The Mac Attack

If my memory serves me correctly, Goku did receive some basic education as part of the turtle hermit training routine. (consults video library) Ah Ha! Here it is. In the episode "The turtle hermit way". Master Roshi trains the minds of his pupils as well as strengthening their bodies. The attached picture contains a screenshot from their "classroom".

[quote][i]Originally posted by Sara[/i] Dentistry seems it would be such a depressing profession...[/quote] That's why most dentists look down in the mouth! (bad joke, sorry) Anyway, like many others here shall have my wisdom teeth out. All three of them. I originally consulted the dentist about discomforts in my jaw (clicking etc). He concluded that the teeth weren't really the cause, yet they should be removed anyway to not trouble me in the future. This is next month. Oh, and if you want to speak of pain my sister had thrown me into a wall by my feet when I was young (by accident). I lived more than an hour away from the hospital so the commute was a pain. Another time, one of her friends had pushed down a flight of stairs. It didn't really hurt, but I pushed the tears because I really hated her. I know this joked about, but I actually was dropped on my head as a baby. This was actually more my fault though. I was in one of those bouncer things and was a bit overzealous.

[quote][i]originally posted by inferno[/i] darn you australia you have an awsome line up do you know if usa will have the same line up in the future on adult swim[/quote]It seems hardly likely for USA to follow in the footsteps of Australia. Usually it's the other way around. You have to remember that while we may get some shows which may differ and sound interesting to yours, we also miss out on titles like FLCL, Inuyasha and .Hack//Sign (only on DVD). I know many of these may not be airing at the moment, but they have in the past.

[quote][i]originally posted by Leh[/i] If they get hurt, then they can't blame anyone else.[/quote] But what in the case of the person giving details about others without them knowing it. If I could direct your attention to the "Aussie, aussie, aussie...and so on and so forth" thread in the Otaku Lounge, you'll see what I mean. A certain member (whom I wont mention as I'd feel too much like I was dobbing them in) started giving details about other people he knew in real life with full names and descriptions. Maybe I am making a mountain out of a mole hill, but I think people feel they are too secure here at OtakuBoards. Granted it isn't as bad as other sites, but the information divulged is on the web for anyone to access.

There are few anime themes which appeal to me. Some are: Kimi Wa Majutsushi (Are you a sorcerer?) from Orphen. This was a huge improvement over an already decent theme in the first season. A sets a really appropriate tone and has some well worked harmony (I play along on the piano to it). The opening theme to Haibane-Renmei. This is high quality classical music (something I have an appreciation for), but what really moves me is the harmony at the end. I'm not sure if it annoys me that it fades out at the best part, or maybe I'm supposed to feel that way. Technically it's not a song, but I wanted to mention it. Promises not Necessary from the Vision of Escaflowne. This has such an unusual melody and tone colour that invokes the strangest and yet the most intriguing of moods within me.

[quote][i]Originally posted by herbkir[/i] Are the anime in Australia edited for content or time, or do they run uncut? (^_*)[/quote] As far as I know, cartoon network Australia doesn't do any editing. It simply plays what was aired in America. You can tell this because the Adult Swim shows display an American PG15 classification notice in the top left corner (our classification system doesn't work that way). Tenchi Muyo, as I've already mentioned is the US Toonami Edit (indicated in the end credits). This still barely manages to fit into half an hour though, so it's possible the editing was for time. Cardcaptors, as many would know is heavily edited compared to the original Card Captor Sakura. We also get the Funimation dub of Dragonball and Dragonball Z. GT has yet to be aired (only available on DVD). Evangelion only recently came back on. Last saturday was the second episode. If my memory serves me correctly, it aired quite some time ago (on weeknights).

I'm still reletively new to the world of banner making, and I've attached my latest project. I'm kind of stuck though as I can see it's missing something, yet I'm not so sure what. If anyone has any ideas, I'd greatly appreciate it.

If anyone's interested in the current Cartoon Network Australia lineups, here you go: WEEKDAYS 7:00 am - Dragonball 4:30 pm - Pokemon 5:00 pm - Ultimate Muscle: The Kinnikuman Legacy 6:00 pm - Transformers Armada WEEKENDS 8:00 am - Hamtaro 4:00 pm - Pokemon 4:30 pm - Dragonball Z 5:00 pm - Cardcaptors 5:30 pm - Zoids: Chaotic Century ADULT SWIM (Friday Night) 10:00 pm - Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 10:30 pm - Cowboy Bebop 11:00 pm - Gasaraki ADULT SWIM (Saturday Night) 10:00 pm - Tenchi Muyo OAV (US Toonami Edit) 10:30 pm - Orphen 11:00 pm - Trigun 11:30 pm - Neon Genesis Evangelion This month, they're also having Dragonball Z marathons between the 22nd of December to the 24th. It airs between 8:30 am and 4:00 pm and covers the Great Saiyaman Saga to the Majin Buu Saga. I noticed a mistake in their advertising which I found amusing and have attached. PS - I wasn't happy that someone mentioned what happens at the end of Trigun without spoiler tags.

Oi, Oi, Oi! Yes, yes, I'm from Australia too. South-western New South Wales to be more precise. I come from a country town which claims to be the "ute capital of the world". Ugh, I can't wait to move next year (hopefully to Canberra or Melbourne).

Yes, some more appropriations! Good stuff! Hmm, maybe I'll have to think about changing my banner now with all this similar work coming through.

I was thinking the exact same thing (at least I think I am)! ADV repeat alot of their voice actors over differing series. For example, one of the first anime's I watched was Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 where an association between Spike Spencer's voice and Mackey was established. Later on I watched Orphen where the same voice was used again for Majic. Now I've started watching Evangelion and am being forced to make a third association to Spencer through Shinji. I've also recently started watching Gasaraki, another ADV dub. It's difficult to remember some characters, so I just call them by their equivalents in Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 e.g. I can hear a Mason and a Linna amongst them. These initial associations I made can sort of ruin the anime experience. For quite some time I thought Dortin (from Orphen) was female as he was voiced by Hillary Haag, withwhom I'd already established a connection as being Nene (BGCT2040). So to answer your question, yes I do find this in other animes.

Hey, another OtakuBoards appropriation! Except yours deals with subject matter rather than design (conversely to mine). I think it needs something in the background though, unless this is typical of the design features in GTA. The pink "version 7" is quite nice, and makes for a pleasing colour scheme. Overall, not too bad.

[quote][i]Originally posted by flint_djinni[/i] Besides, about the comic thing and the crazy kids: EVERYONE was reading comics, so, its obvious that 1/10 of then will go insane for unknown reasons and of course they will be reading comics.[/quote] Ha ha! Good point! I never thought of it that way. It was just something I found out watching the History Channel. The main problem here seems to be a prejudice based on misunderstanding. If you can get get a moment of their time I suggest they read this article at [url=http://www.mediajunkies.com/movies/anime/understand_anime_basics030300.shtml]Media Junkies[/url]. This clarified alot of things for me and certainly made me more open minded to some anime I would never have touched.

1 B 2 B 3 B 4 B --- 5 Once a Day 6 I think the rules are fine as they are 7 Yes. Although if someone's being vulgar purely for the sake of being vulgar than I think it could possible be removed. 8 I like it as it is, but if I had to choose, I would pick decentralized 9 No, the links are enough 10 No 11 Possibly 12 Yes 13 Otaku Anime 14 Hmm, I'm not so sure. I might use it if someone I knew was online 15 I don't have a cell phone, so no. Even if I did it would probably be too expensive 16 Yes, definitely. I missed out on Otaku Idol!! 17 Maybe a purely technology based category, which you could move the PC/Mac forum to. 18 Otaku Series. I probably wouldn't go far as to say to remove it, but I never visit there as the forum topics don't interest me. 19 Allowing the uploading of MIDI files. Possible MP3s as well (of course not for piracy). 20 9

[quote][i]Originally posted by Queen Asuka[/i] But do you really have to kill the innocent ones (spiders)? [/quote] I don't kill the innocent ones. If they don't bother me I wont bother them, but I am placed in situations where some action is necessary. For example, I once had a redback spider on my bed, which are about as deadly as they come. I had no other choice but to kill it, because it may very well have killed me. Sometimes I might put a bug outside, but this kind of action isn't any better because my dog eats anything, so the result is the same.

[quote][i]flint_djinni said:[/i] ...she was a Japanese movie [/quote] Wow, I wish my mother was a Japanese movie twelve years ago; that would've been cool! Don't worry, I'm not picking on you, I just thought it sounded funny (I started picturing it). Anyway, I still believe that if you need some sort of approval by your parents, then maybe you shouldn't be watching anime. The reason (or at least one I've been thinking about) parents are so protective over such a genre dates back to the 1950's. Comic books were very popular among the youth, but they were also very violent. Research at the time found that those in juvenal detention centres, and mental hospitals for the young all had one thing in common. They all read comic books. What soon followed was mass censorship, and the only kind of comic that really managed to survive well were superhero comics. My point is that alot of animes don't hold anything back. They can be explicitly violent, rude, crude and nude as they see fit. Your parents are only looking out for you. I'm not suggesting that you're going to end up insane, but there are some mentally disturbed people out there e.g. like the ones who perform massacres after playing 3D Shooters.

[quote][i]Queen Asuka posted:[/i] Do we eat dogs and cats? [/quote] Well, yes in some cultures they do e.g. Cambodia. I used to watch my father kill sheep when I was little. Collectively I'd seen the whole process from when a sheep had lived, died, was cut up, cooked, put on my plate and eaten. I suppose this kind of exposure during my young years sort of de-sensitised me to the whole process because now I don't really care. I can vividly remember the dead sheep lying on the ground twitching and kicking after the deadly cut had been made. While it was disturbing I still managed to tollerate it - but what was harder to tolerate was that it [spoiler]had purple blood[/spoiler]. I've also been out shooting with my dad. I once shot a wild pig and have watched my father put a duck "out of it's misery" by breaking it's neck. While all this may sound cruel, what we need to accept is that is a necessity of our lives. If we didn't have that sheep my family may have gone hungry for some time (livestock was used as an extra form of payment for my dad). And if we didn't get rid of those pigs or ducks, our crops may have been ruined that year; we would've been bankrupt and humans would miss out on their rice, wheat etc. You cannot have it both ways. Actually scratch that you can only have it one way. Without livestock the human race would suffer dearly from vitamin deficiencies and the like. I'm not really for the mistreatment the animals just for the sake of it though. I feel a terrible guilt in the back of my mind when I have to kill a spider. Just yesterday I almost killed a baby pigeon by stepping on it (we own show pigeons). I just left it in it's cage along with the others. My dad told me later that it probably died because I didn't put it back where it belonged. I didn't let it bother me as such though. I don't know much about PETA, nor did I watch the video, I just thought I should share something.

I used to do MIDI composition, but gave it up a while ago. I can say that for your first go, you're definitely better than I was for my first try. I do however have a few suggestions. -Try exploring out of the key of C. I realise that this may be easy to work in, but pieces will be more harmonically interesting if in another key. I say so because C is a very common key and so many, many dull melodies come out of it. That's my opinion anyway - I personally love working in minor keys. - Instead of creating counter melodies, try giving your accompaniments stronger harmonic and rhythmic roles e.g. your String Ensemble 1 in layer 2 could be harmonised in an SATB* form. - Vary your theme more. At the moment it's only based around a 2 bar theme which can only get you so far. If you want it be more interesting create some different melodic ideas and try to incorporate them. Alternatively you could keep your theme as a riff-like role (like you have) and give your accompaniments stronger melodic roles ie. make them louder and more significant. - Put in a sequence. This is more of a personal recommendation again because I love a good sequence. A sequence is where you repeat a melodic phrase at a different pitch. It's a simply technique which can be quite effective. I've attached a simple melodic sequence (in a zip file) to give you an idea of what I mean. - Intervals - One feature of melody writing you missed out here was the ability to explore intervals greater than a second or a third. Don't be afraid to take the occasional big leap (e.g. a fourth or a fifth) in your melodies. These are a couple of points I can think of at the moment. If you need any elaboration or perhaps some more advice, PM me. *SATB - Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass. This term actually applies more to chorale writings, but the same principles of harmony can be applied to the string sections of an orchestra.

I realise the chances of identity theft are quite low, but I also wanted to emphasise the case of stalkers as mentioned by Baron Samedi. [quote]...I think you're being a bit paranoid here[/quote] I'm not necessarily concerned with my own privacy, but the privacy of others. I would never tell anyone my full name or post my picture on the internet (although I did say my town name once to Baron Samedi). My concern was more for the people who don't know any better. Someone who could just rather stupidly give out their postal addresses, as an example. There are a lot of younger users here, and they may not have been educated on why they shouldn't do such things as of yet. Like I said I've had the issue of privacy permanently imprinted into my brain after constant study of it when I was at school. Now whenever I become a part of some form of internet enterprise, I make sure I thoroughly read their privacy policies because I'm more aware of how vulnerable communication systems are. [quote]Still, I'll post something about it in the rules, just so that it's there for new members to read.[/quote] Thanks James. Some recognition of the issue would be greatly appreciated.

An issue which has been of growing concern to me here at OtakuBoards is privacy. I believe that many many users divulge information about themselves without being aware of the risks involved. With threads such as "You", "Where are you from" and the OtakuBoards picture site, users can place themselves in great danger. The following is an extract from NetGuide Magazine, to further my point here: [i]Internet identity thieves don't need to steal your credit card number to defraud you. They can build a profile about you, just by using your information available on the Web. For example, your employer might list your name, job title and business contact details on their Web site. Criminals could check this information against your listing in the White Pages to confirm where you live and work. They could use this information to create false business accounts or postal addresses under your name. Do you post messages to Web forums or visit chat rooms? Crooks can visit these public forums and try to obtain further information about you, perhaps by reading the signature file attached to your messages, or even communicate with you directly via email or instant messaging to trick you into disclosing personal information about yourself.[/i] I would like to see some kind of warning system; perhaps a Sticky thread or section outlining privacy/security issues in the "rules". The main reason I've brought this up is because I've studied social and ethical issues in relation to Information Systems to death, and think the otaku here should be aware of the risks.

I want to emphasise that this person never said they were accessing OtakubBoards or TheOtaku, just general anime sites. In many cases as well, these kinds of sites can be relevant to school. In my english class I studied "Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040" in reference to the topic "Powerplay". In visual arts I also researched the differing styles that anime encompassed, to assist me with my body of work. Without access to the internet, I surely wouldn't have been able to successfully complete my research. I also want to re-emphasise that many schools allow students recreational use of the internet, which the person here may well have used it for. I totally agree that school work should come before internet hobbies, but I think many of you are assuming too much about what this person does.

I can understand why your school would do this. Even without criteria like "hentai", there are many sites which are just not suitable for a school environment. For example a friend of mine was using the school's computers to look up manga (although he didn't know it was called that). He typed into google something like "Japanese Comic Book" and almost all of his search results were porn related. I've had personal problems with this censorship when I was at school as well. My friends would type my name into a search engine. The first result was a geniune site about me and whenever they clicked the link the found themselves confronted by a message stating that this site contained pornography. I [b]definitely[/b] know that my page had no such thing on it. This caused some teasing, but that's what it's like in my friend group - nothing's taken too seriously. I'd recommend you consult your school's acceptable internet use policy. You could possibly find that such censorship goes against the conditions you agreed to in the policy. This way you actually can "fight back". I agree that a school is a place of learning, but many schools also allow students the use of the internet for recreational purposes e.g. during breaks between classes.

[quote]It allows people to associate with the image, yet at the same time, draw something new from the alterations[/quote] Exactly! That's what appropriations are all about: creating something new based on the association to the original. The text font for the background "Mac Attack"/"OtakuBoards" was Century Gothic with a bold emphasis and without any anti-aliasing. I wasn't exactly the same, but it did the job. The text at the side was extracted from the original character-by-character, except for "v" and "w". These were alterations of the characters "u" and "m" respectively. What do you think of the ethical implications of appropriations? Do you believe it's okay to use other people's art as your own?

[I]Sigh...this is the second time I've had to write this. I'd just finished writing a long message the first time and then my computer froze. Oh well, I'll try to give you the gist of it:[/I] Through my studies of visual arts in High School I became quite interested in Postmodernism. One particular characteristic of postmodernism is to appropriate: using (or being inspired by) an existing image and then adjusting it to become your own. One of my favourite pieces was Yasumasa Morimura's "Monna in the Third Place" (below). Here he decomposes and appropriates a popular image of beauty and reverses the traditional icon and themes. [img]http://www.studiolo.org/Mona/ images/MORI25a.jpg[/img] EDIT: If you can't see the image above go to [url]www.studiolo.org/Mona/[/url] images/MORI25a.jpg using your browser. I enjoy appropriations myself as they allow me to "rip off" or poke fun at an artist, subject matter or style. In my recent body of work (currently in exhibition) I attacked "fake emotion" in art. The work uses stereotypical imagery and expression to parody the lack of depth many contemporary artists hold in their works. I've currently been working on a few appropriations in designing a new banner for myself (I get bored with any particular one quite quickly). "Microsoft Excel Saga" is one (although I've never seen Excel Saga) as well as a Fungry's banner (from CNNNN). I've made a "rip off" version of the otaku boards main image (attached) as well. Here I replaced the character with my own (the character present in all my banners) and decided to use the textual space at the right to list some of my favourite animes. I'd be very interested to know what people think about appropriations and postmodern art in general.

First of all I have to say that nowhere in that article, did the woman say she was suing Cartoon Network. She simply had a consumer complaint, which is quite common for many television networks. Do adults criticize anime? No, or not at least in my case. It's more the ignorant elitists who believe anything animated is a cartoon; a broader faction than parents. Even on these boards I hear the word cartoon applied to anime, which may be appropriate in some cases, but certainly not in most. The defining characteristic of a cartoon is that it caricatures some subject. I think of titles such as Cowboy Bebop, Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 and Gasaraki and not such a characteristic applies. I don't know how many times I've heard of children complaining about their parents disdain for them to watch anime. This disdain however is justified. There are many organisations who send a clear message that many animes are not for kids. When cartoon network in Australia expanded their Adult Swim line up to Saturday nights, the main message in their advertising that this was "japanimation not for kids". Even the classifications on DVDs and video cassettes indicate the true audience with ratings such as M15+ and MA. I remember once when I sent my younger brother to pick up the latest Dragonball Z Movie from our local video store (the deal was that if I paid for it, he had to get it). A few minutes after he left I received a call from the clerk at the video store asking for permission for an underage individual to hire an M rated DVD. I explained the DVD was actually for me, and so he got away with it. This was an excellent response from the clerk in relation to appropriate audiences; he was intent and knew well that this kind of program wasn't suitable for children. So what's the point I'm trying to make here. It's that I believe that all you children (let's face it - there are alot on these message boards) are displaying some kind of guilt by complaining about how their parents dissaprove of anime. These children know very well these programmes aren't suited to them, and so defend them with a haste when their tastes are questioned against what they should be watching. I don't believe parents try to hide their children from the violence and so forth in the real world. They simply want to make a less violent future. The theory is that if you aren't exposed to violence during your childhood, the less violent adulthood you'll lead, and therefore a happier world for all. Yes, I am an adult, and so my opinions may be a little more biased. I only started watching anime earlier this year, and even then I found it pretty full on; the kind of thing I'd never let my children watch (if I had any). If these children do wish to watch anime, wait to you childhood is over. I'm sure then you can appreciate it on another level - as the audience it was meant to be for.