Katriona's Diary

For many years I have liked the Star Wars film series but never had a mania for SW world, so most of time I enjoyed the story and depiction despite the countless plotholes and defects. I have even enjoyed “The Last Jedi” or “Rogue One” very much. After all I’m just a mediocre fan and SW is just an entertainment for me. Still. Yesterday I watched “The Rise of Skywalker” and enjoyed it. But, I didn’t... couldn’t get excited much.
I’m not sure this is because the film was not good enough, or, my sensitivity has become dulled because of my age I’m afraid X(

I at last made a time to go to see the movie - ”Rogue One: A Star Wars Story". It was good! To one of the SW fans it was a "must to see" film, but I haven't had much expectation because I'd been too busy for months to get the information about the film. Fortunately I enjoyed it! But I wonder if I've felt the setting of the story so real when I saw this series for the first time as a child. I mean... the story and the setting of the film are of course very fictional still ... the injustice of power, the sternness and cruelty of the life under tyranny, sudden and unreasonable death and destruction, a campaign of horror - these things in the film didn't look just fiction, they remind me of the real ones in this world very much. It might be because I've got older now...
Anyway I'd like to see "A New Hope (Star Wars Episode 4)" again in near future X)

REcently I've been quite busy in the office. It's better than having nothing interesting to do, but I feel rather tired now...

Though I managed to make time to go to the movie theatre this week, to enjoy the last chapter of "The Hobbit" !  In this trilogy I've been hooked on Thorin Oakenkenshield (*^_^*)

Today I went to Ginza, Tokyo to see a film after work. Then on my way home I took the commuter train which was rather crowded with office workers so I stood in front of the passengers sitting on the train bench. I could see the people sitting, and when the train arrived at the stations I saw the people waiting for the trains on the platforms from the train window. And over half of them, maybe two-third of them were looking at their smartphone. That is very usual scene these days, but I felt - and this is not the first time to feel like this - that it was a strange, rather a grotesque sight. I heard that recently when a shooting happened in a train in San Francisco or somewhere in USA nobody had noticed the gun because all the passengers were just looking at their smartphones, I can believe that.
I don't speak ill of the people who loves smartphones... I just say that I found it looked somewhat grotesque...

By the  way the film I saw was "Hyde Park on Hudson" starring Bill Murray, the story about Franklin Roosevelt and his mistress. I have no interest in Roosevelt nor Bill Murray, I wanted to see it just to see Samuel West playing King George Ⅵ. I didn't think it was a great film but he was lovely as I expected :)

There are various social networking websites and countless interesting pages posted by individuals on internet. Therefore it's completely impossible to check all the contents referring to the subject we are interested in, and it seems to be a kind of fate which website, networking service, web-community we happened to come across, and whom we can meet.

Some years ago when I was deeply hooked in some British TV dramas and tried to find information about them on internet I came across some interesting pages, certain fanfiction writer and a fan-artist, they brought me to here LiveJournal in the end ...and now I enjoy writing my journal in clumsy English and communication with my wonderful LJ friends from various countries. Those are the people I would have never become friends with without internet and I'm deeply grateful to this modern technology for them.

At present I don't think I have enough time nor intention to join other & newer networking service like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr still sometimes I happened to find some impressive and attractive posts on those services.
Last year I found a (maybe American) young artist who posts her illustrations on Tumblr pages, I loved her art very much and enjoy visiting her pages though I have no knowledge about herself at all. Some months ago I send her a message on Tumblr service to tell her how I enjoy her art. She is a good artist and may get such kind of message from many strangers so I didn't expect her response at all, I just wanted her to know that there is an admirer here in Japan. Months passed, I almost forgot about my message to her.
Then yesterday when I visited her web-page I found her message to me, she posted a message and an art for me on her page. It's a heartwarming surprise.
I don't know her real name nor e-mail address and she doesn't know mine of course (Actually I'm much more stranger to her for she has NO information about me besides my message while I can imagine her personality from her posts), I don't say we are friends, but surely there is some sincere feeling between us.

This is what I love about internet.
Though there are many unpleasant trouble and sometimes serious problems about the association with strangers on internet still I believe our sincere respect or feeling of friendship can reach to the others here as it does on our non-virtual, real communication.

About 15 years ago, when internet and e-mails were not so common for ordinary people like nowadays, I have made some good foreign friends via correspondence (of ordinary letters, I mean). Even now the essence of the friendship or acquaintance have not changed much, it seems.

The pic the lady created for me :)   Isn't this cool?

http://sully-s.tumblr.com/

Today after work I went to see the film "The Hobbit". I knew seeing such long film after work was not good to my eyes, made me tired but I had to see it one more time - this was the 3rd time - before the premiere show would close. Today was the last day we can see it in the theatre here.
And it was wonderful, better than the 1st and 2nd time, I could enjoy seeing the details better. The drama, scenery, music, art, acting... they were all so excellent, breathtaking, entertaining and moving. I think I prefer this to The Lord of The Rings trilogy. :)

It's chilly and cloudy then rainy Sunday, I've felt rather blue. So in the evening I watched my favorite old film to cheer me up.

( silly talk )

Today I met 2 friends, visited Nippon Maru - the retired training ship now placed in a dock in Yokohama - with them. We call this meeting First Lieutenant Club as a joke.
( more... )

Now we can see the image of relaunched Cuttysark on internet. When I visited Greenwich last time the tall fence has surrounded the ship & I felt so mad about its damage, so I'm really glad that I can see her beautiful figure again. But some people do not like the new construction around her, some Japanese blogger said it's too modern and does not match her. I rather like it, it looks like the ship is running on water and I think I can imagine her glorious old days.

How do you think??

Sometimes just one picture of some beautiful scenery, or a small information about just one place like museum, restaurant or hotel stimulate my imagination and desire for a travel to the foreign lands. Today I happened to find the website of a certain hotel in England which made me want to visit the English countryside... XD


(How many "Hornblower" hotels exist in UK??)

Once I have visited Sydney, partly stimulated by this place XD XD XD
(I stayed here for a few nights.)