Refraction

So, I’m reading some stuff about Firefly, and I come across this lexicon of terms used in the story…

shiny – Slang. “Good”, “great”, “neat”, “wonderful”, etc.
(from here)

At this point I’d like to remind everyone that I was using “shiny” in that manner way before Firefly even existed. See second post ever, the post after that, my birthday post four years ago, in reference to some newly-acquired (at that time) Sailormoon merchandise, and finally, extolling the virtues of Greymatter again.

What can I say? Shiny *_*

I actually really have trouble remembering when and why I started using that word as a synonym for “cool,” “neat,” “fantabulous,” etc. It’s not really the same as “quite,” which I know I randomly started using. I’m sure that “shiny” has its roots somewhere; I mean, I used it to refer to tangible things, primarily. Perhaps it’s just that there was some shiny object which was interesting, whose properties became associated with everything cool and interesting.

Does anyone know why the Firefly characters use “shiny”?

Okay, first off, a warning: This post is primarily for me to comparison shop and figure out what I’m going to buy when and how I can get it all here before May 9 (if you don’t know the significance of that date, ask me about it.)

So apparently it pays to do research before plunging into the expensive world of Japanese CDs…

HMV Japan has an English site! And not only that, they’re having a 2 CD, 20% off sale!! Which means I can probably get Natural Beauty and 3… although I haven’t factored in shipping costs yet. Hmmm. And a certain French site suggests that there might be some hidden charges, a few months later (customs or something? I didn’t bother looking it up.)

Je ne pense pas refaire de commandes sur ce site. Les frais de port élevés (vous n’avez pas le choix, ils ne proposent que la livraison par FedEx pour l’étranger) et le fait d’avoir à payer des taxes 4 fois sur 5 … m’ont décidé à éviter ce site désormais.

I don’t think I’ll order from this site [HMV] again. The high [shipping costs?] (you don’t have a choice, they only offer FedEx for international delivery) and having to pay taxes 4 times out of 5 … have [convinced me?] to avoid this site from now on.

Of course, there’s also CDJapan, which I haven’t really looked at… but I’ve heard okay things about them. Hmmmm. They don’t seem to have too many of COS’s discs still, though:

My impatience stems from Yesasia, who are still “searching from suppliers” for Over the Time, Time is Over. I hope they find it soon :depressed: So, after obsessively checking the status of my order for a week minus a day, everything is finally ready to be shipped. This is awesome :love: I will have my first actual non-bootleg Japanese CDs, complete with arm-and-a-leg price right after the Easter holiday, hopefully.

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So… the del.icio.us plugin and the new install aren’t working. Well. Grr. Oh well, it’s just motivation for me to switch over to linkrolls at del.icio.us…

I also feel irrationally giddy. I just made my first internet purchase :kawaii: (CORE OF SOUL CDs, natch. Those suckers are expensive. But I don’t work as a retail slave just for the cheap shoes.) The ETA is 16 April, so I’ll be waiting on that for a while… Which just gives me more impetus to order the rest of their discography. Ah, limited versions. How you make us fans go into “impulse buy” mode. I ordered their BEST album, along with Over the Time, Time is Over, which is still a grand album, even if it’s not as good as Natural Beauty (which I’ll probably buy with RAINBOW and 3 before systematically attacking the singles–the ones that are still available, anyway.)

I hate the last week of term. For Science students, it’s really a lull before the storm, which I suppose is nice to have, but also very distracting… especially when the weather’s as nice as it was a few days ago.

And it looks like I won’t be exploring anywhere this summer. *le sigh* Oh well. At least this means that I can take FREN 353 or work in a lab or… something in the summer.

Finally, I would like to thank Neale (you should do lunch with me and organic chem sometime! it does the body good), Sarah, and Bobby for already having changed their links! :star: (It strikes me that as time passes, my blog is read by fewer and fewer of my online friends, and instead is a kind of outpost for communication with my offline friends. Interesting.)

(First off: Note to Sarah. Yes, I have heard of Vienna Teng, but I didn’t give the poor girl much of a chance–I think I downloaded “Harbor” just before the Great Format. So now, upon your urging, I’m kinda seizing upon every mp3 I come across. Sorry, I’ve been busy completing my CORE OF SOUL collection.)

I’m an organic chemist for all of three hours every week. Just so you Arts students (and non-organic chemists) understand what this feels like, I’m reproducing a page from my lab notebook):

10:10 Finish assembling app. Charge 50 mL rbf w/2 g 5-t-butyl-m-xylene and stirbar. Cool 5 mL HNO₃/7 mL H₂SO₄ in Erlenmeyer.
10:15 Begin addition of cooled acidic mixture to reaction vessel. Reaction mixture turns pale yellow. Brown deposits on wall of flask?
10:25 Finish addition.
10:30 Switch ice bath for oil bath. Power: 7 Temp: 50 ºC
10:40 110 ºC reached. turn power to 5. Reaction mixture turns orange. Yellow/orange fumes being evolved into condenser.
11:15 Remove oil bath, switch for ice bath.
11:35 Transfer to 40 mL ice
12:00 Triturate + air dry crude pdt
12:10 Receiver weight: 48.78 Receiver + crude pdt: 54.70
12:20 Set up reflux apparatus. Add EtOH to cover crude pdt. Heat Thermowell.
12:30 FIRE ALARM

And it kind of disappears after that. Of all the times to have a fire alarm–it just happens to be at the end of a lab. Just as I’m about to finish. (My observations should go on to recount the pale yellow crystals afforded from recrystallization, but I was just concerned about getting out of there. Besides which, they’re not collecting the observations from this lab, anyway.)

Say what you like about Hikaru Utada; the girl knows how to write catchy music. Each of her last three singles has been stuck in my head for quite some time.

I don’t even like the songs when I first listen to them. And, naturally, I have the faintest idea what they’re about unless I listen closely. They’re not even that sing-a-long-able! And yet, they have the catchiest hooks ever.

So, in an attempt at catharsis, I break down each of these songs to try and alleviate myself of this … earworm.

“Be My Last” is a plaintive ballad (replete with “aaaAAAAaaaAAAAhhh”s), plain and simple. I don’t even know what else to say about it! It seems like a very plain song. The title? “Be My Last”? Be my last what? I like Utada’s ballads. Most of the time. But I’m at a loss to explain why I’ve got this one stuck in my head. I don’t feel it’s amazing vocally or lyrically.

“Passion” is the theme for the Japanese version of Kingdom Hearts 2. This can’t be classified as anything other than experimental. Between the reversed backing vocals and the cricket-like sounds in the background… bizarre. Not very mainstream. It’s relaxing and energizing at the same time. I know some people proclaimed this as “her best song yet!” I didn’t feel that way about it. I still don’t.

“Keep Tryin'” is her latest single, and it’s an upbeat number, although the intro’s a bit like “Passion”‘s. (The cover for the single is insane, though. Not like anything I’ve seen from Utada before, since her single covers are usually just a close-up of her face.) And no, I don’t particularly like the song, either. But I suppose it’s interesting in a way that not a lot of J-pop is these days.

And you know what, this didn’t help XP

Oh, and I have an mp3 of her covering Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” Yeah. Interesting.

I can’t seem to write coherently these days. My French lit prof pointed out that my essay seemed to be lacking some logical connections between ideas, which is true. I just didn’t have enough words to stuff everything I wanted to say in there (Only 1200, and my rushed draft was close to 1400…. gah). Next time, I’ll narrow down my topic a little more. I guess I’m a bit out of practice.

My apathy’s sinking in again. At least I don’t have another midterm for 3 weeks.

My friend also burned that Chinese serial I got into halfway through 2 years ago for me. IT IS HILARIOUS. I love that one. The male lead is forced to don a dolphin mascot suit for a good deal of the first episode. Hilarity ensues. I’m not saying the plot’s believable, or that the acting’s good, or that there’s any artistic merit to this show; but it’s escapism, that’s all.

Now, for those of you who are interested, give w-inds.’s cover of Clay Aiken’s “Perfect Day” a try. I don’t like it as much as the original, but I don’t expect much else from covers.

CORE OF SOUL is shortly going to release a “Best of” album (middle of March), which is always fun. The best part of this was that fans were given the opportunity to vote on what songs should be included (well, at least, we were given the illusion of being able to vote… I’m always suspicious about these things; I think they’re about as effective as online petitions.)

So because I’m such a fan, I signed up for their (Japanese-only) mailing list, and today, the tracklisting was “released”.

And, as far as I can tell, there will also be a limited edition including acoustic versions of some of their recent songs, and their previously unreleased… demo, I guess? Something before their debut.

(My comments on the selection of songs follows.)
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So m-flo, my favourite J-whatever-you-call-that-type-of-music group recently released a music video featuring none other than Sonic’s evil lookalike. It’s amusing. It’s very amusing.

All kidding aside though, I quite like the song. LISA, of course, used to be m-flo’s vocalist before she quit. Since then, they’ve started their “m-flo ♥ …” collaborations. Well, at least it keeps them from getting into a rut.

So, for your reading pleasure, some caps with accompanying commentary. :star:
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And here comes the yearly theme song post. Oh, you knew it was coming.

And Happy new Year to you all :biggrin:
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Is it just me, or is Sarah McLachlan’s song “Stupid” apt for describing more than just a relationship you really shouldn’t be in?
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