Report LadyMal's Profile

Having said that, Merry Christmas!

Other than that, I present you this:



It's been a very long time since I last used charcoal and I once believed that they had no niche some time after my high school days. I really missed this medium which totally brings back memories.

With that said, are you ready for the holidays too?

I can't wait to sell all my knives for Christmas. The ones that I made from scrap and I'm thinking about forging stainless some time. Despite its heavy carbide content. Spring steel has been hard enough for me to smith because of silicon and manganese.

I also learned how to use an oilstone which is 150 cm long and very wear resistant (oil over water on corundum for me). Most people struggle using it or are just too lazy to sharpen over one. I also don't put pressure on an oilstone unless it's fine enough grit. It's still worth mentioning that oil can be pretty messy sometimes, but it beats waiting for corundum to soak water which is freezing to the touch this month.

Other than that, I'm thinking about watching Akito The Exiled, other Ghost in the Shell stuff I haven't seen yet, Case Closed movies and Cyberpunk Edgerunners.

May Atsuko Tanaka rest peacefully. I still can't believe she passed away at the day of my birthday. Then Emi Shinohara passed away a month later. Reason enough for me to re-watch Sailor Moon, IGPX subbed and Big O.

Thank you for sharing that link milady and I've reading a space western comic called Copperhead recently. Exploring themes of corruption, isolation and misuse of power.

As you can see, I read City Hunter as of late.

I hope that you had a happy Halloween and now I'm waiting for Black Friday.

I was also reviewing that Genki I book which is the next best Japanese tutorial book after Instant Japanese. For kanji, I use Nihongodera and Kodansha.

It's cool milady and I also completely forgot what I mentioned that time fairly recently.

Anyway, reading Japanese can be easy with the help of Oxford. Instant Japanese is what I would recommend for going over basics though. The best overall book for beginners before trying to move on to Oxford's Japanese Verbs and Grammar (I would aim for that page about particles first). A nigh middle-aged semitomboy I haven't seen in ages that probably watched the recent Gundam SEED, likely unsubbed, would definitely memorize all of Oxford in seconds.

Boyé-sensei was like the best Japanese teacher of all time and may he RIP. I hope that his daughter that he mentioned having traveled to Japan in the 80s is doing well. She's probably old enough to be my mother, but yes! Her dad was a great teacher and a loving father of his respective family.

He's the one who told me that jōyō kanji has simplified since 1981 or long after reforms happened in the 1800s. He said that Japan once imported 60,000 Chinese characters (definitely Mandarin, seeing Korea or Japan's next door neighbor being so close to where the heart of Northern Shaolin was) in its early days before kanas and romaji were invented (long before Hepburn too). More importantly, Japan uses 1,945 Chinese characters as of the early 80s which is about 2/3rds of practical Mandarin (3,000 characters is mandatory for everyday life in China while 6,000 is said to be necessary for classic eastern literature).

Jōyō kanji is basic stuff in mainland China, but more advanced than that and they would be represented by letters and radicals that don't exist in Japanese. Particles are actually more advanced than kanji to me at this point. I mainly see jōyō kanji as the stepping stone to Mandarin, Korean and Min Chinese (like Southern Min). Most Japanese don't understand how important Chinese characters are for everyday life.

With that said, my other friend or a German-American would gladly have a conversation with you in Deutsch. All I know is that it also uses articles and direct object pronouns (very hard stuff TBH, even for me) like other big name languages. Parts of speech that Min Chinese and even Russian lack.

Linguistics aside, I still wonder if there are hidden manga gems that never got translated like Mr. Asamiya's works. I'll probably check out Lindbergh RAW and see why said friend from North Carolina likes it.

I'm also thinking of checking out indie comics like Saga or Transmetropolitan. I feel like cyberpunk is the most underused genre in manga despite Ghost in the Shell's success. That's the kind of sci-fi a shoujo loving friend of mine from Maryland loves. Said semitomboy from North Carolina loves all sci-fi, including mecha. More or less of my favorite sci-fi genre to be honest (I do put The Origin and Yasuhiko's take on Universal Century over Tomino's stuff). Robots and AI are still the future. Who knows if I'll ever see the first real android, but machines are definitely real.

Hello again milady! How are you doing this Year of the Dragon?

After 20 years, I finally understand the untold story of an old manga called Silent Möbius and Mr. Asamiya did a great job making the sequel over ten years ago.

Yes, Kia Asamiya is around your age (born on winter of 1963 or before Chinese New Year) and his manga is criminally underrated. One of my favorite ones sci-fi besides Big O, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Venus Wars and even Ghost in the Shell.

I had to learn Japanese arduously so I could get through that cliffhanger I saw in the '98 adaptation that I also saw on TechTV's Anime Unleashed block. Having anime on cable TV was awesome.

Thankfully, ANN still has a list of anime that were once aired on TechTV or Encoré Action (has another list of anime that were once featured on Anime Network). ANN was my go to website since late 90s which is without a doubt, the original anime encyclopedia.

Aside from Japanese, I'm also thinking of learning Southern Min which is said to have particles that are easier to understand with more consistent grammatical function. No articles or direct object pronouns.

My semitomboyish friend from North Carolina told me that she learned German when she was an honors student and eventually read a manga called Lindbergh which never got translated to English. I wanted to learn German one time in high school, but I was a late bloomer back then. No smarter than an average teenager at the time. I used to beat myself up when my economics teacher scolded at me for being late for one of his final tests. Being a teenager was hard, but still, I shouldn't have been late. Economics is important knowledge and mandatory too. I used to want to be an honors student like someone else with impeccable problem solving skills at a very young age.

At least I know that knowledge is priceless and my math couldn't improve until I got older.

Japanese isn't as hard as I once assumed it was as a teenager either.

No problem :3

Happy birthday

Never seen you before, but I sure love Black Jack and Astro Boy.

One manga that I look forward to reading nowadays is either V-Tamers or Sorcerer Hunters (indirectly recommended to me by a woman with an Asian husband). First, I have to complete Linebarrels of Iron. I may also read Blue Submarine no. 6 and see if it's different than the Gonzo adaptation.

By the way, you are the same age as Sailor Jupiter's actress or Emi Shinohara.

My big Virgo friend is a huge fan of psychological and mecha anime. That tomboy also hates battle shounen. She told me that Akira Toriyama started a trend of characters that she didn't care for. She would rather watch Space Battleship Yamato or Geneshaft and so would I.

I'll be reading abstract algebra books by the time the Space Battleship Yamato movie comes out. Maybe it'll get shelved, but at least Macross movies are in the making (any time now).

Nice to meet you by the way.

Wow. Thanks for your response was not expecting that.

The presentations sounds fun! Were they on anything specific?

So how did you get into anime? How did you access it in the 60s? Did you live in Japan or was it broadcasted where you live?

So many questions aha!

Just a cute, happy animal

Thanks for accepting my friend request (ฅ^･ω･^ ฅ)

Late happy birthday, Lady~

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/moar