Because I like beautiful girls.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

What I've been up to

Mostly playing Princess Waltz... entertaining family.. etc... not much to blog lately

I got an Apple Remote :D Might use it with lockdown but the problem with lockdown is its SCARY when it goes off.... People might drop the damn computer if it goes off when they pick it up. XD Oh is it LOUD. Also... I recommend pairing your remote or turning off the IR port if you have lockdown running all the time... don't want someone like me activating it whil your working... or unlocking it with my remote.

Can't wait for school to resume so I can weak havoc with this little toy....

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Kitty cat photos (mostly)



Kitty goodness and a random picture of a firmware update yay! (Kitty is 2-4th photos)

Monday, December 22, 2008

iCoffee? Caffeine for Mac

Lighthead - Caffeine

Now as you probably haven't noticed (assuming Apple is doing its job) your computer DOESN'T sleep or go to screen-saver when your using DVD Player or w.e Unfortunately web video (like Hulu.com which I <3 or NetFlix Instant) can't tell the OS not to sleep/dim the display/go to screensaver. Want to keep your Mac awake? Give it some Caffeine. With a single click you can turn caffeine on to keep it from sleeping/dimming/etc with out messing with system preferences. Click again and your mac will go back to its usual settings. The icon shows which mode your in and you can even set Caffeine to turn off after a set amount of time in case you forogt after finishing what ever you were doing.

I've been watching a lot of streaming anime on Hulu lately so this is great :D

Thursday, December 18, 2008

ANN forumers may basically suck but we all <3 Nina

08-06-09 - Anime News Nina! - Anime News Network


Someone actually cited this in that last thread to show how VNs are just perverted crap. Its a comic strip dude... a JOKE. -__-

I personally find this one hilarious because I've played a lot of VNs :D

Anime and Visual Novels : Why the hell can't these fandoms get along?

NEWS: Tayutama Adult PC Game to Reportedly Get TV Anime - Forum - Anime News Network

First let me say ANN usually has news writers that are alot better than the article that spawned this discussion (the article isn't bad but somewhat awkwardly written). The boards are usually exactly like this: full of people who have never read a VN (ero or not) but don't pause to rag on them (and pirates but thats another story). Why does the anime community have such a problem with eroge/visual novels? Some piece of regurgitated shonen is OK like Naru-BleachNote-to or crappy yaoi comics (sorry Aki but most of them are). Sure some eroge are OK with anime folks (FSN, Kanon) but most are pushed to the side. When ANN announced the new Phantom anime they linked to the crappy OVA but didn't mention the original game is available in the English market.

I've had people who are diehard anime/manga/MMO/novel fans who would love the story of Ever17 but refuse to play it:
me : "I have this amazing visual novel to should check out"
her : "visual novel? like a porn game?"
me : "no this one is clean, its not even really a date-sim. I know you really like science fiction and mystery so..."
her : *interrupts* "sorry I don't play those types of games"
me : "you've never tried one"
her : "I am sure I won't like it" *rambles about twilight*

Now when I first heard of VNs (hirameki's booth at SDCC) I was hesitant of the idea of anime video games so I didn't buy any from them that con. I didn't reject them for not being anime, I just wasn't sure about it. But, for the whole next year it hung in my mind: "what happened to those people in that theme park? That story looked kinda interesting, how would it work as a game?" I found the Hirameki site and downloaded the trial, I was hooked. I bought E17 and Hourglass of Summer from J-List (Hirameki didn't come to the con sadly). And here I am now, a serious reviewer of visual novels. Just try them.

What the hell anime peeps? Is your time so much better spent watching bad fansubs on YouTube you can't try a game for 10 minutes?

Sadly, an excellent work like Princess Waltz can't even get advertising space in older-teen/adult aimed media spaces even though magazines for pre-teen/teen girls (Shojo Beat) can advertise trashy unrealistic homosexual rape porn.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Miku figure photos (small)



Playing with Bluetooth (insanely smart tech this is!) and Picasa uploader :)

Monday, December 15, 2008

Protect Traditional Marriage - Outlaw Divorce

More prop 8 stuff. Sorry for all the folks outside of Cali but this is important shit.

Yay 100 posts

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Impressions of the Waltz...

PRINCESS WALTZ Official Website

A review of this game is in the works (I am still playing it). Very fun game, the action-packed plot and a fun battle system make this title appeal to the most casual visual novel players but purists are not totally abandoned. The easy mode ensures you can advance the story which is still very character centric. As the website proclaims, this is an eroge so it surely will not receive the attention it deserves. Not much sex is present however, if you can this is a great title to check out.

Please note both the download and the DVDROM versions have DRM protection. PW is the first English VN with this new DRM technology and it is painless. Enter your activation # once and you are done. The program "Software Defender" will try to contact the (very fast) server every time you run the game but will allow the game to run if you do not have internet access. Even a downloaded game will run with no restrictions without a internet connection. This is the most reasonable download game DRM I have seen, you receive five installations (not restricted by IP address) and can request a refresh of installations at Peach Princesses discretion. The package version will have the DRM removed in 1-2 years by a patch. DRM can ruin a game but this system doesn't both me much, read more about PP's policy here.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Princess Waltz - Demo Movie

This looks really good! And costs less than half as much as a Japanese version (plus its uncensored and ... in english!).

I don't care if it is garunteed to crash : this is EPIC!

Its Kanon in ENGLISH!

I have SE_ALL; no H. This means this patch for SE WILL CRASH on me when I reach an H scene (though this patch isn't done anyhow). This is so epic I don't even care ..... I never honestly expected this project to produce anything after Haeleth left it.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Hatsune Miku Mixing Box ~ Miku Hatsune Special Fan Book

Hatsune Miku Mixing Box ~ Miku Hatsune Special Fan Book

The closest JLPT test center is in LA and in my mind LA=Little Tokyo=Kinokuniya Shoten!!!!!!!!

Books Kinokuniya, as the English sign says, is the best Japanese bookstore inside (Elevator Girls is +1 over Junkudo) and outside of Japan. The LA branch (and assumedly others) have begun to carry basic stock of character goods. This lovely product is a hybrid of the two : the box says Kodansha so its a book, but inside is a PVC figure, a DVD, and well... a book.

Kinokuniya is basically the same as J-List so buy it from them if you aren't near a Kinokuniya. Very epic and expensive item about 45$ after tax? Shipping would be a bit more of course, the box is study so don't worry about the figure breaking in travels.

The figure is very cute, you can see her in person at Kinokuniya if you are worried about quality (I was). The book is no slouch at 96 full-color pages and a original cover by Kei (same as box). Dustjacket of course (this is Japanese after all). Now if your in Japan this item is only 2980yen so there is no excuse not to buy her.

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

Oh and I think I passed JLPT 4kyu :D (lowest level...T.T)

EDIT: DVD is mac compatible "hybrid" according to box. XD The data is only enough for a CD tho *shrug* I don't want to know the logic there...

Friday, December 5, 2008

Planetarian Novel :D

Well I got a welcome phone call yesterday informing me my ordered book had arrived. Fast forward to the bookstore, I had to enlist two clerks to find the elusive novel on the reserved shelf, since it was a novel that looks like a comic, and is small as heck and named something engrish sounding (but is real english). The book is in Japanese of course with a couple of pages of already released art with words on it as well as the art produced for the book back when the first release came out. I am so happy I can use this to follow along with the drama CDs now.

Below you can see the book (orange stripe on top) next to the CD version of the game (which is as tall as a DVD case). The photo is crappy but I mainly want to show the petite size of the book.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Lockdown: Secure Your Mac

Foozoo Design - Lockdown: Secure Your Mac


Not unlike a car alarm, this program is good for coffee shops and libraries where you might leave your mac alone for a minute. A shiny apple computer all alone? Pretty tempting to steal yeah? Lockdown is a password (or remote) controlled system that once turned on by the user displays a large anti-theft warning on the screen.

If someone does decide to try, unplugging any cord, pressing a key, touching the mouse, tilting the laptop slightly or even closing the lid will trigger a fairly loud alarm that cannot be muted. It also prevents the computer from shutting down or sleeping. The screen will flash and take a photo of the would-be theft to mail to the computers owner.

Obviously this isn't going to help in a burlargy (neither do cable locks) but if you work anywhere where you might leave your seat, lockdown is a valuble tool.

PC peeps.. you have any equivalents? Might be nice to have this on the boot camp as well.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Make your Mac... more Mac-like. (PCs too!)

calaboration - Google Code

Ah, I have wanted this tool for about a month.. I love how all these mac apps I need are coming out right about when I got a mac. I love iCals slick look but NEED it to hook into my Gmail account and etc services. Finally I can make offline changes!

OpenOffice.org

Every mac person need OpenOffice.org 3.0 (Aqua). This newest release makes OO.o match Apple's aqua interface and does not use the clunky X11 system (which is highly useful but annoying as HELL). You can now use your command key to secondary click like every other aqua app. Runs like a charm. Ditch Microsoft for good and get rid of Office for Mac. Honestly unless you use Pages graphical layout features you can probably ditch iWork too. (I've never had iWork so I dont know how they compare)


Any person (on any OS; Windows people I mean YOU) needs OpenOffice.org PERIOD. Why pay hundreds for a program that is essentially inferior? The menus make more sense is OO.o, the file type is transparent and if you need to you can save in the .doc etc formats, and most of all... its extendable just like firefox. Need a Japanese dictionary, clip art, maybe you want to edit pdfs or make flashcards? Or want automatic furigana insertion? Extensions are free in every sense of the word.

Now that I've brought up Firefox... 3 has a nice Safari like interface so I suggest switching to that too XP Free japanese mouse-over dictionaries to bookmark syncers (indespensible with a dual boot machine)

Windows people might want to Fly a Kite