The Savage Muse

Here is the first video of 2012! It features the first sunrise of 2012 seen here on top of Jyouyama. It’s also the very first video I captured of the year and also the very first video I edited on Final Cut Pro. Did I mention I finally bought myself a new laptop, a 15″ MacBook Pro, strictly for video editing?

I am still learning the quirks of it, but I hope to become proficient in it.

Another year gone by and let’s see how well I did:

Online
- Made 22 YouTube videos; 4 or so were in HD 720p!
- As of now, I have written 121 blog posts. This post makes that count 122.

Health and Fashion
- Began a 365 Run-Everyday Challenge; December 31, 2011 is Day 239.
- Lost about 2kgs.
- Started taking Shorinji Kempo classes.
- Bought my first pair of Vivienne Westwood shoes.
- Hiked up Jyouyama 5 times, Kintoki-yama 1 time, Numazu Alps 1 time.
- Ran uphill through a mountain range for 12K on the way to Atami with Marc and Chris.
- Ran an unofficial half-marathon with Marc, Chris, and Maria.
- Swam with fishes for the first time and improved my swimming.
- Swam naked at night on a beach without getting caught. (2nd time!)
- Perfected my Apple Crisp.

Personal Random Stuff
- Got engaged to this guy.
- Bought a MacBook Pro with cash … like a boss.
- Left my job, got a new one.
- Left my old apartment, got a new one.
- Almost finished God of War 3; Bought Shadow of the Colossus (Remastered for the PS3) in Japanese.
- Recorded a song in a recording studio for fun.
- Ate dolphin meat.
- Got my JLPT N3 (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) results: ACED IT!
- Bought 3 Olympus cameras: an EPL-1, another EPL-1 for the pancake lens (and just in case, ’cause I’m a klutz), and a classic PEN-EES film camera. And 3 Nikkor lenses.
- Learned a whole lot about cameras and lenses.

All in all. It was a pretty good year. Goodbye 2011! Here’s to the Year of the Dragon, 2012!

I had originally made this Christmas card for my (soon to be) sister-in-law, Tessa, for a card exchange. The cheesiness of the video was to reflect the old online cards from the late 90s: cheesy song, broken animation, choppy … well, everything.

Marc and I set up a tripod on the beach near Numazu, I dressed up in a Santa outfit and boom — a stop-motion experiment in the form of a Christmas card.

I changed the original card today and now present this card to everyone as a cheesy gift from me to you.

Marc and I, with a few of our friends, gathered together for “a rock painting day.” This event was exactly how it sounds like: we painted rocks. Marc thought it was clever to paint a Christmas tree on one rock. It easily toppled to its side, so Marc painted a “present” rock to stabilize it. Because we are too cheap, we adopted the two as our Christmas tree for this year. I painted some “bokeh” rocks to reflect the globular blur of lights from Christmas trees.

Oh god. I went to Jam Rock Jamaican Cafe & Restaurant with Marc the other week and I thought I was going to burst. Admittedly, I haven’t tasted Jamaican food before but I know tasty when I taste it — and this was tasty. We treated ourselves with a little bit of everything from the menu and gorged.

Marc works at the Numazu College of Technology, a prestigious local high school, and this weekend they held their annual school fair. School fairs is an event for students, made by students: all the entertainment and food are provided and lovingly made by the students in hopes of impressing each other and earning money for their club activities. It’s also a good way to promote their school to other prospective students.

We went to watch some of our students and this was the result of our visit:

Some of you may remember Jyouyama from the engagement video. The two of us returned to hike the mountain in a more leisurely fashion; we had invited two of our friends along and we brought along our cameras. Here are some of the textures of Jyouyama in the fall.

BONUS! VIDEO OF SPIDERS!

Note: Sorry for the current videos and their inconsistent sizes. I’m still learning and I hope to better improve the quality soon.

Autumn reminds me of school, school supplies, and apples. Most notable of the three, apples. Using my tiny toaster oven, I indulged in a little Autumn favourite of mine, the Apple Crisp.

The AllRecipes page I linked to above is the best version of apple crisp I have ever made and tasted. It’s simple and the crumbly topping is soooooooooooo good. Not convinced yet? Read this: Soooooooooooo good. Try it, love it.

Here’s one more being showcased by my little Lego Artist.

I love McDonalds. I do. May be it’s because I grew up with it as a treat to eat with my family, but I still have many positive opinions of McDonalds. That is not to say I eat there for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but I enjoy going to the McDonalds in my neighbourhood almost every day to read a book: it’s more of a cafe. I sit down on their comfortable leather seats with a mocha and read. It’s cheaper than Starbucks and has a small separate area with mood lighting and jazz.

I know.

Not at all what you would expect from a McDonalds.

Anyway, September is “Moon-Viewing” season. Most people enjoy watching the full moon with rabbit-shaped sweets or mochi, but for me I go to McDonalds and try their September specialty, the “tsukimi” burger. More or less, it’s a hamburger with special sauce, bacon, and a full egg to resemble the full moon. Awesome.

I bought the Shadow of the Colossus the other day. Nothing really special. I just wanted to share this little tidbit to you.