#but their school system is japanese or their meals etc

[luvelii]

Dungeon meshi has wonderful and thought out world building but the inherent creator bias still shows through sometimes in small funny ways

#dungeon meshi #ep 1 #why are they eating with chopsticks when the island is mostly western in architecture/culture etc #hahaha #i always think its so funny even in like medieval isekais/webtoons #when everyone has european names #castles #dresses etc #but their school system is japanese or their meals etc #like the small stuff the author thinks is normal #calling the duke 'hyung' when there is absolutely no way that would happened at that time #its a bit endearing #i read a brothers grimm/fairy tale inspired manga #and the protag is a grimm brother who befriends hans christian andersen and subsequently calls him “an-chan” #western media has that a lot too #people eating with forks when they would use chopsticks #having meals with beef in them when its a terrain where cows wouldnt live and chicken or goat or fish would make more sense #eastern media aallllwaaysss including an age based honorifics system #western media often modeling religion along the abrahamic faiths #etc

[sonderwrit]

"Disappearing Summer" - fanfic translation

[Caption: Please enjoy your meal]

Author: 无止尽的旋律 

共6k字，架空男鬼亿和高中生小秦，我丢这我就跑了，看前记得看预警谢谢谢谢 Total words 6k. It's an [AU] story about Ghost Yi and highschooler Qin, I'm tossing it here and running away, remember to read the warnings before the fic ty ty

(My attempted translation below:)

P1

消失的夏天 "Disappearing Summer"**

**By the way, 消失的夏天 is also the title of an actual Chinese song you can listen to here, though I'm not sure if there's an intentional connection.

*In this piece you may see: an inexplicable, almost non-existent, confusing plot, illogical sequences, OOC characters, and my unique flair

*Purely fictional Japanese DK**-styled romance, Yi's personality is closer to his System Y form, while I don't know Qin's real name so I'm just calling him Qin Xian

**DK is slang for the Japanese DK or danshi kousei (high school boys) whose school uniforms usually includes elements like sweaters, collared shirts, ties, blazers, and etc.

*If you can accept all of the above, read on

—

The air always felt stuffy before it rained, especially in summer.

In hot weather like this, the air was as heavy as a damp towel pressed over the mouth and nostrils. Breaths seemed trapped in the lungs and squeezed out the remaining space in the body, making one's heartbeats feel more labored.

Wang Yi sat cross-legged on the bed, fingertips lightly perched on the peeling window frame as his head rested listlessly against the glass. He stared at the misty skies outside in a daze, gray clouds enveloping the little town above with threat of imminent rain, and only felt depressed in his heart.

Qin Xian was sitting directly opposite him, staring so intently that it felt like he was afraid the other would vanish in an instant. His gaze was akin to the cold chill of spring rain, deep pupils the hue of rotten blueberries. At their deepest point lay a love that had been buried before it was ever born.

Neither of them spoke, just letting the silence hang in the air.

Wang Yi suddenly turned his head and met Qin Xian's eyes. After realizing the other was looking at him, he couldn't help laughing, a muffled noise. As if teasing a kitten, he brought his face closer, to the point where he could count every individual eyelash and each bloodshot vein in the other's eyes.

Qin Xian looked at those eyes curved in laughter and lost his senses for a moment. He thought, So there really are men with eyes this pretty. They're as beautiful as green whirlpools that only appear in dreams, whose single move can suck away a person's entire thoughts.

Gradually, it began to rain outside the house.

Raindrops splashed onto the concrete ground in small dark circles. Immediately, the rainfall grew more intense, evolving from thin, shining silver threads into strings of beads that crackled as they fell against the eaves and roofs.

It had been the same kind of rainy day one month ago.

One.

Qin Xian didn't want to think about those things and subconsciously pulled Wang Yi's hand towards him until the man was within his embrace. He buried his face in the other's collar, lightly inhaling the familiar scent of laundry detergent. Like a child seeking comfort, he clung to the person before him. His embrace was very tight, like a warm cage, trapping the young man's almost weightless soul in his arms.

Logically speaking, it should be sweltering to stick so close together in summer. Hugs were summer's special form of torture. But Qin Xian didn't feel a shred of heat or even any warm breaths. He knew why: because Wang Yi had died one month ago, and standing before him now was nothing more than a ghost.

Like a twinkling star in the atmosphere, at some point it'd stop shining.

"Your body is so cold." Qin Xian brushed the hair at the back of Wang Yi's head with his fingertips while pressing his chest against the other, as if attempting to warm him with his temperature.

He inexplicably recalled a goldfish he and Wang Yi had raised together as children. Because it was soaking in cold water all day, it always felt cold to the touch. Now, the man in his arms devoid of temperature and breathing was no goldfish, but his playmate of 17 years.

The afternoon sun was hidden by cumulonimbus clouds, leaving only its cold white rays streaking out from between the gaps. Even so, it was impossible to completely dispel the heat in the air. The weather was still unbearable, the world still drunk in the throes of summer.

"I've always been like this," Wang Yi returned the hug was gently patting Qin Xian's back. "It's pretty comfortable hugging me in summer right? Since my body's cold all over."

There was no reply.

"Hug me more while the weather's still warm, you won't want this when winter comes," Wang Yi joked next, trying to lighten the mood. He didn't seem to mind the fact that he was dead.

"Will you disappear?" Qin Xian interrupted with a sudden question.

The rain outside the window gradually lessened into something akin to little girls' whispers, thin and dense. The youth's eyelashes trembled with his gaze as his voice grew light as a puff of wind, lonely blowing across the world for tens of thousands of years. He said:

"....I won't."

"......."

Qin Xian didn't speak again, but tightened his embrace as the air around them returned to its dull silence.

Despite their physical proximity, the distance between their hearts seemed separated by a river.

—

Two.

17 was still school age. Qin Xian ate breakfast and quickly bid farewell to his parents before grabbing his bag to rush to campus. On the road, he tightly gripped Wang Yi's hand without saying a word. The warmth from his palm left the latter dazed for a second.

Qin Xian dared to take him along so brazenly because he was a ghost that no one else could see.

On the side of the concrete road were overgrown weeds, telephone poles covered with advertisements, and crooked road signs. Someone had stolen all the sodas from the vending machines, leaving the shelves behind the glass screen empty with nothing left. Cicadas sang a melodious old song from the last century.

.

"Now...point X...intersects point Y..."

The elderly woman stood on the podium, right hand gripping a piece of chalk that looked about to expire. It hit the blackboard with a scratchy noise, scattering chalk powder towards the floor with her movements.

Qin Xian glanced at the empty seat on his right. Books and random items in the desk had long been cleared away, while the chair had been taken on the pretext that "no one was sitting there," leaving only a solitary desk. The only trace of its owner's existence was the "freak" carved haphazardly with a utility knife on the table leg by someone with malicious intentions.

"Pay attention to class, what are you spacing out for?"

He followed the voice with his eyes and saw the former owner of the seat now sitting on the edge of his desk, legs dangling in the air as he swayed them without rhythm.

Sunlight passed through the gaps in the tree branches and leaves, shone past the windowsill, and onto Wang Yi's figure, making his face glow. The sunlight's effects made it feel like there was a blur on the edge of one's field of vision, with a vague sense of beauty highlighted in the haze. In that moment, Qin Xian felt like he was still dreaming.

He didn't reply, but obediently redirected his gaze to the podium. The hand holding his pen gradually grew sweaty, making his palm feel sticky.

—Once a person died, could their soul really exist in the human world forever?

Qin Xian mused for awhile and thought he could guess the answer.

Three.

After class at noon, Qin Xian pulled Wang Yi into an unoccupied equipment room. It wasn't big to begin with, but the mess of miscellaneous things piled up inside made the space even narrower. It would be crowded for two people standing together.

He locked the door from the inside and turned around to face Wang Yi. He saw the other's eyes widen slightly, as if surprised by his actions. Qin Xian didn't explain, but leaned over, reducing Wang Yi's space by the second. The other had no choice but to retreat with every step until he ran out of room with his back against the wall.

During the 17 years they'd been together, the wind brought along a tiny seed and quietly planted it in the hearts of the two boys. Every year, time encouraged their bonds to take root and sprout.

But in this moment, Qin Xian recalled that there was neither a grand confession nor a romantic date between them, let alone any spoken vows. All they had were memories and regrets of countless days and nights in the past seventeen years.

He shook aside those messy thoughts and slowly stretched out his hand to cradle Wang Yi's face. His eyes lowered like those of a devout believer as Qin Xian gazed seriously upon the green pupils like never before. When he saw the weak sunlight glimmering in those irises, he suddenly thought of the vast expanses of grassland south of the town, their endless green stretching onto infinity until they disappeared into the young man's pupils.

In that moment, with forehead against forehead and nose to nose, Qin Xian saw Wang Yi's eyelashes tremble like butterfly wings. He bent down and gently pressed his lips against the other's like a falling, fluttering feather. Waves appeared in his heart, the cool touch of those lips gave him the illusion that he was kissing icy jelly.

Qin Xian's kiss was brief, without a hint of sexual intentions, but more like cautious exploration.

After realizing the other didn't reject him, he felt much more at ease and didn't try anything more extreme. Still, his lips hovered near Wang Yi, moving down slightly until their warm touch slowly traveled to his cheeks and Qin Xian once against buried his head in the other's neck, breathing softly.

Wang Yi let him nestle in his arms while feeling the ups and downs of his heartbeat.

Outside, the sound of school children playing could be heard, noisy and full of life. It was quiet within the door, but the person standing in front of Qin Xian felt so unreal. Thus, this locked door became the border between dreams and reality, separating inside from outside.

Traces of summer seemed to permeate everywhere. The air was hot, breathing was hot, and so were his eyes.

Four.

Lies have existed with complex human emotions since ancient times.

They made truth more credible and values more evident; they made the dead come to life and the living feel at ease. Whether it was deceiving others or deceiving oneself, Qin Xian had always known from the start.

Whether one accepted it or not, time would always bring an end to the story.

Three.

"Do you still remember the goldfish we raised when we were young?"

The sun was about to set, with most of its body swallowed up by the mountains. Its red-orange hues was akin to blood shed by its dying body, filling the skies and flowing all the way to the concrete road that the two walked home on from school.

Wang Yi was temporarily stunned by Qin Xian's question before he replied, "I remember."

Vision swayed, going past the weeds by the roadside to a few sparrows flying from nowhere to perch on the telephone phones and twittering who-knows-what. Someone had refilled the vending machine with sodas again, though it wasn't clear when they'd be emptied again tonight.

In a small shop on the roadside, someone turned on the radio to listen to a program. The female voice coming from the speakers was fuzzy, as if covered by a thin layer of gauze.

The signal here wasn't very good, so her words came in snatches. She seemed to be reading a story submitted by her listeners.

.

The goldfish died.

It had almost washed into the sewer along with the rainwater when it was discovered.

Qin Xian squatted down and picked up the goldfish. The tiny thing lay in the boy's palm with its pupils akin to a black, frightening abyss; its gills stopped beating while its tail was like a burning flame, bright and beautiful but now forever lifeless.

In order to find the goldfish, the boy had been soaked by the storm. There were even raindrops hanging off his eyelashes.

Wang Yi stood next to Qin Xian and held the umbrella for him. "Are you crying?" he asked inappropriately. Life was as fleeting as a mayfly and more fragile than glass. He didn't understand Qin Xian's behavior. In his cognitive reasoning, death was a fleeting existence, lighter than a blank piece of paper.

"No."

Qin Xian stood up after he finished speaking, still cupping the goldfish in his hands. Thanks to the rain, his face was covered in traces of water, making it difficult to tell whether he had really shed tears. Qin Xian blinked his eyes furiously and shook off the droplets clinging to his lashes. He pursed his lips and suggested, "How about we bury the goldfish?"

There was a long silence.

Wang Yi gave a muffled hum and silently tilted the umbrella in his hands towards Qin Xian. Raindrops fell and wet the hems of his clothes.

.

The conversation between the two seemed to have suddenly ended because of the memories, but their steps had yet to stop. They were still rushing home. The female voice playing on the radio eventually waned, while the setting sun was completely engulfed by the mountains. Its parting words were the purple-red glow on the horizon.

A new sun would rise again the next day, as if this was just one of the millions of suns killed by time.

Four.

The goldfish that died seven years ago was buried under an ancient tree near Qin Xian's house. How old was it exactly? Probably more than a dozen years older than their combined ages.

The uneven surfaces of the tree trunk silently spoke of its experiences like a valley filled with traces of time. The leaves on its branches were extremely lush this year, blocking out all traces of moonlight.

Qin Xian held Wang Yi's hand as he stood under its shade. They weren't clear on where exactly the goldfish was buried. Perhaps its body had now been decomposed and absorbed by the soil, or perhaps it'd been eaten by insects hiding in the mud.

The two of them said and did nothing, just let their thoughts drift in the air.

Though life was fragile, it was also heavy. The difference between it and a blank piece of paper was that it was one filled with writing. The weight came not from life itself, but the stories it recorded, both long and short, wonderful and ordinary. No matter whether the plot was good or bad, it always carried the weight that a story deserved.

Thus, Qin Xian silently crossed the ravine of countless years and gave the answer to this confused young man seven years ago.

Five.

The bathtub at home wasn't big; on the contrary, it was rather narrow.

Wang Yi sat inside the tub filled with water, hugging his knees and squinting at Qin Xian. His shirt was so wet that it clung to his skin and turned slightly transparent.

The bangs on his forehead drooped with his movements, while the color of his hair was reminescent of sweet pink marshmallow, hiding some of the worry present in his pupils. He smiled and said nothing, but silently stared at the young man standing in front of the bathtub with his beautiful eyes.

The air was filled with a faint scent of moisture, making the entire bathroom akin to a glass bottle filled with the river's scent that was bottled off with a cork at its mouth.

They had a tacit understanding of what would happen next.

Qin Xian stepped over the walls of the tub and into the cold water. Water overflowed and splashed onto the tile floor. Qin Xian slowly bent down, interlaced his fingers with Wang Yi's until their palms touched, and gently rubbed his thumb against the cold skin.

Their fingers were entwined, their palms touching, and their eyes reflected each others' appearance. The deep blue sea eventually embraced the green breeze, the wind enveloped the ocean.

Kisses and touches were no longer enough to express the youth's feelings. At a certain point, the distance between the two finally began negative. Eros gradually climbed its way up the bathroom walls, stretching its body until it filled every corner of the room.

Did love taste sweet? Qin Xian didn't think that was the case, but at least it wasn't warm. It had a messy, salty smell that made the heart beat as fast as the drumbeats in rock music.

His canine bit the young man's neck and shoulders. Qin Xian felt the cold lingering between his teeth, but couldn't taste the scent of blood, then remembered that this man would no longer bleed.

White, because there was no more blood flowing in his veins, skin pale as someone who walked out of a colorless TV set from the last century, with only endless gray left in his body. No matter how Qin Xian went overboard, he couldn't leave any traces on Wang Yi's body. It was as if the other didn't exist in the first place, so nothing in the human world could ever taint him.

But he still wanted to hold him tighter. It would be best if the two people could be one and never be separated.

The water in the tub overflowed due to their aggressive movements. It didn't even cover Wang Yi's calves originally, but now only reached up to his waist.

Six.

Today's weather was excellent, with no rain, no clouds, and sunlight that wasn't too scorching.

They were sitting on a bench at the entrance to a small store. A small Walkman was placed between them, with an earphones shared between them both. The black cords conveyed the melodious music, perhaps syncing their hearts to the rhythm at certain points too.

Exhaustion was like a wisp of wind blowing quietly into everyone's heart. Wang Yi looked at the wild cat on the roadside lazily basking in the sun. Warm orange light shone on its belly. The cat itself had green irises. How strange, he thought. Are there any cats who have green eyes?

Qin Xian tore open the colorful printed packaging and took out the ice cream inside. There were two popsicle sticks at its base. He specially brought this one that could be split into two halves with a light snap. The young man stretched out his arm to hand the ice cream in his hand to the person beside him.

Wang Yi didn't take it, but looked at the ice cream in Qin Xian's hand in a daze. He couldn't eat it because he was a ghost.

The scene reminded him of his childhood.

Back then, Wang Yi's family was very strict. Because he had a history of getting upset stomachs after eating ice cream, his parents never allowed him to have any. When summer came, Qin Xian would buy a package of double-stick ice cream when school was over and give him half. The two of them would squat on the curb, tossing their schoolbags on the ground and finish eating them before going home.

"What's wrong?"

When Wang Yi came back to his senses from reminiscencing, the ice cream in Qin Xian's hand had melted slightly. Sticky sugar water flowed down the wooden stick like blood exuding the aroma of milk to drip on his fingertips.

He didn't answer Qin Xian's question and avoided that probing gaze. For Wang Yi it was terrifying, more suffocating than a bullet with a speed of 500 meters per second fired from a pistol. He couldn't eat it, but obviously the harm caused by telling the truth was far greater than that caused by simply telling a lie.

It didn't just apply to ice cream, either.

The music coming from the earphones stopped abruptly. But the chirping of cicadas didn't pause, and summer was still slowly, slowly disappearing.

Wang Yi stretched out the tip of his tongue from behind his teeth, leaned over, and gently licked Qin Xian's sugar-covered fingers. The flavor of milk and excessively saccharine liquid entered his mouth through his tongue. He also tasted a bit of salt from the skin, but it wasn't so obvious when mixed with the sweet dairy flavor.

The wet touch lingered on Qin Xian's fingertips. It was a rather novel, fascinating feeling. He felt as if his heart had been nipped by an inexperienced kitten, fuzzily tickling him.

"Mm...tasting it is enough, I don't want to eat it right now," Wang Yi licked the corners of his lips as if savoring the sweetness that had appeared there.

Qin Xian stared at him for a few seconds. A hint of understanding flashed in his blue eyes, but he didn't express his emotions too obviously beyond an exhale. "....sigh."

.

Some time later, the ice cream was finished. The clock in the shop kept ticking without stop, while the cat with the strange green eyes had disappeared.

The two of them were still sharing earphones and listening to some unknown song. Wang Yi started humming along, the melody as fine as ripples scattering on the waves of the river in golden hues.

He suddenly lifted Qin Xian's hand, took out a red thread from somewhere, and tied the two ends to his and Qin Xian's pinkies under the other's surprised eyes. Like countless lovers in the world who vowed to love each other forever, their fingers were linked together in the simplest, lightest lock, the thread hanging between them like a bridge connecting their heartbeats.

Wang Yi's voice was like a white bird that had just taken flight, light enough to shake off feathers. When he smiled, his eyes would narrow slightly. "This thread will always keep us together."

"Whether it's the next life, or the next life after that, and even the future beyond."

Seeing Wang Yi's childish actions, Qin Xian couldn't help laughing out loud, but only he knew how desolate it sounded. He knew, he'd always known, the answer to his question.

And thus, the young man's figure gradually grew more transparent beneath the sunlight.

end.

#i have to be a great villain #wang yi #qin xian #fanfiction #translations #manhua #danmei

[oraclememehacker]

This is just going to be a ramble and talk about Futaba’s childhood growing up since I find that fascinating. A lot of this will be my headcanons/interpretations of things sprinkled in with the canon stuff that is said. I probably will forget stuff so please forgive me. Anyways, Futaba as a child growing up I imagine was as fun as it was stressful. When she was a very small child, Wakaba would read her some bedtime stories, also reading her some stuff that probably shouldn’t be read to such a small child. As in, more advanced stuff than she was ready for because Futaba would insist.

Wakaba saw that she had a love for reading and learning from such a young age. Instead of trying to push down her a preordained path; you know, following a certain “this is when your child needs to learn stuff” sort of deal, Wakaba taught her that stuff. Futaba would understand it quicker than she expected, and that’s when Wakaba learned a little bit about Futaba’s eclectic memory that was passed down from her. Eventually this would culminate in her going to a doctor and confirming this. She did also see signs of what could be autism but declined to test for that specifically. 

Some of the first books that Futaba came to love growing up were about UFO’s and aliens. She would read them thoroughly and whenever she would see something with a UFO on it, she would want to look at it. Something about the designs of them drew her in.  Same with Egyptian mythology.  Something about seeing hieroglyphics and the way that those images were painting an entire language must've been fascinating. After all, all she was taught at that point was Japanese which are just words. This is pictures creating words!

Of course, her fascination for both crossed over at times, but for the most part she learned about them seperately. As she grew older, she started to get fascinated in other things and was really learning how smart she was and her eclectic memory. But, as talked about in canon, her intelligence  and the way that she wanted to share what she enjoyed resulted in her getting constantly bullied. She couldn’t understand why and it gave her anxiety. Plus, she always felt like she was closer to a book and her mom than anyone else.

That resulted in her being an incredibly lonely child. She would always be off by herself whenever not in class, eating meals in some other part of the school and taking any opportunity that she could to hide herself in a book. Eventually, however, she found herself gathering an interest in computers as well. There was a computer lab in her school, and they had classes in there, learning the basics of computers. How to use a keyboard and mouse, how to use a word processor, etc etc. In typical Futaba fashion she learned all of that incredibly quickly and also played games on it as well (3D pinball anyone?) Her love of video games started from here and grew to console gaming as well, eventually.

Computers made sense to her. People did not. Computers were (mostly) predictable and there was so much information contained within them combined with the power of the internet. She used it to learn more about her favorite subjects and probably get into a bit of trouble as she tried to bypass the school firewalls and restrictions put on them in order to get closer to the lower levels of the computers and operating system. Once she learned about coding that’s where she really wanted to learn more.

Coding was structured and once again, it made sense. Input some code and for the most part assuming there wasn’t some weird things going on, it would display some things on screen just like how she wanted them. The stuff that she created would be incredibly basic programs, including a pong game that at the time, she was really proud of. She rushed home and showed her mom her programs and other assorted things that she had made through a usb drive on the computer that Wakaba had for work related and personal stuff. She felt like she was truly accomplishing stuff. And that’s when her love of computers would blossom more towards how it is in her current day life.

Of course, she didn’t always get the chance to show off her love for things because of Wakaba’s increasing busyness. Often Futaba was left to her own devices though sometimes Sojiro when he wasn’t busy would look after her for a bit. At least until Wakaba came home. Or sometimes the other family members would look after her. Futaba didn’t realize that she would come to despise them as they would end up seeing her as nothing but a waste of time and space.

At some point Wakaba realized that Futaba’s love of computers needed to be nurtured more. And that’s when she would end up giving the young girl her own computer. Was it particularly powerful? Not really. It was a mid-range machine at best. However, just the fact that she had her own machine that she could do whatever she wanted with, assuming she took any and all responsibility for potentially breaking it? Was great.

So, you had a child who at this point was lonely and a little bit jaded because other kids would pick on her and make fun of her for being so smart and having an eclectic memory. She tried to demonstrate this by saying stuff from memory about a book and it just caused her to get even more bullied. There was only one person in her life besides her mom who didn’t immediately bully her. However, that whole thing is in itself a whole can of worms.

Plus, she was seeing less and less of her mom, and was assuming incorrectly that her mom didn’t see her as a high priority. The reality was that Wakaba was an overworked single mother trying to do everything that she could to support her daughter and ensure that she had nothing but love and support at every turn. She would help upgrade her computer a bit and still gave her all the books and stuff that she could ever read. It was just when it came to physical affection and being there for her that she would sometimes fall flat.

Most of her time was now focusing on reading, coding and just trying to get through school. That feeling of loneliness and isolation never left her, just was left to fester and grow inside. It was on the day of her mothers death that everything changed for her. She desperately wanted to spend more time with her mom, someone who she trusted completely. She suggested a family trip and was being insistent on it. Wakaba then told her that she couldn’t do it now, probably a bit harshly and that when her research was done then they would do what she wanted.

Of course, that would never happen as her mother was about to be killed in the cognitive world. But from Futaba’s perspective, it was like her mother suddenly was giving her the cold shoulder. That she had done something really wrong by insisting on going on that family trip. It didn’t matter where they went in particular, the point was she wanted to go with Wakaba and maybe Sojiro if he was available. She liked Sojiro since he was nice and friendly, and was like a father she didn’t have to some extent? Though mostly just a nice and friendly guy.

Speaking of that, there’s no mention of Futaba’s real dad at all. My interpretation of this was because he was a deadbeat that Wakaba had a short relationship and then realized he was a real scumbag. Especially once he refused to do anything with taking care of Futaba with her. She told him to go to hell and they mutually parted ways. Whenever Futaba would ask she would say that he was just a bad person and not worth talking about. Futaba eventually stopped caring about her father.

Everything else we basically know in canon. Futaba getting taken from family member to family member, getting neglected by her Uncle and then being brought in by Sojiro. I imagine that Futaba really doesn’t remember much from this time. It’s all a massive blur to her since it was happening so quickly. She wouldn’t have much time to even process the fact that her mother was dead, and that she got blamed for it and was harmed so thoroughly by this that it left her feeling absolutely devastated and dead inside.

Those feelings of isolation, guilt and not being loved that she had left simmering inside her was growing incredibly fast and it resulted in her getting a palace. It was so overwhelming that of course it ended up with her hallucinating. Her memories of her mom that she loved was replaced with those of her hating her and it left her just feeling like there was no point in anything. This resulted in her in being a neet and not wanting to interact with anyone. At first, her sleeping a lot was because it was the only way that she could escape her intrusive thoughts.

Eventually it just became something that she did a lot because of a lack of energy due to her lack of doing much of anything. She didn’t have particularly great stamina growing up and would find herself getting tired more than some children, but for the most part she was a normal child in that regard. However, her isolation really amplified that, plus there was a thyroid problem that goes undiagnosed, because getting a doctor to see her was hard and when Sojiro would get doctors to see her, they wouldn’t exactly do a great job addressing her problems and not suggest any sort of help. Plus, Futaba was incredibly socially adverse at this point.

Sometimes she had the energy to actually go out but she was incredibly shy and would try to do everything that she could to not stand out. That’s how the café was bugged, and she looked in on Sojiro. He was upstairs grabbing stuff and cleaning the attic a little bit and she installed them. It was her way of keeping tabs on him and to know when to call him when she needed something. During this time her only social interactions were online and that molded how she talked to people in real life for a long time after. It’s something that she takes with her even after the events of persona 5 strikers.

I do think however, she does at some point get an appreciation for how people act. Not so much about what they go through but there was something about watching people and seeing them go through life that was fascinating to her. Once her change of heart happens, she gets into the habit of doing people watching now that she doesn’t hate people and just finds the whole thing fascinating. Social interaction of course takes her a while still.

There is absolutely so much more that I could mention but this post is incredibly long as is. I just kind of wrote and wrote and was putting my thoughts down on paper. As you can see, I’m fascinated by a lot of Futaba’s stuff and especially her childhood since we never really get to see tiny Taba and her relationship with her mother and Sojiro all that much. I really wish I did because it would absolutely be adorable for sure. But yeah, this was just a ramble I decided to make on a whim.

#Looking Into the Source Code (OOC) #Character Stats (Headcanons) #long post #have I mentioned I love futaba? #because I do #a lot

[gsmattingly]

Review "The Naked Island" ("Hadaka no shima")

I watched "The Naked Island" directed by Kaneto Shindô. The main actors are Nobuko Otowa as Toyo, the mother,

Taiji Tonoyama as Senta, the father, Shinji Tanaka as Tarô - the elder son, and Masanori Horimoto as Jirô - the younger son. These four make up a family that grows sweet potatoes on an island not far from the mainland (well, I assume it is one of the major islands of the Japanese chain of islands). This island has no water for drinking. It sits in the inland sea. Every day the parents make at least two trips to the mainland to get buckets of water to bring back to the island. Each of them, together or individually, carries up two large buckets that sit on a piece of wood that rests on their shoulder. They have to carry the water-filled buckets up a narrow path which goes up a very tall hill to where they live and cultivate plants . This does not look like an easy task. . It is almost a Sisyphean task. They do reach the top but they have to do it over and over again every day. There are some side characters. The younger son goes to school on the mainland. There is a teacher and a classroom of kids. Later there appears a priest. One thing of note for this film is that there is no dialogue. None. There is background music which is repeated throughout the movie. It is pleasant at first but you begin to wonder about it as it gets repeated day after day. There is also some singing by the school children once, I believe. So actually the names of the two boys may be in the script but you never hear their names. One does wonder why they don't have a cistern system to catch rain when it does rain or some mechanical device or conveyance to get the water up the hill. No reason is given. The movie goes through four seasons and you see some of their daily activities, although the main activity relates to the growing, harvesting and use of the sweet potatoes and of some type of grain and other normal daily activities including caring for some animals they have, meals, etc. This film is in black and white. The setting is really quite lovely. The viewer sees the acceptance by the family of their life. I believe this is set just after WWII and I think everyone has difficult times and this certainly illustrates that. I enjoyed the film although it is somewhat depressing seeing them go through these same days and hardships, day after day. Occasionally the boys play and laugh. Occasionally the mother and father have smiles on their faces, watching the boys, at the end of the day, taking a hot bath, etc. They do have some outings to the mainland which obviously are entertaining. This is a marvelous film. There is only one angry scene in the film when the mother spills one of her two buckets of water. The father walks a few steps down (they are in the middle of their cultivated area), looks at her and slaps her. It is more of a slap about her wasting water than in true anger. She doesn't really react. She accepts this. One is lead to believe she understands this and doesn't really have a problem with it. There is also a sad portion of the movie but I won't detail that here.

Although one might think that the two adults are actually farmers, they are both actors and are in many movies. In real life Shindô, the director, later married Nobuko Otowa, the mother in the film. Interestingly enough both Nobuko Otowa, who died first in real life, and later Shindô both had their ashes scattered on this island. There were many years and many films between this film and their deaths.

This film won numerous awards including the Grand Prix at the Moscow International Film Festival. In the classic films list, They Shoot Pictures Don't They, this film is number 876.

The release I watched is from Criterion and the print is excellent. There is a lot of supplemental material which I will watch today and over the next few days.

#films #Japanese

[ask-2p-hetaliaaa]

What would the 2ps do as youtubers?

2ps as youtubers:

Allen: Would be one of those fake ghost hunters that makes it onto Nuke's Top 5s.

"GUYS, GUYS, OHHH MYYY GODDD GUYYSSS,..... I THINK THAT WAS THE GHOOOSSTTT?? *pans to matt in a white sheet*"

Matt: Would upload funny out-of-context 5 second clips of his friends every 7 months. Gained popularity as a "top ironic humor figure"

Francois: His whole gimmick is staring into the camera for minutes on end without talking. People use him in reaction memes.

Oliver: Makes cooking videos, but in the style of Ted Nivision and twomad thanks to Allen's help with editing. Sometimes he swears in his videos, and when he does, his loyal following goes INSANE in the comments

Viktor: Makes audiobooks that peoples use as asmr to sleep. People who like Russian accents often flock to his videos as well

Xiao: Makes weed and vape reviews and 'hot boxes'; he collabs with matty smokes.

"WE'RE ABOUT TO HIT A FUCKIN OVER 9000 UHHHH DECIMIBITEABLES PUFF *coughing and gagging in mandarin*"

Luciano: Makes reviews of movies and games that have mafias and gangs. Is absolutely brutal in these critiques.

Flavio: Does makeup tutorials, fashion showcases, shopping vlogs, etc. Would basically be like the Lunch Club if it were full of drag queens

Lutz: Makes really obnoxious yet entertaining vlogs doing stupid shit around his country. Says offensive shit in a joking way that everyone is fine with. Has probably held illegal meetups in a mcdonalds

Kuro: "extreme japanese apoligizing" - makes videos along the lines of that, basically clowning on his own culture. occasionally makes anime reviews.

Gillen: Makes gaming videos out of his twitch streams. Sometimes Roland will just be walking in the background and go "Hi!!" and the chat will not shut up about him for next 2 minutes

Roland: He's like Sam O Nella Academy but Austrian- He'll mainly make parody videos of ww1 and ww2 because we all know the funny ww1 and 2 austria jokes. Since he can play guitar, he adds bits inspired by bill wurtz that are just jingles, ends up being used in memes

Andres: Uploads pirated, obscure Spanish music with blank descriptions and no other context

Egil: twomad videos, basically. everything he posts feels like adhd personified, at random points the video will go 200x speed and back to normal its chaotic

Loki: Is a prank channel, but actually funny because his pranks are "lets set shit on fire until the police get involved"

Denmark: His gimmick is making fun of Francois and trying to beat him in subscribers, but Francois doesn't even know he has a channel. People meme in a bad way like "look at this dumbass"

Bernard: Makes commentary videos like Memeulous and James Marriott, has an ongoing joke of making fun of the 1ps (in a friendly way). at random points a picture of Berwald will pop up with the vine boom sound effect

Thurston: Screams into his camera about things that make him mad, a bunch of teenage girls stan him because they think he's hot and relatable. He then made a video screaming about how much he hates his fanbase, which didn't help at all. It only attracted Bernard's fans who clowned on him

Hermes: Makes videos explaining the lore of Greek Mythology, in a girl-talk sort of way. He tried making true crime videos but kept putting his opinions in which nearly got him canceled.

Caligula: Too old to use youtube. Only has an account to like Luciano's videos.

Germania: Also too old to use youtube. But he does comment on the germanic countries videos with things like "LETS FUCKING GOOO"; has become the Justin Y. of 2p comment sections

Leonas and Franciszek: Have a couples channel that people HATE because they act so fake that it's dreadfully annoying. Has had videos made about them by Bernard, Lutz and Flavio

Anastasia: Makes videos about self-care for both men and women, similar to channels like Sexplanations. Also makes videos teaching young adults to cook simple meals, how to do unique hairstyles using wigs of different lengths and textures, how to have a clean house (making beds, doing laundry, organizing cabinets and fridges), etc. Has a large following of people who genuinely appreciate her work and motivation

Katya: Uploads vertical phone videos of her at casinos drinking champagne, playing darts, winning slot machines, etc

Egor: Similar to SomeOrdinaryGamers. Browses the deep web on his AmogOS system he made.

Raimonds: Viktor doesn't allow him to have a youtube channel

Paul: Takes videos of him rolling down hills and making fun of people at his school. Luckily doesn't gain much traction because people would definitely cyber bully him. Most of the adult 2ps have an agreement to not mention him in their videos lest their followers go after him

Wy: Takes behind the scenes videos of Oliver's videos; Her following is basically just Oliver's following who think she's his daughter (she's not) (This rumor caused a huge scandal within the Ollie simping twitter community)

Romeo: Doesn't have youtube, has TikTok and makes shitty e-boy thirst traps and POVs. Bernard wears his merch as satire in his videos.

#2ptalia #2p hetalia #ask 2p hetalia #asks #all of them #textposts #headcanons

[tl-notes]

Kobayashi’s Maid Dragon S2 Episode 10 Notes

I’m extremely not an expert in birds, but I tried to look these up to see if they were a species native to New York (since they’re similar to the sparrows we usually see around Kobayashi’s place). Apparently there are few similar-looking species in New York? My totally uninformed guess is that they may be house sparrows.

The sun sets in Japan relatively early (probably around 6:30pm when this episode takes place), which would make it entirely plausible that if she just flew east (with a slight northward angle) she’d find herself over New York in the early morning while most of the rest of the country is still dark.

These bumpy grey pads at the pedestrian part of the intersection here are known as (among other things) tactile paving; they’re to assist people who can’t fully rely on eyesight to get around.

Interestingly (imo), they were actually invented in Japan in the 60s (by a Miyake Seiichi), where today they’re extremely ubiquitous. They even show up later this episode!

They’re often referred to in Japan as 点字ブロック, tenji (Braille) blocks, and they tend to come in two types: the “dot” design, which indicates a place to stop (or an angle change, or more generally “caution”), and the “line” design which indicates you can safely keep going. They’re generally colored yellow in Japan, ideally making them stand out more to help people with impaired vision find them, and are mandated by law in most places public transport can be found (among others).

Not really a translation note, but “deer cola” felt especially funny in the context of all the horse medicine stuff. 

I guess “[animal] [drink]” is a common branding device in-universe, given the crab beer Kobayashi’s always drinking.

Also not really a translation note, but the difference between how “hard” Kanna and Chloe are running to be at the same speed was a nice animation touch.

遊んだ遊んだ！ asonda asonda!

One feature of the Japanese language is a very heavy use of repetition. This includes “reduplication,” a linguistic term for creating words by repeating a root (e.g. a “boo-boo” in English or the dara-dara example below in Japanese), but also just like… saying the same word multiple times, as Chloe does here.

Typically this is done for emphasis or to help increase clarity: if you’ve worked in a Japanese office, you’ve likely heard someone in a phone conversation say desu desu in response to someone asking for confirmation. 

This acceptance of repetition sort of extends beyond the obvious uses like this as well: for example, personal pronouns are much less common; instead (if the subject isn’t dropped) you’ll often just use the person’s name again. You’ll notice similar trends with other types of words as well.

Not to mention the ubiquity of things like otsukare.

This often ends up being a challenge for translators, because reusing words in English (when it’s not for an obvious reason) tends to stick out rather unflatteringly, even if they aren’t that close together. 

(Like when I overuse “hence” in these notes.)

This “Christ” in the Japanese was “ったく” (short for 全く mattaku, but just used as a semi-generic exclamation). I mostly bring this up because it’s a good example of a word that doesn’t work out of its cultural context; e.g. it wouldn’t make any sense for a fantasy character to say “Christ,” but since this is an American speaker it works just fine (and helps distinguish that fact, even). 

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but English uses a lot of “explicit reference” words like this, that can break immersion if put in the mouths of characters who wouldn’t have exposure to said reference—which can be annoyingly limiting when trying to write dialogue sometimes.

As a bit of a culture shock for a lot of Americans I’ve met, most Japanese homes tend to have wall mounted air conditioning units, like this one, that are only for heating/cooling the one room they’re in. (Many also have a “Dry” setting that makes them act kind of like a dehumidifier as well.) It’s common to not have them in every room, like bedrooms, however.

This is in contrast to the central air conditioning system used by a majority of homes in the US (though type/use of AC in the US varies a lot by region; less common in the north for example)—and places like the UK where apparently residential AC units of any kind are quite rare.

You may have noticed that the doors between rooms always seem closed in Kobayashi’s apartment. That’s not just to make the backgrounds simpler, it’s also a good habit to keep if you’re going to be running the AC!

“Kobayashi, are you お休み today?” 

“Yeah, お休み.”

お休み o-yasumi, is a noun form of the 休む yasumu, to rest. The word has a variety of applications, as we see here. A day off work/school, i.e. a rest day? お休み. Want to say “good night” to someone before bed? Also お休み.

In this case, it’s not even necessarily clear it’s being said as a pun; as mentioned earlier, repetition is a common feature of the language, so despite the yawn there wouldn’t really be any reason for Kanna to think Kobayashi was about to go to nap or anything.

“Laze about” here is だらだら dara-dara, another phenomime (擬態語 gitaigo in Japanese)—one of those words that mimics the “sound” of an idea/concept/state, which don’t actually make a sound per se.

These phrases aren’t necessarily childish or anything (overuse of them can be, but you can find them even in news articles and political speeches for example). They are, however, used frequently by children, and by adults talking to children, as they’re very “easy” words: they’re expressive, they capture useful daily-life concepts, and they usually roll off the tongue. You’ll notice, for example, that Kanna uses them a lot.

Kanna has a very interesting way of talking actually, which I’ll touch on a bit more later.

Kobayashi’s “bean jam” here is あんみつ anmitsu, a traditional Japanese dessert (technically a spinoff of mitsumame). It typically is a mix of red beans (and/or red peas), agar (an algae-based gelatin equivalent), some fruit, some variety of rice flour product (shiratama in this case, similar to mochi), and a syrup (often black sugar based).

You can find it year-round, but it has a strong summer association and is even used as a summer season word. (It’s typically chilled and you can often get it with ice cream as an ingredient.)

It’s also sometimes paired with a green-tea flavored something as well (e.g. ice cream, agar, or syrup). The trinity of green tea, red beans (aka azuki), and shiratama makes what I like to think of as the “Japanese S’mores Flavor (for Adults)”. No I will not elaborate on this.

I will though point out the shaved ice flavor Kobayashi ordered later in the episode:

え？今スイカ様子あった？

A word of note here for language learners is 様子 yousu, which has a lot of definitions, but in cases like this where it’s attached to a noun or phrase means roughly “the appearance of __” or “an indication of ___” etc. In actual use, it typically means something that makes you think of whatever ___ is—or the lack of something that would make you think ___.

For example here, it’s like “Watermelon? Where’d that come from?” (since the TV was talking about a different dessert-y food entirely). 

Or an unrelated example: “I think that guy is hiding something” → “Really? I haven’t seen any yousu of that.” In other words, it can be a lot like “sign,” as in “I’ve seen no sign of ___.”

These color-bordered envelopes (originally colored based on the flag of the country of origin) used to be the standard for air mail, domestic or international, though they haven’t been required for several decades.

That said, they’re still popular for that “ooh, international mail!” feel (at least in Japan) and you can buy them at most places that sell stuff like envelopes. As here, they’re often used in media to immediately convey that a letter came from outside Japan.

Kanna (and Kobayashi) says エアメール, lit. “air mail” in English, which is used colloquially for international mail specifically, rather than “mail sent by plane.”

They’re having what’s called 冷やしそうめん hiyashi soumen, chilled/cold soumen for lunch here. (Soumen being a thin wheat noodle; udon but thinner.) As Kanna says, it’s very easy to make!

Basically you just boil it, wash it in cold water, add ice, get some sort of sauce to dip it in, and you’re done! It’s a popular quick meal in summer, and much easier than the more involved nagashi soumen setups you may have seen elsewhere, where they slide the noodles down a chute for you to try to grab and eat. (It’s basically the same meal aside from that though.)

(You can of course add more to it, but as we see here, you don’t really have to.)

The type of tea here, for the curious, is 麦茶 mugicha, barley tea. Mugi is the general name for cereals/grains including wheat (komugi), barley (oomugi), rye (kuromugi or rye mugi), and oats (enbaku or oat mugi). It’s incredibly common in Japan (and much of East Asia), where it's the household summer drink.

It has no caffeine like many other teas, and has a bunch of various nutritional benefits, so it’s considered a good way to stay hydrated as you’re sweating buckets in the muggy Japanese summer weather.

帽子した？  boushi shita? した！ shita!

I thought this was a cute way of phrasing this question/answer, and a good example of the “parent and their young child” way these two talk.

The suru (past tense shita) verb used here is the ultimate in “generic verb,” and it basically doesn’t get any simpler grammar-wise to phrase something as “noun+suru” like Kobayashi does here (even the particles are dropped). 

Kanna, for her part, doesn’t respond with a “yes” or etc, but instead just repeats back the verb itself in confirmation.

Just to note another one of those words like dara-dara: bura-bura, used for things like wandering around, doing something (or nothing) casually/aimlessly, or (with one bura) for something dangling/swinging in a more literal sense, like a spider, slack yo-yo, or wind chime.

These booklets are a common homework assignment for practicing kanji; you can see along the left side there it shows the stroke order, with the first block giving an example to trace over & showing where to start each stroke.

Each character is made up of radicals (e.g. “hot” above: 日 and 耂), which each have a standard way to write them. There’s 214 such radicals (though many are pretty niche; only about ~50 of them are needed to make most characters), and once you get a hang of them it makes learning new characters much easier (not too different from learning word spellings in English imo).

Kanna is repeating out loud the reading for the “hot” character as she writes it.

In addition to the above workbooks (which usually involve both kanji and math problems at Kanna’s grade), elementary school summer homework in Japan typically involves doing an illustrated diary (not a daily one necessarily) and some sort of research project about a subject of your choice. (Think kind of like a small science fair project).

The “research” project part is pretty expansive, and you can typically even do something more arts & craftsy for it.

Manhole covers in a lot of Japanese municipalities feature art representative of the area. For example, the city of Chofu, where the author of GeGeGe no Kitaro lived most of his life, has several with art of that series.

(Photo from https://www.gotokyo.org/jp/spot/1734/index.html)

I mentioned earlier that Kanna has an interesting way of speaking. Probably a better way to put it is that she has a pretty convincingly childish way of speaking (despite the monotone). That is, she uses simple grammar and “easy” words most of the time, but then throws out random big words and fancy idioms from time to time that make you go “...where did you learn that?”

In this case, the phrase she uses is 巷で人気 chimata de ninki. Chimata originally means like a fork (in the road), and since those are often places with lots of people passing through, it expanded to mean “the undefined place where people talk about ~stuff~.” So it’s used for “many people are saying~” or “word on the street is~” types of situations (or “talk of the town,” as here).  

It’s kind of an “adult” word though; for example the character for it isn’t included in the jouyou kanji (the 2000+ that are taught in elementary through high school). Hence Kobayashi’s reaction here.

The word she uses for “protected” here is 死守 shishu. The word is the combination of the characters for “death” and “protect,” ~meaning to protect something even at risk to one’s life (to the death, as it were).

It's a word that you learn in third grade in the Japanese education system—the same grade Kanna is in!

Both of these types of signs are common sights in residential areas like this: depending on where you live, it can feel like there’s always some sort of construction project going on, and Japan’s many family/individually-owned businesses like this tend to be closed on various extra days during the summer (and certain other times) to allow for time off.  

In this case, them being closed August 12th~16th implies they’re taking off for Obon (and probably leaving town to visit family).

The word Kobayashi uses here is 風物詩 fuubutsu-shi. Fuubutsu refers to something that makes up part of the “scenery” of a place or season, in a pretty broad sense. This shi typically means “poem.”

So fuubutsu-shi is originally a type of poem celebrating a season or a scene of natural beauty, that sort of thing. From that, it’s also now (more popularly) used to describe things that are representative of a season; the kind of stuff you say “it’s not winter until…” about, or “you know it’s summer when…” (It can also be used for places + seasons, like the ice sculptures of Hokkaido winters, or even summer Comiket in Tokyo.)

They’re very similar to the season words I’ve mentioned previously, though they’re far less strict about what counts as one. Here, Kobayashi’s could be referring to the whole package experience of “having to take cover and wait out a sudden heavy rain, despite it being mostly clear skies a few minutes ago,” which you could call fuubutsu-shi (summed up probably as like 夏の雨宿り etc.)

In contrast the relevant season word here would probably be yuudachi (or niwaka-ame), a word referring to the short, sudden bouts of rain that tend to fall (from cumulonimbus clouds, the makings of which are noticeable in the backgrounds before this) on summer evenings.

Feels like in season one she woulda eaten it. Three cheers for character growth!

The parentheticals there are just the “English” in hiragana/katakana.

Kobayashi’s comment (nihongo de ok, roughly “you can just use Japanese”) is an internet-born term people originally would use to reply to someone who said something that didn’t make any sense, had terrible grammar, or was so full of katakana loanwords it was hard to read etc.

Kanna says this line in English, and while I have no proof at all, my guess is that the specific choice of “wicked” was taken from the translation of “maji yabakune?” used in season one.

#maidragon #Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid #kobayashi-san chi no maid dragon #translation notes #anime

[fleabaqs]

TIPS FOR WRITING LATINOS FOR DUMMIES! 

because y’all can’t seem to get anything right.

under the cut you will find a lot of useful (maybe) information when writing latino characters. please consider leaving a like/reblog if you find this useful.

                                                      FIRST OF:

yes, karen, we will call you gringo. that’s not on the table, that’s not a discussion. all latinos use the word gringo, and if you say it’s a racist slur ONE MORE TIME, i swear you will regret it, filha da puta.

                                                                   SECOND:

NOT ALL LATINOS SPEAK SPANISH!! i know, crazy, right??? brazilians speaks PORTUGUESE, yes PORTUGUESE!!! bitch

yes, portuguese and spanish are really similar, but don’t write the “even though i speak only spanish/portuguese i can understand spanish/portuguese” depending on the country/state you’re born, you CAN’T. so just avoid that. 

if you’re character/fc was born in united states, they probably won’t be considered latino in latin america. PERIOD. that’s not up for discussion either. 

if your character/fc was born in latin america, he ISN’T going to be considered a person of colour if they have white skin. take for example the family from one day at a time. in usa they can be talking about racism and everything, but in latin america you only suffer racism if you have clearly black/asian descent. plus: if you’re white and you decided to shit rules into racism in latin america (at least in brazil) you’ll probably get beaten up. not a joke. and as a white latina, i support that.

WHY are you all so lazy? If you wanna write ANY character, from ANY country that is not yours = YOU SEARCH INFO ABOUT THAT COUNTRY!! i swear your hand is not going to fall of! im taking as example my country, if you wanna write a brazilian, search about the states! a cearense and a gaúcho are TOTALLY different!!! a carioca and paulista are totally different even tho rio de janeiro and são paulo are so close. DECIDE the country, the area, the state and city of your character!

moving on from geography: other types of stereotypes!! NOT ALL LATINA MOMS ARE CRAZY AND CONSERVATIVES! some are pretty chill! really… there are moms who won’t go crazy about anything. so don’t be afraid to write a mom that is okay with their child going out at night, being LGBT or being pro choice. okay???

okay, but why aren’t you using the word “latine”? most latino community are against this word. shocking, right? everyone has their reasons why they don’t like it, my case is because my family is really poor/my grandparents didn’t go to school and everything and as much as they would respect and understand non binary people, they would not be able to use it. not even my mom, who is a teacher, is able to use it. she respects their existence, but they gotta respect other people existence too. my family is one of the lucky ones, there are people in worse conditions. when using the word latine, UNDERSTAND the background of the character! 

ASIANS LATINOS EXISTS!! my god, this is a hard one. i never see asian latino representation in unitedstaten midia. like, what’s that about? they don’t have to choose between their ethnicities!! now shut up, karen

we DON’T call unitedstatens americans, or united states america! i don’t know what happened in their education system, but they really gotta understand america is a fucking continent with more than 30 countries. you’re not special, desgraçados parasitas do caralho

if i see one more latino drug dealer and latina sex symbol, IM GONNA KILL A GRINGO!! that’s not all we are!

we will get offended if you say we are from a country we are not, after we already said our country. i know it’s hard for you to memorize more than five countries, but i gonna be cheering for you!

most latinos hate, or at least dislike, our colonizers. in brazil, we make jokes about portuguese people all the time and we will ask for the gold they stole from us at any given opportunity. so when writing a latino character, know who colonized their country.

latinos are clean. i know this may sound a little off for non latinos, but our sense of personal hygiene is really important. again, this variates from country to country, but in brazil we are thought that we should brush our teeths after every meal (at least 4 times a day), and that we should shower EVERY day. no, no, don’t come with that unitedstaten shit about showering only when you exercise, or that during summer going to the pool is showering BECAUSE IT’S NOT, THAT’S FUCKING DISGUSTING HIJA DE PUTA. if your character has access to clear water and personal hygiene products, he will do this kind of things.

just... read abou that country you wanna write. here goes some ideias: *country* traditional food, *country* sports, *country* music (in this one, learn how to say the language of the country in the language of the country. example: don’t search “portuguese songs”, search instead for músicas brasilieiras. don’t search for “mexican songs” search for canciones mexicanas.), *country* books/writers, *language of the country* basic phrases! ]

latin america is part of three americas! america is devided in three. north america = mexico, and the other two; central america = cuba, costa rica, etc; south america = brazil, chile, etc. DON’T go to my ask to say “oH mExIcO iS nOt NoRtH aMeRiCa” because i swear i’ll track you down and shove a atlas down your throat!

latin america is not just tropical vibes, dumb bitch!! we have snow too! this is fucking brazil.  and this is argENTINA! 

just remember these facts when writing brazilians: brazil is the second country with the biggest japanese community, second country out of germany with more germans, and get this!! brazil has more lebaneses than lebanon.

latino accent when is speaking english is not just lydia from odaat. it changes. 

english is second or third or fourth (and so it goes) language for latinos. keep in mind that mistakes are made. and most latinos (myself included) love their accent!! we want you to listen to our voice and ask where we’re from, and that gets to: 

WE ARE COCKY! yes, we are very cocky about our culture, get over it! 

most latinos cried/got really happy when parasite won the oscar. now you ask me, why are you writing this on a guide on how to write fucking latinos??? well, my dudes, latinos are tired of imperialism. just that. don’t write a character that worships usa culture (can we call hamburguers and coke culture, my ladies? I DONT THINK SO), even if they moved to usa. “it’s also important to remember that the american dream is sold to all of us, since forever.”

i guess this is it??? just, talk to a latino and ask “is this correct?” when in doubt. we are indeed very energetic and we talk loud and a lot, but we don’t bite. writing us is difficult, you’ll probably get something wrong. but if we see that you did basic research, we will get really happy about it. bye, gringos!

edit 001: this link and this link are great! use them.

edit 002: any fc can be latino! ANY FC CAN BE LATINO! fun fact: the brazilian passport is one of the most expensive ones, because anyone can pass as brazilian. anyone can be latino! wong yukhei? big brazilian energy! madison beer? can be latina. ester expósito? latina. kim taeyeon? I HEAR THE LATINA DRUMS!! idk, kj apa? can be latino too! 

not all latinos are good dancers and not all latin dances are salsa. check “#latinodancecheck” on tiktok, if you have one. 

there are differences between spanish speaking surnames and brazilian ones. first of: the number of surnames changes with the country. second: spanish speaking countries surnames end in “ez”, while brazilian surnames end in “es”. examples: rodriguez, rodrigues; lópez, lopes; hernandez, fernandes; martinez, martins. but sometimes, we exchange surnames. you can find a brazilian with the surname “gonzalez” instead of gonçalves, if their family comes from a spanish speaking country.

this ask sent by the lovely anon! 

this other ask sent another sweet anon!

this.

#rph #rp guide #writing help #i don't know what to tag #rph br #this was supposed to be a rant #and ended up being a sort of guide ?? idk

[putschki1969]

H-el-ical// Q&A Corner（Vol#1）

Today at 20:00* (JST) the first episode of H-el-ical//’s new video project "H-el-ical// Q&A Corner” will be broadcast on the official YouTube Channel. Please look forward to it! (Twitter source)

[Note: In her tweet, Hikaru says the video is airing at 22:00 in English. Please note that it is 20:00]

VIDEO LINK

SUBSCRIBE to Hikaru’s YouTube Channel!

H-el-ical// Official

Summary

Hikaru is answering questions which she received in the comment section of THIS video. I agree with @chibalein and @concretebadger, the BGM sounds like something we haven’t heard before so we could get a new release pretty soon.

Anyways, this is part 1 of the Q&A Corner. She will answer the other questions in a second part. Without further ado, let’s get to the questions:

Team udon, team soba, team ramen or team something else? When it comes to udon and soba, she prefers udon. Even thoug h you traditionally eat soba for New Year’s Eve in Japan, Hikaru always eats udon :P  As for ramen, she really loves it, especially miso ramen. Hikaru wonders what could be meant by something else...maybe pasta? She loves that too.

How about selling postcards, calendars and clearfiles with her photo as merch? Hikaru is kinda shy so she hasn’t sold any of those visual goods so far. But if the opportunity arises in the future, she will do it. Please have some more patience.

Favourite character in Kimetsu no Yaiba? I think she says Tamayo. [Don’t know any of the characterts]

These days everyone worries about their immune system and how to strengthen it. Anything particular she does to take care of her health? She can’t really go to the gym anymore because of corona so she does her best to do ?? every day.

A question referring to the chicken tatsuta burger which is sold in Japanese Mc Donalds. This year there was a collaboration between the tatsuta burger and the popular song Touch ( タッチ ), the opening song of the anime of the same name. Hikaru posted this tweet back in February. Since this is very nostalgic Hikaru is supposed to share an anecdote from her student days. Something about her school being big and at a sports festival they were split into four groups and her group was in charge of supoort...[not really sure on this one]

Favourite type of flower? She loves baby’s breath.

Would she ever take on the challenge of singing enka? It’s super difficult so probably not. She is not sure that opportunity will arise for her any time soon.

Would she ever like to do a narration job in the future? She doesn’t wanna rule it out so it might be a possibility. But since she is from a rural area in Japan, her dialect and her intonation might not be what is wanted for a narration job. She would have to work really hard to talk in what’s considered to be standard Japanese or whatever.

Will her backpack ever be available in other colours? And will there be a second series of the Gachi backpack? Many fans said that they would totally buy different colours if the price was cheaper HOWEVER black is actually the cheapest colour to produce so it’s a little difficult. Eventually there will be a questionnaire though. As for a second series, she is definitely taking it into consideration.

What kind of child was Hikaru? Has she always loved singing? She was a super open and social child at age 3~4. To the point where she would befriend total strangers at the park for which she would usually be scolded by her parents. Now as an adult she is much more reserved and an indoor person. And yes, she has ALWAYS loved singing.

Any power meal she has? Not really. She doesn’t really eat a lot before singing. But after an event/recording etc she always feels like she deserves some sort of reward meal. For example, after finishing that shoot she will probably go an have a hamburger. She loves junk food so she will typically gravitate towards that.

Any plans for future videos? Anything she would like to try? At the beginning of the year, she posted her first cover which was quite the challenge for her. But she would like to continue doing stuff like that and challenge herself further.

Where is her recommended power spot? When she does sight-seeing, she likes to visit temples, shrines and castles. But honestly, her bed is the place that provides the most comfort and strength.

Any game she has recently been into? Her younger sister recently bought some Switch game called Bokujou Monogatari so Hikaru has been borrowing her sister’s Switch to play from time to time. She has also played older versions of the game.

How was it to sing “stone cold” at ANIMAX MUSIX? She was super nervous, it was like her heart was beating out of her chest. Still, it was a lot of fun and she is glad for that opportunity because otherwise she probaby wouldn’t have had a chance to sing it.

#kalafina #news #hikaru #helical #helical video series #ahhh #excited #but damn it #I have a workshop at at that T_T #h-el-ical// #hikaru// #helical QA corner #summary #my summary

[paraclete0407]

Stuff I might never get to do (from books I read after I thought I had mastered the Bible / Scripture)

1.

Theories of ‘political vision’ - ex. Obama’s ‘A Promised Land,’ or from someone I miss, UKPM David Cameron’s ‘For the Record.’  Also records of military careers and the consequences and lessons therefrom, particularly Gen., Prof. Stanley A. McChrystal’s ‘My Share of the Task’ - decades of one meal a day, utterly excellent love-letters and wisdom-writings to his wife, sweeping reports, culminating in the operation that ‘extrajudicially or para-judicially executed’ bin Laden.  I also never forgot the NYTimes photo of the SEAL operator’s back-muscles.  My giant Obama critique, however, was one of those ‘grandfather Hall of Presidents’ books that I want to postpone.

2.

My mistakes and wishes.  Ex. the woman I wanted to marry in early 2011; I had cut off my parents for 6 months and called one night my mom; she got really drunk that night, flirted with foreigners from [ultra-mercenary cram-school that hires anyone], got terrorized by [b/Black man of the type who clearly believes ‘As I am b/Black I know everything worth knowing and can terrorize, antagonize, demonize anyone and anything for the greater glory of my own ego / Chairman Mao].  Culminating in me in the ladies’ room telling her to get up and I told her so, going back to the pub-room and threatening the mercenaries, and finally being ‘mogged,’ masculinity-compromised or eclipsed / overpowered, by the man who was either her surrogate father-figure, rapist, seducee-turned-wrist-breaking-controller, no one really knew, and my ex-father-figure who however either a) failed to bait the trap properly and/or b) failed to communicate the true meaning and message and purpose of his love for me, to me.  But, it was instrumental in blowing what was probably the best job I ever had, and the only job that ever asked me back. 

After that I started honestly trying to live for either a) the younger generation b) ‘just me.’  I also made a number of hard or soft promises to students involving me writing stuff.  Don’t say ‘will’ or ‘might’ to Koreans b/c it kind of spiritually translates in to ‘shall’ or ‘must’ or ‘has to.’  They’re the poor in spirit from what I can tell.  

I also drove around California for a while, missed a job-offer from a Catholic university in [central Korean city], and thought a lot about F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Studied Emmanuel ‘ethics-as-first-philosophy love-of-wisdom-converting-into-wisdom-of-love’ Levinas a bit, read ‘Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother’ and couldn’t sleep

3.

Sundry ‘Teacher Dream(s).’  I’d been hoping in a way that ‘Free Food for Millionaires’ author Min Jin Lee, JD Yale etc, would put this all in her ‘American Hagwon’ but she’s been baking fancy cakes and writing offside / deflective lit. about Japanese gays for like 10 years while NK marched on in real life killing people and Koreans were also dying from numerous causes, running away from home, economically induced suicide, amazing shame- and rape-culture: cashing in.  I remember my last night at the hagwon, a time of bonhomie, when I perhaps might’ve even said, ’Y’know, can I un-resign-in-protest?’  Boss, What’ll you miss most about Korea, Korean women?’  Me (playing the fool), ‘There are Korean women in America.’  Boss, (sforzando), ‘Gyopo women.’

My ‘best guess’ anyway at ‘edubusiness’ was sth I labored at off and on for now like 6 years called ‘Three Kings’ which is partly about a white ex-literary agent family named ‘Foch’ after the French Generalissime who actually won WW1, famous for his ‘moral factor’ theory of war as well as his remark, ‘This is not a peace but an armistice for 20 years.  He makes 400,000 dollars in his 1st year of college by advising his roommate to publish his ‘freshman’ novel with an extreme ‘point,’ not worrying about winning every possible reader, just let me edit all the sign-post-phrases and tell you what I firmly believe you were trying to write, sell this novel for 2million dollars, marry the Korean girl across the hall, forget RU, cultivate life and love with your stylus, and I’ll continue to march on simultaneously trying to promote love while reading everyone and everything semi-against or [angle / thrust-vector to] their grain (for their own good).  Later he starts a school with his two friends, an MD/PhD program dropout from LA and an MBA ex-Samsung Managing Director or something.  But in the end his MD/PhD friend can’t stop thinking about [student’s] amazing breasts and [MBA] friend can’t stop hating and short-selling himself w/r/t marriage and self-regard b/c he’s stuck in the other-always-has-more-money-always-more-money-to-make mentality.  In the end the protagonist resigns in protest from the company he himself designed, developed, planned, etc. but didn’t have the money to call his own after reaching the position of ‘Joint Department Head’ which is kind of like ‘Chief of Staff’ to a president at a much smaller scale.  He’s a devout literal Christian or at least Christianist who wishes the world were Christian and he reflects in the end on the Longfellow poem about the Three Kings who ‘know King Herod’s hate’ and had to travel back to their homelands a different way.  There is also a possibly-to-be-deleted ‘Interludio Meridiana’ where he happens across the molested constantly male-gazed student in Nonhyeon (a neighborhood South of the Han River but not at all like the PSY song), starts to hear Palestrina’s ‘Sicut Cervus’ (listen to it on YouTube - Palestrina’s polyphony philosophy is one of the crowns of human art) in his head, wanders down to the bus depot and finds that his thoughts / creativity etc. have become cathected, chained to, or at least led by memory, and he has joined a ‘chain of being’ that connects the past to the future.  

4.

‘Bethlehem Dream’ - kind of my homage to the forementioned Kim Minju of IZ*ONE, my last favorite pop-star before assuring Christian friend I’d stop following K-pop (I’m against BlackPink and their entire organization).  Connects to all my dreams and theories of education - including my extreme disillusionment with education, and sympathy for anyone made the ‘beneficiary’ of the latest theory or tool - as well my homage to the school that most closely approximates my dream school, Prof,. Pastor, Dr. Chancellor John Piper’s Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis.  And also, women’s desire to have children / babies, even without husbands, men’s desire to bear spiritual fruit with or without traditional fellowship.

5.

Masculinity in novels.  Not Norman Mailer Philip Roth stuff but novels that can lens reality from the top down and not get addicted to some or other cupidity or method of endearing / charming the audience, which often makes them stupider or causes them to regard hidden truth as an outright lie and/or triviality.  MJL’s ‘Free Food for Millionaires’ was pretty masculine; better is billionaire Michael Kim’s ‘Offerings,’ a novel I wish I could teach someone only I can’t find a good student / reader and maybe I myself missed the point and only thought I got it.

Thinking quitting while ahead - I really don’t know whether adding to people’s minds and knowledge at this point in Time is good or whether writing amounts to feasting the already glutted, furnishing them further excuses for disbelief and inaction and alienating / dividing them from the hungry and poor.  I like a song called ‘Love Song for No. 1.’  Remember talking about a walk in the woods I took, understanding something about the Other’s first language the authenticity of this language and its nativity to their understanding and ‘originary’ or ‘birth-mother’ identity or ‘self-system.’  Not something to tell your Anglo-but-ish-they-were-Teutonic biological parents because they will make like they want to backhand your head off then spend years denying they’re either racist, non-believers, or what I have come to call anti-believers; people who amid ‘Delta Covid Summer’ are trying to destroy the beliefs of others.  Also Dr. R.C Sproul Ligonier Ministries, ‘Forgetfulness is apostasy.’

6.

‘Flowers on Water.’  Kind of my homage to Krystal Jung Soojung of ‘hieroglyphic’ girl-group f(x) and later IMO excellent actress, her best moment perhaps the final episode of ‘My Lovely Girl,’ a shocking and awesome scene that appears to talk about Resurrection and Eternity.  The protagonist is another cynical edubusinessman who is thinking about mass-death, getting mad at mainstream American Christianity for singing songs while people were drowning, and finally on Google Books comes across a teacher-poem from 1881 titled ‘Flowers,’ for a group of rather hapless seemingly American Indian students in California as well as critiques of educational praxis which, in 1881, were identical to what they are today.  ‘God is sovereign in all things’ - such a difficult category.  I abandoned this novel for a number of reasons such as the belief that I might be able to reverse-engineer Brad Thor or something for a quick buck.  Went to Half Price Books (now closed) where they had a picture of the Jackson Five over the toilet in the men’s room.  I read a bit of a one-dollar Brad Thor book about Russia but on the way on home I once started once again dreaming mytically about Korean girls / women as it began to snow and thinking about ‘Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming’ (’Es Ist Ein Rosentsprungen) the German Nativity song which Michael Praetorius composed at least in part in response to the appalling Reformation Wars and out of a hope or wish that remembrance of Christ’s birth could somehow reunite the Church.  This also made me think about a high school I admire / respect and my old friend and his now-divorced wife with whom I many times fantasized about singing and talking with again; and whom I kind of wish I could tell the author of ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ remarried his first wife eventually but IDK what good it is to give already-dreaming people more dreams either.  

It’s 9:35 AM and my ‘insomnia’ type notebook-postings haven’t made me any new friends in a while.  My last thing is just, if you care about Education or young girls / American women / culture / schools, achievement, heroines, stories, or for that matter Bible-translation or the latter-day odysseys of the nominal Episcopalian Church, with trembling heart, try to reflect on Headmaster Josiah Bunting III’s ‘All Loves Excelling.’  

One of my favorite Christian songs is ‘The Death of King David’

And God said that day shall dawn

to bring that flow’r newly born

from thy stem in fullness growing

in fragrance sweet night and morn

all My people shall adorn

with Breath of life bestowing

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[birdwholanded]

Stealing Buddha’s Dinner and the Buddhist Scriptures review

    Both are interesting books. In Stealing Buddha’s Dinner by Nguyen, the text is divided into chapters based on foods like Pringles, Forbidden Fruit, Dairy Cone, Fast Food Asian, Toll House Cookies, School Lunch, American Meat, Green Sticky Rice Cakes, Down With Grapes, Bread and Honey, Salt Pork, Holiday Tamales,Stealing Buddah’s Dinner, Ponderosa, Mooncakes, Cha Gio. They are vignettes. Stealing Buddah’s Dinner is a memoir and coming of age story. It relates life in Vietnam to life in America in the way that she ventured from Vietnam to start a new life in America. I enjoyed the whole book because of the difference of cultures and culture shock.  It was July 1975 when people were fleeing Vietnam on boats and they were chasing cars to try to escape from the war taking place. People in Saigon knew that the war had been lost and that the children were going to be put into reeducation camps. She was worried that some of her relatives would not get to come to America.  Bich Minh Nguyen immigrated to the United States from Vietnam in the 1970’s fleeing the Vietnam War taking place at the time. She and her father moved to Grand Rapids to start an American life. Her father got a job at the North American Feather. She discusses eating at Dairy Cone, McDonalds, Burger King, having Chef Boyardee meals, vanilla wafers, and typical American food. She talks about having to assimilate in a new way of life and noticing the differences between what she had known to what she has to learn now. Her father does not know anything about how to adapt with learning American customs and the way of life. He has to learn how to navigate through an entirely different world. She and her friends discuss changing their names to American names to fit into the American society better and so people could pronounce them instead of butchering their Vietnamese names. She questions her identity as an Asian American because she idealizes herself to be blonde haired and white like everyone else she sees. She feels like she doesn’t fit in after she first moves to Grand Rapids. She doesn’t know how to identify herself and feels like an outsider. Buddhism plays a role in her upbringing because there was a Buddha statue in her home in Grand Rapids and her grandmother would meditate by it. Her father and grandmother participated in the events at the Buddhist temple and they contributed a lot to rebuilding it and getting new pews for it and creating its new image and identity.       Buddhism is a religion where one seeks Enlightenment and the ways of reaching it. It talks about the various hells one can go to, it discusses if one will get reincarnated as a different animal in the next life. My favorite sections of the Buddhist Scriptures are The Realms of Rebirth, Karma Tales,The Three Jewels, Proving the Buddah, The Ascetic Ideal, The Direct Path to Enlightenment, and Wisdom and Compassion. The three jewels of Buddhism are divided into Buddha, Sangha and Dharma. The Buddha is the fully enlightened one, the Dharma are the teachings expounded by the Buddha and the sangha is the monastic order of Buddhism that practices Dharmas. It then ventures out into the sections Upaya, Shila and Dhyana. Dharma is the ultimate reality. Upaya is defined as being a term used to refer to an aspect of guidance along the Buddhist paths to liberation where a conscious voluntary action is driven by incomplete reasoning about its direction. Shila are Buddhist ethics. Dhyana is the training of the mind commonly translated as meditation to withdraw the mind from automatic responses to sense impressions and leading to a state of perfect awareness. My favorite section of Stealing Buddha’s Dinner was the conclusion because I like how Nguyen went to Vietnam again when she was in graduate school to see her grandmother. She got to partake of Vietnamese food like Cha Gio, which is a spring roll. It is interesting that she gets to appreciate her heritage in her young adulthood. She reconnected with who she really is and where she came from.     It talks about Buddhism. Buddhism deals with the Buddah, reincarnation, nirvana, enlightenment, The Noble Path, etc.  It refers to it in the way that it discusses reincarnation, and where people go when they pass away, if they get to come back again. In Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, Nguyen went to a Catholic school where she had to pray to God, but she did not follow Catholicism. She told the instructor that her household was buddhist and she gave her a letter from her family saying that she could not pray to God anymore. Nguyen was thinking about the idea of reincarnation and if she would have a better next life. She contemplates heaven, hell and nirvana. 1980’s music is referenced in this book, classic or typical American food is talked about. She was delighted to eat out at McDonalds and Burger King.     I relate to this memoir because growing up, my family and I did the opposite of what she did. She appreciated all things American and comfort food because she did not identify with her Vietnamese heritage, while my parents, my brother and I would specifically seek out Asian cuisine like Indian, Thai, Japanese, and Vietnamese restaurants. I was introduced to them when I was nine because there were Vietnamese restaurants by my dad’s work and on the weekends or Friday nights after work, we would meet my dad there sometimes and eat a buhn or papaya salad. My family frequented the Vietnamese restaurant so often that we became friends with the owners. It was a mom and pop type of restaurant with limited seating. It was a small restaurant. My dad got to order special things that weren’t even on the menu. On the wall of the restaurant, they had a whiteboard with daily specials and one of the specials was chickens’ feet salad. I never ordered it but I kind of wanted to see how it would taste. On the wall of the restaurant, the owners would play peaceful scenes from Vietnam on the television and it was interesting for me as a child and teenager to see the different way of life and culture in Vietnam. We are the opposites of her because we are a Caucasian family in America willingly seeking out Asian cuisines, while she comes from an Asian background and wants to eat typical American food. My family does not have any ties to Vietnam but I would like to visit it one day.     She ties her American side to her Vietnamese side and compares the life that her father sacrificed by fleeing Vietnam to coming to Grand Rapids and starting over.     In The Buddhist Scriptures in the chapter of Wisdom and Compassion, I highlighted the text, “Instead, all who traverse the path to buddhahood must develop extraordinary compassion and extraordinary wisdom, yet there is an apparent contradiction between these two. Compassion leads to a dedication to provide assistance to other persons yet wisdom brings the understanding that ultimately there are no persons because there is no self.” I do not understand why the text says that there are no persons because there is no self. I maybe believe that is said because when one loses his sense of self by helping others out all of the time, he doesn’t recognize that he is himself any more because he is not dedicated to his self interests but interested in helping out others. That makes sense when the quote states, “Compassion leads to a dedication to provide assistance to other persons.” One becomes selfless in the pursuit of being compassionate. I also highlighted the quote, “ In his first sermon, the Buddha had described a middle path between the extremes of self-indulgence and asceticism, both of which he had experienced prior to his enlightenment. Here and in other Mahayana sutras, especially those of the ‘Perfection of Wisdom’ genre, the notion of the middle way between extremes is given a more philosophical sense, as an inexpressible reality between the extremes of permanence and impermanence, self and no-self...but emptiness is not an ultimate reality, eternal and autonomous.” (351) She incorporates her Vietnamese roots and culture to the American side to compare the two different ways of life and the differences between the cultures.     The Buddhist scriptures tell different parables and stories about the Buddha and his journey to enlightenment and nirvana. It talks about the different hells and heavens one goes to and it talks about people possibly being reincarnated into different animal forms. It talks about bodies being turned into crows. The Budhist scriptures relate your deeds on the earth to what one will reap in the afterlife.     I like Buddhism as a belief and religious system because of its discussion about karma and how things are interconnected with people’s fates and livelihoods. It centers people to a common good. It talks about inner peace and how one can attain it. Buddhism talks about being peaceful and calm within oneself, growing through change as well. It talks about coming to terms with life events and making peace with them.       The title of ‘Stealing Buddha’s Dinner’ is interesting to me because it ties her religious belief, which is Buddhism, to her heritage, which is Vietnamese to the Vietnamese cuisine. American food is cheap and processed like Hostess’ Twinkies, frozen Kid Cuisine meals, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, etc. It is cheap to produce and purchase, especially American fast food like McDonalds and Burger King.

#book review #buddhist #vietnam #StealingBuddha'sDinner

[jasonpng]

[ jeon jungkook. / male. / he/his. ] i heard han jaesung is going into business with their friends, but the twenty-five year old can’t go wrong with nine other people helping, right? they’re a former sous chef, but will be a chef at joliet bed & breakfast! their insensitive yet dependable personality is pretty fitting for that, i guess. the sight of them gives me the vibe of midnight drive-ins, humming to yourself as you work, a breeze ruffling through a clothesline and that one clip of a deflated dancing pikachu getting hauled off stage, and seeing that running across the sand is pretty sweet.

fabric softener, that one clip of a deflating dancing pikachu getting hauled off-stage, curling up in freshly warmed sheets, sizzling plates, the slow drag of a bow over a violin, bus rides with your head leaned against the window, earphones at full blast, midnight drive-ins, humming to yourself as you work, singing when you think you're alone, the beach at sunrise, a breeze ruffling through a clothesline

hi i’m miki and i’m excited 2 b here!!! this is m’boy jason (or jae, or jaesung) and he’s fairly new SO!!!! smash that like and i’ll come to u for plotting!

the stats

full name: jaesung “jason” han nicknames: jae, jayjay, jason, son, han solo age: 25 birthday: december 12 languages: english, korean, minimal japanese education: institute of culinary education graduate occupation: chef at joliet bed and breakfast, part-time food blogger hobbies: violin, eating, sleeping, collecting rock records, sketching mbti: entp blood type: b+ zodiac: sagittarius hogwarts house: gryffindor alignment: chaotic ANNOYING! sexuality: bisexual drinking, smoking, drugs: yes, yes, only marijuana faceclaim: jeon jungkook likes: rock music, classical music, herbal tea, garlic bread, any food in general, freshly washed sheets, dogs, astronomy, raccoons, coin laundries, anything vintage, horror films and documentaries, fiction books, wildlife, his motorcycle anubis (a super sexy harley davidson…he’s got that bad boy aesthetic going on but he is FAR from being one), his lil hamster bonnie dislikes: birds, horror films, anything scary, bitchy customers, stale coffee, fizzy drinks, people who are rude to service staff, cats (the film), spiders, korea’s educational system, the loch ness monster, soy milk

the biography

—o1. jason grew up in a modern korean household in maryland; his parents are more open-minded than the traditional korean family, so there’s really no dramatic backstory to write. he’s the eldest of three siblings, and they’re pretty much a tight-knit family. while he was encompassed by a totally western environment, his family never failed to remind them of their roots; they would travel to korea every summer to visit his grandparents in seoul.

—o2.  as a child, jason’s favourite past-time was watching his parents cook. his father is a renowned celebrity chef of a five-star restaurant in la, and his mother was the owner of a quaint bakery in ocean city. soon enough, his father was teaching him the basics of cooking. he was a natural, and by high school, he was on his way into becoming a chef like his father. the path to his dream career had been an easy one; his parents were well-known, and through family connections, jason earned himself a spot in one of the best culinary schools in the world: the institute of culinary education.  

—o3. wherever jason went, he was overshadowed by the family name. he loved his parents, he really did, but being the son of joowon han came with a privilege, of sorts. a privilege that he hated. people were convinced that jason only managed to get in ICE was because of his family background. he’d often hear whispers from peers; he was often criticised for depending on his parents—which was true, in a sense. jason didn’t have to worry about anything. while his fellow classmates were worrying over their career paths, he had a sous chef position waiting for him at his father’s restaurant right after graduation.

—o4. being the youngest sous chef in a five-star restaurant was difficult. twenty-one year olds weren’t taken seriously in the kitchen. especially not the head chef’s son, who was fresh out of culinary school and looked so out of place, with his dark leather jacket and ripped jeans. jason struggled the first few months; while  the people were cordial around his father, he had to endure passive-aggressive comments about his privilege behind the scenes. jason wanted to make a name for himself; he didn’t want to be reduced to a celebrity chef’s son who just got lucky. so he worked—he worked and worked and worked until the jealous muttering stopped and he gained the respect of his subordinates.

—o5. after three years into working with his father, the enthusiasm ebbed and jason felt nothing but dissatisfaction. he didn’t want this—he didn’t want to be clinging on to his father for support his entire life. fearing that his passion for cooking will wither if he kept on working at the restaurant, he quit and moved back to maryland, getting a place for himself and eager to learn to stand on his own two feet.

in-depth

—a natural-born leader: working as a sous chef enabled jason to have a great command of handling a team. at first, he had been meek, but through determination and his sheer drive to prove the negative people in his life wrong, he was able to cultivate himself into a good leader. in the kitchen, jason is totally in his element, oozing with confidence and assertiveness.

—the dependable one: jason is organised and he’s the type of person who you can rely on for help. he prioritises his friends and family over anything else. need someone to drive you home? jason’s the guy for you. suffering from a bad hangover? he’s got the perfect hangover shake. you lost your house keys and need a place to stay? jason’s got an extra room in his apartment ready. jason is always making sure his friends are well cared for. and probably also giving them lectures whenever they make questionable choices.

—this bitch is impulsive: as much as jason has his shit together, jason can be impulsive—you might catch him splurging on the new yeezy shoes, or planning a spontaneous, overpriced trip to the bahamas. he likes having fun, and sometimes, that energy gets him into tricky situations. he really likes spending money, and unfortunately, his parents never taught him the important value of thriftiness.

—sometimes he can be harsh: jason had been pampered all throughout his life, and sometimes he disregards other people’s feelings because he is simply oblivious—brutal honesty is a double-edged sword. it takes a lot to piss him off, because he’s rather good at handling his emotions, but when you successfully do, it’s not a pretty sight. he tends to say things he doesn’t mean in the heat of the moment. in addition, jason tends to hold grudges; if someone has done him wrong, you bet your ass he’ll never look at you the same way ever again.

+: energetic, headstrong, intuitive, protective

-: argumentative, insensitive, over-analytical, rash

miscellaneous

— drives around town with his bike! he has a car but it’s parked in his childhood home… he doesn’t really use it that much unless he needs to go out of the state or something

— has a white lil pet hamster named bonnie...she is his CHILD!!!!!! — he has a food blog that he constantly updates for fun; his following is steadily going up... amazin....

— has always been an artsy kid... if he didn’t like cooking so much he would’ve pursued a career in art — always seems to be snacking on something? raw carrots in particular...... — he is also a gym rat! he eats a damn lot, so he’s gotta burn those calories, right? he usually jogs early in the morning and goes to the gym after work — he’s played the violin ever since he was a child! he wants to learn how to play the guitar but he keeps on procrastinating

the wanted connections (if any of these interest you, hit me up! some are more detailed than others but all of them are open to modifications tbh, we can develop them however we want :) feel free to  choose multiple plots..,.,. go crazy)

— vibe check. - sometimes, he forgets to take care of himself and this person!!!! is his mom friend, the terry to his jake peralta, the person he can count on when he’s crossfaded in the middle of nowhere at 3 in the morning. (ivy)

— bff. - the ride or die. the one person jason would literally murder for. he loves them and  considers them as his family. they are 100% with each other and? both are probably equally chaotic sfjldsdjfhsdlk (minnie)

— the squad. - i really love the idea of jason having three close friends! i can see them going on spontaneous trips and doing really, really dumb shit in general dsjfls (1/3) — the roommate. - PLS! he needs a roommate...imagine the domesticity i’m WEAK (minki)

— buzzfeed unsolved. - jason believes in the supernatural. this person doesn’t. jason spends a lot  of his free time trying to convince this person that ghosts are, in fact, real, often taking them to ‘haunted’ places and attempting to summon spirits through his ouija board. (minnie)

— i’m baby. - basically, jason dotes on this person like a mama bird. he cooks them meals, drives them to places and always keeps an eye out for them. — the confidant. - the person he could say he truly trusts the most; while jason is generally sociable, he finds it hard to open up to people, preferring to be the confidant than to confide in his friends. they’re the first person he runs to when he’s upset or stressed. (sienna)

— friends. - open to multiple of all types (fellow foodie, gym buddies, unlikely, one-sided, frenemies, neighbors, etc.)

— flings, hookups, fwbs. - open to multiple. (can be messy, can be casual)

— exes. - jason has lived in ocean city all his life, so anything is possible! they could’ve been at the same high school, maybe they broke up because jason moved to new york and the relationship fizzled out, they could be on good terms or bad terms………GIVE ‘EM TO ME (sienna; exes on good terms with a tiny bit of unresolved feelings)

— the pianist. - this is a lil specific, but basically i imagine jason having participated in music competitions and performed in galas, and this person is their partner!! their other half!!! the nodame to his chiaki!!!! if ur muse can play the piano pls hmu this is just a really cute relationship that i cant stop thinkin about bc jason is a violin nerd (ivy)

— romance. - i’m a hoe for spicy plots! i don’t really want to give out anything specific, but some suggestions aaaare: opposites, exes w/ feelings, one-sided love, skinny love, a love-hate relationship….. 

feel free to go through my wanted connections tag for inspiration!

#joliet.intro #hhere we go #rock n roll buckaroo

[guruwithin]

Re-Prioritizing Higher Education

Free tuition will only start to cover the cost of expanding public education through the university level.  In the 50s and 60s,  America put higher education as a priority.  Sure the motivation wasn’t pure, it was competing with the Soviet Union for military and space race superiority.  Later education was still a priority due to the Japanese economic boom and its impact on American capitalists profits. 

Then in the 1960s, as a result of university level education, many students began waking up to the immorality and hypocrisy of America’s militarism and capitalistic greed.  That led to student political activism and organizing.  That in turn led the State’s wanting the people to be stupid, brainwashed, conformist followers.  Budget cut after budget cut in education has eroded the education system and forced colleges to underpay teachers, and to nickle and dime students into a lifetime of debt.  

We need to re-prioritize higher education to cope with the problems of climate change, the health care crisis, the unrestrained greed and militarism of the American Empire, crushing student debt, fair wealth distribution, the loss of civil liberties and privacy, etc. 

Covering the cost of textbooks dorms, meals, parking, higher pay for quality teachers, trade schools etc., should be a part of a free public education expansion.

Before you ask how we’re going to pay for it, look at the Pentagon, CIA, NSA and their private contractor’s budgets - oh wait most of that is “black budget.” Black budgets mean “borrowing” from social programs and entitlements. They also mean off the books enterprises like when the CIA imports illegal and often harmful  drugs to sell to poor and black communities. “Black budgets” for CIA, NSA and Pentagon are classified and beyond congressional oversight. So you tell me where we get the money for the public's needs? 

#education

[hibiki-the-beast-archived]

Questions to Hibiki from fans

Source (I used a translator and only arranged it a little so it makes more sense so it could be full of mistakes.)

- I'm going to ask you some really stupid questions. What would you like to look like if you were dressed as a woman? With what hairstyle What to wear Who do you want to show it to?

Sadako! [I can’t really understand the rest of the reply...xD]

- What do you think about wearing a dress? Can you wear a dress? Can you show it? I'm not sane? Wearing a dress? I think that it does not suit me even a little, so...

- What kind of girl does Hibiki like? I don't really like it... [I don't know what this is supposed to mean, if he doesn't like girls or if he just don't have a certain kind...I tend to say the latter. ;)] If anything, I tend to like people who appear more normal other than showy gals.

- Hibiki, which one are you, S or M? I don't know what to say, which one could it be? Maybe it's totally N! Neutral? It depends on the situation.

- Do you have any rules for living, Hibiki? My rule is...not to hurt people. This is a difficult game, so I don't know if I make it or not. Also, I think that I will not act like bending my core.

- How old are you? About 317 years old [Something with the name 'Saiba buru' is mentioned, but I don't know what it is...]

- Do you have any particular belongings? My favorite item is a ring that I got from my friend.

- Do you have a favorite movie? Favorite movies are Rockers, Rocky 1 & 2, Rambo 1, Prayer to the Dying, Young Gun 1 & 2, Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, Eraser Head, Elephant Man, Inland Empire, Skinny Man, Shining, Cujo, Pet Cemetery, It, Misery, Tommy Knockers, Carrie, Shawshank, Clash, Terminal, Poltergeist, Back to the Future, Goonies, Money Pit, Scanners, The Fly, Naked Lunch, Dead Spirit Harata 1 & 2, Darkman, Night of the Living Dead, Beetle Juice, Scissor Hands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Big Fish, Charlie and Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd Devil Barber in Fleet Street Mad Max 1 & 2, Brain Dead, Satan's Sacrifice, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, True Romance, Natural Bone Killers, Desperado, Sid & Nancy, Leon, Jailbreak King, We are not Angels, Taxi Regards Driver, Cape Fear, Untouchable, Good Fellows, Unforgiving, Perfect World, Gran Torino, Interview with Vampire, Seven, Joe Black, Fight Club, Snatch, Oceans 12, Elm Street Nightmare, Platoon, Die Hard, Six Sense, Sin City, Men's Aka ... !

- What is your favorite season? I like every season!

- Does Hibiki make up herself during the live performance? [The translation said 'herself'...well. xD] I make my own makeup.

- Will Hibiki give up if the opposite sex you love only sees you as a friend? I give up and I don't want to approach in particular (I think it depends on how much I like)

- What kind of personality do you often get along with? And what do you do if you fight? Do you often apologize from yourself? I will make friends with rock people and people who think of me properly. If it ’s a fight, if I ’m bad, I ’ll apologize right away and don’t pull it.

- Do you have any fetish? Mouth, hips and feet.

[By the way, it is nice how he ends the blog entry with 'A man who lives at night, Hibiki'. :D]

- What is Hibiki-san hiding in the fluffy hair!? Coin is hidden in my head, feel like a coin purse? [I don't really get what is this is supposed to mean, but the question was so cute. :D]

- Is Hibiki's day-to-day holiday sometimes returning to an ordinary man instead of rock and roll? Yes ... Actually, I'm always a normal single man.

- The hairstyle you want to do (or any color). The hairstyle I want to try is Mohawk! A beautiful mohawk like PUNK! ! ! But I know that my face doesn't look good ... what if I shave my eyebrows completely? ? ?

- What kind of hairstyle do you usually have at home? Is your hair tied? I want to know. I'm spending my life like a hippie in my house ...

- Where do you first look when you see a woman? First of all, the eyes.

- Please tell me your favorite artists! ★ Japanese music ★ thee michelle gun elephant KING BROTHERS BLANKEY JET CITY THE MODS ARB THE ROOSTERS TH eROCKERS The 50 revolutions eastern youth THE BLUE HEARTS maximum the Hormone SOB THE BACK HORN THE HIGH GRIP ← w --- And the sound source of hardcore illegal gatherings ---- participant LAUGHIN NOSE MOBS COBRA LIP CREAM G.I.S.M OUTO BAWS ZOUO BUCK-TICK Merry Go Round PIERROT ★ Western music ★ Arctic monkeys The vines Jet The Strokes The horrors The offspring The Smashing Pumpkins Nine Inch Nails Primus Red hot chili peppers KASABIAN The White Stripes Nirvana MUSE Radiohead System Of A Down Rage Against the Machine Limp Bizkit SlipKnoT Korn Linkin park Mudvayne Rob Zombie Soulfly Tool Pantera Megadeth RAMMSTEIN Bauhaus

- If you can bring only 3 CDs to an uninhabited island, what CD will you bring? I think I won't be able to listen to music on an uninhabited island ... Bring your guitar with you

- What is a girl's favorite gesture? A figure kicking a man's balls.

- Recommended diet method. Oil-free meal, exercise and calorie calculation? The quickest thing is to eat a meal that calculates the calorie intake, fasting for about 2 days, making the stomach smaller.

- What is the ideal way to spend a holiday Smoking cigarettes while looking at the seaside at seaside, smoking cigarettes to the feet ... I want to spend a good time instead of making a fuss.

- What kind of clothes do you usually wear? I don't know what suits me ... What kind of clothes will look good on me? ? Reverse question?

- What is your favorite and disliked food? Favorite food Ramen Salted mackerel Okonomiyaki Tan-SIO Tinjaolose Mabo tofu Spicy curry Natto tomato juice Beer ☆ dislike food Shiitake mushroom Vinegar Konjac Fukujinzuke Takuwan Sweet fried egg Teriyaki in general Grilled meat sauce sweet and sour pork Salad with fruits Dried grapes

- What is your favorite book? ? Favorite book ... I'm sorry ... Actually I don't read books I don't have much time and I'm afraid to make my eyes worse ...

- Hibiki uses perfume, right? I don't add perfume, but I'll add body mist! Victoria Secret This is an endless love guy from the Garden Collection. Perfume is not good because the smell is too tight.

- Do you like horror? Mr. Ramlin I like horror but there are a lot of hits! ! Especially for horror and action ... I thought horror was good Night of the Living Dead zombie Creep show Dead Spirits 1 and 2 (camera work and Bruce Campbell lovers w) Batarian (easy-to-understand development and class B atmosphere!) ring Magic sound Object X from planet Shining Satan's sacrifice Basket case Brain Dead I've seen a lot of other things ... a pattern full of CG that can wither ...

- In about 3 months, Halloween will be, do you have any costumes you want girls to wear? ? If there is a costume you want to wear, please tell me! Costumes that girls want to wear ... Leather face ... It ’s a joke. I want to do leather face ☆ After all a beautiful and erotic zombie style for girls! Or maybe the Adams family! !

- How does it look like in your room? It's a white wall, but I don't have any posters on it. There are a lot of watches that are only at school. The curtains are ivory and gentle colors! Others are single beds LCD TV (AQUOS / Kameyama brand w of the world) TV stand There is only a large dark brown table The kitchen has a refrigerator, an IH stove that I bought yesterday, and an abdominal muscle device. It is surprisingly simple.

- Favorite liquor: My favorite liquor is ... beer! ! There is nothing in particular Actually I don't drink anything other than beer I don't like alcohol Sweet sour liquor, shochu, sake, whiskey, vodka, brandy, etc.

- What is your favorite type of woman? There is no such type. By the way, there is not one female celebrity favorite since elementary school.

- Is there a cool position and design for women to put in a tattoo? Hibiki likes I think it ’s okay if it ’s right for the person ’s character, I think angels are cute! ! Like Natural Born Killers, the main character in the movie was carving next to the navel? ?

- Good evening, Hibiki-san, have you ever cried in public since you became an adult? Have you ever cried in front of a lover? Of course! ! People cry because they are serious Isn't the person who makes it stupid a person who doesn't know much about human pain? In my thoughts, is it embarrassing to cry when you want to cry?

- I like beer but how much can I drink? What happens if you get drunk? I don't think I lose my memory because I'm drunk ... As far as I can remember, I remember drinking about 5 cups of mugs at a tavern. After that, I'm drinking with a dull, so surely more ... If someone does not count it, it will remain a mystery!

#about