BooJaka

I feel like a celebrity

A while ago I took a GCSE in Japanese. I enjoyed it but, since it was at college, I didn't typically put a whole lot of effort into it. Recently though I've felt a huge urge to go back and relearn it. I bought a CD and book set a while back and, though it teaches quite well, it's not especially fun. Does anyone know a fun, interactive way of learning a language? My first thoughts were some kind of DS game. You could write on it, read from it, listen to it AND speak to it. It would be perfect! Unfortunately though, as far as I know anyway, Nintendo haven't released such a miracle product. There are some homebrew things but they don't look particularly great quality and I'm not entirely sure I understand nor have the means to run homebrew stuff. So if anyone know anything like that that actually exists, particularly for Japanese, post now or forever hold your peace!

I just realised I never actually said it Happy blatantly belated birthday!

Happy birthday for yesterday Baby T! It's only half as long til your 2nd birthday now (think about it...)

Seven How many dees must an S walk down before you can call D and S. Or something. I've confused myself

Go Pokemon Friend Codes, Go!

I've had a problem with the calibration on my DS for a while now. For some reason it always thinks I'm tapping slightly to the left of where I actually am. Now, this has never been too much of a problem before and nothing I can't really compensate for until last night when none of my attacks were working in Zelda. It's very frustrating. I've been through the calibration thing but it just cycles through the same three hotspots endlessly. This morning I was doing it for 11 minutes (yes, I timed myself) and nothing. Anyone know anything about it?

I always do my shopping in the first week of December so I'm relatively stress free. I'm also in a unique position where I don't have to organise/cook anything so I don't feel the pressure from any of that either. On the other hand though I kind of wish I did have some kind of stress happening right now since I've been home from Uni for a week and I don't really have a lot to do except watch Deal or No Deal. It's Scrooge Vs Santa week...

Yes that’s right, every two days throughout December I will be putting on YouTube a new piece of music I have written from times gone by for everyone out there to endure. Some good, some bad, some short and some shorter I will post the links here for everyone’s general amusement. Enjoy! Days 1-2: Together by Chance

Days 21-22: Stay with Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAIZbP05Rqc

So I forged on anyway Days 13-14: Rain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuvzOwzsRC0 Days 15-16: King Theodore http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOrdyLc_EFw Days 17-18: The Asian Sea http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rblo_N0ewzY Days 19-20: Bon Appetit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzzPrhy9kqQ

Nope. Didn't work. Thanks anyway though

Well I've tried pretty much every compression in every format YouTube can handle including no compression at all with the same problems. I haven't tried the 48KHz thing yet though. Fingers crossed

Whenever I next find myself in Brighton I'm tracking you down for a live performance

Or maybe not. Days 11-12: Black Peacock in a Broken Window is now up. It's one of my proudest moments and seems to be suffering a lot from the sample rate. Something to do with the compression?

Wow! That's so disturbing I don't even want to send that to my friends

Relax everyone, everything might've been fixed And Days 9-10:The Paulsgrove Riots is up!

With the month being what it is and with the temperature ever gradually inching downwards, my mind inevitably turns to Christmas and whether or not it has lost its religious meaning and become too commercialised. I consider myself to be firmly Agnostic meaning that I don't necessarily believe that any kind of god exists but, at the same time, I wouldn't say that there is definitely no god as, in my mind, I've seen no proof to support either argument. It's a bit of a fancy way of saying "I don't know" but that's how I feel about it. Being this way, Christmas doesn't truly have much of a religious meaning to me. Oh sure, I know the story just as well as most people in the western world but, having doubts that such things were right to happen, should I really be celebrating this holiday? If I so shamelessly enjoy Christmas, shouldn't I do the same for Diwali or Passover? One major concern that pops into people's minds around this time of year is that Christmas has become too commercialised; that the shops specially stock items only available to get money out of the people willing to buy them and that the Christmas spirit has turned from religious matters to simply trying to buy someone a better present than they got you in some kind of competition. But let's put this into context. One year all the shops didn't just suddenly decide to make everyone buy more at Christmas, this happened because people were willing to buy more and the demand was obviously there. If you feel that the commercialism of the season has ruined Christmas then it is not the big companies you should be blaming, you should blame yourself for buying into it in the first place. And so, in my opinion, perhaps Christmas has lost its religious meaning with only the diehard Christians among us keeping it real and celebrating the season the way it used to be but then it had lost its religious meaning part way through the last century, it's nothing new. And just because it has lost one meaning is not to say it doesn't have others. Commercialised or not, Christmas is still the season of giving which I still feel is necessary throughout the world and, as it has become a social event rather than a religious one, as a nation, we invited all people to enjoy it as we do whether you're Christian or not. That's why I love Christmas. Feel free to disagree

Days 7-8: The Joker has arrived, suffering from many of the same problems. I'll do some experiments tomorrow since I know you're all on the edges of your seats

Does he come with many options?

Also suffering from that weird sampling problem Days 5-6: How to Fail at a Successful Life is up. I think the problem is something to do with YouTube. Anyone know a better place I can put these or what I would be doing wrong?

Days 3-4: All the Way to the Bank is up with some strange sound problem which I can't seem to fix. Sounds like something to do with the sampling rate but it only happens once it gets uploaded. Hmm... Also the video isn't important

And as ever us people from outside the US have to wait at least 2 months to get it. But does anyone have it yet? Any first impressions? I'm pretty intrigued by it after (kinda) recently giving up on the last boss of Metroid Prime... In other news, this is kind of interesting even if it probably doesn't actually mean anything.

I tried it with a train ticket and, while it definitely got cleaner, didn't help my calibration whatsoever. Also I ended up having to catch the train to Fareham...