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Sakutama

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Everything posted by Sakutama

  1. I think aloe vera is also natures ointment, plants are so cool! I totally recommend African violets. They're a little finicky, but once you find out what makes them happy they're not so hard to grow. And the flowers are just amazing to have, especially in the winter!
  2. Nice to meet you Amber! Don't worry, to me, being a plant geek just means having a love of plants. We never stop learning how to grow them. Succulents are great little plants, very undemanding! I love variegated African bush plants. African violets are tropical house plants, they're great because they can grow under florecent lights and they bloom! They also come in so many colors, so many leaf types, variegated and regular, even mini! I just LOVE them!
  3. Hi everyone! I thought it would be fun to gather all the plant geeks, maybe we could enjoy chatting about how much we love plants! I only have one plant friend, I met her a few months ago. Up until then, I was mostly alone in my love for plants. No one gets it, or they just tell me about all the plants they've killed. It was SO wonderful being able to chat about plants, and have someone GET it! So I hope we can do the same here! If you love plants and gardening, I hope you'll find this post and share with us! Here's a form to make things easier. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Name: *Age: (optional) *Gender: (optional) *Why do you love plants? How did you get started? *How long have you been growing plants? *What are your favorite kind of plants? *What are you growing now? *What do you want to grow in the future? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I'll start with mine *Name: Sakutama (not my real name obviously!) *Age: 30 *Gender: female *Why do you love plants? How did you get started? Well my mom always had plants, and BOTH my grandmas loved gardening too, so I think it runs in the family! For years I coulden't figure out why I couldn't grow plants like her. I had my "a-ha" moment when I realized my bedroom was too dark. I bought a fluorescent lamp and then my gardening REALLY took off! Thanks to the Internet, I was able to learn a lot quickly. I struggle with some plants, do great with others. But I think that's true for most gardeners, no matter how skilled they are. You never stop learning. I like to believe there's a type of plant to match a person, much like pets! *How long have you been growing plants? As long as I can remember, but only successfully in my adult years. *What are your favorite kind of plants? EVERYTHING!!! At the moment I'm focusing on my African violets. I also enjoy water lilies, I grow them in small containers on my balcony since I don't have a real garden. I'm also a sucker for any kind of blooming plant, and I LOVE varigation! The white is SO pretty! *What are you growing now? I'm focusing on African violets, mini's and micros specifically. They're SO cute! I'm working towards opening my own little shop to sell them on Etsy, and I'd like to make African violet pots too later on. *What do you want to grow in the future? More African violets! I want to try hybridizing so I can create my own original micro African violets. Tinier and cuter than ever!
  4. Hello! Any ladies still offering biology tutoring? My most sincere apologies the guys offering biology tutoring! It's just that I'm married, and from past experience having guy tutors led to WAY too many misunderstandings. So a lady tutor would help keep the peace. I hope you can understand. *sigh*
  5. I agree! The only problem with Japanese is the kanji. It's like a roadblock when I am practicing reading. I can read hiragana and katakana pretty good, but as soon as a kanji pops up I'll only be able to figure it out if I can copy and paste it into a dictionary. But while I work on that, I can work on my listening and comprehension skills as well as pick up some great vocabulary from watching MLP dubbed in Japanese. (^-^) And I do have video games in Japanese, and if they're loaded with katakana like many mario games, they do help. But the ones with deeper story lines...well...one word. Kanji. Ugh! >_<" But good for you learning English! Your English is fanatic I must say. Oh geeze, living in the birthplace of anime, it's part of life for me! And I have unlimited options of what to watch! But when I looked into it, I quickly realized that almost all anime in Japan doesn't have English subtitles, or even dub available. I would have to order or watch all my anime from the US or an English speaking country! Ironic isn't it? And a shame because if you go to a DVD rental place they have aisles and aisles dedicated to anime. *sigh* I gave manga a shot once, I got the first manga from one of my favorite anime, Keroro Gunso. But when I realized how....*ahem*....adult it is compared to the anime, I gave up on manga. But I love MLP in Japanese, honestly, I like it a lot better than anime. Anime is wonderful, but it can get a little repeatative after a while for me. This could be because I'm surrounded by it almost daily though. When I watch MLP in Japanese its so refreshing. I've started watching Adventure Time dubbed in Japanese too. Haha. It's a bit more challenging than MLP, but it's so fun checking how to say some of the stuff from the show in Japanese.
  6. Heh...oops! I should have explained I'm actually not Japanese. I am from the US, I just live here. :-P So it's really "better" for me to watch it in Japanese because I'm absolutely awful at learning a language. When I watch the show it just sinks in better, probably because it hits the right parts of my brain that a normal text book shuts off (guilty of hating studying). And I need Japanese to function here, well, you can function with out it actually. I'll call it thrive! Being able to go to the doctor by myself for example, I miss the days when I didn't need to bring my personal translator (aka my husband) but I'll get there step by step. ^^
  7. Me too! Sorry didn't see your post when I wrote my original one. :-) Hoping they do it, it would be a shame to waste such a perfect localization of Pinkie Pie! I honestly forget it's the Japanese dub sometimes. lol And of course the fantastic Japanese versions of the songs.
  8. Hi everyone, I live in Japan, and they seem to just repeat season 1 and 2 over and over. But they advertise a game with the equestria girls, and they're also advertising Princess Twilight toys. So I'm a bit confused. Will they dub season 3 and 4 or did they just give up and focus on selling toys and games, even though they're basically spoilers? Thanks in advance!
  9. Chords Canada sells kotos and koto supplies, you could send an email to get a better idea of the cost on the western side of things. Good luck learning on your own! I could never do that, I wish I could. I like the reassurance of a teacher. If you do decide you need a teacher though, the owner of Chords Canada offers Skype lessons I believe. Let me know how it goes! The koto is a fantastic instrument.
  10. Yep! Do you mean lessons or the instrument? Both can be expensive depending on a lot if factors, but I would say it's right up there with violin in terms of cost I think. I'm in Japan and my teacher is pretty reasonable by Japanese standards, but I'm playing ¥10,000 (about $100) a month for 1 lesson a week 4 weeks a month. Average koto price is about ¥100,000 (about $1000) I think, but I was able to find mind cheaper...I was very lucky though! Maybe we will team up one of these days! If you need help Chords Canada is a great place to start!
  11. I would love some tutoring! I'm just worried when I would have time, I'm maxed out as it is >_<" The only way I can see it happening is maybe by email or private chat, but I think proper tutoring is best done with a video chat right? Ugh I need an 8th day of the week just for hobbies and dreams!
  12. I will need some practice but I think I'll be able to catch up. A cheat sheet with what note is on each line would help speed me up if you don't mind. ^^" I honestly don't have a clue with the bass though so I'll probably need help with that most. The bass concertos in my old school orchestra had that line covered back in the day, and I never learned piano. Regretting that a little now. I'm sure I can google rythem bits I've forgotten too, I can remember most of the basics I think. I think I'll have a better idea when I try reading your sheet music though. How exiting! But sounds like it wouldn't hurt for me to go back and work on some basic western notation stuff again. Japanese music is SO different, plus it's all written in kanji! (Chinese characters)
  13. Wow! You think only that is amazing?? I'm blown away! I thought of it as more of a scribble then a complete piece as far as music goes. I'm feeling really motivated to finish it now! (^∇^) It's been years since I read western sheet music, and when I did learn, it was in alto clef because I played viola. But I think I can brush up and learn again, I would love to see your sheets! I'm going to try to write my covers down in Japanese music sheets too so others can try them. I hope they will be good enough though. In all honestly, as a beginner I don't even feel qualified to do covers. But it's REALLY what I want to do, and it's what motivates as drives me. So laitly I've been thinking, why not just get what I have out there, and just add a warning that I'm just a newbie. I'm sure I could go back and improve them, maybe with a 2nd koto for a part 2 melody/harmony and a bass koto to make it sound complete. Basically a multi track project unless I find a synthetic music program with Japanese instruments that I can learn to use...or fellow brony koto players. Multi trackis most likely, since I'm pretty much on my own with pony song interest
  14. Thanks so much!! I hope I can finish it, and improve it too. Koto are beautiful instruments, they're a zither, but in many ways like a floor harp. They're also the national instrument of Japan. ^^"
  15. Oh wow!! It's so cool to meet fellow bronies who are at least interested in koto!! I've been learning for almost 2 years, so I'm still a newbie. But it's my dream to do covers of MLP songs on my koto, and a few select other fandoms I have too. But I want them to be decent covers that will do the koto justice, so I've been trying to skill up and study music theory and composition when I have free time. Music theory and composition is REALLY hard to understand, but I'm sort-of getting it. Unfortunately free time is always precious and few because I'm also studying Japanese and how to wear and sew kimono. I rarely have free time to even sit down and play a few video games like I used to. (T ^ T) But koto is my focus, so I've been thinking lately about at least trying to put more effort into pony covers, hoping I might find help here. I wasn't expecting help or even koto interest though, so I posted happy enough to make new friends at least. ^^ I'm so surprised!! Here's a little sample of me trying the first part of True True Friend on the koto. I was just fiddling on my own, it isn't great but I hope it gives you an idea what a cover MIGHT sound like. http://youtu.be/Olt-K0hAzWw (Video note: usually I use finger picks called tsume, but it was late when inspiration hit, so I used my fingers to play more quietly. :-P )
  16. Hi everyone, Does anyone play the koto or a Japanese instrument? I would love to meet some fellow bronies who do! Or per chance, anyone at least interested in kimono or learning Japanese would be nice! I hope I'll hear from someone ^^ thank you!
  17. Actually I was wondering the same thing! I could use some help getting my basics back on drawing, but I didn't ask because I'm not sure if I'll have time. I still want to work on music theory but it's so hard to find time. :-( But at least I can squeeze in sketch practice here and there, like on the bus, right before work, etc...
  18. Hello! I'm interested in learning music theory. Are there any tutors available? I tried searching for the ones listed, but the only one I could find in the search was Thunder Dash and their name is marked out in red, meaning they must have a student or be busy. I'm a sort of complete beginner. I have a little experience playing instruments but I never really understood how music is put together and how you can make your own. I've always wanted to learn, but I'm finding it very difficult. Thanks in advance!
  19. Wow I was just wondering the same thing! I don't have children yet, but I'm 28 and married. I wish there was a group for us "older" fans to chat together. :-)
  20. Thanks for chiming in everyone! I'm sorry so many of you had bad experiences growing plants. It's certainly not easy, it's a skill to keep any living thing alive. And unlike animals, the plants often don't give hints! I had this funny idea to make a plant geek group of sorts, but sounds like I am one of the few with some luck with growing plants. That is actually the origin of my character, the zebra Pegasus pony. She's basically a plant version of Fluttershy!
  21. Hey everypony! Does anyone love growing plants? Gardening? Anything of that sort? I thought it would be neat to meet other MLP fans who also love plants and gardening! So feel free to chime in with what you love to grow, what you aspire to grow, and what you're already growing!
  22. Well here in Japan, I never see anyone wear a helmet. The only time I see helmets are of course motorcycles and scooters, and occasionally someone who looks like a serious biker (bicycle, not motorbike) who will have a fancy helmet and the sports outfit. I'll admit I don't have a helmet (and thus don't wear one) and no one I know in Japan (Japanese or not) ever wears one. Like most people in Japan my bike is my main mode of transportation for getting around, so it is interesting to wonder why people don't wear helmets here when they use bikes so much. We don't even have a car! Which isn't unusual here either. Otherwise it's the occasional bus, the fantastic trains, and A LOT of walking for getting where I need to go. There's more bike parking available then car parking here, but why everyone doesn't wear a helmet in Japan, I really don't know to be honest. Thought I would share some food for thought on the subject.
  23. I'm in a unique situation because my husband has the potential to like this show and seems to from what I've shown him and told him. But there isn't a Japanese subtitle version so he really can't understand unless I constantly explain stuff. But then he can't really focus on it if I'm constantly explaining stuff. It's so frustrating!!! >_<
  24. I love animals too! Let's see....a bantam chicken, opae ula shrimp, medaka (japanese killifish), hermit crabs, snails and a betta. I think that's it! I used to have a zoo of pets, I was practially Fluttershy, except she's a lot better with animals then me. It's hard to resist adopting more! But i'm doing my best so the pets I have get the best love and care. That's what really matters most.
  25. I've watched her videos, and I think they're so great! This is one of my favorites: I'm so thrilled that someone is working on this! Sadly I don't think MLP:FIM will come to Japan anytime soon. Maybe don't want too much competition for their native Anime? I even showed a couple of her videos to my husband, who is a native Japanese born and raised. He said it was good - that's a pretty legit pass! I would be so happy to have a subtitled version too, so I can watch it with my hubby instead of me having to contantly explain what's going on. He speaks English but he gets a bit lost sometimes, especially if the characters speak fast and use cultural references (ie. "Looks like the punch is...Spiked!"). I was thinking about making subtitles with him, with me explaining the meaning and him giving me a good Japanese translation, but I don't want to steal this wonderful person's thunder! Obviously she has worked really hard studying Japanese, I think she is in England I believe? I'm just a beginner at Japanese at best.
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