This, That, and the Other Thing

Things have been what I would classify as eventful since the weekend. Though in at least one case, more like eventful stalled – but more on that later. This is going to be a long post since I want to record the happenings for posterity. Hopefully it will not be too boring for other to read!

It all started with the celebration of a five year old’s birthday party. One of the families I home teach (explained here) is a young family with small children. The oldest one is a boy who has taken a shine to me for some inexplicable reason and is something of a problem child. Being very big and strong for his age, he is also very willful. He is also a miracle baby who should not exist according to doctors, for his mother was not supposed to be able to have children.

I have a code I live by that goes something like this: If a person who is not a moocher or leech attaches themselves to me, I feel an obligation to be as good a friend I can be to them. Now this is not a reluctant, foot dragging kind of “I have to do this” kind of feeling. Rather it is a sign to me that I need to make an effort and that the likelihood that God set this up is high.

So in this case, I have a little kid doing it and that is a first for me. It is also terrifying for a hopeless bachelor such as myself. While I am told I am good with children, my lack of experience with them makes it a very scary experience indeed. Maybe one day I will get past that, but not today.

Link Referral Spam from aptratings

One of the banes of blogging is link referral spam that is only visible to the website’s administrator, or in this case, the owner of the blog. Much of it comes from Russia and I note the rare occasions when a legitimate search from there lands on my blog. 99% of hits on the blog from Russia are from spammers.

The latest to come out of there is falsified links from aptratings . com, which poses as apartmentratings.com which is a real site of questionable reliability, but no spammer. They do this by having a banner link to the real site on top, but the content is a come on to make money by clicking on links or pushing links on social media sites. I suspect the fake site content changes from time to time, but do not want to waste time finding out.

The only ones making money off this are the people running that site in Russia, so do not fall for it. I have seen novice bloggers online getting excited to get linked to without realizing what it is really about. Sorry to burst your bubbles, but they randomly scour blogger looking for people to sucker in.

Then there are the post spammers, which is why you need to enable reviewing post before they are put up. One got by me this week when I missed with the mouse cursor and had to go delete it. Forget idle hands, shaky hands are really the devil’s plaything.

You will not get a virus from clicking on the referral spam, but you most likely will get more of it showing up in your stats in the control panel.

Fractale Episode 3: The Village of Granites

Fractale finally earns its TV-14 rating as the tone of the series shifts dramatically from light hearted adventure to a darker and more serious story in this pivotal episode. Innocence is lost when the truth about the Temple is revealed to Clain in an episode centered around the Granite faction of the terrorist organization Lost Millennium. Fractale: Reiterated continues with updated HD screen captures and text.

I originally avoided Fractale when it started streaming because the promo art looked too “kiddie” to me. It was not until I read posts talking about the dramatic ending to the third episode that I was sufficiently intrigued enough to sample the first episode. If I had not been browsing message boards in search of intelligent anime, I would have never seen what ultimately became my favorite one. The Village of Granites is a game changer in the series, one that shocked quite a few viewers.

Fractale Episode 2: Nessa

A ten year old redheaded girl pops into being and extreme cuteness follows when Clain meets the second girl to invade his solitary life.   A whirlwind of happiness, the girl tests the teen’s ability to cope at every turn. But who, or more importantly what, is Nessa? Fractale: Reiterated continues with updated HD captures and text – July 2012.

The information about day to day life in the world of Fractale continues to be revealed and the plot advances quickly. But it is character development that takes center stage, with much of it being surprisingly emotional. A complicated plot does not a good series make on its own and here we find out if Fractale has more to offer.

You Ever Have One of Those Days?

You know, the ones where absolutely everything goes right?

That was yesterday for me and while grateful for it, I am still confused by it. Such a thing has not happened for me in many years. The only reason I know that has been so long is because I could not remember anything like it at all. It felt surreal, though I did remember to be thankful for the day. Even the little things all went perfectly.

Today should be more normal. It is time to pull books off of a book shelf and move it next to the HDTV, since the video collection has outgrown the built in storage in the living room. I can tell the Lyme Disease is pretty much gone by the fact that such a physical thing is on my to do list.

I also seem to be mentally sharper than recent memory records. Whether it is the NADH kicking in or getting over the Lyme bout, I cannot say. It could be both for all I know. What I do know is that writing and rewriting multiple reviews came easily instead of like pulling teeth, which is the norm for me.

The Black Hole (1979) Review

After Star Wars was a huge success, Disney decided to try to try their hand at a serious science fiction film. The result was a very uneven, but visually impressive movie about explorers finding a derelict spaceship near a black hole. Filled with robots, lasers, and an underlying mystery, it was not a great success. But for those of us who saw it in the theater it was a memorable experience and I have a fondness for this very flawed film.  Come, enter The Black Hole with me…

UPDATED & REVISED July 2012: In memory of Ernest Borgnine

The movie has an overture that plays before it starts, which was a relic of a bygone era even in 1979. John Barry’s brilliant soundtrack is introduced here and can be argued to be the best thing about the entire film. It is grand, dark, and mysterious with stately marches mixing with somber swirling statements. An interesting statement of tone, it sets the mood in a very un-Disney way. This was an announcement that the studio would be branching out from their standard family fare.

Fractale Episode 1: Encounter

An ambitious anime aimed at an older and worldwide audience hints at its many layers in a very Studio Ghibli like first episode.  A remarkable amount of story is presented and set up, but just how much can only be fully appreciated after having watched the entire series.  What appears to be an innocent and light hearted series, Fractale is a much more complicated and multilayered journey into darkness. July 2012 – The Fractale: Reiterated project begins with here with new HD screen captures and revisions.

Having younger friends much into anime and being a Studio Ghibli fan myself, I decided to check out what the state of Japanese cartoons is these days.  I can’t say I’m impressed since most of what I found was childish, sleazy, mindless, or a combination of all three.  But I did unearth a few gems and this recently completed but commercially unsuccessful series is a crown jewel.  It reached for the stars and fell just short, all the while criticizing its own main audience, otaku’s (obsessive anime/manga fans) --  which was ratings and sales suicide. That alone would have made it interesting to me, but the complexity  and depth of emotion contained within Fractale’s storyline pulled me completely in.

Fractale is a science fiction story set on an unnamed island that appears to be Ireland roughly around the 32nd Century. Society is peaceful and people rarely directly interact with each other since they all have cybernetic terminals that links them through the Fractale system, that era’s version of the Internet. Holographic doppels (doppelgangers) that are the equivalent of current day avatars are the way people socialize, get around, and do everything without having to do anything.