Author: Don

A glance back at an ordinary year

shin19

I’m not going to make a “ten best anime” list for 2012 because I haven’t watched ten shows all the way through. Two of the year’s best best are incomplete, and there are a couple of well-regarded series that I have yet to look at (Sakamichi no Apollon and Space Brothers). Instead, this is just a casual survey of this year’s offerings that I watched.

Series I didn’t make it all the way through the first episode of: Chihayafuru, Hayate No Gotoku: Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse and Magi. The last I might give another try sometime, since the writers evidentally understand more about economics than do our betters in Washington.

Series I watched only the first episode of: Accel World, Binbougami ga, Campione, K, Nyarko-san: Another Crawling Chaos, Sword Art Online and Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai. Jonathan thinks highly of the last, and I would watch more, but what I saw wasn’t sufficiently brilliant to warrant subscribing to Anime Network. (Update: Also Ozma, Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate and Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan. See how memorable they were?)

Series I watched more than one episode of before losing interest: Kamisama Hajimemashita, Polar Bear Café and Sengoku Collection.

Unfinished series I might yet watch the rest of: Inu X Boku SS.

The year’s major disappointment: Moyashimon Returns. Too much soap opera, not enough craziness.

This year’s minor disappointment: Dog Days II. Entertaining, and the characters are mostly likable, even admirable; but the fanservice-to-story ratio is too high. It’s a kid’s show that I can’t recommend for kids. (And surely Leonmitchelli can find something more appropriate to her station to wear than daisy dukes.)

These are the shows that I can recommend:

Continue reading “A glance back at an ordinary year”

Ignore this post

The most recent upgrade to WordPress broke an essential function. I’m going to try various experiments to isolate the problem and fix it, if I can. While I’m tearing my hair out, this place might look different. Don’t be alarmed; that roar you hear in the distance is just me yelling at the monitor.

Update: Fixed. Flexible Lightbox and WordPress don’t play together nicely anymore.

Christmas_lightbox

Take a look around

Thus far, my 360° panoramas have been of the interior of the Catholic cathedral in Wichita. It’s the most photogenic site to which I have convenient access. Wichita might be a tolerable place to live, ((except during July)) but there isn’t much to see here, and right now it’s at its dreariest. There are a few other buildings with interesting interiors I hope to photograph, and there might be a picturesque snowfall later this winter, but most of the locations I have in mind will have to wait for spring and summer.

In the meantime, there are plenty of panoramas from around the world to view at 360cities.com. Here’s a selection.

Continue reading “Take a look around”

A higher viewpoint


St. Mary Cathedral, Wichita, Kansas in USA

While the rest of the inmates at the office were enduring the annual Christmas luncheon, I visited the cathedral again with my camera. I set the tripod up in the choir loft this time, and used a tripod head designed specifically for panoramas. The “Panosaurus” made a difference in the image quality. There are far fewer glitches than in my previous attempt, and they’re not as obvious.

Quote of the day

The astounding thing about all the quackeries, fads, and movements of the past hundred years in America is that they were first accepted by superior people, by men and women of education, intelligence, breeding, wealth, and experience. Only after the upper classes had approved, the masses accepted each new thing.

—Gilbert Seldes, The Stammering Century (1928)

Perhaps it’s not that astounding; I long ago observed that high intelligence is not necessarily associated with common sense.

Pre-Rush Day link dump

J.K. Rowling has been recognized in Thog’s Masterclass:

Dept of Trickle-Down. ‘There, in his poky office, Simon Price gazed covetously on a vacancy among the ranks of insiders to a place where cash was now trickling down onto an empty chair with no lap waiting to catch it.’ (J.K. Rowling, The Casual Vacancy, 2012)

Daniel Barenboim also earns a mention in Ansible:

Pianist Daniel Barenboim is interviewed by Rosanna Greenstreet: Q. ‘What is your earliest memory?’ A. ‘In my mother’s belly, I remember not liking the tempi my father played the Beethoven Sonatas in.’ (Guardian, 2 November)

Christopher Tolkien doesn’t care for Peter Jackson’s movies:

Invited to meet Peter Jackson, the Tolkien family preferred not to. Why? “They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25,” Christopher says regretfully. “And it seems that The Hobbit will be the same kind of film.”
This divorce has been systematically driven by the logic of Hollywood. “Tolkien has become a monster, devoured by his own popularity and absorbed into the absurdity of our time,” Christopher Tolkien observes sadly. “The chasm between the beauty and seriousness of the work, and what it has become, has overwhelmed me. The commercialization has reduced the aesthetic and philosophical impact of the creation to nothing. There is only one solution for me: to turn my head away.”

So is the world going to end tomorrow? Nah. I suppose you could marathon RahXephon if you’re feeling silly, but I suggest listening to Geddy, Alex and Neil instead.

These are the acceptable ways to end civilization:

… asteroid/comet, climate, massive volcanic eruption, zombie pandemic, Daleks, the Master, the Mayor turns into a giant snake monster, Gachnar (although that would be a very tiny apocalypse), gateway to Hell opens over Los Angeles, Anubis, Tripods, Triffids, Ragnarok and possibly a Farnsworth Doomsday Device.

Are you still using Windows 95?

You have two cows ….

No silver eagle of the steppe

US copyright law is stupid. Case in point: Girls und Panzer‘s eighth episode is missing about a minute in its Crunchyroll version. Unless you download a fansub, you are going to miss this 1938 song, the highlight of the episode.

Update: here’s the video, via Ivlin, who notes that “Copyright is demonstrably making art worse“.

Time to hang up your tights

… and Paragon City is no more.

I stayed up way too late last night to observe the end of City of Heroes. I spent most of that time getting in everyone’s way taking screenshots of all the players I had never met. It was the first time that the MMORPG actually was “massively multiplayer” in my few months of occasional visits.

There was a lot of sentimental gushing in the chat, with much affection expressed for the creators of CoH and contempt for their Korean overlords. I have a good deal of sympathy for the stranded players. Still, I came late to the game and never acquired any “friends” in it, so I have less emotional investment in CoH than most of the other players. For the sake of the people who spent up to eight years’ worth of free time in that online world, I hope that CoH is resurrected. However, I probably won’t be there if it is, even if there is another Mac version. I have other ways of connecting with people online, and I am just not that much of an RPGer. (On the other hand, it is fun to fly, and shoot exploding arrows, and wield a blazing sword.)

Screenshots are below the fold. They are all from the “Triumph” and “Infinity” servers.

Update: No surprise here.

Continue reading “Time to hang up your tights”