Monday 19 May 2003

Pic of the day: My DAoC paladin is level 44 now, same as my age! And like me, he is now fully enclosed in heavy armor, so you can not even see the man inside. Guardians of Darkness, indeed! But I'm not really writing about that today. I am writing about a dreamy Japanese song.

To Heart song

I am such a boy sometimes! While in the city where I work, I stopped by the geeky shop "Outland" again to order two more GURPS handbooks: Spirits and Imperial Rome. It kinda ties in with the Viking book I am reading now. Interesting book. The GURPS books are always full of relevant facts. Of course, being Norwegian, I have some relevant facts about Vikings myself!

I am such a boy sometimes! I was starting to write something about Vikings, but then I thought I would just check in on DAoC. And when I logged on, there were my guildies, at the same place where we had been fighting 18 hours earlier! I suppose they must have been away too, sleeping for sure, perhaps studying slightly. Not sure about that. They were rather happy to see me, I think, since I am a paladin and all. So we fought Drakorans in Avalon all evening, hours in a row, and I gained more than half a level! That is quite a lot when the level is 44 out of 50 possible. Anyway, I played until my hand ran out. Fighting in a group is more stress than solo, and you have to type to coordinate things. So eventually I quit, but then it was late already, and I decided to let my hand rest while I watched a little anime.

***

I watched To Heart episode 6. It was a different fansub group, and the text was really badly out of sync with the sound for much of the episode. Or was it the sound that was out of sync with the pictures? Or both of the above? I could hear the girl while the picture showed the boy talking, or the other way around, and then came the text too. I still loved it, though. It is such a great series! It is about this very normal high school boy. No super powers, no demons, no mecha. Just some guy, fairly athletic admittedly but rather lazy. He is nice to girls, and as a result most of his friends are girls. (Sounds familiar anyone?) The songs at the beginning and end of each episode are great, especially the one at the end. I really like it! Already from previous episode that song is my unofficial theme song for the novel I am trying to write. I like the first translation better, even though it is probably less correct. It really captures the feeling and I think I would like to have it on the last page of my novel.

The reality may be especially hard to face
after spending those innocent moments together.
I remember my heart was pounding
when we played carelessly,
but we can't go back to that place now.
Let us start walking from here,
with the treasures in our hands!
With your warmth
and memories of everyone in my dream,
I will go on.

The song is very beautiful in Japanese, and I feel more filled with beautiful feelings as I play it over again. It is like a pleasure drug – not that I would know, of course – very addictive because it makes me joyful.

"But we can't go back to that place now." That's so true, is it not? They all grew up, and the innocence came to an end. Only in my memories can I go back to that place, and think of all those innocent moments, that I enjoyed so much. I may be a very cynical person, but I am also in many ways a very innocent person. I may have the soul of an old man, but the heart of a little boy. But even so, I guess the time has truly come, when there is no going back to that place. But I will go on, carrying the memories like shining treasures in my hands.