#sejinpk

[gzw1689]

@sejinpk Some thoughts that occurred to me regarding that last post, that I didn’t really want to add to a reblog.

If I remember correctly, I’ve read certain things and heard a few people say that Japanese grammar is rather simple and elegant, and that each sentence is essentially a bunch of particle phrases with a verb at the end. But when I’ve actually tried to read Japanese, it doesn’t really read that way to me. When people talk about how simple it supposedly is, it can actually make me feel rather discouraged, because it means that I’m getting confused over a supposedly simple thing.

I suppose I prefer it when people acknowledge how challenging it can be, because then the difficulties I’m having feel more “acceptable”, so to speak.

I’ve been thinking a bit about getting back into Japanese again. I think one of the biggest issues I’ve come across is that a lot of the more popular Japanese learning resources I’m aware of tend to focus more on vocabulary rather than grammar. Maybe vocabulary is easier to teach, since it’s mostly a bunch of words (though I suppose things like the connotations and cultural associations of these words are rather complex).

What I’ve heard about grammar seems to boil down to “learn the basics, then get a feel for it”. But I think that approach just hasn’t really worked with me so far, and has left me more confused, somewhat discouraged, and feeling as if my learning isn’t progressing.

I guess I want an approach that doesn’t feel to basic, feels challenging enough to advance my learning, but not so much that it just confuses me, and is also somewhat enjoyable. I guess I just haven’t found something like that yet. Then again, I suppose I’ve spent more time thinking about learning Japanese again than I have actually putting effort into finding something that works for me, haha.

[medakakurokami]

What's that kaoru mori mangacap from? I tried looking on MAL, but all I found was the name of a mangaka, and a titular manga of short stories she wrote. Is that mangacap from one of them?

oh no, sorry if that was unclear. the manga is Otoyomegatari which was written by Kaoru Mori

i’d recommend anything she’s done, that anthology named after her is great but it contains a lot of stuff from her usual series. Otoyomegatari is her best so far though, centered around Central Asian marriages. her previous big series was Emma which was a little by-the-numbers Victorian romance but it was as well played as it could be and when it put focus on side characters it was really good. everything else she’s done is just fuckin. maids. she’s really into maids.

but she’s just one of the best fuckin manga artists out there

[ronriii]

sejinpk replied to your post: 30 Days of Nothing: KnK Challenge - Favorite...

Just wanted to say I love this response/answer/entry. I really enjoyed reading about how you first encountered and then came to love Shiki’s and Lio’s characters. :)

Thanks! Thought it’d make for a fun read since we hardly ever get to talk about our firsthand experiences with our favorite characters. ^_^

[kondo-hijikata]

sejinpk replied to your photo “lol he looks high af”

Hahahahaha oh my god that tag! 'gatotsqueue' XD

i will take every single opportunity i get in life to make everything and anything relevant to either saito and/or sano lmao

[sejinpk]

Today I finally got caught up at work with a major backlog of stuff that had been piling up for months because they didn’t have anyone to do those tasks after the person who previously held my position left to continue their education in the field and before they hired me. I’m pretty tired right now because today felt really long, but it feels good to finally have that off my plate. It was something that was sort of looming over me in the back of my mind at work, even when I was doing other tasks. So I’m really glad it’s finally all done with now.

[justintaco]

Do the Persona 3 movies go into the stuff from the "Answer" part of the game, or do they just stick to the "Journey" part? I haven't finished the game (I think I'm in November or December of the "Journey" part, and I haven't played any of the "Answer" part), and I'm trying to figure out how much I'd be spoiled if I watched the movies before finishing the game.

They don’t touch The Answer at all.

[mioakiyamafanboy]

Since I attempted to help find my friend’s dog using Tumblr, I wanted to make sure I posted this here too. Yep, after 12 days he is back home safe and sound. :) He ended up between two houses and both owners decided to give him food and water. One of them apparently found the post from the Lost Pets BC Facebook page and was able to contact my friend right away. :D I’m tagging everyone who liked and/or reblogged the other posts just to make sure they see this. :)

[gzw1689]

@sejinpk Just thought I’d let you know what game I’m currently playing.

[gzw1689]

sejinpk replied to your post: doubletranquility: tumblr is great its like a...

…my dumb computer-illiterate ass doesn’t get the joke lol >.<

“PVP” stands for “player versus player”. I know it from its use in MMO games, and I suppose the meaning is somewhat self-explanatory.

I guess it’s kind of like the difference between a single player game where you just do your own thing (journal), and a massively multiplayer game where someone can find you and fight you (Tumblr), haha. Though I suppose they can help you and cooperate with you as well.

[gzw1689]

@sejinpk Your response also made me think of how things that currently scare me (for example, in the horror movies I watch or the horror games I play) have been re-contextualized in ways that make them seem somewhat less scary. I decided to put it in this separate post, since it felt like a bit of a digression.

Like in Resident Evil 7, there’s this scene at the beginning of the game that left such an impression on me that, despite having really enjoyed the game, makes me somewhat hesitant to play it again (and I suppose there are several such parts in the game like that).

Months after I played the game, I watched Kizuna Ai’s playthrough of it. Some of her responses to what happen in the game add an element of humour and a “kawaii” factor to it, so that kind of changes my emotional responses to some of the scarier parts of the game. I think I still had trouble viewing the particular scene I’m talking about without feeling scared, but I think Kizuna Ai’s presence sort of eased the mood somewhat.

There’s also things like watching videos of people playing Outlast and intentionally glitching the enemy characters out, which can be amusing. There’s also that The Conjuring 2 mirror prank video, particularly the end, which reminds me that Valak the Nun is a human wearing a costume and heavy makeup. Watching behind-the-scenes videos of horror movies also have a similar effect. In this case, I think these things draw attention to the artificiality of it all.

That said, I think having experienced these re-contextualized things, I still find those parts scary in their original context. But I think they also provide a new way of thinking about those things, some of which can be funny, which might make them seem less scary outside of that context.

[gzw1689]

sejinpk replied to your audio post: I’ve been thinking about testing my audio...

What’s a VST?

VST stands for Virtual Studio Technology (I actually had to look up what the acronym stands for, haha). In general, they’re audio plug-ins that can be used in digital audio workstation programs (ie. programs for recording, editing, and mixing audio). I mostly have experience with ones that can modify an existing sound, and with virtual instruments for MIDI tracks, though there may be other possibilities for uses beyond that.

For example, I have two main VSTs that I’ve used. Guitar Rig 5 can take a direct input recording of a guitar or bass (ie. where the instrument is plugged and recorded directly into the audio recording interface that’s connected to the computer) and make it sound like it’s coming out of an amplifier. Superior Drummer is a virtual drum kit built from recorded samples of an actual drum kit, and you can build somewhat realistic sounding drum tracks with it using MIDI.

For that recording, I tested Guitar Rig 5 on a recording of my bass. Now I just need something to test Superior Drummer with. In the past, I’ve generally imported pre-made MIDI drum tracks created in a composition program for use with Superior Drummer. But this time, I kind of want to try manually inputting it myself with musical typing (ie. using a computer keyboard like a musical keyboard) to see how much I can do with that.

Anyway, I hope all of that made sense. I’m not sure what your knowledge level is when it comes to music recording and composition tools.

[gzw1689]

sejinpk replied to your post: Something I discovered yesterday (at least, for...

What performance were you watching?

Well, I suppose it was a few actually, at Anime Revolution's closing ceremony. Near the beginning of the ceremony, they showed the winners of the AMV contest, and one of them in particular was so loud it felt a little painful to my ears. On top of that, I was standing pretty close to one of the speakers (I'd estimate about 5 metres away at the most), so that sort of amplified (hehe) my worries about possible hearing damage.

The next three major parts of the ceremony were the winner of the singing competition, the winning group of the idol dance competition (who were cosplaying as Aqours and dancing to two of their songs), and an approximately half-hour DJ set by TeddyLoid (who did the music for "ME!ME!ME!"). I can't remember if I started using the earbuds for the first of those, but I definitely did for the other two.

I think I saw a few people covering their ears during those parts, so I definitely wasn't the only one concerned about my hearing. But yeah, since earbuds are pretty much designed for listening to things through them, I guess I was a little worried that using them might appear disrespectful or something.

[gzw1689]

sejinpk replied to your photo: tastefullyoffensive: by Loryn Brantz

Did you end up making good progress by the time this was posted?

First off, sorry for replying to this like... three days later.

By the time this was actually posted? I don’t think I’d really made much progress at that point. It was more like I had to cram all of my reading into a few hours closer to the end of the day.

This kind of thing makes me pretty annoyed with myself, because I know I could get this reading stuff done more steadily over a few days. I don’t know why, but it seems like my procrastination is just at an all-time high now and I really don’t like it. -_-

[gzw1689]

sejinpk replied to your post: It’s only been a few hours since I saw The Last...

Glad to hear you liked it! (and maybe that’s an understatement?)

I just want to take a moment to talk about how much going to see this movie meant to me.

I think a lot of us can agree that it’s been a pretty rough year all around. Although my own life has been okay for the most part, I have to admit that I often took a lot of the world news going around this past year harder than is probably healthy.

Now, I suppose I’d been looking forward to this movie ever since I first saw The Force Awakens, but I’d been eagerly anticipating it ever since its title was revealed in January. And through all of the darkness of this past year, the fact that I would one day see this movie was one of the things that brought me happiness.

I can’t overstate just how much it meant to me to be able to finally see The Last Jedi yesterday. I think it’s hard to describe in words, but I’ll try.

To be able to immerse myself once again in a world that has been a part of my life since I was maybe four years old was exactly what I needed. It was probably one of the most cathartic experiences I’ve had in a long time. For two and a half hours, I was completely mesmerized by something without being reminded and bogged down by my own problems or the world’s problems, and it just felt absolutely magical. And by the end of it, I felt like some of the negative energy I had pent up inside of me for so long washed away.

I can’t express in words just how grateful I am to have experienced something like this, but I hope what I said gives some idea.

As for the movie itself, I have a few general thoughts (no spoilers), though I’ve put it under a “Read More”, in case anyone reading this doesn’t want to read other opinions before going to see it themselves.

I suppose part of these thoughts may have been influenced by the real life context in which I saw the film (described above), so that’s something to keep in mind here.

I went into the movie with little in the way of expectations except for keeping an open mind (which is a stance I highly recommend going into pretty much anything, by the way), and I feel like I had the time of my life. I had a lot of fun with it, and despite its length, it didn’t feel long to me at all. Interestingly, I think this is the first Star Wars movie to make me feel genuinely reflective afterward. While part of that is due to its character and thematic exploration, I think another part of it has to do with how there’s a lot to take in. But most of all, it took me on a huge emotional ride. I might even say that it shook me to my core.

It’s probably going to be a while until I’ve formed a more solid opinion on it (to be honest though, I think my thoughts and feelings on every single one of the Star Wars films changes with time and age). And I think a lot of that is going to depend on how it fits into the rest of the story, including how the upcoming Episode IX will tie things up in 2019.

But on its own and with the story context we have so far? I found it to be quite the experience.

[gzw1689]

sejinpk replied to your video: the1janitor: This Video is Boring by...

What about playing bass? I remember a while back you mentioned you wanted to try to get back into that.

Well... I still kind of consider playing the bass a computer activity. I look up and read all the tablature on my computer, and if I’m transcribing myself (which, now that I think of it, I haven’t done in a really long time), I need to listen to the music on my computer and write the tablature on there as well. I suppose I could print the stuff out, but I don’t really want to use up paper.

On another note, I tried playing my bass and my guitars with my amplifiers the other day (it’s probably been about two years since I’ve used my amps). For some reason, the sound kept cutting out for all of them. I hope that it’s a problem with the cables and not with the instruments or amps themselves...

I kind of wanted to try recording music again sometime, and I was hoping I could just go back to it without any issues. But if the expensive equipment is having problems, then that would complicate things.

[gzw1689]

Hey! I was just wondering, what new anime this season are you interested in/excited about watching (either now or possibly later once they've finished airing)?

I thought I hadn’t really looked into this season very thoroughly, but surprisingly, I ended up putting ten series on this list. Other than maybe one or two though, I don’t think I’m particularly excited for most of them. That said, there are quite a few that I may be interested in checking out at some point (meaning: maybe after they’ve aired, in a year or two, or maybe never, haha).

To give an idea of my interest level for each series, I’ve given numbers for each of them:

1: marginal interest (I probably want to learn a bit more first)

2: maybe I’ll get to it someday (who knows)

3: may watch after it’s finished airing (maybe within a year or two)

4: likely to watch after it’s finished airing (maybe within a few months)

5: I’ll watch it every week while it airs

Of course, my interest level could change based on learning more about a series (or, honestly, seeing more pictures from it :P).

Before I begin though, I just want to say that often my reasons for wanting to watch something are pretty minimal (not sure what word is best to describe it). I suppose it’s more like if some really basic thing catches my interest, I decide that I might want to check it out later.

Love Live! Sunshine!! 2This one pretty much goes without saying, as my recent Tumblr posts show. I’m excited enough about this one that I actually look forward to it every single week. These days, I’d say that’s pretty rare for me.Interest Level: 5

Mahoutsukai no YomeI think the title sounds kind of cool, and I kind of like the look of some of the gif sets/pictures I’ve seen of it on Tumblr.Interest Level: 3

Shokugeki no Souma: San no SaraI liked the first season. From what I remember, I’d say it was the characterization and the food theme that appealed to me. I like food. Or watching people make and talk about it, I guess. I still need to watch the second season though.Interest Level: 3 (as long as I can watch the second season beforehand)

InuyashikiI think I haven’t been very interested in these darker kinds of series for a while, but if I’m ever in the mood, maybe I’ll give it a shot at some point.Interest Level: 2

Just Because!Your post from a few months ago brought it to my attention. I guess I’m mostly intrigued by the people involved (the ones who worked on Sakurasou, Yanagi Nagi), though I suppose I like the art style too. It also sounds like it might be a sort of high school coming-of-age type of story, and to be honest, I’m actually really into that sort of thing.Interest Level: 4

Net-juu no SusumeAnother one of your posts. Sounds like something a bit more relevant to my demographic, I suppose.Interest Level: 3.5

Himouto! Umaru-chan RI actually haven’t watched the first season. But I’ve liked Doga Kobo’s other recent moe/comedy series that I’ve seen (New Game!, Gabriel Dropout). This seems to be one of the more popular ones, so I have a feeling I might like it too. But I need to watch the first season first. Also, I heard that Anime Strike got the second season. So… I suppose that complicates things.Interest Level: 3 (as long as I can watch the first season beforehand; the first season is a 4, but Anime Strike bumped the second season down by 1 point)

3-gatsu no Lion 2Also another series I haven’t seen the first season of yet. But it also sounds kind of like something I might like (the sort of coming-of-age aspect again, I suppose).Interest Level: 3 (as long as I can watch the first season beforehand; if it wasn’t for the length of the series, the level would probably be 4)

Blend SI honestly know pretty much nothing about this. I just saw this picture set the other day and thought it looked amusing.Interest Level: 1

Pingu in the CityA Japanese studio doing their own Pingu? I’ve got to see this.Interest Level: 4/5 (since it’s a short, maybe I’ll be fine with watching it weekly, if I can find it)

I suppose that about sums it up.