Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 11:05 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Here it is.

He says that "Kono Subarashii Sekai and so on" (Wed, Jan 13) is about panty shots and gainaxing. The skirts do seem criminally short on the one with blue hair. Maybe I should give it a one-episode look-see. It could be worth following, with the sound turned off and the subtitles disabled -- especially if it runs on AT-X.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in linky at 04:52 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Is "chi" an honorific? It's not listed in the Wikipedia page about honorifics. And as I was looking at that, I suddenly realized that I had heard it several times, but only in various parts of the Nanoha canon.

In the second episode of Strikers, when the aces are helping to fight the fire at the airport, at one point Hayate is going to put out the fire in a big section by using her magic to freeze it all. Obviously she can't do that if there's anyone in it, so she recruits a couple of guys who are in her unit to make sure it's clear. One of them calls to her, "Yagami-chi, onegaishimasu!"

In the Vivid manga, during the investigation in the Infinity Library, it gets used twice that I noticed: once for Corona and once for Vivio. Both times, the girls are being treated with respect.

Which makes me wonder if it's a variation on "chan" which is more respectful. And it also makes me wonder if it's something the author invented.

So is it a real thing, or is it unique to the Nanoha canon?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Japanese at 12:51 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Pixiv has a lot of really good stuff on it, you know? The problem is that there is even more really bad stuff, and it's tough to find the good stuff. Recently I found an answer to that, however. When people post pictures to Gelbooru, they almost always also post a link to where they found it. When I see a picture I like, I've been following those links back and checking out all the other stuff that artist has done.

Like the NSFW picture below the fold: it's funny, clever, sexy, and really well drawn!

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 11:51 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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For whatever it's worth:

One episode or less:
Musaigen no Phantom World (Wed Jan 6)
Dagashi Kashi (Thu Jan 7)
Oshiete! Galko-chan (Fri Jan 8)
Fairy Tail Zero (Sat Jan 9)
Luck and Logic (Sat Jan 9)
Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle (Mon Jan 11)
Mahou Shoujo Nante Mou Ii Desu Kara (Mon Jan 11)
Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm (Mon Jan 11)

Watch:
Gate (Fri Jan 8)

It's possible some of the first list will get promoted to "Watch" but it's unlikely. It's more likely that I'll bag most of them without even finishing the first episode. (Moan...)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 08:30 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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My fellow Americans... If you don't own a gun yet, why the hell not?

I bought mine 3 years ago, shortly after Obama was sworn in for his second term as President. This was also about a month after I got home from rehab from my stroke, and I said to myself, "I better do this now, while I still can."

Still could, for two reasons: while I was still physically able to do it (and I'm not any more so I'm glad I did it when I could), and while it was still legal for me to do it. Obama has always wanted to restrict gun rights for everyone if he could get away with it, but if not that then incrementally, one small group at a time, until the restriction eventually achieved comprehensiveness.

So I decided to vote with my wallet. Every time Obama seriously talks about gun control, gun sales spike. And I helped. It's happened enough times now to be politically significant, convincing politicians in both parties that gun control is a non-starter with a very large percentage of American voters, at least at the federal level. (And Heller and McDonald helped, too.)

The Gun Grabbers won't rest, though. Whatever they think they can get away with, they'll try. Seattle just laid a huge tax on guns sold within the city, and California has routinely put as many obstacles in the way of gun ownership as they can. Massachusetts has really absurdly restrictive gun laws. DC lost the Heller decision (and a couple more since then) and still has ridiculous barriers to gun ownership.

And if they can't restrict gun ownership then they'll go after ammunition. I've been expecting this.

State Senator Roxanne Persaud (D-19) and Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon (D-52) want to pass a law that would limit ammo purchases to twice the capacity of the firearm during a 90-day period (3 months)!

"OK, we reluctantly admit that the Second Amendment protects the right to own a gun. But it doesn't say anything about ammunition, does it? MWAhahaha...."

Yeah, we need to shine lights on this shit, and support legal challenges to it, but that isn't enough. If you don't own a gun you need to do what I did and buy one -- as a political statement, if for no other reason. Because that will get heard.

And once you have your gun, always always always remember the four rules of gun safety:

1. Treat every gun as if it is loaded.
2. Never point a gun at something unless you want to destroy it.
3. Keep your trigger finger off the trigger and out of the trigger guard until you are ready to fire.
4. Always be aware of your target and what's behind it.

That's my kind of "gun control".

UPDATE: That proposed NY law is idiotic for a lot of reasons, and of course it's unconstitutional. But if it passes and goes into effect, I don't see how it could prevent NY residents from making bulk ammunition purchases from out of state. States cannot regulate commerce that crosses state borders; that power is reserved for Congress by Article I section 8 of the Constitution.

NY is finding that out right now. They heaped a huge tax on cigarettes, and smokers responded by driving out of state and buying lots of tobacco and driving back home again. NY can do exactly nothing about it, and as a result NY's revenue from tobacco taxes has plummeted. Seems to me that ammunition sales would be exactly the same way.

Now possession is a different matter, constitutionally speaking. Since Colorado recently legalized sales and possession of marijuana, neighboring states have been complaining about it. Wyoming cannot make it illegal for Wyoming citizens to drive to Colorado to buy cannibis, but they can (and do) make it illegal for Wyoming citizens to possess cannibis no matter where it came from.

If they start getting a lot of importation of ammunition, eventually some bright liberal is going to get the idea that they should make it illegal for civilians to own more than two loads worth of bullets.

The only thing that will stop this garbage is for a third Supreme Court decision to state that possession of ammunition is also protected by the Second Amendment.

Frankly I don't think it's going to come to that, because I don't think the "2 loads every 90 days" law has any chance of passing the NY legislature.

And the reason is that the legislators are well aware of just how many guns are being bought every month in the country for the last few years. That is a very powerful statement.

It is also a very powerful deterrent for wannabe tyrants.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Weird World at 05:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"May we please see a menu?"

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Cheesecake at 12:48 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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But I thought you were supposed to hit the ball towards the net.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Cheesecake at 07:58 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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The sub of the second (and last) episode of the StB OVA came out today, so I can post a review.

It isn't very good.

Sometimes a series OVA is excellent. (Just wait a moment; I'll think of one.) But usually they amount to a curtain call for the cast of the series, and everyone has to show up and get a moment in the spotlight, plus all kinds of things that happened in the main series have to be reprised in the OVA.

And that's what was going on this time. And that's the problem. There was too much they felt they had to dump in for just two episodes, and it felt cluttered. It also felt rather considerably contrived, because the situation they created had huge potential to change the basic canon.

Most specifically, the canon is that Nagisa and Asagi don't know that Kojou is a vampire. Now that can be handwaved for Nagisa. The spirit of Avrora has possessed Nagisa, and she has the ability to jump in and take control any time she wants. It's likely that she can also manipulate Nagisa's memories. So she can make sure Nagisa doesn't find out. But that explanation doesn't work for Asagi, and entirely too much happened in the OVA which could have given away the game to Asagi.

We know from the main series that eventually Asagi figures it out, but this OVA isn't part of the normal story line and it wasn't the right time for it.

Leaving that alone, the ultimate solution to the big problem was really stupid. The solution to Kojou being controlled by the bad guy was the smell of a sweaty school girl? Right.

Anyway, it's pretty clear that someone sat down and made a list of all the things that had to be in the show to avoid angering the fans, and you can almost see them ticking off the entries on the list as the show proceeds.

The only thing I really liked was how Kanase Kanon was handled. That was really neat, and long overdue. But that wasn't enough to save the show.

NOT recommended.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 08:58 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Bill Irwin is a very talented man. He graduated from Clown College, and was one of the performers who became known as the "New Vaudevillians" along with Avner the Eccentric and The Flying Karamazov brothers, among others.

In 1982 he created a stage performance called "The Regard of Flight" and I videotaped it when it was broadcast on PBS's "Great Performances". I can't tell you how many times I watched it, but every time I did I laughed a lot. It's difficult to describe, nor would I describe it even if I could -- for much of the humor comes from the unexpected. But it's probably been 25 years since the last time, and even so I've never forgotten it.

It occurred to me this afternoon that someone might have posted it to Youtube so I took a look, and there it was! It's 45 minutes and you will not regret watching it!

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in linky at 06:00 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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