Trivia that matter
This would explain a few things about me, I suppose. It has, in fact, occurred to me that I could possibly have been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome in my childhood, except that the term wasn’t coined until many years later in 1981. It might just have been Einstein syndrome, though.
(Via Ellyn.)
If you see a “Tancos” in the comments at Chizumatic or other mee.nu weblogs, that’s me. There already is a “don” registered at mee.nu, so I’m using my Martian Hungarian alter-ego. I registered mainly so I can comment on the weblogs that require it, but as a consequence, I now have a mee.nu site of my own. I probably won’t post there often.
(Incidentally, the post editor doesn’t work in Safari (Macintosh OS 10.3.9). It works fine in Firefox, fortunately.)
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Wonderduck recently posted a quiz in which the viewer is challenged to identify Kyoto Animation characters by their eyes. If you find it easy, you might want to try this and this, which draw from all of anime. Good luck.
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More reviews of Shingu: Civilis and Jeff Lawson. I watched the first disc of Stellvia some months back and couldn’t decide whether to watch the rest. Maybe I will, after all.
I’ve started yet another weblog. This one is exclusively for posting videos. YouTube is handy, but the quality is lousy. I’d like to show things I find interesting at larger sizes and higher resolution. So far, all that’s there is the opening of Denno Coil, which is one of the better examples from recent series.
For those interested in the technical stuff: The Flash player is WP-FLV, which is based on the JW FLV Player.
Update: Getting the quality I want is going to take some work. (Is it even possible to make a .flv file that isn’t jerky?) In the meantime, you can download a higher-quality Quicktime file here (12 megabyes).
I had planned to wait until after The Major Purchase before ordering any more DVDs, but I really want to know how the Divergence Eve saga ends. Then Steven has to go and find another damned four-star series, grrr. So I’ve got an order off for Misaki Chronicles and Shingu now.
I had already added Shingu to the “maybe” list, but I never saw much information about it. As Steven notes, the series received virtually no attention. I did a little browsing last night to see if anyone besides the not-utterly-reliable Chris Beveridge has reviewed it. There was a “B+” review of the first disc at Anime News Network, and that’s all I found at a half-dozen review sites. If Shingu is as good as Steven says it is (and he’s never been wrong on a four-star series), then The Right Stuf did a lousy job of marketing their edition, and reviewers did not do their job at all.
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Fledgling Otaku is moving house, from Texas to Wisconsin. The Google maps route passes near Wichita. I doubt that he’ll have time to stop, but if he takes that route, he can imagine me waving as he drives by.
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Discovered while looking at my site statistics:
Avatar, a frequent commenter in this corner of the otakusphere, has his own weblog now, The Ego’s Nest. There’s also a nikonian’s blog, featuring photography and anime as well as current events in Bangladesh. Finally, there’s StarShipSofa, with podcasts on science fiction writers. Search string of the week: “pachelbel dog the bounty hunter.”
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A couple of occidental movies might be worth trips to the cinema: Ratatouille and Surf’s Up.
Update: Here’s another review of Surf’s Up.
Posting will resume when I’m less frazzled by construction, bad weather and bad smells — remodeling and plumbing problems at work, roof destruction and replacement during unstable weather at home. Until then, here’s Yukari and Matsuri from Rocket Girls.
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Today’s word: “Waffo!” (Yes, the Right Stuf order arrived in less than a week.)
… five cooking methods: bento for Americans.
(Via Naked Villainy.)
Recently, a number of people have been making lists of favorite female seiyuu. Although Megumi Hayashibara and Kikuko Inoue have been mentioned, the lists generally focus on recent favorites, e.g. Aya Hirano. Here is a trio of experienced voice actresses who would be on my list.
Kotono Mitsuishi — One of the great comic actresses. Besides such silly roles as Usagi Tsukino and Excel Excel, she also is effective in straight roles such as Ginger in Sugar and Mireille Bouquet in Noir.
Aya Hisakawa — Outstandingly versatile. Her roles range from the demure Ami Mizuno in Sailor Moon to the anything-but-demure Mune-Mune in Abenobashi, not to mention Kerberos in Cardcaptor Sakura and Chloe in Noir.
Houko Kuwashima — Another versatile actress, when she isn’t stuck playing yet another emotionless girl. Her roles range from the ditsy Yurika Misumaru in Nadesico to the spirited Shuurei in Saiunkoku Monogatari to the tough Isako in Denno Coil. And, of course, there’s the definitive emotionless girl, Kirika Yumura.
Hayate has strange ideas about fun. I spent much of the weekend and yesterday cleaning house, which is one reason I haven’t been very active here lately. But it needed to be done, and it is now possible to walk safely through the place without protective clothing.
Celestia or Stellarium. (The Macintosh version of latter requres OS 10.4, so I haven’t been able to test it.)
(Via Mark Shea.)
Consult Picofarad’s Recurring Convention List.
(Via Lynn S.)
• Hawthorn flowers stink.
* Maxell DVD-Rs are junk. Even if I burn them at half the rated speed, over a quarter of them end up as coasters.
Somebody ought to introduce Ross Douthat to anime.
Here’s a piece from one of my current favorite albums:
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Here’s what you should see:
Let’s see if WordPress 2.1.3 can handle it.