Seven Reasons Why Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Will Take Over The World
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Monthly Archives: August 2006
Newtype = Old Media?
Several weeks ago, I was browsing around my animé pusher’s blog when I ran across a post about the trials and tribulations Robert had gone through trying to get a simple advertisment placed. It seemed that Newtype, which bills itself as the USA’s premeire animé magazine, had a problem with how racy the original image was that he’d submitted for use.
This is the image:
Note the extremely skimpy panties. What you can’t see at this resolution is the tiny crease in their center. The “camel toe,” as it is called, shows up in the racier anime fanservice; Yumeria, Godannar, and DearS are three that I know have featured them, far more graphically. (In fact, I almost didn’t post this shot from DearS, because it’s borderline NSFW.)
Well, Newtype didn’t like it and demanded changes, only they weren’t really clear about what they wanted changed. After several back and forth e-mails and two revisions, Newtype finally agreed to run the revised picture. Note that the original is within their written policy on art. Robert was a bit frustrated with the unclear instructions and not very friendly/businesslike manner in Newtype’s e-mails, so he used them in a blog post expressing his annoyance. I read the post, and would have termed the e-mails from Newtype “very brusque, but not quite rude.” I definately didn’t think much of the customer service or friendly manners of their editor.
The change requested? I’d have guessed lengthening the skirt to hide the panties.
Nope.
Remove the crease?
Nope.
It was just to widen the panties to cover those little ass bulges to either side. That’s all. But the editor of NewType is apparently repressed, and he couldn’t say that outright.
On the other hand, he was apparently able to express himself on other matters. Specifically, he was not amused to see a customer publicly discussing frustration with his directives. So, if you visit the post now, all the e-mails and the altered versions of the art are gone. Instead there’s a note:
[UPDATE: As of Aug 14th, 2006 the remaining text and graphics of this post have been voluntarily removed by me at the request of the Editor of NewType USA. A final edit may be in order, I haven’t decided yet.]
In a further comment, replying to Steven DenBeste’s logical question “why do you have to cater to him?”, Robert remarks,
Indeed, especially considering the way I was asked. I’ll be making a seperate post soon about what happened and what we’re going to do about it.
Well, I think I can answer that question. Robert “has” to cater to the editor of NewType because NewType thinks it’s an Old Media Giant, one that can treat the customers any way it wants to. Well I’ve got news for them: Old Media Giants are dinosaurs. There isn’t anything between the covers of their magazine that I really care about. I’m not the type of person to read E! Magazine, TV Guide, People or any of the other gossipy rags going on about the entertainment industry or any niche thereof. And frankly, I hate having to put up with their stupid advertisement at the beginning of so many DVD’s.
I’m certain that not everyone shares my opinion on the uselessness of such media rags, and it has a lot of readers (for the niché, that is). And they do have at least some of the power to treat customers as rudely as they wish, muzzle their complaints, and suppress negative word of mouth if they want to. But that doesn’t make it right or engender good will in the community. The New York Times is no role model, and acting arrogant and unaccountable isn’t any way to do business.
(edited for clarity at 12:35)
Melancholy Mentioned in Newsweek?
I kid you not. It’s an article about the insane popularity of YouTube, which now hosts over 2,000 clips on The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimaya, whether from the series or parodies of it, such as the famous Gundam Robot ED. Of course, being an American news magazine, they had to get it wrong, calling Melancholy a “cartoon aired on a local TV station.” You’d think someone with the name of Akinko Kashiwagi would know better. This is supposedly a scan of the print article, but I’ve seen one claim it’s a fake (nothing to support it though.)
Baka.
Hat tip to Anime on My Mind.
Edit: it’s noted that 10,000 animé DVD’s sold is considered a smash hit in Japan, but MHS is running five to seven times that! I really think we’re going to see a second season come 2008….
Holding My Breath is Pointless
Sigh.
US
— 08/29/2006 4:44 P.M. BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED
HAGERSTOWN, MD, US
— 08/29/2006 7:24 P.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
— 08/29/2006 6:32 P.M. ORIGIN SCAN
NEW STANTON, PA, US
— 08/29/2006 11:05 P.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
— 08/30/2006 3:12 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
MAUMEE, OH, US
— 08/30/2006 9:35 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
— 08/30/2006 8:18 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
HODGKINS, IN, US
— 08/30/2006 12:44 P.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
Your package is in the UPS system and is on time with a scheduled delivery date of 09/05/2006.
This time, I put the order in Sunday night. And it’s still going to be a Tuesday, thanks to the holiday.
City Controller’s Audit Plan, FY 2007
Controller Anise Parker has posted the Fiscal Year 2007 audit plans on the city’s website. Notably missing from the list is any operations of the Housing and Community Development Department, which have proved to be so embarassing in the past, despite the evidence that little has changed. (Item #40)
Just as an aside, you know things are bad when the Federal Government thinks you’re wasting their money and starts cutting back on the money flow.
The City of Houston Housing and Community Development Department has decided to delay issuance of the Request for Proposals (RFP) for Neighborhood Facilities Renovation. The reason for this delay is that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has reduced the City’s Community Development Block Grant allocation by $3,630,000 for Fiscal Year 2006 (July 1, 2006 – June 30, 2007). The Department does plan to issue the RFP in December 2006 for funding in Fiscal Year 2007 (July 1, 2007 – June 30, 2008).
One would think that maybe the $750,000 in city funds that went to propping up Metro’s ridership figures buying bus passes for city employees would be audited, or LARA would be checked over, or maybe even someone would follow up to see if HOH has reimbursed HUD — but then again, the city would rather spend $200k and try to get out of it entirely (see item #48), so why bother?
What Ms. Parker auditing in FY 2007? A whole lot of “safe” things:
- Some Aviation Dept construction contracts
- HFD’s fleet maintenance
- City – wide Purchase Card activity (Well, that was fun over at TSU, so who knows what we’ll find here?
- PW&E’s Landscaping and Beautification projects
- Vehicle Maintenance: Did you change the oil?
Exciting stuff, eh? Certainly nothing that’s going to cause problems for the mayor or the folks lined up at the trough labeled “Houston Development.” Well, there are three items on the list which might prove interesting:
- Taser Acquisition, Distribution, & Use. I’m not holding my breath on that one; as most of the criticisms of the idea have to do with law enforcement issues, not cost effectiveness.
- Long-Term Contract Relationships: An examination of whether the city is really saving money by skimping on hiring employees and contracting out jobs instead. Of course I would be interested in that. 🙂
- Parking, Car Rentals, and Hotel Concession: Checking up behind the entertainment industry in this city to make sure they’ve remitted the taxes like they should have. Hmmmmm… see item #19.
There’s more; you may want to check it out, but my read of this is that in an election year (most of these will complete in the first half of 2007), Controller Parker isn’t going to risk causing any problems for Mayor White’s last re-election bid.
(cross-posted at blogHOUSTON.)
Cell Phone Insecurity
Forget about your personal information being retrieved from a stolen laptop. The real danger? Your discarded cell phone.
A popular practice among sellers, resetting the phone, often means sensitive information appears to have been erased. But it can be resurrected using specialized yet inexpensive software found on the Internet.
A company, Trust Digital of McLean, Va., bought 10 different phones on eBay this summer to test phone-security tools it sells for businesses. The phones all were fairly sophisticated models capable of working with corporate e-mail systems.
The problem? A common shortcut taken by every cell phone manufacturer.
The 10 phones Trust Digital studied represented popular models from leading manufacturers. All the phones stored information on “flash” memory chips, the same technology found in digital cameras and some music players.
Flash memory is inexpensive and durable. But it is slow to erase information in ways that make it impossible to recover. So manufacturers compensate with methods that erase data less completely but don’t make a phone seem sluggish.
Worse, they were stupid and careless about including the logical “full erasure option.”
Palm Inc., which makes the popular Treo phones, puts directions deep within its Web site for what it calls a “zero out reset.” It involves holding down three buttons simultaneously while pressing a fourth tiny button on the back of the phone.
But it’s so awkward to do that even Palm says it may take two people.
Seriously, how damn difficult is it to program the phone to respond:
“WARNING: You are about to erase ALL DATA on your phone, including stored phone numbers, contact lists, e-mails, and ring-tones! If you wish to erase your phone’s memory, enter the following 4 digit number: 1234 followed by *. To cancel, press any other button. Full deletion may take several minutes.”
Trust Digital found no evidence thieves or corporate spies are routinely buying used phones to mine them for secrets, Magliato said. “I don’t think the bad guys have figured this out yet.”
Well, they damn sure know now. At least some folks in the government aren’t stupid, though.
President Bush’s former cybersecurity adviser, Howard Schmidt, carried up to four phones and e-mail devices — and said he was always careful with them. To sanitize his older Blackberry devices, Schmidt would deliberately type his password incorrectly 11 times, which caused data on them to self-destruct.
So what should you do? I’d recommend listening to this guy:
Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, a respected computer security expert, said phone owners should decide whether to auction their used equipment for a few hundred dollars — and risk revealing their secrets — or effectively toss their old phones under a large truck to dispose of them.
Actually, that’s overkill. Just get the flash memory chip out, and smash that little bugger. Or burn it.
I Said It Was A Bad Idea at the Time
But even if I’d had a blog back then, it’s not like the House Republicans would have listened to me. Trying to impeach Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky “scandal” was a horribly stupid mistake, and one of the major reasons I got sick of the Republican party in the 90’s. It didn’t accomplish anythinge except polarize politics even worse than they already were, and set the precedent that any transgression, no matter how trivial in the broader sense of things, could be seized upon by either party to decapitate the other, should it control the White House.
All it did was set the stage for this crap. It’s kind of hard to blame the Dems for Bush Derangement Syndrome when it really should be named “The Other Party Controls The White House Syndrome.”
Hey, Republicans? Don’t blame me. You started it.
Updating a Few Things
I just added two more websites to the links at the left, and bumped three. Welcome aboard to Riuva and Baboon Pirates! Sayonara to OfftheKuff, Ann Coulter, and People’s Republic of Seabrook. Ann’s “crazy conservative lady” act has gotten old, OffTheKuff has fallen into total soc-lib moonbattery, not to mention supporting Carol Alvarado, and I’ve never been able to figure out PRoS — got bored with trying. Parody or serious? Enh. Who cares anymore?
The main thing that got an update is the Collected Anime Reviews page. I’ve done a number of articles that never got added to it, and entire sections of my collection were still missing. I added a lot of the AWOL series and more commentary on series that I haven’t done full reviews of, in addition to fixing a few other things. I also updated my animé order, seeing as I sent in a new one yesterday. Hopefully winging (or rather, rolling) its way too me soon will be:
Dual — Parallel Adventure (boxed set) — I checked out several reviews and all of them agree that it’s a cross between Tenchi Muyo and Neon Genesis Evangelion, yet one that could stand on its own. This tells me that either it’s obviously true, that the reviewers all copied each other, or they all took payoffs from Pioneer. If it’s the latter, am I too late to get in on that gig? It’s got a really cool OP theme; reminds me a bit of Neutron Dance from the first Beverly Hills Cop movie.
Godannar #6 & 7 — This will finally finish off this series. I’m not really expecting a lot besides fan service, but it would be nice if a mediocre series finished strong for once, instead of the pattern of crappy endings I’ve been running into lately with Scrapped Princess, Mars Daybreak, etc. Well, I wouldn’t argue that Divergence Eve ended badly. It was one of those shows that you reach the end and go “Whew! Oh my God, what a ride!” Don’t think I want to repeat it; in fact I haven’t brought myself to rewatch the first scene yet. Or seriously think about ordering Misaki Chronicles. I haven’t seen a horror movie this disturbing since Alien3. And this was much better.
Starship Operators #2 — Speaking of sub-par endings, this sure had one. Oh well, the middle of the series is pretty strong.
Somebody Said It Better (Again)
Yesterday’s comment by SDB about his difficulty in writing about proportional response by Israel resulted in my writing a brief grumble to him and rambling about my change in focus on Houblog. Two and a half years ago, when I started it, one of my major subjects was supposed to be the War on Terror. Instead, by the time I relaunched in 2005 with WordPress, I was no longer that interested in writing about it. There were a lot of people doing a much better job of it than me, and I was tired of arguing with moonbats.
I was pretty pessimistic in my e-mail, as I pointed out, if not even the Israelis are going to kick ass and take names, the rot has gone too far. Iran’s going to get the nuke, and we’re going to regret it badly; unfortunately we’re not going to regret it badly enough to string up the Cindy Sheehans of this world like we should, even after the fact; these jackasses are going to kill millions through their paralyzing of our government. They attack Iraq as the “wrong” war but they don’t support attacking Iran as the right war.
Well, in terms of “doing a much better job of it than me,” Stanley Kurtz takes a look at the post-proliferation world we’re going to be staring at after Tel Aviv or New York gets the nuclear enema, and it’s just what I was thinking. Only said a lot better and more clearly.
Hat tip to Instapundit.
Anime Fansubs, Part VII
Ok, today, lets take Inukami (literally, “dog-god”). Preferably someplace far away, because I found it to be quite aggravating. I had some expectations for it after seeing Riuva’s review, but this show just didn’t cut it. There’s simply no there, there. If you’d rather watch this series with no foreknowledge, beware, because I’m going to get into spoilers. Except they’re not really spoilers, because as of ep.11, not a damn thing has really happened, except Youko is getting along with Kouda’s ten inukami, and everyone despises Keita as a pervert when they aren’t appreciating him for his better qualities. Yawn. The opening song and animation advertises an action-adventure with magical girls, romance, and maybe a little fanservice. Perhaps it would be a nice show — if that’s what they had made. What the viewer gets is nothing like that.
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Youko, from the opening credits. Lots of action scenes of her or Keita laying down rightous butt-kicking, or of Youko looking somberly at the moon. |
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Our first sight of Youko in the show itself. Isn’t she just the cutest thing? |
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And they seem to get along just grandly. Forget it. After about two more minutes of teasing, it’s going right downhill. |
Must-See TV
Found cluttering up my inbox at work:
CITY OF HOUSTON
NEWS RELEASE
The Municipal Channel
August 21, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEThe Municipal Channel:
Awesome August Line-Up!
- Wasting No Time – Not sure how to dispose of your trash? Think of the 3 R’s – Reduce, Re-use, and Recycle – that’s the theme for the latest edition. Tune in for this informational
episode where Host Marina Joseph talks with Solid Waste Representatives about the proper way to get rid of those unwanted piles of rubbish.- Public Works and Engineering – Don’t mess with Texas, Houston that is! Host Wes Johnson interviews Jeff Taylor with Public Utilities about utility maintenance, water production, waste water and what you should do to prevent harmful substances from entering our sewer system. Let’s work together to maintain a toxic-free environment.
- Money Matters – The air we breathe comes from nature’s finest. Controller Annise Parker chats with City Forester Victor Cordova and guests about Houston’s trees and the role they play in our everyday lives.
- CultureScape Houston – Go behind the scenes of Houston’s rich fine arts community with Host Lyndsay Levingston as she visits the Center for Contemporary Craft and previews Museum
District Day and Theater District Open House. Gather the family for a sneak peek of these fun-filled events.- Volunteer Journal – Walter Black visits with guests from the Asset Building Network and Literary Advance of Houston and the volunteers who assist. Learn more about Project HELP – Helping Evacuees Live Purposefully – a great way to reach out to those displaced as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
This month’s current line-up includes shows that you won’t want to miss! Be sure to tune in to Time Warner Cable – Channel 16, Phonoscope 2, TV Max 98, or Cebridge, Channel 14. Find out what’s happening in our great city and what we can do to keep it great!
The Municipal Channel is excited about sharing its award winning programming with you!!
For show times of these and other programs of interest this month, you can go to our website at www.houstonmunicipalchannel.org, consult TV listings in the Houston Chronicle, or call us at 832-393-1270.
Wow. I’d better mark my calendar. Oh wait, I don’t get the Muni Channel.
Not a problem.
Co-incidental Oddities
Two of the several animé fansubs I’ve downloaded recently are Inukami and Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan. (The latter translates as “Beat-to-Death-Angel Dokuro-chan” and it’s about that bad after the first couple of episodes). What caught my attention was that Dokuro-chan sounded really cute, and that I liked Hikari, the theme song to Inukami. After some thought, I decided that the lyrics were nicely romantic at the start, but the tune, while above average for the medium, wasn’t that great. It was the soft voice that I liked, so I checked out who the singer was. Lo and behold, the singer of Hikari (and voice of Yoko/Youko), Horie Yui, was also the voice of Dokuro-chan. I kept reading, and it turns out she’s got a very long resumé, some of which I recognized.
Have checked out but not bought or seen:
Ayu Tsukimiya in “Kanon” (video game, special, and both series)
Bottle Fairy (TV) : Theme Song Performance (ED) (eps 7 – 9, 13), Theme Song Performance (OP), VA of Sarara.
Love Hina as Naru Narusegawa in all versions; OAV Theme Song Performance; X’mas Special – Silent Eve Theme Song Performance (ED)
Negima! Theme Song Performance (OP3, OP8, ED4) and VA of Makie Sasaki
Immortal Grand Prix (TV 2) as Fantine Valgeon (actually, I’ve seen parts on CN).
Stuff I really liked:
Sister Princess : Theme Song Performance (OP) & VA for Sakuya (she was the clothes-horse that kept coming on to Wataru.)
Mars Daybreak as Megumi Higashibara (the kid psychic).
And that’s just a fraction of her listings. She was even a minor character in a Cowboy Bebop episode.
I had really liked the OP for Sister Princess; it was one of the best things about the show. She’s definately someone to watch (or listen to, I suppose). I’m bumping Negima! up from a “maybe one day” to a “perhaps soon” just on her basis. I need to find out if her character’s minor, or has enough screen time amongst the 30 girls in that show.
And yeah, she’s cute.
I Know I’m Slacking…
The last few weeks, I’ve been off my stride, and not producing much for either Houblog or blogHOUSTON. At first, I thought it was just work wearing me down, but lately, I have realized that I’m not sleeping well at all, and am extremely lethargic. Worse, when looking back at some of my older articles, I found myself thinking, “I wrote that? It’s good-well reasoned, covers all the bases, has smoother transitions — that was me?” I look at my recent stuff and I see disjointed thinking, abrupt transitions, and large gaps in logic chains. I’ve got two incomplete articles pending, and I need to write several more. White’s trying to overthrow Prop.2, and the Housing department needs digging out with a backhoe, but I can barely budge myself to fix supper when I get home. I don’t know what to make of it.
I’m struggling at work — rather unmotivated, getting things done only because I’d hate myself for not getting them done, but I don’t really feel any enthusiasm for it.
Does anime really rot your mind? Or am I not well? Sometimes I think I need a keeper. Maybe a cute little dog-girl.
Housing Woes
I’ve been working on an article for blogHOUSTON about the lead-based paint issues for over two weeks now. Tom Bazan, a local assessor and long-time critic of the Housing and Community Development Department, was kind enough to forward me a great deal of information about the disputes between HCDD and HUD, and his Qui Tam lawsuit against the city.
Unfortunately, I seem to be getting dumber all the time (seriously, I’m wondering what’s wrong with me), because I just can’t grasp it. Too much of an alphabet soup of agencies, programs, and directives/memos/pleadings. The best I can do without being afraid of completely mischaracterizing something and drawing the wrath of the City’s Legal Department is the following.
Federal money went into assisting with the closing costs and down payment on several thousand houses since 1996, so the properties had to pass HUD-mandated inspection requirements. If the house was built before lead based paint (LBP) was banned (in other words, 1978 or earlier) the city was supposed to inspect houses for before the buyer completed the purchase. Unfortunately, the city’s inspections were found to be deficient — it has been alleged that the city steered the inspections to companies and individuals that would issue clean bills of health without a proper inspection — and HUD has been on the city’s case ever since. The city has even hired a D.C. law firm to “resolve” the outstanding issues with HUD (which include several other matters.)
It appears, according to documents that Mr. Bazan has acquired through TXPIA requests, that the city may be trying to get by with visual inspections for LBP, instead of performing more stringent tests. I guess if you have X-ray vision, you can see that the paint contains lead.
Beyond that, I’m lost. My kudos to Tom; he’s the expert in this area, and he’s looking out for the thousands of families that may be living in hazardous, lead-contaminated homes, as well as the city taxpayers who have to clean up this mess (Item #5) and pay for the lawyers (Item #48) that are trying to get the city off the hook with HUD.
Just as an aside about something that chafes me, I’d like to suggest that if that law firm’s negotiating skills are good, we should use them to ask certain folks(with apartments that aren’t up to code or HUD standards) to pay back their loans in full, instead of forgiving half of the principal and all the unpaid interest. (Item #46). Not that the city is any better at inspecting apartments than they are at inspecting homes:
In our review, we noted that noncompliant entities are not subject to timely re-inspections – either to ensure prompt implementation of agreed remediation actions or to avoid further deterioration. Several properties visited for HQS compliance purposes had “violations cited” during mid 2004 which are still shown as open; The Monitoring & Evaluation section documented eight (8) findings in its March 2003 review of one apartment complex (.APTDF / Deerfield Apartments, contract #FC38968), but we have received no evidence of any follow up or subsequent review and report by the section since then.
— Jefferson Wells audit, 2004.
More and more, it’s looking like the Housing and Community Development Department is overly trusting of developers and apartment owners — at best.
We also learned of some projects’ loans, which were converted after the fact by a previous director from a repayable loan to a non repayable grant. (Note these changes required and apparently received city council approval).
Perhaps it should be named the Department of Lead-Based Housing and Developer Charity?
“This is what happens when you cut spending for Mental Health”
Readers of my Agenda write-ups here and at blogHOUSTON will recall that I’ve made fun of two of the perennial “guests” during public comment time at the council meetings, “Senator” Robert Horton, and “President” Joseph Charles. Well, someone was intrigued enough to record their latest appearance before the council and post it on YouTube. BlogHouston has the video.
Stupidification ensues.