Author: Otaku-kun

Earthsea crossing the Pacific

Looks like Gedo Senki is finally being released in the US:

Disney has announced that it will theatrically release Studio Ghibli’s Tales from Earthsea (Gedo Senki) in the US on August 13th under its Touchstone Pictures banner. The movie, directed by Goro Miyazaki, the son of revered anime director Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Ponyo, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro) several books from Ursula K. Le Guin’s series of novel. The feature premiered in Japan back in 2006, and hit other English speaking territories, such as the UK and Australia since then, but its US release has been delayed due to the Sci-Fi Channel’s now expiring hold on the Earthsea rights.

Cast for the English dub includes Timothy Dalton, Willem Dafoe, Cheech Marin and Mariska Hargitay.

Reviews of the movie weren’t especially positive, especially by the standards of the frequently lauded Studio Ghibli, and it is generally remembered a cause of friction between Hayao and Goro Miyazaki. Le Guin was likewise cold to the work.

Presumably, Disney will get the characters right on the box art! 😛

For what it was worth, I really enjoyed the movie, especially the visuals. Obviously, UKL is the authority on whether the movie was true to her vision or not, but as a reader I have equal claim to interpret it, and I frankly thought the movie evoked the spirit of the Earthsea universe well. Especially the dragons. They really, really got the dragons right. The reviewer at TOR was also positive, but restrained, so your mileage may vary – but I definitely recommend this, especially for watching with older kids.

The Doctor is in

I am really, really enjoying the new Dr. Who series. I confess I’ve never seen the older versions but the new one hits all the right buttons. I’m about 3/4 through season 2 and it’s really hard to pick a favorite thus far, though The Girl in the Fireplace probably comes close.

One thing that especially appeals to me is the rigidity of the timeline. We see that t is possible to change events, but there are severe consequences for doing so – the universe “heals itself” by closing off paradoxes like an infectedd wound and then sending “antibodies” to excise it. And, alternate realities do exist but they are walled off in such a way that even the TARDIS can’t easily access them. Its not clear to me if this is how it always was or whether it’s a consequence of the Time War. In either case, though, it puts the show within a very specific (and unique, given the basic storyline features time travel so centrally) set of constraints. The exact mechanics of when the Doctor’s appearance makes him “part of events” and when he is outside those events are still mysterious to me but it’s good to have some unknowns.

The show just really, really rocks. The only problem is that it has obliterated whatever token anime watching I was still trying to do on the side (especially now that I’ve completed Bebop).

Also, I’m guessing that the Torchwood thing becomes more important later, since they’ve dropped a reference to it almost every episode since the Doctor regenerated.

Satsuki and Mai, together again

I picked up the new deluxe edition of Totoro, to replace our mysteriously-vanished copy. I haven’t actually watched it yet (maybe tonight) but I already know I am going to miss the english voices of my old Fox version, especially Satsuki.

My 8yr-old, who I think deserves to inherit the Fledgling Otaku label, noticed something both highly hilarious and deeply troubling on the cover of the disc box. It’s readily apparent on the cover scans on Amazon. See if you can find it.

Totoro deluxe version
What is wrong with this picture?

I can’t stop staring at it, now. Yikes. Please, let there be better attention to detail inside the box than outside! we’ll find out tonight. Somehow I am not really confident about Dakota Fanning here.

cell phones don’t cause cancer

If they did, then these gigantic multi-year studies would actually have found evidence of it, rather than being “inconclusive”.

Consider this a public service announcement. I could say more about the impossibility of radio waves at these wavelengths to actually penetrate more than a few millimeters of skin, but that’s really a waste of time when dealing with this sort of issue.

The Secret of Kells

Don had a short post linking to a tantalizing new animated film called Secret of Kells which seems to only be released in Irish theaters at present, but would be a prime candidate for torrenting (assuming Pirate Bay can get back online; I don’t torrent enough nowadays to be able to sustain a BakaBT account like Steven does).

The animation has an exotic brushstroke painting feel to it, and there’s a gaggle of reviews online that are praising the storyline, with plenty of references to Miyazaki. I’m a little hesitant, since everyone universally praised Ponyo as the awesomest thing ever, but was a disappointment to me. Still, if this appears in local theaters then its a natural target for me and my 8yr old.

Sprint Evo 4G on June 4th for $199

Sprint Evo 4G
The Sprint Evo 4G
Just got an email from Sprint – the amazing Evo 4G is coming out on June 4th, for $199. This is one of my 4 most-wanted gadgets.

Recall Engadget’s hands-on review:

The handset is centered around a 480 x 800 4.3-inch TFT LCD, with a Snapdragon QSD8650 1GHz processor under the hood (the CDMA version of the QSD8250 in the HD2 and Nexus One), and even a helpful 1GB of built-in memory and 512MB of RAM — hello app storage! Even the battery is bigger than the HD2, and the camera is an 8 megapixel monstrosity with flash, that’s capable of 720p video, and is augmented by a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera for good measure. The phone features HDMI out (though you’ll need an adapter for turning it into a TV-familiar HDMI plug), 802.11b/g WiFi, and an 8GB microSD card. There’s that still-rare Android 2.1 underneath an updated version of HTC’s Sense UI. But… despite all these wild features, what actually sets the EVO 4G apart is the fact that it’s Sprint’s first 4G phone. The handset runs a combo of EV-DO Rev. A and WiMAX, with calls still being made over CDMA and the EV-DO / WiMAX options for data.

UPDATE: I beat all the big tech blogs to the punch with this news 🙂 But there’s more detail about the phone coming out now, including the fact that Qik will be providing an app for two-way video chat. Also, Gizmodo has the press release and notes that 4G will cost an extra $10/month, and the tethering an extra $30/month. Ouch, but still yummy.

basic health – baby steps

I’ve actually been stereotypically awol in blog posts in my “Fitness” category. But there actually has been recent movement on that front; we bought an elliptical machine which I’ve been making regular use of (averaging 4x a week, 25min) and I got my cholesterol and vitamin D levels checked as part of a basic checkup. I’ve started taking multivitamins, and am taking daily 5000 IU of D3 since I’m highly deficient. Plus my cholesterol is a normal-but-high 169 and my HDL is a baseline-minimum-normal 40. So, there’s room for improvement, and I’ve started reducing my fast food accordingly (but not enough).

I haven’t totally changed my lifestyle around but I am making these initial, positive steps (exercise, diet, and supplements). In a couple of months I have a follow up and lets see what effect it has.

Now, I’m going to go to a conference for a week, and get very little sleep, no exercise, and eat junk the whole time. sigh. I’ve got my vitamins, though!

Incidentally, this piece in the Times about the real value of exercise was illuminating.

(haven’t used the Wii much at all of late. Need to get back into that, at least doing the pushups and situps, again, too. After Stockholm.)

Headed to Stockholm tomorrow

I’m going on a trip to Stockholm tomorrow, for my annual conference. Will try to post photos etc. In the meantime, any suggestions on essential things to do there would be welcome… probably won’t have any time to do anything extra-curricular, but who knows.

Also, I also always drink ginger ale on planes. Funny, that – I thought it was just me.

Iron Man and Batman

incredibly insightful observation from Massawyrm about Batman and Iron Man:

How do you take a comic steeped in cold war ideology, fixated upon a Vietnam war vet who becomes a philandering tycoon that rubs elbows with gods, monsters and superheroes and translate that into a viable franchise for a post-9/11 world? Favreau’s answer was to focus on the character, surrounding him with a terrific supporting cast whose primary objective is to wrangle Tony, while peppering the landscape with robots, power suits and plenty of explosive mayhem. He is played as the very antithesis of Batman: while Batman is the brooding hero pretending to be a rich socialite, Stark is the rich socialite moonlighting as a brooding hero. And Stark has better toys.

I really didn’t find the first Iron Man movie that interesting, and have never really been a fan. I might have to check IM2 out, though, on the basis of this alone.

video: rebooting air travel in Europe

Amazing video of European air travel starting up again after the volcano:

Airspace Rebooted from ItoWorld on Vimeo.

I found this via Mark Ashley‘s indispensable air-traveller blog. Mark notes,

You’ll notice some gaps, especially over France. That doesn’t mean that there’s no radar over French airspace. Rather, the website’s data are gathered by individual aviation enthusiasts who hook receivers up to their computers, to capture and track planes with ADS-B transponders. It’s an enthusiast community, sorta like HAM radio operators. (I’ll defer to the site’s “About” link for an explanation, since I claim no expertise in transponders.)

But regardless of the technology driving the site, it’s a neat video. You’ll notice a few test flights, some flying a loop. Then a few more. And then, the deluge.

In particular, note the impact when London Heathrow comes online. A behemoth.

All this is particularly reassuring to me personally as I have a little trip to Europe myself coming up.