Raiyuu

I've only just got round to playing [b]Half-Life 2[/b], mainly because I'm a Mac user and it isn't supposed to run on my machine. I got CrossOver - the stable, commercial version of Wine, which runs Windows applications on Mac in Windows 'bottles' - so now I can run Steam, and therefore Half-Life 2. The graphics aren't as mind-blowing as they would be on a PC with an uber-graphics card, but it's still an incredibly addictive game. I have HL2: Episode One lined up for when I've finished that, and maybe by the time I've finished that, Episode Two and Portal will be out.

Use Anime Ace or Spectre Verde BB. Anime Ace is free to download on [url]www.blambot.com[/url] - which is a one-stop shop for all your comic font needs. I think Spectre Verde is free there too, but Anime Ace is the best one, really. Spectre Verde is just for if you want a comic-y looking font that isn't exactly the same as the ones everyone else are using.

Obata also draws the [i]Blue Dragon Ral Grad[/i] manga. It's ecchi, so beware, not work-safe! There isn't an anime of it, though. It's loosely based on the world of the [i]Blue Dragon[/i] anime (I think...?) but that's nothing to do with Obata. Or ecchi.

[CENTER][IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/Baccano.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER] I've just watched episode one of [i]Baccano![/i] and I'm left feeling excited but at the same time completely confused. I haven't a clue what's going on. It starts off with a newspaper editor (I think...?) and his assistant discussing a tale. They argue over where the starting point should be, and from whose viewpoint it should be told, and each time a new suggestion is made the story starts there, only to get interrupted. After the break we lose the editor and assistant and get follow-ups on a few of the fragments we saw earlier, but nothing's in any discernible order and the action jumps around all over the place. What I can gather from episode one is: [LIST=1] [*]It's set in and around Prohibition-era Manhattan. [*]Big Band jazz and swing are awesome. [*]It has a massive cast (whose Romanised names are helpfully given in the OP sequence). [*]Certain characters can't die (and I have no idea why). [*]It's not afraid to be graphically brutal. [*]Some of the voice acting is just a little bit too over-the-top goofy (I'm looking at you, Isaac/Onosaka Masaya - but then again, his voice grew on me in [i]Bleach...[/i] ho hum, we'll see). [*]A lot of it seems to concern Mafia turf wars - there are either two or three Mob families. (I lost some details in all the chopping about.) [*]I want to start giving people arbitrary points rewards when they explain things badly. [*]Being generous to bums is bad. [*]The whole not-being-able-to-die thing is an ability you can gain, not something you just have (and might be magic, but that might just be Isaac being superstitious). [/LIST] I'm interested to see whether the 'channel-hopping' narrative style is just something they're using to draw us in for the first episode - it certainly caught my attention - or whether we'll slow down and focus on different characters in different episodes, or what. I kind of hope it's the former. It's fun to jigsaw the story back together in your head. But then, the pace might be difficult to sustain for 13 episodes. Links: [URL="http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=7492"][u]Baccano at ANN[/u][/URL] [URL="http://www.wowow.co.jp/anime/baccano/"][u]Baccano at WOWOW[/u][/URL] [URL="http://www.baccano.jp/"][u]Official JP site[/u][/URL] [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baccano"][u]Wiki article on the original light novel series[/u][/URL]

Been a while since I had time to post my thoughts - a fair bit to cover so this might come out in bullet points. We got some interesting hints as to the origins and mechanics of the whole false sky/Contractor event. [spoiler]Berta's child choked to death on cigarettes, and Berta's remuneration is to similarly choke on things; she says before she'd finished mourning the child, the sky had changed, so perhaps people who were repenting for something at the time of the event became Contractors, and their remunerations relate to whatever it was that happened to them?[/spoiler] A random note on Yin: I had to skim back through her backstory episode to confirm this, but the goth dress she always wears is the one [spoiler]she wore to her father's funeral[/spoiler]. Poignant. Also fits in with the aforementioned theme of repentance, though I'm not sure how the theory would apply to Dolls/Mediums. The new OP theme isn't as good as HOWLING, but is one of HIGH AND MIGHTY COLOR's better tunes. [spoiler]What DOES happen to a Contractor that doesn't remunerate?[/spoiler] Various Dolls and Contractors seem to be displaying more than the prescribed amount of emotion (i.e. more than none). Yin and July making friends/comades/allies (however you want to translate 'nakama'), for a start; and November 11's sense of humour has always been well short of soulless, and couple that with his highly chivalric behaviour over the last two-parter and I'm starting to think either something is changing (possibly related to Amber's planned Heaven's Gate Incident mark II) or Contractors have never been quite as soulless/emotionless as they've been painted by 'normal' humans. Final note: November's undertanding look to [spoiler]Maki, as he stood in the doorway being rained on, was the height of awesome. It felt like he was saying, "that's right. Sure Amber loves you the most. Keep telling yourself that."[/spoiler] And we all know what he did next. Sterling stuff, Agent.

@Tombstone: the part of your original post I have a problem with is this. [quote name='Tombstone']I am also against homosexuality, but I don't judge anyone for being gay.[/quote]It just feels like an oxymoron to me. I can't fathom how you could be against homosexuality as a concept but still consider yourself to be accepting of people who are homosexual. Homosexual people come part and parcel of the homosexuality package - without homosexual people, homosexuality as a concept wouldn't exist. So you're either prejudiced against homosexuality, and by extension homosexual people, or you aren't. You can't split the noun from the adjective and say "I disagree with this concept but if you actually apply it to a person then I'm okay with it," because if you claim to disagree with it in the first place then you clearly [b]aren't[/b] okay with it, whether it's abstract or concrete. The stuff I threw in about the Bible was a general point, not aimed specifically at you. I get hacked off with the amount of selectivity people apply to the Bible to make it fit their anti-gay arguments.

I worked on the betting tills at Royal Ascot festival. The number of women that come up to the window in gigantic hats and start the transaction with "you realise I haven't got a clue what I'm doing!". We were advised in training to keep the customer's cash in plain sight until they've left the window - that is, don't put it in the cash tray and [b]then[/b] give them their change. This is because customers sometimes give you tens and then claim they were twenties and that you've short-changed them. It's a bad world...

I have skimmed the thread and have this to say: 1. I have a problem with the conception of homosexuality as an 'issue' that one can 'be against'. We're not talking about political policy here. We're talking about aspects of people's personality which (regardless of what [b]you[/b] may believe) are considered by many to be an inherent, unchangeable trait. I fail to see how anyone can be 'against homosexuality' (however tolerantly or benignly) and still consider, say, racism to be an evil. It's all prejudice, people. Prejudice bad. 2. I have limited Bible knowledge, but isn't the whole Sodom and Gomorrah bit in the Old Testament ([b]Vengeful God![/b]), and didn't Jesus come along in the New Testament and say 'forget all that stuff that happened before, you should really love everyone equally' ([b]Loving God[/b])? I also heard on the television (it must be true!) that the bit that says you can't be gay is the same bit that says you can't eat pork and locusts (non-Kosher food). So if you're living your life by the Bible's assurance that homosexuality is wrong, you should also be eating strictly Kosher. And, as Retri pointed out, stoning disobedient children. People who know the Bible, feel free to pull me up on my references, but I stand by point 1 (even in a purely semantic sense - saying you're 'against homosexuality' really divorces you from the reality of your statement, which is that you're prejudiced against [b]homosexual people[/b]). What I mean is you can't just be against homosexuality as an abstract concept. It's not abstract. It's people. Or something.

[spoiler]I liked Deidara. It's a shame he's going out ineffectually - there's no way he's killed Sasuke. It won't even be deus ex machina when Sasuke survives, because it's already been mentioned in this chapter that he had another trick ready for use if his lightning-defusing didn't work. So all we'll get next chapter is an explanation of what that plan B was, and perhaps a bit of Tobi running away (without whowing us what he can DO, as usual).[/spoiler]

[quote name='Meggido]The unshown fight between [spoiler']Ulquiorra and Ichigo gets a mention here.[/spoiler][/quote]What do you mean by 'unshown'? That fight was portrayed in its entirety. It just ended unexpectedly, is all.

[URL="http://www.frappr.com/otakuboards"][u]Visual aids ftw.[/u][/URL] Because my sense of geography is appalling.

[quote name='Starwind']I usually carry my pocket knife on me, but I've been known to also carry my 9mm pistol from time to time as well.[/quote]At first I thought this was a stupid trollish thing to say - you know, making outlandish claims because it's the Internet and no one can prove you [i]don't[/i] carry a gun around ... ... and then I remembered that people actually do that in America. :animeswea

[quote name='Flagg']I can't believe that nobody has said anime or manga yet.[/quote]Shh! It's not cool to admit you like those things here! I think too hard about the possible consequences of things. That's why I used to be crap at crossing the road. "I can go now - but what if something comes around that corner? - Maybe I'll - no, now that car in the distance is too close - what if I got run over, would anyone visit me in hospital? - wait, how long have I been standing here? Where'd the moon come from?" In short, indecision is my anti-drug. (I can cross the road just fine now btw)

I don't like carrying a bag because I have a silly habit of putting things down and leaving them there, in the corners of bookshops or under tables in coffee shops. So I usually wear a casual suitjacket and stuff all the pockets full of stuff - though I do have a messenger bag for if it's too hot for a jacket. The things I carry at all times are: wallet, phone, keys, notebook and pen. My wallet isn't that interesting. The usual stuff: cashcard, driver's licence, National Insurance card, railcard, condom and a passport photo of all my housemates crammed into one photo booth, that we took in Freshers' Week. My keyring used to have a Lego man on it, but he broke off and I've recently replaced him with Urahara from Bleach, who is unfortunately a bit bigger and can get a bit uncomfortable in my pocket. And I have to have a notebook and pen at all times because most of my good ideas come while I'm walking from A to B, and B has this odd effect of erasing said ideas from my brain... useful for writing down phone numbers, addresses or errand reminders as well.

There are some strong hints being dropped that it [spoiler]isn't the Ichigo we know and love under the mask - it's staying on extra-long, he tells Grimmjow not to cast off his released form because that would be 'boring', and he gave Inoue a seriously dirty look after blocking all those spikes for her[/spoiler]. Like Grimmjow pointed out last chapter, he doesn't seem to be fighting [spoiler]for Inoue's sake, but rather for the fun of the fight - which is what Wichigo has been telling him to do for months[/spoiler]. It could be that the reason his mask would never stay on is because he was always deluding himself with noble reasons for fighting - but Hollows don't fight to protect others, so the mask wouldn't stick.

[quote name='Copycatalyst']It's called this thing you call "your life."[/quote]You know full well what she means by lucid dreaming. You're just being difficult on purpose. Stoppit, or no treats for you. @Clurr: do you have any plans for when you do manage to lucid-dream? Because it sounds (from this thread and your LJ) that you're progressing in leaps and bounds. I've managed (completely by accident) to have a couple of lucid dreams in the last couple of years - usually when I do an unconscious reality check and realise a) this isn't actually anywhere I recognise and b) what am I doing outside in my pyjamas anyway (no joke, it really was that typical a dream). I was a bit nonplussed, to be honest - it was novel, being aware that I was dreaming, but there was a definite sense of "well, what now, then?" I think in the end I conjured an apple out of thin air - complete with sparkly special effects - just to see if I could, and then woke up.

I'd like to be able to say, "quit debating one-liners vs dissertations and get back on topic," but I'm not really sure what the topic was in the first place, and I think only the effervescent, philosophical brains of Copycatalyst and **** really have an inkling. Either way, keep bickering over posting styles to PM or IM, if you would.

Am I the only one that thinks Starbucks coffee tastes like a hot, watery oil slick? Is it just because I'm British...? I prefer Coffee Republic, or BB's Coffee and Muffins. Black, but not overly strong - and if I feel like it, with a dash of hazelnut syrup. Just as a safeguard against the occasional vileness of high-street coffee - it takes the bite off if the barrista's made me a duff cup.

I've switched to the standard editor and hit no further problems - vB tags work fine and stay as they were when I edit. It was a really odd problem. In the Edit Options page, the dropdown was set to 'Enhanced Editor - Full WYSIWYG Interface', but when I edited my signature I got what looked like a standard editor text-box; I couldn't see my signature as it appears below, but formatted with HTML tags. I wiped the slate and typed it out in vB tags, then hit Preview Signature, and I got the preview at the top of the page as normal, and then, in the editing box, my signature formatted with HTML again. I'm using Firefox on a MacBook, which might be part of the problem. Firefox only recently started accepting the WYSIWYG editor with the vBulletin we were using before the update; I'd been using the standard editor before then because the WYSIWYG just showed up as a white box that wouldn't accept a cursor. Good to know the upgrade's an improvement overall, though. Should I move this thread to S&F?

The reason it's put quotation marks in your tags is because most of them are now HTML instead of vBcode ... or at least, it seems to convert them into HTML after posting, so you can use vB when first writing it out, but when you go back to edit it later, they've all been morphed to HTML. Note the angular brackets, instead of square ones. The upgrade seems to mean I can't use the WYSIWYG editor anymore ... looks like I'll be posting in HTML from now on, then. Good thing I know how, but what about the people that don't? EDIT: Grr, I also have to remember to add paragraph tags if I want line breaks. Is there no way to set it so line breaks are formatted as HTML?

[quote name='Roleni-Chan']I used to get chain letters in my home mailbox saying stuff like if I don?t send this to thirty people. God will come to me in dreams and kill me.[/quote]Well, since we stopped nailing people to things in His name God's had to develop some slightly more mundane ways to get his lolz.

It's all been said already, really :animeswea A quick question to those who haven't read the manga (or hadn't before seeing episode 37): [spoiler]did you suspect Mikami's death at all?[/spoiler] I ask because I was initially quite surprised they [spoiler]cut the epilogue, which tied up some loose ends. Then I watched the episode again and decided I liked it just fine without the epilogue, because much of the information it gives is implied anyway - Misa's suicide for one, and I suppose it's obvious to anyone that Near would later become the new L. The one thing I considered a loss was the suggestion that Near might have controlled and killed Mikami - partially because I like to have at least one little mystery to chew on after a series ends, and partially because it suggests Near might have thrown out his morals and actually used the Death Note, bringing him closer to the original L's personal sense of morality. After all, L was willing to have death row prisoners write each other's names down in order to test the 13-day rule.[/spoiler] So what I want to know - because I can't be objective enough to tell for myself - is, [spoiler]does Mikami's suicide seem abrupt enough that you suspect foul play without Matsuda actually voicing the suspicion[/spoiler]? (Also, was it [spoiler]his pen[/spoiler] that he [spoiler]stabbed himself with[/spoiler]?)

At least it wasn't someone asking for money to buy their way out of an abusive forced marriage in war-torn Iraq, or the deposed Sultan of the Taliban asking for a short-term loan in return for half his fortune. I have several email accounts, and one of them gets about 1,000 spams a week - mostly the usual pharmaceutical companies or Viagra distributors or mail-order Bachelors degrees, but sometimes ones like this as well: [quote=Josi D]Subject: i very want to find my love Privet, gentleman I am looking for a man who can make me happy. I want to hear the whisper of tender words in my little ears every morning I wake up. I want to feel the tender touches of his strong hands every evening when we are alone. I want to smell his perfume and to see him smiling when we are together out in the restaurant enjoying each other. I want to make his life a miracle... I am looking for a husband and I am here: [url="http://loveonlylove.com/golove"]http://loveonlylove.com/golove[/url] If my words found an answer in your soul, I am waiting for your note. Waiting for your response Josi D[/quote]

What to say about episode 11...? Not a whole lot, really, except that I'm looking forward to some more explanation of the Gate in episode 12, but also well-prepared for that not to come. Plus Hei's backstory looks like it might become relevant soon. I'm still enjoing this series more than pretty much anything else currently showing, but I feel weirdly dry in terms of things to discuss.

DB: no one's saying you aren't famous, I'm sure there aren't many members here (especially in this thread) that don't know who you are. But you and your gang certainly aren't superstars, at least not by Dead's yardstick - and as thread starter, Dead has the privilege of shaving the yardstick as long or short as he likes. As Des suggested, more lolz and less thread derailment plz. Where by thread derailment I mean posting any method where the 'mentors' include yourself. I mean, how vain do you have to be? (I'm not just talking to you anymore, DB, so no need to get spikey - there are a fair few culprits and I'm sure they know who they are.) I've enjoyed this thread so far. I think a lot of other people have too. Over the last page or so it's been dragged down with ego massagers. The lesson to remember is: [b]you [/b]don't get to decide whether or not [b]you[/b] are a 'superstar'.