Humor: I'm Tim, I Drive an Aries...

Click Here to DL WMV file

I just found this too funny not to post. It's an old video but still hillarious. Enjoy. Hopefully more Video links and humor on the way. Great video clip/parody which I believe was done to sell a used car :) Unfortunately I don't believe the original authors information is valid anymore.

Anime Review (Quick): Speed Grapher

Take one part Area 88, slap some Gantz and you've got Speed Grapher. Well ok that's the really really bad version of a review, but thankfully Speed Grapher is actually a very interesting storyline with some good dubbing and great artwork.

Centered around the strange, almost occult world of underground Japan, a hapless photog Tatsumi Saiga (voiced by Christopher R. Sabat) in the course of an investigation finds himself pitted against a secret society of amazing power. Central to this is Kagura Tennouzu (voiced by Monica Rial) who awakens powers within Saiga, enabling him to destroy things when he photographs them.

The plot might take a bit of a leap to get into, but the dynamic between the leads is pretty good, and the mysterious elements of the seedier characters has you wanting to learn more. The innocent and seemingly misused Kagura has a definite double nature that makes you question if she's really who you think she is. Both leads do a good job and thus far the supporting cast has been pretty good as well. Mind you there's a lot of dismemberment and some racey adult themes (sex, violence, kink). Definitely NOT for children, Speed Grapher will fit right in with fans who enjoyed Gantz or Elfen Lied.

On a completely unrelated note, if my camera ever allows me to kick that much ass... well all i can say is HELL YEAH.

Vraxxism: Speaking Your Mind

***HANDY WAVING***
The following blog entry is very brusque and may initially seem sexist. I am however refering to sucking your thumb like a baby... no really.. hey don't judge me man!

<Vraxx>See, I see it this way: You got two lips and a brain, so either suck something or say something.

Now normally I'm not this blunt but really there's just times you need to speak your mind. People were given minds and mouths so they could talk, but some people view others speaking their mind and all they can opt for is to judge without even a hint of consideration. Or more often then not, ridicule or mock you without actually conversing. I've never been an advocate of such snap judgements and find narrow minded people very off-putting. So say what you need, but don't be a jerk. Otherwise option one on that quote applies to you.

Adobe Lightroom? Or dim bulb

It's often the case that a public beta is released for two key reasons. 1) To broaden the scope of feature testing to determine if elements are missing or combersome for end uers and 2) to draw interest to the product from their most likely target audience.

Adobe's recent release of the beta 3 of their Lightroom application is something of a mixed bag in my view. While the application organizes most of the filters that photographer would use to handle touch-ups, this early code appears to be lacking heavily in performance. Testing both the Mac version and the PC version I noticed that neither of my systems was really chugging along at a speed that I found comfortable. My underpowered Mac PowerBook 1.6Ghz Mac OS 10.3 box would take a considerable amount of time just applying a sepia tone. The same photograph showed little/no improvement on my PC (AMD 3500+, 2GB of RAM) Given that my PC system actually meets the requirements you'd think I'd be doing a little better than an underpowered PowerBook.

The layout is easy to use, and folks familiar with Aperture or PhotoShop will have very little problems finding the basics. Now granted the installation packages were VERY small, which means there probably isn't a lot of optimized code and they kept the beta limited to just what they really needed to for test purposes.

A cursory glance at the Adobe site doesn't lend much information as to the actual price point however. I find that a little disappointing. If the product is very affordable I cann imagine that even with its slow process power, the utility could provide a good low-end option for folks with specific photoediting needs. Then again if the application is priced for "pros" I don't know how well received it will be. Here's to keeping my fingers crossed for a low-end product.

So here's a slightly more visual look at Office 2007 for everyone. The first thing you'll notice is the menu bar layout has changed a bit, replaced by a Quick Icon bar and smart panels. The panels though organized by function can sometimes be obtrusive. I found that since they replace the old file menus it can result in a rather confusing state for the layman user. 

Though the smart panels can be reduced to a more file menu layout, the headers themselves don't really match up to what most users are used to. As such for novice users who have been trained in a near Pavlovian fashion to drill specific menus, I can imagine this will be very confusing. 

Here we see the context sensitive system. The Format panel appearing as we highlight an embedded image. While this should be familiar to some people, I'm pretty sure it's going to cause headaches. Users dislike when that much UI suddenly "changes" and they don't always understand why. 

Afterthoughts: Cosplay Photoshoot 7-15-06

Whew so it's been two days and I can truthfully say that the shoot was a blast. Though it did remind me of two key things.

1) Man I am SO out of shape (Round is a shape...) Thighs, knees and shoulders feel like hell

2) Sunscreen needs to be reapplied in rainy weather and when sweating

Sunday came around and I realized just how much of a slight burn I had. Safety first people, we may live on an island but that doesn't mean solar radiation doesn't hit paradise.

I didn't really get a chance to compliment the cosplayers, but everyone looked great. It's always more fun to photograph folks when they're doing something they are really enthusiastic about and this was no exception. Since I'm a relative newcomer to Kawaii-kon as a whole, I think next time I'm bringing a name tag (hm will work well with my vest, yeah for press-pass pockets). If anyone is interested in trying dSLR at the next shoot, give me a hollor. I keep a 10D on standby in case something goes wrong with my main.

Cosplay Photoshoot: Part... can't think too sleepy

Well this about rounds out the shots I was ok with, without any post-production. My thanks to everyone, it was a blast.

 
 

Cosplay Photoshoot: Part 4

Have cardboard, will travel... well at least try to

 

Cosplay Photoshoot, Episode III

Yet more raws! This time more props to the male cosplayers :)

 
 

Cosplay Photoshoot Part Deux

Going from light to dark, here are are some additional shots from today's GT.

 

Cosplay Photoshoot

Just a few shots from the get together today. As this was my first time meeting folks from the Kawaii-kon forums I do appologies for being rather shy. Everyone looked great and hopefully I'll have more chances to attend GT's in the future.

 
 

Introducing a new concept pwnography!

DISCLAIMER: The following binary may not be suitable for some viewers.

Not really sure if this is due to the crazy work hours, the fact my plane ride back from Maui was bumpy and I may have hit my head, or perhaps that the idea needed time to simmer but I present to you: "Pwnography!" The next wave in hacker pr0n. Nothing like seeing hawt servers with their ports WIDE open! Behold this classic example of pwnography.

 

So here's to the newly formed pwnography movement, let's see how long it takes before censors are on my doorstep. In the next installment of of Vraxx goes a little crazy, "Processes Gone Wild!"

Lexicon Additions: No-taku!

OK this isn't really an addition to the lexicon, but it's sort of a generic term that I started using when describing my state as an anime fan. By and large otaku are thought to be that substrate of anime-geek culture that obsess over the depth and breadth of their knowledge all things pertaining to anime. In Japan itself the term is something of a double edged sword. Many otaku are thought of as the Japanese equivalent of DnD nerds of the US 80's. They may be intelligent, articulate, even wealthy, but they're still 'odd'.

But that got me to thinking, well there's a lot of us who are fans of the genre but aren't really at the otaku level. So what do we call them? For someone like myself who doesn't really speak/read Japanese at all, trying to use an actual Japanese term to identify me would be rather silly, thus I started referring to myself as the no-taku, one who isn't really an otaku.

While some people are zealous in their belief that all anime should be viewed in the original Japanese, with subs, I'm more flexible. I actually watch both, sometimes dub then sub, other times the reverse. There's several reasons for this though. When I listen to a VA, be they the original or the dubbed, I try to key into what the actor is thinking and the type of characteristics they're using in their voice and inflection. Maybe it has to do with my time as a speech and debate person. While I have heard some truly horrible dubs, I've also seen some great work (Full Metal Panic, Hand Maid May, Samurai 7 to name a few). Everyone adds an interpretation to the mix, whether or not you feel that interpretation works for you, is your business.

Can a no-taku become an otaku? Sure, and I think to a degree anyone who's made a substantial investment into anime as a hobby or interest probably has the potential to cross into otaku-dom. For myself though I'm satisfied with being a fan with a voracious appetite. I may not try to immerse myself in everything but like a restaurant patron at a buffet, I certainly don't mind sampling.

Gaming: Out of Ideas

Let's face it, the game industry has been churning out a lot of different titles. Some have been good, some great, a considerable portion however have of course been easily forgettable.

As I played a few demos (Titan Quest, Darkstar One) I realized, aren't we just playing the same fundamental games over and over again? FPS games in general have more or less followed two basic icons, Quake and Half-Life. The all-action, low plot, and the intermingled storyline driven shooter. The only real delta these days is how much technology and how well threaded the stories are.

Flight sims and other high-complexity games always repeat the same basic game physics and principles, while strategy games have more or less remained beholden to the basic ideas of resource, units and abilities.

With a few standouts that come to mind (Katamari Damacy, Brain Age, The Sims franchise) there really aren't that many games lately that have broken the mold. Most are just different takes on established genres.

Then you've got the most over-abused genre of them all, the MMO. Let's face it, if you were a PnP D&D'er you've probably got the basic formula of avatar, stuff, attribs down. I'm not a power player when it comes to MMO's but even I have to admit the voracious appetite of MMO'ers is mind bobbling, especially when you consider all the titles are fundamentally the same.

I'm not saying we need games that are totally new, in fact I realize the reason we repeat the same patterns is that human nature is centered around comfort zones. But at the same time aren't you guys getting bored with the same gameplay day in day out?