meghan9436

At the time of writing this, I can hear someone randomly yelling outside. While this is pretty common place if you live in any major downtown metropolis in North America, this is highly unusual for Japan. I find it a little odd.

As you can tell from my last entry that a lot has been happening in my life. That fan activism call just barely even begins to scratch the surface.

At my day job, my students are starting to warm up more. I came to find out that the fussy student who complained about studying English is apparently like that with every teacher. So, I don't feel so bad. The other day, I had a different student describe a situation in their family where they were excluded from a major event. I am purposely omitting details as to protect the identity of the student. Their story reminded me of some memories from elementary school.

First, I remember being in sixth grade and one of my classmates was complaining about how her parents went to see the movie, As Good as It Gets without her. As a side note, even though it has been 26 years since that movie was released in 1997, I never saw the movie. The fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes looks promising, however.

The second memory that I recalled is that I eventually would refuse to participate in school track and field day. I remembered arguing with my parents about it. My argument was that it wasn't like I was missing out on any homework, so why should I go? I presented a pretty compelling argument, so my parents gave in and let me spend my track and field days playing Super Nintendo at home instead. Today, I think that this argument would never fly. You will participate in track and field because you have too much unavoidable screen time as it is, and you need the exercise! At least back then, we were still getting sufficient exercise with the play time that we got outside even if I was refusing to participate in school events. In contrast, the internet has become such an integral part of our lives, that we honestly cannot function at school or work without it. If we can try to find ways to reduce our screen time where possible, I think that's a good thing.

I will have to edit this with a more exhaustive update when I am feeling fresh. It's late, and I have an early morning for work. There is so much more that I want to share and talk about!

Edit for continuation.

This came up in a discussion recently. I often remissness over the content from the 1990s before the internet and computers took over our lives. It was a golden age of storytelling in every medium imaginable: everything from books, games, music, and movies. Despite this, I have to say that I appreciate how far the technology has come. I'm not even sure if I can go back to VHS tapes, honestly!

During my research, I came across compilations of VHS generation loss on YouTube. There is something that I find deeply unsettling about watching acceptable footage become completely destroyed and unwatchable over the course of 20+ copied generations. I also think that horror movies such as The Ring had an impact on how attitudes have shifted towards VHS tapes. Someone else I spoke to during this discussion mentioned that it is also possible that the underground fansub trade influenced public perception too. Often tapes that were traded back in the day were a sixth generation copy.

I think it is truly amazing that we can fire up a streaming service, and see our favourite shows and movies in crystal clear high definition. I never had a chance to watch Get Back because I don't have Disney+ at the moment, but I saw the trailers. There is something incredible about the fact that technology has reached a point that we can take 50+ year old archive footage, and make it look like it was filmed just yesterday. Granted, it was pointed out that film can store a lot more data than its digital counterparts, but still. I still remember the first time that I saw Sailor Moon in HD. It was truly magical!

I should acknowledge the drawbacks about rereleases in that copyrights can also be an issue. For example, the Queen song, I Was Born to Love You was dropped from the latest DVD release of the live action Sailor Moon series. Additionally, companies will only release content that they know is going to be profitable, leaving many VHS releases to disintegrate, never to be seen by future generations. Releases on streaming services can also be removed at any time. Can we mention that it's probably impossible to get a hold of the original theatrical releases of Star Wars? I feel like that there has been so many changes with every rerelease in these last few decades that it is difficult to determine what has been changed unless you, yourself saw the movies when they were originally released in theaters.

The purists of nostalgia may disagree with my point of view, but I think that if we can utilize modern technology to improve the viewer experience, that is a good thing. The original experience watching media on VHS is important from a historical aspect, but it is much easier and more convenient to boot it up on a DVD or streaming service.

It's already Saturday, and this week has been a blur. Earlier this week, I went on a late night shopping trip to pick up just a few staple items. I ran into one of the regulars that I see working the overnight shift at my local supermarket. When we were catching up, I looked down at the pile of groceries in my arms, and I asked her, "Did I learn anything?" She was confused about what I was talking about at first until I asked her, "Remember?" She laughed when she recalled the salt incident that I was referring to, when I repeated the question and motioned again to the items I was carrying. I followed up the question with an emphasized "NO!"

Yesterday, I played some guitar for a friend over Discord. It was the second time doing so this week, after not playing for the better part of a month because I got too busy at my day job and with back end stuff on YouTube. I put the final touches on an ongoing project, sent the email, and I am just waiting on approvals now. After that, I wanted to get out to celebrate!

I took my guitar project out in public for the first time in months, and those efforts are already starting to pay off. Someone else was at my local park practising on their portable drum kit, so there was a mutual nod a few times after I arrived with my guitar. AND THEN! I was stopped by a passerby on a bike when she overheard me performing a cover of If Life is So Short. I gave my speal about The Moffatts/Music Travel Love/Dave Moffatt Music, and I wrote down the info upon her request.

After that, I played my guitar. And I played. And played. I played until my fingers hurt. I really want to work hard to make up for the lost time in these last 20 years.

I also posted a lot of art updates here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, I worked on a lot of Traveler's Notebook things, and I thought it would be easier to link to those posts directly to save the length on here. I posted a new video here about the impending closure of my local Loft as well.

I still have a lot more to say, but I'm going to end my update here for now. I will discuss more in my next entry, and update the tags at a later time.