On My Wall of Shame (#8)

It's probably my love for strategy that's making me so angry in this case, because it reeks of "damage control" wrapped in a smokescreen, and I don't like politicos trying to fool the sheeple.

The story is:

Step 1: lady in politics is heckled by sexist male politicos.

Step 2: the story spreads a bit and makes the boys look like decerebrated Neanderthals (of the cliché-esque variety; I can't believe that actual Neanderthals would have been this petty and low, but that's me).

Step 3: one of the boys comes forward, spouting pretty stereotypes about not realizing that he'd hurt his female colleague's feelings - Oh, and he's very, very sorry, and he won't do it again (here's a novel idea: don't be a sexist bully in the first place!).

*short pause to barf*

Step 4: he swears that he's going to force the other boys to behave and respect the gals.

All together now: Awwwwwwwwwwwwww! The sexist bully doesn't have a clue and can't spell "respect", and he's just sorry that the rest of the world didn't side with him when he insulted his colleague.

Oh, and since he was kind enough to apologize on camera (nice piece of PR, boys; is Malcolm Tucker working for you now?), the other culprits will probably get a free pass. How cute!

*keeps barfing*

The brave boy is Hakihiro Suzuki:

If you want to read more about the case, go there.

There's also a video there (in Japanese).

V&A Couture-Inspired Dress and Hanabi Petticoat/Skirt

I am working on the Regency day dress right now, but I finished another project recently: the Victoria and Albert Museum couture-inspired dress (if you're interested, but can't find the free pattern online, I'm ready to share; just drop me a line).

I valiantly fought with the hem, and then I realized that the dress badly needs a petticoat, and so I decided to make a petticoat that could work as a skirt, too.

Step one ended up with this: 

 

Then (and that took me hours!), I added beads:

- this is the front:

- this is the back:

And this is me in it (not the best quality, but my camera was not fully cooperating):

From now on, it shall be known as my 花火 (hanabi - ie: fireworks) skirt (花火のスカート).

And then, I give you the couture dress:

Front:

Back:

I'll log off the 1950s, and I'll head back to the the 1810s... See you soon!

Hopping from Link to Link (Latest Japanese Edition)

こんにちは！

Since the counter is turning, I'll assume that you're not all clicking on my posts, reading them diagonally, and clicking back at the speed of light.

This post is about the things I've discovered (or watched again) in the last fortnight.

You may think I'm quite late to the party, or you may discover a thing or two that you'll like, as well (and with this post, I won't have to re-open the same pages on the net again, and again, and again).

So, I give you:

By Shungiku Nakamura (中村 春菊), Junjô romantica (純情ロマンチカ) and Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi (世界一初恋 〜小野寺律の場合〜).

We've got manga and anime for both.

I discovered Junjô romantica by chance, but it's quite moving, and the three couples we meet in these stories all have something special (but you know how I overanalyse everything by now). I'm just half-way through Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi, and I quite like it, but I feel an addiction to Junjô romantica spreading through my brain (it's probably me - note to self: start working on that post explaining how Japanese anime influenced me when I was a child - but there's something in these stories).

Whilst looking for anything about Junjô romantica, I discovered a 2010 film: Junjô (純情). It's delightful, and quite a nice find: you've got romance, twists, love, jealousy, tears, and a final scene that makes me want to give the writer a hug. *zips lips*

The entire cast is awesome, and the two lead actors [Yûta Takahashi (高橋 優太) as Shôsei Kurata and Rakuto Tochihara (栩原 楽人) as Keisuke Tokazi] are absolutely fantastic - *cough* and terribly cute!

I watched this one quite by chance, and because I was curious about the title, but I'm really happy with this discovery, and I highly recommend it.

When I discover a new film or series, I tend to check the other works of the directors, actors, and actresses. I haven't checked Takahashi-san's other works yet... because a famous online encyclopedia provided me with the link to Tochihara-san's blog. Now... I read Japanese suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper slowly (understatement of the millennium, but I'll keep working on it), but his recent posts allowed me to learn that he's currently in Tsuma wa, Kunoichi (妻は、くノ一 a.k.a. My Wife, A Ninja) [Series 2 is "最終章", which means "Final Chapter"].

That's another lovely discovery. I've just found a way to watch that one, but the main character looks absolutely fascinating (and that part of Japanese History is very interesting, as well), so I look forward to diving into that one properly.

According to the same "rules" of link hopping, it seems that Rh Plus is worth investigating. It's got vampires - and some barmy lines and scenes, as well as more serious twists in the plot.

Amongst the things that I revisited these past few days, there's the Japanese version of My Boss, My Hero (マイ★ボス マイ★ヒーロー). It's still mad, cute, completely barmy, and sometimes very moving.

So... that's what I've been watching.

Feel free to add new potential addictions in the comments.............................. 有難う

戴きます!

This is not a post about food per se.

It's just that I currently miss Japan a bit (especially Kyoto, but not only).

Since I've been recovering from a shock (see previous posts), and I've been watching a few anime and various Japanese series and films, I felt like making some Japanese curry:

It was delicious... and now, I miss Japan even more...

PS: My table's a bit of a mess... ごめん

Official Statement

Apparently, this needs to be said, so...

I'm not God.

I'm not a seer either, incidentally.

There.

It's said, typed, posted, out in the open.

Why do I have to state that I'm neither God nor a seer? Well, simply because I keep dealing with people who believe that I'm omniscient, that they can NOT tell me things, but that I'll know them nonetheless.

This could be flattering, but it's a potential source of issues:

- at work, I cannot guess stuff if I'm not being kept in the loop (on that head, things are okay where I am now, but once upon a time, I worked with someone who expected me to show at specific meetings even though he'd never told me about said meetings - his secretary usually tackled me in order to prevent me from growling too much)

- in anything else, if you don't talk to me... Not a seer! (I've ordered a book for my Lorca paper last week, and it was delivered on Monday, buuuuuut the interim caretaker didn't put a 'You've got a parcel waiting for you; come and see me!' note in my box; it was when I checked the delivery status that I saw it was supposed to be in my building. That guy wasn't even bothered!!).

That's just a sign of the sorry state of communication, but... Hell! That's annoying.

*goes to print cards denying any divine nature or Delphic ancestry*

Why Didn't I Notice That Anime until Now?

Happy post now...

I was once more hopping from link to link (really bad habit because, for the life of me, I couldn't tell you where I did read about that Japanese anime for the first time!) when I discovered an anime that's new - to me. [Note to self: get out of the cave a bit more!!!]

First... I missed the manga, as well (Drattttttttttttttttttttt! ← picture me in chibi form with fat tears threatening to spill on my rosy cheeks).

And then, I discovered the anime Series 1 and Series 2 just a few days ago. I managed to get my greedy hands on both series, and I know they're going to keep me grinning like a Cheshire-Cat high on Caterpillar-mushroom for a few days...

There's one scene in the very first episode that sold me the whole thing because it's very, very moving (yea, I'm emotional. So what?).

Oh... if you don't like yaoi, skip this one (if you don't know what "yaoi" is, this may definitely not be for you, indeed).

The series is Junjō Romantica, and I think I may develop a new addiction...

*points at the cuteness* >Ô:Ö<

SNAFU (Twitter Profile Edition)

After days of not being able to change my Twitter background, I could do it.

I still have my van Gogh (Long Grass with Butterflies - the first van Gogh that I saw for real, and that still has a special place in my lil' heart), but it looks good again.

However... 

Twitter has decided to force all their users in the entire world, all of Twitteropolis, to use their new profile layout.

First... they were raised in a barn (and SUCK at marketing... or think they're too big to fail - erm... MySpace, anyone???).

Then, that thing is one massive 'YUCK!!!': nasty new font, different sizes of tweets according to their so-called 'importance', and no more background photo.

Sorry, boys, but that profile is not me. It doesn't reflect who I am. That looks like a bad copy of Facebook, or Google+ or YouTube.

For once and for all, do read a few books and realize that uniformity is nasty and appeals only to very few people. Even low-tech users are growling right now (I've been monitoring the feed for "new twitter profile" for the past two days, coz reading that I wasn't the only one growling was making me feel better about the change, which I loathe ).

What's going to change? Zilch. Because someone has decided that the change was good and had to be forced down everybody's throats, whether Twitteropolis agreed or not.

I've read an article that compacted Twitter+Facebook into Twacebook. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too nice: it's Twatbook now, coz the Power-That-Be decided to do whatever they want without giving a damn (and believe me, I'm being super polite) about what their users, the people who are incidentally making this thing work, really want.

I can't speak for others, but my Twitter-time has been halved since I discovered my new (unwanted) profile.

Oi, Twitter Twatbook! I hope the bullet in your foot isn't too painful.

No love,

Dru