Playing audio file from Google Drive on Blogger

Blogger allows you to upload pictures and videos to blogs, but not audio files. But there is a way to do this, although it can be a bit "manual". The main idea is to find a place that can host your audio file, then use the HTML audio tag to play that file.

In my case, I want to host the file on Google Drive. But the link provided by Google Drive does not work with the audio tag, at least not directly.

I have been teaching myself to play the Chinese traverse flute. A few days ago, I started trying to learn to play "Michishirube". I made a short recording, and I will use that here as an example.

First, after recording the audio file, upload it to Google Drive. Then, on Google Drive, right click on the file, choose "Get link". Then set to "Anyone with the link" to allow the link to be accessed. The link looks like this.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Fy_lOSoYHSz8WQhTzzQVTj8DniFZisEI/view?usp=sharing

The part that is needed is the file ID, which in this case, is

1Fy_lOSoYHSz8WQhTzzQVTj8DniFZisEI

 

Then, in Blogger, switch to HTML view to add the audio tag. This is how it usually looks like

<audio controls="controls" src="https:// link to file">
</audio>

However, you cannot use the Google Drive link directly. The link that works with the audio tag looks like this:

https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=fileID

where fileID is the one mentioned above.

 

So in my case, the final tag looks like this:

<audio controls="controls" src="https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1Fy_lOSoYHSz8WQhTzzQVTj8DniFZisEI">
</audio>

 

Hope this helps!

Source: How to play google drive mp3 file using html audio tag?

Update 14 July 2024: The above method does not seem to work anymore.

The limits of our current machine learning concept

First, to be clear, I am not talking about the actual machine learning techniques and models like RNN, CNN, LSTM, and such. Rather, I am talking about the bigger concept being machine learning (including deep learning) in general.

Our current concept of machine learning involves training a model based on some set of data. There is a "ground truth" in the training process. This is not a problem when trying to differentiate between a cat and a dog, or to recognize the letters of the English alphabet. These data sets have distinct and discrete categories.

But our world is not all black and white.

For example, a matchmaking app that uses past data of couples to recommend potential partners. Based on a list of attributes, the model learns what kind of people pair up. It then uses that model to recommend partners to singles. But to the person receiving the recommendation, is this the partner that he or she really wants? What if the model has not taken into account certain attributes? What if the model has assigned weights that are actually different from the target person's? After all, each person is unique, and the attribute space can be extremely large if we keep breaking it down.

 

What happens when our choices become those recommended by a machine? Instead of opening up our options, are we instead confining them to whatever is the limit of the model being used by the machine? Instead of fitting training data to a model, will we end up fitting humanity to a model's limited data space?

This question is always there in the realm of what we call the arts. The non-technical part of our lives. This includes language, which is a major realm of machine learning research. Two main areas are research in machine translation and text generation. But... there is no "right" answer in these realms. "I love you" can be translated as "愛している", but it can also be "月がきれいですね" if you really consider the entire cultural and literary context. But we are creating models that come up with the "right" answers, which in such cases, usually means selecting the best out of several possibilities. Eventually, as we keep selecting a single "right" answer, will we end up reinforcing the model to narrow its selection to that single "right" answer? Will we enter a self-fulfilling reinforcement loop that actually narrows our options, our creativity? Will we end up with translated texts that follow a certain style and uses only certain words and expressions? Will we end up generating texts that follow a certain fixed pattern?

And language shapes the way we think. We can have great ideas, but we can only express them, communicate them to others, through words. The words we can use, then, naturally limits what we can express. We can think, but a thought that cannot be manifested in the physical world remains confined within our own. Will our reliance on AI in the realm of language end up limiting the human mind?

As the character John Keating said in the movie Dead Poets Society, "We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for."

Will our reliance on AI end up sustaining life but not make it worth living for?

79th anniversary of attack on Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, 79 years later.

Pearl Harbor dead remembered in ceremony shrunk by pandemic

Each day, there are fewer people who can talk about their experiences of the war.

Violet Evergarden the Movie is a story about guilt

No one can be wrong to call the Violet Evergarden series as a story about love. Of course, I think it is about love not in the narrow sense of romantic love, but in the broader sense of love between two persons spanning a variety of relationships. The entire series (one TV series and two movies) portray a wider range of human emotions than the romantic love between two persons.

But the theme of guilt is also very prominently featured in Violet Evergarden the Movie. Gilbert's guilt for using Violet as a tool of war was part of the story in the original light novel, but because Gilbert was not featured heavily in the TV series, the theme of guilt only came to be prominently featured this time in the movie, when Gilbert becomes one of the key characters. (There is also Diethard's guilt about pushing everything, like carrying on the family traditional, to Gilbert.)

(Picture source: Violet Evergarden official Twitter)

We have all done things which makes us feel guilty. It is how we deal with guilt that differs from person to person. Some are able to put it aside, some continue to dwell over it. And sometimes, it helps to have someone else, something else, to be an impetus for accepting guilt. To accept that the past cannot be changed, but our own choices and actions can make a difference in the future.

This was touched on in the TV series, when Violet eventually realizes that her actions during the war had resulted in so many deaths which cannot be undone. But her colleagues at C.H. Postal Company helped her overcome that guilt, helping her to realize that the people she had killed will no longer return to life, but her actions today and tomorrow will help change the lives of others.

I think this experience was what helped Violet understand Gilbert's guilt. She understood that Gilbert feels guilt for using her as a tool of war, for being the cause of her guilt. In turn, she is the cause of his guilt. And because she understood that they are the cause of each other's guilt, she convinced herself that Gilbert was right, and they should not be together. Both Gilbert, who is very good at being rational and controlling his emotions from his life in the army, and Violet allowed their rational minds to suppress their emotional hearts.

 

(Picture source: Violet Evergarden official Twitter)

Which makes their reunion all the more dramatic. Since it is the emotional hearts who managed to break through the rational minds. It shows the depth of their love for each other, a love so strong it can overcome the guilt of being the cause of each other's guilt.

 

(Picture source: Violet Evergarden official Twitter)

Daisy also learnt how to deal with her guilt for always being so harsh on her mother. Yuris finally dealt with his guilt for treating his friend so coldly. Daisy learnt to do so through her journey in pursuit of Violet. Yuris learnt to do so based on the advice from Violet.

Sometimes, all we need is someone or something to help us deal with guilt.

(I realized that I have been writing so much about Violet Evergarden, I decided to create a label for posts related to the Violet Evergarden series. But I can't really say I am a fan of the series, since I know of someone who has watched the movie 57 times as of December 4, 2020... 57 times in less than three months since the movie started showing in cinemas.)

My overall thoughts on Violet Evergarden The Movie

Events:

First cast greeting event for Violet Evergarden the Movie

Violet Evergarden the Movie: Cast greeting event to thank fans

Production staff event at screening of Violet Evergarden the Movie

Letter of appreciation from Violet Evergarden's author Akatsuki Kana

Post on Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021

Post on Sumire Philharmonic Orchestra's Violet Evergarden (unofficial) orchestra concert

 

Translations of short stories:

Gilbert Bougainvillea and the Fleeting Dream (unofficial translation of "ギルベルト・ブーゲンビリアと儚い夢")

Violet Evergarden short stories: "Logbook entry" and "Diary entry" (unofficial translation)

The Starry Night and the Lonely Two (unofficial translation of 星降りの夜とさみしいふたり)

Diethard Bougainvillea's If (unofficial translation of ディートフリート・ブーゲンビリアIf) 

The Tailor and the Auto-Memories Doll (unofficial translation of 仕立て屋と自動手記人形)
 

Tellsis (Nunkish) translation:

Decoding the Violet Evergarden postcard

Translating the message card from Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021

Last line of Violet's final letter to Gilbert

My Tellsis language translator in Flutter that runs on Windows, Linux, and Android

My (old) Python script for translating to and from Tellsis language (Nunkish)

 

Insights on the movie:

Was Ekarte Island based on Folegandros?

Touching scenes in Violet Evergarden the Movie

Violet Evergarden the Movie is a story about guilt

Article about story consistency/inconsistency in Violet Evergarden the Movie

 

Audio commentary notes:

Production staff

Voice actors

Music staff

Audio commentary notes for TV series

 

Violet Evergarden TV anime series

 

All posts related to Violet Evergarden.

Letter of appreciation from Violet Evergarden's author Akatsuki Kana

This is the letter from author Akatsuki Kana to fans, a part of which was read out during the recent talk event.

(Source: Violet Evergarden the Movie official site)

I have taken the liberty to translate it into English for fans.

---------------------------------------------------

Thank you for watching Violet Evergarden the Movie.

C.H. Postal Company will be delivering this letter after it is sealed. I hope it arrives safely. It is snowing now in this northern part of the world, and I am worried the letter may get wet and cannot be read. Still, it is an experienced postman that I am handing this letter to, so things should be fine.

I am surprised to hear that so many people have been watching the movie. I am really happy. Thank you! It seems that this movie has become a part of the viewers' lives.

Watching a movie is an experience and takes up the precious time of viewers. Traveling to a cinema, and watching the names of the production staff on the credit roll. It may be easy to write with words, but it is actually not that simple.

And for it to be a long running hit, this can only be achieved by the chain reaction of viewers. It is a miracle that only happens after viewers gradually spread the word around, telling others "It was a good movie" and "Watch it and tell me what you think."

Thank you for this chain of kindness. I offer my utmost gratitude to you...

... Sorry, I really want to write more words of appreciation, but the postman from C.H. Postal Company is looking over my shoulder at the letter while he waits.

... He just told me it is almost time and I need to seal the letter. He is impatient and I want to let him go back on time, so I shall end the letter here.

But just one final word. I hope the wonderful moment that happened to Violet will also occur in your life.

Sincerely,

Akatsuki Kana

Production staff event at screening of Violet Evergarden the Movie

Update 21 Dec, 2020: Official report from Kyoto Animation on this event has been released.

スタッフトーク付き上映会＜新宿ピカデリー＞オフィシャルレポート

The official report is not a full transcript. For example, it does not report the part about Evan Call getting his then-girlfriend (now-wife) to help him read the novel. Director Ishidate also mentioned during the event that he forgot to mention the issue of 3D modeling of Leiden during the previous event, when the 3D staff was present.

In the official report, as an afternote, Suzuki confirmed that the written words in Violet's word were first translated from the original Japanese to English, then from English to another language (not specified, but we know it is Tamil), and finally, some of the more common letters are swapped. 

----------------------------------

 

After watching Violet Evergarden the Movie six times, the other day, Kyoto Animation announced that there will be a event on December 3, 2020 where the production staff will talk about behind-the-scenes of the entire series.

This is a good reason to catch the movie a seventh time.

As luck would have it, December 3, 2020 is also the day when the movie opens back home in Singapore, so in a way, I was watching the same movie as fans back home.

The last time I watched the movie was at a Dolby Cinema, and my oh my, it made me realize the difference when I watched the movie again at a normal cinema. The colors aren't as vibrant, the images aren't as sharp, and the sound not as defined. However, I was still weeping throughout the movie. Some things don't change.

The screening was followed by the production staff coming on stage to talk about behind-the-scenes episodes about the entire series.

 

Director Ishidate Taichi, composer Evan Call, world concept Suzuki Takaaki, producer Hatta Shinichiro, and music producer Saito Shigeru were the ones at the event today. Music producer Saito played the role of MC to drive the event, asking questions to the other four as well as reading out prepared comments from screenplay writer Yoshida Reiko and author Akatsuki Kana.

It started with director Ishidate talking about how impressed with the original work. He and producer Hatta were both on the judging panel for the Kyoto Animation Award, and director Ishidate gave the work top score and a double endorsement, as if trying to tell the rest that he wants to be the one directing if the work is made into an anime. Producer Hatta said he recalled it was like an unanimous decision that Violet Evergarden would get the Grand Prize. He also mentioned that director Ishidate had to rewrite the anime proposal a few times because they sounded more like reviews of the work rather than a proper proposal. They also mentioned that the series was planned for an international audience from the start. They felt the setting and story would appeal to people outside Japan too, so they started by allowing people to freely propose songs for the commercial. This eventually resulted in the song Violet Snow, and the commercial that ended with "The anime project is in the works" in eight languages.

Director Ishidate revealed that it was screenplay writer Yoshida Reiko who came up with the idea to sequence the anime series in a way that introduces Violet and how she became an Auto Memories Doll. The light novel starts with Violet already an established Doll, but Yoshida felt there is a need to properly introduce viewers to this idea. Director Ishidate was originally against the idea because he loved the original work, but I guess we should be glad that Yoshida got her way.

Next up was world concept Suzuki Takaaki's involvement. Yoshida roped him in to help with the world concept, and he was actually quite surprised to be working with Kyoto Animation. You can see the pains he went to... they showed a few of the concepts he drew up, including a map of the continent with the climates of each region, the locations of key cities, and even their average temperatures and when the rainy season starts... wow. He also had to design a map of Leiden, and the map eventually ended with almost every street having its own name. Director Ishidate even got the 3D modeling staff to turn the map into a full 3D model. Which was used only ONCE in the anime (during Episode 1). He said he is sorry for making the 3D staff do all that work but only using the model once... but that 3D model helped them visualize the stories they are trying to write and portray, so it was a useful production tool. Suzuki also mentioned that EVERY book, letter, newspaper, etc. in the anime can be decoded. Including the books that were used by Gilbert to teach Violet to read. And I guess that means the books on the sea that Violet used in writing the poem for the sea festival shown in the movie.

Then the topic went to music, and music producer Saito talked about how they made the song Violet Snow. Composer Evan Call was roped in a bit later, just before they did the second commercial for the light novels. Evan said he wanted to impress the staff by bringing a music piece with him on the first meeting, so he had to read the novel. Which was difficult because it was a book, not in digital form (which can be voiced using text-to-speech software), so he struggled with the kanji characters. He got his then-girlfriend (now wife) to help him read the novel, which he managed to finish halfway before he needed to work on the music for the meeting. The first piece he created was the theme which eventually became used for the commercial as well as the anime series as the main theme. Evan also mentioned that the music for the anime was recorded in a studio in Tokyo, which was adequate for a TV series, but lack the depth for a theater screening. So the music for the movie was recorded in Germany, which has huge studios that allow recording of music with the right amount of depth.

The staff also talked about visiting locations for ideas. Suzuki felt that a European setting was perfect for the story, but Ishidate and Yoshida felt there should be some Oriental element to it. Plus a European setting won't really work for Leiden, which is in the south and European buildings would be ovens in that climate. So he designed Leiden with a more colonial look--European-style buildings with larger windows for the hotter climate. They visited Hokkaido which has quite some buildings in such a style. They also talked about visiting Germany for inspiration. During their visit to Germany, the script for the Gaiden movie had already been written and they used that trip to get inspiration for that too, such as the setting for the dance scene. The impression I got was that the entire series--TV anime, Gaiden movie, and the finale movie--was all planned out even before the TV series aired.

It was also mentioned that in the first commercial, the typewriter was drawn and animated by hand. The entire thing (which was like a second or two of time) took the artist (the best at KyoAni) an entire month. That was when director Ishidate decided that the typewriter should be done in 3D instead.

Saito also read out a comment from Yoshida thanking fans for their support, and an excerpt of a letter from author Akatsuki Kana. The full letter was released on Twitter and the movie's official site. My translation of the letter can be found here.

『劇場版 #ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン』ロングラン感謝に寄せて、原作者・暁佳奈さんからお手紙を頂きました✉ スタッフトークでは一部抜粋してお届けしました！#VioletEvergarden pic.twitter.com/BaUoP9YKTY

— 「ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン」公式 (@Violet_Letter) December 3, 2020

The event ended with an announcement that there will be a live concert in Omiya on February 6, 2021.

 

I am glad I made my way to this event. I had attended the first cast greeting event as well as the second one, but both were live broadcasts (viewed at the local theater) of the actual events in Kyoto. I didn't manage to go for the third event, which was also in Kyoto but not broadcast live. This time, the event (fourth one) was slightly nearer (in Shinjuku, Tokyo) so it was within reasonable travel distance. Yes, it was more than an hour away by train, and yes, I got back after midnight, but I am really glad I went.

Now to wait for the Blu-ray release... and probably get a 4K TV too. 😅

By the way, director Ishidate did not talk about the last line of Violet's final letter to Gilbert, but I think that was because he already gave the answer at the previous event in Kyoto.

My overall thoughts on Violet Evergarden The Movie

Events:

First cast greeting event for Violet Evergarden the Movie

Violet Evergarden the Movie: Cast greeting event to thank fans

Production staff event at screening of Violet Evergarden the Movie

Letter of appreciation from Violet Evergarden's author Akatsuki Kana

Post on Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021

Post on Sumire Philharmonic Orchestra's Violet Evergarden (unofficial) orchestra concert

 

Translations of short stories:

Gilbert Bougainvillea and the Fleeting Dream (unofficial translation of "ギルベルト・ブーゲンビリアと儚い夢")

Violet Evergarden short stories: "Logbook entry" and "Diary entry" (unofficial translation)

The Starry Night and the Lonely Two (unofficial translation of 星降りの夜とさみしいふたり)

Diethard Bougainvillea's If (unofficial translation of ディートフリート・ブーゲンビリアIf) 

The Tailor and the Auto-Memories Doll (unofficial translation of 仕立て屋と自動手記人形)
Laura and the Auto-Memories Doll (unofficial translation of ローラと自動手記人形)

Flowers and the Auto-Memories Doll (unofficial translation of 花と自動手記人形)

 

Tellsis (Nunkish) translation:

Decoding the Violet Evergarden postcard

Translating the message card from Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021

Last line of Violet's final letter to Gilbert

My Tellsis language translator in Flutter that runs on Windows, Linux, and Android

My (old) Python script for translating to and from Tellsis language (Nunkish)

 

Insights on the movie:

Was Ekarte Island based on Folegandros?

Touching scenes in Violet Evergarden the Movie

Violet Evergarden the Movie is a story about guilt

Article about story consistency/inconsistency in Violet Evergarden the Movie

 

Audio commentary notes:

Production staff

Voice actors

Music staff

Audio commentary notes for TV series

 

Violet Evergarden TV anime series

 

All posts related to Violet Evergarden.

Violet Evergarden's background in the light novel

The first meeting between Violet Evergarden and Major Gilbert Bougainvillea is described in the last chapter of volume one of the Violet Evergarden light novel.

 

(Picture source: Violet Evergarden Wikia)

The anime series did not really expand a lot on how Gilbert's brother, Diethard, came upon Violet and subsequently gave her to Gilbert. It focused more on what happened after that.

In the light novel, Diethard found Violet on a deserted island after his ship ran aground. He and his men were surprised to see a young girl on the island, and when one of his men tried to rape Violet, she killed him. This surprised Diethard even more, and when Diethard ordered all his men to kill her, Violet mistook it as an order for her to kill all his men. Which she proceeded to do. In the end, Diethard was stranded alone with Violet on the island, who followed him as if waiting for her next order. It seemed she did not understand words, but somehow understood the word "kill". When he eventually made his way back, he brought her with him. Diethard kept her close because she seemed to listen to his orders, and he was afraid of her. Afraid of what she might do if he was not the one giving orders. He also mentioned that so far, eight men have died trying to get in her bed.

 

Diethard gave Violet to Gilbert as a gift to celebrate Gilbert being promoted to major. Well, at least that was what he said. But it was actually because Gilbert was afraid of handling Violet, and wanted to be rid of her. Violet was probably around 10 years old at that time; Diethard mentioned that he can't really handle things once she grows older and starts having her period and stuff. At that time, Gilbert was 25 years old (the light novel mentioned he started fighting when 17 years old, and had been in campaigns since then for 8 years). I guess that means they are about 15 years apart in age.

 

Gilbert took over Violet from Diethard because he was partly not happy with how his older brother treated the young girl so roughly. At the same time, he sensed that his brother was truly afraid of Violet. He himself saw Violet kill five men (in a mini demo staged by Diethard when he presented Violet to Gilbert). Gilbert was also afraid of what might happen if he passed Violet to someone else; his brother had warned him that putting Violet in an orphanage may end up with a bloodbath at the orphanage, given the killing machine that she was. In the end, he decided that the best way to make sure Violet is cared for without endangering others is to keep Violet with him. And the only way to do that while he is fighting a war is to find a way to enroll Violet into the army.

 

To convince his army superiors to allow a young girl into his unit, he got them to allow him to stage a demonstration of Violet's fighting prowess. Hodgins met Violet for the first time just before the demonstration was to start and witnessed the entire thing. Violet killed 10 men in the demonstration, stunning everyone watching the demonstration. Two things were clear: she is highly skilled in killing, and she only listens to orders from Gilbert. Gilbert's superiors in the army decided to give Gilbert his own special forces unit, for the purpose of employing the "weapon" that he has. On the night before the unit was to set off on its first expedition, Gilbert named the "weapon" Violet, after the goddess of a flower which appeared in myths. It was here that Violet spoke her first word: major (Gilbert's rank). Also, Violet was never officially enrolled in the army. She was categorised as a weapon, to be used by Gilbert.

(Note: I have been trying to find this reference about the goddess. The flower violet is associated with Ares and Aphrodite. I guess Gilbert may be drawing reference to Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, and not Ares the god of war. But it would be a fitting reference both ways. The beauty of Aphrodite, and the destruction of Ares. If anyone knows a more fitting goddess and myth for this reference, please leave a comment!)

After the war, the Evergarden family took Violet in, and she lives with them in their mansion while commuting to work at C.H. Postal Company.

Consolidating the key facts:

- Violet was living alone on a deserted island.

- Violet was around 10 years old when Diethard found her and eventually gave her to Gilbert.

- Gilbert was 25 years old when he was given Violet.

- Gilbert took Violet in to both make sure she is looked after as well as to make sure she does not endanger others.

- Violet was a killing machine, having killed five men in close combat during the "demonstration" staged by Diethard and 10 men in the "demonstration" staged by Gilbert.

- The first word that Violet is known to have uttered is "major".

As you can see, this background can be slightly (at the very least) problematic if it was actually adapted into anime. I am really glad KyoAni decided to make changes to the story for the anime adaptation. The light novel makes for great reading, but certain scenes are better left as words than visuals.

Related post: Weapons carried by light novel Violet Evergarden

Note: As I am still reading the light novels, this post will be updated as and when I happen upon more information.

Side note: Hodgins remained a major at the end of the war. I wonder why KyoAni promoted him to lieutenant colonel in the anime adaptation.

Concatenate two MP4 files using ffmpeg

Note to self: to concatenate two (or more) MP4 files using ffmpeg, using the following.

First, create a list of files to concatenate:
echo file file1.mp4 >  mylist.txt
echo file file2.mp4 >> mylist.txt
echo file file3.mp4 >> mylist.txt

The contents of mylist.txt should be something like this:

file file1.mp4

file file2.mp4

file file3.mp4 

For long filenames, I think they can be included within single quotation marks:

file 'file name 1.mp4'

file 'file name 2.mp4'

file 'file name 3.mp4' 

Then, run ffmpeg to concatenate the list of files:
ffmpeg -f concat -i mylist.txt -c copy output.mp4

The list of files should contain the files to be joined together in order.

Source: StackOverflow

Weapons carried by light novel Violet Evergarden

After watching the anime series and the movies, I am now reading (slowly) the Violet Evergarden light novels. Still in volume one, which is covered quite extensively in the anime series. Volume one has the stories of Oscar the playwright, Anne and her mother Clara, Aiden the soldier, and Leon the astronomy scholar. Not covered in the anime series is Edward the prisoner. The last chapter of volume one is about Major Gilbert.

While working as an Auto Memories Doll, the anime Violet is not depicted as carrying weapons, but in the light novel, she is well armed. The reason being that she was told it is dangerous for a woman to travel all over the world alone, which is why she carries weapons for self-defence. For example, Ann saw a firearm in Violet's suitcase. In the story of Aiden the soldier, Violet was depicted as fighting off Aiden's attackers with a huge battleaxe. In a later part of the light novel, it was revealed that the battleaxe is named Witchcraft and has a chain attached to its shaft for attacking from range.

(Picture source: Violet Evergarden Wikia page on Aiden Field)

In the story of Edward the prisoner, it was revealed that Violet is very very well armed. In addition to whatever she may have in her suitcase, she carries weapons on her body. She has knives hidden under the insoles of her boots. A pistol is strapped to her thigh. Another pistol is kept in her jacket. Hidden in her hair are three metal spikes for stabbing at neck arteries. And finally, she herself is a weapon, but this was made known in the anime (and 2020 movie) too.

Reading the light novel, it is apparent that the anime adaptation (anime series and two movies) is quite different from the light novels. Some stories from the light novels were more or less adapted into anime as they were. Some parts were changed (like the train attack, which was the reunion between Violet and Gilbert in the light novel but not so in the anime series). Some parts were totally changed. For example, in the light novels, after their reunion, Violet continued to work at CH Postal Company and traveled extensively. In the anime, though, she moved to Ekarte Island and stayed there, taking over the post office work while continuing to work as an Auto Memories Doll for the people of the island. Once I finish the light novels, I will try to give a proper breakdown on the differences between the light novels and the anime adaptations.

List of Violet Evergarden short stories (and light novels)

Or you can wait for KyoAni to commission me to do a full translation of the light novels. 😅

List of Violet Evergarden short stories (and light novels)

List of Violet Evergarden publications

My overall thoughts on Violet Evergarden The Movie

Events:

First cast greeting event for Violet Evergarden the Movie

Violet Evergarden the Movie: Cast greeting event to thank fans

Production staff event at screening of Violet Evergarden the Movie

Letter of appreciation from Violet Evergarden's author Akatsuki Kana

Post on Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021

Post on Sumire Philharmonic Orchestra's Violet Evergarden (unofficial) orchestra concert

 

Translations of short stories:

Gilbert Bougainvillea and the Fleeting Dream (unofficial translation of "ギルベルト・ブーゲンビリアと儚い夢")

Violet Evergarden short stories: "Logbook entry" and "Diary entry" (unofficial translation)

The Starry Night and the Lonely Two (unofficial translation of 星降りの夜とさみしいふたり)

Diethard Bougainvillea's If (unofficial translation of ディートフリート・ブーゲンビリアIf) 

The Tailor and the Auto-Memories Doll (unofficial translation of 仕立て屋と自動手記人形)
 

Tellsis (Nunkish) translation:

Decoding the Violet Evergarden postcard

Translating the message card from Violet Evergarden Orchestra Concert 2021

Last line of Violet's final letter to Gilbert

My Tellsis language translator in Flutter that runs on Windows, Linux, and Android

My (old) Python script for translating to and from Tellsis language (Nunkish)

 

Insights on the movie:

Was Ekarte Island based on Folegandros?

Touching scenes in Violet Evergarden the Movie

Violet Evergarden the Movie is a story about guilt

Article about story consistency/inconsistency in Violet Evergarden the Movie

 

Audio commentary notes:

Production staff

Voice actors

Music staff

Audio commentary notes for TV series

 

Violet Evergarden TV anime series

 

All posts related to Violet Evergarden.

 

More homemade Violet Evergarden bookmarks and book cover

There are official Violet Evergarden bookmarks and book cover on Kyoto Animation's online store. I even placed my order for them, but due to the flood of orders, it looks like it will be quite a while before they ship out my order.

Meanwhile, I made my own book cover and bookmarks.

And while waiting for the order to arrive, I decided to make more... 😅

The book cover, which is actually just a piece of A4 paper printed with some scenes and other visuals from Violet Evergarden.

This is how it looks when wrapped around a bunkobon. One of the books is a Violet Evergarden light novel, the other is a short story take was handed out when I watch Violet Evergarden the Movie.

These are the bookmarks, before being cut out from the A4 card.

And here they are, cut to size. I even punched a hole in one of them and tied a deep red ribbon to it (not shown here).

 

Actually, I faced an issue with printing. I created the templates using a JPEG file sized to A4 at 150 dpi. But whenever I printed the files, there was always a small margin. It turns out that in Linux, the CUPS printer driver has various paper settings, and selecting A4 paper size for me defaults to a hard-coded margin that cannot be removed. It may even scale the picture to fit within that border, resulting in inaccurate sizes after printing. But there is a "A4.borderless" papersize (I think it appeared after I installed gutenprint) which removes that border. I guess I will be more careful from now to make sure I don't waste paper. Especially if the picture size is critical.

 

My review of Violet Evergarden the Movie (2020) can be found here.

Update November 29, 2020: I used a piece of B5 laminating film to laminate six bookmarks, then cut them to size. Looks so much nicer now!

 

What makes Episode 10 of Violet Evergarden special

Recently, I wrote about Episode 10 of Violet Evergarden. Recently, Episode 5 of The Day I Became a God (神様になった日) aired with a similar concept. In Episode 10 of Violet Evergarden, a dying mother wrote letters to her young daughter (7 years old), with a letter to be delivered each year on her daughter's birthday for 50 years. In Episode 5 of The Day I Became a God, a dying mother recorded a video message for her daughter, one message to be shown each year until she turns 18 (she was 8 years old at the time her mother died).

Here is the excerpt from Episode 10 of Violet Evergarden.

Here is the excerpt from Episode 5 of The Day I Became a God.

The basic concept is the same: a message from the dying mother every year on the daughter's birthday, for many years after the mother is dead. This concept itself is touching enough.

But what makes Episode 10 of Violet Evergarden special is the story of the writing of those letters. Clara is the dying mother, and Ann is the daughter. Ann knew her mother was dying, but she could not understand why her mother was spending so much time writing letters. Time which she could be spending with Ann instead. Time that Ann wanted to spend with her mother, because Ann knew there was little time left. Ann even asked Clara if there was someone even more important to Clara than Ann, because if not, why is she so bent on writing those letters instead of spending time with Ann. It is this part of the story that adds so much more depth to the concept of "a message on every birthday". This inner conflict in the dying mother Clara, who wanted to spend time with her daughter Ann, yet could not do so because she needed to spend time writing those letters to that same daughter. Ann was jealous of herself, yet she did not know it at that time.

The other beauty of the letters from Clara to Ann: Clara wrote each letter imaging how Ann would be like at each year in the future. Clara, who would never get to see Ann grow up with her own eyes, had to imagine what she would see if she got to live. 😭

Anyway, here's the first 10 minutes of Violet Evergarden the Movie, made available by KyoAni, which references Episode 10.

Episode 10 of Violet Evergarden is in a class of its own.

Homemade Violet Evergarden bookmarks

Following from the book cover, I printed out some bookmarks using scenes from Violet Evergarden.

I kind of like the washed look when a 50% white transparent layer is placed on top of the pictures. At normal, the colours are more prominent but you will need to print on special inkjet paper to get the best effect.

I printed them on postcards and then cut them out. I will need to work on the printer settings, though, to get the correct. It seems to be doing some weird scaling on its own.

My review of Violet Evergarden the Movie (2020) can be found here.

Limiting GPU memory use in Tensorflow

I am interested in deep learning, and even built my own PC recently with a GTX 1660 Super card so that I can do a bit of simple deep learning. But as I use the same PC for other stuff, I can't have the GPU using all the memory for deep learning. So here is what I do in Tensorflow to limit the amount of memory being used.

import tensorflow as tf

gpus = tf.config.experimental.list_physical_devices('GPU')
if gpus:
  try:
    # Currently, memory growth needs to be the same across GPUs
    for gpu in gpus:
      tf.config.experimental.set_memory_growth(gpu, True)
    logical_gpus = tf.config.experimental.list_logical_devices('GPU')
    print(len(gpus), "Physical GPUs,", len(logical_gpus), "Logical GPUs")
  except RuntimeError as e:
    # Memory growth must be set before GPUs have been initialized
    print(e)

MEMORY_LIMIT=4096
gpus = tf.config.experimental.list_physical_devices('GPU')
if gpus:
  # Restrict TensorFlow to only allocate 1GB of memory on the first GPU
  try:
    tf.config.experimental.set_virtual_device_configuration(
        gpus[0], [tf.config.experimental.VirtualDeviceConfiguration(memory_limit=MEMORY_LIMIT)])
    logical_gpus = tf.config.experimental.list_logical_devices('GPU')
    print(len(gpus), "Physical GPUs,", len(logical_gpus), "Logical GPUs")
  except RuntimeError as e:
    # Virtual devices must be set before GPUs have been initialized
    print(e)

This sets memory use to grow as required, and limits the maximum memory use to whatever MEMORY_LIMIT (in megabytes) is set to.

 

Anyway, the 1660 Super is not exactly the best card for deep learning. The new RTX 30xx cards are definitely better and they are cheaper (relative to RTX 20xx cards). For those who can afford it, I think the RTX 30xx cards would be better for any serious work in deep learning. I am just using this budget build for my own learning.

Violet Evergarden bunkobon book cover

I realised I don't have a lot of bunkobon book covers, so I decided to make some of my own. The size is essentially A6, so a sheet of A4 paper is more than adequate to form a cover.

And what better way then to make a Violet Evergarden-themed book cover of my own?

For the illustrations, I used what I could find on the official movie site, anime series site, and Twitter account.

Then, it was just a matter of selecting the illustrations, placing them on a PowerPoint presentation sized to A4. Finally, I placed a 50% transparent white box over the illustrations to tone down the colours, making it easier to print and also less eye-catching. Saves ink too! 😅

And here is the result, wrapped around volume 1 of the Violet Evergarden light novel.

I think it turned out quite nice. Maybe I should make a few more with different designs. After all, there are four volumes to the light novel series. 😅

My review of Violet Evergarden the Movie (2020) can be found here.

Why I still use traditional news media

Today, we can get news feeds which gives us articles from the Internet that may be of interest to us. For example, unlike tradition newspapers which have gone online, Google News can show us a wide selection of news articles that is not limited to a certain outlet. Which sounds really great, until you think about it a bit deeper.

First, Google News is a free service. But it is not actually free, since it is actually sustained by ads. Ads from the articles that you visit. Which also means that, most likely, it is showing you articles that have ads. Not really a problem, except this means that articles without ads may somehow get "censored" from your feeds. So you are not going to see those great academic articles on university sites unless you scroll down all the way to the end of the feed (if it shows up at all).

Another thing about such news feeds is that they want you to read the articles, because it generates ad revenue. So they will select articles that you are likely to read. This means that while, technically, the news feed can gather articles widely from many many sources, you are only going to see a limited range of articles on your news feed, based on what you have clicked on before. Instead of widening our perspective with the vast amount of information available on the Internet, we may end up limiting the information we receive into a very narrow perspective.

Compare this with traditional news media, which seeks to provide a wide range of news. We can skim through the newspapers looking at the article titles and only read what interest us. Maybe we only read five articles out of the 200 found in the newspaper. But at least we will be given the headlines. We may actually discover something interesting outside what we usually read. Because it is there. Unlike a news feed, which may contain 2,000 articles, but all of them based on what we have read before.

This is why I continue to visit Japan Today. It has news related mainly to Japan and a mix of world news. I used to read it because my mentor was active in posting comments on articles, but I find the selection of articles quite fitting for my needs. Sometimes, I discover articles outside what I usually read.

And that is also why I turn on the news at night. I may not be paying attention to it, but once in a while, a piece of news may pop up that is interesting to me, and I stop what I am doing to watch it.

There is something to note for traditional news media about the way they select articles, but that is a topic for another day. Until then, happy reading/watching/listening to the news! 😉