Author: Don

Welcome

Welcome to the successor of The Kawaii Menace and Scuffulans hirsutus. There’s still a lot of fussing and tweaking to do, and I may well change the name and template yet again, but the place is organized enough now that visitors shouldn’t get too lost.

Don’t hurry to update your links. Once I have everything in place, I’ll redirect my other domain names (tancos.net and tancos2.net) so that old links will take you here.

I decided to merge my two weblogs. I don’t post enough these days to warrant maintaining more than one. I know that few people share my range of interests. If you are not interested in animation, skip those posts; if that is all you care about, skip the rest.

The WordPress export/import process worked fairly well, but there were some glitches. Most of the music and many of the pictures that I’ve posted in the past didn’t make the transfer. Unless one of the missing pieces is of particular importance, I’m not going to worry about it. There will be plenty more new things here.

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If you didn’t vote in the poll at right at The Kawaii Menace, please do so here. It’s not necessary to have seen every single nominated character to vote. (I’ve transferred the results from the poll at the old site, so if you did vote there, please don’t vote again. (If none of the characters are familiar, then you probably shouldn’t vote.))

From Parma Tyelpelassiva

Recognize this?

Man naeg mathal, ae maethor veren,
Erui reniol ar nimp?
I thâr pellen uin ael
Ar ú-linnar in aew.

Actually, you do know the poem of which this is the first stanza, though probably not in this translation.

There’s more poetry here, and much else about Tolkien’s languages, including downloadable courses. ((It’s oddly refreshing to see such an old-fashioned website.)) Here’s an overview of the Elvish languages.

The last AFW post …

… until next year, maybe.

I finally got through all the Anime Festival Wichita photos. You can see 421 of them here.

Here they are in a slide show:

[flowplayer src=’http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/afw7SlideShow.mp4′ width=640 height=480]

Right-click on the blue lady to download the file (57 megabytes).

I was surprised that there weren’t any Madoka cosplayers. Also absent: Chii; Rei and Asuka; miscellaneous Rozen Maidens; Ayumu and Haruna.

500 errors

I’m tired of seeing this

and this

whenever I want to edit a post or check statistics. I plan to move my websites elsewhere soon. WordPress currently recommends Bluehost, DreamHost, MediaTemple and Laughing Squid. Does anyone have any experience with any of them? Thumbs up or thumbs down?

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After seeing the same henshin sequences recycled endlessly in typical mahou shoujo series, I’m not particularly scandalized by this:

Fashion history

While digitizing historical documents this past weekend, I discovered that “lolita” fashion predates Mana and Baby the Stars Shine Bright by several decades. Here is a primitive example from 1968:

Spoiler

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For the curious, here are a couple of the artifacts I digitized. The first is from 1968, the second from 1970.

[audio:http://tancos.net/audio/03 Flower Punk.mp3]

[audio:http://tancos.net/audio/13 Oh No_The Orange County Lumber Truck.mp3]

Post script: It took me 45 minutes to publish this little post. This would be unacceptable behavior for a free web host, and it’s inexcusable for one I pay. If you are looking for a company to host your website, do not pick AN Hosting.

Nostalgic for the ’60’s?

Neither am I.

I spent part of the weekend digitizing ancient vinyl, including some Significant Historical Documents. Here’s one from 1968:

[audio:http://tancos.net/audio/01 Who Needs the Peace Corps_.mp3]

Here’s a tune for my brother:

[audio:http://tancos.net/audio/Evelyn a Modified Dog.mp3]

The final round

Who is the most heroic character in anime? Vote in the poll at right. There was a tie for tenth place in the second round, so there are 21 finalists.

Miscellaneous notes

The server that hosts my websites, while never exactly snappy, has become downright sluggish lately. By a curious coincidence, I just got an email from the hosting service asking if my website has been “running slow” and announcing “a more powerful hosting solution for your website!” I think this is my cue to look for another host. Any recommendations?

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Grr. It looks like I may need to take another look at Gosick. I may also need to watch the rest of Dog Days.

One reason I haven’t been keeping up with current series is that I’ve been more inclined to read books than watch anime recently. ((Another is that it’s too damn hot to do anything; at 7 p.m., it was 101°F outside, and I need to direct the breeze from the air conditioner directly onto the computer to keep it from overheating.)) (This gets frustrating. My eyes get tired after a while, and it takes a half-hour before I can focus on anything again. ((Supposedly, staring at a computer monitor for hours on end is bad for your eyes, but I haven’t ever noticed any problems. (Of course, I’m already very nearsighted and astigmatic.) Reading words on dead tree is another matter.)) ) I suppose I should watch Ano Hi Mita Hana with the Sesquipedelian Name — I saw the first episode and was not hooked, but I gather it’s worth slogging through — but I don’t know when I’ll get to it. Right now, I’m more interested in Florence King and Tim Powers.

So why have I watched more than a dozen episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic? Ack.

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In case anyone reading this is in the area: I plan to spend some time the weekend of July 8-10 at Anime Festival Wichita. You can find me there behind a camera.

Three impossible things

So there might be a live-action Noir? If it’s made, I expect it will be a botch, and I doubt that I’d watch it. Still, I’m curious to see how the crew handles the less plausible aspects of the anime, such as:

• Mireille’s magical skirt. It’s very, very short, yet there’s no panchira.

• Bloodless gunmen. Enough people are killed to furnish a small war. There should have been enough blood shed to float a battleship, yet there’s scarcely a drop shown.

• The lava lake in the basement. Both the heat and the gasses should have been instantly lethal, yet nobody even sweats. (And how could anyone possibly erect a building in such a place?)

Heroes, round two

Ashitaka, Balsa, Simon, Kenshin Himura, Homura Akemi, Meia Gisbourne, Allen Schezar, Alphonse Elric, Rem Saverem and Hikaru Ichijyo advance to the final round. Round two is up now. Who of the twenty-two gallant candidates in the poll at right is the most heroic? Vote for up to three. (If you have trouble voting, please mention it in a comment.)