Haruhi Figure

The Haruhi figure I made....

Cardcaptor Sakura CDs

Some of my favorite CDs are my Cardcaptor Sakura CDs. I have 5 of them, and they consist of

-opening and ending songs

-image songs and character songs

-background music

The quality of both the vocal and the background music is very good, and it proves to be a wonderful listen each time. I got my first Cardcaptor Sakura CD three years ago. This was, along with my Puffy Amiyumi and Magic Knight Rayearth CD, one of my first Japanese CDs/imports. I still remember the chills I got when I heard the song on my new ipod nano; my first full length Japanese song. If you were a CCS fan, and you wanted to buy one of these CDs, buy the first one. If you wanted another, buy the last one. I guess I will tell you the vocal contents of each:
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First:

Catch You Catch Me - first op by グミ (gumi)

ヒトリジメ　HITORIJIME - image song by グミ (gumi)
あなたといれば　Anata to ireba - tomoyo and sakura song
夜の歌　Yoru no Uta - Tomoyo song w/piano
幸せの魔法　Shiawase no Mahou - sakura song
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Second:

Catch You Catch Me (sakura version)
super duper love love days - image song by グミ (gumi)
Groovy! - first ending
Catch You Catch Me (TV size)
Groovy! (TV size)
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Third:

扉をあけて　Tobira o Akete - 2nd opening song by ANZA
Honey (sakura version)
友へ　Tomo e - tomoyo choir song
Honey - 2nd ending song by chihiro

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Fourth:

プラチナ Purachina - 3rd Opening song by 坂本真綾
FRUITS CANDY 3rd ending song by こじまめぐみ　（Kojima Megumi）
くれゆくひととせ　kureyuku hitotose- Tomoyo choir song
ひとつだけ hitotsu dake - Sakura song
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Fifth:
Character songs from Sakura, Tomoyo, Kaho, Touya, Yukito, Kero, Sayoran and Meiling

If you are able to find LEGIT copies of one of these that is UNDER $35 (I will be impressed) and you like Cardcaptor Sakura music, then I think you should buy one or two. They are some of my favorite CDs and are great to listen to while drawing or doing homework. The replay value of these is incredibly high.

On a different note, I have been given a challenge by Sandbar to make a Haruhi clay figure. You can expect that challenge to be met by the next time I post.

Zucchini and anime drawings

Here are some drawings I did a while ago. All of the characters are from Cardcaptor Sakura or Tsubasa:

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Today, we got some incredible zucchini from our garden. Pretty exciting.

Hikaru Drawing

I drew this a few days ago. It is my most recent manga drawing, and it is of Hikaru from Magic Knight Rayearth. Click on the picture for a larger view. I tried to pay close attention to the shadows. Also, I worked pretty hard to make her hair look right.

Video Game Creations

Ok, so I like making models of video game characters out of a clay-like substance called "model magic" I have made quite a few, but here are some of my favorites. Remember, click on the pictures for a larger image.

Pikachu, thunderbolt attack!

The main character from Shin Megami Tensai:Persona 3. In my game, his name is Akito.

An assortment of Pikmin. The yellow one is on fire and the red one is drowning. Olimar better save them!!

Sonic: Is and always will be the world's most famous hedgehog.

HI IM TOAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11 (What kind of shorts are he wearing anyway?)

Kirby, at his Super Smash Bros. Melee stage

Mewtwo, once thought to be the strongest pokemon. An enhanced clone of Mew (who imho powns mewtwo)

Luigi, Mario's lesser known brother. He is wearing a pink shirt and hat.

Its a me, Mario!!!

Yoshi: Mario's trusty steed.

Totoro, from Tonari no Totoro (My Neighboor Totoro) He isn't from a video game, but he's still really cool.

Next, I will upload some scans of my manga drawings!

How to record sounds without extra software

A good skill that I learned a while ago is how to record sounds that your computer makes. Essentially, this means that anything that passes through the computer's sound card can be saved as an audio file. This means that you can record music/audio from your favorite youtube videos, internet radio, you name it. And it can all be done using a program that comes with all (?) Windows computers. It is a program called "sound recorder", and when used properly, high quality audio can be recorded directly from your sound card.

1. Locating the program: Sound recorder should be in your accessories folder in programs.

2. Getting started: go to edit: audio properties and make sure that you are recording from your sound card and that the recording volumes are at a good level. This may take some experimenting, and it differs between computers.

3. Making it the length you want: The default recording length is 1 minute, and there is no apparent way to make it longer. However, there is a sneaky way of getting around this. Record for a few seconds, then go to effects: decrease speed. Press this over and over until you get around the desired length. You will trim the file later, so make it longer than you need.

4. Get the audio that you want to record. Simply press "record" and record the audio!

5. Save the audio. First, go to preferences and determine what quality you want to save the file as. Then, save your captured audio.

I use sound recorder to easily convert songs from apple's protected format, to record audio from movies, to record anime OPs, and lots of other things. It has become an indispensable tool to me, and I hope that it helps you too.

Tip: I do not advise surfing the internet or doing other things on the computer while recording. Many times, a "click" or an "alert sound" will ruin my recording, and I will have to start over.

(The song is Caramelldansen by Caramell. It is Swedish and its awesome.)

Animated GIF Files

Recently, I learned how to make animated GIF files. I have been obsessed with them and I have been making movies with them ever since. Animated GIF files also can be very handy if you want to make an animated avatar. I will teach you how to make these handy picture files the way I make them. (you will need photoshop or perhaps an equivalent image editor)

1. Take snapshots frame by frame of what you want to animate. I have made some GIFs with just 2 frames and one with about 50 so decide how long you want your animation to be. Also, if you want you can also draw your own frames.

a. To take snapshots, you can either use a program especially made for taking snapshots or you can press the "Print Scrn" button on your keyboard. It is located right to the right of the F12 key and at the press of the button all of the contents displayed on the screen will be turned into an image and will be on your clipboard. Then, you can paste it into your favorite image editing program (preferably photoshop) and meticulously crop your image. I personally use a program called "InterVideo WinDVD" that came with my computer. I just press a button and the a screenshot is taken.

2. Open all of your frames with photoshop. Go to the first frame and add the subsequent frames in order as layers. Depending on how large your image is, you might have to make the image smaller.

3. Go to "File" "Save for Web"

Change the file to a GIF and click on "animate". Also, change the quality of the picture if you wish. Now, you can use your GIF file!

One thing I have done with my GIF files is to make a movie out of them. I put the music and pictures together using Windows Movie Maker. This movie has the song "Mezase Pokemon Master" and is completely made of animated GIFs and pictures.

My first blog post: About myself

For my first blog post, I am going to tell a little bit about myself. My name is Katie and I am going to be a Sophomore in high school. I guess my hobbies are anime, learning Japanese, playing Clarinet, playing video games, listening to Japanese music, surfing the net, doing random computer stuff and working hard in school (well...). I have been interested in anime and Japanese culture for about 3 years now and I have been teaching myself Japanese for about 2 years. My favorite anime are Cardcaptor Sakura and Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (although I like many more in addition). I also like reading manga, but only if it is in Japanese. My favorite is Cardcaptor Sakura. I like so many different kinds of Japanese music, but I think some of my favorite singers are Utada Hikaru, globe, Every Little Thing, Morning Musume, and Ai Otsuka (along with many more!) I am looking forward to using this blog to ramble about random things. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!