I've not really been getting stuck into the scanning like I'd hoped.
The hope was that with my getting to the animage's, which relatively easy and quick to scan, I'd blast through them. The flaw is of course that the hope in question is entirely dependent on me actually sitting down and doing some scanning - quicker to scan they may be, but if I'm watching telly or reading a book, they ain't quicker at all.
I have done a bit, though, so I've done some mini-reviews of the fansubs I watched. I'm actually rapidly approaching the point where I'm going to run out of fansubs. I'm guessing I'll probably have a proper crack at the series that are on Crunchyroll until the new season rolls around.
Amagami SS
I wasn't entirely sure what to make of this.
It seemed to be one of those series you get occasionally that tries to do the more standard anime plotlines in a more serious way. The last one I remember like this was White Album, which seemed to be to be trying to be a harem show, but a kind of grown-up harem show.
So, in other words, the male protagonist seemed to have a bevy of hot chicks (idols, no less) in love with him, but it did away with the 'childish' fan-service. I didn't really like it and initially I didn't really like Amagami SS either.
I'm not sure if White Album was, but Amagami appears to be based on one of those girl-chasing/dating type games and so you've got that element of their being lots of girls around. However, the boy appears to really only be interested in the one girl. Well, I say that - there's something of a suggestion that there are going to be multiple 'arcs', but I didn't watch far enough to be sure.
Anyway, I guess the point is that this is a fairly gentle, fan-service light romance anime with a dash of humour. It didn't strike me as ground-breaking, but also didn't really offend me either.
Asobi Ni Ikuyo
Asobi seemed to be a bit of a mess.
The distinct impression I got was that the writer wanted to make a proper science fiction show with aliens and conspiracies and all sort of stuff like that, but it's also a fairly generic romantic-comedy harem & instant girlfriend type of show.
Whether this was because the writer genuinely wanted to combine the two, or he felt he had to include the harem stuff to give it appeal I don't know. It could even have been at his editors insistence (from what I understand editor's are pretty powerful in Japan). Or of course, because the anime is based on a series of light novels and I've expressed before that the majority of light novels are clearly generic crap, it could be because of that.
Anyway, the point is that the series ends up being a horrible mish-mash of the genres that just doesn't really work.
It also manages to completely ignore what are clearly story telling requirements. It's like when people are meeting the alien cat girl (oh no - more cat girls, like there haven't been enough of those in recent seasons!) no-one really questions that she's got cat ears and a tail (note that she's got cat ears and normal ears :/) or what she's wearing or anything.
And normally they at least try to give some reason why the cat girl likes the milquetoast lead, but here there's nothing - he's not specifically kind to her or anything, she basically just gets in to bed with him and that's it. There's also no reason given why all his friends set out to rescue her - you'd expect her to have done them a favour or been nice to them or something, but nope - they just decide to rescue her.
To add insult to injury, even though this is clearly meant to be a fan-service heavy show they're doing that horribly annoying thing of obscuring the fan-service really badly with beams of sunlight, etc. This therefore renders the only remaining reason you might have kept watching null and void. Especially since there doesn't seem to be an uncensored version kicking about either.
Friday, 13 August 2010
Thursday, 12 August 2010
weird body stuff
I had a very odd moment on Tuesday where I suddenly felt extremely dizzy.
I don't specifically know what brought it on, but the last time I had this feeling it was because I was hungry and I certainly ate a banana and felt better, but that could have been coincidence.
I've actually been examining my diet at I've been slightly puzzled that I haven't been loosing weight. See, while I'm not on a properly controlled diet I have basically been living off of salad and strawberries and yet there's been no shrinkage of my waistline.
The thing I discovered was that bread is incredibly high in calories. See, a while back I got a bread maker with the intention of using it to bake fresh bread regularly that I would primarily use for sandwiches at work. Bread is one of the things I find most difficult to manage properly as a bachelor.
I hate stale bread, but it's horribly inconvenient to buy bread every day. Plus it's difficult to buy bread in sensible portions for a single person - loafs are too big and go stale before I finish them and rolls tend to be sold in packs that are either too small or too big.
The perfect solution I thought was therefore to get the bread maker and make bread when I needed it. The problem has been that even the smallest loaf it has a recipe that is actually quite big (and it takes 3 hours to run through). Plus, because it's home-made bread it goes stale really quickly, which means I've ended up baking a new loaf most weekdays, having half for sandwiches and then eating the rest along with my salad in the evening.
Well, as noted, my research revealed that bread is actually incredibly energy dense. So that small loaf I was making turned out to have more than 1,200 calories in terms of flour alone. When you add in the extra bits you need to make bread, like milk, it's probably more like 1,300 calories, which means that one small loaf is more than half of the daily total calorie allocation for an adult man.
So it's no wonder my weight hasn't been dropping - where I thought by having the salad I was bringing my calorie intake way below that 2,500 in fact I was probably only bringing it in line with it. In other words, previously, I'd been eating more than that 2,500, hence why my waistline has steadily crept up.
So I therefore resolved to come up with a solution, because this current situation is daft. And that solution has been to substitute the bread with something else that's a lot less calorie intensive, but is still quite filling.
I'm actually too embarrassed to say what it is, especially as I'm still experimenting. The weird thing, though, is that even though I hadn't actually started the proper substitution until mid-week I seem to have started feeling hungry like I was on a diet already. I mean, I've been feeling ravenously hungry almost continuously since the weekend, and it's not like I've been doing any exercise or anything.
Hence, I believe, the feeling dizzy. It's like it's totally psychosomatic - because I'm thinking about cutting down the calories, my body has decided to start behaving like it's on a starvation diet already and making me hungry, which is just bizarre.
I don't specifically know what brought it on, but the last time I had this feeling it was because I was hungry and I certainly ate a banana and felt better, but that could have been coincidence.
I've actually been examining my diet at I've been slightly puzzled that I haven't been loosing weight. See, while I'm not on a properly controlled diet I have basically been living off of salad and strawberries and yet there's been no shrinkage of my waistline.
The thing I discovered was that bread is incredibly high in calories. See, a while back I got a bread maker with the intention of using it to bake fresh bread regularly that I would primarily use for sandwiches at work. Bread is one of the things I find most difficult to manage properly as a bachelor.
I hate stale bread, but it's horribly inconvenient to buy bread every day. Plus it's difficult to buy bread in sensible portions for a single person - loafs are too big and go stale before I finish them and rolls tend to be sold in packs that are either too small or too big.
The perfect solution I thought was therefore to get the bread maker and make bread when I needed it. The problem has been that even the smallest loaf it has a recipe that is actually quite big (and it takes 3 hours to run through). Plus, because it's home-made bread it goes stale really quickly, which means I've ended up baking a new loaf most weekdays, having half for sandwiches and then eating the rest along with my salad in the evening.
Well, as noted, my research revealed that bread is actually incredibly energy dense. So that small loaf I was making turned out to have more than 1,200 calories in terms of flour alone. When you add in the extra bits you need to make bread, like milk, it's probably more like 1,300 calories, which means that one small loaf is more than half of the daily total calorie allocation for an adult man.
So it's no wonder my weight hasn't been dropping - where I thought by having the salad I was bringing my calorie intake way below that 2,500 in fact I was probably only bringing it in line with it. In other words, previously, I'd been eating more than that 2,500, hence why my waistline has steadily crept up.
So I therefore resolved to come up with a solution, because this current situation is daft. And that solution has been to substitute the bread with something else that's a lot less calorie intensive, but is still quite filling.
I'm actually too embarrassed to say what it is, especially as I'm still experimenting. The weird thing, though, is that even though I hadn't actually started the proper substitution until mid-week I seem to have started feeling hungry like I was on a diet already. I mean, I've been feeling ravenously hungry almost continuously since the weekend, and it's not like I've been doing any exercise or anything.
Hence, I believe, the feeling dizzy. It's like it's totally psychosomatic - because I'm thinking about cutting down the calories, my body has decided to start behaving like it's on a starvation diet already and making me hungry, which is just bizarre.
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
confessions of a dangerous mind
If you happen to have seen my last Wednesday mini-review, you will have seen that last week's DVD rental was Human Nature, which was written by Charlie Kaufman. This week's rental was Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, which was also written by Charlie Kaufman.
I've had this happen before with the rentals - I particularly remember getting a whole bunch of films starring Jason Statham in a row, for example. I don't mind, as it can be interesting to watch films like that, but it does make me wonder how the LoveFilm system works.
Anyway, this review is meant to be about Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, so what did I think of it? Well, I thought it was okay.
One of the thing I enjoyed about the Kaufman films I've seen is the blending of realities and dreams and the messing about with perceptions. So in Being John Malkovich there's this whole thing of a messed up office space and a portal that leads into John Malkovich's head. Once in his head you perceive reality from his point of view until it eventually spits you out.
In Eternal Sunshine it's all about a guy reliving all the memories he had of a girl he fell in love with while those memories are being erased. In Adaptation you've got Kaufman himself mixing up the process of writing an adaptation of a novel and getting wrapped up in that adaptation itself.
I mention this because I was sort of hoping Confessions would also be like that. Human Nature seemed to suffer because although it was meant to be a bit like that as well, the reality it was grounded in was just plain silly itself.
In Confessions you've got a story about a TV producer who made a lot of successful game shows who then wrote an autobiography where he basically claimed to also be a CIA assassin. Surely that's ripe for all sorts of reality bending exploits, right? Is the assassination stuff a deliberate invention, or the working of a paranoid mind? Did it really happen or not?
But it's not done like that - instead, the whole thing is squarely presented as if it's real. And while that's entertaining enough, it also acts to undermine itself. I mean, let's put it this way - Chuck Barris, the guy who invented Blind Date (it was called the dating game in its original American incarnation)claims he's also assassinated 30-odd people and this is pretty much presented as being true in the film. How could that ever actually be true?
I actually read that Kauffman wasn't happy with how George Clooney (who directed it) had fiddled with the script, so I downloaded the script and gave it a read through. As is often the case with these things, it seems to me like some of the changed stuff helps and some hinders.
In the original script Chuck is a relentlessly unpleasant man and the film paints him as more strings to his bow, but some key points in the script, like him killing one of the Blind Date contestants are seriously fiddled with in ways that don't quite make sense.
Anyway, the point is I think it would have worked better if it had been more open-ended with more obvious use of is it fantasy or is reality type questions, but it does still work as is.
I've had this happen before with the rentals - I particularly remember getting a whole bunch of films starring Jason Statham in a row, for example. I don't mind, as it can be interesting to watch films like that, but it does make me wonder how the LoveFilm system works.
Anyway, this review is meant to be about Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, so what did I think of it? Well, I thought it was okay.
One of the thing I enjoyed about the Kaufman films I've seen is the blending of realities and dreams and the messing about with perceptions. So in Being John Malkovich there's this whole thing of a messed up office space and a portal that leads into John Malkovich's head. Once in his head you perceive reality from his point of view until it eventually spits you out.
In Eternal Sunshine it's all about a guy reliving all the memories he had of a girl he fell in love with while those memories are being erased. In Adaptation you've got Kaufman himself mixing up the process of writing an adaptation of a novel and getting wrapped up in that adaptation itself.
I mention this because I was sort of hoping Confessions would also be like that. Human Nature seemed to suffer because although it was meant to be a bit like that as well, the reality it was grounded in was just plain silly itself.
In Confessions you've got a story about a TV producer who made a lot of successful game shows who then wrote an autobiography where he basically claimed to also be a CIA assassin. Surely that's ripe for all sorts of reality bending exploits, right? Is the assassination stuff a deliberate invention, or the working of a paranoid mind? Did it really happen or not?
But it's not done like that - instead, the whole thing is squarely presented as if it's real. And while that's entertaining enough, it also acts to undermine itself. I mean, let's put it this way - Chuck Barris, the guy who invented Blind Date (it was called the dating game in its original American incarnation)claims he's also assassinated 30-odd people and this is pretty much presented as being true in the film. How could that ever actually be true?
I actually read that Kauffman wasn't happy with how George Clooney (who directed it) had fiddled with the script, so I downloaded the script and gave it a read through. As is often the case with these things, it seems to me like some of the changed stuff helps and some hinders.
In the original script Chuck is a relentlessly unpleasant man and the film paints him as more strings to his bow, but some key points in the script, like him killing one of the Blind Date contestants are seriously fiddled with in ways that don't quite make sense.
Anyway, the point is I think it would have worked better if it had been more open-ended with more obvious use of is it fantasy or is reality type questions, but it does still work as is.
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
gadge
So a new series of the gadget show started the other week.
It's good to have the show back and it's a really long run - they're going to be going right up until Christmas time, which is around 20-odd weeks. They've even got a new presented - Pollyanna Woodward. She's very pretty, but she at this early stage she also seems quite bright and a good presenter as well - I find it a bit cringeworthy when presenters are just a pretty face.
I must say it's quite interesting that they're adding another presenter. By my reckoning that makes 5 on the TV show itself and then I believe there's a web episode presenter person too. I've never really had much joy out of 5's online thing, so I've never watched any other webisodes.
Anyway - 6 presenters and a 20-odd episode run suggests the show is going from strength to strength. Given the recent take-over of five and the resultant proclamations that they would slash-and-burn a lot of staff in order to make the station profitable I hope that means the gadget show is safe.
It'd be a real shame if it gets axed as there aren't really any other shows that do what it does. Plus less Suzy Perry on the telly would be a bad thing.
I ended up recording the last episode of Sherlock, because as mentioned yesterday I was more than a little tired this last the weekend. However, I have been doing some googling on it and there's been a lot of praise, which I would wholeheartedly back.
Hopefully that means there'll be a new series commissioned soon. And hopefully it won't just be three episodes. I can kinda appreciate that they didn't want to take the risk of having a longer run, especially with them each being an hour-and-a-half each, but the next lot needs to have more episodes in it - three's just not enough.
They could achieve that partly by making them each an hour long - not that the extra half hour is wasted, but hour long episodes (with maybe just the first and last being feature length?) would work just as well, I think.
I think what makes the show work is that it's got a really good grounding in Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes but with just enough bringing it up-to-date to make it feel fresh at the same time. Plus the performances have been great too and the writing is pretty good - Moffat's first episode was particularly good, but then I've known he was an excellent writer for ages, so that wasn't much of surprise.
I also watched the first episode of "The Deep" over the weekend. It's taken an absolute hammering by the critics and I can kinda understand why. When I watched it I think I had my usual reactionary thing of "well, this isn't as bad as everyone says" but that doesn't mean I thought it was good.
I had a few problems with it. First off, the sub they're in is way too high-tech and looks more like a spaceship than a research submarine. Second, the crew doesn't feel realistic - they didn't really strike me as scientists, engineers or submariners. Certainly they don't seem to act in a professional way or to even use common sense or to think about things in a logical way. They also seemed to have found themselves in a bit of an over-wrought soap opera.
The only thing that makes it interesting is the science fiction elements and I've a horrible suspicion that these are only interesting because they're unexplained. When they are explained I wouldn't be surprised if those explanations are more than a little daft.
It's good to have the show back and it's a really long run - they're going to be going right up until Christmas time, which is around 20-odd weeks. They've even got a new presented - Pollyanna Woodward. She's very pretty, but she at this early stage she also seems quite bright and a good presenter as well - I find it a bit cringeworthy when presenters are just a pretty face.
I must say it's quite interesting that they're adding another presenter. By my reckoning that makes 5 on the TV show itself and then I believe there's a web episode presenter person too. I've never really had much joy out of 5's online thing, so I've never watched any other webisodes.
Anyway - 6 presenters and a 20-odd episode run suggests the show is going from strength to strength. Given the recent take-over of five and the resultant proclamations that they would slash-and-burn a lot of staff in order to make the station profitable I hope that means the gadget show is safe.
It'd be a real shame if it gets axed as there aren't really any other shows that do what it does. Plus less Suzy Perry on the telly would be a bad thing.
I ended up recording the last episode of Sherlock, because as mentioned yesterday I was more than a little tired this last the weekend. However, I have been doing some googling on it and there's been a lot of praise, which I would wholeheartedly back.
Hopefully that means there'll be a new series commissioned soon. And hopefully it won't just be three episodes. I can kinda appreciate that they didn't want to take the risk of having a longer run, especially with them each being an hour-and-a-half each, but the next lot needs to have more episodes in it - three's just not enough.
They could achieve that partly by making them each an hour long - not that the extra half hour is wasted, but hour long episodes (with maybe just the first and last being feature length?) would work just as well, I think.
I think what makes the show work is that it's got a really good grounding in Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes but with just enough bringing it up-to-date to make it feel fresh at the same time. Plus the performances have been great too and the writing is pretty good - Moffat's first episode was particularly good, but then I've known he was an excellent writer for ages, so that wasn't much of surprise.
I also watched the first episode of "The Deep" over the weekend. It's taken an absolute hammering by the critics and I can kinda understand why. When I watched it I think I had my usual reactionary thing of "well, this isn't as bad as everyone says" but that doesn't mean I thought it was good.
I had a few problems with it. First off, the sub they're in is way too high-tech and looks more like a spaceship than a research submarine. Second, the crew doesn't feel realistic - they didn't really strike me as scientists, engineers or submariners. Certainly they don't seem to act in a professional way or to even use common sense or to think about things in a logical way. They also seemed to have found themselves in a bit of an over-wrought soap opera.
The only thing that makes it interesting is the science fiction elements and I've a horrible suspicion that these are only interesting because they're unexplained. When they are explained I wouldn't be surprised if those explanations are more than a little daft.
Monday, 9 August 2010
ooh, my aching back
See, this is one of my problems when it comes to weekends.
Last Friday I explained that we were having a clear out day at work. This basically involved going through lots of cupboards and either throwing stuff away, sending it for recycling or putting it on the burn pile.
As the name suggests, the burn pile is a huge mass of paper that one of the bosses is going to set fire too. It's not exactly environmentally friendly, but there's so much of it that they'd charge at the recycling centre, if they were to accept it at all.
The problem I was referring to was that I also posted on Friday about how I was going to go through some of the crates of stuff - the comics specifically - and get them on e-bay. But that was a stupid plan.
See, the clearout was bloody hard work and also involved a hell of a lot of bending down. This meant my back ached like a bastard on Saturday - so much so that I was hobbling about trying not to bend my back under any circumstances.
The stupid is because I should have thought about it properly and not made the plan to do that stuff. By making the plan and then failing to even get close to doing it, I end up feeling like the weekend was wasted.
Especially since all I really did was sit about watching telly and occasionally playing games. But if I'd really thought about Friday, I could have decided beforehand that that's what I would do and then I wouldn't feel guilty now.
Ah well. My back feels pretty okay now - there's still a bit of a twinge, but nothing like as bad.
Last Friday I explained that we were having a clear out day at work. This basically involved going through lots of cupboards and either throwing stuff away, sending it for recycling or putting it on the burn pile.
As the name suggests, the burn pile is a huge mass of paper that one of the bosses is going to set fire too. It's not exactly environmentally friendly, but there's so much of it that they'd charge at the recycling centre, if they were to accept it at all.
The problem I was referring to was that I also posted on Friday about how I was going to go through some of the crates of stuff - the comics specifically - and get them on e-bay. But that was a stupid plan.
See, the clearout was bloody hard work and also involved a hell of a lot of bending down. This meant my back ached like a bastard on Saturday - so much so that I was hobbling about trying not to bend my back under any circumstances.
The stupid is because I should have thought about it properly and not made the plan to do that stuff. By making the plan and then failing to even get close to doing it, I end up feeling like the weekend was wasted.
Especially since all I really did was sit about watching telly and occasionally playing games. But if I'd really thought about Friday, I could have decided beforehand that that's what I would do and then I wouldn't feel guilty now.
Ah well. My back feels pretty okay now - there's still a bit of a twinge, but nothing like as bad.
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