Because I like beautiful girls.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Mac音ナナ : Vocaloid-esque mac "program"

- 音声合成素材集 - Mac音ナナ[Macne nana] - Mac ソフトのことなら act2.com -

I say use program very loosely because Macne Nana needs the program Reason to run. If you already own reason then this product is probably worth the fairly low price of 30 dollars (seems to also include Macne Petit).

Macne Petit, requires only GarageBand though, since its a AIFF collection, it will likely work with other audio editors such as Audacity. Since modern Macs ship with iLife this requirement isn't high and the price is reasonable (under 10 dollars) but the amount of effort to mix different audio files for a human-like sound is difficult. I might pick it up for 10 dollars but I can't envision seriously using it.

This ain't the mac answer to Miku but the price is right.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Asahi Shinbun on Miku (subbed)

Go to the YT page to view in HD with subs. I'm not sure if subs load in the embedded.

I bought SOSOSO's album from iTunes after seeing him on there. Pretty good stuff so far (am listening) and I can't argue the price. :)

I really wish my supercell CD would show up ^^; Everyone is raving about the album.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Microsoft Ads still suck



Meet Lauren. Shes a PC. And wow! She got a 17" laptop for 700$ dollars! Apple 17" start at 2700 so gosh what a deal! I should defenestrate my MacBook right now!

Oh wait...look at just some of the specs:

Lauren's new Laptop | Apple's basic 17"

RAM : 4GB DDR2 (speed unknown) vs. 4GB DD3 @ 1066Mhz

CPU: 2.1 AMD Turion™ X2 (dual core) vs. 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (dual core)

Display: "WXGA+ high-definition widescreen with BrightView technology" (1440 x 900) vs. 1920x1200 pixel LED-backlit display

Network: b/g wireless; 100mbs ethernet vs. b/g/n wireless gigabit ethernet and bluetooth

Case: shiny "Bronze Chrome" plastic vs. brushed unibody aluminum

Graphics: ATI RADEON HD 3200 graphics RS780M with up to 1918MB shared memory vs. an integrated Nvidia 9400M and a discrete 9600MGT with 512MB of dedicated memory

Portability: 7.9 lbs 1.9" thick vs. 6.6 lbs. and .98" thick

BATTERY: 2.5 hours vs. 8 hours guaranteed through 1000 charge cycles



You get what you pay for and leading PC sites agree.

Asian Food Online Shop Marukai e-STORE

Asian Food Online Shop Marukai e-STORE

From food to futons, Marukai market has gone online!

The membership based food and living stores came to San Diego (along with the 100 yen store: Daiso) and are hugely sucessful. Now those in areas with out Japanese stores can shop online.

Turns out Daiso is online too.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

MacHeist Bundle!

If you have a mac and enjoy this blog (or just want awesome software for super cheap!) consider purchasing 14 mac applications for 39$. 557$ in applications, 39$. The amazing Wiretap Studio? Included. Awesome cooking app? included. 3D animations? Fun games? Image editing? HTML editiors? iPhone helpers? Video Production tools? included, included, included!

http://www.macheist.com/bundle/u/212680/

Use this link and help me out if you want to buy :)

I hate oteiku. (Sakuracon 2009 ad)

Sadly, Its probably a great con as far as anime cons go. But what the hell is the guy with the ramune bottle saying? and the chick at 18 seconds? Those oteiku* must be driving Vic (long but cool last name I can't spell) crazy because this is crap but accurate to his fanbase**.

I love anime though. I've been watching Code Geass on ANN. "Gather around the good stuff" comes to mind.
----------
oteiku: asine anime "fans" characterized by loud voices and stupid arguements to justify thier self centered behaivors. They think otaku are the cool kids of Japan (xD) and can't pronounce the word (hence the name). They sit around the floor of Borders and sound exactly like the people in that ad.

Vic's fanbase: I chatted with him in an elevator, pretty awkwardly since I don't watch dubs, but it was a refreshingly calm and intelligent conversation... untill the doors opened. I can still hear the squeals and shouts as Vic stepped out of the elevator and headed to the parking lot (where he was headed also). One oteiku squealed "Stalk ya later~☆!" YOU CAN HEAR THE STAR.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Brass Restoration works on Wine

Brass Restoration

No excuses now, I need to hurry up and play and review this game:

Installer is a breeze.


Everything works perfectly fine. Music, SFX, visual effects... its is just like Windows.

This is a practically out of the box Darwine install. I did add DirectX 9 a while back through Trix but thats just a routine installer from Microsoft. Runs without a hitch and minimal lag.

So no excuses! Any one who can read this blog can run this game.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Bitchy and Sexy

Today my computer (which I still love immensely and will not trade for your foo-foo touchsmart HP piece of Vista) decided to be a bitch today. Touchpad didn't work on first boot, second boot had really high CPU temps (85C in 5 minutes? BAD) Remember, windows is always consistently nerve-wrackingly fucked up. It takes a mac to be "bitchy".

Observations:
Sexy is good.
Women are sexy.
Macs are sexy.
Women are bitchy. (yes we are!)

Conclusion:
Macs are bitchy. (but we love them)

(Tongue in cheek, please don't take me seriously: I'm just bitching....)

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Klear Screen aka iKlear

Klear Screen - LCD & Plasma Screen Cleaner

I absolutely love this stuff. The polish is great on the screen and the body of my precious MacBook Pro and the cloths are large and lush. The Micro-fiber (terry) is the best cloth for glossy screens I've ever used and the Micro Chamois (MC) polishes aluminum and cleans keyboards like nothing seen before. Both kits come with some step 1 wet wipes (to be then dried with your cloths), step 2 "drying cloths" are not in the newer packages since real cloth is superior.

Keyboard Cover
I bought the old blue version at Fry's with a trackpad cover; for iBooks (that old!) Made of optical grade MC; really nice to keep the screen clean and free of key-dents!

Cleaning Kit
Fry's electronics is awesome and had this is stock. This is a wonderful kit of with 1 large MC, 1 travel MC, 1 travel terry, 2 oz. of apple polish and 1 anti-bacterial cloth I haven't tried yet. The large cloth is really large, twice the size of my keyboard! The aluminum unibody looks brand new once I wipe down with this kit.

For you PCs out there you can buy unbranded or DELL labeled versions of Klear Screen if you don't want to buy something with macs on it. Obviously, I bought the iKlear kits but the product is the same I believe. Its worth every cent to have a beautiful screen!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

桜ノ雨 : Bought another damn Miku CD

桜ノ雨学園

It wouldn't hurt so much if I hadn't liked the cover art forever but never heard a good sample till two days after I ordered other CDs.


So it's been ordered separately. T_T

Goodbye Mr. Despair

....is what they should have just titled the damn thing. That's the official translation given in the very book after all

As you might have guessed, I picked up the first volume of さよなら絶望先生 today; helpfully transliterated as "Sayonara, Zatsubou Sensei". Translating involves changing the words from one language to another while keeping the meaning. Retyping in roman letters in transliteration. Titles indicate something about the series if people can understand them! Alas, crappy pirate scanslators keep the "authentic" title (aka... thier lazy) so everyone wants a jumble of Japanese for the title. Del Rey at least added a subtitle "The Power of Negative Thinking" parallelling the pun that is lost in translation.

Anyhow its a very fun manga. Good art and wit make this a highly readable book. Highly reccomended and the only title worth reading among the crap being pressed out nowadays (read: this week's releases). Nice localization with pages on pages of translation notes (its one of those series). This large reliance on Japanese culture dooms it from commercial sucess but atleast we can enjoy it.

Yo-Jin-Bo Revived

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Damned if I do, damned if I dont, type of moment: What other language has such a mascot?

This is like telling people about your birthday: your selfish sounding for doing it but if you don't people say "why didn't you tell me?!'
So there you have been told. I passed level 4 (lowest level) of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Now to study for level 3.

In other news... Erin-chan is increasingly delightful. Am I bad for feeling moe over a educational character?

Hello Kitty Temari Line is so CUTE

shop.sanrio.com - Hello Kitty Pen Pouch: Temari

I got this and a Hello Kitty omamori (the orange thing I'm holding) at the mall Sanrio store today. So cute I was hyperventilating!!!!

Coraline

Coraline: Explore a Hand-Made World

The link is to the offical movie website. I recommend reading the most-excellent source book at some point as well but the movie does not disappoint. I had no idea it was stop-motion till I saw it (I thought it was the usual crappy 3D CGI "kids" movies are made in nowadays.) very impressive work!

Ordered some Miku CDs... Its hard to choose...

I really love what all of these NicoNico artists can do with Miku but buying CDs from Japan is hard. Due to availability, money, and cover art (I have to decide somehow!) this is what I ordered:

supercell<初回生産限定盤> [CD+DVD] [Limited Edition]

This was a must buy. 初めての恋が終わる時 is simply wonderful and I have been looking for more.
(Amazon.co.jp) (CDJapan.co.jp)


Re:Mikus
This is the second album from Livetune featuring Miku, their first being the excellent Re:Package . This one won by cover art over the also fabulous cosMo@暴走P's new CD. Below is the excellent "Last Night, Good Night" from Re:Package.
(Amazon.co.jp) (CDJapan.co.jp)


CDs will ship at the end of March and come around my birthday (SAL shipping). I would wait but both are in the top 50 on Amazon Japan 35th for Re:Mikus and 5th (!) for Supercell LE. ^_^