Backed up and upgraded blog software. Let me know if you run into any issues.

Wow. Lot's of stuff to talk about. First of all, the Texas Rangers' new ace pitcher:



Good Lord, some of those pitches change zip codes before crossing the plate. And after. Good change-up, too. Yu Darvish. No Wikipedia link today; they're doing that stupid blackout thing so I figured I would go along with the idea and not link them. I'm sure they're crying.

Speaking of which, any of you who follow my twitter feed probably picked up that I'm not terribly impressed with the SOPA and PIPA activism. As I mentioned earlier today on Twitter, let me be clear (Thank you, Mr. President): I don't support either proposal. They're a little to vague and broadly targeted. As most legislation is, honestly. On the other hand, neither of these bill proposals does what so many are claiming. Anything subject to First Amendment protection is exempt, first of all. Seriously. ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com? Your stuff would still be just as protected as it has been. SOPA and PIPA can't touch you. READ THE DAMN BILL. The government can bypass due process and shut you down with only a complaint? No. The bill is very explicit in this regard; the Attorney General can only act directly against a website, etc. if NO DOMESTIC HOST OR CONTACT OF A FOREIGN SITE, etc. CAN BE LOCATED. At that point the AG can act against the foreign host, etc. using the legal tools available to the office. Not only can NONE OF THIS apply to American hosts, etc. (because of that due process guarantee) but the law only allows action against FOREIGN websites as a last resort. READ THE DAMN BILL.

This is giving me a headache.

In the meantime, there are laws being proposed that actively and directly affect our rights, and I don't hear a peep out of hardly any of you. I've mentioned the Research Works Act.

So, yeah, I'm a little upset about this. Some smart people have bought into the argument wholeheartedly, and it's disappointing. Shamus, call me. I believe you're smarter than this. I understand opposing the legislation; I do too. But spreading misinformation is NOT the way to win the argument.

Moving on.

DC The New 52. Everything has four issues now, and next week the final fifth issues will be out. But I think I've got everything grokked now. This is pretty simple, really. As a reboot, The New 52 is a complete failure. Most of the titles aren't even reboots. Superman is. Batgirl is. Batman isn't, really. Neither is Green Lantern. Don't know about Flash or Green Arrow. Birds of Prey isn't, it's just a new volume, really. Except it has the new Batgirl...so maybe? There are several new comics, and a lot of those are pretty good. If they would have done the entire DC universe in conjunction with the new titles, I think it might have worked.

As a marketing initiative, The New 52 was pretty successful. It got a lot of people like me to try out some comics. And, while I've dropped several, here's what I'm still reading, and my thoughts so far.

All Star Western - Jonah Hex. Written by Palmiotti and Gray, drawn by Moritat. Well-written book, it's on the "continue indefinitely" list. The first storyline teamed Hex up with Amadeus Arkham, and it looks like they're going to continue in this vein. Interesting take on the classic Holmes/Watson dynamic. And I'm not just saying that, I'm pretty sure it's intentional.

Animal Man - Written by Lemire, drawn by Foreman. DC is making a strong move into light horror comics with a lot of their new titles, with Animal Man at the forefront. Has a very "indy" feel to it, if you take my meaning. The opening story arc looks like it's going to last quite a while; this one is currently on the "continue indefinitely" list, but I can see the potential for one bad issue to ruin it.

Aquaman - Written by Johns, drawn by Reis. Damn. A premiere writer and artist launch the underwater superhero back into stardom. I am not even remotely joking about this. Aquaman is probably the only must read comic for anyone in The New 52. At least that's how I feel. I assure you I will continue reading this comic for a while.

Batgirl - Written by Simone, drawn by Syaf. Barbara Gordon's return to active duty in the new timeline has certainly been met with a mixed reception. Personally, I think this is one of the better books. The initial storyline was a bit trite, and I get the feeling Simone is having a hard time developing a feel for the new Barbara Gordon. But, this comic as well is on the "continue indefinitely" list.

Batman: The Dark Knight - written by Finch and Jenkins, drawn by Finch. This one isn't on the long list. The art is nice, and the story has been somewhat interesting, but I may drop this title. I've been considering going back to the regular Batman title instead, which I had previously dropped because it immediately hooked into several other titles for continuity.

Batwoman - written by Blackman and Williams, drawn by Williams. Beautiful art and an intriguing character concept which was ruined by the fourth issue by getting on the soap box too often, and with way too much ignorance. It's hard to take a mystery seriously when characters start demagogue-ing and the story starts devoting half the issue to making political points. Also, see Mister Terrific.

Birds of Prey - written by Swierczynski, drawn by Saiz. I don't like Black Canary. Thankfully, it seems like Swierczynski doesn't either, as the most recent comics make plain that while she's tough as nails and can burst your noggin', the Canary isn't quite as competent or as smart as she thinks she is. Thankfully, the ensemble cast just get's better and better with each issue. I initially took the Starling character to be the snarker and punch-line provider, but Swierczynski has managed to instill a personality that's refreshingly different. Kooky Katana comes of, really, as perfectly normal...right up until she pulls out her blade and starts talking to it. In a very realistic manner. It's not hammy and silly. She really, truly believes the soul of her husband lives in that sword and talks to her. Poison Ivy looks sick but acts the sophisticate, when the truth is exactly opposite. Swierczynski has managed to make each issue better than the previous; Birds of Prey is finally on the "continue indefinitely" list.

Demon Knights - written by Cornell, drawn by Nevis. Several people, most notably Linkara, have haled this series as the best of The New 52, and while I certainly like it in the main, I wouldn't go that far. In fact, I can see the possibility of a great failure before too long. This one is on an "issue-to-issue" basis.

Detective Comics - written by Daniel, drawn by Daniel. Probably the best of the new Batman titles. So far, this series feels the most like a "classic" Batman title, but of course everyone will have their own opinion of what that means. Like The Dark Knight, however, this one is "issue-by-issue".

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. - written by Lemire, drawn by Ponticelli. I put this one up there with Aquaman. This really is original, quality storytelling. Just try it. On the "continue indefinitely" list.

Green Lantern Corps - written by Tomasi, drawn by Pasarin. Features John Stewart and Guy Gardner, along with a host of other GL's. Primarily deals with Green Lantern problems throughout the rest of the galaxy, or that threaten the galaxy itself. The only GL book I've ever enjoyed. Will continue reading this one.

Justice League Dark - written by Milligan, drawn by Janin. I didn't like this one at first, but it's growing on me. This is a team book featuring all of the occult and magic superheroes in the DC universe. Unfortunately, I'm not sure the writer has a good grip on this one, as the narrative keeps wandering around in a very unfocused manner. On the "issue-by-issue" list.

Justice League International - written by Jurgens, drawn by Lopresti. Uneven and not as funny as it should be, but I can still see a lot of potential here. Issue-by-issue, with high hopes.

Legion Lost - written by Nicieza, drawn by Woods. This one is on borrowed time. Came out strong, but last two issues were very preachy (I don't want your politics in my comic).

Nightwing - written by Higgins, drawn by Barrows. I'm not traditionally a Nightwing fan, but an appearance in Batgirl got me reading this one. It's still issue-by-issue.

OMAC - Written by DiDio and Giffen, drawn by Giffen. I loved this series for the first two issues, but it's been fairly pedestrian since then. Currently on the "issue-by-issue" list.

Stormwatch - written by Cornell, drawn by Sepulveda. This one has really grown on me. The writing is excellent, and the setting comes off as twisted just a bit to the "weird" side. On the "continue indefinitely" list.

Suicide Squad - written by Glass, drawn by Dallocchio and Getty. I'm not sure the writer has a good hand on were this book is going in the long run, but the scenes and dialogue are great. This one is currently "issue-by-issue", but I expect to continue reading it for a while, at least.

Wonder Woman - written by Azzarello, drawn by Chiang. The other really controversial title of The New 52. DC just can't get traction with Wonder Woman, and the alteration of her origin story (again) rubbed many fans the wrong way. I actually like it, myself, and I'm still cautiously optimistic that Azzarello may actually have something good here. Currently a "continue indefinitely", but with great potential to crash and burn.

That's it. Anything else I've mentioned in the past that isn't listed here I had already dropped. I can see dropping a few titles from this list; most obviously The Dark Knight, Nightwing, Demon Knights and Legion Lost.

And I still have the independents to talk about; I'll leave it for now.

Current video games:

Grand Theft Auto 4. I have a bit to say about this game. Some of what I have to say is that 4 has the same problems that San Andreas and Vice City Stories had. Something else is that the game is such a phenomenal example of a huge, explorable area that it's a shame there's no reason to do so. One other thing I can talk about is that I have played through 43% of story in 41 hours. That's almost exactly an hour for every percent of game. Of those 41 hours, I have spent about 20 playing the actual story and missions, and 21 keeping my friends and girlfriends "happy" so they don't start pouting and leave me text messages and emails saying they don't like me anymore. The 25+ hours I have to look forward too keeping my friends "happy" so they don't yell at me are making me lose sleep at night, which will eventually cause me to become a dissociative sociopath with an inferiority complex and a gun, thereby proving Jack Thompson right. You done messed up, Rockstar.

I may talk about this more later. (Place your bets.)

Half Life Source. I never finished the original Half Life. No, really. Shun me.

Recettear. Haven't gone very far, though.

No WoW, lately. I'll be recording some more Guild Wars soon. I will also be trying my hand at visual novels again, with Katawa Shoujo.

May have some more vacation photos to put up. Working on some more figure photos as well, supposedly 3D stereoscopic images aren't that hard to do.

Have you become accustomed to the new Youtube design yet? I haven't. But here are the next six videos in the Let's Play Guild Wars Series. I'm a bit behind posting these over here; on the Youtube account I've finished the Northern Shiverpeaks area. These six videos are the last few quests before starting the Northern Shiverpeaks missions. The next post will be the first mission, Borlis Pass.

Now that we're back home, I would like to post our travel route and provide a few comments on the trip overall. The reason I didn't publish much of this beforehand is, firstly, that we really didn't want to advertise that we were going to be out of town for a specific period; I wanted to keep it ambiguous. Secondly, we were going to be travelling near a lot of friends and family, and we weren't going to be able to visit everyone, or even most of you. Even if we had made arrangements to stop by or meet, we knew from experience that there would be a decent chance we would have to cancel depending on how the day's travel went. We decided the only fair thing would be to skip everyone. So, now that you all see that we drove right by you, I want to apologize, and I hope you will understand why we didn't arrange a meeting.

The trip was fun overall, but I don't think we'll ever do anything like this again. I've mentioned the car problems, although that's somewhat understandable...it's an old car. The vacation house wasn't that great. The actual travelling was good...some of the hotels were very good, some not so much.

First Day: Home to Gallup, NM (marker C), which is near the border between New Mexico and Arizona. Ran into problems in Roswell; the entire road north was closed due to an accident. Went west and then north; as we approached I-40 we hit a blizzard. Stayed at the Days Inn in Gallup. We were not impressed, but weren't expecting much. Taco Bell for dinner. Yuck.
Day Two: Gallup, NM to Las Vegas, NV (marker D). Drove through extreme fog and snow all morning. Stopped at the Hoover Dam; it was crowded. Stayed at the Sienna Suites in Henderson, NV. Fantastic hotel; three room suite which was one of the cheapest hotels we stayed at. Had Jack In The Box; wasn't good. Great hotel, though. Replaced dash fuse that went out.
Day Three: Vegas to Susanville, CA (Marker E). Cold all day, front heater stops working in car. Temperatures seldom get higher than freezing. Drive through Nevada is always interesting and beautiful. Susanville is lovely. Burger King for dinner. Fantastic. Best Burger King I've had in a while. Stay at the Super 8. Not bad, but not good, either.
Day Four: Temperatures well below freezing. Get to Newport (Marker G) around four Pacific Time. Great drive, but hard to keep front of car warm. I've said all I want to say about the vacation house. Stay for a week. Starts raining on Christmas Day, rains all day every day after that. On the last full day we visit the Newport Aquarium, which is fun but expensive.
Day Eleven: Drive to Eureka, California (Marker H) from Newport, Oregon. Rains all day, still having electric problems. Stay at the Best Western Plus. Fantastic hotel. Two beds, two rooms. Have Marie Callenders for dinner; really good.
Day Twelve: Eureka to San Francisco (Marker I). Specifically, Burlingame on the West Bay. We're tired at this point and worried about the car, so we go down 101 instead of cutting back to Highway One. Rains almost all day, windshield wipers stop working. Have to disconnect the battery a few times to get the circuit or whatever to reset. Great. Stay at the Embassy Suites. Nice enough, but way to expensive for what you get, and not quite as advertised. Have In-n-Out Burger, get lost trying to reach restaurant. Well, not lost really, but we can't ever quite get where we need to go. Driving in San Francisco is a pain in the neck. Resolve to come back at some point, though. Very pretty city and we didn't get to do anything.
Day Thirteen: San Fran to Ventura, California (Marker N). Finally a dry day until we get near Ventura; we hit a massive fog bank right as it get's dark. Very scary; wipers cut out again. Wipers that don't work in the wet. That's great. Stay at the Holiday Inn Express, which feels like it's about to fall apart. Still, it's right on the marina and the view is fantastic when the fog clears. Had Burger King again earlier. Once again good.
Day Fourteen: Ventura to Phoenix, Arizona (Marker O). First completely dry night and day, car working fine again. Would love to come back to the Los Angeles area. Didn't really get into Los Angeles or even the closer suburbs. The map above shows the wrong route and I forgot to correct; we stayed on 210 until Redlands, then took I-10 the rest of the way. The drive east is not very interesting. Plus, the wind is bad. Stay in the Hawthorn Suites in Chandler, right before you exit the south end of Phoenix. Wonderful hotel. Would love to go back and just stay at the hotel. Have Wendy's for dinner. Excellent.
Day Fifteen: Phoenix to El Paso, TX (Marker P). One of the better drives, although we regret the number of things we don't get to do on the road. Have Dairy Queen for lunch; completely different menu from our hometown DQ. And it's excellent. Stay at the Residence Inn (by Marriott) in El Paso. These people can go jump in the Rio Grande. Hotel is completely NOT as advertised, plus I get charged out the wazoo for everything. The bed is nice, though. Have Arby's for dinner, not very good. The Market Fresh sandwich is nice, as always...but the Swiss Mushroom Roast Beef sandwich I try is awful. I almost spit it out. Give most of it to the dog. Speaking of which; we loved having the dog with us but would definitely NOT do it for trips. When you have a dog with you, you can't eat out as a family and you can't visit a lot of attractions. No dogs allowed on the Hoover Dam. Can't take a dog to Hearst Castle. Etc, etc.
Day Sixteen: I-10/I-20 home. This trip feels really long now. Wish we could have been home five days ago. Eat junk food from convenience stores. It feels so good to be home. Feel like we were mistreated a lot more than we actually were. It's bad to come home feeling like a victim from your vacation. But, I know as the bad memories fade and the bills get paid, all that will remain are the good times. It really was a fantastic experience, but I doubt I would do it again.

The "best place to spend Christmas" turned out to not be, actually. Of course, I want to preface all of this by saying that, even considering I'm paying for all of it, this trip has still been a great, rare opportunity that I do not regret. And most of it has been a lot of fun. Anyway...

The day after Christmas the wife and I went out to the car to go do some requisite maintenance on supplies. The battery was dead, or almost completely dead. Couldn't find anything left on or plugged in. Called a cab, took a $60 cab ride to Wal*Mart for a new battery ($100). The engine will now cheerfully turn over, but will not catch. In addition, I notice the oil is low. Not dangerously low, just low enough to be worrisome...this car has never used or leaked oil. The trip up was difficult, though; so maybe that explains it. The dash lights are acting funny, randomly flashing and flickering. This includes the anti-theft warning, and I know from experience that if that circuit (or whatever) is being tripped, the car won't start. I start calling around for repair services. No one can come to the car; no one will promise to work on it if I tow it except for the local Ford dealership; but even they say they only have one mechanic available and they can't order parts right now. Shit.

So I have the car towed to Ford ($100). This Ford shop does not fill me with confidence. The service manager doesn't recognize my Ford Owner Advantage card; he thinks it must be something only Texas does. Right. Three hours later, I notice the car is running, but they spend another hour under the dash. Finally, the mechanic comes to me and tells me the windshield is leaking (it's been raining since Christmas Day) and water is getting into the fusebox and possibly other things. He dried out the fusebox and it all works now, but we'll need to get the windshield re-sealed or replaced. In the meantime, cover it up or park with the driver's side uphill. ($120). I pay the bill, go to the car. It won't start. Same thing. Mechanic says it will probably take a few days to clear out. Just wait a bit and the theft code will clear, allowing me to start the car. Sure enough, a minute later everything goes back to normal and I can start the car. Oh, and the reason the battery was dead is because the water is shorting something in the theft thingy or the ignition. This happens whether the key is in or not. Boom. Dead battery.

Since that's still happening, I have to disconnect the battery whenever I leave the car sitting for more than a few minutes.

The night before we left, my younger daughter slipped on the stairs, but thankfully wasn't hurt. The morning we left, my wife slipped on the stairs and severely jammed a toe, which hurts like hell and makes walking difficult. But, we were finally out of the place. The car was buggy but working; the front heater, which had started acting up the day before we arrived, still wasn't blowing "hot" air, but was hot enough. And, unfortunately, we just never really liked the house or the location after we spent a day or so there. This feeling was reinforced as we headed south down the Coast Highway. My wife and I had really fallen in love with the southern Oregon/Northern California coast, and the central Oregon coast really isn't the same. It's dirty and smelly; a working town's coastline. It's not nearly as pretty, either.

As for the house itself, I should have been even more worried than I was when we encountered three laminated signs regarding correct and incorrect usage of various bits of the beach house BEFORE WE OPENED THE FRONT DOOR. In the entryway were three more signs, which were generally worded like: "Please remove your shoes before entering. If our carpet is ruined because you're too lazy, YOU WILL PAY TO REPLACE IT." Almost everything had a sign like that. There were specifications for what wood to use in the fireplace (You WILL PAY FOR DAMAGES.) There were instructions for how much laundry soap to use (YOU WILL PAY FOR DAMAGES.) Needless to say, this raised our stress levels a bit. Look, I understand the owner doesn't want the house trashed, obviously. But if you're going to be THAT picky, why rent it out? We spent five hours cleaning the house before we left, which put us behind schedule, and in the end the effort didn't really matter. An hour after we had left, the management agency called and told us the owner claimed we had damaged the property, he had already done the repairs, and he would be sending us a bill. Without going into detail, just in case, we damaged a piece of furniture by using it the way it was intending to be used...if it was anything other than special variety of that particular piece of furniture. It was not damaged in any way that we were even aware it COULD be damaged. Ironically, this was one of the few things that DIDN'T have a warning sign on it or near it. The conversation with the management rep basically went like this: "Did you use the *****?" Me: "Yes." Them: "Did you do ***** when you used it?" Me: "Yes, why?" Them: "The owner says you ruined it when you did that. He had to throw it away, and is going to bill you for a new one." Me: "???"

So that really capped off the trip.

That evening, my Check Card bank emailed and called to say they had security concerns and had limited my account. At first I thought I had been hacked, then I got angry because we had already had to straighten out the bank on allowing charges out-of-state, and I was afraid that had become and issue again. So on top of everything else, I was afraid our main money source had been cut off. Thankfully, it was just something incredibly stupid. I had accessed the bank's website from a new IP number, which flagged my account for a security "concern". Fair enough, really. The newest wrinkle is that the windshield wipers have started to malfunction. I'm sure this is tied to all of the other electrical problems, but remember, it's been raining since Christmas Day. Today was better, it just sprinkled off and on all day. We'll see of the rain keeps chasing us.

The good part is, except for the week in Oregon, this really has been a fun trip. Even in Oregon there were good times...I just would have skipped that part looking back.

In case I'm not blogging tomorrow night, Happy New Year everyone!

It's snowing on Christmas Eve in West Texas for the first time in I don't know how long. Oddly enough, I'm not currently in West Texas, although the house sitter was kind enough to send pics of our backyard. We are currently in Newport, Oregon, which was the best place we could think of to spend Christmas. On the drive here, we went through a blizzard in Central New Mexico but no snow west or north since then (although there was snow on the ground through Flagstaff); other than at the higher elevations. Northern California was fifteen degrees below freezing, but no moisture. Thankfully, Newport is wet, just not with snow. The best I've ever slept, and the best I've ever felt when I woke up, was near the sound and smell of the ocean...especially when you add a bit of evergreen to the mix.

Anyway, you get to look at some vacation photos. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Sun just coming up. Wonderful way to start the day!

Only missing the snow. From the Navajo to the West Texas dirt farmer, it's the first wet winter in years.

That's actually about 150-200 feet away, and 30 feet down.

We literally climb down the cliff (there are stairs) onto high tide.

This is funny. About two seconds later, that wave, which is actually about two feet tall, hit me and my younger daughter. I was wearing my new shoes, new pants, and warm socks; and carrying my new camera. None of the other waves had done that. It happened again later in the day and scared hell out of the dog.

Now it's Christmas Eve. And despite the lack of snow (I'm not bitter) we've got everything else, more than we deserve if not more than we could ever want. There's even some awesome Christmas music, thanks to these guys. So Merry Christmas to all! I hope you have a wonderful day and a wonderful weekend!

Let's see...I finished one game this week that I liked, and dropped two before I completed a level.

First up, I completed Tomb Raider: Legend. This is the first Tomb Raider title done by Crystal Dynamics rather than CORE Design, the original developer. Legend was actually released before Tomb Raider: Anniversary, the Crystal Dynamics-designed remake of the original game, which I finished earlier this year. Legend doesn't have quite the polish that Anniversary has; it's also lacking some of the game mechanics. While the camera in Anniversary is only occasionally frustrating, the Legend camera is problematic. On the other hand the story is quite interesting, and a couple of the levels are very enjoyable. The game was also surprisingly short, although that may be because I'm used to Crystal Dynamics' controls now. I blew through everything but the time trials in thirteen hours.

For contrast, I have now tried the original Assassin's Creed twice. I am, apparently, missing something. My impression of the gameplay is "point in the right direction, hit the 'go' button." I've heard that travelling is a bit of headache in this game, while the actual assassinations are much better. I just couldn't make it. I was bored senseless and the story, not the mention the American accent of the main character, did absolutely nothing the grab me. Finally uninstalled. Thankfully, I didn't pay much for it.

I then tried Velvet Assassin. The story looks interesting, and the graphics were certainly good enough. Unfortunately, at least with the PC version, the game crashes constantly. Most people don't seem to have this problem, but a certain minority have non-repairable crashing problems. It also ran too fast. Now that's a problem I haven't had in a while. I was just interested enough that I'll probably try it Xbox 360. I paid maybe $5.00 total for both the PC and Xbox copies, so it's not a loss yet.

I finished Blue Drop, or almost finished it. I finally looked up the ending to see if the watch was going to be worth it, because the series didn't really seem to be going anywhere that made any sense. The series ends with a downer, so I decided to skip it. I did, however, learn that the anime series is a prequel to a couple of manga series that didn't look very interesting. It's a shame, some bits of the show were quite promising.

I finally watched Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens. I understand now why people went wild over the show at first but quickly lost interest. The story starts out well enough; you get the feeling at first that Kannagi is going to be something like Ah, My Goddess! with less sweetness and light, and more sass and sexy. And, of course, there is manga-ka Eri Takenashi's brilliant character design. I've always been a bit of a leg aficionado, and Nagi's are superb. In the end, though, the series just sputters to a simple, predictable halt. There is an OAV that I haven't seen yet, but I'm working through the manga right now to see if I'm missing something. I know that Takenashi was in the hospital in 2008 and the manga was on hiatus until just a couple of months ago...I would imagine that a severe illness certainly could have affected things. In the end, the best part of this show, and the only aspect worth retaining, is the character design of the heroine. Kannagi has much in common with Occult Academy in that regard.

I am currently watching Divergence Eve and playing Blade Kitten. I'm also adding a few figures to the collection. First up is a Yayoi Fujisawa figure by Enter Brain. The character is from Stellvia; her generous figure is (partially) due to being two years older than the other students. Also the Japanese are perverts. And I bought it. Huh.



Anyway, the detail is fabulous, and the likeness and mold quality is very good, even if the photo isn't. This was just a quick effort to try out a new camera; I didn't have any lights or backgrounds set up.

I also added this swimsuit version of Sei from Burst Angel. I need to review that series sometime in the future. Another series with excellent character design but a weak and directionless story. This figure is a bit smaller scale that it really needs to be for a figure like this, but the detail is still pretty good.



I've added both of these to the portfolio rotation. There are several more to add, although I don't have any immediate plans to do the photography. I'm going to be very busy the next several weeks, but I'll still try to get a few Christmas updates done.

As is my wont, a link to a commemorative post on the significance of the date of December 7th.

http://wonderduck.mu.nu/70_years

I'm gonna try something different. I'm on episode five of Blue Drop. Don't read the link if you don't want spoilers. I should probably mention that more often. And this show has a mystery at the heart, so you probably don't want to know. I didn't read it.

Animation/Art: All girls and they're all drawn well. Very pretty.

On the other hand; Gonzo! Conspicuous CGI. Boo.

Most importantly, here's what I look like watching the show:

I don't know what the hell is going on.

A few things I've finished...or finished with...

1) X-Blades. God of War clone for the Xbox 360, and later the PS3 and PC. Best known for having a protagonist with a porntastic body and pre-pubescent's face. The story is almost non-existent and the voice acting isn't even laughably bad...it's just bad. Still, for hack-and-slash fun, the game is easy enough. Glad I played doubt I'll ever play it again. The final two boss bottles were surprisingly easy. On the next-to-last boss, you get a pop-up message as you enter the level telling you what attack to use. Then, as long as you don't actually enter the area where the boss is, you can hit him and he can't reach you. The final boss goes down quickly as long as you have the right attack...maybe if you forget to buy that upgrade he's hard? I know earlier in the game you do run into enemies that require certain attacks, and if you haven't purchased those attacks and can't afford them now, you better go back and grind some. Same with the boss battle above, really... except that attack requires that you find a certain number of a certain type of artifact. I had at that point, but if I hadn't, I guess I would just be starting over. Not the greatest game design.

2) The Neon Genesis Evangelion Rebuild movies. I'm actually a pretty big fan of the original NGE series, and wasn't all that thrilled when Gainax announced the Rebuild movies. However, I got both movies on Blu-Ray a few months back. Movie one is an almost beat-for-beat replay of the first few episodes of the series. The biggest impression from this movie is that the English dub really hasn't aged well. It's actually a new dub, mostly using the same voices as the series, and at the time that original dub was considered quite good. I guess it really is a product of the times, though...at the time most English dubs were absolutely terrible. Unfortunately, the writing really suffers in the new movies because of the need to compress more information into less dialogue. I found both movies to be almost unwatchable in English.

Honestly, I didn't even finish the second movie; but not because of the dub. I've been trying to finish You Can (Not) Advance literally since the day after I received it. First I had to get past the dub, then the bad writing, then all of the scenes with both the angst and symbolism "turned up to eleven". Hell, the characters might as well have been turning to the camera to explain what they were doing. This movie very definitely tried to address complaints that no one knew what was going on in the original series...Anno (the writer/director) lays it all out for you in this movie. On the other hand, they still can't just explain everything, so I felt like I was being pandered too. And finally, Anno ruined the best character in the series. Asuka Langley Soryu was easily the most complex and interesting character in the original story. For the new movies, Anno has split off half her personality into a new character and reduced what was left to a simpering mess. He must have really disliked Asuka, he effectively kills her off for the time being about half-way through the second movie. The little time she does have, she hurdles through a microscopic distillation of part of her character arc from the series and spends half of that time flashing her ass and breasts at the camera. Thanks for that, Anno. Studying George Lucas now, are we? I quit (again) about two thirds or three quarters of the way through; a couple of scenes that were left in were some of the most non-nonsensical in the original. I figured it was pretty obvious at that point that what I wanted out of these films was NOT something I was going to get.

I may sell them...I know I'm never watching them again.

3) Kimi ni Todoke. I mentioned this one the other day. Since then, I've finished the original series, the sequel series from earlier this year, and the first live action movie from this year. I haven't read the manga yet, but I probably will. This was a really excellent anime. Well, if you like this sort of thing, anyway. I had mentioned that the drama wasn't too realistic; I'm happy to report that the situation is a little more grounded as the series goes on, and the second series stays that way. The live-action movie uses the same story and feels real enough. Speaking of which, while I recommend the anime over the live-action, the movie was very interesting for at least one thing: the actors used matched the characters they were playing not only in performance, but in look, attitude, size and voice. It was very impressive.