Author: Heather Meadows

I feel like I blogged about this before, but I can’t find the post if I did. Bleh.

I was interested in this show. It seemed indulgent and exploitative, but at the same time, I felt that good discourse could come from it. The subject matter was edgy because it played on real societal problems, and that meant there was the potential that people could learn from it.

When I heard it wasn’t going to be aired, I was a little disappointed. I probably wouldn’t have watched it on TV anyway, since air doesn’t come in very well here, but I would have enjoyed reading gossip articles about what had happened in the show and seeing what I thought about it.

This article on CNN has made me want to see the show even more. Apparently the show ends on a positive note, which is amazing and uplifting, and I’d like to see how it happens.

I don’t know if ABC will ever air the show, but if they don’t, I hope somebody on the inside will steal copies and post them on the Internet ;>

I was wondering what the side effects of breaking open comet Tempel 1 would be–scientific, physical, political–but I somehow didn’t see this coming:

A Russian astrologist who says NASA has altered her horoscope by crashing a spacecraft into a comet is suing the U.S. space agency for damages of $300 million, local media reported on Monday.

I’m not sure that it would take $300 million worth of work to redo all her calculations, though. Or is this money she would have received for her horoscopes but now will not because she has to take the time to redo them?

If so, maybe I should get into astrology…;P

Just watched the first Stoffel arc again. It’s so funny how he’s portrayed in the beginning as being so dangerous, when really he’s such a putz. (I love the part in episode 45 where he excuses himself from the table and he and Raven scuttle away a few feet so they can figure out what to do…so hilarious.)

CNN’s a little behind the times, but Japan Today has an update.

Steam plume in Pacific confirmed as undersea volcanic eruption

This part of the article amused me:

A Maritime Self-Defense Force member at the MSDF’s aviation base on Iwojima Island, north of Minami-Iwojima Island, spotted the column of water vapor about 1,000 meters high and 50-100 meters thick at 5:45 p.m. Saturday.

Note that they place “Iwojima Island” as “north of Minami-Iwojima Island”. There are two funny things about that.

1. “-jima” means island, so they are literally saying “Iwo Island Island”.
2. “Minami” means south, so their explanation is that Iwojima is “north of South Iwo Island Island”. That seems kind of logical, doesn’t it?

Ahhh…the connection of past and future, Yuuri in a dress, and, of course, Bob the Maou.

Kyou Kara Maou episode 42 goodness has saved my poor brains.

I am still pissed off over that summary I read of the fourth Touch movie.

I just can’t believe they would fuck over Tatsuya like that.

Retarded.

It’s like, “Oh, let’s knock him upside the head so that he devolves to where he was at the beginning of the TV series! Only now he’s in college, won’t that be a riot?” It’s the worst kind of sequel, where they pretty much do the exact same thing, five years later.

Look, people: after a character has evolved and grown and changed and matured, you cannot just erase that. It’s not fair to the character and it’s not fair to the audience and it’s plain bad storytelling so just don’t do it!

I wanted more Touch, yes. But not like that.

If you’ll excuse me, I need to scrub this debacle out of my brain. (Maybe with some Kyou Kara Maou.)

Why wasn’t I informed??????????

Official website, including 30 second trailer

And by the way, yes, I did just watch episode 101, the last one, and yes, I am wanting more more more…here’s hoping Central Anime will sub the movies/specials/whatevers…

Not that it wasn’t a good ending, it just left so many things unresolved. Except the most important thing. Which is good, I suppose.

But I want more!

I just read a plot synopsis of “Touch movie 4” which kind of pisses me off, but eh. I’ll still watch it! Edit 1:03am: No I won’t, ewwww. I just read Hitoshi Doi’s summary. What a worthless piece of crap. There was no point in making a movie like that at all. It’s bad, and it spoils the series anyway, so I’m not going to link to it :P

After a nice break from being obsessive compulsive about all the food I ate, all the exercise I got, and what my weight and blood pressure were every day, I am ready to get back into the groove. I checked my weight this morning, and it turns out that I didn’t gain anything during my hiatus.

I think this time I will be a little less anal, and only weigh myself once a week. I think that will allow me to chill out more.

As for blood pressure, instead of taking it twice a day and logging it in DietPower, I think I will take it once a week as well, and log it in an Excel spreadsheet. DietPower doesn’t have an export function, so I can’t get a list of my data or make my own graphs, and DietPower’s two-variable graphs, quite frankly, suck. (All they do is put two different Y-axes on the same graph. It’s horribly confusing to look at.)

I may start tracking other variables in the spreadsheet too, like measurements or something, again on a weekly basis.

So Jake Zigler went to Nara, and took some pictures.

And here is a pride of deer going for the ultimate kill; small asian child.

At first I thought the kid had a chance, he had strong legs. However, due to the wetness of the ground he slipped, and there the deer pounced on him, tearing him to shreds and goring him with their felt-like antlers.

Too bad he didn’t get a picture of that.

;>

Hokkaido master succeeds in creating a distinctly Japanese cheese

He calls it…Japacheese.

No, not really.

(Man, nothing can top “Ja-pan“…)

For Keisuke Yamada, the mountain cherry trees that rustle in the breeze on the Hokkaido farm where he works are more than just a beautiful sight. Back in the fall of 2002, they provided the answer he was looking for when he needed inspiration for producing a distinctively Japanese cheese.

“The idea was to spread the leaves on the ground and have the cheese ripen on top of them,” says the 28-year-old, whose cheese workshop occupies a corner of Kyodo Gakusha Shintoku Farm in Shintoku in the western part of Tokachi Plain. “That way, I thought, maybe some of the fragrance of cherry blossoms would seep into the cheese.”

He really called it–you’d better sit down for this one–Sakura.

Cliche naming conventions aside…I want to try it!

In the wake of this, we have this.

Eminent Domain Debate Comes to North Augusta

Several property owners learned for the first time Thursday that their land is in the way of progress. About fifty owners may have to give up parts of their land to make way for roads in and around the North Augusta Riverfront Project.

Johnny Williams is one of those people. He owns the North Augusta Carpet Shop on Georgia Avenue.

“I was talking to one of those Department of Transportation men and I asked them. I said I don’t want to sell my land and he just looks at me and said you know they’re gonna take it away one way or another,” said Williams.

This makes me very unhappy! I was so excited about the Riverfront Project :(

At least no one’s being kicked out of their house for it. (I don’t think, anyway.)

But what happened to South Carolina’s laws against eminent domain? Was this article in error, or will Mr. Williams be able to keep his parking lot?

Japanese Man Sets Record in Pi Recitation

A Japanese psychiatric counselor has recited pi to 83,431 decimal places from memory, breaking his own personal best of 54,000 digits and setting an unofficial world record, a media report said Saturday.

I mean, why does pi get all the glory? Yes, perfect circles (which don’t actually exist) are neat mathematical constructs, but that doesn’t mean pi is any cooler than other irrational numbers, like e.

When’s somebody going to show e some love?

Beijing clinic ministers to online addicts

Tao’s government-owned clinic, which began taking patients in March, occupies the top floor of a two-story building on a quiet, tree-lined street on the sprawling campus of the Beijing Military Region Central Hospital in the heart of the Chinese capital.

A dozen nurses and 11 doctors care for the patients, mostly youths aged 14 to 24 who have lost sleep, weight and friends after countless hours in front of the computer, often playing video games with others online.

Some come voluntarily, while others are checked in by their parents. Many say their online obsessions helped them escape day-to-day stress, especially pressure from parents to excel in school.

Some can’t stop playing games, while the older ones tend to be addicted to online chats with the opposite sex, Tao says. Others are fixated on designing violent games.

[…]

“I wasn’t normal,” said a 20-year-old man from Beijing who used to spend at least 10 hours a day in front of the screen playing hack-and-slash games like Diablo.

“In school I didn’t pay attention when teachers were talking,” he said. “All I could do was think about playing the next game. Playing made me happy, I forgot my problems.”

I’m not too sure about the therapy, though:

Tao’s team has put together a standard diagnostic test to determine whether someone is addicted, then uses a combination of therapy sessions, medication, acupuncture and sports like swimming and basketball to ease patients back into normal lives.

They usually stay 10 to 15 days, at $48 a day — a high price in China, where the average city dweller’s weekly income is just $20.

The routine begins around 6 a.m. and includes sessions on a machine that stimulates nerve impulses with 30-volt charges to pressure points.

Some patients receive a clear fluid through intravenous drips said to “adjust the unbalanced status of brain secretions,” according to one nurse. Officials would not give any other details about the medication.

Patients also nap, write diary entries or play cards. Their rooms are sunny, each decorated with artificial flowers, Winnie the Pooh comforters and a 17-inch television.

First: What is in that IV?

Second: A TV in the room? Isn’t that just fostering another addiction?

Third: I’m kind of scared of the whole “30-volt charges to pressure points” bit…

I’d be interested to hear more about that addiction diagnostic test, too.

Brian Clevinger has written a funny-yet-sad-because-it’s-true account of his trip to the DMV. (Scroll past the comic to see it.) It reminds me of going to get my Georgia license for the first time.

That bit about arriving early, thinking you’ll miss the line? I did that. Except I got there before the place opened, and there was already a line, from the parking lot up the stairs to the locked front door.

Sean and I discovered the truth on a later visit (you know, because I didn’t have the right paperwork the first time)–if you go in the early afternoon, there is like no one there.

Beat the crowds. Don’t try to be smart. ;P

(I’ll be glad when we move to Columbia County, because their government offices are much nicer. I don’t think the lines are necessarily shorter, but at least the overall ambience is pleasant.)

I just looked up the word Wolfram calls Yuuri, 埴猪口 (へなちょこ, henachoko), which I have seen translated as “wimp”. Jim Breen’s WWWJDIC says it means “novice; greenhorn”, though.

So essentially…Wolfram is calling Yuuri a n00b.

God, I love Kyou Kara Maou.