Month: October 2021

Milestones, Turning Points, and Activity Updates – October 2021

So I took a three-day leave from my day job before this weekend ’cause I’ve been running myself ragged and have been needing to realign myself, and I happened to have quite the timing, so yeah, long weekend for me, yay~ What a good part of how I’d end the month, alright~ Praise and thanks be to God very much again, and may He keep on challenging and guiding me along with my fellow fools!

And speaking of breaks, I guess I’m on break from making them vlogs and meme vids, too. Either I’ve ran out of good ideas for now, or I recently realized that I’ve been really bad about making most, if not all, of them right now. My bet’s more on the latter, actually. So yeah, I’m not linking to that stuff this time, but you’re free to dig it up and roast me with it while I try to pull myself together better there (if I can actually pull myself together any better there, that is).

As for other stuff about ending this month, well, daily Rosary’s done, and then there’s All Hallows’/Saints’ Eve today, with the Day tomorrow being Holy Day of Obligation, so yeah. Oh, and I made some loopy reflections this month: one about marriage, and one about the need to ask God for what we need.

If you’re looking for loopier stuff, then there are the Lisa posts for this month: one where he goes too edgy again, and the Halloween special where we have a starkly different Lisa. But if you’re looking for more popular VTuber stuff, maybe you’ll have more fun with my English cover of Ina’s “VIOLET,” my English cover of teniwoha’s “Empress” (which has an official version by Calli, so I guess that counts?), and my English cover of IRyS’s “diorama.” And yes, you’ll be getting more English covers from me right now.

With all that said, as usual, honest constructive feedback is highly encouraged and will be highly appreciated.

IRyS – diorama – TOB English Cover

This is another impulse production, and this time, you can more clearly see that it is one. I mean, for one, I sang “wherever” instead of “whenever,” a translation error I didn’t notice until the last minute. And then there’s how I sang the bridge, especially “Yes, even so, this little light.” I figured out how I should’ve made it sound at the last minute, too. And I think I also messed up in recording “Now I say, let it glitter on until it starts to melt away.” There’s a bunch more to point out, I think, but hey, the point is that that’s what I get for trying to churn out this much this fast, and that I should be more forgiving to myself while still striving to improve more and more (especially if I got the meaning of the song right), hahaha… X”D

On the other hand, my quest to make English covers out of them holoEN original songs in Japanese continues with this song by holoEN VSinger IRyS, and I still have a lot of confidence about my lyric writing and musical vocal abilities. For one, I like the grand and fantastic vibes I worked up here. There’s also the playing around I did with the “I” and “we” in the choruses. And then there are those growl moments. Also, I’d like to send big thanks to Leanna for doing the audio engineering on this cover, and special mentions go to her enhancement of the grand and fantastic vibes and to her tuning in the final chorus!

And now, with even more encouragement to outdo me, here’s the mp3, and here’s the lyrics sheet. Please don’t forget to credit and link me if you’re gonna use my stuff, too!

And of course, fire away with honest constructive feedback!

Spooky Greetings from a Guy in a Nice Guy Costume(?)

Spooky Greetings from a Guy in a Nice Guy Costume(?)

some commentary on Lisa the Tearer by his manager, The Overlord Bear/Jem De Ocampo

Honestly, I find this refreshing. I just hope that that alternate Lisa isn’t having too much trouble there…

Previous Part: “On The Overlord Bear’s Passion for VTubing”

First Part: “Introducing Lisa the Tearer”

Continue reading “Spooky Greetings from a Guy in a Nice Guy Costume(?)” →

teniwoha – Empress – TOB English Cover

This is not a cover of a VTuber original, but Calli has her own official version of this song, which is a physical edition bonus track in her Your Mori. EP. And as far as I can see, Calli’s version feels more like a reward sneak peek into teniwoha’s NO BOY album for those appreciating his production enough to buy a physical version of the Calli EP he produced, especially considering how more polished the Vocaloid version featuring Rin is.

Now, assuming that I got the translation right, I find “Empress” a freaking thing of beauty telling a tale about beauty. I very much love how it goes from “My ugly self is out of my beautiful crush’s league” to “We’re not perfect, so I’ll love us even better.” And I felt daunted enough translating this very profound piece to seek a translation checker again, with this case featuring notable VTuber clipper Neko Mikuri, who took the time to humor my bugging, somehow thought my translation decent, and bore witness to me committing a basic English blunder with the utmost confidence. I think it was all worth it, though, and if there are any translation errors here, they’re all on me. So yeah, thanks very much again for the help, Neko!

As for the vocal work on this, well, my recording session for this further got me feeling the weight of my recently increased use of my voice, making me think that if I have to more frequently record myself singing right now, I should record for one song a week at most. I mean, I think the vocals I recorded here got some good emotional weight, and I’d like to thank Shigeru very much for emphasizing that in yet another instance of him as my audio engineer, but I also think that I could’ve recorded less strained and more beautiful vocals if I cared for my voice better at the time. Funny how I’m fussing this much over vocals for a song fussing over beauty, hahaha… X”D

But hey, what do you think? If you need some more time to think, then get the mp3 and the lyrics sheet while you’re at it! And please credit and link me if you’re gonna use my stuff!

And of course, please make sure that your feedback’s honest and constructive!

On The Overlord Bear’s Passion for VTubing

On The Overlord Bear’s Passion for VTubing

some commentary on Lisa the Tearer by his manager, The Overlord Bear/Jem De Ocampo

Renewed passion, to be more exact. So, who’s interested in backstage VTubers?

Previous Part: “Lisa the Tearable States the Obvious About Me Again”

First Part: “Introducing Lisa the Tearer”

Continue reading “On The Overlord Bear’s Passion for VTubing” →

Ina’nis Ninomae – VIOLET – TOB English Cover

If Cover’s looking for lyricists who can write in English for hololive English, then I’d like to present this as another sample for that…though I don’t know how well my translyric writing skills would translate (heh) into my original lyric writing skills.

So yeah, my covers of VTuber songs are still all holos, and this new addition is the totally human girl with the totally normal name that is Ina’nis Ninomae. My voice is definitely not as comfy as hers, but I did enjoy going and lower and softer for this song with a composition by seibin and original lyrics by LUMINA. And speaking of my vocal work for this, I think the hardest parts of the vocal work here are the choral parts. I mean, for one, you’ll notice that I skimped on the bridge choir.

As for how I wrote the lyrics for this, well, I decided to write them in a way that more obviously relates to the title of the song, hahaha~ That, and whether or not I subtracted from the meaning, I definitely made a lot of additions to it, probably even more than the subtractions from it. Also, I think “It now all feels secondhand, but let the second hand on” is one of the first lines I wrote in these lyrics. And I hope that Ina likes my wordplay at least.

And again, I’d like to send big thanks to Shigeru for mixing and mastering for me. And I’d like to give special mention to his work on them choral parts and those interlude lines. Freaking beautiful work yet again, yo, and with such amazing work speed as well!

With all that said, here’s the mp3, and here’s the lyrics sheet. Again, please credit and link me if you’re gonna use my stuff~

And of course, please feel free to give me honest constructive feedback!

Some Madman’s Marriage Proposal Idea

Some Madman’s Marriage Proposal Idea

by Jem De Ocampo

Dear Future Girlfriend,

I think I have already asked you this in so many different ways during our dates and communications, but being direct is also essential, so here: Will you marry me?

And again, I do not want your answer just yet. I still have not reminded you again about what I exactly mean by that question. What do I exactly mean by that, then?

Will you go into everyday battle against me until one of us dies? After all, I am a proud fool, and you are a proud fool, and if one person cannot decisively fix another, then I would rather have us try to outdo each other in terms of progressing in being truly oneself, whatever we think that should be. I know that we can do that even outside of marriage, but I cannot imagine fighting being so much fun without the both of us living under the same roof. And if we have to have children, then they can join in the fighting and be like how we were with our own families.

Again, this is part of how I see true love and its eternal perfection, my love. Let us assume that love is blind, and I shall also assume that love also has its enhanced remaining four senses that can still track our sacks of crap that we try to hide every single day. Let us assume that love knows no bounds, and I shall also assume that love shall go against our prideful assumptions about its bounds, no matter how popular our prideful assumptions are. Let us assume that love conquers all, and I shall also assume that love has already humbly defeated and shall defeat us without ever losing since the beginning of everything and even despite and through the pain we give it, letting us defeated fools perceive our losses how we like and never forcing us to accept our losses like we usually would against those we consider our own enemies.

And again, there are so many beautiful women in the world, and I could gather a harem of them for a battle royale, but no matter how much I believe in my delusions about such things, one woman is already more than enough for a man to handle, just like how one man is already more than enough for a woman to handle. Plus, I would rather fight one opponent at a time, and I would like to properly see our fighting through. And while marriage will not completely erase the risk of one of us boring the other, I would rather die fighting you than live escaping you once we are married.

So if you think that we cannot ever be worthy and worthier opponents to each other in such a way of life, or if you think that this sort of fighting is not meant for you, then please refuse my proposal, and I shall still continue to wish you more truly worthwhile fights, whatever they must be for you. I love you, yes, but love is not necessarily romantic and erotic.

But if you do accept my proposal, then I would be very honored to serve and fight you at such higher levels.

So again, I ask you: Will you marry me?

With love,

Jem De Ocampo