dracil

Lazy at blogging. Hmm, mainly just working on my project and watching some anime I guess. I'll probably give some review in a later entry.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

I think the combination of the afternoon sun shining through the window and the irritation from my hair gave me a headache.
Currently feeling uncomfortable

dracil

http://wiki.sos-dan.com/wiki/Template:Trivia

Wow. Quite a lot of stuff missed. In particular I like the references to Higurashi and that the ENOZ band is probably a homage to the ZONE band (which I listened to and sang at karoke before they disbanded)

Also like how their website actually has a lot of hidden stuff as well. When David was here, I remarked to him how it would be nice if anime with websites featured prominently in it had real websites that tried to pretend it was the actual site from the anime. Well, I guess the Haruhi site did.

(The other site I wanted to have a working official domain is jigokutsuushin.net from Jigoku Shoujo that really only works at midnight, preferably based on your computer's time)

Speaking of Jigoku Shoujo, that was a really good anime. Yeah, the episodes are mostly repetitive, but someone brought up a good point that that really is what life is to Jigoku Shoujo. And the revenge situations do actually make you think, and there are times where you really wonder if the request should be carried out. It's also interesting how many people don't think it's fair that the requester's soul will also go to Hell. Most likely, it's because sending someone to Hell is very hard to relate to, but a simple experiment can show why it's a very reasonable consequence. Just replace "sending the person to hell" with "murdering the person." Most people would balk at that idea for most of the situations in the anime, yet, sending someone to Hell for an eternity of suffering is a lot worse than killing them. Hence they too will go to Hell.

Jigoku Shoujo's also got some very nice music as well, and the last few episodes are good for the emotional impact. The mythology involved is interesting as well. But that's because I have a passing interest in Japanese mythology (and maybe all mythology in general). Some mythology's involved in the Touhou games, and I seriously liked the Hanafuda story and went off and read up about kitsune for several days afterwards.
Currently feeling thoughtful

dracil

Oh wow, there's an anime convention in SF this weekend. Too expensive though. I'll probably try for the one in Japan Town next month (what is this, attempt #5?). I'm probably also not going to bother getting people to go because if people were gonna go, then don't go, I won't feel like going either. The mentality is different I guess. In one case, I'm going for the social aspect, in the other, I'm going for myself.

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Been watching/reading NHK ni Youkoso! (Welcome to the NHK!) Just like Genshiken was about otakus, this anime is basically about hikikomoris (well one). Hikikomori is a term to describe the growing phenomenon in Japan (and spreading worldwide) where people will just isolate themselves in their room for months or years, avoiding all social contact when possible.

Often these people are also NEETs (Not engaged in Education, Employment, or Training), which is related to Freeters (people who are underemployed, going through a string of unsteady low-paid jobs), and twixters (a Western term describing the generation of young adults between 18-29 stuck between adolescence and adulthood)

You've probably seen hikikomoris in other places, like Jun from Rozen Maiden, or one of the guys in Densha Otoko.

Anyway, in this anime, there's a girl who seems to be trying to help him, and an otaku friend who's much more well-adjusted than he is. Genre-wise, I'd call it a comedic drama, but if you strip out the humor, it's a somewhat serious social commentary that also explores some of Japan's subculture, like otaku, lolicons, internet suicide, erogames. I think the author of the novel from which the anime was adapted from was originally a hikikomori himself as well, so the story's a little autobiographical.

The anime is actually somewhat censored compared to the manga/novel, e.g. they cut out the drugs, less focus on the lolicon aspect, etc.

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Those of you who've seen Suzumiya Haruhi and the ending parodies will be delighted to know that the person who did the Gundam ending parody has done a Gundam ending parody for this anime too!

Original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfFOfi83GwI
Parody: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbLDITqACVc

NHK ending to the tune of Haruhi ending. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxVadv71cac

Satou discovers porn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VfD8fkymQI
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I think I've bordered on becoming a hikikomori based primarily on my introverted nature. I do enjoy social contact (with people I know), so I never quite crossed that bridge. But I do know that I harbor a latent distrust of people and never really feel completely part of any group. People have remarked that I seem "cool" (the distant kind) too.
Currently feeling ambivalent

dracil

One of my professors wants me to be a TA for his class. Maybe I will.

Went to the park and basically stayed there for the entire day, mostly in the Botanical Garden. I really liked the moon-viewing garden when I went there with Sophia. I now also like the redwood trail. The moon-viewing garden is quieter since it's further away from the road, but there's too many people around. The redwood trail is the opposite. There are more squirrels at the moon-viewing garden though.

Also went around Stow Lake which I skipped when with David. Lots of ducks there, also has a nice reading place on the inner island, but the water seems pretty dirty, especially near the waterfall. Lots of trees that look like they'll eventually fall into the water after a few more decades that the ducks love.

I should go on a Sunday so there's much fewer cars.

Also tried out the Arizmendi Bakery Cooperative. Great atmosphere, food's decent while warm, but when it gets cold, everything becomes rock-solid. Will try out their pizza when it has something I like (works kinda like the Cheeseboard Collective in Berkeley so a single type of pizza a day and it changes daily)

Also found that Shakespeare Garden that Sophia and I couldn't find when we went there.

So yeah, I should go to the park more. Still haven't been to the Western half of the park yet (not sure I'd wanna walk all the way around the park though)

dracil

Random thought. If I ever cosplayed (not that I would), I should dress up as a tentacle monster.

Anime-style Charlie Brown. http://segal-higashi.livejournal.com/157303.html
Currently feeling amused

dracil

Only half day 'cause I couldn't force myself out of the house until about 1:30. Today's visit was mainly to see how the the No Cars on Sunday policy would change the atmosphere. As per the routine I'm slowly developing, I first walked through the park to Arizmendi Bakery to buy some lunch first before returning to the Botanical Garden to eat.

Since today was a Sunday, the north half of the park was car-free, but there were a ton of bikes. I also passed by a free outdoor swing class that takes place at 12:30 every Sunday.

The Botanical Garden also had a special event. The Golden Gate Park Band. They begin their performance at 1PM and last till about 2:30-2:45PM, so I only caught the tail end of it. I changed my plans of eating in the Redwood Trail and sat under a tree amongst a lot of other people spread out there to listen to them.

THEN I went to the Redwood Trail to sit and read manga. A lot of people were passing by today though, so it wasn't as peaceful as Friday. Despite the no feeding squirrel signs, most people feed them peanuts (I tossed a piece of leftover bread at one, but it sniffed it and ran away)

On the plus side, there were no sprinklers to dodge today.

I went the wrong way and ended up at the Waterfowl Pond while going back, so I decided I might as well stay and look at the ducks. I like it when they land in the water from flight. It just looks cool. One of the ducks that sat next to the pond trying to sleep was missing the top half of its beak. Wonder what happened to it.

A side observation: The 20oz soda inside Safeway is $0.43 cents more expensive than the vending machines right ouside.

No David, I'm still not scouting out dating areas for girls. While it *may* be useful for that in the future, my park visits are really for solitary time away from the chaos of the world (I guess I'm growing old), even if I do bring small bits of it there with me. If I had a cellphone, I definitely would not bring it with me for these visits.
Currently feeling relaxed

dracil

http://www.last.fm now has a Japanese version. Yay! Mine
http://figure.fm is for collectors of Japanese figurines and toys.
http://www.yelp.com for general reviews of businesses in the US. Mine
http://www.vox.com for the new blogging site by the people who made LiveJournal. I have invites that I will give to people that I know, and who promise to actually make use of it. Mine
Currently feeling okay

dracil

So yesterday my computer kept freezing. After some googling it seems like it might be some hard drive errors, so I run chkdsk, ok, found errors with the indices. Ok, fix it. But then I get more errors with the MFT. After about a dozen more repairs (which would randomly fix other files), I gave up and did more googling. Seems like the MFT stuff may just be incorrect reporting and not really do anything, so I wasted an hour fixing it (need to restart every time to do the fix)

The squirrels in the Botanical Garden have definitely been conditioned to respond to rustling of paper or plastic bags, and they'll come towards you expecting you to feed them. There's actually a walnut tree near the main entrance. You can pick them up off the ground and toss them at the squirrels.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Yesterday was demo day. Looks like the project's finally coming together. Just one week left!

We ate at Han Il Kwan after the meeting (based on yelp.com's ratings). Was a little pricey, but they had more than the usual side dishes than other similar restaurants, AND they actually cooked for you at the table (at least initially).

Off to the park again for today. Fridays are a really bad day to go because of the sprinklers twice in a row now. And since it was cloudy today, the wooden benches were wet.

Arizmendi's Bakery's mushroom+spinach+asiago cheese focaccia right out of the oven (around 3:30-4:00) is really good. Bought some extras for tomorrow. I think it's my favorite thing from there. I'm slowly figuring out the best path to take through the park here too. Used to take 40 minutes to an hour depending on whether I was taking scenic routes and getting lost. Now it's closer to around 30 minutes.

More squirrel observations:
Sometimes while digging for food, they become entangled with a twig and they'll grab and kick it like my cats used to do. The digging is sometimes to dig up places they stored their food (a behavior I'd forgotten about until I saw it today). I saw one hide an almond and later another squirrel came by and dug it out. That second squirrel's really aggressive (chases other squirrels away) and actually crawled on me looking for food. I also witnessed the first squirrel bark in a tree. It's actually a little like a bird call, but it has a harsher sound.

Currently feeling content

dracil

Oh crap. It's Comiket this weekend. I fear for my hard drive.
Currently feeling panicked

dracil

Between my project and downloading stuff, haven't really had time to do much else.
Currently feeling tired

dracil

Ok, some bird just smacked into the window to the computer lab and died.

I heard a sound, looked around, and there was a bird lying on the ground face up twitching. Then it was just the right leg, then its left leg, then its tail feathers, (somewhere during this its wings also folded up) and then it completely stopped moving.

I thought it may have just been unconscious so I went out to look and touched its feet with my shoes. No response. It has this weird purple growth on the left side of its head that I'd rather not probe but I'm guessing it's part of the reason the bird is dead. Either the bird was already dying from it and flew into the window at the right moment, or it altered its behavior (from irritation or brain damage?) so the impact from flying into the window caused enough physical brain damage to kill it within seconds.

Anyway, that was just bizarre.

O_o
Currently feeling bewildered

dracil

After much unanticipated delays we finally got to meet up in Downtown SF. We ended up just sitting in a restaurant where Michelle ordered some pizza and soda for a very late lunch. Caught up on each others lives a bit, but blogs have this problem of making it harder to talk about stuff that's been happening once you actually meet in person if people blog regularly and it's being read regularly as well. So we chatted for about an hour before we parted ways in the bart station as she needed a bit of travel time to get to her next visit.

Back to polishing up my project and bugfixing everyone's code as we complete the integration.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Not that I have any vacation since I still need to work.

Project demo went mostly fine. There was a small bug that was fixed by 3 lines of code after the demo.

We went to the park and rented a row boat afterwards and rowed around Stow Lake (saw turtles!). Then had a late lunch/early dinner at Pho Hoa Quoc.
Currently feeling satisfied

dracil

So this weekend has been lots of oversleeping and just playing games/watching anime. It's been cold, which means I just want to stay inside the blankets and not get out of bed.

Gaim was crashing a lot on me for the past week. I thought it was another problem with my computer, but it turns out it's Microsoft's fault.
Currently feeling sleepy

dracil

Much better. No more itchy forehead/irritated eyes from hair that's long enough to be irritating but not long enough to be kept behind the ears.

The barber thought I was still in high school, which would make me at least 6 years younger than I actually am. O_o

Half the people here on campus seem to be illiterate. A big friggin' sign on the door to the lab with the words "CLOSED" in big red letters, and people still just barge in.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Eh, so I'm TAing now. Doesn't really fit with my personality I think.

CSU lunch today. Three tables worth of people, and a good thing we weren't in the middle table, whose people ordered stuff that cost 2x more than the other tables. O_o
Currently feeling okay

dracil

A professor that actually recognizes and likes cognitive science (because of a cognitive scientist who helped him develop HCI software for blind people to work with math). Hmm, I feel extra pressure now.

Looks like my schedule this semester is going to be pretty whacked unfortunately.
Currently feeling meh