End of 2012; Uta de Aitai

So today is the end isn't it? What are great year it has been, and I'm forever hopeful of whatever comes next...

But this post isn't going to be a general "year end" post. No, it's going to be about the huge musical event that happened on the NHK General channel in Japan before the next year.

This event is the Kouhaku Uta Gassen 2012.

And it was spectacular.


[post to be edited, sorry I must recompile my images and texts]

Razr sharp new phone (plus a Korean)

So today I was finally able to decide on a new phone.

Completely out of the blue when I went shopping with my father, so it might've been an impulsive choice, but it has so far panned out to be good.

The only problem I have with this not-so-sharp new phone is the fact that the only active developer community is in China. The language barrier is a pain... but maybe I'll just stick with stock stuff for now.


Oh and we also got a clone of my bro's phone for fun. It was cheap so now we can do some extra stuff with it if we wanted too.


Also, New Year's Eve... in Japan. That means the next post will be about a certain huge musical event that I will definitely be losing sleep over.

366 days later...

And now this blog is one year old! Hooray!

So... this post will probably a quick recap or the blog history.

• Cirno.
• Lack of Touhou, I'm sorry I did mention it but I somehow got disinterested in the current Touhou franchise.
• A bit of Vocaloid.
• Tons of Idolm@ster for a period of time, especially when I got into the mobage and all the live events.
• Random anime posts that were not exactly very informative since I tried to avoid spoilers by masking them.
• A few "buy" posts where I hinted at what I got without anything explicitly stated (most of the time).
• Recent Momoiro Clover post hinting at the future of this blog.

Some interesting stats included:

• The 366 blog posts published not including this one because apparently 2012 was a leap year. I completely forgot about it until now.

• Top tag was "idolmaster" at 146 posts.
• Second top was unsurprisingly the "late" tag. This tag was there to show that I went back in time to post that post. Apparently almost 1/3 of the content was late. Late by 2 days 17 times. Late by 3 days 6 times. Late by 4 days twice.
• Third was the "nico" tag with 81 posts. Some earlier posts did not include this so it's slightly higher. This tag was a general tag to indicate a nico video in the post. Most of them were Idolm@ster-related of course.
• Fourth and fifth were "anime" and "school" at 67 and 42 respectively. Seems like I still complain talk about school quite a bit, though of course anime is moderately higher.
• Then a whole bunch of random stuff with 21 or less posts.

• The top most viewed post according to Blogger's horribly inaccurate view count is the "Namassuka Special 01 Cover Songs announced" post. One of the first "informative" posts that I was meaning to follow up on, but ended up being lazy.

So what about the future? I'll probably continue this blog in a pseudo-daily fashion as usual with my "late" posts and all the random stuff.

I'll continue to edit this with more if I'm not lazy.

Farewell Heroes of Flonyard

Today was the day my brother and I finally finished up Dog Days' (aka. Dog Days 2).

With only about 4 episodes left, we put this fun and relaxing series on hold since a while back. Perhaps it was just one of those shows where every episode puts a grin on your face, but lacks any juicy substance to make you need to watch every episode weekly.

The episodes went by in a flash. First up is the end of one big day of the whole festival tournament between the 3 kingdoms called the "Union Fest". Then we got some beach and body-switching.
Then came some fun times with Cou, Rico and Noir in the Cou's library dungeon. Hooray for the "Demon" Rebecca. Oh and it came with a final concert by none other than Milhiore.
And finally the last episode with the final get together and farewells, as well as a little bit of human world bonding between Rebecca and Sink (Or Cinque? Sink still sounds weird).


The reason we started to watch? Because I happened to see "Presenter" (the first season ED) in the karaoke place yesterday and that reminded about this series. I'll certainly miss the music and all the fun characters.

I heard there was a third season confirmed so that's great! Perhaps there will be even more heroes or more kingdoms. Or maybe it'll just be another fun relaxing yet intense time in Flonyard.

Noodles and Karaoke

Today was a fun day of noodling eating and karaoke!

First, I met up with some old friends, of which I haven't seen many of them for almost 2 years! Then we ate noodles and chatted about random stuff.

Then we had some karaoke fun. This was probably the second time I've been to these karaoke places since I've always thought it was expensive, and the lack of many Japanese songs was quite bad. However, this place changed my mind since it was only mildly expensive (15 for 2 hours?) and the song selection, including the Japanese songs, was quite big. However, it was a pain to find the songs I wanted since the paper catalogue did not correlate well with the machine. Also, some songs was listed under a silly "Japanese Singer" or "English Singer" artist name that blankets way too many songs to efficiently search. I did spend a lot of time looking for songs. Sadly, with only 2 hours we didn't get to do at least 15 songs.

However, the fun was there as my friends were actually a bit crazy in terms of singing. There were almost constantly at least 2 people singing no matter what the song. And some screaming and yelling. And some awkward songs that no one can sing due to lack of furigana etc.

Next time I'll be sure to find those Momoiro Clover and Idolm@ster songs. Perhaps I'll even throw in a silly AKB48 song just for fun.

Boxing Day Upgrades 2012 Edition

Well today was certainly fruitful for a boxing day...

However, it was not quite a success from the usual source of new stuff since I actually did not buy any Boxing Day deals at all. I ended up deciding against getting a new phone today. Perhaps another day where I'll get a more "fun" phone to play around with.

Instead my dad upgraded, or rather built, a new computer out of some parts we already had. Quite a success and I hope to make good use of it for both school work (hooray for more CPU and RAM), as well as games.

Merry Momoiro CirnoM@S (Christmas 2012)

Indeed this title sums up all the fun of the year, plus the Christmas cheer!

I did not prepare much for this post at all, and was sidetracked by spending time at friend's and families places eating nice food and having a jolly good time.

Anyways, this post will somehow be edited to include pictures relevant to the title.

Starting up... Cirnomas!

Cirno comes bearing gifts! | Source

And also a ⑨ [snow]ball to the face! | Source

THE CHRiSTM@S is next!

Ranko-santa! | Source

And the lovely Makoto-santa! | Source

Miho-santa! | Source

All the cute S@NTAS! How nice Producer-san! | Source

And finally... MomoKuri, Momoiro Christmas! The very latest concert they just had this Christmas!

Little red-nose riding clovers?

Very interesting coats.

And the coats are off for more singing and dancing. 

And another outfit!

MomoClo-santas courtesy of Sushio | Source

Momoiro live pictures from natalie and Oricon.


I hope you all have/had a Merry Christmas!!

Till next year!

Merry Happy Birthday Yukiho~ Let it Snow

Yukiho in the snow, such a wonderful day.

Today is Yukiho Hagiwara's birthday! And also Christmas Eve!

There shouldn't be any shovelling for her to do today.

She is in the care of the great many friends she has from 765Pro.

May she continue to grow stronger and stronger as one very courageous person.


Merry Christmas Eve. And Happy Birthday to you Yukiho.


Enjoy this little BakaTest parody made by the guy who absolutely adores Yukiho and makes tons of these with Yukiho.

Nico

The End of a Chapter, The Start of New Worlds!

It's Finale time for Sword Art Online episode 25!

A pretty good episode indeed filled with lots and lots of people we haven't seen for almost half the series.

First it starts out hopeful and dramatic... then it comes with some crazy real life sword knife fight action that leads to the eventual victor. Then the heartfelt romantic reunion scene we've all been waiting for.

Then... time skipping! School days!

Drinking (oolong tea) in a bar! SAO meet up!

Then a little exposition on "The Seed" which was pretty interesting.

Almost finally... a little (or a lot of) dancing in the sky between siblings.

And finally a new, but old challenge has [re]appeared! And it glows!


The amount of exclamation points in this post are ridiculous. But it certainly captures some of the feelings I felt for this finale and the series as a whole. One of the subtlely big "!" moments was seeing Asuna in her ALO attire. Quite a treat for the eyes.

Dual Monitors Go!

So for a few days, I've tried out having an extra tiny monitor connected with PC along with my quite big monitor.

I have to say that it's working quite well, though I'm not exactly sure if it'll increase my productivity. I just put my chat and music program there so I don't have to alt-tab as often. The music program is especially nice since it has this little visualizer thing that is a pleasure to watch at the corner of my eyes. Though it is a little bit distracting.

Maybe later I'll grab a spare monitor that's quite a bit bigger. But for now, I'm liking this small one.

Little Busters 11 : The Test of Courage

Ghosts! Traps! And more!

This episode had the entire Little Busters team members (and member to be) on board.

We saw the three groups split up. Masato and Kengo in their muscle-bound sword slashing power; Rin, Komari and Kud in their Cat-Sweets-Dog combo; and we saw Kurugaya, Haruka and Riki with the most relaxed group filled with sarcasm and charisma.

4 talismans placed by Kyousuke. Many traps.


And ghosts! And a big thing flying through the whole school! Fun times for all, especially since Nishizono was able to lend a hand despite being called out at night.


Then it ends with a lovely reunion, plus a mysterious omen by the muscle sword's prolonged abscence.



Oh and today was the end of the world right? Feels normal.

Sweeping up Old Toys

So today I had the pleasure of cleaning up some old toys my brother and I had.

Or to be more precise, I helped to keep some of this old junk because of my natural hording abilities.

It's still an ongoing process for sure, but going through all these toys has been fun as well. Seeing them lets me remember all these old memories of playing with them. Some include stuff like real and fake Transformers or random toys of old cartoons. A majority also include a lot of cars and trucks from all those big companies.

One of the things we are planning on throwing away is an old broken Transformer-esque police truck. This truck has been with us for many years, but it's been in pretty bad shape after various incidents. Alas, we shall see it go soon, but I will still have fond memories of it. And a few pictures to help jog our memories later in the future.

We'll probably continue to clean up all these toys in the following days.


In the meantime, I'm waiting patiently for the end of the world. See you!

Save the Queen, Beat the King

In the latest episode of Sword Art Online (episode 24), we get to finally see the great reunion of lovers and child.

Then we get to see a disgusting act by the so-called "king".

Then we see a badass bringing justice.

Happy times! Plus a little throwback to the SAO days.


I was a little bit shocked by all the admin control stuff though... I mean Yui really is crazy, but the other guy using it? Strange.

Anyways, next episode should be filled with happiness and awe as the lovers reunite once again, plus we get to see what this "seed" is.


And I probably skipped a ton of episode in between this post and the last on Sword Art Online. We missed a lot of sibling bonding and drama plus a little tiny bit of cross-race alliances.

A new phone in my Palm

Well what strange thing to happen after all the phone shopping we did today.

As we search out for the best deal for my brother's new phone, I come home to find out that my dad got this little phone that's kind of like a little sister to my now-defunct tablet!

It's actually very responsive. However, it doesn't do the neat little web page sync with the tablet. Too bad.

Oh well now it's an old toy with a dead OS, but hopefully someone in the family will be able to use it. Or perhaps I'll just tinker around with it.

Baking and Kinecting

Today I went to a little baking party at a friend's house.

We baked cupcakes! And cookies!

All we did was add eggs and water. And a little bit of butter for the cookies. Although the icing and stuff on top of the cupcakes was a long job since they were all customized.

Then we did some random PS3 gaming. Fat Princess is actually pretty fun despite the camera issues with multiplayer. Then we did some Warhawk. Also fun, but only in multiplayer only (since that's the only mode I believe).

Then we got to try the Kinect! Just like Wii sports except with flailing arm and body movements.

Fun fun.

Twice the fun in the Borderlands

Borderlands 2!

Time to be late into the weapon loot bandit paradise of Borderlands. Except with more guns, new classes, and a new bad guy.

But there's also some mainstays... like Claptrap oh yes. Back with his slightly annoying but funny ways.

I hope I don't get too indulged with this game.

Old Gingerbread and Tasty Ice Cream

Today was a day full of fun and frustration as I made my old smartphone into an Android. Now it's some good Gingerbread, but it's super slow and lots of random app crashes happen. However, if it runs fine for at least 75% of the time I can finally bring around an Android phone! Even if it is slow, it's still quite powerful because of all the apps I can get.

Yesterday was when I upgrade my tablet into the lovely Ice Cream Sandwich. I should really experiment on it some more.

Then I come to find blue screens on my laptop... I wonder why? Was it tired of all the Android devices I kept loading up?

Winter Break 2012 Start!

School is over! Exams are over!

And what do I do?

Help my brother find a new phone. A much better phone than the one he has currently. Too bad I'm not getting any Android.

And then I had fun installing Ice Cream Sandwich on this tablet we had. Good stuff, even though it is a bit glitchy at first.

I guess I'll make do with the tablet while my bro gets a better phone.


Off to play some games and have fun for the winter!

Fall 2012 Final Exam Time 2 : Electronics

And this was the actual Final Final Exam.

Harder than I expected for some parts, considering it asked us about some things that we never got tested on before. Having 16 written questions was quite intimidating, but it surprisingly didn't take the whole 3 hours.

Now to hope for the best and have fun for the winter break!

And also be productive... somehow.

Early Christmas Party and Birthdays

Today is a break from the 2 Momoiro Clover posts I made.

Instead it's just about a fun time with my friends in this really weird triple birthday party with an added Christmas secret present exchange thing.

Fun times to be had indeed as the presents given were mostly great and clever. What I got was really good as it included some awesome crafts work that miniaturized the laptop I use at school and all the "accessories" that come with it like a bag (from a certain big box store!) and wired mouse. All this in the strangest packaging I've seen. Also came with a Swiss army knife of sorts.

Another thing was this other present which included a manga about a salary man turned manga artist plus a pillow from a certain popular anime that currently has movie showings all around the States (but not Canada... yet).

Fun times indeed. Thanks to all of them.

The Beginnings of a Momoiro Clover Fan 2

So yesterday I started a post explaining the small and slow beginnings of my growing interest in the idol group "Momoiro Clover Z". Today will be the post where I explain how I really got into them these past few days.

Akarin! Aarin! Momoka! Kanako↑! Shiorin! Renichan!

Introduction

Walking through

These past few days were what I would call the true beginning of my long journey into MomoClo fandom. How did I start? By simple checking the Wikipedia article for a bit and then getting their first (and only) album "Battle and Romance".

Down the MomoClo tunnel I go.

This album greeted me with something both expected and unexpected. The first track "Z Densetsu Owarinaki Kakumei" was like something straight out of a Super Sentai show, or at least it felt like it. With a typical Super Sentai announcer guy plus all those colour statements.

"RED" "YELLOW" "PINK" "GREEN" "PURPLE"... "BLUE" (ah...)

Then I blasted through the whole album and was still on the edge whether or not these girls were that great. Most of these songs were quite random with moments of rap interspersed with somewhat more tame choruses. "Kimi no Ato" stood out to me as the one song that didn't quite fit with the rest of the songs, but I thought it was a nice change of pace after all this crazy.

The problem with going through all these songs like this was that it was a bit too much to handle so none really stuck as much as the first track. However, after finishing up the first disk, I went straight for the solo disk with the 6 girls. Only two stood out to me: Akari's "fall into me" and Reni's "Koi wa Abare Ondekoza". Akari's was because of how strong her vocals were and how different her sound was compared to the others. Reni's was because of the enka-style singing and music.

Then I went out to seek more information on these girls all over the web starting from some forums and going from there. By starting at the beginning, I felt like I could follow the work in order and learn about them as they grew.

One of the first things I had to find out more about was Akari Hayami and how much of a difference it made when she left Momoiro Clover. And that's the reason why I was bouncing back between Momoiro Clover and Momoiro Clover Z, since they are the same yet quite different without Akari. The "Z" was added to the name after she left and they kind of shifted their image. Plus I found out all their songs in the "Battle and Romance" did not include her, as they went so far as to rerecord the tracks she was in originally. So I had to seek out the originals to hear her.

After I wandered around carelessly listening to some random live videos on youtube, I decided to start from the beginning. I went through the first few PVs on Youtube officially uploaded by Star Dust Digital. First up was their debut single "Momoiro Punch" (PV here) and "Mirai e Susume" (PV here). I could feel that there was something a bit different about these first two, but I didn't realize until a bit later that it was probably due to the style of the instruments and the fact that their were barely any of the solos that really defined the individuals.

Then I came across the next in line : "Ikuze! Kaitou Shoujo".


The image at the top of this post is one of the covers for this single.

Now this was closer to what I'd expect from MomoClo. And this was also the first song where I could really feel the difference between Pre-Z and Z MomoClo. The part that stood out to me was the fast talking by the husky (or something) voice of Akari, a voice completely different from everyone else. Then the song went on with some solo parts which was really good since I was still learning everyone's names and voices at this point (I had been referring to them by colour before all this). But interspersed between all that was what I'd say would be the most memorable part of this song for me: Akari's "Neraiuchi" as she points and shots the camera. Her voice just blew me away again and I could not imagine this song without her anymore. So much so that I'm kind of avoiding the Z Ikuze at the moment.

After that song was a song that sounded strangely familiar to me. The song was "Hashire" and it was one of those songs I found in a live video. Although a bit generic sounding it was just the type of song that would get stuck in my head and put a smile on my face.


This is one long post right now and I'm really getting tired. I'll continue on tomorrow if I'm not stuck studying for my final final exam.

To be continued...

The Beginnings of a Momoiro Clover Fan 1

Today (and parts of yesterday) was the day I started to actually delve into Momoiro Clover Z's vast musical library. Little did I know that was in for a crazy ride.

This post will be a brief history of how I very recently got engulfed in the great fires of fandom of Momoiro Clover Z (shortened to MomoClo in this pos).

Momoiro Clover Z plus Idolm@ster style? Awesome. | Source

 Prologue

I actually first knew about MomoClo for about a year and a half already. I started with a random song I found on youtube called "Kono Uta" (I'll put embed videos after my long blocks of text). Or was is that one Pokemon song? I'm not quite sure but they were probably my first dip into the world of MomoClo. I thought the songs were catchy and the PVs (or MVs?) were quite nice. I especially like the whole Super Sentai styled colour schemes going on. After this little taste of MomoClo, I decided that they were a pretty neat group, but I guess I was a bit too intimidated by these so-called "Idol" groups with large amounts of singles and albums. It was "too much" for me even though these girls' numbers don't even compared to the biggies like AKB48 or Morning Musume. So I set them aside for another day, hoping to one day come back.

Kono Uta PV

The next encounter with MomoClo was a very neat "ah ha!" moment for me. It was during my viewing of Mouretsu Space Pirates opening and ending. I was absolutely blown away by such a great opening theme that I wondered right away who sung it. Turns out it was Momoiro Clover Z! A familiar yet unfamiliar name to me at that moment in time. They also sung the pretty nice though not quite as great ending theme as well. At this time I was dead set on acquiring the single... after I had finished the series. I didn't want the greatness to wear off and I wanted to listen to that song every single episode! But as fate (and laziness) would have it, I put the series on hold for a long period of time, having only watched the first episode for probably 3 or 4 seasons.

Moretsu Uchu Kokyokyoku Dai 7 Gakusho 'Mugen no Ai', the opening of Mouretsu Uchuu Kyodai (Bodacious Space Pirates)

Then came the past summer. I had time and my brother who I usually watched with was also quite free. So I went and got a whole bunch of episodes because "WhyNot?" (forgive the silly pun). The opening was still as fresh and great as ever and my interest was still high for MomoClo. Still I was reluctant to walk down the path of real idoldom, partly because of my large interest in Idolm@ster at the time (though I still am). Then as we watched through a few arcs we stopped right at the end of the Golden Ship arc, which landed on episode 13. Why did we stop? Perhaps it was due to more laziness to continue. Or maybe it was because we wanted to savour "high point" and not wring out all the goodness of the series too early. Or maybe it was just because the last episode wasn't released by that particular fansubber yet so we couldn't properly marathon to the end if we wanted to.

So that was it... we stopped halfway and it's been on hold ever since. I still hadn't gotten around to getting my hands on that great song. I still hadn't gotten around to giving MomoClo a proper listening.

Until today/yesterday that is...


To be continued....

129%

Before the Advent of Cirno.

The final Cirno Day of the year 2012 has arrived...

And it's in the midst of December of course. Winter has come!


The image over her is actually the cover for the prequel of the Advent Cirno series by Yoshitaka Ushiki. I felt that this image would be appropriate not only because of Advent season, but also having Letty be there for winter. It may seem a little sad, but it's all happy since Letty is here for Cirno and she gets stronger and stronger.


Check this link out for more of Ushiki's illustrations.

And that ends the final % post of this year. Cirno is still the strongest!

Little Busters 10 : Book and Parasol

Today I was able to catch the latest episode of Little Busters almost right away.

This episode was all about Nishizono-san and how Riki befriends her. She seems to have quite a particular view of the world and seems to be a bit out there sometimes. Though in the end you can tell that she really does pay attention to all the things around her, especially those that she would seemingly try to ignore. With the kind help of Yui-chan Kurugaya-san plus the strong word from Riki, they were able to reach out to her and now she can join the Little Busters, albeit on the sidelines for now.

Now the Little Busters seems to have a full roster... but next episode is the time for... being scared?

Fall 2012 Final Exam Time 1 : Programming

Well, today I just had the first of two final exams for the term. It was quite a bit harder than I expected in some parts, but also very easy in the written. Time to slack off while studying for the next exam which I heard is very tough. At least this time I'll be able to catch up on more sleep while doing other stuff.

Also, even though this is a second year programming course, it's barely more difficult than the first year stuff. In fact, I'd say one of my first year courses was harder than this.

Little Busters 9 : Jelly to the Rescue!

Due to my internet being wonky (and procrastination as usual), the post is "late" but I'm not going to mark it as such.

So today I had a chance to catch up on Little Busters.

Jelly.

So the episode seemed to me like a big plot point wrapped around a pretty silly situation. The situation itself seemed silly, but the objectives and outcomes were all really good. Rin finally gets to get out of her shy shell when times of crisis.

This crisis? Save the Cafeteria! Or... "Cook Dinner for All!". With the awesome help of Little Busters, they were able to do it. The food they cooked all seemed simple yet tasty indeed. How I'd like to eat a curry, jelly, omelette, jelly, fried shrimp, jelly, and lettuce combo with miso soup (and jelly) on the side. With some more jelly.

And then... it hits Riki again. I wonder why? Mission complete?


Anyways, next episode seems to have more Nishizono. Will she join the Little Busters? Or will it be just a slightly more in-depth intro?

UNIQLO WAKE UP - Alarm with Yoko Kanno

http://www.uniqlo.com/wakeup/en/pc/


UNIQLO never ceases to amaze me with their weird little screensaver app stuff. This time around instead of a constantly changing clock, they did an alarm clock app for the iPhone and Android along with a download for PC from before. The even better thing about this is the fact that Yoko Kanno helped composed the music for this along with Cornelius (Keigo Oyamada). Pretty big names to have there for a simple, but beautiful little alarm clock app.

Perhaps the minimalist design is getting to me because of all these design courses I'm taking. Or maybe it's the really nice way the announcer sings the weather to you. This really makes me want a proper Android phone now.

End to a Prototype [2]

Well today was quite uneventful indeed.

All I pretty much did was finish up this game from a company that has sadly been downsized to almost nothing. It was a Prototype of sorts, except that it was the second in the series. Although there were some features that expanded and improved on the first game, it still felt lacking, especially the combat and the ending boss fight.

"What do we do now?"

"The End"

Absolutely unsatisfied with the ending. Also, the "completion" percentage misled me into thinking the game was longer. Stuck at 74% and I'll most likely not go back to finish 100%.

Fall 2012 Final Days 5 - Spatial Design - COMPLETE

Post-Seattle Spatial Design - Week 4 Complete!

Which means... it's all over! Classes are now done and especially this crazy class with lots of thinking and work. Although I'm disappointed with the final results that our group (or me) delivered today, I still really liked this class. I learned quite a lot of things not just about spatial design, but also design in general. Thank goodness for the awesome group members especially during Seattle. I just hope that I can remember all of this and apply it to my future works.

Also, this class caused a revival of interest for a certain 3D rendering/animation/creation software. If only I could have used it to its Maximum potential.


And now I should go sleep. Being up for more than 30+ hours is really taking its toll.

Fall 2012 Final Days 4 - Fish

Just in time!

Today was crazy work on 2 projects, one of which is a silly fish fish fish eating game.

The other is that huge Spatial Architectural project doing tons of renders... I really suck at interior design...

All nighter here I come!

Fall 2012 Final Days 3 - Interlude

So called interlude because it's between two due dates for projects.

Although I did still work on the huge project for Monday by rendering.

This short break is really short indeed. Got to prep up for no sleep tomorrow.