Heading into the home stretch, but it might take me awhile to finish things, because of external factors (busyness, etc.). I wonder how people think novel 16 compares to novel 15? We’re almost to the end anyway. Perhaps people are losing interest in the novels because the story is taking a darker turn. On the other hand, as I can see from the LJ comm, people are more interested in a scan of a picture than a translation which must have taken someone a long time to do, so eh, whatever.

Maybe the official translation of the manga will change things, but with only five volumes out, the translators are going to catch up to the Japanese publication schedule fairly quickly. In any case, we’ve heard like nothing about the next novel (totally unsurprising), although I have heard via blogs that the next The Beans (the magazine) will have Saiunkoku on the cover, and that there will also be a Saiunkoku short story in it. As the cost of international postage is prohibitive, though, I won’t be buying it, although if I end up finding detailed spoilers on Japanese blogs, I may relay them.

Feeling tired of LJ, so taking a break from there. Maybe I should temporarily delete my journal, but that would just upset people needlessly, and some of my content might actually be useful to others. A lot of the people whose LJs I used to like to read have stopped blogging, also.

I really need to think of the future now. I think I may want to become a translator (J–>E) but in some ways that seems quite far. I need to at least get some decent Japanese composition skills, as well as some certifications. So am studying for JLPT 1. I also want to translate some manga for a change. I was thinking of Hi Izuru Tokoro no Tenshi, although that might be a bit difficult, but I should try to challenge myself.

Now to take a previous JLPT test, and also update WP.

Finally I figured out how to view 2chan by RSS: if you can see a page, an RSS feed can be made of it on the web via RSS third party services like post2RSS. BTW, this is why turning off your RSS feed on LJ is not an effective security measure. Friends-locking on LJ, or other password protection type things on WordPress, are, while not perfect, far more effective.

Actually, it annoys me that there are so many public journals on LJ I can’t read via RSS. I’ve come to like my Sage reader, and I’m always searching for great RSS reader programs.

Anyway, in case you haven’t seen my post in the LJ Saiunkoku comm, on 7/25, a new issue of The Beans is coming out. There will probably be a Saiunkoku short story in there, and there’s some kind of special information. Also, there’s a clear file of the cover, which is going to be a Saiunkoku image.

Personally, I have a cavalier attitude towards spoilers. I sometimes seek them out, and I usually don’t go insane if I stumble across one. However, some people wish to avoid spoilers, so the least one can do is respect their wishes.

In this blog, we’re all about discussing spoilers. It’s obvious that this blog contains spoilers for all kinds of things. So it’s okay to just go around discussing spoiler info freely. But, I really cannot understand why some people just post spoilers in the comments of a blog where the blogger has repeatedly said he doesn’t want spoilers! If you want to discuss spoilers, you should get your own blog and link to it (blogs are free, get a wordpress one) and discuss there. If you’re going to comment to a blog, don’t comment things that the blogger has specifically said they don’t want. I’m talking about how people continually post spoiler information in Impz’s anime summaries. Even if they don’t see his comments about it, it’s just common sense to not openly post spoilers. :P

While I’m at it, it annoys me that people post disinformation in wikipedia. Please don’t post things without a source. Kadokawa has not made any announcements about the next Saiunkoku novel. It’s definitely not out in Japan. As of 1/10, I’ve heard no buzz on the Japanese fanboards about a release date for the next book.

I blame Youko: I now want to eat Italian food. Risotto, italian sausage, antipasti, etc. Also cannoli. There should be more internationalization of dessert.

Meaningless pretension of the day: someone should write a tongue in cheek essay on the structuralist significance of the Saiunkoku founding myth. (Eh, I wonder… this doesn’t really work because the Immortals do really exist so it can’t be a case of existence preceding essence, as it were, but has anyone written a fantasy novel from an anthropological perspective in the Levi-Strauss vein? Maybe they have, I am not that knowledgeable about anthro.)

LJicon gravatars now working. If you comment as username@livejournal it’ll feature your default icon.

Speaking of Saiunkoku, I have finished reading book eight not using the dictionary, which means I skipped a lot of the hard words. I tend to feel that the consequences of the events were a lot more interesting than the events themselves, because of Offstage Villainy. Anyway, will put up a post on it as soon as I finish going through it w/ dictionary.