While Aorii was readying the hotpot to eat last night I went outside to get something. Seeing the sparkling snow I had an idea. I went to my room and got the Cirno plushie I got the other afternoon and started putting her in the snow and taking some pictures. The way the flash reflects off the ice crystals while keeping most of the photo dark looks so nice.

Cirno sitting on some fallen branches.

A closeup.

The light from the flash reflecting off the snow made Cirno look like she was glowing which looked cool.

I heard of few people wondering what I was doing so a little embarrassed I decided to wait until morning to take a few more.

Cirno’s preparing for a snowball fight with Gensoukyou by making snowballs in her trench.

Cirno’s scouting out the battlefield.

Seems like no one is around.

I found an ice crystal close to ground level so I decided to take a photo here. I think melting snow fell on my lens when I took the photo.

Cirno shouldn’t have left her trench.

Reimu saved Gensoukyou once again from Cirno’s reign of terror.

When I was done there was some snow left on Cirno and Reimu. Good thing it’s still cold enough that the snow didn’t melt when I took them out. I just shook off the excess snow and put them in front of my heater to dry off the excess moisture. It would have been fun to have all my Touhous in a massive snow photo but carrying an armful of them plus a camera would be a hassle not to mention how weird it would be. Maybe next time.

Today one of the supposedly most severe snowstorms in the state’s recent memory started. Something like 20 inches is expected to fall which considering the average for the region is quite high so a rare thing happened. UVA is kind of famous amongst us students as being very stingy in regards to holidays. We never have any days off except for the basic ones that it can’t get away with like Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday and Thanksgiving. Unexpectedly the university canceled classes today which has only happened very rarely in the past few decades.

As such I’m pretty much stranded in the house as the snow continues to pile up to ridiculous levels. Me and Aorii have pretty much decided to just spend the day marathoning the first part of Legend of the Galactic Heroes while drinking tea. While watching I heard a knock at the door and thinking it was a friend who braved the storm to come hang out I answered the door to find a poor mailman freezing while holding a package. After signing it off I brought it inside to unwrap.

Unlike the past two times I discovered that AmiAmi had an English site so I ordered from them instead. The package shipped sometime Monday but it arrived unexpectedly early. Inside I found the three FumoFumo Touhou Plushies that I ordered. Specifically I got eight through ten in the series which are Sanae, Cirno and Suwako respectively. Like always the quality of the plushies are topnotch. I love Suwako’s hat and Cirno’s smile of confidence.

At the bottom of the box was a pack of five double-sided pencil boards featuring Touhous and sweets. The art was so adorable I had to buy them. Unless I decide to hang them or something I need to decide which side of each I like more. I’ll probably stick with Alice, NEET Kaguya, Reisen, Remilia and Yukari. I also like the text next to the illustrations like Kaguya’s “(Eirin) worked hard to make this” and Alice’s “I made too much so don’t get the wrong idea.”

Now all I need now is to get Flan and I’ll have a complete collection assuming more aren’t released. Despite what my purse is trying to tell me I really hope Gift continues to release more. I’m still waiting for a Yukari, Kaguya and Nitori after all.

Honya’s been on a translation tear lately, but when she mentioned that her next project was going to be Kuribayashi Minami’s tune Muv-Luv (because no one else has translated it yet, apparently), I begged her to let me do it instead. “Muv-Luv” is one of my favorite songs, and Muv-Luv Unlimited/Alternative  would be on my short list of visnovels to play except that it’ll never be translated. Ah, well. Here’s hoping you enjoy my latest humble translation effort!
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Following up on more Nanoha Movie goodness I also translated its ending theme song. Basically if we assume the song is from Nanoha’s perspective this time since it’s sung by her seiyuu then it’s about how Nanoha can’t communicate her feelings to Fate properly through words and instead uses a bouquet of flowers in place of her feelings. The song is pretty simple but I like the meaning of the lyrics plus I’ve been listening to more Tamura Yukari on the way to class lately so that might help. The single also has the ending theme for the Nanoha PSP game Battle of Aces so I’ll get to that eventually (translating the lyrics and buying the game I mean). Until then enjoy:
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Exactly two years ago I posted “my ideal family” if it were to consist of anime, manga and game characters. Basically the idea came to me when I stumbled on an amazing thread randomly in which people would post a list of characters to form a family. Think of Kyouran Kazoku Nikki and that’s pretty much the basic premise. I found the idea so amusing that I started seriously thinking about it and after some major contemplation I posted my list a few days later. Suddenly two years have passed and I’ve finally gotten around to updating my family roster. I’ve been planning to redo it for a while since I have an even bigger “gene pool” from which to select family members from. The list is divided into the family I grew up with and the family I raise as an adult. Continue on for some strange shenanigans.
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Yesterday I came back to school and waiting for me at the house was a package containing a copy of Dengeki G’s Festival! DELUXE Vol.5, the Key special issue, and my Cospa Hirasawa Yui shirt. Since I can only talk so much about a t-shirt I’ll focus on the magazine only. The reason I decided to get it other than the obvious fact that I’m a Key maniac was the pack-ins. In hindsight I think I felt a little shafted having missed a similar promotion last time so I didn’t want to miss it this time. Aside from the magazine the box set also comes with a Kud Dakimakura Cover, Key Playing Cards and a Kanbe Kotori Key chain. I’ll definitely use the key chain and cards but I honestly don’t know what to do with the dakimakura cover so I’ll probably just keep it in the plastic and store it somewhere.
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For some reason I spent yesterday in 07th Expansion Mode and ended up watching the first two episodes of Ookami Kakushi. From the very start I couldn’t help but get my tablet ready to take down notes as per usual for mystery-solving purposes and before I knew I had enough to make a post. In my theory-induced mood I also finally got around to watching the second half of the Umineko anime. If you haven’t watched/read Higurashi no Naku Koro ni/Kai/Rei, Umineko/Chiru or Ookami Kakushi be prepared for tons of spoilers.
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Just as promised Microsoft Japan finally released it’s otaku theme packs for Windows on its Bing Campaign Site. The five mascots come in two flavors each, one normal and the other special, which can be downloaded here and here respectively. They come in .themepack files for Windows 7 and .zip containing the same images and audio for manual installation in previous versions of Windows. For the person who wants all ten of them like me it takes up a lite 36.7MB. As of writing this it seems that Microsoft is still fixing up the download pages but hopefully everyone will be able to get them soon like I did.

Currently I’m using the special version of Nanae since she sounds like a clumsy Amami Haruka (iDOLM@STER). I love you Microsoft JP.

The Nanoha Movie is almost out but I can’t watch it! Anyway here’s the lyrics for its theme song “PHANTOM MINDS.” The song is sung from Fate’s perspective obviously and is about how her meeting with Nanoha changed her life and how she’ll always come back to her. Good lord my Yuri Googles shattered the first time I read the kanji lyrics. I like the song and it’s pretty fun to sing. I’ll get to the insert song once I figure out which one on the single is it.
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