Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Shoko's LiveJournal:

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Friday, September 11th, 2009
8:40 pm	Getting Fixed Up Drywall people came today and patched up the holes that were made to find the leak. It's all looking pretty nice. Now, the areas need to get painted and one of the spots near the floor needs to have the baseboard put back in. Stuff that we still have requests out for: - missing screen in master bath window - master shower stall door doesn't close properly - it swings inward, which it shouldn't - the part in the broken fridge - we have to call GE for that, apparently - hardware on one of the doors is mismatched, waiting for matched one to arrive Not much left, thankfully. And the drywall guy was nice enough to patch a spot on the wall that we scraped up during the move. ^_^ Current Mood: content (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
3:44 pm	House Timeline August 11 Did a walk-through of the house for a preliminary list of damages. It's a new construction, so most everything is warrantied for the first year. We found that the fireplace was scuffed up, a light switch was crooked, and a missing screen for the master bathroom window. We also spotted a dead light bulb, a missing pendant for the bedroom fan, and tape residue all over the front windows. We got a second walk-through to get a tutorial on the gadgets in the house. We have an intercom system for the 3 floors, a security system, and also a network of lights that can be controlled semi-remotely. August 13 Signed all documents for final transfer of funds and title. Took about 2 hours going over exactly what we owed and payed for, and what our obligations would be. August 14 Picked up house keys. The house was officially ours! We used all the locks with our keys to disable the construction company's master key. The missing fan pendant and tape residue had been taken care of. The light bulb was still dead. August 14-17 Moving and buying temporary paper shades for the windows. Also got a ladder to reach all the windows. Spotted more defects. A plastic hinge in our fridge was broken off, the door to the garage was missing a bit of hardware, there was a gap around the lighting fixture in our entry way, and one of the lights emitted a hum. August 17 Got Feng's brother and the moving truck for the big stuff. Then cleaned up the miscellaneous stuff, tidied up the apartment and turned in the keys. First night spent in our new home. After turning on a couple times, our vanity lights in the master bathroom stop turning on!!! We check the breakers and all the other lights work, so something is definitely wrong here, but it's late and we're tired, so we go to sleep. August 18 Very tired, very sore. Day drags by. Feng comes home and I hear the garage door, so I go down to meet him. I look into the garage to see Feng inspecting our new garbage and recycling bins that were dropped off, and then...!!! I see a leak from the ceiling and a big puddle on the floor of the garage! I immediately think of the dishwasher I tested during the day, but there are no obvious puddles in our kitchen, which is over our garage. We call the appropriate numbers and find they can't make it out, because it's already like 8pm. We settle for turning the water on only for necessities and shutting off the main otherwise. The dripping stops after a while, so at least stopping the main worked. Frustrated and tired, we go to sleep thinking, "New, my ass!" August 19 Plumber calls bright and early. They are located 90 min away, so it takes him a while to get here. He proceeds to cut a hole in the sheetrock on the ceiling of the garage. It's double layered sheetrock - yay for us! :P No leak there. He gouges a hole around the piping under the kitchen sink to stick in a snake camera. No leak there. He goes and measures where the leak is and we realize it's not actually directly under the kitchen. It turns out it's where the pipes run to the third floor in the wall. He cuts a hole in the sheetrock there, and voila, it's a nail from the baseboard that struck the pipe. We have good quality copper pipes, though - yay for us! :P But whoever put that baseboard in went nail gun crazy, because it was riddled with nails for like a 3-foot section of baseboard (23 nails). There were a number of other near misses and there were two pipes behind it. We're lucky we only had one hole. :P The plumber patched it up. I put in service requests for everything we've found so far, including all the holes the plumber had to make. Now, we get to look forward to visits from a bunch of contractors to fix all that. @_@ But, to end on a high note, I'm loving all the windows. I missed having sunlight and airflow in the house (apartment only had windows on one side and faced another building AND was shaded by trees), so that's been really awesome. Current Mood: omg (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, August 3rd, 2009
11:49 pm	An Episode in the Lives of Feng and Shoko: Powered Suits "District 9" trailer plays on TV. Feng: Are you interested in watching that? Shoko: I don't know... We'll have to see. Feng: Really? Shoko: "GI Joe" is coming out this weekend. I'm more interested in "GI Joe" than that right now! Feng: Really?! Shoko: I never thought I'd say that about "GI Joe", but it's powered suits! It's "Bubblegun Crisis" militarized! Current Mood: giggly (Comment on this)
Saturday, August 1st, 2009
9:14 pm	Valkyrie This was actually quite good. I went in with rather low expectations, in spite of decent reviews, because of all the tabloid headlines this movie originally generated. In a weird way, it put me in mind of "The Guns of Navarone". That film, of course, ends with a certain degree of success, while we all know that "Valkyrie" is like watching "Titanic" or "Marie Antoinette". But maybe it's just the way it's more about the characters set in a time of war, rather than it being a war movie involving military action. After all, the action in "Valkyrie" is pretty minimal. It doesn't shy away from anything, but it's not "Saving Private Ryan" or "U-571". The cast is quite impressive and it really needs to be that way for you to be able to keep all the characters straight. It's difficult to remember all the names, but that's not entirely necessary if you can at least recognize faces. And of course, to do that, the best way is to pepper your cast with well-known faces ("Oceans Eleven" also does this). The interesting thing is that this is an international cast and to a certain extent, everyone speaks their own version of English. They didn't try to homogenize everyone's English into one with a German accent. At first, it was a little odd, but I feel like you get used to it pretty quickly. In the end, it's not about the language or the accent. It's about the characters and it's just possible that the characters really did shine more for not being covered up by a German accent. Maybe I'm just buying into their propaganda, but I feel like it made the story first and foremost a universal story of people who had the will to act upon their convictions in the face of great odds. It just so happened that it took place in Nazi Germany. Finally, the Blu-ray disc comes with a lot of extras which tell you about the real history, including interviews with contemporaries of the participants of Operation Valkyrie and the descendants of those participants. I think it would make a nice addition to any collection, except that I know I probably won't watch it over and over, simply because it is somewhat depressing. :P Current Mood: impressed (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
12:38 am	Declassified Projects Roundup I am too busy to make a post for each thing right now, but I also don't want like a whole year to go by without posting about new work, since... well, I HAVE been putting out work. So I'm just going to list some of the stuff that's fallen by the wayside here. Some of it may be repeats, just because I don't want to comb through all my older posts. :P Maria Watches Over Us (anime seasons 2 & 3) Gurren Lagann (ongoing manga series) Ghost Slayers Ayashi (anime & manga series) Romeo x Juliet (anime) Negima!? (anime & OVA) Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea (live action movie) ==================================== Translator Babbling: With knowledge and experience, there's a certain level of efficiency you can reach in translating, but I feel like there's a point where it's just up to your brain to chug through the material and there's nothing you can do about it. There are hot keys and go-to sites for research, but there is no easy button for the brain. I think, "Shouldn't this be getting easier with time?" but I don't feel it. I may make slightly better choices now, but there are always choices that I waffle on forever. It's like the more experience I have, the more I realize that there are more choices out there. The more I realize that, the more I understand that there are choices out there that haven't even occurred to me, but maybe if I think just a bit longer, one of those "other" choices will come to me. When that hope springs eternal, it makes me pause and pause again, ever more reluctant to "settle" for a solution. And if there's a better solution for Difficult Situation A, maybe there's actually a better way to deal with Routine Situation B, if only I try to think outside the box a bit. There's a danger to complacency, to thinking that the best solutions have been arrived at, but there's also a danger to obsessing over finding those unconventional solutions, because you become so bogged down and stubborn. Conventional solutions have their place and there is such a thing as over-thinking solutions. But drawing that line is one struggle that doesn't seem to get any easier. Current Mood: waiting for enlightenment (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
1:37 am	The Tale of Despereaux I really wanted to like this... It's cute, the designs are great, and I have a soft spot for reworked fairy tales. But it just didn't hold together. It's convoluted and there were a lot of elements going on at the same time, which didn't come out great in the execution. I understand it was supposed to be this story of chain reactions and things coming full circle, but that wasn't made clear until the very end. Maybe it works well written. I've never read the book. But as a film, it just felt like it was jumping from one thing to another and you lose interest when the connections aren't made clear or the connections seem tenuous. Some of the story elements also felt very abrupt. How Roscuro's character changes seemed really sudden and convenient, for example. And while I understand that the narration was there to give it that storybook feeling, some of the narrated segments felt a little slow and affected, which did nothing to draw me into the film. It just felt like a story going through the motions, without that special spark that can make or break the telling of it. I did check out the extras and it was interesting how they chose to record the voices. I think it also explains why the chef and Boldo were some of the best scenes; those two seemed to be having the best time of any of them. And watching the deleted musical segments made me glad they didn't use them. :P Current Mood: disappointed (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 25th, 2009
12:58 am	Death Race Post-apocalyptic Mario Cart, basically. Just another brutal, bloody, explosive action film. A lot of the vehicles are rather hard for me to distinguish from one another, so the action was a bit confusing. The plot is simple and also pretty simpleminded. Good enough to view once, but nothing to linger over. I wish they made the swords and shields viewer vote-controlled, though. That way, they could tamper with it once in a while without it being an obvious case of authorities rigging it. Current Mood: fine (Comment on this)
Friday, July 24th, 2009
1:57 am	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince It had its moments, but it felt kind of slow. There was a lot of character stuff that was moved towards resolution, I guess, but I never felt particularly gripped by it. It really feels like it's just setup for what's to come and it doesn't actually stand all that well on its own. It will probably work better as a whole, once the rest of it gets out there, but that's going to be a while. :P Current Mood: contemplative (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
11:20 pm	An Episode in the Lives of Feng and Shoko: Will we be up? It is 11pm. Feng: Do you think we'll be up in 4 hours? Shoko: No. We better not be! Feng: Hmm... I think we'll be up in 4 hours. Shoko: Why?! We should go to sleep before that! Feng: But I want to play something, so once I start playing, I'll stay up... Shoko: Wait, why do you need to be up in 4 hours? Feng: The strawberries will be ripe in 4 hours. And I need to decide whether to plant strawberries or the pumpkins, which will be ripe in 8 hours. Shoko: You're going to schedule your time around a Facebook app?!?!?! Feng: :3 Shoko: I have to post about this so everyone can laugh at you... Current Mood: silly (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, July 19th, 2009
2:52 am	The Duchess Probably one of the most sedate period pieces I've seen in recent memory. It's a bit slow and lacking a certain flare. The character that Ralph Fiennes plays is possibly the most intriguing part of the film. It walks a strangely fine line that I'm still not sure what to make of. The rest of it is fine, but nothing spectacular. Even Keira Knightley's King Arthur, with its many flaws, had more spark and entertainment value. So I have to regrettably say that this film was something of a disappointment. Current Mood: blah (Comment on this)
Friday, July 17th, 2009
5:37 pm	Push Predictably in a class similar to Jumper, though I think Jumper was the better of the two. Push is an interesting world and I've never watched Heroes, but I think the premise is pretty similar. Which is to say, it's set in the modern world where normal people have specific powers, but a variety of powers, and then there are organizations out to harness and control those people. In Push, we see 9 kinds of powers which are listed here. The film is titled after the "pushers" who can basically plant thoughts in people's minds. And because of this, you're always wondering if what the characters believe to be the truth are actually true. So the world is pretty complex and holds a lot of potential. However, the plot itself barely hangs together by a thread. A lot happens, in particular towards the end of the film, that plays kind of like a heist in a heist movie, where you only see at the end how exactly they pulled it off. And while you're technically sort of clued into how they pull it off, you never get that clarity and satisfaction of going, "Ah! That was clever!" They show you A and they show you B, but you don't quite get to see the journey from A to B. It feels rather glossed over. And there are a couple other plot points that don't really hang together, so it's a bit frustrating. So in the end, the cast was fun, the world was interesting, it definitely had its moments, and it was worth watching once, but I'm just as glad that I didn't shell out for this in the theaters and it's not something I'd be interested in owning. Current Mood: content (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
1:36 pm	Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay We watched the first one a while back and it was ridiculous, but it had a certain heart to it and some good funny moments. I feel like this one went too far and kind of lost it. The funniest moments were already in the trailers and the whole thing felt a little slower and dragged out. Maybe the difference lies in the fact that the first one is still relatable. We've all had cravings at odd hours, even if we may not have gone quite to such lengths to satisfy it, and we've all experienced some kind of grueling process that resulted in a worthwhile reward. I don't think many of us have had to be fugitives from the law. :P Other thoughts: - the weed girlfriend is not funny, I don't get it, it's just long and boring - however, Neil Patrick Harris always steals the show (and makes me want to go back and watch Doogie Howser) - I wanted to see more of punk goth Harold Current Mood: silly (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 11th, 2009
12:48 am	An Episode in the Lives of Feng and Shoko: Cash Not really watching, but with "Deep Impact" on TV on the TNT HD channel, it's on its last leg. As the reporter girl chooses to spend her final moments on Earth with her father, she makes a mundane confession: "When I was 11, I stole $32 dollars from your wallet." me: *laugh* (I'd forgotten about that moment of levity in the otherwise serious scene.) Feng: Oh, yeah, I have no cash on me anymore. me: Oh, right. I withdrew cash the other day, so I have lots. Let me put some in your wallet. So much for the tragedy playing out on the screen... Current Mood: silly (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 4th, 2009
8:02 pm	Taken The film definitely has the imprint of Luc Besson (written by him and directed by a disciple of his). It has that trademark fast-paced brutal action, also emulated in the Bourne series. So it certainly knows how to keep you on the edge of your seat. The plot has its holes and some yeah-right moments, but on the whole, it was good entertainment, especially if you like your entertainment with a high body count. Current Mood: thrilled (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
10:15 am	Saving Face So, Feng got Zohan and I got this. The simplest description of this film would be the lesbian version of The Wedding Banquet. For those of you who don't know, The Wedding Banquet is about a Chinese gay guy living in America, who has to deal with his parents coming to try to match him up with a wife and it moves towards resolution from there. And in tone, the two films are quite similar. We get an inside look at Chinese society that gives flavor to what is essentially a warm family drama. If you've watched Eat Drink Man Woman, that film also has the same overall feel (though, Eat Drink Man Woman was not set in America). In terms of the story, with The Wedding Banquet covering much the same ground over a decade earlier, Saving Face isn't particularly innovative. But it's got its own story to tell and it tells it well. And with its modern twist, it does take things to some places that are new and interesting. Plus, well-presented drama with humor like this never gets old. The film also did something more modern with language. It mixed English and Chinese, which was quite interesting, because I've seen that kind of mishmashed use of language between my friends and their parents. If you have Chinese friends who've grown up here, chances are, if you listen to them talk to their parents, you will occasionally hear some pretty big English words thrown in there. Sometimes, it's because they don't know the Chinese word for it, sometimes, it's because the English word is just a better fit for the situation. Whatever the case, with mixed generations, especially with everyone understanding both languages fairly well, it's quite common. And this film is very true to life in that sense, freely switching between languages every couple sentences or carrying on conversations where one side speaks Chinese and the other speaks English. The Wedding Banquet didn't have much of that, partly because the parent characters were from the mainland and didn't speak much English. So, in a way, Saving Face is a half generation later than The Wedding Banquet, with the parents set in Chinatown instead of the mainland. Current Mood: touched (Comment on this)
Monday, June 29th, 2009
10:58 am	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen We went to the IMAX showing and it was actually pretty awesome. I think I enjoyed this one more than the first one. I'm not as sure that IMAX was worth the extra bucks. The sound was definitely incredible, but I feel like the screen experience wasn't all that different from a normal theater. Then again, when you can actually FEEL the sound, it becomes a different experience. I won't say that I regret going IMAX, but I don't know that I'll be seeking out every IMAX release in the future, either. As for the movie, yes, it was long at 150min, but it kept things moving and I didn't feel like it was all that long. The action was good and the unabashed celebration of military might is probably as pure and uncomplicated as it can get. I don't know if it's because it's the second go-around or not, but I found it easier to tell the two sides apart this time. Last time, I also found some of the plot points a bit puzzling, but there was nothing like that this time. Overall, I think Star Trek is still the better film this summer, because of its depth of character and plot. After all, let's not kid ourselves, there's nothing really deep about Transformers. But it's a great summer popcorn flick and what more can you really ask for? ( Rant against CNN review ) Current Mood: excited (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
11:00 am	You Don't Mess with the Zohan Don't look at me, Feng picked it. It has its moments, but I've never really appreciated slapstick comedy, especially when an entire film is comprised of it. The overacting just makes it hard for me to sit still. :P However, I'd be curious to know how real the use of non-English was. I know they came up with a lot of their own terminology that they dubbed "Zohanian", but they also have a lot of actors of Middle Eastern origin in there. So it makes me wonder, was it cringe-worthy for native speakers or did they make a decent effort at it? Current Mood: blah (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
6:59 pm	Street Kings If I keep getting hung up about my backlog, I'll never get anywhere, so forget about the backlog. :P Latest Netflix rental. It was nothing spectacular, nothing bad. It has shades of Infernal Affairs/The Departed and it's also an interesting contrast to A Scanner Darkly, which also starred Keanu Reeves. It was fun to see Hugh Laurie (Dr. House) in something else, but while his character is an important one, we don't see much of him, so I feel like he didn't get enough screen time to really shake off the Dr. House image. House is so quirky and memorable, while this character was so normal, it was a bit tough to see past it. At any rate, a decent rental if you have a couple hours you want to spend on a dark crime thriller. Current Mood: content (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 18th, 2009
9:19 pm	What does your name mean? I went to a Quizno's today and the girl at the register looked at my credit card and asked, "How do you pronounce your name?" So I told her, then she asked, "Do you know what it means?" Me: Yeah, I was named after a philosopher. Girl: Oh... I'll bet she's gotten some interesting conversation-starter type responses from that question, but sometimes, you get a bit more than you bargained for. XD Current Mood: amused (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 11th, 2009
3:50 am	Star Trek Everything you could want in a space opera, period. Yes, there were plot holes. But at its core is a character story and there, it definitely delivers. I hope they make another one after this. And as a full disclosure sort of thing, I'm by no means a Star Trek fan. I've seen a couple episodes here and there from all the different series. I've seen a couple of the movies. I can recognize the most prominent characters. I know about tribbles. I recognize the Vulcan greeting hand gesture. I know that Reggie Miller reminds me of Ferengi (and not the other way around; I knew Ferengi before I knew Reggie Miller). And I know about red shirts. That's about all. Current Mood: enthralled (2 Comments |Comment on this)