I know you I walked with you once upon a dream. I know you The gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam Yes, I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem But if I know you, I know what you'll do You'll love me at once the way you did once upon a dream
Yup. Got an appointment with the financial aid office of my school at 11:30. All graduating seniors have to go talk to them to make sure they understand their loan situation and stuff. Doing this in English 'cause I don't have a lot of time right now.
>>26 Finals? Dude, midterms just ended a week or two ago. Term is over in June. I got another 2-3 weeks left. (I said in >>21 that I was going to sleep...)
>>31 My clock in my brain is permanetly set to the EST. I just cannot figure out the PST right. Looks like the western seabord of America does not exist in my brain orz. How can you be slim like that skipping breakfast? (I saw your picture by the way....) Well, there must be less then 10 miniutes to your appointment.... You gotta go now, right? Nice talking to you. Catch you later!
Okay, long story short... My school is really small, only like ~850 undergrads. We accept around ~225 freshman each year. So most universities have fraternities and sororities (do you know what those are?), but my school just has what we call "houses". They're basically mini-dorms. There's like seven altogether, and each one has a distinct personality. Different kinds of people tend to go to different houses. Frosh (freshmen) start out living in a random house, just to give them somewhere to stay. Then they visit each house, spend time there, and decide which ones they want to live in permanently. Anyway, I started out in a house, let's call it A. I became friends with a bunch of kids who were also in house A. I hung out with them a lot... and ended up not really hanging out with anyone else. I became really comfortable in that group, so I didn't give the other houses a proper chance. I just decided I'd move into house A permanently, without really thinking about it too much. I've always been kind of like that. If I think the current situation is good enough, I don't go out of my way to change it or try other things. (continued...)
But house A really wasn't a good fit for me. Just the kinds of people and the stuff they do, it just wasn't an environment I really enjoyed. So as time went on, I spent less and less time with people in general, and I basically stuck to my little group of friends that I'd made in the beginning. But they fit really well in the house, so they made friends with everybody... You can see where this is going. I had a shitload of fun my frosh year, when I still kind of hung out with everyone and it was all okay. We were all a lot closer then, we'd just met and we were in all the same classes and everything, we hung out literally every day. But over time, they all went their own ways, made new friends, etc. And I kind of, didn't. It's partly that I don't mix well with most of the other kids (my interests, etc.), but mostly that I just didn't try to.
I have *really* good friends from high school, reeeally good friends that I adore. So I wasn't that lonely. I saw them a shitton on the weekends and stuff, and sometimes they even came to my school and hung out with my friends here. So it wasn't so bad. But now, they're all busy with their own work and stuff, so I see them really rarely. And I've drifted from most of the people I used to hang out with here, too, for various reasons. To be honest, I spend a lot of time myself these days and it sucks. I hate being alone. Especially when I was so used to being with my friends practically all the time in high school and frosh year of college. It's totally my fault though, for not trying to make more friends and not trying to hang out with people more. It's just, I don't like a lot of them that much... I don't like hanging out with them and I don't like what they do. Kinda fucked myself over.
>>118 Yeah, they're basically like "mini-fraternities" or "mini-sororities", but they're mixed (both men and women live in the same house). Each house has its own culture and stuff.
>>121 Ah, kinda hard to explain... It's "cool" to try and offend people, or tell outrageous stories. Like during rotation (when the frosh "rotate" and spend time at each house), we try to "shock" them by saying crazy things or we ask them to tell crazy stories. And if they don't have anything funny or wild to say, people think they're boring or not interesting. Lots of kids get really drunk, every Thursday night is called TND (Thursday Night Drinking). Although a lot of kids in my house don't drink. I like watching my friends get drunk, but watching these guys get drunk is pretty boring... Like, they have a "pack mentality," a lot of them like making fun of other people or putting them down if they don't seem "cool" enough. In a group, they can act like complete assholes.
>>122 Initiation, pledges, and pranks... Movies and TV shows I've been watching came to my mind whenever I hear those words. By the way, You're a heck of writer. I've got a feeling that you can be a writer at the moment when you wish to be.
>>123 Eh...? Thank you very much (writing is the one thing that's really important to me^^), but I wasn't even trying to write well here or anything. This is just how I talk normally... but thanks! One day, if I ever publish this novel I've got in my head, you can say you used to know me before I was rich and famous. XD
>>124 I just saw a bright future ahead of you. I would like to send you a "Born to Write" T-shirt. You should definitely keep writing whatever it is. Then fame and fortune will find you very soon. By the way, do you have any writer you really like other than BL writers?
>>127 Hm, all my books are at home so I can't glance at them to remind me. Off the top of my head, Dan Simmons, China Mieville, Ellen Kushner's "Swordspoint" was amazing, John Crowley...
>>128 Looks like you like SF and fantasy novels. I don't know all the names you pointed out. But I will look into their novels later. Thanks! I used to read the works of R. A. Heinlein quite a lot and the cyberpunk novels by William Gibson. I do love "Neromancer." I really do.
>>130 Okay, more intelligent response now. I grew up on pure fantasy, like Anne McCaffrey, Tolkein of course, Terry Brooks' Shannara series, R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt stuff, Weis and Hickman, tons more like that. Well, you probably haven't heard of most of those. Then I branched into more SF stuff, and still fantasy but a little more sophisticated (not the dragons-and-elves crap). If you're going to try anything, go for Dan Simmons' Hyperion series. I'm warning you though, it's not easy to read^^ Even for me. I learned a lot of new words reading it back in middle school. XD Oh, I'll tell you something funny. In elementary school I read all the original James Bond novels by Ian Fleming. XD Maybe that's influenced the type of man I like. www
Heinlein, huh. That's pretty classic. A little too old school for me...
>>131 Whenever I drive on the express way along the Tokyo bay to the Chiba Prefecture, this novel always comes to my mind (especially on a rainy day). I play soundtracks from "Blade Runner." "Neuromancer" and "Blade Runner," hey, this is a winning combination!
>>132 Already, I will go to a book store and pick up one of Hyperion series. Looks like a heck of challenge awaits me. All the original James Bond novels in the elementary school? Oh, it's just beyond all of my preconception of what the elementary school is. Anyway, I know this is a "REALLY" stupid question to ask, but do you let the bartender shake or stir your martini? Is it too old school for you? Well, if you can enjoy the motion picture or the CGF "Starship Troopers," it's not that old school, I guess. This is my personal belief but if there was no "Starship Troopers," there was no "HALO." I believe its influence among the SF world is just enormous.
>>134 Deckard is smoking hot even for men. I wish I could be someone like him. He is cool. REALLY COOL! By the way, did you enjoy the secquence that Deckard is at the noodle joint? "Futatu-de ju-bun desuyo." "Wakatte kudasai-yo!" That really cracked me up like hell.
>>135 Woo. It's like my job to spread that series (Hyperion) around. I've already got a bunch of my friends to read it, they've all loved it. XD Well, good luck. If you ever need anything explained (I doubt it), feel free to ask me. Yeah, like 4th and 5th grade, during recess (the break when all the kids play outside) I remember sitting by the wall and reading James Bond novels. I used to kind of hide the cover with my hand because there were pictures of "sexy women" on them and I didn't want to get in trouble... www
XD Shaken, not stirred, dude. Come on.
>>136 Hm, I don't remember. By recently I meant like, last year. (;_;) I should watch it again.
>>137 Hey, it's great to have a buddy like you when I have to tackle something really challenging like the works of Simmons. I just can't wait to get one. I was just wondering which was which. Yeah, you're right. Shaken, not stirred. That's it. By the way, which one is your favorite James Bond flick? I like "You only live twice." Why? The answer is quite obvious. Among fans, there's been a discussion. What does Deckard is eating at that joint. Some say, the ultimate DVD collection box is the answer because it includes a preview edition. They say that edition has the entire noodle joint sequence. I wish I could watch that. It's been still a total mystery to me XD.
>>138 Hm, that's tough. I also haven't seen them in a couple years. Dr. No is a great one, though. Sean Connery is the only real James Bond for me, so I like his movies more than the others. XD
The ultimate DVD collection box... w Sounds like it was created just to get people to spend a lot of money.
>>139 Well, the Bond movies with the Specter, those are what I like most among them. The Specter is a really cool archenemy of James Bond. "Austin Powers" only works if and only if there is a cheap copy of Donald Pleasence.
You know what? I did voices. When I did Sean Connery in English, people around me got stunned. Some told me my Sean was really nice. Well, that's a thing of yesterday's though.
Yeah, they're THE thief. How many times I have to buy those DVDs? As far as I know, there are four different versions of "Blade Runner." This ultimate collection box adds another one.
>>141 Amazing is women's intuition. That sometimes really scares me. Well, then I gotta be a George Lucas because I have to work on a saga anyway. How long should it be? Then I should be like a Spielberg. Who wants to read a boring mail? Hummm.... Demand is so high, but I would think of something pretty soon. Ed Woods, that's the last guy I wanna be. Aren't you sleepy? Anyway, nighty night, Ohana-han!
>>148 Eh? Na, it's entirely up to me. I wouldn't call it a *failure* necessarily, it's more the inherently nonscientific nature of his work... maybe. I haven't thought about it too much yet. But the bulk of the paper will probably be addressing why it's not scientific.
>>149 Well, your instructor seems to be very open-minded. Some do make their students write what they want to read, right? Anyway, I always cast my doubt on "scientific." Greeks were really scientific people. Romans were also very scientific people. Arabs were very scientific people. They were all scientific at the level of science they had at that moment.
Then following the observation pointed out above, how much do you think Freud was not scientific considering the science of his days?
>>150 Well, I don't know anything about what was considered "science" in 1899, so I'll have to write judging by contemporary standards. I would imagine it was considered very scientific for his time, though...
>>151 I think it's a fun topic to think about. How much do we know about something invisible that has been considered to be somewhere in our brains? Well, probably playing with metaphysics is the best way to kill time. I can think about it forever. Maybe that's the reason why some "scientific" people kick out the metaphysics from their thinking. Yup, the world materialists think of is much simpler.
>>152 Well, I'm not a big fan of philosophy, but psychology is always interesting. The brain certainly does work in mysterious ways. I was sitting in class tonight thinking, it'd be fun to get like the world's best psychologist and have them interview me, try to find out if I've got anything hidden or repressed. w
>>153 Have you watched "Good Will Hunting"? Will beat almost all the shrinks except one. Are you a shrink killer? I just wonder. You may be a good one.I always think of something psychological as a matter of software. Brain scientists can enjoy playing with a matter of hardware as much as they want. Maybe they can soon find their job in Taiwan. Software issues, they are always the problems. Bugs, all night debugging... You know the rest of the story, right?
>>154 Nope, never seen it. It's on my list of movies I have a vague desire to see at some point in time. Haha, yeah, I know how that goes. Let's hope my brain never needs any debugging, though. ww
My best friend is studying psych. He's really into it, finds it really interesting. Which I do as well, but I feel sometimes like it's all kind of obvious. I've never been all that shocked or surprised by any of the stuff I've read in my psych classes (which were only introductory classes, to be honest). I dunno. Maybe not other people, but I certainly feel I've got myself figured out.
>>155 Is he studying AI stuff? Cognitive stuff? Or on his way to be a school counselor or something? Just our of curiosity. Anyway, I just envy you. I've been into the metaphysics. Sometimes it is fun. Sometimes it bothers me. I wish I could abstract way all the invisible things from my brain. But I can't. The world will be much simpler.Something invisible but seems to exist. That kind of thing is always a problem. That, maybe, simply means there is a door into a next stage of thinking....
>>156 Definitely not AI. Cognitive stuff, I guess. I don't ask about his schoolwork much. I don't think he's even sure what he wants to do. He originally wanted to study business, but they wouldn't let him into the department as a transfer student. What exactly do you mean by metaphysics?
>>157 Oh, my forever voyaging mind.... I mean something philosophical, something religious, something mystical, and so on.... I am really not into "The X-file" stuff though. (Hey, they're simply for kicks.) By the way, your friend is a lucky guy. All the fun stuff the present day psychology provides are in cognitive psychology. I must say your friend is on the highway to the Ph.D. (Well, I know three letters and two dots are not always the destination of studying something....)
>>158 Hm, yeah. I don't think about that kind of thing too often. Kind of bores me, to be honest. I prefer thinking about people.
He's goin' to grad school (my friend), so who knows, maybe he really will get his Ph.D. I doubt it, knowing him... w Ah. I miss middle school and high school.
>>159 Interesting! (Eh, I've been telling you this a lot, right?) For geeks and nerds (I am NOT telling that you're one of them), those days are things they really want to eradicate from their memories for various reasons. (countless numbers of bullies, unpopularity without any reasons and so on....) Sorry for being nosy but do you mind if I ask why you miss middle school and high school?
>>161 Yeah, leaving this place the last weekend of May. Na, not doing commencement. Didn't go to my HS grad either, not my thing. I'll write a reply to >>160 right now.
>>162 Wow, you're somebody. I just admire you. Yeah, really. You know, a lot of people live their college life just for that day.... I gotta write you a "long" letter filled with praises. I just say, "Thank you for everything" for now.
>>160 I was never a geek or a nerd, to be honest. (I know you're not trying to call me one, just saying.) I didn't even get into computers until my senior year of high school. I never liked studying or "learning" or being smart. I was smarter than the other kids in pre-university school, sure, but that was thanks to my parents pushing me and teaching me how important education was. The other kids just didn't give a shit. Anyway it wasn't about smarts, I fit in just like everyone else, did stupid shit just like everyone else, more or less. I've always been a little more strait-laced than most kids, but that's just the way I am, and I think I've done all right anyway. I moved twice when I was little, and that fucked with me a bit and made me very lonely sometimes, but I got over it. All in all, there were times that seemed like living hell when I was going through them, but that's just the way kids are and looking back, I had an awesome childhood.
Oh man, I couldn't even begin to describe to you why... Everything was simpler back then, everything. Unless you're really really interested I don't want to bore you. It would just be me, rambling about me. Which is what I've already been doing, yikes.
>>163 All I gotta say is, fuck that shit. I hate ceremonies, formalities, dressing up, waiting while old people talk. The hell would I want to waste my time.
>>164 I don't mind you rambling about yourself. I am never bored when I hear somebody tell me about his/her life. (I love to read autobiographies by the way.) We can do it here or we can do it over exchanging e-mails. Well, your call. I have to send you really a "long" e-mail first if you go for the second option. But I personally believe the latter would be a better choice.
>>166 Heh, same here actually. I mean I like to hear about other people's lives. Well, mine isn't particularly interesting. Eh, I'll just do it here, we're already talking here. Let's see...
>>168 You gotta be fracking kidding me! Yours is pretty interesting. That even abruptly led me into learing you know.... There would be no such a thing as a boring life. Every life can be a comedy, a tragedy or mishmush of both.
Kinda long so gonna be split up into multiple posts.
Why I miss those days... My family situation was a lot simpler (at least in *my* head). My parents were still together then, and I was really, REALLY ignorant of what was going on. This is elementary/middle school. My mom did a very good job of shielding me from how unhappy she was and how many problems she had with my dad, and I was a stupid little kid, I didn't see anything. In other words, ignorance was bliss for me. I had a stable home to come back to every day, Mom was there and she'd cook for me and do my laundry and take care of me like moms do, I wasn't worried about anything. More generally I didn't have any cares. You know how kids are. High school was off in the distance, university was some weird shit that adults did, I wasn't thinking about any of it, it didn't apply to me. I remember one night I was sleeping over at my friend's house. We were lying there at night in her room, chatting before we went to sleep. She asked me at one point, "Aren't you afraid of dying?" and I thought it was the dumbest question ever. I told her, "Huh? No, of course not." That's the kind of kid I was. w
I was friends with all the kids on my block. I lived in a really rural area in middle school before I moved, we used to get together and go exploring in the creek that ran through our backyards. We built little forts or dared each other to cross this log bridge or walked single-file down this pitch black tunnel with just one flashlight, just for the hell of it. I don't think I appreciated just how happy I was back then, but I guess kids shouldn't have to or they're not kids anymore. There was a boy I liked, all two years of middle school that I lived there. I still have one of his sweaters; I stole it from him a long time ago. I remember we used to three-way call him (do you know what that is?), me and my girl friend and him. Well, I'd get her to call him with me silent on the line, and she'd ask him stuff like, "So, what do you think of (my name)?" and try to get him to say how he felt about me. And we did this several times, so it's not like he didn't pick up on the trick after a while. XD I don't think he ever gave a definitive answer on the phone...
This probably doesn't mean anything at all to you, but these are the kinds of memories I have of those days. They were very very happy ones. I can't live like that anymore, I'm too old on the outside but I feel the same on the inside, so I miss those days. I really wish I could go back. I think I wouldn't mind trading in the rest of my "adulthood" for a chance to go back and do it all again. I always joke around with people that I still feel like I'm 14. Except recently, I have to say I don't really feel like that anymore. Things matter too much now, there are things I have to do. Guess it happens to us all though.
I have a shit-ton of happy memories from high school, too. So many I think I've forgotten half of them. I have a lot of shitty memories, too, but they were all my fault for being an idiot. When I finally got my head out of my ass, I had a lot of fun. I miss my friends from HS. I've kept in touch with two of them, the two really really close friends I have. But everyone else mostly went to UC Berkeley, and I never see them anymore. They've got their own friends and their own thing going on anyway, so it wouldn't be the same. But for those couple of years, I'd like to think we were all really good friends, and that we had a good time together. Fuck knows I did. Wasn't quite the same as middle school, because in HS I could see my "family" disintegrating (Mom remarried) and I was no longer so stupid that I could just go on not noticing. But I was young enough to try and skate by without getting too involved, because honestly my thought process was something like, "God damnit, I just want to have fun, why can't you all [my family] just work shit out already!" So by and large I shut my eyes to it when I could. My friends all lived really close, within walking distance of my house or of the high school. So I spent a lot of time at my friends' places, and they at mine. We had the list of restaurants we always went to, the malls we hung out at... Just normal shit I guess, but it was really important to me. Especially now that I don't have that anymore.
This was all very incoherent, but I hope you got something out of it. I'll write it in organized essay format next time. www
Guess I'm just hoping when I go to Seattle, I'll get things right and have fun again.
>>172 You will do, when you are in Seattle. I just want you to remember one thing though. You're not a fraking programmer, you are a writier. Just keep on writing on your life. That itself can be a story. That can be a movie at least. That can be a TV series too. If you're the producer of the show, who do you put in your role anyway?
>>173 ぷw Someone with a big nose, at least. It's had a big influence on my development. www Yeah, I want to write... I vacillate. Sometimes, especially when I'm reading a really good book, I feel really fired up. I'm like, "Fuck, yes, I love this, I've *got* to write!" But then when I stop and think about it, writing a novel, Jesus... There's no way I'm ever going to sit down and finish it... I can't write nearly as well as I'd like to, it takes me hours and hours to find the right words and even then they're not nearly good enough... Sigh.
If someone would just tell me, "Yes. If you try, you will definitely get it done, and it will get published," then I'd have no trouble keeping on, but since when is life like that? w
>>174 Already. You play a writer. I play an editor. I am happy to give a call every Monday night just for asking how your work is going. Oh, a piece of advise though. Stay away from a cabin in Colorado durling the winter when you write. You can be involved in a big trouble. (Well, actually that touble can be a food for your next work though....)
>>176 I guess you definitely need a proper kick in your ass when you really wanna be a fraking writer. Oh, you gonna kill me? Then you will be famous in a jail house as a jailbird writer. (There must be a plenty of time for writing, I guess.) Thank me from your cell. Send me your draft anyway, please. It's fun to read what you write. My allusion came from "Misery." Oh, I can still hear "I'll be seeing you" in my head. That was a really really scary story. Read it or watch it. I can assure you it is really something.
Mm? Nothing at the moment. Although I have a thousand emails to write to people as soon as I finish doing this homework. I'm really behind on responding to people's emails. orz
>>184 Really? I just don't it. I've been thinking that your mail account is already filled with a bunch of emails written in Japanese. Anyway, I like the Gmail because it has a chat feature. (Hardly ever use it though.) Have you responed to all the emails you've got? I guess you have no trouble taking care of them, right? One more thing. What's the topic of the other assignement? It's just our of curiosity....
>>185 Not yet. Still two penpals I need to reply to. It's not that I don't enjoy it, I just so rarely feel in the mood to write back... Don't even fucking ask. I just got out of that class, the prof doesn't even really know what topics to suggest. We're allowed to come up with our own, even. Too bad I despised every book we read and I don't give even the smallest possible shit about anything we talked about. I hate bullshit classes.
>>185 Gee, looks like you're in the world of shit. Sorry to hear that. Take it easy. Writing a paper without knowing what the topic is? That's tough. Coming up with your own paper topic? That is another assignment, I guess.
>>190 Pamela? Are you talking about "Pamela or Virtue Rewarded" by Samuel Richardson? Pamera in swimsuit is nothing to do with your assignmnet, I believe....
>>194 Looks like I always find you in the most salient sector. 18the century novels? They are monsters from somewhere down below. Your armor class must be really high. You have no trouble reading them, right?
>>195 Here's the course website, if you want to check it out: http://kristine.haugen.googlepages.com/122read.html They've been shitty as all hell, but no, I have no trouble reading them. I wish for once we could have an English class where we read, you know, good books. Imagine that.
Oh, Kristin, you don't make your students read what you want to discuss. I believe she is a confirmed nerd/geek, right? Her name tells me a lot about her too. Due on June 6th? Is this some kind of joke? It's the D-Day. Seems pretty bloody. I just hope you do not relive the world of "Saving Private Ryan" or "Band of Brothers."
>>197 Well, she's definitely an English buff so she's a woman after my own heart. Luckily she's an excellent lecturer, which makes her classes tolerable. Otherwise I would have killed myself already.
>>199 Good for you. Great to hear that. Meeting a lecturer after your own heart. That rarely happens. How many washed out English professor I've met? Countless. Well, I think it's a good idea to keep in touch with her even after your graduation. I believe she could be your great asset considering your heart's desire.
>>204 Depends on the text. Sometimes if it's hard to get, or if the campus bookstore can't get it in stock in time for class, the professor will make a PDF available.
>>220 Mom got back from hanging with her friends at like 6am, so she was super-tired. So she's like, "I need to take a nap, ask your sister if we can go to a 1pm showing instead of 11:45." ('cause that was the original plan) So I call my sister later, and she's like, "Uh... the next showing is at 2:15." So I say okay, let's go to that one. Then like 30 or 40 minutes later she calls me and she goes, "Tell Mom I can't make it at 2:15." I'm like, "Uh... can you make it to anything?" (meaning to a later showing of the movie) And she says, "Um, no, actually I'm going to see it in five minutes. I'm in line at the theater right now." So I just go, "...okay." She claims she was going to be busy later in the day so she couldn't have gone later, but I know she's full of shit. Whatever. It doesn't bother me, except that her stupid crap makes my mom really sad. But there's nothing I can do about it.
>>221 Again, very sorry to hear that. I just hope your sister is gonna make it up to you and your mother. It's not that nice to blow a weekend that is supposed to be fun.
Tell me why they couldn't see 2:15 movie together. Why did her sister stand in line alone to see the movie. She said she wouldn't be able to make it, right???
She told her family a lie because she wanted to see the film alone? I'm full of ????
>>225 I could tell you my theories but the truth is I don't know what's really going on in her head, so I don't want to make assumptions. Whatever "pressing business" she had to do, I'm sure it could have waited or she could have done it another time. She either doesn't understand or doesn't care how her behavior affects my mom and it mother fucking pisses me off.
>>231 Fuck yes. I got up before my alarm, and kind of lay there, and I was like, "Oh shit... I must've slept through my alarm. It's probably like 4pm. I should get up..." But I was too comfortable so I just kept lying there. Then my alarm went off (I'd set it for noon) and I was like, "Whoa, what the fuck? It's only noon?!" So... pleasant surprise that I hadn't wasted the *whole* day in bed (just half of it). w
>>232 Great to hear that. I guess you're ready for a party tonight. I must say, "You're the guest of honor as always." Good hunting! There must be a plenty of SOBs out there to be pwned. Take it easy and watch your butt. Oh, by the way, what are you going to have for a late lunch? I'm just curious.
>>233 That, my friend, is an excellent question. Although not really late for me, I always eat lunch around 2 or 3pm (when I eat it at all). To be honest I'm not hungry, since I always eat so much when I'm at home. w It's like I'm still full from yesterday. I'll probably wait until around 8pm then eat the leftovers I brought back for dinner...
>>234 Oh, sounds like you had a wonderful family dinner yesterday. Did your mother cook for you? Or you cooked for your mother? Maybe you and your mother took out your favorites at your favorite restaurant or something? What's your favorite food anyway? I've heard that you like ramen noodles. What else do you like?
>>235 My mom cooked. I've been meaning to write down all her recipes. I actually did once before, but then I lost the notebook. orz My favorite food is beef stroganoff the way my mom makes. She makes it with fries, not noodles. It's the best thing in the world, ever, period. My sister and I always used to battle each other for who grabbed more of the fries out of the pot. I always took more than I could eat...
>>237 Wow, stroganoff is your favorite? Interesting. You have already noticed this, but it has become popular even in four dinky islands in the very far east. You'll find a stroganoff mix for quickly fixing it for a dinner. I wikied "stroganoff" and I learned it is popular dish in Iran too, and there are considerable variations depending on recipes. Your mother probably learned it from your grandmother, I think. I've heard that it is served with the noodles, but I've never heard that it is served with fries. Correct me if I were wrong, but "fries" mean "french fries" right? You should ask your mother the recipe again. What does it taste like? Is it very different from a Russian dish? I am really curious.
>>238 Nope, my grandmother is actually very bad at cooking and didn't cook much when my mom was a kid. I asked her (my mom) where she got the recipe once, I think she said she got it out of a book and modified it a bit. Yeah, they're really thinly cut, semi-crispy fries. Then they soak in the sauce... ah, I get hungry just thinking about it. It tastes like deliciousness. w I've never had any other version (like a Russian one or anything) so I dunno how it compares... but I know hers is the best. XD
>>239 Ingenious is your mother. You're the lucky girl. Is there any chance you will take a picture of it? Please do so next time your mother serves you the stroganoff. Oh, please try some russian ones when you're in Tokyo this coming summer. They're not so bad. I believe it's not difficult to find russian restaurants in Tokyo.
>>240 Heh. To tell you the truth, this trip is financially impossible for us but I'm pushing it through somehow. Meaning me and my friend will be eating like dirt and water every day. w I'll do what I can.
>>241 It's gonna be an adventure, right? Boldly go where you've never gone before! Or more likely to be outdoor survival? What's gonna be the toughest problem? Hotel expense, maybe? Some kind of prizes should be waiting for you in Tokyo since you have to survive 40 days? in Japan with very limited comfort.
>>242 I mean it's not so bad. We're staying in youth hostels, not camping or anything. The biggest expense was plane tickets. 1350 (round trip) + 400 (domestic travel) per person. orz Hotel costs are a close second. Then transportation (train tickets, ferries, etc.)... Sigh.
>>243 Now or when you're retired. It's a tough choice to make. I just hope this is gonna be the journey of your life. Staying in youth hostels is a great idea. By the way, pick up a car at the airport, drive from one city to another till the dusk, pick the motel that gives me the lowest rate, that's my kind of traveling around. But somehow it never works in Japan, though It is just a size of the state of California. Something is terribly wrong here.
When you are thinking about a man's cock, you mistakingly say cock when the appropriate word is, say, cup.
This is call Freud something, right? I forgot. Someone put a youtube video link before in chat in English thered in which female anchor said cock when she meant to say another word which rhymes with cock.
Gloomy May and June, go away! Raindrops keep falling on everywhere. Clouds are so dark up above. Oh, give me bright sunshine and blue skies of California Gloomy May and June, go away!
>>250 Old Pas one day, mainly for the bookstore. Little Tokyo yesterday. I got ナンパ'd by this black guy at the train station. This other black guy who stopped me to ask for money called me gorgeous. He also babbled for like 45 seconds, something like, "We gotta keep it real, you know? You know what I mean? That's what you gotta do." I'd only taken out one of my earbuds so I couldn't actually hear him that well. w At Kinokuniya I happened to find the 2ちゃんねる新書. I ended up 立ち読みing the *whole* thing for 恥ずかしくて死ぬかと思った体験. I was like cackling in the bookstore, it was so funny. w
And Freud. I still don't even fucking know what my essay topic for Pamela's gonna be.
>>251 We never seem to be around at the same time...
>>252 >けっこう捏造があって、けっこうインチキが含まれてるらしいな This was basically the thesis of my essay. w Have you read The Interpretation of Dreams?
If you ask me, I can write a song for >>258. I have a feeling that it's gonna be a absolute smash. Let Yumi Matsudoya sing a Japanese cover. It's gonna be really something even in Japan, then....
>>264 It doesn't look that way. I can tell your heart is aching. More precisely bleeding. Well, there are lots of fish in the sea. (I know this wouldn't be much comfort to you right now....) Hope you will soon catch a great one.
>>271 Once upon a time in high school my fucking crazy dentist gave me an amalgam filling without even asking my permission. So today they drilled out the filling and gave me a temporary inlay, and I go back next next Friday for the real one.
>>272 Oh, man, it sounds really painful. It's really irritating, isn't it? Sorry that you have a conflict on your schedule. Next Friday is the deadline for your other term paper, isn't it?
>>273 They're both due this Friday, actually. Which is plenty of time, if I just get off my ass. She finally posted the topics, if you care: http://kristine.haugen.googlepages.com/122paper.html Guess I'll be writing the last one. I hate writing BS papers... はあ。
Oh, I'mma email you next time from my gmail address, 'cause I think I'll be deleting my Yahoo! account soon. I'll make the subject something so you know it's me.
>>276 Just something like "Hey, it's _____"... I'm writing a bunch of emails right now. I let them build up again. Like it's fun, but it's also kind of annoying. But I got replies back from the last couple hostels I'd been waiting on, and now I have for-sure somewhere to stay every night. Yay! And duuude, check this out: http://www.synapse.ne.jp/~island-s/1dai/1dai.html I'm gonna do the A course with my friend. How crazy is that. (Maybe not that crazy, but I've never gone canoeing before...)
>>274 I looked into the topic for "Pamela." Wow, I'm dying to read what you gonna write. Discussing the issue like that from your point of view would be really something. I have a feeling that you will soon find yourself getting A+ on your term paper.
>>277 Wow, it looks like quite an adventure. Good for you. I hope you gonna have a great time with your buddy. Canoeing is fun. Bit dangerous though. Oh, by the way, everything stops in Okinawa area whenever a typhoon hits. I believe it is very wise to watch out for weather forecasts everyday.
>>278 Meh. I'm not putting particularly a lot of effort into these essays. I'll either get an A or a B; neither would surprise me, and I don't care much honestly. My Freud essay was really, really mediocre in terms of actual content. Just your standard argument. But it's good enough to pass. I wrote one essay last term for a class. It was fucking good. I knew it, I could feel it as I was writing it. I don't think I've ever written an essay like that before. Like, it wrote itself. It just flew by. And I knew as I was writing that this was something special. I had something solid to say, and I said it really well. The book had been pretty interesting, at least the issues it raised, so I was really into it. And when I got it back, the prof loved it. Gave me an A+ and said he expected this level of work from doctoral students. Getting praised for my writing is the one thing that makes me really, genuinely, warm-and-fuzzy-inside happy. ^^ So I was very happy that day. I don't have the essay anymore. I considered emailing the prof to ask if he still had a copy ('cause I emailed it to him), but then I said, eh, fuck it. I kinda want to read it again, though... but it's kind of cool this way, too. A mysterious essay that I can't quite remember, but that I know was damn good. w
>>279 Yeah, I know. (;_;) I'm just praying for good weather luck. I can just see myself overturning the canoe and landing both me and my friend in the dirty mucky water... Oh God. orz I would totally do it, too. So've you been canoeing before?
>>280 You know what? That prof you've mentioned has a good judgement on students. I believe s/he just saw your potential. S/he was telling you that you were the gold mine of talent. Well, I must say, whenever you become sick and tired of working for Steve or Bill, just apply for a grad school. You'll soon get three letters and two dots. That sounds nice, doesn't it?
>>281 I wish I could do that one day. I just saw it on TV. And it seems pretty fun. The show not only told me about fun stuff but also about risks I have to take.
>>284 Hey, I don't buy that. You're daring considering your post at the 2 channel. Oh, by the way, would you like to hear something really scary? Yes, something really really scary....
>>290 Aurora moths will probably greet you there. They're really huge. Female Aurora moths can be 1ft x 1ft. They love to dance under the lights during the night. And something that really annoys you is that you are not allowed to kill them because they're protected insects. Is this scary enough?
1ft x 1ft............ Well, being unable to kill them is fine. I would fucking run if I saw one; I wouldn't fuckin' try to tango with it. w I'm glad I'm gonna be there with my friend. Moral support and all that. I remember we were out hiking somewhere in a huge national park, two years ago when I was in Japan with him. He just stood back and watched as I jumped and shrieked at everything that I thought was moving in my direction.
>>292 Good. You have a guardian. Basically they don't harm you. They need to dance for procreation. Otherwise they're just hang on trees and walls with a leave-me-alone attitude. I always wonder what kind of love songs they're singing while they are dancing under the lights. It's fun to think that they're singing something like "Hello, I Love You." by Doors.
>>293 I read a book called Perdido Street Station. In it, these humongous moth-like creatures go on a rampage in a city. They can basically "lick" the inside of your brain, they steal all of your consciousness/thoughts/dreams out of your head and leave you a zombie-like shell. And the author describes them in really precise detail, and exactly how they "eat" their victims. So that book kinda freaked me out. Now just seeing the word moth makes me a little uneasy. w
>>294 Sounds really grotesque. Yeah, you're right. A word, "moth" probably brought it back to you. Oh, by the way, it seems French is nice for moths, right? Moths and butterflies, they're both "Papion." Do you believe they treat them equally? I am writing this because I have absolutely no clue about that. Do you know anything about it?
>>295 Well, I just checked and butterfly is papillon, but moth is something else. I found a bunch of different terms for it and I'm not sure what the differences between them are, but they've got other words. Apparently a bunch of them are more zoological. This one might be the more "common" term: papillon de nuit.
>>296 "papillon de nuit," exactly. I've heard they call "moths" that way. By the way, no offense, but in four dinky islands in the very far east, "papillon de nut" means something else. It refers to a woman who is involved in the second oldest job for females.
Anyway, when I was a kid, I had a chance to take a glance at the encyclopedia of insects in French. When I opened the section of "papillon," well, you know the rest of of the story right? That was the first time I considered moths very unattractive.
>>298 Hehe. You always come up with the funniest ways of phrasing shit, I love it. w You reminded me of something with your encyclopedia. I used to have this anatomy book for kids... ah! I just Googled it and found it. Oh my God, I haven't seen this cover in years. なつかしすぎー It was The Visual Dictionary of the Human Body, if you wanna see. w Anyway I remember in elementary school, maybe... I think it was at my ballet lessons (I took them for like a year or two), I brought the book to class. And me and all the other kids just looked at the pictures of naked people and giggled. Oh man. Kids are so fucking stupid.
Okay, superhungry now. I'mma go make some food. Catch you later.
>>323 Wow, sounds like a fantasy novel. Whenever I hear a phrase like "sword-and-sorcery," RPGs always come to my mind. I don't know why. Do you like playing the RPGs?
Oh, new information. You don't drink coffee? Too bad because you will be in Seattle pretty soon. Then which one do you like? Green tea? Chinese Tea? Or British tea?
>>324 I don't play traditional D&D type shit, although it seems like it'd be fun if I had friends to play it with. But I like Final Fantasy. Anyway that book is fantasy but it's not high fantasy, which I'm swiftly getting sick of. Um, black tea... I guess the kind we get is Earl Grey, dunno if that's British or not.
>>327 Earl Grey? Wow, you have a nice taste of tea. Whenever I have a cup of tea, I go for Earl Grey or Orange Pekoe. They're both really nice. Do you drink tea with cream or lemon juice?
It's really fun to play D&D type. You can easily jump into the world of cosplay? (I just wonder "cosplay" is a right English word or not.) D&D type is not so bad. But you know, Traveller type works much better to me. Actually if I expand the Traveller system, I can play virtually all the SciFi shows on TV. That's really something.
>>329 I love to be a game master. I think that's why I like RPGs. I can make most of my love of script writing. Yes, I love the script writing. When it comes to TV shows and movies, plots and scripts are my everything.
>>333 Makes sense. I never really liked any writing other than prose, though, personally. w You must be as disgusted as I am by how shitty American movies are these days, if you ever watch them.
Huh? Didn't you say your best friend's father gave him a green light? I remember somewhere that you wrote with joy about your coming trip to Japan, canouing on Amami island and all that. Update me if you don't mind. If you write something about the cancellation of the plan in J--->E thread, I'll look for your post there, though. This is the thread you break the news about your cancellation? You must be disappointed.
>>342 Uh, I already told you in that email that I wasn't going anymore. That's why I asked for your help. Unless you're not the person I think you are. Anyway in the end he couldn't go, and I didn't feel like going alone so I decided I wasn't going either.
>>342 Haha, okay, sorry! Apparently there are two people in this thread with supergood English. XD I thought you were someone else. Sorry again. Yeah, like I said, my friend couldn't go, and I really don't like traveling alone that much so I just said fuck it. There'll be a next time, someday. I hope. orz
>>352 So like I "replied" to your chat and it got sent as an email I guess 'cause I don't have gmail chat turned on. Anyway I never use gmail's chat feature... could you get AIM? Chatting in a web browser is pretty gay.
>>345 Yeah, I'm a different person from the one you tried chatting with here. So, all of your time it took for you to research and make appointments for your accomodation and all turned out to be in vain. You must have made a detailed gorgeous plan. What's he thinking cancelling the plan at the last munite. Maybe his father is to blame.
As other people might have suggested already, visiting to Japan alone is an option. That has to be more adventurous. I hear some girl go backpacking alone. Do you have any plans to do in the whole two months you were supposed to be in Japan if you don't my asking? If you keep coming to the J--->E thread for the coming two month, people there, including me are very glad.
>>359 Not really. Gonna try and move my work start date up to mid-August if possible, so I can just get started with my life and shit. Barring a fatal accident, I'll be around here.
So, you've seen real yakuza in Shonan, Japan and your fantacy toward them are shattered into pieces. I myself have seen yakuza several times. One is when I was a junior high student. I belonged to tennis club at school and we stayed at school several nights during summer vacation for intensive practice. We go to public bath (銭湯)every night and I saw a young yakuza there. I shivered at the sight of Yakuza with tatoos on his back but pretended to be calm like other tennis club members. After we got out out of the public bath, we talked a lot about the yakuza, like "Did you see the tatoo?" "I was scared to death.." or things like that.
Nowadays even common young people get themselves tatooed as a fashion statement, which I think stupid, but back then getting totooed is a certain proof of being yakuza. When I look back, I think he wasn't rich. If he had been, he would have lived in a place with bathroom. He wasn't rich enough so he had to come to public bath. I think very small portion of yakuza are rich. I saw the other day an article on newspaper that a yakuza shoplifted something to eat and was caught in redhanded on the spot. Some Yakuza is rich and look cool as they are depicted in a novel or a movie but most of them who aren't high in Yakuza hierarchey live miserable lives financially.
On another occasion, when I was doing a part time job, I had a chance to visit a yakuza's office. I said office but it's just an apartment. No real estate agents nor landlords lend youkuza an office. They rent pretending to be common people and after succefully renting it, use it as an office. It was a small Kumi(組), consisting of less than 10 yakuza. But like other Kumi, it must be affiliated with a major Kumi.
In a room there was a boss's portrait hanged on the wall. They didn't look wealthy at all. It was summer and some of them were wearing a tanktop, not the type young fashion conscious people wear but the one like under wear middle aged men wear. I could see some tatoos on their back. Some tatoos were in the middle of getting it done so, just a outlines with no colors. One yakuza's tatoo was a carp climbing against the rush of waterfall. Very colorful but kind of mede me feel scared.
I went to the Yakuza office with a man. Our job there was to put a wooden board with hooks on its surface on the wall using screws. This is a real story and it is hlarious. On each hook, you can hang a thin wodden plate. On both sides of each plate, a name of yakuza of the Kumi is written but on one side it's written in black and on the other side it's in red. Do you know what this means? When a yakuza of the 組 is in jail, his name plate is hung with his name written in red be seen. If he is out of jail, then name written in black can be seen.
My coworker tried to put the board on the wall but found it difficult because there didn't seemed to be pillars bihind the wall at the right place where the board was supposed to be put. So a few screws couldn't be working and he ended up making a few holes left on the wall. I was getting sweaty when I saw him struggling to put the board on right. In the end a yakuza suggested he put the wall a few inches up or down or left or right(I forgot) and he managed to screw it on. I was just an assistant of him but was scared to imagine yakuza complain about holes left on the wall.
I put all tools in our truck and was sitting on a seat ready to go back to our company when my coworker hollered me to come back to the yakuza office. I thought "What's going on there ? Let's get away as soon as we can." but since he called me from the office maybe on second or forth floor, (I forgot.) I had to go back, feeling scared. The reason why I had to go back there was that one yakuza served us ice cafe au lait. That's not an expensive one. That's just the one you see sold at a convenience store. I drank the cafe au lait and say thank you to him and we went back to our company. I don't think anybody has a chance to enter yakuza's office so that was a good experience to me. Bit scared, though.
30% is Korian living in Japan. 60% is descendants of Japanese descriminated historically. 10% is Japanese and Chinese.
The people who are 60% of all Yakuza is Japanese but has been descriminated by the same Japanese people. Believe it or not in Japanese society, there has been a group of people who have been discriminated by the same Japanese. The decrimination dates back to 400 years or more.
We had class system and people at the bottom of the class was descriminated. Their job was killing cows to eat or dealing with dead people. In short jobs people don't want to do. Now, officially we don't have the class system but in some parts of Japan, mainly western part of Japan, discrimination toward them has been survived. Those discriminated people have lived in areas anybody in the nighborhood know, so some people avoid getting married with people from the area. Big companies avoided hiring people from the areas. The land price and rents there are cheaper than other areas. (People don't want to move in the areas so naturally prices go down.)
Systematically and officially, the descrimination doesn't exist anymore but stiil in some people's hearts, the descrimination surivives.
Historically those discriminated people couldn't get good education and couldn't get a job except for dirty jobs. That expalins why these people occupy high prervent of Yakuza. They haven't accepted Japanese society so being outlaws was the easiest way.
I'm not saying most of descendants of the discriminated Japanese become outlaws. The situations have been changing and some get good education and work for a big company. But still, in reality, they can be turned down when marriage on the grounds that they are descendants of discriminated Japanese.
>>365-370 That was a pretty interesting read, thanks. I knew a little about the burakumin already. Guess every country's got its own sad story... Would be nice if yakuza were really all handsome good-hearted men like in the books/movies, though. w
>>382 People in some regions don't know anything about the issue. In Tohoku and Hokkaido, there were no buraku. And they tend to know nothing about the issue. In Kansai region almost anybody know the issue and schools there educate children not to discriminate those people and it's norm burakumin are at school. Kids don't discriminate against them but know who are burakumin cause in Osaka and Kyoto, fromer discriminated area is very clear. Western Japan has such discriminated areas including in my prefecture. But I didn't know there are such areas until I grew up.
Marrige discrimination against them does still exisit. I have heard a story where a women and a man met at "omiai" or "Arranged marriage" (Arranged marriage might be too a storong word for omiai. You can check somewhere on the net to grasp the exact meaning of お見合い) The woman thought he is a nice man. He works for a giant famous company and almost decided to start seeing him.
But, their parents had checked where his parents live before their relationship went further, and found out that they lived in a very run-down areas and ended up knowing he is from Buraku. In the end, she stopped their relationship.
It's norm here especially in case of お見合い, parents check where their schildren's prospective spouse are from. Because marriges here tend to be a matter of marrage of two families, not a marrage of man and woman.
Some braku areas don't look run down because municipal governments has subsidized cleaning up the areas and building a new houses. But to cut down the costs of building houses, in some buraku areas, almost all houses look like the same. That can be a sign of buraku area.
Even though they built new houses constructed roads in the areas subsidized by municiapl governments, locals around, adjacent to the areas know they are brakukini and words of mouth spread. I think real estate agencies are prohibited to say to prospective new residents that where buraku are in a region but if they are asked from their customers, they'll answer to them. Houses and apartment in buraku area is lower than other areas unproportionately, so that can be a sign.
I personalkly think this descrimination is getting weak generation by generation but, one or two generation ago, the descrimination was a lot more unsubtle and to think that the discrimination continues 400 years or more, it mught keep exicting in our society. Even if Obama might be elected President of USA, even though Tiger Woods are a center of admiration, descrimination against ordinary black people still exist (as far as I know.) It's not easy to have a fair society, maybe.
>>395 So, long story short, my friend ended up not being able to come but I decided after a while that I'm going to just go alone. It'll be a much shorter and less adventurous trip, but it'd be stupid to waste this opportunity to go altogether, so...
Pros' boobs and amateurs's boobs are two different things. Amateurs boobs appeal to some men. Even There's "amateur" category in Japanese Adult Video.
In an amateur porn video, men hook a girl on the street and negotiate with her about her appearance in AV on the spot. Or they get to know online match-making website in advance and they meet the day they shhot her a pron video.
In either case, wheather the girls are "REAL" amateurs is guarnteed. But I can tell from reactions of girls in front of camera or their acting skills, if they are real amateur or not. In some "amateur" videos, desguised pros who's been in such a video few times already call thmeselves amateur. They are too accustomed to camera and don't seem to be nervous or shy in front of camera. I hava an eye for Real amateur video.
I met a two girls talking on the street yesterday. One looked like a tourist with a guidebook and the other looked like a local. They seemed having a trouble so I got closer to them and found out that the tourist wanted to go to one famous place for lunch that serves my town's speciality but didn't know where it is.
The girl who looked like a local must not have been a local. She didn't even know where it is. I told her in Japanese, "I'll take her there. It just takes five minutes from here." She looked a little relieved. While I was talking to her, I heard the tourist girl talking something in English to someone who came out of nowhere.
The lucky thing to me was she was a native English speaker. (Why lucky? Cause I can practice talking in English.)Unluckey things was that the person she was talking to was a man, although I wan't expecting a romance with her. lol She looked like an Asian so I hadn't expected her to speak English.
After saying good bye to the girl who looked like a local, we three started walking. They are from Canada. The man looked like he 's from mixed ethnicities. He looks Asian but his skin color is darker that of Philippines so he must have blood of African American.
They are both from Canada. I was curious abuot they go out together but I kept the question inside me. I didn't ask where in Canada, they are from. The girl looked like a Korean. I can't tell the diferences between Koreans, Chinese and Japanese but somehow I thought she is from Korea. (Vancouver has a large population of Chinese so maybe Chinese. Don't know really.)
She said she was interested in Japan since she was 12. I was curious why she got interested in Japan but my mind was occupied by how to explain well the histrory of the specialty of my town so I missed out the chance. She doesn't look like an Otaku type. I just wondered she was influenced by Japanese pop culture on the Internet.
At one moment while walking along, she run a hand through her hair. She was wearing a pink tank top and I didn't miss out the chance to look at her armpit. Call me hentai or anything, but I'm kind of like armpit fetish. Her armpit was very clean shaved and I was kind of like turned on. (not because it was clean shaved but because I was able to see unexpectedly her armpit. Not so clean, unshaved armpit is good, too as long as a girl is attractive to me. )
She may not be beautiful but she has cheerful character so I like her. While I was happy to see her armpit but I was kind of guilty of peeping it. It was really a fraction of a moment but maybe she noticed me looking at it. I blamed myself for the hentai act but that all men is all about after all, right?
She said to me I can be a tour guide, so I decided that the hentai glance at her armpit was a charge she paid me for taking her to the destination. I think I'm better at English than average Japanese but whenever I have a chance to talk with a native English speaker in English, I am faced with reality. I feel like my English level is like an infant. Feel like I'm a kindergarten kid if you know what I mean.
So hana, about what part of you do you think yourself hentai except you read boys love? Do you get turned on by particular body parts of men? Japanese girls often say they get turned on by men's hands. You may say it's not particular body parts but part of characters of a man you get attracted to, though...
>>486 As long as we're having a serious discussion, I don't actually think there's anything "hentai" about me, or you. Enjoying watching two men have sex, or liking to look at women's armpits, is not perverted. It's a personal preference that has no effect on and does no harm to other people. To answer your question, there's no particular body part that turns me on. I'm not a very "physical" person, I don't like unnecessary touching anyway. What attracts me is the non-physical qualities, personality, attitude, behavior, etc.
>>488 It's impossible for men not to be attracted to women's body parts. I know some girls is attracted to six pacs of men or something, but that's not the case with you. I knew your answer but I just wanted to ask. Thank you.
>>529 >華タソはアニメとか見るのかな。 Yup, when I have time. Don't watch nearly as much as I used to back in high school, though.
>>531 なんかって言われても... I enjoy it. It's not my real passion, which is writing and language, but I guess it's in second place, which isn't bad. I haven't done any coding since I graduated. Been doing other things. Even when I was in school, I never did much coding outside of class assignments (but I had a *lot* of class assignments ww). It's not that I don't like it or don't want to do it on my own; I do. And if I had infinite free time, I've got a whole list in my head of topics to study and programming languages I want to learn. But somehow I just never get around to doing anything on that list. Maybe it's about time I stopped being a lazy motherfucker and actually did some CS-related shit. [CS = computer science] I should devote the month of August to studying Japanese and CS. It would be reeeally bad if I walked into my job after a four-month blank... orz
I guess the point is I'm not one of those people who live and breathe coding, who have five sideprojects they're working on and ten open-source communities they contribute to. I like coding, but I could easily live the rest of my life without ever doing it, too. It's just a hobby that I've turned into my occupation, because a degree in English just won't get you anywhere...
And an explanation I wrote about it to my penpal: もう一枚は昨日の夕飯。母が作ったイラン料理でzereshk poloという。 zereshkはそのご飯に混ぜた赤いベリーのこと、味はcranberryっぽい。poloはご飯という意味。これをチキンと一緒に食べるのが普通。 本来は結婚式などのお祝いの場に出す料理らしいけど、わたしはこれがめっちゃくちゃ大好物なので子供のころは母がよく作ってくれた^^
>>536 Hm. My mom makes it a little differently, but yeah, the basic steps are about the same. I mean everyone's got their own little unique way of cooking, so no two people are going to make it exactly the same. I gotta ask my mom where she first learned to cook, 'cause I know her mother (my grandmother) hardly ever cooked, and when she did it was terrible. XD
>>537 O_O How do you find these videos! XD That's so cool. Half Persian, half Scottish... what a weird combination. He lives in SoCal, I wonder if I've ever walked by him before. His Farsi accent is as bad as mine is. www
Ew, what the hell. He cuts his chicken into little pieces. You're supposed to put the whole frickin' hen in the oven. What's funny is like people always love the tadig, you know that crispy rice at the bottom of the pot, but I *hate* it. It's hard and crunchy and gets stuck in your teeth and it tastes bad. -__- So Mom sometimes puts slices of potato at the bottom instead, and we call it potato tadig. And *that's* really good, I always eat like half of it. XD
O_O HIs presentation is super weird. Well, I guess when you're only cooking for one or two people there isn't much food. But usually, when Iranians cook, they cook a huge platter of rice and a big bowl full of chicken, like one or two whole hens depending on how many people are eating. And you just put the big platters on the table and everyone digs in.
Wow, yeah, his accent is so bad. www But that was a really awesome video, thanks!
>>528 I've got like three piles of DVDs with burned anime and dramas to watch. The dramas I've seen so far are Yasha, Hana Yori Dango, and Densha Otoko (of course)... think that's it. But I've got like 48294082 on DVDs waiting for me. One weekend I'm just gonna sit in front of my computer and binge-watch all the crap I've got. w
>>535 Are those pancakes? Is that your typical breakfast? Do you eat cereal in the morning, too?
>>534 What do you mean by studying Japanese. It's the case with me and maybe with you too, but now that I learned basic grammars and vocabularies, all I can do to improve my English is just read English with dictionary at hand.
I wonder if I can call it studying. All I do is just reading.
>>541 >It's the case with me and maybe with you too, but now that I learned >basic grammars and vocabularies, all I can do to improve my English >is just read English with dictionary at hand. 解説キボンヌ
>>541 Of course they're pancakes. w I make 'em pretty often 'cause I love pancakes. I usually make them from scratch (like with flour and sugar and eggs and stuff), but Mom's kitchen is kind of small and we don't have half the ingredients, so I'm putting off cooking and baking until I get my own place. I do enjoy it, though. My typical breakfast is nothing at all; I usually don't eat in the morning. In fact I made those pancakes around like noon or one o'clock or something. w I don't like cereal very much. Used to eat it when I was a kid (who didn't? w) but not so much anymore.
As for your second question, basically what you described in >>545. I've got books like these:
And of course my BL novels and then 2ch itself. All that's left for me now (because I can't really practice my speaking much here) is to increase my vocabulary, and become faster at forming my own sentences. So to do that, I'm just gonna read (books, 2ch threads, whatever) and make note of all the words/expressions I don't know. I've been meaning to do that for a while now actually, I've just been lazy. And for the second goal, I'm trying to convince myself to restart my Japanese blog which I was keeping about a year ago. Forcing myself to write something significant in Japanese on a regular basis can only be good practice, I just need to make myself do it (easier said than done orz).
Don't meant to nagging mom but just a cup of milk for breakfast makes a big difference. It's widely known that kids who don't eat breakfast don't get good grades according to a survey. You aren't a kid but the same things can apply to adults who have a job or do house chores.
I know you read BL. When you have to translate the whole book of BL, I guess you look up each and every words you don't know in a dictinary to make your translation perfect. But what about when you read a BL novel for your own pleasure? You try to catch an overall storyline without using a dictionary? I think you can enjoy a BL novel without using a dictionary if you don't mind missing details of it. Without a dictionary, how much do you understand a novel? Allow my curiusity.
プロット自体にあまり興味を持てない小説がほとんどなので、分かるところも結構飛ばしながら濡れ場だけ熟読することが多い・・・(真性腐女子 The rest in English 'cause my friend's waiting for me downstairs... Overall it really depends on the novel. リーマンモノ I tend to understand a bit less of, especially when they start talking about business deals and stocks and shit. (I wouldn't even understand that stuff all that well in English, I think. orz) I dunno, anywhere from 70 to 80%? Then there are the easier ones, like 学園モノ and stuff that I can understand just about perfectly.
I know I said I'd reply in Japanese from now on, but my friend calls me up today and he's like, "Hey, why don't you stay at my house for the next three days." So I was like taking a shower and packing shit, and now I need to go so I don't have time. >_< Sorry! Want to reply to more people, will do it when I get back (and in Japanese!). And >>565, you cracked me up. XD
Yeah, 'course I know Laruku. To be honest I never liked their music that much, though. But yeah, they've got tons of foreign fans. Hyde's solo shit was pretty decent, I thought. I even saw him live at the House of Blues in LA, it was so fucking awesome. He is a fucking *great* performer, maaad sexy (he took his shirt off for the girls! so much muscle...) and his voice is insane. I had so much fun just singing (well, screaming w) along. When I got out my ears were ringing and I could barely talk, my throat was so fucked. ...but that's a digression. Yeah like, anyone who thinks those hot famous celebrities actually look like that when they wake up in the morning, is retarded. Most of them are gonna look either average or slightly above average without their hair/make-up/clothes/etc. And that's fine, I mean, that's why we love them, because they look so good. I'd rather just not see their "normal" appearance; ruins the illusion. w