Fortress of Perpetual Midnight

As I told jubatus, this is a lot easier than actually writing stuff. Of course, I've taken a little time to correct things. . . . Still, I'm not bothering to worry about the fact that only a few of the changed titles are listed as such, and application of years is arbitrary.

- X what you've seen
- O what you've started but haven't finished
- Italicize what you haven't seen since you were in elementary school [This one may be a bit off.]
- Leave unchanged if neutral [?]

Classic Disney
[X] 101 Dalmatians (1961)
[X] Alice in Wonderland (1951)
[X] Bambi (1942)
[X] Cinderella (1950)
[X] Dumbo (1941)
[X] Fantasia (1940)
[X] The Jungle Book (1967)
[X] Lady and the Tramp (1955)
[X] Mary Poppins (1964)
[X] Peter Pan (1953)
[X] Pinocchio (1940)
[X] Sleeping Beauty (1959)
[X] Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
[?] Song of the South (1946)

Disney's Dark Age
[?] The Aristocats (1970)
[X] The Black Cauldron (1985)
[X] The Fox and the Hound (1981)
[X] The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
[?] The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
[ ] Oliver and Company (1986)
[X] Pete's Dragon (1977)
[X] The Rescuers (1977)
[X] Robin Hood (1973)
[X] The Sword in the Stone (1963)

The Disney Renaissance
[X] Aladdin (1992)
[X] Beauty and the Beast (1991)
[X] A Goofy Movie (1995)
[X] Hercules (1997)
[ ] The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
[X] The Lion King (1994)
[X] The Little Mermaid (1989)
[X] Mulan (1998)
[X] Pocahontas (1995)
[X] The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
[X] Tarzan (1999)

Disney's Modern Age
[X] Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
[X] Bolt (2008) (last week)
[ ] Brother Bear (2003)
[ ] Chicken Little (2005)
[ ] Dinosaur (2000)
[ ] The Emperor's New Groove (2000)
[ ] Fantasia 2000 (2000)
[ ] Home on the Range (2004)
[X] Lilo & Stitch (2002)
[ ] Meet the Robinsons (2007)
[ ] Treasure Planet (2002)

Pixar
[X] A Bug's Life (1998)
[ ] Cars (2006)
[ ] Finding Nemo (2003)
[X] The Incredibles (2004)
[X] Monsters Inc. (2001)
[ ] Ratatouille (2007)
[X] Toy Story (1995)
[ ] Toy Story 2 (1999)
[X] Wall-E (2008)

Don Bluth
[X] All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
[X] An American Tail (1986)
[ ] Anastasia (1997)
[X] The Land before Time (1988) (the eight million sequels don't count)
[ ] The Pebble and the Penguin (1995)
[X] Rock-a-Doodle (1991)
[X] The Secret of NIMH (1982)
[ ] Thumbelina (1994)
[X] Titan AE (2000)
[ ] A Troll in Central Park (1994)

Claymation
[ ] The Adventures of Mark Twain (1986)
[X] Chicken Run (2000)
[X] Corpse Bride (2005)
[?] James and the Giant Peach (1996)
[X] Nightmare before Christmas, The (1993)
[X] Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
[ ] Flushed Away (2006)
[ ] Coraline (2009)

CGI Glut
[X] Antz (1998)
[ ] Happy Feet (2006)
[ ] Kung Fu Panda (2008)
[ ] Madagascar (2005)
[ ] Monster House (2006)
[ ] Over the Hedge (2006)
[ ] The Polar Express
[ ] Robots
[X] Shrek (2001)
[ ] Shrek 2 (2004)
[ ] Shrek the Third

Imports
[ ] Arabian Knight (aka The Thief and the Cobbler) (1995)
[X] The Last Unicorn (1982)
[ ] Light Years
[ ] The Plague Dogs
[ ] The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
[ ] Persepolis (2007)
[ ] Waltz with Bashir (2008)
[ ] Watership Down (1978)
[ ] When the Wind Blows (1988)
[ ] Yellow Submarine (1968)

Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki
[X] Grave of the Fireflies
[ ] Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
[ ] Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
[X] Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
[X] Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
[ ] My Neighbors the Yamadas
[X] My Neighbor Totoro (1993)
[X] Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
[ ] Only Yesterday
[ ] Pom Poko (Tanuki War)
[X] Porco Rosso (1992)
[X] Princess Mononoke (1999)
[ ] Spirited Away (2002)
[ ] The Cat Returns
[ ] Whisper of the Heart

Satoshi Kon
[X] Millennium Actress (2001)
[ ] Paprika (2006)
[ ] Perfect Blue (1999)
[ ] Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
[ ] Memories - "Magnetic Rose" (1995)

Shinkai Makoto
[ ] She and Her Cat (1999)
[X] Voices of a Distant Star (2001) [Only the self-voiced audio track]
[ ] The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004)
[ ] 5 Centimeters per Second (2007)

Other Ănĭme Films
[X] Adolescence of Utena
[X] Akira (1989)
[ ] Appleseed
[ ] Appleseed: Ex Machina
[X] Arcadia of My Youth (U.S. Title - Vengeance of the Space Pirate)
[X] Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2003)
[X] The Dagger of Kamui (U.S. Title - Revenge of the Ninja Warrior)
[ ] Dirty Pair: Project Eden
[X] End of Evangelion
[ ] Fist of the North Star
[ ] Galaxy Express
[X] Ghost in the Shell (1996)
[ ] The Girl who Leapt through Time
[X] Lensman
[ ] Macross: Do You Remember Love (U.S. Title - Clash of the Bionoids)
[ ] Metropolis (2001)
[ ] Neo-Tokyo
[?] Ninja Scroll
[ ] Patlabor the Movie
[ ] The Professional: Golgo 13
[X] Project A-ko
[ ] Robotech: The Shadow Chronicle
[ ] Silent Mobius
[ ] Space Adventure Cobra
[ ] Steamboy (2004)
[ ] Sword of the Stranger
[ ] Unico and the Island of Magic
[ ] Urotsukidoji: The Movie
[X] Vampire Hunter D
[X] Wings of Honneamise: Royal Space Force

Cartoons for Grown-Ups
[ ] American Pop
[O] The Animatrix (2003)
[ ] Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon The Movie
[ ] Beavis & Butthead Do America (1996)
[ ] Cool World
[X] Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
[X] Final Fantasy: Advent Children
[ ] Fire & Ice
[ ] Fritz the Cat (1972)
[ ] Heavy Metal (1981)
[ ] Heavy Metal 2000 (2000)
[ ] Hey Good Looking
[ ] Lady Death
[ ] A Scanner Darkly (2006)
[ ] South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
[ ] Street Fight (AKA - Coonskin)
[ ] Waking Life (2001)

Other Animated Movies I Can't Categorize
[X] Animal Farm
[ ] Animalympics
[ ] Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
[X] Batman and the Mask of Phantasm
[X] The Brave Little Toaster (1988)
[ ] Bravestarr: The Movie
[?] Care Bears: The Movie
[X] Charlotte's Web (1973)
[X] Fern Gully
[ ] G.I. Joe: The Movie
[?] Gobots: Battle of the Rock Lords
[O] He-Man & She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword
[X] The Hobbit
[O] The Iron Giant (1999) (Yes, I know. Shut up)
[ ] Justice League: The New Frontier
[X] Lord of the Rings
[X] Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1992)
[?] My Little Pony: The Movie
[ ] Pink Floyd's The Wall (1982)
[ ] The Prince of Egypt (1998) [Did see a music video made from it in class, though]
[ ] Powerpuff Girls: The Movie
[ ] Quest For Camelot (1999)
[ ] Ringing Bell
[ ] The Road to El Dorado (2000)
[ ] Rock & Rule
[X] Space Jam
[ ] Starchaser: The Legend of Orin
[ ] Superman: Doomsday
[ ] The Swan Princess
[X] Transformers: The Movie (1986)
[ ] Wizards
[X] Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
[ ] Wonder Woman

What I've learned from this:

1. I've actually seen some movies he hasn't.

2. Apparently CGI is not Ănĭme. Or is it because they've had theatrical releases in places other than Japan?

3. Only two of the animated Tolkien films qualify. The other one was made for TV.

4. I still haven't bothered to watch my copy of Toki o Kakeru Shōjo. My fixer has noted Sora o~, but this part may be news to her?.

For some reason, the Waffen-SS of the Last Battalion were not a military group but an urban gang, and it was up to us Ninja Turtles to deal with them. The Hauptsturmführer's work was easy to identify, as there weren't many others running around with Broomhandle Mausers these days.† Oddly enough, Dok‡ wasn't actually doing anything evil, just researching at a local library.

†It had been replaced as a service pistol even by WWII, although some officers (such as him) still had personal ones. As the only confirmed Werwolfes are him and Ms. Rip-Van, we don't know anything about how they're spawned, so for all we know he may have been a soldier for decades before that. Interestingly enough, the powers they are seen to have seem to relate to firearms: Ms. Rip-Van's dancing musket ball and the Hauptsturmführer's ability to make two long-barreled Mausers look like one normal piece when holstered （笑）. (Speaking of extensible barrels, DM had to make a similar excuse so that typical slugthrower rifles (exemplified by the Czerka Adventurer) can double as BAW E-5 Droid Blaster Carbines due to the changes he's made to the plot.) Tangentially, I'm also amused by the fact that humans like Walter can chop up people with mono-wire, while vampires (there's one who shows up later on, not to spoil anything by saying where) can chop up skyscrapers. There's also the fact that Walter is a gunsmith, yet he fights exclusively with mono-wire. (I've thought of a logical reason for that, but that's ( a spoiler for Book 9. ))

Admittedly, there are Mauser variants chambered in modern calibers, so his work might not be identifiable by the ammo and brass left at the scene if he uses one of those. However, each firearm has a distinct pattern of marks that it leaves on each bullet from the rifling in the barrel. I think I may have heard that it's possible to determine the model as well, but I failed to find confirmation on that; still, they would be able to tell that all of the rounds came from the same two weapons, making it easier to link it to a specific person.

‡Since they're German, I assumed it was an abbreviation of the German word. I don't know whether they use such an affectionate term in German, but I don't imagine Hirano does either. (The dwarf is known as "Chef.") Using German words can lead to some odd things; this one is the same as an Ork word, and "Death Korps" is a bit of a false friend. . . .

Contrary to the title, this is not another post about downloading bootlegs—at least not primarily.

I finally managed to get hold of my new job coach a few weeks ago and set up an appointment. I went in without any clear idea of what to do, hoping to ask her for advice, so she sent me home to codify my criteria and think about what kind of job I'd want. Consequently, I've made a few rough notes based on my experience so far:

1. The most immediate and obvious criterion is that I need enough money to be able to afford a home. Judging by the low-end rents I've seen in the paper I assemble, I would be able if I stepped up to full time at my current just-above-minimum wage, but for the rest of the reasons, that would just be even worse.

2. There are two problems that both are detrimental to my long-term health and really tick me off. The first is that the work environment is incredibly loud. This is rather inevitable for a factory job, of course. It also results in the facts that no one can understand what anyone else is saying (in my case due to my ADD making it difficult to discern individual voices from background noise, in the others' because they've suffered so much hearing damage already due to their job and their music-listening lifestyles), which requires that they yell incoherently at each other all the time, and that the alert signals all have to be even louder and more ear-piercing due to high pitch so that they aren't missed in the cacophony.

The second is more of a morality issue. The workplace is smoke-free, but workers are encouraged to smoke right outside the entrances, including when the garage doors are open, and they generally smoke just before getting to work, both of which meaning I have to breathe their second-hand smoke if I'm nearby. About half the workers (including three of the four supervisors) smoke at least one cigarette every couple of hours. As you know, I particularly hate smoking not just because it's harmful, but because it has no purpose other than as a poison. However, U.S. law protects the right of smokers to poison others, and even beyond my policy*, I prefer to avoid complaining about it within earshot. In my experience, smokers are, on average, even more bad-tempered than others with whom I've spent time, and the last two to whom I've mentioned that I didn't like it claimed that it was my own fault and that I was making fun of him, respectively.

3. The fact that almost no one there gives a damn about doing even the bare minimum makes my own apathy even stronger. (I tried to wean them off my picking up after them before my trip, but we'll see about the results when I get back tonight.) I imagine this stems from the fact that it's a horrible job. There's also the fact that the company apparently can't even afford to tell us even the most basic things about stuff that we're supposed to do, so learning is mostly by educated guess. This is no doubt due to the fact that annual employee turnaround appears to be about 200%, again stemming from the fact that it's an awful job. I haven't bothered to call them on these things because of my policy*, which is reinforced by the fact that some people get extremely ticked off if I try to do my own job efficiently.

4. The fact that I have to be heavily sedated to sleep puts quite a damper on my life when working graveyard. Most significantly, I have difficulty getting to appointments (including the job coach) and stores while they're open. (In the latter case, essentials such as food and drugs are usually available 24-7, but I do like to go to stores that are actually interesting, such as hobby shops and bookstores, once in a while.) Of course, most jobs are available during the day; this current one just happens to be a morning paper about events the day before.

Just to break up the large block of text, I'll talk about my current prospects (such as they are) in a separate post.

*As you can see from the Cool Hand Luke (which I've never seen) quote in my notes, I was planning on typing an entire post about how it doesn't seem to be worth it to let anyone know about any opinion I may have unless that anyone happens to be a close friend. To sum up, it's been my experience that doing so just ticks him off, causes him to be if anything more opposed to my view (either out of spite, perverseness, or the fact that he respects me so little that he feels my opinions are automatically ineligible), and adds to the ongoing friction between us. When combined with the fact that I find arguing very hurtful, this comes to my admittedly dysfunctional policy. Hopefully if I manage to find coworkers who have less negative attitudes than the people around here, the people on the LG Yahoo! Group, the people on daily_yuri, etc., I will be able to work better. Otherwise, I just have to keep thinking about what to do about it myself.

If I wouldn't put off these dinky ones, I wouldn't be so backed up. . . .

The land of this particular MMORPG had the peculiarity that powerful spells were performed through rituals including singing particular tunes. I was playing a diminutive furbolg rogue by the name of Boo-Boo, learning under a more experienced character known as Yogi. For some reason, when he demonstrated a spell, he turned into Minnie Mouse.

My readership appears to be at an all-time high (apparently at least two regulars!), but I've accumulated quite a lot of stuff during its absence, to say nothing of my sloth and the fact that I've built up a lot of new things due to year's-end-and-beginning splurging. So, I'd like to see if you have any requests or suggestions. What I've got in the works is as follows:

( Ridiculously long notes )

My song was inspired by a number of elements:

1. I got a steady job.

2. An order from some months earlier had arrived.

3. I was notified that the Accord was ready to go.

On the day to pick up the latter, Mother told me that they had repainted the new parts. It was only then that I realized that it would have been a good time to have the car repainted. It had occurred to me that this would be an easy thing to do (the most difficult part probably being changing the description on the registration) some time earlier, but I hadn't gotten around to it. So they went to the trouble of putting that ugly yellow stripe back on.

Meanwhile, getting back to driving more often only drives home the fact that I find the fact that people make laws that are not intended to be followed really annoys me. I think that such arbitrary things should not be in official government documents. Even more irritating is the fact that people who actually do follow laws on principle (assuming there still are any) are punished by the fact that it's more dangerous to do so. For instance:

1. Speed limits are a classic. If you drive at the speed limit when there's anyone else on the road, you surprise other drivers because this is such an unexpected thing, and the fact that you're blocking traffic contributes somewhat to road rage. Of course, now that this has become the norm, it would be a dangerous transition if the government actually started posting reasonable speed limits. Also, it irks me that, if he really felt like it, a cop would be fully within his rights to give you a ticket for going 1 mi/h over the posted limit.

2. A similar problem exists if you make a turn into the nearest lane, as law dictates. This means that if there is someone behind you, you will likely not be able to change lanes, because that person will often turn directly into the other lane, allowing you too little space to move over for some time. I try to make sure I watch out not to follow the law when it could be this troublesome, but it's difficult to keep track of everything all the time.

3. This one isn't really dangerous, but it does irritate me that they make turn lanes that are illegal to enter in any way. At least, that's how I remember the law. I don't know any convenient way of looking up such small-scale regulations.

Speaking of driving, I've gotten back to killing time by playing a bit of MARIO KART DS, even though I've already won all the Grand Prix at 150cc. All of the other modes are rather pointless, and the main fun factor of the game is gone when you can't play multi-player with the basic set. It's also the American version, which doesn't bother me too much since it's a pointless game anyway, but I'm still baffled by some of the name changes they make. Back in the 64-bit era, the Americans realized that the original "Peach" was cuter than "Princess Toadstool," but for some reason they still insist on replacing "Koopa" with "Bowser." (Oddly enough, they didn't do that in the TV shows or the movie, although admittedly the latter has little to do with the series.) Anyway, the fact that I have terrible aim with items remains, but it is fun to drag them behind the cart and bash my competitors with them when they get too close. I'm somewhat tempted to get married so I can attack fellow drivers with tin cans and shoes on my way out.

YesAsia.com uses USPS for its free shipping, so you can track an order once it makes landfall on this side of the pond. Thus, when it arrived in Illinois on Sunday, I was full of anticipation. Sadly, however, it arrived in Missouri four days later. I have no idea what was with that, but it somehow managed to get here this afternoon nonetheless—right after I'd finished rereading HELLSING.

In any case, I didn't manage to get any YuriHime Comics publications in this batch, but I still had one high-priority item: HAYATE CROSS BLADE Vol. 7. There'll be spoilers for up to that point, but there's only one person who has me on the friends list who's likely to ever read it, and I reckon she already has.

Ms. Zhū is still damn nifty, but more important was the much-awaited Shit-Bourgeois fight (or "kakumei vs. anarchy," as seems more appropriate now). I also notice that the ten battle is between the two S-rankers with weird belts. Ms. Inori must feel a bit left out, being the only one of the four combatants who speaks like a normal person.

Of course, with Ms. Mikado and Ms. Inori stepping into the spotlight, it's the perfect time to debut their Shigeru-Family mascots. Ms. Mikado gets tsun-dere points for her reaction to that. And I'm sure Ms. Kikkawa and I weren't the only ones surprised that Ms. Mikado took Shigeno rather than Shigerō.

We also get the first real glimpse of their background. I can't say I appreciate the direction of Ms. Mikado's motivation, but I do like her challenge to Ms. Inori the second time they met. I'm guessing that she was down about the business with Ryōichi, and it was the perfect time for Ms. Mikado to step in with a line like that. In the present day, it looks like Ms. Mikado is resigned to Ms. Inori's quitting because of it, but I'm hoping that it'll turn out all right, if Chopin's etude has anything to say about it. Also, it's interesting to note that the gender-like appearance and personalities of the heirs to the two rival corporations started out opposite one another and both reversed somewhere in-between. . . . (Ms. Amachi still has a lot of story left in her, so we'll presumably see what changed her at this point. Her father also looks rather young, if you ask me. . . .)

Meanwhile, the fight itself was predictably brief, even with the handicap. (Ironically, the word "punk" also has a similar meaning to "zako" in English.) The previous white-suit fight had a similarly obvious result, but Ms. Amachi drew it out for aesthetic purposes (although not as far as she claimed in the side story about the drama CD). Speaking of aesthetics, Ms. Shidō's and Ms. Tonami's custom blades looked rather cartoony to me. The latter is probably just because the basket hilt is too big in comparison to the more important blade, but in the former case I would have to commend Ms. Hayashiya for thinking up a logical reason for having a ridiculously large sword in a system that's essentially to first blood, even if it doesn't look good.

Also, the extras include the results of the second character-popularity contest (but not the episode-popularity one, oddly enough). The top two ranks are the same as before (which is perhaps why the numerical scores are not listed this time, as it made everyone but Ms. Kuga look pretty sad before), but I'm happy to have spent $1 to contribute to Ms. Mikado's placing at 4th, right behind Ms. Inori. As she already featured Ms. Kuga and Ms. Shizuma, Ms. Hayashiya instead included a gift illustration of the aforementioned runners-up (and our heroine) that would be suitable for daily_yuri if I could get a scan of it, but sadly no side story about them this time. Predictably, my other three votes didn't even manage to bump the poor side characters 20th place (which means they lost to what appears to be either a mascot or a cookie), but at least the captain of the nurse-tai appeared in one frame again, much to my surprise.

Coincidentally, Ms.? Maitake is in the middle of putting on a week-long HAYATE CROSS BLADE solo festival, centering on one couple each day. It sounds a bit lonely, so I at least will be sure to drop by on a daily basis. Meanwhile, Day 2 reminded me of something that I had overlooked: Ms. Hoshikawa and Ms. Tsukishima are now D-Rankers (last we heard), which means that they would be perfect targets for Ms. Nagi, who's going to be a big fish in a small pond when she gets there. She hasn't been mentioned for a long time except in the Kurogane×Shizuma battle, but I haven't given up on her. . . .

( Read more... )

I completely fail to see the connection to what I answered. I'm sure those of you who know me will be similarly puzzled.

The queen of the land of the giants, much like Ms. Vanar of Khador, declared the beginning of a campaign to retake their lost empire. Unfortunately, an ancient laser cannon misfired and chopped off a portion of their floating island. On the other hand, their vanguard included the Gummi Rangers (no doubt veterans using the spoils they had acquired under Igthorn's command, which I was researching the other day to write an LG mod, and inspired by the "ranger" category on JEOPARDY! yesterday), a squad of ogres with incredible jumping ability, which they used to great effect during the first phases of the push through the tops of the mountains.

Later, we were staying at a motel on a steep hill, possibly as part of boot camp. I remember very little of what happened.