Feel-good quote

"Why do we consider intelligence to be so important in modern life?

General intelligence is very important in modern life because our environment is almost entirely evolutionarily novel. Most of the problems that we have to solve today—how to excel in school, how to find jobs, how to do virtually everything on a computer—are evolutionarily novel. So intelligent people do well in almost every sphere of modern life, except for the most important things, like how to find a mate, how to raise a child, how to make friends. Intelligence does not confer any advantage for solving all the evolutionarily familiar problems that our ancestors encountered. More intelligent people do not have any advantage in finding mates and often have disadvantages."


From an interview by the Economist, although most of the guy's theory is crock. Reminds me of Shizen to Kagaku class at Waseda... 

Theorizing

 “Poor Mexico,” its former president Porfirio Díaz is said to have remarked. “So far from God and so close to the United States.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/magazine/how-a-mexican-drug-cartel-makes-its-billions.html?pagewanted=all

Food and retail desert in my home town, contributing to its suckiness and the greater wealth/education disparity in St. Louis. A vicious cycle, one I will analyze. Maybe I'll run for political office.  嗚呼 ,面倒臭い.

All in the context of diminishing generational socio-economic mobility. I hate this world, hate human nature.

Was angry but not surprised. Very sad seeing your estimate of someone fall over the years. Even more so, what is with the attempts to barely hide racism behind a few asian characters? In this age of google translate and increased amounts of foreign language study, is it merely the racial makeup of that person's online (and real-life) social network? Also raises questions about my own experiences of marginalization and otherance in being called "asian", in the minimization of any effects that perceptions of my race could have on expanding another person's worldview. It's possible that being too fluent in a language or cultural values, could have little or even a damaging effect on spreading tolerance, by being seen as an exception to the rule. Have I been outwardly, expressly complicit with this racism?

(Some day I'm going to find a response to the, you look like *insert random black guy with an afro and a beard* here, other than mildly passive-agressive putdowns to distance myself from the offender's interests; hope find the presence of mind to throw in a big FU before that, though.)

Also, interesting to note that Vietnamese speakers can write romanized without the accent marks and still be understood, completely foiling the modern-day translation tools available to non-speakers (especially and including automated language identification). Wondering about the extent Chinese/Japanese/Korean can be disguised this way, although it would seem that the hoops to jump through are much lower. Maybe that's just because I don't know anything about Vietnamese orthography though.

• Indeed, the above method was used by another in the conversation thread of the above-written offense (what really irked me was that there was a continued, shared conversation going on with these terms and nuances by a number of (ahem) asian(-american)s who are supposed to be among the most educated in the nation; one of whom is apparently gainfully employed at a governmental social assistance organization in one of the lowest income areas in the city [reminding myself here to save the offending comments in a separate location]), referring to heiren (romanized mandarin chinese meaning "black people" for those of you not in the know), something I probably would have passed over since the main offenders are of korean heritage and I'm just so baller at reading kanji.

Sigh. Enough armchair ranting for today.

"His small-talk alters foreign policy. He once ran a marathon because it was on his way... the most interesting man in the world." Don't know about that last part but interesting ad.

Also the Mike and Ike are gay campaign... interesting only because it brings up "gay divorce", what people don't mention when they are prominent for gay marriage. When I first saw the candy box I was so utterly confused and thought a stupid kid had scribbled all over the package.

New obsession

Central Asia... I know it's so romanticized here, but... *O*
aratamete the girls are so pretty...

Review of the advert

From NYT

 “By nature we are that kind of school that precludes you from clinging onto the past,” says Amy Uecke, associate dean of students for campus life at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis. “A wise college president said: If you come to campus and you do four or five years here and find yourself leaving with only the same friends that you had in high school, we as an institution have failed you.”


(from a greater article on skype and continuing high school relationships in college)

Morning of regrets / "多年后我才醒悟，自己当时是错误的"

Today was a morning of regrets, continued from last night.

Regrets that I never listened to anyone questioning the practical side of my degree, easily gave up my ambition to become a chemist and world class translator and interpreter, never truly explored my interests in dance and graphic design and gained practical skills, wasted inordinate amounts of time on clubs and people who don't care for me and almost never took the initiative to actively seek out and communicate with those who did.

Regrets that I depended on a JET placement for two years in a row, applied for CIR twice, haven't sent in a copy of my passport or my FBI background check because I still feel slighted by the program.

Regrets that I didn't follow through and apply to Fudan before graduating, didn't stay in Shanghai after that hard wonderful three months, have let my Chinese fall back into suck and feel conflicted when I study or interact with the language in any way.

Regrets that I didn't listen to the yearnings for emotional stability that securing my place in HNC would have given, felt conflicted fear over the role Chinese would play in my life, for thinking it would not have been such a burden after all every time I see mom has sent money.

Regrets that I find and desperately try to stop myself from thinking I've added nothing to my resume in the past few months; that "all of this" was for naught, that nothing will work out.

Regrets that, I'm stuck where I am now as who I am, with no clear path in sight except to wait and apply to schools again.

War on Marriage

Forget the questions of gay marriage and women... I want to see a war on marriage itself!
I was thinking about an argument （討論）I had with Wen about a month ago and realized that the difference in tax rate and breaks for the single and married categories might be enough to push me to the dark side :\
So mad that 1) the tax model (at least in my head/the popular imagination) is based on a traditional single-income family model in a time when so-called non-traditional families are becoming the norm, and 2) there's all these incentives in place in the US for people to marry and have children in that traditional family style, when singles  -- those without the obligations and expenditures of the married who have more time and subsequently, more ability to contribute to society -- are punished monetarily for choosing a lifestyle outside of that. (No I don't mean debauchery; I mean to maximize the ability to spend my money on books, food, games, movies, learning and travel for myself.) Gonna have to find myself an egalitarian society and learn their language and customs.

Reflections of a CIR Alternate

A few days ago I realized that I severely overestimated the number of positions that open for CIR (by a factor of 3!), thus severely overestimating my chances of getting into the program. Part of me said "Damn! I should have just swallowed my pride and applied for an ALT position,"

But the possibly stronger part of me has resigned myself to applying for some really exciting jobs instead. Got two applications sent off tonight, feel accomplished. For retrospect I've applied to a total of 6 programs/opportunities, these 2 included (haha). I heard someone complaining (or maybe it was on the internet?) about how they applied to 10 places and didn't get a job; Just thinking about shuukatsu, and the number of companies that the average person applies to... it's mindboggling, and any dedication like that in the US would be met with success. Just gotta keep my head up and keep going, things will work out.

New postings specifically related to Japan aren't popping up that frequently anymore (in particular the once-burgeoning career option of legal translation seems to have all but dried up), but I have too realized that I need to expand my search terms on that end. A lot of the same jobs seem to pop up over and over again -__-;; and some days I really am tempted to apply to one of those random hotel jobs in Hawai'i just to go to the islands...

Tomorrow's a new day, with new deadlines. Next few are on the 11th!; we'll see if I ギリギリセーフ them next time as well...

言葉遣い

From a BCF mailing, section about 言葉遣い

「馬子にも衣装」
馬子を「孫」と間違えやすいこの慣用句は、正しくは馬子のような身分が
卑しい者でも、衣装によっては立派に見える、つまらない者でも外面を飾れば
立派に見えることのたとえです。ほめ言葉ではないので注意しましょう。

Trying not to rage while figuring out where the "restore factory image" button went and hid itself...

I have some awesome friends

This is I guess one of those things that people don't really get, but I'm going to try to explain it in as short as possible; I have no interest in having sex. The things I do in life are not motivated by getting my dick wet. When I talk to a girl, I don't wonder how tight her pussy is, mostly I wonder if she thinks I'm fat."

, mostly I ______________________.

Wonder what I'd put in there....
(the double entendres just keep on coming!)

Dang.

Dang.

Someday I will get 原動力 and the skills to prioritize and get things done.

Until then I'm going to keep reminding myself to come up with a good name for make that new blog.

(And in the meantime I'll still be writing on this one; different blogs, different purposes.)

Music: How to Make it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nb8A5B7TbY

Rediscovered Nujabes

Sometimes youtube can be amazing.

In a world without words. Where we let our minds do the talking. Where our creativity is our only form of communication, expressed through the form of art, our creations, whether they be technically advanced or from the most basic instrument.

A world where our music is our form of communication.

A world where we can cross our legs, sit down on the grassy fields together, and listen to each other, in beautiful harmony.

@laharlie

Racism in Japan and Mensetsu wo furikaete miru-ing

So I had a question about dealing with racism/discrimination during my interview.

At the time, I managed to break my reactions to "racism" into hostile and ignorance (=teachable moments) over the course of two questions. (Thus recovering from my first, oh I didn't really experience much! ahhhhhhhhh! moment when my response to the first question ended.)

But in my dream last night I was interviewing again, and remembered this story.

The most outward racism I ever experienced (=noticed) in Japan was not from a Japanese* person, but rather another international student.

There was one day a small, sweet-looking redheaded Korean girl wanted to check out my club. Sometime over the course of our interaction she looked at me dead in the eyes, and I realized she was very, very cute. She opened her mouth to speak.

"You're black, but you're not scary."

I was appalled and taken aback, silent until I had conquered the dissonance that told me no, those words could not possibly have been carried by such a sweet voice.

I had two options: pimp or educate.


Suppressing my natural inclinations, I chose to educate.

Soldiers on the bases in Korea would be scary, and the perceptions gathered via media certainly give that same impression for black people in general, but people are just people; seeking out the chance to interact with more people from a given culture will give you a truer and better picture, along with the realization that we are all human. Besides, there are tons of scary Koreans."

I told her, or at least something similar.*

"Oh yeah, I guess you're right."

After that I saw her a few more times, but there was never the same feeling of closeness as that day when I had the chance to pimp. In fact, I suspect she might have had some unfortunate experiences to reinforce her stereotypes. But, when I did see her she looked happy, and was definitely hanging out with a diverse group of other students.

I called it a success.

*This is with the exception of fuuzoku, of course! I just remembered in Nagoya, not only was there a district of "nightlife guides" a stone's throw away from the main station, but wandering around at night led me to a clubbing & prostitution district with "No foreigners allowed" signs pasted everywhere. I have faint recollections of asking a bouncer if they were serious, and him being like "Naaaw," but I'm sure that's just my mind playing tricks.

**Also struggling with being self-conscious about sweat and stinkyness as basically the only westerner in a dance club... and said stinkyness being attributed to my race/culture (although it is true apparently); it was still a shock during my last festival to be told that my costume stunk and should be hung outside until it could be washed haha.

***There is a bit missing from the conversation above... probably. Also, she was a new freshman international student at the time.

hmm...

Maybe I should have looked into consulting. Although you probably need a better gpa hahaha.

Also thinking about joining the PMJS ML, just to lurk and read...

Also, a grad program that sounds beast in it's course offerings but a bit scanty on the language side

Return of the Kikokushijo!!

Bad pun, I know.

But just got the idea of looking for representations of kikokushijo in anime/manga, starting with my beloved Asuka (I'm getting more and more afraid to finish the series as time goes on, so I should make some way for it to be inescapable for myself...). Although, it seems like a lot of the characters are in fact stereotypical (tropes?)m so perhaps I should say innovative portrayals.

On the same note, my ideas of ibunka komyunicke-shon also extend to the different cultures within a given culture, basically through senmon yougo (specialized vocabulary) that develops through different groups. From computer programmers and scientists to dancers and artists and farmers (another reason I like gin no saji so much, gotta write about how awesome it is (and manga in general vs jun bungaku ("real" literature) later) have to communicate with each other using modified "foreigner english". I should find out what the term for that is.

But yeah. Ugh. Train of thought interupted.

http://maki.typepad.com/justhungry/2010/03/if-you-cant-speak-english-youre-a-loser-in-life.html

Ridiculous, 伊達眼鏡

Mo Xi alcohol lake

According to Liu Xiang's book Lienü zhuan written much later, around 18 BCE, Jie was corrupted by his infatuation with his concubine Mo Xi (妹喜 or 末喜), who was beautiful, but completely lacking in virtue.^[7][8] Among other things, she liked to drink, enjoyed music, and also had a penchant for jugglers and sing-song girls. Apparently, she had King Jie order a lake of wine made.^[8] They both sailed about in the alcohol lake in an orgy of drunken naked men and women bathing and drinking.^[9] She then commanded 3,000 men to drink the lake dry, only to laugh when they all drowned.^[8][9] This event was also recorded in the Han Ying's (韓嬰) book Han Shi Wai Zhuan (韓詩外傳).^[9][10]

-Wikipedia, Jie of Xia

Baller, utter ridiculousness... and there's more if you look into that guy! Clearly people like this were an influence for the Tenryuubito of One Piece. Really need to go back and read the 400 or so chapters I skipped. Next time I'm in town, I'm clearing out Book-Off!

The evergrowing List of light novels and manga to buy:

Spice and Wolf - 17 volumes

Haruhi  - 

Durarara! = 

Welcome to the NHK - 

One Piece manga - 50+ volumes

When opportunity knocks, you either answer the door, or you light up your internet connection and spank away your sorrows.

 This is from 30 Sleeps, which has some really good writing and inspirational stuff. Even talks about meeting girls, contrasting the pick-up artist methodology with a "get a life first" mode that makes a whole lot of sense.

Great articles on language learning over at Fluent in 3 Months, one very breathtaking post on comfort and tips that I need to apply to my everyday (actually resonates with the social skydiving post mentioned on 30 Sleeps), and another one that I will need to muse on, "Stop being shy!" Reminds me of all the people who introduce themselves as 人見知り over there. Entertaining thoughts of doing my first serious E->J translation since that translation class at Waseda with this.

---

Why We Procrastinate

1. Fear of success.
 Success comes with its own strings attached. Landing your dream job might involve relocating to a new city. Your promotion might alienate some of your co-workers. And dedicating yourself to the pursuit of happiness might require letting go of the people in your life that drag you down.

Definitely felt this one when it comes to job searching... and house searching... and email replying...

Procrastination is the Governor of the State of Boredom. It wants to rule you, hold you down, and keep you from reaching your potential. It feeds on your fears and encourages you to keep talking in tomorrows. But by accepting that now is never the right time, you’ll start leveraging your present circumstances for future gains. By acknowledging that you might make mistakes, even making failure a requirement, you’ll experience the benefits of imperfection. And by using action to clarify your goals, rather than ready-aim-aim-aiming, you’ll have taken the most crucial step towards living your ideal life.

-----
Reading an article from here before I go to bed.
Creating a "currently reading" list on Wordpress
Go through this blog for particle physics in Japanese
Hilarious commercial on Shuukatsu -- gotta prepare for interview in both English and Japanese though!
A couple more Japanese blogs that I wanna keep an eye on.
Collection of Japanese folk tales with interactivity! -- still gotta listen to those kids stories and pick out good ones to tell the kids! This is actually really baller!!!
Start a lang-8 account and rack up some points to trade for corrections.
Livestation apparently has around 15 Japanese tv channels!

This post from Tofugu has some interesting ideas about role-playing in language learning situations -- kind of ironic that there was just a colloquium series about this type of thing. :)

I always meant to watch this "English Teacher" series  but never got around to it. That and catching up with Wong Fu (dunno if it's worth it anymore...)

全日本コール選手権. Look this up on youtube for some interesting calls hahaha. 


Going to have to keep a better eye on the Japan Subculture Research Center and Jake Adelstein (as well as Polaris Project Japan...) 


Interesting article on development of cute writing in Japan in the 70's, and a throwback to learning to read squiggles in Classical Japanese class.... wonder what came in between and now, after them! Wonder if there's anything interesting going on at Neojaponisme...

Most days I hate how Spanish sounds, but...

at the same time have a strange (and totally explainable) attraction to it.

And I gotta give props to this guy. Sometimes amazed at the power of fandom...

Readings!

Awesome! Japanese and Chinese attitudes towards sex, summary of a paper published last year by James Farrer. So baller, I wish I had found this earlier.Hate how this makes me start to rethink my plans so easily. (And from that study I'm starting to think that that encounter with the prostitute in high school has led to an affinity? obsession? with these types of topics....At any rate, self-reflection is good and those memories are there, for the most part.) At any rate I'd like to see this guy invited to the university...

A couple other links that I will definitely come back to.

Life lessons

Fools waste their money on foolish things. Only the wise use their money to better themselves.

So many life lessons, jam packed into those pages! Gin no Saji

[Edit, 2 minutes later] The nametags on this page... I never realized how old school/common place the soudairyou check-in system was. Wonder how Nakamura-san's doing, haha.

Issho ni ryuugaku shita tomodachi no burogu wo imasaranagara hakken shita. Issho to ittemo, kaku hito no keiken ga (betsu betsu, buyiyang) chigaundanaa , to hajimete (to douji ni sai)ninshiki suru. Arata na tabi wo hajimeyou to ima shiteiru ga, Toukyou ni datte mada mada ippai michi no koto ga afureteiru akashi de atte, hotto suru

I need to stop clicking on links...

More stuff from random blogs!

Great (p)review of Skyward Sword by the first video game blogger I've ever taken note of; apparently the academic side of gaming has exploded as well.

In what might be the most interesting iteration the Zelda series has yet seen, Skyward Sword takes a brand-new approach in characterizing Link via Zelda, who receives a tangible, compelling and nuanced characterization herself for arguably the first time in the series' history. Little has changed about the hero; he is skilled because we make him, dutiful because we press buttons, and brave because we don't stop pressing them even when there are monsters. 

You probably thought I chose the wrong major, didn't you? Well, my friend... I think that all the time as well!

But every now and then, something like Katawa Shoujo comes along. I might play the first chapter in Japanese and Chinese... and it's rekindled a desire to learn sign language. Not sure why I get so fascinated by it, seeing as I've never known a deaf or signing person; but hey -- maybe my subconscious knows something about my learning style.

This is the official site for the game, the above-mentioned video game blogger wrote a review and the Escapist has a so-far hilarious review that I will need to finish later. To quote the opening line:

To put it as bluntly and politically incorrectly as possible, this a game where you date crippled girls, spawned by 4chan.

There's also some interesting stuff about the reaction on the Japanese interwebs, although it's mostly about the use of Katawa. I learned the word for deaf-mute, too, which is apparently 聾唖. Just add a 者 to either one of those, and you get the corresponding person. Kind of weird that sign language is just 手話 then, although widely recognized (ie not home-language) sign language I would suspect is a product of the modern era, and thus the word as well. Interesting...

Oh, man! A great analytical blogger I had just found the other day, 2-D Teleidoscope closed their blog about a week ago. Found out the guy had a role in the production of Katawa. Will be looking forward to diving through the remnants.

This is from his (don't even know if it's a guy... or what their handle was, but) last comments after a really great selection of reflections on how anime has changed people's lives. There is a crazy guy living in two dimensions, but other than that there are four people who put into words their transcendence of the genre, and into something more reminiscent of Genshiken; that is, how fandom is/was a road to personal growth and human connection that lasts far beyond the bewilderingly fearsome prospect that is losing interest in something that you currently obsess over. Perhaps this is something extendable to any marginalized group, but I want to romanticize it and say that in some way it is unique to anime and manga. Certainly in some strange way, I can't say that I've felt so connected to as many strangers (that I wasn't with in person) as when I am cruising anime blogs and stumble upon ruminations of an underground series like Haibane Renmei. Or in the same source a career chemist musing on anime and Christianity, something I feel I can pass on through the gap that undeniably exists between me and friends more rooted in their faiths.

A final word, before I close the doors.

Anime can be a second reality.  It can be an escape, a reprieve, a haven away; Door Number One is the geeky stuff, Door Number Two is everything else, and ne’er the twain shall meet.  I think that’s easy enough to do.  It’s much more difficult to live in both worlds at once.

But that’s the ideal, at least for me.  Visual culture – anime, manga, visual novels, everything we enjoy – can be a lens that helps us love the here and now.  Of course, it isn’t easy.  It takes thought, and perspective, and a willingness to shed cynicism.  But we should strive for this.  It’s worth striving for.

And how wonderful reality becomes then!  Hobbies, entire lifestyles, friends, lovers, the precious understanding between one human being and another: All of these and more, right at our fingertips, all because we share a love for this stuff from Japan.

Our world, plus this, is beautiful, prismatic and complex: A perfect 2-D teleidoscope.

Thanks for reading.

僕と契約して○○になってよ！

僕と契約して○○になってよ！

is what I said! Madoka joke. Wanna fill in "社会人" there haha.

Ahhhh, application turned in sort of on time! Money isn't such a big deal! Now all I need is to find housing and the courage to email my supervisor haha.

Below is a great analysis of Ohno's character. These past few days I've remembered why I liked Genshiken so much. Definitely have to check out the 2nd season (even though it's filled with fujoshi crap...). Definitely in danger of falling back into otaku mode. Although maybe that's just because my interactions with people (and the outside world) are so few these days.

Anyways, great analysis, and interesting one of Kousaka's girlfriend Saki. (tteka Ohno and Tanaka getting together in episode 4 was unexpected but unexpectedly realistic! Gotta post on that later.)

I love Kanako Ohno.
This is simply because she is one of the — if not the – strongest and most honest characters in all of Genshiken. Yes, she hides her preference for bald, muscled older men (due to some bad experiences showin’ her moe in America), and she is prone to stammering when she does not know what to say, but she is not afraid to stand up for herself and what she loves. When Saki reacts like, “HUBBAWHA?!” to Ohno — a woman! — actually wanting to join Genshiken, Ohno just replies, “But I like cosplay.” That’s all that matters to her. That other people may disapprove of it never crosses Ohno’s mind for even a second. This is who she is! She loves to put herself in the shoes of different characters; nothing makes her happier. And she loves to put that happiness on display for others to enjoy. It’s tough thing to develop the confidence to show yourself like that. Certainly the men of Genshiken are nowhere near being able to do that...

Great review of Nichijou

'Nuff said.

Might use wordpress for the public/more academic blog

In which more lessons are learnt

/a/ made me laugh about that one

If you look at it this way, all the influential women shown in history were all magical girls.
>implying women can’t do anything without being helped by magical powers
>implying all powerful women got to where they were by selling their souls

It’s like social commentary or something! Can’t wait for feminists.

POSTED BY RAINDROP | APRIL 22, 2011, 11:10 PM

REPLY TO THIS COMMENT

• 

  >implying women can’t do anything without being helped by magical powers

  ALL of humanity would still be living in caves without the incubators granting wishes, remember?

  >implying all powerful women got to where they were by selling their souls

  Mixing up cause and effect here. Beginning of episode 11, Kyuubey says queens and saviors attract misfortune, giving them more potential as a Puella Magi. They didn’t become powerful by selling their souls, they got the offer to sell their souls because they were powerful.

  >It’s like social commentary or something! Can’t wait for feminists.

  The “still living in caves” thing implies men have never made any progress in anything in history ever. So this show is actually VERY feminist.

  
  

  
  Again, this is from Madoka doesn't need a sequal to explain itself

More Take-Home Lessons from Madoka Magica

This time from The Final Message of Madoka Magica

 I feel that the final message Madoka is offering is that although there will always be negativity and tragedy in this world, even a single act of hope can seem like a miracle.

 I liked the fact that Madoka did not wish for despair to disappear, as some would suggest that she should have. It is a balance thing. In order to have hope, one must suffer or have some form of despair. To have courage, one must experience fear. To love, one must also feel hate and indifference. That is the nature of balance... Madoka is smart enough (or Buddhist enough) to know the effect that her wish can have.


I also loved how this makes Madoka the precursor to all the magical girls we know in anime — without Madoka, there would be no Sakura Kinomoto, no Pretty Cures, no Sailor Moons, etc. More than a world reset, this was in some ways a genre reset, and a pretty brilliant one at that.


----
Onto my main point, for all the theorizing about the ending from bloggers all over, genre comparisons, claims for deconstructionism, religious references, and general fandom fervor digging out every cipher and mystery in the series, everyone seems to be confused as to why Homura at the end of the series is one of the few to remember Madoka.*


I believe it is in the fourth episode that Homura herself says that, Mahou Shoujo who die in a witch's realm are forever missing persons, lost and forgotten to the rest of humanity. Madoka is adamant that she will never forget Mami, to which Homura replies that is the happiest thing a Mahou Shoujo can hope for, and that she is fiercely jealous. Madoka, in a crazy instance of foreshadowing, instantly and without hesitation extends this to Homura as well.


Homura's wish, as vaguely as I have gathered, is something along the lines of protecting Madoka. Protecting her image and her memory, I would argue, is the only thing left for Homura to do once Madoka makes her wish at the end of the series. More detail once I've actually watched the episodes.


*I read somewhere that her brother apparently remembers her too, and her mother has a vague sense of "if I had a daughter..."; parallel world theories aside,^ 


^I'm not quite ready to call whether Homura's time travelling resulted in parallel worlds or merely rewound time. If the former is true then, barring a cross-dimension spanning level of omnipotence granted Madoka, the series is only truly "solved" [ie Madoka's wish only comes true] in one branching of the universe. Such branching, however, could possibly resolve the seeming paradox that is the breadth of power granted Madoka by Kyuubei.), 


Omake From TV Tropes:

Fun fact: priority one for someone with an interest in extending the life of the universe would be shutting off all the stars, which throw away vast amounts of energy just to light up dust and dead rock.

Lessons from Madoka Magika

On the show's ending, in the comments of Madoka's ending leaves something to be desired. Emphasis mine.

"The more important/salient points to take from that though are to make sure you know what you’re really wishing for, and to be prepared to pay the cost for it. If you’re willing to accept that responsibility and those burdens, then the show’s theme is indeed that no, it’s not wrong to hope and believe in things."  

Although this rebuttal

"If this is truly the case though, why does the show depict the girls falling into despair after they've made their wish? Clearly they weren't ready to accept the consequences..."

scares me a little.

“But when Madoka wishes for everyone’s safety, she gets that wish. ”
It’s possible that she doesn't, in one interpretation of the final scene. Homura’s wish was to protect Madoka, a girl who’s existence has been negated. So unlike any other magical girl who ever lived, Homura’s wish can never be fulfilled — and so she can never be saved. In a universe where witches cannot exist, Homura becomes the Last Witch, and her barrier fills the sky.

---

All of the responses to this show only makes me worried about delving too deep into the realm of anime blogging (although that may change if I find someone fluent in Japanese blogging on the subject and some of the linguistic relevancy, or at least writing their PhD on fansubs? Have yet to find one), and although it is tempting, I will definitely NOT go browsing forums.

That reminds me, I had a joke to tell about that one guy's Tsundere is bad in real life and that anyone who watches anime or is fluent in Japanese language and culture needs to read it. Said joke being that the two are, for all intents and purposes, mutually exclusive.

Whenever I get around to that Durarara!! analysis maybe I'll wash my hands of this...

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On a side note, as a result of all this searching, I found a guy who is traveling the world with a cutout of bridal Holo* and feel incredibly disturbed and violated. Not only because of the attraction I feel for the dynamics of the Holo-Lawrence [why aren't they trying to call him Rawrence hahaha] banter-relationship, or that she has been inducted as one of those nijigen maidens who are used to define my tastes in real girls [funny that the Tsundere article referenced above really struck home! Maybe it's that, like girls with romance novels, I've learned to be too picky and unsatisfied.]. It's that, for heaven's sake I had just thought of going to the Wolf Sanctuary to commemorate my newfound fandom and determination to read the light novels and, if possible, play the games. Luckily the gap between seiyuu and character is still an incredibly wide chasm for me, and the radio shows do not hold much interest other than socialization (as in sociolinguistic stuff) and plain-old Japanese practice.


*I came upon a controversy as to whether her English name should be Horo or Holo. Anime geeks can be so infuriating sometimes! R and L are fairly indistinguishable in standard Japanese, but dammit Holo sounds much better! And I actually prefer the way Holo speaks in English rather than her Oiran language. Dunno if that's one of the accursed artifacts of being a native English speaker or what, but regardless damn western otaku need to get a grip!

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Add to the list of things I need to write about:

Learning how movie sound effects are made -> I Saw the Devil & Man from Nowhere -> Who's Camus, Anyway?

And the need to discuss this with my friends in film studies.

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Funny how I can write this much but I still have admissions essays to get cracking on! To-do-list for tomorrow:

Purpose essay, mail fin aid form and fee letter, update resume and upload

And whatever else I'm missing.
Gotta be productive!

Pretty fascinating

So apparently "novices seek out positive feedback, while experts seek out negative feedback."

Pretty fascinating. So what will I do? Learn, speak, read, and write like a boss.

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Also, from this thread on multilingual living, on raising a multilingual family. It's at once distressing and comforting:

It's just TIRING being the only representative of a subculture you know and constantly having to explain everything, implicitly defend your choice and then still have people walk away having made snap judgements as far as a child's linguistic abilities are concerned, especially when they only speak one of the languages he does (aside from a few phrases). I feel like I need to move to a place where everyone is multilingual, raising their kids multilingual, so that I can relax a bit and feel normal!

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This is awesome. A guide to the Ryukyuan langauges, if I ever get around to them!

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And finally, a link for study abroad studies! Apparently Nao knows this kid? From the Nihon Gyappu Iyaa Suishin Kikou Kyoukai!!!! OMG (although second impression suggests yahari it was started by a gaijin?)!! This, the girl's blogspot, JCI (has an STL chapter), and AISEC, as well as HPAIR and resources from SILS.... this seems like it's actually coming together, although passion for it is another question. Looks like it's time to start another blog

FYI, Emotional pathway towards this last statement, in kaomoji:

(`･ω･´)ゞ ヽ(*・ω・)ﾉ  ヽ(*´Д｀*)ﾉ  ヽ( ´¬`)ノ

Found out about a Spice and Wolf reference (cameo? by Holo~) in the first episode of Durarara. Don't know why that makes me as happy as it does.

Hoping that tomorrow I will make some progress on my analysis of the show; doesn't seem like there's too much going on in that way at all right now, although that could be just due to my own lack of googling skills. Perhaps it's time to enlist a true otaku?

Stayed up til 4 again, no progress on any other fronts. Gotta do something about this.

Link dump. Will need to export bookmarks soon as well... Need more self-control!

http://www.chinahush.com/2012/01/10/han-han-my-2011/#more-9865
http://www.ministryoftofu.com/2011/01/overseas-chinese-students-reactions-tiger-mom-parenting-controversy/
http://www.chinahush.com/2012/01/02/street-children-there-is-no-place-worse-than-home/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/01/chinas-cultural-assault-from-within/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/01/confucius-institute-getting-the-grant-or-dancing-with-the-devil/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/01/serial-killers-in-china/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/01/chuanzi-becoming-what-you-criticize/
http://jp.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/09/07/%E6%9A%B4%E5%8A%9B%E5%9B%A3%E6%8E%92%E9%99%A4%E3%81%AE%E3%83%A2%E3%83%87%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B1%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9%E2%94%80%E6%9D%A1%E4%BE%8B%E6%96%BD%E8%A1%8C%E3%82%92%E6%9D%A5%E6%9C%88%E3%81%AB%E6%8E%A7/
http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/sotai/image/gaiyou.pdf

Not even sure why I clicked on a lot of what I clicked on...orz

Scared, huh?

“There’s nothing better in the world than a little bit of scared to get you doing the right thing. Fear can make you faster, smarter, stronger, absolutely.” -- 47-year-old Laird Hamilton


From the postsecret site, wish I had had a chance to try the app...

Hyperpolyglots and other stuff spurred by Michael Erard

Hyperpolyglots are more likely to be introverted than extroverted, which may come as a surprise to some. Hale’s son always said that, in his father’s case, languages were a cloak for a shy man.

I found a list of suspected hyperpolyglots, and they’re all male, which might be because the gift of multi-multi-linguism is found in “extreme male brains.” (The same is said of autism.) But elsewhere, I found this one Hungarian translator, a woman, who learned to speak 16 languages during the Cold War. You can read almost as many theories about extraordinary linguists as there are languages, but here’s one more: Some people try a lot harder than others.

-From a Fashion Magazine website

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nataly-kelly

http://www.themorningnews.org/article/chicken

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/14/acceleglove-teaches-you-sign-language-we-go-hands-in-video/

http://www.lailabiali.com/

10.   You do not see things as they are; you see them as you are. Interpret your own experiences. All experiences are neutral. They have no meaning. You give them meaning by the way you choose to interpret them. If you are a priest, you see evidence of God everywhere. If you are an atheist, you see the absence of God everywhere. IBM observed that no one in the world had a personal computer. IBM interpreted this to mean there was no market. College dropouts, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, looked at the same absence of personal computers and saw a massive opportunity. Once Thomas Edison was approached by an assistant while working on the filament for the light bulb. The assistant asked Edison why he didn't give up. "After all," he said, "you have failed 5000 times." Edison looked at him and told him that he didn't understand what the assistant meant by failure, because, Edison said, "I have discovered 5000 things that don't work." You construct your own reality by how you choose to interpret your experiences.

11.   Always approach a problem on its own terms. Do not trust your first perspective of a problem as it will be too biased toward your usual way of thinking. Always look at your problem from multiple perspectives. Always remember that genius is finding a perspective no one else has taken. Look for different ways to look at the problem. Write the problem statement several times using different words. Take another role, for example, how would someone else see it, how would Jay Leno, Pablo Picasso, George Patton see it? Draw a picture of the problem, make a model, or mold a sculpture. Take a walk and look for things that metaphorically represent the problem and force connections between those things and the problem (How is a broken store window like my communications problem with my students?) Ask your friends and strangers how they see the problem. Ask a child. How would a ten year old solve it? Ask a grandparent. Imagine you are the problem. When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. 

12.   Learn to think unconventionally. Creative geniuses do not think analytically and logically. Conventional, logical, analytical thinkers are exclusive thinkers which means they exclude all information that is not related to the problem. They look for ways to eliminate possibilities. Creative geniuses are inclusive thinkers which mean they look for ways to include everything, including things that are dissimilar and totally unrelated. Generating associations and connections between unrelated or dissimilar subjects is how they provoke different thinking patterns in their brain.  These new patterns lead to new connections which give them a different way to focus on the information and different ways to interpret what they are focusing on. This is how original and truly novel ideas are created. Albert Einstein once famously remarked "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."

And, finally, Creativity is paradoxical. To create, a person must have knowledge but forget the knowledge, must see unexpected connections in things but not have a mental disorder, must work hard but spend time doing nothing as information incubates, must create many ideas yet most of them are useless, must look at the same thing as everyone else, yet see something different, must desire success but embrace failure, must be persistent but not stubborn, and must listen to experts but know how to disregard them.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201112/are-you-the-right-mate?page=2

Also, this is just really really really cool! "Polyglot Dragon"
http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2011/11/6187393

Conundrum

Greed causes you to lose many things, but not wanting anything at all produces nothing.

Spice and Wolf (manga) Chapter 5

Makes a lot of sense

"But let me just say, the better the person’s mandarin level, the better the chances that he or she has already left or will leave China after a few years. A person intelligent enough to reach a truly high level is intelligent enough to realize that China is not a place for a foreigner long-term."


from http://dontmovetochina.com/ in response to "Go East, Young Man," a trash op-ed I can't believe made it into the NY-times. As time passes, I'm having trouble seeing why the newspaper is so respected...

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.” 
― James Baldwin

Hageshiku doukan da!

On Spice & Wolf

Starting to think that the combination of talking with my guy friends and watching Spice and Wolf is too hard on my heart... Even though at one point I had thought Holo's character was ruined for me (Season II 3rd episode?), finding myself slowly wishing for a "traveling companion"...

Or have I just stayed up too late?

"Nothing costs more than a favor."

"Nothing costs more than a favor."

-From the LovePlus manga Nene Days. Probably true...


Omake: Also, why is it Helvetica Standard in Nichijou? The font choices on this have me wondering.


Also, from Chinasmack, on makeup before and after pictures:
总结：这个世界没有丑女人，只有懒女人~~~~
Summary: This world doesn’t have ugly women, only lazy women~~~~ Hahaha~~~~