The visions dancing in my mind
The early dawn, the shades of time
Twilight crawling through my window pane
Am I awake or do I dream
This strangest pictures I have seen
Night is day and twilight's gone away
With your head held high
And your star-like eyes
You came down to me from the open skies
It's either real or it's a dream
There's nothing that is inbetween
Twilight
I only meant to stay a while
Twilight
I give you time to steer my mind away from me
That's such a catchy tune! The music from Densha Otoko is all like that... Although the background music is just simply cheesy. But that's what so good about it. I have the second episode so I'm watching that tonight. And since it's an hour long I'd better go watch it. I will blog on my new computer (Windows has never been this nifty!) and the University stuff but not tonight. Time to relax. Ja!
Xilmin visited the elves at 09:48 p.m.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
I knew this would happen! I told you this would happen! Myst III came before Myst II! Oooh, but it looks so good! And it came with the soundtrack on a separate CD and it's... wow! I was a little dubous, game music not always sounding right without the actual game playing at the same time. But this is like film music in it's grandness! It's fantastic. It's been making me whimper and I'm only on the fifth track so far. It's unbelievable! Oh how much I want to play! But no! I shall wait for the 2nd game. I'll be good. Plus, I'm going out walking with Saku & Queak today so I don't really have much choice anyway. ::pout:: But I'm surprised how quickly it arrived. The emails from Amazon when I ordered said everything would be dispatched on the 15th, so I was expecting things to arrive by the 17th. But oh well, I ain't really complaining. I've also got an email saying the first book has been dispatched as well. But I've got a feeling that's the one coming from the US so it may take a while. I don't really get why someone from the US is selling on the UK Amazon site but oh well. It didn't make the postage for it any dearer so that's just fine. :)
That's all I really wanted to rant on now. My desperation to play has waned a bit, so I think I can deal with it now. Ja!
Xilmin visited the elves at 09:45 a.m.
Friday, August 12, 2005
::whimper:: Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu is a brilliant anime, but it's just so painful to watch the interactions between characters. I mean, not in a bad way... ::sniffle:: ... it... good... ::starts crying again:: ah mou... Why only 6 episodes? No! I couldn't have dealt with any more! ::wonders if she'll ever be able to buy the DVDs:: But it sure is different from everything else. Sure there is the quiet-spoken girl with a tragic story, but it's so much more than that. Or maybe it's just carried out so much better than anything else I've seen. I'd say it dares to go further with it then anything else would. But the best thing about the series is it didn't tell you everything. Even when there were explanations, there was no way to know if you could trust who was telling it. In not telling everything, it stopped being a thought-out and designed story, but something so much more realistic. ::wipes away tears:: it... good... :')
As to what I was doing today... Mostly edits, until I got to the pages I hadn't finished cleaning yet. Forgot about that. Should have done that last weekend, but well... I was doing other things... namely webpage and torture... Can't deny myself torture. :S After that I read 30-odd chapters of Eternal Sabbath, only to discover it's near the end, but not quite there. I hate getting to those points and running out. I should have remembered reading the notice on HnG's site about there only being have a volume to go. ::sigh:: Well, that was cruel anyway. So to take my mind of that, I watched the 13th episode of Air (which is pretty much like watching the 12th but with a few scenes taken out and others added). And since that wasn't good enough, I watched a few episodes of Mahou Sensei Negima. ::grin:: I'm happy. Ah, the rejoicing over the episode I watched last night... In fact I think I ended up watching two just because I couldn't tear myself away. What can I say? I'm a big fan of Nodoka. Yay! :) Anyway, that was good. :D
Anything else to say? I don't think I've done anything else... dreams? I know I had one... I believe it had something to do with needing a car to get into heaven (maybe I was trying to pass on the message from the demon from my last dream. You never know. I do sometimes feel I make connections with previous dreams from time to time). But I don't remember anything else. Oh well...
And I don't think there is anything else to mention... I'm still impatient for the Myst games so I think this weekend I shall take my time and go through the original one again and enjoy the scenery. It's a little hard to believe though that it was once the top in terms of graphics for games. Now, it's rather pathetic, only 256 colours, and it looking so small in any normal screen resolution (basically anything bigger than 800x600 [and it's so weird having my computer all cluttered up in that resolution. To think people used to deal with that! :S ]). But regardless of inferior graphics, it's still got that certain otherworldly charm that got me interested in it in the first place. I suppose I could play Schism which is kinda like it. Better graphics certainly, but the puzzles are considerably harder. Constantly using a walkthrough with that one and knowing without it even if I spent years, I still wouldn't get it. For one of them, I believe you needed knowledge on how to use this piece of equipment that measures distances (looks kinda like a form of telescope). Something like that anyway. I don't think I'd even heard of it. I believe I gave up that game when I stopped being able to enjoy the scenery and just got fed up following the walkthrough for every step. I was near the end too. I could pick it up again and try... Ugh, the thought does not make me happy. I'll stick with Myst, thank you very much. :)
But for now, I'm going to mess around with pointless games like Minesweeper and Mahjong Solitaire, while praying that the latest episode by Anime Council downloads in time so I get to watch two episodes tonight. :D Ja!
Xilmin visited the elves at 09:09 p.m.
Thursday, August 11, 2005
I've gone and got myself yet another obsession. Well, more accurately, I've gone and uncovered an old one. Buying that Myst book from the library... I should have known it would only end in me spending a lot of money. I just spent nearly £30 on two books and two computers games. I shall now be waiting impatiently for them to arrive in the post. Admittedly considering one computer game is generally £30 for itself when it's new, that isn't too bad a deal. In fact, since about £9 was to postage, it's not a bad deal at all. Still... it's money nonetheless! :S Well, least I'll now have all three Myst books (the one I got from the library turned out to be the middle one). And I can then enjoy tormenting myself getting lost and confused in the next two games after the original Myst (which I played and completed today. Once you have an understanding of what you're doing, it suddenly becomes so easy, but I remember the original torment when I got it, and these next two are certainly going to be more difficult! I foresee me using walkthroughs again, although I'll do my best to avoid them as long as possible :S ).
Why the sudden need for more? The day started with me playing Nethack, the rather crude yet fun graphic rpg game that seems to have come from nowhere. I hadn't even thought of it, but then I mentioned it in an email and the urge to play came again. I still suck. Nothing new there. No new interesting deaths either. But I was reminded of my best score ever, which is beyond all my other scores, it's like a different person. I remember how I was stuck, and I prayed to my God one too many times, and was struck by lightning. ::grin:: It's such a brilliant ending! :D
Well, after I played enough of that to dull my apetite for it, I turned to other computer games. I wanted to play Command & Conquer but it now refuses to install and just crashes my computer instead. Oh yeah, that was after it pretended to be a music CD and my computer tried to play it and inevitably got confused. That's one of my more decent games too! :S ::sigh:: But since I was in the mood to play something I haven't played in a while, so I turned to Myst... and consequently tortured myself getting that to run properly. I even was able to start playing, only to discover some rather vital parts weren't animating. I tried various things, including running it in VMware under Linux (it's not a complicated game, it being rather old now, but it still runs excrutiatingly slow under that :S ). It turned out it had just forgotten to install Quicktime, so no videos were working. ::sweatdrop:: Well, after that it was all smooth sailing til I got stuck. It's rarely the actual progression that I have a problem with. I just tend to miss things. Like a panel in a wall I didn't look at close enough, or the fact that if you old a lever down it acts differently. ::sigh:: But I only checked with a walkthrough at most 3 times, and that was just to find out what I'd missed, not how to do it. And the last bit I did was... interesting... There were sounds to indicate compass directions. Took me a little while working that out, but I got that bit on my own. I'm proud with myself now... And of course, I want more. Can only hope the buyers I bought the games from are fast so I get to play more soon. Although I can almost guarantee that the 3rd game will come before the 2nd just to mock me! :S
Well, that was today. As to yesterday, I realise I didn't blog... now why was that? Hmmm... I know I was late up, so by the time I started on Compy it was afternoon. That afternoon was mostly dedicated to editing (which I swear I'm getting slower at instead of faster :S ), but I did watch the Nadesico movie. Same with the series, the ending isn't all that satisfactory for me, but I was happy with the number of characters that returned. :D And I played the usual guessing game of 'who's that seiyuu'. I got them right as usual, although I'm a little shamed to say I didn't notice Matsumoto Yasunori. But then he was doing a gruffer voice than I am used to, so I'm excusing myself that one. ;) But on the topic of seiyuu... I was curious as to what certain line sounded like in the english version... TERRIFYING! For one thing, they made a kid have a grown man's voice! That's just wrong! He's, what, ten? Come on! And as to who did Miki Shinichirou's role... ughhh... it's just painful! I know the character is supposed to be a smooth talker, but he sounded like a surfer dude! ::shudder:: My conclusion: never watch it in english
What did I do in the evening? I know I had to give up the editing because of the computer being too slow to be useable (as I was overloading it with download programs just so I could get more He is my Master, since it doesn't work in my version of Azureus, but the upgraded versions all end up with slower download speeds, so I refuse to upgrade). So what the hell did I do? I know I read a couple of oneshots and a chapter of Otogi no Machi no Rena (oh so wrong but oh so irresistable)... but that wouldn't take up all evening... But I'm out of other ideas because I'm sure I didn't watch any anime until the He is my Master episode finished so I could watch that... I really have no idea... Oh well, not worth straining my brain over that. I've got better and more interesting memories to dredge up.
Dreams! It's been a while, but I have been having quite a few. I'll start with probably the best one... I don't remember much about it... I just remember... 2 inch long vampire squirrels! They were so cute. They kept going for my feet, but in an affectionate way. Oh, I want one! >D
Now the one I had last night... I know there was a bit with Hachimaki and his dad from Planetes... they were in the arctic... I think they were supposed to be travelling the world or something... I remember Hachimaki being on the main ice flow, and his dad about 100 metres away from it on a tiny ice flow barely big enough for him, too exhausted and numb to try and paddle it closer...
But then it moves on to this other part which I'm sure was supposed to be related somehow but I haven't a clue how. Me, Kat and I would say Saku, but I don't think it was... Anyway, there were three of us and we were supposed to get William Shatner through these challenges on the way to hell (or something). For some reason these challenges were got to by going through the dining room of the hotel were staying in. The first room had a large wooden block, with a guiletine at one end, and then whatever was chopped off would roll down this slope into the next room, which was where we were aiming to go to. The first scene I really get a clear memory is of us three hiding behind the wooden block while William Shatner goes up and tries to get past the demon guarding this room. The demon was your typical large, red skinned, curly black horns type. He easily picked Shatner off his feet and flung him in the guiletine to get his head cut off. The three of us managed to get him out before the blade came down. Only since I was at the back, this robot that patrolled the area took me and brought me round in front of the demon. We started having an amicable conversation, me commenting on how nice and warm it is, and him saying I should tell the people up in heaven all about it. Then he says since we're getting on so well, he'd go easy on me, and bunged me in the guiletine upside down and prepared to cut off my foot. At which point I freak out, yelling "No! I don't want to have to depend on other people!" (which says a lot about my personality). The demon points his finger in my face and is about to make some grand comment about the situation, only I then bite his finger tip off. We then all flee back to the hotel.
Not finished yet. At this point, for some reason, my mind decided to change things a bit. That was now our second time attempting the first challenge, and we'd tried it without Shatner around. We bumbed into him playing poker with the other cast of Star Trek. They make a comment about Kat looking like she's seen a demon, to which she storms of and we have an excuse to head back to our room. We knew the demon was after me, so for some reason, I huddle next to a chest of drawers and think 'small' thoughts. For some reason, this causes the demon to be incapable of seeing me. Of course then he makes some comment I don't like which spoils me concentration and I have to face him. He brings out a pencil and points that in my face, which I proceed to chew into pieces. And I woke to the taste of wood and lead, complete with texture. Either my mind has a perfect imagination or I was chewing on something in my sleep... :S
I've had various other dreams, but I never wrote them down which I'm rather disappointed about. The only other one I have a vague memory of is in one I was in a pack of wolves... That's no doubt brought on by the William Horwood book. I really need to get back into the habit of writing dreams down though. They hold so much potential for ideas. >D
Well, I guess that's me for tonight. I'm in the mood for childish humour, so I'll be choosing Mahou Sensei Negima for tonight's anime dose. Oyasumi!
Xilmin visited the elves at 09:36 p.m.
Tuesday, August 9, 2005
Guh... My head is going to explode. I've been doing Japanese for two days now. No more! Not for a little bit anyway. Maybe a little testing with my flashcard program tomorrow, but nothing new! See, I've done about 3 units of the book & tape thing (finally stuff I don't know, or at least aren't so sure of). And since that wasn't enough and wasn't bringing in my kanji learning, I decided I try translating/transliterating lyrics of a song. Maybe it was a bad choice of song (Ichigo's character song in Bleach) but in just three & a half lines there are about 20 kanji, only 3 of which I actually knew (eye, see, and hold, but the hold one doesn't actually mean hold going by the online dictionary I use). There is a problem in that I can't really translate it since I don't know what the little hiragana bits between the kanji mean, like the different verb endings and so on. So my main aim is to transliterate it (I can at least put the end result on Anime Shelter once I get that up and running). However that means knowing how to say the kanji. And of course there are several ways to do that for almost all of them. It's the onyomi (the reading for when part of compound kanji) that I have a problem with. Don't know why it should be any harder than kunyomi, but oh well... :S Anyway, my head is now tired, so tomorrow I'm going to work it hard on something else instead, namely editing work. The scanner is working at incredible speeds, so I should do my best to at least not be unnaturally slow in comparison. ;)
What else to say? Well, I ended up going to see Charlie & the Chocolate Factory again last night. Saku & her mum were going, and my mum was interested in seeing it as well, so we all went. It's brilliant, and I do rather want that soundtrack. I didn't notice it so much the first time round apart from the obvious songs, but this time I had more opportunity to enjoy the background stuff. Danny Elfman is brilliant as ever. :)
Oh yes, another movie to talk about: Howl's Moving Castle. Very good, as expected of Ghibli. Excellent evening. Although I can't decide if I really liked Howl though. I didn't at the beginning but... And at the end... well... But the middle part... ::grin:: To see it, you'll probably know what I'm talking about. But I know I liked Calcifer! So cute! I want a talking fire! One other thing I wanted to say: Ghibli is very good with the gloopy animation. XD
And speaking of movies, I finished downloading the movie of Nadesico today. I'm so glad I finally have it. I can feel like my Nadesico series collection is complete now. I'd been watching this music video for the Nadesico movie (to the music of Futurama. It so worked! ... but I lost that in the harddrive crash and I'm very disappointed :( ) and I've been desperate to figure out what's going on in it. It made me laugh anyway, but still. :) Although I had a quick peak at the quality of it, and was terrified out of my mind since I thought it was a dub. Thankfully it's an ogm file, so I can change the audio channel to japanese and bring up subtitles. Ah the relief! I heard a couple of seconds of various scenes in english as I browsed it a bit, and it was downright painful! So glad for the japanese! So sooooo glad! :D Well, I'll more than likely be watching that tomorrow anyway. I'll rant on it when I do. :)
Well, I guess that's it for today. Mata ashita!
Xilmin visited the elves at 08:29 p.m.
Basics
Name: Xilmin Nerrar (might as well be when I'm on the net ;) ) Nick: Xi (I have more, plenty more!) Gender: Female Age: 19 Birthday: 1st Nov (gimme a pressie! :P ) Sign: Scorpio Home: Scotland E-mail:xilmin@coolgoose.co.uk
Favs
Food: Ketchup (or anything with ketchup! [I mean anything]) Drink: Irn Bru! Colour: Red, Blue, Yellow, White, Black, Green (depending on my mood) Time: Morning Season: Summer Activity: Computers, anime, drawing, writing, reading, dreaming and thinking Music: Anime/J-pop, Rock, Metal, Classical (anything but boy-bands and opera!) Author: Terry Pratchet Movie: Lord of the Rings, Matrix, Star Wars (there's loads more) TV show: Red Dwarf Anime: Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu, Jubei-chan, Full Metal Alchemist, Planetes, Bleach, Honey & Clover, My Hime, Azumanga Daioh, Kyou Kara Maou, Samurai 7, Konjiki no Gash Bell, Melody of Oblivion, Fruits Basket, Excel Saga, Hoshi no Koe, Figure 17, Samurai Champloo, Chrno Crusade, Read or Die, Full Metal Panic, Stellvia of the Universe, Shadow Skill, Macross Zero, Hyper Police, Matantei Loki Ragnarok(There are very few anime I don't like ;) ) Manga: Houshin Engi, Parfait Tic, Demon Diary, Koi wa Itsumo Arashi Youni, Koori no Mamono no Monogatari, Love Mode, Menkui, Sakende Yaruze, Soshite Haru no Tsuki, Eternal Sabbath, Tokko, Shin Angyo Onshi, Paradistar, My Name is Zushio, Apocripha, Midare Somenishi, Chrno Crusade Seiyuu: Okiayu Ryoutarou, Koyasu Takehito, Ishida Akira, Hoshi Souichirou, Hayami Sho, Miki Shinichirou, Matsumoto Yasunori, Morikawa Toshiyuki, Paku Romi, Sakurai Takahiro, Seki Tomokazu, Miyamoto Mitsuru, Inoue Kazuhiko, Morikubo Shoutarou, Midorikawa Hikaru, Yamaguchi Kappei, Seki Toshihiko
