A Pretty Rainbow

I took some photos of a rainbow outside my condo - enjoy.









Theoretically clicking the pictures should bring up a larger version that I uploaded to dropbox - let me know if you have any issues with that.

Photos at Epic

I have a new camera, and I enjoy taking photos. I wasn't really sure where I should put the photos so I decided upon uploading them to a blog (not all, but to share the nicer photos). Feel free to use these in whatever, and enjoy. This first set is from Epic (the first two pictures are from my whiteboard). Tell me if you want the original full-size copy of any of these images, and I would be glad to oblige.

Anime Spring 2012 Reviews

Sankarea
Good presentation, but I have one complaint. The first half was excellent, but then there were a few too many episodes giving various characters backstories. That isn't wrong, but it felt like a bit too much backstory for me. Still, the presentation was very well done which mostly made up for the turn to backstories to delay main plot. Oh, and as for the plot, it's a zombie romance.

Zetman
Shounen. It felt way too rushed. The action scenes weren't bad, but the speed of the anime took away from it. There were times when I had no idea how the timeline was supposed to go, and that sort of ruined it. This might have worked well as a two or even four season anime, but in thirteen episodes it just doesn't work well.

Medaka Box
I found it very enjoyable. Main character is pretty much perfect, and a bit of a superhuman. It's simple entertainment, but I enjoy watching her do crazy things like run up a multiple story building and kick a metal baseball bat into shards. I look forward to the next season, but I may even pick up the manga if my patience gives out. Once again though, it isn't exactly an intellectual anime, it's just simple entertainment.

Accel World (first half)
First thing to note - it has one song that I really enjoy. The plot is ok at first, though it does have some points that are scientifically so wrong. Then there are parts that the show says are so statistically rare that I feel like it cheapens it a bit. It's an action anime, and it has a unique premise which gives it some points, but it's far from perfect. If you want shounen, it's fine, but if you want to think, just move on.

AKB0048 (first half)
Idol anime, in the far future, with mechas, space, and anti-entertainment troops. It's actually quite good. Reminds me a bit of Idolm@ster, in a good way. So far, I would certainly recommend it.

Jormungand
Guns, violence, and... actually that's about it. It's not bad, if you don't want to think too hard. They shoot people. I personally think they made some wrong choices with the music at times (OP is auto-tuned out of this world), but other than that, it was enjoyable. I legitimately wanted more when it ended - I guess the ending did seem a bit abrupt, so there could be more (too lazy to research it).

Tsuritama
A fishing anime. It has some unique antics, and it was fairly enjoyable. The plot was interesting enough to keep me watching. You aren't going to miss out on too much if you skip this, but there is a decent chance that you will enjoy it if you try it out.

Upotte!!
Girls, guns, fanservice. That's pretty much what it is - with an emphasis on the last one.

Lupin the Third - Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna
- I'm a bit behind, I'll fill this in when I finish it, but it's good so far.

Hyouka
- I'm a bit behind, I'll fill this in when I finish it, but it's good so far.

Shining Hearts - Shiawase no Pan
Dropped - it wasn't bad, but there wasn't enough content to keep me entertained for a whole season. There seemed like there was a bit of plot, but it was taking too long to get there.


Continuing Series:


Fairy Tail
This latest season is about the same as the standard formula, so it doesn't stand out too much so far. I think the other-world arc was my favorite so far.

Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? of the Dead
Humorous, but I feel like the first season was a bit better.

Naruto
Hey, non-filler again. Beginning a war. Not bad, but not amazing yet either.

Phi Brain
Second season seems to be following the same general formula as the first one while still keeping it fresh enough. If you liked the first season, you should enjoy this one as well.

Mushishi

This is a classic. A must see for many people, though not all. I highly recommend it. Now, before I go further, I will have to talk about the downsides to this anime. It is a bit slow, too slow for some people (a certain person who likes to watch stuff at 2x or 3x speed comes to mind), but if you have some patience, this will not be a problem. This anime doesn't have mechas, light-speed fight scenes, fanservice, or any of the other mindless entertainment many anime comprise only of (not insulting this kind of entertainment, I'm just saying Mushishi is different). So, what is Mushishi?

Mushishi is about Ginko, a mushishi, who deal with paranormal creatures. Honestly, that's about it, but this anime is less about plot, and more about feel. The whole presentation is a collection of short stories - one per episode. It gives a peaceful yet fulfilling feel to the viewer. One can get engrossed in the environment and simply enjoy it for what it is. If you haven't seen it yet, you should watch at least the first episode and determine if it is right for you.

Formatting

Anyone else have trouble formatting posts in blogger? To me it seems like my last post had a lot of inconsistencies in size, even if it looked fine in the editor.

Spring 2012 Anime First Impressions

Note that all of these are based only on the first one or two episode of the series.

Sankarea - Presentation is quite good. Not quite sure where the plot is going, possibly a romance between a guy and a zombie girl. It will be another episode or so before I really know what's going on.


Zetman - Decent action (a bit violent for some people's tastes). Plot seems like it isn't going to be very good. A bit confusing.


Medaka Box - Very good. Not exactly sure who I would recommend this for, but I can safely say I enjoy it so far. It's about a student council president who is pretty much perfect.


Accel World - I love the music. Has some interesting concepts, though turns out to be shounen.


Acchi Kocchi - Standard moe kind of comedy. Not very interested in this. [Dropped]


Lupin the Third - Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna - So far it's entertaining. Will wait for another episode to fully pass judgement on. (warning, a bit is NSFW)


Tasogare Otome x Amnesia - Has an odd plot, but how good it is very much depends on where the plot actually goes.


Jormungand - Gun action, kind of violent, I enjoy it. If you enjoyed black lagoon, I think you might like this.


Tsuritama - An anime about fishing and... maybe saving the world? So far I find it isn't that impressive, but it might get better.


Hyouka - Seems to be a mystery anime which is down to earth. It has potential, but I can't say for sure or not how good it is until further in the season.


Upotte!! - Cute girls doing cute things, but with a twist. Girls are actually guns... Like, they are guns, just just carrying guns (though they do that too). If you are interested in guns, you might like this.


Shining Hearts - Shiawase no Pan - Feels like an RPG like world, but with almost nothing happening so far. Main character bakes bread. That's... it.

More Quick Anime Reviews

Time for some quick reviews of anime from last season. I'm too lazy to find pictures now, so just look them up at images.google.com if you're interested.

Ano Natsu de Matteru - Pretty good romance with an alien, but there are a few plot points that are a bit... odd.

High School DxD - For the genre, sort of ecchi action, it's one of the best. So its up to you whether or not you think you would like the genre.

Another - Horror anime. Plot is ok. If you like horror anime, it's worth watching, mostly since there isn't too much in this genre already.

Nisemonogatari - Only watch if you've seen Bakemonogatari. It's similar, but with more fanservice. Iff you liked Bakemonogatari, you will probably like this.

Black Rock Shooter - I enjoyed it, though it was confusing. I think that maybe the OVA made a bit more sense, which is really saying something.

Guilty Crown - This has a lot of cliches. It's so over the top with action and... something. It's somewhat akin to Code Geass. It's worth checking out to see if you like it or not.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear - Plot... not that great. Parts of it were good, but it got less interesting as it approached the end. Basically, it started to get old before it was finished, which isn't very good for a 13 episode series.

Note that these are only the series that I finished from Winter 2011. Here are the ones I didn't finish:
Kill Me Baby - comedy, ok, but not that great. Might eventually finish it.
Inu X Boku Secret Service - romance, once again mediocre. May or may not finish it.
Mouretsu Pirates - the premise is good - space pirates, but the implementation was... so boring, and slow. Almost nothing happened for the first 5 episodes. Don't watch this unless you've already seen everything else.
Rinne no Lagrange - Mecha anime. Characters are ok, though sometimes annoying. Wasn't horrible, but it didn't really have enough to it.

Nintendo's E3 conference

Nintendo started with an orchestra going through tons of Zelda music. Quite a good beginning.

They announced some pretty good free stuff: 4 swords for the DSi, Excite Bike for the 3DS, and Pokedex (not exactly sure what it is) for the 3DS.

We got a quick look at a good amount of 3DS games, including a Mario game, Mario Kart, Luigi's Mansion 2, and Starfox, among others.  The best part, during the Starfox clip, "Do a barrel roll" was played.  My interest in the 3DS has recently very much increased.  Also, Cave Story 3D looks awesome. I hope it's more than just the same game with a graphical upgrade, and if it is, then I certainly want it.

Finally, Nintendo unveiled their new controller/console, the Wii U.  Yes, Wii U as in the sound a police car makes, or in horribly confusing sentences like: "Would you like to see my Mii on your Wii U?" (I'd recommend saying that out loud).  The reason why I wrote "controller/console" is because it was referred as both during the conference (mostly controller by Nintendo, though once Miyamoto said console, and console by other developers).

So, what is the Wii U?  It's basically another controller, with a screen in it.  It looks sort of like the Gamecube or Sega Dreamcast mods that put the entire system in a controller.  It has 2 joysticks, various buttons, a gyroscope sensor, and the screen is a touch screen.  It connects to the console, and they plan on having various types of games that you play on the tv and with the controller: it was shown that you could play on the tv, and then switch to the screen in the controller.  Also, it will allow for some multiplayer "asymmetrical gameplay."  Also, a new Super Smash Brothers game has been confirmed for the 3DS and the Wii U.

Basically, the Wii U seems a little gimmicky right now, but it has potential.  This is sort of how I felt about the 3DS last year, and I'm now wanting it a bit more, so it could work out.  Overall, Nintendo has a pretty good E3, especially if the Wii U turns out good.


Edit: I think the Wii U also comes with a new console, but it wasn't very clear during the conference, so I made my description somewhat ambiguous by saying 'console' and 'tv' instead of naming anything specific.

Portal 2 Levels

So, I've been making some Portal 2 levels - specifically 2 levels so far... one of which has both a coop and single player version.  They aren't very polished, and could use some tweaking of the textures, but I like them, and so far they have had good feedback (not sure how much of it was just being polite though).

So, reader(s) that have Portal 2, send me a message to test my levels if you haven't already, and if you have interest.

Also, for personal reference, the level files go into the folder:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\portal2\maps
or C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\portal2\maps for 32 bit systems.


Also, to anyone else with interest in making levels, I'd be glad to help with the very small amount of knowledge that I have gained in the subject.

Hacker Typer

As many of you have seen by now, this is hilarious and awesome: http://hackertyper.net/
I've been working on an AutoHotKey version of it so that it could work in any program (on windows).
I'm basically done, but it unfortunately does not have the ability to hit backspace, so some programs which auto-indent won't quite work with it.  Other than that, it's incredibly fun.
This was designed specifically for my computer and it would require some tweaking to work on other machines, but if you're interested feel free to take a look at it: HackerType.ahk

A freaky dream

So, I took a nap in csug lounge.  I had a dream while I was sleeping.  I dreamed about taking a nap in csug lounge.

In the dream, I was in the exact same place, though I was lying in a different position (on my back instead of curled up in a ball).  Anyways, in the dream there were people in the room - around 4 or 5 of them.  I was listening in on the conversations they were having, as in the dream I wasn't completely asleep - more like dozing off.  Then I realized my watch alarm was going to go off soon, and I didn't really want to bother everyone there, but I was too tired to really do anything about it, so I just let it go off.  Then the alarm went off and I opened my eyes, and no one was there.

As I awoke into reality, because of the similarity to the dream and reality, it didn't feel like waking up, it felt as if everyone just disappeared and nothing else changed, since in real life the room was empty.  It was freaky, and kind of cool.  At the very least, it was an interesting and entertaining experience.

Minecraft Captain Falcon is Almost Done

I will be finishing it either tonight or tomorrow night (probably tonight).  Come watch the completion of an epic creation.  I plan on eventually stitching together multiple screenshots to get a picture of the whole thing.

A Story of Me Being Tired

So, I had an interview day today.  The company, being a part of the world not located solely on the internet, starts the day early - specifically 8:00 am.  I was kind of tired, as you might suspect.

So, at the beginning of the day, before any of the interview stuff, I was walking down a hallway.  At the end of the hallway, I noticed there were some umbrellas on the ceiling - I saw like 5 of them of 2 different sizes.  The umbrella is the logo of the company, so it's no surprise there.  I made note of it, seeing those umbrellas.

Later in the day, so I was more awake by then, I walked through the same hallway again, this time going the other way.  I looked at the ceiling, and there I noticed it.  The whole entire ceiling had the umbrellas - hundreds of them.  I was so tired that I only noticed about 5 out of hundreds of umbrellas.  Being tired does weird things to people.

Downloading

I'll try to post to this blog a tad more frequently, if possible.
This happens to me too much:
I'm on my laptop, searching for something, and I think it would be a good idea to download it, having never thought of it before.  Then I check the search results only to find that I'm the one uploading it.
One of the pitfalls of having over 3 TB of space.

While Awake

After finishing a day's work, this starts to happen (exceptions are friday and saturday).

if (time > midnight)
    while(awake)
    {
        tiredness++;
        if (tiredness > 100)
        {
            awake = false;
            sleep(); // will eventually reset tiredness and thinking skills
            return;
        }
        if (tiredness > 50)
            thinking_skills--;
    }

Something like that.  The problem is, I'm tired, so my thinking skills are steadily decreasing at the point of writing this.  So I can't be sure if what I'm saying is sensible.  Oh, and cats are cute.

Tired, too many characters for twitter

Sometimes when I'm quite tired, like now, I feel like posting something to somewhere.  This is that something in this case.  My tired self is sometimes nonsensical, but this hopefully will make some sense.
When you're doing work and getting tired while doing it, if you get to the state that you begin to forget what the question is while you're reading it, and you start to make up parts of it, that's when you know you're quite tired.  This happened to me recently.  The worst part is, I think it was more accurate than what I thought my more awake self thought the problem was.  If that didn't make any sense, please disregard it.

AutoHotKey and Synergy can act strangely together

So, I have my desktop and laptop connected with Synergy, with my desktop as the server.

If you don't know what synergy is, and you have multiple computers, visit http://synergy-foss.org/.  Synergy is basically a way to move 1 mouse and keyboard onto other computers connected through a network.  Very handy tool.
On my desktop, I have it set so that when I press the Scroll Lock key, it plays my music folder, since I never use that key otherwise.
When I press scroll lock while the mouse is on the other screen, music starts playing, which is fine.  The problem, is that the mouse gets stuck on the other screen - it gets walled it on my laptop.  It is easily fixable by stopping Synergy, but other than that, it seems impossible.  It is a very unique situation, of having the mouse unable to access the computer it's connected to.  It's not a major problem, but I found it to be a humorous glitch worth sharing.

Lightning reviews

A new season of anime is starting. Based only on the first episodes (or maybe also the second for one or two), here are some quick reviews for if you feel like you need to pick up a new anime. This list is in no particular order.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

The fights are pretty good, with crazy weird animation (which a certain fansub group compared to the SZS opening). The non-fight portions... are a bit lacking.

Yumekui Merry

Intriguing plot. So far worth watching, just for that. Dream entities trying to take over people and get into reality.

Gosick

Could be good, first episode seemed a bit lacking, but it has potential. Will probably be some sort of mystery anime.

Rio - Rainbow Gate

Everything is wrong with this anime. It uses games of chance as battles, which is stupid. It has some fanservice, but that's about it. Could be worth watching just for the moments that are so stupid that they are somewhat humorous.

Beelzebub

A delinquent finds a baby and has to take care of it. The baby also happens to have demon powers. Could be good, but too much of the baby is seen. I guess maybe nsfw.

Kore wa Zombie desu ka

First, this is not a zombie anime, which is surprising. It's sort of a comedy, but I don't know what direction it's headed in.

Level E

Alien anime. Nothing too spectacular, and nothing too horrible.  A decent anime.

Dragon Crisis!

Probably will end up being some sort of romance comedy, but so far it's actually pretty good.

Kimi ni Todoke Season 2

First episode is basically a recap from another perspective, but after that, the second season should be as promising as the first.

Fractal

Feels a little like a Miyazaki film. It has a general good feeling to it, and so far I like it. Oh, and the intro animation is awesome to watch.

Wandering Son

Why does something with this peaceful beautiful art style have a plot like this? It's about a boy in middle school who cross dresses. Also, the first episode was very confusing keeping track of who was who.

Dropped.  Watched 1 episode.

Cardfight!! Vanguard
This doesn't deserve a picture. I dropped this after about 5 seconds of looking through it and basically seeing a yu-gi-oh anime.

Gun X Sword partial review

I'm not sure if the title is Gun X Sword, or just Gun Sword, but in either case, this is a somewhat unknown excellent anime.  This is a 'partial review' because I have only seen the first half of the series.

It starts out somewhat formulaic.  Powerful guy, obscure past, he saves defenseless girl, she follows him.  Oh, and he has a mecha which falls from the sky when he calls it.
What really stands out about this series is the humor.  It's somewhat satirical, and somewhat situational.  It is not the standard extremely shallow humor found in so much of today's anime.  Still, this is not strictly a comedy anime like Azumanga Daioh.  It's more of a good mix of action and comedy.
The fights are good, but the main genius is in the situations.  There are subtle moments of situations that are just a little odd, and others that are less subtle:
"Mustache Soldiers, Go!"
Yes, they were really mustache soldiers.  That episode in and of itself makes this anime worth watching.
One caveat though, some of the episodes are slower than others.  While watching it, you might get a little bogged down in the middle due to a few episodes just being slower than others without much happening.
Oh, and on a random note, I feel like the intro is 2 songs patched together, but it still somehow works.

26 episodes long.  If you want to see an anime that has mechas, and everything from mustache soldiers to fake paradises, look no further than Gun Sword.

Fate Stay Night

Feels older than it is (maybe low budget), but still excellent.

Good setting.  7 teams of 2 that have to fight.  It's simple, and it works well.
Great characters.  Saber (character in picture) is done perfectly with both attitude and story.  The main character's power seems a bit odd, ranging from really weak at the beginning to seemingly godlike at times.  His power is a bit ambiguous, but if you don't question it, it will be enjoyable.
The action and animation is decent, though sometimes feels a bit simple.  It's not worth watching solely for the fights, but they are entertaining.
The music is good, though not overly noticeable.
One of my favorite aspects of Fate Stay Night is the romance.  It feels good.  It's not tacked on, and it doesn't take up all of the focus: the romance fits perfectly with the rest of the plot and action without usurping the plot, and that aspect strikes me as very appealing.

This isn't a world shattering anime like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, but it is worth seeing.  It's worth putting on your to-watch list, but not necessarily at the very top.