Release Day!
Feb. 7th, 2012 11:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseHey, hey, it's release day.
Today is the day that ALMOST EVERYTHING is officially out. So run like headless chicken to your nearest bookstor and buy sixteen thousand copies. After all, you don't want to miss out on the exciting conculsion to the Vampire Princess of St. Paul series, am I right?
I have a feeling that the choice that Ana makes between all her various boy options is going to disappoint some fans. But, you know, I also (as usual) didn't REALLY expect this to be the final book, though at least this time I was more aware of the possibility while writing, so I'd hoped to let her bounce around a lot more before seeming to settle.
Anyway, if you've read the others and are following along, see what you think.
In other news, at HalfPrice Books the other day, along with Manga, I bought a "How to Speak Japanese" series to listen to in the car as I drive from place to place. I'm sure I'm one of a thousand Anime fans who thought this was a good idea, but it *is* startling how many question forms I already recognize. Not that I can repeat any of them yet... but if someone asks me "What is that?" in Japanese I would recognize the question at least, even if I had no response.
I'm actually always baffled by the fact that language courses don't start by teaching you how to say, "I'm sorry, I have no idea what you just said," or "Can you speak slower?" or even, "I need a translator. My Japanese is very bad."
I took French in high school for several years (as well as college) and the only thing I can say with any amount of accuracy after all that time is one of the first phrases we learned: "Open the window," (Ouvrez la fenêtre).
This is a ridiculously unuseful thing to know how to say. In the two times I have been to France I never ONCE had the opportunity to use it. I remember trying to brush up for my last visit and encountering textbooks which had me learning to say things like, "The cat is under the porch," and I remember thinking, "Oh, yeah, that'll be helpful for the week I'm in Paris. Because, you know, the first thing I'm going to do is lose my cat under the porch!"
But, at least during the 1980s people traveled to Japan a lot, so I'm learning how explain to Customs Officers that I'm in Toyoko on business (which I won't be) and how to have a pleasant conversation with the taxi driver about the weather and the popularity of certain Japanese cars in America. Honda! Toyota!
What I wish (and it probably exists somewhere in the universe) is that there were a fan guide to speaking Japanese. I want to know how to say, "Oh god! Look at the size of that monster rising out of the harbor! Is that Godzilla? We're all going to die!(polite form)"
One of the reasons I think that would be helpful is that there are certain things the language tapes are never going to teach. For instance, Mason and I started repeating a phrase that we heard a lot that had been translated as "damn" or, occassionally, "shoot." Shawn suggested that before we go shouting it in public maybe we ought to know EXACTLY what it meant. Well, a simple trip to "How to swear in Japanese," revealed that we were actually repeating the s-word. Which explains a LOT about the reaction I get when I tell people that Mason and I are watching Bleach together....
Unlike fan translated episodes, Netflix/Adult Swim has santizied Bleach to the point that...well, the FCC doesn't revoke their license, and an eight year old has nothing to fear -- even when encountering the rude folks in the 11th division barracks. Though even *we* recognized that probably "Screw you" wasn't PRECISELY what got said at one point.
What this means, however, is that when we run out of subtitled Bleach episodes, we won't be able (as I first thought) to go to the fan sites and pick up where we left off. Probably, we'll have to start reading the Manga.
Today is the day that ALMOST EVERYTHING is officially out. So run like headless chicken to your nearest bookstor and buy sixteen thousand copies. After all, you don't want to miss out on the exciting conculsion to the Vampire Princess of St. Paul series, am I right?
I have a feeling that the choice that Ana makes between all her various boy options is going to disappoint some fans. But, you know, I also (as usual) didn't REALLY expect this to be the final book, though at least this time I was more aware of the possibility while writing, so I'd hoped to let her bounce around a lot more before seeming to settle.
Anyway, if you've read the others and are following along, see what you think.
In other news, at HalfPrice Books the other day, along with Manga, I bought a "How to Speak Japanese" series to listen to in the car as I drive from place to place. I'm sure I'm one of a thousand Anime fans who thought this was a good idea, but it *is* startling how many question forms I already recognize. Not that I can repeat any of them yet... but if someone asks me "What is that?" in Japanese I would recognize the question at least, even if I had no response.
I'm actually always baffled by the fact that language courses don't start by teaching you how to say, "I'm sorry, I have no idea what you just said," or "Can you speak slower?" or even, "I need a translator. My Japanese is very bad."
I took French in high school for several years (as well as college) and the only thing I can say with any amount of accuracy after all that time is one of the first phrases we learned: "Open the window," (Ouvrez la fenêtre).
This is a ridiculously unuseful thing to know how to say. In the two times I have been to France I never ONCE had the opportunity to use it. I remember trying to brush up for my last visit and encountering textbooks which had me learning to say things like, "The cat is under the porch," and I remember thinking, "Oh, yeah, that'll be helpful for the week I'm in Paris. Because, you know, the first thing I'm going to do is lose my cat under the porch!"
But, at least during the 1980s people traveled to Japan a lot, so I'm learning how explain to Customs Officers that I'm in Toyoko on business (which I won't be) and how to have a pleasant conversation with the taxi driver about the weather and the popularity of certain Japanese cars in America. Honda! Toyota!
What I wish (and it probably exists somewhere in the universe) is that there were a fan guide to speaking Japanese. I want to know how to say, "Oh god! Look at the size of that monster rising out of the harbor! Is that Godzilla? We're all going to die!(polite form)"
One of the reasons I think that would be helpful is that there are certain things the language tapes are never going to teach. For instance, Mason and I started repeating a phrase that we heard a lot that had been translated as "damn" or, occassionally, "shoot." Shawn suggested that before we go shouting it in public maybe we ought to know EXACTLY what it meant. Well, a simple trip to "How to swear in Japanese," revealed that we were actually repeating the s-word. Which explains a LOT about the reaction I get when I tell people that Mason and I are watching Bleach together....
Unlike fan translated episodes, Netflix/Adult Swim has santizied Bleach to the point that...well, the FCC doesn't revoke their license, and an eight year old has nothing to fear -- even when encountering the rude folks in the 11th division barracks. Though even *we* recognized that probably "Screw you" wasn't PRECISELY what got said at one point.
What this means, however, is that when we run out of subtitled Bleach episodes, we won't be able (as I first thought) to go to the fan sites and pick up where we left off. Probably, we'll have to start reading the Manga.