOME!") My biggest problem had to be one of the new characters, who was so annoying that I had to restrain the urge to leap into the screen and strangle him (possibly while screaming, "And cut your hair, you shaggy freak!!"). Seriously, don't even talk to me about whatshisname.

Demon's Souls
John's video game came out last week! John works for From Software, which put out the surprise hit Demon's Souls last week, so I picked it up. Look! Those wavy effects from my screaming dead soul? John did that!! I keep hearing that it's a horrendously difficult game, but it's really not that bad. I mean, I'm a HORRIBLE action gamer (I need cheats to beat all Resident Evil games, although this is partially because I jump at the drop of a hat and have a tendancy to start screaming when zombie doggies chase after me, at which point Mako-chan tends to start shouting, "You're immortal, Minako-chan! Just shoot them!"), so I was expecting to die right away, but I'm actually doing okay for the first runthrough. I've died twice so far; once I fell down a hole (I assumed that it was the right way to go, so I flung myself over the edge; whoops), and once I just accidentally ran into an enemy at the wrong time. But still! That's pretty awesome for me. I've only played about half of the first level, but I'm enjoying the game so far. Plus, you can customize your character by selecting one of 10 classes, and then using complicated Sims-esque controls to tweek your character's look. Therefore, my character Minako is a sexy, dark-skinned, white-haired holy knight. Go go Minako! (I also put away my shield so that I could just use my halberd two-handed... I'm not very good at blocking or parrying, so I'm just putting my money on strong offense to save the day. The halberd has a long reach, which can get dangerous in close quarters, but it means that I can kill things before they get within their own sword range.) I may change my mind later on, but so far, I honestly recommend it. Nothing like hacking at baddies to lower your stress.

Teriyaki Boyz
I watched the video for their song "Work That" while at the gym on Saturday, and I still can't decide what I feel about it. On one hand, it's a rather catchy song that I've had stuck in my head since then. On the other hand it's, well... See the video for yourself. Warning: Not safe for work. Or children. Or possibly your parents.

Okay, see what I mean? I vacillate between honestly insulted and genuinely amused depending on the time of day. As insulting as I find it, it's SO over the top that it starts to get pretty tongue-in-cheek funny after a while. Plus, the song is pretty catchy. I don't know. Decide for me!

Poll #1347201 More choices than you can shake an ass at!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11

So, what do you think?

I haven't actually made a real post recently, so here's what I've been up to for the past month.

• A group of wonderful folks came to visit Japan. We shopped and went to the Winter Comiket and ate parfaits the size of my head and went to the hot springs in Hakone and wents to the Ghibli museum and had dinner with various members of the anime industry. (It was a very amazing night that involved me trying not to pass out when I discovered that I was having a conversation with a guy who worked on animation for Macross 7 and Animaniacs, and then watched a Sailor Moon director down a series of penis themed novelty drinks. Seriously, it was a weird night.) It was an action-packed, exciting New Year's for me.
  
• Unfortunately, I was sick almost the entire time. I caught a cold, which then refused to go away due to long days, late nights, and too much talking and singing. It eventually progressed into a horrible cough that caused me to pull at least two muscles around my ribs and wake up during the night with my general inability to breath. The cold has basically gone away, but I still have a couple of coughing fits every day that sent me gasping for air. It's not been fun.
  
• Oh, and then there was my migraine a couple days ago, which literally occurred less than a week after we exchanged all of the lights in our office for even brighter, shinier ones. I nearly brought my sunglasses out; it was pretty bad.
  
• Work is slightly stressful in general. I had a busy but manageable schedule, carefully planned out through next Monday. Which is why I nearly had a panic attack when my boss informed me on Wednesday that that we'd be having a mini-training seminar for a new translation server system today, lasting from 10am to 5pm. Seriously, I didn't know whether I wanted to cry or strangle someone. It turned out that we finished around 3pm, but I'm still kinda stressed and behind schedule. T_T
  
• On the plus side, I bought "Civilization Revolutions" for my PS3. It's pretty fun, actually, and I've been having a good time blasting through the games. And although I haven't bought anything yet, I've downloaded a couple of pretty awesome mini-games from the PS3 store. I'll probably end up buying them one day when I get bored; "The Last Guy" is loads of fun when you're in the mood to save the citizens of Tokyo from evil roaming aliens.
  
• Oh, also on the plus side, the latest trailer for "Final Fantasy 13" just came out, and I'm extremely excited about it. I'll definitely be picking up the demo that comes with Advent Children on Blu Ray, so I guess I'll get to see some of it for myself in a few months! Doki doki!!

Two of my recent obsessions:

1. Little Big Planet
   I bought myself a PS3 and Little Big Planet this weekend. ^_^ Little Big Planet is pretty darned fun; I've been playing it nonstop and I like to amuse myself by creating hideously tacky Sackpeople. It's easy enough that I can beat levels (eventually), but tough enough that I spend time trying not to scream and throw my controller at the screen as my stupid little Sackgirl gets herself blown up AGAIN. But I'm having a blast and I may actually need to try multiplayer in order to get some of the extras... Anyway, it's really fun and I give it two thumbs up. b(^_^)d
2. セレブと貧乏太郎 (Celeb & Poor)
   This is a silly romance/comedy show running right now in Japan about Alice, a super-rich super-celebrity who grew up with ultimate wealth and now runs her own fashion brand. (She's also the daughter of a rich hotel magnate. Any similarities to current celebrities living or dead is, er, totally implied.) When she needs a new driver, she ends up hiring Taro, an unlucky, working-poor stiff who's trying to raise three young kids by himself after his high school sweetheart dies. And when Alice needs a fake boyfriend to piss off her ex, who better to play the part than Taro! It's a very stereotypical "pretending to be together" romantic comedy mixed with a "the poor, but kind and happy person teaches the rich, but cold and miserable person how to be a decent human being" heart-warming tale, but it's really fun and surprisingly addicting. WILL ALICE AND TARO HOOK UP AND HAVE A WACKY OPPOSITES ATTRACT ROMANCE!? (Probably. I mean, this IS just a cheesy J-drama after all.) I'm sooper excited to see the next episode tonight. Seriously, it makes my week.

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And in completely different news, the big story in Japan is that Komuro Tetsuya was arrested. Yes, THAT Komuro Tetsuya. Long story short, KT has apparently had debt problems, so he offered to sell the rights to his songs to an investor for about $10 million (USD). He got half up front, but then it turned out that he doesn't actually own the rights to his songs. The rights all belong to AVEX, and KT gets paid yearly royalties. But KT either couldn't or wouldn't pay back the $5 million advance, so he was arrested today for fraud. It's a HUGE scandal, as you might imagine.

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And on a very side note, I'm currently proofreading a document translated by an outsourced translator. He's American and therefore my proofreading should theoretically only be for technical terms and adherence to basic style, but it's simply so hideous that I almost want to print it out, rip it to shreds, and then rewrite the whole thing. It's simply HIDEOUS. The document is release notes for an updated version, so there's lots of information about new features and bug-fixes, stuff like that. It should be a simple translation, but it reads horribly. I mean, every SINGLE sentence reads like, "It is now compatible to the Web function" or "It is possible to communicate between multiple points" or "It makes possible to input a 720p format video." Every SINGLE last freaking sentence; out of a list of 11 additional functions, a 9 of the descriptions started with "It is" (and a 10th was completely wrong due to an addition of the word "not"). I'm going to kill someone. I've proofread this guy's translations before, and it all smacks of the same horrible writing. He's either the world's most incompetent writer, or he's outsourcing the outsourcing work. >_< Seriously, it shouldn't be this hard to find good translators. Help me Obi-wan Kenobi! You're my only hope!

As I'm sure many of you have heard, the next Harry Potter movie has been delayed until next summer. I am upset like you wouldn't believe. B-but.... [sniff] And I was so EXCITED when I first saw the trailer. Stop teasing me, Warner Brothers! Moosh.

In better news, Sigma Harmonics came out yesterday and I'm very excited about it. I'm not quite sure, but it appears to be a time-traveling murder mystery RPG with card battles that involve manipulating music. Seriously. It sounds kinda like the creators all played drunken darts one night and decided to make a game based on any keywords that they hit. I have no freaking clue, but it sounds awesome.

In just odd news, I got a call a couple of days ago, and it turns out that I won a free full body massage or something (I wasn't technically paying attention, so I'm not 100% sure what it involves). I was actually trying to win the Wii, so I'm not hugely elated, but whatever. Free things are always fun!

And in Olympic news, Japan's softball team beat out the US softball team, resulting in the US's first loss, well, EVER. I'm very proud of Japan. Everyone needs a good rival, and I'm happy that Japan was able to step up to the (metaphorical and literal) plate. The one thing that I thought was weird was that Japan got there after losing to the US only days earlier in the semi-finals. For some strange reason, Japan lost the semi-finals, but instead of battling the loser of the other semi-final match for the bronze medal, they had a match against the winner of the other semi-final (Australia) for the bronze medal. In this case, Australia lost (earning the bronze medal) and therefore Japan went up against the US (again) for the gold medal. Obviously this worked out very well for Japan, but it seemed like a bizarre system. I feel like I'm missing something. Does anyone else know what happened?

Three videos that I've gotten hooked on recently:

• Carry On Wayward Son, as performed by a Japanese girl on Electone. It's pretty awesome. Bonus points for the hysterically dry Japanese MC and audience.
• Where the Hell is Matt? is just a happy-making video. I possibly got a bit verklempt while watching. [sniff sniff] Shut up! So I'm a leetle girl!
• Kiwi is an animated web video that I'm sure many people have already seen, but it never fails to make me sqeak a bit. It's phenomenal... it's like a Pixar story written by Japanese screenwriters.

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So I went to Roppongi two weeks ago to watch Indiana Jones with a friend. I loved it, of course (I'll keep watching until Indy's hobbling along on his walker). Here are a few of my spoilery thoughts for anyone who's actually managed to miss it:

( Indy Jones, how are you so awesome? )

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In other news, I possibly accidentally bought myself a big new TV last weekend. Ummm.... yeah. It was just one of those things where I had just received my summer bonus and I was thinking about how my current TV is failing me and there was a sale, and before I knew it, I had made a snap decision to buy a TV. I mean, I never budget for bonuses so it's not like I can't afford it, but still. I'm usually fiscally responsible (except when it comes to electronics)! I swear!! [sigh] I feel weak. I seriously need to stay away from the freaking electronics store. It's dangerous.

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Finally, I almost wish that I had a video iPod now, because Square-Enix just released a new game called Song Summoner. From what I can tell, it looks like Square's version of Monster Rancher, but with music straight from your playlist. It looks pretty awesome. Who can resist the urge to see what kind of fighter Mini-Moni's Hamuzu no Uta will produce? It's relatively cheap, so if anyone has a video-compatible iPod, download it and tell me how it is!

• Have other people seen this? http://www.dothetest.co.uk/ It's a really great video that works best when you don't know what it's about. Just follow the instructions and count carefully. If you do this right, you'll be pleasantly surprised by the results.


• Infinite Undiscovery is an RPG being published by Square Enix for the Xbox 360. It looks like a fairly standard RPG so far, but the reason why I already adore it is the title. It's like the developers went, "We need to make an RPG for the Xbox that is totally not like Final Fantasy. So not 'final'.. It'll be... infinite! Infinite Fantasy! No, Infinite Unfantasy!! No no, I've got it, Infinite UNDISCOVERY!" Seriously, doesn't the title sound like something that was the result of a late night meeting involving way too much beer and someone repeating the phrase "Final Fantasy" one too many times?


• Sakamoto Maaya's latest single Triangular (the "Macross F" anime theme song) has been doing surprisingly well on the single charts, but the reason why I bring it up is because on my morning TV show, they said something about how she's become more and more famous thanks to her musical roles. So I looked it up quickly... Turns out she was one of the actresses who played the roll of Eponine in Les Mis from 2003-2007. Huh, go Sakamoto Maaya! And you mean I missed a chance to hear her as Eponine? Damn.


• As mentioned on kinomakoto's LJ, THEY'RE MAKING A HERE IS GREENWOOD TV DRAMA. Oh be still my beating heart. Greenwood is one of my favorite anime and manga of all time, so I am super-de-duper excited. Having said that... I already disagree with the casting of Shun, and I seriously doubt that anything can change my mind. I honestly think that they should have cast a female actress (for those who don't know the series, the entire joke about Shun is that he looks (and acts, for the most part) exactly like a really cute girl; the lead character Suka-chan rooms with Shun for several days before figuring it out, and that's only because he finally walks in on Shun at a urinal). I'm sure that the guy playing Shun is perfectly nice, but it's tough when you think that they cast a character as the wrong SEX. But the guy playing Suka-chan is cute like a bunny, so we'll see.


• Just when I think that I'm starting to get used to living in Japan... Without talking too much about the show, I was watching this normally funny "talk with celebrities" program, and they were discussing "kawaii" and women being cute. Anyway, they had three examples (sent in from actual viewers) on the topic "Things that I do to make myself seem cuter": Purposely walking slow behind a guy and complaining, before jogging up and tugging on his sleeve; pretending to get caught in clothing while taking off sweaters or whatever; making expressive little hand gestures to emphasize emotions like sadness or shock.
  
  I would just like to say that these are not only all actions that annoy me, these are all actions that actually make me raging mad. Every. Single. One. I was ready to hit something just after watching the little reenactment videos. That, or start screaming, "OMG, it's your fault that women can't advance in the workplace!" My rage almost overwhelmed my desire to start sobbing on behalf of double-X chromosomes everywhere. I felt ill after watching this little comedy program. Honestly ill. Don't make me smack a bitch, Japan! I'll do it! I totally totally will! Minako-chan smash!!


• In better news, Superfly's new album hit #1 on the charts. I adore Superfly. She's this teeny girl with massive vocal power who reminds you more of Janis Joplin or Grace Slick or some other 60's powerhouse vocalist. I quite like her; I have a soft spot for teeny powerhouses (see: TMR). Go go Superfly!

• 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!

1. High School Musical 2
   After a somewhat hysterical comedy of errors that was totally my fault ("Where are you?" "In front of your house. Where are you?" "Uh, at your train station."), johnabe came over yesterday and we watched High School Musical 2. I would like to note right now that this was totally not my idea. It was John! I swear to god! But in the end, we were drinking and some of the over-the-top dance sequences were laugh-out-loud funny (the baseball dance-off? oh my GOD the baseball dance-off!!!), so it was a good time had by all.
   
   
2. Shadow Hearts 2
   Completely randomly, I decided to replay Shadow Hearts 2. I was 3/4 of the way through the game, but I hadn't played in probably two years, so I could barely remember who the characters were. Therefore, I decided to just start from the top. Hopefully, I'll actually finish the thing this time.
   
   
3. Final Fantasy (Versus) XIII
   Okay, so I'm obviously very excited about the next FF game. I doubt it will come out in 2008, so I'm placing my hopes on Spring 2009. (But who knows; Square-Enix always likes to surprise me with release dates.) Anyway, Famitsu released some more images for Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and they were pretty pretty as always. But the part that made me sit up in my chair? Check out the images for Versus. I know! Hot lead guy has a hot posse! Square-Enix always knows how to snare us fangirls. (FYI, I call dibs on Glasses Guy.) The only thing is that, after playing FFVII: Crisis Core, I'm utterly terrified that they'll all go crazy or start turning into monsters or something, and they'll all be dead by the end. Because if anything happens to Hot Posse, I will CRY.
   
   
4. Zombies
   Completely by coincidence, I have read several stories recently involving zombies. (Really; it's been weird. Weird and hard to sleep at night.) Anyway, it's made me think more about my own personal zombie readiness levels. In general, it's not terribly high (my general earthquake readiness isn't all that great, either), but I've come to the following conclusions that could turn the tide in either direction:
1. Pro: I live in Tokyo, which has plenty of bicycles (for easy, gas-free, faster-than-zombie transport) and relatively good systems in case of emergency (good earthquake readiness should be fairly similar to good zombie readiness... access to emergency food, water, etc = same. access to pitchfork for bashing zombies in the head = different.)
2. BIG Pro: I live a block away from a sword museum. Not even kidding you. A sword museum. It's even shorter if I lept out my window and climbed a few fences. If zombies ever start taking over Tokyo, you'll be able to find me snatching up all the best samurai blades for myself. Let me know if you need anything.
3. BIG Con: I live in freaking Tokyo. The city with dense population, narrow & confusing roads, and no unlimited ammo rocket launchers (if Resident Evil is any indication, this is what I'll actually need to survive a zombie attack). I'm screwed.
   
4. Conclusion? If there's a zombie outbreak in Tokyo, I'm most likely dead meat. But feel free to imagine me defending the local 7-11, sword in each hand.

I finally finished Final Fantasty VII Crisis Core. I didn't mean to take so long, but I ended up finishing all of the missions first. I am a solider fighting machine!  Overall, the game really did remind me of FFVII, especially during the parts when I started shrieking, "Curse you, Square!! Do you know how difficult it is to fight when you're sobbing your little heart out!?" It was... one of the most horribly tragic ending fights I've ever experienced. Zack! Uwwaaaaaaaah!

So in short, I highly recommend the game to everyone. ^_^v

I picked up FFVII: Crisis Core on Thursday, and have been playing it an embarrassing amount ever since. (Note: I still haven't reached the halfway point yet. It's just... there are all of these SIDE MISSIONS and they're taking up my time and I know that it's sad that I haven't even met newbie Cloud yet, but but....) Anyway, this is either the bestest game ever, or the worstest game ever. I can't decide. On one hand, it's an awesome game for fans, and if you're like me, you'll be squealing wildly because OMG Zack is pulling a train job or LOOK it's the Buster Sword or HAHA squat contests! On the other hand, I spent the rest of the game practically SOBBING because NONO Zack, don't protect Hojo or ANGEAL it's okay you have a wing, you're still an awesome hero or CRAP it's a another new character; you're totally going to kick the bucket, aren't you? Seriously, there was one point in the game where I just felt so BAD for Sephiroth because he was sad like a kicked puppy, and I started thinking to myself, "WHY oh WHY was Cloud so MEAN to him!?" before I remembered, "Oh, right. Killed Aerith and tried to smash Midgar into a pulp. Now I remember."

( Cut for random blathering about my first impressions of the game, complete with rather minor spoilers. Although, dude, we all know what happens to Zack and probably suspect what happens to anyone who doesn't show up in the original game. It's kinda like spoilers for the end of Titanic. )

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.

• WTF am I translating? I'm doing some short Japanese-to-English translations of the labels for products that are, not even shitting you, American brands. It's really really bizarre.
• I've been spending time playing "Final Fantasy XII: Revenent Wings" for the Nintendo DS. It's kinda like Final Fantasy Tactics: Light. You go on short little missions and beat things down and it's all good. I'm quite fond of the battle system, which works well with the touch pad. It's very simple drag-and-drop; you just select characters and drag them (or their spells) where they need to be. It's fun and calming until, of course, you hit one of the rare battles that requires you to split your characters into groups, at which point you end up scrolling around the map as quickly as possibly, trying to find those stupid kids again. Anyway, the biggest problem for me is that, quite frankly, I had forgotten how much I disliked Vaan. Oddly enough, he was doing fine until Balflear turned up, at which point Vaan turned into an emo asshat. Don't make me beat you down, Vaan! I'll do it! I'll totally do it!!!
• In somewhat interesting news, several universities have been shut down in Japan due to outbreaks of measles. Apparently, Japan has spotty coverage for measles vaccinations, partly because of a bad MMR vaccine used in the 80's and partly because the measles vaccine has been optional since the mid 90's. Officials and parents scared off by the bad MMR vaccine apparently went, "It's just measles. Like, who gets measles? And even if they get it, it's not like it's a huge deal, right?" And it doesn't matter, apparently, until those unvaccinated kids grow up, start going to college, and start spreading measles amongst themselves. Measles isn't a hugely dangerous disease, so I do find it funny more than anything else. One interesting comment that I heard in the news came from Chiba University. A couple dozen students have come down with the measles, and the president was asked why he doesn't plan to cancel classes. The president simply said, "If we cancel school, it's not like students will just stay at home and rest until they're sure that they're not carrying measles. They'll go out into crowded places in town. At least this way, we'll hopefully help to contain the problem." It's unusual logic, but it kinda makes sense. Especially when the news reporter paired that quote with an interview from some students from another schoold who said that since they don't have classes, they went to an onsen and plan on partying all night.
• I finally bit the bullet and signed up at a gym in Shinjuku. I decided to get a night-only membership, which works because the only free time I have is late at night or on weekends. So far, I've only gone to the little lap pool, which is very relaxing and not very crowded. From what I can tell, at least half of the people in the pool area are guys who just want to lounge in the sauna or the jaccuzi pool while wearing the teeniest speedos you've ever seen in your life, so precariously pulled over their non-existant asses that it would actually be quite dangerous if they ever attempted to actually swim. I can only presume that they thought it was sexy, but personally, all I could think was, "Dear god, look at how teeny you are. I could snap you like a twig."
  
  Anyway, after going through the trauma of buying a new swimsuit and going to a pool, I discovered something very important: I can no longer swim. (lol) Seriously, when was the last time that you actually SWAM, not just floated or splashed around. It was quite depressing that I nearly drowned after 25 m of breast stroke. I learned to swim when I was about 3 or so (we had a pool in the backyard), and one of my schools had a pool so I took swimming semi-regularly in gym class for 4 years, so it's somewhat depressing to know that, hey, it's not just like riding a bike! (Actually, considering how I handle a bike, it's a very appropriate comparison.) I like to think that part of the reason for my failure was that the pool was filled to the brim with chlorine, so even dipping my head under and letting the droplets drip down made my eyes burn like a burning thing. I'll try buying goggles this weekend; hopefully that will give me the ability to stick my head underwater without reacting like the wicked witch of the west.

It's Springtime in Japan! The cherry blossoms are blooming, the visas have been renewed, the taxes are looming from a spot on the corner of the coffee table, and the new video games are being released. Hurray!

Last week, I picked up Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side: First Love for the Nintendo DS (two copies actually; one for me, and one for kinomakoto), and it's just as brilliant as the original Girl's Side game. Only, in portable format! Actually, a surprising amount of the voices have been left in, and the slight changes in gameplay improve the flow of the game, so I'm overall thrilled with it. I haven't played much, nor have I gotten far enough to try out the new "skinship" system (Use the DS touchpad to poke and prod your date! Seriously!) but it looks like the same old fun. If anyone has any questions about the game or wants some hints, let me know! I do love babbling about TokiMemo!

Yesterday, I picked up my copy of Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+. 3D Kinghom Hearts: Chain of Memories! HURRAY! I really quite liked the original KH:CoM for Gameboy Advance, so I'm excited to play the new, improved version. I've only started playing, which means that I'm still way back on level 1, but I'm getting back into the swing of things. (Except I keep hitting the R1 button at inconvenient times. Stupid R1 button...) You can choose levels of difficulty, so I went ahead and decided on "Proud". I have no idea if I'll get anything fun for beating the game on Proud but... why not, eh? KH is actually one of the few (only, actually) video games where I can up the difficulty level and still win, so I figure that I should work on my bragging rights while I can.

On a side note, a stole this "What Be Your Nerd Type" meme from childdoll ( For those who are curious, I'm a Literature Nerd. )

Anyway, after taking the meme, my real question is this: What kind of nerd are you if you are immediately horrified because the writer of the quiz spelled the word "architecht"?

The DTP department just handed over two bloody new versions of the same manual in two hours. I'm using TRADOS, a translation program, to translate, so you'd think that getting handed a different version of basically the same thing wouldn't be any big deal, but TRADOS had limitations and so I always do the final check by hand. This will be my third time doing a manual check on chapter 2 today. To put it mildly, I'm getting kinda ticked.

Speaking of angry, this article kinda pissed off my inner linguist, which is surprising mainly because I didn't think I had an inner linguist. While I adored my linguistics classes, my memory is somewhat akin to a sieve and knowledge tends not to stay inside for the long haul. Anyway, the article mainly talks about a book about early childhood language development from a man called Charles Lang. Normally, I would just scratch my head and try to figure out why anyone thinks this is new, except that the article started out somthing like this:

When kids leave out the subject in the sentence "Where going?" they're thinking like a speaker of Chinese, which drops topic words in some contexts. [...] Like almost everything in linguistics, Yang's idea stems from Noam Chomsky's theory that the human capacity for language is innate.

( The following has been cut because it contains nothing but linguistic bitching. You have been warned. If you don't feel like clicking, I totally understand, and the oversimplified version of my complaining can be summed up as, 'Chomsky!? OMFG Chomsky!! Hiss hiss! Spit spit!! And WTF's with that statement about Chinese? Are you a moron, writer lady!?' For those who might be interested, the following will contain highly suspect information pulled from the scraps of my remaining linguistic knowledge that may or may not be interesting. )

Finally, in completely unrelated news, I've finally scratched the surface of Final Fantasy III. Keeping in my personal naming tradition, the four characters have been renamed Fred, Bobby, Roger, and Kiki. Just... because. Go get 'em, Kiki!

So Saturday was my birthday. Happy one year older to me! johnabe came over in the morning before work so that he could give me my present: two bottles of uber-special edition Final Fantasy XII potions. Do you feel energized!? 50 or 100 hit points worth of energized!? (could happen) I was very impressed with the present, although I had unfortunately just brushed my teeth at the time, so the potions had an extra infusion of mint that made it taste even weirder than normal. I went out shopping in the afternoon, bought myself two shirts and a cardigan-type wrap, and played some Tokimeki Memorial.

On Sunday, after getting my nails done (I believe the shade is known as "Streetwalker Red"), my friend Meg invited me out shopping with her in Roppongi. We hit the new Cold Stone Creamery, which debuted in Japan fairly recently and is ridiculously popular. We felt like we had taken a trip to Disneyland: We stood in a winding line for 45 minutes, only to be greeted by cheery workers who all sang ice cream-related songs to the tune of "Hi-Ho". But Cold Stone Creamery! Yum!! We left to do some shopping, only to discover that it was the last day of the Pixar art exhibition, so we raced to the museum to see that. The highlight was a massive, modern, Toy Story-themed zoetrope. Unlike traditional zoetropes, this was made with huge 3D sculptures attached to a fast-spinning platform. They'd start the thing up, rotating it faster and faster until it was just all a blur... and THEN they added strobe lights, and suddenly, the entire thing was animated. It was wicked cool, and apparently based off of a similar invention for the Ghibli museum. And it all comes full circle. [draws circle with hands] Afterwards, we rested in front of a live musical performance by a newbie, unknown band called "Soma" (they were surprisingly good; band to watch for?), and then headed off to a really yummy Iranian restaurant for dinner.

Finally, I bought myself a new birthday present: Final Fantasty III for the Nintendo DS. Hurray!!! Prepare to level slut!! I haven't actually played yet; I've been busy going online and reading through the manual and trying to figure out which jobs for everyone to learn. As I've mentioned several times in regards to RPGs, Minako-chan and magic don't really get along. I always give people magic and summons and stuff... but then I never actually use them. And don't even get me started on status magic... In fact, me being, well, me, I'd rather have a team filled with nothing but Ninjas and Karate experts. We'll see what happens. And I'll keep you updated on my process!

Best t-shirt used in a V6 photo shoot
The t-shirt worn by Inocchi in a group photo shoot found in the 2006 concert pamplet. The shirt reads:

Got a stiffie? Wear a Jiffi! Jiffi deluxe condoms

So on Saturday, I took John to yet another V6 concert. Hurray! V6 just released their Best Album II, which is filled with more recent singles and B-side tracks, so the concert was pretty similar. I actually wasn't caught up on all of the recent B-side tracks, so I got to hear some brand new (to me) songs. Wai!! Two of the solos really stuck out for me: Nagano-kun's solo was "Tsubomi Song", an adorable little song written for him by Inocchi. It was really cute, and Nagano-kun sounded surprisingly good. Go-tsun's solo was "Unlimited", which isn't too odd, but the overall effect shocked me. He sang his solo while dressed in tailored white slacks, wildly-patterned shirt, and patterned tie, all in front of a video of him playing with his doggie. So cute but... it was GO. In TAILORED PANTS. With his shirt TUCKED IN. It was kinda shocking.

Anyway, it was another great concert, and here's a fun tidbit for people. Since there has to be a new stage invention every show (floating stage? revolving stage? moving stage?), this concert featured small movable platforms. If you watch the DVD whenever it comes out, they will likely shoot the footage so that V6 appears to float throught the audience. If you watch the show, however, you quickly realize that the platforms are powered by stagehands in black T-shirts. It's pretty funny, actually. Ah, the magic of Johnny's!

Best controversy in a love sim video game
One of the movies you can see on your date in Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side: Second Kiss is entitled "Celsius -273.15". When you "watch" the movie, the screen shows an older, angry-looking guy attempting to golf as a big fat guy in a flannel shirt and baseball cap shoves a microphone in his face. The "dialogue" goes something like this:

Guy #1: How you can you possibly be relaxing, playing GOLF, during a time of crisis?
Guy #2: Hey, what are you doing? Get those cameras out of here!
Guy #1: Aren't you ashamed of yourself?

I remind everyone that this is TOKIMEKI MEMORIAL GIRL'S SIDE: SECOND KISS. The target audience is women who want to play a game where your main concern is whether you want to date the serious scholar or the free-spirited artist. This is probably one of the fluffiest, mindless video games I own (although I will fully admit that it's hard to beat "Project V6" for sheer mind-numbing-ness). Who came up with the idea for a Fahrenheit 9/11 parody?

Anyway, I haven't played too much so far (and what does it say about me that I feel vaguely dirty for trying to hook up with the homeroom teacher? "Oh my god! I'm a high schooler; what the hell am I thinking, seducing my teacher like this!?"). But it plays about 90% the same as the original TMGS, so all of my old playing techniques (only rest on weekends! save and reload like crazy! avoid other people like the plague!) seem to be working out pretty well. Sure, it's a silly, repetative game. But you'll never appreciate your love if you aren't working your ass off to seduce your man. (lol)

Recently, it has occurred to me that I have money. I still think of myself as a thrifty student, even through I've been working for over a year already. But I've recently come to realize that, hey, I'm actually developing a savings. I actually can afford things if I want them! So long and winding story short, I bought myself a new TV. [cheer cheer] It's technically a second computer screen, which I decided I wanted because I use my computer DVD drive to watch non-Japanese DVDs, but it's got all of the normal hookups for a TV, as well. How exciter-ment!

So, I upgraded to an S-Video cable for my PS2 and finished Final Fantasy XII. Look, how clear! I can read the letters that tell me the name of locations on the map! It's a miracle!!! I didn't finish every part of FFXII, but I did finish up with all of my characters around level 87, so it was a nice, leisurely boss battle at the end. Hurray!

Anyway, the truly eventful part of the day came when I was shifting things around to reconnect everything to my TV. Guess what I found? My lost passport. Yes, I tore apart my apartment in February looking for my misplaced passport, and eventually ended up jumping through every administrative hoop that both Japan and America could throw at me, and it turns out that my passport was in the most logical place: Underneath my VCR, pushed to the very back of the cabinet. Obviously.