100 Music Things #5

Oh my goodness, I tried to pick some awesome ballads and just had a horrible time trying to get it down to a manageable list. D: Even after deciding this post would just be Japanese artists, and then narrowing it even further to Japanese male artists, I had so many songs. D: I did finally manage to get it down to ten, though. (I mean, I'm sure no one is going to complain about more songs, but I think small batches makes it easier for people to download without getting overwhelmed, as well as keeps me from burning out on having to write stuff up!)

1. The Boom - Chuuousen
I love the wistful tone of this song (though the lyrics aren't really particularly sad).

2. Fujii Fumiya - Wara no Inu
He has so many great ballads, it was hard to choose just one! But this is a good one. I love his voice.

3. GLAY - Together
Ugh, this is so pretty. *_* It's an orchestral version of the song and I love it even more than the original.

4. Mr.Children - Kuruma no Naka de Kakurete Kiss wo Shiyou
Another wistful song. I love the lyrics, too (I love almost all Mr.Children lyrics!).

5. Ozaki Yutaka - Oh My Little Girl
This was one of the first songs I downloaded off the internets!

6. Penicillin - Mother Goose
Oh, this song! His voice! The music! Everything! *_* If I were doing these by the amount I like them rather than alphabetical order, it would definitely be in the top three.

7. Raphael - Eternal Wish~Todokanu Kimi e~
I don't know any other songs by them and I don't remember how I heard this one, but it's so, so beautiful. Just wow. Chock full of visual-kei ballady goodness.

8. Spitz - Namida
Hearing this on my ipod today is what gave me the idea for the topic!

9. Tokunaga Hideaki - Saigo no Iiwake
I love his voice so much!

10. Yuzu - Karappo
The harmonieeeeeeeees. *_*


I'm also still taking ideas for future music posts if you have any specific themes you want to see! :D

Daily Happiness

1. I had a nice, relaxing day off. My mom had emailed me the night before saying they wanted to come over and get something out of the garage, but I told her I wanted to sleep in as long as possible, so to try and not make a lot of noise or come in the house. And apparently they managed that, because she said they came over around eleven and I didn't wake up until over an hour later, so yay.

2. I got everything done on my to-do list! Lots of translation, mostly, but that is what I need to do the most of.

3. I went to El Pollo Loco for dinner and had a delicious burrito. It was just the right time of night, too. A little past the main dinner rush, so it wasn't too busy, but still light outside. It was also nice and cool, so I rode around a bit afterwards instead of going straight home.

4. I made brownies again, since I still had half the frosting left, as well as a few more caramels. I bought some brownie mix that had chocolate chips in it this time, so they're even better than before, which I hadn't thought possible. *_*

Book 3: Snuff by Terry Pratchett

Title: Snuff
Author: Terry Pratchett
Number of Pages: 416 pages
Book Number/Goal: 3/10 for 2012
My Rating: 3/5

Summary: When Vimes takes a holiday to his wife's family manor in the country, he's expecting to be bored out of his skull, but when a goblin girl is killed, he finds himself with an investigation on his hands.

Review: This was enjoyable, but I just didn't love it. The theme of a species previously looked down upon and treated badly by humans and everyone else becoming more accepted has been used in many Discworld novels and it's really geting old. If the surrounding story is good enough, then I'm happy to go with it, but I just really found the story lacking in this. I kept putting it down and not reading for days or weeks because it just wasn't keeping me interested. I really like Vimes (I used to say he was my favorite character, but that's now Moist), but Vimes on his own is much less fun than Vimes with Vetinari and/or the rest of the Watch. I like Sybill all right, but I really dislike how anything with Vimes and Sybill together turns into all this stuff about gender stereotypes and "oh those women, how can we ever understand their ways!?" I guess that's part of Vimes' characterisation, since Pratchett doesn't do that with other female characters, but it's not something I enjoy and it makes me dislike any time Vimes is with Sybill (which was a lot of this novel). I do like Young Sam, but he wasn't in this very much. And I love Willikins. He was probably the best part.