Well another season of chaos has drawn to a close at UPS. At home relatives were dealt with. Gifts were exchanged. Food was consumed in vast quantities. For the first time in many, many years there is a child about, my 11 month old niece, which means that there is a stocking by the fireplace and Santa Clause is likely to visit tonight....at least I hope he visits...'cause these instructions aren't making any sense....
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Ubu, given that Keiichi still hasn't got to first base, that's a hell of a thing to wish on a guy.
'Muppet, just... Get well soon, 'kay?
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wed Dec 5 20:20:57 2012 (PiXy!)
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I always thought Urd was hotter. But I never like the Anime girls that the fans in Japan are SUPPOSED to like.
On the third hand, I think your computer needs to be turned over to Skuld.
Posted by: Mauser at Thu Dec 6 05:29:50 2012 (cZPoz)
5
Pixy, you seem to be a bit behind on your AMG reading:
http://www.mangahere.com/manga/ah_my_goddess/c278/17.html
And in fact the current arc is dealing with consequences. It's quite interesting to find out that Keichi wasn't such a wuss on his own, it was part of the original contract mechanism....
And I'd never turn a computer over to Skuld if I wanted it to function for it's original purpose ever again....
Posted by: David at Thu Dec 6 15:10:14 2012 (jCwj+)
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Oh, well, it's all right if it only takes him fifteen years to score! (cough cough)
The question is, is that Miku Dayo looking at a car she found flipped, or did she in fact flip the car?
Hang in there, man. One day you'll look at all this and think "well, most of it was worth it..."
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Thu Dec 6 16:30:00 2012 (pWQz4)
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There are 3 ways to look at that pic:
1: It's her car, She wrecked it. ( the meaning I initially took)
2: She is empathizing with some Clannad fans misfortune.
3: MIKU SMAAASH!
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Thu Dec 6 19:04:08 2012 (vp6an)
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David, yeah, I gave up around volume 20. After the space whale, I think.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Fri Dec 7 01:05:23 2012 (PiXy!)
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sun Dec 9 01:18:39 2012 (LbiZL)
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Oh, I don't know, David. A computer with inbuilt combat lasers and a self-destruct mechanism could be a nice thing to have (especially in this office).
Posted by: EdwardM at Sun Dec 9 23:47:10 2012 (moC4O)
Bugged
So earlier today, at my folks house, I was getting of the shower when I heard a scream...not an "eek!" a scream that could wake the dead. I threw a towl around me and ran out as my mom shouted in a hysterical pleading horrified voice..."GET DOWN HERE NOW"
I was halfway down the stairs when she ran into the living room and looked up at me with a face that could only mean someone died.
I was almost to the bottom when she said..."There's a stinkbug in the kitchen on the..."
...back up the...stairs into the bathroom, I quickly dried and put on pants as she began shouting stinkbug status reports with the urgency and intensity of Herbert Morrison covering a dirigible crash. "It's at the edge of the fan! It's right there. It's walking to the end! GET IN HERE!"
Oh the humanity..
She then ran into the living room and stopped me wanting to know why i had turned around to which I replied "...pants..."She explained that she couldn't reach the ceiling fan and the stinkbug was right over the cake mix and THANKSGIVING WAS GOING TO BE RUINED and I had to prevent the stinkbug from falling in the cake-mix (or the gravy) and....
I couldn't get into the kitchen from the dining room because she was standing in my way explaining so I went around and entered the kitchen through the hallway.
No stinkbug.
I searched. I searched. No stinkbug.
She ran and got my dad from the garage and the two of us did a thorough stinkbug sweep...but the stinkbug had left.
Or had it?
She glared in horror at the cake mix, the sugar and the gravy.
There was a good 15 minutes of dad and I sifting and pouring before we could convince her that the stinkbug had not buried itself in her ingredients and had simply flown away.
In fairness she'd been working on this for a VERY long time.
In any event Thanksgiving dinner was awesome...despite the knowledge that somewhere out there the stinkbug still lurks.
A Few Quick Notes on Status and Such
Well, Tuesday/Wednesday was a bummer for other reasons. In addition to a funk I think I've been passing the last item in my kidney stone reserve. Wednesday evening I was assaulted by a plate of Szechuan beef which wrought chaos upon my digestive track.
My plans to graduate in the Spring or Summer, comes down to class availability. I was informed that one class I need is unlikely to be available until next fall. In the grand scheme of things a 4 month delay and a very light load last semester is not THAT big a deal, but it is highly annoying. I'm going to speak to my adviser next week about taking it as a topics course over the summer, but I'm told that is unlikely because....'Because.' Meh...I'm almost there.
Lots of papers this semester. I still have 12 page, 8 page and 5 page
papers coming up in various classes over the next 2 weeks.
I split the B&tB clip from the assessment post, which started out as just a cheer-up post when I got to rambling,
I've started to...oh my...What is this?
It’s IJNS ç„¡ç†ã§ã™source unknown Click here to embigulate
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Good luck with those last classes. That's a big factor in why I never got my degree, I ran into a class that was a prerequisite for six other courses I needed to graduate, and it was only offered every other semester, at a time block that I simply could not accommodate while working. Since I already had the kind of job the degree was supposed to qualify me for, it became a no-brainer to quit.
And oh my, what a big juicy target that is. Build it out of wood and tow it behind a submarine, just so nobody bothers to shoot at the rest of your fleet...
Posted by: David at Thu Nov 8 16:14:51 2012 (I6iFS)
2
Whatever it is, it's big enough to influence weather systems. What would the crew have been - 6.000+?
Posted by: EdwardM at Thu Nov 8 20:10:18 2012 (moC4O)
3
I bet 5000 quatloos that Wonderduck can not only identify it, but give a detailed history of it as well....
Posted by: Siergen at Thu Nov 8 20:19:32 2012 (Ao4Kw)
4
Let's see... 9 turrets, two flight decks, probably around twice the length and four times the beam of any ship built in WWII. An Iowa or Yamamoto BB had a complement of around 2,800 people, while a Midway class CV had a complement of around 4,400. I'd say 6000+ is a conservative estimate, I could see it being north of 8,000. I can't believe it's a real proposal, it has to be from an anime or game.
Posted by: David at Thu Nov 8 21:31:06 2012 (vyRm+)
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Sierg, concur about Wonderduck, but I'd like for Herr den Beste to get a shot at it first; you never know.
And yeah Dave, I'd say it's from someone's rather admirable imagination as well, but...look at all the stuff that actually DID come out of WWII. I could see someone among the major powers at least conceiving of this, even if nothing close to it was ever built. Kind of a WWII-era ship designer's wet dream.
Posted by: Tom at Thu Nov 8 21:47:08 2012 (X594O)
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It's certainly nothing real, and I can't imagine any anime being desperate enough to trundle it out (though Girls und Panzer did put cities on the flight deck of really big carriers).
27 main guns, and since it's clearly based on a Yamato-class, they'd be 18.1" rifles to boot... with the worst firing arcs ever. I'd be relatively certain that the guns couldn't fire over the flight decks for fear of damaging them, particularly A, B, Y and Z turrets. Then the superfiring turrets probably couldn't fire directly over the turrets under them, so no firing straight ahead/behind, except for A and Z.
Except for the six sponson mounts, three on each side... they'd have relatively normal arcs of fire, except that they'd be so low that they wouldn't have as good a range, and god help you if you tried to train them out in a heavy sea!
Looks like a Navy Cross waiting to happen...
Posted by: Wonderduck at Thu Nov 8 22:32:39 2012 (lS5Cn)
Sorry, folks, I don't have a clue. I certainly never heard of anyone trying to design a monster like that.
One reason was that after WWII everyone knew that battleships were obsolete. Anyone trying to build a bigger-better carrier wouldn't bother with big guns -- and no one did.
9
Well,I kinda made up the name. ( I didn't know the kanji for bat-scat-bonkers)
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Fri Nov 9 01:01:58 2012 (5UcDQ)
10
Hmm...port and starboard hangar decks/launchers for aircraft, a large central hull fitted with long-range guns... It's a WW II battlestar Galactica!!!
Posted by: Siergen at Fri Nov 9 20:50:40 2012 (Ao4Kw)
Annoyances Bacterial and Otherwise
Holo the iMac is in the iMac hospital with a few minor hardware issues (the SDcard slot doesn't work for instance) and some software problems that might include a staph infection.
School started this week and my joy at being on the final stretch ( I'll gradgeeait in Spring or Summer 2013) was tempered by the fact that the textbook category "under 200 bucks" was in the minority for me this year by a wide margin. This was demoralizing.
I was under the weather most of the week with a cold I'd picked up on the plane. This came to a head on Thursday morning and I called in to work. Around 3 AM I got up with an excruciating headache, burning eyes and sore throat. On my way to the loo I noted there had been a power failure. Then I noted that, even though the lights weren't on the fan was running, then I noted my father asking why I was fumbling around in the bathroom like I couldn't see....because all the lights were on and he could see me...
oh...
Noting this fully woke me up and I further noted that my eyes were in fact closed and wouldn't fully open. After some effort and panicked facewashing (and the loss of several eyelashes) I pried my eyes open, regained some of my sight and noted that the eyed were discharging blood and goop.
...and then I was all like....
After a quick trip to the hospital I was prescribed antibiotics for a severe sinus infection. I was fine by Friday afternoon, and my vision is now back to normal, but that really gave me a start.
E-Mail Hacked
About 3 hours ago I used one of the computers at a friends store, I sent an E-mail while I was there.
About 2 hours ago I started getting texts and E-mails from people telling me I was spamming them.
It seems some Ukrainian jackwagon hijacked my account and tried to sell everyone I've ever E-mailed weight loss products.
Golly! People I hadn't heard from in years hate me now.
After an hours go-round with AOL I got my account unlocked and all seems to be well. My friend knows and has disconnected that computer.
I have McAfee on both the MAC and Windows partitions of my Mac and it says its clear so I don't think that there is any virus problem with my system.
3
...and make sure you didn't re-use that password anywhere else. A close call along those lines inspired me to start using the LastPass plugin for Firefox. I'll never be *able* to type the password in on another system, for one thing.
Posted by: Douglas Oosting at Mon Jul 9 22:33:02 2012 (N9Lwt)
1
I think it's rather nice that Kyubey has become a meme, especially since it's an in-joke. People who don't know about him will assume he's a cute animal.
Oy Vey
Today I went to my Literature professor and asked him for a replacement syllabus. He gave me a lecture on the importance of attendance (I'd missed class yesterday due to fallout from my grandmothers death). His response to my reason was not one of excessive empathy. In any event he handed me the syllabus, I stormed out of class and went to lunch.
After lunch I grabbed my binder out of the car , went to the library to study, pulled out the "syllabus"and noted that it was, in fact, tomorrows test.
OHfercryinoutloud...
SO....I went to the lit department found his office and he wasn't in (Natch).
I spoke to the secretary who kind of freaked out and did NOT want to talk to me. I was walking around with a loose test.
I ended up shoving it under his door and I e-mailed him explaining the situation.
As of now there has been no reply.
UPDATE: I did not get called before the honor council and did not get expelled. All is now well.
The Crops are Saved!
It looks like Don has graciously provided Tidewater with some of his Midwestern weather...
Several of these obnoxious little boogers have touched down to wreak mischief over the last few hours. We have a warning until 10pm and watches until 2AM. Tornadoes are not unheard of here but so many in one day is rather unusual.
Of course we also got some of our more normal weather...just spectacularly so...this is Warwick Blvd in Newport News about 4 hours ago...
This area is about a hundred feet above sea level with the cliff overlooking the river only about 2 blocks away and yet...
The street filled remarkably fast. At one point water was flowing OUT of the storm drains. The intensity of the rain at times was incredible.
Summer Sessions
Due to a variety of issues (Hospitalization, taking care of my mom after her stokes, kidney stones ) I had to drop most classes last semester. In order to catch up, I'm taking 9 credits in the first summer session at ODU, since this is one of the two short sessions this means 3x2.5 hour classes a day plus getting up at 3AM for work. I'm also studying for a placement test in July and working towards my online TESOL certificate on weekends.
Posting will be light and largely restricted to weekends for at least the next month.
As partial compensation here is Rin...
Full Disclosure: It's actually super talented cosplayer Midori Kanda
One of THOSE Weeks.
I recently discovered when trying to add a course to the second summer session that that there is a 14 credit per semester limit on what I can take at ODU now. There is a 6 credit limit on summer classes. As I had already signed up for 9 summer credits this left me worried that I would be dumped out of the classes I had enrolled in. Additionally this complicates my plan to graduate next spring. My own illnesses as well as the time I took off to deal with Mom's strokes caused me to drop multiple classes and the summer sessions were key to my making good on part of that.
My ODU G-mail account soon provided me with some clarification on this matter. It seems that the limit was imposed because of the fact that I'm on academic probation.
Well this is logical. It makes sense to limit the number of...
1
Well, at least you got things sorted with ODU before the new semester started. And.... Well, the Yellowstone Supercaldera didn't erupt, so there's tha
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sun May 13 21:39:57 2012 (PiXy!)
2
Sometimes I'm afraid because I live on the same continent as you do.
3
How do you think I feel, Steven? I'm only halfway across the continent from him... I shudder at the wickedness he could accidentally inflict upon Illinois.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Mon May 14 18:04:13 2012 (6CHh4)
2 More Days
XamCram...It's 2AM, my brain is fried...I'm gonna watch Bodacious Space Pirates, then turn in.
Monday is my exam day.
Blogging will resume shortly thereafter.
In the meantime here here is an important life lesson from HELVITICA STANDARD.
If you can figure out said lesson...please tell me.
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In his autobiography Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, he tells the story of a guy pulling the tape out of a tape meaure and letting it snap back, and Feynman asks how he does it without hurting himself, and the guy hands him the tape measure and says "you figure it out." He spent all weekend trying and failing to learn the trick, beating his hand unmercifully in the process. On Monday, he asked the guy how the heck he managed to keep from hurting himself when the tape snapped back, and the guy replied "I don't."
I think the lesson here is actually some sort of contrapositive of the one in your animation.
Posted by: RickC at Mon Apr 30 18:22:04 2012 (WQ6Vb)
2
There's a scene in Lawrence of Arabia kind of like that. "Of course it hurts! The secret is to not mind that it hurts."
It Must be an Homage to the Brown Hornet.
For some 11 episodes, Bodacious Space Pirates has been an intelligent, enjoyable and even inspiring tale. Each episode has built on the last one in a deliberate and entertaining fashion. Even the techno-babble has been thoughtful and contributed to the story. As an added bonus, despite the lowbrow temptations presented by short skirts, Zero-G and the state of the industry today, we haven't had a single upskirt shot yet.
The show has had some important and rarely touched on things to say about the responsibilities of command and leadership. Young Marika is actually in a position not unlike that of a green ensign or "90 day wonder" dropped in command of a small unit virtually every member of which has been doing their jobs longer far than her. She has had to learn to delegate, take advice and cope with the fact that the buck stops with her, and it is upon her decisions that the crew will live or die. This has been handled with far more intelligence and subtly than one has any right to expect from a show like this.
This interesting plot has been intertwined with a slowly but logically building story of interstellar intrigue that has gradually built into a tale that looked to be nothing short of epic.
Which brings us to episode 12 which saw the suspense build to a crescendo as events converge upon the crew of the BentenMaru and their passenger. Everything has led up to this point. This episode in particular was brilliantly paced, so much so that 16 minutes in I was literally on the edge of my seat as...
I'm sorry...WHAT!?
Wow...that was really...umm...a surprise.
"Oh BTW we handled this whole thing off camera."
I'm gonna keep watching, it's been a really good show...but damn...episode 12 makes me feel like I've been mugged.
Hopefully some more satisfactory explanation of the WTFs will be forthcoming next episode.
1
Glad to hear that things are slightly less insane.
Also, be sure to hold the baby at a safe distance to avoid getting gooped. Babies contain more goop than a naive calculation of their volume and mass would lead you to believe.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sun Feb 26 04:22:26 2012 (PiXy!)
Hobby Space News of the commercial space industry A Babe In The Universe Rather Eclectic Cosmology Encyclopedia Astronautica Superb spacecraft resource The Unwanted Blog Scott Lowther blogs about forgotten aerospace projects and sells amazingly informative articles on the same. Also, there are cats. Transterrestrial Musings Commentary on Infinity...and beyond! Colony WorldsSpace colonization news! The Alternate Energy Blog It's a blog about alternate energy (DUH!) Next Big Future Brian Wang: Tracking our progress to the FUTURE. Nuclear Green Charles Barton, who seems to be either a cool curmudgeon, or a rational hippy, talks about energy policy and the terrible environmental consequences of not going nuclear Energy From Thorium Focuses on the merits of thorium cycle nuclear reactors WizBang Current events commentary...with a wiz and a bang The Gates of Vienna Tenaciously studying a very old war The Anchoress insightful blogging, presumably from the catacombs Murdoc Online"Howling Mad Murdoc" has a millblog...golly! EaglespeakMaritime security matters Commander Salamander Fullbore blackshoe blogging! Belmont Club Richard Fernandez blogs on current events BaldilocksUnderstated and interesting blog on current events The Dissident Frogman French bi-lingual current events blog The "Moderate" VoiceI don't think that word means what they think it does....but this lefty blog is a worthy read nonetheless. Meryl Yourish News, Jews and Meryls' Views Classical Values Eric Scheie blogs about the culture war and its incompatibility with our republic. Jerry Pournell: Chaos ManorOne of Science fictions greats blogs on futurism, current events, technology and wisdom A Distant Soil The website of Colleen Dorans' superb fantasy comic, includes a blog focused on the comic industry, creator issues and human rights. John C. Wright The Sci-Fi/ Fantasy writer muses on a wide range of topics. Now Read This! The founder of the UK Comics Creators Guild blogs on comics past and present. The Rambling Rebuilder Charity, relief work, roleplaying games Rats NestThe Art and rantings of Vince Riley Gorilla Daze Allan Harvey, UK based cartoonist and comics historian has a comicophillic blog! Pulpjunkie Tim Driscoll reviews old movies, silents and talkies, classics and clunkers. Suburban Banshee Just like a suburban Leprechaun....but taller, more dangerous and a certified genius. Satharn's Musings Through TimeThe Crazy Catlady of The Barony of Tir Ysgithr アニ・ノート(Ani-Nouto) Thoughtful, curmudgeonly, otakuism that pulls no punches and suffers no fools. Chizumatic Stephen Den Beste analyzes anime...with a microscope, a slide rule and a tricorder. Wonderduck Anime, Formula One Racing, Sad Girls in Snow...Duck Triumphalism Beta Waffle What will likely be the most thoroughly tested waffle evah! Zoopraxiscope Too In this thrilling sequel to Zoopraxiscope, Don, Middle American Man of Mystery, keeps tabs on anime, orchids, and absurdities. Mahou Meido MeganekkoUbu blogs on Anime, computer games and other non-vital interests Twentysided More geekery than you can shake a stick at Shoplifting in the Marketplace of Ideas Sounds like Plaigarism...but isn't Ambient IronyAll Meenuvians Praise the lathe of the maker! Hail Pixy!!