Behold, My Dictionary Collection.

Will humanity ever be free of the influence of Edna Mode? Can any of us so much as consider the character design for a hero or villain without her manifesting in the room, fully aware of our sins?

My Danmei 耽美 Literary Adventure

Seven Seas Chinese Danmei novels, Notes Masterlist

Some of my favorite books, especially, The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, The Husky and His White Cat Shizun, Stars of Chaos, and Guardian, are now officially in English! Thank you, Seven Seas.

These notes are here to help friends who may not speak Chinese or have enough Chinese cultural background to understand the nuances presented in these works, or are just getting confused with all the different terms of address.

Please forgive me if I have missed anything, and dm or comment if you have anything to add!

魔道祖师 Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

by MXTX

二哈和他的白猫师尊 The Husky and His White Cat ShiZun

by Meatbun 肉包不吃肉 (Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou)

Usage of the word "Master" vs "Teacher"

How to pronounce people's names (bc it does NOT follow the rules of English pronunciation)

Book Annotations

杀破狼 Stars of Chaos

by Priest

Vol 1-4 are here!

（Volume 5 notes will arrive next.)

镇魂 Guardian

by Priest

Coming eventually :)

when i watch old movies i’m constantly surprised by how much acting has improved. not that the acting in the classics is bad, it’s just often kind of artificial? it’s acting-y. it’s like stage acting.

it took some decades for the arts of acting and filmmaking to catch up to the potential that was in movies all along; stuff like microexpressions and silences and eyes, oh man people are SO much better at acting with their eyes than they were in the 40′s, or even the 70′s.

the performances we take for granted in adventure movies and comedies now would’ve blown the critics’ socks off in the days of ‘casablanca’.

MDZS Vol 2 Annotations, part 1

I finished annotating my copy of MDZS, Volume 2!

First off, I think the translations are perfectly wonderful and I am forever grateful that Seven Seas has given us the ability to share this story with a wider group of friends. With that, I went into Vol 2 trying to pretend that I did not speak Chinese, had little to no knowledge of Chinese culture.

Any time I saw something that didn't flow well to my North American brain or that didn't feel like what I remembered feeling when I read the Chinese version, I made a note. I love this story, and I don't expect my non-Chinese friends to remember the 5+ different things that Lan Xichen is called, or what in the world "shishu" is, so I made a lot of notes. Here they are:

MDZS Vol 2, Annotations Part 1, pages 1 - 86 (I tried to include the page number in each photo).

Stars of Chaos 杀破狼

Vol 2, Notes 3, pages 63 - 87

Another ten pages of notes!

Like I've posted before, Priest has more plot than I have reading comprehension, but, after a few rereads, I think I know what's going on.

In case you are in my same boat but you can't read my handwriting: Fu Zhicheng was originally a bandit, so the emperor at the time (the previous one) was worried (with good cause); but Fu Zhicheng was still given command because there was no other option at the time -- no one else was strong enough to hold the area.

土地公. Soil God. Local god.

I learn all my Chinese Mythology and Religion via trying to understand Priest novels.

静虚 Silent Empty. It's a very good name for a Daoist monk.

穿一条裤子 Wear one pair of pants. Isn't that super evocative? :)

And yet another place where I feel that the original paragraph break would have been very helpful for reader comprehension.

"Consolatory" = to console him on the loss of his mother.

It's the same poem referenced on page 54.

In the version I first read, the implication was that the wooden bird was there the entire time, and you only noticed it as it was flying away.

望穿秋水 look, penetrate, autumn water ( autumn water = "trad. description of girl's beautiful eyes" according to mdbg.net).

Nice way to describe looking at/for something really intently, yah?

Yet another sentence that was not in the (pirated) online version that I read. It doesn't really matter, I know, but I lived in that book for a year, so, well. It wasn't there before.

Another possibly different version, plus different ways to translate 冷笑 (if that is what was in the newer edit given to the translators).

In the version I read, there is no mention of facial expressions; Chang Geng just acts.

If Priest added a 冷笑 (I think that phrase has been used with Chang Geng before), then I would translate that as a Bitter Smile or a Cold Smile rather than as a sneer, since, in my head, only yucky villains sneer, and Chang Geng is a super elegant handsome symmetrical graceful mastermind who sadly but frequently lifts the corners of his mouth without any warmth reaching his eyes.

绊马索 trip horse rope.

Top:

男鬼 male ghost/monster/zombie (some type of supernatural being, derogatory)

...pulverizing the double layer of iron. Those mech-suits are Thick.

Bottom:

远在天边，近在眼前。 Far as the side of the sky, close as in front of the eyes. <3

And that's another ten! Just 44 more to go... :)

My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost

Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links

Common Anime Words Glossary

Glossary of common anime words and their meanings in Japanese explained.

I want to read every entry on this site! I just found it today, and it explained the BETSUNI i’ve been hearing so much in video games and couldn’t figure out!!!

I expect a LOT of phrases this site goes through would help clarify confusion I’ve been having. It’s a nice site.

Stars of Chaos 杀破狼

Vol 2, Notes 7, pages 339 - 366.

Another eight notes...

The idiom for "too late" in Chinese is 黄花菜都凉了 "The Yellow Lilly (chrysanthemum? Yellow lily?) dish is already cold", which I had to look up.

Apparently, there was a time and place in ancient China where, when the fancy nobles would throw a banquet, they would serve 黄花菜 as the final dish. If you delayed attending so long that the 黄花菜 was already cold, then you had completely missed the banquet. You were too late.

牲口 is, technically, "draught animal" or "beast of burden," but I'm pretty sure what Priest means here is "those cold-blooded war beasts."

top: I think of it as two separate, unrelated, consecutive actions.

bottom: 铁膝飞足, iron knees flying feet, is so easy to read in Chinese. (This is the first time I've ever seen the word "poleyns.")

top: "young and inexperienced" in Chinese here is 初出茅庐, "first time out of the thatched cottage."

初出茅庐 is the coolest little idiom. So, in the Three Kingdoms period, there was a scholar called Zhuge Liang. Liu Bei, leader of the Shu Han, begged Zhuge Liang to become his advisor and, after three visits, Zhuge Liang agreed. This was the first time that Zhuge Liang accepted such an advisory position, and the "first time" that he left his thatched cottage (it was wartime. There was a lot of travel involved with advising a king/warlord).

Anyway, Zhuge Liang was a genius and immediately won a lot of battles through superior strategy.

next: for "dig in his heels before the capital," I feel like that could be more clearly written as "hold the capital."

next: regarding "unsalvageable situation," he's talking about his relationship with the emperor.

last: "No eggs remain when the nest overturns" is a common idiom, 覆巢之下无完卵。 We're all in it together.

"running to the market" 赶集 is a way to describe how things are noisy and busy and people are running back and forth (not bright and merry with people buying gifts for each other).

I think... the indescribable smell is the mix of gunpowder and blood...

If you don't know already, the Origin Myth for Where Humans Come From is that the half-snake goddess Nuwa made humans out of clay :)

I'm not sure why, but in English I thought that one of the Western soldiers was laughing; but in Chinese it's really clear that none of the soldiers are laughing.

Four more...

My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost

Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links

Wei Wuxian | Ep. 11

for @/the-lady-of-the-blue

My Highly Responsible Teenage Daughter keeps reminding me to Clean Up My Phone (delete images and video), so I can’t really justify keeping albums and albums of Zhou Shen pictures on my phone, but I really really want access to Lots of Zhou Shen photos without having to scroll through tumblr for (how long has it been? That’s not sunlight coming through the window, is it?) -

BaikeBaidu to the rescue:

https://baike.baidu.com/pic/%E5%91%A8%E6%B7%B1/15089196?albumId=3139037095&bk_fr=view_album&hit_contrast=1

I just replaced my computer because it was at 100% disk usage 90% of the time 😫

windows 10 is garbage so every time i boot up the computer i have to run command prompt and enter

net.exe stop “Windows Search”

so that the shitty goddamned search/cortana feature that i never fucking use stops running in the background taking up all my fucking disk space