[137] p0w3r pl4y

console

< Piro >

"i don't live right..."

Tuesday - June 26, 2001

[update - heheh... well, i guess i managed to finish today's comic last night after all. Imagine that... oh, and btw - "hidoi" “‚¢= cruel, awful, severe, very bad, serious, terrible, heavy, violent - piro]

Y'know, sometimes i wonder just what it is i've done wrong in a former life. Was I a brutal hun warrior responsible for the deaths of entire villages? Did i invent some horrible machine of torture and death? Was i an IBM engineer who worked on the original IBM pc system architecture? I sometimes wonder.

Yesterday morning, after checking my email and sorting thru the forums, my computer started acting weird. The new box that Largo shipped me last month has been working like a charm (I call her Kimiko-chan ^_^), and i've been running Windows2000 pro with the regional settings set to Japanese - no problems at all.

When i rebooted yesterday morning, something was wrong. I got one of those wonderful NT blue screens that wouldn't let me go very far. Something about the ntoskrnl.exe being fuqqored. I couldn't even boot in the most basic Safe Mode. Something was definitely not right.

After finally tracking largo down on the phone, we came to the conclusion that i was going to have to try to either fix the Win2k install or do a fresh install. Luckily, i keep all my data on separate drives, so this didn't represent a disaster - just a annoyance. After spending a good hour trying to determine how to get into the system bios of this machine (oh, why on earth would they TELL YOU on start up - no, they have to make it enigmatic. -_-) so that i could boot from a CDrom, i proceeded to first try find fixing the installation. That was a dismal failure, so with a heavy sigh i proceeded to install a fresh version of win2k.

It actually went pretty smooth. I was able to find all the data and settings i needed to install things properly, and i even had a chance to freshen some installations and set things up better than before. The only thing i really lost was time. I finished fixing the damn thing around midnight last night. :(

Loosing time isn't a good thing for me, as you know. Every time i get on track, something happens. ^_^ Ah well, i guess that's part of the entertainment here at Megatokyo. My life is like this anyway, y'all might as well get a chuckle out of it, because these things happen to everyone. ^_^ The big thing i wanted to finish last night were the new t-shirt designs - we're very happy with the new designs (you can take a sneak peak here) and i was hoping to make them available today in our store. Also, i tried to get as much done as i could on tomorrow's comic while doing all my installation and setup, but honestly, i didn't get enough done. So, to make a long story short, here's the schedule for the rest of the week:

Wednesday's comic will be up thursday, and friday's comic will go up as scheduled on friday. New t-shirt designs should be available Friday. I will post some extra sketches tonight just for fun. Thank you.

Not all is bad in Piro/Seraphim land. On Saturday i finally broke down and purchased a DVD player. Yea, i was going to get a region free dvd player so i could watch Region 2 disks, but we decided that we just needed a general dvd player for now - besides, they are pretty cheap these days (having $100 worth of Best Buy rebate stuff to spend helps too ^_^) I picked up a Sony DVP-NS300 at Best Buy, and it's pretty decent (i only have a 20" Sony Trinitron tv) and while there we picked up a copy of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and The Princess Bride. It was kinda nice to kick back saturday and watch a couple of movies.

The evil thing about DVD players is that its not the player that gets you, it's the DVDs. That's where your wallet gets nailed. My resolve to not go out and purchase a dozen or so anime DVDs lasted about 18 hours. :) It started with my inkling to see the DVD version of Shamanic Princess to replace my fansubbed version.... and you know how it goes, can't stop with just one. ^^;; In the end i ordered a copy of Evangelion disk 1, Lain disk 1, Nadesico disk 1 and the new Nadia DVD as well. I guess i won't be eating lunch for a few weeks... ^^;; Still, i'm looking forward to getting them. Seraphim is gonna kill me when she gets wind of it tho... ^_^

Speaking of Seraphim, she is going to step in to discuss her plans to kidnap me and drag me away sometime in July. Till then, DVD's baaaaddd...

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< Dom >

"rent is due"

Friday - June 22, 2001

[Dom] - 13:45:00 - [link here]

This past Tuesday, I was sticking around the office playing with Adobe Premiere and grabbing screenshots from Sakura Taisen 3, which'll dominate my rants for the next few months. Times like these I wish I had an S-video cable for my Dreamcast, but that's not the point of this rant.

At around 6:30, my sister plucked me from the office and pulled me about eight blocks down the street to the Orpheum Theater, where Rent was playing (It's worth noting that she did the exact same thing to me two years ago when Rent was in town, but at the Golden Gate Theater instead of the Orpheum).

I love that show, and I could say a lot about it, but something happened to me at that show that made me realize a thing or two about myself. I was sitting next to a young girl--I'd estimate around 15 or so, and it was obviously her first time seeing the show. And during the reprise of I'll Cover You at the funeral, I realized she was snuffling and tears were streaming down her face as if she'd shot Bambi's mother. And she did the same during the finale with Mimi and Roger.

To my surprise, even after seeing the show multiple times, I found myselfgetting a little choked up as well during the funeral. I looked over at my sister, and saw her looking a little raw herself. I asked her about it after the show, and she somewhat sheepishly admitted that the first three times she'd seen the show, she cried during the reprise of I'll Cover You, and she still chokes up when Tom Collins sings his farewell song.

I truly envy the ability of a writer who can create such a strong attachment to a character, especially in the, oh, hour and fifteen minutes that the audience has to see him. Jon Larson had that, and from what I'm seeing from the forums and my inbox here at MT, many fans are forming the same kind of bonds to the characters, and I envy Piro for his ability to write and draw them to get much the same effect.

Me, I can't get the same effect when I write. Those who know me know that I can't stay serious for more than a few hours at a time, which means I can do two things well: make people laugh, and make people angry at me (which are sometimes one and the same). Every once in a while I get inspired, sit down, and am able to fire off a poem that I like enough that I don't immediately set it on fire. My life's one big punch line or play on words, and while I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it just limits my ability to write a certain way that makes the characters a little more tangible and reachable, rather than madcap stick figures cracking strange, esoteric jokes while inflicting untold violence on each other.

Although in my view, the ability to create an emotional attachment to a character is abused as often as it's masterfully executed--just look at the classic case of fan abuse, Evangelion. While some people will debate with me on the likability of the characters, there's no denying that a large fan base grew to love (and love in some SCARY ways O_o) the characters, and the ending is basically Hideaki Anno rolling naked in a pile of money, smoking a fat stogie and giving the fans the one-finger salute as he does obscene things to all eight cels of animation the TV show used. After learning what the future of the show was, I stopped watching at around episode 11. Then Ed tied me to a chair, propped my eyes open and forced me to watch The End of Evangelion while he laughed maniacally and played a synth version of Ode to Joy on his walkman...

Okay, I exaggerated about that last part, he didn't prop my eyes open, he let me blink every once in a while, because he didn't have eye drops at the time.

But anyway, on with the rant: Piro said at the ACen panel that he gets inspiration from Gainax. I'm gonna kick his ass if he tries to manipulate you like Eva--but that's a subject for another rant.