Cocco is number one

Those who know me, know I like Japanese music. In fact, I liked it so much I even took four semesters of college Japanese "for fun". Well I'd like to refine the original assertion, I've gone through a lot of my old songs, and decided I don't like Japanese music per se; I like Cocco's music. So much so, I've bought three Cocco CDs in the past year, and would by more if they were available.

But because I'd rather be lazy than write a very long post, I'll just link to someone elses. Yukihime puts my feelings to words quite well, and even gave me the idea to look on YouTube for Cocco music videos. I've since seen all of the ones available, and disappointingly I couldn't find a couple of my favorite songs as music videos. But to give a small taste of what makes Cocco the best, here are a few links to songs that aren't the best. This is a link to a music video of a pretty good song Hoshini Negaiwo (probably #6 on my favorite Cocco song list, but good none the less) , and here is a link to a live performance of Yagenogahara, which I am guessing is her final performance before she retired in 2000.

At first seeing her sing was a bit of a shock, I was surprised that such powerful music could come out of this shy and awkward middle aged Japanese woman. A friend from JSA had heard that in her final concert before she retired, she ran off stage crying. I think I have now been able to incorporate that story into my understanding of Cocco. Yukihime said "Other songs are about something; Cocco’s songs are the thing itself. It’s the difference between understanding something and believing in it"

This is why I was so happy to hear that Cocco had come out of retirement a year or so ago, and why I bought her new CD... and why if anyone would like to visit Japan with me to eat delicious Japanese food like sushi and takoyaki (octopus balls), I'd love to plan it around a Cocco concert. :?)

Well it's bed time, so I should get going. Peace out all, and word to your respective mothers.

-Mr. Bento

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PS: I am, of course, always happy to let friends borrow CDs.

PSS: Yes I know, you don't speak Japanese... try listening to the music without knowing the words first. I couldn't find a good translation of "Hoshini Negaiwo" but I'll loosely translate the title as "Wishing on a Star." Here's a Yukihime translation of Yagenogahara (the live second one). I'll loosely translate the title "Scorched Earth". You'll be wanting to learn Japanese in no time, and you haven't even heard the best songs yet!

PSSS: If you're still interested, here's the YouTube links her “I'm no longer retired” song Shoka Rinrin (translation), and two other songs, Oasis and Raining.

Why I don't blog often

I've been pondering this for a while, and my old excuse has always been that I'm busy. Sure it's true, I'm a busy person. In fact, in the past two weeks:

1. I had a birthday (hurrah, now I'm 24) and we went to my favorite restaurant Kitcho.

2. I've published my first ever official webpage for my job (http://sfs.fsu.edu). Even by modest standards it looks damn good. It also uses 100% clean and pure CSS & HTML is handycap accessible, and even has a really small file size. This is all cool and significant, but took a lot of time.

3. I've gotten my first two newspaper ads in a long time published (I'll put them up on my webpage's "portfolio" page whenever I get around to making both the webpage and the portfolio)

4. I made my first color flyers ever because the director of my job liked one of my newspaper ads so much she asked me to redo it into a color flyer and have 1500 copies printed.

5. I made my first full color posters because the director liked the full color flyers so much she wanted posters, so I made one and we printed 50 of them. Here's the wild thing, campus printing services charges only 35 cents for printing 12" by 18" posters... I'm going to be making so many posters its not even funny. At the very least, its a great portfolio filler.

6. This is the second busiest week of the year for customers coming into my job (topped only by next week), and they just changed around the phone systems so I now get around fifty to a hundred more calls a day than usual.

7. I had to deal with unbelievable bureaucracy in order to register for classes this semester, special thanks to Eric who helped me get it all done within this hectic week. He's the bomb.

8. I started a class which I believe will be the least of my worries in the weeks and months to come. Its Thursdays 2-5, so no one needs to worry about calling me while I'm in class this semester. Special thanks to my boss John for OK'ing it.

9. I started seriously researching my thesis (Americano-Russo-Japanese relations), which I still can't describe in less than ten words... I desperately need a good title.

10. I began playing a new game with my friends online called Diplomacy. I've already made two moves, but I haven't even really read the rules yet, I just skimmed the tutorial.

11. And in the midst of all of this I have spent a good deal of time with Janelle and even played three to five hours of Halo with my friends.

So am I a busy person? Yes, but the more I think about it, I made it that way. I volunteered for all of the special projects at work from the webpage to the newspaper ads to the flyers and posters. It is my choice to go to school as I have a 40 hour a week job, and it is my choice to write a thesis. I guess subconsciously I like being busy .

I've commented to several friends in the past that I don't like to read, and couldn't even finish reading a book I was really enjoying (A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and I haven't picked up a book for fun since then. Is it because I have undiagnosed attention deficit disorder? I used to think so, but the more I look at the list above and I think of my success with similar ventures in the past, the less I think so. In fact, I've been writing this blog entry for at least 30 minutes now so it is an excellent example of how I am able to focus on something... it just needs to have perceived value for me to want to focus on it.

And that's the answer, each of those things above has significant value to me, but my interest slumps where the perceived value ends... and that's why I don't blog very often. It may be a little corny but like Mr. Ed I'll never speak unless I have something to say.

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PS: My Mr. Bento classic template died and the color changy and accessable template didn't have a way to let others post comments, so I sold out and used a base one. I'll probably make myself a new one if I ever get around to it. So in other words, please leave comments :?)