Sunday, October 16, 2011

Today

Finally read "Paper Tiger" in anticipation of Amy Chua (can't believe they funded her... to talk about the book and raising kids. Get some foreign policy and legal questions in, please!)

It was ok. The only thing I really liked/felt was ground breaking was the "Love the world twice as hard" thing.

http://nymag.com/news/features/asian-americans-2011-5/

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Super close to finishing the J translation of What I wish I knew when I was 20. Pretty good read, especially once it gets out of the entreprenurial stuff and into practical advice for navigating the adult world, being respectful, thankful and curious, not making enemies, etc.

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"I don’t imagine the English version of this book is for everyone. In fact, most people who read the English translation will probably say, “He won the Nobel Prize for Literature for that??” But if you enjoy highly symbolic writings, have had experiences with a Japanese girlfriend who left you puzzled, or wish to reflect on experiences you may have had in Japan then Snow Country is certainly worth a quick read." (I laughed pretty hard at that)
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Will probably start a new blog soon.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Quotes

I got a hard shell. When a dame turns me down, she may as well be reading me a transcript of the day's weather forecast -- and a little rain never hurt nobody.

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And in nearly every RPG, you'll encounter the same problem: Eventually, you'll wind up with an item just as overpowered as it is rare. It's almost too good to use. So what do you do with it?

The answer, as every gamer out there has just quietly realized, is "nothing." You save it. Forever.

Every game of Left 4 Dead ends with an untouched First Aid Kit, every Pokemaster is left still clutching the Master Ball as the credits roll, and after Necron falls, poor Zidane has to make a few calls and see if the local thrift stores accept Dark Matter. If you've ever ended a Square-Enix game without an Imperial Fuckton of Megalixirs cluttering up your inventory, then you were likely either drunk or suffering from severe head trauma to the part of your brain that manages impulse control.

And now you will never again be apart.

So how does that help you in real life? Simple: All you have to do, as a gamer, is apply this logic to your savings account. Every paycheck is a Megalixir, and somewhere out there is a boss so tough that you'll eventually need it, so you'd better hang on to it for now. And if you never end up using it, so what? You just proved you were too badass to ever require it in the first place.

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Wanna see this movie just because of this quote...

Hey listen, gimme a kiss.
Really?
Yeah, why not, because we're just gonna go home later, right, and then there's gonna be all that tension, we've never kissed before and I'll never know when to make the right move or anything. So we'll kiss now and get it over with, and then we'll go eat. We'll digest our food better.

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If you want to find your issues really fast, make a list of all the characteristics you hate in other people. Then make a list of all the characteristics you admire in other people. Hold up the two lists in front of you; the ones you hate the most are most likely the ones you hate the most about yourself, and the ones you admire the most are ones you’re not giving yourself permission to develop.

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https://www.mint.com/ might start using this, and ask men has a chinese version hahaha, kinda wish some of the newsstands in Shanghai had sold this... http://mh.trends.com.cn/
Also Lena Chen! hmmm actually maybe I should take that exclamation point back...

Monday, October 10, 2011

Goodness

"It's when people realize how lonely it is being on their own... that they start to become kind. You know that really, don't you?"
Mirajane, Fairy Tail, Ch. 118

Saturday, October 8, 2011

RAhhhhh I've been reading Fairy Tail... it's pretty good

Months of stalking the interwebs are finally starting to pay off! Another link dump...





"Little known Tokyo facts: The Tokyo Police Hospital is open to the general public. They have one of the best neurology departments in Japan."
(Need to read this guy, Jake Adelstein, 's yakuza book sometime. Maybe Heisei can bring him next year...)






Kinda baller... and I wanna read his book...

Big Bird in China and Japan!!!!!!!!!!!


Wanna download 13 assassins... apparently it's a good j movie. Along with that cold fish one up above.


Another not so productive day.... need to reply to people. Remember to chill with Noku for a bit tomorrow, call Rando, email lady...

Friday, September 30, 2011

調子に乗れば

Finished watching Code Geass... I don't know why, but the fact that it's over hits me much harder than Nichijou, just a heavy, sinking feeling in my heart. I knew the ending (some jerk spoiled it for me), but still or maybe because of that I'm finding it hard to accept.
Supposedly there is a 3rd season, but, somehow that doesn't figure into things. It was wrapped up and left loose almost perfectly. How Suzaku escaped is still a mystery.

First Hakase, then C.C. and eventually even Karen; all changing the way I perceive and my idealization of women in the real world... is this これこそがジュンの言っていた2次元の知から?

And I still need to work on my Japanese.

これで、より効率的になれるのか? より真の友を作り出せるのか?

幸福のアスを向けるのか? るるーシュよ。ゼロよ。

我が騎士たる者、剣や盾なるものよ。

Yes, your Highness!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Bilingualism blogs and self-help stuff

Language Forgetting -- scary stuff. Need to work against this for both 日本語 and 中文! How to make them both relevant and active parts of my daily life?

Simultaneous Interpretation -- Probably a long way away from it... Need to recover my specialized vocabulary (limited to 古文 and 言語学なんだろうな)

Past Trauma Influences sexual fantasies and the things you find attractive? -- This could be problematic.... (although there are definitely positive forces at work here, ie 日常のはかせの喋り方)

Are you teaching people to treat you badly? -- Gotta work on this. Sometimes biculturalism combined with one's past and innate personality is not a good thing....

Hopefully Eloquent Speeches

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Online Resources for Japanese:
Yamasa Online Kanji Dictionary
Denshi Jisho
Tangorin Online Japanese Dictionary
ALC dictionary
Kenkyusha Online Dictionary
Eijiro
http://dic.search.yahoo.co.jp/search?
* WEBLIO 辞書 - http://ejje.weblio.jp/

Is similar to ALC Eijiro this site also brings searched keyword fragments with the corresponding translations found on the web (through Google translate).

* Life Science Dictionary Project page - http://lsd.pharm.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ja/index.html

Covers a variety of Life science areas. Also displays related words (English and Japanese)

* Japanese Law Translations: http://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/

This project is maintained by the Japan Ministry of Justice - you can use the dictionary or search for keywords in context and the corresponding unofficial translation is returned with the results. Handy both for examples and to brush up on Japanese law texts.

* Japanese Character Recognition - http://appsv.ocrgrid.org/nhocr/

I use this when source text is a short PDF I come across a single strange kanji I haven't seen, and unfortunately for me some of the radicals in the kanji are too common (or my denshi jisho is not cooperating).

* Nouns Commonly Found in Patents: http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/ma62473m/2003

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Google looking for more legal assisstants wwwwww
Really really want to apply

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

from geek dot com

At the current rate that living organisms are becoming extinct, which is ten to 100 times their natural level, we’re lucky if we can categorize a species before it disappears. Worm said the information we get when we discover new species is “nature’s library,” and that we’re “throwing out books without having a look at them.”