Saturday, July 18, 2009

Graduation

And so it came to pass that I finally graduated...
I can call myself Bachelor of Information and Communication Technology (or ing. in front of my name), but who really cares?
I'm not really proud of what I acchieved, but I guess I should be glad that I passed, because without something like this, life would become a lot harder.
From September 2008 I've been trying to get my graduation project approved by school. It really didn't go my way and I slowly sank deeper into my de-motivation (Maybe it was a depression, but I didn't feel it like that).
Finally I was able to start my project in feb 2009 (yes over 5 month of getting the bloody thing approved :@ )
Project was from feb-jun 2009

Anyway... the reason I was going to mention this had nothing to do with the graduation project but rather with my sudden recovery.

For the last couple of years I've been doing my thing, all-day entertainment (you know gaming, anime, J-drama, bit of Japanese, etc.)
Maybe I should've been heavily depressed, but because I was doing the things I liked to do, I was running from the bad thoughts that were somewhere in my mind.
Didn't you feel useless doing nothing all day?
Well yeah, sure... When you think that other people your age are working all day long and having a normal life.
Somehow the constant flow of self-entertainment sustained me and prevented my inner demons to come out as well.

I knew this was the last school year that I could graduate, so it was now or never.
Getting yourself pumped up again was hard, because my whole life rhythm was ruined at that moment.
Go to bed after 12, getting up at 5, back into bed at 7, coffee time at 10, doing your thing until you go to bed.
Of course deep in my heart I knew this couldn't go on forever, but I had just smashed these thoughts every time they surfaced.

I feel that I was in a deep deep dried up well.
Only difference was that something (the internet) threw a lot of entertainment in for me so I wouldn't get bored.
A lot of people had been trying to help me get out of this "pit" but it wasn't really helping.
Maybe because I was just clinging onto this life I had made for myself.
I mean doing things you like all day long beats working, ne?
Practically everybody has tried to help me get out of this phase: parents, friends, other family.

After some more problems communicating with people at school, I had almost lost all hope that it would turn out right.
During that time (jan 2009) I got into contact with someone on the other side of the world, and for some reason she was the final hand that I needed to get myself out of the pit that I'd been in for years.
Cammy, know that I will always be grateful to you for what you have done for me.
Not only have you probaly saved the me of the present, but you've also saved the me of the future...
Although you will deny that it was your doing alone, it was your doing that pulled me out of this in the end. Thank you.
カッミちゃん、本当にどうもありがとうございました

Monday, March 16, 2009

Nightwish

It's been a long time since I last wrote in this blog. Frankly it feels like it has been a long time since I actually had the time to do anything. I'm not used to prioritizing my hobbies, because I've always had time to give them all the time I wanted. Now that I'm doing my graduation project things are not going like I want to go (talking about the free time, it's a good thing I'm graduating).

Last night I went to Rotterdam to see Nightwish perform. People told me I only write in this blog when I did some concert/festival or nihongo lesson... I know that I do that... Those are the only things worth mentioning in my soooo active life. Ok it's active now though. Getting up everyday at 5:30 and doing the morning papers until 7. Then I have to be at work (graduation project job) at 8 until 4:30. So I'm working more than those guys at the office... I'm actually amazed how my body is adapting to it... Oh, right... Nightwish!

Nightwish had 2 supporting acts: Indica and Pain. I'd never heard of Indica so while I was waiting for the new shipments of tourshirts to arrive, I listened to them. I first thought they were Irish! They really have a really Irish sound I think. It's not too metally, but hey, my metal only period is ancient history as well. So when I got home I downloaded some of it, which is actually in Finnish :P I'm actually listening to their latest album "Valoissa" (2008) at the moment.

I downloaded some Pain albums about a month ago and listened to it a couple of times. It wasn't until last night that I actually noticed how good they were :) So now I finally know why my nee-chan is listening to Pain that much. Nee-chan always had the same kind of musical taste as I had until she until she was listening more to metal while I was listening more to J-Music. Although we're still between very-high and super. I really love Follow me and I'm going in... More downloading Pain when I have time, and actually put them IN my Itunes this time.

Now something about Nightwish. As you might (or might not) know, they have changed their vocalist in 2007. They've made one new album with their new vocalist, Anette and they had 5 or 6 albums with their previous vocalist, Tarja. I've been a nightwish fan ever since their 2nd album and I have actually bought all of their albums up until now. When the band decided to fire Tarja I didn't believe it would have much impact because the remaining band members composed the music and wrote the lyrics.

I guess it's hard to find a vocalist that has the same vocal style as Tarja does, but I don't really mind the sound that Anette has, UNLESS she's inging old (Tarja) songs. Maybe I'm just loyal but I still think Tarja + band = Nightwish. They should've adopted a new name or if they really wanted to keep the name Nightwish, they should've kept off the old songs. There is no way that Anette can sing in the way Tarja does, so please don't rape the old (SACRED) songs that Nightwish made in the past (in this concert: Dead to the World, Romanticide, Nemo, The Siren, etc).

Good thing I had to go home before the end of the show so I didn't hear Sacrament of Wilderness. Please, just play the new music and let's all have good memories about the Tarja-era. Maybe her attitude isn't too good, but she's a good singer. I still like her solo albums a lot.

It seems I was the only one having a problem with that, so I'll just shut up... It was a good show though with a really cool stage and some pyro action. :)

Sunday, January 11, 2009

FEVER!

There seems to be a nasty bacteria going around in here. First my parents became ill, now it seems to be my turn... Today I had dizzyness, an aching back and head and a 39degree temperature! It's been years since I last got a fever like this... I'm going to a doctor tomorrow and see what can be done about it. I can't afford to be sick ATM. I need to do some important things!

Friday, January 9, 2009

Lisago

On my nightly search for new music yesterday [yes for some reason browsing the net at 1:30am seems to be fun ;)] I found an artist named Lisago
She's Japanese/Taiwanese and she's been releasing for like 7-8 years now. I listened to it and it wasn't all that bad. It seems she was dumped by a record company 5(!!) times already, but continues to release cd's. I can't stop wondering why a record company would drop someone like her. As I said the music is kinda nice [it's a special kind of singing IMO] so they wouldn't drop her 5 times because of that... Does she have an attitude maybe? Or maybe she's a bit lazy like me and like to sleep :) Anyway now that I have found some of music, I want to collect more! *sigh* my never-ending urge to collect...

Thursday, January 8, 2009

ME vs J.L.P.T. - IV test

Yesterday I did a JLPT4 test [2002] at home and I scored 144 out of 188...

Most errors were the reading part. Although I have finished Japanese for Busy People I and have most words from that book into my head, I still think I'm missing quite a few words that you'd have to know for the JLPT4 test.
7時に いえ __ 出ます。 [not ni but wo should've remembered the -O-utgoing movement, like のる]
友だちと 電話 __ 話しました。 [I thought を, like でんわを する... seems it was で]
パーティーに 中山さん __ よびました。 [what the hell is よびました... Seems I did have to learn that verb... Verbs are not my strong point :S ]
9時 __ えいがが はじまります。 [the movie starts from 9 o'clock?! WTH! I thought it was starts about 9 o'clock but that would be ごろ not ぐらい :'( ]

4 errors in 5 questions [the other 10 questions were better 8/10 correct]
I'll spare you the rest of the questions...
Ok, just one more: きのう、テレビ __ 見ませんでした。 [normally I'd think テレビを 見る, but that wasn't among the answers.
へ に は が hmmm which one... well looking AT a TV would seem logical... Ok...logic failed, it was は, but the can't see [so it can't "didn't see"]]
Overall I think I would've past it, but I can't help feeling a bit slaughtered here...
when Japanese Conversation classes start at the end of the month I'm gonna take this test to Mana-sensei and ask her to explain some things to heal my logic...


Monday, December 29, 2008

2008(1): Music

I feel that 2008 was a year of musical change for me. My taste in Japanese music has become so big that it has completely taken over my previous main genre [Metal]. Although I still listen to some metal from time to time, I'm not exploring new bands as I was a couple of years ago...
Still this year brought me some good new metal bands:
- Battlelore
- Delain
- My Dying Bride [don't know why I didn't have this in my list already]
- Paramore
- Unsun

I've expanded the metal music I already had, so if a band which I already had music from, made a new album, I probably added it to my collection.
This year's new J-Music list:
abingdon boys school, Aikawa Nanase, Amano Tsukiko, Angelique, Antic Cafe, Aragaki Yui, Attack All Round, Aural Vampire, Ayaka,
BeForU, Brilliant Green (the), C-ute, Chara, Chatmonchy, Deathgaze, Fiction Junction YUUKA, Garnet Crow, Girugamesh, Hirahara Ayaka, Hirano Aya, Hora, Ishikawa Chiaki, Kagrra, Kalafina, Ketchup Mania, Kitade Nana, Kosaka Riyu, Lamentglace, Luna Sea, MEG, Mell, melody, Minimoni, Mizuki Nana, Misono, Morning Musume, Nakagawa Shoko, Nakashima Mika, Onmyouza, Otsuka Ai, Perfume, Rentrer en Soi, Saori@Destiny, Shimamiya Eiko, Shimatani Hitomi, Shizukusa Yumi, Terra, Tommy febuary6, Tommy heavenly6, Ueto Aya, Utada Hikaru, Yousei Teikoku, Zwei

I also adapted Eurobeat in my collection. It's great music while doing card games like Spider Solitaire or racing games [Need for Speed]. I think I acutally got this from an racing anime [Initial D].

some things that are not in this list but should be mentioned:
Hamasaki Ayumi, collected all her albums and remix albums.
I've Sound, collected all the I've Sound albums [I've Girls compilation 1-6, Short Circuit 1+2, I've Mania, Master Groove, dirty gift and mixed up]
and a lot of other collections are up to date as well ;)

Saturday, December 27, 2008

kanji practice

Ok...
I think I can recognize the first 103 Kanji I'll need for the JLPT4 test next year.
Next thing I'm gonna have to do is memorize how to write them and the stroke order [which will be quite difficult because I'm LEFT HANDED]
Then I need to use them in the words I already know.
after that I'm all set :P

Christmas was the same as usual. Just eat things you normally don't eat... I'm soooo gonna have another cup of hot chocolate tomorrow!!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

BIRTHDAY PRESENT!

YEAH!
I finally got my own birthday present by mail today :) [too late because my b-day was last saturday, but better late than never]
A package containing:
Dir en Grey - UROBOROS (ltd.)
High and Mighty Color - BEEEEEEST (ltd.)
Onmyouza - Chimimoryo
Tsuchiya Anna - Nudy Show! (ltd.)
YUI - My Short Stories (ltd.)

As you can see I'm stil a sucker for limited edition cd's :$

Yesterday I had my last lesson for Japanese III and I got my test back [a whooping 96/100!!]
Although the test had some difficult things in it [and things we never got in class], I think I did ok.
Last question was: make a sentence with ほしい です [hoshii desu -> want]
And what do the people of Japanese III always want?? ->  ビール!yes! BEER!
「わたしは ビールが ほしい です。」 is probably the best way to end the test.
Too bad I was with my car so I couldn't have a toast with beer :'(
Hopefully we'll be having some people continue the course...
I'm currently trying to learn some kanji because I want to take the JLPT 4 test in about a year...

My course of alfatraining also ended today and I was actually a bit sad that it was over...
It's good to have some regular events in your week, right?

Oh well, that's about it for now...

Monday, December 1, 2008

RENTRER EN SOI

While on my eternal hunt for more music, I downloaded the new RENTRER EN SOI album [which was actually a 2CD BEST OF] and when I tried to find the japanese titles [because Itunes of course had some random gibberish in it :S ] I saw that they are going to disband!

DAMN!

I wanted to see them live! Well theory I can still fly to Japan for their last concert on december 25, but in reality that's just not gonna happen...
Grrr...
Another band is to be added to the "I wish I could've seen them live" list :(

This is what my nationality chart looks like ATM...
More than 55% Japanese!
Japanization!


Friday, November 28, 2008

It's alive!

*blows some dust off*
god, this is going slow!
l am actually writing this for real!
I bought a pen-tablet today, to practice my Japanese.
l still haven't gotten the hang of it, but I seem to be getting faster with it already
Ok. enough writing for today [I'm soo not used to it anymore :S ]
I wanted this so I could write Kanji on my computer when I don't know which one it is and want to find it. It's one of the things I wanted to have for my Kanji studies [which have begun I guess]. The other one is just a set of good old flashcards on paper.

Not much has happened since the last time I wrote in my blog...
I guess I'm starting my final graduation project on december 22 [this will be my final chance]
I have almost completed my course of Alfatraining [utulizing your alpha waves to relax and to improve your own character]
I have almost completed my Japanese III course [YEAH! Book 1 is finally done! On to book 2 :P ]

I downloaded a pile of albums, anime and drama but nothing seems important enough to mention right here ;)

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

にほんご3

きょうの ブログは にほんごです!
にほんごの クラスに きました。
にほんごの さんきゅうは はちにん です。
ごにん わ しんじん です。
なつやすみに まいにち べんきょうを しましたから たくさん おぼえてました。
たのしかった です。 :)

-------------------------

today's blog is japanese!
I went to Japanese class.
Japanese III has 8 people.
5 of them were new (they're from an older group)
Because I studied during summer vacation, I remembered a lot.
I had a good time. :)

Reading this... GOD my Japanese is soooo basic ;'(
At least I'm useful as a walking dictionary [じしょ] because I'm doing words every day :S

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Japanese III and Music

A couple of days ago I got a phonecall from my Japanese teacher.
Japanese III is officially cancelled due to lack of interest [5
students -> actually 7] but we're having it privately so it's still
on! :D



Two days later i got the official letter from the Volkuniversiteit, saying it was cancelled :P



So I've been trying to keep my vocabulary up this whole summer and I
think I still remember about 85% of the words [that's good I guess...]



That was everything I wanted to share on this sunday afternoon ;)



OH! no it wasn't :O



Tsuchiya Anna's (new) single "Virgin Cat" was actually labelled R&B [SHOCK!]

re-labeled it to J-Pop ASAP ;)

#2 on the single "Imitation Night" is actually better than "Virgin Cat"



And, as evy-nee-chan said, Olivia's new mini-album "Trinka Trinka" is nice :P

Thursday, September 4, 2008

video's

It has been way too long since I last wrote in my blog so here's something I must share with the world :)

I got a mail from hyves today, saying that it's possible to add video's to my profile so other people can see what I like. As an example they put a list of the current top 10 video's from hyves in my mail.

01. Jan Smit - Stilte In De Storm
02. Amy MacDonald - This Is The Life
03. Kate Ryan - Ella Elle L'A
04. Kid Rock - All Summer Long
05. Chris Brown - Forever
06. Jordin Sparks - No Air (Ft. Chris Brown)
07. Nick & Simon - Rosanne
08. Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl
09. Jan Smit - Als De Morgen Is Gekomen
10. Enrique Iglesias - Can You Hear Me?

My GOD
only number 2 is ok... the rest of them is garbage...
Can somebody tell me which people are happy with this, cause I sure aint!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

10 concerts to see in Japan

Just a reminder for myself what I'd like to see if I go to Japan someday...
It has been on my mind to make it a concert holiday, but that would recquire several money-trees and I still haven't found mine :'(

1. Hamasaki Ayumi
2. Tamaki Nami
3. Tsuchiya Anna
4. Takahashi Hitomi
5. YUI
6. High and Mighty Color
7. Gazette
8. D'espairs Ray (again)
9. Mucc [seen 08-10-08]
10. L'arc en Ciel

Monday, June 23, 2008

J-Drama overload

[mood : downward spiral
last song: T.M.Revolution - resonance
last anime: D.Gray-Man #88
last J-drama: Hotman 2 #9]

Actually my Harddisk is almost bursting with J-Drama.... I'm downloading new series constantly and I think I have downloaded 10 new series in the last couple of days. It has been a while since I saw a really really good drama though. Maybe I'll just become a walking database for Japanese entertainment. At least that's something that I'm comfortable doing :)

Hate you...

Neither forgiven nor forgotten but I don't hate you. Although it made me happy that my actions made you think I hated you. You should've known that I'm not capable of really hating someone. Oh well...

Monday, June 16, 2008

Time won't wait

I've been wanting to write an entry in here a lot sooner but for some reason it just didn't happen until now... So what happened to me since my last entry?

1) I had my Japanese test and I scored 49 out of 50 points. Everybody should know that this test was do-able just by looking at my results, ne ;)
Next Japanese class will be in september, so until that time I have to do some self-study and try not to forget too much. So if anyone wants to talk Japanese I'm right here ;)

2) I went to the dutch championships Iaido and Jodo. I didn't compete because I feel that I'm not at a level where I can be proud of myself. So I volunteered since it was organized by the dojo where I train. I saw lots of great techniques so that really gave me a motivation boost :P

3) As usual loads of Anime and J-Drama and some temporary WoW-ing. I just started WoWing on a private server because I don't want to pay every month just to play. A bad thing about this private server is that the majority of people is eastern european. That's not a bad thing usually, but if I get 5 whispers a day in russian it is.

4) I bought myself a metal DDR pad. Those things are really expensive so I better take good care of it... I had a soft mat before but I felt that I needed this. Don't ask why... And as I'm writing this in my bed with a laptop on my lap [it IS a LAPtop after all :D ] I'm thinking not to trip over the damned thing when I get out of bed at 4:45...

5) This weekend, my best friend had his goodbye party. He will be returning to China in 2 weeks. Although I didn't stay long [difficult reasons I won't explain here, because reader might have to do something else after reading this than sleeping], I hope that he had a good time and got to talk to all of his friends

x) just a side-note Ayumi's Euro Mega-Mix [from "LOVEppears" CD2 ] is nice and D'espairs Ray's album "MIRROR" has some really good songs to express yourself in your car when you're not feeling too well.

That's it for now...
I'll try to write down more frequently
Oyasumi Nasai

Friday, April 18, 2008

MORE JAPANESE

[mood : drinking
last song: Ayumi-sama - Mirrorcle World -> amazing mix :P
last anime: Rosaria + Vampire #11
last J-drama: H2 #10]

7 days have past since my last post and I can add 5 complete J-drama's and 2 anime series to the "seen section"
J-drama:
  • 1 litre of tears 「1 リトル の なみだ」
  • attention please - ROFL
  • hotelier 「ホタリア」
  • h2
  • My Boss My Hero
Anime:
  • rental magica 「レンタル マギカ」
  • rosario + vampire 「ロザリオ+バンパイア」 - fanservice A+++
and that's for 1 week :O
Ok... I know I have too much free time ;)
And no I don't talk Japanese all day long [although it would be better for my Japanese]
I still try to remember Japanese phrases when I'm talking in myself [yes I talk to myself a lot], but I've stopped talking in Japanese to other people who can't understand it.
Imagine that it's time for coffee and you ask "koohii no jikan desu ka"...
The frowns on people's faces says it all... :S
If someone is willing to talk or write in Japanese to me, I'm totally up for that, but I'm not gonna be bothering other people with anymore :D

My test for Japanese II is next Tuesday 「かようびに テストが あります」
I still want to do an introductionary text in Japanese, but it wouldn't be of any use if nobody here can read it... :$

 

Friday, April 11, 2008

DRAMA

Let me say sorry for not writing in here all this time [ not that anyone cares, but still to keep up apearances ;) ]
So what have I been doing all this time?
Well as you'd expect, not much :$
Continued my Japanese lessons in Utrecht, continued my Iaido lessons in Rotterdam, lots of anime and finally some more J-DRAMA!
I seem to be pushing myself to cry in some situations...
After seeing like 15 different J-Drama's I came to to conclusion there are 2 things that will probably make me EMO: injustice and sacrifice.
I guess I already had a feeling about those [remember when aragorn tossed gimmly in LoTR2?]
This time it was a J-Drama called ""たいよう の うた" or song of the sun. The story was about a girl with an incurable disease called XP [where the body does not have any defense against UV rays and exposure to the sun is therefore almost deadly]
Just seeing her condition getting worse through the series just got through to me. Of course it's a scenario thats created by some writer, but there are people with this disease in the world. If you have the time, watch it. If you can't find it or don't want to search for it, give me a message. This was one of the better drama's I've seen so far.

I guess getting through to your emo side is good every once in a while...

Friday, February 22, 2008

at night...

[mood : regular
last song: the Brilliant Green - Ash Like Snow (Gundam 00 ending 2) -> sooooo goood :'(
last anime: Saikano #11
last J-drama: still nothing!]

Finally I'm up to date again with Stargate Atlantis. I've been letting them pile up in order to look at them together. I think I watched 17 eps from this [plus the last ep from last season] in about 4 days.

I always look on TV.com to see if the ep is a "to be continued" one or just a loose ep
I don't like to wait another week [or even more] to see how the story ends...
And now you must be wondering how I can keep up with animes like Bleach and Naruto :P
Let's just say they're tradition and their download days are written deep into my system :)

Anything else?
No... no... I don't think so...
Besides, it's 1AM and I'm typing this on my laptop in bed...
Better go to sleep...

oyasumi nasai

P.S.
CHECK my current favourite song