Starting Cards

I finally have my cards begun, and though I don't have much, I have a plan that has been put in place. I put the kanji and pronunciation on one side, and the definition on the other.

It should help me to get the things I don't have memorized, and the things I do attached to the new material.

My current words are:

教会 - kyoukai - church
天気 - tenki - angel
聖徒 - seito - disciple

名誉 - meiyo - honor
責任 - sekinin - responsibility

音楽 - ongaku - music

私は音楽が大好きです。
watashi wa ongaku daisuki desu.
I like music.

Secondhand Serenade

They sing Fall For You, one of the songs I've been learning on my guitar.
It uses:

Am - 002210
C - 032010
F - 133211
G 320003

I just got the CD it's on, and I must say I'm pleased. They're pretty good.
It's A Twist In My Story, the latest addition to my collection of music.

I hope to start getting a few more things to add... I haven't had much good and new music in a while...
I'll be going back home in a little over a week, though, so I can fix my iTunes and update my iPod.

That's two Apple products in the same sentence. Yuck.
Let's make some things clear: a) I like apples, and b) I hate Apple
Just for clarification. They try to be trendsetters, and pretend to typify "cool". I find the amount of decisions their software makes for you distasteful. They are stable, yes, and so are stones. but rocks don't grow, do they?

Anyways, I like having my music portable, and haven't had that luxury, as I've had to switch to my own iTunes (I used to use my mom's laptop). I don't want to lose the stuff that's on my iPod that isn't with me - so my iPod is kinda missing new stuff. That's ok, though - I'm often busy, and don't need it very much.

Violet Splash

I've been looking for something purple, and I think I found it. It took a large batch of my personal tricks. Aside from cloud and arrow brushes, it's almost completely original.
In this one, I used a few filter> render> cloud layers, and changed their color and brightness and contrast, along with the blending mode. My favorite chrome water trick was placed on screen. I played with a few subliminally placed gradients, to improve the "lighting" of the image. The flare was a natural by-product of my experimentation; it wasn't intentional, though I did encourage it's prominence.

Back to the Kanji / Addressing People

I haven't worked on kanji specifically in ages. I need to.
I got a cool little keyring of about a hundred blank cards at the bookstore today.
It should help me with practice. It was cheap, so if it proves as useful as i think it will, I'm going to go back and get a few more.

In 日本語, you refer to yourself and others in different ways, depending on context.
For yourself, the common "i" is
私, わたし.(watashi)

わたくし(watakushi) is the formal pronunciation.
僕, ぼく, (boku) is the casual/fairly polite for males.
girls can use あたし, (atashi) but it has a very "cutesy" or "girly" sound, so some prefer watashi.
also... 俺、おれ is a very rough one used by guys in certain extremely casual contexts.
わし is used by some middle-aged males.

In addressing others, attaching -san to the first or last name is common. often, Japanese prefers using the specific name. 先生 (sensei) is used to those that have significant knowledge.
other forms of -san are -kun and -chan. Assuming equal or lower status, -kun is a male form, and -chan an endearing female form.

The three levels of politeness are 1-Name(w/suffix), 2-nothing, and 3-あなた(anata). I use it often, but in a real context, anata could come off as rude, unless they're a friend.
きみ (kimi) is a close female form, like anata. It also could be taken as rude, though it implies closeness.