Thursday, January 26, 2012

Uta☆Pri Music

utapri music natsuki episode 1 translated by breadmasterlee

Ok, thanks to Misaki-chan again, I’m stuck on my PSP, gaming like a boss lady~ My mother seems to have the idea that I’ve lost my mind since I’m always smiling to myself lately, but I digress…

“Uta☆Pri Music” has a lot of really catchy songs, and it kinda reminds me of DJ Max, only this feels much more complicated since you need to use one of any arrow keys on the left, then the X, Square, and Triangle on the right. What’s more, they used a music sheet layout, so it’s side scrolling instead of a continuous rain of notes like DJ Max.

Needless to say it fried my brain.

utapri music natsuki episode 1 translated by breadmasterlee

But my brain fought back~ Woohoo! I’ve unlocked all the songs after 4 days of gaming and I can do a few songs on Hard mode now too! Apparently, you need to get all the hearts in the character songs in order to get the “otome game”-like scenes like the one I'm posting here graciously translated by Bread Master Lee.

It kinda bribes the female gamers to try their best in the Pro levels because the scenes… Hnngh… Th-they’re voiced, and the voice actors… actually make kiss noises at you!

utapri music natsuki episode 1 translated by breadmasterlee

dsjfhslghdlfgd!!! Be still my heart! Natsuki, stop that! I’m supposed to like Hijirikawa, but after this game, I think you’ve won me over! But why are your songs so difficult to play?! Grawr~!

But I guess that will make the guys run away from this game for dear life now.

Sadly, it’s a Japanese game, so it’s challenging my Japanese language skills(?) which are poor at best, but I really don’t care! Their kisses voices and music are more than enough to make me play this game over and over again.

Oh yeah, Satsuki is never satisfied even if you get a perfect game. He apparently likes to call you a “stupid octopus”. sdkfsklgh!!! I will be a Pro Composer yet, just you wait, Satsuki!!!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Nutritional Diary 2012.01.18

lucky star icon - izumi konataSo, after 2 weeks of this whole “dieting / eating better + exercise because this is my new year’s resolution (again)” thing, how am I doing so far?

Well, the bad news is, I stayed up late for about 3 nights in a row. One of which was an all-nighter. Literally. No sleep for more than 48 hours can seriously make you crave the worse kinds of food. You can probably guess the guilt-trip I went into. I mean, 3 sodas, snacking, junk food, and a ton of coffee? I feared the weighing scale!

Surprisingly though, I lost 3 pounds from new year’s day. Mark it, people: 3. pounds.

Woohoo! I guess all this walking really does help! But of course, this doesn’t give me the excuse of eating a lot of junk food simply because I can walk it off! No, no, I really need to do better next time and try to get some proper sleep! And I still haven’t found a good jumping rope yet… I was going to get one last Sunday, but I ended up staying in because of work!

Oh well, in the meantime, I’m celebrating that 3 pound lose like a boss! I hope this will last for a while! I’m beginning to like walking up and down the stairs for the additional tone-up! But I guess, since I was quite athletic before, I need to up my training a little bit. I don’t think I’m sweating as much as I first did a few weeks ago… Ah, and more water, less coffee for me! Hope I can stick to my goals this week!

And to remind myself that I should take better care of me, I’m going to buy those yarns and start making that cosplay sweater. I’m not saying which cosplay this is for yet! But yeah… time to start~!

Monday, January 16, 2012

Uta☆Pri: Knocking on the Mind

I wanted to tell everyone my reason why I love Uta no ☆ Prince-sama ♪ very much. So I thought, why not make is a blog update, right?

Let me tell you a wonderful story about a boy and a girl…

When Haruka, the main character of UtaPri, was being bullied by her classmates in episode 3, she became so traumatized that she couldn’t play the piano anymore. Her fingers simply refused to move “as if her heart froze”, and she didn’t know what to do.

Hijirikawa Masato knew what it was like to feel intimidated, but since he was raised in a strict environment, he couldn’t express himself properly even though he was really concerned about Haruka. On his first attempt to comfort her, Hijirikawa said, “It’s tough, isn’t it? Even if you’re told not to let it get to you, it’s impossible.”

Don’t we also feel the same way? We say “I won’t let it get to me” but even in a small way, it really hurts.

That’s probably why Hijirikawa’s attempt didn’t go so well, because Haruka felt that she was being naive about coming to the prestigious Saotome Academy simply because she liked music. She never had formal lessons, unlike everyone else. She couldn’t stop her tears, so she excused herself, but Hijirikawa already saw that she was crying. He probably wondered if his words had also hurt her like the rest.

Finally, when Haruka wasn’t showing up for class, Hijirikawa skipped class as well and went to see her. He confessed that he knew what she was going through, and spoke about his past concerning his strict upbringing. Like Haruka having her grandmother, Hijirikawa had an old butler who simply let him to be himself and even taught him how to play the piano.

Hijirikawa then played a simple melody: “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”. The song brought back Haruka’s fond memories of playing the piano in her grandmother’s house when she was younger. Slowly, her fingers began to move.

There was a significant meaning as to why Hijirikawa played “the Star song”. Harukawa doesn’t know this but deep in Hijirikawa’s mind, he treasured the memory of having first met her. It was not in the academy, but in a playground where she was teaching children how to sing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”. Seeing her so happy and singing with all her heart was what made him discover the joy of music. This short moment stirred something inside Hijirikawa and instead of just following what his father told him to do, he began to have dreams and aspirations of his own.

I'm not sure why Hijirikawa never told Haruka about that memory. Maybe it's because of his upbringing or because romance is absolutely forbidden in Saotome Academy. But then, he decided to say, “I want you to listen to something.”

I wrote this song after I met you. So... Right now, I want to share with you the joy of music.

The lyrics of the songs took my breath away. It was on the third line of the first stanza that really hit me…

Your dreams are always knocking on your mind. Feel it…

Even if you tremble in the cold darkness in some corner street,
Don’t be afraid, Pure Heart.
Flowers always keep their heads up.

After the song, Hijirikawa continued to help Haruka until she was finally able to perform in class. I don’t know, but I guess for me, this always-serious-and-frowning bishie reminded me that there are still wonderful people in this world.

I too, know what it was like to be bullied. And I’m sure everyone’s had their dreams crushed one way or another. But when that happens, think about Hijirikawa’s song. Indeed, flowers always face up, so hold your head up high and go through those walls that are blocking your dreams. Show them, that even though their words hurt you, you can definitely, definitely be strong and rise above the ashes! Gambatte ne?

Saturday, January 14, 2012

周杰倫 (Jay Chou): Mine Mine

I promised Misaki-chan that I would recommend more CPop songs, so let me start with my favorite one from Jay Chou's latest album "Exclamation": Mine Mine.

I don't know if there's a separate category for CPop by Taiwanese Pop Stars, because he’s singing in Mandarin and Tai-gi, Taiwan’s National(?) Language. But when I first heard this song in Hong Kong? I fell in love~ The beats, the lyrics, the dance moves… Even if I don’t think Jay Chou is that handsome, he’s at least nice to look at. And that piano is absolutely gorgeous!

In any case, Jay Chou is singing about a girl he loves so much that he almost wants to spoil her. Helping her pay for her ticket, helping her with her umbrella when “it’s already open”… all these chivalrous things seem strange to her, but he wants to do so because she’s his. Thus, “Mine Mine”.

And that to see her angry face is like winter everyday for him.

My translation is far from accurate, because I only know a few words, but I think this is half of the story of this song. He was also saying that if it was ok, when they have fights, not to tell her friends about it… Because later he would not be able to face them.

So Misaki-chan! How did I do? My translation is probably bad at best, so please ignore me! Maybe I should write about a more upbeat song next time!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Playing Pangya Online Again!

If you haven't already noticed all the pangya emoticons in my blog, then let me just say that it's thanks to LeiLei that I’m addicted to playing Pangya Online again. This time, it’s in the US servers, so I had to start from scratch!

pangya online - hana albatross

At least they were gracious enough to give me a few items after playing the tutorial mode. That little black mascot, Cocoa, has been kindly giving me +10% pang as well as 10 pang for every pangya, so pangs are not too hard to get. Most of the stuff in this server are acquired by points though, which is really annoying! But I guess the consolation of being able to purchase point items via pang for 7 day rentals is not too bad.

So far, Hana was able to get me an albatross in the new (for me at least) Wiz City map. But you know me, I’m not going to stop until I get my favorite character, even if it meant sleeping at 6 in the morning during my first play!

pangya online - kooh power shot

Yup, I got myself a Kooh after only a few hours of game play. This is thanks to all those tournaments and a new bonus: spinning boxes + key of fortune. The common items you get are 15 exp, 2000 pang, and temporary rings. All those 2000 pang pouches got me nearly 19,000 pang in a short time!

Ah, and Kooh got me a Hole In One during my 18 hole versus game with LeiLei. Just when I was complaining about not having an HIO in my records, I got lucky~

You know what this means, of course… More sleepless nights and more “Pangya!” shouting in my speakers. Even my brother knows what pangya is now, haha! Such a bad little sister.

So! Come play with me?