Smooth and Flat

Now look at them yo-yos, that’s the way you do it -
You play the guitar on the MTV.
That ain’t workin’, that’s the way you do it -
Money for nothin’ and chicks for free.
Now that ain’t workin’, that’s the way you do it.
Lemme tell ya – them guys ain’t dumb,
Maybe get a blister on your little finger?
Maybe get a blister on your thumb?

Seems like I have successfully moved this site to the server; and I’m not using Apache this time – the site runs on nginx using fastcgi-to-PHP interface.

Catching up on various anime series. Notable examples are Tayutama -kiss on my deity-, Pandora Hearts, and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. There’s also Chrome-Shelled Regios.

As I have probably mentioned, I’ve never watched the original Fullmetal Alchemist series past episode 4 or 5, maybe 10 but not more – I got kind of bored with the slow pace of the series, and the lack of action. Basically, last episode I remember from the first version of the TV adaptation is the one where that guy (I’ve forgot his name yet again) uses his pet dog and his own daughter to transmute a chimera. I’m at episode 11 of the Brotherhood series, and so far there only were two filler episodes (or so); mostly it’s a really dynamic show – and I’d even put it on the “best of the season” list. So far it seems like they’re doing a fast forward of the events to get to the ‘main’ part – but even so it’s nicely done. However Roy Mustang still looks like he was born on a planet with extra high gravity.

Tayutama is still the same stereotypical, low-budget, and obvious-outcome type of a show; as expected from a series based on an eroge. However, I’m still watching it (and still mostly for Ameri and Nue; I sort of don’t like Mashiro and Yumina).

Last episodes of Pandora Hearts introduce a new character – a really cute girl called Echo (one of the manga volumes’ cover features Alice and Echo together in gothic lolita outfits and the art is pretty much damn awesome – however they look kind of alike).

Regios is quickly approaching the grand finale; the meaning of those weird scenes in the middle of the episodes is finally uncovered in the last three (or so) episodes. Nina still makes everyone worry, and Felli is being cute as always.

In other news: I don’t understand humans. Their behaviour is a complete mystery to me. And every step I take in the department of relations with them leads to a total clusterfuck (even though I just wanted to be friends with someone, some other person told me – with quite some pressure, too – that I’d better not talk much to that friend-to-be).

P.S. I need a new job. The current one is totally draining me out.

As stated in my earlier post, I’ve been quite busy at work during the last two months – and that calamity isn’t over yet as I’ve got at least one more 60 hours week (the worst thing about it is the schedule, where I basically have one 12 hour and two 24 hours breaks between 12-hour shifts). So I’m not really in a creative mood.

However.

I managed to catch up with Basquash!, the series featuring a brilliant and original idea of making an anime about basketball… played using giant robots. While it sounds stupid, it’s less dumb than it looks – but it was kind of hard to fight my way through the first three or four episodes which feature excessive fanservice.

The amount of fanservice drasically lowers in the following episodes, focusing more on Basquash’s highlight: street basketball. While I doubt that the idea of making robots wear running shoes would actually work, it’s overall cool. Especially when in the last two or three episodes Eclipse – the trio that sings the opening theme, nO limiT – enters the storyline with this dazzling debut of Rouge.

So far, my favourite characters are Flora/Alan (reverse trap; hey Haruka, question: if you really talk with feet, why didn’t you realise that Alan is girl yet?), Rouge, and Iceman (“Destroy! Destroy!! Destroy!!“).

Also in today’s Bunbunmaru issue:

I’ve managed to scrap up some parts for the server – since it needs an upgrade. Almost everything will be replaced, though, and one of the nicest parts about it is that I’ll use Intel PRO/1000 integrated NIC instead of this slightly laggy nForce4′s builtin one.

Currently, the server is an Athlon64-3200+ on a Gigabyte GA-K8N-SLi board – with a total of 5 hard disk drives (40GB system, and an assorted set of 200, 250, 320 and 500GB drives for data storage).

My plans are to use a Core2 Duo processor (probably the 3.0GHz one) on a Gigabyte Q35-based board, with 6 Serial ATA ports (instead of K8N-SLi’s four); and the drives will be replaced with the following structure: two 500GB drives in a GEOM_MIRROR array – hosting the system and the database files, along with static content and such stiff; two more 500GB drives in a raidz pool; and probably one 750GB drive for media files. The sixth port will probably be occupied by another 500GB drive, maybe in a pool – this time a stripe/RAID0 because I don’t need redundancy for the media storage.

The OS will also be changed; 7.2-STABLE used on the current server will be replaced with 8.0-STABLE as a fresh install. Yeah, it’ll take some time to migrate all settings and data, but it will be worth it. The new configuration is being stress-tested by me for the last few days and I’ve yet to see processes stuck in zfs I/O state which seems to be a common problem for 7.2′s ZFS implementation.

And here I mean “promotional videos”.

The new anime series to be aired – supposedly – this Autumn, produced by Aniplex in association with Key/VisualArts and based on Maeda Jun’s original story (see also: AIR, CLANNAD, Little Busters!, etc), has got more videos available on its official site.

So far, I like the character designs, though the story looks a bit cliché. Well, it’s Key/VisualArts, so what else would you expect…

I’m more surprised that they are cooperating with Aniplex this time. There are also rumours that Aniplex will also produce the highly anticipated (by me) Little Busters! TV. It’s yet unknown which company will work on the animation, though; and I really doubt that KyoAni will take a part in this.

I’m finally finishing with Hidamari Sketch and Hidamari Sketch x365; so I’m watching this last episode, 13, of x365 and suddenly.

Episode 6 delivers some quality lulz. Starting from Shuri’s attempt at cooking by sexually harrassing Kanade and ending with this awesome transfer student introduction scene in the end of the episode.

The introduction went like this:

Finally got to watch the last episodes of the show, from 5 to 7. Had no time or was not in the right mood for the last three weeks, so there you are.

The plot thickens; more details get unveiled which leads Oz to a few unpleasant discoveries. Alice is being even cuter, and her fights with Raven are just hilarious. I guess she isn’t a tsundere after all. More like a kuudere, I’d say. Oz is being his usual seemingly carefree yet caring self, and Sharon, together with Break (and Emily), are being cunning and sly, as always.

And… The Will of the Abyss finally shows herself.

It came with the latest Megami issue. A4-sized. Read the rest of this entry »

My laptop went to the service centre last Thursday; it suffered some mild damage due to the lid’s fixture ripping through the case’s plastic. There also were two cracks on the top cover (the one with keyboard in it, not the lid). At first, they told me it might not be covered by the warranty but in the end I get completely free repairs. They will probably replace the DVD recorder, too, as it doesn’t work with CDs at all – it doesn’t even read them. And I’ve got 5 more months of warranty left.

I’m pretty stressed by the fact that the repairs will take at least one week and a half (up to two weeks, actually) because they need to get the new case for my laptop delivered from South Korea.

In other news:

Alice in episode 5 of Pandora Hearts is going tsundere with a charming accent on the dere side. Sometimes she’s just too cute; also, I giggled when Raven called Oz and Alice “kids”. Screenshots, probably, later.

Been to the new Star Trek movie this Sunday with some friends. I should note that I never watched any series or movies related to the Star Trek universe; so I pretty much didn’t expect too much and I got what I expected – a pretty nicely done sci fi action, way better than those new Star Wars episodes. Leonard McCoy was really nicely done, a pity he didn’t get much time. I also liked old Spock (the one from the “original” timespace), and the first captain of USS Enterprise (Christopher Pike was his name, I think). There were silly moments, of course, but not many of them. Conclusion: an overall good and entertaining movie.

And finally,

H*I*N*A Hinagiku! hai! hai!

The ‘filler’ episodes (or, rather, the introduction) have ended, and now we’re finally up to the long awaited challenge. Episode six. Prefectural qualification matches start, and it’s the elimination round for the participating schools. Heaven or hell? Round one.

Participants:

• Toufukuji High School
• Imamiya Girls High School
• Chikumahigashi High School
• Kiyosumi  High School

Kiyosumi High School line-up:

1. Kataoka Yuuki
2. Someya Mako
3. Takei Hisa
4. Haramura Nodoka – vice captain
5. Miyanaga Saki – captain

Let’s rock!

And this episode is yet another example of why I love table games anime series so much – there’s not much action yet the concentration and the overall pressure are completely dominating the viewer. I can’t wait for the next episode, where Nodoka – and, I hope, Saki as well – will act.

The only thing that still annoys me is Nodoka’s watermelons but nothing can be done about that I guess.

Camping is fun.