weiism's Xanga

[blog + Anime] Spring is... sakura falling on anime girls!

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 19:23:48 GMT

Well, it sure has been a long time since I've written an entry. Basically what awaited me after getting back from spring break in Vancouver was a chain reaction of projects, paper work, team coordination, etc. so I basically took out blogging out of my daily life for a bit. Today was a nice chance to catch my breath before chain reaction 2 started haha (a month-long final project in design, preparing for my independent study in the summer, database term project, airline tickets, new anime season, new PS2 games, new manga, new PVC ------- Okay the last few don't belong there ^^||). Anyhow, just a little report on my recent activity.

Had the luxury of jogging through Schenley in T-shirt and shorts this morning ^^ The last time I ran in Pittsburgh, I was wearing 4 layers of upper wear and 2 layers of pants. To think how Spring changes the weather so drastically... glad that my stamina didn't drop too much... or maybe it was the good weather that kept me going. The fact that I don't have to run on snow probably made things easier. Also factor in the nice sunshine and the gentle breeze today... running never felt this great for a while haha. Running in the winter just seemed like a rough workout because every time I got back I probably just sat on my chair for the rest of the day. Today was... normal. I'm writing this entry at school now after running a few errands. (why? Because Comcast is doing maintenance and my connection at home is at best 2k/s) I'm feeling quite fine after today's run. Or maybe my stamina is improving? ~.~

(here begins a few random thoughts)

I figure I should eat at Pamela's diner more. I had there corned beef swiss cheese omelet today and it was deee-licious. Cute waitress, too. They have several other omelets too, so I might eat at Pamela's for a few more times.

I got my hands on a nice Penguins (practice) jersey that I have decided to wear during all Penguins hockey games now (not going to the arena itself, but watching on TV haha). It'll be like a ritual. The Penguins have not yet lost when I've been watching them on TV with my jersey on (2-0)!! So... since I have the luxury to watch the game tonight, I'll be doing that again and hope the Penguins go 3-0! I think it's obvious enough that the jersey I got had Malkin's number 71 on the back! Malkin for Calder (Rookie of the year trophy)!!

I'm pretty surprised at how deep I'm getting into Penguins hockey this first year I'm in Pittsburgh. So I welcomed the fact that they will be staying here for the next 30 years after going through serious negotiations with the city. A new hockey arena will be built in Northern Pittsburgh (dunno where exactly) and will open in 2009. Maybe I'll still be here ^^ Have a job and be a season ticket holder or something when I can financially support myself. なんちゃって... looking into the future a bit too much.

Penguins are now officially my favorite team. Forget Montreal and Colorado hehe.

As for my independent study --
Originally I wanted to do an internship, but my database professor was offering independent study opportunities, so I inquired. This independent study will be about creating a decision-support data warehouse for biomolecular (protein structure) data sets. I think the part that intrigues me the most is the fact that it'll be at the Pittsburgh Super Computing Center. This would look even more attractive than an internship... so I decided that this is what I'll be doing this summer. Also taking a summer course at the same time to rack up them degree credits in order to graduate this December. I should learn more about it next week. It should start after my 2.5 week break in Taiwan after the semester ends in April. So mid May..

[Anime Talk]

Okay that's it for the personal talk... onto anime!! Because Spring season means lots of sakuras blooming inside animes and blessing anime schoolgirls! (I'm serious) Some animes end with sakura-filled graudation (see Manabi ep 12) and some anime start with sakura-filled first days of school (Hitohira ep 1). I'm looking to restart my character rankings in some substance... but most importantly, I need to pick up new series to translate for Lunar. Over the past few weeks where various promos and CMs of the new series have been released, I've been struggling to pick out what series... or even what direction I should go.

Should I go h-games again? A bit iffy after that Yoake failure. Your-mom's subbing didn't help either.
Should I go mech series? Mmm... don't want myself to stress over gay technical/mechanical phrases that the operators usually blurt out amidst a lot of background noise.
Should I go adventure? You know these seem to be easiest? Next to no sign work load for the TSers, some action scenes to lower down the script size, usually a good story. It just ends up being an issue of if I can enjoy the way the producers deliver the story - especially if there was a manga to base it off of already. You guys that watched Pumpkin Scissors (might) have noticed that the story, while good, dragged really slowly at the end.
Should I go high school drama? The greatest anime category in my opinion, but the big downside is that they come with the most amount of sign work for TSers and that's usually the reason that prevents us from releasing on a regular schedule. You guys still remember Ouran - that's what happened near the end.

So what series would fall in what category?

Among the series I'm considering--

Hitohira, Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo (Konyaku for short) would fall under the high school drama category. Konyaku is also an h-game adaptation that I have high hopes (but low expectations) for. Yes, I know that was an oxymoron.

After Konyaku, Touka Gettan is the other h-game adaptation airing this season.

There is a slew of magic/fantasy world series this season too. These include Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica, CLAYMORE, Romeo x Juliet (yes, that one by William Shakespeare - a fantasy anime adaptation by Gonzo), and Shining Tears x Wind, a bridge between the two PS2 games by Sega, artwork by Tony Taka (T2 Artworks). Gonzo also has another series they're working on, called Kaze no Stigma, a "elemental battle action" series as they call it. Last but not least, there's a Romance of the Three Kingdoms (san guo jih) adaptation called Koutetsu Sangokushi also in the mix.

Several mech series: Idolmaster Xenoglossia has Mai-hime written all over it, and it can't be helped - because THAT'S THE INTENTION. A bit sad for me - I wanted to see the original Idolmaster idea (bringing and producing idols) in an anime. But they decided to make it a mech series combined with the usual Sunrise mystery factor. Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula is another one, though I only care for that because Kuribayashi Minami is singing the theme song. Bokurano and Terra e seem like mech series too. Not too sure. Xebec is also delivering the successor (not sequel, successor) of Sokyuu no Fafner, called Heroic Age.

Then there's Hayate no gotoku... the immensely popular parody + comedy + action manga that is probably going to be the number one show of the season. I'm considering it, but the only thing keeping me from it is the possibility that it might run for 52 or more episodes since it's taking over Mar's slot.

Other notables are Kaibutsu Oujo featuring Kawasumi Ayako as the princess of the underworld, the maybe-mysterious Sola, Kyoto Animation's first 4-koma anime Lucky Star, and... well, OBVIOUSLY Nanoha Strikers S, but I'll just let Triad handle that.

LONG STORY SHORT: It's going to be a tough decision and I'll have to adopt a wait-and-see approach. Hitohira just aired and it left a pretty good impression on me even though I read the first few chapters of the manga already. We'll have to see, but I think the best chances are the h-game adaptations, the fantasy series. I consider Bokurano and Terra e dark horses since I just need to see them first. Hayate is sure win already. But I'm also a devoted Ayako fan...

Where's Maaya this season? Is she doing too much singing and theatrical acting again? Wonder how her Eponine (Les Miserables) is coming.

Still sad that so many animes are ending or have ended. I'll choose another day to talk about Manabi Straight as a whole. Another day will be reserved for Code-Geass when that ends. SRW OG and Busou Renkin have ended and await my viewing so I may be talking about them soon in an entry.

[Spring break @ Vancouver] Free time under a foreign(?) sky

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 21:53:11 GMT

Vancouver's so nice... hasn't changed much this past year. Yeah, it's already (almost) a year since my limbo time last year.
Had many dim sums, and sushi, sashimi, nigiri, ohh and some good Ootoro :3
Enjoying my time here not having to worry about cooking since Mom can take care of that. Just hope the weather could have been better.

Last year after getting my learner's license, I wrote an entry about what kind of car I'd get once I have a full license - a Toyota Prius ^_^
Had a chance to drive my mom and her friend here the other day, so thought I'd look around the Prius model again. I'll most likely end up buying a Prius in 2 years or so though...
I came over what Toyota's future Prius model looked like. The concept model that is. I can't say I'm really excited... haha...

It looks like this: (link to more pictures - http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2007/03/new_prius.html)

I dunno, it's aesthetically ugly imo. They did solve the back window visibility problem (w/o having us rely on the rear camera).

[Happening] Wii Tennis

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:47:49 GMT

Now, I was at a friend's house for Chinese New Year and as the Nintendo Wii is a party machine, naturally, there happened to be a Nintendo Wii sitting inside their house when we had this Chinese New Year party. It seems like everyone has one now. And the second I got into their apartment, there were people playing the Wii already. Eventually I got my first experience with that Wii-mote~ ended up playing a Chinese New Year Wii Tennis tournament, and after four hours of Wii tennis, my arm was sore.

The sore lasted for two days and I can still feel it right now.

So Wii Sports is a simulation... an interface. Now, I feel more pain playing Wii Tennis. It's TOUGHER to play Wii tennis than real tennis.
I can practice tennis for four hours - I sure can't say the same about Wii Tennis. No wonder you burn so much calories playing the Wii.
It's too intensive. Shouldn't simulations be easier than real life activities? Should I say Wii Tennis is a failure as an interface?
I mean don't get me wrong - it's a nice game. But... shouldn't it be less painful? lol

Oh and girls are so good at playing Wii tennis, because the fast stroke is exactly the same way as how a girl would do a handslap on a guy.
~.~ They practice that for all their lives - it's obvious that they are better than the guys at playing Wii tennis and boxing.

Slap, slap, slap away, you girls.

I wonder if I should get a Wii now. I know I'll get it eventually... just wondering if it should be now.
I'd want a Japanese Wii too...

[Random+ Anime] Chinese New Year 2007

Sat, 17 Feb 2007 04:00:38 GMT

Watching Nodame Cantabile's Chiaki lately really reminds me of myself. Always looking at others, thinking to myself how crappy everyone else is, how stupid everyone is, etc. but sooner or later realize you need other people and gradually cooperate with other people's varying levels of skills, blabla blabla... Of course, I'm not a genius, but I do look down on stupid people and like to flame them inside my mind. On the other hand, to people who are more skilled than me, I bow down before them like a little puppy and beg for them to teach me their skills. I think that's what people call hypocrites. ^^;;

Anyway, long time no post.

Happy Chinese New Year, my compatriots! It's the year of the greedy pigs!

That's 95% of my high school class lol, all oink, pink, chubby pigs...

It's the first time I celebrate CNY with crystal trees outside (created by rain followed by freezing weather and then some snow), kind of nice scenery. Should've taken out my camera, but too coward to go outside in the cold and have a photo field day.

So spent my time playing PC bishoujo games... This one's called Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo (この青空に約束をー）, and the reason I'm playing it is cuz it's gonna be airing as an anime this April. Quite a lack of h-game adaptations this Spring, the only other one I know being Touka something. Konyaku (abbreviation of the title) is set on an island 10 hours away by boat off of Honshu Japan, where the story surrounds a group of students living in the only dorm for the only school on the island. It recounts the final days of these young high school adolescents as they go through the final year before the dormitory will be torn down by the school for financial reasons. Anyway, played this game bit by bit, and fallen in love with another 2D girl lol... hopeless me...

Asakura Naoko desu~

Asakura Naoko is one of those commanding girls - she gives out orders to men and they will gladly carry out her orders (including the protagonist - and me). Her story revolves around the thought about falling in love, getting hurt, and then falling in love again after a long period of time. Her story probably won't be included in the anime due to the amount of ecchi scenes required to reproduce the most critical part of her story, so... good thing I played this game. One attractive point about her is that she is voiced by Shinozaki Futaba, but long time anime watchers will immediately recognize that it's Orikasa Ai under a disguised name :) Orikasa Ai's biggest role in my memory was Ryoko in Tenchi Muyo, and I found her voice to be very sexy and mature, so it was a very nice discovery for me ^^ Anyway, the anime will probably focus on Umi's story, which I plan on playing next. Konyaku's story tend to start light hearted but suddenly become very serious, so I do have hopes for the anime. The studio that will be producing konyaku, Marvelous Entertainment, has done Suzuka, School Rumble, Mushishi, Bokura ga ita, BECK, etc. so.. there's ups and downs, but overall I'm looking forward to it. But after what happened with Yoake... I'll be a bit more conservative and wait a bit before I commit myself to anything. There's 15 series I'm interested in fansubbing in April and given my schedule, I don't see myself fansubbing in a year, so it'd be shitty if I picked a bad anime as one of my last series to fansub. But anyway, just wanted to throw this series on the radar map for whoever still reads my xanga hehe...

Naoko-san, Naoko-san, Naoko-san~

[Hockey] Penguins vs. Canadiens

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 20:42:03 GMT

I was watching the hockey game between my current hometown team, Pittsburgh Penguins, and my forever hometown team, Montreal Canadiens, last night. It was my third hockey game that I watched in person, and I think it just gets better and better every time. A bunch of French Canadiens came down from Montreal to watch this game haha, wanted to make fun of them and their quebecois accent lol. I arrived early since I actually had a ticket this time, so I didn't have to wait more than an hour and miss half the first period by waiting for the student rush tickets (especially not in this weather). Plus, I really wanted to see this game from a good place, because in my 2nd visit, I got sent up to the upper deck from my student rush ticket... And I knew that all home games will be sellouts ever since the whole buzz about the Penguins possibly relocating to somewhere else got every fan and non-fan in Pittsburgh to come and watch hockey. Hopefully, the Penguins will still be here for my 2nd year of Masters...

So, I went around and looked at the team store. I really wanted an authentic Evgeni Malkin jersey, but it cost like $150-250 depending on the style. So I had to swallow my passion, save my money and just sit down at my seat. Then, since the teams were warming-up, I took some photos of Malkin - because I definitely don't want to bother with my camera during the game; I'd be yelling and following the game too much. Here's how Malkin warms up ^_^

I find the one on the top interesting... but heck, I used to lie on the ice back in Montreal ^_^
The game was... very entertaining. My man Malkin scored, plenty of fighting between the French Canadiens and the Penguins.
We even went to shootout, and guess what?

My man Malkin scored the game-winner!!

You can find highlights and a recap on this ESPN page: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/recap?gameId=270201016

Touchscreens?! You wanna talk about touchscreens?!... TOUCHSCREENS?!

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 04:44:06 GMT

I'm kind of neutral about touchscreen technology... it's good on some things (Nintendo DS), not good on others (everything not called Nintendo DS - like that computer on the Toyota Prius). not until i can feel like i'm actually pressing something... I'd much prefer hard, physical buttons over any touchscreen interface right now. So I was reading gizmodo today... dodged all Vista launch news because... well it won't matter to me until I get a 64-bit system, which will be my next desktop and that's not for a while (maybe when I graduate).

So yeah, gizmodo reading...
I came across some Samsung gadget... a camera to be exact: Samsung L74

I dig the fact that it's a wide-angle lens... been interested in trying one of those ^^ (half-shopping for a new digital camera - it's not a good sign when your current camera is asking you to set a new date every time you turn it on, so... might be time for a new one and give this one to my mom or something lol)

BUT THE HORROR!!!

I quote (from the blog): "...Another notable feature on this point-n-shoot is the 3-inch touchscreen LCD on the backside. This yet-to-be-released camera also includes facial recognition, a 7.2-megapixel CCD..."

Touchscreen LCD...
Touchscreen LCD...
Touchscreen LCD...
Touchscreen LCD... on the back of the camera??

The horror...

You know, all this movement for functionality? Good bye. The days where we don't touch the screen/lens of a camera, over. Heck, there's not even a viewfinder on this camera, but I guess that's the way point-n-shoot cameras go these days. Worthless, worthless, worthless, POS, POS, POS. Someone fire the guy at Samsung that came up and ok-ed this idea. I honestly can't think of what benefits there'd be for touchscreen functions. Cameras should stay dials and buttons.

[end rant]

Good night, Korea

Sound of completion

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 00:34:09 GMT

Oh, look, how touching. I finished this jigsaw puzzle that I bought back in October.
This must be what step-by-step, piece-by-piece means... especially in life...
Someday, I'll get there...

Blah.

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 02:27:44 GMT

I realized xanga hasn't been on my mind for a while... and don't really feel like it any more ^^;;
My mom has always been annoying me with the "You need to work on your Chinese because your Chinese is really bad" message almost every day, and to compromise, I decided to keep a *REAL* journal where I'd write in Chinese. That is when I really, really, really realized that...

My Chinese really stinks...

So, I'm pushing myself to the limits to get my Chinese back... at the same time maintain my Japanese...
I don't want Japanese to become forgotten like what happened with my French (although French is quite a useless language now that I look at it).
Parents always saying how Chinese is really useful for the next decades and how my Chinese is as pathetic as a foreigner's right now...

So...WORKING HARD WITH MY CHINESE NOW... TRYING NOT TO HAVE TO REFER TO MY COMPUTER TO SEE HOW A KANJI IS WRITTEN EVERY 5 WORDS...
But oh well, that's where I am right now... Such a sad state for Taiwanese people living in the US...

So, reduced activity here.
I'm participating in character rankings with 2 other "experts" (cough cough) on Lunar Forums, so if you want, check it out there. It is a different format though, because we only rank characters that are in the series we all watch (Code-GEASS, Kanon, Pumpkin Scissors, Nodame Cantabile, Manabi Straight).

Mata na~

New season wrap-up

Mon, 15 Jan 2007 20:18:04 GMT

So I take it you guys only like Nodame Cantabile out of the new shows I threw around the past week. Shucks, Manabi Straight is really good! ... well granted, there are no subs for it now. I can't blame you guys. Tohoho... so much for my persuasive writing ^^;;

For my own reference, let me see how my anime schedule has changed (and thus, which characters will be joining the character rankings now)

Back in Fall 06, I started out with a personal record 15 series...

Monday: Pumpkin Scissors
Tuesday: Shounen Onmyouji, Death note
Wednesday: Yoakena, Busou Renkin, Negima?!, Super Robot Wars OG, Soukou no Strain
Thursday: Kanon, Code-GEASS, Asatte no houkou, Happiness!
Friday: Irohanihoheto, Hataraki man
Saturday: Otoboku

... and things have since changed quite a bit~

ended: Yoakena, Asatte no houkou, Otoboku, Hataraki man, Soukou no Strain (two more episodes)
dropped due to lameness: Negima?!, Happiness!

So that's a decrease of 7 series.

New series I'm picking up: Nodame Cantabile, Shoujo Cosette, Manabi Straight, Major 3rd season. Would Shuffle Memories really count? lol It's just the same thing presented in a different way. "Memories", I mean. And I'm actually going to watch Bleach again now that they are back in the manga's story line (episode 110).

So that's an increase of 6 series. Also have high hopes for Dancougar Nova because the girls are hawt and beautiful.

In the end, I only managed to decrease my viewing capacity by 1 series a week? a mere 22 minutes of new free time? (Which gets consumed by watching Apprentice LA)
Sigh...

My new schedule looks like...

Tuesday: Shounen Onmyouji, Death Note
Wednesday: Busou Renkin, Super Robot Wars OG, Bleach
Thursday: Kanon, Code-GEASS, Nodame Cantabile
Friday: Irohanihoheto
Saturday: Major 3rd season, Pumpkin Scissors
Sunday: Manabi Straight, Shoujo Cosette, Shuffle! Memories

Guess the only good thing is that it's more balanced toward the weekend where I have time to watch lol.

Stay tuned...

[New Anime Impression] Nodame Cantabile

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 20:13:13 GMT

Nodame Cantabile~ The show I have been looking forward to the most this season. It's like Honey and Clover, but exchange the painting, interior design, ceramics, art stuff for violins, pianos, an orchestra. Really, it's practically the same core of staff that brought you the Honey and Clover anime, including Director Kasai Kenichi and the bunch at J.C. Staff. URL: http://www.nodame-anime.com/

The anime of Nodame Cantabile comes in after an already very long and successful original version in the manga by Ninomiya Tomoko (http://www.din.or.jp/~nino/), and the silly and popular J-Drama version that run from Oct 06 - Dec 06. The protagonist, Chiaki Shinichi is a virtuoso 3rd year piano student at Momogaoka Music University, but inside he really wants to become a conductor. Yet because of his fear of flying and ocean, he hasn't been able to leave Japan to pursue his musical ambitions in Europe. More and more obstacles in Japan make him so disappointed in himself that he even feels like giving up on music... that is until he meets Noda Megumi (a.k.a. Nodame) - a fellow pianist that can't read music from scores but rather learns pieces from her ears. The title Nodame Cantabile thus comes from how Nodame plays the piano very whimsically and to her feelings, as if she were singing it... which is supposedly the meaning to the musical term "Cantabile". It is without a doubt a music-themed anime about dream pursuit and the inter-relationships between characters, which was a trademark in the Honey and Clover rhapsody ^^ Oh, and there's quite an amount of comedy in it and it's quite similar in nature to the chaotic comedy in H&C.

Visually, Nodame Cantabile holds its own style and JC Staff has made the art quite faithful to Ninomiya-sensei's original work. Music is w/o a doubt filled with your Mozart, your Beethoven, and probably in the future your Chopin, your Haydn, etc. so those that know those classical tracks will find it quite rewarding. lol, I wonder if there will be some Rachmaninoff... Obviously the anime won't be able to go all the way where the manga is right now with only 23 episodes, but I trust that this will be a remarkable anime series to follow.

The cast is currently my favorite of the new season, quite frankly because of Kawasumi Ayako, again ^^. Her character Nodame is like a little puppy and while I'm not saying she's perfect for the role (I'd have to wait until the end or see more of her), it's her most my-pace, cute-puppy-like-character kind of voice acting I've seen. Just a very charming yet chirpy kind of Ayako... It's neither in her Cool or Cute grooves... it's like in its own unique category. Ayako fans should be delighted by this style of her voice. Seki Tomokazu , known for his famous role as Domon from G Gundam and Sagara Sousuke from Full Metal Panic, stars as Chiaki Shinichi as a very narrow-minded, people-despising, sometimes violent and yelling type of person. How should I say it? He looks down upon others but he's also lost his own direction. I think it'll be quite a nice challenge for Mr. Anime Store Manager (anime tenchou ^^) Think of a softer Yzak (Gundam Seed) mixed with a little Gilgamesh (Fate/Stay Night)'s king of the world type of attitude. In addition to this super one-two dynamic duo, there's also one of my personal favorites, Nabatame Hitomi, then Noutou Mamiko, Suwabe Junichi, etc. etc. and really etc. In many ways, it's an anime fan's dream come true? haha.

Currently I'm still reading the manga (kind of stalled there) but I'll definitely be following the anime and watch along its growth ^^
I think this anime is also being broadcast in HD source (saw a Hi-Vision sign in the raw).

Current Series Verdict: 4.5 out of 5 (especially recommended to people that liked H&C)
Fansubbers: Froth-bite and C1anime have already stated they will work on this. I'm also pretty sure there's a third or fourth group on this. Currently I'd recommend Froth-bite... until further notice (since they have a reputation of being slow). Maybe Solar might pick this up seeing as they did H&C.

PUPPY AYAKO!!!!!