I've been studying off and on for the Level 1 JLPT since September. I bought books, made flashcards, wrote a script to make flashcards, took practice tests, and joined a study group. Despite it all, I fear I won't make it.

My target scores are 70% in vocabulary, 60% in listening, and 80% in reading/grammar. The 60% in listening is about the same as I got last year, so I'm not working on that. I feel okay about reading/grammar, assuming I review some between now and and the test.

The problem is that my practice vocab scores haven't budged above 55%.

I saw 'Satantango' several weeks back. I expected to be a little bored with it, but I liked it as much as ever.

This weekend I saw the Up Series through '28 Up.' Now I've seen eight of the ten films on Ebert's all time best list. Somehow I managed to see 'Gates of Heaven' (the movie that made Werner Herzog eat his shoe) but neither 'Raging Bull' nor Ozu's 'Floating Weeds.'

I saw 'Big Fan' yesterday and enjoyed it.  Unexpectedly (to me), the writer/director was on hand to answer questions afterward.  Also unexpectedly, he's a former Onion editor.

Satantango is showing at MoMA in October, and I can't wait.

The best part is that I'm not just refreshed but happier as well.  Maybe I will make a weekly habit of this.

Thursday

• Took a break during my morning foot commute to finish reading 'Touch.'
• Had my program demo-ed to the people who contracted it.  No big problems.
• Saw 'You Only Live Once,' which tired me despite being directed by Fritz Lang.
   

Friday

• Was let out early from work for the holiday.
• Walked to Book-Off (40 blocks) and bought volumes of 'Katsu' (same author as 'Touch').
• At Book-Off I also bought a drama CD from the bargain rack for listening practice.  I tried hard to find something that looked like it was based on a general audience work, but of course when I looked it up at home, I found it was based on an 18+ game.
   

Sunday

• Received a tennis lesson from Jon.
• Ate a tasty steak.
   

Unrelatedly, here are 1,800 free books: http://www.e-booksdirectory.com/

I worked from home today because my employer was moving to a new office.  I enjoyed it and could imagine doing it one day a week.

I've been listening to Japanese-language news podcasts for a few weeks, but only today did it dawn on me that "Kitachousen" does not refer to a train line.

Happy 58th birthday to Adati Mituru.  Late last month he also joined the club of repeat winners of Shougakukan Manga Award winners.  Other repeat winners include Tezuka Osamu, Isinomori Shoutarou, Urasawa Naoki, Takahasi Rumiko, and Fujio Fujiko.

Also, 1992 saw wins for similarly named but apparently unrelated Fujita Kazuhiro (藤田 和日郎) and Fujita Kazuko (藤田和子).

It was a good experience.  I'm certain I failed, but respectably (say 50-60%).   I was also evidently the only non-Japanese in attendance.

This is an old video, but I just found it.  Some guy took images of 32 female characters from recent anime and used some sort of face-mapping software to morph their faces together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMQjOA6M59E

Now that it's won a bunch of Golden Globes, I must protest.

The story of the movie is: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy regains girl through a series of implausible coincidences, culminating in his shocking run on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"

Complaint 1:  Jamal (our protagonist), gets on the show in the hopes that his girl will see him on TV.  This strikes me as a really bad plan.  Maybe she won't see that episode, and if she does, what then?  She isn't entirely free and would have a hard time reaching him.

Complaint 2:  The most important and luckiest break of all - getting on the show - gets zero screen time.  Given that getting himself onto the show is the biggest thing Jamal did in his search, the audience should see it.

Complaint 3:  Jamal isn't overly surprised that all the questions he's asked on the show happen to relate to events from his life.  For example, he's asked who's on the $100 (American) bill, and it just so happens he handled one at one point (flashback!).  In his shoes, I might be disturbed.  I imagine a character like him would believe it to be fate and take heart, but Jamal just sits there.

Summary:  Too much of this plot is driven by coincidences, and large pieces of what Jamal actually does are glossed over in dialogue or omitted altogether.  Stories should be about what people do.

Movies: I saw five movies staying with my parents, and I saw another today.  They are

• Unforgiven (don't regret seeing)
• Rabbit-Proof Fence (rewatch, recommended)
• Valkyrie (don't regret seeing)
• Slumdog Millionaire (only regret seeing the first hour)
• Prizzi's Honor (recommended)
• Gran Torino (don't regret seeing)

Nintendo DS flashcart: I got a flashcart (a game cartridge onto which programs can be loaded from a computer) for Christmas, and I put homebrew programs on it.  Recommended are

• DSOrganize - General utility program.  File browser, text editor, calendar, html viewer, etc.
• Colors! - Drawing program.  EDIT: link
• DSLibris - One of numerous text viewers, but this is the only one I got to display Japanese.

Resolutions.  I'm posting them to contribute to the pool of self-improvement ideas floating around the internet, not because I believe my own development is noteworthy.

• Read a book in Japanese that is not a translation of something I have read in English.
• For each month n, where 1 <= n <= 6, walk n + 2 miles in one day at least once.

theosakakoneko  tagged me for a meme asking for six random things about me.

1. I flipped a coin.  It came up heads.

2. I'm at my parents' house for the first time in two years.

3. I used to get up on Saturdays to watch Yu-gi-oh.

4. I waved to a guy in a gorilla suit today.

Conveniently, I live in the same state as two of the three U.S. test sites.  I'm signed up for level 6 in February.

According to this post on Kikko's Blog, Tezuka was inspired to create Sapphire the Ribbon Knight after seeing Awashima Chikage - then a star player of female roles at Takarazuka and later a film actress - in a male role in a Takarazuka show.  Unfortunately, there are no citations, so I guess it's hearsay.

I bought a whiteboard today.  The image on the packaging of the whiteboard in use was either (1) using tiny office supplies or (2) using a larger whiteboard with normal-sized office supplies.  Judge for yourself after the cut.  I calculated the width of various objects in the picture using the whiteboard as a reference.

( Tiny office... )

When was the last time a presidential candidate won states that contained a continuous path between the two coasts?
( Here's the answer. )

This is old news, but foolishly I forgot it after Jon told me.

From Wikipedia:
I've seen the previous restoration several times, and it hurt every time there appeared an intertitle explaining a lost scene.

I am now extremely happy.

Watching tv tonight, I saw this ad:

A: <is eating a burger>
B:  Hey, A, your 99 cent burger has appreciated in value.
A:  What?
B:  Here, I'll show you.  Give me a dollar.
A.  Ok.  <hands B a dollar>
B:  Now give me your burger instead.  <offers back dollar>
A:  No.

"If the cookie is in three pieces, the answer is no."