It occured to me a little while ago that although I like learning Japanese, I’m really not sure a class is the best way to do it. Yes, it keeps you focused because you don’t want to fail the class, but it just sucks the enjoyment out of it as well. It’s really not anyone’s fault, there’s work in learning a language and that’s discouraging. But, I do think there are some things that can be done better. The main problem is that they (or at least mine), don’t often tap into your interest as they’re teaching you. Would you rather memorize some stuff out of a textbook or would you rather memorize some lines out of an anime? Yeah, I thought so. I realize you don’t want to end up sounding like a cartoon character but the point remains. There’s plenty of fun Japanese stuff to learn and memorize without wading through a textbook. In that vein, I present to you the first part in my hopefully recurring series where I analyze a song/clip/whatever in the hopes that we’ll both learn something. I give now a standard warning that I’m not amazing at this, so there could be errors. I’m doing everything I can to make sure it’s correct though, and if anyone wants to correct me, go ahead. I have no idea how often I’ll do these, but since they take so long it’ll probably be less than half a week. Oh, and because I think it’s important, you should learn hiragana/katakana. The first few of these will be in romaji, but if you want to learn you should at least know those two.
A little about the structure of these. It’s highly experimental. I’ll see what works and what doesn’t. The plan for the first one is: vocab list, then the transcription in its entirety, then a dissection. Now, I’m also not sure how detailed to go in the vocab list. For this first one I give you everything even though if you’ve never learned any Japanese, this may be a bit tough. We’ll see. As for grammar, methinks I’m going to assume some basic knowledge for this first one. Maybe I’ll do something more introductory later if it’s called for. Or maybe I’ll make some articles or something. Tell me what I should do.
Ah, one more thing (I keep adding stuff to this as I translate. . .). I’m giving a fairly literal translation at times. In reality you’d jazz things up to make them sound more natural. (eg. “without giving up” would probably sound better as “never giving up” or “never quitting” or something.)
Now, without further ado. . .
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Vocab List:
ki ga tsuku: To notice/become aware/realize
onaji: The same
men: This one is a bit odd in that when I look it up I get “face” or “mask”, but it can also mean a “screen”, like a game screen.
bakari: A multi faceted word, but here it means “nothing but [whatver precedes it]“.
purei: playEnglish word.
soshite: Thus/therefore
itsumo: always
basho: place/location/spot
shinu: to die
akirameru: To give up
kieru: to go out/vanish/be extinguished
ashiba: footing/scaffolding
chousen: challenge/defiance
suru: to do
kedo: but
sugu:soon/nearby
sugu ni: instantly
ochiru: to fall
aitemu: item
nigou: second volume/edition
raku:comfort
mukou: opposite side
kishi: bank/shore
made: up to
tsuku: to arrive at
nankai: how many times
yaru: to do
taosu: to fell/knock down
tatsumaki: tornado
yokeru: to avoid
usiro: behind
mawaru: to turn/revolve
uchitsukeru: to knock/strike hard
ucitsuzukeru: to fire
izure: sooner or later
kaze:wind
tobasu: to fire/hurl
renda: barrage
tamesu: to attempt
aite: opponent
imi: meaning
tsugi: next
zettai: absolutely/unconditionally
katsu: to win
tame ni: for the sake of
boku: I (masculine)
dake: only
saigo: one’s last moment
totte oku: to set aside
sukoshi: a little/small quantity
shika: only, nothing but
tsukau: to use
tadoritsuku: to struggle on to/to finally arrive at
keredo: alternate of kedo
zanki: remaining lives
nakunaru: to die, to disappear/get lost
konoha: foliage/leaves
sagaru: to hang down/step back
kyori: distance/range
tottemo: very/exceedingly
tsumeru: to pack/plug/stop up, to make room for
aitsu: he/she
kuguru: to drive/pass through, to evade/hide, to survive, to get in
————————————————————
ki ga tsuitara onaji men bakari purei
soshite itsumo onaji basho de shinu
akiramezu ni kieru ashiba ni chousen surukedo, sugu ni shita ni ochiru yo
aitemu nigou ga areba raku ni mukou no kishi made tsuku kedo
nankai yattemo nankai yattemo Ea-man ga taosenai yo
ano tatsumaki nankai yattemo yokerenai
ushiro ni mawatte uchitsuzuketemo izure wa kaze ni tobasareru
taimu renda mo tameshite mitakedo tatsumaki aite ja imi ga nai
dakara tsugi wa zettai katsu tame ni boku wa E-kan dake wa saigo made totte oku
ki ga tsuitara raifu mou sukoshi shika nai
soshite itsumo soko de E-kan tsukau
akiramezu ni Ea-man made tadoritsuku keredo, sugu ni zanki nakunaru
ri-fu shi-rudo ga areba raku ni Ea-man o taoseru kedo
nankai yattemo nankai yattemo uddo-man ga taosenai yo
ochiru konoha wa nankai yattemo yokerenai
ushiro ni sagatte kyori o tottemo izure wa kyori o tsumerareru
taimu renda mo tameshite mitakedo aitsu no janpu wa kugurenai
dakara tsugi wa zettai katsu tame ni boku wa E-kan dake wa saigo made totte oku
aitemu nigou ga areba raku ni mukou no kishi made tsuku kedo
nankai yattemo nankai yattemo Ea-man ga taosenai yo
ano tatsumaki nankai yattemo yokerenai
ushiro ni mawatte uchitsuzuketemo izure wa kaze ni tobasareru
taimu renda mo tameshite mitakedo tatsumaki aite ja imi ga nai
dakara tsugi wa zettai katsu tame ni boku wa E-kan dake wa saigo made totte oku
————————————————————–
ki ga tsuitara onaji men bakari purei
tsuitara is the “potential” form of tsuku. it’s roughly equivalent to “if X” in English, but that’s not the whole story. It can also mean “when”. I good, although awkward, general translation is “assuming the completion of X”. To form it, just make that direct style perfective and add ra. (tsuku->tsuita->tsuitara). Bakari is kind of like dake but not exactly. It roughly ends up meaning “nothing but X”.
Translation: When I realize it, I don’t play anything but the same screen.
soshite itsumo onaji basho de shinu
[question word] + mo = “every instance of that question word”. In other words itsu(when) mo = always, dare(who) mo = everyone.
Translation: Furthermore, I always die in the same place.
akiramezu ni kieru ashiba ni chousen surukedo, sugu ni shita ni ochiru yo
The -zu (alternate negative form) of akirameru + ni, = without doing [the verb].
Translation: Without giving up, I challenge the disappearing platforms but instantly I fall.
aitemu nigou ga areba raku ni mukou no kishi made tsuku kedo
the -eba is another way of saying “if”. This one roughly means “X will surely lead to Y”. In other words, it focuses more on how to achieve an outcome. To form it, just drop the -u at the end of the imperfective distal and add -eba (aru->areba)
Translation: If I had the item number 2, I could comfortably arrive at the other side but. . .
nankai yattemo nankai yattemo Ea-man ga taosenai yo
The gerund (-te form) of a verb plus mo means “even if”, or “whether or not”. Taosenai is the potential form of taosu “to fell/knock down”. The potential form just adds a “to be able to” to the verb. To form it drop the -u off and add -eru to a consonant verb and drop the -ru and add -rareru to a vowel verb.
Translation: No matter how many times I try (x2), I can’t beat Airman.
ano tatsumaki nankai yattemo yokerenai
Translation: No matter how many times I try, I can’t avoid those tornadoes.
ushiro ni mawatte uchitsuzuketemo izure wa kaze ni tobasareru
Just a quick note here. You can use the gerund to string together verbals.
Translation: Even if I get behind and turn and strike, sooner or later he’ll hurl wind at me (wow the literal translation of that is awkward).
taimu renda mo tameshite mitakedo tatsumaki aite ja imi ga nai
Translation: I tried rapidly hitting the (start) button, but against the tornado there’s no meaning.
dakara tsugi wa zettai katsu tame ni boku wa E-kan dake wa saigo made totte oku
Translation: So next, in order to win no matter what, I set aside my last E-can for my last moment.
ki ga tsuitara raifu mou sukoshi shika nai
Translation: When I realize it, I already have only a little bit of life left.
soshite itsumo soko de E-kan tsukau
Translation: So, I always use an E-can there.
akiramezu ni Ea-man made tadoritsuku keredo, sugu ni zanki nakunaru
Translation: Without quitting, I struggle on to Airman but there I lose my remaining lives.
ri-fu shi-rudo ga areba raku ni Ea-man o taoseru kedo
Translation: If I had the Leaf Shield I could comfortably beat Airman but,
nankai yattemo nankai yattemo uddo-man ga taosenai yo
Translation: No matter how many times I try (x2), I can’t beat Woodman.
ochiru konoha wa nankai yattemo yokerenai
Translation: No matter how many times I try I can’t dodge those falling leaves.
ushiro ni sagatte kyori o tottemo izure wa kyori o tsumerareru
Translation: Behind him I step back to a safe distance, sooner or later he’ll close the distance.
taimu renda mo tameshite mitakedo aitsu no janpu wa kugurenai
Translation: I tried rapidly hitting the button, but his jump evaded it.
dakara tsugi wa zettai katsu tame ni boku wa E-kan dake wa saigo made totte oku
Translation: So next, in order to win no matter what, I set aside my last E-can for my last moment.
aitemu nigou ga areba raku ni mukou no kishi made tsuku kedo
nankai yattemo nankai yattemo Ea-man ga taosenai yo
ano tatsumaki nankai yattemo yokerenai
ushiro ni mawatte uchitsuzuketemo izure wa kaze ni tobasareru
taimu renda mo tameshite mitakedo tatsumaki aite ja imi ga nai
dakara tsugi wa zettai katsu tame ni boku wa E-kan dake wa saigo made totte oku
This is the same as above.
Sorry this took so long. Again, I’m open to comments/suggestions.
-Tony
I’ll just leave this here. I’ll pick it up later.
————————————————————
ki ga tsuitara onaji men bakari purei
soshite itsumo onaji basho de shinu
akiramezu ni kieru ashiba ni chousen surukedo, sugu ni shita ni ochiru yo
aitemu nigou ga areba raku ni mukou no kishi made tsuku kedo
nankai yattemo nankai yattemo Ea-man ga taosenai yo
ano tatsumaki nankai yattemo yokerenai
ushiro ni mawatte uchitsuzuketemo izure wa kaze ni tobasareru
taimu renda mo tameshite mitakedo tatsumaki aite ja imi ga nai
dakara tsugi wa zettai katsu tame ni boku wa E-kan dake wa saigo made totte oku
ki ga tsuitara raifu mou sukoshi shika nai
soshite itsumo soko de E-kan tsukau
akiramezu ni Ea-man made tadoritsuku keredo, sugu ni zanki nakunaru
ri-fu shi-rudo ga areba raku ni Ea-man o taoseru kedo
nankai yattemo nankai yattemo uddo-man ga taosenai yo
ochiru konoha wa nankai yattemo yokerenai
ushiro ni sagatte kyori o tottemo izure wa kyori o tsumerareru
taimu renda mo tameshite mitakedo aitsu no janpu wa kugurenai
dakara tsugi wa zettai katsu tame ni boku wa E-kan dake wa saigo made totte oku
aitemu nigou ga areba raku ni mukou no kishi made tsuku kedo
nankai yattemo nankai yattemo Ea-man ga taosenai yo
ano tatsumaki nankai yattemo yokerenai
ushiro ni mawatte uchitsuzuketemo izure wa kaze ni tobasareru
taimu renda mo tameshite mitakedo tatsumaki aite ja imi ga nai
dakara tsugi wa zettai katsu tame ni boku wa E-kan dake wa saigo made totte oku
————————————————————–
Vocab List:
ki ga tsuku: To notice/become aware/realize
onaji: The same
men: This one is a bit odd in that when I look it up I get “face” or “mask”, but it can also mean a surface, which
seems more fitting here.
bakari: A multi faceted word, but here it means “nothing but [whatver precedes it]“.
purei: playEnglish word.
soshite: Thus/therefore
itsumo: always
basho: place/location/spot
shinu: to die
akirameru: To give up
kieru: to go out/vanish/be extinguished
ashiba: footing/scaffolding
chousen: challenge/defiance
suru: to do
kedo: but
sugu:soon/nearby
sugu ni: instantly
ochiru: to fall
aitemu: item
nigou: second volume/edition
raku:comfort
mukou: opposite side
kishi: bank/shore
made: up to
tsuku: to arrive at
nankai: how many times
yaru: to do
taosu: to fell/knock down
tatsumaki: tornado
yokeru: to avoid
usiro: behind
mawaru: to turn/revolve
uchitsukeru: to knock/strike hard
izure: sooner or later
kaze:wind
tobasu: to fire/hurl
renda: barrage
tamesu: to attempt
aku: to open
imi: meaning
tsugi: next
zettai: absolutely/unconditionally
katsu: to win
tame ni: for the sake of
boku: I (masculine)
dake: only
saigo: one’s last moment
totte oku: to set aside
sukoshi: a little/small quantity
shika: only, nothing but
tsukau: to use
tadoritsuku: to struggle on to/to finally arrive at
keredo: alternate of kedo
zanki: remaining lives
nakunaru: to die, to disappear/get lost
konoha: foliage/leaves
sagaru: to hang down/step back
kyori: distance/range
tottemo: very/exceedingly
tsumeru: to pack/plug/stop up, to make room for
aitsu: he/she
kuguru: to drive/pass through, to evade/hide, to survive, to get in
-Tony
Thanks 7-Eleven, now I need to start smoking.
What is this you ask? Well, 7-Eleven is teaming up with Bandai to make weird but awesome Gundam merchandise. The result? Awesomeness. More specifically:
The Zippo up there, as well as this one:
The inappropriately named, but still cute “Half-age girls” figures (The figures include Sayla Mass, Frau Bow, Meer Campbell, some blond girl with a hat that I can’t place, Allenby, Rain, and Nastasha):
And more.
Thanks Ngee Khiong!
-Tony
Okay I’ll admit it, I have no bloody clue why I want a Zippo lighter so much. But this really isn’t helping. I love the Pac-Man one. What I don’t love? That it’s ~$110.
And by the way. I used the snipping tool to quickly crop that image. It’s useful already!
-Tony
In the first time in the 6 (?) years since I got it, my desktop is running something other than Windows XP. To celebrate this landmark occasion, I decided I’d write some of my initial thoughts about it. But to be fair, and as is often the case, Penny Arcade did manage to sum up pretty much everything I’d say into just three panels.
My initial impressions are that it looks nice and my computer doesn’t seem to be going any slower than it did on XP. I realize that all this really tells you is that it isn’t worse than XP, but considering Vista, this is an important point to make as it means that 7 is a lot faster than Vista. Faster bootup, faster loading or peripherals, less clutter running all the time, just all around faster. I also realize that at this point everything I’ll say is about the new features, so I’ll organize the rest of this accordingly and with links the Microsoft’s discussion of them.
This to me has limited usability. And by that I mean I can’t really use it. It’s basically an easier way to have a shared folder on a network. Not super useful if you ask me since you’ve been able to do this for years. In fact you could do it in XP. This just makes the concept more user friendly but only works if you have someone else on your network running windows 7. Maybe if Orey upgrades we’ll be able to test this then but in the meantime I’m going to say that this isn’t such a big deal.
This basically attaches your recent files to a program. If you right click a program on the taskbar or in the start menu, it gives you a list of your recent documents with that program. Or, in some cases it gives you some useful tasks. Sounds nice, and I guess the recent document thing is cool but I’m not amazed by it. It saves you a few clicks, but thats about it. To be fair though, I think this is one of those things that will be more useful once more programs actually implement it. For example, Firefox and Thunderbird don’t give me any special commands or recent documents but Internet Explorer gives me some frequently visited sites and the ability to to open in it private browsing mode or open a new tab. In short, that means that Firefox/Thunderbird don’t give me any options, and IE gives me stupid ones. But again, I can see this being used well in the future so it’s kind of a cool feature.
I thought this meant that Windows was doing the Linux thing where if two window borders were near each other as you were moving them around they would “snap” together but it’s not. This is hard to explain so if you’re interested you might want to watch the video in the link but the point is that it’s a quick(?) way to re-size a window to a pre-determined size. Drag the window to the right side of the screen and if you let go it will re-size the window to take up the right half of the screen. Similar for the left. The top makes it fullscreen. Why you wouldn’t just click fullscreen I have no bloody clue. Seems worthless to me. Maybe if you were able to save a screen layout that you liked? That might be better.
This is just a new suite of windows software that you would expect to come packed in. Now that let you pick and choose which ones you want to download. Not much to say here without reviewing each product separately, which is a post for another day.
They made the search capabilities in the start menu and explorer better. It does in fact seem better/faster/more thorough and the results are arranged nicer. Not much to say here either. It seems nice.
I actually really like what they did with the taskbar. Instead of displaying each window of a program as it’s own button, they are all clumped together by default, and when you click it a new window pops up that shows a snapshot of each windows associated with that program that you can select. Oh, and you can move around items on your taskbar finally. I remember this used to bother me, but I’ve long since stopped caring. Still, thumbs up all around for the improvements here.
You can turn off/manage those annoying as hell message balloons on your taskbar. Enough said.
I mentioned before that I like how this version looks. This is due in large part to the Aero theme that is a revised variant of the Vista one. The difference is that it works now and doesn’t slow you computer down to a crawl.
Still seem largely useless to me. I know these were big at one time when they were called widgets but since then I think they’ve gone out of style. It seems to me like only Mac users still cling to these things. I’ve yet to find a widget that was the most convenient way of getting a task done. That being said, you can now move them around wherever you want now. Meaning that they’ve finally caught up to the original widgets.
Now this I like. Now you don’t have to hit print screen and crop out the portion of your image anymore. If you want a snapshot of something on your screen just open the snipping tool and select it. Handy!
I know Linux has had these for a while. The point is that you can put up a little sticky note anywhere on your desktop to be used in any way you would use a normal sticky note. This used to be a gadget I think, but now it’s more full featured and actually seems useful. I can drag them around, change the color, re-size them, or add info to them pretty quickly.
Want to see what’s behind all the windows you have cluttering the screen? Move your mouse to the bottom right and they all become transparent. I guess this is primarily to be used with the sticky notes or gadgets. Kind of cool either way though.
There are plenty of other small features that you can peruse at you leisure on Microsoft’s site but I think I covered all the major ones. Overall, I like it. You should definitely ditch Vista for it. And if you’re a student, you can get the Home Premium version of it for just $30. Definitely a recommended buy at that price.
Or you could just use Linux.
Just sayin.
-Tony
When does a japanese cosplayer get an English fansite? When you’re “Kipi” apparently. Some more pictures can be found on that site if you feel like registering. Or a google search will do the trick.
Touhou’s Marisa Cosplay
K-ON!’s Yui
Vocaloid’s Rin
Chobit’s Chi
Impressive, no?
-Tony
Short post today since I need to do quantum mechanics homework. Ngee Khiong posted a list of all the Gundam kits to be released this month. On top of 00 Raiser, the MG Qubeley Mk. II looks pretty cool. I wish that Vent Savior Gundam were MG instead of just 1/100 non-grade though. It looks pretty cool but I doubt I’ll get another non or high grade kit again.
But anyway. Here’s the link.
-Tony
I really love Tim Schafer’s work. Or rather, I really loved Psychonauts and wished I was into PC gaming enough in my youth to have played some of his other games. That and I love to read his blog posts Double Fine Action News. So I’ve been eagerly awaiting Brütal Legend.
And I liked it, for the most part.
I mean, it’s not amazing, but it’s a solid game. The things I knew that I would like I loved and the things I didn’t know anything about were still pretty enjoyable. Let’s start with the “positives” paragraph.
The writing was spot on, which it had better be. You can’t have a Tim Shafer game with mediocre writing. It just ruins the point. You’ll be giggling or all out laughing through the entire game. “Decapitatiooooooooooon!” The voice acting was also pretty great. Of course, this is the perfect role for Jack Black but the supporting cast is also pretty good. Even if it is weird to hear Kath Sucy play someone over the age of 10. But come on Ozzy was in the game as a merchant. It’s tough to beat that. On that note, perhaps the single most impressive thing was the shear amount of metal in this game. Riding around and looking for collectables is far better with a radio blaring the entire time. And the areas you are driving through are incredibly well stylized.
Now for the meh. It’s not bad per se, it’s just not as awesome as it could have been. As much as I liked the style of the levels, they still somehow felt generic. Maybe it’s just because I was expecting psychonauts where one level you’re on a giant chessboard fighting against Napoleon, and the next you’re in a 100 story tall circus tent, but the levels just seemed a little uninspired. Forest section? Check. Snowy mountain? Check. Again, they were all stylized with metal very well, but there was still a little blandness. The RTS sections were a tad slow I think. As much as it tried to not be an RTS, you still spend way to much time gathering resources (”fans”). It worked well in the main game, but somehow I don’t feel like doing it in multiplayer. Again, I think a little speed boost might have helped. Or, I would completely take out the multiplayer part and add a bit to the single player. But that’s just me.
So is it a good game? Yes. Is it an amazing one. Not really. Still worth checking out though. And while you’re at it, buy Psychonauts.
-Tony
And now an exciting time where I highlight some really cool Gundam models that I unfortunately did not do. Let’s revel in their awesomeness.
The first couple come from naowks.
Kshatriya from Gundam Unicorn
Unicorn Gundam (Destroy Mode), "Banshee" mod
And now a freakishly cool Zaku diorama by figure.fm user nath. O_O
Wish I could do that.
-Tony
