I have no interest in ordinary humans!

I apparently don't do this as annually as I thought.

( That end-of-year thing )

Which states have I seen?


visited 22 states (44%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or website vertaling duits?

That's about it. Well, throw in the District of Columbia. I've been there, too.

Wow, I'm still alive. I'm doing crack, but I'm still alive.

So I got a couple things in the mail today: disc 3 of K-On! and the DVD/Blu-Ray combo pack of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. Of course, I'm quite familiar with these materials and how they should sound. I've read the original sources for both of them, too.

I was quite worried about K-On!, specifically in its rather comical use of honorifics (in ways that don't translate into English at all), as well as with some of the nicknames (which incorporate honorifics or Japanese onomatopoeia). Thus far, I'm quite satisfied: even in the English version, the girls call their teacher Sawa-chan (an interesting way of addressing her: it would normally be Yamanaka-sensei--this will become important in season 2, where Yui will start calling her Sawa-chan-sensei), and the club's underclassman is Azunyan, not Azu-meow (as was rather stupidly done in the manga).

More generally, I'm still not entirely sure that substituting out the music they play for Yui in episode 1 was a good idea. "Love Me Tender" just doesn't work there. Perhaps if they'd used "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", which occupies a place in our culture similar to "Tsubasa wo Kudasai", it might have made more sense. Using the original song would have brought up perhaps the wrong connotations from American fans unfamiliar with subbed series, as Americans tend to only know the song from its use in either this series or during the climax of Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0/2.22. (Actually, amongst the more hardcore amongst us, we'd also have seen this from Nichijou/My Ordinary Life¹, but that happened back at midsummer.) Likewise, rendering "Moe moe kyun!" as "The power of cute compels you!" made me scratch my head. I know that the folks at Bang Zoom have no problem with using the word "moe": I've seen episode 2-1/2x01² of the Haruhi dub as well as excerpts from the Lucky Star dub, so I really don't know what gives.

I'll have to wait for Thursday for a discussion of the dub of Disappearance. I have standing appointments on Wednesday night that will leave me without the three hours needed to watch the film properly. Yes, it's a fully animated feature with strong use of cel-style techniques. That doesn't stop it from running 164'³. The length doesn't stop it from being really well done.

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The stuff down here is for people that have no file system checking clue what I'm on about. If you know your animu, mango, and light novel scene, feel free to skip my footnotes today.
1. The only reason anyone in the US picked up Nichijou when it started running back in the spring is because the television adaptation was made by the same trolls that made, well, both of the things I got in the mail today.
2. Silly anachronic order: it's the first episode of the first season chronologically, the second episode to be broadcast, and is the first episode in the second season ordering, as the second season ran interspersed amongst a chronological order rerun of the first season.
3. Did I not just say that the people who made it were trolls? They, like moot, believe that trolling is a art. What's more, the film itself is a part of a long troll. The short troll was remaking the same damned episode 8 times and running each version on television. The long troll was getting viewers to admit that maybe they had a point.

Today at church, one of the deacons was celebrating a birthday. We don't have his age on hand, though. So, while singing Many Years for him, one of the other deacons announced it as his 82nd birthday (which is most definitely not true).

I don't think that I've ever heard such relief from such a simple joke.

I think I'll leave it at that. Other, wiser people have made far better commentary on the past week of my life. I don't feel the need to add much more.

(But shaving your head before going to a burial, particularly when you don't own a black hat turns out to be a good idea: it's a lot easier to apply sunscreen that way.)

This was posted originally at my WordPress blog, here.

My blog is back. Yeah, that’s right: my website is back in its entirety. That’s the blog, the code samples, and the Craigslist scraper.

Comment here, there, everywhere!

On account of having seen too much AMV Hell, I'm currently watching Death Note. Despite its pretentiousness, the show is genuinely entertaining. Yeah, it's not what I said I'd watch next (for those that were around for that, I was considering picking up Azumanga Daioh next, as I've never seen the whole thing in order--but I've seen it all in bits and pieces). I'm just as disappointed as you.

The game of cat and mouse between Light and L is quite compelling. I know that goes away, and I just can't see how the show could possibly maintain its appeal without both of those characters. I also know that there are at least two other Kiras (I've met Misa, who is one hell of a crazy bitch¹), but I just cannot see how they can be so interesting. After all, Light knows what he's doing because he's a freaking genius that has studied the arts of law enforcement. Sure, he gets sloppy from time to time, but for some reason, he always seems to win at Xanatos Roulette.

That said, I'm not quite feeling the slashy goodness that others seem to get from this series. I mean, sure, I can see what the fangirls are on about, but frankly, I see Light as perceiving himself as so superior to the rest of humanity, L included, that he couldn't possibly bring himself to love as mere mortals do.

Holy crap, I'm slowly turning into an otaku. I mean, what other kind of person would have a Yui Hirasawa plushie on his bag (don't judge me!)? Save me, Internets. You're...not much of a hope, are you?

1. Oddly, I felt a chill run down my spine when I first heard her voice. I looked her up on the character sheet at TV Tropes and found out why: that's the same person that did Haruhi and Konata, both characters that have terrified me for totally different reasons.

I'm still alive.

That said, I've spent the weekend sobbing. Not because of some great tragedy, but because I've been snorting After Story like an addict and his blow. This is not something I recommend doing: you really have to let each episode digest or you will become an emotional wreck. The animation is generally beautiful, though, and the story is exquisite.

I'm going to be in Houston next weekend. Hopefully, I'll get to see some of you.

I'm losing my mind, living here alone. I mean, I was always a little crazy, but man, coming home to nothing on a regular basis is really getting to me. Work's fine (better than it was back in the spring when I was getting disappointed), but it would be nice to have something that wasn't work or chores. It would be nice to have someone or something to come home to at night.

But alas, that will not happen, and I know it. It can't. I've got too much to atone for, too many people I've hurt--and I don't even know where to begin apologizing for things done 5, 10, 20 years ago. And besides, I have no file system checking clue how to find people. Indeed, it's almost as though I want to be forgotten, and am out to make no lasting impression. I had a panic attack when I began to realize people were noticing me out there in the world.

So I ran across this blog entry while browsing Reddit today. Now, the bank got taken by this guy. They wanted a Caesar cypher, and he gave them, well, it's an abomination.

In Python:


def caesar(string, key):
  return "".join([x if ord(x.lower()) not in range(97, 123) else chr((((ord(x.lower()) - 97) + key) % 26) + 97) for x in string])


That's in one line, and it preserves spaces and punctuation. We'll not mention his problems with command line user interfaces, which are quite powerful and awesome.

You may have noticed, but photosinensis.net is currently down. I've got a lot of problems with it, at least in part due to moving it from Missouri City to Carrollton. I'm also taking this opportunity to update the operating system, which is now two versions out of date.

I had another post, but this isn't the thread for that discussion, nor do I have enough time to write it (I need sleep desperately). Just know that I'm alive and that a prediction I made two years ago is inching closer to coming true--and this scares me greatly, as I don't want that prediction to be true.

This was posted originally at my WordPress blog, here.

Every Sunday afternoon, I make up a grocery list and head down to Kroger’s. Obviously, I need to eat.

When I get to the check-out line, there’s always a section for a pocket Complete Idiot’s Guide next to People, Us Magazine, and the National Enquirer. With only one exception, this is a guide to something that frankly, a complete idiot should probably not know.

I first noticed this when the book was The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Faith. This seems akin to handing a functionally retarded person an AK-47, a chain of ammo, and telling them that it’s a toy. Faith is a radical and dangerous thing, and I’m the titular complete idiot would probably use it in a way that is destructive and irresponsible without comprehending why it is.

Last week was rather innocuous: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Puppies. Sure, a complete idiot should probably not obtain a puppy (for the puppy’s sake, really), but buying it in the hopes of helping a young child understand the responsibilities of new pet ownership is reasonable.

This week, though, it was back to the scary: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to The Book of Revelation. I’m assuming, given the cover and everything, that they’re talking about the Apocalypse of John of Patmos, and not one of many other volumes so titled. I have no file system checking clue how the hell they expect to explain that bit of mind screw in a tract shorter than the book itself. Hell, entire volumes have been written on the book in the 1900 years since it was written, and still few can make much sense of what the metaphor is supposed to mean. If you don’t believe me, I’d suggest you see how popular premillenial dispensationalism is in your neighborhood. Seriously, those metaphors could be applied to almost anything. Yet here’s a little pamphlet that says that it can explain the whole text. I find that preposterous.

What worries me is that I know someone is buying this crap. What worries me is that most of the churches in the area (Carrollton/Irving/Coppell/Farmer’s Branch/North Dallas) are the kind that would make this crap sell (I see way too many Christian Flags waving alongside the American and Texan flags at the churches here–something I only saw at Assemblies of God congregations and the odd non-denominational church back home). What worries me is the signs in front of the churches that indicate that they’re going towards the “Christian Cool” crowd. What worries me is the fact that these church leaders are dragging those who would seek God and enter the Kingdom of Heaven if they were properly informed down into a consumerist Hell (or, alternately, giving in to the popular whims of the day and losing any kind of doctrine whatsoever).