音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

Sing a song if you feel scared.
People always say this, but in my case, the very first song popped up in my mind was "Tooryanse", followed by "Kagome-Kagome", and then "Akakakushi"~ While the first two belong to the canonical Japanese horror folk songs, the last one isn't a relax and happy either~♪

And recently I'm addicted to Eiko-sensei's newest single: Kokuchou no Psychedelica

Both songs are great!

To someone who has experienced Silent Hill 1-4 + biohazard 1-5 + Siren 1-NT + Juon series (Japanese + US) + The Ring 2 (didn't get chance to watch 1), "Zero (Fatal Frame)" can't create enough horror to me -- I was rather amused.

The character and stage design are very pretty (Miku simply looks like Claire Redfield IMO), and the ghosts are so "plain" compared to those in bio and SH (I'd like to see something much more grotesque -- I'm resistant to the grotesque, at least visually). Although it's true some battles can be stressful, but since I've got enough experience in biohazard 4 and 5, to use the camera (I indeed enjoyed this battle system) isn't that hard, just like how to shoot with a rifle~
The story is quite interesting. It's exciting to figure out what happened in the past and the connections between all (living and dead) people through various files -- this game is surprisingly full of reading materials, while lots of them have rare kanji -- hey, people can't read them, at least put ruby beside!! Σ(ﾟДﾟ);
However, the control is not smooth (she can get stuck by even a hanging rope!). Also, to chase those quickly-flashing-away ghosts and get snaps is fun, and very harsh sometimes (like those kids). The worst, your snaps isn't saved unless you put them into albums, and I was out of space in the memory card when I realised it!! ( ﾟдﾟ) Hope there's some kind of extra after game clear.
Briefly, it's not like a horror game but more like an errand-game, in which you go between a few places endlessly to complete quests, in a huge mansion where ghosts drifting around (I especially like the appearance of that Ina-Bauer female ghost [Miku's grandmother?! or maybe not]). Besides, the riddles are too easy and to be called riddles. Shall I be looking forward nightmare mode?! (´∀｀);

The dead's blue fiery balls remind me nothing but the Ring Spirits in Shadow Hearts.
Perhaps it's a good time for me to do "Zero" because I've been taking snaps like mad in SHF! (・ω・`)

this shot is awesome ↓

Before I start:
SH = Shadow Hearts as a series
SH1 = Shadow Hearts
SH2 = Shadow Hearts II
SHF = Shadow Hearts: From the New World

Even I myself couldn't believe that I've finished all three Shadow Hearts games, with a rather high degree of completion, after declared to no longer touch RPG about 2 years ago. Why I said that was simply because lots of RPGs have so many hidden flags that hard and tiresome to find out. Yet I still decided to resume my RPG playing with SH1, after watching someone's SH1 play video. The story and world setting were interesting, the battle system was unique, also, for quite a lot of times, the ambience is like those you'd see in a horror. So I stopped following that player's videos (when they just arrived at Da-Lian) and decided to try SH1 on my own. Which then led me to my lovely four months with Shadow Hearts since last November.

However, my first SH1 experience was so sad and so bad. Apparently I wasn't prepared after a long RPG-free (horror-only) time span. This game have so many time-limited flags. Once you missed it, it's gone forever (in this round). Therefore, some boss fights was deadly hard (because I couldn't put the correct soul monsters), and the bad ending came with no surprising (because I didn't know how to get the good one!).
So I did get my lesson: while playing an RPG, find a story-spoiler-free guide first.
and here, I'll show my special thanks to this website:
http://www.geocities.jp/sky_peace000/
Without this guide, I won't have so much fun with SH series. I might miss lots of hard-to-see items, miss proper flags to trigger hidden dungeons, and fail due to the lack of good "boss fight preps" (I remember my first Maiki-battle was so harsh, due to his instant-death skills).

The stories are all good with no doubt. SH1 and SH2 are gloomier compared to SHF: People in SH1 die mercilessly, SH2 connects to the bad ending of SH1 (which indeed shocked me), while in my opinion, SHF is more limited in a small circle of people and the connection to the-destiny-of-the-world is weaker -- although I don't mind it at all. The story flow is rather (or at least made me feeling) smooth compared to lots of others (recently I'm following the game DEAD SPACE, and each time when Issac completes an objective he gets the hint/direction from other people -- that I don't even have the desire to poke in).

Then, about the endings, SH1 and SHF are straight forward, but SH2's both endings are rather intriguing and make people want to think more.

On the other hand, as of the characters, most of them are so impressive that I couldn't refuse (or wish if s/he is playable) to keep in my party, while a few are out of my favourite type and hardly get a chance to go with me, and the existence of the rest is just as invisible as the air.

Fixed party members:
Yuri: no body should complain about him (and you can't really remove him from the party ^^;)
Alice: I personally don't want to include her in the party, but only she is able to do the arch-cure.
Keith: Ikemen Mr. Vampire! High HP + SP + PAtk, my choice in the "super god fight". The event with his gold-flashy brother is excellent!

Why I didn't use others
Zhu-zhen: I wished I could use him till the end as I love his skills, but he's low on HP and can't heal the entire party with high efficiency.
Margarete: her rings are hard, and her skills are... to be honest, I've seen enough in Biohazard series so I didn't use her that much.
Harry: skills are ranged from supporting to attacking, flexible, but same as Zhu-zhen, he's not as strong as Keith and can't do supports as Alice.

Fixed party members:
Yuri: guess no body would complain about my choice toward him. xD
Blanca: with fully powered up soul comet, strong party cure and full HP revive, and with my affection of a wolf.
Gepetto: has the highest MP and SAtk, easy to switch attribute, and Cornelia is cute~
Joachim: same reason as why I stick to Keith. AND MORE, HE'S SUCH A FUN GUY (I kept his frozen tuna till the end of game)!

↓ Joachim's symbolic pose (both before and after battle):

Why I didn't use others
Kallen: yes, she's strong and her skills are great -- I'd consider using her more if she keeps her military uniform.
Lucia: cute is justice, being sexy is worth nothing! lol;;
Anastasia: the album-skill isn't useful, normal attack is weak, and isn't as cute as Kawashima Yoshiko (I want her to be a party member though!).
Kurando: I'd like to use him more but he appears too late while the top four already occupy my heart. :P

Others who I wished to become party members:
Nicolas: for Koyasu's voice!! <3
Yoshiko Kawashima: as a magic girl that would be fantastic.
Kato: a tough guy (expected to be as strong as Joachim).

Fixed party members:
Johnny (=可愛い): the main character should be within the party! Not only he's essential to take snaps, which is much more important than SH2, he's cute! Lots of players say Johnny is weak, but I maxed all his chart nodes for attacking magic to turn him into a true magic warrior~
Natan (=渋い): another tough guy (I just love tough guys, complaints?)
Frank (=面白い): another Joachim. His bowling ball attack is my favourite skill => "ミーにパワーをぉぉ"
Ricardo (=格好いい): high PAtk + MP, fits into various situations, and he's also an ikemen. ;3

↓ Johnny's most attractive face -- perhaps that's my first time having so much love toward a boy!

Why I didn't use others
Shania: she's supposed to be in the party all the time, but I changed my mind to have a fusion-free SHF, because, the same reason as Lucia. Too sexy = loveless. Moreover, I want to complain about that I had to "farm" soul energy points in order to get into the dungeon for Tirawa, what a pain it was! While after obtaining Tirawa, the appearance is even worse than her previous three spirits that I had totally no desire to use. orz. She's strong with them? -- who cares! (btw, I hardly used Jutendoji for the same reason)
Nyanko-sensei Mao: I love cats! I indeed hesitated between her and Frank and Natan, but eventually I went with the tough + funny combination. (Also, to get her skills powered up was tiresome so I lost interest halfway.)
Hilda: I love her brothers much more, but she's not my type at all! ^^;

Summary: In SH1, non party members can't get Exp at all, and it hurts! Plus I fail a lot at hitting rings so my Sh1 party members are fixed since the very beginning. But thanks to the customisable magic system, I could choose my party members more freely based on my personal taste, rather than how strong (or weak) s/he is. (・ω・`)

The sense of humour of SH series is currently the most marvellous, and reached the climax in SH2 (thanks to Joachim's join) -- although it's hard to explain to people who didn't play.

Such as:
Motion of Maiki's skill: the death game (both as a human and a monster),
Joachim and Man-Festival and Man-Sushi,
Roger and his collection of Shanghai-Tengoku and N.Y.Heaven,
..and our environmently-friendly heroes! ( ´∀｀)

↓ Joachim thinks seriously in front of a postbox:

↓ Joachim's frozen tuna:

↓ Frank's ultimate Oden-stew:

As of the music. Actually I didn't think SH OSTs are so great until I finished the games. Lots of battle BGMs can be looped forever, especially the final boss BGM: Imbroglio and The 3 Karma (SHF's final boss BGM isn't as good as these two IMO). And need not to mention the Akiko-singing-Mozart-aria. In game, the sound was twisted as being played by a near-death gramophone (or record). At first I was disappointed as with that aria only a man was eaten by a monster, but later, when that man reappears -- so you're sort of important, and your death with that aira is now acceptable. << I don't know what I'm talking about...

But, how come the SHF OST has no the piece for Ninja's hideaway?! °A° That BGM (Frank does Momonga flying) is so relaxing and adorable.. maybe I should get record from the game some day..

Shadow Hearts series is really great. Now look at the GUST's Ar Tonelico I and II (because I can't recall other RPGs right now), they look so cheap (except the gorgeous music/hymmnos..)!! Fine, that's a thing called style.

↓ At last, my personal pride:

やーーーーっと見つけた！！！
Furtwängler conducts Don Giovanni in 1954, the audio recording that I've been looking for almost one year! My very first Don, and also my best Don, even after listening to over 22 versions.
Perhaps this is the so-called "love at first sight". Sight, literally yes, as I was referring to the DG's DVD release.
After that, although I've found Furtwän's another recording in 1953, I wasn't satisfied since what I wanted was the exactly 1954 performance. Many Furtwän fan sites have pointed such an audio version does exist, but with no luck, I just couldn't locate it anywhere.

And on this Monday came my belated luck. The title of "Wilhelm Furtwängler - The Legacy (2010)" was indeed attractive. Why I didn't find it out in last year? -- anyway, being overwhelmed by thoughts like "I want to eat it right now!", I left my laptop on for the entire day.
It actually didn't finish until next morning. So my hunger lasted till Tuesday evening. Took a quick glance at its tracklist, a lot Brahms, Bruckner, Beethoven, a bunch of Mozart, and... a heavy Wagner bundle.
Okay, quoting Amano Tooko's words "食べ物を粗末にしてはいけません(it's not good to waste food!)", guess it's a chance for me to increase my intake of Wagner/Bruckner/etc.--although I'm not very confident about it, don't waste the mono, which always sounds nostalgic, noble and historic.

But, my point was, really, when I read on the booklet saying this "Don Giovanni" was recorded in 1954, I was driven into a hyper.
You gotta cherish your first love~ (*´∀｀)

P.S. Right now, my fb2k is playing Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 3rd movement. There's no good, what I recall is nothing but scenes from "Legend of the Galactic Heroes". ~_~
--I've finished the original novel like 10 years ago, but never dared to finish OVA, because I already know people I like are all going to die! >_<

Continuing from the 107-CD box. However, I didn't challenge the posted links, which would take me forever as a free user. So I relied on those nice people who like to torrent.
On Monday evening, I decided to finish the final make-up with my girls while waiting for the torrent to finish. But right after I started PS5, a message box popped up from my google drive saying there's no enough space on my drive D.
Apparently the 22GB torrent + ~6GB PS cache have eaten up all the remaining space of my hard drive. Only leaving me 1MB that I couldn't even make a screen shot of that moment. u_u

A bit different from my previous plan that to attach a DG label. Instead putting a real DG logo, I merely borrowed the overall CD jacket design and the bright yellow banner.

For a long while, since my mind was keep changing, I didn't put my girls' names on any works in case if I want to make changes. But this time, I decided to finalise their names so I put them here: from piano, to violin, then cello.
Of course, there're always lots of back stories about how I named them (maybe I should start a single page for introducing more of such sometime later): Arietta: before I knew the meaning of this word, "tta" was appended after "Arie" ("aria" in German) to make up something like Henrietta, and later I was very happy after learning the meaning of "arietta". Fidelia: Came up when I was randomly browsing an English dictionary and kept it as I like its sound. That's everything, simple enough. Luminora: I didn't want to admit this name was made up after "luminol" that I learned from watching "Detective Conan", but it's the truth. -_-''

Yesterday it was around -12°C, and today it was +12°C!! Not unbelievable, just so crazy.

It was sunny this morning, yet it was snowing. Snowing, or maybe I should say tiny hexagons falling--whatever, simply watching these crystals made me happy. "So why are all snowflakes hexagonal?" I tried to think about it. I'm pretty sure we were introduced such a topic when I was in elementary school, but apparently I remember nothing.
Nature is full of secrets, like a woman~

But how wonderful, you have both a sunny sky and falling snow. The entire city was in pure white, as if being made from sugar.
So let's call it sugar snow!

At that moment, even the best fortune-teller wouldn't tell I would buy some ice-cream this evening--I didn't know this myself either.
Like I said, in last week I was very unhappy with my got-for-free iphone. However, owning an extra phone means I could play around with my android without worrying about breaking it and lose the basic phone access.
--at least you have the chance to tweak the little green robot before becoming a super hacker.

I did think my goal was straightforward: to update the v2.3.4 to a newer version. I'm well aware of that google play kindly removed any apps that can't run on my gingerbread, which stopped me enjoying more developed features that are only available with a higher version.
First, (without knowing any single piece of android related information,) I attempted to install the newest lollipop. The ROM was there and was claimed to be suitable for my Xperia, but soon I realised such an update couldn't be done as easy as how you do with your laptop--the boot loader of mine was, sadly, not allowed to be unlocked.
Fine, since it looked a bit dangerous to force unlock it, I then aimed to the much safer official Ice-Cream Sandwich.

With zero experience, the very first step: flash the firmware sounded scary. But you're working with android, there will always be plenty of sources ready for you, and your machine keeps its well-being. It sparsely took two days, but I learned so much--better than just press 'update' and wait and got lost when iphone got stuck itself.
Once you have tried it, you'll know it's not really hard at all. And the more important, it was fun! Goodbye the useless apps coming with the brand!!

Perhaps I will eventually process to dive further to unlock the boot loader someday, but for today, as a small celebration of accomplishing something for my little Ando-chan, I bought some Ice-Cream (didn't make any sandwich though :p).

P.S. Loving this drawing so much. Ando-chan kawaii~<3

At last, the closing (also flagging) statement:
--My daughters are the prettiest!

As if waking up from hibernation, it's time to write something as a record of my recent life:

In my opinion, there're three types of people who use apple stuff -- people who:
1. are apple fans,
2. received one for free,
3. don't know how to use computers/related electronic devices.

and I believe I belong to the second, if it ever happens.

The first thing I did after the 1+ month vacuum was to get a new SIM card and to activate my new "object that is doomed to be blamed": an iphone5.
A petit and fun interlude: I spent almost 1 hour to browse all the available numbers. Since I didn't find any ended by "4869", which is my top choice, I had to choose between my secondary preferences: "1412", "1812" and "4649". The result: Tchaikovsky won~

Right after I activated the new SIM, it couldn't find the network. Since it's pretty normal, I decided to make the thing happy by upgrading its system so I could figure out about the network issue afterwards.
But what followed wasn't making me happy at all. The second time start-logo-loading bar stopped moving at near 95%. When I googled, someone said the update may take 30 minutes to hours.

Fine, I should do something else while waiting. My LipAura(=laptop)'s fan has turning like mad since last November. For many times I wanted to do an in-depth clean-up but I didn't. Seemed today it was the chance. I removed all screws to take out the disk driver and expose (a small part of) the green mother-board-ish thing (I'm bad at hardware ^^;). Unfortunately I couldn't make it to reach the fan. I think I roughly used up half can of compressed air, and I could see the dust got blown everywhere -- there's a layer of dust stuck on the outer surface of my disk driver...
Before I only did simple dust removing around the vents (which apparently didn't work well). This time, spending about 30 minutes eventually took effect -- As quiet as nothing is running~
--and it was still around 95%.

If so, perhaps I should go challenging myself by watching the newest (raw) Detective Conan special:

Not bad, for the entire 1.5 hours, I understood 95%.
--and it was still around 95%, what the hell?!

The worst could be wait until it runs out of battery, until I figured out how to force shut down. And the second boot up finally had no problem.
Anyway, this can't prevent me complaining. 1, a simple USB-connection doesn't turn it to a small drive; 2, the initial screen has so many icons that I'll never use -- my android came with a clean screen; 3, the app centre asks me to enter my password if I quit once -- my android doesn't; 4, there's no google Japanese IME and its built-in IME is hard to use, plus, there's no plenty of good-enough (and free) apps to let me choose; 5, there's no hole to allow me to attach a strip -- don't mention the add-ons (=extra $$).

At last, due to my afternoon-evening fight, I haven't got a chance to open them... u_u

As a non-apple user, it's my fault to even try one. I miss my Xperia!! Σ(ﾟдﾟ)#

>I'll try to collect all the following sound clips as my future ring/msg-tones:

• biohazard 4's 「ありえんなぁ」、「う◯こだ捨てろう！」、「また会おうぅぅ」
• Rorona/Totori's "たーる"
• the antique doll (in Corpse Party)'s evil laugh (which I already recorded)

>A guy's standard of judging about "erotic" is too subtle (?) to me that I probably won't understand forever...

>Ichika-chan and me -- It had been 10 years!!

今までずっと知らなかった、私はお酒に弱いってこと。
たったグラスいっぱいで、バイオ4やったらかならずアシュリーを撃ちそうになる(実際に試していなかったけど)500%の方向音痴になりそう、しかも飲んだのはアルコールの低いやつ。
まあいい、どうせあとは寝るだけ、大したことじゃありませんよ♪
以上、昨日あった一つのつまらない出来事でした。

↑ I just wanted to say, the worst thing occurred recently: for some reason I got a strong desire to listen to FJY, but their songs (and all other Yuki related stuff) have been moved to my external hard drive, not on my LipAura right now. ∑(ﾟДﾟ)

Speaking of idea or inspiration, in my case, most were triggered by this or that great music pieces. A few years ago, my mind was sometimes activated by Noriko Mitose's "Yorlga". I indeed made some drawings, but its second track "tama no fune" always bothered me to create something. That song was somehow way too "formless" to me, like binaria's "smalt", that I had completely no idea how to visualise my imagination. Every notes was flowing smoothly and connecting to each other seamlessly. If I were able to make animation clips, they could be the best BGM candidates, but as a static drawing, I can't capture even one single moment.

So "tama no fune" had got me stuck since its release, and just in last week, another idea suddenly flashed by that made me got up and fetch my pencil in the late night. This time, things seemed working -- I have the raw draft now! After a few modifications I might to push it into my workspace.
However, things are changing, always. Right in the next day, I realised Akiko got some new stuff in the end of last December. Perhaps due to that there's much less good music in the past year, I entirely forgot to follow M3 and Comiket for quite a while.

Here comes my point, Akiko's new Japanese traditional tune wiped out my yorlga mood. So my New Year's first wish turned to be a vocal version of Akiko's "Otoshimono". I'm specially fond of Akiko plus traditional tunes. With her fantastic condiment, such pieces are always so pretty and thus have a different taste compared to Noriko's retro-Taishou ambience.
→ Think thoroughly, I've visualised a few Akiko's traditional tunes so far: Akakakushi, Hiraitesanzen and Class::CIEL_NOSURGE;.

Although she used to be involved in similar conditions, she's not here this time. It's the beginning of a new year, for sure I'm obligated (?) to ask my blog girl!

At last, here I mainly focused on Akiko and her fantastic folk tunes, but I'm not saying my yorlga mood has gone. I'll keep it alive and it will be eventually back, although may not be very soon (I realised my "Perfect pitch -Cello Part-" is still sleeping on my hard disk!).

It's finally the day. Time to release my RAM in 2014 and get prepared for the coming third impact. (・ω・`)

January
Classical (Mozart's operas) and horror (Silent Hill) initialised this year, with a little mysterious (Detective Conan) and some fantasy (my girls!).

February
Don Giovanni Fest continues. I never ever imaged I could listen to the same opera for over 20 times (different versions though).

March
I encountered with the top 1 song in this year: Class::CIEL_NOSURGE; by Akiko Shikata. Due to the strong impression left by it, other songs in the same release got poorly neglected.

April
I indeed met some nice people, and we played a human's skeleton as a toy!

May
First serious challenge to draw a background. Lots of things to be improved, but it was a fun experience.

June
"3 Happy Weeks in June" ← sorry I simply borrowed the title of a past post with no modification.

July
The most shocking news from KOKIA... NO, I DON'T WANT TO MENTION IT AGAIN! (´д⊂)‥ But I still don't understand why people say June Bride is the most beautiful.

August
During my trial I fell in love with "The Dumky Trio". A big confession: I also did lots of Ar Tonelico during the whole month! (；´∀｀)

September
Although being a few years late, Steins;Gate became the best anime so far, and Makise Kurisu became the only tsundere I'd love. However I can't recall how I came to watch it any more.

October
First got traumatised by hunters, then got depressed by Silent Hill 4.

November
My daughter followed KOKIA's steps. (just want to state that the preparation started in July.)

December
In NEET mode. I did Shadow Hearts II, Biohazard veronica, 4 and 5 in a row~

以上、西暦2014の忘年ポストでした。あなたにはくだらないことばかりかもしれないけど…
そして、2015の始まりの日に、
あけましておめでとうございまーす！