Here we have 4 girls looking for a girl.
Now, being girls, they presumably know all about girls and how to find them, so it's with considerable interest that I note that in addition to he usual methods involving optical detection they have broken out the dowsing rods. I'd never considered dowsing as a means to meet the ladies....I also note that I'm single. Correlation does not indicate causation but this may warrant further study.

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Sony has released an informative How-To video walking prospective users through the involved process by which they share games on the new PS4.

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DRM Free!

...comic book publisher Image Comics announced at its Image Expo convention that it will now sell all of its digital comics as downloadable via its website for both desktop and mobile users, making it the first major U.S. publisher to offer DRM-free digital versions of comics. Readers can even choose the file format they prefer: PDFs, EPUBs, CBRs or CBZs.

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...that will give you a completely erroneous idea of what sort of show Gargantia is.

It will also get you fired, 'cause it's TOTALLY not safe for work....and as for me? Well, I'm going to that special hell for linking to it.

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Attack on Titan continues, and while our heroes don't accomplish much in the way of their goals this episode, an awful lot is happening. 



Yeah, things are not going well for our would be giant slayers. At the end of last episode, everything pretty much went to worms and this has  a sort of cascade effect, so they just cannot seem to get a break.



As we learned in previous episodes, Eren has used his experience points to purchase the "Turn into Giant" perk. At the end of last episode we find this comes with the limitation " Become non-sentient, feral, berzerker beast". Mikasa tries to reason with him to no avail, but he is so feral and mindless that she unwittingly gets him to punch himself out. 

Meanwhile, it turns out that all the giants regard the unconscious Eren as food despite his size and lack of congeniality.


This leaves our heroes trying to hold off the giants in the hopes that he will de-biggulate and/or  regain reason, but he's attracting a LOT of giants as Mikasa explains to Arimin when he arrives.



While the A-listers fight a delaying action, Arimin, whose combat skill is dubious, stays to try and awaken or reason with Eren and decides to cut him out of giant body...with poor results. Meanwhile Jean is running through the city dealing with giants as a pedestrian, due to a a broken set of maneuver gear.

 

Nicely paced with an even better than usual score, episode 12 is an enthralling three ring circus and the show seems to be well and truly back on track.

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...and so was all that other stuff...

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This always bothered me about Star Trek...the whole "We have no money, we....ummm....uh....stuff" thing was always put out there but handwaived..

Of course there are all sorts of problems with this notion as it means that whoever is in charge decides what and who has value....and doesn't.  This may appeal to a certain type of control freak, academic or fanatic, but it is unlikely to work out for those not in favor with those who take it upon themselves to define value.

This is explored extensively in episode 11 of Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet which holds forth in part on how NOT to set up ones economy and society.

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Is not available on iTunes or Amazon, it long predates CDs and of course all vinyl containing it was ordered destroyed by Nixon's FDA so my quest to add this to my MP3 queue is still unfulfilled. 

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Remember Melty? She was on the fleet that left and is now anchored near an island in perpetual mist. She's started her own courier business and delivers dispatches to all the captains...as such she has a pretty good view of what's going on. 

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This episode finds our heroes standing by to make ready to review procedures for initiating steps to set in motion preparations for beginning to consider actions necessary to lay the groundwork for thinking about getting ready to do something.

We'll see eventually if that something involves resuming this shows heretofore excellent pacing.

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I'm pretty sure this is one....

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AOL and Juno it seems can't be used for ones E-Mail address. The issue seems to be with AOL and Juno blocking E-mails from Pixiv for some reason.

I couldn't access my old G-mail account as I've long forgotten the password, but I was able to get a new one and join up.

Of course, with Deviant, this makes two art boards I'm a member of, despite having artistic skills a few notches below Randall Munroe....but without the medical insight.

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Between, recent bad news and the fact that I was offline for a bit, I've been surfing and playing catch-up on current events.

In the process I blundered into the two most important posts in the history of everything:

Moe Lane has a solution for what is increasingly beginning to look like a mistake.

Scott Lowther demonstrates that what many assumed was a mistake, may not have been.

The implications of these ponderings are indeed profound and will require much thought from great minds to have their meanings fully grasped.

Much like this will...

 

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Oh my...

^{"That was...harsh."}

It was a dark and foggy sky
Into forbidden seas, they did ply
For Pinyon knew where great treasure lie

To damnation they did sail



Into the depths did Ledo go
To fight the Whalesquid Far below
Through the fearsome beasts his lance did mow

To damnation they did sail



Pinyon's brave crew performed his plan
One he had devised since he became a man
Tons of explosives and many a can

To damnation they did sail



For Pinyon knew. He'd been there before
His brother'd seen knowledge upon the floor
before he'd perished in the nests dark core

To damnation they did sail



For the best of reasons
For the betterment of man
For knowledge and not treasons
Did Flange embark upon this plan

And so he watched and with trepidation waited
Not comprehending quite how much Ledo hated
the fearsome beasts his noise had baited

To damnation they did sail.



With great persistence
for the salvation of man
For honor and not remittance
Did Ledo embark upon this plan

When Ledo found the monsters nest
He slew the larvae and did his best
To end the threat to all the rest

To damnation they did sail



In Chamber (Ledo's mighty mech)
Ledo saw, amongst the whalesquid dreck
information he felt he should inspect.

To damnation they did sail.

But Chamber said "I cannot say"
"To have this secret is the proper way"
But Ledo asked "Whose top ranked today?"

To Damnation they did sail



And so Ledo read
and hung his head
as he drifted there amongst the dead

To damnation they did sail.

To keep man alive forever
There had been two schools of endeavor
and they did not agree (not ever)

One school had sought to survive in space
forging metal and carbon mesh
The other foresaw a slower pace
and they forged their very flesh

Both sides pursued their favored arts
Their arguments they exchanged like darts
and both sides did grow hardened hearts

To damnation they did sail



The ice age came the snow fell more
The two schools began to fight a war
And earth was rendered terribly poor

To damnation they did sail.



The Hideauze were but tweaked men
Ledos forefathers were their kin
They locked in a battle they could not win

To damnation they did sail


Ledos forfathers did build a gate
and some Hideauze became consumed by hate
in wrecking it they did seal Earths fate

To damnation they did sail.



The Hideauze that were filled with rage
and the forfathers Ledo once thought were sage
went through the gate and turned the page

To damnation they did sail

The Hideauze that went into space
had believed they were a master race
The noble ones...they'd stayed in place

To damnation they did sail.

And Ledo wept amongst the gore
in the nursery where he'd brought his war
..and then he spied something along the floor.

To damnation they did sail.

A child without her living shell
Swam up to Ledo and grinned so swell
And Ledo realized he was bound for hell.

To damnation they did sail



As Ledo fought back guilty tears
Chamber did seek to allay his fears
by reducing the naive child to smears

To damnation they did sail.

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This was a transitional episode, poignant with a very "on the precipice" undercurrent.




Fairlock does not survive his heart attack. He regains consciousness briefly and lingers long enough to declare Ridget to be his successor.

Ledo gets some bad news as well. It seems that Chamber has finally gotten a good enough parallax on the requisite stars to deduce there position relative to Ledo's home. By his calculation their first distress beacon is...



 Well suck...

Now without ANY hope of rescue, Ledo tries to explain via his very imperfect understanding of their language why he feels he must go. He has better luck with Bebel, her brother to whom he reveals that he fears the boy who gave him the Hideuze flute before being recycled might have been his brother.



...and all the while, the people of Gargantia deal with separation and loss. This is portrayed very eloquently throughout the episode, most of which is in the shadow of Fairlocks funeral, which is itself a very touching ceremony.



I like the fact that Flange (the fleet captain who is leaving) does not seem to be a jackass. He's doing what he thinks is right, and his eulogy for Fairlock seems sincere and heartfelt.

The fleets separate and their world is forever changed.

 

This was a well done episode. A bit downbeat, but it does stress the overall decency of most of the characters. We learned some things too.

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I had no idea this existed when he passed earlier this month.

It's the test footage for Ray Harryhausen's War of the Worlds project which was being pitched in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

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Attack on Titan Episodes 8 & 9 seem to have largely wrapped up the 'Battle for Trost'. The show continues to surprise. It continues to have its characters develop in unconventional, but interesting ways. The nightmarish imagery continues as well and they really outdo themselves in that regard with some truly horrific visuals...

On the other hand, it is really nice to see someone who thoroughly enjoys her work.

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In this episode we learn a few things.
Though its area has been reduced considerably by the grinding and pressure the now thawed global glaciers exerted as well as the rising sea levels of the now completely melted icecaps, there IS dry land...just not much.

 
After Ledo (convinced that it is a Hideauze) attacks the whale squid, he crawls up onto a barge covered in whalesquid guts....I was previously under the impression that the whale squid was just a big ass squid, but a close inspection during this episode revealed that it had too many eyes....and then there is this amongst the squid chitterlings....



THAT is something I never bothered to screencap. But we've seen them before. It's a Hideuze tooth much like the ones our hero had carved into a flute for Amy and her brother.



Ledo and Bellows are interrogated by Ridget due to the gravity of the situation.

Attacking, let alone killing a whalesquid is deeply frowned upon, not only because of folk tales, but because they are extremely dangerous animals that can devastate an entire fleet.

Ledo tries to  explain that the Hideauze are a transcendental threat and the fleet must take action.
He explains through his auto-translate that he is duty bound to destroy this Hideauze outpost. Ridget points out that Whalesquids have been around as long as anyone can remember and are in general only a threat if molested. They are extremely powerful creatures however, and killing one could endanger everyone under their charge.

It seems that Bellows and Ledo were salvaging equipment in an area with a lot of Whalesquid activity Before the Whalesq...HIDEAUZE showed up and Ledo engaged it there were indications (unconfirmed) that the area was a treasure trove of pre-cataclysm tech.



Knowing this, Pinyon attempts to put together a crew to explore the wreckage and tries to hire Bellows to dive for him in whalesquid territory. She refuses, mocking him and his dreams as childish and prideful....She perhaps goes too far as it is revealed to be common knowledge that Pinyon's brother was killed by a whalesquid. Pinyon nearly looses it and almost hits Bellows before he leaves.

We also find out that Ferrock is indeed in poor health and he is advised to take time off and stay in a wheelchair.

Ledo stops trying to speak the language and goes around trying to explain to people the peril he believes they are in.

To remove any doubt for him, Chamber, Ledo's Giant Robot confirms that a genetic test he ran came back positive for Alien Enemy of Humanity.

Ledo decides he has no choice, he suits up and prepares to go battle the Hideauze to save the people of Gargantia.

At this point a HUGE pod of them is detected heading for the fleet. Ferrock orders silent running and has all ships cut power. To assist morale he (with GREAT difficulty) stands up, walks to the con, grabs hold of a railing and remains standing for the duration of the crisis.

Ledo fears that if the creatures get within striking distance of the fleet, they will annihilate it before he can stop them. However, he is stopped short of his mech by Ridget and several armed Gargantians. Ridget says that if the fleet is attacked she'll have no objection to him cutting loose, but she threatens to shoot him to prevent him from attacking first. 



The Hideauze pass directly under the fleet causing some eerie vibrations but no fatalities.

 
 
Ledo stands down.

EPILOG:

Pinyon meets with the council of captains and formally requests to be released from his contract.  Pinyon wants to attempt to salvage the advanced tech he believes is in Hidaeuze territory he's assembled a volunteer crew to that end and Ledo has agreed to work for him.  If they are lost it will be away from Gargantia and Gargantia will be under no contractual obligation to get involved at all.



At this point a bombshell is dropped.

Flange, the leader of one of the largest fleets joins Pinyon in asking to be released from his contract. He states that the technology of the great lost age is worth great risk for the benefits it could gain humanity. He makes clear that he harbors Gargantia no ill will and hopes one day to return.

Ferrock os horrified at this for a number of reasons. The loss of Flange's ships will gut the fleets defensive capability. Unstated, it probably occurs to Ferrock that Squid aliens will not be impressed with the legalities of severing contracts should they come bent on revenge. If this HAS occurred to Ferrock he's not saying because as the episode is ending he's suffering a massive heart attack.

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