UPS finally delivered my garbage can, so that's now decorating my kitchen. I also ordered the second BD of the Strike the Blood OVA.
I specified Fedex Overnight, which means it should have arrived this morning. But the online tracking site says that it arrived in Memphis about an hour ago. They are still saying it's due to be delivered today, but I don't see how that can happen.
I am making allowances. For UPS and Fedex this is hell week, the worst week of the year, and I understand that it's a problem. But...
A rip of this BD showed up online this morning and I've already downloaded it. I paid a premium price for the BD and the shipping, to get it as fast as I possibly could legitimately, but I still got a bootleg sooner. I guess that means something, but I'm not totally sure what.
In the mean time I've been sitting here rewatching Yozakura Quartet. It's really a very charming show; I like it. What is coolest about it is how comfortable everyone in the town is with each other. Sakura Newtown has a large percentage of people who are not human. But they all mix together and it isn't considered remarkable by anyone. Humans and Youkai are friends and hang out together, and sometimes humans get into trouble and youkai use remarkable powers to help. So someone like Kotoha, who has what amounts to a super power, can use her abilities in public and no one is afraid of her. It's widely known that she has those powers and everyone is cool with it.
I just noticed that there's a huge jump in the story between episodes 8 and 9. The OP of episode 9 is a reprise of the stuff that they left out:
Zakuro attacks the town and there's a huge fight and ultimately she's defeated. I'm going to go look at the manga now and catch up.
UPDATE: Online tracking says the package just left Memphis, and they say I get it tomorrow. I believe that; it'll reach Portland this evening, and go to Lake Oswego before the trucks load for tomorrow's delivery -- if everything goes well. One time, at least, one of my BD packages spent a night at the Portland sorting center because they didn't notice it was supposed to be expedited. And of course, if they don't manage to deliver it tomorrow then it'll be next Monday.
UPDATE Thursday 0830: The tracking site says it's scheduled for delivery in the next two hours. It also says the package was at Lake Oswego (the local truck barn) at 0800. Did it make it onto a truck in time for delivery? My bet is "no", but we'll soon find out.
UPDATE 0930: The UPS computer seems to be horrifically backlogged. Just now I checked again and it has an 0800 entry indicating that the package is out for delivery. So I will get it today, though perhaps not before 1030.
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The skip is where the OVA Hoshi no Umi goes, as it was made before as a DVD to go with the Manga volumes. Same production staff/design work, so it fits pretty seamlessly.
Posted by: sqa at December 23, 2015 11:22 AM (atiVz)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at December 23, 2015 12:50 PM (+rSRq)
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I'm rewatching the Hana no Uta version of the series, which I think is closer to the manga than the earlier one.
This one fleshes the characters out better. The humor is sharper. Friendships are more obvious and the "imperfectness" of each one's special abilities are better emphasized.
Both are good.
Posted by: topmaker at December 23, 2015 03:20 PM (6stZH)
I just finished watching the OVA and it was really good. I can see why, after it came out, they decided to do a whole cour with the same team.
It was fun seeing Kotoha going all out in a battle; she's impressive. But her ability to summon a rocket-launched bunker buster is scary as hell. In the Hana no Uta show she summons an SP gun and a couple of other massive weapons at one point, not to mention a railroad artillery piece. It's a good thing she's one of the good guys; I'm not sure they could defeat her if she went bad.
I got 35 top rotation candidates out of the OVA. And it definitely fills in a lot of questions in Hana no Uta.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at December 23, 2015 03:26 PM (+rSRq)
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There's also an OVA series for the manga arc after Hana no Uta. (Tsuki ni Naku) It's only DVD quality, but the final fight is pretty good. (And there's one twist in the OVA I really didn't see coming, which was very well played.)
Part of it is that the director, Ryo-timo (that's how he prefers it, apparently), is one of really well regarded animators over the past decade. That's why there's so much background animation. And it really helps with capturing the "feel" of the series. It's both serious and silly in parts, but it balances it really well.
Plus, so many of the characters are just a blast. I quite enjoy the series as well. But some of the powers on display truly are insane.
Posted by: sqa at December 23, 2015 09:36 PM (Ze5iI)
That thing is the only way to get across the creek. When it wasn't there, you had to jump across a cut the water had made. There are a couple of big concrete pipes under there which were supposed to carry the water, but they got clogged up a long time ago.
So there wasn't really any reasonable way to get lawn mowers over to the other side each summer to cut down all the brush over there. It was kind of fun watching the guy build that.
As to why it's blocked on both sides with "keep out" signs? Federal law. If it's accessible to the public, it has to be wheel-chair accessible. Never mind that there isn't any way to get wheelchairs down there, nor is there anything on the other side that a cripple (like me) would want to reach. The law admits of no exceptions.
So they had to block it off, to make it legal to build.
The rain has been heavy again today, and the water is back up again. I was wondering if it might rise enough to float that thing off. It isn't anchored in place; it's just sitting there. But the water would have to rise a hell of a lot more to reach it, and the only way that could happen is if we got like 10 inches in a day.
It's an exponential target; each additional foot of rise requires a lot more water than the previous one, both because the channel gets wider and because the water is faster running off.
I learned about that law when I worked at BBN. The main campus was on one side of a railyard and the building I was in was on the other side. To walk around would have been about three miles, so the fence got kicked down and we walked across.
The railroad company kept complaining about it, so BBN investigated the possibility of building a foot bridge. But it turned out it would have been too expensive, because the law would have required it to be wheel-chair accessible, and that would have tripled the cost.
What they eventually did was to start running a shuttle bus back and forth, and most of us just kept walking across the railyard. (I myself only used the shuttle when the weather was bad.)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at December 08, 2015 04:40 PM (+rSRq)
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Actually, the beavers did build a dam right there, just to the right (upstream) side of the culvert, in the last year. That's about the third time since I've been here for that location. Gene (the handyman) pulled a lot of the junk out of the way to open things up a bit, which is where all that crap on the far bank came from.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at December 08, 2015 04:46 PM (+rSRq)
Sharon (the apartment manager) said they had at one point considered ripping all of that out and building a real bridge there instead.
But it would have been a titanic logistics hassle, because there isn't any way to get any kind of powered equipment in. If you wanted even one of those baby back-hoes, the only way would be to bring it in with a helicopter. Which would be a huge problem in a lot of ways; there are tall trees, so the thing would have to dangle from at 50 meter cable if not longer. And I wonder what kind of permits you would need to run a helicopter that low over dense residential area?
On the other hand, doing it all with muscle power would be slow and really preposterously expensive and difficult.
So that isn't going to happen.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at December 08, 2015 04:52 PM (+rSRq)
Ah, I've missed this. Oregon winter; gotta love it!
Not everyone can cope with the fact that we can go for weeks without ever seeing the sun. When I worked at Tektronix back in the 70's, sometimes we'd hire people from the East Coast who would leave after one winter, because the weather drove them crazy.
But, of course, I grew up with this so it doesn't bother me at all.
UPDATE: It's said around here that there are only two seasons in Oregon: Winter, and August.
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Speaking of August in Oregon, an eclipse forecast site says that it's usually cloud-free, especially away from the coast. Has that been your experience?
Posted by: Siergen at December 05, 2015 02:36 PM (De/yN)
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Yeah. July and August are usually clear sky. (We don't like to admit it to outsiders, though.)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at December 05, 2015 03:06 PM (+rSRq)
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But not the rest of the year. There was a total eclipse here in the late 1970's, and unfortunately it was completely overcast that day. So all we saw was that it got real dark for a few minutes and then it got bright again.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at December 05, 2015 03:11 PM (+rSRq)
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Down where I am we joke the opposite, the two seasons are Summer and Christmas. Though lately I've suggested that Christmas is no longer cold enough to count, and the seasons should be Summer and Double Super Summer.
Posted by: Aaron Nowack at December 05, 2015 03:14 PM (APFEn)
For whatever it's worth, today is the third anniversary of my stroke.
It could have been worse. If the chunk of whatever had zigged instead of zagged, it might have killed me, or rendered me an idiot. (More of an idiot than I already am.)
Instead it left me partially paralyzed on my left side but had no direct effect on my mind. Rehab got most of that back, so, like I said it could have been worse.
Also, no strokes. There are to be no strokes here. Nor heart thingies. You are allowed to have mild head colds, upset stomachs, and/or a judicious amount of lower back pain.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at November 12, 2015 03:34 PM (PiXy!)
Boy, I hope it does. I mean, when I can afford to play F4, I hope it's new and different.
I also hope it inspires the awe and wonder that F3 did... and NV didn't.
We'll see!
Posted by: Wonderduck at November 12, 2015 10:07 PM (a12rG)
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Oh, and PS:
There are to be no strokes here. Nor heart thingies.
I"m good with this. And if Cool Papa Pixy says so, well, who am I to argue?
Posted by: Wonderduck at November 12, 2015 10:08 PM (a12rG)
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Congratulations Steven! May various cat girls of the universe randomly invade your apartment and involve you in wacky hi-jinks for many years to come.
Posted by: wahsatchmo at November 13, 2015 06:28 AM (zLVJg)
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I will add my congratulations on your ongoing recovery, and hope you will be posting about cat girls for a long, long time yet.
Posted by: haphazard1 at November 13, 2015 03:56 PM (Fr488)
I stocked up on candy again this year, but I don't know why I bothered. I have never gotten more than one group of kids any previous year, and last year I didn't get any. The weather forecast is "heavy rain" today and tonight, and I bet I don't get anyone this time, either.
UPDATE: 2PM and it is pouring out. I'm sure I won't get anyone.
We usually have a group of ducks which winter-over here, but I haven't seen any for a couple of weeks and I think they went south this time. I haven't been feeding them for the last couple of months because I learned something.
It isn't the change of the seasons that makes them migrate, it's hunger. When the food fails, they head south. If the food doesn't fail, they don't.
Which makes perfect sense, but it means that when people like me feed them in September and October, we're stuck with them for the entire winter because we're responsible.
As to the rain, it's been heavy for about four hours, and the creek has risen about a foot and is moving fast. It's pouring through a hole in the most recent beaver dam that our handyman tore in it a few days ago.
It's still raining now but not as heavily. I still don't expect to get any visitors.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 31, 2015 03:29 PM (+rSRq)
There was a group of geese that wintered over here last year, and we had a huge group of them which were living in my part of the yard for most of the summer, with at least four groups of goslings. Then, one day, they just vanished. I guess the fledgelings finally were able to fly, and the whole group headed out for somewhere better. (There are a group of lakes a few miles west of here; that' s my guess as to where they went.)
About a month later a few of them showed up here again, for one day. And I haven't seen any since. I assume they've headed south too.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 31, 2015 04:06 PM (+rSRq)
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http://www.animesuki.com/ is also available, but it's a wee bit annoying not to have tokyotoshoko.
Posted by: BigFire at October 30, 2015 06:05 PM (pNmmq)
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Who would've thought that we'd get our first inkling about the resurgence in the Ukrainian fighting this way?!
[That was just a joke! I really hope I'm wrong.]
Posted by: RickC at October 30, 2015 06:11 PM (FvJAK)
Hurricane Patricia is cat-5 and just made landfall in Mexico. And the long range computer models have it heading right for Duckburg Duckford. Usually they hook to the east, but this one is predicted (as much as one can predict weather a couple of weeks ahead, which ain't much) to go pretty straight.
Apparently God wants to punish the Cub fans. (Even more than they've already been punished.)
Texas will get pasted, too. (I'm not sure what they've done recently to deserve it, though.)
UPDATE: I just realized: it's going to dump lots and lots and lots of water into the Mississippi, directly or indirectly. I wonder whether New Orleans is going to survive it?
UPDATE: Wonderduck just reminded me that this weekend was supposed to be the US Grand Prix, in Austin. It's already doing cats and dogs and ducks in Austin, and a couple of the practice sessions were cancelled as a result -- and it's only going to get worse. If the storm proceeds as it has been, it'll be over Texas on Sunday and there will be torrential rains all day.
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Yeah, I don't like that blue line at all. That one looks like it'll come straight through Pond Central's balcony doors. Of course by then it'll just be a mess, as opposed to a disaster.
Posted by: Wonderduck at October 24, 2015 12:35 AM (a12rG)
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The worst part, I think, will be all the noise about how it's due to global warming.
I'm off the storm track here in S.C., unless it takes a sudden turn East, all I'm going to see is a week or two of mildly rainy weather. Probably have a rainy Halloween.
Posted by: Brett Bellmore at October 24, 2015 02:41 AM (L5yWw)
Looks like Illinois is safe. Patricia was very powerful but also very concentrated, and once off the water it burned out really fast. It's already a "tropical depression" and is expected to vanish entirely by this afternoon.
I was wondering why all the "three day" and "five day" maps didn't predict anything past today, and I guess that's the reason why.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 24, 2015 07:49 AM (+rSRq)
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Looks like we're not in for heavy rain here, but our sunny weekend, which was predicted just yesterday, has changed to cloudy with a moderate chance of rain. That wasn't supposed to kick in for a couple of days.
Posted by: Brett Bellmore at October 24, 2015 11:14 AM (L5yWw)
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Houston got about ten inches of rain, but it was slow, and the bayous could handle it, mostly. A few came out of their banks, but not for long, or much.
Posted by: ubu at October 25, 2015 09:33 AM (GfCSm)
