Monthly Log: 2024-05

This might be the most punctual Monthly Log I have managed so far.

Structure

I tweaked the structure of the Monthly Log a little this time.

The first section, Input, is where I summarize the things I consumed that felt worth recording.
I used to split it into Reading, Anime, and Others, but recently I have also been watching a number of YouTube tutorials, and I found myself with no obvious place to put them.

After thinking about it for a while, I realized that books and anime may both count as input, but they are not the same kind of input.
The first category leans much more toward learning. When I finish it, I usually come away with some sort of idea, framework, or takeaway.
The second category is, most of the time, closer to straightforward consumption: I turn my brain off, watch something, and afterward what remains is more about feeling and evaluation.

So I made a small structural change.
Reading becomes Learning, with the emphasis on whether I actually learned something, regardless of format. Books, novels, strong essays, videos, podcasts, anything qualifies if it leaves me with something.
Anime and Others stay as they are.

Input
~~Reading: professional books / novels / strong essays, basically anything that counts as reading~~
Learning: books / novels / strong essays, videos / podcasts, any format is fine as long as I feel I learned something from it
Anime: seasonal shows / older shows, TV series / films, a place to log the animation I watched
Others: movies, TV dramas, and anything else that belongs in the miscellaneous bucket
Random Thoughts
A place for whatever stray thoughts I might want to jot down
Output
Maybe blog posts, though my skill level is still rough, so there may be months with barely any output
Travel
If I went anywhere, I will write a little about it. If not, then not.
Misc
Odds and ends that do not fit into any of the sections above

Input

Learning

《インフラエンジニアの知識と実務がこれ1冊でしっかりわかる教科書》

Lately I have been reading a book called Infrastructure Engineer Knowledge and Practice Made Clear in One Book.
The title really does sound a lot like the modern light-novel style of cramming the entire premise into one line.

The early chapters explain what infrastructure even is, what infrastructure work looks like, and a few concrete examples of the job in practice.
It also goes over the foundational skills the field expects: networking, Linux, scripting, and AWS.
If someone wants to study through certifications, those topics line up naturally with things like CCNA, LPIC, AWS certs, and Japan’s IPA exams.
The later part of the book moves through the whole stack from infrastructure overview to design, implementation, operations, and maintenance. I still have not finished all of that.
At the very end it also looks ahead a little and talks about where infrastructure work might be going.

YouTube - Simon d’Entremont

Tips for Shooting in Low Light

I happened to run into a photography YouTuber named Simon d’Entremont, a wildlife and landscape photographer based in eastern Canada.
I only meant to watch one or two videos casually, but his explanations were so clear that I ended up watching a whole string of them.

Simon d’Entremont - The TRUTH about shooting at ISO 100 that the PROS know.
Simon d’Entremont - Stop taking photos at the WRONG ISO!
Simon d’Entremont - Extreme HIGH ISO photography tricks. Whatever you do, don’t do THIS!

Those three videos answered several questions I had been carrying around about shooting in low light.
My old assumption was simple: higher ISO means more noise, so even in dim scenes I would do everything I could to keep ISO down. I had even turned off auto ISO so I could control it manually.
But Simon d’Entremont’s argument is: The high ISO is revealing that your image was noisy, not creating the noise.

So when the camera jumps to a high ISO, what it really means is that the scene simply does not have enough light. The real solutions are slower shutter speed and a wider aperture.
But if shutter speed and aperture are already at the limit, then you might as well let the camera crank the ISO and do its job.

The biggest things I took away from those videos were:

Auto ISO
Let the camera choose the ISO while you control shutter speed and aperture.
Overexposing slightly
In low light, don’t be stingy with ISO. A slight overexposure that pushes the histogram to the right usually gives you less noise than exposing conservatively and then pulling the image up in post.

Advice for Beginners

Simon d’Entremont - Photography MISTAKES that all beginners make (but I wish I could have avoided).

Simon d’Entremont sums up beginner mistakes with the mnemonic HASTE:

Highlight
Do not blow out the highlights. Watch the histogram, or turn on zebras.
And?
A frame with nothing but a bare subject is usually not very interesting. It needs the right foreground, background, light, object, or event to make it feel less empty.
Subject
The previous point was about adding things; this one is about subtracting. A photo needs a clear subject. If the frame contains a lot of elements, the viewer should still know immediately where their eyes are supposed to land. Use leading lines, move closer, frame with foreground elements, or lean on light and color contrast to make the subject stand out.
Tree in head
Watch out for trees, utility poles, signboards, and similar things “growing” out of a person’s head. If you use background blur well, those annoying elements can dissolve into color and stop competing with the subject.
Enough ISO
This is the same point as above: high ISO does not create noise, it reveals noise that was already there. In low light, don’t be too precious about ISO. Slight overexposure with the histogram pushed right usually works better.

I watched a few more videos as well:
Simon d’Entremont - TOP 3 PRO LIGHTROOM techniques to rescue dull, lifeless photos!
Simon d’Entremont - FULL SUN AND HARSH LIGHT Lightroom HACKS and field techniques!
From those I picked up a few ideas for Lightroom work, mostly around increasing contrast, building depth, emphasizing the subject, and weakening the edges of the frame.

Post-processing is obviously a huge subject in its own right. I will just keep experimenting little by little.

How to Use Zebra Display

Up above I mentioned using the histogram or zebras to avoid clipping highlights.
I had heard of zebra display before, but never really understood how to use it, so I finally looked it up.

According to Sony’s official article What is Zebra and what does it do?, zebra display highlights parts of the current frame whose brightness exceeds a threshold you set.

Typical use cases:

Avoid overexposure
Set zebras to 100+, then adjust exposure until no zebra stripes appear anywhere in the frame.
Avoid underexposing white subjects
Set zebras somewhere between 90 and 95, then adjust exposure until the white subject you care about just starts showing stripes.
Expose portraits at an optimal brightness
Set zebras between 70 and 80, then adjust exposure until zebra stripes begin to appear on the subject’s face.

Anime

Shows I was following in May
- 末日列车去往何方 / 終末トレインどこへいく？
  One of April’s three big original anime. Dense dialogue, wild developments, and the feeling of an apocalyptic road movie. Easily the one that landed closest to my wavelength.
  Episode 6: of course an apocalypse story eventually needs zombies.
  Episode 7: when it comes to absurd imagination, Mizushima really is on another level. My brain upgraded again.
  Episode 8: director Mizushima personally entering the fray, plot density maxed out, story racing forward, ~~my brain upgraded again~~.
  Episode 9: finally a long-haired girl’s perspective episode, and the hermit shows up to hand out items again.
- GIRLS BAND CRY
  Also one of April’s three big originals.
  Episode 7: not a great feeling. Two live-performance scenes in a row looked weak. It feels like they are making the animation with care and the music with their feet.
  Episode 8: Hanada-sensei. Great. Nothing more needs to be said.
- Delicious in Dungeon / ダンジョン飯
  In episode 17, the exchange between the protagonist and the samurai during the fight was great. I also loved the bit after the fight where the younger sister failed to climb the wall the first time, scrabbled a few more times, and only then got up. The animation had a lot of physicality.
  I also ran into two good commentary posts:
  bgm - 横向的生态与纵向的历史，进食的欲望与设定的冰山——不止美食的《地城饭》
  天仙子 - ダンジョン飯 | 迷宫饭
- A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics
  Sharp social commentary, modest production resources, yet it still manages to keep the quality at a decent level. Hirasaka Yomi is there to hold up the writing, so the show remains fun.
- The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio
  Production is falling apart, but the plot is still fairly interesting. I’ll keep watching.
- Chillin’ in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers
  Selling character appeal, plus the Kugimiya effect. I’ll keep going.
- As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I’ll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World
  Episode 7 was unexpectedly good: stable animation, solid emotional payoff, and the parting scene really worked.
On hold for now
- Spice and Wolf
  I’ll definitely watch it later.
- Mushoku Tensei
  I’ll definitely watch it later.
- Unnamed Memory
  I’ll catch up with the novel later.
- Hibike! Euphonium 3
  I really will watch it later. I swear I’m not going to flake out.
Dropped
- Kaiju No. 8
  Good production, but the plot and script drag it down. Whenever it should be getting hype, it suddenly throws in some dull gag.
  The male lead’s characterization is not attractive, and he doesn’t seem especially bright either. If the show wants shipping fuel, it can only lean on the second male lead. Not looking good.
  ~~I tried to keep watching with my brain turned off.~~
  Episode 7: forced melodrama, sluggish pacing, nobody finishes off the enemy, collective IQ collapse.
  I gave up.
- Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included
  Pure character-selling. The reaction faces are nice, but it got too boring to keep going.
- THE NEW GATE
  Boilerplate isekai trash. Completely out of tricks.
- Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night
  Boring.
- Whisper Me a Love Song / ささやくように恋を唄う
  The production is too rough, and I’m not that interested in the story either.

Others

Recent TV dramas and films I watched. I’ll try not to spoil too much.

青春18×2 君へと続く道
I originally thought it would be a road movie, mostly because JR has the 青春18きっぷ and the title sounded close enough.
In reality it is much more of a romance, and the way the two leads interact is painfully, almost aggressively youthful, ~~cue the envious tears~~.
The opening almost made me worry that it would turn into another self-indulgent youth melodrama, but it gets better as it goes. The timeline shifts are smooth, the story lands, and it really does move you. Easy recommendation.
雲のむこう、約束の場所
Near the end, there is a shot of the plane breaking through the clouds, shutting off the engine, and gliding through the sky with the propeller slowly turning like a giant wing. It is a very beautiful image, almost like a bird spreading its wings.
デッドデッドデーモンズデデデデデストラクション後章
Bento boxes everywhere. Nice.
This current stopping point is actually pretty good already. I don’t know what the manga ending is like, but ~~if it disappoints me, I can just treat this point as the ending~~.
The two theatrical parts are two hours each, four hours in total, and even that still wasn’t enough to adapt the whole manga.
According to what I saw online, the rest of the story will be adapted as a TV anime, 18 episodes total. First the theatrical cut gets split up, and then it continues into the remaining manga material. Crunchyroll has it exclusively: Crunchyroll - DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION
But when I checked episode 0, the story actually starts right after the second movie, while the split-TV version of the films starts from episode 1.
So if you watch episode 0 first, you get blindsided by spoilers immediately. I genuinely do not understand why they arranged it that way. Even the top Crunchyroll comment is warning newcomers not to start with episode 0.

Random Thoughts

河南说唱之神 - “Factory”

I stumbled across this music video by accident. I clicked on it with no particular expectations, and the opening hit me almost immediately.
Almost every visual element in it corresponded to some half-buried scene in my own memory, and the lyrics did not feel like decorative, performative misery either. The emotional force was much too strong.

So of course I immediately went looking for the source.
bilibili (official): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1yE42157bX/
YouTube (unofficial): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA—E7l4wyE

The bilibili description says:

河南说唱之神@河南说唱之神official
工厂（Official Music Video）
这首歌献给那些和我有同样境遇的姊妹兄弟
“我没有热爱这里我只是出生在这个地方”
我想我永远也离不开这里
MV导演：XUAN@花导XUAN
制片：冬泳社STTOS
出品：wasted club@WASTEDCLUB

That line in the description, “I don't love this place. I was just born here.” “I think I will never be able to leave it.”, left me with a strange feeling of helplessness. A person’s fate may depend on personal effort, yes, but it is also shaped by history, including the parts of history that move backward.

I got lucky, though. I already left.
I have no homeland ~

I Too Am Just Passing Through

I saw a passage on Twitter that I thought was beautifully written:

The older I get, the more I realize that the people who mattered, or once mattered, all entered my life carrying some melody, and in the end they were peeled away from that melody. Real friendship can survive quarrels and conflict. What usually causes it to fade is that you no longer resonate with each other aesthetically.
https://x.com/Jesoooor/status/1791155165774631391

Most people are only passing through your life. The only one who can really accompany you all the way to the end is yourself (~~and maybe your 2D favorites~~).

Output

Anime Pilgrimage: GIRLS BAND CRY officially published
Note: MPV OSC Disappears in v0.38.0
Note: Rooting Sony DPT-RP1 & Impressions

I finally managed to write out some of the things I had been stockpiling. ~~It was exhausting.~~

Travel

Kawasaki City Hall Observation Deck

The newly built city hall looks absurdly grand. It honestly reminded me of municipal government buildings back in China.
At some point I learned that the observation deck on the top floor was open to the public for free, and with the mindset of I pay all these taxes, so I might as well get something out of them, I decided to make a trip out of it.

The guide sign for the 25th-floor observation deck. From this direction you can see Tokyo Tower and Tokyo Skytree.

I feel like I understand a little better now why super-tall apartments in Japan cost more. A high-up view really is pleasant in a way that is hard to deny.
You can see Tokyo Tower and Tokyo Skytree in the distance.

Took out the telephoto lens for this one.

The opposite direction from the deck. The small tower in the middle of the photo is Haneda Airport’s control tower.

Inside the observation deck there was even a GIRLS BAND CRY poster on one of the display boards.

The only regret is that you cannot see Mount Fuji from this deck at all. One tall building blocks it almost perfectly. A shame.

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