The changing face of computing

I just love this illustration  for the Microsoft Surface tablet that converts to a netbook although one hopes you can tweak the operating system to restore the Start button replace Internet Exploder 10 with Firefox or Chrome and install Foxit PDF reader rather than the bloated Adobe one that nags you every two to three weeks.
In 2012 we expect to keep up to speed with life online so products like this slot much better into our personal lives than old style desk top computers that still may have advantages for some types of work.
Having just visited one forum where this came up, I''ll end by saying online North American English is very prevalent and whatever your feelings around that might be, it's as well to get to grips with it.

R.I.P Tinier Me

Some three and a bit years ago, a buddy of mine invited me over to a manga style gaming site with social interaction called Tinier Me cos we were hacked off with those other kinds of social sites whose patrons were either clingy, stalkers or playing mind games.
Unfortunately they appear to be have been another victim of the Gamification of the internet not least social networks such as Facebook and so yesterday 12/12/2012 closed down for good having put new membership on hold for three weeks previous.
Although sadly I wasn't able to use it as much as I'd of liked, I thought I'd save a screen image for posterity.

Some patrons have moved on over to Subeta

Otomen Volumes 8 to 10

Phew, doesn't time fly, eh. The last time I blogged about Otomen was way back in November  23rd 2010.
I don't feel like repeating myself on what is hot day here, but I've just finished reading Volume 10 and the last volume we talked about was 7 so be sure to dig out the relevant entries for the background but it's the high school set story of two lovers Asuka and Ryo neither of which conform to gender stereotypes and contradictory personal likes.
On the outset of Episode 8 we see Ryo leaving the Academy to look after her ill grandfather having had a farewell concert put on in her honour.
After a while Asuka and friends become concerned the burden of doing this on her own maybe too much so Asuka travels over seeing the clueless Ryo - domesticity never being her strong point- and takes over.
After a while Grandfather recovers and shocks the couple by revealing he too was an Otomen who had to keep his love of girly things a secret!
Anyhow he  returns to Tokyo with them.
Upon returning to the Academy something is very much afoot as cousin of Asuka called Kasuga transfers establishing the Morals Committee of the Student Body to suppress gender noncomformity. doing inspections, banning the gardening and flower clubs and even trying to hypnotize them. Perhaps this is a reaction to the shame he felt about Asuka's fathers situation (see Vol:1) so he's trying to prevent similar situations. Even the teaching staff are changed and a new female teacher is introduced to push girls away from sports and intellectual tasks to crafts and just being well obsessed with cuteness in the belief that's what boys really want.
For a while it seems to work but in the end the couple and their friends find it wears off as they cannot help being themselves not that it effected Asuka's ability to be the lead in the Kendo club defeating the new teacher at the sport.

My Love and other random things

Slowly getting back into the swing of things here post Funeral.
I got a couple more Wings cd's that I had been looking for a while namely Wings Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway (the latter being the home of 'My Love' one of Sir Paul's most romantic tunes from candybay (tm) in their original 1987 issues.
I did get from Paul McCartney.com the Mp3 download of Band on the Run 2010 re-master as it was the cheapest place for it plus it had a PDF format booklet and this new issue does sound superb. As much as like my original 1985 Japanese pressed disc and own the 10 Track US version done by the specialist re-issue label DCC in 1993 that commands very high prices, the new one bests that.
The DCC was very good but over-eggs the bass on a few tracks.

Last FM: I has an account should the skeletons and the angelic ones wish to 'friend' me. It's a nice way of sharing your tastes in music and also allows you to hears stuff you don't own for free so helping to expand your knowledge and appreciation of music.

The "Unwell Edition" tm featuring Otomen 7

During this period when I've been off work with rotten cold and sore throat, I watched the Vampire Knight (series 1) set 2 which has episodes 5 through 8 which is currently out in the States.

Well, in the last few days the latest instalment of the adventures of Ryo and Askura has arrived and I should be getting around to reading it later on today.
Askura was left filling in for the lead vocalist of a Visual Kei rock band having arrived to accompany Ryo to the show. I wonder if Askura will ever get around to formally proposing to her.
I've been following this manga since it first came out and it's funny while at the same time as being thought provoking.

Coming any day soon should be the manga Otomen 8 that was scheduled for publication a month later. Continuing on from part 7 Ryo's grandfather became ill so she decide to move to Fukuoka to care for him. This means she needs to move schools which leaves us with the question" Does Asuka have to say farewell to this relationship just whens he's realized he needs to be more like a boyfriend to her"? Keep reading to hear more.

This week saw the issue on Monday of many Apple albums by artists outside The Beatles several of which have been out of print since the 1990's.
I bought the downloads of Badfinger's Magic Christian Music, No Dice and Straight Up a group from Swansea, Wales that sounded very much like the later Beatles when they performed Paul McCartney's songs.
On a technical level the downloads I bought from 7digital - a UK based digital music store - were of a very high technical quality aided their use of a bit rate of 320 kilo bits per second (Kbps) and the use of the LAME 3.98r2 Mp3 encoder producing results comparable to that of a type II (chromedioxide) home made tape copy which is more than good enough.
Also a friend sent me copies of their later albums for Warner Bros.

Durarara!! with Otomen 6

I've been watching Durarara!! at CR recently.
It's about a young man called Mikado Ryūgamine who longing for the excitement of the big city, transfers to a school Ikebukuro, Tokyo at the invitation of Masaomi, his childhood friend.
Like most people in that situation, Masaomi warns of the people not to cross such as a violent man dressed like a bartender, an information merchant, and a mysterious gang called "Dollars" that in time we learn more about.
If that wasn't enough, on his first day in the city he witness the urban legend that is the "Black Rider," the supposedly headless driver of a black motorcycle.
She is in many ways the heroine of the series going under the name Celty and is a dullahan from Ireland who has come to Tokyo in pursuit of her missing head. Her motorcycle is in fact a horse in disguise! She wears a black helmet whilst driving working as an underground courier and lives with Shinra Kishitan.
I'm enjoying the series as we learn more about the characters.
It was announced at the EXPO in London, England on Saturday (May 30) that this will be released on dvd in a subtitled only version later on this year.

I've been slowly reading this, the latest instalment of this thought provoking manga series.

Asuka is still struggling to reconcile his love of girlish things and his innate manliness.

Something which is made the harder because of his fathers departure from the family early on in Asuka's life to be a woman and his mom's constant "Don't become like your father" jibes.

No doubt this whole episode of his life was traumatic but really he's a hit with the ladies being able to second guess just what it is they'd appreciate for things like Valentine's Day and even make it himself. He takes a high school girl out for her first date ever but still he worries if he'd end up like his father. You feel for him.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya & Manga update

Well this was going to happen sooner but I got waylaid so here goes...

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

I wanted this so much when it came out around November time last year but if ya hadn't noticed there's a recession on and one consequence of this was threat Beez's UK distributor went into receivership but I managed to get this reissue.

The story revolves around Haruhi Suzumiya, a high school girl obsessed with finding all forms of the extraordinary and supernatural, and Kyon, a cynical classmate who proclaims his non-belief in such matters and narrates the series. After being displeased with the mundane happenings at school and the lack of interesting after-school clubs, she forms her own, the SOS Brigade, to investigate any mysterious happenings, with Kyon forcibly drafted as its second member.

She drafts in additional members into the SOS club and in time they are revealed to be the extraordinary characters she is seeking (Yuki, an artificial human created by the extraterrestrial Integrated Data Entity; Mikuru, Time Traveller; and Itsuki, esper), sent by their various organizations to observe Haruhi. All see Haruhi as possessing a superhuman control over the universe, capable even of recreating the entire universe in a state of dissatisfaction and attempt to prevent this by keeping her entertained, holding her powers in check, and maintaining the illusion of a normal life.

The series became an Internet phenomenon and in the absence had to make do with a subbed import with so-so quality but have now gotten the UK R2 Re-issue 4 dvd set


Also on June 8th Slayers Next Vol 2 DVD arrived here - you wouldn't believe the trouble wanting Dragon dishes can cause! - and that was fun to watch.


I am presently reading Otomen 1 by Aya Kanno

The plot revolves around a conundrum.
Asuka Masamune loves girly things such as knitting, sewing making cute animals and reading shojo comics. Ryo Miyakozuka can't sow or bake cakes but is draw to Asuka!
Asuka inhabiting a world that calls upon boys such as him to act manly must hide his real identity in order to play the Jock which is what attracts Ryo as a girl.
Can they ever get it together? What really happened to Askura's father???
In many respects it's a story about sexual politics in Japan, the function of sexual identities in society and how that applies to those who don't fit in them.

I quite like shojo beats' titles and this published by Viz in the States is a great thought provoking manga.

Moon Phase and Anime Round up

This anime about the relationship between Kouhei Morioka a freelace photgrapher and Hazuki, a teenager who descends from a royal vampire lineage.
We learn at the start of the story that Kouhei travels to a castle in Germany to take photographs of all sorted Paranormal phenomenon for his friend Hiromi, the editor of an occult magazine. At the castle, Kouhei meets Hazuki, who feeds on Kouhei's blood and claims him as her unwilling servant. She is a 14 years old vampire - selfish but adorable - who was separated from her mother and restrained in a castle in Germany.

Although this "blood pact" is supposed to bind Kouhei to Hazuki as her obedient slave, her act has no effect on Kouhei. Following an action packed sorcerers battle, in which Kouhei and his cousin manage to free Hazuki from her captivity in the dreary castle, Hazuki travels to Tokyo, and takes up residence with Kouhei in his grandfather's house in Japan. Hazuki reveals this is what her mother wanted her to do when she disappeared.

Hazuki claims that, because she fed on his blood, Kouhei is now her servant, but Kouhei continually refuses to obey her, especially when he thinks her requests are unreasonable. Despite their fighting, the relationship between the duo progresses over time - even in the face of repeated attacks by opposing vampires - until Kouhei becomes determined to protect Hazuki from the vampire servants of her family, who themselves are determined to retrieve her by whatever means necessary.We learn later on in the anime he possesses great spiritual powers which were sealed by his family in order to allow him to live a normal life, as they were too strong for him to control. In the anime, he once again seals away his Jyougan so that it doesn't affect his relationship with Hazuki.

Other characters include Ryuuhei is Kouhei's grandfather who took in Hazuki and is a powerful spiritualist and exorcist.

A word about Revelation's DVD packaging. It is beautiful with pop up disc holders and a set of guide notes to further explain things as well as points to look for in later viewings.
Below is a picture of it in exploded form:


Just a note to add I've recently ordered up Slayers Next 1 which continues the story of the hunt for the Claire Bible of Sorcery.

Strawberry Panic

 

Recently I have been reading the Seven Seas English language Light Novels of Strawberry Panic which is also available in Manga and on Region 1 DVD. To best explain the complicated set of relationships in this story of life and love set in Astraea Hill a lush settling where three all girls schools converge, the diagram below is really useful.

The plot background:

Astraea Hill is a venerable institution made up of three girl’s schools: St. Miator, traditional and academic, St. Spica, for sporty, independent girls, and St. Lulim, for future wives and homemakers. When Shizuma, St. Miator’s top student, meets new transfer student Nagisa for the first time, she feels the zing of love that has been missing from all her other romantic entanglements. Shizuma is determined to win the love of Nagisa and pursues her relentlessly, even going so far as to enter the two of them in a competition to be the school’s Etoile. The Etoile is the student chosen to represent Astraea Hill at all social and school events and is considered the most beautiful and accomplished student that year. Alongside the Etoile, a younger student serves as the Etoile’s companion/consort.

Although many students consider Shizuma (who is shown at the top of this page) to be a sure fire winner for Etoile, she and Nagisa find themselves competing against the so-called Prince of Spica, an androgynous beauty named Amane . Amane has also fallen in love for the first time with a transfer student, this one a middle schooler named Hikari. Shy and reserved, Amane has no interest in becoming the Etoile, but agrees to enter the competition if it means she can spend more time with Hikari. Surprised by their forcible inclusion in a contest neither one is prepared to participate in, Nagisa and Hikari must fight off the nasty machinations of rival competitors as well as the fans of Shizuma and Amane who are jealous of the attention the two new girls are getting. Will love bloom in the face of such obstacles?

Well I won't spoil the adventure but things don't turn out as expected, accusations of malpractice abound regarding Spica's School Council application of the competitions rules and Hikari doesn't know what's hit her.

YouTube - Strawberry Panic Having been at residential boarding school I found it easy to get into the hierarchical of friends, their loyalties, crushes and the intrigues that spread day to day that this novel portrays. Some of the outfits worn by the students thought the story are really cute too. I do hope volume three (from Chapter 26) emerges soon.