Category: Life

  • Interesting tweets about Yu

    Since I waste a lot of time on Twitter now, one of my searches is spying on what people say about Yu Aoi… though I should really look for her kanji name instead, no? But that’s me filtering the info.

    I think this is the first time I’ve seen tweets that go beyond of “just saw ‘name of movie,’ and Aoi Yu is so cute!” So I thought that I could post from time to time about what people say about Yu-chan xD

    ToruShoji is talking about the Yogashiten Daisuki Sweets Best 88 Magazine.

    For those of you who don’t know who Hailee Steinfeld is, she’s the actress now nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the upcoming Academy Awards (this coming Sunday) for her work on the Coen brothers’ True Grit.

    What do you think? Is thessuh right? Steinfeld is 14.

    And finally… toshii9245 says Yu Aoi is a beautiful girl… alongside Megan Fox and Avril (Lavigne?). Now, I wouldn’t put Lavigne and/or Fox in the same league as Yu Aoi … would you?

  • Italian Design is Coming Home.

    Hi, guys~

    To tell you the truth, I haven’t even had that much time to go through my daily Notcot.org bits like I used to. But sometimes, when I’m lucky… I will find something that I would like to post.

    This clip is so freaking fantastic. xD

    Pretty big-sized paper sculpture!

  • First week of Mandarin Lessons~

    Don’t think it’s too shabby, is it?

  • New Google Translate Features

    Listening and watching… and trying to keep up with Asian entertainment means that I use Google Translate often. This is why I think these are new features. I knew Google Translate could read out loud English… and German, but this is the first time that I’m aware it can read Japanese, Mandarin and Korean too.

    Of course I chose BiBi’s Just to Meet You song to test, because that’s one of the songs that I butcher whenever it plays on my iPod. And it not only “translates,” but now you can also read it phonetically…

    and you can listen to it read it out loud. O_O

    Three very important things about this:

    1. This is amazing… if you’re starting out a language.

    2. A lot of sites that dedicate themselves to pinyin, romaji and Korean romanization just got their work cut down… or have some serious competition. With this, anyone can post lyrics…

    3. This just made a whole new generation of lazy.

  • The Thomas Beale Cipher by Andrew S Allen

    A mystery colorful version of a Film Noir that meets Pythagora Switch (1).

    To be honest, this short could easily have gotten an Oscar nod… dunno if it was eligible this year, though. Maybe next time? It’s definitely stylish, and if it holds clues… worth repeat viewings xD

    The film contains 16 hidden messages that hold clues to the characters’ secrets. Eight are fairly easy requiring only a close eye. Six are moderately difficult using various encryption methods. Two are extremely difficult requiring a genius mind to decrypt.

  • Oscar 2010-2011 Watchlist

    I know, I know… I haven’t been blogging about any of the awards since I launched YAM. But hey! If you were following YAM on Twitter, you’d know I’ve been commenting on them~

    Did the Globes [Firth, Portman, Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right), Paul Giamatti, Melissa Leo + Christian Bale, + The Social Network wins for Movie+Score+Script+Director] Did the whole SAG Awards [Colin Firth (The King’s Speech), Natalie Portman (Black Swan), Melissa Leo + Christian Bale (The Fighter) + The King’s Speech for Cast), and the Oscar noms aren’t really that surprising, but there were a couple of nice things.

    First, Yay Javier Bardem, Yay John Hawkes.

    Here’s my list of watched and not-watched films.

    Light blue – Watched
    Hot pink – Dying to watch.

  • Conductor by Alexander Chen

    I remember in school we studied the London subway system’s map. Simplified… easy (not really), but immensely easier than New York… according to a friend who’s been to both cities anyway.

    You can see how the New York simple (is not) the subway system works…

    [iframe src=”https://player.vimeo.com/video/19372180?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=ffffff” width=”560″ height=”315″]

  • Old BiBi Interview with English Subtitles

    I think this is the only video of Bibi with English subtitles. It’s short, barely three minutes of it… but makes me miss BiBi circa her NOW/WOW albums… which reminds me, gotta review those.

    [iframe src=”https://www.tudou.com/v/_H6cID-4vsU/v.swf” width=”480″ height=”400″]

    Her last bit singing gives me the shivers.

    From the last few performances she’s done, something is amiss. Her voice is quite not right, and I think it might be due to the production of her last album.

    *sighs*

    Forgive the lack of updates, but then again… you do know there’s YAM, right?

  • Yu Aoi – Yogashiten ~ Daisuki Sweets – Best 88 ~

    I guess I could translate Daisuki Sweets to Sweets that I Love (the best).

    There’s a new special issue by Magazine House that has just been released. My understanding is that it’s got write-ups on Yu’s favorite pastries, and stuff like that. I even read something about her grandma’s banana bread?

    Obviously, this is to promote her upcoming film Yogashiten Coin de Rue, which opens on February 11th.

    (more…)

  • Classes begin…

    *drum roll*

    Guess who’s going to begin Mandarin lessons?

    Crap, I’m nervous about it. I hope I can get the tones right. I don’t want to end up frustrated with it, and give up on all the Chinese music I own.

    Honestly, Mandarin is the most difficult — sound-wise — language to me. But then again, I know nothing about Arabic… and I’m pretty sure I will have issues pronouncing anything resembling Hebrew.

    What I hate about Chinese – any of the dialects – is that it’s like playing charade with a language.

    Wish me luck.