Author: Don

Things I learned from Baccano!

• It’s okay to be an idiot if you’re extroverted and enthusiastic.

• There is a lot of blood in the human body.

• Corporeal immortality isn’t necessarily a blessing.

• For every psychopath, there is an equal and opposite counter-psychopath.

• Don’t overlook the timid milquetoast.

• Befriend any homunculus you meet.

• There are ways of dealing with immortal thugs.

• Share your windfalls.

• If you want a conductor’s uniform, buy your own.

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The weather was lousy today. I didn’t want to take the camera out in the wind and rain, so I fixed myself a snack instead.

Yuki meets the Lama

Who knows when Hatsune Miku will be ported to the Mac? Until then, there’s the Delay Lama:

(Via Fellini 8.5)

If that’s too passé for your taste, you can listen to music made with Nintendo Gameboy chips at the Blip Festival. Want to make your own bleeps and bloops, but you don’t have any old video games on hand to take apart? Try quadraSID.

If tht’s too old-school for you, consider Reactable. (Via Fred.)

Update: Accordion Hero? Sure, why not?

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The view from my porch shortly before sunset. All those nice feathery clouds filling the sky disappeared as the sun approached the horizon, and the sunset was disappointingly lackluster.

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Kodak Retina II, ca. 1949. Historically, most Kodak cameras are little better than junk. The one exception is the series of Retina cameras begun in 1934, solidly-built cameras with good lenses manufacutured by Nagel Camerawerks in Germany.

I found this one at a garage sale some years back for $5. The rangefinder is broken, but otherwise the camera still works. It’s a small camera, pocketable if your jacket has large pockets, but surprisingly heavy. I carried it around for a few weeks to grab pictures while out on my bike. Although it took good pictures, the weight got to be annoying, and I retired it.

Advisory

(If you’re reading this at Anime Nano, don’t bother clicking through. This is just the traditional “no time to write” post.)

Nutcracker season is imminent. While I’m not on stage this year, I will be in the auditorium taking thousands of pictures during tech week. There won’t be time for anime or anything else beyond work, sleep and photography. Things should return to what passes for normal around the middle of December. There might be a book review or two, but otherwise don’t expect much activity here until then.

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If you need something to read, there’s plenty of fuss in the otakusphere about whether anime will survive. The most cogent discussion is, predictably, at Steven’s, here and here (be sure to read the comments). See also Avatar, Author and DiGiKerot.