Lolita Love Poem

I am currently writing a novel in which the main character is a girl who liked to dress in Lolita.  Somewhere in the beginning of the novel, her friend who she has a crush on sings her a love song about a boy falling in love with a Lolita.  In the novel, I wasn't able to include the entire poem, so I figured it would be nice to put it here.  Enjoy!!

Pink is the hearth,
and white is the soul.
Sparkling eyes blink
the eyelashes of charcoal.
Your cherry lips smile
and melt me where I stand.
And tiny feet turn away
in a motion so grand.

Turning, turning

The skirt ruffles on fire.

Sparks fly with the wind

And petals fly higher.

How can you run

From this meadow of time?

Floating by parasol

And lock in the heart of mine?

Do you know how I sit

And think of your smile?

And my heart bursts entirely

Because your ringlet curls drive me wild

You ringlet curls drive me wild…

Hopefully, I should be done this novel by May so you can buy it online and in bookstores sooner or later.  Until then, Ja-ne!

Anime Character In Toy Story 3?

Ok, this is just something I wanted to write about because I thought it would be cool.  Back in the summertime when the epic movie Toy Story 3 was in theaters, I sneaked into the side door and watched it for free.  I know, that's bad.  But just bear with me, I was desperate to see that movie and just happened to be bored that night.  I was mesmerized by the movie and cried, loving the last installment of Toy Story.  At the end of the film, as I let the awesomeness continue to soak up in my soul, I watched the credits and the short epilogue that played with it.  And for a brief second, I thought it might be my otaku-self messing with my mind, I thought I saw a character from a Studio Ghibli film, Totoro.  I wished I had a rewind button to see if I were really dreaming or not, but I couldn't.  That night, I tried to read something on it on the internet, but could find nothing.  But last night, on Netflix Instant, Toy Story 3 came on and I had to watch it to look for Totoro again!  Guess what, I wasn't dreaming!  Just look for yourself and tell me Pixar must have been good friends with Hayao Miyazaki!!!

An Over-Detailed Analysis of Ouran High School Host Club

Minna-san, konnichiwa!  Victoria desu!

I'm ridiculously obsessed with a certain anime called "Ouran High School Host Club" (for now, I will just call 'Ouran' because it's stressing to keep typing the full title).  I'm not particularly obsessed with Ouran because of the story or because of the story but more of the characters created in this anime.  It's never very often I come across an anime with terrific character development.  I learned about this anime at a convention, of course.  I was sitting at an AMV (anime music video) contest, watching the AMVs, when there were two different videos in the same category using scenes from Ouran.  Everyone seemed to get excited about the two videos and based on the scenes I saw, I was particularly prepared to go home and start watching this yaoi anime (as I thought it was going to be).

The anime is about a girl named Haruhi Fujioka.  As a commoner, she is somewhat looked down upon when she enters Ouran Academy, which is an elite and private academy only for the sons and daughters of the rich and famous.  Since she got to Ouran Academy on scholarship, she sticks out like a sore thumb.  To make matters worse, her haggard, boyish appearance makes everyone think she is a male.  While at first, Haruhi just lets everyone think so, when she breaks an expensive vase in the academy's music room, she is asked to work off her debt in replacing it by become the errand boy for the academy's host club, which is a club that specializes in entertaining the young ladies of the academy.  When Tamaki, the host club king, realizes Haruhi's good looks, he officially makes Haruhi a host and tells her she has to get 1000 clients to request her services to erase her debt.  But once they find out Haruhi is actually female, things get interesting!

Now, I know I'm not too good with synopsis's, but like I said, the story isn't what caught my eye.  It's the actual characters that captured me.

1.  Haruhi Fujioka
The main character in the anime.  She is the commoner of the academy and is usually the butt of a lot of poor jokes throughout the show.  Unlike most main characters in other anime, Haurhi isn't the type of main character who struggles throughout the show and tries to find her true self.  If anything, Haruhi is the other character who is sure of herself from the very beginning.  With her mother passed and her father an unsuccessful cross-dresser, she had to take the initiative to do all of the chores herself growing up.  She seems the most mature out of the all the characters and also the most practical.  Whenever there is a conflict throughout the show, Haruhi always seems to fix it somehow.

2.  Tamaki Suoh
The host club king known as "The Prince Type" of host.  He is the most annoying yet strangely charming host in the club.  Unlike Haruhi, he has a lot of self-searching to do.  Though at first, he comes off as being an obnoxious, conceited rich boy, you begin to realize that he isn't going to change.  He basically remains the same throughout the entire anime, but you really begin to appreciate him because he has the biggest heart.  He loves to help people and tries doing so in almost every episode.  Though his tactics for helping people seem crazy at first, somehow they always come together properly.

3.  Kyoya Ootori
The "queen/mother" to the host club known as the "Cool Type" of host.  He is my favorite host out of the club.  He always seem to know everything about everyone, therefore, always seems mysterious on how he pulls up information on people.  He can be best described as a computer with infinite knowledge on the students of the school as well as everyone affiliated with it.  What makes him so cool is his demeanor.  Him being the "cool type", he tends to say the right thing at the right time and sometimes too harshly, usually offending someone or getting one or more of the other hosts mad.  He can easily be known as "the dick" of the group, and at first you really think he could be, but you start to notice that he is not a mean as he comes off to be and cares for people just as much as Tamaki will.

4.  The Hitachiin Twins
Named Hikaru and Kaoru, these identical twins are known as the "Little Devil Type" of hosts.  They can basically be described as one character because their scenes are almost always shot together.  They're very hard to tell apart, so they like to entertain their guests by playing "Which one is Hikaru/Kaoru" game, in which Haruhi always guesses right.  They also like to put on the homosexual incestuous relationship act and drives a lot of the girls wild.  At first you think "Wow, they're totally taboo" but you realize that this is all a play when you notice feelings Hikaru begins to develop feelings for Haruhi.

5.  Mistukuni Haninozuka (Honey)
Honey is the "Boy Shota Type" of host.  He is is the cutest host and is usually seen eating cake or being extra kawaii.  I love the development of Honey because he comes off as so cute and young, even though he is a third year high school student, but turns out to be a strong, kick-butt martial artist that has high respect from the authorities.  As I watched the anime, it never failed to amaze me how his first appearance continued to change into surprisingly new characteristics that can only be explained as.......WOW!

6.  Takashi Morinozuka (Mori)
Honey's cousin and servant, the "Strong and Silent" but also the "Wild Type" of host.  Mori was the funniest character to know.  He hardly ever says anything and usually just stands there.  However, whenever he does speak, it's usually something either curt or completely irrelevant to what's going on.  At first I began to wonder what his purpose was on the show, but it became clear to me why after a bit.  Towards the end, I started to wonder if Mori has a crush on Honey, despite the fact that their cousins.

If you decide to watch Ouran High School Host Club and you're a girl, you love it!  However, if you're a boy, you'll also like it for the same reasons I've listed.  I'm usually not into girl-y anime, but this one I enjoyed solely for the character development.  This anime was truly inspiring and one of the very few anime that can make me laugh.  You won't be disappointed if you watch Ouran High School Host Club.  Happy viewing.

Japanese Lessons

Ok.  So in high school, as I might have stated before, I took a Japanese class for 1 year using the Irasshai learning tools with a teacher named Tim Cook.  He was really good at teaching, but I hardly ever paid attention.  So I hardly retained much as the years went by.  However, just recently I entered a contest that would give me a free roundtrip to Japan and a five-day homestay in Tokyo.  For various reasons, I have a good chance of winning this contest, but I am self-conscious that I will probably win and then be thrust into Japan without knowing a useful scrap of Japanese.  So I started watching the Irasshai videos once again to learn Japanese.  I have already finished about 9 lessons, and have passed all of the tests.  Today I will do lessons 10 and 11. 

Hajimemashite.  Garcia Victoria desu.  Daigaku ni-nen-sei desu.  Hatachi desu.  Doozo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

I wrote that without looking at my notes and then checked it to see what if I was right.  I was!  As I progress in Japanese, I will add to this conversation so you can see my progress.

The translation to the phrases above is:

Hello.  I'm Victoria Garcia.  I'm a second year university student.  I'm 20 years old.  Nice to meet you.

Today's lesson is: "What is it called?"  I'm gonna get my notebook and flash cards ready and study away!

Zelda Music on Scott Prilgrim vs The World

So a while ago I saw the commericials on Scott Pilgrim vs The World.  At first I was like, meh, it looks cool.  Didn't expect it to be so good.  I started to hear nothing but good stuff about the movie.  One person in particular told me it would be the only movie he would go to the movies more than twice to see it again.  So, of course, I had to watch it when I got the chance.  I'm glad I did!

For those of you who don't know, Scott Pilgrim vs The World is about a boy named Scott Pilgrim who starts dreaming about a girl named Ramona Flowers.  When Ramona turns out to be a real person, he becomes obsessed with her and the two soon begin to date.  But in order to be with her, Scott has to defeat Ramona's seven evil exes.

It sounds kinda corny but it turned out to be amazing.  I especially liked the dream sequence in the movie where they used the "Fairy Fountain" theme from the "Legend of Zelda" game.  I'm a big time Zelda nerd, so it tickled me to hear this in a movie.  If anyone is a fan of Zelda or any video game, watch Scott Pilgrim vs The World.  You'll feel like you're watching a video game on its own.  You will not be disappointed.

I think I will write a review on it.  I also have to world on some video game reviews as well.

Cooking With Dog: My Favorite Cooking Show

So Cooking With Dog is a cooking show on Youtube that focuses mainly on Japanese dishes.  The show consists of a Japanese woman who cooks with a tiny poodle watching over her as a cook.  A narrator who sounds a lot like Ken Tanaka from "Help Me Find My Parents".  It's quickly become my favorite cooking show for many reasons.  1, it's very informative.  Sometimes when I watch it, the narrator with explain exactly what it is your using.  For example, he will explain that "dango" is a redbean treat the Japanese use in sweeter dishes.  Or he'll explain a short amount of information of what is about to be made. 

2, it's prompt.  I really dislike the cooking shows on television for the simple fact that the shows take too long due to the commericials or talking or preparation time, it takes away from it all and usually doesn't make it very entertaining.  On Cooking With Dog, the episodes usually last anywhere from 5-8 minutes.  If you think about it, you can watch 5-7 episodes of Cooking With Dog before watching an entire episode of a random cooking show on the Food Network.  Cooking With Dog finds a way to show how to properly prepare the dish quickly without taking away from the quality of the video or making you want to watch the video again because you felt something wasn't explained well enough. 

3, it's resource able.  While most youtube cooking sites just show you what you need to do to make the dish, but leave you with no recipe, Cooking With Dog always posts the entire recipe in the description for you to copy and paste or print out.  This to some may seem minute, but it's very good food for some who can't always get to a computer with internet.

I have made a few dishes from the show and have learned that with some of the dishes, it may take some practice to get them right.  But it's very easy to pick up on and every dish I've made weather it came out looking right or not, was always delicious!

A big downfall with Cooking With Dog is that most of ingredients used in the videos are very hard to find due to the fact that you can only find them in Asian supermarkets.  So if you want to get into the dishes, you might want to watch some videos first and then make up a separate grocery list for an Asian supermarket.  I'm lucky to live pretty close to one but I know for a fact that this isn't the case for everyone.  You can probably find some of the ingredients online if you look hard enough. 

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