School is Murder and Other Tales of Woe

Well, I said I would not put these in any particular order, and I feel like it's time to begin ranting about school since there are only two weeks left in the quarter. (I have such impeccable timing... not.) I really just wanted to post this so I could say "School is murder... oh yeah, and dead week is coming up soon, so watch out!" Yes, I have an odd sense of humor. I blame my father.

As for school, my complaints are as follows:

• I just got over the stress of giving a 5 minute speech in Japanese class, only to learn that i have a speaking test next week and a final the week after that.
• I have to put together a video for my Communications class group  because apparently I'm the only one who knows how to use Windows Movie Maker.

...I can't think of anything else. Yeah. Well, those two things seem like enough to me. I really don't have the time to be writing this, but I wanted to get my stress off my chest and make you all feel bad for me. ("You all" being the 5 or 6 people who actually bother to read this thing.)

So, first Japanese: I was a dork and procrastinated. The whole stress issue was really my fault. I just hate talking in a foreign language if I'm being graded. It's not bad if I'm just trying to communicate, because people tend to be more forgiving than someone who is giving you a grade based entirely on how well you can communicate in a language you've only been practicing for about two and a half years.

In other words: "I'M GONNA DIE!!!!!"   (My famous phrase that I frequently utilize rather than say "I'm nervous" or "I would rather not do public speaking in a foreign language" or even "I don't really like getting up in front of my Model United Nations team and giving an impromptu speech about China's opinion on Least Developed Landlocked Countries (LDLCs).")

That's like grading a FIRST GRADER on their speech-giving skills! Most of the time when first graders give speeches it's "show and tell" and they get a big ribbon even if all they did was stand up on the stage and twirl their hair for five minutes! When we have a vocabulary (approximately) equivalent to a first grader, why can't our speeches be graded along a similar curve? I mean, yes I am not a first grader, but if I only have the ability to talk like one, can't you cut me a little slack? I may mess up some grammar. I may accidentally use the wrong word. But aren't I cute? Watch me twirl my hair!

Okay, enough of that. On to topic two:

COM 201 is a media studies class and we were assigned to do a group video project. My group has 4 people in it including me. I volunteered to make the video, even though it will probably take me between 5 and 7 hours to complete, plus I will be narrating the poor dear. (Trust me, the quality WILL be poor.)

As if this weren't bad enough, none of the other group members knew how to convert their own videos (add another hour of video conversions and downloading youtube videos or google images to my list of time-consuming activities). But hey, at least they would show up to the meetings and wrote their scripts. The last group member has dropped off the grid without leaving so much as a line of script for me to use in narration, and I don't have any vidoes or pictures from them. And even that much wouldn't be too huge of a deal if it weren't due TWO DAYS FROM NOW.

Yes. Let the stress begin............... Now, I know you're probably wondering why I would be writing this when I should be working on that video of doom and despair, but I kind of have stress up to my eyeballs and I need to release some tension somehow, and I've actually found this blog to be rather cathartic. Now, I don't put all of my thoughts here, (I usually talk things out with God and he and I work through most of my struggles together) but I do enjoy talking at the people who take the time to read this, and I wasn't particularly specific about why I was so busy in my last entry. And yes, I know it's only been about 2 days when I'd waited an entire 2 (or was it three?) weeks before updating last time.

But I never claimed to have a proper schedule, so I guess that's all right. Then again, if I gave myself a proper schedule I'd be more likely to keep it. But that would take all the spontaneity out of my blog and then I'd probably not have as much fun writ(rant)ing in it.

So, there you have it. School is murder, and other tales of woe. BEWARE THE DEAD WEEK!!!!

Signed,
               That person who irregularly updates her blog, the infamous and ineffable Rahib*.



*Apparently "Rahib" is what my first name looks like in my signature. This nickname was bestowed upon me by my kind father two winters ago. He felt obligated to parade about the house demanding who "Rahib" was and why they had signed our Christmas cards... the rest is history.

No, seriously, it should be history by now. But somehow it stuck...

No Time Right Now...

That seems like a horrible thing to say to my blog. "Sorry, but I just don't have the time right now."

...It's kinda' true. As things stand, I am trying to finish up homework and I will then begin writing with my writing buddy, and then I will go to bed and get up at 7:30. Meh. I just love morning classes. (Breathe in that delicious scent of sarcasm, boys and girls. Ain't it lovely?)

And there is so much that has happened since I last updated, so I feel a little overwhelmed. I shall attempt to devote a post to each-ish (depending on how much I end up writing) but for now I'll just give you a teaser of what is to come (in no particular order):

• Awesome Birthday Weekend With 'Couv Buddies
• Week of Man "Date"
• School is Murder and Other Tales of Woe
•  House Elections - My New Officer Position/Responsibilities
• Writing Buddy!

So yeah. Lots and lots to talk about and precious little time. Until next time, you shall have to be satisfied with the statement that I have officially almost reached the fangirl stage with a LIVE HUMAN BEING. I know, I know, It's shocking, since most of my fan crazes are focused on fictional characters.

He's an amazing singer, and he is Japanese. He sings Rock music, and is part of the style known in Japan as Visual Kei, which basically means that he plays anything between soft pop-rock and hardcore rock, but he changes outfits and hair like most people change...normal clothes? Anyway, the outfits are really ridiculously overdone (which I'm not a huge fan of, personally...), but what I'm so excited about is his voice. And I'm also jealous of the fact that he's like 40 and still looks 20. I don't know if it's plastic surgery, or makeup, or just his Japanese genetics, but I am jealous.

Anyway, that is all I have to say. The end.

Oh yes, and thank you friend (you know who you are) for reminding me to update. I was going to a few days ago and it slipped my mind like a greased... egg... on a... yeah, you know what? I'm just going to end here.

Ciao!

Youtube Music

I titled this post "Youtube Music" because that's exactly what I'm going to talk about.  See, I love music, many different kinds of music. Living with a bunch of other college students in seattle, I have been feeling ever so slightly put off by the music that is usually playing around the house. I don't have anything against "popular" music for the most part, but I am just not a huge fan of hip-hop or *shudder* dance music.

However, I have found some silver linings to the dark clouds of songs like "Rolling in the Deep," "Party Rock Anthem," and "Grenade." And that would be a precious few glorious Youtube Artists that cover songs like these in a fun, fresh, and sometimes better way than the original artist. (Sorry to any Adele lovers out there...) 

That being said, I have two Youtube Music Artists that I like - and I will be showing a few movies from each of them for your listening pleasure, please do take the time to enjoy their hard work!

#1  -  Chestersee
This guy is a little rough around the edges, some people may not like his voice but I really like the quality of his voice. He also does some comedic sketches. The one downside is that I can't listen to some of his songs because of the profanity -- even in the titles of some of his songs. Still, the songs I do listen to are often very good. He writes a lot of original pieces in addition to doing some fun covers.

This is a good representation of him because his voice has a pretty good tone even when sick. Also, it's funny...

#2 -  The Piano Guys
Probably one of my favorite things to do on youtube is find songs by these guys. Their variety is astonishing. Personally, I'm a big fan of Steven Sharp Nelson and his AMAZING Cello covers. I didn't realize how much I truly love hearing the cello played until I got a look at some of his stuff. I love how versatile his covers are: everything from hymns to Beethoven to popular music. It's beautiful and worth hearing! In addition, their videos are visually stunning, they have some really great editors and cameras, not to mention great locations. The video is every bit as much a piece of art as the song, which just makes the experience that much more enjoyable. These guys enjoy making their music and it is an absolute joy to appreciate the fruits of their labor.

Well, hope you were able to enjoy something from all this! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go listen to the song "Memory" from the Academy-Award Winning film Departures. That's another beautiful cello piece, in case anyone wanted to know...

...Of course, I could always put that one here as well. I think I will.

Japanese Translation Attempt - Successful?

Haha, today instead of doing homework I distracted myself by drawing two pictures for an OC Double meme I'm doing with a friend of mine. ("OC" means "Original Character," in case anyone wanted to know) I was quite happy with how they turned out, though I'm not sure about the language of the meme, I might end up censoring it after I finish it. Although, my OC had a smart remark for one of the swears, so now I'm ever-so-slightly conflicted... anyway, here are the two pictures:

mwahaha, I tried to draw him for this "intro" spot three times before I decided on this pose. I ended up using a reference picture from google images to get the back and shoulders/chest/head - basically the entire pose - right.

And... I used another google image reference picture for the face because I've decided I'm no good at figuring out chibis by myself. I really liked the sweatdrop, personally. I've never done an expression like this before, so I was happy with how it turned out.

And now that I've got that out of the way, I got tired of drawing after finishing these two and went to make sushi, which was incredibly yummy and fun. 

And then, after sushi, I discovered yet another way to keep myself from doing homework. It was totally unintentional, I'd meant to get started on my homework, but a friend of mine sent me a link to a Japanese song on youtube, and I explored some of the related links, and stumbled across this funny parody song about "hikikomori." 

Since a lot of people don't know about hikikomori, I'll give a quick run-down of what hikikomori are here. A hikikomori is a "shut-in." This psychological condition of hikikomori is uniquie to Japan. Basically, a hikikomori is a young person who locks themselves in their room and refuses to come out for school, work, or much of anything else. A lot of times these hikikomori will only leave their rooms to shower at night when no one else is around, and they refuse to communicate with the rest of their family. A lot of them are thought to live virtual lives through the internet rather than bother with the real world, and many are thought to be "otaku," (which basically means "nerd" or "geek" in Japanese) people who love anime and manga and play video games.  I'll post a quick picture of an otaku's room for an example:

yeah, it's pretty much insane.

And a picture from an article on Hikikomori:

 Anyway, so this parody song was about hikikomori. And it sounded funny, but I looked around and I couldn't find any english subtitles, so I didn't know exactly what it was saying, though the parts I understood sounded funny. So, I decided that I would translate the song.

Well, three hours later, I finally finished translating the song. As you can see, the song had the Japanese subtitles in the video, but the kanji were really hard to read and so if I didn't know them then it was very difficult to look them up in the dictionary, and like with any singing, some of the words were hard to discern the pronunciation from the song. I probably spent twenty minutes on one kanji because it was eluding me. Another problem was the language, since it's extremely conversational and informal, so it's hard to know exactly how to translate it to get the right feel, and I probably failed in some places though I really tried. In the end, I ended up with this (admittedly rough) translation, which I have decided to post here so you can watch the video and read along if you want:


The World's #1 Hikikomori "World is Mine"

I am the world's #1 hikikomori, 

and so you should be aware of how to treat me... right? 

First, one should not enter my room without permission.
second, just the right amount of light would be nice, right?
third, bring my dinner up to  my second-floor room,
and don't you realize that vacuum cleaner is too noisy?

Because none should question my whims.  

 My parents, from the bottoms of their hearts, are quite concerned．

I am the world's #1 hikikomori, 

one might notice 'hey, hey, what about work?' 

but that's out of the question． 

do you think that I am garbage, 

that I should get a job soon or just get tossed out?

Get up?  Was it wrong to be sleeping until 11 AM? 

Excuse me, you should be listening to what I say.
-hold on…-
-oh yes, and then?-
 Oh, were you bothered by why I phoned you?   

You should come here to meet me 

from the convenience store (even though) it’s only 30 seconds away.

Honestly, you really shouldn’t question my whims. 

After all, after walking just a little bit, I end up rather short of breath.

I have one room in the whole world that is mine alone, 

one might note, ‘listen, listen, you should do some cleaning.’ 

my figurines are overflowing a space of (approx.) 11 meters (six and a half jou). 

please be careful – clean up in here, quickly!
My parents absolutely do not understand the value of my figurines!

Limited edition anime goods!  the latest notebook computer!
Everybody, everyone, don’t be so patient!
Don’t think of me as an impatient child, 

just because I don’t regret living in a house I didn’t buy.
It’s natural, therefore I am--

The world’s #1 parasite! 

I receive all sorts of things from amazon unexpectedly. 

If my cell phone randomly stops working, 

I’m like, “wha-?” “Shouldn’t you pay the bill?”

say my caring, penny-pinching parents.  

But I absolutely do not want to work!

Yes, I am inordinately proud of my accomplishment of spending three hours just to translate one measly song. But it's my first time translating something that WASN'T in a textbook, so I am quite pleased with the result. I just hope it's accurate, or else I will become disheartened.

Anyway, that's my update for the week-ish, I suppose.

God bless, all! ^_^ *anime smile*

OH OH, on a final note, if anyone was just dying to know,  Here is the original song that was parodied: