chizumatic.mee.nu

February 03, 2009

Tokyo Disney

Tokyo Disneyland is the most profitable theme park on the planet thanks to understanding psychology.

I can believe that. I could certainly believe that it's the most profitable of the Disney properties. It's interesting to contrast that to Euro-Disney, in France, which has long been the most troubled of the Disney properties and the one that has had the most trouble with debt.

One difference is that Tokyo Disneyland is right in the middle of Tokyo, while Euro Disney is out in the sticks. But that can't be all of it, because Disneyworld is also out in the sticks.

But another issue is the local culture. Putting Euro Disney in France always seemed a bit risky, given the traditional French condescension towards all things American.

The Japanese, on the other hand, are at least as xenophilic as Americans are, and have no issues with enjoying a quintessentially American theme park.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Weird World at 06:26 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Scovilles

So I cooked up my burger and added the envelope of spices, and let it simmer for ten minutes to form a nice thick sauce. Then I dumped it in my mixing bowl, got out my wooden spoon, and gingerly started trying to add Tabasco green.

I dabbed just a teeny bit onto the spoon, and started mixing, then tasted it. Nothing. I dabbed a bit more onto it and did it again. Nothing.

In fact, it took me 6 tries, using increasingly large amounts of the stuff, before I could detect any bite at all when I tasted the meat. When they call the green sauce "mild" they weren't really kidding.

I didn't want the taco meat to be mouth-burningly hot, but I did want to be able to taste a bit of heat, and I think I got that. But I may get a surprise; I've heard that the heat comes out more the longer the hot sauce is mixed with the payload.

Anyway, it's cooling in the frig now and I'll do the ice-cube-tray thing in a couple of hours. Presumably any heat-blooming will be suspended by being frozen.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 05:11 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Ah! My Buddha -- ships

I just received the shipment notice for my copy of the first DVD of Ah! My Buddha! It's an unguilty pleasure, a pleasant fan service show with no pretensions to greatness. Pity it wasn't a full-season boxed set like I had somehow deceived myself as thinking it would be, but four episodes is good enough for now.

Due Thursday.

It might be about time for me to put together another order. Season 8 of DBZ came in, which is part of my least favorite arc, the Majin Buu story, but there it is. And I'm trying to convince myself to try out Ouran High School Host Club.

I'm also trying to convince myself that the Negima remake could be better than the first attempt was ("better" being defined as "more fan service" and "more Evangeline"). I bought one DVD of the first series and was thoroughly disappointed. How in hell can you have a series based on a manga by Ken Akamatsu, featuring a girls' high school, and not have any damned fan service in it? I dunno, but that's what they did the first time.

The first series was done by Xebec, and the second one was done by SHAFT. SHAFT, for all their faults, at least know how to draw pretty girls.

Another show I've considered taking a risk on is a Nabeshin show: Nerima Daikon Brothers. As always, Nabeshin has a self-insert, and from what I've read this one is more Excel Saga and less Tenchi Muyo: GXP. By which I mean more goofiness, less plot and characterization. But it could still be fun. (And it's only 12 episodes, so the joke doesn't get stretched too far.)

And I'm pretty sure I'm going to try one season of Yu Yu Hakusho, and then decide whether to keep following it.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 02:35 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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1 I don't know if I'd recommend Ouran (and not just because you, y'know, hate recommendations). It's witty, to be sure. If you're okay with (a lot of ) implied homosexuality, you may enjoy it.

I have former co-workers who still curl up into a ball and whimper a little at the mention of Nerima Daikon Brothers. ;p

I've been thoroughly disappointed with the anime adaptations of Akamatsu manga since Love Hina. For whatever reason, they never get his character designs quite right...

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at February 03, 2009 03:58 PM (pWQz4)

2 Ouran is on my list for an obligation buy, but I've been putting it off. Not much rewatch value to me, but worth the once-through. As I say on my anime page, it's a surprisingly deep study of the people around Haruhi Fujioka. The art's not great, and the style's heavily "affected" and the early episodes aren't that good, until Range appears. (Very underused supporting character with the best entrance ever.)

The strength of the story is in its characters, and how Haruhi affects them. Unfortunately, the presumed main romantic interest for her is an idiot savant, and the story suffers as a result. If he and the Shadow King had been full equals, it would have been an entirely different show.

Posted by: ubu at February 03, 2009 04:19 PM (rMbvC)

I have former co-workers who still curl up into a ball and whimper a little at the mention of Nerima Daikon Brothers.

Why? What was wrong with it?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at February 03, 2009 05:07 PM (+rSRq)

4 It's a musical, Steven. And not a particularly good one, at that.

I liked the first few episodes of Negima!?, but it sort of left me feeling eh past that. No particular reason, but everything sort of fell flat for me. YMMV, of course, but there was something (Negi) that just (Negi) didn't (Negi) feel (Negi) right (Negi) with it (NegiNegiNegiNegiNegi).

Asuna, on the other hand, I liked.

(fnord)

Posted by: Wonderduck at February 03, 2009 05:32 PM (sh9fy)

Well, if it really was a musical, that must have made the dub fun. I can see how that could have been traumatic.

I knew it was about musicians, but didn't know it was a musical.

As to Negi, I was unimpressed with him in the first series, too. But I figure that once the Evangeline story arc begins it would all get better. Only I didn't get that far the first time.

As to Ouran, part of why I think I should try it is because it's a reverse harem with a reverse trap main character. The only reverse harem I've ever seen was Fruits Basket, and I suspect that wasn't typical. And I don't think I've ever seen a reverse trap.

Plus it has a reputation for being witty. And I remember that in the heyday of Melancholy that occasionally I'd see someone say, "The true Haruhi is the one in Ouran." Or words to that effect.

So I'm curious. Yeah, gay bishies, but I gather they're objects of ridicule, so maybe that part is OK.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at February 03, 2009 05:55 PM (+rSRq)

6 Ah, about Nerima Daikon Brothers: The six words that guaranteed I would get NOwhere near it were "Rocket-powered butt-seeking enema machine."

Talk about CYA time....

Posted by: ubu at February 03, 2009 11:26 PM (rMbvC)

That does sound like Nabeshin's sense of humor.

I do think I'm going to skip that one.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at February 03, 2009 11:55 PM (+rSRq)

8 I'd bet you a shiny dollar that nothing about the members of the Ouran Host Club is what it seems.

Posted by: toadold at February 04, 2009 07:15 AM (zcbXo)

9 The way Nabeshin lampooned Koreans with their New Wave and plastic surgeries was pretty bold, and actually funny. But the anime musical is not the same thing as Broadway musical. I checked it out just to see how it worked. It didn't.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at February 04, 2009 08:39 AM (/ppBw)

10 The joke in Nerima is worn thin by pretty much the point when the second episode starts. I do think the first episode is brilliant, and that the show would probably have made a great OAV, but the concept (nor the music budget) doesn't stretch to a full TV show.

As far as Negima!? goes, you may want to check out the recently released Spring/Summer OAV double pack before the TV version - seeing some of the first volume of the Xebec season should have informed you enough to understand what's going on, and given that those episodes are beach and onsen-centric, there's no shortage of fanservice. It should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect from an Akiyuki Shinbo directed Negima as well, though it's not really !? series canon as such.

They aren't as good as the recent Negima Ala Alba OAV series either, but that's largely because Ken Akamatsu has actually be writing on those. Bodes well for the rumoured third series.

Posted by: DiGiKerot at February 04, 2009 11:15 AM (UNZ2Z)

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February 02, 2009

Japanese -- moshikashitte

There's a phrase I've heard a lot of times, and it means something like "You don't suppose?" It's an indication that an unexpected thought just occurred to someone, a surprising idea that might be true. I just ran into it specifically in the third episode of Kirameki Project.

Anyway, to my ear it sounds like moshikashitte but that doesn't seem to be right. I've got that è‹¥ã— moshi means "supposing". And tte is a quote mark, sometimes used rhetorically. It can be translated pretty well as "you say".

In the 7th episode of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Yuuno transforms into his boy form, and it's the first time Nanoha sees it. She hadn't suspected he was anything except a magical ferret. She gets rather incoherent for a minute, and one of the things she says is "Yuuno-kun tte! Yuuno-kun tte!" That's Yuuno, you say? That's Yuuno, you say?

Anyway, I can't figure out the middle word or the total phrase. None of the dictionary entries for it make any sense to me. (Unless, maybe it's this one: ä¸‹è³œ.)

Help me out here, folks. What is it I'm hearing? I want to add it to my "common phrases" list.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Japanese at 07:06 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Too many words about Mirai no Trunks

This is just something that's been kicking around in my head for quite a while, and I decided to write about it: Too many words about Mirai no Trunks

It's about why Trunks, in the android/Cell story arc of DBZ is so fascinating to me.

UPDATE: Martin found the chart I had been looking for, showing the timelines. It has one serious mistake, however: in the original timeline it was 17 and 18 who killed Dr. Gero. 19 and 20 were never built.

UPDATE: At the time that I originally saw it, I didn't know the series very well. Now that I've seen it again, and am very familiar with the series, I'm not totally happy with it. I think I'm going to have to do my own.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 04:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Tabasco, hot or not?

I'm down to my last 6 cubes of taco beef, and I needed other groceries too, so I just did a grocery run. Picked up another pound of hamburger and some more taco seasoning.

And I decided to experiment with adding a bit of heat to it. So I bought a bottle of Tabasco Green. When it comes to hot food I'm a real lightweight, and this is reputed to be their milder stuff. They boast that it "only" rates 600-1200 Scovilles, and it's mild because it's made from jalepenos.

I'm used to thinking of jalapenos as being dangerously hot, but I gather that compared to atomic weapons like the habanero they're wet firecrackers. And apparently their original formulation was 2500-5000 Scovilles, while their hot sauce made from habaneros runs above 7000. (eeek!) And worse is available from other sources, I'm sure.

Anyway, adding the green sauce to a pound of spiced burger maybe two drops at a time should give me adequate control to avoid burning holes in my frying pan and/or my stomach.

UPDATE: I just opened the bottle and smelled it. The stuff looks like pureed pepper, which I guess is what it is, and it smells like jalapenos. The bottle has a narrow neck, but as thick as the stuff is, I'm not sure just how easy it's going to be to control the pour. I might get more of it than I really want to.

Also, the smell (and presumably the flavor) may not be quite what I want for tacos. Only way to find out is to try it, of course, but I might decide to go with the original Tabasco instead on future batches.

Oh, the taste? No fucking way am I going to try to taste it straight! Are you insane?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 12:56 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
Post contains 303 words, total size 2 kb.

1 I've never tried the Tabasco Green. Sounds interesting--I find regular Tabasco a little too hot for my taste.
I like Frank's Hot Sauce (Original, not the Buffallo Wings type). Milder than Tabasco and much more flavor to go with the heat. At 450 Scovilles it's certainly noticeably less hot than Tabasco.
When I was diving in the Cayman Islands a few years back, I tried a local treat--pickled Scotch Bonnet peppers (related to habaneros). They just fish a whole pepper out of the jar and munch it down, so I figured, what the heck.
Well.
I literally had my vision blur for about thirty seconds. The only good thing is that the heat dies away in about ten minutes...ten long minutes. I later found out they rank at 300,000 Scovilles, although the pickling tames that as much as 50%, apparently.

Posted by: Toren at February 02, 2009 02:23 PM (YFtJx)

2 The green sauce is noticeably milder than their original red sauce. However, neither compared to <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huy_Fong>Huy Fong's Sriracha Sauce</a>. Unlike Tobasco, who aged their sauce in cork barrel, Huy Fong aged their sauce in plastic drum...

Posted by: BigFire at February 02, 2009 02:31 PM (9KNwi)

3 Tabasco in the small narrow necked bottles does not pour. It's shaken out like ketchup.

Posted by: conrad at February 02, 2009 03:08 PM (X5Mq+)

4 I can't really say much about Tabasco. I'm just not a fan. Not because it's hot, I can handle much hotter than that. I just don't like the flavor. I'm not a fan of the vinegar based sauces. I prefer to put salsa on my Mexican/Tex-Mex.

Posted by: Arson55 at February 02, 2009 04:03 PM (6lewD)

5 I'm partial to Cholula hot sauce, though the neighborhood stores haven't restocked lately. I think it's fairly mild, though others may want to try just a few drops to start. Unlike a lot of hot sauces I've tried, this one has some nice flavor to go with the heat.

Posted by: Siergen at February 02, 2009 04:51 PM (PXh79)

Unless the stuff is a whole lot less hot than I think it is, the flavor is pretty much irrelevant. The purpose of adding it is to add heat, and what little flavor it will add, in such tiny quantities as I expect, won't significantly affect the overall flavor of a full pound of hamburger plus an ounce or so of dried spices from a foil envelope.

...so you guys can stop wasting time by suggesting alternatives, OK? Especially since I hate unsolicited suggestions and advice.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at February 02, 2009 05:16 PM (+rSRq)

7 Easiest way to "pour" it is to glorp it onto a large spoon, then use a smaller spoon or knife to divide it into the amount you want to put into the food.

That's how I do it here at Pond Central for the really hot stuff, seems to work pretty well.

Posted by: Wonderduck at February 02, 2009 05:38 PM (sh9fy)

8 When I lived in Los Angeles there was a "Gourmet Chili" place around the corner that had a small display case of chili sauces, with everything from Tabasco up to "Ultra Mega Death Chili", which could be gotten in signed and sealed bottles that ran up to $1200 for a tiny bottle of sauce that would kill small animals if opened in their general vicinity. My favorite, on name alone: "Bayou Butt Burner." http://www.chilliworld.com/SP6.asp?p_id=37

I've never actually tasted it, as I make my Quesadillas with Salsa, and my chilis from the raw spices and peppers. But you've got to give them credit for knowing how to name their product for the market.

Posted by: David at February 02, 2009 05:42 PM (n/RK7)

9 Haven't tried the green Tabasco. Might be interesting... I don't particularly like the flavor of red Tabasco, but it's not too hot for me as long as it isn't used to excess (though generally I'm a wimp).

Just don't be this guy, who ate a naga jolokia pepper, rated at 1,000,000 Scoville.

Posted by: EvilOtto at February 02, 2009 06:51 PM (moJjI)

I have to give the company credit for running an ad I thought was clever, quite a few years ago. A kid sitting on his porch one hot evening, eating pizza and pouring tabasco on it for each bit. On the floor next to him are several empty bottles. A mosquito lands on his arm, and

Somehow I always had the idea that it was a Mexican product, but the label says they're in Louisiana.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at February 02, 2009 07:33 PM (+rSRq)

11 Tabasco is like bacon. There's no food which isn't improved by adding it. The peppers were originally from Mexico, presumably spicing the foods which American peppers won't spice. (Locally grown now) The whole soaking them in vinegar & salt until they liquefy, though, is a Louisianian thing.

If you can find it outside of south Louisiana, Crystal Preserves hot sauce is basically a slightly milder version of the Tabasco classic. They used to have their bottling plant in town until Katrina. You could always tell when they were making pepper jelly because of the smell over the surrounding three block radius.

Posted by: Cybrludite at February 03, 2009 03:22 AM (GDpMq)

12 Oh, if you want to try tasting it straight, go ahead. Just have a piece of bread handy to nom on afterward if it's too hot for you. Or anything starchy to soak up the spice from your taste buds, but sliced white bread is usually on hand & doesn't require preperation. Water is a bad idea, as it clears the pain taste receptors, while still allowing a fresh coating of the peppers to alight on them.

Posted by: Cybrludite at February 03, 2009 03:39 AM (GDpMq)

13 And the unwanted advice continues to flow. Thread closed.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at February 03, 2009 04:50 AM (+rSRq)

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Captions

When I saw this I thought, "We missed! Charge the wave-motion gun up for another shot!"

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in linky at 06:22 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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February 01, 2009

MLB

I love it! MLB.com is the web site of Major League Baseball, and they're running an article there about the Superbowl. Their title?

"Football set to hand off to baseball"

It's actually a live-blog about the game, but it's still a nicely cheeky title, isn't it? "Well, since there's no baseball being played right now, we might as well watch football as second-best."

Which, I might mention, is really how I myself feel about it, except that I don't watch sports at all anymore. But I'd rather watch an early-season baseball game than the superwhatsit (you know, the football championship, whatever it's called) if I was going to watch sports.

UPDATE: It really is cheeky. Reading it, it's mostly about why baseball is better than football. Which I agree with, of course.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Weird World at 04:54 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
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1 Football is what watch between Baseball seasons. Nothing more.

Unless the Bears are good. Then it's a little more important than that, but not much.

Posted by: Wonderduck at February 01, 2009 05:24 PM (sh9fy)

2 "I'm trying to watch the Super Bowl. If people don't support this thing, it might not make it." -Abraham Simpson

Yeah, I'd rather watch a baseball game than a football game any time. Baseball has always seemed more, well, civilized. Less filled with arbitrary rules, less populated by hulking, no-necked mutants. Not that there's anything wrong with hulking, no-necked mutants.

Posted by: EvilOtto at February 01, 2009 06:19 PM (moJjI)

3 Baseball is okay to watch as long as you're at a game. At the house, I very seldom watch baseball. It's not as exciting to me.

I love football because of the strategy. There is so much going on in the design of the plays, and when you have to go for it on fourth down, clock management, and everything. I especially love guessing and second guessing play calling (It's going to be a screen pass, or no, they should have run a draw there! And so on). The strategy in baseball doesn't appeal to me the same way.

Of course because the freaking Steelers got to six now, I'm kinda down. This was the worst football season of my life. All of my favorite teams just crashed and burned while the Steelers got everything. Horrible.

Posted by: Arson55 at February 01, 2009 07:25 PM (6lewD)

4 Football may have a more complex strategy, but I'd generally prefer to watch Baseball, simply because its easier to actually tell what is happening.

Posted by: metaphysician at February 01, 2009 07:48 PM (h4nEy)

There's a lot of strategy in baseball, too, but it can be subtle. It's things like pitching strategies, how the fielders place themselves in a given situation, and in particular in how and when the coach decides to replace players.

(Just in passing, that's why the DH rule sucks. It's too easy on the coaches. I should have specified that what I prefer to watch is the National League.)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at February 01, 2009 09:12 PM (+rSRq)

6 I've stepped in it now, haven't I? "DH Rule" arguments are as passionate as perl-versus-php or mac-versus-windows...

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at February 01, 2009 09:13 PM (+rSRq)

7 You guys are making fun of my religion... ;_;

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at February 01, 2009 09:29 PM (7TgBH)

8 Hah, like I get passionate about baseball, *period*. I can't even remember which league has the DH.

Posted by: metaphysician at February 01, 2009 10:12 PM (h4nEy)

9 That would be the un-American league. It's the one the White Sox are in. That's how you know it's evil.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at February 01, 2009 11:28 PM (+rSRq)

10 I go back and forth on the DH. On one hand, you're right, it makes it easy on the coaches. And that is bad. On the other hand, it makes way for a player like David Ortiz, who despite being strictly a DH, I think is an exciting player.

Despite being a Rangers fan--meaning at playoff time I start rooting for the Red Sox anyway (just because of that awesome comeback series against the Yankees a few years ago...and because at playoff time the Rangers are on vacation), Ortiz is maybe my favorite player in the game (Other than possibly Marlon Byrd...a fairly good, but not really exceptional Rangers outfielder...really just a local fan favorite for the way he came out of nowhere two years ago to be a solid player for us).

Posted by: Arson55 at February 02, 2009 01:35 AM (6lewD)

11 Arson55 I stand in awe of anybody who is still a fan of the heart breaking soul corroding ding dang Rangers who have led me up the garden path and out behind the barn so many, many, times. It's only worth it if you can get out to the stadium in Arlington these days.

Posted by: toadold at February 02, 2009 06:06 AM (zcbXo)

They play baseball in DFW? There was a football game yesterday?

Who keeps letting these things happen without telling me?

Posted by: ubu at February 02, 2009 07:03 AM (i7ZAU)

13 I hear they have a really good ballpark.

Their complete inability to accomplish anything, ever, though, has sort of soured me on baseball. The strikes didn't help, and to be honest, I like the combination of strategy (which has gone through the roof in recent years--last night turned repeatedly on specific play designs, and I don't mean gimmicks) and individual/group matchups.

If it helps, think of each play like one pitch, only the outfield is working just as hard to read the batter(s) and outperform them as the pitcher and catcher are.

Posted by: BigD at February 02, 2009 08:16 AM (LjWr8)

14 toadold- same deal here, except insert "Orioles".

I don't think they've actually had a decent team in my lifetime. . .

Posted by: metaphysician at February 02, 2009 08:16 AM (h4nEy)

15 Toadold, there is no doubt in my mind that Tom Hicks is possibly the worst owner in sports (and he owns two of my teams, damn him!). However, I've lived in Arlington most of my life so it's usually not hard to get to a few games a year. Except last year I worked in the kitchen of one of the restaurants there so I didn't usually catch much except the 8th inning (you know, after the kitchens have closed and before the game's over so I can still get to my car and head home fairly early easily 'cause I'm freaking hot and tired after a 9 hour shift in the kitchen).

Still, after not going to games much the few years before (I was living in east Texas at the time). It kinda got me back into baseball. The energy at the games adds a lot of fun to it, even if you're only watching a single inning. But even with that, my sport of choice is still football. I do just love the strategy of it. Oh, and the incredibly athletic performances of the players helps too.

Posted by: Arson55 at February 02, 2009 01:37 PM (6lewD)

16 I grew up in Canada. All other sports are secondary to hockey.

Posted by: Toren at February 02, 2009 02:25 PM (YFtJx)

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January 31, 2009

ADV no ecchi

It is said that ADV has created a new imprint called "Happy Carrot" for hentai titles. Happy carrot? The mind boggles. What was done to the carrot to make it happy, pray tell?

Anyhoo, it is also said that they have announced (maybe) a title for April that they'll call "Karma Saiyuki". Supposedly it was an OVA in Japan in 2007 called "Iyashite Agerun Saiyuki", about which ANN has the bare minimum info possible.

It does have a link to the Japanese home page for the show, which was a 40 minute one-off. I got curious.

The site is painfully slow. Whether it's because lots of American fanbois joined me in hitting it since the announcement, or just because the studio is low budget and doesn't have much of a web server pipe, I couldn't say. But the main three girls are drawn cute, and the few frame grabs they included from the animation seem at least somewhat higher quality than was common in the few ecchi titles I've bought.

Unfortunately, if the frame grabs are to be believed, there's rape and roping and ball gags. Pity.

NOT SAFE FOR WORK below the fold

more...

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 01:01 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 And they were doing so well up until that last shot.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 31, 2009 08:16 PM (PiXy!)

2 That's how I felt about it, too.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 31, 2009 08:35 PM (+rSRq)

3 I never have figured out why there is so much rape stuff in the smut anime. There is nowhere near as much...by a longshot...in the manga.
Go figure.

Posted by: Toren at January 31, 2009 09:38 PM (u+3B2)

There do exist H titles that don't contain rape or anything else like that, but damn, you really have to hunt to find them.

There was one I bought for which I had high hopes, because it was about a pair of newlyweds who were having trouble getting spice into their lives, and its claim to fame was that everything in it was consensual. It was a two-parter, and I bought the first part when it came out -- and found it just as boring as all the other H DVDs I've gotten. Oh, well.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 31, 2009 10:36 PM (+rSRq)

5 Pretty much the same for me. Hentai got boring real quick. Mediocre at best art, not much characterization, and etc. I guess if you are good at writing and art you don't need to bother with the nipple clamps. I've found that I prefer variety on the chest. If all the girls have the same size development it's kind of boring for some reason.

Posted by: toadold at February 01, 2009 05:26 AM (zcbXo)

6 Japanese porn in general seems excessively fetish-oriented, with a significant percentage of it involving women who aren't enjoying the activities. Even when there are no ropes or rapes, the sex is for him (singular or plural), and if she enjoys it, well, that's a bonus for the slut. This is a complete turn-off for me.

I have seen manga that actually include mutually satisfying sexual relationships between equals (Miko Moe, for instance, where the most lopsided action is a senpai giving eagerly-awaited lessons), but the people making anime and live-action DVDs seem to have abandoned that market in their effort to cater to the jaded fans. A friend who lived in Japan for several years in the 90s said that all the porn videos she and her husband found to rent were tame romantic stuff, and was surprised to hear how much it's changed.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at February 01, 2009 08:34 AM (2XtN5)

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Daily life -- passing the buck

My lease runs out at the end of this month. A couple of weeks ago I ran into the manager and reminded her that I'd need a new lease. Yesterday I ran into her just as she was leaving the office for the day, and she said I should come in today, when the assistant manager would be in the office.

This morning I went up there, and there was a sign on the door saying, "Out on the ground, back in ten minutes." So I walked out to the beaver dam and spent some time watching it, and then walked out to Canyon Rd and bought some coffee. Stopped by the office on my way back and it was still closed. Went back to my apartment and waited about twenty minutes, and went back and she was there.

I told her I needed a new lease, and she said she hadn't heard anything about it. She suggested I come back on Monday when Sharon (the manager) would be in.

At which point I lost my temper from all the run-around. "She told me to come in today!" grrr...

Not yet resolved, but at least she's moving. She tried to call Sharon, and left a voicemail for her. She can't do anything because she doesn't know how much my rent is supposed to increase.

I probably shouldn't have raised my voice. But for crying out loud, doing leases and collecting rent is their business. That's where the money comes from!

UPDATE: They finally figured out what my rent is going to be, at least. So I can pay it tomorrow, and then take care of getting a lease signed on Monday.

Every previous year my rent has gone up by $20. This time it's staying level. I don't think that in all the years I've been a renter that I've ever had that happen to me.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 11:28 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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