Samurai Equine

Hello there, my crowd! Welcome to my Weekly Musings: Orange Edition. 

[I ❤ JAPAN] -- [I ❤ THE COLOR RED] -- [I ❤ CELESTIA]

 Man, do I feel lazy... This week didn't go exactly as how I wanted, but at least there is hope for what's down the road. Shall I summarize, my crowd?

 The biggest thing that happened this week was that I went to a doctor for a follow-up. My insurance wouldn't pay for a CAT Scan, so he's trying to order it again under a different call code. He said I should be getting a call or a message soon if my insurance will or will not pay for it. So far, nothing. No e-mails, no text. I might keep an eye out in the mail, but nothing so far. My doctor thinks that if I try some lifestyle changes, I can get my problems under control. But the good news is, after looking at my lab work, he told me I do not have diabetes!  I am celebrating that so hard, my crowd. You have no idea. In my family, various members have gotten a little bit of everything. Diabetes, heart failure, cancer, etc. I knew there was a risk of me having it, but thank goodness I got the all-clear.

 I also managed to finish watching everything related to Kamen Rider Decade! However, I have not had a chance to update my LiveJournal blog about it. The final episodes, and rewatching the movies, have put things in a new context for me. Meaning that, I have to re-examine all the other notes I took about the series thus far and possibly make some adjustments. In fact, I'm beginning to wonder if this series really is good, or if it's just stockholm syndrome setting in... Still, expect some LiveJournal updates soon. And once I finally organize all my thoughts and notes on the actual material, I can move on to way more posts. Explaining character origins, sharing theories, listing pros and cons, etc.

 And while my week was mostly uneventful for the first half, things changed in the later half. Notice how all my problems seem to be related to work?  I didn't think I'd need to do much more help with my mother's rental property. However, she just secured some renters. Which means I needed to help her do some last-minute cleaning and prep work. I still have some things I'll need to do tomorrow, but I'll get it all done eventually. Point is, if it weren't for all this, I'd have been doing much more over the weekend. The blogs would probably be updated, and I wouldn't have to deliver this next bit of bad news...

 NO SABER NOR KIRAMAGER THIS WEEK!   I just need a break this week. Helping with that rental property really put a damper on my plans. Maybe if I had known my weekend was going to be robbed from me, I could have squeezed in the episodes earlier in the week. But it's fine! I'm almost done catching up with ROT-TMNT, so maybe after that I can squeeze in a double dose of Saber and Kiramager. Let's hope it all goes well!

 Speaking of ROT-TMNT, here's some quick thoughts of all the episodes I saw this week... In one episode (as far as I know), they retcon Lou Jitsu as a lame alias for Hamato Yoshi who was starting a new life outside of Japan (which I totally predicted), the Turtles actually managed to master their training rather fast, and they gained ninja outfits with matching brown masks (comic book reference!!). And in the follow-up, I have mixed feelings about tossing the ally characters for comedic affect, as well as seeing the Turtles regress in their training a little, but at least we got the arrival of the Shredder (in a proto form, but still good!). And it ends with a series premiere of epic proportions; this hyperactive/spastic animation style really works well for gigantic action sequences, and while it may have been convoluted, we finally see Leo showing some leader potential and portal mastery while helping to defeat this proto Shredder beast. Didn’t really care that much for the camping story with evil dentists, but at least they made up for it with an awesome origin story that ties everything together! I also didn’t care for the basketball episode, but now there might be some kind mutation-enhancing poison on the loose. I’m sad to see the Turtles have learned nothing when it comes to the mentally unstable sci-fi actor, but I did kind of like the Don Suave episode. Hot Soup, Pizza, Cookies, Brownies; I’m beginning to notice a food theme. Speaking of, Baron makes an epic head cafeteria chef!

That's it for now, my crowd.  Try not to get as busy as me.

As someone who has spent decades watching Japanese media (anime, Tokusatsu, and video game cutscenes), I know all about the troubles and trials of translating one language into another. I could go off on ALL kinds of rants. Of course, one of the bigger problems is the fans who are uneducated about the translation process. Plenty of people don't always understand the finer points of translating, completely misunderstand what localizing is all about, and don't always know some of the inner workings of the companies that give us foreign media in the first place. This video is a good starting spot, but the description for it also links to some really good follow-up vidoes. This is "Translation, Localization, Censorship, and You" by Red Bard.