updated character sketches of the BSG cast, rendered as Simpsons characters. Awesome.
Author: fledgling otaku
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Lain disc 2
I’m starting it this week. Since my insight after watching disc 1, I find myself suddenly eager. I didn’t get a chance to rewatch disc 1 with that theory in mind, but it’s still fresh in my mind.
I’m cognizant of astro’s critique of my attitude – I certainly admit to thinking (too) hard about Lain rather than just sitting back and enjoying it. Part of that might be the expectation that others’ reviews of the title created – this is supposed to be a deeply insightful and intellectual piece of work, inviting analysis, unlike Haibane Renmei which is an emotional and spiritual roller coaster ride from the outset. I need to stop comparing it to HR, and I am going to make more effort at making less effort for disc 2.
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Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball
Pete Zaitcev, a well-armed blogger with deep knowledge of all things anime and linux, says my recent commentary on Linux was “hilariously retarded“. My crime was my poor choice of examples of Linux hardware compatibility: USB thumbdrives and optical mice. He’s absolutely right, those are poor examples indeed (unlike, say, graphics cards, TV tuners, webcams, …). However, my broader point stands – seamless, plug and play compatibility of a generic USB device (or for that matter any peripheral) is not guaranteed with Linux. Were it otherwise, this site wouldn’t need to exist. All in all, I think my comments about Linux were rather optimistic, and hardly hostile.
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Lain disc 1: Navi
I finished disc 1. Spoiler commentary below the fold, in which I suggest that the whole issue of reality vs virtual reality is a huge red herring.
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CES2007: 1TB for $399
Hitachi and Seagate are racing to deliver 1-terabyte (1TB) hard drives by the first quarter. These are the fruits of perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR).
Since the 40th annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is about to start in Las Vegas, expect the week ahead to be full of these kinds of goodies. For example, there are Blu-Ray burners, HD-DVD burners, and even combo Blu-Ray/HD-DVD drives coming out soon. Wireless USB is going to be big this year, as will Windows Slideshow, an advanced secondary external LCD screen for laptop computers running Vista. And there’s even a 32GB flash-based notebook hard drive. There’s a storage-technology slideshow on the web that previews some of these technologies.
The best CES coverage is at Ars Technica and Tom’s Hardware. Stay tuned…
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Serial Experiments: Lain
I’ve started watching disc 1 of this highly-recommended series. In a nutshell, the story begins with a schoolgirl in Tokyo who gets an email from a classmate who committed suicide a week earlier. I don’t have any meaningful plot insights as yet but my general complaint is that the story is really dragging along. To be honest I’m already kind of bored. However, Steven wrote in his review that “there’s economy to the story telling. Nothing has been included which is extraneous or unnecessary.” Based on that, and the other strongly positive comments from other otaku, I’m going to see this through.
Some spoiler speculation below the fold: (more…)
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nuckin’ futz
JibJab reviews 2006.
That about sums it up. This category “stranger than fiction” at Haibane.info certainly got a workout, eh?
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musical taste
Tonight, I remarked to a friend that I don’t listen to music much anymore. On reflection, however, that’s not quite true. While I do enjoy my Hitchhiker’s Guide radio scripts or NPR more than anything on FM radio at any given time, there are admittedly some pieces of genuine music that I have a soft spot for and which if I do happen to hear, I’ll go out of my way to listen to and sing along to (as long as no one else is in the car 🙂 And I don’t just mean movie soundtracks, either (though they rank highly).
The thing about most of these is that they either evoke a emotion in me or I find some kind of resonance in their lyrics. I rarely enjoy a song for its aesthetic value alone. To click, there has to be a reason, and its something I just cant predict or even point to a pattern for. I’m fairly happy with a very tightly focused collection of music, which I might not listen to that often but which when I do, I expect the same few dozen songs in rotation. I suppose this is the opposite of the typical iPod user profile, but I know what I like and I just don’t have any interest in carrying around anything extraneous.
Maybe I’m just stubborn.
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Indy 4
Lucas says it starts shooting next year, for real for sure this time. The gang at AICN are skeptical, but if Stallone pulled it off, why can’t Harrison Ford, in closing the book on their iconic roles?
UPDATE: Lucas and Spielberg confirm:
Producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg confirmed details of the project Monday after Lucas tipped off the media to Indiana Jones’ imminent return as he prepared to serve as grand marshal of the Rose Parade in Pasadena.
After years spent in script development, a fourth installment of the famously successful franchise is set to begin production in June in locations around the world and in the U.S.