Gapnotes

Notes from the gap

Week 33: 12-18 August 2019

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On Monday I finalised a flyer I want to give Japanese doujinshi creators at various events in Tokyo next month. I sent it to the printers on Monday afternoon and got it delivered on Thursday morning. Very happy with the results!

I emailed the new respondents about my Veloviewer study. Unfortunately I’m not able to talk with them now since Apple has my computer since Thursday, so I’ll have to arrange the meetings next week instead.

Even so, I finished the “shitty first draft” on Friday, and it’s not that bad. My dilemma now is that I’m not sure what of these options I’ll go for:

  • 1,500 words essay and visual project
  • 3,500–4,500 words essay

My text is now 3,000 words, which means either cutting it in half and adding a visual project, or add a bit of text and submit. In a way it would feel good to be done with it and be able to focus on my final project, but on the other hand, why pass up an opportunity to create something visual?

I realised that DJI has released an action cam, so I watched a couple of reviews and ordered it. My main purpose is that I will use it for discreet shots in doujinshi shops in Tokyo, since my request to film properly at one of them was denied. The wide angle, the impressive “Rocksteady” electronic stabilisation, and more frame rate options (like the one I shoot in: 25) than what Gopro offers will make it perfect for those situations.

But I also took it for a spin on an actual Explorer trip with my road bike yesterday, just a short one, 36 km to fill a hard tile. Because of course I want to do the visual project! And it was wonderful to pump up the tires, oil the chain and wipe away the cobwebs (!) between the spokes of my Cannondale Caad 10 and be out with it again, for the first time in more than a year. What took you so long?

I wanted to do a longer trip today – a real Sunday ride – and I did start out despite heavy rain, but turned around after five minutes since it was actually terrible. Nothing is worse than having prepared fully and eaten a lot of food to go on a long ride and then staying at home.

I finished the elementary school kanji in Memrise! But still in grade 3 in Nextbook’s app – remembering how to write a kanji is much, much harder than just recognising them. In total I should now know 1,006 jouyou kanji according to Memrise – with 1,030 to go. I might know a few more than that since I’ve studied kanji from other books before, but it felt good to learn kanji the way Japanese elementary schoolers do it. I should now start practicing my reading for real.

Japanese

Apps

  • Memrise: 54,400 (jōyō kanji, finished 小6)
  • Nextbook 漢字:
    • 小3 writing level 27–40, including many repetitions

Other

Articles

Videos

Film & TV

  • Netflix commercial: Enter the Anime (2019, 58 min: Such complete rubbish, I felt so cheated, should have taken the cue from the first cringey interview and stopped watching. Not only me: 2.7/10 on IMDb!)
  • Baki S1 E1–4 (2018. Too violent, just a lot of blood and gore but without real impact in the fighting scenes.)
  • Kengan Ashura S1 E1 (2019. I had never understood what CGI is – beyond special effects – but maybe I just hadn’t watched any? This series seems to be CGI only and I really hate it. It’s like watching a screencast from Second Life.)
  • Futurama S2

Radio

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