Desbreko

[color=#4B0082]Minami-ke seems like a pretty unknown/underrated series so I'm glad I got some more people aware of it with the Anime Club. It's incredibly funny but I never hear anyone talking about it. Myself, I actually didn't pick it up or was even aware of it until about three fourths of the way through the season when it aired. I stumbled upon it while looking for subs of another show, I think, and then couldn't believe I had missed it. I love Chiaki's sarcastic, cynical, yet still naive attitude. And the way she completely changes personality for Haruka; I can relate to that since I'm the youngest in my family. When I was little, I loved my oldest brother but the second youngest above me was the bane of my existence. The way she's sarcastic and all but still acts fairly realistically for a gradeschooler isn't something I've seen much in anime. Besides just the Minami sisters, though, there's just so many little things that add up to make each episode hilarious that it's kind of amazing. More and more gets piled on as the show continues so that nothing has a chance to get stale. Even the little repeating gags become more absurd and funny. I can't help but cheer whenever a Sensei and Ninomiya-kun bit comes on. As for season two (Minami-ke: Okawari), I didn't think it was quite as good as the first. It doesn't pile on as many new characters and gags, so things get more familiar and predictable, but that's kind of hard to avoid in a second season. I just wish more quality subs of it would be released; Ayako-sae lost their translator and had to drop it after ep11, and Ayu only has through ep4 done so far. A third season has also [url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-08-30/young-magazine-to-announce-minami-ke-3rd-season][u]been green-lit[/u][/url], though no other details have been announced yet. Here's hoping for a 2009 release.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Posts deleted, temp ban lifted, [b]problem solved[/b]. Mods, you have a delete button for a reason; please use it. There is no point in arguing over why a post was off-topic. Likewise, members, stay on topic please.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]vB doesn't keep any records for this sort of thing except the number itself, so there's no way to find out how many of those 3,059 were real people. The closest thing available is the record number of registered users who were active on one day, which was 329 on August 3, 2004. Which, I think, is actually a better record to try to break. Also, I was thinking there was a way to reset the users online at once record but I can't seem to find an option for it.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I'm not sure of the exact number but I don't think it was over 300 actual people online.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Just to provide a bit of clarification about the old record, that number was about 90% Google spiders and other bots that were crawling the site at the time. It wasn't anywhere close to 3,000 actual people online at once.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]It looks like you've got a wallpaper as your myO page's background to me. Or are you trying to switch it to a different one? I checked the source code on your myO page, though, and it looks like you've got a [url=http://media-wallpapers.theotaku.com/1280-by-1024-557152-20080706055723.jpg][u]wallpaper[/u][/url] set as your background through the backroom Edit Styles page and a [url=http://media-wallpapers.theotaku.com/1280-by-1024-569023-20080818080909.jpg][u]different wallpaper[/u][/url] overriding it through CSS in your introduction. In order for changing the background on the Edit Styles page to work you'll have to remove the background style code from your intro.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I think only admins can add/edit polls so I went ahead and added one. The close time for it is a bit off since it only counts full days from when the poll is added, but whatever.[/color]

[b]Update: 09/07/08[/b] [list] [*][b]New Categories:[/b] Darker Than Black (41), ef (19), Haruhi Suzumiya (52), Revolution Girl Utena (19) [*][b]Existing Categories:[/b] Movies (9), Video Games (2) [/list] [color=#4B0082]I ended up watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya again while taking screen shots for avatars. That was fun, but I wish there were more shots of Tsuruya and Kyon's little sister. Ace, I didn't add your Boktai avatars because, well, the image quality on most of them is crap. You really need to either use higher quality JPG compression or switch to GIF. (Though you'll also need to use the correct compression settings for GIF to get them to look good.) And ... are some of those made with fan art? I might write up some tips and guidelines for making avatars to put into the first post. We'll see how lazy I get. [b]Edit:[/b] OMG I actually started working on the guide. I'll post each section here as I finish it, then put it in the first post once I'm done.[/color] [hr]100[/hr] [size=3][b]Choosing an Image Format[/b][/size] You've got two format options when submitting avatars to OtakuBoards: [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Interchange_Format][u]GIF[/u][/url] and [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG][u]JPG[/u][/url]. Both formats have their strengths and weaknesses but GIF is what you should use for most avatars. [b]GIF[/b] is a palette-based image format that is limited to 256 unique colors per image. For small graphics, such as avatars, GIF tends to have much smaller file sizes than a comparable quality JPG. However, for some avatars with color gradients or a large variety of colors, 256 is not enough to keep the image quality high. What You Shouldn't Use GIF For Original GIF - 8.21 KB JPG - 18.2 KB Notice that the GIF version is smaller but looks grainy in the color gradients, while the JPG version is larger but looks very close to the original. [b]JPG[/b] allows the full range of colors but it is a lossy format, meaning that there will be [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compression_artifact][u]compression artifacts[/u][/url] in the image. To keep the quality high, a low compression ratio—and thus a high file size—must be used to reduce the appearance of noticeable artifacts. Because of this, JPG should only be used when adequate quality can't be obtained with GIF. What You Shouldn't Use JPG For Original GIF - 8.84 KB JPG - 18.3 KB Notice that both the GIF and JPG versions look very close to the original but that the GIF version is much smaller. [hr]100[/hr] [size=3][b]Compressing High Quality GIFs and JPGs[/b][/size] Simply picking the format best suited to each avatar isn't enough to produce a high quality image, however. Using the right compression settings is just as important. Most of the specifics here will refer to Photoshop 7, because that's what I have, but most graphics programs should have the same or similar settings. [b]GIF[/b] has a number of settings that affect how the program chooses which 256 colors to use for the image and how it converts other colors to those 256. The first and most important setting is how the program chooses the palette of colors to use. In Photoshop the three you should pick from are Perceptual, Selective, and Adaptive. Which ends up providing the best quality and the least graininess can depend on the image but Perceptual generally gives good results. Never, under any circumstances, use the Web palette. Next up is dithering, which helps to reduce color banding but can cause graininess if overused. Again it can depend on the image but, I find a happy medium of 50% diffusion dithering usually works nicely. If you change the palette selection, try some different dithering settings as well since the palette setting can affect how much dithering is needed. Transparency should be turned off unless your image actually uses it (which it shouldn't if you're submitting it here). Otherwise it will allocate a color as transparent and leave one less to actually be used in the image. Good and Bad GIF Compression Original   Good perceptual palette, 50% dither, transp. off Bad web palette, 0% dither, transp. on [b]JPG[/b] compression is fairly simple since all you have to care about is the compression ratio. Generally, higher numbers on whatever scale the program uses means better quality. On Photoshop's 0-12 scale you'll probably want to use no less than 9. On IrfanView's 1-100 scale, 85-90 is preferable. Whatever setting you use, make sure there are no obvious compression artifacts. Most programs also let you choose whether to save the image as a standard or progressive JPG. Standard JPGs load line-by-line when viewed on the Internet while progressive JPGs start out blurry and become progressively clearer as they load. For small images like avatars it hardly matters which you choose so take your pick. Good and Bad JPG Compression Original   Good 9/12 compression Bad 5/12 compression [hr]100[/hr] [size=3][b]Cropping and Framing Images[/b][/size] With only a scant 150x80 pixel space to work with it's important not to waste space, focusing only on the features you want to display in the avatar. By the same token, it's also important not to crop out too much of the image, to keep those features well framed. [b]Cropping[/b] OB's 150x80 avatar size lends itself well to making avatars from widescreen anime screen shots because their aspect ratios are close. But you'll rarely find shots where it's best to include all of the image in the avatar. That's where cropping comes in, to cut out a 150x80 sized piece from a larger version of the source image. If you're using Photoshop there's an easy way to crop out a piece that's exactly 150x80 while also being able to see what it looks like with a border on it. First, create a new 150x80 image. Next, create two new layers and select the Marquee tool. Select the first new layer, push Ctrl+A (select all), then right click on the image. Select the Stroke option from the menu and add a 2px white stroke on the inside, then add another 1px black stroke, also on the inside. Now switch to the second new layer and add a 1px black stroke to it as well. You'll then have an avatar template with both styles of borders available. With your template file (I recommend saving it for future use) you'll be ready to start cropping. Open up the image you want to make an avatar out of, decide what part of it you want to show, then resize the image so that the part will fit into a 150x80 space. (Make sure you're using a Bicubic or Lanczos resample setting when resizing the image.) After resizing, paste the image into the template—making sure that it's on a lower layer than the borders—and move it around until what you want is inside the border. It may take a couple tries to resize it right but with some practice you'll get good at knowing what size to reduce an image to to make it fit right. When you're happy with it, hit Ctrl+Shift+S (save as) and put your knowledge from the previous two sections to use in saving a high quality GIF or JPG version of it. There are always exceptions but, here are some tips to keep in mind while cropping:[list][*]Leave as little background space as possible without cutting out important features. [*]Don't cut off only the tip of the chin. Either show it all or cut it off right below the mouth. [*]Cropping out hair and the top of the head (above the forehead) usually looks fine.[/list] Varying Amounts of Cropping Not Enough Just Right Too Much [b]Framing[/b] This is really just another part of cropping but, whereas the previous part focused on how small to resize the image, framing is about how to best position the image once it's resized. Again, there are always exceptions, but here are some tips:[list][*]Often, a character's eyes provide a good reference point for positioning. [list][*]If they're looking straight forward, center the eyes or put them slightly above center.[*]If their eyes are angled, position them towards the [i]opposite[/i] side that they're looking at.[/list] [*]The character's posture can also influence the optimal positioning.[list]If they're leaning in a direction, position them towards the [i]same[/i] side they're leaning towards.[*]The direction of leaning should generally be given priority over the direction of the eyes.[/list] [*]Try to avoid leaving very small bits of background space showing between a character and the border. [*]Make diagonal lines flow into the corners when possible.[/list] Various Frame Positions Too Far Down/Left Well Positioned Too Far Up/Right [hr]100[/hr] [b]Contrast and Color Correction[/b] When making avatars out of art or screen shots—especially screen shots—it often looks better to increase the contrast a bit to make the image stand out more. But you should be careful not to go overboard because increasing the contrast can result in a loss of detail. Note that the adjustment numbers here refer to Photoshop 7's scale. Contrast Adjustment No Adjustment Contrast +10 Contrast +20 Notice the loss of shading in the hair, on the left especially, at +20 contrast. Also notice how the colors have a slightly different hue after the contrast adjustment, most noticeable in the the skin color and the sky on the right. This, however, can be fixed by decreasing the color saturation by the same amount that the contrast is increased. Contrast and Saturation Adjustment No Adjustment Contrast +10 / Saturation -10 Contrast +20 / Saturation -20 With both the contrast and saturation adjusted, the image stands out more without the colors looking funny. How much contrast/saturation adjustment is best depends on the source image but, for most anime screen shots, I find somewhere between +10/-10 and +20/-20 works well. Whatever setting you pick, try to be consistent across all of your avatars from that series so that none will stand out as looking washed out or having super high contrast compared to the rest. If you're using Photoshop, there's an easy way to apply these adjustments. Open up your template file from the last section and go up to the Layer menu. Make a new Adjustment Layer for Brightness/Contrast, and another for Hue/Saturation (these can be applied in either order), making sure that they're below the layers with the borders but above the source image. Now these settings will automatically be applied when you paste an image into the template and they can easily be adjusted from the Layers window.

[color=#4B0082]I've had this pic for a while but I couldn't figure out who it reminded me of. Today it finally hit me: [center][b]Mitch[/b] [img]http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/5816/beautifulsq9.jpg[/img][/center][/color]

[color=#4B0082]Ep7 did solve a pretty big plot point but I still think there's enough possibilities for a second season. For example, we've barely seen anything of Shiina so far (other than her panties) and there's been hints that it'll develop into a love triangle situation between her, Yuuto, and Haruka. The preview for ep8 made it sound like it will focus on Mika and Shiina, too. I wouldn't mind seeing more focus on Mika herself, really. Loli power is ftw.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]The misunderstanding came from me not being aware that the connector on the DS Lite was changed. (Which still seems utterly pointless to me, unless it's a different voltage.) I still only have an original, fatty DS myself. I was going to offer to send her my GBA SP charger in exchange for a batch of cookies until she mentioned she found one for cheap...[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Four days, four classes completed with one or two stars in each cup. :animesmil So, after having beaten the game as such, I didn't find the CPU to be any cheaper than in Double Dash. Which is not really saying that much, since they were hella cheap in DD. But, still, nothing I wasn't used to. The requirements for getting three stars seem to be way more strict than in DD, though. I played some pretty amazing cups, getting 1st place with a couple seconds lead in each race, and I still only got two stars. That sort of performance would've gotten three stars in DD easy so I'm not sure what kind of superhuman abilities they expect in MKW. I doubt I'll have the patience to three star all the cups like I did in DD. Also, I discovered that snaking isn't completely dead. If you use a lightweight on a bike with high acceleration you can snake along wide straightaways and make up for your low top speed.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Whoo, free plugging of my videos! And Sabrina, you can actually just use the DS power cable to charge the GBA SP as well. They're the same voltage and have the same connector. Once you've played them, I'll be interested to hear which you prefer, Seasons or Ages. I played Ages first, thinking I'd like it more, but it turned out completely opposite. I ended up liking Seasons way more because it has more combat and some cool throwbacks to older Zelda games. I, too, have been replaying [b]Zelda: A Link to the Past[/b] while in the process of making the previously mentioned videos. This is my 14th time through it, I believe, but it's still fun because it's the [i]best game evar.[/i] And each time I get a little better at it—as if I weren't good enough already. As I mentioned in the game's thread, I've also been playing [b]Mario Kart Wii[/b] since I borrowed it from a friend. It's tons of fun and may just be the best in the series yet. More thoughts about it (and my friend code if anyone wants to play online) are in the MKW thread.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I borrowed Mario Kart Wii from a friend yesterday so I've been playing it a lot. A bit ago I sat down and blew through all the 50cc cups in one sitting, getting one or two stars on them. All the twos were on the classic cups since I already knew the tracks. The new mini-turbo system took a bit to get used to but I'm liking it a lot now. Basing it off how far you've turned while power sliding, instead of how fast you can twiddle the control stick back and forth, eliminates snaking entirely and again makes it into a game of finding the best path along the tracks. I'm really happy about that since MKDS allowed a downright idiotic amount of snaking, to the point where it took over the entire game if you wanted to be competitive. The tricks are a nice addition and also more fun than thumb twiddling. Driving along a bumpy stretch of track and doing tricks off every little jump is great. Especially since it's harder to control when you're going faster, so you have to be good to make the most of the speed boosts. I haven't tried online by myself yet but I did play a bit last night while over at my friend's place. It was really smooth with no noticeable lag. I'm looking forward to racing you guys once I get through the 100cc cups. Here's my FC: 4124-7294-7708 I registered Treble already but I didn't see any other codes in the thread here. You guys should post 'em in the Arcade Online thread so we can get a list together for MKW.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]It's been five days since Lucy posted so you can go ahead and make a piece now if you like.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I haven't been able to find out how many episodes it's supposed to be either. Hopefully that means a 24-26 ep run is possible. With what little has happened in the first six episodes, it seems like 13 episodes would be too few; unless they really ramp things up from here on out, the pacing feels more like a two-season show.[/color]

[quote name='TheDumbening']I had to make my avatar ridiculously small since there is no Haruhi avatar option (hurr)[/QUOTE][color=#4B0082]Holy crap, you're right. I can't believe I missed Haruhi. I'll have to make some avatars for the series to go in the next update. And if you have any you'd like to submit, feel free to post them in the [thread=37977][u]Avatar Submission Thread[/u][/thread]. Also, welcome, new peoples. I hope you guys enjoy the boards.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I don't really care that much if the rule is changed (which is ultimately up to James), it just seems a bit lazy to want an exception to a rule when there's already a viable way of achieving the same thing that only takes about ten seconds longer. Same for wanting chapters in separate posts instead of making use of bb code to break things up. I've even made custom tags so that people who don't know HTML can use stuff like horizontal rules and anchors to link to specific sections of a post. (And I'm willing to add more if anyone has ideas for custom tags.) The options are there, it just seems like few people are taking advantage of them. If we do change the rule, I think the exceptions should be kept as simple as possible. Basically just something like, "You're only allowed to double post if you're adding a new chapter to your story or you reach the character limit." Stuff like time limits confuse people and are a pain to enforce.[/color]

[color=#4B0082][b]Gavin[/b] [URL=http://img204.imageshack.us/my.php?image=interestedcatlo0.jpg][IMG]http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/2360/interestedcatlo0.th.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [b]Indi[/b] [URL=http://img91.imageshack.us/my.php?image=puppetzn0.jpg][IMG]http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/9126/puppetzn0.th.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [b]DeadSeraphim[/b] [URL=http://img211.imageshack.us/my.php?image=codessooobaday4.jpg][IMG]http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/9054/codessooobaday4.th.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [b]DeathKnight[/b] [URL=http://img367.imageshack.us/my.php?image=impressmehx7.jpg][IMG]http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/6185/impressmehx7.th.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [b]Charles[/b] [URL=http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pimpcatqu1.jpg][IMG]http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/8259/pimpcatqu1.th.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/color]

[color=#4B0082]Definitely The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. One time I had pulled an all-nighter and was playing LttP to keep myself awake until evening. By the time I got through Level 4: Thieves' Town my eyes were starting to lose focus. So I went into the boss fight with Blind, literally half asleep, and my fingers just sort of moved on their own to dodge all his fireballs. I wasn't focused on any particular spot on the screen at all, I just sort of saw it all and knew where the fireballs would be. After beating him without getting hit (the first time I had done that), it took me a moment to realize what had just happened but then it felt totally awesome. Super Metroid is another game I can do this with, though my skill does start deteriorating with drowsiness due to the incredibly fine control needed to pull off some of the more advanced tricks in the game. I've played it so many times that I can run through on autopilot and still get 100% with about an hour and a half on the in-game clock.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Oh. ... I totally missed this before but, if you just joined a week ago then you can't create a myOtaku page. (I'm not sure why your page shows up at all; it should just give an error message when trying to view it.) myOtaku registration was closed when the newest version of theOtaku launched, to get people to use its new World blogs instead. Sorry. If you want to make a World on theO, though, you can do so on [url=http://www.theotaku.com/backroom/worlds/][u]this page[/u][/url].[/color]

[color=#4B0082]That's weird, I wouldn't think custom HTML would be able to affect the backroom pages. I'd send a PM to Panda about this, either here on OB or on theOtaku. She's an admin on theO/myO and I think she should be able to reset your post styles for you.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]When you go to the Edit Profile page, have you made sure that the [b]Off or On?[/b] drop-down menu just above the introduction text box is set to On? If that's set to off then nothing else will work.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Can you get to the [url=http://www.myotaku.com/account/life/styles/][u]Post Styles[/u][/url] page? If you can remove the code from there it should fix the problem.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Your left edge doesn't quite match up with the previous piece, Cat14. Sayrin's piece is still pink on its right edge so starting with a completely white left edge on yours doesn't flow. [b]Edit:[/b] Okay, everything's straightened out now and Cat's piece has been uploaded. The next spot is up for grabs.[/color]