As mentioned in a certain Long prior post, these blog posts become all the more daunting to write the
To paraphrase an online friend who saw my poster collection via webcam: "For the record I mean this as a compliment: you're pretty normal for a guy with a wall that looks like that."
Heh. If only they knew the darkness that writhes within the depths of my heart...
にゃんてね！
Here is where the prior blog post, sans an updated opening, would have been had I not decided to split this ordeal up into multiple posts. Now, how did I end that last piece? "Kyun kyun"? How am I supposed to segue off of that? Admit to thinking up choreography to "Mew Mew Magic"? I can't do that! The choreography isn't done yet!
Pending footwork aside, as declared in the addendum to my prior post, I've opted to make myself type this up whilst en route to Japan for a family trip of a week or so. I have the aisle seat on the right of the plane, and my brother and sister sit to my right. The former has yet to boot up Hollow Knight on his Switch as he said he would, such that he could finally get around to reaching the game's true final boss and boss rush postgame. Without that to spectate and chide upon, my hand is forced. Forced to type up a ton of nonsense, that is.
We seem to have gotten the seats right by the emergency exit in the middle of the plane. This entails extra leg room but also, apparently, some responsibility in case of an emergency. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. I'm a Doctor of Evil, after all. To strive for the safety of others would be completely against my principles.
I tend to get rather nervous before any kind of trip. As it has been established, I'm what those hip with the lingo might refer to as a shut-in loser, and what those hip with the lingo but with kindness in their hearts might refer to as a homebody.
Most of the things I do, from my programming projects to my piano practice to my insistence at the local precinct that I had nothing to do with this week's incident generally requires me to be at home or in its vicinity. Travelling tends to takes me away from all that, and while I concede that the change of pace usually ends up being good for me, still I find myself a bit of a mess of nerves the day before.
As such, I whiffed on my drawing and piano quotas yesterday. For shame! Though, lest I stifle my enjoyment, I anyway intended to forgo many of my quotas for the duration of this trip, so to prematurely begin this forgoance isn't too bad, especially since to do things ahead of time was my New Year's Resolution!
Gah, but the talk of quotas reminds me: I should probably do my Anki (Japanese flash cards) during this plane ride... While I could contrive to use a plug-in to trick Anki into believing that time has stopped, it's possible I'll end up with the time to spare to keep up with it anyway.
I'm perhaps more nervous than usual this travel time around given the destination. I've been studying Japanese for the past couple of years, so this feels a bit like a practical examination of sorts. In other words: I'm shooting for a 61 or higher! I'm sure it will be fine; nobody expects a tourist to know any Japanese. But my expectations for myself aren't so low!! Sigh. It's tough knowing your own potential.
Speaking of my Japanese studies, the university course portion of them has now ceased for the foreceaable future, for I've by now decided I should probably just suck it up and finish that Computer Science / Math degree that I let myself rope myself into. Thus, come September, I'll be back to a likely more lonesome life of numbers* and, uh, letters too. But not kanji. Well, I'll still be keeping up with my self-studies, of course...
Part of my self-studies these days has been reading through the manga Yotsuba& in Japanese. It's a quite amusing one which I would wholeheartedly recommend. Written by the same sensei who wrote Azumanga Daioh.
Perhaps I should soon incorporate some watching of anime with Japanese subtitles into my studies. I once did just a bit of that with the first episode of Lucky Star, to try out the relevant Chrome extensions, but it felt like it may be a bit time-consuming. Well, all study in time-consuming anyway, and the more time you consume, (ideally) the better you get. This is because time is money, and money can be exchanged for goods, services, and skill points.
I wonder how my skill points are, whether my quotas and so on have been paying off. I feel as though they have. For instance, in the case of my collection of pngtubers which may just be the most interesting thing on my site, the later ones are noticeably better looking than the earlier ones. Of course, I can be cynical and claim that the quality of said later ones does not require much skill to achieve, and was moreso due to my standards raising than my skill. But I'm sure that was at least a bit of both involved.
As mentioned on that pngtubers page, I am currently on haitus** from the endeavour. While it was nice to be creating something new on a schedule enforced by my daily Dominion (card game) Youtube channel uploads and my insistence on having a new 'tuber each batch of videos, it also, as one might expect, grew a bit tiresome. I think it was a nice thing to be for awhile, though; a Dominion Youtuber with a new pngtuber every couple videos.
I have also put myself on a haitus from uploading and from participating in the Dominion League for the time being as well. I may go back to uploading a couple videos once I'm back from this trip, or more pertinently once the new expansion comes out, but given that I'll have to get back into the swing of dealing with numbers (and letters, but not kanji) thiscoming academic year it's probably best I hold off on my epic competitive gaming until I'm sure I can manage my time effectively.
Though, to be frank, the only numbers I really care about are 5/2! Assuming a good 5/2 board. If it's not a good 5/2 board I shake my fist at the five.
Whilst I am taking a break from Dominion, I'm a card game junkie at heart and so, accordingly, have gotten into the Dominion-inspired deckbuilder "Heart of Crown." It's the better of the two "anime Dominions" I know of.
I have tried the other anime Dominion, "Tanto Cuore" via its digital implementation, as if I recall it had gone on sale for a buck or two. While the theming is undoubtedly amusing – it's all anime maids – the gameplay mostly feels like Dominion but the cards are weaker, do less, yet are more expensive.
Donald X himself, the creator of Dominion, tends to refer to Tanto Cuore as "Dominion but silver costs 4," which about sums it up I suppose. Actually, from my time with the game, I think it would actually be improved had they kept Silver at 3, given how hard it is already to hit early price points. It costing 3 (and Gold costing 7, and Copper costing, for whatever reason, 1) feels less like a change made less for the sake of game design and more for the sake of trying to look a bit less like Dominion.
Speaking of game design, I think it's pretty funny that the game can't really have trash-for-benefit stuff, the way the Dominion does, on account of its theme. After all, how could you ever bring yourself to trash your beloved kawaii maido-chan?***
There is more I could say but I don't want to dedicate too much of this post to bashing anime maid Dominion. I plan to write a Steam review at some point, so if I do get around to that before this plane lands somewhere in the middle of the ocean I'll link it here. On a slightly related note I did make a short and very serious video about the game as well, which I will link there.
That all being said, the game's amusing enough for the occasional play and value enough if you get it on sale. I'd even colour myself disappointed that they abandoned the digital version, never releasing past the first expansion.
Compared to its maid-laden compatriot, Heart of Crown does a better job of bring enough new stuff (as the industry calls it) to the table to merit its existence beside Dominion. Well, as harash as it sounds I'd still call it a worse game, so it would be more accurate to say below Dominion. But it's hard to beat, or even stand beside, perfection.****
I've been playing HoC via its digital versions on Steam. They're a bit pricey but being the card game junkie I am I'm getting adequate mileage out of them. Flammaria FTW except for when you can score stupid fast with Luna or Lily.
I say it's difficult to stand beside perfection, but I've lately been designing a board game inspired by Dominion which could theoretically have the potential to be as good a game. It's perhaps vain of me to imagine, but when I eventually publish the game I fear there may be those who declare it better than Dominion. This is, of course, impossible. My advice to those who think there are better games than Dominion is that you have not played enough Dominion. Or maybe you played too much and are on tilt. N-not that I'd know anything about that...
What spurred me to design a board game? Admittedly, it was because I'd watched an anime where a character was designing her own board game. (Mild spoilers for the anime, I suppose; my apologies.)
It was a show called "After School Dice Club" that I'd begun on a whim back in May. I was skeptical the first couple episodes, which felt rather weak to me, but stuck with the show as its gimmick of having the characters explain and play a real board game every episode was cool. Additionally, Dominion appears in some of the backgrounds which has my approval, even if more of the boxes had Moat on the side of them then they should have. In the end I actually wound up very much liking the show as a whole, and as mentioned it spurred me to begin designing my own game whose working title is Ploy. I'd even be sleeving my handwritten (then photocopied; I'm no masochist) cards as I watched the show, for true immersion.
If Ploy takes off, I can drop out of university and never see a computer science again. Unfortunately, my best playtester took a job looking at rocks ("geology," he calls it) up north, so it looks like my fate as a programatically inclined glasses-wearer is sealed. Alas.
The notion that to watch a show or play a game where the characters do something can spur you to do that something is one I try to take advantage of at times. For instance, I started watching "New Game!", a slice-of-life comedy about girls who work at a game company, two or so weeks ago around when I started programming for Fkreb again. Maybe one day I'll be as good at programming and airsoft as my beloved Umik- I mean as Umiko. (I have never done airsoft.)
Also in the genre of "cute girls do something" is K-On. I'd watched season 1 some time ago and quite enjoyed it, but could not bring myself to start season 2 given how little I'd been working on music lately. Additionally, to contrast my musical endeavours, which generally entail my being alone (wolf) at my computer or at the piano, with those of the show's characters occasionally makes me feel a bit sad.
Some weeks ago, after seeing a video, I suddenly became fed up with my belief that to have a band is something that happens to other people and contacted my friend with whom I'd tried to start a band with before, some years ago. If I recall, we did not get that much done and evidently didn't end up continuing with it.
He wholeheartedly accepted my via-text proposal, saying "This will impress the girl I'm dating," to which I responded with a voice message of myself not laughing at him, mind you, but with him!
We met up soon enough after but, alas, due to our inexperience we didn't end up getting that much work done this time either. However, he resolved to learn a bit more theory for next time, and I resolved to have some more backing tracks ready, so, as he put it, we figured out what our homework is.
Additionally, whilst preparing for the meeting I learned I could hook my household's electric piano up to my laptop via the same cord I use for my MIDI keyboard, and that I could in turn hook that up to an audio box thing, which could in turn be hooked up to an amp. With this much hooking, you can call me "The Pirate." What, did you think I'd say something else?
The latter part of that meeting was spent discussing video games, as he needed some recommendations, and then playing some Vampire Saviour, an old Capcom fighting game.
Though I won most of the games, being the more experienced player, I lost against him more than I'd like to admit. Admittedly these losses were brought upon by my recommending him the easy-win noob-friendly Sasquatch, and then myself switching to Felicia who I straight up didn't know how to play.
I've been trying to get decent at Vampire Saviour lately, though have cooled off a bit in regards to my training lately. Mainly during the former portion of June it was actually a quota of mine that I hit some VSAV every day. I'd gotten a Fightstick from my dad for my birthday, as he'd asked me if I needed anything, and I decided what I needed most was the ability to LARP***** fighting games better than ever before.
I'm pretty happy with the Fightstick I got. It was the, uh, I'll look up what it was called next I'm able to and put it between the following square brackets: [Mayflash F500 Elite]. Anyway, it's at least a whole lot better than the Switch 2 Joycons (or Joycons in general) for fighting games, as I'd been playing via the Capcom Fighting Collection for the Switch. Naturally, I know the community is on Fightcade, but I'd at least like to stop getting mogged by the level 5 (out of 8) Sasquatch bot before I take my game to the net. Plus I don't yet have a wired connection set up and I hear they actually kill you for that.
It doesn't help in my plight against the machines that the character I decided to main happens to be one with a particularly high execution floor. Naturally I speak of Lilith, because of course I'd main Lilith. You know what kind of man I am. A man appreciative of hyper cute characters with high execution floors. Hm, was there something odd about that sentence?
I went over Felicia's wiki page and moveset the other day, though, since I'd like to learn her as well. She's the Cat-holic rep, after all.
Aw, rats, I just realized I forgot to do enough beforehand research to reasonably expect to hit Mass tomorrow. I looked into a Catholic church that does English Masses and is somewhat close to where we're staying, but I don't remember what the Mass times were. It's possible it'd simply be impossible to get there in time anyway, I suppose. I shouldn't worry about it too much. God will understand.
Unfortunately I've missed Mass for the past two weeks as well on account of travelling to my dad's hometown. This travelling was the sort that did not impede my endeavours (aside from Mass attendance), as we had much idle time whilst there that I was able to spend in ample productivity, resulting in great progress on Fkreb 2. Huzzah.
I tried to hit confession on Thursday, as I tend to after having missed Mass, but for whatever reason my parish was closed. So instead I opted to pray at the sanctuary out back for a bit. Whilst I was doing so I heard somebody walk behind me but did not see who they were when I deigned to pause my prayer to glance back, nor after I'd concluded. What I'm trying to say is: when we find out that the Second Coming actually happened last Thursday, consider me a prime witness.
Heh. I may have been missing Mass... but my aims are getting better!
What are my aims for this trip? Admittedly, that which I most care about is merely to buy a bunch of manga, for to have Japanese physicals of series I like would be awesome. Besides that, I'm likely to black out near any place selling anime merchandise and reawaken to realize that I'd bought the store, and subsequently realize that I'd sold all my limbs and organs.
Before I do that, it would be nice to also make a pilgrimage to a Madoka Magica slot machine. While at heart I greatly dislike slot machines for soiling the good name of "gaming" and also being no-skill all RNG, well, like, it's funny if it's Madoka Magica.
Speaking of Madoka, hopefully my anime binge chaps and I are able to hit a Rebellion group watch once I'm back and before the new film drops, later in August. We'd lately concluded our watchthrough of the Evangelion Rebuilds which were pretty good when we weren't wondering why Mari was there. Is my OC noticeable? Well, I think I kind of get her purpose but she still felt abrupt.
Besides that which I plan to purchase out of pure greed and avarice for my own personal pleasure, one of my friends from my Japanese class, asked me to get a couple items for her. A couple more mundane items such as a notebook and some hygiene products, as I suppose they're better and cheaper over there. The grass is always greener on the other side. Especially when the currency exchange rates are in your favour...
It's a shame that I will from now on be seeing quite little of my friends from last term in those which are to come. Speaking of last term, I think it was a rather good one and even entailed making some new friends.
Perhaps if I'm lucky next term I'll again find myself in the same class as a chap who was in both my Japanese and one of my computer science classes last term. And I don't just say that because he hard carried me through most of the latter class' group projects. I probably owe my passing to that guy.
My passing the course, I mean. If my predictions are correct I am to owe my passing to my leg getting caught in the wrong rope attached to the wrong inter-continental missile at the wrong place at the wrong time.
I happened to sit behind this aforementioned chap during the first lecture for that computer science course, before I started skipping and living off of the lecture recordings.****** To my amusement, he was playing Taiko no Tatsujin on his phone and was darn good. I mentioned this when I later spoke to him in Japanese class, and he claimed to not be that darn good, at least not compared to players he knows are darn good. Ah, I understand it all too well. There's always a bigger fish, especially when the net you cast is worldwide...
One day I'll be Dominion League Champion.
At term's end, I was speaking with this aforementioned chap about making games, as both of us, with our respective groups, had made a game for the end of term project. Here is a link to ours, and their is a link to there's. Gah, I meant to play their game when I had the time but never got around to it... I'll make sure to do so sometime, like when I inevitably, in my vanity, reread this blog post instead of doing something more important, like becoming Dominion League Champion.
Anyway, as I was saying, I mentioned to him that I'd yearly been participating in the GTMK Game Jam, and said that perhaps I'll contact him before the next one so we could try collaborating. However, as it turns out, while I do need to contact him it will instead be to say that I'll be in Osaka******* when the jam goes down and so, alas, will be breaking my participation streak.
I'm somewhat down about this, but perhaps not as down as trying to work on a game whilst on vacation in Japan would make me. Theoretically I could put something quick and simple together in Bitsy, but I don't think it would really be worth it... Hm, I'll check what the jam's theme is and see if I have any brilliant sparks of inspiration, though.
In any case, to compensate for my disparticipation in this year's GMTK Jam, I decided I'd look into some other itch dot io jams I could join in its stead. Two caught my eye: a Fishing Related Jam, and an apparently recurring Magical Girl Jam, both of which are to begin around the same time in August. Thus, I should probably pick one, and I reckon myself more inclined to pick the latter, as you might imagine by all my rattling on about a certain Miss Magica. Amusingly, it seems that for the last Magical Girl Jam the Magical Girl Jam Hosting Guy hosted, the themes you could select from were simply the titles of each episode of Madoka. Had I only the means to turn back time such that I could have participated in that one...********
So, perhaps I should mention my jam participation plans to my compatriot, though admittedly I have some apprehension about collaboration. It's not just that I'm a cool and aloof lone wolf (Awoo!), but I am also worried about the hurdle of, well, actually collaborating via something like a git version control. It just seems a bit tricky to consistently maintain; if I understand correctly you gotta make sure there ain't conflicts and such between versions and so on, so you'd best be working on different parts of the project at any given time.
However, as I've noticed as I endeavour upon Fkreb 2, I'll often end up changing some stuff in a file completely unrelated to my main goal of that work session as I work my magica. But I suppose to get used to a more professional and focussed workflow, as well as to endeavour to construct one's code architecture to allow for such a workflow, would be a good experience. Thus, in spite of my fears, I think I will contact my compatriot. After all, it would be rather silly to say I would here and then proceed not to do so...
Fear is something I reckon holds me back from a lot of things. Well, it holds lots of people back from a lot of things, but I'm an insufferably vain and self-centred person and this is my blog so let's talk about me.
In my most lethargic times, such as yesterday when I was a mess of nerves, it seems to be a fear of having to make any particular effort that deters me from doing anything worthwhile.
Other times, it may be the fear that to partake in an endeavour may take more time than it might be worth, even if it turns out that the alternative is to waste that time on something that is objectively more frivolous.
And then of course there's the fear of failure, and of making a fool of oneself. I may have to face these fears if I end up in any situation in Japan where I have to speak Japanese. Uh oh.
It sounds a bit silly but I mainly started to think about how my fears hold me back after having watched far enough through the Umamusume: Cinderella Grey anime to hear the song Brightest Heart, which has the line 「怖いものはないから」、which, much like the Japanese words "keikaku" and "nakama," are too nuanced and powerful to have any English equivalent.
Okay, the line means something like "Because there is nothing I fear." Unless it's actually 「かわいいものはないから」, in which case it means something like "Because there are no cute things." You know, I don't think I've actually checked...
Gah, now that I think about it, I think there was a line before that one that may have made it make more sense as something that would make me think about my fears. However, I made the grave error of not Youtube to mp3ing********* the song prior to this flight, and without wifi and with the solemn knowledge that to try to use my phone's data will cause the plane to instantaneously implode, I'm left with no choice but to have patience.
Indeed, while I am typing the bulk of this blog post on the plane, it's possible I will not finish on account of factors such as my dwindling laptop battery**********, a desire to take a break from typing, and an imminent subsequent desire to fall unconscious until touchdown.
However, that desire to take a break isn't quite there yet. But I am bracing myself to type up some "post-flight addendums" later, once we're in the life rafts.
Aha! I just thought of a good name for this absurdly long blog post! "Nagai." Splendid. I should probably put it in romanji lest all one person who frequents my blog*********** is misled to believe that the post itself is in Japanese. Or Chinese, if they lack the familiarity to tell the difference.
Or should I say: Eureka! This gives me an idea for Haru Urara's training! (+1200 Guts)
Man, I'm gonna level with you. I deigned to get a VPN since I hear the global version of Uma doesn't work if you're in Japan. Gotta get those daily Carats that are on right now! Especially since I blew my entire supply trying to roll Summer Golshi and McQueen... I was 3 10-pulls away from the pity trade-in, but Carats prices are abominable; no way I was blowing 70 bucks. Not that I ever considered spending real money for pity, haha!
Admittedly, I perhaps should not have blown as many Carats as I did rolling for that wedding dress Urara card that hardly even sees any use. But, well, it's Urara...
Let's navigate back up the topic tree a bit, or perhaps the topic nested Russianese dolls. Stuff I'd like to get in Japan. Perhaps the non-manga non-girlfriend************ entity I'd like most is a copy of the officially licensed (if I recall) Touhou reskin of Dominion. Plus expansions. Of course, I don't have high expectations for this procurement possibility, as I've heard they can be rather hard to find without looking for second-hand copies online, which I don't plan to do during my stay.
What's a bit troublesome considering my wishlist is that almost immediately after I return home from Japan, there is an anime convention I plan to attend all three days of, having bought an advance ticket for that purpose. My spending this month truly is shot, and that's not even mentioning those copies (plural) of DDLC, depicted below. (Though I already had the default Monika version.)
Mind you, when I say "a bit troublesome" I mean troublesome for my bank account. As for my conscience, I hear poetry whispered in the night of how my purchases were justified...
I suppose I should start acquiring a taste for ice soup.
This month's convention ain't even to be the first one I attended this year. As I have perhaps mentioned in a prior blog post, I've been volunteering at my university's anime club's yearly convention, and thus simultaneously attending it. And this year, heh, let's just say, I need to start coming up with more original jokes than "Behold my frivolous spending!" Filthy borzoigeese that I am!
My volunteer experience this year was quite interesting. Prior to the event's commencement I was tasked with directing the arriving artists into the check-in line. Once that had concluded, inertia spurred me, despite not having been ordered to, to begin welcoming early attendees************* and informing them as to where to line up and when the event is the begin. There I stood by the building's main entrance, accosting anybody who looked like they were here for the event and directing them to wherever my buddy holding the "End of the Line" sign was.
I'd usually lead with "Are you here for the event / convention?" to which somebody wearing a very conspicuous Titan cosplay responded with something under the lines of "What do you think?"
Between my directing the artists and the attendees, I'm quite sure I broke whatever my record was for most people spoken to in a day. And I did this fearlessly, in spite of things such as my speech impediment and my status as a wanted criminal. It just goes to show: かわいいものはない。
うそがある。たくさんかわいいコスプレイヤーがいった。To think Umamusume exist in real life...
Sigh, could I be the dame na koitsu who something must be done about?
I'm hoping to find a chance to use that line when I meet with my "End of the Line" sign-holding buddy who's currently on exchange in Japan. I'll be meeting up with him, perhaps tomorrow as he invited me to a karaoke gathering he was already having with some friends. Provided I ain't too severely jetlagged.
A friend of his also, apparently, taught him Dominion the other day, and he suggested we play at a board game cafe while I'm over there as well. It's been some time since I've played Dominion "on paper", as the term might be, so it's bound to be a refreshing experience, as long as I don't bottomdeck my Chapel.
I say I've been on a break from Dominion, but lately I had fallen back into my unfortunate habit of bingeing gameplay videos, particularly yesterday when lethargy had its hold upon me.
Thankfully, my pre-trip nerves tend to abate by the time we're actually en route. Well, it took a bit this time around as I felt quite sickly during the car ride to the airport. But once we were walking about I started to feel better.
And perhaps I should take the fact that I wrote this long, heh, or should I say 長い、blog post as indication that my lethargy too is abating. Now, it would probably make more sense if I used whatever term the Japanese use for "Long" distance horse races, which very well may not be 「長い」、but oh well.
And thus, barring whatever nonsense I end up adding in the post-flight addendum, among other changes, this is Not Billison, signing off, お長いします！ Man, proofreading and adding highlights to this one's going to be めんどくさい af**************!
I'll take a break from typing now. There are other things to do, such as eat and watch my brother play Celeste. Plus, this thing's running worryingly low on battery, and to make matters worse I think I miscounted Freddy's laughs...
Post-flight addendum (actually written, like, a week later): Turns out I misremembered my remembering of the line prior to 「怖いものはないから」in Brightest Heart. That is, it really was just the one line that spurred me to try a bit harder. I guess I'm just losing my marbles. In other words, 「丸いものはないから」。
I reckon I'll set this post's date as the day the bulk of it was written, that is the day of the flight, even though there were a number of revision sessions afterwards. In other words, "literally 1984."
But for the unfalsified history buffs out there, I'll mention that I finalized (i.e. finished all the funny highlighting) and uploaded this post on the evening of July 27th, Osaka time.
This is Not Billison whose mind has been twisted to the point that to him, Sata Andagi is just Normal Andagi, signing off again.
* Thanks to my time spent having friends, however, my previously cold and calculating heart has learned to distinguish people from numbers.
** Not to be confused with a soliloquy.
*** Because she's a stop card, that's why.
**** Sans whatever cards are on my ban and dislike lists right now.
***** At the time of this writing, "LARP" has become internet slang for pretending to be more knowledgeable on a topic, often a media series or "fandom", than you really are. At least, I think that's the gist of it. That's right; I'm hip with the lingo. Heh, but for the record, you'd be hard pressed to find any kindness in my heart...
****** It was a morning lecture. I'd have to watch the recordings anyway to see what I missed when I was asleep.
******* Sata andagi!
******** This would have disastrous unforeseen consequences on account of the Butterfly Effect. For instance, I would be wearing an eyepatch right now.
********* Slang shorthand for "legally purchasing." Honestly I've been Youtube to mp3ing because the alternative for me at the moment is using Spotify and who wants to use that? I plan to eventually get around to properly purchasing all the music I listen to. It just might have to wait for a less spending-heavy month... or year... or decade.
********** FNAF IRL.
*********** Me.
************ This is a joke. Actually when I was doing some research for a Japanese project last term, I came across a website with some good articles on grammar and culture and such. It happened to have a "most popular articles" list on the right of its pages, and, lo and behold, the top article was "How to get a Japanese Girlfriend." I did not click on it, because if I did I don't think I'd be able to look myself in the eye ever again. Heh, at least not until I land a Japanese girlfriend. That was also a joke.
************* If I recall, I referred to them as "guests," which I think may have amused some.
************** As fudge.