0
epifanes actually posted pictures of his clear file but by the looks of things I've got a better camera! I love getting mail. Interestingly, until 7 days ago I'd never received any international mail, ever. Last week, I received two items... one from the West and one from the East. I don't know if the Western sender wants her name to be given but she sent me an extremely well wrapped copy of GAM's Daisuki Rakuten Eagles out of pure generosity. I've already thanked her but it's just not enough so I'll let it be known here as well that I'm eternally grateful. Not that writing that makes it even but she's a wonderful generous girl. 
From Tuesday onwards I was away visiting family but I came home yesterday (which was Sunday when I started writing this!) and waded through the pile of mail at my front door because my parents happen to be out of the country. That's when I got my Eastern mail. From Japan... 
That would be the clear file, especially as the back says Doki Miki Night...
I don't know how to define honour is but I know what it is. However, hardly anyone means that type of honour when they use the word. This is nothing about being proud or egotistical; this is about humility. It's about being honoured, the feeling of gratefulness towards somebody who has perhaps helped you in some way. Getting my first mail read on Doki Miki Night was a huge honour already. A lot of stuff gets sent in and to be picked out is something special. It got my adrenal glands working like never before and my fingers were buzzing. No lie! Even more, getting it read while Aya was a guest is an even bigger honour seeing as I'd have to admit that I'm still a bigger Aya fan than Miki fan but only by the virtue that I discovered them in that order and that Miki is still hiding some of her potential. Even more than that, getting a clear file is a stupendous honour and being, to my knowledge at least, the only person in Britain with one of these makes me feel kind of special. It's extremely big-headed, I know, but it's a great feeling which I doubt is limited to just me because a few others in the English speaking Hello! Project community have had the honour as well. However, I did have an epiphany when I got my mail read which I'm not sure everyone did. I realised that the world really is a very small place and that everyone really is connected through all that six degrees of separation stuff. The second thing is, I sent in my mail expecting it to be throw on the pile of those to be disposed of but I still sent it in anyway. The moral of that is so terribly clichéd but you never know unless you try. If you never try, you'll never know...
Now I'm going to get religious now, or at least contra-religious. What I've said well and truly violates the Second Commandment (First if you're Catholic), which is the one about idols. In a way, I've also violated the Tenth Commandment (the coveting one) when I saw epifanes got his and wanted into the club, but I think there must be some perspective here... Back when God gave the little man Moses the two stone tablets on Mt Sinai, the world was a truly different place. For a start, nowadays you'd communicate the Decalogue as an email with the subject "10 comandments" because there isn't a spell check facility there. Also, back then Fujimoto Miki and Matsuura Aya didn't exist.
I'm so going to hell! Perhaps it's a small price to pay for the euphoria of being connected, not necessarily to J-pop idols, but to two total strangers who make me very happy.
Some might think this will be a little on the sad side but I've framed it and were it not for the fact that my house is so well built that my walls are tougher than drill bits, it would be hanging on my wall. As it stands, it's just framed and sitting on my table, just so I can feel special and happy whenever I look at it.
But my obligation right now is the last line of the letter that comes with the file:
今後とも楽しいメッセージをどしどしお寄せください。
"Please keep on sending in fun messages". They don't have to ask me twice!
UPDATE: I can drill a hole 1 inch deep into my wall which is 1 inch too short for a nail. However, I managed to attach a drawing pin/thumb tack to the hook on the back of the frame and secure it into the wall. It's pretty secure as well. To think I wanted to use a 2 inch nail when a 1/4 inch drawing pin is more than adequate. There's a hole in my wall but obviously the frame covers it now.
From Tuesday onwards I was away visiting family but I came home yesterday (which was Sunday when I started writing this!) and waded through the pile of mail at my front door because my parents happen to be out of the country. That's when I got my Eastern mail. From Japan... That would be the clear file, especially as the back says Doki Miki Night...
I don't know how to define honour is but I know what it is. However, hardly anyone means that type of honour when they use the word. This is nothing about being proud or egotistical; this is about humility. It's about being honoured, the feeling of gratefulness towards somebody who has perhaps helped you in some way. Getting my first mail read on Doki Miki Night was a huge honour already. A lot of stuff gets sent in and to be picked out is something special. It got my adrenal glands working like never before and my fingers were buzzing. No lie! Even more, getting it read while Aya was a guest is an even bigger honour seeing as I'd have to admit that I'm still a bigger Aya fan than Miki fan but only by the virtue that I discovered them in that order and that Miki is still hiding some of her potential. Even more than that, getting a clear file is a stupendous honour and being, to my knowledge at least, the only person in Britain with one of these makes me feel kind of special. It's extremely big-headed, I know, but it's a great feeling which I doubt is limited to just me because a few others in the English speaking Hello! Project community have had the honour as well. However, I did have an epiphany when I got my mail read which I'm not sure everyone did. I realised that the world really is a very small place and that everyone really is connected through all that six degrees of separation stuff. The second thing is, I sent in my mail expecting it to be throw on the pile of those to be disposed of but I still sent it in anyway. The moral of that is so terribly clichéd but you never know unless you try. If you never try, you'll never know...
Now I'm going to get religious now, or at least contra-religious. What I've said well and truly violates the Second Commandment (First if you're Catholic), which is the one about idols. In a way, I've also violated the Tenth Commandment (the coveting one) when I saw epifanes got his and wanted into the club, but I think there must be some perspective here... Back when God gave the little man Moses the two stone tablets on Mt Sinai, the world was a truly different place. For a start, nowadays you'd communicate the Decalogue as an email with the subject "10 comandments" because there isn't a spell check facility there. Also, back then Fujimoto Miki and Matsuura Aya didn't exist.
I'm so going to hell! Perhaps it's a small price to pay for the euphoria of being connected, not necessarily to J-pop idols, but to two total strangers who make me very happy.Some might think this will be a little on the sad side but I've framed it and were it not for the fact that my house is so well built that my walls are tougher than drill bits,
it would be hanging on my wall. As it stands, it's just framed and sitting on my table, just so I can feel special and happy whenever I look at it.
But my obligation right now is the last line of the letter that comes with the file:
今後とも楽しいメッセージをどしどしお寄せください。
"Please keep on sending in fun messages". They don't have to ask me twice!
UPDATE: I can drill a hole 1 inch deep into my wall which is 1 inch too short for a nail. However, I managed to attach a drawing pin/thumb tack to the hook on the back of the frame and secure it into the wall. It's pretty secure as well. To think I wanted to use a 2 inch nail when a 1/4 inch drawing pin is more than adequate. There's a hole in my wall but obviously the frame covers it now.
