Why did I even try.

Song Story ds106


Back in 2002.
I was in 4th grade.

It is 2011.
I am 19.

My greatest and darkest history.


Back then, my friends and I were really into this girls group.
called モーニング娘。 (morning musume, morning girls)

((Thinking about it now,
they were like AKB.
But a little bit different.))

I really liked them.
I don't know why.

But we were little kids.
We envied these shiny girls.

Back then, we were always talking about them.

My mother knew how much I liked them.

One day, she brings me this letter
that says that I passed the paper screening of the audition
for kids group (called Hello Project) of MorningMusume.

One of my friends who sent her paper also passed.

So.

I went to the audition.

On the letter, it said that
there is going to be singing and dancing test.
And to wear something that is easy to move.

I knew what I wanted to sing.
It was one of the newest songs they released
and I liked it very much.

However, I didn't know what to wear.

My mother told me to wear something good-looking and cute.

BUT
it said "wear something that is easy to move".

For me,
good-looking (formal) + cute (skirt) = school uniform

My mother rejected my idea.

So, I decided to wear "something easy to move"
which was

my basketball uniform.

My mother rejected again.

But I was like "No no no!"
since I heard from my grandmother that audition = battle.

And there I was.
Among all other girls who are wearing
stage costumes of MorningMusume shrunken to their size,
really frilly skirts,
cool looking pants, ...

I was there,

with my basketball uniform that says
"Jaguars 7" on front and "Kino 7" on the back.

My friends were like ".....haha"

This was the song I sang for the singing test.

I think this is a great song.
I think this song cheers you up.

However, when I listen to this song.
I remember the loneliness at the really crowded place.
I remember the cold smile on my friend's face.

But I do not regret!

It was such a great experience.
I will never forget that day.

(｀=ω=´)ゞ

Japanese is always hard.

Translate Fail
ds106


I saw quite a few people doing this assignment
so I decided to do one too.

I type in:

あなたが社長です。
（anata ga shachou desu)

You are the president.



I took this phrase from a Japanese book I bought the other day.
It looks simple.

But:

Is your president.







It's not even a complete sentence.

I wonder how this worked out.
I think it's like
あなた　＝　your
が　＝　is
社長　＝ president

and it somehow turned out like that.


I found another interesting fail.
Which is this:

やくそく　＝　suk quickly
（yakusoku, promise)


This came through when I was thinking of another sentence.

Type it in kanji, and it works fine.

Maybe the problem was with the hiragana I worked with.
So I try some words in hiragana.

They work fine.

But

doesn't change.

I understand that GoogleTranslate works with patterns of grammar,
but I couldn't understand how this worked.

GoogleTranslate is surely interesting.


(｀=ω=´)ゞ

"ToGetHer" sounds so sweet.

Valentines Alternative ds106
















The assignment was to make a Valentines card
targeted toward a particular person (real or imaginary).


My first plan was to make a card with the word "ToGetHer".
just because it sounds really nice
and it was easy to memorize the spelling back in elementary school.

I used our good old friend, Paint.

I really like Paint, just because it is really simple and easy to use.
Although some people say it's one of those crappy software,
it's really useful once you really know how to use it.

So.

At the top of the card, it says "Together Forever"
since it has to be targeted towards someone.

 Staying together forever must be hard
 unless you really love that person...
 I envy some old grannies who looks happy together.

Then there's that symbol of heart.

Below that are two circular "stuff".
They are stuck together
forever
but they look happy because they love each other.

 My first plan was to draw human boy and girl,
 but I wanted to express in the simplest form as possible.
 I thought of using stick figures too,
 but it became too simple.

The bottom Japanese line says
あいらびゅ。 "airabyu"
Short way of writing "I love you" in ro-maji.

 I chose to write it in this way because
 I thought that writing "I love you" is too formal.
 Since the circular figures are not formal at all,
 I wanted to express their looseness in this last line.



(｀=ω=´)ノ　あいらびゅ。

I might have used more than 4 icons.

the 4 icon challenge ds106



Please say that I only used 4 icons.


This assignment was to take one movie
and represent that movie in 4 simple icons.

The thing is,
I couldn't think of any movie.

The first few movies that came in mind were
all disney movies.
But I couldn't come up with any idea for icons.

I wonder how many times I asked myself:

Are you really majoring in art?


The answer is,
unfortunately,
yes.

I lack idea.

So, I decided to think differently.
Not "art",
but "how to explain".

And I came up with our good old friend,
charades.

When you play charades,
you have to be able to "show" the word in some simple actions.
I somehow thought that charades and this assignment is similar where
you have to be able to "show" the movie in some simple icons.

I playback my memory...
back in middle school...
we played charades (in class, I don't remember why)..
I drew a card...
I read, "Matrix"

Everyone got it when I did the action for the 2nd icon,
but here it is.

I hope everyone understands. haha.


(｀=ω=´)ゞ

'malware' was a new word for me.

According to our friend Wikipedia, Malware is defined like this:

Malware, short for malicious software, consists of programming (code, scripts, active content, and other software) designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, gain unauthorized access to system resources, and other abusive behavior.

First, I am not a computer kind of person.
The first computer I used was WindowsME, from 2002.
Had no idea what Apple and Mac was until high school.
My first interaction with Mac computer: last year (2010).
(didn't even know how to turn that thing on.)

This class was the first time I heard of the term "malware".

Despite the definitions on the web,
I still had a question.

What is the difference between 'malware' and 'virus'?

So I went on google,
type in
'malware virus difference'

and here it is!
Someone had the same question!

The chosen best answer:

Malware is any piece of bad software, like viruses, worms, spyware and trojans. So malware and viruses are the same thing.

Very simple and short.
I really like it!
So, if I was to take notes, I would write it down like

    Malware
      - virus
      - worms
      - spyware
      - trojans

(is this correct?)
Since I have never heard of 'malware',
I have no idea what 'worms', spyware', and 'trojans' are.
Also, I only have stereotypical image of virus (like those on dramas and movies)
so I thought I need a clear definition.

So, I go on google again!
And I find this question:

What's the difference between a virus, worm, malware, spyware, and trojan?

There was a very long, but very well-detailed answer by this person called N Smith.
I wanted to post it up here,
but this blog was going to be really long, so I'll just put the URL.

After doing some research,
I was glad that a lot of people had the same question I had.
They may have heard of these words long before me,
but I was still relieved. haha.

Malware = evil.

Malware is just another dirty word. 

haha.



Question for final exam:
-  Malware, virus, trojan, worms, spyware are basically the same thing. (true/false)
-  "Malware" is short for
     (malnutrition, warehouse) (malicious, spyware) (malicious, software) (malaria, software)



(｀=ω=´)ﾉｼ

I hope I "Haiku it up"ed.

ds106      Haiku it up


boushi

 mom will get angry.

 I'm told not to buy them, but

 ...i love them so much. 

 

← some of my hats I wear in winter.

For some reason,

I LOVE hats.

I'm somewhat addicted to them.

I don't remember when this began,

but when I realized,

I was surrounded by hats.

While my friends check out the clothes that the mannequin is wearing,
I check the hat that the mannequin is wearing.

I collected so much of them
that my mother told me not to buy them anymore.
If I buy a new one, I have to toss one away.

((I know. She is so cruel.

The assignment was to take a simple dailyshoot assignment 
and use that as an inspiration.
Since hats are always around me, 
I thought this would be a good picture (for me).

Writing haiku in English was hard.
I remember doing something similar back in elementary school,
thought it was fun,
but somehow I feel it is very hard.

Maybe this is because I already learned ways to write haiku in Japanese.
I am used to the rhythm of Japanese haiku,
and some words in English changed that rhythm.

Japanese characters each have distinct syllables,
as for English, one word can have 2 or 3 syllables.

While rereading my haiku,
I was always feeling that something is not sounding right
in the first line.

The words I use in the second and third line 
each has one syllables.
But for the word 'angry' in the first line, it has 2.

(I hope this is making some sense)

Also,
What we call haiku must have some seasonal word in it.
i.e winter: ski, snow

I thought about this before writing this blog,
but after looking at other people's works, 
I decided to submit this haiku.

In Japanese, these writings with no seasonal words are called ' senryuu ' (川柳)

Senryuu are very interesting,
because since there are no rules of seasonal words,
it can be based about anything.

I feel like I am going off topic so I guess I should end here.

I had fun doing this assignment.
...I hope I did the right thing. haha.

(｀=ω=´)ﾉｼ

My friend's nickname was Timmyboy too.

His name was Timothy.
Everyone called him Tim.
My English teacher said he is still a kid.

He became Timmyboy.


Going back to topic.

Tim Owens (Timmyboy) talks about art, how people can all become artists.
Being in a 'creative' environment
can make people become more 'creative'.

Honestly, I think this is not true.

My maternal great-grandfather was a professional camera-man.
My maternal grandfather takes photos for his hobby, and is sending his photos to competitions.
My mother also takes photos for her hobby, and is sending her photos to competitions.

My paternal grandfather took photos for his hobby (didn't enter any competitions, but sold them)
My father was a police officer in the identification section, using his camera.

My brother loves his camera and was the camera person for the yearbook from middle school to high school.
I lived through my 19 years with these I-love-camera-and-photos people,
and yet I have no talent in taking pictures.

I live separately with my mother now,
so I usualy e-mail her whenever I find something interesting.
I take a picture of that object and send it to her via email.

my mother's reply:

あんた文章は上手いのに、写真はいまいちすぎる。
you are good at writing, but your photos don't look good at all.

Thank you, mom.
I knew that.
Thank you for reminding me.

If what Timmyboy said was true,
don't you think that I am one of the I-love-camera-and-photos people?

However, I agree with Timmyboy that ds106 will be a good environment to enjoy art.
There are a lot of genres that I have never thought of before.
It will be a good experience, and people can be called artists within that environment.

(｀=ω=´)ﾉｼ