Things Keep Falling Apart

Lately I have been having far too many items owned break down. This week it was my office chair, which collapsed when a cat jumped off me – seriously. While due for replacement by the end of the year from the upholstery tearing and the wood on one arm delaminating, the central steel tube tearing was not something I foresaw happening. So of course it did.

This followed having my Dell Axim PocketPC finally show its age and have problems with its batteries (I have a spare) and battery compartment, the already damaged (and cobbled together) halogen torchiere lamp burn out, and my subwoofer develop a noticeable fuzz. The Dell was replaced a couple of months ago, but I had to buy replacements for the lamp and chair this month. For a month where I was trying to save back a good chunk of money, I now find myself struggling to have enough to cover the bills.

At least I got some serious bargains in the process. The replacement lamp uses conventional bulbs (using GE Halogen ones in a experiment) while being 55% off at Shopko. The chair was 42% at Office Depot off and is getting its break in as I type this. The sub will not get replaced. Kindness to my eyes and to my back take precedence to my ears. Oh, and the light bulbs were on sale too.

The chair dated back to the mid-nineties, so I suppose I got every last iota out of it before it failed catastrophically. Likewise, the lamp was as old. But the timing was not great financially and that irks me. I would go beat on the engine compartment of the car, but thunderstorms are due today.

So I settled on blowing things up in a video game.

The moral of the story? Still working on that, but it might be that everything failed only when it was possible for me to buy things above my normal ability. Maybe I am being watched over no matter how much I whine.

Odds and Ends 4-10-2012

Since I have not done this in awhile, I will throw some links up to what has caught my attention lately.

Locally, the apple orchards that are such a part of the region are under threat thanks to the cold snap this week. The combination of unusually warm temperatures followed by unusually cold ones is lethal to apple buds. Not much can be done but hope there will be Honeycrisp’s this year.

Ah, those wacky Japanese using high tech to better humanity. Oh wait…

At least they are diverting resources from making robot women. Don’t get me started there.

Having watched the dot com bubble of the late nineties, I have been getting the feeling of déjà vu again. It turns out I am not alone in worrying over how the latest Internet startups are over priced. I suspect we are headed for a dot com bubble 2.0.

The media in all its forms is increasingly dishonest as things crank up for the elections this year. Race baiting is one of the more evil ways to stir things up and it is being employed fully as a rallying tactic for the left. Outright fabrications are being spread around to inflame tensions. The ends justifying the means rarely leads to anything good, but people never seem to learn that.

The mainstream media cannot be trusted to be guardians of the truth or public good and I wonder if they ever were worthy of it. Given how partisan they have become, they resemble the state controlled media of totalitarian states more and more. Maybe the idea that yellow journalism died out was an illusion in the first place.

One thing that has bothered me for a very long time is how humanity lost its willingness to take risks by the end of the 20th Century. We need to go to space, take chances, colonize, and build. Yes, people will die in the endeavor, but there are far worse things than death. One of them is stagnation. So it is sad to see plans from the 1950s aimed at going to Mars and realizing there is little chance that will happen this century.

I am probably not alone in that. An anime adaptation of Space Brothers has started airing in Japan and streaming worldwide at Crunchyroll. It is a rare thing these days to see an anime featuring characters that are all adults and dealing with adult problems. Set in the near future, it is about a pair of brothers hoping to make it to the Moon and beyond as astronauts. Warm and sentimental, it also catches some of the current cultural malaise in Japan. Man, it makes me wish we had real space programs and not the token jokes we have today.

For Easter

One of the lessons I have learned from the Savior is that at the heart of all good acts lies sacrifice. One must go beyond selfish wishes, or even the instinct of self preservation in order to do good. What a world we would have if everyone behaved that way, but alas, too many think of themselves above all others.

I am grateful for such a role model and messiah. Hopefully, I will continue learning at His feet and become a better man.

Pulling on the Dragon’s Tail

Anonymous went after the Chinese government in another coordinated attack on a large amount of websites. Given how much cyber warfare is conducted by that government, I would not be surprised to see Anonymous get hacked thoroughly in retaliation. There is a strong nationalist streak that has been inculcated in the populace for the last couple of decades which means there will be plenty of retaliatory attacks from outside the government as well. Break out the popcorn, this could get very interesting.

Health 4-4-2012

It is time to write one of those posts I hate to write. Part of keeping a journal here is keeping track of my health and I am doing a poor job of it.

For the past week or so, pinched nerves in the back have been worse than usual. The lower area has finally loosened up and than has been an immense relief. But the upper area took a strange turn for the worse and has been mostly immune to the stretching exercises learned over a decade ago. For several days it was so bad that I was loosing control of the right arm due to pain flaring and the arm refusing to accept commands.

Things have improved with a rearrangement of pillows when sleeping and trying to stay flat on my back. Still twitchy, though. The worst of it coincided with the cold suffered during the weekend.

Today started fairly well with crossword puzzle and Audiosurf going well. But mid afternoon I felt extremely tired and took a short nap. It should have been short, that is. Forcing myself up at 9:00 PM I found the rest of daylight lost, which is very annoying. So much for getting the new floor lamp (one has to love clearance sales) assembled and in place.

Insert Title Here

Pick a title, any title, my creativity is not flowing today. While I have more energy than I did over the weekend, yesterday was a busier than usual Monday and so today is already dragging and it is not even 10:00 am yet.

One thing worked on yesterday was revamping and partially rewriting an old movie review. While I have done this to a minor degree before, this is a much more comprehensive overhaul which makes it a learning experience. Today it should get finished and it is about time I figured out how to bump a post to the front page. If I remember to, that is.

It is spring, so thoughts of maybe following baseball have emerged again. I find it ridiculous that streaming MLBTV online costs $20.00 a month. How sports fans can continue to fork out insane sums of money for PPV, tickets, and merchandise is beyond me. All I can surmise is that it is the latest form of idolatry to afflict the masses and there isn’t even a dollop of spiritual rewards promised.

I am not pleased with the Supreme Court ruling on strip searches. While it is a sad testament to the decay of society that such searches are often needed, the ability to force them on a person if they are arrested for anything is way over the line. The argument that ruling against them would have a “chilling effect” on law enforcement is somewhat legitimate, but when are we going to stop ceding all our civil liberties to the government?

Meanwhile, President Obama took another step toward tinpot dictatorship by threatening the Supreme Court over Obamacare. Why he thinks this will work when even Franklin Delano Roosevelt could not pull it off? FDR was far more popular and had much broader support, but the public completely rejected his attempts to bully and replace that branch of government. Rallying the base is one thing, but when it alienates everyone else it is not even a zero sum gain. It is a loss.

That is a lesson that seems to have been forgotten by a lot of politicians across the spectrum of late.

The wrong hood was ordered for the car and a new one has been placed. Hopefully a sunny day will arrive soon (forecast says tomorrow) to continue work on straightening metal. There is still a radiator attachment made of plastic that I have not figured out how to repair. Since the only other option is replacing the entire radiator, it has to be solved. Normally, a pin could be inserted into a drilled out hole, but I am afraid of leaks from the area if I do drill. Sigh. I probably could seal it well enough if that happens.

I am puzzled how people think that increased manufacturing with decreased demand is a positive sign, even in the short term. All it means is inventory will increase, which is not a good thing in a “just in time” economy. But if there is one thing I have learned about economic experts and investors is that anything can be tortured into becoming good news when desperate.

My growing suspicion is that the US stock markets will become the last haven for money for the wealthy before that wealth is permanently destroyed. Metals and real estate are the best places to sink money into, because the value of both will never reach zero. You will not be able to avoid losing money so it is all about having something rather than nothing in the end.

On that subject, the single most awesome thing I have seen on the Web so far this year. See, the Canadians are good for something!

Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (1999) Review

aka Awakening of Iris aka Gamera 1999: Absolute Guardian of the Universe

The final installment of Shuseke Kaneko’s trilogy of Gamera films aspires to be more than a giant monster movie when the giant flying turtle faces multiple foes – with the most deadly being a teenage girl. An unrelenting rollercoaster of a ride, Gamera 3 achieves the feat of becoming the most serious kaiju movie since the original Gojira stomped onto the screen. Combining an emotional plot, terrific pacing, and high attention to detail makes for a memorable movie whose images linger on well after the end credits roll.

Opening with haunting and evocative music, Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris presents us with an unidentified location on the Ecuator in 1999. Doctor Mayumi Nagamine (Shinabu Nakayama) from Gamera: Guardian of the Universe has been called out to a remote jungle village where the body of a young Gyaos lays decomposing.  Absent from the second movie, the ornithologist has been spending her time researching the bird like monsters and now their return adds an ominous air to the proceedings.

Health 3-31-2012

Here it is General Conference again and I have a mild cold. It seems like this happens a lot for the April sessions. So I will not be making it in for Priesthood tonight.

Just looked at bread purchased earlier in the week and it has all gone moldy. This is getting to be quite a problem in this house for it is too humid in the kitchen once warm weather begins. There is no way the two of us can eat a loaf quickly enough, it seems.

At least I am more alert today. Since Wednesday, I have been completely thrashed from a trip to the capitol in St. Paul. Time to get some writing done!

F-35A Tests Its Wing Pylons

It is odd, but I think the bird looks better with things hanging under the wings. While it kills the stealth, the idea is that after the enemy air defenses are taken care of more weapons can be hauled for close air support and interdiction. The big question is whether the coming economic collapse kills the expensive program before it reaches service.

The End of Bleach: 2004-2012

There seem to be a lot of things ending for me of late and the as of today the Bleach anime is no more. After 366 episodes and four movies, it ended due to a collapse in ratings and declining DVD sales in Japan. The cancellation was rather sudden, but the show managed to conclude the most recent story arc without throwing too much out.

While not popular with a lot of the fans, the Fullbringer arc adaptation was actually superior to the original manga and showed a great deal of creativity was still left in the staff after all these years. My suspicion is that showing the main character, Ichigo, go through an emotional wringer and having to grow up is the last thing the target demographic wanted to see. But it did appeal to an old timer like me, for character development is what made me like the silly series.

Though rushed, the final episode shows how much Ichigo Kurosaki has grown since the first season that made such a splash worldwide. Not only does he look older, the decisions he made at the end were much more mature and a conversation by two characters about him highlighted it. He has become a man and a good one at that.

All the familiar faces from Soul Society and the real world have cameo appearances and the final minutes of the show end on a nice note filled with a sweetness – something it needed to after the very grim arc. No longer the angry loner, Ichigo has more friends and loved ones than he can count. When he tells Rukia, “Seeya around” the message is aimed at the viewers as much as at the diminutive Soul Reaper.

Ending on a truly warm moment was a nice way to finish the series and I will miss the silly thing.

Tools of the Faith

When it comes to technology, I believe that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are more geeky than a lot of the population at large in the United States. That is a bold claim in the era of iPads, iPods, and Facebook, but I notice we tend to be early adopters of technology and love to incorporate it into church wide usage. Now that I have moved over to an Android platform for my portable assistant needs, I am finding my suspicions are correct.

The last revamp to LDS.org has made it a more useful tool for individual members, whether they be leaders or the average person. While the updated profile information and access to online versions of manuals/teaching tools impressed me, it was not until recently that I began to really appreciate what can be done with them.

Both  iOS and Android devices have free apps that allow you to sync up all your highlights, annotations, and bookmarks from your scriptures, magazines, and manuals with your LDS.org account. This is tremendously handy for me, since I try to keep my electronic and hard copy scriptures in sync. Making sure to highlight or note something in my Holy Bible or Book of Mormon that I did with my tablet is not easy simply because my memory is not that good. But if I synch my tablet to the account, all I have to do is look under “My Study Notebook” and voila, there it is. Then I crack open the books and get my highlighting pencils out to manually sync the paper editions. The ease of that made me very happy.

Search for “Gospel Library” in Google Play, Amazon Kindle, or iTunes app stores for the very well done app from the Church. If you have a lot of space on your tablet or smart phone, I advise downloading all the conference talks available. So far everything back to 1974 has been issued in electronic format for the app. I also suggest exploring all the lesser pamphlets and manuals, for there is a lot of good information there.

But wait, there is more out there!

I highly recommend Stake Central for Android. While some may be content with the lesser Ward Central app, this has your local leadership and stake calendar included. Both are very handy for active families looking to keep up with local events and contacting people for information. It is the same data you can access on your LDS.org membership account, but downloaded for when you have no Web access.

Another useful tool for digging into scripture is “LDS Citation Index”, which allows you to find conference talks, books, and manuals that reference a specific verse of scripture. This is great for preparing lessons and talks when you are on the road or cannot get to a PC. Look for it in Android markets.

There are other apps available, but those are the ones I am using currently. Now to get the stray annotations out of my old Dell Axim…

Posting and Health 3-21-2012

The current slow down in blogging is due to the slowdown of me. Since the unusual and record setting heat began, I have had a hard time adjusting to it. Radical changes in temperature hit me in two different ways, with a sudden cold snap causing sneezing and sudden warmth causing my digestive system to get out of whack. The latter is the problem right now and I am being a bit of a zombie. Part of this is fallout from having a more active week before, but most of it is the heat and my body’s poor coping skills.

Sleep has been sporadic and of low quality thanks to all this, which is not helpful. As the week has gone on, things have improved gradually. It is annoying to be yawning as I type this. The good news is that I have not been totally incapacitated and have been working on a monster of a movie review. The screen captures need to culled to something workable and after they are edited the writing will begin.

After that, I will be beginning a new series to review – my favorite one of all time. Expect a lot of theorizing as attempts are made to understand the thinking of its creator and star.

Then there is a post that has slowly been forming in my mind about how hatred and raw emotion have come to dominate what passes for discourse in society. That will be quite a long post.

Mass Effect 3, Entitlement Culture, and Endings

Over at Bioware’s Mass Effect 3 forums there is a considerable uprising in protest of the grim ending to the game. Without going into the merits of the how the ending was written and presented (there is very legitimate and not legitimate criticisms), what strikes me is the rage at not having a happy ending possible. There is sloppy writing involved and the ending was rushed along with other parts of the game, no doubt about that. But it is a cohesive and logical ending despite what those who are angry are writing.

Part of what I like about the Mass Effect series is that it does not shy away from hard choices and painful outcomes.  The idea of sacrifice runs through the entire series, starting with the Virmire mission in the first game where you have to choose which one of two main companions dies. At the beginning of the second game, the death of your character, Shepherd,  was a red flag that you would probably die when all is said and done, despite the resurrection after the opening titles. I took it as meaning Shepherd was on borrowed time from then on out.

But a lot of people reject that concept and are demanding a new ending be made and released. Thanks to the afore mentioned sloppy writing, there is an accidental out for Bioware and EA if they choose to use it. Yet I find it amazing that gamers believe they have a right to a happy ending. Long have gamers clamored that games be taken seriously as art, alongside movies and novels. So when a game takes an artistic chance and reaches for that brass ring, this happens. Sigh.

There is additional anger that the vaunted choices imported from the previous games do not effect the ending. My reply to this is that Mass Effect 3 is a final act in a larger story and those choices are shown to have large repercussions for the galaxy. Entire races can live or die depending on the choices you have made. Conflicts between races can be ended and paths for their cultures changed. That is not small in scale, is it? So a great deal of the reward for past choices is delivered well before the ending sequence and I consider that argument a nonstarter.

It speaks a great deal about how well written the characters are when players get this emotionally wrapped up with them. A lot of this ire has to do with failing to get a happy ending and seeing your Shepherd happy with his or her love interest as a reward. Life is messier than that and these games have always reflected that.

Currently, the people in most industrialized/Westernized nations have come to believe that happiness is a right to be guaranteed by their governments. Usually that takes the form of a welfare or socialist system of some variant. Expectations are high that failure will always have a safety net. Economics and demographics are starting to assert their terrible and unstoppable refutation of such systems being sustainable in the long term. Watching the riots and demonstrations in Greece has been informative as to how people will react when such nets begin to unravel.

By the way, “happiness” is not guaranteed in the Constitution of the United States of America. The word is not even found in it or the Bill of Rights. So where does that mistaken belief come from? It comes from the Declaration of Independence. To make things even clearer, that statement of intent (which is not legally binding) had “the pursuit of happiness” as a right. Last I checked, pursuit is not a guarantee you will catch the thing chased after.

But back on topic. So what does that have to do with a silly video game, you ask? (Or at least I ask for you.)

Well, people had the expectation of getting their way at the end and when that was dashed, they became disenchanted, bitter, and often furious. So now petitions have begun and an organized movement to force Bioware to release a free happy ending patch or DLC is well underway. This is not too different from protests seen in Greece and soon to be seen in other parts of Europe.

Somewhere along the way, great swathes of people began to believe happiness could be guaranteed. Reality and history say otherwise, but we have so much that we have become spoiled rotten. Thanks to the melodrama playing out over Mass Effect 3, some things I have been pondering have come into better focus. Too many people are utterly unprepared for worst case scenarios, at least emotionally. This is not good, given what is coming.

Odd that a PR disaster for a game is giving me a better grasp of some societal mechanics, but hey, I take my inspirations whenever and wherever I get them.

I wish to note that this is not meant as a full blown apologia for Mass Effect 3’s ending. There are plenty of flaws to it and to the series in general. I cannot present the trilogy as a paragon of storytelling or game making, for it does have plenty of warts. While I do not like how it became a gay rights propaganda platform, a player had the choice to avoid it for the most part – until this installment when it was rammed through with all the subtlety of a wrecking ball. Still, it is an entertaining and interesting science fiction property that might be best served in other media than games in the future.

Something occurred to me while playing through it the first time. The sensation was much like when I saw Return of the King and it can be described as a feeling that nothing will top what I just viewed. For me, Mass Effect 3 is the last video game I will ever get excited about, much like the conclusion of The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy affected my movie viewing. Oh I will get the DLC’s and play out all the bargain games I have gotten on Steam over the years. But it feels like the end of an era in my life and the enthusiasm will never be the same, not due to disappointment but completion.

For me, that is the biggest and perhaps best ending.

The Week That Was

Sitting here and typing that it is Friday night seems strange, because it seems like Sunday was only a day or two ago. Time flies when there are things getting done and this week was a better one than I had experience in some time.

I took advantage of the warm weather to get a 2.5 mile walk in yesterday and thought I would never make it back up the hill. That bug last month really knocked the stuffing out of me. The good news is that I managed to be functional today.

While it looks like I did not do much with the blog, I updated two reviews, Gamera: Guardian of the Universe and Gamera 2: Advent of Legion with sections on the bonus features. If you ever wondered what making a big monster movie was like before CGI took over everything, there are some good glimpses of the work involved. Next up will be the concluding movie to the trilogy, but that will wait until next week.

One thing I did not get done was re-entering my contacts data on my CyPad tablet. Despite buying Titanium Backup Pro, it failed to save that data in its pre-Ice Cream Sandwich backup. Everything else worked fairly well, but I need to check the settings.

Why Hollywood is Evil, Part 1,345,798,221

The production and licensing company that owns rights to The Hobbit are suing an English pub that has been named The Hobbit Free House for twenty years. Read the article and ponder the stupidity of the money grubbers sitting in the USA going after small fry in another land. If the name Zaentz sounds familiar, he is the one who screwed over John Fogarty and prevented him from recording for years after Creedence Clearwater Revival broke up.

Odds and Ends 3-13-2012

It was a nice day out today and tomorrow promises to be even better. While I was dead tired today after a tiring, but interesting Sunday, it turned out to be a day to get things done.

After much wrangling, ranting, research, trial and error, I managed to get a Sylvania 7” Android tablet working again for a friend. It was a Christmas present for his oldest boy and locked up when they first used it. I count that as a victory.

The upgrade to Android 4.0 aka Ice Cream Sandwich on my Iview CyTab went relatively smoothly last week. While slightly slower in some ways, the stability is an immense improvement. So far I like it a lot and the various Web browsers seem to be happier than on Gingerbread. The keyboard is a huge improvement and nearly worth the upgrade alone.

It is hard to believe that Sunday was the one year anniversary of the tsunami that hit Japan. Their economy is still affected by it and I read that a lot of a manufacturing that had not already left is now going to China. It is a strange thing to watch because I remember when all the cheap knockoffs had “Made in Japan” stamped on them.

We had a township election today and for the second time in a row it came down to a tied vote decided by drawing cards from a deck. Yucatan Township is an interesting place to live, that is for sure.

The massacre in Afghanistan by a renegade soldier may turn out to be an even bigger tragedy than reported. There has been a report that he had suffered a brain injury while serving in Iraq in 2010. It used to be that was an automatic discharge, but he was sent back into combat duty. If true, careers need to end for the officers involved in the decision.

I finished Mass Effect 3 and found the ending to be interesting. Other people are incensed by it, but a happy ending never seemed to be in the cards to me. This series is gritty and serious science fiction, not Star Wars or Star Trek. In fact, it felt a lot like how Babylon 5 ended in some ways. Come to think of it, the Reapers remind me of a cross between the Shadows and the Borg.

Bleach Ep. 15: Kon’s Great Plan

The first season takes a breather and slows down in this comedy centric episode starring Kon, the stuffed lion. When Kon can no longer take being treated like a toy, he runs away from home to find a better place. But there is a moody parallel story as Rukia finds herself becoming too attached to others in the mortal world. So what does a mysterious black cat appearing mean for our heroes?

Bleach’s comedy is not for everyone and is often over the top. This is one of those episodes, but is leavened by a growing melancholy that quickly becomes foreboding. There are no fights, but plot development is carefully advanced as the next big storyline is setup.

The duality of the episode is introduced early on with a brooding Rukia in bed and a crying Kon dealing with having been put in a ridiculous dress by Ichigo’s sister, Yuzu. Both are suffering for very different reasons and each handles their problems quite differently. At least on the face of it…

Another Year Older, Another Year Wiser?

My birthday was a low key affair, which has become the norm for many years now. While we all get older, the real trick is becoming wiser as the years go by. In a culture devoted to perpetual adolescence, wisdom is dwindling. Not that we ever had enough of that valuable resource, but it is becoming even rarer.

So I hope I have learned a few things in the past year and that they have or in the future will benefit others. It does not seem I learn much for my own gain as time goes by. Since I believe we are here to serve others, it is probably for the best in the eternal scheme of things.

This week I decided to take for myself though. Using my birthday as an excuse, I have focused on me and entertaining myself instead of being productive. This is something someone healthy cannot do and probably does not need to do, but being disabled means you live a life most cannot understand. While I rant against being in a culture of “mass distraction,” it has been a deliberate exercise in it this week.

Being distracted was made easy by the release of Mass Effect 3, the conclusion of the Commander Shepherd trilogy and my present to myself. Some of the content I do not like, but the finale is a worthy ending to the epic story and the conclusion that angered a lot of fans is fine with me. Especially since it appears to be more open ended than they perceive to allow for DLC packs to come. It is a grim story, with the destruction of worlds making that unavoidable. Fortunately, that sense of friendship and personal intimacy with other characters is still intact. Hate the new cover system, it got me killed more times than I can count.

As is tradition, my dad and I went out for crab legs on my birthday. Back when my mother was alive, our birthdays were slightly more than a week apart so we would celebrate that way between them. Amazingly, I did not overstuff myself this year.

Thanks to my sister, I have the Blu-ray of my all time favorite movie coming. Akira Kurosawa’s Ran is a true masterpiece and, in my eyes, superior to Seven Samurai. My first DVD purchase was of this movie, more than a year before I had a DVD-ROM player to view it with. It cost a pretty penny back then, around $35.00 and looked like it was lifted from a VHS tape. No anamorphic widescreen here, just a letterboxed scan wedged into 4:3 ratio. I tried watching it on the new 40” HDTV and it looked awful. So it will be nice to see it in high definition glory.

After we succeeded in out quest for snow crab legs, we went to Blaine’s Farm and Fleet for more wood pellets. There I ran into the deluxe two disc DVD edition of Lawrence of Arabia, the one with the cloth cover on the case. It was in the surplus rack of discount DVDs and was on sale at an additional discount. Paying four dollars to replace my no frills bargain DVD was a no brainer and capped off a nice birthday.

The Long Arm of Uncle Sam

This article on Wired (via Instapundit) caught my attention today. It may surprise people to see just how absolute the Fed’s power over the Internet really is. So any website ending in com, org, or net is claimed to be under United States jurisdiction. What does that mean? It means they can legally shut down any website in the world that ends with those suffixes.

Meanwhile, Anonymous are in a tizzy after one of their own rolled over to the Feds. Language warning for the article, BTW. LulzSec is pretty much done, but there are still quite a few in Anonymous who are sweating bullets at this point.

I am afraid a lot of people assume they can do whatever they want and get away with it due to government incompetence. The thing to remember is that governments are slow and ponderous, but not oblivious. Eventually they will get around to pursuing cyber criminals if they draw enough attention to themselves. With Anonymous constantly making declarations, they might as well be wearing blinking neon signs. Their time is running out.

No deep thoughts on any of this today, because it is merely interesting data for the moment.

Squid Girl Episode 9

UPDATE September 4, 2018

More DMCA take downs have hit the blog despite screen captures long being considered fair use. Due to my not being able to afford a lawyer, I have no choice but to remove them or have the blog suspended. Only the words will be left.

TVTokyo is proving to be foolishly draconian in targeting posts meant to get people interested in seeing the Squid Girl anime and perhaps even purchasing it on DVD or Blu-ray. Being anti-piracy myself this is infuriating that they are targeting posts I wrote hoping to encourage people to try out a delightful show.

In the space of one episode, the show goes from sweetly silly to lunacy. Squid Girl discovers makeup, the dangers of doorbell ditching, and that being fought over is not as much fun as it sounds. But things are not all bad as she makes a friend.

The misadventures of Ika Musume aka Squid Girl are at their best when they mix a dash of sentimentality into the antics. Since most of the stories have a basis in every day events, there is ample opportunity to do so. It is the first story that uses this recipe to best effect and I judge it the most memorable in the episode.

Want to Ring and Jet?

I knew other kids who doorbell ditched when I was younger, but I never found it amusing. Usually the targets were old folks who would become very confused and flustered, which irked me. So when the episode opened with Takeru and his friend doing it, I was prepared to be annoyed. Especially when Squid Girl is taunted into playing “ring and run.”

Seen ringing the doorbell by Chizuru, the hapless girl freezes. Luckily for her, the woman answering the door provides her an out by assuming she a friend of her daughter’s. Bluffing her way out of it, it almost works – until the girl shows up.

Panicked, Ika yanks the girl to a neighboring park and begs for her help in covering up the lie. Kiyomi turns out to be a bright and sweet girl, not to mention forgiving. Her solution to Squid Girl’s dilemma is clever, very clever indeed.

Having made her first friend around her own age, Ika gets carried away and invites Kiyomi to her house the next day. Just one little problem: she never asked for permission from Chizuru, the one person capable of annihilating her. Guilt ridden and paranoid, the big question is whether or not Squid Girl will survive long enough to be friends with Kiyomi.

Do Mollusks Wear Makeup?

The discovery of a tube of lipstick belonging to Eiko awakens the girly side of Squid Girl who cannot wait to experiment with her new look. Delighted that makeup can attract more attention, she finds that it draws even more unwanted advances from the ever annoying Sannae. There is power to be found in style though.

But what style should she go for? Looking around the Lemon Beach House, Ika and Eiko find a wide menagerie of styles. Some are amusing riffs based on other animes, but others are horrific examples from reality. Overhearing a pair of girls talk about how they wrap men around their fingers piques the fish out of water’s interest.

But just how far will Squid Girl take things in her quest for power? And who else in the cast will receive a dramatic makeover?

Aren’t You Armed with a Secret Weapon?

The sudden appearance of Cindy the alien researcher on a sweltering hot day unnerves the staff of the restaurant. Her persistent efforts to haul Ika Musame off to be studied draws the attention of the tentacle haired girl’s main stalker. Yes, Sannae has shown up and will brook no competition. Soon a fight is brewing, complicated by jealousy of Eiko’s spending time with Squid Girl.

As if that was not insane enough, the three idiots from MIT show up in beach wear. Of course, for them that also means lab coats so that the nerds can carry their experiments with them. A very dangerous, if seductive, offer is made to Ika and things escalate out of control quickly.

What horrific events could lead to the above screen captures? What could enrage Chizuru so? It is time for the cast to find out just how deadly the mild mannered young woman can be…

Thoughts

Episode 9 is one of the better entries in the series, mainly due to the first segment that introduces Kiyomi to the ever growing cast of characters. The friendship that starts there becomes a source of some of the sweeter stories later on. One has to like Kiyomi, since she is a refreshingly nice girl without any odd quirks. Her assumption that Eiko and Chizuru are Ika’s sisters is never refuted and the sense that they are family has grown quite strong by this point.

The makeup focused story is great fun too. It serves as a chance to make fun of extreme styles, while also showing Ika becoming a little more normal. But only a little, as the ending shows. I really enjoyed Goro’s lines and the odd relationship he has with his fellow protector of the sea.

Sheer insanity dominates the final story and the ridiculous spectacle of Sannae and Cindy competing over Squid Girl is mad enough, but then the mad scientists drive sanity right over the cliff. But the real star of this segment is Chizuru.

This review is brought to you by Chizuru’s death glare. You really do not want to upset her enough for her to open her eyes.

Recovering from the Weekend

I suppose that most Americans would look at the title and assume copious amounts of partying and alcohol were involved, but since I am a devout Latter-day Saint the latter is not possible. The former can happen, but in this case did not. Still, after two weeks of being ill with a virus on top of my normal CFS, it was a bit more strenuous than normal.

It started with a normal D&D session that got very loopy and not due to the story. When a group of friends have not been together for several weeks, it is very hard to get them to focus on gameplay. At least that is been my experience and it was particularly chaotic this time around.

Stayed over at a friend’s house and went in with his carpool to church, so that meant being there three hours before sacrament meeting started. A light snow had deposited enough flakes to be slippery, so we shoveled the walks. Normally, that would be too draining for me, but the snow was so light it was more like scraping the walks.

However, I am feeling it today. The pain is not muscular, because there was nothing to lift. But when I get too tired and the weather changes, it becomes a double whammy of pain in the joints and back. A rough night led to sleeping in and I am still a little fuzzy headed.

Still, it was worth it.

I see Rush Limbaugh has lost seven sponsors over his extremely foolish insults toward the female students that the Democrats setup to cause a big ruckus. Rush fell for obvious bait and I am continually amazed at how naïve conservatives are in regards to the Left’s tactics. The whole contraception controversy has been a very carefully calculated and laid out plan between the Democrats and the media to divert attention from the economy by reigniting the culture wars. Both Santorum and Limbaugh have shown themselves to be rather stupid in doing exactly what the Left wanted them to do.

It is only the beginning of what I predict will be the dirtiest and ugliest election season since Abraham Lincoln was elected. The political Right have no clue just how bad it is going to get and have busied themselves with self destructive internecine warfare, much to the media’s glee. The phrase “Stuck on stupid” keeps coming to mind.Failing to keep the eye on the ball due to ego is not forgivable.

With global freight shipping declining, durable goods orders down, and inventories growing, the real story will be the economic collapse happening. The media will avoid that as long as possible to keep Obama in power, but I think things will hit a critical point before the election. The fact he has told the House and Senate Democrats there will be no money coming from him and his PACs is a big warning sign that there are money problems. They act surprised by it, but it has been clear that the only person Barack cares about is Barack for a very long time now.

Over in Russia, Putin has shown how it is done with massive fraud and a lot of media blitzing. Reports from observers indicate it was not a fair election, but does anyone really expect it to be overturned? At the rate things are going, America will end up like this.

At least I will have a distraction for awhile. Mass Effect 3 unlocks around midnight and I am eager to see how the trilogy ends. Forget Star Wars and Star Trek, the Mass Effect universe is the most exciting science fiction setting currently out there. The ability to turn a game into something more akin to being inside an epic film or novel series has been the great achievement of the franchise.

I had better get to work on another review before I start playing, or there will not be one posted any time soon!

Gamera 2: Advent of Legion (1996) Review

aka Attack of the Legion.

Everyone’s favorite fire breathing and flying turtle returns for the second chapter of the 1990’s revamp. When an alien menace threatens Japan, the Earth’s guardian gets his scaly hide kicked repeatedly by a superior foe. Brutal fights, massive destruction, and science fiction horror show this series is not aimed at little kids anymore. UPDATED for making of extras.

Gamera was always something of a joke to me while I was growing up. Of course I was a dedicated and loyal Godzilla fan, so a giant turtle that flew by spinning was sure to be a target of my disdain. It did not help that the movies were aimed at very little kids who could cheer him on in fights and revive him by doing so. It was not mere corn, it was buttered corn with sugar sprinkled on it. I prefer salt, thank you very much.

So when I declare the trilogy begun with Gamera: Guardian of the Universe contains the best kaiju (giant monster) films to ever come out of Japan, please note that there is no sarcasm involved. Gamera 2: Advent of Legion manages to do the impossible and that is to turn the ridiculous ideas of the original films into something cleverly entertaining. Attention to detail, character development, and excellent pacing are to be found in abundance. It is almost enough to convince you that a turtle can fly.

Like this post or the monster gets it!

In Memoriam: Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012)

In Memoriam: Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012)

This was a shocker to read this morning. Breitbart had done a lot of good in getting the conservative message out there and especially in giving the libertarians and conservatives in Hollywood a place to voice their views. Like a shooting star, he blazed brightly and all too briefly.

My prayers and condolences go out to his family, friends, and coworkers.

Keeping Focused

Last night I spent thirty minutes in misery when one of my contact lenses slipped and wedged itself in a place under the eyeball where it did not belong. Why thirty minutes? Because I was stuck riding shotgun in an old pickup truck bouncing along an isolated road during a rain storm with nowhere well lit to stop. It was a good thing I was not driving, because double vision does not begin to explain how bad my ability to focus was.

One of the problems facing any fledgling political movement is failing to maintain a tight focus on the message they wish to send. All too often, causes expand to cover too many things and large fractures become inevitable within the group once that occurs. I watched that happen with the Reform Party back in the 1990’s.

So it was interesting to hear what was going on with one of the local Tea Party chapters down in Decorah, Iowa. My father asked to distribute some FairTax information at their meeting last night and so off we trundled to it. They are aligned with the Tea Party Patriots organization and the gist of the message was about staying focused on smaller government and fiscal responsibility. That was nice to hear, since all too often intensity and resources get frittered away by expansion of unnecessary issues.

At the meeting was a Republican candidate for Iowa House District 55, Michael Klimesh. He’s a former mayor from Spillville and had run in the old district in 2010. The focus of his message was smaller government and encouraging small business development. Being at loggerheads with the state party should make things interesting for his race.

Unexpectedly, my dad got a chance to speak on the FairTax and that went very well. Six of nine people still at the meeting had heard of it, which is a lot better than I have seen before. The questions were all good ones too.

Something fascinating thing to me was the beginnings of Occupiers and Tea Partiers working together in Northeast Iowa. I had quite a cordial discussion with one attendee who has come over from the OWS movement to also participate in Tea Party activities. Some of the Occupiers have discovered there is common ground in regards to government corruption and have begun exploring what we have to say.

I suspect that more liberals have become disenchanted and disillusioned with their champions since Obama took office. While we on the political right are used to distrusting and disparaging our own leaders, there has been more blind faith on the other side. With rampant corruption becoming more obvious, some eyes are opening and questions being asked.

Where it all will end up, I do not know, but I find it quite intriguing. The people have begun to lose faith in our government in larger numbers and that should worry Washington, D.C. a great deal, but they are awfully insulated in the Beltway.

I am happy to report that Mabe’s Pizza still makes great pizza. My family spent a lot of time there back in the 70’s, so I have a lot of fond memories.

An old friend of Don Flatten’s was there, so that added a another nostalgic moment to the night. I can tell I am getting old from all the reminiscing about people who have passed away. It was nice to get out and talk to people again, the last two weeks of being ill has been more than a little annoying. If I only had the health to match my spirit!

Oh and that contact lens? It fell out of my eye as soon as I walked in a convenience store and into my hand. I was able to get it back in and finally focus again.

Regime Change Brings Nuclear Change to Korea?

Well, this is unexpected, but welcome news – IF North Korea holds up their end of the bargain. Color me skeptical, but this kind of announcement has happened time and time again, only for the dictatorship in Pyongyang to renege on their promises and through inspectors out.

At least we will find out if the new regime is any different than its predecessors.

Health 2-26-2012

Another day of feeling rotten, this time with a mild headache as the bug will not let go completely. The only reason it is mild is because I am avoiding all intense stimuli and cannot handle even light classical music without throbbing beginning. That meant a lot of down time today. Quite a pity, for it was a beautiful sabbath day outside.

While fuzzy headed, I hope my planning is not. Losing weight is a priority, but being bumped up to the top. A perpetually whining lower back needs the load off and I will also be pursuing stretching exercises with an eye towards something more complicated as an immediate relief. I would like to do something like tai chi or yoga, but do not have the room for it. More research is needed.

Kimi ni Todoke Ep. 2: Seat Shuffling

While discovering she is not completely alone in the first episode, Sawako finds her status with her peers to be unchanged. Summer vacation has passed and the second year of high school brings a change of seating to the class. What should be a mundane event becomes something truly moving and marks the real beginning of Sawako’s quest to break free from the chains of her loneliness.

In manga and anime, there is a genre called “slice of life” that is more popular with the female fans in Japan. Rather than having a tightly plotted storyline, a more episodic format of following every day life is featured. Kimi ni Todoke is often classified in that genre and borders on being that, but there is an over all plot to it, albeit one that very slowly unwinds. If there was ever a story that relished the journey, it would be this one. Fortunately for us, it does so beautifully.

A gloomy gray sky spitting rain opens the second episode as we see Sawako Kuronama find an abandoned puppy in a cardboard box. Being pure of heart, she leaves her umbrella behind to protect the very hostile pup. Paying no mind to the falling rain, she is soaked thoroughly by the time she gets to school. Which, of course, makes her look even more like the villainess Sadako from Ringu!

Health 2-24-2012

Sigh. I thought I was over the bug, but today has been a day of relapsing. Chest congestion, sneezing, and general bleariness was the order of the day. It seems I can never get through an illness without a second go around of it.

While not as bad as before, I have no fight left in me physically speaking, so all the various things I was trying to plan out for the weekend are up in smoke. At least I do not have to choose between the county convention and the pinewood derby/chili cook off at Church tomorrow. I cannot do either one.

Redistricting Thoughts

No, this is not about censorship or anything Orwellian. Instead it is about political redistricting in my corner of Minnesota. Tuesday afternoon was a big day for wonks due to the state court panel presenting the new boundaries for congressional, state house, and state senate districts.

So I went from living in House District (HD) 31b to living in HD28b. What changed? Not a whole lot, though we finally have the complete counties of Fillmore and Houston in one easy to find district. It always bothered me that the cities of Fillmore and Houston were carved out to be given to neighboring districts. This makes more sense demographically and geographically. Rep. Greg Davids should be very happy with this, for he will not have to run against another member of the house like in other parts of the state.

Another bit of good news is that the Senate District barely changed and for the better along the lines of the house changes. I am glad to still have Jeremy Miller for my senator, so that was a relief. There had been a very real chance that district would be radically altered and I did not want to be paired up with Austin.

Changes to the Congressional district were bigger, but once again logical. Other districts did not fare as well. Michelle Bachmann is on the warpath over what happend to CD 6, with threats of suing. Being of the opinion that politics becomes both crazier and nastier the closer you get to metropolitan areas, none of this was surprising.

All in all, I am happy with the way things turned out locally.

A Good Metaphor for the Times

Watching this video of a Brazilian rescue helicopter shaking itself apart made me think of of how current political and economic events going on across the world are being handled. My second thought was that it did not look real and appeared to be a RC model. Amazing how the human eye and brain responds to something it has not seen before.

I hope and pray those injured will recover quickly.

Area 88 Ep. 2: The Setting Sun as Grave Marker

aka Boris

Any doubts about the seriousness of the anime series are dispelled by this grim episode that follows a pilot nicknamed “the Angel of Death.” Thrilling action scenes punctuate a slower moving story about survivor’s guilt and the tremendous toll war takes on those who fight it. While photojournalist Makoto Shinjo learns more about life on the base, the real star of the episode is attack pilot Boris. The ghosts of the Vietnam War are beginning to haunt the stories of Area 88.

There is a poetic quality to both the visual and verbal imagery of this series that sets it apart from most anime. The thoughtful and meditative scripts are matched by the art and directing, making for stories that are not easily forgotten. This particularly strong episode sets the tone for the entire series very early on.

After hearing a rumor about a pilot called “the Angel of Death,” Makoto becomes intrigued. Ominously wondering if he is Shin Kazama’s personal angel of death, the photographer sets out to find out about the enigmatic pilot named Boris. A master of ground attack missions, he is reputed as getting all his wingmen killed -- so nobody wants to fly with him.

Odds and Ends–Tech Edition

The Iview Cypad 760TPC I purchased earlier this month has been a lot of fun to monkey with. Being new to tablets and the Android OS, I have to say the stability leaves something to be desired. It appears to be app related and I did go in forewarned about the crash rates of mobile operating systems.

Battery life has been good since I disabled the telephone related drivers on it. I get better than five hours doing a mix of things including playing games, web browsing, reading, and watching videos. Performance has been fast, but with occasional slowdowns that seem to come from my monkeying with app installations too much. The temptation to play with new software is severe due to the plethora of freebies available.

One of the apps I really like is the Gospel Library one from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Not only are scriptures available, but class manuals, conference talks, and magazines. All of them can be highlighted and annotated with that synced up to your Church account online. This week I matched up all of that from my hard copy of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. This week I will get the Holy Bible synched up as well.

Another app I have gone nuts with is the Kindle for Android one. Yes, I now have the equivalent of a Kindle Fire in many ways. The sheer volume of public domain books they have up had me downloading like mad while watching a movie Saturday night. Being able to watch something and multitask on the Net is an unexpected bonus for me. The IMDB app makes it a handy “look up the actor” tool, too.

I purchased one book and read it, The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi. It was nice to find a straight forward translation, since the one I had dated back to the 1980’s and was aimed a business men. There are some formatting errors, but nothing egregious and it was a quick read. Reading on the Cypad is easier on the eyes than expected and the ability to look up archaic words is very handy.

After testing multiple browsers on the tablet, I have kept three on it: the included Android one, Firefox, and Opera. If a page does not render correctly in one, one of the others usually can handle it. Opera is my main one due to its much better controls and rendering. I am disappointed that embedded videos do not work well, if at all, on the browsers. Dedicated apps appear to be the only way to go since websites are detecting mobile devices and do not act normally as a result.

With a new mini HDMI to HDMI cable, I finally was able to test out the video output of the Cypad and was stunned by how well it upscales to 1080p. With only limited space to play with until I get a new microSD card, I can’t test a full length movie yet. I can see using this to teach Sunday school lessons with downloaded Church videos and one of our new flat screens.

On the PC end of things, VLC 2.0 is finally out and it looks like I will be going back to it for my video playing needs. So far it has rectified all my problems with VLC, but further tests await. Besides the improved performance and compatibility, a lot of little things have been added and tweaked. The ability to jump chapters in ripped videos means I will be able to do screen captures more efficiently for my Blu-ray reviews. Anything that speeds that up is good with me, because I resent having those huge MKV files taking up room on my hard drives.

I have been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic with a friend online and have some issues with lagging despite a 100-105 MS. It may be my old video card cannot handle some of the areas with only 512mb of memory or it may be the fact I live in the middle of nowhere. More playing should give some clues. The game is good and if you liked Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic you will love this.

Health 2-20-2012

Typing the date out in the title made me look not twice but thrice.

Anyway, last night was miserable and had difficulty sleeping due to coughing fits. I love it when an upper respiratory infection goes into the chest. That said, it appears that the end of the bout is nigh. At least I hope so.

It has been odd for my father to get ill with the same thing at the same time, so that has been a new experience.

Secret Investigation Record (2010)

aka Joseon X-Files: Secret Book

A stylish and intelligent science fiction drama from South Korea that offers up many questions and a few answers, Secret Investigation Record is highly entertaining  but all too short. Clearly a homage to The X-Files, it manages to be its own beast thanks to well fleshed out characters and historical setting. Being loosely based on real records from the era lends a Project Blue Book feel to it as well.

I was a big fan of The X-Files during its early seasons, having watched it from its broadcast premiere. Unfortunately, it became clear around the third season that the creator of the show did not have a clue to what he was doing and was making it up on the fly. So it was with a mix of curiosity and trepidation that I approached this Korean drama set during the Joseon Dynasty.

Luckily for me, the made for cable television show turned out to be very good right from the first episode.

Health 2-18-2012

While it is no fun to report that the cold has started to move into the chest and I have used up what reserves of energy I had to fight it, it seems like a mere trifle after hearing from friends that their young son has cancer. Perspective brings clarity and I find myself worrying a great deal over the boy and not at all about myself.

My prayers go out to Jonas, for he and his family need them.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) Blu-ray

After a couple of low quality attempts to adapt Marvel Comics’ star spangled hero, Hollywood finally succeeds with this big budget period piece. Old fashioned movie making uses modern technology to portray the journey a sickly young man takes to become a super hero.  Nazis get punched out, evil rears its (very) ugly head, and lots of things blow up --  just like they should in a comic book movie. But the real message of the movie is that it is what is inside that counts.

It was something of an article of faith amongst comic book fans that Captain America was a hero who could not be successfully adapted for a modern movie. His appearance was too hokey, he was too bland, and most of all he was too American. Being a remnant from a more innocent and patriotic time, it just would not translate onto the big screen in a way that audiences could connect to.

Fortunately for us, Marvel did not listen to the naysayers and neither did Paramount Pictures. Be warned and settle in for a long read, for this is going to be a big review of a big movie.

Health 2-15-2012

The sore throat started yesterday and the drainage is now terrible, which is making me a dim and irritable guy right now. It is the penalty for being with friends with small kids, so I cannot whine too much. Upping the H2O2 therapy to two glasses a day will help, hopefully.

We finally have above freezing temps and I’m wearing my thermal underwear to keep warm. Not a good sign.

At least the congestion has not gone into my chest.

Weird Al Has a Message for Everyone

This is sublime.

War Drums

As the world economic situation deteriorates, another problem is rising and that is the steady beat of war drums across the globe. Political, rather than economic, interests are the prime motivators as old grudges flare in some places and civil unrest lures in outside forces in others. The latest hotspot is one I did not see coming and would be ridiculous to fight a war over if it were not for changing geopolitical conditions.

Argentina is ramping up the rhetoric against Great Britain over the Falklands and it is getting more serious than any dispute over an island filled with sheep should get. After having lost the Falklands War in the early 1980’s, it appeared to be a nonissue until recently when South American countries began expanding their military arsenals. A steadily declining U.K. military is now unlikely to be able to defend their citizens living in the Falklands, so an opportunity has arisen for Argentina. Claiming the Brits are sending nuclear missiles to the area is an extraordinary claim, the kind that is usually ginned up for a war.

Another thing to consider is that they now have the backing of Brazil, which has become an economic and military regional power looking to expand their influence. There is a desire to get rid of all European influence in the area and also American influence. Throw in a presidential re-election campaign for Cristina Kirchner and things start getting restive.

While that little drama unfolds, the Obama administration is quietly preparing for war with Iran and an armed intervention in Syria much like what was done in Libya. That means bypassing Congress again and should be of concern to more people than it is. If we hit Syria, Iran will fight us since they have sent forces in to back the dictator Assad in what really has become a civil war. No matter what happens, I expect Islamic extremists to end up in control of Syria, just like Libya and Egypt.

Israel will most likely be forced to hit Iranian nuclear weapons facilities this year. Survival is an important thing to the Israelis and they need to protect themselves from the increasingly irrational Iranians. Civil unrest remains a fear in Iran and they recently cut access to large parts of the Internet in hopes of preventing more.

Asia is not exempt from all the “fun.” Continued over flights of neighboring countries territory by China is still causing tension and an arms race in the area. Their ships have been equally aggressive and have challenged Philippino sovereignty. Japan also has the Russians sending bombers over their territory as Russia tries to reestablish their might around the Kurile Islands. Oddly enough, tensions with North Korea appear to be abating or are on hold while the new regime sorts itself out.

Will any of these hotspots break out into actual fighting? I think the Middle East is the closest thing to a sure bet thanks to Iran and Syria. In the long run, Asia is building towards war, but internal stresses in China may derail that.

So why do I feel like the atmosphere is like that of the years leading up to World War I?