音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

This year's October is indeed fantastic--the degree of being fantastic overcomes that of being busy with this or that for no reason. As my top 1 romance of life, two releases captured my heart in this month made it so remarkable. Even now I'm still looping the two like mad--you won't see them getting recorded on my lastfm though because it mostly happens during work. If my portable player can record the play count, I bet these two albums will have already gain 1k+ or even higher counts.

People all have their own criteria to judge the quality of music. To me, good music can "draw" in my mind. It may be as abstract as patches of colours, or it sometimes forms into clear visions of particular scene--and of course, it should be intensive enough so it doesn't vanish when the music ends. That's exactly where I get inspiration of most of my drawings.

So, to prove Akiko's "Turaida" is "great" (Haruka's is too but hers is coming from a story context that sort of limits my imagination), I spent almost a whole day in total during last weekend to have fun with my daughter. (・ω・`)

@pixiv

I tried to make a set for the four seasons, but I was most attracted by the one of autumn. So I took it as my priority over marking the assignments or writing a report-paper... -- I'm totally aware of that's bad in terms of being academic, but that's my inner impulse that I can't withhold! And each time when I draw something new, I want to claim that "the most adorable girls can only be my daughters"~ (´∀｀)

So that's it, and I guess I won't have my next work until the end of this year. Too much work needs to be done before that!

Speaking of work and academic, yesterday I got a notification about that google plus now allows you changing your g+ url. Not as random as how you do with your blogger custom domain, but it's still much better than the super long and by-no-means-can-be-memorised-by-a-normal-person one. I just wonder what would happen if two people have exactly the same name and I want to test it using my other gmail address.

Anyway, back to what I intended to say. This night, I feel like I should update my info although I'm not really using g+ other than storing my random snaps/screen caps for free.

I used to use 'permanent head damage', which I heard from someone before, but tonight, everything's gotta be changed. This degree, now I'm understanding (or I assume I am) it much better than months ago. It's not following anyone's instructions straightforwardly, it's more about things from your own plan and come from your own decision and judgement. You're actually not having your head damaged, instead, you're wandering in a field that with unlimited brancing possibilities and your goal is to find a way that fits you the best and make it to the exit. Now, I think I've already found my way--at least I'm bearing a much clearer objective comparing with 2 years ago. I don't really want to mention that period because that's rather like my dark history, so I'd better stop here,
and my point is--
from now on, I'm changing my definition of PhD. Instead of damaging my head, I'd more like to be a Possessed heretical Daydreamer.
It does sound crazier than the former one, doesn't it?!

Finally, I read that news this morning, that My Opera community will be shut down in next March.
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS YEAR!?
GARNET CROW broke up, Google reader was shut down, the newest Opera browser got a big switch into chrome core, isohunt.com is dead, even Akiko's concert DVD got delayed, and now the coming closure of MyO blogging service... @_@

That's true that I've stopped using MyO's blogging service, but it doesn't mean I don't like it. I simply changed to blogger for its ability to use js code and custom domain. However, regardless of these, MyO is my best blogging service. (I don't want to spend time on listing its advantages since I've done it so many times before.) I for many times was considering of using it for other non-regular-blogging purposes.
It's a bit sad for sure, but at the same time, at least I won't have any regret of not using MyO for my blog--what a conflict!! Even blogger isn't my best choice; I always have this or that fanatic set-ups that regular service can't achieve. Guess my next blog service will be built on either cgi of php, but so far, I still don't have enough time to read through all necessary techniques involved by this plan. I just hope it can be done before the day of Second Impact. ^^;

Fine, nothing lasts forever. Let's have a happy goodbye to MyO together with this awesome October. I'll be pleased as long as My Opera Link survives. And I doubt any exciting release will exist in November--October has taken all the shinning stars away! :3

First, a bad thing, the shipment of my "Turaida" got delayed to November--even there is no shortage of it on amazon at all. (I never know how those online stores work though.)
Second, a good thing, there is always kind people (not me definitely, I buy music, but lazy and not that willing to share) who share the newest releases. Good thing always happen on Friday morning--just like two weeks ago's Haruka release! Now I have a copy of "Turaida", and like what I expected, Akiko never let me down, she's so fantastic! The music, and the CD jacket. ^^
Goddess, she could just cosplay like Kalliope or any other muse then use that as the CD jacket!

Since my last being-kiyoed at Haruka's new release for ~350 times (online, and plus another 350 if counting offline), I bet this time I may go beyond the previous degree. Even solely because Akiko is one of my Top Three~
I remember this afternoon, one labmate told me that we identified some new entries (entry = something only I myself know), and blah blah. I could know from her tone that she was excited. Then, she asked me, "Aren't you excited?"
"No, not really." I said.
--Because I'm much, much more excited by Turaida at that moment, and also right now! :3
Guess I could start here...

Tr. 8 captured my heart immediately. My first link from it was "Akakakushi". Koto, or some people use Sou, is my favorite Japanese traditional instrument. I was totally heated up when its clear sound plays. That song is an excellent mixture between contemporary and traditional styles. The melody, the lyrics, and the arrangement make me so happy=>my Top 1 in Turaida.

For other songs, they are all good and I can't pick up more special favorites anymore. Similar to Haruka's release, I love the entire album. Tr. 1 and Tr. 2 are like the most typical Akiko style that you're familiar with, multiple-part chorus, "homemade" language, opening the gate to Turaida (Garden of God interpreted by Akiko). Tr. 3 is a beautiful and gentle song in Italian. It's another aspect of her style but may not show up as frequently as those in first two tracks--and it's good there is translation!

When the first I listened to the introduction of Tr. 4, I felt like I was listening to some old Kalafina! "Don't tell me the composer/arranger is Yuki!" << I really had such thoughts. But, anyhow, that's Akiko's own work. The arranging work is so well-done. I love the string parts echoing with each other.

Tr. 5 and Tr. 6 are kind of at the hash side--if you read the lyrics. Yet the ambience of them are nice. Especially looking at the booklet together. Then Tr. 7 is a soft lullaby. Without the multiple-part chorus, Akiko can do sweet songs (the harp is sweet too)! The following one, I've just talked about, and it's a cute song.

Long time ago in the period of "Harmonia", I liked the song in which Amano Tsuki wrote the lyrics. And this time, I'm happy to see this combination again. This time, the song is still so intensive and impressive. Even the booklet gives a strong constrast between the black background and scattering petals.--Are Amano Tsuki's own songs all like this? Or it especially happens when they two go together? (I'm not familiar with Amano's songs, so I don't know. ^^;)

Tr. 10 is a bright folkish song... in Turkish (I spent a fairly amount of time on matching those irregular letters!). It's a story about a girl who looks for the help from the Princess of Rain for her hometown. So in the booklet, the major part is all in golden that indicates the sorching weather, whereas on the very right side, there is a patch showing the tender blue water and the peaceful reflection of sunlight--I like happy ends.

Tr. 11 is another intensive piece but a little bit less impressive comparing to Tr. 9. To matching that page, there is a huge clock in the booklet. Finally, Tr. 12, a rather calm ending hymn converges this album to the end but written in a language I have no clue. At the same time, Tr. 12 makes a good connection to Tr. 1, so you can simply keep looping this album from the start to the end, then back to the start smoothly. Right, a perfect flow. It's convicing you also getting kiyo-ed!!

About the bonus CD, some are short versions of other released works, and some are the selected BGM tracks plus the short version of one UNRELEASED work.
Bonus Tr. 4 is the unreleased one. I basically don't listen to short versions. Bonus Tr. 4 is just as impressive as Tr. 9 from the main CD. After listening to the short version here, I more and more want that full version gets released. For the rest two new tracks, Bonus Tr. 5 is too short to comment, although it's good, and Bonus Tr. 8 is a cute one. It reminds me her "Haguruma no Erude" back to this August. Well, tea parties are supposed to be sweet and cute, aren't they?

Counting the languages--although I'm not surprising anymore when she uses any new language--I'm still kind of amazed that she used Arabic in Tr. 4. Continuing from "Harmonia", Tr. 10 has Turkish (I assume!). Then, for tracks 2 and 12, I totally have no clue what the language is. Anyone knows whether those symbols correspond to any non-homemade language? :P

I did have a tough time while typing the lyrics (because they're not available online yet). For lots of times, they gave pronunciations for words I know, but not for those I don't know!! °A° I spent lots of time looking up those words via the hand-writing-detecting feature of Google JP IME, and not unexpected, that feature can't hit to what exactly I want, so I had to write again and again and again because otherwise I don't know how to reach it.
--Akiko's lyrics is definitely NOT good for Japanese learners!

Then I have to say, I just CAN'T stop thinking that jacket looks weird. It's something like the overall arrangement of elements or the colour harmony. The contrast is sorta too sharp to me--or maybe it's because the tree and she's too REAL comparing to the way too FANTASTIC sky in background? Anyway, the booklet is prettily designed as usual. What is excellent is that all songs have their proper background/images like what I've interpolated previously. One page I didn't cover is about Tr. 8 my favorite. This page has a neat design: maple leaves, butterflies, and other patterns in a clear white background. Above all these elements, the lyrics appear on a translucent orange colour block. I'm specially saying it here because it reminds me an old blog template of mine! XD Since I got especially love for this one, I even set up the wallpaper of the lab PC I use using this one. Others will be surprised while seeing it, though I doubt much people will use it since it's on the Pepen OS.

And now I'll stop writing. Should just wait for my own copy! Meanwhile, I'm having a report due 2 weeks later; have to get it done ASAP so I won't rush at the last minute!

Ahhh, I just realised that I totally almost forget to write about that. I tagged this post as "otherworld", because of that.
It's just what popped up in my mind. If you read her lyrics very carefully. Of Tr. 6, somewhat in Tr. 5, a little in Tr. 9. Not only in this album, take a look at Laylania's background set-ups (and that's where I initially got that idea)...
Akiko, you're a shota-con, aren't you??!!
--I'M KIDDING, DON'T BITE ME!

When your imagination flies beyond the ground, you start to make delusions... u_u

I have completely no idea what exactly I'm busy with recently, but I'm just busy. So that having no time to play Silent Hill, or even watch Rozen Maiden.
And the fact is that you always gotta deal with several non primary yet important life-bugs, and thus get sidetracked and causes you even busier.
In my case, my impulse of officially adopting a penguin unlashed my supposed-to-be-well-organised weekend time.

At home with Pepen~
A few weeks ago, I suddenly decided to wipe out my illegal Windows 7 and install a penguin OS onto it. It's not a bad idea to be familiar (and to master for the best) both OS'. So since that time I installed Mint.--You may wonder why not Ubuntu??
In fact, I knew linux from Ubuntu because my lab PC's have it. But I myself chose Mint.
Three reasons,
1. Ubuntu is sorta hard to configure (or maybe it's not my own PC so I can't really try around), and I hate the left-side taskbar, whereas Mint, at least the version I have is very like Windows. As a heavy Windows user, it's so nostalgic that Mint has a XP-like default interface.
2. I NEVER know how to pronounce "Ubuntu",
3. Mint is by default fresh green, which is much better than Ubuntu's dusky orange.

I might get a pure UNIX (which sounds super cool) but I'm not that geek yet to deal with such a stranger. ^^;
Since my first time installation, everything was good, except the screen brightness. I tried the preview version via my USB disk on "LipAura" (my current legal Win 8), and it had no problem with adjusting it. So it must be something wrong inside of that machine. I went online for others' suggestions, from installing VAIO drivers to general controlling tools, but none worked.

At Saturday noon, I was (again) search for solving the way to high screen brightness in order to use this OS without hurting my eyes. By chance? or because I was lucky? I saw someone's posting a line about "nvclock". Alright, lemme have a try.

sudo nvclock -S 40

Alghough I didn't expect anything good, IT JUST WORKED LIKE MAGIC!
I was so happy that I finished my homemade red bean paste--which took me almost 12 hours! >w<

Therefore, I decided to re-install Mint to clean out all previous stupid test prog's for the brightness issue. While giving my laptop a name, I thought over, and finally typed as below:
"SilentHill".
So now, each time when I start a terminal, I see kiyoko@SilentHill.
And I got super moe-d by simply staring at it! ≧▽≦

On the fluffy cloud
Linux isn't that hard to configure (as a regular, non-geek user of course). Probably it's also because it includes most programs you might need, and you'd just follow the default settings since you're new to this OS. All stuff that I need to take special care aren't that messy to list: Wine, Notepad++, foobar2000, and google drive.

Speaking about gdrive, it's really a shame that there isn't linux version for the syncing. But anyway, there are still things that can achieve it. Before, I ever made attemp to switch to dropbox, but eventually I reached my conclusion that dropbox is rubbish. I do agree that it's great for people who work with both windows and linux (and mac?), just, no matter what kind of free promotion you offer, the initial 2 GB is no way to be enough. We're not staying in the floppy stage, even my USB stick is at least 4-8 GB, and I'm not that type who forgets to carry important data easily.

Maybe Ubuntu One is a good alternative (5 GB is decent enough). But UO can't make me pointing a folder outside of drive C to be the syncing directory, which terminates all my curiosity of trying more with it. Meanwhile, I got Skydrive worked on my "LipAura". It's such a waste if I don't use it since I have 25 GB during the old-user-event (even though my microsoft account is bound to my gmail).

The DUMPY 8.1
After making both my peguin OS and cloud home happy going, another impulse got me crying for the whole Sunday.

I've already read about win 8.1pro, and based most people's review, it does worth to upgrade it. So I did it in the morning. Good thing was I don't even need to re-configure all my system settings, which always causes me super headache. The entire upgrade was smooth. Download-install-reboot, followed by a few simple set-up's then you're done.

But--right, I always make things worse by attaching this word--while I was happy with the new tweaks that can turn off the top-right/left corner hover that originally wakes up the app-switching thing, I was ready to update my user interface back to Japanese. I just can't stop doing it as a Japanophile. :3

There it came the first issue. Guess you already know what it is.
The Japanese language pack isn't yet available!! °A°
Then why German pack is downloadable?! I wish I could use it but I don't know much German. u_u

Fine, I may endure it until they release the pack, no problem. Then the second issue dragged me heart back.
--I'd assume it's "forever".
Some of my programs now have a rather ugly interface. My entire system is beautifully set to the highest resolution as usual, yet those programs are like what you might see from an old win98. I searched online, but I haven't seen many people complaining about it. Was it my own issue with my hardware improperly configured? So I installed the original VAIO graphic driver got from official website again, and also tried to update it. No doubt none of my effort worked.
The thing was, I had NO ISSUE while configuring win 8 on the same machine. x_x

Another bad thing. Thanks to win8's removing of start button, I've stopped using win 8's start up menu. I use cmd to call whatever I want. Now you made it back, not bad, but why it still calls the stupid huge metro-flat-board?? If you make the traditional start button re-appeared, at least summon back the traditional menu! Σ(ﾟДﾟ；

--Win 8.1 isn't that charming like people commented.
IT'S DUMPY.
It seems not possible to reverse my upgrade back to win 8. It's not like an update-patch that you can remove either. I also looked on microsoft's webpage for installing win 8, but all I got was 8.1. When I was almost in despair, I recalled that there is a link to download and install win 8 when I bought it. Fortunately, that link is still alive!! I'm not sure if it's still visible on MS's webpage; I just wish they never remove/redirect it to 8.1 unless they solve the resolution issue.

Thus I ended up at almost 20:00 -- from 10:00 in the morning, solely for the stupid upgrade. It's also my fault that I should have made a backup USB disk, but who knows SUCH unexpected and silly problems exist!

My happy mood was ruined completely by 8.1 pro. Perhaps the only good thing for my computer today is, I finally connected to my EHD so I have more disk space now.
↓ See how much I have left before (or right during the upgrade, and I haven't changed my laptop name to "LipAura"). (´・ω・`)