Especially Quick

This is going to be an exceptionally quick post because I have an extreme amount of work to do, but I can manage to procrastinate the tiniest bit longer to say that I'm totally exhausted and I haven't even been busy this weekend. Lame.

Sleeping late is the best thing in the world, and I didn't get to do ANY this weekend. :'(

Um...

Japan Fact Time!!
!!!

Did you know:
*Japan consists of a group of over 3000 islands, 4 of which take up 97% of its total landmass
*Japan has the worlds 10th largest occupation (128 Million people)
*Mount Fuji is a Volcano
*Japan is the 30th most densely populated country in the world
*70 to 80 percent of the country is unusable for agricultural or industrial use because of the landscape--making the cities in Japan some of the most densely populated in the world
*Shinto is the indigenous religion of Japan
*Japan has one of the highest life expectancy rates in the world (81.25 years)
*The Japanese population is literally aging, since fewer women are having children. (Imagine the opposite of what's going on in Africa.)
*There is a language spoken in Hokkaido named "Ainu" that is moribund, or dying. Very few people still speak it, and only in a tiny region, but it does still exist.
*The two most competitive universities in Japan are the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University
*In Japan compulsory education is elementary and middle school (6-15), but most students follow that with a 3 year high school education, and then about 75% go to university, junior college, trade school, or other post-secondary institution.
*Japan's National Anthem is "Kimi Ga Yo," or "May Your Reign Last Forever." It is one of the shortest national anthems in use.

May your reign
Continue for a thousand,
eight thousand generations,
Until the pebbles
Grow into boulders
Lush with moss.

Eh. Now you know a little more about Japan and so do I.

Thanks Wikipedia!
Cited:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan

ALGORITHM MARCH! WITH NINJAS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDSGmx8c2AM

AND NOW, WITH 967 INDONESIAN PRISONERS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjMd2Vabcv8

RECORD BREAKING PERFORMANCE!!!

*roar of applause*

Catform FTW.

Hm... I'm behind yet again in posting. So let me think of something interesting to talk about to keep my mind off the fact that I'm about to die workload-wise. ("Go Jackie! You can do it! *cheer, cheer*") Mostly I'm just lamenting that the new World of Warcraft patch is out now and that I can't play because I have to work. T_T My family isn't going to see much of me during this Thanksgiving...there are instances to be conquered.

ZUL'AMAN, I'm COMING!!!




I guess I might as well blab about world of warcraft. If you've never played, I can see why some people might find it amazing that it can take up so much time, but the fact is, the game sort of swallows your life if you want to be even remotely good at it, sadly.


If you've never read Mac Hall before, here's a good time to start, because the comic is completed. It's about this guy named Ian and his college friends and all their strange adventures together, often including lots of jokes on particular video or PC games. I particularly like it because it reminds me an awful lot of my own high school friends, especially my buddy Geoff, who, additionally, made me want to take Japanese in the first place. (and introduced me to Mac Hall, too.)

Anyway, the point is, I started reading Mac Hall before I started playing Warcraft. When I read this comic,
http://machall.com/view.php?date=2005-06-28
I really had no idea what in the hell Helen (the girl, obviously) was talking about. I don't blame you for not knowing either. (In fact, if you DO understand, I'll be amazingly surprised...)

SO! I will use my amazing WoW knowledge to attempt to translate.

"WC run": WC is a dungeon called Wailing Caverns. A run of WC simply means that you got a group of other players to do the dungeon with you. (It's not possible to do a dungeon alone.)

"Horde Alt": There are two factions in Warcraft, Alliance and Horde. You choose at the beginning of the game whether you would rather be good or evil (Alliance or Horde). An alt is simply a character that isn't the one you usually play, since you can have multiple characters in the same world.

"Shammy": A shaman: A type of character that one can create that is often invited to groups because of their potential to support the group with many group-oriented skills. (Hard to explain.)

"Breaking Sheeps": "Sheeping" is an ability used by mages to literally transform one enemy into a sheep during a battle. This means that until the "sheep" wears off, that enemy can't attack you. Breaking a sheep means you attacked an enemy that was previously sheeped, making it pop back into its normal, aggressive state.

"Pulling Aggro": Aggro is what causes a player to be attacked. In a well-organized dungeon, only one specific character of the group of (normally) 5 should be attacked, and that is the one with the most armor. It isn't good for a shaman to pull aggro because then the healer has to focus on both the tank (the one with most armor, who should be pulling aggro) and the shaman as well. Also, if the shaman were to pull too many enemies and die, the group has a higher chance of all dying, and having to start over.

"ninjas on the boss loot roll": Bosses in higher level dungeons drop loot when they are killed. To "ninja" on a boss loot roll is to steal the loot dropped by a boss by intentionally rolling higher than necessary.

Now that you have a basic introduction to WoW, I think I'll leave you alone.

If you need any help, let me know.

Character: Allesta
Faction: Alliance
Race: Night Elf
Class: Druid
Spec: Feral (Tank)
Level: 70
Realm: Lightning's Blade
Guild: Bara no Senshi
Armory Link:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Lightning%27s+Blade&n=Allesta

てがみ

ジャッキージャコブソン

じゅういちがつなんのか（１１・７・０７）

さとうせんせい

てがみ

はじめまして!　

わたしはジャッキージャコブソンです。じゅうはっさいです。コロンビアだいがくのいちねんせいです。アトランタ、ジョージャからきました。わたしのせんこうはえいごですが、わたしはにほんごがだいすきです。コロンビアだいがくはとてもおもしろいですが、しゅくだいはあまりやさしくないです。わたしのへやはしずかところですが、わたしのりょうはとてもにぎやかです。スポーツがすきですか？まいにちヘンシングおします。ことしのしちがつついたちわたしはにほんへいきます。どうぞよろしくおねがいします。

ジャッキージャコブソン

Not Good, Not Good, Not Good

This week's post is a sympathy post.

*Gets down on knees to beg*
Forgive me, this'll be a short post, but it's 2:15 in the morning and I still have to:
-Do my Japanese Chapter Homework
-Study for my Japanese Vocab Quiz
-Start my Japanese composition
-Start studying for my Japanese midterm
-Start writing my portion of our Japanese podcast project
-Finish reading 50 more pages of Thucydides (gag me.)
-Do my engineering homework, which I don't understand in the least.

Oh, and pack so that I can go home as soon as classes are over on Thursday.

Somebody remind me that I have a lab on Wednesday as opposed to Thursday. God, PLEASE remind me. Eesh.

Thank God my University Writing paper is done, though. 1500-2000 words, he says?

1501 I give him. BAHAHAHA I WIN!

*Wanders off to die*

*Blush, Toe Scuff*

I have to say, the responses I got for my last boring day-to-day post are absolutely great. I feel so popular!! XD!! Wow that's a new one. UVA Japanese 101 officially rocks.

Anyway.

Since people seem to like talking about anime (and I LOVE talking about anime,) I figure I'll stay on this curve. Heck, why not? I know enough anime to keep me busy talking from now until kingdom come.

I guess I'll go over AWA this post.

AWA is Anime Weekend Atlanta: a giant anime con that I'm just dorky enough to attend just about every year with all of my old highschool friends. I even came home this year from college just to see everybody, dress up in an (AWESOME) Genjo Sanzo outfit and traipse around the Renaissance Waverly ballrooms for two days. I have some really great pictures:


Aaaand naturally, when I want them, I can't find them. Ah well. I'll just pull up some pictures from last year.

My friend Laura went as Sesshoumaru from Inuyasha. (And yes. I spelled it right. Go me.)












Pikachu car is a staple every year.













Ironic to see this sign in a booth where the Anime was probably 6 times the price it would have been in Japan.










Aaand it's too bad that my computer no longer wants to post any more pictures. This was the year that the Fullmetal Alchemist movie came out, and Travis Willingham (English voice of Roy Mustang) and Vic Mignogna (Voice of Ed Elrich) came to open the movie and hold a Q and A session afterward...

During which I asked Travis if he'd marry me. (I have video if you don't believe me.)
Let me see if I can post it.



Ah. I hope that's the right one. Whatever. The experience was amazing.

(In case you didn't get the dialogue:
Me: "Um...This question is for Travis. I'm seventeen, but I'll be eighteen in February..."
*Audience laughs*
Vic: "-Laughing- Go on."
Me: "Will you marry me?"
*Vic and Travis look at each other*
Travis: "What do you think?"
Vic: *Shrugs*
Travis: "We could always use another one.")

And now that I'm officially done offering up my soul to you all, I think I'll go do my real Japanese homework.

Gotta love the blog project. I feel like I'm working when I'm online. Hahaha.

Blog Project がすきです！

What I Did This Weekend

せんしゅうのどようび、わたしねまして。せんしゅうのにちようび、わたしとわたしのおねえさはMetropolitanびじゅつかんへいきました。びじゅつかんわおもしろいです！

Death Note

Soooo...as you all know, we watched a snippet of Death Note the other day in class.

I'm ashamed to say that I finished the entire anime already. hahahahahaohgodamIadork.

Anyway, if you haven't seen it, or if you weren't particularly interested, you should be! Just to give a tiny synopsis: The main character is a kid named Yagami Light, who finds a notebook one night when he's walking home. He realizes (from directions inside the front cover of the 'Death Note') that he can write people's names in the notebook and they'll die within seconds. The entire series then follows Light as he tries to fool L (another genius teenager who is working with the Japanese police and is hot on his tail) into thinking that he is not "Kira," or the notorious murderer who believes he is 'cleansing' the world of criminals. The storyline incorporates every aspect that makes murder mysteries great, without the frustration of WONDERING until the end of the story WHO the killer is. Another great part about the series is the question of whether or not Kira's (from the english word 'Killer') mission is justified or not. Kira has his own batch of supporters who consider him to be judging criminals righteously. Some even consider him God.

Either way, you should check it out. If only for my favorite character:
Ryuk's just so cute, isn't he? He's a Death God, or a "Shinigami" and he basically comes with the Death Note. Only the possessor of the Death Note can see him, so don't look for him over your shoulder as you're walking down Broadway. (Unless you're Kira, of course...)

Either way, he's adorable because he eats Apples, which are like alcohol or cigarettes for Death Gods. Meaning, if he doesn't get them, he goes through withdrawal. During which he stands on his head and twists about.














Aww. He's so cuuuute... I want my own shinigami...

はじめまして！わたしは Jackieです。Americaからきました。Columbiaだいがくのいちねんせいです。じゅうはっさいです。わたしのせんこうはえいごです。どうぞよろしくおねがいします。

にほんごはおもしろいです！！

Anime!

So, I've been reading other people's blogs and I feel absolutely terrible. I have no earthly clue how to make my browser register Japanese characters. Does anybody know? I could have sworn that there was an explanation on how to do it on CourseWorks, but I went to go look tonight and I couldn't find it.

Anyway--on to the real post.

I was motivated to take Japanese in large part because I have a very close friend who took it last year and loved every moment of it. Since we share a lot of interests, and I already liked the idea of taking Japanese, I couldn't see why I shouldn't do it. (Besides, he brags a lot. Somebody's got to put him in his place, right? ;-) )

I can't deny. I'm also taking Japanese because I absolutely adore anime, and I've always thought it thrilling when I'd watch an episode and recognize a word or two. I can actually say 'Please launch!' ("Haashin, dozo!") in Japanese. See what I mean? So I wondered what it would be like to learn actual phrases that would be useful in SPEAKING Japanese to other people....being that I think some people would give me odd looks if I ran up to them and shouted, "HAASHIN, DOZO!"

Anyway.

I think Jade asked what animes I'm into, so I'll give a few quick names off the top of my head...
Saiyuki, Wolf's Rain, Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, Trigun, Inuyasha, Hellsing, Cowboy Bebop, Gravitation, anything by Miyazaki...um...amongst many, MANY others. Also, whether I liked it or not, if it'd been on television and it's Japanese, I've probably seen it. (Oh, lame, I know. ha!) But that includes stupid kids' shows like Pokemon, Digimon, Voltron (A kids' show, but a CLASSIC.), Dragon Ball Z and the like.

Personally, I think Columbia's anime club library is pretty pathetic. It was a let down.

Eh.

If anybody wants to have an anime-fest one night, I'm totally up for it. I've got a few series on DVD and a Kim's membership.

Sushi's really good too, but this post is already too long. For another time, then!

(The picture is of Athrun Zala from Gundam SEED. Yay Athrun!)

Blog Nihongo

Hajimemashite!! Watashi wa Jackie desu. Ichinensei desu. Columbia no gakusei desu.
Ju-hachi sai desu.

I am studying Japanese because I've always been intrigued by the language since the first time I heard it, and I didn't have the opportunity to take it in high school. I am also a big anime fan.

I really love learning hiragana, even though it's hard. The first time I could write 'sushi,' I almost cried for joy.

Dozo yoroshiku.
Shitsure shimasu!