Well this is both interesting and unusual.
I do a lot of e-bay as I'm sure I've mentioned in the past and the other day someone who bought one of my DVDs contacted me to ask when it would arrive.
Well, it had actually been sent more than a week ago, so it was odd that it hadn't arrived.
Luckily, they'd taken up the 1st class recorded option, so I was able to use the tracking service to try to find out what had happened.
But weirdly the tracking service just says the item has "been accepted" at the Post Office. So what does that mean? Have they tried to deliver it and failed? Or is it just sat in a bag somewhere? How the heck would that happen if it was?
It's very odd.
I hope I don't have to go through the palaver of claiming for it. That would be an extraordinary pain in the arse, especially since the value of the DVD was a spectacular 10p :/.
So yeah, I'm going down the post office tomorrow anyway to send my next batch of stuff, so I'll talk to them then, but I don't really know what they can really do. It sounds like it's been lost in the post - which is something I never thought actually happened.
Other plans for the weekend are relatively non-spectacular.
I'm basically hoping that I'm going to keep going with the watching anime thing. I finished Doujin Works and started on Darker than Black, but I'm still not discounting the possibility of this whole thing being a bit of a blip.
Friday, 4 September 2009
Thursday, 3 September 2009
lordy lord
Holy Mary, mother of Jebus H Chrimble - last night I actually watched some anime!
I know, I can barely believe it myself either.
And it was multiple episodes. To be fair, the episodes in question were only 10 minutes or so each, but then I watched 8 of them, so that's got to be the equivalent of, what? 3 or 4 normal length episodes.
If it wasn't that anime is supposed to be one of my main hobbies, and thousands of anime fans don't struggle at all to watch some anime every night, it'd almost be impressive.
When I think back it kinda makes sense that I've been struggling. This last weekend I managed to finish both BSG (I'd finished the series a while ago, but there were quite a few extras to get through) and 'as you do' - the Richard Hammond book. Both of these have eaten up a lot of my time - don't get me wrong, it was all highly enjoyable, but it does mean if I'm spending hours watching/reading them, then I could hardly have been watching anime, could I?
Plus of course, there's the Anno thing. I think I may have crested a bit of hump there - I think I'm happier to ration my playing a bit more, instead of being horribly obsessed like I was not so long ago. Plus there's another factor there too.
Since I've been playing Anno loads I've developed a very stiff right shoulder and neck. I've a strong feeling that this is due to the many, many hours I've spent playing the game and hence sitting in the same position.
I've experienced a similar thing before when I've had a game obsession on the go, but usually the pain is focused in my elbow. I did have some elbow twinges, which is why I think the shoulder pain is caused by excessive playing, but they weren't too bad.
So yeah, I think partly my decision to reduce play is to see if that improves the situation. And certainly having not played at all since Monday, this morning my shoulder seems a lot freer.
Anyway, now for the brief low-down on what I watched, though I'm sure a full review will follow on my site eventually.
What I've been watching is Doujin Work. You may recall I mentioned I was reading the manga on which it's based and I said I was a bit on the fence, although broadly came down on the side of liking it.
Well, I started reading the manga and picked up the anime because Doujin Work was one of the shows I discovered via fansubs. I would never in a million years have picked this up if it hadn't been for the fansubs, as it doesn't look like my kinda show and it doesn't sound like it either when you read the blurb.
However, I was also starting to get a bit worried by my fansub filtering process. The best example of this was a how called Koharu Biyori (Indian Summer), which I really found funny when I sampled via fansub, but then when I bought and watched the DVD it was, well, I won't say bad, but it was just okay.
Another example was Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei. I really loved the anime when I watched it on fansub and although no-one has released it in the west, so I can't check it out properly, they have released the manga, and I've found that to be awful. Well, awful's unfair, but for a comedy manga I haven't laughed once - indeed I can hardly even spot the jokes, let alone find them funny.
So what about Doujin works? Well it's very good.
Having now read some of the manga and watched two thirds of the anime I can see why I have differing opinions on them. The manga is in a four-panel gag-strip format and to mimic this, the anime is a series of shorts. But the shorts are far longer than just 4 panels worth, so the story has become a joined-up whole.
But what they've also done is tweak the story. They've kept all the important elements, and some stuff is actually identical to the manga, but where the manga was weak, they've improved it. Mostly this revolves around the narrative, which they've given a really good massage too, making it more consistent and following a proper measured story.
And the most important thing is it's genuinely very funny. I was laughing out loud on more than one occasion and even when it's not laugh-out-loud funny, I was grinning.
So I'm relieved - at least some of my fansub filtering works!
Which isn't to say Doujin Work is entirely rosy - it's only 12 x 13 minute episodes in length and they've split it across 3 disks, which makes it pretty poor value for money. To kinda compensate for this, they've included a live action segment (which I'm guessing was part of the Japanese DVD releases) that follows two of the Voice Actors as they try to make their own doujinshi.
This is bloody awful on so many levels it's difficult to know where to start. In fact, I'll probably leave my spleen venting for the full review, but let's just say it's not enjoyable viewing.
But now comes the really big test - can I keep going? Or is this just a small blip?
I know, I can barely believe it myself either.
And it was multiple episodes. To be fair, the episodes in question were only 10 minutes or so each, but then I watched 8 of them, so that's got to be the equivalent of, what? 3 or 4 normal length episodes.
If it wasn't that anime is supposed to be one of my main hobbies, and thousands of anime fans don't struggle at all to watch some anime every night, it'd almost be impressive.
When I think back it kinda makes sense that I've been struggling. This last weekend I managed to finish both BSG (I'd finished the series a while ago, but there were quite a few extras to get through) and 'as you do' - the Richard Hammond book. Both of these have eaten up a lot of my time - don't get me wrong, it was all highly enjoyable, but it does mean if I'm spending hours watching/reading them, then I could hardly have been watching anime, could I?
Plus of course, there's the Anno thing. I think I may have crested a bit of hump there - I think I'm happier to ration my playing a bit more, instead of being horribly obsessed like I was not so long ago. Plus there's another factor there too.
Since I've been playing Anno loads I've developed a very stiff right shoulder and neck. I've a strong feeling that this is due to the many, many hours I've spent playing the game and hence sitting in the same position.
I've experienced a similar thing before when I've had a game obsession on the go, but usually the pain is focused in my elbow. I did have some elbow twinges, which is why I think the shoulder pain is caused by excessive playing, but they weren't too bad.
So yeah, I think partly my decision to reduce play is to see if that improves the situation. And certainly having not played at all since Monday, this morning my shoulder seems a lot freer.
Anyway, now for the brief low-down on what I watched, though I'm sure a full review will follow on my site eventually.
What I've been watching is Doujin Work. You may recall I mentioned I was reading the manga on which it's based and I said I was a bit on the fence, although broadly came down on the side of liking it.
Well, I started reading the manga and picked up the anime because Doujin Work was one of the shows I discovered via fansubs. I would never in a million years have picked this up if it hadn't been for the fansubs, as it doesn't look like my kinda show and it doesn't sound like it either when you read the blurb.
However, I was also starting to get a bit worried by my fansub filtering process. The best example of this was a how called Koharu Biyori (Indian Summer), which I really found funny when I sampled via fansub, but then when I bought and watched the DVD it was, well, I won't say bad, but it was just okay.
Another example was Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei. I really loved the anime when I watched it on fansub and although no-one has released it in the west, so I can't check it out properly, they have released the manga, and I've found that to be awful. Well, awful's unfair, but for a comedy manga I haven't laughed once - indeed I can hardly even spot the jokes, let alone find them funny.
So what about Doujin works? Well it's very good.
Having now read some of the manga and watched two thirds of the anime I can see why I have differing opinions on them. The manga is in a four-panel gag-strip format and to mimic this, the anime is a series of shorts. But the shorts are far longer than just 4 panels worth, so the story has become a joined-up whole.
But what they've also done is tweak the story. They've kept all the important elements, and some stuff is actually identical to the manga, but where the manga was weak, they've improved it. Mostly this revolves around the narrative, which they've given a really good massage too, making it more consistent and following a proper measured story.
And the most important thing is it's genuinely very funny. I was laughing out loud on more than one occasion and even when it's not laugh-out-loud funny, I was grinning.
So I'm relieved - at least some of my fansub filtering works!
Which isn't to say Doujin Work is entirely rosy - it's only 12 x 13 minute episodes in length and they've split it across 3 disks, which makes it pretty poor value for money. To kinda compensate for this, they've included a live action segment (which I'm guessing was part of the Japanese DVD releases) that follows two of the Voice Actors as they try to make their own doujinshi.
This is bloody awful on so many levels it's difficult to know where to start. In fact, I'll probably leave my spleen venting for the full review, but let's just say it's not enjoyable viewing.
But now comes the really big test - can I keep going? Or is this just a small blip?
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
intermawebnets
So this last weekend we did some investigations regarding the interwebs.
I plugged my laptop into his router and was able to access the internet no problems. The only issue might be that my laptop is running Vista. As such it'll have the latest network stuff and could have something that "works out" the connection for you.
My desktop machines are running older versions of windows and so could potentially be more problematic. It's unlikely, though.
So the plan is to run a network cable from John's router right through and across into my flat. I think the preferred route is to come into my place through the door to the attic space.
I should then be able to plug in and go from there. There may be some difficulty over the cable length - John measured it at 20m, which was an over-estimate, so that shouldn't be a problem, but such a long cable could be subject to signal loss and interference, so it may affect the speed.
Still, his cable package I believe is 10megabits, which is some 6 or 7 times faster than my phone-line broadband, so even with it slowing down it should still be quicker. Of course, that slow down may apply to the whole network would be the other possibility and I wouldn't want to affect John's connection.
Speaking of which I looked up Virgin's fair-use policy. I was rather afraid they'd have a bandwidth cap, which wouldn't be good at all, as I use a heck of a lot of bandwidth, as I've discussed before.
However, it seems they use throttling instead. The basic thing seems to be they have a peak period and if you download too much during that peak period, then they throttle back your connection speed.
It seems the amount you're allowed during this time is only 1.5gb, but the good (ish) thing is that it seems the peak period is in the afternoon and early evening. My heavy torrenting is mainly scheduled for the morning, so this may mean I'm okay. It could restrict what I get up to in the evening, though.
The plan, therefore, is to do it on a trial basis. If we hook it all up and see how it goes and if it badly affects John (or me, of course) then we can always not bother.
I plugged my laptop into his router and was able to access the internet no problems. The only issue might be that my laptop is running Vista. As such it'll have the latest network stuff and could have something that "works out" the connection for you.
My desktop machines are running older versions of windows and so could potentially be more problematic. It's unlikely, though.
So the plan is to run a network cable from John's router right through and across into my flat. I think the preferred route is to come into my place through the door to the attic space.
I should then be able to plug in and go from there. There may be some difficulty over the cable length - John measured it at 20m, which was an over-estimate, so that shouldn't be a problem, but such a long cable could be subject to signal loss and interference, so it may affect the speed.
Still, his cable package I believe is 10megabits, which is some 6 or 7 times faster than my phone-line broadband, so even with it slowing down it should still be quicker. Of course, that slow down may apply to the whole network would be the other possibility and I wouldn't want to affect John's connection.
Speaking of which I looked up Virgin's fair-use policy. I was rather afraid they'd have a bandwidth cap, which wouldn't be good at all, as I use a heck of a lot of bandwidth, as I've discussed before.
However, it seems they use throttling instead. The basic thing seems to be they have a peak period and if you download too much during that peak period, then they throttle back your connection speed.
It seems the amount you're allowed during this time is only 1.5gb, but the good (ish) thing is that it seems the peak period is in the afternoon and early evening. My heavy torrenting is mainly scheduled for the morning, so this may mean I'm okay. It could restrict what I get up to in the evening, though.
The plan, therefore, is to do it on a trial basis. If we hook it all up and see how it goes and if it badly affects John (or me, of course) then we can always not bother.
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
miserable
I'm feeling really miserable today.
I don't mean I'm ill, and I'm not particularly tired or sleep-deprived.
Plus the weekend didn't go badly or anything like that - indeed, if you set aside my utter failure to do any scanning, the weekend went positively well.
I'm just not in the mood for anything to day.
It's like a general feeling of... I dunno, dislike.
It feels as if at any moment I could snap. Like there's a tension; an fierce anger bubbling away below the surface. Like one small thing will just puncture the taut, balloon surface of my ego and BANG I'll go snap and shout at someone.
I feel like the whole world is against me; that no matter what I do I'll never win.
It's like I want to stick my middle finger up to the world and tell it to just go and fuck itself. Me, I'm going back to bed and tomorrow it better have sorted out its problems, or there'll be hell to pay.
So yeah, I'm not feeling my bright and chipper normal self today.
Not that my normal self is ever bright and chipper, or course, but you get the point.
I don't mean I'm ill, and I'm not particularly tired or sleep-deprived.
Plus the weekend didn't go badly or anything like that - indeed, if you set aside my utter failure to do any scanning, the weekend went positively well.
I'm just not in the mood for anything to day.
It's like a general feeling of... I dunno, dislike.
It feels as if at any moment I could snap. Like there's a tension; an fierce anger bubbling away below the surface. Like one small thing will just puncture the taut, balloon surface of my ego and BANG I'll go snap and shout at someone.
I feel like the whole world is against me; that no matter what I do I'll never win.
It's like I want to stick my middle finger up to the world and tell it to just go and fuck itself. Me, I'm going back to bed and tomorrow it better have sorted out its problems, or there'll be hell to pay.
So yeah, I'm not feeling my bright and chipper normal self today.
Not that my normal self is ever bright and chipper, or course, but you get the point.
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