[Info] Stuff I’ve Translated

So for my first post-A to Z post, I thought I’d write about something a little different. For those of you who just started following from my posts during the A to Z challenge, one of my jobs is translating Japanese to English. I have worked on a number of projects ever since returning to the States from Japan in 2008 and interpret at a couple of conventions every year, but now that I’m translating simulcasts, I also have a regular assignment pretty much every week.

With all the NDAs and such, I’m never sure what I can share, but here are a couple things I’ve worked on/am working on that I’m officially credited on already elsewhere on the Internets:

Wolf Children

“Wolf Children” is about a mother taking care of her half-wolf, half-human children. It highlights struggles she goes through that are both unique to her situation and that are universal for all mothers.

This is a lovely movie for all ages by Mamoru Hosoda, sometimes called the “spiritual heir to Hayao Miyazaki.” I know I worked on the movie, but honestly, I enjoyed it more than some of the recent Studio Ghibli offerings…

One of the highlights of my trip to Japan last year was visiting the house that the house in the movie is based on:

Just watch it–but don’t forget the tissues! 😉

Available on DVD or Blu-ray/DVD combo or to stream on Amazon Instant Video (English dub, I think) to buy or rent.

Space Dandy

Space Dandy is… a dandy in space… Or so the tagline goes. It’s an irreverent space comedy by the creator of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. There are zombies, penguins, giant robots, and references to Dr. Who, Office Space, and Groundhog Day, and a ton of other pop culture.

There’s a lot of mature content in this show, and it’s kind of a hit or miss depending on how high your tolerance is for fanservice and episodic comedies. (Warning: There’s a restaurant shaped like a boob that’s a Hooters parody in the first episode and a boob monster in the third, so if that’s not your thing, you might want to skip this.)

You can watch it dubbed in English on Cartoon Network on Saturdays (check your local listings for showtimes), or watch it subtitled for free on Funimation, Animax (Asia), Madman (AU), and Wakanim (UK). The first season is currently being rebroadcast before the second season starts in July.

My Alma Mater

That’s why I chose Yale ♪

Edit: Just found out the music producer for this video was in my residential college 🙂 Go Hounies~

My (Physical) Bookshelf

Ever since I saw Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” I have wanted a library like the one Belle gets in the Beast’s castle:

But until I have more money/space/books, I will just have to settle for this:

Right after buying the second of these bookcases, I heard a piece on NPR that lamented the “death of the book” and the redesigned BILLY bookcase.

The latest distress signal being sounded on the chat sites I share with my bookish friends is that IKEA is about to introduce an updated version of its classic BILLY bookcase — some 10 of which totter to overflowing in my own basement. Anticipating “the death of the book,” IKEA has redesigned the good old BILLY with deeper shelves and glass doors, thus transforming it from a bookcase into a tchotchke cabinet.

-Maureen Corrigan, ‘The Swerve’: Ideas That Rooted The Renaissance

This is why they didn’t have the beech anymore, and this is why I have two different colors. (I saw the add-on doors at IKEA when I saw the second one, and they didn’t even close properly. :mad:)

Goodreads replacement?

Or supplement?

I signed up for Goodreads way back in 2007, and while they make it so easy to keep track of books for you, I never really got into it. I was in Japan at the time, so I didn’t have much access to English books, and my Japanese reading was (and still is) embarrassingly slow. As a result, I collected Japanese books that I wanted to read some day, and I read what I could find at the local library.

Then I pretty much forgot about Goodreads. I had a handful of friends who used it, but I was too overwhelmed alternately by how many and then how few books I was reading to think about updating it.

Fast forward to the end of 2010, when I was looking for books to use in my book club classes. I started making a list of books from school/teacher book lists to skim through, supplemented by books that just looked interesting when I browsed the library.

I ended up with my own system of keeping track of books, but I kept wanting to review the book I just read and read the next book in my pile at the same time. I started a few reviews (which will be the first ones on this blog), but most of the books were library books that needed to be returned, so I read them first. And then when I went to return them, I would find more books to read.

Finally, at the end of summer 2011, I finished up my last pile of books and brought them back to their respective libraries (going when they were closed on purpose and using the book drops so I wouldn’t be able to get new books!) And then I ordered some used books online. And put off reading them.

Anyway, my books are getting dustier by the day, but I am slowly transferring (and updating) my book lists and review notes to this blog. I am trying to write reviews for the books I read before I forget what was in them, but I suspect I will have to check some of them out from the library again…

P.S.–Here’s a link to my neglected Goodreads account in case I ever decide to update it…