V is for visuals
Today's post was brought to you by the letter V (also for "verbose") and the number 1972, which is how many words this post is.
Also, Sailor V.
Say it in Japanese. Now say c'est la vie in Japanese.
Is your wind blown? (goodness, I hope not).
(But what should blow your mind is that apparently there is new evidencec that T-rex may have been a scavenger! WHUT).
Speaking of linguistics (is that what we were doing?), what are some good English words? My current thrill is turning any and every word into a verb, but I need a good stock of cool English words, because, would you believe, this conversation actually comes up pretty often here, and all of my favourite English words are inappropriately old-fashioned, like "fantabulous" and "dandy" and "pernickety".
Yesterday I said my favourite word (currently) was "nefarious". Try explaining that one.
My favourite Japanese word, by default, is ふわふわ (fuwafuwa), "fluffy". Fun to say and a nice meaning; a word I use rather often (well, it can describe the hats around at the moment, the bread in Japan, my lolita skirt+pannier, kitties, and Nobu's backpack - what more could you want in an adjective?).
Oh, I forgot about "superfluous", which is actually a very popular favourite word.
Anywho, back to the theme - with a meme~!
In light of sticking to "visuals", today's list is...
☆ Makura no Soshi meme ☆
Things that lose by being depicted in a painting
(I am interpreting this as also in photos)
(Maybe this is ironic, considering I am going to post a bunch of photos further down).
♕ Distance; sweeping landscapes from a high place, tall buildings, long corridors...
♕ Sunsets. There are some beautiful paintings of sunsets, and some lovely photos, but it will never be the same as having the sky stretch over you, darkness on one horizon, gold on the other, the changing scene as the minutes slowly pass.
♕ kouyou (the changing colour of leaves in Japan)
♕ unphotogenic people (i.e. Cake)
♕ dance
♕ fireworks
♕ concerts
♕ macro photos of drops of water on anything, but especially any sort of flora or feathers or falling into more water. We get it, you have a lens that can photograph small things. Pick new subject-matter already.
The full list of lists (along with the introduction) is in this post.
And of course, you can see my other lists in previous posts. Others who have taken up the meme include patternsofchaos (I especially like her things that arouse a fond memory of the past), chisathechi (with a drawn version!!!) and nekolalia (who has a lovely things that are unpleasant to see, which I'm re-posting here, since her entry is locked.
Things that are unpleasant to see
* Children in distress or being treated cruelly (the same applies to animals)
* Good food that has been left to go off
* People who are inelegant trying to look sophisticated
* Bad teachers, who make their pupils hate the very thought of learning
* A tree being cut down
* A house which is so immaculate that you know nobody could possibly feel comfortable in it, least of all its owners
* Musical instruments being used as decoration
* Rain, when you were looking forward to going to the beach
* Sun, when you wanted to drink hot chocolate by the fire
* Someone involved in an activity they once loved but for which they have lost their passion.
Anyone else?
I hear that there intarwabs is viral like a flu named after an animal; I really want a 1000-year-old-meme from Heian Japan to catch on, so go to, minions~!
Speaking of photos,
This was today.
Inspired by the bird on the wire (of which I have a close-up), but it's been surpassed by the magnificent sky.
This was yesterday.
For some reason Shin-chan gets really fussy about the appropriate focus, so actually, this was really difficult to capture. Cake risked her lifehand for this photo.
I still don't know (a) what these spiders are called, (b) whether or not they are poisonous.
And this was the day before that.
Taken not for the novelty of the squid, but to illustrate how cheap seafood/fish is here, and how readily available it is in the supermarket. That's ￥300 (the same price as Sucky, OH HO *shot*) for two. That's, like, $3.50 or some such. You don't want to know how much I paid for my salmon. (Which, by the way, I experimentally turned into a delicious miso soup!)
And here's a completely amazing photo by one of my favourite photographers, Katie Sokoler:
guess what's in her camera bag?
（。・ω・。）
Spoiler:
Moo chooses the best places to hang out （*＾ω＾*）♥ I firmly believe this was of his own volition - I doubt Color Me Katie ever has to pose Moo herself. Moo likes to sleep in salad bowls, on top of doors, on people's heads...
And look! Visuals that move! We in the know, call this an animation. Probably people not in the know call it that too. We'll have to go back to before the 1860's (according to About.com - I sure know how to pick my credible, academic sources) to ask people I guess?
Don't be fooled by my frivolity, this is actually one of the most beautiful animations I can remember seeing. It's three minutes of amazingness.
Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.
(sorry if the embed doesn't work, I'm not sure why. Just click the link, yo).
We may not be able to go back to the 1860's, but we can see an awesome (I am running out of adjectives!) video of what people in Hollywood in the 1930's imagined the 1980's to be like.
Welcome, to the world of tomorrow~!
That's just really cool, watch it being really cool.
What makes me laugh is that it kind of reminds me of what Hollywood in the 1980's thought 2019 would be like (I really should just watch Bladerunner one of these days...).
I'm kind of glad they thought the future would be like that, and not, say, full of lolcats and people informing everyone they know / the infinite void of electrons that do not care, what they had for breakfast and every mundane detail between then and lunch. On the other hand, we have a giant particle accelerator that people thought had the potential to create mini blackholes and suck the universe into oblivion (um, it didn't), as well as actual jetpacks (that are currently very difficult to steer) and voices in our cars that tell us how to navigate, so we're doing pretty well.
Also, girls explaining infinite series (maths!) with camels, circles and Mr. Tusks (!!!)
Also, look,animated data!
Graphs are so much cooler when they move and you can see the person explaining them through the graph.
Hans Rosling helps us visualize the progression of mortality/wealth from 1810-2009
He is so optimistic. It would be irritating, but optimism with a British accent has its own kind of charm. *sigh* I miss Shelley. I wish I hadn't finished Scary Go Round, but it's not eating my life anymore probably for the best.
withdrawlswithdrawlswithdrawls
Next!
I've been waiting for a chance to introduce Golden Bomber for a couple of weeks now, and this looks like an opportune moment!
My friend Ryouko-chan is a huge fangirl for Golden Bomber, a bouncy VK band (oshare-kei? Do people use that term? What do we call AnCaf?). I heard her sing 女々しくて(Memeshikute) a couple of times at karaoke, and I have to admit it was pretty catchy. It also has its own dance, which is cute.
I didn't even cotton on that if all the band members are doing the dance, who is playing the instruments??? until Ryo-chan told me that Golden Bomber don't actually play their own instruments, just sing and dance.
LFMAO XDDD
Truly "visual kei".
They are such a RETARDED bunch of DORKS that I can't help but love them, if only for keeping the true spirit of jrock alive (i.e. being a retarded dork).
In the end I'm not really into most of their music apart from Memeshikute,
but I will live them forever for creating an hour-long boys-love parody movie
♥
It.
Just.
I laughed for the whole hour.
Was my favourite part the lifeguard doing his workout swim in what was obviously about a metre of water and then sitting on the shore puffing? Or was it the injuries so obviously drawn on in lipstick which then washed off in the next rain scene? Maybe they way the lip synch actually got worse as the film progressed?
I think, really, it was probably the Major Plot Twist near the end, which I do not want to give away. I had to hit pause and die on my bed for a full minute.
I have absoultely no idea what their motive to make this movie was, or to create the band to begin with, really (what a concept, IDK), but they obviously enjoy making fools out of themselves in the name of entertainment, and really, who is going to complain about four pretty guys acting as gay as possible. Or dressing up as Astro Boy and riding half-way across Tokyo riding on a skateboard. On their stomach.
The Golden Bomber Movie
Sixty minutes of your life you will never get back.
(It's Japanese only, but you don't *really* need to know what they're saying to understand. Just note that what's-his-name the blonde main chara obsesses about the mouth-to-mouth, his friend has a fight with his own boyfriend, and that as far as I could tell, there was no conceivable reason for the yanki kids).
Argh, this post is taking too long. Like, hours long. How is this so?
Into the saved draft it goes~~
Tadaima~! Um, so it's two days later. I was resizing all my Kobe Illumiari photos for you, but they shall go in the next post! Stay tuned! Don't change the channel!
Other pretty things....
hmm...
Japan has more eye-candy than Perth (well, most places do *SHOT*).
I sure will miss being surrounded by ikemen, ha ha （*＾艸＾*）
Well, "surrounded" is a bit of a strong word, but stil, when you sit at a table with Nobu-kun and Toshiki-kun it feels that way f^__~;;;
It's weird being on the other side of the Kinsey scale though （ﾟ__ﾟ;） Haven't been on this side for ages; I'm into the deep voices and everything (but my love for pretty boys persists~~ (─▽─)). What a shame, too, because all the girls in Japan are cute~~!.
Ha ha, that said I really like the girl in the post office near my house >__<;;; I only go in there once or twice a month, lol. She has such a cute voice too. I want to be friends, ha ha ha >ω<;;;;
Anywho, long post is long, so...
Let's finish with one more video～～♫
Oh, boor little bunnikinses
(；∩；）♥
P.S.
BTW Francis The Pansy has, like, a bajillion flowers (by which I mean at least ten) - I didn't know such a small plant could support so many blooms *happyface*
ε=┏( ・_・)┛
Also, Sailor V.
Say it in Japanese. Now say c'est la vie in Japanese.
Is your wind blown? (goodness, I hope not).
(But what should blow your mind is that apparently there is new evidencec that T-rex may have been a scavenger! WHUT).
Speaking of linguistics (is that what we were doing?), what are some good English words? My current thrill is turning any and every word into a verb, but I need a good stock of cool English words, because, would you believe, this conversation actually comes up pretty often here, and all of my favourite English words are inappropriately old-fashioned, like "fantabulous" and "dandy" and "pernickety".
Yesterday I said my favourite word (currently) was "nefarious". Try explaining that one.
My favourite Japanese word, by default, is ふわふわ (fuwafuwa), "fluffy". Fun to say and a nice meaning; a word I use rather often (well, it can describe the hats around at the moment, the bread in Japan, my lolita skirt+pannier, kitties, and Nobu's backpack - what more could you want in an adjective?).
Oh, I forgot about "superfluous", which is actually a very popular favourite word.
Anywho, back to the theme - with a meme~!
In light of sticking to "visuals", today's list is...
☆ Makura no Soshi meme ☆
Things that lose by being depicted in a painting
(I am interpreting this as also in photos)
(Maybe this is ironic, considering I am going to post a bunch of photos further down).
♕ Distance; sweeping landscapes from a high place, tall buildings, long corridors...
♕ Sunsets. There are some beautiful paintings of sunsets, and some lovely photos, but it will never be the same as having the sky stretch over you, darkness on one horizon, gold on the other, the changing scene as the minutes slowly pass.
♕ kouyou (the changing colour of leaves in Japan)
♕ unphotogenic people (i.e. Cake)
♕ dance
♕ fireworks
♕ concerts
♕ macro photos of drops of water on anything, but especially any sort of flora or feathers or falling into more water. We get it, you have a lens that can photograph small things. Pick new subject-matter already.
The full list of lists (along with the introduction) is in this post.
And of course, you can see my other lists in previous posts. Others who have taken up the meme include patternsofchaos (I especially like her things that arouse a fond memory of the past), chisathechi (with a drawn version!!!) and nekolalia (who has a lovely things that are unpleasant to see, which I'm re-posting here, since her entry is locked.
Things that are unpleasant to see
* Children in distress or being treated cruelly (the same applies to animals)
* Good food that has been left to go off
* People who are inelegant trying to look sophisticated
* Bad teachers, who make their pupils hate the very thought of learning
* A tree being cut down
* A house which is so immaculate that you know nobody could possibly feel comfortable in it, least of all its owners
* Musical instruments being used as decoration
* Rain, when you were looking forward to going to the beach
* Sun, when you wanted to drink hot chocolate by the fire
* Someone involved in an activity they once loved but for which they have lost their passion.
Anyone else?
I hear that there intarwabs is viral like a flu named after an animal; I really want a 1000-year-old-meme from Heian Japan to catch on, so go to, minions~!
Speaking of photos,
This was today.
Inspired by the bird on the wire (of which I have a close-up), but it's been surpassed by the magnificent sky.
This was yesterday.
For some reason Shin-chan gets really fussy about the appropriate focus, so actually, this was really difficult to capture. Cake risked her lifehand for this photo.
I still don't know (a) what these spiders are called, (b) whether or not they are poisonous.
And this was the day before that.
Taken not for the novelty of the squid, but to illustrate how cheap seafood/fish is here, and how readily available it is in the supermarket. That's ￥300 (the same price as Sucky, OH HO *shot*) for two. That's, like, $3.50 or some such. You don't want to know how much I paid for my salmon. (Which, by the way, I experimentally turned into a delicious miso soup!)
And here's a completely amazing photo by one of my favourite photographers, Katie Sokoler:
guess what's in her camera bag?
（。・ω・。）
Spoiler:
Moo chooses the best places to hang out （*＾ω＾*）♥ I firmly believe this was of his own volition - I doubt Color Me Katie ever has to pose Moo herself. Moo likes to sleep in salad bowls, on top of doors, on people's heads...
And look! Visuals that move! We in the know, call this an animation. Probably people not in the know call it that too. We'll have to go back to before the 1860's (according to About.com - I sure know how to pick my credible, academic sources) to ask people I guess?
Don't be fooled by my frivolity, this is actually one of the most beautiful animations I can remember seeing. It's three minutes of amazingness.
Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.
(sorry if the embed doesn't work, I'm not sure why. Just click the link, yo).
We may not be able to go back to the 1860's, but we can see an awesome (I am running out of adjectives!) video of what people in Hollywood in the 1930's imagined the 1980's to be like.
Welcome, to the world of tomorrow~!
That's just really cool, watch it being really cool.
What makes me laugh is that it kind of reminds me of what Hollywood in the 1980's thought 2019 would be like (I really should just watch Bladerunner one of these days...).
I'm kind of glad they thought the future would be like that, and not, say, full of lolcats and people informing everyone they know / the infinite void of electrons that do not care, what they had for breakfast and every mundane detail between then and lunch. On the other hand, we have a giant particle accelerator that people thought had the potential to create mini blackholes and suck the universe into oblivion (um, it didn't), as well as actual jetpacks (that are currently very difficult to steer) and voices in our cars that tell us how to navigate, so we're doing pretty well.
Also, girls explaining infinite series (maths!) with camels, circles and Mr. Tusks (!!!)
Click to viewAlso, look,animated data!
Graphs are so much cooler when they move and you can see the person explaining them through the graph.
Hans Rosling helps us visualize the progression of mortality/wealth from 1810-2009
He is so optimistic. It would be irritating, but optimism with a British accent has its own kind of charm. *sigh* I miss Shelley. I wish I hadn't finished Scary Go Round, but it's not eating my life anymore probably for the best.
withdrawlswithdrawlswithdrawls
Next!
I've been waiting for a chance to introduce Golden Bomber for a couple of weeks now, and this looks like an opportune moment!
My friend Ryouko-chan is a huge fangirl for Golden Bomber, a bouncy VK band (oshare-kei? Do people use that term? What do we call AnCaf?). I heard her sing 女々しくて(Memeshikute) a couple of times at karaoke, and I have to admit it was pretty catchy. It also has its own dance, which is cute.
I didn't even cotton on that if all the band members are doing the dance, who is playing the instruments??? until Ryo-chan told me that Golden Bomber don't actually play their own instruments, just sing and dance.
LFMAO XDDD
Truly "visual kei".
They are such a RETARDED bunch of DORKS that I can't help but love them, if only for keeping the true spirit of jrock alive (i.e. being a retarded dork).
In the end I'm not really into most of their music apart from Memeshikute,
but I will live them forever for creating an hour-long boys-love parody movie
♥
It.
Just.
I laughed for the whole hour.
Was my favourite part the lifeguard doing his workout swim in what was obviously about a metre of water and then sitting on the shore puffing? Or was it the injuries so obviously drawn on in lipstick which then washed off in the next rain scene? Maybe they way the lip synch actually got worse as the film progressed?
I think, really, it was probably the Major Plot Twist near the end, which I do not want to give away. I had to hit pause and die on my bed for a full minute.
I have absoultely no idea what their motive to make this movie was, or to create the band to begin with, really (what a concept, IDK), but they obviously enjoy making fools out of themselves in the name of entertainment, and really, who is going to complain about four pretty guys acting as gay as possible. Or dressing up as Astro Boy and riding half-way across Tokyo riding on a skateboard. On their stomach.
The Golden Bomber Movie
Sixty minutes of your life you will never get back.
(It's Japanese only, but you don't *really* need to know what they're saying to understand. Just note that what's-his-name the blonde main chara obsesses about the mouth-to-mouth, his friend has a fight with his own boyfriend, and that as far as I could tell, there was no conceivable reason for the yanki kids).
Argh, this post is taking too long. Like, hours long. How is this so?
Into the saved draft it goes~~
Tadaima~! Um, so it's two days later. I was resizing all my Kobe Illumiari photos for you, but they shall go in the next post! Stay tuned! Don't change the channel!
Other pretty things....
hmm...
Japan has more eye-candy than Perth (well, most places do *SHOT*).
I sure will miss being surrounded by ikemen, ha ha （*＾艸＾*）
Well, "surrounded" is a bit of a strong word, but stil, when you sit at a table with Nobu-kun and Toshiki-kun it feels that way f^__~;;;
It's weird being on the other side of the Kinsey scale though （ﾟ__ﾟ;） Haven't been on this side for ages; I'm into the deep voices and everything (but my love for pretty boys persists~~ (─▽─)). What a shame, too, because all the girls in Japan are cute~~!.
Ha ha, that said I really like the girl in the post office near my house >__<;;; I only go in there once or twice a month, lol. She has such a cute voice too. I want to be friends, ha ha ha >ω<;;;;
Anywho, long post is long, so...
Let's finish with one more video～～♫
Oh, boor little bunnikinses
(；∩；）♥
P.S.
BTW Francis The Pansy has, like, a bajillion flowers (by which I mean at least ten) - I didn't know such a small plant could support so many blooms *happyface*
ε=┏( ・_・)┛