音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

きちんととセーブを行って、ようやく現実に戻った私を驚かせたのは、時計の針はもう夜10時を過ぎたことじゃなく、私は5時間ほどもアレをやっていたことだった。
「マジでしょ？！」と目を丸くしても、セーブデータ=コンピューターによる時間計りは嘘をつけません。

まあええや、週末だから見逃してやるやで～
と、犬童警部のような関西弁を真似をしてて自分に言い訳をする。

↑ という訳で、「Steins;Gate」を買ったばかりとはいえ、最近の私は完全に「流行り神」にハマっている。

"People fear because they don't understand." The words from Shimizu Takashi's "Marebito" engraved in my mind. In fact, that film itself to me is more of a "egui type" rather than a Juon-ish horror so I didn't like it at all -- Thanks to that, I didn't want to buy tomato for a short while after watching it (I though I was resistant to that kind of things though).
But I liked that quote, as it did convince me.

I'm a fan of horror games, but I'm clear that I'm not fearless. Some people around me don't get the point, insisting a game should be for relax. I give up describing that indeed I seek for the kind of thrill and thus like this genre. Of course, I never want to put myself into the same situation in the real life. I might be a zombie already if the Raccoon incident really occurs. Be honest to myself, I sometimes still get afraid to be in the dark, unless I'm absolutely sure there's no any suspicious things. Nonetheless, I'm not the type who can't differentiate between the reality and the made-up.
"If gods or spirits or fairies or ghosts really exist, I'd be happy to have a look." Like people who believe such, I'm of the other group. Everything can be explained, from the formation of the universe to the mechanism of human's mind, as well as supernatural. We call that supernatural is because at the current point, there's no other valid deduction -- these mysterious terms are merely temporary placeholders.

Researchers are amazing, regardless the field of interest. The the conception of time, the development of a fertilised egg, or the sensation of carnivorous plants... a few days ago I was also surprised by how beautifully the 9 segments of a lemon was distributed. Such are definitely so much more challenging than giving a lecture in computer programming. It's better to be an outsider while trying to understand something. Since there is no way to jump out of the universe, no wonder mysterious or occult routes are one of the favoured choices.

Any way, I'm bad at describing how my mind works and turn it into words, I'm also not patient to read classic volumes from our great ancients -- Essentially I mean I don't know what I've been writing!! I simply like to let my thoughts expand, and suddenly return to the real world I belong to.

-- Thinking is fun, chasing and printing out my brain wave aren't!

↑ Almost a tea corner. Hope they are better than those I tried last time.

↑ Before the storm, a serene blend of blue, green and white.

Over the past 3 weeks there had been quite a lot of cloudy or rainy days, superb! -- While sometimes it did interrupt my walking-home plan. Like yesterday, when I was of ~1/3 to finish the route, the downpour arrived and thus marked a full stop. Apparently the umbrella won't make much help, so I changed my mind as I was fortunately near a sheltered bus stop. The fun point was, I took a bus heading to the train station, which was in the opposite to home, and there, I took another bus going back home. -- Considering yesterday's situation, even though it might be more time saving to go across the street and get in the bus directly heading home, that bus stop doesn't have a shelter.

By the time when I got off from the bus, which was ~15(?) minutes after, the downpour had transformed into a sunshower, with lots of clouds in the sky.

↑ I meant there was no chance to see a rainbow, but I caught it today!
However, it only lasted for a few minutes, so short that I couldn't find time to take a closer shot.

↓ and the parking area looked like a lake.

Glad I kept that moment!

For some reason, I was led to the amazon page for "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni -Sui-", and eventually knew its maker company broke last year, so the digital copy was nowhere to buy.
Still, after knowing it's fully voiced by the same casts in as the anime, I really, really wanted it. Thankfully they are available in other regions, by changing the suffix "co.jp" to either ".com" or ".ca", and the last copy, which was what I've ordered, was actually cheaper than the JPY price (even including the EMS shipping fee).

But, why not PS3 version?

Simply because I don't want to scare anyone else except myself during playing. -- I remember clearly how much I was scared after watching the first loop in anime season 1. ^^;
I've changed my mind. Reading too much text from a small screen isn't of my favourite -- and it's even cheaper than the PSV version. Others should be at their own risk to approach me when I play the game. xD

- I wish the game has Kenji Kawai's soundtracks, yet it's of course impossible.
- Related items showed its movie products. To me, voice cast >> real actors. (・ω・)

- Rainy days are great, and wish the summer can go away quick (here we don't have higurashi -- or any kind of cicada -- though).
- Haruka's "un secret" is great too!
- そして我が娘の十才の誕生日は極平和に過ぎてしまいました →　肩がやられてどうしょうもないよね ← ｲｲﾜｹ(；´∀｀)

I did make a great progress, that I finished the newest artwork in only 2 months (as the previous one took 5 months)! xD
So as usual, today it's mainly about my work memories on this piece~

Title: 三日月の彩語り
Read as "Mikaduki no Ayagatari", literally means "Harmonic Whisper In A Crescent Night".
and I clarify it's never an on-purpose borrow from "katana-gatari"!

Shikata Akiko's orgel album "ato no matsuri" was released in the end of last year, including rearrangements plus two new tracks: "tsukikage ni shizumu" and "kakurenbo". Both are pretty. But when the very first track flowed out, my soul was immediately sucked into her grotesquely fantastic world of wokashi. So orient! I loved the melody -- although soon I sadly knew half was written with 7 evil sharps... ~_~
Near the end of the drafting stage, I was already trying to make this a counterpoint work to "Izayoi no Yumekakushi" that I did in last year.

Outline & Base colouring & Shadowing

The initial scribble draft was shaped in early February, and I attempted to depict more details before pushing it into the digital step. Right now I still have the old drafts; they don't look good and I bet I'd never change my mind. This was exactly why I redid the entire draft in the end of May, and got it into a basic shape in early June.
The process of drawing the kimono patterns was always the most fun part!
One difference from my early plan was, I ended up with floral patterns instead of the "white bunny and black kitten" duet; thus I also didn't use either black or white for Eriko's hair ornament. A real link: while playing kancolle, Noshiro's hair style kept triggering me applying the same style to my girls!
The following shadowing was done a month later on July 2nd. Now I'm obviously getting better at this task. Especially with the hair sheen effect (thanks to CLIP STUDIO PAINT).

Once I began to pick up a new style, I found it's hard (or almost impossible) for me to go back (and of course no one wants to go back to a lower state). Finding a free-use image and do some visual tweaks won't suit my preferrence any more. Since last year I've been doing the background all on my own, except those with repeated patterns like chiyogami..
But the first question was the overall ambience. Although I drew something together with the renewed draft, I didn't feel like to follow that design (perhaps it's due to what my brain wanted was too hard for my hands).
I began a new round of background fitting, starting with a list of key words. I wished if there were a title ready to use, it might be easier for the background design. However, I'm so used to give the title at the very last, so this loop was never connected.
Solely from the inspiration music, there should be moon and water. I played around with many candidate objects, and temporarily decided to have a flower boat as the main prop. Yet I changed my mind before I even got started. The track itself is in a typical orient scale, my girls are wearing in a orient style, so the background has to gather some orient aura!
It flowed like this: moon, water, torii's 'distant silhouette, a route marked by lanterns, and sakura petals scattering around.

↓ That's it!

DELICACY ZERO?! But a draft doesn't need much love. The water looks good here because it was taken from a real photo.. xD

Also, forget the mandala I doodled last time, it was mainly for fun. I never imaged to use it as a background for THIS work.... ^^;

Then 2 weeks after, the final finished version is at the very beginning -- the art part was done on July-18, but I took a whole night to think for a good "paired" title.

I want to still add that the starry sky was based on a real spring star map~

I can't compose a fugue with gorgeous counterpoint segments, but at least I can do some resembled counterpoints visually.

First, the title readings match! Again, I spent a whole night to find a proper title!! Second, they were both inspired from Shikata Akiko's "wokashi" series, so of course the characters wear orient styled outfits.
Main hues were set to be blue and red, which are contrast enough and also easy to balance. More on colours. This one is a spring (indicated by sakura) blue sky with a small crescent. The other one is a autumn (indicated by higanbana) red sky with a huge full moon.

Is this enough to call the two counterpoints? (o・ω・o)

When I just bought CLIP STUDIO, I said I wanted to "remaster" some of my previous works, and "Izayoi" was one that I want to retouch soon. Besides, I've got a few drafts that I want to make real. Hopefully it can get even quicker -- at least back to my old pace, 1 piece per 1~2month!! I've been so late this year!

Nonetheless, tonight I got a new draft. -__- (with this face I'm actually happy..)
For the coming anniversary, inspired by Shikata Akiko's "library song"!!
I'm excited, and I really wish I can... no, I shall believe,
I WILL MAKE IT.

Recently when I was tuning my site, I suddenly realised there's nowhere to see the .htaccess file! So I entered my customised URL and found they all worked fine. Could that be a kind of magic of the server? I'd rather like to believe so but my hunch told me it's not possible.
Eventually, I remembered how to turn on displaying hidden files on WINSCP; this must happened when LipAura was reset in this February.
Really I was in panic for a short moment.

While browsing aimlessly on w3schools' colour section, they got pages for CMYK, HSL, and some similars -- these aren't the point. I just wanted to say, there's a line of text caught my attention:
CMYK is a suggested standard for CSS4.

Instant reaction: CSS4 is coming?!
Second reaction: I don't like this decision, as I prefer HEX only.
Remnant reaction: whatever, I believe HEX will just be supported forever. So it's alright.

Although seems it's still of a fairly long while till the real arrival of CSS4, perhaps also HTML6, I more feel bad for people who don't want to give up the legacy (and classic) XP. u___u

Tanabata passed last week, and I totally forgot what it's supposed to be.
"Is it a day for living people to have a meet with the dead?"
But I vaguely know I was wrong, and soon recalled the right answer.
No, it's not because the bad news from ZABADAK.. >//<

"diez"
without looking up I guessed right it means "10".
that binaria announced their 10th anniversary box paralysed my brain. So I made my pre-order without thinking anything.

Previous 9 singles (remastered) + the newest album "diez".
I'd wish "sonido" could be included, as the rearrangements were also beautiful. But since "jardín del aire" was only in "ALHAJA", I shall not ask for too much.

After 2010's "LIMBO", the same team made a new game called "INSIDE". (Looking at the staff roll I thought they're from Norway, but wikipedia told me Denmark is the correct answer -- the two languages are so similar, at least in terms of the alphabets!)
Whatever, I'm not in this kind of game at all, based on my terrible experience in LIMBO -- I don't mean the biggest problem is I'm not interested in little boys. Yet I like to watch others playing (or simply dying) so I followed this video from the beginning to the end.

To be honest, I like the ambience and their way of giving hints to reveal the true story. But sadly, again the main character is a little (monkey-like) boy!!
Fine, at least seeing a boy dying doesn't hurt. =ω=

Many people say the appearance of the "flesh creature" near the end make them sick. In my case, I didn't like it at the first glance, but turned to be thinking it being "sickly cute" and like a piece of "flesh mochi". It might be partially because the player's sound made me cheerful though.
Or is that because I'm too twisted after doing so many horror games? xDD;;

Here I just want to give my own opinion. I'm never fond of unclear told stories. I like to have alternative ideas or ways to interpret something, but when the outside big world itself is too abstract or lacks almost anything, it annoys me as I didn't come to find inspirations, I want an actual story that bears its own "rules". On the other hand, somehow I know Playdead wants people to think (?). Whatsoever, let me accept their way of story telling. At least fortunately there's no text to lead or mislead people's thought toward the core of their world.

In contrast, Clock Tower series makes me mad even more, solely in terms of how they tell the story. In "1", there was barely any piece of text. In "2", it didn't really improve but at least the basic story was acceptable. Then jump directly to the newest Night Cry, nothing has changed! Even after watching all 8 endings!
I do think some jump scares scared me, how people are killed is brutal and the world is insane (I don't want to "waste" the word grotesque as it's like a sacred word in my mind). In the aspect of "horror", it's not bad. Yet again, what the hell the develop team was doing?! °A° Purely a monster appears and butchered lots of people and the main characters try to escape. This won't make a good horror. The lack of any kind of explanation made me (perhaps also lots of others) feeling it's nothing but a cheaply made horror movie -- I like how some say the first horror scene as "the case of a vendor machine murder", as well as the twitter-ish SNS interface.

While few, really only few pieces of text exist, they never serve what they're supposed to do, to help us understand what the staff was planning. They literally are full of occult stuff or religious or this kind of "knowledge", but not everyone is a scholar in such a field. I believe the team is responsible to let the players know, or be able to deduce the hidden message through text they provide without looking hard for other sources. Whether or not that's true, the current situation made me thinking nothing but the staff was showing off how much they know and could create "profound" stories.

Stop complaining, be calm and feel how water colour brush is awesome~ hopefully I can finish my another 2-month spanning drawing next time! (・ω・’)

Sir Gardiner is for sure my favourite conductor when it comes to Mozart works. Beginning with his vivid "Le Nozze di Figaro", I gradually became his fan and had got quite a collection of his recordings. Perhaps one big reason is his use of period instruments. Frankly I can't differentiate them from contemporary ones, the overall ambience is obviously different, which also fits my inner-and-indescribable taste.

And 2 days ago this arrived.

I wanted this long time ago but didn't get any until I found this CD box -- if to buy them individually, it's much more expensive and not all are in stock, which including used copies.

However, for Beethoven symphonies, Furtwängler's top position never changes on my mind.

Before I barely used a coaster, but since I got a new desk that uses tempered glass, I naturally tend to take more care of it.
I'd buy some cuties if I didn't get a set for free. Yet still, I don't like its own pattern on the front side. As I just bought a roll of decorative tape on this Thursday, I decided to "mutate" them in my way.

A question raised meanwhile was, how many possibilities there are to play with 2 lines one square. Therefore, although I first attempted to use more, I didn't.
Any way, the back sides are now front, and probably I'll soon forget the original design unless I accidentally turn them over.

Nonetheless, the tape was just an extra item when I went to the store. I wanted a steel ruler so I could have better slices of paper,
which was mainly for self binding loose pages, with beauty~

Good thing, I drew today!
The shadowing was going well, so I entered the next phase of designing a background. I did have a raw idea back to 1 month ago, but as usual, I changed my mind.
Therefore, I began to loop "tsukikage ni shizumu", the track where I got my initial inspiration. For a moment, my mind went blank, plus I saw on Google Image about "Mandala", that led me into a totally different world.

Since a lotus was one of my planned objects, I doodled a geometric lotus with 8 petals. The impression of Mandala retained strong, So my hand moved on itself. Starting with this core, more were expanded. I also tried to read more on Mandala (while Eiko Shimamiya's black butterfly song echoing in my head). The fact was my compatibility with such kind of thing is poor, that just reading the simple intro almost drove me nuts. I gave up and focused on the pure doodling...

Why it's representing the universe? was my very question. Especially for these simple examples I saw on Wikipedia.
Even though I stopped reading, I wouldn't avoid thinking of it. After 2 or 3 layers, I found I could still expand it.

-- It can really expand forever. Suddenly I felt it's a little scary. Exploding, composed by various ideas from one's mind, and (although through intended processing) well-balanced.
I wanted to call it the rule of the universe (or 世界の理). Even not for the real and objective nature, it's of my self, my "mindsphere".

Maybe somehow I understood it, ambiguously though...

Unfortunately, I don't think this fits my girls. So I get to think for the background again tomorrow. orz
I'll the how I can blend this into the background, but the hope is tiny..

The last 2 lines:

Hide-and-Seek~

Mei-chan sandwich!! xD

-- I got an intense impulse in my current project, so although I wanted to write this at Friday evening, I couldn't.

Mainly, it was because of the rain that lasted since Friday to Saturday. It has been a long time when there's such a great long-lasting rain. The air was sweet with the relaxing sound of rain, no much wind and it wasn't cold (it was if comparing to how days around midsummer are supposed to be), I felt I could stay outside all the time.
When it's cloudy or rainy, I always wish there's some Chopin -- unfortunately due to my past hard drive organisation I could only have some Tchaikovsky instead (of course it's good too!).

The rain gave me a superb mood, so I bought more weird teas:

Note that any kind of non-green teas is weird in my world~
-- simply being attracted by the key word "berry" though. Yet the red pack doesn't have any taste of chocolate! °A°''

Perhaps it's never exact, but at least more or less so let me call it my one year war, and happily, I eventually made the decision to shift into the third position. I knew I could do it a few months ago, but always couldn't find a good timing. Still, I didn't think it was the time when I should proceed, but just considering "give it a short attempt" being pushed by my curious, I stepped out and thus concluded the past year.
Even though I have a vague idea on how shifting is, it was never clear unless I formally followed the "fundamental" instruction. The technique itself isn't that hard, and is more of the issue on how I memorise things "physically". But to me, my current biggest problem is of my "physical" state -- I wish my fingers can be longer so I'll have much less trouble while dealing with strings III and IV! xD;;

Any way, it's challenging but very fun. And it's also amazing to get the awesome sense when you can do more without switching between strings (perhaps only people do it will know how good it feels)!
Just I hope this time it won't be another one year war. I believe it won't!

Now my world expands into D6! (o・ω・o)

After a nearly 2 months' span, I eventually finished NipponIchi's new dying game "ローゼと黄昏の古城" -- longer than HtoL#NiQ, but less pressure, in terms of game control.
I made it to the very end, with almost no help (only 2 hints after dying over so many tries), so the results look miserable, especially the second last:

MAX TIME!! The timer probably has reached its maximal value and couldn't keep recording any more. I know thus I must have spent longer than displayed.. orz

The next thing is for sure time attack, and I need to update my long forgotten gamelist.html!

↓ when she rises up, I knew this would happen! lol

When I pressed Alt+Tab just now, I noticed my desktop is quite busy during these days -- in spite a lot of them are side entertainment.

最後に、
描きたいわ！志方あきこさんの「この世界のあなたと、あのセカイのあなたへ」を聞きながら、手が自然に動き出して新しい草稿ができたのが、積もったものはまだ三枚あるのでどうしょう…(ﾟДﾟ#)

The biggest news that broke my peaceful whole week and made me super upset:
BIOHAZARD 7 IS COMING IN NEXT JANUARY!!

But seems there is no way to play it in 3rd person view!
↑no need to explain...

To be fair,the ambience is good, reminding me Silent Hill 4 and Psycho-Break. I'd assume the "resident evil" written small below the main title is the subtitle, which made this sound like the final story of the entire series.. But still I can't say I like the song, to me it's really dumb and melody-less, although not atonal.
Regardless, this would be a "must-buy" as a main BIO, but now I'm still struggling whether I should...

--No PS3 version isn't an issue.

I almost got the impulse, however, a while later to get a PS4, after knowing the PS4 release of SIREN, in HD!
Yet again I'm re-considering on it, as I've just learned the English version of SIREN doesn't have the Japanese audio.
NO WAY I'd buy it then! At least until it comes out in PSN-JP...
Of course due to the same reason, I refused to buy Fatal Frame series on PS3.
I don't mind English subtitles, or even the reversed X and O buttons (honestly I do mind though), but I never can bear a non-Japanese sound field.
I'm of this type of OCD!
which sometimes saves me money and drag me into depression.

No SIREN 2 in PS2 archives, even in PSN-JP. 愛されてないね、このゲーム。
そりゃそうよ、人（とっくに永井さん）は頑張ってるのに!

Good games are those make you doing over times, and right now, while not being lost in the abandon village in SIREN, I'm re-doing Shadow Hearts for the 3rd time. Not comparable to Bio-series, but THIS IS A RPG, which I usually only do once (with a detailed completion guide)!

New discovery during German study: "schreiben" as in "transcription"!