Born to lead. Or at least laugh and point.
01.12.27
・23:02
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Music o' The Entry: "Kimi ga Suki", Mr.Children
What is wrong with me? Why did I download this song? LOOK at the title, folks...oy, what was I thinking? Well, I suppose this is the fault of my fondness for "Yasashii Uta" and "#2601". Funny, I never hear Mr. Children fans speaking of liking the latter song...perhaps it's in the same vein as my beloved "Shinshoku ~lose control~" by L'Arc~en~Ciel? Seriously, I've spoken to some fairly rabid Laruku fans and they almost universally react by recoiling in fear and loathing at the mention of it. Ah well, whatever. I think I'm going to have to change songs purely to preserve my sanity and in order to prevent my blood sugar levels from skyrocketing. Ah, new Dir en grey goodness, the single "embryo"-my soul has been saved. Well, sort of-please tell me Kyo isn't rapping, PLEASE.
Speaking of blood sugar levels, yours truly gets the dubious pleasure of going to the lab and getting poked and prodded with various pointy objects in the morrow. Indeed, diabetes testing shall surely ensue. I'm sure some of you are scratching your heads, thinking "Nande kuso? Woman, you're hypoglycemic and now hypochrondriac to boot! Does it never end?" Don't worry, I'm just as confused as you are; as far as I know, I'm hypoglycemic, but recent symptoms that are starting to become an issue more than a mere annoyance, particularly with the not-so-unpleasant looming specter of the almighty WINTER QUARTER casting it's shadow in the distance, are making me wonder and it's worth checking out. No, I'm not really looking forward to it, but I can think of things exponentially worse (such as the infamous tilt-table test, holy mother of cheese). Besides, I'm going to demand they tell me my blood type, so I'm looking forward to it. I don't place any credence in Japanese blood type theory/mythology, but I've always been curious, particularly since in Japan you're occasionally asked that and they look at you as if you're utterly mad if you don't know. Actually, nearly every single description I've read of blood type personalities has varied, so I'm going to make a wild guess off of this one and place myself as a possible A. We'll just have to see, ne? It's bizarre, I'm almost looking forward to this...hopefully the phlebotomists (heaven help me in the spelling of that word) will be skillful, not like the Evil Russian Nurse who made me look like a heroin junkie for a couple weeks thanks to her handiwork. Actually, it doesn't really bother me, I'm lucky to be one of those whom needles do not worry. Now, once you start screwing with individual veins it's a totally different story, but stuff like this is okay, provided they don't take so much of the red stuff. Funny, that reminds me of Kartia, how they create blood...
In fact, I'm taking a brief Kartia break to write this. Yes, I am aware that's "not as good as Final Fantasy Tactics", and that's partially true; no, it's not as polished, no, the job system doesn't have as much anal depth, but what it does have is a superior translation (of course, with FFT, that's not exactly hard to do. But part of Tactics' charm is it's utter incomprehensibility at times.) and a cast with actual personality. Certainly, the translation isn't perfect, but I've seen a LOT worse, and I love the characters. I've almost finished Toxa's quest (I kinda screwed up the last battle and wasn't able to get the last text I needed so now I'm going to have the final scary form of Phantoms without any of my own. Craaaaap.) and am currently around Chapter 8 of Lacryma's, and I think I prefer hers. Troy is grand fun, Kun is cute, and Lacryma is a refreshing change for a female character-cold is one word that comes to mind when describing her. Well, not all the time, but in matters relating to God and the law she's cut and dry. She's also quite serious...actually, now that I think about it, nearly every female character I've encountered is physically strong. Plus not everyone's blonde a la FFT (yes, I know Delita and his sister were not. Of course, Delita and his sister were also not nobles. I guess the rest of the cast are all Nordic inbreeders or such.)...fun game, yo, I only hope I enjoy Ogre Battle as much. What, no FFChronicles? No, I uh, haven't played it yet, blame Kartia. Of course, keep in mind the sheer amount of times I've beaten ChronoTrigger (my obsession with this game in 1996-7 was and is unparalleled, I still have my Schala cosplay outfit in my closet), and I've certainly played FFIV. Still, I look forward to seeing the reworked translation and stuff Nintendo cut out.
But you know what we're going to do now? We're going to finish my marvelous two-part review of the Square Vocal Collection CD now, beginning with track 7. Onward!
7. Somnia Memorias: First things first-I've never played Parasite Eve, so I do not know in what context this song occurs. What I do know is I'm not exactly digging on this song. The water/steam/bird sounds remind me of the bath songs off my Suikoden soundtracks, save for the fact that I *like* Suikoden music. It has this sort of sultry New Age/Trancy flavour that's not suiting me well, nor am I fond of the way the vocalist sings, almost breathily and whispering. No, not my type. Could be worse, I suppose, but I'd prefer something else.
8. Stars of Tears: And behold, Yasunori Mitsuda and the Xenogears OSV arrive once again in the nick of time to save my soul, this time with the vocal version of the Xenogears overworld theme, once again featuring IONA vocalist Joanne Hogg (CD's by IONA are available here. Decent stuff, my mother owns this disc. I'm not sure if that'll inspire or drive you away, but my mother also owns Loreena McKennitt stuff and copied my Yoshiki Eternal Melody set, which is quite okay in my book). Celtic stuff as you'd imagine, and quite enjoyable, very singable. I like "Small Two of Pieces" better, but also bear in mind that "Stars of Tears" is not supposed to be quite as emotional as the former.
9. Radical Dreamers: The inclusion of this song has made me a very happy little Sho. Pre-Japan Edition readers may recall that this song was pretty much my pre-departure theme song, particularly around this time last winter, so it has special meaning and association to me *cough*SOBA*cough*. The song itself is quite simple-it consists of Noriko Mitose's quiet vocals and an acoustic guitar, and is a derivation of the Chrono Cross theme song...the atmosphere of the song itself seems to me to be quietly longing and somewhat tentatively hopeful. This is demonstrated in the lyrics themselves (translation for this song and everything else here available at The Opera House)...a vaguely sad personal favourite, so you know I'm wildly biased...a pity the ending is major, not minor, but I'm happy with this itself.
10. Melodies of Life: Next is the Final Fantasy IX theme song, which I had only previously heard in English. I'm...okay with this song, it's not a favourite of mine, but I vastly prefer it to some songs (such as "Somnia Memorias"). It's suitable for the game for which it was written: sweet, no hints of melancholy or the longing implied in the above song (yes, I'm aware that FFIX was not one big frigging picnic of glee, but the general feel of the game wasn't as dark and heavy as say, VII or even VI. Come to think of it, I'm not sure or not if I consider IX to be the atmospherically "lightest" of the series, but that's a discussion for another time). Enjoyable, though still not quite my type. Better than "Owaranai-mono", however.
11. Song of Mana: Holy hell, I heard the intro and was promptly owned: tenuous piano and strings, the songstress's delicate voice producing words like spun thread of sugar in Swedish (I figured it was something Scandanavian, but wasn't quite certain as to what. First guess was Finnish, shows my vast knowledge of the Finnish language.), before it launches into a much more fast-paced, somewhat happier type-thing, featuring the periodic trill of what sounds like a type of wooden flutish instrument. After the intro, my wild unbridled fondness for the song continues, but it's still excellent-it's simply that I utterly adore the intro; rather epic, actually. Not in Yoshiki-type epic (please see Art of Life if you'd like a good idea of what I'm referring to when I speak of something being "Yoshiki epic"), just driving and good fun. One of my favourites on this disc.
12. Chiisana Hane: Our last track is one that I'm rather loathe to review; the song itself is rather slow and plinkety. I abhor the vocalist's voice, not only is it little Japanese girl, it's ANNOYING little Japanese girl accentated by music box sounds, only completing the package. My only savior rests within the brief strings interlude towards the end, as the violin throughout the song is obnoxiously whiny. I think I prefer Somnia Memorias, this is about as un-Sho-like of a song as you can come up with.
So there you have it folks, my full grossly biased review of the Square Vocal Collection. The record stands with five songs I've very fond of, four I'm okay with, and three that I despise at the moment, something I consider far from bad. Keep in mind I haven't listened to this CD very much to see if anything unexpected will pop out of the woodwork and suddenly own me, but it's entirely possible.
Bad news folks, I called my place of possible employment and it's pretty certain that there is no job for me, how very sad. So I need to bring back their shirt to them and I guess the hunt for employment will begin once again...it was worth a try, though. Gotta find a way to get off this black list.
Four days (roughly) until I see Matt. Rock.
Yeah, not so much has been going on 'round these parts, for Christmas day my family and I traversed up to the mountains where I ate too much and am currently attempting to valiantly rectify that self-anger-inducing situation. Rather boring, visiting relatives whom I do not know and nor do they care to know me (it's always good when the feeling is mutual); highlights of that day included partaking of a little of my favourite food that makes me hate myself for consuming it, potato chips with French onion dip, as well as little rolls of processed pig flesh coupled with baby swiss, which is also good, though I felt somewhat uneasy to eat the meat. Other non-culinary-related highlights included taking a nap and studying kanji, which I really should do more. I decided to improve my kanji abilities of the break, and haven't really done more than reinforce them (the text in Kartia is actually kanji characters, so I frequently ignore the title of it)...studyage will ensue tomorrow I'm sure. I think the best part of that trip was going home, although I got to sit down to dinner with my family while they discussed my seldom-seen relative of some fashion who either looks like a hippie or a monk every time I see him who has apparently opened a Chinese tea shoppe that also reportedly sells marijuana in some fashion. It made me smile, particularly if one knows my feelings on drugs, particularly marijuana. What was not cool though was when I joined the male relatives of the family on a discussion of US foreign policy and my father quietly told me to stop when I began mentioning how the US aided the Taliban against the Soviet Union, not to "bring that up". Okay, we can squelch history if it makes you feel better about yourself and country. You always do anyway.
Got the most amusing piece of mail I've received in quite the while today: an official-looking envelope bearing the return address of the "National Student Leading Council" or some such; yeah, I could already tell this was going to be good. I cracked the thing open and was greeted by a letter informing me I was "one of the world's most promising future leaders"; I admit it, I actually started laughing at this point. They also included a little guidebook for this little student leadership camp I've apparently been invited to, showing me all the marvelous leadershippish activities I can engage in. Also, they said I was selected because I'm an "exceptional student who has demonstrated academic excellence, extracurricular involvement and leadership potential." Uh, where? I'm far from academically excellent, I don't where the hell they're seeing "extracurricular involvement" (I did marching band as a sophomore. And that's band; keep in mind the band has a mindset of an entity basically separate from the school, given how very much the school supports them), if anything I've flagrantly refused any such thing they've tossed at me (such as mock trial and debate)...and where does the leadership potential come from? For the love of everything holy, if I'm known for anything in the school it's my strangeness and idiosyncrasy, not for "leadership potential". I've made my thoughts on the entire "leadership" thing clear before: I'm neither. Feel free to call me a follower if I happen to be going the same direction as others, a leader if I go the opposite way, it's all the same to me-these meaningless distinctions certainly don't change anything on my part. Finally, they sent me a "Certificate of Invitation" (I think someone is overdoing this entire thing just mildly, don't you) and see then the price of these classes (that's what they are, leadership classes); the cheapest is $997, and that's excluding transportation. That could very easily get me to Japan and allow living for a couple of months. Gee, guess what my opinions on the matter are? Seriously, I don't know where the hell all these academic congratulations are coming from, because I've certainly done nothing so great as to merit them. Freaks. Of course, I imagine the types they think they're appealing to generally don't react by being quite amused by their own ludicrousness. No, I don't CARE if it's endorsed by folks in Congress; gods, can you imagine me at something like this? It'd be the Republican convention of the world, I'd be burned as the heretic/apostate I am...
But anyways, time to go; results about diabetes test will be revealed when they are learned. またね~
chronos
・kairos
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