Here’s a quick post before I go to bed. One of the first videos I’ve seen of Utada Hikaru performing. It was also my first encounter with the song she’s singing, Final Distance. Great song. Great artist.

There’s also a lot of history to this song. The original song was more of an upbeat mix called Distance. Hikaru remixed it to this ballad due to the death of a schoolgirl who was killed in a school stabbing. So it’s kind of bittersweet.

Nothing special for today. I just felt like typing up something. I guess the only thing special about today, though it really counts as tomorrow, is that it’s the end of Daylight Savings and it’s time to roll our clocks back. And everytime this time comes around, I always hear about someone not knowing which way to turn the clock. I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t take much effort to memorize the phrase, which I hear all the time too, “Fall back, Spring forward”. And that’s it. It’s too bad it isnt an extra hour from Sunday to Monday. I’m just gonna end up wasting it tonight. Well that’s all I’m going to say about this.

As for other blog thoughts, I’m always battling myself with the idea of a different website layout. I want to have a sleek design, but a sleek design kills functionality sometimes. And I hate it when that happens. Anyway, there’s probably another design project coming around. Right now it looks fine, but I’m always pushing for perfection. That’s the kind of artist I am.

And finally, I really need to format my computer. It’s starting to turn to shit. Only problem is that I have so much shit on my computer that it is the reason my computer is turning into shit. Maybe I’ll do it tonight. Nothing important happening anytime soon. Back everything up tonight. Format tomorrow. Done. Easier said than done I guess. At least I still have my laptop in case shit hits the fan. =)

Here’s the complete version of the song for the first opening of Shakugan no Shana for those who were interested. As you can tell from the title of the post, it’s called “Hishoku no Sora” and Mami Kawada provides the vocals. I happen to have several other songs by her that maybe I’ll stream at some other time. For now though, here’s “Hishoku no Sora”.

KOTOKO simply has a great talent for music. She has so many songs under her name and this song is nicely done. That’s why I’m posting it. Also, it’s from the second opening of Shakugan no Shana. Nice song for a nice anime. And obviously, I’m a fan of her music and I spent a good number of years tracking down her various songs. I’ll most likely have a few more posts on her music.

Here’s the opening sequence to Shakugan no Shana. A very enjoyable anime that I picked up about a year ago. I’ve also posted the second opening sequence to this anime as well. Check that out too if you haven’t already. Both are great.

Here’s a clean version of the song, no dialogue.

Hishoku no Sora Piano Version (revisited)

Although I should be streaming some action clips, this particular clip caught my attention because of the piano track playing in the background. I’m not a huge audiophile, but I do find a lot interest in music. Anyway, the background music in the clip is a piano rendition of the opening song. Unfortunately, despite two soundtrack releases for this anime, this particular track was not included. Which is very depressing. As for the scene, it’s quite a bittersweet atmosphere and it would make a lot more sense and be a lot more moving for someone who has seen the previous episodes leading to this one. But, I liked it so I thought I’d share it.

Here’s the second opening sequence to Shakugan no Shana. I first saw this on YouTube while searching for the artist that sings this song. It looked so cool, I downloaded the anime. What did it for me was when the chorus came in at about 1:02 into the sequence.

The first sequence is awesome too, so check that out if you haven’t already.

It’s another Monday, and all I see is a carbon copy day of last week. Wake up early in the cold, get ready for work, drive to work at an average pace of 20 mph, be bored as fuck at work, then leave and deal with an even slower drive home. I sit here now, while writing this, preparing for the same routine tomorrow. But I should be happy. I should be happy I have a job. That pays well. It’s just the lack of other stuff that makes me unhappy. Two hours of my life everyday is wasted just on the commute to work. Because of that, it takes time away from my available time. Of course, I’d probably find a way to waste away that time. Technically, I have about 3 hours of free time each day. An hour is already wasted on hygiene and appeasing the hunger, so I have about 2 hours. By the time I can commit to anything of those two hours, minus all the various distractions, I have maybe an hour to do what I want. So what do I do with that extra hour? I’m wasting it on television and writing this blog rant. So why am I wasting my time? Because I’m dead fucking tired from work. But I should be happy. By payday, I will once again be reminded of why I deal with all this. It’s too bad that pay day’s in another three weeks. Bah. But, I guess I should be happy. Life could be worse. At least I can buy stuff I never use to make myself feel good about myself. Well that’s my rant. I’m slightly happier now. Until I wake up tomorrow morning. At least Fridays are worth looking forward to. /shrug + /dream of grinding the cash

Here’s my review of the first episode of this very well made anime.

Summary:
The episode starts out with a weird squiggly symbol and then it goes straight into some cheesy intro scene with someone singing. All very cheesy. And then the title comes up as “The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina”. After the music, there is a narrator describing this character named Mikuru and how she’s an alien combat waitress, although she is dressed in a bunny suit. After the brief intro of her daily happenings, the plot thickens as her arch nemesis comes into the picture along with some guy, supposedly, a love interest.

Deeper into the episode, there are many signs as to what the episode is really. If you haven’t figured it out by the halfway mark, the episode is really a homemade movie of the actual characters in the actual story of the anime as the episode purposely portrays the bad film editing along with bad acting and the director getting into the shot as she screams “Cut” over and over.

I’m not gonna go too deep into describing the episode because on the surface, it has nothing to do with the synopsis of the entire anime. So let’s just scroll to the end of the episode where they run the credits to this “movie” by which the actual characters appear. Leading the charge is none other than Haruhi herself and a brief shot of the narrator/editor of the movie.

Review:
If I did not know what the show was really about, I would’ve stopped watching after 10 minutes of it. It was painfully agonizing to sit through a whole episode of something that didn’t make quite sense and chalk full of purposeful bad editing and voice acting. In any case, the over-the-topness of it all reassured me that this was all a joke, and the real anime would prove to be very promising.

Conclusion:
So in conclusion, this episode can be skipped, but after you watch the whole series, you’d be glad you stuck around and saw everything. And here’s a short clip of the episode if you were wondering what it was like.

So not too long ago, this puzzle was referred to me and I got caught into its madness. For a short period of time though. Anyway, here’s the puzzle:

http://www.borrett.id.au/computing/petals-j.htm

It’s all about the title.