#miry plays botw

[intyalote]

2020 Year in Review

Thanks to @i-am-just-a-kiddo for tagging me! I modified the format a bit, but it was fun! Also, none of these are ordered because it was hard enough to pick top 5s and I didn’t feel like ranking them in addition to that. 

Again, anyone who wants to do this, consider yourself nominated by me. My answers are under the cut because though I tried very hard, I failed to keep them short.

Movies/TV shows: I combined these since I’ve seen less than 5 of each oops

1. Tientsin Mystic - Absolutely gorgeous, beautiful cinematography. The plot went off the rails (in a fun way) in the second half but I was impressed with the intricacy of the setup in the first 12 or so episodes, and the central trio were wonderful. 

2. Parasite - Its genius has been explained by people who can do so much better and more eloquently than I can, so I’ll just leave you with the coldest take ever: it was really, really good. 

3. Midnight Diner - I’d seen Tokyo Stories previously, but I went back and watched the older series when they came to Netflix and absolutely loved them. Seeing the origins of the regulars and getting some unexpected emotional stabs made it unforgettable. 

4. The Devotion of Suspect X - The book is one of my favorite mysteries, so I was ready to be disappointed, but ended up being pleasantly surprised with how well the adaptations maintained the heart of the novel. 

5. Mulan (2009) - Watched it to cleanse Mulan (2020) from my brain. It was perfect - hearbreaking story, amazing and realistic characters, beautifully done fight scenes.

Songs: 

1. почему (zemfira) - I continue to love zemfira. This song has been in my spotify wrapped for the past 3 years straight.

2. スマトラ警備隊/四角革命 (soutaiseiriron) - I’m cheating by adding two songs since I couldn’t decide which was more representative. I promise the music is good and I don’t just like soutaiseiriron because of the physics name, even if that’s what caught my attention at first.

3. Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd) - It’s been one of my “comfort songs” ever since I was a kid. A big one from the early days of quarantine. 

4. 赤い月 (Kitri) - This was a big j-music year for me clearly. Someone recommended Kitri to me in September and I fell in love with their funky, dreamlike style. Also, after playing BOTW earlier this year, the music video sparks panic every time the titular red moon appears.

5. Nocturne (Kaija Saariaho) - Saariaho is probably my favorite active composer, and this is my favorite of her works. I was considering putting down something more Romantic instead, but I listen to that stuff all the time, while 2020 really had me revisiting some more unique pieces, and this one in particular. 

Books:

1. Death’s End (Liu Cixin, tr. Ken Liu) - Yes, this was the year I finally read that series. I have many philosophical disagreements with certain messages that appear in the books, but the fact that they prompted that kind of thought is rare enough to warrant a spot on this list. 

2. The Roman Elegiac Poets (ed. Karl Harrington) - Technically a textbook, but I’m putting it here for the poems it contains and not Harrington’s additions (which I didn’t particularly like). Catullus 101 had a huge impact on me when I read it for class a few years ago, so I picked up this book to see some more of his elegiac poetry and loved what I found. I’ve also developed a new appreciation for Ovid, and will probably be taking a second look at the Metamorphoses this year to see if I like them more than I did the first time. 

3. Dune (Frank Herbert) - I reread it in anticipation of the upcoming film adaptation and loved it as much as I did the first time. It’s full of things I love - intricate politics, engaging science, deep worldbuilding, and of course, space. 

4. JR上野駅公園口/Tokyo Ueno Station (Yu Miri) - This one was a challenging read (for my Japanese level anyway), but I’m glad I got through it. Came for the ghost narrator, stayed for the unexpectedly deep sadness it inspired.

5. The Idiot (Dostoevsky, tr. Volkhonsky/Pevear) - This might be my new favorite Dostoevsky work. I don’t know how to explain it other than that while I never really knew where it was going, everything somehow still made sense.

That’s it for my year in review - I hope anyone reading this has a wonderful 2021!

[worldwidegamewatchers]

Alright, I’m halfway done translating Miri’s story, got the rest of the story well in my head during lunch hour so I can finish the rest once work is over. After that’s done I can start working on fixing up the haphazard translations I’ve done for Peria Chronicles. I took out my BoTW cartridge from my Switch and put it at a hard-to-reach place in order to physically prevent myself from playing and have no plans for the weekend. Nothing can get in my way of, huh?

Mobile Steam Notification : Resident Evil 7 40% off

Ah FU-

So yeah I managed to get my Nintendo Switch but that’s not the reason why my time was consumed. 

No, don’t look at my 220 hours on BoTW. I swear the vast majority of that time was spent on a bus, breaktimes, and during family visits.

The thing is that April and May turned out to be an insanely busy period for me because I had to fill in for two people. June was turning out the same as well but let up once stuff got canceled or pushed back.

I still did manage to get a bit of work done for WWGW during that time and got some Peria Chronicle facebook posts translated, which aren’t presentable yet since I did those in a hurry or between short breaks. 

I actually have done some recording for presenting the story for Closers but that’s the easy part. Managing to summarize and presenting its story appropriately will be the real challenge and also happens to be the reason I’m still not sure if I’m going to follow through with it. 

I don’t think I’ll be doing the Dark Knight Awakened Weapon video due to a combination of ti me-constraint and it not seeming to be a worth doing at this point.