Intellectually stimulating: Open-Source Convention

(tags programming, conference, presentation, video)

Two people on my blog reading list pointed out the O'Reilly Open Source Convention 2007 free presentation videos. Just go to that page and start click on the videos to be amazed.

John Lam of IronRuby fame pointed out Microsoft Research and Haskell primary architect Simon Peyton-Jones's talk "Transactional Memory for Concurrent Programming". This talk is pretty much about designing programming languages to give you more abstraction with regards to the upcoming multiprocessing push. Haskell already has this idea, but it sounds similar to an Erlang concept.

Also I watched Ben Fry's "The Processing Development Environment" but making programming easier for non-programmers is not one of my primary interests.

I also stayed for a video by the Intel guys explaining their new open-sourced C++ compiler toolkit in "Outfitting for Multi-core Parallelism". I loved how they had a suit guy and jeans guy. James Reinders as the suit guy adjusts his vocabulary to be receptive to the open-source advocates, despite being head of Marketing of Open-Source Products (or is it just an act?).

But I didn't watch all the videos, and I almost missed a great one if it wasn't for Bryan Murdock's linkage to it "Yegge on Branding (Marketing, eww)". Steve Yegge of the Amazon, Emacs, and lately Rails on Javascript fame, gave a open-ended talk called "How to Ignore Marketing and Become Irrelevant in Two Easy Steps"about creating a successful brand. The biggest problem he claims is that the term "open-source" definition is so loose that it is not an effective brand. As a presenter, Yegge makes me motion sick because he moves around a lot, but nevertheless he is very articulate and spontaneously funny.

In making this post watched them all again, thus making me late to go out. I'm going to have to watch the rest of the videos later.

not gonna waste my holiday on gaming, yeah right

(tags game, holiday, Japan, Dual Screen, PSP)

This week is a whole week off holiday from work. I should be out enjoying the sunshine. And I will as soon as am done with this catch-up post.

Last Friday, while out in Nipponbashi, I started off the holiday by buying two new games, Metroid Pinball for the DS and The Warriors (US version) for the PSP. I bought Metroid Pinball on recommendation from somari on the #insertcredit channel. I only had a chance to open it but it reminds me of Super Mario Ball. You can infinitely nudge the table using the touch panel, but unfortunately the natural grip position with thumbs on the buttons makes this a bad control config. Also it is as frustrating as Super Mario Ball. The visuals are very good. The rumble pak doesn't do anything for me. I've already put it out of my mind, so maybe I won't get back to it.

I am almost done with Doki Doki Majo Shinpan (どきどき魔女神判) for the DS. There's just one more chapter to finish. The in-game clock says 13 hours. I figured out a technique during the fight scene that makes the game totally easy. And shinpan as always is "great".

Sudoku Deluxe for the DS is almost complete. 94.1%. Maybe just another couple of hours, because there are 13 Difficult and 7 Extreme boards left. I am dreading the data input for this game since there about 400 boards and Microsoft Excel doesn't make it easy to input. We'll do some pre-processing or something with Emacs.

Other than that I did try a little of that Dead or Alive Extreme Volleyball for the Xbox 1. Very nice to look at, but its not fun. I suppose I should work on mastery of the volleyball game, but if I'm stuck in front of the "TV" I might as well look at the Internet.

Reconsidered Taiko no Tatsujin DS

(tags game, Dual Screen, rhythm, anime, Xbox 360)

I was anticipating Taiko no Tatsujin DS (太鼓の達人DS タッチでドコドン), but I couldn't find the song list on the official website. (I didn't look hard enough, because it is just 2 clicks from the main page.) In any case, I was only able to check the back of the case when it went on sale. None of the anime songs were familiar so I let it go.

But I read it again at another store, and the words "Go My Way" caught my eye. You know, the IdolM@ster song from the Xbox 360. This is the first home release, according to that handy-dandy music chart. So yeah, this will be a purchase.

Learning about the Core 2 Duo

(tags Windows, hardware, game)

I'm not yet ready to upgrade my computers just yet, but its always good to be knowledgeable. To run Unreal Tournament 3, my current rig Project Sugar just won't cut the mustard, I think. So I did a Wikipedia session on Intel "Core" processors.

It turns out that Core is at least two different things, a "Core Duo" and "Core 2 {Duo/Quad}" etc. "Core" 1 is a 32-bit processor, while "Core 2" is 64-bit. The Duo or Quad refers to the number of multiprocessing cores on the chip, 2 or 4. Also the Core family has good power consumption behavior, something around 60 W idle, 100W load. And it turns out one can use Windows XP 32-bit on a Core 2.

I've settled on the Core 2 family, because I don't intend to buy another computer within 3 years. What I need to do is find a Core 2 Duo, in my price range which is 2_0000 to 4_0000 yen. Then I can start selecting a motherboard and RAM. Then I keep that configuration data up to date until more about Unreal Tournament 3 is released.

I am totally confused with the Core 2 numbering scheme though.

Da zo!: Nagi from Hayate no Gotoku DVD promotional banner in Nipponbashi

(tags anime, DVD region 2, Nipponbashi)

Senakablog reported the Hayate no Gotoku (ハヤテのごとく) promotional banners in the Nipponbashi. Supposedly there are about a 130 of them. While it wasn't one of my objectives going there, I took a bunch of pictures for myself. These promotional banners are called nobori (のぼり) in Japanese.

Nagi is totally cute, da zo!

Please sir may I have another: Pokemon Pikachu DS Lite online raffle

(tags game, hardware, Dual Screen)

How many DS Lites do I need? If its the Pokemon Pikachu DS Lite, two?

It turns out that I can register for the online raffle because I'm a Pokemon Dai-Suki club (ポケモンだいすきクラブ) member. Who isn't these days, since I think there are millions of them. There are two periods to enter. The first just ended today. The second starts up next month.

Yee. I used up all my luck this year, going to that Ichigo Mashimaro concert for free and getting one Pokemon Pikachu DS Lite.

I think I need to rename this blog "Greed". "Greed is good, greed works."

A Rie Kugimiya Holiday: assorted CD releases

(tags CD, anime, soundtrack, purchase)

While I'm waiting for "j1m0ne's blog" to actually review this week's anime audio releases, here I am with just the CD covers:

Since this the end of the month close to "paycheck day", there had to be some new releases. And today did not disappoint. This is not all of it, of course. In no particular order: Moetan (もえたん) opening song with Yukari Tamura (田村ゆかり) and others, Potemayo (ぽてまよ) opening song by Mosaic.WAV.

I decided to get Bokura No (ぼくらの) opening song "Uninstall" by Chiaki Ishikawa (石川智晶) because it sounds so cool even though it was released a month ago. I am not watching this anime, though.

Continuing with today's releases, we have Hayate no Gotoku! (ハヤテのごとく!) character CDs featuring Shizuka Ito and my seiyuu of the day, Rie Kugimiya (釘宮理恵). The pink slip is a "stamp rally". If I buy all 6 character CDs at the same Animate shop, I get a paper CD case that holds all the CDs together. Big woop.

Rounding it out is DS game of the moment, Doki Doki Majo Shinpan (どきどき魔女神判) Original Soundtrack CD. Actually there's supposed to be an Animate tokuten, but they'll release it on Thursday. The white slip above the CD is the claim slip for it.

And yes, Ichiko is back with the Zero no Tsukaima Futsuki no Kishi (ゼロの使い魔 双月の騎士) opening song. It came with this square poster, very nice. And finally the special CD for Zero no Tsukaima radio program was released, boasting a mixed format of 30 minutes CD Audio and 540 minutes (!) MP3 audio on the CD data area.

Almost 10 hours (!) of the Kugimiya sound. I'm going moe just thinking about it.

shop stop potpourri

(tags game, hardware, pre-order)

Because of yesterday's PSP "lite" announcements, I went to Sofmap on the way home today. Lets just forget I was there yesterday after the weekly Japanese language lesson.

There wasn't any pre-order info about any of the PSP "lite" or about the FF 7 Crisis PSP bundle. They did though have some Wii in stock, and just for a moment I considered a purchase.

No new figures, no new games of note, no Xbox 1 games of note, no wanted computer games, no anime or other DVDs. I did pick up Leah Dizon's "Koi shiyou" (「恋しよう♪」) CD + DVD, at regular price though.

This weekend I will be picking up the Pokemon Pikachu DS Lite, so I prepared by buying a screen film, a white metal stylus, a recharging base unit for only 280 yen (but no cables), and a DS game case that holds 12 games, just like old reversable one. I still need a upper chassis and lower chassis case.

Pastel PSP, 1-seg PSP, Crisis PSP

(tags game, hardware, PlayStation Portable, Japan, collectable)

I am excited about this news (thanks PSP Fanboy for linking to the original press release). Sony will be release 6 different colored PSPs "lite" (PSP-2000) on 2007/09/20 (Thursday).

Rose Pink and Lavender Purple are the fourth and fifth from the left. Both are pastel colors that look wonderful. I can't decide which one I want so maybe I'll get both. :-)

Also Sony will be release the 1-seg digital TV tuner, something I wondered about before. I tried 1-seg before on my computer, but I am not watching it now. Sony has to gall to make this a PSP lite exclusive. I can't use it on my PSP "phat".

Finally, Square-Enix will be releasing a limited edition PSP "lite" for the Final Fantasy VII "Crisis Core" game on 2007/09/13 (Thursday) (thanks PSP Fanboy). Is this also in my sights? I don't know FF 7 and I felt like I got burned buying that Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings DS Lite bundle and finally it's silver, so I will pass. Though "exclusive" and "limited-edition" always perks my ears up. I am a sucker.

Kamichama Karin DVD 1

(tags anime, DVD region 2, kawaii)

Tuesday proves to be the day to grab new DVDs at Gamers.

I didn't see Kamichama Karin (かみちゃまかりん) before it went to DVD, but wow it seems kawaii. I did read most of the manga, though, so I can anticipate the story.

First off, there are parts I don't like, the opening song by Ali Project, the over-the-top guy transformations scenes (what comes around goes around), the shoddy animation work, the over-bright backgrounds. Most of all, I cringe whenever Karin says "I am God!".

But some of the cuteness is still salvagable.

The animation style reminds me of Pita-Ten and A Little Snow Fairy Sugar, so I'm going to keep checking this out. Maybe.

Gamers has the buy-full-set-get-telephone-card campaign again. I can resist, really.

More progress in Doki Doki Majo Shinpan

(tags game, Dual Screen, gal-get)

I put a total of 6 hours into Doki Doki Majo Shinpan (どきどき魔女神判). The game seems to be divided by chapters. I'm on the fourth chapter chasing a miko who is also allegedly a witch.

Here Renge and Maho (right) are cheering each other on. It's cute.

Pretty much at the end of each chapter is a fight and a shinpan. There's a new technique to the fight so sometimes I need to try something new every time. This is the action part of the game.

The shinpan is the infamous grope and touch section to find a witch's mark. You do that by looking and touching the witch in parts of the body. There's even a lips icon where you have to blow onto the screen (puff some air) while targetting. While you're doing all that, the girl is getting hot and bothered, and says stuff like "pervert" (「ヘンタイ」) or "stop it" (「やめてください」) or "that's my weak spot" (「そこ、弱いの」). Finally, if you are successful with the manhandling, the witch mark will become visible. It can take up to 5 minutes to get it done. All the while I feel like I need to turn down the volume in my own room because its calling me names repeatedly.

Well, I'm slugging through it, not actually excited to play it, since the story is secondary to the gal-get collecting. At least there's not much frustration, only in the fight scenes which are entirely my fault if I fail.

PSP "lite" named as PSP-2001, video output clarified

(tags game, hardware, PlayStation Portable)

The Sony PSP's newest revision is called the PSP-2001, according to the FCC inspection (US). (thanks Engadget) Also the video out functions seem to be clarified, according to the Quick Reference manual:

"Video from games can be output only when the TV in use and the cable connecting it support progressive mode screen display. Also, video may not be able to be output to the TV for some functions other than games."

Gamers will need to get component cables, while video-goers should be able to use either component or composite cables.

Won a chance to purchase a Pikachu DS Lite!

(tags game, hardware, Dual Screen, ECsite)

Oh yeah! I won a chance to purchase the Pokemon Pikachu DS Lite (ポケモンセンターオリジナル ニンテンドーDS Lite ピカチュウエディション)! Effort pays off! Here's the postcard back and front (personal information hidden, of course, by telephone cards):

I thought I didn't win early last week because the announcement was supposed to start on 7/9 (Monday). So the whole week, I have been checking the mailbox, but dreading the disappointment. I even started looking at Yahoo Auction JP for it. Friday the thirteenth, though, was my lucky day.

The sticker on the back of the postcard is probably to protect against counterfeiting, since it has a hologram on it. Also, the postcard is numbered. My number is a 5 digits, so maybe they have a lot of these.

Now, should I take a day off work to get it on the first day? (2007/07/20 Friday) Hm, no.

Finish the fight? Halo 2 and Burnout: Revenge

(tags game, Xbox, FPS, racing)

All last week I've been finishing up Halo 2 single-player campaign. I forgot how or why my Xbox is connected, but I think its because its been a long time since I played a game on this LCD monitor. In any case, I finished it on Heroic difficulty which makes it really slow. I tried the first level on Legendary but I can't make any progress on the first level, even after two hours of work. Still this game is fun on Heroic.

I also dug out my old copy of Burnout: Revenge. I forgot why I stopped playing this one but I think its because I don't like any of the tracks. The old Xbox says that its been since 2005/12/11 since I've played the game. Wow. Now on my 19 inch LCD it looks great. I really love the feel of speed and the vibration. (I tried MotorStorm PS3 on Friday and it was visually appealing but my hands were literally unmoved).

Slitherlink worming its way into my heart

(tags game, Dual Screen, puzzle)

I don't know why but I woke up in the middle of the night. I decided to try out Slitherlink because I thought it would be quick. I ended up playing 20 levels which took probably about an hour and a half. I am slow. Also I seem to be fighting the control scheme because either I mistap or the game misinterprets. I want the controls that mark the current box to be on the left (D-pad) instead of on the xyba buttons. I shouldn't have started it, but now that I have a taste I am trying to finish Sudoku Deluxe as fast as I can.

Here are my results for the first part, "introduction" (入門). Not very flattering.

Touching on progress

(tags game, Dual Screen, gal get)

I must say that I haven't gotten much progress on the Doki Doki Shinpan (どきどき魔女神判), even after putting in an hour. Basically, I haven't encountered the main heroine, Akai Maho, let alone partake in the infamous touch sessions. For now it's a game where you have to guess where a particular character will be. There isn't full voice, but the fairy/sprite angel has a particular sound "tee hee hee" that makes me smile, because she is pretty crude.

Already in the glass case on the first day: Doki Doki Majo Shinpan

(tags game, Dual Screen, loli, telephone card)

Like I said, Friday night was frantic for goods collecting. My mission was collecting the telephone cards (TCs) I saw a week earlier. As I was working my way up Nipponbashi Den-Den Town from Books Lashinbang, I noticed that the all-ages otaku game of the moment, Doki Doki Majo Shinpan (どきどき魔女神判), was sold out in all my favorite stores except at A-Too where the price is not nice. I didn't pre-order it, because the TC situation for it was pretty dire. There were different designs at different stores and some stores were not in Kansai. So I was content with a picture of the all TCs from this news article.

All of that changed when I spied the Sofmap version TC in the show case at Sofmap's Treasure Box area. 2000 yen? Not that bad for the first day. I'll take it.

(At the same shop, I also got a used but unopened copy of Submarine Super 99 (サバマリン スパー99) on UMD. When it comes to anime on UMD, I don't have a problem, as long as it is cheap.)

So since I started digging that hole, I thought why don't I just jump on in? I still didn't see the omake Japanese-style amulet with the cute picture, until I went to the meager show cases at Big Tiger Nipponbashi. There they had a copy of the game, the Sofmap TC and the amulet for 7890 yen. Well, sure I'll take it.

(At the same shop I first bought the Slitherlink DS game for about 1690 yen used, which I was planning to play anyway. It is pretty rare and I didn't find it either new or used in other stores, so getting this 2500 yen game at this price wasn't bad at all.)

(And at both show case areas, the clerks reminded me that the merchandise can't be returned (「委託販売です。返品は承りませんので宜しいですか。」). One even used their finger to point out the return policy explanation in kanji. I take this to mean they recognize me as a kanji-reading foreigner. I get irritated if they start using a lot of hand gestures though.)

Since I was at the end of my Friday purchasing, I could not buy the fan book. I read that it wasn't available at regular bookstores, so I counted on Sofmap Kobe to have a copy. But it wasn't there (!?!?) despite the fact that one of the early stores I visited, Sofmap Nipponbashi 4, had many copies. (On a strange note, Sofmap Kobe had many copies of the game itself.) I finally got the book at Gamers Kobe, bless their character goods hearts.

Also, on Monday, I picked up a second copy of the game with the other telephone card design, that wasn't mentioned anywhere. Sweet.

So there it is, one can get a limited release game if one is in the area specializing in reselling. Yes.

As for playing the game, well that can wait until I finish more Sudoku.

A short waste of smile: Sugao no Hohoemi

(tags game, PlayStation Portable, video, UMD, gal-game)

I finished Sugao no Hohoemi. This UMD video is in a word, disappointing. For about 3500 yen, I expected more than 5 hours of content. Yes I bought the game for the visuals and drawing style, and yes it was good for that. But I expected an interesting story. And this one wasn't.

Those who are used to playing those visual novels are used to plots changing on a player's choice of action, but due to the limitations of UMD video, story branches reconverge at the same points. For example, there is a choice between drinking juice or eating ice cream, but the outcome is essentially the same. This also meant that as soon as I got to the last branching menu, I could replay from there and get all of the endings. There were no "flags" as far as I know.

First, some technical gripes: This all-region UMD disc contains 180 minutes of content. Since it is a UMD video, if you press X at any point, the UMD disc stops and you are dumped out the game. It doesn't resume! Next, it's not possible to fast-forward or rewind at all. Most visual novels I'm used let you skip. Finally, I wasn't able to pause or slow the dialogue. I still don't read and listen as fast I should.

But I was surprised there was a password-resume system. The game lets you input a 3 character password t to resume at one of the branching points. And once you clear all of the heroine's stories, you get a completed password which is a picture gallery.

Also the word display was not static, but much more improved than a typical visual novel/gal-game. The graphics enhancing the static display were pretty intense.

I suppose I'm just disappointed the stories ends on a sad note. "That's the good end?" I shook my head.

I think this is just a test release for Jin. There haven't been many DVD-PG like games for the UMD, and perhaps Jin is advertising its visual novel software to other game makers. Perhaps this will start another niche market?

SPOILERS

If you have a terminal condition, wouldn't you want to be a bit selfish and let out your feelings? I suppose not, though, which is one of the parts of this story that makes sense.

If your friend had a terminal condition and she told you to keep it a secret from the mutual guy friend/love interest, would you feel guilty for doing what she said? Okay, yeah. But don't tell me that kissing in the hospital right after the mutual friend died isn't tacky. Granted, its a kiss to keep the two together despite the fact that they haven't been honest to each other.

If a girl carries another girl like a lifeguard carrying a downed (not drowned) swimmer, would you call her an amazon? Heh. Well, that's one warning sign. The other warning signs are that she wears all black and that she doesn't say where she lives.

Maybe I'm just sad because the heroines that I was interested in didn't have a positive ending.

END SPOILERS

A little bit Inagawa: Manabi Straight DVD 4

(tags anime, Manabi Straight, DVD region 2)

I've got the buying rhythm down. Manabi Straight (まなびストレート) comes out on Tuesday at Gamers.

The girls get seriously crazy here. Here's Mei-chan going crazy over the looming school festival.

Mei-chan also gets enhanced capabilities like face slapping and joke fan attack, ala Yuu Inagawa from Comic Party.

Manabi also goes straight to crazy as well. I love it.

Rails again but actually making progress

(tags ruby, rails, web development, database)

I've been playing with Ruby on Rails again for my hobby blog. I was able to reformat my old database from PostgreSQL to Sqlite3 via manual Ruby scripting, because I find installing and maintaining PostgreSQL a hassle. Yes I know the installation has improved over the years, even on my preferred platform of Windows. (We'll see how much I miss the industrial-strength features later.)

I got three of the features I've been wanting for a while: readable urls, next and previous immediate post (which is like LiveJournal) and search. I created readable urls with the Rails Routing function. The next and previous functionality are from a simple database query. And search was pretty simple from the database function. It even search Japanese in UTF-8, w00t. Of course its the database doing the heavy lifting and not Ruby on Rails. I am worried though that the data input won't always be UTF-8 and thus corrupt my database.

Other things I want, in decreasing priority:

• Web-based editor.
• Permalink and link/image transformation system.
• Atom 1.0 based XML feed.
• Get my "we get signal" blogger posts into my system. (Blogger Backup Utility)
• Reconvert existing blog posts to HTML 4.0 or XML compliant formats.
• Text markup transformation ala Redcloth/Bluecloth.
• Fully CSS'd design

But my ultimate goal is to output to a static webhost. I'm so Web 1.0 like that. Will I use wget to make it static? If so, how can I deal with making the web page generation incrementally change?

Or I should just go for a dynamic web host. Really I gotta research these things one of these days.

Finished The Time Traveller's Wife (book)

(tags book, fiction, science fiction, romance)

Just like one of the breathless recommendations written at the front of the book, The Time Traveller's Wife had me questioning the linearity of love. The constant jumping from time to time and viewpoint was like switching channels on the TV, random and totally unexpected. I am glad that the viewpoints are from both main characters, instead of just the time traveller's wife.

The first few pages show a Clare that knows Henry like a long-lost friend/lover but Henry doesn't know her is predictable, but the author adds zest to the scene by having her shout out and jump like she's won the lottery. Its zany and fresh but at the same time, the story has weight. I cringed and I wept as the characters experienced loss.

But ultimately we are not blessed/cursed with the unexpected, spontaneous time travelling, and we have to live love in the only possible progression we know.

From a technical point of view, I'm glad that the author didn't try to explain the time travelling too much. Its in his genes, but he's not doing Marty McFly. It was pretty funny of Henry being naked all the time. Henry is a practical man, eschewing stuff he knows he can't take with him the next time time snatches him away. He does have a lot of books, which let's the author's literary competence shine through. I must admit I tend to gloss and skip over anything that looks like a poem. I guess it needs to be a song in order to be palatable for me.

SPOILERS

I don't think it was fair that Henry visits Clare well into the future. I mean, she should be able to live without Henry but this gives her a false hope. But he knows this too and writes it in the letter. It's 50 years since he died so she could have remarried.

Anyways, how do you end a lifetime relationship?

END SPOILERS

Picked up missed TCs: Ichigo 1 Kimi Kiss, Melon Books, Sofmap

(tags telephone card)

Last week I was in Nipponbashi Den Den Town hunting for Lumines. I saw some interesting TCs then but I did not buy them. But this weekend I decided to pick up the Kimi Kiss (キミキス) TC at Books Lashinbang. And instead of going on the weekend, I decided to go Friday night, which made it more frantic.

Lucky for me it was still there. The illustrator is Masashiro Itosugi. It has a paper frame (台紙), which actually cuts the card if you're not careful. This card was available to all buyers of the Champion RED Ichigo magazine (チャンピオンREDいちご) volume 1, so I don't understand why I didn't mail order it. It turns out that I bought the magazine but failed to read it. Huh. In any case it was 2000 yen, which is 1000 yen more than the original price.

I didn't plan on buying the other cards, but they were interesting enough to nab. The Melon Books TC costs 40 points but I forget when it was released. Usually the Melon Books TCs' designs are too skanky with fan-service, but this one is attractive to me because Melon-chan's hair isn't overloading the colors. The illustrator is 有葉. I got it for 1000 yen, but I saw it at another place for 2500 yen. I can never tell if these things are worth more than 1000 yen.

The last one is probably some Sofmap tokuten but I can't recall when, where or who. But the twin-tailed blonde is totally cute, and yes my "Sofmap" allegiance is growing so I had to have it. It was only 800 yen so it must be scrap.

Haruhi season 2 coming

(tags anime)

Continuing my Haruhi hits this and that, I need to get the next issue of Newtype. According to the leak, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsuu Season 2 is coming.

Time to bring home an Xbox 360 elite

(tags game, hardware, Xbox 360)

Finally the Xbox 360 Elite (an Xbox 360 Premium with black case and 120 GB HDD) will be sold in the Japan region for 4_7800 yen (thanks Kotaku, Game Watch Impress)

Time to buy it and play IdolM@ster.

Or should I wait for the sweltering Japan summer to subside?

edit: Looks like I have no choice. It comes out 2007/10/11!

Warning: Gigantor statue coming to Kobe

(tags figure, tourist, Kobe)

The Kobe Tatsujin Project (Kobe鉄人Project) will commemorate manga artist Mitsuteru Yokoyama (横山光輝) with a 18 meter tall, 70-ton statue. It will be erected Spring 2008 near a park close to the Japan Railways Shin-Nagata (JR新長田) station, at a cost of about 1_3500_0000 yen (USD 1 million). Yokoyama is famous for the giant robot manga Gigantor (鉄人２８号) and other seminal manga works.

I'm not a old-school manga fan, but this is interesting news occuring in my neighborhood.

(thanks Asahi.com, Engadget)

Free magazine, but expensive collectables: A-Station Telephone Cards

(tags magazine, free, anime, illustrator, telephone card)

A-Station magazine is a free glossy magazine "for the Akiba-otaku". They just celebrated 1 year of publication. It has some reviews of recent and upcoming anime/manga, as well as maid cafe and poster inserts. It is pretty limited distribution here in Kobe, but I am able to obtain a copy at "otaku" stores like Gamers, since they have increased their publication to 10_0000 copies. Pretty much I collect it based on the magazine cover illustrations alone:

These are the work of illustrator Atsushi Yoshinari (吉成篤). Moe!

Actually these are scans of the collectable telephone cards up for sale right now at the web store. They have online ordering by debit-prepay card, but I am doing the old-fashioned way by sending them postal checks (定額小為替). 1200 yen per card, ouch. There is a limited print run of 200 cards per design, on a first-come first-served basis. For the whole Japan. This is not a familiar system. It's either a limited print run by draw, or all-applicants print run. I sent my money last month pretty quickly, but I wonder if it got through. They are doing the same run this month, so I'm buying an incomplete second set. Heheh.

Before this, I was able to buy A-Station's first three issue covers reprinted onto telephone cards. It was totally easy to obtain it by postal check order, so I hope its the same for the above 9 cards.

danbooru is back

(tags anime, pictures, website)

danbooru, the user collaboration anime picture site, is back.

Yes!

Read a book, read a book, read a m######f####g book

(tags video, rap, music, education)

Whenever I listen to American rap (which very rare), I lose control of my mouth and I start to say "n###g#r" and other very vulgar phrases because it just sounds so cool. So it was with trepidation that I watched this video: Read A Book by BET (Black Entertainment Television channel). It is too funny, because I can't tell if it's trying to be educational, entertainment, edutainment or parody. The message in simple terms:

• Read a book, not a sports page or a magazine
• Buy land, not fancy toys.
• Drink water when thirsty.
• Raise your kids.
• Brush your teeth.
• Wear deoderant.

But the presentation is typical foul-mouthed rap. And the animation is truly funny, with gyrating hips, guns with books for bullets, spinning (car) rims.

So if we're supposed to read books, what should we read? There was another video that used the same song that showed all kinds of books called "Read A Book - Get Crunk about Reading". The list of the books:

• Up From Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington
• Breaking The Chains of Psychological Slavery by Na'im AkBar Ph.D
• The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter Godwin Woodson
• The Spook Who Sat by The Door by Sam Greenlee
• The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales told by Virginia Hamilton
• I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• A Day Late and a Dollar Short by Terry McMillan
• The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• Breaking The Curse of Willie Lynch: The Science of Slave Psychology by Alvin Morrow
• Countering the Conspiracy To Destroy Black Boys Vol III by Jawanza Kunjufu
• World's Great Men of Color Volume II by J.A. Rogers
• The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told by Alex Haley
• Sun Zi's The Art of War translated by Dr. Han Hiong Tan
• Nervous by Zane
• Addicted by Zane
• Afterburn by Zane
• Know Thy Self by Na'im Akbar
• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
• The African Origin of Christianity
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
• Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
• Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
• The African Origin of Civilization by Cheikh Anta Diop
• Back To Our Roots: Food For The Gods by Chef Dawui R. Ujamaa C.W.C.
• The African Origins: African Origins of African Civilization, Religion, Yoga Mysticism and Ethics Philosophy by Dr. Muata Ashby

I don't understand why The DaVinci Code is in there, but maybe its the stick it to the man theme.

Pure Smile: Sugao no Hohoemi

(tags game, PlayStation Portable, video, UMD, gal-game)

I was disappointed because the Lumines is gone. So I got something else at one of the shops I visited: Sugao no Hohoemi (素顔の微笑み), a UMD video love-sim for the PSP.

Notice the rating: 15. It looks like an old CERO rating, but since this is a video, its an age rating. And why 15 and older? One word: porori (ぽろり), which I figured out means topless nudity.

(photo thanks: Senakablog)

Um. I swear I bought it because the drawing style was attractive. I didn't know about the nudity beforehand, really. Hahaa.

The only place that had a telephone card omake was Messe Sanoh, shown above. I missed out, then again, this was just a purchase on a whim.

According to the blog announcements by Senaka Blog and Akiba Blog, it had some store area. And it was sold out at Messe Sanoh only after two days, heh.

This is the entertainment that made me pause on the Harry Potter book. Well, it's 180 minutes of video, according to the cover, so I should be done by next weekend.

Also I still need to finish the Time Traveller's Wife. Actually, I paused reading the book because of HP, but I started reading it again today. I was actually cry-sniffing on the train, it is so moving.

Harry Potter has Jumped the Shark

(tags book, fiction, fantasy, English)

I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on Saturday. I feel that HP jumped the shark in this book, though I will continue to read this series. Even though this book is about 800+ pages, it still doesn't feel long enough to explain the parts I'm interested in.

I went to Kobe Random Walk and I hefted the next book in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but because I already bought another piece of entertainment that day I put it back on the shelf. They were having a sale on the hardbacks which worked out to be around 2100 yen, but I rather get the 1700 yen paperback to match my set and also to be able to bring it with me. Actually I don't want to buy the hardback of the last book, so I suppose I have to wait for the paperback coming in a few months?

SPOILERS

I wished Harry spent more time with Cho, actually, but given the time that the author spends on the two, its obvious she's just a side character. They kiss but it just seems so vague that there's no lasting emotion. She doesn't take part in the action either, so how could Cho be in touch with Harry's feelings. And what about Harry and Hermione and Ron? It's a love triangle waiting to burst. Maybe next book.

It feels like the author brings out Dumbledore whenever she wants to show her cards. The author has a habit of pulling hidden plots at the end and telling you I told you so. Actually in this book I could anticipate some of the story, such as Dumbledore keeping Harry at arms length. Also Snape is becoming more human to me, while Harry's beloved father is revealed to be a cruel person. The Sirius and Harry relationship was one where the two think of the relationship differently: Sirius sees Harry as more like a friend than a son, and Harry wants Sirius to be his father figure.

I found it unbelievable that people would deny or refute the truth for so long. Umbridge seems to me the right hand of Lord Voldermort but there seems to be no relation at all. And Harry's temper seems to be getting out of hand, but then again he is 16 years old.

END SPOILERS

No luck with the Lumines

(tags game, PlayStation Portable)

There were no copies of Lumines in the other stores I know about in the Kobe area, so I gave up. I guess I'll have to wait a year or something until this whole 3.50 firmware downgrade craze dies down.

A questionable pre-order: Kodomo no Jikan manga 4

(tags manga, pre-order, loli, DVD)

I was going to pre-order Kodomo no Jikan volume 4 at Animate Kobe but they didn't have pre-order slips. So I went to Melon Books Kobe on a whim and a pre-order slip was there. I was first pre-order because it says the slip had the number "1" on it... so obviously this is not in demand.

(picture thanks: アキバブログ)

What is Kodomo no Jikan? I was intringued by a fellow #ic post about the failure of the translation of this manga to the U.S. market, poorly renamed as Nymphet. It is pretty much a "loli" manga but still just barely all-ages.

I started reading it to see if it was really bad and also because I like the drawing style. Well it is very crude in some places. How does Rin, the mischievous girl get such a potty mouth and sexualized clothing and mannerisms? From the TV? From friends (but her friends are wholesome)? From her guardian-parent (but he's a good guy)? I suppose that's part of the fantasy, but it doesn't make sense. In any case, I like the story because the male teacher, Aoki-sensei, is compassionate for the welfare and education of his students. He is not a pedophile and he is not taking advantage of the situation. Unfortunately he's the butt of many jokes because Rin is wily and crafty.

I pretty much gobbled up volumes 1, 2, 3 in a two week period. Now that I know 4 is coming out I want to see the relationship between Aoki-sensei and Rin resolve into respected teacher-devoted student instead of this disheveled, wet-behind-the-ears teacher being played by this all-talk Lolita. Except the whole point of the work (including the bonus DVD which has almost naughty scenes unfit for Japanese TV?!?!) is to be as loli as possible.

Hahaha, um. Yeah.