The Mac Attack

The school I went to was pretty much like the one described by Cloricus, but with moderations as it was in a rural area. I say was because I finished high school last week!!! Anyway, I was thinking about asking a question and this thread seemed relevant. My sister told me that in New York schools they've had to re-educate children on how to speak English because of the highly colloquial diction they have adopted. Now they learn "English" as they would "Spanish" or "Japanese". I was wondering if there was any truth to this comment.

Okay then, here's one I was considering for inclusion into my signature. It isn't really based on any particular anime, but encompasses my name and the only image I had on my computer which resembled my appearance (I don't really want to pretend I'm someone else). The image is from [url]www.advfilms.com[/url] and is a character from the AD Police series. Many people make banners which have too much going on in them, so I tried to keep this one rather simple.

When erasing from an image on a top layer (ie. your character), don't use a brush that's so hard (this causes some aliasing). This will make the edges of your character more smooth against the background. Otherwise, your background is excellent and even though the text didn't turn out as you wished, it still looks rather good.

I think it could stand to be better balanced - note the space between the top of the banner and the character on the left compared to the right. I imagine that if this was taken from a larger picture (e.g. a wallpaper), that the balance would be created through the characters feel being equidistant from the bottom, but as it stands here it can be a little awkward. I also agree with Baron Samedi. As the background colour is quite light and the background colour on Otakuboards is white, it needs better definition of where you banner starts and where the OB Background colour ends. Generally speaking though, it's not too bad. EDIT - then again, this is coming from a guy who can't even get his banner to work.

I'm a big fan of media music (ie. film, television etc) and there are many anime themes that often find themselves on my compilation CDs. I often play these on piano and use them in my personal multimedia productions. Here are a few: Sorcerous Stabber Orphen - Kimi Wa Majutsushi (aka "Are you a sorcerer?" - this second opening theme enthrals me with some good chord progressions and melodies) Gasaraki - Message #9 (I never really watched Gasaraki, but the theme sets a tone very well) Dragonball Z (Bruce Faulconer) - Super Buu Evil Buu (Faulconer's variation of a theme with disonant harmonies captivated me) Cowboy Bebop - The Full Version of Tank (the shortend one irritates me as it takes the end phrase of the saxophone out of context) Stella by Moor (it produces some really emotive harmonies) Bad Dog No Biscuits (This suited the chase scene in "Stray Dog Strut" exceptionally well) Doggy Dog (This makes me laugh - I keep imagining an African tribe dancing around a fire singing this) Go Go Cactus Man (I thought she hit the mark spot on here with a parody of a Spaghetti Western. The modulation at the end is quite moving) Flying Teapot (an all round pleasant song) Wo Qui Non Coin (I'd never heard anything quite like it before, so it get's points for quirkyness and originality) Chicken Bone (probably the best song about a chicken bone I've ever heard) Call Me Call Me (This song was of exceptional quality. It reminded me of something you could hear in the top ten charts) Space Lion (I liked this mostly because it reminded me of the Jupiter Jazz episodes) Trigun - Sound Life (It may not sound that good on it's own, but it reminds of Rem [I think that's her name - I'm only half way through] everytime. There's also another piece from Trigun I like, yet I don't know the name - I think it was used at the climax of "Escape from Pain" so if somebody has a name, I'd be very much appreciative) There are many more, but these are all I can think of at the moment.

[quote]but some companies *cough* ADV*cough* COMPLETELY change the script[/quote] I thought ADV did a really good job Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, and wouldn't have even thought Orphen was poorly dubbed until this comment. So far the worst dub I've seen is the Tenchi Muyo OAV, and you can tell this without even seeing the original. At many instances it seemed so obvious what the characters were "really" meant to be saying. Also at times many voices weren't synchronised well with the mouth movements. I'm inclined to agree that Dragonball Z was poorly dubbed, but it was still enjoyable in it's own right (as is Bruce Faulconer's music which I quite enjoy, in spite of many claims of it not being as good as the original).

I've seen one or two episodes as it's currently being aired on Adult Swim in Australia. I honestly found it kind of boring though, but I do like the Message #9 intro. I haven't seen NGE to compare (gasps), but I have only so much money to spend to anime.

I must admit that the shortened version of Tank! used in the opening of Cowboy Bebop is not that good. Mainly because of the absense of the saxophone solo. Without it the small melodic phrase from the sax at the end is taken out of context and sounds somewhat irritating. I've also heard some of (I haven't seen it yet though) Voices from Macross Plus, which sounds promising. Sorcerous Stabber Orphen has very nice themes (in both opening and ending, season one and two), even if it did remind me of Inspector Gadget. If I can remember correctly these themes were actual popular J-Pop songs, which reasons why they would be of high quality

[quote]And yes, we have kangaroos and koalas hopping all over the place, particularly in the street. We have road crossings for animals. And we all speak like Steve Irwin. "G'Day mate" Baron Samedi[/quote] I wondered how many people wouldn't pick up the sarcastic tone in this. I live in Australia too (New South Wales) and I can assure you that none of this is the case (I loathe the Australian stereotype).

A while ago a friend and I were at a seminar given by a famous poet. My friend and I were making jest of him to ourselves all the way through (he had an amusing accent and some of his poetry was quite out there). What we discovered later was that he could hear us. At a point towards the end during the question session, he (the poet) was annoyed with the lack of questions and said "Now, c'mon use me...". To this my friend replied "...and abuse me!". The poet quickly responded with a "No, don't abuse me, just use me!". We both covered our faces in the realisation of our actions. This perhaps wasn't my most embarrasing moment, but it's one I could think of at the moment.

Don't get me wrong, I fully support the American custom of Trick or Treating on Halloween - when it stays in America. In Australia we're exposed to much of American culture through the media, and now what I've seen on halloween are those few children who've begun trick-or-treating. For example, we had a group of young ghouls and the like, at our doorstep the other day, who said "Trick or treat" with hopeful tones. We could only turn away these pretentious youths stating that it was an American custom and expecting gifts from a nation that doesn't "celebrate" halloween is futile. Okay, so maybe I didn't use those exact words, but I consider my point relevant as it's this sort of behavior that contributes to loss of national identity.

I've expanded of an unusual range of musical genres in the past few years. Last year I fell in love with the Romantics. By that I mean the Romantic Period in Classical music (Rachmaninov was my favourite). This was a source of some embarrasment as many of my friends would never even bother to try listening to them in the first place. I did have one friend who liked similar styles at the time, but he unfortunately moved. Now I've sort of found myself listening to what I call "media" music. It includes background music for mediums such as film, television and other forms of multimedia. I suppose the attraction to such a genre is how it can affect what mood I'm in. Also, I admire composers who can represent a subject matter with great finese through music. Some of my current favourites include music from the Humongous Entertainment computer games (these are great for listening to when going to sleep), Monkey Island III & IV, Yoko Kanno and some pieces by Bruce Faulconer (Evil Buu and Super Buu). I recently told my friend that moved about my new taste in music and he couldn't believe how much I'd changed.