Skip to content

February 2024

A Logical Inconsistency

I have a character flaw. I like to play sudoku, and I’m actually pretty good at it.  I have a sudoku app on my phone, and though I may make a few too many mistakes (I have this annoying tendency to put a number in a square where the number already is, because I’m not paying attention) I’m pretty good at it.  I play expert level and I rarely get stumped, though some take me a bit too long to become unstumped. But as I’m sitting here playing sudoku, I… Read More »A Logical Inconsistency

Shine

“Love Live” continues to throw me for a loop. But at least I think I’m starting to understand why, now. It comes down to one word:  “Shine”. When I was a child, I was driven.  Very driven.  I was the smartest child I knew, and probably the smartest child of my social circles, which were somewhat extensive.  I was reading at a very early age.  I was doing math at a very early age.  I was running intellectual rings around my parents, and everyone I knew, before even reaching my… Read More »Shine

Nijigasaki

This morning I wrote a post in Japanese. It’s probably not very good and odds are I’ll hide or delete it at some point.  But it’s really the only way I’m going to be able to practice, well, one of the few anyway.  So I’ll probably do that a lot more frequently.  Turns out my vocabulary is a little bigger than I thought, I guess. The post was about “Love Live, Nijigasaki school idol club”. As I mentioned, I really like the “Love, Live” franchise.  I’m a large part of… Read More »Nijigasaki

虹が先学園　綿生活

きょう今日日本語を書いています。まだ私の日本語は悪いですけど、とにかく時間をためします。 最近“ラブライブ”のアニメをみました。大体たのしました。正直ちょっとばかですけど、本当にいっぱい心があります。一番　“スクールアイドルプロジェクト”が大好きです。二番　“サンシャイン”　がだいすきです。今、”スーパスター”を見ます。大好きも。でも。。。“虹が先”みるをできません。 時々日本人はアメリカ人がわかりませんおもいます。正直アメリカ人は日本人が分かりませんも、両方向です。日本人おもいアメリカ人が日本人の方が自由あります。時々多分真実です。でも、完全なじゃないです。ときどきアメリカ人にも悪いです。 子供たらでした、いつも一人ででした。生むことの前に両親はカルト宗教に内でました。いっぱい物私に教えました、でも最高たいせつ、外のセ世界は邪です。だから他の子供は邪でした。 いつも一人でいました。 これは理由に学校はいまつもちょっと痛いです。 アニメの学園たいていいいです。よくアニメに学園は大切です。でも普通です。でも、ときどき、頭にチョップをします。虹が原はめちゃ大きいですよ。学校はすごく大きい、綺麗、すてきです。いっぱい、いっぱい学生があります。学生は多分この学園にいっぱい思い出をつくります、いっぱい楽しいがあります。。。全部物私が全然ありませんでした。 これは噓がわかります。分かります。この“学園“は東京に”big sight convention center”。日本にそんな学園ありません。だけど、大切じゃないです。噓は力がありますも。これ噓。。。これ痛いです。 時々、アニメが痛いです。 まだ日本語は悪いです。JLPT　N5です。　失礼します。

Sadness, Depression, and Hope

Anime sometimes makes me think. Most of the time, I don’t think it’s supposed to, being honest.  I think it’s generally supposed to be light entertainment, or tell a story, or basically fill the same role that live-action TV does in the west.  I think it may be a character flaw of mine that I think as hard on it as I do, and I’m pretty sure that most of the time, this makes me something of an outlier at best, and a pariah at worst. Nonetheless, it does.  It… Read More »Sadness, Depression, and Hope

Why I love “Love Live”

I just watched “Love Live”. It’s a cheesy and rather stupid anime, with lots of plot holes.  It telegraphs plot lines from even the beginning, and so far from what I can see, the different incarnations of “Love Live” are essentially the same plot with different characters and location.  It’s cheesy and it’s stupid and I loved it. But why did I love it? Well, one reason is, it had heart.  It was cheesy and stupid and it really tried to treat the girls as real, emotional people, and not… Read More »Why I love “Love Live”

Idol

The thing that got me into anime (after mostly eschewing it for years) was the OP for “Oshi No Ko”, “Idol”, by Yoasobi.  I didn’t even encounter it on its own at first, I saw a music youtuber analyzing it, and thought it was so amazing I listened to it, and have probably listened to it hundreds of times since.  It’s amazing, not just because of the music, but because of how real it is. When I first got into Japanese media, it was through Morning Musume, which is an idol… Read More »Idol

Why Japanese Was, and Wasn’t, a Waste of Time.

So a couple of things before I start this post. Thing #1:  This is a post where I take advantage of the fact that no one reads this.  If this post were to somehow, by some miracle, go viral, I will probably remove it. Thing #2: This post is a statement on how things are, not how they should be.  The distinction is very important here, and I’d appreciate it if you, the reader, would keep it in mind. I am a very intelligent person.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say… Read More »Why Japanese Was, and Wasn’t, a Waste of Time.

That Putin Interview

So as you know, there was an interview with Putin a couple of days ago.   Here are some thoughts. Couple things. First, I didn’t watch it, but I read most of the transcript. Secondly, I don’t have a dog in the fight.  To me, the ideal outcome is, Russia “wins”, but is so weakened they can’t do much with it other than lick their wounds and whine about how much everything sucks.  Well, more accurately, the ideal outcome is both Russia and Ukraine lose, but in practice, that’s unlikely.  Like… Read More »That Putin Interview

Liminal

This blog is nearly six years old now. And tonight I came very close to shutting it down.  I’ve talked about doing that before, and I talked myself out of it, and the primary reason is, I’d just end up spinning another one up anyway.  I can’t stop writing.  I’ve never been able to stop writing. I started learning Japanese in 2018.  The first post here is March, 2018.  It is almost March, 2024.  I started learning Japanese at around the time (give or take) that I started this blog,… Read More »Liminal