[182] Privacy Threat

console

< Piro >

"service, service!"

Monday - October 15, 2001

[ok, i'm inserting this here to put cap on the flood of emails i am getting telling me about the appearance of some familiar characters in today's Exploitation Now comic. Lets see, so far in the past two hours i have downloaded 38 emails telling me about it. ^^;; Yes, I KNOW. ^^:;; You people forget, I *read* Exploitation Now on a regular basis. (I'm a Jordan fanboy, i admit it). Having said that, i'll say it again: Mr. Poe is a bad man. I really need to retaliate... i mean, do that guest comic one of these days... ^^;; - piro]

Sorry for the 'no punchline' comic again today. You should be aware by now that when i pull something like this, i'm hinting at other things, and sometimes covering them with a joke isn't appropriate. Also, sometimes, there is a kind of humor buried in a strip that may not be apparent at first.

And before you ask, her name is Megumi. Kimiko's co-worker at Ann Millers. Yes, she is also an aspiring seiyuu (voice actress). She made her first appearance in the 'adjustments' strip way back near the beginning. I get accused of keeping things like character names secret for long periods of time just to torture fans... yea, i admit it. :P Truth is, I'm taking a serious look at the character info and story info pages this week - a task that i have been avoiding for over a year. The site really needs better support information, and it's time i got off my lazy ass and did it. Don't hold your breath, it may take me a few days to finish.

A couple of other things of note. First off, I received an email from the Library of Congress last week informing us of the following:

The Library of Congress's mission is to make its resources availableand useful to the Congress and the American people and to sustain andpreserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for futuregenerations. If the Library of Congress is to continue to fostereducation and scholarship in this era of digital technology, it mustextend to the digital world its traditional functions of acquiring,cataloging, preserving and serving collection materials of historicalimportance. As digital information on the Internet has a short lifespan, we are pursuing a project to collect digital material relatingto the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States, its aftermathand the national and international response. Your site has beenselected for inclusion in this project as we assess the scholarlyvalue of born digital materials in creating digital collections. Formore information on the mission and activities of the Library ofCongress, see the Library of Congress web site at http://www.loc.gov.

Needless to say, we are rather dumbfounded and humbly honored by this. As soon as i have more information on this, i'll let you know. Who'd a thought?

On a similar note, I received an interesting request from serviceman in the US Navy the other day. He told me that while they still had access to e-mail, that they were unable to browse websites during the current conflict. He asked if it would be possible for me to email strips so that he and some of his shipmates (who are also MT fans, it seems) can keep up with the strip.

I told him i'd be more than happy to oblige. In fact, it started me thinking that there may be other servicemen and women who can't directly access Megatokyo who might enjoy being able to keep up with the strip. I would be more than happy to provide this service, or do whatever i need to do to provide it, to anyone serving in the military during this conflict.

There is a great tradition of comics entertaining soldiers in times of war. Entertainment is an important part helping people deal with stressful situations. We at Megatokyo would be honored to be able to provide some of this entertainment, even if it means doing things that are done specifically for them. If anyone reading this who has any ideas or thoughts on how strips like Megatokyo (and perhaps others as well) can be made available to our service men and women during this war, please let me know.

[note: i've received 15 emails already suggesting the idea of putting together a mailing list to mail strips to service folk - and that is one of the ideas that i have been thinking of implementing. I worry a little that the military might not appreciate me spamming the mailboxes of so many service personnel with graphic files 3 times a week (you have to consider these things) so i guess my hope was that someone who is familiar with or is in the military might have some ideas about how to make things available to service folk without resorting to mass mailing things. ^_^ thank you for the positive response so far tho :) - piro]

Oh, recently I was toying with people to see if they recognized Kimiko's hairstyle. Most people guessed 'Card Captor Sakura', but that isn't the correct answer. Only two people got it right, and they guessed it right away. The prize was the knowledge that they had the correct answer ^_^ Kimiko's hair style was inspired by Katsuragi Moe in Risky Safety (Omoshi Magical Theater). If you watch the later episodes, you'll see that Kimiko is also wearing the same sweater Moe wears. :) Risky Safety has influenced Megatokyo in other ways as well - 'Safety' the little angel apprentice, was a big inspiration in the creation of Seraphim's character. I love that show, not really sure why. Something about the character designs, i think. The girl characters are great, but i'd be happy to see that little boy character fall under a pavement grinder.

Time to go find my little Mistao and grab some lunch...

... support mt stuff ...

You can support Megatokyo by getting yourself some cool YakPak swag using the link below. Piro has been carrying a black Medium Flapdoozy since the comic started (because that's what i really use ^_^). Also, the YakPak people are cool folk:

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< Dom >

"Ninja Magic"

Thursday - October 11, 2001

[Dom] - 16:52:00 - [link here]

Holy crap, has it been a long time since there's been a rant on this section. Up until recently, I've been going through the maddening process of moving and learning a new commute... but everything's set up, everything's rounded up, and mostly unpacked. So I'm ranting.

Recently at work, Microsoft brought by a pack of Xboxes and a crudload of games. I mean all of the launch titles: Halo, Fuzion Frenzy, Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, and others.

And, having gotten my grubby hands on both a debug X-box and a Japanese GameCube, I have these short conclusions about the future of these consoles.

First, the Xbox controller needs to be shot. Seriously. We call it the Veal Dreamcast Controller--someone grabbed a Dreamcast controller, stuck it in a closet and fed it pure lard for six months. So it's fat, bloated, and unsuitable for any real purpose. The memory sticks are kind of cool. with a sort of chest-buster look to 'em. But if my thumb rubs up against the analog stick when I press the A button there's some problems. There has seriously been a collective brain fart by the Xbox guys with this monstrosity. The testers for the controller must've been Manute Bol and a rhesus monkey with elephantiasis. There's no other explanation for something this bad.

Second, I feel this need to stick pop tarts in the GameCube. It just doesn't look like a console to me... oh well, Super Monkey Ball kicks ass.

Third, the fact that Luigi hums or sings along to the music in his new game amuses me to no end. Sometimes you don't notice him and think he's the actual soundtrack. I don't know why this amuses me, but it does.

Fourth, I agree with my co-workers. Fuzion Frenzy needs a Typing of the Xbox, or something. It's just so right.

Finally, the little aliens in Halo may just be the most fun bastards to shoot in a while. They give you such crap when you die ("Not so tough NOW, are ya?") that you can't wait to respawn and pop a few more of them so they start scattering and screaming "Run! It's him!". When Cortana buys himself an Xbox for DoA3 and Halo, I'll spend some time with Halo.

Of course, half you readers out there won't let me get away with this rant without mentioning the game everyone likes to drool on, Dead or Alive 3. And I must say, while I haven't really liked the game much engine-wise, but everyone who plays this game has to give it its due: It's one of the most friggin' beautiful games in history.

Seriously. The ice cavern, with the reflection off the ice patches, with the darkened passage lit by torches, that took my breath away. The subtle muscle movement you can see on some people is amazing. Ayane's ending, with the reflection of the pyre in her eyes, friggin' awesome. And I actually kinda like the gameplay of this one over the last one, for the sheer fact that the counters don't do 50% damage anymore. It makes the game much less annoying to me--though I'd still rather play Soul Calibur 2.

A random note before I enter the next phase of my rant. According to Helena's ending and the fact that she swims for a good two minutes without surfacing, she can apparently breathe underwater. I was mystified by this revelation, until a co-worker came by and pointed out that with any of the Dead or Alive girls, any dive they make is a two-tank dive. So that, and her treading water without moving a muscle, make perfect sense now.

Now, as I was playing Dead or Alive 3, I started thinking about ninja--why everyone loves 'em so much, why I love 'em so much, and why, centuries after they ceased to exist, they persist in popular mythology. Dead or Alive 3 gave some insights into this phenomenon.

Ninja magic is cool. Everyone wants to be able to jump from rooftop to rooftop only making that "shwwwwp" sound. Admit it. Part of the fun of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was the goofy fun of seeing Zhang Zi-Yi and Michelle Yeoh jump from rooftop from rooftop, although they must be better ninja than most, because they didn't even make a "shwwp". And anyone remember Shinobi? The greatest thing was busting out the Ninja Magic, freezing everyone on-screen, and kicking their asses at your leisure. Plus, ninja get to say strange, cryptic yet badass lines. One of Hayabusa's fight intros says something like "Rage is a whirlwind!" Doesn't make much sense for him to say it, but it certainly sounds impressive, doesn't it?

And, of course, everyone wants the uniform. Not only is it slick and will keep you warm and unseen by mortal eyes, but it's never anything less than stylish. And usually magical (and thus this is a subset of my first point); just take the Dead or Alive kunoichi as an example. Their outfits somehow protect them from below-freezing temperatures, even while covering less than half of their surface area. Not only that, but they alter Japanese DNA to allow gigantic chest sizes, while providing magical back support to prevent these girls from keeling over with horrific back problems.

Well, I'm done talking out of my ass for today, though if Largo's rants continue to be AWOL, expect more random weirdness from me in the near future.