BEYOND
RSS
still alive July 17, 2007 12:47 am

Sad how many of my blog posts have ended up titled as such, and are likely to continue being logged as such. Ah well, I don’t care enough to theme the titles with anything.

Incidents in my personal life seem to be lining up for a monster train wreck in the next few months, hopefully I can manage to make myself focus on it mitigating the disaster into something manageable. In the meantime though, I continue to stick my fingers in my ears and la-la-la my cares away as much as I possibly can.

Work just got interesting, and not in a good way. Temp position and all, one of the other good temps left last week, and on Friday we got two new hires that are worse than my mom(no offense, mom!) with computers. In a tech support role. I’ve worked with these sort of people in the past, and they can be taught to do the job with the right prompting, but they really should have known better than to attempt it. Especially not with the 3/4 day training of watching us and playing around on an open system. Today was their first day on the phones. The other still-there temp was a few hours late. I was their only resource for 4 hours. I was also trying to take calls of my own. I didn’t have any caffeine in my system/at hand. And it was Monday. Here I thought it was Friday the 13th itself that was supposed to be unlucky, not just heralding it for a future date.

I came home and treated myself to 3 hours of the freshly released Paper Mario on the Wii VC, and it was good. Tomorrow morning is going to bring the pain right back though. Sigh.

I guess I’ve gotten myself sidetracked on the other show writeups, and they’ve gone and advanced their storylines enough that I need to do some revising, but hopefully I can get to them before too long. We’re also into the summer season right now and a couple shows are looking interesting. First there’s Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei – Goodbye Mr. Despair, an offbeat comedy about a teacher that can do naught but see the negative and a female student who sees nothing but the positive as they go through the school year. Full of nonsense words and puns and random dialogue on chalkboards, it looks to be a fantastically surreal/absurd show. Second is CODE-E, done by Studio DEEN(of Read or Die TV), about a girl who causes electronics to malfunction just by getting too close, taking them out altogether when she gets really nervous, which she does whenever she starts getting too close to electronics, a vicious cycle that’s forced her and her family to be constantly moving. And the male lead is a huge computer/science geek, naturally. Lastly for the moment is Baccano which isn’t quite out yet, but looks to be a fantastic show based off a series of novels about some 20s/30s NYC gangsters and some mysterious spooky stuff.

Summer’s American TV isn’t too bad either, with Eureka coming back for more on Sci-Fi and Burn Notice on USA. Burn Notice is really interesting, about a spy who gets Burned, cut off from above with no reason why, and stuck in Miami with no way out. With his limited resources- namely his Ex-IRA Ex-Girlfriend Fiona, his washout skirt-chasing spook buddy (Bruce Campbell), and his hyper-manipulative mother- he’s trying to figure out why he was Burned and get back into the agency. In the meantime, he’s taking on small investigations that come his way to pay the bills, giving us some satisfying spook action from week to week. Best part of it all though is that its the creation of an actual ex-spook who went through similar, and he happens to hang around one of my online haunts, talking extensively about his experiences and stuff with the show, a fairly unique opportunity as it isn’t staged like the post-Heroes chats or anything.

Bleh, late, time to sleep.

In Anime

Comments (2)
Anime Catchup 1 – Oh! Edo Rocket June 30, 2007 2:00 am

Of all the new anime in Japan, Oh! Edo Rocket is miles ahead of the competition as my favorite show of the season, even though I can’t understand more than a handful of commonly used words thanks to a nigh-total lack of groups subbing the show(though we finally have one!).

Stars of the Show

Taking place in Edo Japan where the ruler has imposed a luxury ban(including most forms of entertainment), the story follows a young fireworks artisan named Seikichi Tamaya and the mysterious young woman Sora that arrives in his home one day asking him if he could make fireworks that reach the moon. Of course our hero accepts the challenge, setting about the task of, essentially, inventing rocket science. Given the time period, the elicits all sorts of absurdities and goofy situations, along with some wonderful anachronisms.

Rocket Science!

At the same time, we have a whole other plot going on involving a pair of monsters viciously fighting each other and an elite time of shinobi hunting them down(due to a recent spree of murders). It quickly becomes apparent how these are tied together, but at the same time, the creators have been doing an excellent job of ever so slowly integrating the plots in a natural fashion without having to force it along.

Its not all fun and games

As the show has progressed, the goofiness keeps on coming, from a big guy wearing a bear suit that spends his time at a tanuki bar in the forest, to a rampaging giant geisha robot, to many other bits that are too fun to reveal, you never know what you’ll run into next(and wow are some of them fantastic). The main storyline continues to be fairy involving, with a lot of strong interaction between Sora and Ginjiro(neighborhood playboy and man of mystery) as they uncover more of each other’s secrets while Seikichi continues to experiment with bigger and more intricate rockets. The other subplots within the show are coming along nicely as well, full of intrigue and action.

let me give you some advice

To me the whole show perfectly captures the crazy awesomeness of 90s anime- with great visual humor, a rich and varied cast, a lively soundtrack, and a perfect blend of comedy and drama. Throw in Madhouse on production and it all looks fantastic, the action is nicely animated, the backgrounds are simply outstanding, and all of it is topped off with one of the liveier soundtracks I’ve heard in a while(that also features PUFFY on the OP and a delicious track called 100 Miles – Niji Wo Oikakete from SANTARA on the ED). It boggles my mind that it took almost half the show airing before someone started subbing this gem. Go watch it now!

In Anime

Comments Off on Anime Catchup 1 – Oh! Edo Rocket
Friggin’ Life June 26, 2007 3:37 pm

So. Some serious life happened this weekend, but I don’t want to go into it quite yet, as its of the not-fun variety and I’m still trying to actually process it. Lighter fallout from it though, apparently I don’t get to play Wii Play’s Billiards if I don’t want to get bad news phone calls, as I haven’t played in a couple months, but both times I was trying to play this weekend, I received said phone calls of bad news. I’m also trying to avoid melting in the 90F+ heat as I make my way to and from work(the 80F @ 8am on the way in is no picnic either).

To help distract myself from the above, I’ve been playing card games on the DS and Magic Online, smashing stuff with the Hulk on my Wii, and lurking about message boards. I watched a bit of anime, but not as much as I might had the news not happened, hopefully tonight I’ll get a chance to watch the final ARIA eps, though I’ll be sad to see it go(despite an OVA coming in the fall).

I’ve also been spending too much time looking at Amazon. At the moment I’m stuck in the free shipping trap, trying to preorder Warren Ellis‘s Crooked Little Vein, but unable to decide to grab it on its own and bite the shipping, or choose one of 250+ items on my wish list to throw it over the $25 mark, difficult even among the 50-75 items that would just barely put it over. Yes, I am this indecisive when shopping, even online, but I like to think that I have good reason for that, just look (some of) what I’m trying to decide among:

To kick things off, the first BECK DVD hits in a few weeks and I’ve been dying to lay my hands on them for the last 2+ years. Similarly, Gunbuster 2 DVDs have finally started coming out, and even at $25-30 through the discount sites(for 2 episodes a pop!) I’m heavily pondering picking them up. Noein 4 hits this week, more Ergo Proxy 4 should be coming soon too, but those are already accounted for. Haruhi 2 hits next week, GitS Solid State Society is out within the next month, My-Otome is soonish, and there’s bound to be other new titles I’m forgetting. I also still need to finish getting Haibane Renmei, Otogizoushi, Witch Hunter Robin, Tehxnolyze, and maybe one or two more, plus others I haven’t started yet.

Outside of a new My-Hime 3 next week, and a couple Busou Renkin volumes I’m behind on, the manga slate looks clean until September, thankfully. Unless the mess of new Shirow editions from Dark Horse start showing up like they were supposed to next month, then I’m in really trouble.

Jonathan Hickman‘s The Nightly News, readily in my top 5 comics this past year, finally wraps up this week and I’m solidly thinking about picking up the trade in addition to the issues, its that good and I want to share(in fact, here’s issue #1, though it looks soooo much better in print). I’ve still got one more Transmetropolitan volume to pick up, Neil Gaiman’s got a new original graphic novel thing called Interworld out this week apparently, and I’ve also got trades for Fables(11+ Volumes), Y – The Last Man(9+), The Losers(5-6), Fear Agent(3), Strange Girl(3), Birds of Prey(6+), Batgirl(7), Manhunter(3), and more to decide about starting on.

Books, like manga is looking pretty slim for the moment, the aforementioned Crooked Little Vein, then there’s the new Kushiel’s Justice that I’m considering, I also need to figure out where I’m at on Goodkind’s stuff again, as well as fleshing out my Shannara library(since I read most of it out of the library and would like to own it all). Plus ever procrastinating on looking into William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Chuck Palahniuk, Philip K Dick, and Hunter S Thompson’s works.

Quite the shopping list, eh? And that’s without getting into weekly comics, video games, non-animated tv/movies, or my high-tech desires. Hooray for bills making it nigh-impossible to catch up to anything remotely resembling completion of this wishlist. :sigh: I really need to convince somebody that they should pay me twice(or three times!) as much as they are now. Don’t feel like I’m begging for you, my nonexistant audience, to pick this stuff up for me, if anything, I recommend you pick it up for yourself first, heck, I’m not even using any sort of referral links there, just straight to Amazon you go. I think this brain dump has also helped me settle on completing Transmet along with getting Crooked Little Vein, because I’m always down with giving Warren my money.

In Random

Comments Off on Friggin’ Life
Live Long and Prosper June 21, 2007 12:58 am

Man, just when I decide to pull Wil Wheaton’s blog from my sidebar in this flurry of change(since I haven’t been following it for the last year or more), he goes and writes this up.

… And yes, of course Trek and its legacy mean something to me, I am a giant geek after all, growing up watching TNG week in and week out with the family over dinner and devouring most any other bit of Trek I could track down, though I’ve been out of it for most of the last decade or so(Voyager’s Native American mysticism earning a big No from my mom kind of kicked any new material from the house, go religion :|). Despite thoughts and words otherwise, much of what rules my personal ethos, as well as a healthy portion of my thoughts on an ideal world, comes from Star Trek- tolerance, nonviolence except in the defense of self or others, the neverending pursit of knowledge(and using that knowledge for the benefit of all), finding new solutions to existing problems, free access to needs/indulgences, and treating people honestly, to name a few. You are missed Gene Rodenberry, the world could do with you breaking onto their television sets again to show them that a better future is out there if they would just reach for it.

… Now I have a horribly curiosity as to what would happen if I introduced the world of my youthful idealism to my currently outlook on things… But no. I need to go to bed. An Hour Ago. Damn you internet making me read compelling writings that compel responding when I ought to be sleeping.

Wil Wheaton, consider yourself re-added to this inconsequential blog.

In Random

Comments Off on Live Long and Prosper
Yeargh June 20, 2007 9:15 am

Okay, so I’m working on some summary writeups for some of the shows I’m watching in preparation for doling out ongoing information about them. I even had a couple written up before leaving work yesterday that just needed some pretty screenshots to go with them. Unfortunately my computer decided to get a bit retarded and trying to deal with it ate up most of the evening(along with some Diablo II before I realized there was a problem). So now, those posts won’t be ready until tonight at least(assuming I don’t fight with the computer all night again) and I still haven’t taken care of the primary issue- After a Windows hard freeze, Opera decided to lose my 70+ newsfeeds. I need those feeds, can’t come close to keeping up with the things I want to keep up with without them. I did find them, but I’m having a hell of a time getting Opera to do the same, so yeah, kind of important. If need be, I can start from scratch with the feedlist I created the other day for this here blog, but I really don’t want to do that. Secondary to that(but increasingly worrisome) is that I’ve had 3 hard freezes since between getting home last night and going to work this morning, with the last occuring while I slept, so I got to fight with that a little bit to start my day, not cool.

In Living,My Life

Comments Off on Yeargh
Windy as all hell! June 19, 2007 7:09 pm

Man, already this week I’ve gotten a couple of potential bits for the delightful(and somewhat shameful) Overheard in Minneapolis site, except that I blew both opportiunities.

Moment the first – Thanks to yesterday’s monster downpour, I opted for pizza at lunch and while sitting there enjoying my meal, I eavesdropped on a conversation going on at a nearby table between four men talking about setting up, and I kid you not, a Fantasy Fishing League. That’s not even the best part. No, that goes to the fact that they were matter-of-factly talking about handing out $100,000 to the winner of each segment of the League, with something even larger for the grand prize winner at the end, all while trying to figure out how to handle the scoring to try and keep someone from absolutely running away with all the money. Hundreds of thousands of dollars! For a Fantasy Fishing League! Unfortunately I was too busy enjoying my pizza to remember any choice snippets.

Moment the second – This morning on the way to work, iPod cranked(with the Gunnm Image Album, as it were), and some guy starts walking right next to me, ranting and raving loudly while invading my personal space for a block or two as I’m trying to get to work. Thankfully the music was loud enough to mostly drown him out(and I was careful to keep from making any indications that I noticed him), but man I almost wish I could have heard what he was going on about(out of sheer curiosity, of course, and to figure out if I should laugh in his face or tell him off). Still. People. There are better things to be doing at 8am on a weekday than to walk up to and start harassing a complete stranger, like, oh I dunno, ANYTHING.

I guess I should be prepared to listen carefully to anything and everything for the rest of the week…

In My Life

Comments Off on Windy as all hell!
Actual content? 12:01 am

Alright. Let’s do this. Full recap will come later, but a quick rundown on actual events to catch up on things goes as follows:

Still living(and enjoying) life in downtown Minneapolis. Still spending most of my free time indoors trying to follow too many interests. Have been a lucky Wii owner since launch. Not still working at Cingular(excuse me, The New AT&T) due to a boneheaded decision(back in March, regarding job duties) on my part that ran smack into the inflexible wall known as Code of Conduct(regarding said duties), despite my otherwise fantastic record with them(their opinion, swear). No hard feelings, and I’d even consider working there again if the work they were doing wasn’t so warped from what I originally signed on for(plus that whole scam of a union thing that is the CWA).

Right at the end of 2006, my Grandpa died at the hard earned age of 87(and to his testament, this was a couple years longer than the doctors had given him), resulting in a family trip to Michigan over New Year’s(which became a story in itself) for a tear filled ceremony followed by bearing the casket with my cousins under an appropriately overcast sky, and topped off with a grand banquet with which the relatives came together to reminisce. Even the weather remained on theme while headed back, starting with a steady shower while we were rummaging through my grandparents house, turning to a downpour heading up through the Lower Peninsula, and turning to a full on blizzard as we wound our way across the Upper Peninsula and into Wisconsin for the night, with a bright and sunny day following(with a gorgeous new layer of snow covering everything). Not to wax philosophic or anything, but it really was great little reminder that no matter how dark and gloomy it gets, there’s always a brighter tomorrow.

After leaving Cingular, I ended up with a couple months off while looking for work, given mediocre interview skills and trying to get people to look past aforementioned bonehead decision. Now running a nice little contract gig with a small ISP a handful of blocks away. After that’s done, who knows? Maybe if I’m lucky they’ll let me stay on, but otherwise its back to the hunt and the gig should help me get back towards some real tech support work.

Working downtown again is great. Easy lunchtime access to my favorite eateries(Andrea’s Pizza is a must for everyone!), downtown shopping, and even my apartment if I need/want to. Even bigger than that though is that it absolutely eliminates commute times. Working at Cingular involved getting up at about 7-7:30am and not getting home until ~7pm, pretty much 12 hours shot. Now, I still get up 7-7:30am, but get home just past 5(depending on any errands I might run), giving me at least another 2 (uninterrupted) hours to work with each day, and I’ve been amazed at how much more I can actually get done with that extra time, like give my site some attention.

I think that about sums up the important bits of the last year or so- the self-destruction of a good thing, tragedy, some sun poking through the gathering clouds, and now some cautious optimism.

In My Life

Comments Off on Actual content?
Testing Flickr plugin… June 18, 2007 7:47 pm

Bet you didn’t know kittens were f’ing metal did you?

metal cat
In My Photos

Comments Off on Testing Flickr plugin…
Sidetracked 12:31 am

Oops, got a little wrapped up in the cleaning this afternoon. Throw in a call home for Father’s Day, watching the latest Seirei no Moribito and Gurren Lagann episodes while waiting for the dishwasher to run its course. Then the Robot Chicken Star Wars Special on adultswim tonight kills what remains of the evening(can’t stop watching!). Ah well, a short entry here before I call it a night. Catchup post still coming, maybe something to do at work tomorrow, and I suppose I could start writing mini-reviews of the new anime I’m watching, especially as I’m watching at least one show that no one else seems to be this season, and I know at least one other person who’ll appreciate the information.

Also expect some ongoing layout tweaking as I look for better places to put things and figure out how else I can try and abuse the unexpected flexibility I’m seeing here(and yes, I know I’m hellaciously late to the WordPress game). Namely, the code abuse regularly seen on Warrenellis.com regularly amazes me and I want to see what I can achieve with similar poking around. My heavy web activity has all pretty much predated all this Web 2.0 auto-building junk, so while I’ve never let up on consuming the web, I’ve got a ways to go before I catch up to what people are doing nowadays(good thing I’m a quick learner!). Let’s try it!

Four times now with the Star Wars special, and it’s cracked me up every time!

With that though, its time for bed.

In My Life

Comments Off on Sidetracked
It Lives! June 17, 2007 2:41 pm

Alright, I’ve succecssfully brought this sucker to life, and will get back to writing later, for the moment, I have to go make lunch and then clean the apartment.
Oh! Edo Rocket is Effin’ Metal

In Random

Comments Off on It Lives!
« Newer Posts — Older Posts »