Folks, the comment mechanism on this blog is intended to allow readers to make comments about my posts, and on the subjects about which I'm writing.

I am grateful that a large number of people read this blog, and find my words worth commenting on. I hope you all will keep doing so. But this isn't a bull session. It isn't a hang-out. If you want to talk about something else, things I'm not writing about, there are many other places you can do it. (You could, for instance, use your own blog.)

Please don't do it here. I don't like having to close threads due to topic drift.. It makes me feel like a spectator in my own show. Even worse, it makes me feel like I'm not welcome here, even though it's my site.

One of the reasons I stopped doing USS Clueless was that it had ceased to be fun. I don't want that to happen with Chizumatic.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 06:29 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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All the copying from the server was completed last night. Then I connected the drive up to Alcyone and copied some stuff from it. Now it's all done, and I feel a lot more secure.

It ended up using about half the drive, which is nice. Plenty of room  for adding stuff later. Plus the other drive I ordered is sitting on the shelf in my closet, not yet unwrapped, for future use.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 10:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Attaching the new USB drive to Deneb was dead simple. One of its USB connectors is on the front.

Using the normal console, it was easy to format the drive and designate it for backups, which is a different way of saying that it isn't available for Windows Home Server to use as part of its virtualized disk system.

Anyway, the first copy, 919 GB, began at 1850 hours on 20100923. Unfortunately, it isn't reporting a copy speed so that is anyone's guess.

UPDATE: Also, it turns out that Remote Desktop causes negligible CPU loading.

UPDATE: OK, using indirect measurements it seems to be copying about 1G per minute. Which is about 17 MB per second, about where I thought it would be.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 05:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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And about damned time, too. The total count is now 734, of which 460 are new.

The cycle repeats in 30 days and 9 hours.

UPDATE: Oops! 30 days and 14 hours.

UPDATE: OK, I trimmed it to 730, 30 days and 10 hours.

Why? I'm trying to make it so that it does a phase shift of about one third each time it repeats, so that if someone visits at the same time  of day every day, they see something different.

If the modulus was 8 hours, that would be make it so that they would see an exact repeat after 3 months. By making it a bit different (10 hours) then the phase shift isn't exactly one third.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 04:24 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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I almost forgot. One of the reasons I got rid of all the Kenichi frame grabs out of the previous top rotation was because I now own the third and fourth cours of that one, and have the opportunity to go through it for fresh images.

So last night I ripped DVDs 5 and 6 of the series and went through them. But I didn't really get a lot. It's mostly Kenichi fighting, or other stuff not useful. I was beginning to give up hope.

And then they tossed in a swimsuit episode.

Yay! Renka and Miu FTW!

I kind of get the impression that the series really reduced the amount of fan service in the second half. More's the pity.

On the other hand, it's kind of cool to see Kenichi using energy attacks.

UPDATE: OK, 47 grabs from Kenichi. That makes a total of 460 new images. 250 or so brought forward, and we're good to go. That's tomorrow's project.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 10:03 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm not yet through taking frame grabs, but a couple of days ago I started doing processing and formatting of the grabs I do have. It's kind of a dull mechanical process which doesn't take long for any given grab, but takes a lot of time when you're creating several hundred.

So here's the final score so far:

50 Asobi ni Iku Yo
30 Fairy Tail
42 Hatsukoi Ltd
44 Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou
32 Kamen no Maid Guy
55 Kampfer
46 Ladies versus Butlers

Total 299

I bit the bullet and went through most of the rest of LvB. I haven't yet processed Princess Lover or Sekirei. And last night I downloaded high res versions of the first half of Ikki Tousen Xtreme Xecutor to go through for frame grabs. Likely that one will be very fruitful unless it turns out that Koukin spoils lots of shots.

Asobi ni Iku Yo was like that. There were lots and lots of frames that looked great, except that Kio was in them along with the girls. One of those was just too good to pass up, so despite my "no boys allowed" rule for the top rotation, Kio will show up once.

I really really wanted to use this one from Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou:

It's really borderline and I could have rationalized myself into thinking it was OK. But in the end I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I don't want to get any of my readers in trouble.

In the mean time, I made a copy of the current rotation of 664 images and started going through it to trim it down. It's down to 430 images, but it needs further trimming. Among other things, I got rid of all the images from Kenichi, Potemayo, Aika Zero, Ikki Tousen, and Whatever with Hinako. I also got rid of a few images from some other shows.

So progress is being made. I'm trying to get a couple of hours work in on this every day, which is about all the energy I can muster any more.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, ITXX isn't turning out to be very fruitful for frame grabs. A combination of guys in shots, or strange lighting, or blurring and other special effects, not to mention widespread application of the MCSA resulting in pictures which are too ecchi to be used.

Oh, also blood. I don't put blood in the top rotation.

UPDATE: Well, that was disappointing. Only 24.

UPDATE:

24 Ikki Tousen Xtreme Xecutor
33 Princess Lover
57 Sekirei

Total 413

If I can trim the carry-forwards to about 300, that'll be just about right.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 03:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 11:03 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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1 Funny how no one is voting against the show with girls in swimsuits, but they are voting against the slightly pedo and totally stupid shows. (I didn't recognize Umisho by its full title and had to go look it up.)

Posted by: ubu at September 12, 2010 07:35 AM (GfCSm)

2

I kind of figured the result would be about what we're seeing. I'm not making any promises to do any of the low-scoring ones, by the way. Umisho's art is poor quality, for instance.

Probably next on the hit parade is going to be Hatsukoi Ltd. It ain't a show I had any interest in watching, but damn, those girls sure look amazingly good!

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 12, 2010 12:41 PM (+rSRq)

3

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 12, 2010 12:45 PM (+rSRq)

4 Yes, yes they sure do.

Posted by: Wonderduck at September 12, 2010 02:02 PM (blg68)

5 What they need to do is take the character designs (and voice actresses) from Hatsukoi and transpose them into a show that has a strong story but ugly designs, like, say, Hajime no Ippo.

...

Well, I'd watch it.

The other way 'round would probably generate a Langford basilisk.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 13, 2010 05:42 PM (PiXy!)

6 Re the basilisk, that sounds like Von Goom's Gambit.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 13, 2010 06:38 PM (+rSRq)

7 I like the solution to Von Goom's Gambit.  I might be a bit disturbed to note that my train of thought worked backwards from that solution to our current political troubles as a metaphor for the game's effects...or rather, vice-versa.

Posted by: ubu at September 13, 2010 07:44 PM (GfCSm)

8 I read that actual story once, long ago, and it's wonderful. It's only about 5 pages long; the joke didn't have enough meat to sustain longer than that. But it did for that length. And the punchline was delivered much better.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 13, 2010 10:26 PM (+rSRq)

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It's always strange when some person randomly happens on one of my old posts and decides to tell all his friends.

Today I'm getting flooded with links from "StumbleUpon", because someone there linked to my TMW about why mechas are stupid. Unfortunately, one of the reasons why I really despise StumbleUpon is that I can't tell who. The only referer I get sent is to their page where they redirect to me, which is there so that they can keep track of outgoing traffic. Grumbleupon...

Anyway, here are some more Keroro Gunsou pix. Telling ghost stories!

Raise your hand if you think Fuyuki's story was the scariest!

You know, I don't quite understand why it is that Fuyuki, supposedly a fanatic about the occult, hasn't made any attempt at all to find out about the ghost that is living in his very own home, which he's known about since the first half dozen episodes. These pictures are from ep 17, and she's already old news by that point.

Apparently Aki knew about it from the very beginning. Aki was able to afford to buy the house, because it was really cheap, because it was haunted.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 03:39 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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So I just finished rewatching Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou looking for frame grabs. I've got a fair amount accumulated at this point:

45 Fairy Tail
60 Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou
44 Kamen no Maid Guy
73 Sekirei

I think I might try Princess Lover next. Should be able to find a lot of good stuff in that one, even if I can't force myself to go all the way through it. (I don't know if I can afford to lose that many brain cells.)

UPDATE: I was watching a different translation this time then I did when it first broadcast, and I think the first one screwed up some of the critical exposition. Anyway, it made more sense to me this time. Spoilers below the fold.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 03:47 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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It's about time for me to make at least a partial update of the top rotation, rather than putting it off for a full year like I did last time. So tonight I started going through Sekirei looking for appropriate stuff.

There's some stuff I cannot use, even though fully clothed.

Pity, isn't it?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 11:25 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Tsukiumi was the sole reason why I completed the season.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at August 31, 2010 09:19 AM (9KseV)

2 Will there be some with Kuu-chan?

Posted by: Jaked at August 31, 2010 12:35 PM (EjkUJ)

3

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 31, 2010 12:46 PM (+rSRq)

4

I'd like to use this one, but I can't really frame it.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 31, 2010 12:49 PM (+rSRq)

5

Ammo!

I'd like to use this, but I probably won't. I've found that night scenes don't really work very well. Also, standing alone without knowing the context from the show, it isn't really a very interesting image.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 31, 2010 04:57 PM (+rSRq)

6

This one I definitely will use:

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 31, 2010 05:08 PM (+rSRq)

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