Haibane.info

Author: fledgling otaku

  • the otaku dream girl

    There’s a story arc in progress at XKCD (part 1, part 2, part 3) which reminded me of Steven’s post from last week. In a nutshell, the stay at home mom next door is actually a super hacker. Thus she combines the archetypes of otaku dream girl (ODG) and MILF1 into one. Her daughter was trained like Samurai Jack in the sacred arts at teh feet of all the masters and has become the greatest hacker of our generation. Here’s a panel from Part 2:

    1337

    The funny thing about the ODG is that no analogue exists on the opposite side of the gender aisle. Is there an ODB (boy), of whom all otaku girls dream? In my experience, most of my even moderately geeky women friends preferred men completely outside their archetype. Otaku women tend to reserve otaku men for friends, not mates. There are of course exceptions to this rule, but the trend seems (anecdotally) solid.

    the other random observation I have is that the general geek category has its own sub-taxonomy. XKCD is clearly a “hacker” comic, whereas Haibane.info is more solidly in the “otaku” camp. I’d classify Shamus as a Gamer, and there are also the Fantasy and Scifi camps (each with their own subgenres). But we are all united by the ur-label “geek”, and all of us dabble in the other genres. Maybe XKCD will notice this post linkback and do a comic on it.

    [1]No linky. If you dunno what this is, google it. Haibane.info is a kawaii-safe zone. Unrelated, anyone know a sexy plugin for footnotes? Now I’ve got Drupal envy.

  • still the greatest

  • that’s no moon…

    that’s a space craft!

  • registration captcha

    I mentioned earlier that I was using Peter’s Anti-spam Math plugin to allow for freer commenting (after inspiration from Shamus). I was also using the WP-Deadbolt plugin to add a blacklist to the blog registration page. However, I left a comment at Peter’s asking if he could add the same captcha functionality to the registration page as well. He responded almost immediately and sent me a link to the new beta of his plugin, which adds the captcha to the registration page as desired and which also implements a domain-based blacklist for registration email addresses to boot! I just installed it and am really impressed. If you have a WP blog and allow users to register, give this a whirl and let Peter know if you come across any bugs.

  • the future of Wii

    the Wii has of course blown everyone else away and rules the roost in terms of units sold, more than the XB and PS combined. But there’s a lot of room for improvement and areas in which the Wii can’t rest on its laurels. A detailed article at TGD makes the case for what needs to come next.

  • Trek 2.0 casting roundup

    The holy triumvirate of Kirk, Spock and Bones is fully cast – with Bones being played by Karl Urban (Eomer from LOTR), which IMHO is all kinds of awesome. Bones needs to have that badass vibe. Another inspired bit of casting is Winona Ryder as Spock’s mom; about time she played someone all responsible-like. And Sulu is being played by Harold of Harold and Kumar fame (Kirk’s policy on piloting the Enterprise while stoned remains unknown). I’m looking forward to this!

  • Norman Mailer, RIP

    He passed away today at the age of 84. I’ve never read a single book of his, surprisingly. Anyone have any suggestions?

  • Beowulf

    I saw some initial trailers for this upcoming film, and thought it looked okay, but wasn’t particularly amazed. However, Harry at AICN has now seen the finished product and is raving about it. He writes,

    It is here, where it is time to witness legend unleashed, heroism, sacrifice and the sort of greatness we are blessed to see envisioned from the imagination of the Dark Ages and trumpeted upon the whiz-bangery of 3D High Tech 21st century spectacle.

    I have to admit that there is a primal quality to the ancient legends like Beowulf. The reason that Lord of the Rings was such a success was because it sought to tap into that primal source, and creating the depth to replace centuries of lore took JRR Tolkien decades. If the Beowulf movie truly brings the ancient legend – without any Hollywood tropes, but with its integrity intact – to the modern screen, then it really will be a spectacular epic.

  • Wii points = gaming nostalgia

    I used these:

    Nintendo Wii Points Card (2000 points)

    to download this:

    smb3.jpg

    and am very, very happy.

  • more strike links

    Interesting article in Forbes about the WGA strike. Coming from a conservative business publication like Forbes, this kind of rhetoric is surprising:

    “When 12,000 Hollywood writers traded pencils for picket signs this week, they took a huge risk. Even riskier: not striking. Losing to the studios now could doom their union as television gives way to the Internet.”

    The Wall Street Journal also chimes in, in one of their blogs devoted to digital media, noting that the dispute is more akin to splitting a tip jar at Starbucks rather than a big bag of money:

    Writers, quite reasonably, want to be paid more as their work moves online–to the Web, cellphones and anywhere else that gadgets send content in the future.

    It’s an especially pointed desire, given that they were essentially shafted in the last digital transformation when DVDs and videocassettes appeared.

    As John Aboud, who is a strike captain for WGA, noted in a comment to my post last week on the strike, that even with all the money Hollywood has made, most writers are not well paid (although those at the tippy-top are copiously compensated).

    “Median earnings of all members of the Writers Guild is only $5,000,” he wrote.”“How can that be? About 48% of members do not earn any money from writing in a given year. Of those writers who do make some money, one quarter earn less than $37,700 a year.”

    That means that being a writer is far, far less lucrative than grad school. This blows my mind.

    Somewhat more tongue in cheek, here’s a vision of what TV might look like without the writer’s Guild:

    Is it wrong to admit that I’m also a sucker for the word, “Guild” ? I blame the 3 Ds (Dune, Dungeons, and Dragons)