Sprite (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
spritechan) wrote2011-01-31 03:13 am
spritechan) wrote2011-01-31 03:13 am
"Dango, dango, dango, dango, dango daikazoku!"
I haven't been sleeping very well the past couple weeks. I'm used to waking up a few times a night, but I feel like lately it's nearly hourly. I don't feel rested and I definitely don't ever want to get up for anything. Ughhh.
The English version of Clannad is on Netflix Instant, and I was super excited because I love that show soooo much, but so far I am NOT liking a lot of the voice actor choices. Sunohara was much more comical with a deeper voice (to offset his blonde hair), not a prepubescent annoying one. And Nagisa's voice is too high and not timid/soft enough. Tomoya's voice stands out BECAUSE everyone else seems to have such high-pitched voices.
This weekend was quite busy for me. On Friday I went to Pam's father's funeral. Bethany texted me at the last minute saying she couldn't go, after she'd convinced me to go in a black skirt instead of my originally-planned oufit of jeans and a black shirt. My predictions on the dress were correct: it was varied and rather informal. My dad wore a suit, but Pam was wearing brown and a lot of people were in jeans. I did NOT like the pastor or whatever. He was a former military man, wearing his uniform, talking mostly about himself as well as god (it was a Catholic funeral, so that much was expected). He also walked around with a tape recorder and shoving it into people's faces while making jokes and insisting you "shouldn't be sad" and "life goes on." He was very insensitive - he even made a comment/joke about dementia when he couldn't remember something (Pam's dad had general dementia...). He made it incredibly difficult for anyone to mourn without feeling awkward, because they were expected to be laughing. Adam broke down at some point and it was so sad. I comforted him as best I could. I was uncomfortable the entire time because he was so firmly violating my idea of how a funeral should go. Mikey's funeral was my favorite because there were a couple people who spoke - telling stories and reading poetry, and some of the stories were funny, but the overarching theme was of remembrance and grief at losing him. At Pam's dad's funeral there was no plan for speaking, so people went up and winged it. Some of them were quite touching, but I definitely got the feel that this was just like Pam's family. So many of them attended but it was Pam (1 of 9 kids, 6 or 7 living) who had to try to organize it all.
The pictures of him as a young man were really nice. He was taken off of a reservation in North Dakota and put into Catholic boarding schools until he was old enough for war, when he went to Iwo Jima. My stepbrother James looks just like him (actually a lot of men in the family do). It was also the first time I remember seeing a picture of Pam's mother - she died a long time ago. Pam is the spitting image of her.
On Saturday I went to lunch with my auntie Connie, cousin Haley, and grandmas Ann and Carla. I always find it funny that Carla and Ann get along, as they've each had a shot at my grandpa (Carla had previously been married to said man's brother in the past before marrying him), though neither are with him now. It's always funny when they tell stories, because of similar experiences. Haley was angsty and pouty as usual (she's 16), but I had a really good time. We were out for like 3 hours and I was exhausted by the time I got home. Then in the evening (actually this was technically Sunday morning) we had Pat and Nick over to watch The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, based off of the fourth light novel. It was sooooo good! The version we had was really high quality too. The Disappearance focuses a lot on Nagato, which is even better. Omg. Yummm.
Steve and I forgot that malls and every other damn stores don't open until 11am on Sundays, so we were bored at 9:30 driving around trying to figure out what to do. Finally we just wandered until 10:30 and then drove to the Mall of America. We spent the day shopping. I got so many good things! I even got another workout video (this one using pilates, yoga, and... something else!) and a nutrition book. I got some nice shirts and even avoided buying more hoodies I don't need! ^_^ I got a cute skirt for $5, but I need to tone up before I can wear it. The mirrors at H&M are very unforgiving and made me feel excessively lumpy. Steve said he thought they made him feel stumpy and short. To be honest, the H&M at Maplewood Mall has better stuff than the one at MoA, probably because it doesn't get picked through so quickly. Anyway, it was really fun! We also got a couple DS games, the first in awhile for us!
Finally we got home at 3:30 and I got to bed at 4:30. Back to the ol' grind!
The English version of Clannad is on Netflix Instant, and I was super excited because I love that show soooo much, but so far I am NOT liking a lot of the voice actor choices. Sunohara was much more comical with a deeper voice (to offset his blonde hair), not a prepubescent annoying one. And Nagisa's voice is too high and not timid/soft enough. Tomoya's voice stands out BECAUSE everyone else seems to have such high-pitched voices.
This weekend was quite busy for me. On Friday I went to Pam's father's funeral. Bethany texted me at the last minute saying she couldn't go, after she'd convinced me to go in a black skirt instead of my originally-planned oufit of jeans and a black shirt. My predictions on the dress were correct: it was varied and rather informal. My dad wore a suit, but Pam was wearing brown and a lot of people were in jeans. I did NOT like the pastor or whatever. He was a former military man, wearing his uniform, talking mostly about himself as well as god (it was a Catholic funeral, so that much was expected). He also walked around with a tape recorder and shoving it into people's faces while making jokes and insisting you "shouldn't be sad" and "life goes on." He was very insensitive - he even made a comment/joke about dementia when he couldn't remember something (Pam's dad had general dementia...). He made it incredibly difficult for anyone to mourn without feeling awkward, because they were expected to be laughing. Adam broke down at some point and it was so sad. I comforted him as best I could. I was uncomfortable the entire time because he was so firmly violating my idea of how a funeral should go. Mikey's funeral was my favorite because there were a couple people who spoke - telling stories and reading poetry, and some of the stories were funny, but the overarching theme was of remembrance and grief at losing him. At Pam's dad's funeral there was no plan for speaking, so people went up and winged it. Some of them were quite touching, but I definitely got the feel that this was just like Pam's family. So many of them attended but it was Pam (1 of 9 kids, 6 or 7 living) who had to try to organize it all.
The pictures of him as a young man were really nice. He was taken off of a reservation in North Dakota and put into Catholic boarding schools until he was old enough for war, when he went to Iwo Jima. My stepbrother James looks just like him (actually a lot of men in the family do). It was also the first time I remember seeing a picture of Pam's mother - she died a long time ago. Pam is the spitting image of her.
On Saturday I went to lunch with my auntie Connie, cousin Haley, and grandmas Ann and Carla. I always find it funny that Carla and Ann get along, as they've each had a shot at my grandpa (Carla had previously been married to said man's brother in the past before marrying him), though neither are with him now. It's always funny when they tell stories, because of similar experiences. Haley was angsty and pouty as usual (she's 16), but I had a really good time. We were out for like 3 hours and I was exhausted by the time I got home. Then in the evening (actually this was technically Sunday morning) we had Pat and Nick over to watch The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, based off of the fourth light novel. It was sooooo good! The version we had was really high quality too. The Disappearance focuses a lot on Nagato, which is even better. Omg. Yummm.
Steve and I forgot that malls and every other damn stores don't open until 11am on Sundays, so we were bored at 9:30 driving around trying to figure out what to do. Finally we just wandered until 10:30 and then drove to the Mall of America. We spent the day shopping. I got so many good things! I even got another workout video (this one using pilates, yoga, and... something else!) and a nutrition book. I got some nice shirts and even avoided buying more hoodies I don't need! ^_^ I got a cute skirt for $5, but I need to tone up before I can wear it. The mirrors at H&M are very unforgiving and made me feel excessively lumpy. Steve said he thought they made him feel stumpy and short. To be honest, the H&M at Maplewood Mall has better stuff than the one at MoA, probably because it doesn't get picked through so quickly. Anyway, it was really fun! We also got a couple DS games, the first in awhile for us!
Finally we got home at 3:30 and I got to bed at 4:30. Back to the ol' grind!
no subject
But, that's just my opinion about things like funerals, which really are a lot more about helping those who are continuing to live deal with the loss of a fellow human, than they are about honoring the deceased.
As for animes/adaptions from Japanese things in general, I really feel like one of the most important things that is never done, is to have the English version director TALK/COMMUNICATE/ETC with the original Japanese director. Because you can watch something through and think, okay, I can do that/understand that. But, if you talk to the director, you can get a much deeper sense of why they chose to do such and such over such and such, and why they wanted to cast This Voice instead of That One, and so on. But, they often just throw people into these things, figuring that the translators will do their job, and now it's just a matter of matching sound to movement of mouths. It's one of the reasons why dubs blow so hard--it's just often too difficult to act properly when one is so concerned with matching timing.
I have a theory about a Mirror Conspiracy. Some places, I swear to god, have mirrors designed to make me look bad. Like, amazingly bad, where I go...hey. Wait a second. As an artist, I can see that there are some minute tweakings of things that are causing odd angles, and a distortion of perspective here. HEEEEEEEY!
But, have you ever been in the reverse? I met a mirror in this one place that I would swear made me look better than I really do. And when I got home, I was dismayed to find, yeah. That mirror made it look better on me than my mirror at home. It's times like that when I'm grateful to have a Fitting Partner, though I'll say here and now I so prefer shopping with other girls who know what they're supposed to be looking for/at ("This will look a LOT better with that one pair of jeans. Look what it does for your shoulders! Just look past the odd line formed with this skirt."), but even Brian can be helpful sometimes. Shopping alone is so sad. D=
no subject
At Bre's grandma's funeral, it was sad, especially the picture slideshow, but she'd set aside a ton of money for the reception. She basically said, "Hey! I'm dead! I ain't comin' back and we knew it would happen eventually! Pig out!" She had a huge buffet and like 13 different kinds of desserts. It was so Jane! :D
At Mikey's funeral, it was incredibly sad. I was like sobbing uncontrollably the whole time, especially when his mom started wailing when they closed the casket. It was really intense. Everyone cried there and at the burial site, but his Mama planned accordingly for the reception and had breads and heavy comfort-food pasta. They're a black family, and the best: loud laughter and jokes (her laugh is exactly like his was, only feminine), and lots of love and support. It was awesome.
no subject
And I SWEAR some mirrors are totally lying! My home mirror (before Nero broke it, the ass) I felt was just plain, normal. Honest. But at a lot of stores I feel like they are so. mean. Like, "Why not just kill yourself now? Look at those stumpy legs. Do you even HAVE knees? And what's up with that muffin top?!" Noooo! No no no. I think I HAVE come across those rare mirrors that build you up, so you feel ridiculous later when you realize you were duped XD