HONEY - NANAMEUE ALL☆STARS

I came across this song while browsing the Vocaloid Wiki, and boy I was caught by surprise. It's no wonder it's popular outside of Japan: it's very upbeat, and manages to feature most of the Vocaloids (including fan-made) at least once.

• HONEY (YouTube HQ)

It was painful getting the source encoding of the lyrics file correct, but here it is in Unicode for your enjoyment.

Honey くれたよね　わたしに
愛のメロディ　今
心の中で　響いてる

Honey　君はなんでも　お見通し
伝えたいの　私の気持ち

笑っても　泣いても
君といたい
心の距離をゼロにしたい

送るわね　Honey
愛の言葉　顔文字たくさん使い
二人でヒミツしましょ　愛を感じていたい

君が呼ぶ　Honey
甘い言葉　心のブログ更新し
幸せと　驚きで　飽きないの

ねえ　わたしに　君　教えて



Honey くれたよね　わたしに
愛のイヤホン　今
心の中で　使ってる

Honey　君の声しか　聴こえない
頭の中　ハートでいっぱい

喜びも　悲しみも
分かち合いたい
同じ気持ちを感じていたい

送るわね　Honey
愛の言葉　顔文字たくさん使い
二人でヒミツしましょ　愛を感じていたい

君が呼ぶ　Honey
甘い言葉　心のブログ更新し
幸せと　驚きで　飽きないの

ねえ　わたしに　君　教えて

新世界 - 平原綾香

This song was in a dream I had last night. It's based on Dvorak's New World Symphony.

• 新世界 (2009, from 新世界) [Java applet, Live on YouTube]

Find your way, no matter how hard it is.
Keep your feet on the ground and see what is waiting
the new world is there.

When I'm lost　青い 月明かり
夢の続き　探してた

出会い　別れ　夢やぶれて
すべてが　終わりのように見えた

どんな　自分を　生きればいい
どこまで　人を　信じればいい

きっと　心に　夜明けは来る
まだ　見えない未来の　向こうから

When I'm lost　遠い 道の先で
自分との決まりを　今 破る時

くるしいこころも　そのままでいい
かなしいおもいも　そのままでいい

それは　心 なおすことなく　手放すこと
いつだって　きっと自分は　生まれ変われる

いのち　満ちる　この地球(ふるさと)
誰もが　帰る　旅の果てに

新しい世界から何が見える
まだ知らない　この私が微笑んでいる

どんな　自分でも　愛していたい
今起こる　何もかも　信じたいから

溢れ出す涙　夢を見せて
私だけに　出来る　何かが　必ずある

なつかしい大地を　強く踏みしめて
喜びも悲しみも受け入れてゆく

もう何も　迷わない　そんな世界へ　ゆけるはず
私は行く　新しい世界へ

Central Link Grand Opening

Today marks the first day of the rest of Puget Sound's history: the opening of Sound Transit's Central Link, the first stage in the large-scale Link light rail network. I went for the ribbon cutting, since I always like firsts (search for "9:33 AM"). Note: while I do live in Bothell, I usually drive to Lynnwood on weekends.

I left early this morning via the first southbound 511, then transferred to a 7. I didn't know that they had shuttles for the occasion, but ran to a 97 shuttle to Mt. Baker Station. Note that the one I rode was a Metro DE60LF, not a Sound Transit bus. The shuttle driver missed the station, and had to turn around south of Columbia City station, and negotiate the small residential streets until we got back.

Now, I didn't actually have an inaugural ride ticket, since I had work at the time they were available, but I still managed to attend the ceremony behind the "public fence." Various people, including engineers and local activists and leaders gave their speeches. However, the most ceremonious act was when the mayor of Tukwila rode a Link train North and Greg Nickels rode another Link train South to Mt. Baker Station. They performed the ribbon cutting, then the inaugural riders, including the mayors, were allowed on the trains. To my surprise, I also managed to get a seat on the southbound inaugural train, which was a three-car train. There was plenty of seating.

The ride was quite smooth, with some great views and cool art. Everyone was very excited, and surprised at how comfortable the ride was. There's even A/C, which is likely what contributes to the most of noise that the Times was complaining about.

I rode from Mt. Baker, to Tukwila (the train turned around without forcing us to transfer at the end, which isn't normal service), back to Westlake Center, and lastly down to the International District. There was a lot of roundabout walking to transfer from northbound to southbound in the Tunnel, including exiting to the surface and re-entering.

I'm extremely excited to see what this new light rail line spurs. Who knows, I may be riding it from Lynnwood on my commute to Seattle!

YOU NEVER NEED ME - 中島みゆき

This song and this icon really suit my mood right now.

• YOU NEVER NEED ME (1994, from LOVE OR NOTHING [Java applet]

好きなものや欲しいものは次から次とあるけれど
必要なものというのは　そんなに多くはない
私のことを憎からず思ってくれたのは事実
でも必要と思ったことなかったのも事実ね

もしあなたがいけなければ私は生きる甲斐がない
息をすることと同じくらいあなたが必要

雨に耳をすまして私は怯えていた
いつか雨のように愛がやんでしまう日のこと
風に耳をすまして私は願っていた
いつか風のように愛が戻ってくること

もしも私がいなくてもあなたは何も困らない
少し探してみることもなく　すぐに忘れてゆく

You never need me　You never need me
なぜ私ではなくて彼女でなければならないの
Need me　You never need me
今から何をすれば必要と思ってくれるの
もう何もないの　何もないの

傷つけたくてはじめから私と出会うはずはない
そう信じてみるけれど　今はそれさえあやしい

私にくれた幸せは両手でも数えきれない
けれど失くした幸せはそれより多い

雨に耳をすまして私は怯えていた
いつか雨のように愛がやんでしまう日のこと
風に耳をすまして私は願っていた
いつか風のように愛が戻ってくること

もしも私がいなくてもあなたは何も困らない
少し探してみることもなく　すぐに忘れてゆく

You never need me　You never need me
なぜ私ではなくて彼女でなければならないの
Need me　You never need me
今から何をすれば必要と思ってくれるの

You never need me　You never need me
なぜ私ではなくて彼女でなければならないの
Need me Forever never need me
今から何をすれば必要と思ってくれるの
You never need me　never need me　never need me
Forever never need
You never need me
You……………

Standard XHTML and Flash

With the status of standardization of web "technologies" in such a sad state, "Web 2.0" really doesn't mean much on the code side.

I've found something interesting regarding standardized Flash support: a way to include it in strict XHTML (not "transitional"). It involves creating a dummy Flash movie that loads the first one. I found it in this blog entry..

The XHTML code for the movie is as follows, assuming the movie we actually want to load is movie.swf:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
data="c.swf?path=movie.swf">
<param name="movie"
value="c.swf?path=movie.swf" />
</object>

c.swf is a fairly simple bit of ActionScript:

_root.loadMovie(_root.path,0);

According to the article, it loads the movie as expected and streams it. One caveat is that it won't operate properly if the browser doesn't support Flash. To fix that, something like this is necessary:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash
data="c.swf?path=movie.swf">
<param name="movie"
value="c.swf?path=movie.swf" />
<img src="noflash.gif" alt="" />
</object>

Of course, the img tag can be replaced with any "alternate" element to be displayed when there's no Flash support. Pretty cool.