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Getting back to Diary

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Talking about a video in Japanese in English might be like `hey, who is this entry for?', but since this is, you know, a blog on the bubble structure of blogs, there's no one to stop me. I'm free...

But it doesn't mean that I'm gonna talk about the above video today. If I were to whisper `Mr. Green, Mr. Green, wanna marry her, can't I?'*1, that would be the end of the world. I, a social person, will have to embrace conclusion. I reject that kind of mistake.

I would like to submit a possibility that I might write on my studies on the Dutch language. I once decided not to write things about study on this blog, but it was just a prohibition of entries that can lead people to my actual life, I now think it will be safe to do so. And also talking about learning Dutch might be useful to people in need. Well, when people are in need, they can be helped by something, that's the definition, you know, I was not talking about something like that. And this is a line of thought about which I have had thought one hundred times. But expressing in a different language might be a good thing. Practice, that is. Sorry. This is my blog.

Well, what were we talking about? Yeah, it was about Dutch. I cannot say Dutch is a dominant language without telling a lie, and there are not so many people who want/need to acquire it. Well, I myself want to acquire, or need to. But, hey, it is good to have a way to keep one's motivation high. Writing a blog can be one for me, but I hope viewing that there's a person who's doing it or at least knowing it would have the same effect on others. Therefore I said I might write on studies of Dutch. It may be a boring thing to many people, but who cares? Yeah, `who cares?' is a good phrase here. Good. Good.

*1:`Who's Mr. Green'? Don't you know Crash Course?

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Getting back to Diary

OK. Let's talk about something, as usual. Well, I may have to start with the issue of summer time. It is not actually `summer time' in the place where I am, but anyway it has ended without my noticing it (oops, you may be able to research where I am). Hmm. It looks reasonable to slide clock for one hour so that one can have longer active times, but resetting mind and getting familiar to a new difference in time can be annoying. There seem existing reasons on both sides, pros and cons.

I didn't write an entry for this blog yesterday. I didn't feel guilty at all, it might be because I was actually skipping many days without writing at all, but, well, since the ritual of rebirth has been successful, I may want to sing a new song.

But, as one may notice, I do not have definite topics to write. And the point of having a blog may turn out to after all be trying writing anything anyway. Hmm. Interesting. OK, let's try keeping. Although I currently do not feel much joy in writing, as my writing skills improve and I feel comfortable to write, I may try curious expressions and try to ascend to poesy.

A little bit about my recent hobby: chess. Because of a lucky coincidence, I found a -- actually it was not `a', but anyway -- nice chess box here and I bought, and I found a chess online site and started training playing. I actually had to know the basic rules of chess, because I didn't know, or I was not completely knowledgeable. I did not like games like chess, especially Shogi, the Japanese version of chess, thinking there is no point for humans to play those games in the age where humans are easily defeated by computers. Chess was the first game on which a news like that was reported drastically. Strategic games need probability, that was my belief. Well, but you know, we must remember that we can think the point of those games lies in fights between humans, computers are those which compute, and computers may be good trainers but we don't have to pay efforts especially in order to defeat them. I actually felt good when playing against humans. Huh. It after all is a game between you and me. You may just be a beginner, so may I be. But battles of `wits' between us can be amusing among us. Isn't it enough for us? If yes, that can be the whole thing. Chess, among us, can be a good field where we compete using our computing abilities, which must be inferior to those of computers, but who cares. If we, the competitors, do not care, actually no one care. Chess can be a good game, especially recently.

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Getting back to Diary

I am searching for Dutch-English, and Dutch-Japanese electric dictionaries. Remember, this is a diary blog. I can write things I do in ordinary days. I would not talk about university-related things though. You know, since I'm a descendant of ninjas, I'm afraid of disclosing identity.

Well, when it comes to English-Japanese dictionary, it is easy to find. Eijiro (http://www.eijiro.jp/) must be the most useful English-Japanese dictionary. It has actually been a good help for me. Another thing I wanna mention is PDIC (http://homepage3.nifty.com/TaN/). This is not a dictionary, but an application to consult dictionaries one has. Several dictionaries are available as free data, and I found one or two (depending on how one counts) Dutch-English dictionary data for PDIC. But I think they may be poor in content. There must be good electric dictionaries in the world, because, hey, it's the 21st century, right?

Certainly, I've found an online dictionary: http://www.vandale.nl/opzoeken. This is provided by a publisher in the Netherlands. And although I cannot discern how plenty the content is, I simply expect this is much. OK. It's good. ...But aren't there downloadable dictionaries? I don't need `portable' dictionaries, like paper dictionaries. I wanna have dictionary data that, I hope, I can convert into ones that I can use on PDIC. I wonder if there is any good method...

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Getting back to Diary

And finally, by starting writing something in the body of the blog, the process of Anglicization finishes. I was Anglicizing this blog. And, O yes, we can now celebrate the rebirth of Liber Violaceus! After a long rest time, this blog gets back!

As you can see on the sidebar, the main aim of this blog will be to let me write something interesting -- in English. Writing in English will truly be a challenge, because no one would not deny that it is a foreign language. This blog started as a training field of writing in Japanese, and I felt I mastered the language -- it must seem something too natural, but, you (you know) know, any language has its own details after all. As much as it is obviously important to be exposed to a language, it at the same time is important to try to use it. I, for example, don't know how to make jokes using funny facts/connotations. You know? Saying `you know' frequently and unnecessarily many times is terribly funny. But it needs a context explained. Well, I didn't need to explain contexts when I was writing in Japanese, because I was arrogant thinking `you can search contexts behind, right?'. Well, you can say I was dependent, or was not really trying to make real jokes. Yeah, I was content with the try then. Yeah, writing is writing and writing is good by itself, because it will anyhow sophisticate one's style. OK. I don't know English so much that I will get sophisticated automatically by writing, or by trying writing. Reading Sherlock Holmes seems good.

I was a blogger, and I still am a blogger, you can say so. I can write an entry without any specific topics as you can view with this entry. Hey this is an entry first written in English, you know? But many of the audience of this blog, if any, from the ancient time would not read, or haha, they must have stopped coming and reading this blog. Losing audience might be a sad thing to experience for a blogger. Then I might not be a blogger, because I am not that sad. But I might be a blogger because I can write an entry like this just believing some audience -- some! -- might be able to enjoy, since this is written in English which is the most common language in the world, although this blog is located in the Japanese blogosphere, if `blogosphere' is not a dead word, thanks to Twitter. Well, being a blogger and not being a blogger at the same time, huh? Ah no, no, no. Potentially being a blogger and potentially not being a blogger must be more accurate. Well, but who cares, because it is just happening in a narrow corner in the shrinking blogosphere?

Let's talk about yakuza manga. Yes, a topic of blogs can change so easily, Watson? And actually I wanna talk a little bit about yakuza manga. It is safe because this is in a foreign language. Don't you think so? Well, the potential range of audience must be bigger than before, though. Anyway, yakuza manga. Why do I like the genre? I've recently started reading the series of
修羅がゆく 1
. This is actually similar to Don he no michi (The Road to Godfather) *1. The protagonists are ambitious and have their own justice, not bent to cunning strategies. They start as relatively younger yakuza members but thanks to their physical and mental strengths, they become bigger. Through appearances of new sidekicks and passing aways of old ones, they conduct their pride... Well, although they are basically criminals, their stories are interesting. Is it just me to feel they are mature versions of One Piece...? Wow, I haven't read One Piece so much. I cannot compare, of course. I was just kidding. Hey, don't get angry.

Another interesting comparison is with the samurai genre. Hmm. What will be the works that will fall into this genre? Gintama may be a good example, and Rurouni Kenshin will be. But I must say that the samurai genre is just considered to be fantasy, especially when you talk about works from Jump. Heroes will shoot some critical techniques (ah, we must exclude Gintoki, then), while yakuzas would not do that (but yakuzas shooting amazing techniques are funny, aren't they? It might become like Sakigake Otoko Juku). Yakuza stories are dark in taste. I might be attracted by the darkness of the stories. As sorry as I am to fans of Bleach and/or One Piece, but works need some darkness... `Friendship, Effort, and Victory' is the motto of Jump, right? But we need, well, I need, violence, cunningness, strategy, mental manipulation, and betrayal..., to mention a few. I like Gintoki's random attitudes towards many things and resolute pride behind them. And the plots are so well crafted that I was defeated by author's tear-jerking tricks... I give victory to Gintama. And the latest season of anime will start on the 8th of this month, they say... I will definitely check it, but since I know a bit of the stories with which the animation will start, I am not that much excited. Gintama will be successfully Gintama. Real time watching Gintama, I think, will be epic, though.

Well, what were we talking about? Ah yes, this blog is reborn right now, was it? I hope you can enjoy it.

I've noticed. I must add something more. If you (kindly!) wanna add comments, click on the button, `コメントを書く' (`write a comment') and `投稿' (`post') next. Sorry, but this blog service is in Japanese and I cannot change it. I could do if this were in another mode though...

*1:Well, I must make notification rules later.