Houblog

Random pet peeve of the moment: CyberLink’s Power DVD has a strange feature when interacting with Geneon’s release of DearS: Individual episodes are not treated as such in the progress bar. The entire disk (well, the episodes, not the extras) is treated as one show. This makes it extremely hard to reach a specific time index by clicking on the bar. I suspect it’s Geneon’s fault, since no other DVD’s I have exhibit this behavior.

As for DearS itself, I’ll have more to say later. I found it more tolerable than Chobits, although it shared a couple of the same flaws. But I was really creeped out by that teacher. Sorry, I don’t care how stupid the principal is, no one is going to tolerate a teacher that rolls around on the desk in lingeré and has her students read lurid novels in class.

No, the resemblance to the picture on the book isn’t an accident. Apparently she moonlights as a nude model and porn star. Given that, I’m surprised that neither Takeya nor Oihiko have seen her in any of the porno vids or magazines. I’m also surprised that there’s enough text in such a book for it to be used in English lessons, but I guess it’s the kind without pictures. I’ve heard they still make those….

I have a related post (much more serious) already scheduled for tomorrow.

Last night I dreamed that Belldandy showed up with a citizen complaint. She looks awfully cute when she’s distressed, but I really hope we were able to solve her complaint before Urd and Skuld showed up to “help.” The dream didn’t get that far, alas.

Edit: the nature of the complaint would give away my exact office, almost to the desk, or I’d tell it here. All I can say is that it’s hilarious, given that she’s a Norse goddess that is supposed to go around dispensing wishes for the big guy. (And no, I don’t mean Odin!)

Steven DenBeste writes a serious and lengthy (for Chizumatic) two-page post on the perils of being a science fiction author, and trying to predict the future inasmuch as you are using the technology to establish the setting. He compared the bleeding edge of the past to the present; it is a weighty epistle, probably one of the more serious I’ve seen him post on Chizumatic. (”I thought he gave up serious posts there?” I said to myself.)

I should have seen it coming. (20060511.1310 post.)

(remainder of post removed by request.)

Celebrating the most hyper-inflated breasts since Benny Hill, Steven DenBeste has been discussing Divergence Eve a lot lately and posting plenty of captures. Well, this prompted a letter from a female fan named Kacie, who wrote:

1. Ouch! Don’t those things HURT?
2. Ewww… and they bounce like jello, too. That’s so disgusting.
3. Do men really like that sort of thing? The male characters on the show look like they could DROWN in those things! Look, hers are bigger than his HEAD!

Well, I figured there should be a male response forthcoming, and since I had nothing better to do….

1. I repeat my last comment I appended to an earlier post: “At least we know that in the future, chiropracters are miracle workers. None of these girls ever complain of backaches.”

2. Speaking as a male, I find the fact that they bounce far more attractive than the ones that don’t move AT ALL. I mean, big is nice to look at, but if the San Andreas could rip the big one, and you could hang onto her set for safety because you know they ain’t moving at all, then they’re definately over-inflated rocks.

3. No, no, that’s not really what you saw; it’s just the light from Venus reflecting off some swamp gas . . . . (This is how we know the writer really was female. . . . I mean she looked at something else!)

Still, gratuitous bounces and huge breasts can detract. Watching the fansub of Witchblade, ep.1, there’s a scene where Masane, the new wielder, has been drugged and is crawling along on her hands and knees, slowly changing back to normal. Supposed to be tense and dramatic… and then her boobs make this little jump. Not swaying natually, like they should if they were real; they just sort of…. jump. Horizontally bounce. Utterly gratuitous.

Sigh. Definately breaks the tension.
(more…)

So the subject of who is a big dog in theHouston blogsphere came up the other day over on BlogHouston. We touched on a few things in passing, like PajamasMedia, political blogging, group blogging, etc. but it seemed that the leading candidate for “local, but well-known blogger” was Laurence of TBIFOC. I was left wondering… what has he got that I don’t? Aside from fame and fortune, multiple blogs, and a wife?

Duuuuuhhhh! He’s got cats! And having cats means catblogging! How could I have been so dense?

So here we go: the first-ever (probably also last-ever) Houblog catblog.

This is Lulu:

“Human, stop playing with that electronic device and bring my food!”

She’s a half-wild cat whose original owner (about two neighbors back) moved, but she chose not to. Since then, she’s lived off the generosity of our next-door neighbors. But then they moved also, and the new neighbor was more interested in trying to piggyback on my wireless network than in adopting a cat. (Shortly after I locked him out, I noticed a new network broadcast showing up on my wireless cards. I ought to return the favor.)

So anyway, now it looks like our turn to play “adopt-a-stray,” and we’ve been feeding her for a couple of weeks now. It’s the only way she’d let me get close enough to snap this picture; Lulu is normally very skittish.

So, now that I’ve catblogged, my fame and fortune are assured. I’ll just be waiting here for all the links, advertisers, endorsement offers, and singing gigs to come through. Well, ok, I’ll turn the singing contracts down, unless it’s to do the national anthem at the All-Star game. You may thank me later. Or thank me now by hitting the tip jar, that always works!

So. . . . here I am. Yep, just waiting here for the money to start rolling in. . .

Still waiting . . .

(more…)

“Fact is, there are no women like this here in the real world.”

(And there are no permalinks at that site; it’s the 20060507.2130 entry. Also see 20060507.1330)

I guess this is what I get for expressing my fandom of the U.S. Army.

Continuing with the anime fansubs I’ve been watching lately:

Karin: This is the second series that I am not sure why I watch(ed) it. Another manga adaptation, which happens far more frequently in Japan than it does here. You don’t need to take your shoes off (well, not more than one) to count the comic-to-movie or TV show adapations over the last quarter-century here, but in Japan, that many at once on TV isn’t unusual. Since the manga has just been imported to the US, it’s entirely possible that the show will be too far behind. Unlike Melancholy, I won’t be lining up to buy this one, even if I did watch 22 episodes of fansubs. (more…)

I’m bumping Karin into its own part, and continuing with just one show for today’s post.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: This show will be licensed for Region 1, make no mistake. And I will be buying every DVD the moment it hits the shelves, even though I’ll have seen the show already through fansubs. How can I describe it without giving spoilers? It’s just too good to give the jokes away…. Sigh.

It is, hands down, the funniest show I have seen in ages. I haven’t seen writing this hilarious since the very first episode of South Park. And they do it without scatological humor and kids using locker-room language. One poster on the Anime News Network forums compared the snappy humor to an American sitcom, but that’s an insult to Melancholy. American sitcoms are potty humor by comparison. The dialog and narration are so “tightâ€? that there’s hardly a wasted word or scene. You almost don’t even notice that there’s some seriously weird stuff going on. Haruhi, as the female lead, is a maniacal tyrant, bullying the others in the SOS Brigade to get her way. She’s not mean, she’s just incredibly focused, and others are just objects to her. Kyon is a cynical-but-amiable slacker who makes the mistake of accidentally befriending her. And the others were dragged in by Haruhi… or were they? (more…)

Lately, my appetite for anime has completely outstripped my wallet’s ability to pay for it. Fortunately, there’s always a solution as long as there’s the internet: fansubs. So recently, I decided to investigate the world of fansubing, and was surprised at some of the things I learned.

For those not familiar with the world of anime, fansubs are copies of the original Japanese program, subtitled by groups of bilingual fans. The various clubs doing this work are highly competitive, resulting in work that is often better than the professionally subbed versions you buy on DVD. Several innovations in subtitling came out of the fansub community, such as the use of yellow or outlined letters; these were later picked up by the companies which license the programs for international distribution.

Although it is legally pirating, fansubs occupy a strange semi-tolerated niche in the anime industry, as potential importers can watch the fan “buzz� and get an idea over what series might be profitable to license. In return for freedom from hassles, most groups voluntarily withdraw distribution of their files after a series or movie is licensed, or sometimes when distribution begins. (Of course, there’s also the usual scofflaws. Some people are just that way.)

Since last Friday night, I have used BlogTorrent (acquired through J.Greely’s site) to download about 30 episodes of various shows. I’d tried to install and use other BitTorrent clients before, only to fail miserably; I didn’t understand the whole seeding process (and still don’t) but BlogTorrent has worked great without me having to understand much of anything. I go find a website with a link to a torrent, I click on it, save it, and BlogTorrent handles all the rest.

None of the programs I’ve downloaded have yet been licensed in Region 1 (North America) to my knowledge. In fact, two of them are brand new, having just premiered on Japanese TV. I have one thing to say about HDTV there: “awesome!� In fact, it wasn’t until I started to write this that I remembered, “Hey, that’s not taken from a DVD, that was broadcast!� It sucks that American TV is so far behind, technically.

So, for anyone who might be interested in doing their own acquisition, here’s what I’ve downloaded, with my reviews. I’ll try to avoid spoilers, but it’s not entirely possible.

Girl’s High has enough fanservice to make Najica Panty Blitz look tame. However, after being challenged by Pixy Misa’s Cutey Honey link over on Shamus Young’s’ site, causing an instant 601 error in my brain (think Andromeda Strain: “too much data, the system can’t handle it all”), I realized that I was going to have to do some serious captures to get my point across. So rather than hold up this entire post, I’ll just leave you with these two and come back later for a fanservice special.

Ok, I admit it. I spent too much time staring at her and I can’t finish this post tonight.

It just needs a little adjustment, Eriko….	Ah, oops….

Based on the writer’s own high-school experiences (but I suspect very loosely) this is the story of six first-year students at an all-girls school. How bad is the fanservice? Well, you don’t need a two-foot tall cameraman to see the panties after these girls get through with their scissors! The dialog is as suggestive, if not more, and the situations are tailor made for girls to be running around in way too little clothing. Somehow, I doubt any high school really makes its students spend a whole day running around in nothing but panties and open smocks while getting medical exams (episode 2). Still, the characters are surprisingly fun to watch, especially the rivals Kouda and Eriko, and the dialogue is over the top. After only two episodes though, I have no idea if there will be any semblance of a plot. I’m not going to spend a lot of time discussing the characters in this post. I just haven’t found much else to describe. Or maybe I was just distracted by the panties.

There are two series that I just don’t have any idea why I watch them, but I do (or did).

Ah! My Goddess (season 2) is the first. I downloaded two episodes, and watched about ten minutes of each to get a sense of how the first season is going to end and what the second will be like. I have to say I love the new opening. The music is bagpipe-oriented and the visuals show scenes of Heaven, which I believe is strongly influenced by the designs of the AMG movie. (I’m going to have to get that soon. . .) The closing is made up of pans over a scrapbook with pictures of the characters, and the music is a romantic ballad, similar to country at times, but not as strongly as the first season’s original EP.

The plot is still sticking closely to the manga (comics), although there’s at least one element of a story that has been expanded, and another dropped; additionally the sequence continues to be scrambled compared to the original. It works very well though. The same sweet, light tone continues, although it’s obvious that there was a spot of trouble at the end of the first series, because Yggsdrasil is offline and the goddesses have no “power feed� from Heaven. My original guess (discussed with Steven DenBeste via email) as to what will happen at the end of the first season appears to be close, but wrong; they’re drawing from an arc a little further along. I suspect that the reason is that the segment I expected season one to end with will be the ending to season two or three, because it’s much more epic, and fits better with the opening sequence of episode 1 of season 1.

Every time I watch an episode of this series, I have to ask myself, “why?â€? There’s not a lot of super-dramatic conflicts, few battles, no dire “save the worldâ€? emergencies, no belly-laughs, and rarely any fanservice worth mentioning. The real story is the slow-paced romance between Keiichi, a mortal, and Belldandy, a goddesses sent to grant him one wish, only she turned out to be the wish–something she is very happy with. But the only answer I can come up with is that it’s a very sweet, warm show, with characters you can enjoy spending time with. It just doesn’t have a bad bone it’s body. Even Sayoko, arguably the second-leading villain in the show, is a sympathetic character whose pain you can feel. If I had a significant other, this would be my first pick for an evening of cuddling on the couch while watching TV, also my second, third, and fourth.

Edit: And finally, Fireball20xl is back, so I can post this link to the fan manga TRG, showing the occasional drawback to Skuld’s mode of transport, which teleports her from one body of water to another. No, that’s not really Belldandy she’s arguing with. Let’s just say that another Urd potion went haywire…

Tomorrow, I will continue with part 2, reviewing Karin and my favorite, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

And illegal immigration, pork, half-assing the War on Islamofacism, pork, creating another huge bureaucracy, more pork, nearly blowing the SCOTUS picks, and, oh, probably a dozen other little things that don’t quite come up to the level of major grievance, such as not prosecuting seditionists. (As much as I’d like to, I can’t blame you for Banner of the Stars III not being licensed in region 1 yet.)

At this point, I’ve given up on the Republican Party. I’m not voting for them just to keep the Dems out of office. That’s what they want and expect. The only way to remind them of who their bosses are is to humble them. Break them on the anvil of the voting booth, and reforge them into something better.

However, I no longer believe that is likely, and I can’t continue holding my nose and hoping. Therefore, I am no longer a Republican. Henceforth, I am a member of the Jacksonian Party, even if it’s just a party of one. For those who would like to know more about the beliefs of this party, and why Andrew Jackson is it’s namesake, I recommend this article.

Over at Chizumatic, SDB wrote:

on Saturday I put in an order for more DVDs with Robert. My order was filled and shipped yesterday. (I don’t know if everyone gets service that good, or if I’m attracting special attention because of this site. I really hope it’s that everyone gets the same service, because otherwise I’m party to a deception.)

Well, we’re about to see if it’s just Steven DenBeste getting special service. Back on the 6th, I ordered three anime DVD’s from DVD Empire. Their price was enough better than Robert’s on just 3 CD’s, that I could pay for the shipping with the difference. One of the DVD’s was a pre-release order, due out on the 11th, so I thought I’d have it by this weekend.

Well, it didn’t quite work as well as I expected. Yesterday, the order still showed as open and unchanged. Today I look and for the second time, DVD Empire has gone straight from “pre-ordered” to “out of stock” on an item. If they’d had the courtesy to tell me a few days in advance that they’d ordered too few and needed a couple of more days, I could have changed my order. Instead, I was not even notified of the change. Last time it was Ah My Goddess, this time it’s Mars Daybreak, but the 2nd DVD was AMG vol. 4, so it gets caught up in the delay anyway. Screw that.

So I canceled the order with DVD Empire and re-issued (with additions) over at Roberts.

Daphne vol. 4-5
Ah My Goddess vol.4
Mars Daybreak vol.5
Full Metal Panic (boxed set).

The Empire has fallen. Long live Robert’s Corner Anime Store!

Meanwhile, SDB and I had a discussion of Scrapped Princess, and both concluded that the ending didn’t exactly suck but it was incredibly sub-par. It was much less than it could have been and that hurt the whole series. I thought his description of Pacifica as a MacGuffin was particularly apt; we were both disappointed in her development (or lack thereof) in the series. She never stepped up to meet her destiny. (In real life, that’s a criticism I have often had of Prince Charles, another person who seemed to be much smaller than the role awaiting him.)

I was looking for an ending similar to Varley’s Gaean series, and it didn’t even come close. Scrapped Princess was a great series in so many ways, compromised by a mediocre ending.

I’d like to do a review sometime soon, but it looks like things are heating up for me on several levels, so I probably won’t have time.

Update: And Dr. Heinous objects to the resolution of the Cz subplot: “And after all that, Cz just gets zapped (after all the buildup of her following Shannon around, you just expected something more than a quick kill).”

However, I categorically reject his assertation that I am in need of a Mr. Soupy costume.

Ok, my time’s been eaten by a number of other things and I’m headed for Dallas on Friday afternoon, so it’s unlikely I’ll get my planned articles written in the next few days. So, although you’re probably here for choice words on another $15 million boondoggle and thin rationalizations, I am going to leave you with my single longest anime write up yet. Furthermore, instead of posting lots of cheesecake from a show with more (and racier) than I can post here, I’m going to leave you with lots and lots of words. Maybe too many of them! (more…)

Dr. Heinous writes to alert me to this story (original story here), bubbling away quietly in the Austin tech community. Or not quietly, any more. Oh, I can only hope.

It’s no secret that things at Sony Online Entertainment haven’t been gumdrops and lollypops. While EverQuest has been a bonafide success, Star Wars Galaxies has been an enormous screw up. The massively-multiplayer online version of the popular George Lucas films has been a fiasco, costing SOE players and money.

A mole sends us word that Raph Koster has left the SOE to start up a new games studio. Cindy Armstrong, head of Business Development, has taken an offer to become the new USA honcho for Webzen. Moreover, Lucas Arts is not extending their Star Wars license. Yikes.

The rot has started to set in, and the mole implies that it’s only a matter of time before SOE’s prez. John Smedley is sent packing. “Place has been falling apart for a while,� writes our mole. “Smedley is not long in his job.� May the force be with you, John.

This should come as no surprise if you’re a fan of the game or read this blog almost a year ago. (The two linked articles were on the old Post-Nuke version 1.0 of the website, and have been copied verbatim to the new version for linking.)

As Dr. Heinous says: “It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.” Of course, his definition of “nicer” is “more deserving.”

Finally, to everyone wondering where their metro news and commentary went, don’t worry, it will be back! It’s just a brief phase I’m going through.

Well, I was stuck at home tonight, so I decided to work up some more anime cheesecake to post, with a bit of a review to go with it. I had some more trouble with the aspect ratio, despite Steven denBeste’s help (see Update 3; it was just my own lack of attention that caused it. I spent an hour taking new shots and they came out much better.

Unfortunately, they don’t come out perfect. For that, I blame ADV, the American distributor. I hadn’t really noticed it until I started taking snapshots, but the transfer has issues with rainbowing, aliasing, and cross-coloration. It’s some of the worst I’ve ever seen. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’ll see in pictures.

Speaking of which, lets get on to it. Warning, spoilers ahead! (The worst of the spoilers are blacked out, but I can’t get it to work perfectly; going to have to read up on styles a bit. Edit: finally got it to work. Highlight with your mouse to read them.) (more…)

I’m way overdue for an anime post, and there’s nothing better to break the monotony of more stories on corrupt city government than to indulge in a little cheesecake. So when I saw that Steven Den Beste had decided to post a bunch of pictures from the Ah! My Goddess! TV series featuring Urd, I figured, what the heck, I’ll see your goddess and raise you a bunch of robot pilots! I was going to save this for a week, but when isn’t it a good time for fanservice?

Ok, here’s the goddess: Urd, Belldandy’s half-sister. She’s got the enthusiasm to go with that outfit. (Oh fudge, I just realized he used that shot… I need another.)

Robot Pilot Babes below the fold . . .
(more…)