yes, i did just write the first post for this new series literally yesterday, but i'm feeling like writing these, so you will get two of these back-to-back one day after the other, and you will like it.

(also, this is the mati review now, because i thought life of mati was kind of generic. the more serious and thought-out series that's mostly about linguistics is still going to be named marticles.)

artificial chicken flavoring would absolutely shock your average medieval alchemist

so, last week on friday, youtube recommended me this video, showing how artificial chicken flavoring is made:

the beginning of the video is, i have to admit, kind of boring. or maybe i wasn't in the mood to watch that when i clicked on the video, but it's not like it's not interesting — that first half is an explanation of how the sensation of taste works. but i just wanted to watch him actually make the chicken flavoring, since he kept mentioning that «you could make this at home» and so on.

well, you can't exactly make it at home without looking for the very specific ingredients the recipe asks for — like dextrose, or whatever cysteine hydrochloride is, but it doesn't seem to require any impossible-to-get super-controlled substances, so artificial chicken broth is technically possible to make at home? but it doesn't seem to be exactly worth the trouble.

the most interesting takeaway from this video though is that apparently, artificial meat flavoring is a thing that we have known how to do since the sixties, and that we more or less still use the same formula for, with some tweaks all over the world. (he mentions that you need to tweak some of the ingredients to make the flavor more like beef instead of chicken — beef flavoring would use more of certain chemicals, which he replaces with kombu and dried mushroom powder.) really fascinating stuff.

sunfish are cute, dumb little animals

here's another interesting video that caught my eyes because of the cute illustrations. it's about how sunfish (or «molas»), despite looking really cute, are enormous (1.8 m ≈ 6 ft in length, longer than most people are tall) failures of nature that are sadly littered with parasites. i've said enough about the other video so if you're interested go watch this one yourself it's just eleven minutes

this game has really cute graphics

so, going through the youtube channel of kamitsubaki studio (the uh, v-singer agency? don't know how to describe them), i found out that they're going to release a game called kamitsubaki academy newspaper club (神椿學園新聞部 kamitsubaki gakuen shinbun-bu), an «urban investigation school adventure game» with the kamitsubaki studio singers as characters.

the retro pixelated graphics are very cute, and i may play this for japanese reading practice when it comes out (although the game is coming out in english too, there's an english steam page for it). i really need to read more in japanese actually, i feel like my japanese is actively getting worse nowadays because i don't use it as much.

«but mati, you're a japanese major, aren't you?»

yeah, sure, i am one, but the classes i have in university are way below my actual comprehension level in japanese. it's actually one of the things that make me reconsider if this major is really worth it, but whatever.

here's some music for you

• ハングリーゴースト hungry ghost, by takenoko shonen — not exactly a halloween song, but it kind of has the vibes of one? i really like this song. the mv is also very cute.

• 超限界バスター chō-genkai buster, by ¿? (shimon). has this really heavy, «gritty» electronic sound that sounds so good, this song is peak. please listen to it. also the illustrations in the music video are by chappy (ちゃっぴー), one of my favorite artists.

and that's all i have to show you for today! see you next time! :)

— mati