Spring's Here, Grass Grows, Orioles Fly

March is spring.

Back in school, teachers would’ve made me write some essay about “the coming of spring.” I’m not in school anymore and nobody’s forcing me to write anything, which somehow makes me want to write on my own.

My impression of spring isn’t actually that vivid. Usually it’s only around April when it gets a tiny bit warm that I realize spring has crept in without me noticing. I’ve rarely written about my own life on this blog. Since spring’s here, might as well do a roundup of where things stand.

Back to jogging

Last December I had knee effusion and stopped my daily jog. After three months of rest it mostly feels fine, but I wanted to be careful about starting again, so I took someone’s advice and bought an LP sports knee brace from JD. I switched to running every other day and gradually ramping up the load. So far so good — the springs inside the brace really do take load off the knee, though they just shove all that pressure onto the calves and thighs instead. Not really a problem; I need to keep at it anyway. I got fat over Spring Festival too, so I’ve got to lose that.

About work

Maybe it’s my boss’s strategy, but starting this year he’s gradually pushing me from “dealing with machines” toward “dealing with people.” It’s not going smoothly, honestly, because I’m a social wreck. I hate having to play nice with old farts who deep down have zero interest in actually solving anything. But work is work — hard, still has to move forward. I’m a veteran at the company by now, but I still can’t really lead people. Partly I don’t want to dump all the nasty work on the newbies, partly I don’t trust the quality of what they’d turn in… so most of the time I’m still solo. Just hoping things go smoothly.

About the feelings department

Since late last year, my parents and everyone around me have gotten all proactive about me getting married… I mean, I’m at the age where the JK downstairs calls me “uncle,” and I still have no dating history, which is, well, something. But I’ve been caring less and less. Every time someone introduces me to a girl, my first thought is “ugh, what a hassle” rather than “oh god I’m finally meeting a girl, what do I do.”

I have gone on arranged meetups, but not many. Most of the time we chat a bit and I find the other person annoying, so I don’t bother wasting time meeting up. Even when we do meet, it’s usually dinner and some small talk and that’s it.

It’s not that I’m against marriage, but I can’t picture marrying anyone. Take it one step at a time, I guess.

Surface Pro 3

Last year my Surface Pro 3’s touchscreen died and I sent it in for repair. Microsoft seemed to repair rather than replace it, but when the fixed unit arrived there was an obvious yellow band on the left side of the screen. Sent it back again — again repaired, not replaced — and of course the yellow band was still there. Contacted Microsoft support again; they said Chinese New Year was coming up and suggested I send it after the holiday. I sent it in again a few days ago and finally got a replacement. The new unit is fine.

The whole process was a bit of a hassle, but overall I’m satisfied. Replacement only took 5 days, FedEx picked up and delivered door to door. For after-sales service that’s already pretty decent. As for the Surface Pro 3 itself, hard to say if it’s good quality, but right now it’s probably the most reliable Win8 tablet out there — other tablets can’t even handle standby.

About studying

I finally started a new round of skill learning. Targets are the usual: Python, Flask, PyQt5 and so on. Typed out a lot of examples and exercises, but haven’t properly built anything yet. Planning to get more familiar and then find something I actually need and write it — that’s the only way to really improve.

Funny thing is I’ve been writing Python on Windows lately, and it turns out even PowerShell can run VIM just fine. So Windows isn’t a bad choice after all.

I keep pushing through untranslated Japanese games, but my Japanese is still kindergarten level. Mostly I get by on kanji recognition and listening, look things up in a dictionary when I don’t get it, and fire up VNR machine translation as a last resort. I felt like this couldn’t go on, so I started studying Japanese properly again. Studying Japanese just to play Galgames is a bit absurd — especially for someone like me who was at the bottom of the class back in school and refused to study even when the teacher was on my case. Kind of wild when I think about it. Then again, my life’s been winding enough already.

Looked at some advice from others and decided to find a tutoring service to nail down the basics first — correcting bad habits later is too much trouble. Hope the studying goes well.

About games

Tenso really is a handy forwarding service. A bit pricey, but paying for reliability is worth it, I think. Fortissimo is a huge pit, and unfortunately I jumped in…

Originally I wanted to buy the artbook by master refeia, but I wanted to get it together with the Koi no Ue no Mahoutsukai OST. Also the game’s first-press edition is already 9000 yen, and to avoid getting taxed and dealing with unnecessary trouble, I ended up forwarding it separately.

Haven’t had time to play the PSV version yet — the Surface Pro 3 has multiple uses besides gaming, but the PSV is stuck at home only. I bought the first-press edition for the OST, since it’s really good.

But what the hell is this thing they threw in, ostensibly a “strategic weapon” but actually a paper knife? You’d have been better off giving me a paperclip.

Even so, I took a look at the game and it feels pretty bad. The science-side characters are drawn separately, while all the older magic-side characters use old sprites — and even the ones with new sprites look completely messed up… The system’s nice though; it adds player-participation elements and feels decent. I’ll save my thoughts for after I finish it.

I’ve also been playing quite a few other Galgames around the same time, including Hanasaki Work Spring!, Boku no Hitori Sensou, and November no Arcadia. Two of those were just trials — the main reason for playing demos is to save time when the full version comes out…

Right now Boku no Hitori Sensou is a big disappointment, while I’m looking forward to where November no Arcadia goes.

Funny thing: I looked at the April anime lineup and found I have absolutely zero desire to watch anime anymore… Guess I’ll fall out of touch with mainstream otaku topics from here on…

Spring is the season when everything revives, a beautiful season, and a season full of hope.

Here’s hoping. I hope this spring leaves me some memories — good or painful, either way. I’ve never really had any impression of spring before. I originally wanted to use a photo of green plants as the header image, but I looked and couldn’t find any I’d taken…

Late spring, March, grass grows in the south, flowers bloom on the trees, and flocks of orioles fly every which way.

Maybe I should buy a camera and get out more to look at scenery…