It turns out the mysterious package was a very nice chess set sent to me by Erik (thank you again I really like it), along with his opening salvo in a new chess match. He has opened with 1. d4. A Queen's Pawn Opening, a very popular, very solid, and slightly conservative opening staking white's claim to the important center squares. My response to this was 1. ... Nf6. How terribly hypermodern of me, it would appear I'd rather not play a Closed Game, but I instead want to steer this game towards some sort of Indian Defense. In any event, I haven't exactly ceded the middle to Erik, but I've opted to contest it with methods less direct than 1. ... d5.
I was tempted to try out a Dutch Defense, which would make a certain amount of sense for me given my proclivity for both the English Opening, and the Sicilian Defense, but in the end the chance to try my hand at a hypermodern style proved too tempting. Plus I have to think Erik might just be getting a little tired of seeing Semi-Open Games, and Flank Openings from me to start throwing Semi-Closed Games at him as well. Still I am much too enamored with asymmetry in chess for Erik to ever get too many Open or Closed Games from me.
I think part of the reason I favor these types of openings and defenses is due in large part to a desire not to surrender the choice of match being played. If you are playing black and respond to 1. d4 with d5, or 1. e4 with e5 your opponent is still free to try and shape to the match towards his preferred opening. So I tend to look towards the Sicilian as a response towards 1. e4, and something other than 1. ... d5 in response to a Queen's Pawn opening. The same logic applies to my choice of the English Opening when I open with 1. c4 that pretty much means that's the game that is getting played; whereas if I'd like to use a King's Gambit or say Ruy Lopez I have to open 1. e4 and hope my opponent complies with me. Obviously this isn't perfect, chess matches do transpose from one opening to another on occasion, but it is my weapon for keeping as much control of the match as I can regardless which color I'm playing.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
A Mysterious Package
There is a mysterious package waiting for me at home. I found it left on my doorstep by UPS as I was leaving for work today. I had enough time that I could have opened it up, but if it proved to be something cool I wouldn't have had enough time to properly play with it. So I simply took it inside where it waits for me to return home from work to see what it is, and who sent it to me.
My behavior of late suggests I'm shifting out of MMORPG mode and into watching anime mode. Which isn't to say I'm in any danger of ceasing to play WoW, I just seem to be spending more time watching anime than I have been in recent months. I suspect it is a result of getting Chipple to 70. It's a nice milestone, and also a good place to rest a bit before getting serious about the grind of improving her gear.
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| Misumi Nagisa |
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| Cure Black |
So let me move on to example number two. Next please observe the picture of Yukishiro Honoka, and then the picture of Cure White. Again as an aside the cute companion is Mipple. Honestly the cutesy companion is one of my least favorite tropes of the magical girl genre. I probably wouldn't mind Mipple and Mepple that much if they just didn't end every sentence with "mipo" and "mepo" respectively.
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| Yukishiro Honoka |
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| Cure White |
really bring it home. In Pretty Cure Max Heart a new heroine is introduced. So please take a look at the pictures of Kūjō Hikari (to the left), and her alter ego Shiny Luminous (on the right). I believe the amusing power should now be quite apparent. If you are guessing their transformation must include the application of magical hair mousse for increased volume, then we are on the same page. Extremely silly? Yes, but it is still what I think of basically every time I watch these characters transform.
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| Kūjō Hikari |
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| Shiny Luminous |
Monday, January 28, 2008
A Confession About My Job
Every time I have somebody ask me to find a number for, or I overhear some operator looking for the last name of Underhill, I have to really struggle not to suggest they try looking for the name Baggins instead.
I am a very big geek.
I am a very big geek.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Let's call it 1-2 with a Walk
Suggesting the possibility of some sort of law of conservation of shipping time my SATA cables arrived a day later than the shipping estimate I was given. I'm relieved to be able to report victory in the installation of my new DVD drive, but it was far from crushing. Getting my computer to recognize the existence of my new optical drive was a chore. One would think that with three open SATA ports, one would at most only have to guess three times which port to turn on before the computer found my new hardware. Not only did my first three iterations through my computer's set up fail to get my new optical drive recognized, but for some reason my computer stopped finding the hard drive connected to the fourth SATA port. That resulted in fair amount of salty language on my part. Eventually the repeated turning of port 0 (the port my hard drive is connected to) off and back on resulted in the seemingly spontaneous return of the recognition of my hard drive. Once that problem was resolved, I turned on the remaining three ports all at the same time, and finally - for reasons I cannot explain - the existence of my new DVD drive was recognized. One final trip through the set up to turn the two unused SATA ports back off and I was good to go. For future reference my DVD burner is connected to SATA port 2.
So Tuesday night Chipple hit level 70. The process of getting her some good gear seems even more demanding and daunting than the process of leveling her to 70 was. I guess my next few steps with her will be earning enough gold to buy a flying mount, improving her reputation with the various factions, getting her keyed to the various instances, and maxing out her tailoring and enchanting skills. Once I stop being lazy I'll get a screen capture of her, and put it up. Although I'll probably at least wait until I've got my flying mount before I do that.
Going further back in time we last gamed on the 12th. It was a fun session, of course they have all been fun sessions. My character went on a date (of sorts), that was amusing. I guess after some of the situations I put Matt through in the last BESM campaign, the date was a bit of karmic justice (although it is worth noting it was self-inflicted karmic justice). Perhaps of more importance to the campaign we captured the apparent villain, not that we have a much better idea of what is going on, but we really haven't had much of a chance to question him yet. I do find, upon reflection, that I'm a bit surprised by how ruthless my character can get when confronted with opposition. All-in-all Cynthia is proving to be quite fun, and I always look forward to our next session.
So Tuesday night Chipple hit level 70. The process of getting her some good gear seems even more demanding and daunting than the process of leveling her to 70 was. I guess my next few steps with her will be earning enough gold to buy a flying mount, improving her reputation with the various factions, getting her keyed to the various instances, and maxing out her tailoring and enchanting skills. Once I stop being lazy I'll get a screen capture of her, and put it up. Although I'll probably at least wait until I've got my flying mount before I do that.
Going further back in time we last gamed on the 12th. It was a fun session, of course they have all been fun sessions. My character went on a date (of sorts), that was amusing. I guess after some of the situations I put Matt through in the last BESM campaign, the date was a bit of karmic justice (although it is worth noting it was self-inflicted karmic justice). Perhaps of more importance to the campaign we captured the apparent villain, not that we have a much better idea of what is going on, but we really haven't had much of a chance to question him yet. I do find, upon reflection, that I'm a bit surprised by how ruthless my character can get when confronted with opposition. All-in-all Cynthia is proving to be quite fun, and I always look forward to our next session.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
1 - 2 and threatening to go 2 -3
My new video card arrived yesterday. I wasn’t expecting it until Tuesday so the early arrival was a nice surprise. Installation went much more smoothly as compared to my new DVD drive. I haven’t actually played around too much on either WoW or City of Heroes to see if I can detect a noticeable improvement in performance. I have experimented a bit with running WoW at a higher resolution, and was happy to note my new card handled that with ease (whereas my old card didn’t much care for me doing such things). Otherwise I’ve caught myself thinking things like, “I believe that images are much sharper now that I’ve installed my new video card.” However I wonder how much of that is real and how much is self delusion, but in any event I’m pretty happy with my new card. On the new optical drive front, I’ve ordered what I believe are the requisite SATA cables, so come Tuesday I should be ready for round two of its installation process. I hope to be able to post about my crushing victory later that day.
I finished off Pretty Cure last week. I don’t really have anything more to say about it beyond what I’ve already posted. I will reiterate that it is an enjoyable magical girl series, and well worth watching if you like that sort of thing. I’ll very likely be checking out the second series Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart.
Last night I watched the first two episodes of Spice and Wolf. I’m not sure what to make of this series yet, but I do think I’ll be watching episode three when it is available. The setting has a Western European, early Renaissance feel to it. The story seems to revolve around a traveling merchant named Craft Lawrence, and a Wolf Spirit/Harvest goddess named Horo who decides to travel with him because she feels the villagers whose fields she has been watching over have forsaken her. After two episodes not a whole lot has happened, but the premise remains interesting to me, so I’ll keep watching and see what develops.
I finished off Pretty Cure last week. I don’t really have anything more to say about it beyond what I’ve already posted. I will reiterate that it is an enjoyable magical girl series, and well worth watching if you like that sort of thing. I’ll very likely be checking out the second series Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart.
Last night I watched the first two episodes of Spice and Wolf. I’m not sure what to make of this series yet, but I do think I’ll be watching episode three when it is available. The setting has a Western European, early Renaissance feel to it. The story seems to revolve around a traveling merchant named Craft Lawrence, and a Wolf Spirit/Harvest goddess named Horo who decides to travel with him because she feels the villagers whose fields she has been watching over have forsaken her. After two episodes not a whole lot has happened, but the premise remains interesting to me, so I’ll keep watching and see what develops.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Stupid things I do
I’m pretty sure I’ve touched on this theme before. This last Wednesday saw my latest example of enjoyable anime + disgusting lack of willpower equaling foolish behavior. Wednesday night I wrapped up my playing of WoW around 10:30pm. I needed to wake up around 7:45am – 8:00am the next day in order to leave for work by 8:30am so I could arrive by 9:00am. I didn’t really feel like going straight to bed so I decided to watch some anime. I have a pretty large backlog of series I’ve either been meaning to start or finish, and I decided I should check off one or two episodes from one of those. After a bit of deliberation I opted to watch some Suzuka (the linked review has some very valid points about the anime, although personally I found the characters to a bit more likeable than the reviewer so I’d grade Suzuka somewhere around 75%). I had watched the first episode of Suzuka last April and the second episode sometime last summer so I started off with episode three.
The next thing I know it’s a bit after midnight, and I’m thinking to myself, “Alright I’ve got to go to bed after this episode ends.” Then as I’m starting the next episode I’m rationalizing to myself, “Well once I’ve finished this episode it won’t even be 1am yet so I’ll still get seven hours of sleep.” A few episodes later I’m telling myself, “OK so I’m up too late, but I can watch one more and it will only be 2am, that’s still 6 hours of sleep.” A couple of episodes after that and I’m thinking, “What the hell am I doing up after 3am?” A stronger person than me would have gone to bed at that point; I kept right on watching. Sometime after 4am I went back to rationalization, “I can watch one more and it will be 5am and I’ll take a three hour nap before work, I’ve done that before, so I’ll be fine.” By the time 6am rolled around I was simply chastising myself, “This is stupid, I’m stupid, I’m weak, I should have gone to sleep hours ago, this is not the behavior of a responsible adult.” Naturally I kept right on watching more episodes. As it got closer to 7am I simply did the math, and decided, “Well I can finish the series and still have time to shower before I have to leave for work.” At about 7:50am the credits rolled on the final episode and the only question left to me was do I lie down and close my eyes for 10 minutes or do I shut off my alarm and go take a shower. I opted for the shower.
I doubt I’ll garner much surprise and even less sympathy when I say work on Thursday sucked – a lot. I think 10:30a – 11:00a was the worst; I had a very hard time not falling asleep, and concentrating on anything displayed on my computer’s monitor was somewhat tricky as my vision tended to get blurry. The sugar and caffeine from the ridiculous amounts of Mountain Dew I drank that morning started kicking in after that, and the rest of my shift passed without incident.
Surprisingly I didn’t go straight to sleep when I got home. I found I had a package waiting for me, the new DVD burner I had ordered as a replacement for the malfunctioning one that currently resides in my computer. I made a valiant effort at installing it, but was rudely stopped short when I learned I hadn’t done anywhere near enough research before I ordered this bit of hardware. My new DVD burner uses a Serial ATA connection; the old drive it is replacing uses Parallel ATA. Hopefully when my new video card arrives next week I won’t find I made a similar stupid oversight (I do at least know both my old and new cards use PCI Express).
Once I put my computer back together I decided to watch some more anime. This time I thought I’d play it safe and watch a movie (it was only about 7pm at this time but you can never be too careful). I watched Whisper of the Heart, a very excellent Studio Ghibli film (but aren’t they all). I had forgotten just how much I like that movie, and once I finished it I really couldn’t help but continue right on to its pseudo sequel The Cat Returns. Not too long after that I finally settled into bed for some much needed sleep.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Post Christmas Woes
I have an e-mail address with Yahoo Mail. I’ve had this e-mail address for years (at least since 1999). For awhile after college I used it as my main e-mail address, but eventually I moved on to another provider. I still use it as my e-mail address for all online business I perform. However since it is no longer my main address, I tend to only check it once or twice a month, or anytime I order something online. Today I happened to do just that, and as I was paging through the accumulated spam at I noticed an e-mail from Right Stuf that made me quite angry.
I tend to do almost all of my Christmas shopping online, and most of that through Amazon.com. I don’t generally have a huge list of people to buy for, mainly just my family, but fairly late in the shopping season this last Christmas I decided since Dan, Matt, Paul, and I had been gaming together for close to two years (and with Matt and Paul longer still) I should get them something. I opted for gift certificates. My first mistake was not thinking of this sooner, my second mistake was not getting everybody gift certificates from the same location. Instead I decided I’d tailor my choice of provider to better suit each of them, and add a small personal touch to the gift. Matt was pretty easy I just grabbed a gift certificate at the local music/book/comic book/collectibles/role playing/sports memorabilia/hobby store, and mailed it off to him. With Paul I compromised just a little bit, I had originally intended to get him a gift certificate from ThinkGeek, but something about the process (I don’t even remember what anymore, but I think it was time constraint related) dissuaded me so I instead got him a gift certificate from Amazon.com. For Dan the choice seemed obvious - I’d get him a gift certificate from Right Stuf. I have never been a huge customer of Right Stuf, but I have purchased things from them before and never had a problem. More importantly I know Dan is a pretty frequent customer of theirs, so on December 18, 2007 I placed my order for a gift certificate.
On December 19, 2007 I get an e-mail from Right Stuf informing me that in order to protect themselves from fraud they cannot ship a credit card order to an address that is different from the credit card billing address without me jumping through some hoops. I’m not thrilled by this, but I can at least understand their need to protect themselves from fraud. I’m given a few options, and the easiest one for me is to fax a copy of my credit card, and driver’s license to them. So on December 20, 2007 I send them a three page fax. Page one is a fax cover sheet listing my name, e-mail address, my order number, and the reason I’m faxing. Page two is the actual photo copy of my credit card, and driver’s license on which I included my e-mail address, and order number. Finally page three was a brief letter expressing my feelings on the process which pretty much boiled down to, “I know you have to do something to combat fraud, but your chosen tactic is rather inconvenient, and convenience is the main reason I shop online.” Later that day I got an e-mail back from Right Stuf customer service saying basically we’re sorry you found the experience to be inconvenient, but look on the bright side now that you’ve sent this information to us, you won’t have to do it again the next time you order a gift for somebody from us.
Today I found that on January 4, 2008 Right Stuf resent the e-mail telling me they cannot ship a credit card order to a different address without some further actions by me. I spent a few minutes stomping around my living room swearing to myself. Once I’d calmed down a bit I call their customer service number. I find out the order has been canceled because they never received a copy of my credit card and driver’s license. I asked how that is possible since I received an e-mail back from them after I faxed them a copy of my driver’s license and credit card. The lady I was talking to wasn’t sure how that could have happened, but did see that her manager had indeed sent me an e-mail on December 20th apologizing for the inconvenience. She’d have to talk to her manager to see what could be done. So about 30 minutes later Right Stuf calls me back and says, sorry we don’t know how it happened, but we lost your driver’s license and credit card information, and we still cannot send out your gift certificate without that information on file. They suggest they send the gift certificate directly to me, and I can turn around and give it to the intended recipient myself. I tell them fine. So Dan, belated Merry Christmas, you can except a Right Stuf gift certificate from me in the mail sometime next week.
So what have I learned from this? I’m too damn nice to customer service - I imagine if I’d let a little of my general annoyance and anger over the situation leak out during my two phone conversation with them I’d have gotten something other than an apology (would a discount on the gift certificate have killed them). I’m never buying a gift for somebody on Right Stuf again, but I probably would buy something for myself again, if they had the best deal on it. Finally I should do my Christmas shopping earlier in December so I have time to deal with annoyances like these.
Well woot for post 70. Sorry Matt you are going to have to wait for another day for a post about gaming this last Saturday.
I tend to do almost all of my Christmas shopping online, and most of that through Amazon.com. I don’t generally have a huge list of people to buy for, mainly just my family, but fairly late in the shopping season this last Christmas I decided since Dan, Matt, Paul, and I had been gaming together for close to two years (and with Matt and Paul longer still) I should get them something. I opted for gift certificates. My first mistake was not thinking of this sooner, my second mistake was not getting everybody gift certificates from the same location. Instead I decided I’d tailor my choice of provider to better suit each of them, and add a small personal touch to the gift. Matt was pretty easy I just grabbed a gift certificate at the local music/book/comic book/collectibles/role playing/sports memorabilia/hobby store, and mailed it off to him. With Paul I compromised just a little bit, I had originally intended to get him a gift certificate from ThinkGeek, but something about the process (I don’t even remember what anymore, but I think it was time constraint related) dissuaded me so I instead got him a gift certificate from Amazon.com. For Dan the choice seemed obvious - I’d get him a gift certificate from Right Stuf. I have never been a huge customer of Right Stuf, but I have purchased things from them before and never had a problem. More importantly I know Dan is a pretty frequent customer of theirs, so on December 18, 2007 I placed my order for a gift certificate.
On December 19, 2007 I get an e-mail from Right Stuf informing me that in order to protect themselves from fraud they cannot ship a credit card order to an address that is different from the credit card billing address without me jumping through some hoops. I’m not thrilled by this, but I can at least understand their need to protect themselves from fraud. I’m given a few options, and the easiest one for me is to fax a copy of my credit card, and driver’s license to them. So on December 20, 2007 I send them a three page fax. Page one is a fax cover sheet listing my name, e-mail address, my order number, and the reason I’m faxing. Page two is the actual photo copy of my credit card, and driver’s license on which I included my e-mail address, and order number. Finally page three was a brief letter expressing my feelings on the process which pretty much boiled down to, “I know you have to do something to combat fraud, but your chosen tactic is rather inconvenient, and convenience is the main reason I shop online.” Later that day I got an e-mail back from Right Stuf customer service saying basically we’re sorry you found the experience to be inconvenient, but look on the bright side now that you’ve sent this information to us, you won’t have to do it again the next time you order a gift for somebody from us.
Today I found that on January 4, 2008 Right Stuf resent the e-mail telling me they cannot ship a credit card order to a different address without some further actions by me. I spent a few minutes stomping around my living room swearing to myself. Once I’d calmed down a bit I call their customer service number. I find out the order has been canceled because they never received a copy of my credit card and driver’s license. I asked how that is possible since I received an e-mail back from them after I faxed them a copy of my driver’s license and credit card. The lady I was talking to wasn’t sure how that could have happened, but did see that her manager had indeed sent me an e-mail on December 20th apologizing for the inconvenience. She’d have to talk to her manager to see what could be done. So about 30 minutes later Right Stuf calls me back and says, sorry we don’t know how it happened, but we lost your driver’s license and credit card information, and we still cannot send out your gift certificate without that information on file. They suggest they send the gift certificate directly to me, and I can turn around and give it to the intended recipient myself. I tell them fine. So Dan, belated Merry Christmas, you can except a Right Stuf gift certificate from me in the mail sometime next week.
So what have I learned from this? I’m too damn nice to customer service - I imagine if I’d let a little of my general annoyance and anger over the situation leak out during my two phone conversation with them I’d have gotten something other than an apology (would a discount on the gift certificate have killed them). I’m never buying a gift for somebody on Right Stuf again, but I probably would buy something for myself again, if they had the best deal on it. Finally I should do my Christmas shopping earlier in December so I have time to deal with annoyances like these.
Well woot for post 70. Sorry Matt you are going to have to wait for another day for a post about gaming this last Saturday.
Monday, January 07, 2008
A few topics with nothing to do with each other
I'm going to start this post out with an accusation (and a wild accusation at that, which really is the best kind). I'm currently ill, and I completely blame my friend Paul for this fact. Allow me to present my reasoning: Saturday I felt fine, Saturday night I talked to Paul, Paul complained about having the flu, and Sunday morning I woke up sick. The kicker here is I spoke to Paul via WoW. That's right my fiendishly clever "friend" used his obviously demonically granted knowledge of the intricate series of tubes that comprise the Internet to find a way to use it to transmit a biological virus to me.
Well played Paul, well played. The next time I'm GM my retribution will be fierce, but not immediate. After all we all know that old Klingon proverb about revenge.
All joking aside, I actually do have a cold, although it's origin is almost certainly my place of employment (and serves as pretty compelling proof that I'm not washing my hands enough while I'm there). However the truth is nowhere near as amusing as my little hypothetical explanation of my illness. Ponder for a moment the havoc that would be caused if biological viruses and bacteria could actually be spread over the Internet. I find the idea both fascinating, and terrifying. Ready for it to be worse? Add to your consideration this common (and more often true than many would like to admit) little statement, "the Internet is for porn." If you care to dispute that, I direct your arguments to Avenue Q.
Rapidly shifting gears this last Friday I and my whole office received a depressing bit of news. I've talked about my work situation with friends and family, but I've never posted anything here, but back in November my company was purchased by another company. Aside from getting a new insurance provider, and a new 401(k) manager things didn't really change too drastically for my call center. I understand the buyout process was significantly more stressful for the people working at our corporate office in Minneapolis, and a number of people there did end up loosing their jobs, but my office was spared most of the stress and all of the layoffs. That was until this last Friday. A coworker of mine, a very nice lady, got the news that her position was being terminated. She took it pretty hard, and really we all did here. It's not like she was being fired for cause, she just had the bad luck of working a position that after the buyout, merger, and ultimate restructuring of my company was no longer needed.
To finish things off of a completely different (and happy) note. Episodes 4 and 5 of The Guild have been out for a while now. If you haven't already seen them, for shame, and enjoy.
Well played Paul, well played. The next time I'm GM my retribution will be fierce, but not immediate. After all we all know that old Klingon proverb about revenge.
All joking aside, I actually do have a cold, although it's origin is almost certainly my place of employment (and serves as pretty compelling proof that I'm not washing my hands enough while I'm there). However the truth is nowhere near as amusing as my little hypothetical explanation of my illness. Ponder for a moment the havoc that would be caused if biological viruses and bacteria could actually be spread over the Internet. I find the idea both fascinating, and terrifying. Ready for it to be worse? Add to your consideration this common (and more often true than many would like to admit) little statement, "the Internet is for porn." If you care to dispute that, I direct your arguments to Avenue Q.
Rapidly shifting gears this last Friday I and my whole office received a depressing bit of news. I've talked about my work situation with friends and family, but I've never posted anything here, but back in November my company was purchased by another company. Aside from getting a new insurance provider, and a new 401(k) manager things didn't really change too drastically for my call center. I understand the buyout process was significantly more stressful for the people working at our corporate office in Minneapolis, and a number of people there did end up loosing their jobs, but my office was spared most of the stress and all of the layoffs. That was until this last Friday. A coworker of mine, a very nice lady, got the news that her position was being terminated. She took it pretty hard, and really we all did here. It's not like she was being fired for cause, she just had the bad luck of working a position that after the buyout, merger, and ultimate restructuring of my company was no longer needed.
To finish things off of a completely different (and happy) note. Episodes 4 and 5 of The Guild have been out for a while now. If you haven't already seen them, for shame, and enjoy.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Could this be tradition?
At the risk of starting a tradition, New Year's Day once again seems like a good time to reflect upon the state of the blog. I find that as I'm rapidly closing in on one and a half years of blogging I'm pretty happy with how this blog has turned out. I'm pleased to see that for my first full calender year of blogging I've hit my target average of four posts per month exactly (if I factor my five months of blogging from 2006 my average drops to 3.9 posts a month which is still pretty darn good). I had three very prolific months: January (7), February (10), and September (7). On the flip side I had four bad months as well: March (2), May (0), October (1), and November (2). I'm a little curious about just why I got so distracted by other things during October and November in both 2006 and 2007, but trying to break that trend gives me a little goal for the new year.
I'm glad to see the question of what direction I was going to take this blog has been more or less answered (perhaps it would be more accurate to say I've become more comfortable with the direction I have been taking basically since the beginning of this experiment). First and foremost I write this blog for my own amusement and edification, but of nearly equal importance I use this blog to communicate select details and interests of mine to the small group of my friends who regularly read it. I am quite happy with the result of the intersection of those two aims. Unlike last January I have no evolutionary dead ends to reflect upon - no commentary on celebrity deaths, nor pointless enumeration of the songs in my iTunes for me this year. I find I am, in general, quite satisfied with the topics I'm writing about. I still occasionally feel like I'm only mentioning some anime in passing, or end up feeling bad that too many of my comments about various anime I've watched can be summed up as "I watched this, and it was good/bad." I'm not sure that is necessarily a bad thing however, obviously I want to be saying more about my topic than just it was good/bad, but at no point have I ever set out to write a full blown review of anime (or anything for that matter) such as you would find on a website like Anime Academy. I do think it is a little odd that despite never having wanted to make this blog all about reviewing anime, I end up feeling bad about not writing actual reviews of the anime I feel like talking about.
As for going forward I'd like to see me write a few more posts about the books I'm reading, and the movies I'm watching. A few of my most recent posts have touched on those very topics, so that is a trend I hope to continue. I'd like to improve upon the reporting of what I've been up to. I'm pretty good about chronicling the basics of my role playing hobby, and I think I devote as much column inches as I care to regarding the time I spend on MMORPGs like WoW, but I made it down to the cities a number of times this last year for various different things and those trips saw little to no representation here. I'd also like to try and branch out every now and then and experiment a bit with the sort of posts I make. I've pondered a number of different things I might try: including a stream of consciousness post (I actually started writing one once, but ended up deleting it), posting the odd short story (that would actually require me to write a short story which is something I haven't done with any regularity since high school), and having a bad poetry day.
I think that meets my quota of introspection, time to talk a little anime.
Yesterday I finished watching Night Wizard. It is a thirteen episode action adventure anime based on a Japanese role playing game. The characters are interesting enough, I'd have preferred a few of them be just a little more fleshed out, but none of them were terribly two-dimensional. The plot is solid, nothing really cutting edge, your basic urban fantasy setting with demons attacking the Earth and a secret group of wizards charged with defending it. Add to that a quest to gather seven magic jewels, and a plot twist towards the end of the series that was adequately foreshadowed and follows the internal logic of the anime and I'd say it was worth my time watching.
There are a number of different ongoing anime series I've been following of late. Two of which have me extremely excited, but naturally I'm going to start off talking briefly about a third series I recently started. Taking advantage of the lapse of a North American license I started watching Futari wa Pretty Cure in December. I've made it through 32 of the 49 episodes. It is enjoyable magical girl fun. No real innovations going on, it is pretty much like watching Sailor Moon, but with much better animation, less annoying characters, and a better sense of continuity from episode to episode (although it is still pretty much a monster of the week show). If you like the magical girl genre, then you could do far worse than watch Pretty Cure. If you are interested in checking out some magical girl anime, then Pretty Cure would be an excellent start (although Card Captor Sakura would be better still).
Moving on to the two new series that really have me excited. The first of which is Shion no Ō. The series starts off introducing the eponymous character Yasuoka Shion an eleven year old girl on the cusp of becoming a professional shogi player. We quickly learn that when Shion was four she witnessed the brutal murder of her parents, the killer was never caught, and Shion hasn't spoken a word since that tragic night. The murder mystery is played against the backdrop of Shion's life as a professional shogi player, and I find the interplay between and the gradual revelation of connection between these two seemingly disparate things extremely fascinating. The characters are first rate - gloriously complex with numerous layers and facets. The episodes have been an interesting and enjoyable mix of unfolding mystery and suspense with each leaving me more anxious for the release of the next.
The other anime that has really caught my attention is Clannad. The anime is based on a visual novel developed by Key, and adapted for animation by Kyoto Animation (the studio also produced The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, so count me among their fans). Key and Kyoto Animation are also responsible for Kanon (Key the visual novel, and Kyoto Animation the anime) about which I had plenty of nice things to say back in April. The characters are the main draw for me here - I find them to be incredibly likable - the more I watch them, the more I want to learn about them. Thus far Clannad has be a bit lighter in tone than Kanon, a little less melodramatic, but the emotional impact of the developing plot has been every bit Kanon's equal. With few exceptions the episodes leave me feeling peaceful and content, juxtaposed with a growing desire to watch the next episode.
On a final note, much like last year, I started the new year off with a bit of browsing on Engrish.com. That I find this picture so amusing is proof that my time spent as a guild member of KotW on Dark Iron has corrupted me. 
I'm glad to see the question of what direction I was going to take this blog has been more or less answered (perhaps it would be more accurate to say I've become more comfortable with the direction I have been taking basically since the beginning of this experiment). First and foremost I write this blog for my own amusement and edification, but of nearly equal importance I use this blog to communicate select details and interests of mine to the small group of my friends who regularly read it. I am quite happy with the result of the intersection of those two aims. Unlike last January I have no evolutionary dead ends to reflect upon - no commentary on celebrity deaths, nor pointless enumeration of the songs in my iTunes for me this year. I find I am, in general, quite satisfied with the topics I'm writing about. I still occasionally feel like I'm only mentioning some anime in passing, or end up feeling bad that too many of my comments about various anime I've watched can be summed up as "I watched this, and it was good/bad." I'm not sure that is necessarily a bad thing however, obviously I want to be saying more about my topic than just it was good/bad, but at no point have I ever set out to write a full blown review of anime (or anything for that matter) such as you would find on a website like Anime Academy. I do think it is a little odd that despite never having wanted to make this blog all about reviewing anime, I end up feeling bad about not writing actual reviews of the anime I feel like talking about.
As for going forward I'd like to see me write a few more posts about the books I'm reading, and the movies I'm watching. A few of my most recent posts have touched on those very topics, so that is a trend I hope to continue. I'd like to improve upon the reporting of what I've been up to. I'm pretty good about chronicling the basics of my role playing hobby, and I think I devote as much column inches as I care to regarding the time I spend on MMORPGs like WoW, but I made it down to the cities a number of times this last year for various different things and those trips saw little to no representation here. I'd also like to try and branch out every now and then and experiment a bit with the sort of posts I make. I've pondered a number of different things I might try: including a stream of consciousness post (I actually started writing one once, but ended up deleting it), posting the odd short story (that would actually require me to write a short story which is something I haven't done with any regularity since high school), and having a bad poetry day.
I think that meets my quota of introspection, time to talk a little anime.
Yesterday I finished watching Night Wizard. It is a thirteen episode action adventure anime based on a Japanese role playing game. The characters are interesting enough, I'd have preferred a few of them be just a little more fleshed out, but none of them were terribly two-dimensional. The plot is solid, nothing really cutting edge, your basic urban fantasy setting with demons attacking the Earth and a secret group of wizards charged with defending it. Add to that a quest to gather seven magic jewels, and a plot twist towards the end of the series that was adequately foreshadowed and follows the internal logic of the anime and I'd say it was worth my time watching.
There are a number of different ongoing anime series I've been following of late. Two of which have me extremely excited, but naturally I'm going to start off talking briefly about a third series I recently started. Taking advantage of the lapse of a North American license I started watching Futari wa Pretty Cure in December. I've made it through 32 of the 49 episodes. It is enjoyable magical girl fun. No real innovations going on, it is pretty much like watching Sailor Moon, but with much better animation, less annoying characters, and a better sense of continuity from episode to episode (although it is still pretty much a monster of the week show). If you like the magical girl genre, then you could do far worse than watch Pretty Cure. If you are interested in checking out some magical girl anime, then Pretty Cure would be an excellent start (although Card Captor Sakura would be better still).
Moving on to the two new series that really have me excited. The first of which is Shion no Ō. The series starts off introducing the eponymous character Yasuoka Shion an eleven year old girl on the cusp of becoming a professional shogi player. We quickly learn that when Shion was four she witnessed the brutal murder of her parents, the killer was never caught, and Shion hasn't spoken a word since that tragic night. The murder mystery is played against the backdrop of Shion's life as a professional shogi player, and I find the interplay between and the gradual revelation of connection between these two seemingly disparate things extremely fascinating. The characters are first rate - gloriously complex with numerous layers and facets. The episodes have been an interesting and enjoyable mix of unfolding mystery and suspense with each leaving me more anxious for the release of the next.
The other anime that has really caught my attention is Clannad. The anime is based on a visual novel developed by Key, and adapted for animation by Kyoto Animation (the studio also produced The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, so count me among their fans). Key and Kyoto Animation are also responsible for Kanon (Key the visual novel, and Kyoto Animation the anime) about which I had plenty of nice things to say back in April. The characters are the main draw for me here - I find them to be incredibly likable - the more I watch them, the more I want to learn about them. Thus far Clannad has be a bit lighter in tone than Kanon, a little less melodramatic, but the emotional impact of the developing plot has been every bit Kanon's equal. With few exceptions the episodes leave me feeling peaceful and content, juxtaposed with a growing desire to watch the next episode.On a final note, much like last year, I started the new year off with a bit of browsing on Engrish.com. That I find this picture so amusing is proof that my time spent as a guild member of KotW
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