Character Reference Video

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Lenovo is making lightweight Thinkpads! I - I want one.@_@ When I achieve candidacy next year I'm planning to invest in a new laptop, but I'm also supposed to buy a new car and get braces (well, Invisalign, not the metal kind). That means I'll be totally broke, especially if I also decide to visit Majo in CA (we're long overdue for an extended visit).

...I guess I should carry on saving. :p

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UGH, I just watched the worst adaptation of DAQ ever ever ever. It was a one-hour "special" that was released a year before the actual serial drama started (the one I babbled about an entry ago), and IT WAS HORRIBLE.

I seriously have NOTHING good to say about it. When I was watching the drama, you know, I griped a lot, but I mostly enjoyed it once I got over the changes. I sat through this special with a twisted look of WTF on my face, just hoping it would maybe redeem itself in the next 5 minutes, and it never did. First of all, someone on the writing staff clearly hates Kazuma. I have never seen a character so completely butchered.

The person playing Kazuma was different in this special (all the other characters were played by the same people in the serial drama) - it was an actor, not an actress, and let me say right now I totally prefer the actress, because this guy? すっごくかっこ悪い! He had this eternal look of Dumb on his face and he could barely act. (He also didn't have Kazuma's signature beanie. How could you have Kazuma without his beanie?? That is like Renji without his eyebrow tattoos, or Naruto without his bright orange jumpsuit!) It wasn't as if the girl who played Kazuma in the serial drama was a super duper awesome actress either, but she was tons better than this dude! And as for the character Kazuma, he was a total coward (I lost count of the times he's said,"This is scary" or "I'm scared~~~!"), he was an insensitive bastard, he acted all arrogant with no cause since he was USELESS, and he clung to Kinta whining the entire time for little to no reason, which was totally unsightly considering he looked older than Ryuu, Megu, or Kyuu.

Original Kazuma is 3 years younger than everyone else (7 years younger than Kinta). I think the only time he ever whined was when they had to hike through a dark tunnel for 30 minutes and he wanted people to wait up since he was lagging behind. Kazuma's also never once admitted to being scared - even when he actually was. He's ridiculously smart - he might not be as intuitive as Kyuu when it comes to on-the-spot deduction, but he's figured stuff out when people tell him things through the phone (classic armchair detective style^^).

( I rant more. )

This stupid thing was so bad it makes me angry. D:< And you know what's more annoying? The guy who plays Ryuu is Yamada Ryousuke, teen heartthrob, and I now am absolutely certain of this because his friggin' fangirls keep commenting on every episode of the drama with, "YAMADA <3 *melts*" or whatever. They then go on to say how this is like the best drama they've ever seen and blah blah blah. PLEASE.

I gotta do something to get the bad taste out of my mouth. :p Maybe I'll watch a few episodes of the anime. Incidentally, I totally maligned it the other day. I mean, the manga's still tons better, but the anime isn't so bad - not all of the anime originals were totally obvious mysteries. I guess the few stupid ones (usually having to do with bombs) really stuck out.^^;;;

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I found the ending credits for the Tantei Gakuen Q drama! :D Except the poster disabled embedding for some reason, so I can only offer you this link. It's not very good quality but you get the point. The little peaceful moments with each character individually and then together were well-done, I thought.^^ (Ignore the older folks who sort of show up in the middle.^^;;)

Ha, I didn't really pay attention to this before, but the main cast of 5 is incredibly bish! Man, these are really good-looking kids. Actually I don't even know if they are kids, exactly, but one of them is definitely a teen idol (Yamada something or another).

Well anyway. There you go, the video clip of the DAQ drama ending credits.

Yayoi has submitted her grant but today kind of sucked in general, mainly because I couldn't shake a bad mood. :p I handed out mid-term evaluations recently, and some of the student responses were just obnoxious. I don't feel personally attacked or anything, but it sucks the motivation out of me when the comments make it clear that some students only care about their stupid grades.

Meeeeh, whatever. I've spent enough time on that. I need to shower and get other things done!

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Freelance life can be tough. Long gaps between commissions. Accounts departments who just can't seem to find your invoice. Not to mention the ever-present need to get your work seen by the people who count.

Jonny Wan, a freelance illustrator from Sheffield, knows all about that. A graduate of the Manchester School of Art, he's constantly striving to ensure his unique illustrative style (think abstracted facial expressions, patterns, symmetry and hand-drawn lettering) snags the attention of creative directors everywhere – and he does so via Business Cards and Postcards from MOO.
( More )

You - you guys! DW's increased their free user icon limit from six to FIFTEEN! XD XD XD Also, they're planning to implement a "save draft" option and are working on it as we speak! If that actually gets pushed through, I will no longer have to post stupid unfinished "private" entries that clog up the front of my page! :D

(Like I have a seriously huge one about DAQ lurking right now.)

Oh, which reminds me for some reason: the 1st two days of November have come and gone, without a peep from me about NaNo. Ridiculously enough, despite being hugely distracted by DAQ and therefore less inspired to write, I am still planning on doing NaNo this year. It will just have to wait until 5th, when I hand in my NSF grant. :p

Now back to work!

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(As in, I actually wrote all this on Monday.)

For the past 4 days, I have been doing nothing but grading horrendously bad, undergraduate papers. I barely slept - I just sat in front of this screen, bleary-eyed and cursing the inept high school English teachers that these students must've had.

Anyway, enough about that. The point is, at 10:30 PM yesterday, I FINALLY FINISHED GRADING ALL 58 PAPERS.

I felt I deserved a treat after "the horror, the horror!" - so today I had Indian buffet for lunch, and then I spent the last 4 dollars in my wallet to buy Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. XD Shirley Jackson was the lady who wrote "The Lottery," one of the short stories I read in 9th grade English that left a deep impression on me. I'd also heard of this book from undulations, so that's two big pluses in its favor. :D It's supposed to be a creepy ghost story, so I'm kind of excited. XD

+++

The past two episodes of Inuyasha have been about Dakki, the youki-sucking sword or whatever, and it was such a boring arc in the manga that I couldn't bring myself to watch the anime rendition. So if you were waiting for my Hulu embeds, apologies - maybe this coming Saturday something more exciting will happen in IY world.^^;

Of course, the other reason I haven't been paying attention to IY (besides the grading and the grant writing and other grad school-related stuff) is because I've been sucked into DAQ. And I mean SUCKED. (Like...Dakki??)

I was pretty dissatisfied with how the anime ended (I get the strong impression that they ran out of funding), and I knew DAQ was originally a manga, so I hunted around for scanlations. Lo and behold, OneManga has up to chapter 39! (<--11/7/09: Oh hey, I actually linked to this several entries back. Dur. My memory is pots.) And if you can read Chinese, this site has all 22 volumes, plus the "2 years later" special manga! (Just a word of warning, volume 13's page order is FUCKED UP. It's a sign of my obsession dedication that I actually tried to read that volume anyway, and succeeded! But - but what else could I do?? The cute UFO story was in there!)

And, like, THE MANGA IS SO MUCH BETTER. Seriously. I enjoyed the anime when I watched it (obviously), but even before I read the manga, there were one or two mysteries where I said to myself, "Well, wait, that was kind of silly...or at least there wasn't much detective work going on." Turns out my intuition was pretty accurate - nearly all the ones I thought were a little off were anime originals. :p (The writing staff can't do mysteries, I guess.)

So anyway, whenever I had spare time, I read the manga. And then when I finished it - I read it again.@_@ I'm on my 5th reread for some of the arcs. :p I even went back to rewatch earlier episodes of the anime, although this time around I was wincing a little due to a few majorly OOC moments. All in all, I got pretty desperate for more official stuff.

DAQ was popular enough to be made into a drama as well, but I really didn't want to watch it. They made changes to some of the characters (among them my favorite) that would alter the original social dynamic. (Sorry, but when an 11 year old gets upgraded to 14, he's not going to act the same. :p) Also, the OP credits were unbelievably cheesy in that "I'm trying way too hard to be cool" way. Besides which, it's a live-action drama, which means the writers will totally play up the "drama" and downplay the "friendship" aspects of the Q class. In other words, they would pretty much kill the main reason I started to love this series beyond the whodunnit aspect.

Finally I got really desperate though *cough*, and I figured I'd give it a shot. Telling myself over and over to just prepare for a 14-year old Kazuma (...yeah, that's still really weird), I started to watch the 1st episode. You can find it here.

Incidentally, I've grown to really like the ending song, which I'm listening to right now. Unlike the OP, "Stand By Me" actually fits the original feel of DAQ - in terms of both the song and the credits. I can't seem to locate a clip of the ending, but you can find the full version of the song here. (It's a random MediaFire download I found on google. Hopefully it'll still work.)

( Cut for occasionally insane ranting about the jdrama. )

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I've....had.......a few interesting days after the high of Souplantation. Let's just say working out hard today was a good idea, I am now too tired to be mad or bitter or anything but tired and even sort of happy because I'm full.  Even though work was failtastic today, so much so I'm not even going to comment on it.

Oh, water company is adjusting our quota and giving me a credit on our bill, huzzah.

I am officially 2 days behind the sketch-a-day (ok, one day behind with nothing at all for today yet, so that makes two) and I've not done ANYTHING for NaNo yet. On the up side, I played around in Illustrator and it was much fun, and there's still one more coupon for Souplantation, so....

Now I will shower and see if I can get at least SOMETHING accomplished tonight. Times like these makes me really wish my laptop was functional, or that I had a new one on hand...

Majo

Last night, I saw something interesting on Solia I didn't expect, but is very cool. ^^

Apparently, the powers that be there are doing a thing where, upon creating the new monthly donation items, doing a thing each month in which if one creates an avatar using the new monthlies, they will use your avatar as the "model".

Allready, I'm very stoked, as even before that, I was really excited about one of the new items, one of which has a pose that looks like the helmets worn in Battle of the Planets/G-Force. Naturally, I just had to make an avatar around that. <3 I have a few of the item in question, and another pose it has is an energy blade. And, as a friend there and I have long been vocal proponents of lightsabers on the site, we're both pretty happy about that. ^_^

Link to Solia:

*Jedi mind trick* You want to click the banner ... XD

In other news, I'm also taking a crack at NanoWrimo. About the only thing I can say right now is that it involves an expedition to Saturn's moons. Other than that, I can't really say what direction I'll go in, and if it will be more 2001, or Aliens just yet. XD Guess I'd best get to writing, and see where I go!

NO PRINTER, DO NOT RUN OUT OF INK AT THIS HOUR. YOU ARE FAIL.

NO SUPPLY DRAWER, DO NOT RUN OUT OF BLACK INK AT THIS HOUR. YOU ARE EPIC FAIL.

I HAVE 3 FRESH CARTRIDGES OF COLOR INK, BUT NOT A SINGLE CARTRIDGE OF BLACK? WHAT THE FUCK.

MY HEAD HURTS.

Seven Semi-Simple Steps to Recovery

Step 1: Download Knoppix (a Linux LiveCD; bootable OS contained on CD).
Step 2: Download Obtain Through Legitimate Means Some Fancy CD-Burning Software
Step 3: Burn Knoppix as an Image
Step 4: Boot from Knoppix
Step 5: Hook up USB Drive. Hey, there's my files!
Step 6: Get Files
Step 7: Rejoice


Well, technically right now I am still on step 6. But yes. They are all there. Once I have the essentials backed up onto my main drive, I will attempt to see if I can't make my USB drive readable again. Otherwise I am not sure what to do... if I can't get the drive to be communicatable-with in Windows I am not sure how to reformat it so Windows can read it. Hmm. Oh well, Files are Priority One!


(PS: "IceWeasel" (compare: FireFox) is the name of the browser this version of Knoppix came with.)
(PPS: I really should be in bed.)


Update (2:14am): All crucial data is accounted for and recovered. I didn't bother with all my old game ISOs and such, I can get those again as needed. So basically I am back on track, except that I still have no idea how to get my drive readable by Windows again. Ah well, that is a struggle for some other time. Now is the time of the bed!

Update II (2:29am): I am SO glad to have my music back, omg. I am also amused that on my newly loaded and randomized playlist, the first song is Weird Al - Dare to be Stupid. XD

So just a few days ago I signed up for National Novel Writing Month. I'm using the story idea I've had sitting in my head for the last three years, Lunar: Transitions. I took another look and realized that for the most part, I'm actually more or less done with the character stuff, and just need to hammer out an official event timeline. I even know what type of 'voice' I'm going to use, so maybe having a deadline should get me to finally write it down.

And in the "Yay, victory!" category, today I wore a shirt I bought four years ago and only wore the once. I could only wear it the once back then because my neck was too big and I had trouble closing the top button properly. I slid it on this morning - and was pleasantly surprised to find my working out in the last couple years has done me some real good. Not a lick of trouble this time, so yay for exercise!

I heard back from the city of Copperas Cove about the Communcations Operator job, and am going to be heading to their police department for a briefing about the position on the 10th. I rather hope I get it, I'm finally ready to move out, and the paycheck will help with that. So anyway, that's what's up with me at the moment.

So, on Saturday I did indeed take the HD to a computer place, courtesy of Theo. They examined and said that the drive was perfectly readable under Linux, so if I wanted they could pull files off for me, or I could do it myself if I had a machine running Linux. Well, I technically don't, but I have a computer and I know how to *install* Linux, so, that's basically the same thing.

We're going to put it on Theo's machine, since he was getting ready to wipe it and put Windows 7 on it anyways. Hopefully he'll have time for us to do that today, and then maybe we can see about recovering the files. After that I can just reformat the drive and put everything back on, so that Windows can read it again.

It is very nice to know that stuff is not gone forever, and I do believe I have learned my lesson about not backing things up. I am gonna take advantage of that spindle of blank DVDs Theo bought and burn all the VITAL stuff like my word files.


Halloween was kind of sad. I ended up not doing anything, aside from playing D&D with the group. Theo invited me to come dress up and reverse trick-or-treat with them and I seriously wanted to go, but by that point in the evening I felt like total crap and just needed to sleep. Wish I had gone, though... I slept for 3 hours, woke up, could NOT go back to sleep, ended up awake all night, missed Church, and generally just feel pretty blah.

Aside from a fairly crappy weekend (outside of D&D and hanging out with Theo) things are going really well, so I won't complain too much, heh. Just take a deep breath and try to get some work done today. Man, I miss my music collection.

Life is good.

1. I finished my self-set goal for translations!
2. I got Reborn vol. 13 with the Border's 40% off coupon!
3. French fries!
4. Souplantation!!!!

Not doing anything for Halloween, so buying that candy was kinda pointless. Will feed it to co-workers *nod*.

And now...to roll around in post-buffet bliss.... (at least it was salad and soup and only one small bowl of chocolate lava cake with ice cream)

Majo

It's gone. I'm still numb. I went to update to Windows 7 today. The update went fine. But I left my USB drive hooked up. I always do when I reinstall, never had a problem.

Until today.

When Win7 was on the "completing installation" phase, it started popping up errors saying it was failing to save files... on my USB drive. It was stuck on "completing installation." Every few minutes it would pop up some new file save errors on my USB drive. So I hit the power button on my USB drive, not really expecting it to turn off (it usually won't when hooked up to the computer and the computer is on).

It turned off. I immediately got a couple more file errors, and then the concerning thing: a file save error for a file called "System Volume Information". Win7, with my drive off, immediately proceeded to the next step of installation.

But I was worried. I tried turning my drive on when Win7 booted up. Nothing. Computer wouldn't detect it. I unplug it from the computer, and Win7 tells me it needs to be formatted (it's unplugged). I try it in Theo's computer. His computer immediately stops responding and only starts responding again when the drive is removed. Same story on mine, if I make any attempt to access things like Disk Management with the drive attached.

My USB drive is gone. My backups are gone. My music is gone. Years of saved comics and pictures are gone. RvB is gone. All my utilities that I commonly install are gone. All my driver backups are gone. All my game saves are gone.

None of that really matters. There was only two folders with important info in them. Folder 1, my AD&D folder, containing all the campaign information for any campaign I had run or was running.

Folder 2, my word documents folder. Containing every story, every letter, every transcribed dream, every written idea, every saved conversation, and every poem I had ever written.

It's all gone. I know I should have backed up. But somehow, it never really struck me how much I would need to. I mean, my USB drive *was* the backup. It was just backing up things that no longer existed anywhere else. :(

I feel sick. Tomorrow I plan to go out with Theo and find a computer repair place, in the hopes that they can recover the files. They SHOULD be able to, I would think... nothing has been written to the drive, all the files should still be there. I just hope they can access it.

To answer a question I've been getting a lot lately: It's totally okay if you use these comics for icons and signatures and stuff! Seriously! As long as you're not claiming you drew it or something, you don't even have to credit me. It's okay!

So, um, here's the next part of the P4 comic. Just as a warning, this comic continues to have indirect spoilers in it!

( The Big Long Persona 4 Comic, Part 2 )

EDIT: If you're reading this, our maintenance is OVER! The problem was not found on our equipment, which means we'll have to work with our ISP to fix this small problem -- which also means another maintenance window in the future -- but at least we have eliminated our side.

Thank you everyone, and a special shout out to rekoil for giving me a great suggestion AND also the opportunity to feel like I've just called in to a local radio station.

Have a great day, night or afternoon wherever you may be.

---

Hi everyone, sorry for the late notice but I'm going to have to do some testing on 1 of our 4 internet circuits TONIGHT; Friday night or Saturday morning depending on which time zone you're in.

Most of us shouldn't notice any impact, though there may be some slowness or lag when I switch traffic on to our other ISP circuits and then another hit when I stop the tests. If a page won't load or times out, try hitting refresh 1 or 2 times and it should load then. If it doesn't work at all... trust me, I'll be typing really really really fast to try to undo whatever I just did. Hopefully you'll have some Halloween candy (if you're in the USA and celebrate that kind of thing) nearby to take away the bitterness of a small site outage. :(

Here's the handy-dandy Website That I Always Use to get a feel for when the maintenance will start in your area. Our site traffic historically dips on Friday afternoons until Saturday morning which is why we tend to pick this time for maintenance work.

( tech details )

status.livejournal.org will, of course be updated before and after the maintenance window. Or else marta will get mad at me. :D

bt

Woman demands state to give her back her car after near miss with death.

Oh come on, you just got hit by a huge cable and almost died. You think your primary outlook in life is getting your car troubles be paid for in full? Just buy a new comparable car and get on with your life. We don't want to hear you complain that your car was totaled.

Doodle dump of doodle doom - warnings this time: I cannot draw cats. *cry*

( KHR stuffs )

As usual, comments and crits welcomed!

Majo

I'd like to take a moment to introduce to you a game. Well, four games. Eight, if you count the fiddly bits.

Several years ago, Ben Croshaw (yes, that Ben Croshaw) released a game called 5 Days a Stranger. It was a horror game in the old LucasArts point-and-click style. And it was good. It spawned three sequels, and a handful of related games. Collectively, they are known as the John DeFoe Quadrilogy or the Chzo Mythos, depending on who you ask. For your convenience, I've bundled them all into a single ZIP file, or you can go to the official site and download them individually.