Technical Difficulties

Okay, the majority of the v2.3 update has now been uploaded and tweaked. You probably won’t notice any visual differences, and if you do, those are probaby the errors I have to fix still (they might wait until tomorrow…my net time is running short). The majority of the update is “under-the-hood”; that is it makes the code much cleaner and fully CSS2.0 and XHTML1.1 compliant, which is a good thing, trust me. Everything has been completely re-written, and the site should also be cross-browser compatible now (or at least it will be once the last few errors are removed). It’s been tested in Mozilla 1.5 (and thus Netscape also), Opera 7.21 and Internet Explorer 6. This is a lot harder than it sounds, let me tell you.

So what’s left? There are still two major updates in the works, one to the forums (which will receive a complete stylesheet re-write to bring their appearence in line with the rest of the site) and another to the photos section. The photo gallery presentation has remained largely unchanged since v1.0, and I wasn’t even happy with it then. I’ve gotten several suggestions, and I think I have a handle on a much more useful and smooth PHP version that I hope you’ll find more pleasing.

Here’s a quick rundown of the new features v2.3 brings along:

1. The cams section! There are still some kinks (like the date function) but the cams section is fully-functional. This is a totally new addition to the site, so be sure to check it out and see what it has to offer.

2. Instead of pussing out with a mailto: tag, I’ve re-done the contact section to provide you with a handy-dandy form mailer script. Just go to that page, type in your message, and then choose the author to which you wish to send it (more on that next).

3. I love videogames, but with my limited net access here in Japan I’ve had to make sacrifices, and one of them has been the neglected gaming section. I’m happy to announce that this is going to change as I’ve added four new authors to this section. They are, in no particular order: Gary, Darryl, Dustin and Pat. I too will continue to post in the gaming arena when I can, but these guys will do as good a job, if not better, than I would when I don’t.

Okay, that’s it for the tech update. Sorry to those of you who either don’t care or have no idea what I’m talking about; just know that things should be faster, better and smoother from here on out.

//_Norm out

I Am The One

In case you didn’t know (and shame on you if you don’t) the third Matrix movie opens around the world today at the exact same time. The first showing will be at 11:00pm in Japan, and I am my band of brothers will be down there a few hours early to get us some ticket action. I’m actually quite excited about this movie, for reasons I’m not entirely certain of.

Okay, that’s really all I’ve got, but I figured I’d let you know. You’ll doubtlessly see a review of the movie here just as soon as I can get one up.

//_Norm out

Lack of Proper Metaphors

I know that I said that I’d get up a review of the new Matrix movie just as soon as humanly possible, but it turns out that that’s longer than you might expect. The fact is that I just can’t say, for certain, how I felt about this movie…I’m definitely going to have to see it a second time before I feel comfortable enough to put anything to official record. It’s sufficient to say that it’s probably worth a viewing, but I don’t know that I would rush out right now. It’s not necessarily a compelling must-see…but then maybe it is.

I dunno, this is pointless. Either way the review will probably have to wait until Monday, when I’ve (hopefully) had a chance to get in a second viewing.

//_Norm out

Dead Air

Okay, so I first I have to apologize for not posting in almost a week. In my defense, the weekend was quite busy, as was Monday, and when I tried to make a post for Tuesday the SQL server went down for several hours. This doesn’t mean much for you, as the site was still accessible (minus the forums) but it did mean that Movable Type couldn’t get to the database and thus no posting could be done.

Sorry about that.

Anyway, this past weekend I and around forty of the other international students made a trek west to Yamagata where we made things out of clay like first graders. Actually, the potting class was strangely fun, and it was made all the more surreal by the gaudy aprons we had to wear to keep the clay off. It was also useful, after a fashion, since I made a cup and a plate that I will almost certainly end up using (less stuff I have to buy) whenever it is they get back from the kiln.

The potting wasn’t the only thing we did, either. Afterwards we were treated to the most traditional Japanese meal I’ve yet had since arriving here, complete with low tables and cushions that we had to sit cross-legged on. There was some sort of rice and mushroom mixture, a soba-noodle soup, some imoni soup, a plate of pickeled vegetables (bleh) and an entire fish. I stressed that word so that you would understand that it really was a whole fish, head, eyes, tail and all. It was heavily salted, and taking it apart with chopsticks was, for me, an exercise in futility, but when I finally did get pieces into my mouth they were quite tasty indeed.

After the meal we explored an old Budhist temple at the base of a mountain. It was pouring rain by this point, but we decided to make the trek up the more than 1000 stairs to the temple at the top of the mountain, and oh man was it worth it. The view was spectacular, both on the way up and from the observation points once we were there. The rain had covered the entire forest valley with mist, and some of the views were quite simply breathtaking. I have a whole slew of photos, but I’m waiting to post them for two reasons: one, they need to be cleaned up a bit, because while heaving fog may look cool, it’s a crappy photo environment. Two, I’m trying to finish the new gallery script and put them up using it. We’ll see how that goes.

//_Norm out

The Ground Isn’t Suppossed To Move

Apparently there have been three earthquakes in Sendai since my arrival. This is interesting because I have failed to notice all of them, aside from the first which I shrugged off as my inability to walk properly (I was going across a bridge when everything just seemed to bounce once). It’s not like these were small earthquakes, either. The second one was a magnitude eight and lasted for forty-five seconds. It happened at 10:04am Japan time, which would have put me just out of the shower. Didn’t notice it. The third one happened sometime yesterday, I think around six or seven, and lasted a good thirty seconds, complete with rattling windows and such. This, too, I completely failed to notice.

Now, I’m not sure if this is just because people are making a bigger deal out of these than they should be or if I simply lack nerve endings. Or maybe proper inner-ear balance detection. Either way, we keep having small earthquakes and I keep not noticing, so the question seems largely academic.

I guess (according to my Earth Dynamics professor) the Sendai region has a major earthquake every 30 years, and the last one happened 27 years ago, so the geologists (or seismologists) have given a 99% chance that they’ll get one in the next three years. Really, these are the kind of things one should probably find out before traveling to a foreign land, but then what kind of adventure would this be?

In one last unrelated note, the “Wire the Foreigners” campaign now has an actual petition and might get some results. This is good, because every day I can’t play FFXI is a day I feel a little less like a human being.

//_Norm out

Haibane Renmei

I try not to spend entire posts reviewing or discussing obscure pieces of entertainment media unless I feel confident that the majority of the viewing audience shares (or might potentially share) my interest in it. This excludes a lot of what I read and watch, but every once in a while there’s something that I just can’t help but comment on, regardless of the odds that you guys give a shit. Before I get into the review, however, I should probably preface it with a few statements regarding the medium itself. Let’s get one thing out of the way: this is an anime, something most of you should have at least heard of before. Having been in your position in the recent past, I know exactly how you feel about it…but I’m here to tell you that it’s bullshit. Forget whatever preconceptions you have about animated films, because that’s exactly what this is: a film. It’s not a Saturday morning cartoon, nor is it a Disney production. This is a high quality, intellectually stimulating piece of work of a style and substance that I’ve yet to see replicated in the “real” movie industry.

I don’t want to turn this post into a rant against the narrow-mindedness of most people, so I’ll cut this part short with a few final closing statements. The most important thing (for those of you with pre-conceived biases against this medium) you need to understand is that I am not an anime “fan,” just like I don’t consider myself a movie “fan” or a book “fan.” Just like Hollywood cinema and works of literature, not everything is the same or, indeed, even equal. I don’t watch movies just because they are movies, and I don’t read books simply because they have words on paper; I read and watch things that pique my interest, plain and simple. On the same token, I don’t watch anime because of what it is but because of what it can be.

Anyway, those of you who are still with me probably have enough of an open mind to really appreciate Haibane Renmei. If you’ve read this for any length of time you already know that I loved Serial Experiments Lain, an anime done by Yoshitoshi Abe, the very same man behind Haibane. With that in mind his influence is immediately apparent to anyone who cares to look and practically guarantees a deep, intelligent and well conceived story, albeit with the slow, methodical development that seems to be the hallmark of his work.

Haibane is particularly difficult to classify…its slow, almost languid pacing and initially cheerful, bouncing gait belie the darker undertones that permeate the plot. Right from the start you know that something isn’t right with this world, and it’s only a matter of time before that comes to light. What makes Haibane so wonderful is the way in which it does this…rarely does any work of fiction manage to genuinely surprise me like Haibane did. It doesn’t use any sudden plot twists or mind-bending philosophical metaphors, but simply drifts along on an upstream course that ran counter to almost everything I thought it would do. Another thing that separates Haibane from most other literary works is the a pointed lack of initial exposition. In fact, even the later stages of the plot lack any attempts to explain the world in which the story takes place. It’s obvious that the entire thing is a metaphor for something larger, but the story itself is what’s important here. Haibane, unlike Lain, is very much a character-driven tale, and the reality of the universe simply doesn’t matter in the context of the work.

In fact, this lack of explanation is yet another point in which Haibane excels. The anime sort of meanders its way through the story, leaving far more unanswered questions than answered ones, but it somehow manages to resolve what really matters. I’ve been thinking about this last phrase practically since I started typing this post, and I want to be very careful about the word I end up choosing. I have to think that, for reasons I’m not clear on, I enjoyed Haibane far more than most people would despite that fact that I’ve had my statement agreed with several times. The best way to describe the way I felt after finishing Haibane is, and I mean this honestly, catharsis; I just can’t think of any other way to put it. I just felt good, for reasons I don’t entirely understand, as the final credits rolled (which I actually watched all of, which is, for me, a sign of great respect) and found myself wishing that I hadn’t seen it, not because I didn’t like it but because I wanted to be able to watch it again for the first time.

I was going to close this out with a few quid pro quos for those of you who are thinking of taking up my advice, and they were going to be things like “you might not like it if you can’t handle a slowly moving plot,” but I decided against it. The absolute last thing I want to do is give anyone a reason why they shouldn’t give this series a try. With only thirteen episodes at about twenty-minutes apiece, there’s no excuse for not giving it a shot. I promise that you won’t be disappointed, regardless of whether or not Street Fighter is your idea of a totally awesome movie.

//_Norm out

Is It TB Or TBC?

Two major events today, one of which has already occured (and just so) and another that is still a few hours away. The first is that I got a test for Tuberculosis, which I suppose isn’t particularly groundbreaking aside from the fact seeing someone inject a foreign substance under your skin (thus creating a little cone-shaped structure that grows most disconcertingly) is not something one does everyday. There’s also the fact that someone in one of the labs actually has TB, and one of the international students is in that lab, so pretty much everyone is doing the “better safe than sorry” thing. I mean, I’d feel pretty stupid if I died of TB having passed up the chance for early warning because I was lazy. Hell, there’s lazy, and then there’s lazy.

The second event was the unveiling of my research project for my lab…finally. It looks like I’m going to be working on data compression, more specifically the Context Tree Weighting (CTW) compression scheme, one that I believe is responsible for the mpeg standard and its derivatives (mp3, jpeg, etc). I don’t know much about it now, but that’s why the first phase of my project is to research the algorithm itself, then write a program to implement it (in C++, a language I don’t know) and then find some flaws and improve upon them. This is actually just the sort of project I wanted, one that is based in theoretical computer science (something I have no experience with but want to learn about) while maintaining real-world, practical application.

In other news, I swear to you that I actually have photos from Yamagata and I will, one of these days, finish the php gallery script and actually get them uploaded. In my defense, you have no idea how hard it is to write code when you don’t know the language very well and have no way to test it as you write it.

//_Norm out

Maybe I Just Can’t Write HTML

So, the search engine was fux0red, apparently. This is no longer the case, so you may once again search with impunity. And, yes, I am aware that the archives for the gaming are also broken; I can assure you that I’m working on it, and also simultaneously working on setting up the XML RSS feed, so that any of you who are into that sort of thing can, you know…do you thing. Or whatever. I’ll put up a tutorial for setting it up for Trillian 2.0 users once I’ve gotten it all figured out.

One other thing to note: Evanescence has a new video out, this time for the song My Immortal. The video itself is decent, but the really great part is the new version of the song they recorded for it. It is absolutely titilating, and you would do yourself a favor to give it a listen.

//_Norm out

Don’t Read This Post

First of all, this is some of the best news I’ve heard in months.

Second, I endevoured to prove that Americans can turn anything into a competition by declaring myself the winner of the TB test today. See, after they inject stuff under your skin, you come back in two days and they see how big the bump/red-spot is; the smaller the better. Mine was only 5mm by 5mm, which was a full 6mm smaller than my nearest competitor.

I have the immune system of champions.

//_Norm out

Happy Birthday

It might be a day late (I blame the time difference) but I just wanted to wish my grandma a happy birthday! I would tell you her age, but I’m not sure if she’d be cool with that or not…so, a hearty happy birthday will have to do.

//_Norm out