Summer dial-up hell

Well, I've moved back home for the summer which means no more broadband for me until fall. And you all know what that means?! More than likely this is the last thing you'll hear from me until August or September! Seriously though, I'll try to keep this updated periodically but don't hold your breath.

So far this summer, I've been to ACEN and back, but other than that I'm signed up for second session summer classes to start June 18, so I'm making the most of my time off. I've had a little experience now with my friend's new computer running Windows Vista. I must say, Vista is more usable than I expected, but sucks way to much resources for me to consider it a viable upgrade and that's assuming that my hardware would even support it (which I doubt). No, it looks like I'll be sticking with Linux/XP until Microsoft gets their heads out of their asses or until they drop support for XP altogether and I switch to using Linux full time (Which I consider to be the more likely scenario). Ah well, enough of my ranting. Until next time...

Got some down time...

Since I have a little down time, I decided to update this with what's been going on with me.
First off, I've been trying to come up with suggestions to make at this coming Sunday's IU Anime Club planning meeting. We'll be planning for summer and fall semesters at the same time to let the people who won't be here over summer have a say in what we will be starting with next fall. I've come up with a few, such as Kamichu, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Kanon, and Beck.
One of my friends got word not too long ago that he'll be going to Japan as part of the JET program. Congratulations, Matt! Since he'll be gone for a while and is also graduating at the end of the semester, he sold off a bunch of his anime paraphernalia at anime club last weekend. Here's my portion of his stuff. ^_^

Here we have a rather large (31"x43") Last Exile wall scroll.


And here is a 1/7th scale figure of Tokiha Mai from Mai-Hime made by Kotobukiya. I can't believe he hadn't even opened it!

Matt also gave me his old computer. He recently got a brand new laptop to take to Japan with him and since his old was wasn't working anymore (I think due to a bad power supply) he decided to give it to me. I have ordered a replacement PSU and hopefully can get it up and running soon. I plan to make it a dedicated Linux box partly because I want to and partly due to its age. It's an old PIII machine, with 512MB of RAM (not bad for the time) and a 20GB hard drive! There's no space for a second hard drive in the case, so I'll probably end up bumping that up eventually, but right now I just want to get it working. I haven't decided which distro to load on it yet, but right now I'm thinking either a Gentoo or Debian based one. I might opt for Debian-based since I'm familiar with Ubuntu, or might try Gentoo-based just as something to play with. I need something fairly stable right out of the box, though, since it probably won't be spending much time online.

On the linux front, I've been spending most of my time in Kubuntu recently. The few times I've had to boot into XP have been almost infuriatingly slow. I have never wanted to beat my head against my keyboard when using XP, until I began using linux. I never saw XP as being very slow, but apparently I didn't know what I was missing!

On a non-computer related note, preparations for ACEN 2k7 are under way. I got some fabric at JoAnn's only to have them charge me 3 times for one transaction. So i spent about three days getting that straightened out. -_-;; Anyway, according to the ACEN forums they are going to be mailing out the badges for the con in the next few days, a new service for this con that I think I'm really going to like. No more waiting the pre-reg line for me!

Well, have to get back to work on things here, so until next time.

EXTERMINATE!

Just a quick note about this page I found. This should please the Dalek fans in the audience. Will blog more later. And be sure to check out my new anime blog. I put up a review of the first episode of Hidamari Sketch. Will hopefully get to reviewing Manabi Straight sometime this week before Spring Break.

Weather and more space

Great weather here in the midwest today, isn't it? Currently here in Bloomington we are experiencing a mix of rain and freezing rain. We're just at the freezing point, so the weather can't really decide what to do. It's supposed to get down to 17°F over night, so things should be interesting in the morning. Conditions currently have the rain on the trees freezing as can be seen in these pictures taken from my dorm room window.

In other news, my roommate who moved out over Christmas break but decided to leave a lot of his stuff behind in a big pile on the floor, finally came back for it last Sunday night. This was only after I had my RA get in touch with him and tell him if the stuff wasn't out of here by this last Sunday it was going to be thrown away. So anyway he came and got it, so yesterday I set about rearranging the furniture in the room to make it more comfortable for only one person.

Here is a view from my door. My old arrangement had my computer desk rotated 90° toward the door with desk with the printer on it facing it and my bed on top of both of them. I had to use a ladder to get to my bed!

Here's my bed (now thankfully on the floor). This used to be my roommate's half of the room.

And here's my door. Notice all of the extra junk. Next to the door is my roommate's desk and against the wall is his disassembled bed. In the corner, you can even see the ladder that I was talking about earlier.

I'm still working on getting my stuff spread out into more convenient places. My fridge and my coats have migrated into my roommate's closet along with the vacuum cleaner, but here's still a lot of places to put things that are still vacant. I'll be working on filling as many of them as I can, so my room doesn't look so crowded. Until next time.

New Linux; New Eye Candy (Suck on that Vista)

As you can tell from my header, I'm not the biggest fan of Vista. I've been experimenting off and on with Linux for almost a year now, and I must say, I'm hooked. I started off with Mandriva 2006, then upgraded to 2007. Finally, about a week ago, I decided to try something new. I'd heard about Ubuntu, about how user-friendly it is, and about how easy it is to use. Well, because of Mandriva I was addicted to KDE, so I decided to try Kubuntu (the KDE version of Ubuntu). At first, I was a little bit put off. They dumbed down the interface drastically, so much in fact, that there was no longer a root(administrator) user. This disturbed me somewhat, but I discovered that this could be turned back on, so on we go. Next, I got my video drivers working, proprietary at first, but then I switched back to open-source because of something I'll get to in a minute. Then, I got my mouse working. It worked fine, except for the forward and back browser buttons, but I got that up and going. I still don't have side-scrolling, which I miss, but I may fool with that later.

Finally, I discovered Beryl. Quite possibly one of the most stunning bits of eye candy I had ever seen. And it has blown anything I had seen about Vista's new UI right out of the water. Beryl is a desktop manager that is capable of stunning 3-D environments and special effects. I'll just let the pictures do the talking.







I rest my case.

Sure didn't last

Almost a week since my last post, so my streak didn't last. But, a little bit of interest has happened this last week. First of all, over the weekend my brother and I finally got the engine pulled out of his car that I was talking about last time. Only took us about ten minutes to pull the damn thing once we got everything unhooked, disconnected, and otherwise unbolted.

Next, one of my friends loaned me his old laptop to reinstall Windows XP on it. Turns out he didn't have the right install disc, so I convinced him to let me install Linux on it. So today after class, that's just what I did. I got Mandriva 2007 running on it with very few problems (fewer than when I installed it on my desktop). It was missing a few dependencies when I first booted it up, but is working fairly well and right now I'm updating and recompiling MPlayer on it after adding a few more options in the way of rpm's for particular audio and video formats. The thing is very fast now. It's only a Compaq with 1.8GHz Intel Celeron with 192MB of RAM after the onboard graphics take their share. With XP on it before, it was slowed to barely a crawl, but now it's like a new machine.

Finally, for the past few weeks I've had a Physics lab from 5:45-7:40pm on Thursdays. This has interfered with me getting together with my friends for what we like to call IU Genshiken. (And if you know what Genshiken is, that gives you some idea of what we do.) Basically, we sit around and talk, watch anime and listen to music. Well, today in Physics lecture I was made aware that a new lab section was being opened for 1:25-3:20pm on Thursdays! I'm free early on Thursdays anyway, so I decided to let them switch my lab period to the earlier one. So now I can head to Dan's at a regular time again!

Also, I've got a Calculus test on Thursday and a Physics test on Friday this week, so I don't know for sure if I'll be able to write again this week, but if not, I'll try to catch everyone again next week. :crosses fingers: See ya.

Currently listening to: "Lonely Fighter" by ORANGE RANGE

Wow, 2 posts in 2 days? Can he keep this up?

Probably not, but enjoy it while it lasts. Anyway, onto the pictures I didn't get to last night.

First up is one of my Christmas presents from this year. An Acme Klein Bottle!

Yes I know I'm a geek, but I just love this thing. It's a bottle with no inside. Oh, sure it'll contain things. They just won't be inside it. Trace the lines and you'll see what I mean.

Next up in my random smattering of pictures: I spent some time last Saturday helping my brother prep his car (a 1991 Nissan 240SX, btw) for an engine swap. Here's the engine in the car.



And here's the one that's going to go in it. (After it's put back together of course.)


Finally, here's a shot of my two anime figures. They are currently perched on a shelf just above my monitor on my desk. For those who don't know, the girl standing is Tsukamoto Tenma from School Rumble and the girl sitting is Hazuki from Tsukuyomi ~Moon Phase~ (notice the neko mimi). Tenma was purchased back in May of last year at the last Anime Central Convention in Chicago and Hazuki is a recent addition from my first time attending Sugoicon in Cincinnati with a group of friends. (And yes, that is a Naruto headband behind them.)


Currently I'm waiting for Acen to get their online pre-registration system online, so I can register for this year. It's acen's 10th anniversary, so they are promising big things for this year. Along with a special 10th anniversary badge, and the option to have your badge mailed to you! (No more standing in that huge registration line!)

Well, that's all for now.

Currently listening to R.E.M. - Rockville (I've been on a classic rock kick lately.)

Getting back on track. And some anime reviews.

Well, long to see. I haven't put anything here in a long time, so I decided to update what's going on with me. Yes, I know, boring stuff first, but maybe after this I'll put up some pictures from my new digital camera. You like pretty pictures, right? Anyway, I didn't do so hot in chemistry, so I am having to retake a couple of classes. One I'm retaking this semester and the other I'll retake over the summer. LOL at me going for a BS in chemistry. I think last semester I had too tight a schedule, so this time I'm only taking 3 classes. Now granted, those classes are Calculus 3, Physics 2, and Organic Chemistry 2, so they aren't the easiest classes, but I at least have time to study now, unlike last semester.

As for anime, I've got a few series I've got my eye on, though most are carry over from last semester.
The ones I'm downloading currently are Death Note, Bartender, ARIA: The Natural, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Pumpkin Scissors, Kanon, and Bleach (finally fillers are over!). The only show I've managed to stay current with is Kanon so I guess that shows my alliances lie with the cute and the Uguuu~ ^_^. I'm almost caught up with Higurashi as well, but a new episode came out today that I haven't found time to watch yet.

Some thoughts on shows I've finished recently: (Shuffle!, Mushishi, and NHK ni Youkoso!)

Shuffle was very good for a harem, ecchi romance series and even has some good plot and shows some balls by having the main character NOT end up with who everyone thinks he will! Also, the whole style of the show changes dramatically later on and it becomes very dark and serious to counter-act the gratuitous panty-shots and obligatory trips to the beach that come standard with all ecchi romance series. I found it quite enjoyable.

Mushishi was simply amazing from one end to the other. The show starts out with a man named Ginko who travels the country dealing with Mushi which are mystical creatures composed of almost pure life force. These creature usually live in harmony with nature, including humans, but sometimes the Mushi will over step their bounds and directly interfere with human villages and that's when Ginko and other Mushishi like him step in to try and restore the balance. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. The show does not put humanity on any sort of pedestal and humans are sometimes just as guilty of overstepping their bounds as the Mushi. No real plot is ever developed and none is honestly needed. The rich beauty of the world of Mushi and Mushishi that was created is reason enough to watch. Mushishi ends as it began: soothing but filled with incredible imagery of nature and the fanciful Mushi and animals that inhabit it. This series has earned a place as one of my all time favorite anime and I highly recommend giving it a chance.

Finally, a show I've never even talked about here: NHK ni Youkoso! (Welcome to the NHK)
NHK is a show about a young man living in an apartment alone. He stopped going to college quite some time ago and now only goes outside at night to shop at the neighborhood convenience store. Then, one day he meets a young girl, and his life begins to change. This girl discovers that he is a hikikomori (hermit) and concocts a plan to rid him of his isolation. In his attempts to prove to her that he is not a hikikomori, he discovers that his next door neighbor is actually an old friend from highschool and a hopeless otaku to boot! They come up with the idea to create the world's greatest hentai game and he uses it as an excuse that he isn't in fact a hikikomori, but this is not enough to dissuade the young girl, and she finally forces him to agree to meet her every night in a nearby park to hold classes to teach him how to be a functional member of society again. Over time, the two come to have feelings for each other and the truth about why the girl chose him for her "Project" comes to light, as well as some dark secrets she had been hiding. Not to give anything away, I'll stop here, but this show features probably the most dysfunctional relationships possible. Overall, a really good show. As for the title, NHK is a conspiracy dreamed up by one of the characters and stands for "Nihon Hikikomori Kyoukai" (roughly "Japan Hermit Society") whose purpose is to make millions of people in Japan into hikikomori by showing attractive anime and otherwise inhibiting free will. This is not to be confused with real NHK, "Nihon Housou Kyoukai" or the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

Well, that ran on a little longer than I expected. So just one picture tonight. Hey, be glad you're getting anything at all. ;)


I went home last weekend, and on Sunday I woke up to a fresh layer of snow outside as well as this. It's our apple tree outside my bedroom window, and every little lump in that tree is actually a cardinal! I don't think I've ever seen so many of those birds in one place before. We do see them regularly, but usually just one, two at a time if you're lucky. This tree had probably a dozen in it at one time!

Well, that's it for now. I'll try to keep this up, but no guarantees, ya know. Until next time.

Transition period

Woot for no posts in almost 4 months. And even longer than that since they were worthwhile reads. Hopefully I can do something about that this semester. And I got my own digital camera now, so maybe I can include some pictures of my dull and dreary school life. Look forward to it.