I did it last year, and to prove it wasn’t a fluke I’m going to do it again this year.

That’s right, November is National Novel Writing Month and once again I’m stepping up to the plate. What’s different this time around? For starters, I intend to actually have the key plot elements figured out in advance.

I’ll pause while you recover from the shock.

Producing 50,000 words in 30 days isn’t easy, but it’s also not impossible. The tricky parts will be coming up with a good (enough) story, managing it during the month of OryCon, and improving my ability to convey a sense of environment. That’s right, I’m viewing this year’s effort as part of a learning process instead of a simple challenge to pile words upon more words. Go, me!

Wish me luck, friends. I suspect I’m going to need it.

(By the way, does anyone else think that this year’s Participant Icon

is vastly inferior to last year’s?

Ah well.)
NaNoWriMo

A year or so back I decided, “You know what I need? My very own anime fanboy page.” And that’s about as far as that idea progressed, sad to say, unless you count two images, a bit of CSS and a very terse placeholder document.

I’ve done a bit more tinkering in the last couple of days. (Hey, it’s not like I was doing anything else with my time while waiting for that damned AS/400 to fill tapes.) What I need now are comments, suggestions, snarky feedback, whatever… on what I have accomplished so far.

And by “accomplished” I mean “threw together willy-nilly while tinkering with nearly-unrelated web technology.”

Anyway… what do you think I should do with it?

So I’ve been making liberal use of God’s own gift to anime fans, BitTorrent. I’ve also been the recipient of considerable kindness from one of my very good friends. And so I now have what could be called the start of a decent anime collection. Since I’ve been dangerously remiss in writing here lately, I figured on making up for that with a great big mass of fanboy geekery…

Stellvia treads the oft-followed pathway I think of as “students in space.” For all that it bears a passing similarity to Pilot Candidate, it has the good fortune to actually be enjoyable and bear a reasonably interesting plot. (That would be unlike Pilot Candidate, thank you.) The fact that the lead character bears a passing resemblance to Sailor Moon and her best friend bears a passing resemblance to Washuu shouldn’t deter you from trying out and enjoying this surprisingly well-written series. The plot departs from the norm in a few nifty ways (that I won’t spoil here), and the relationships are portrayed in a way that conveys subtlety and depth. Of all the shows I’m currently following, this is the one I most eagerly anticipate new episodes of.

Onegai Twins hasn’t quite won me over yet, nor has it lost me. It’s a sequel to something I haven’t watched (Onegai Teacher) and as such seems to be treading ground I’m supposed to already be familiar with. This isn’t necessarily a problem, but that will entirely depend on the writing. One wonders at the pseudo-incestuous overtones of the show, but so far they haven’t crossed any really dangerous lines. I’ll keep watching this one and hoping that it really gels into a compelling series, rather than merely a light and amusing diversion.

Narutaru is… weird. And dark. And cheerful. And, well, it sort of defies description in a few ways. It’s certainly not for young children, no matter how much it might resemble your average “precocious pre-teen befriends cuddly little creature” premise. I’m only four episodes in and there’s already a clear thread of corruption and death running through the plot. It’s compelling stuff, however, and I’m intensely curious to see how things turn out. There are some strong hints given, but I’m not entirely sure those aren’t red herrings. Yet. My suspicion is that the writers are relying more on their ability to turn what looks like an established “type” of show on its ear than they are on truly clever plot twists. I’m willing to be surprised, however. And I will keep watching.

Chobits may not exactly be new to most anime fans, but I hadn’t seen so much as one episode until a few weeks ago. I freely admit that I wasn’t really prepared to give it a fair shake, given that it’s a show centered on a clueless perv of a boy and a brainless waif of a “girl.” I sort of gritted my teeth and plowed through the first few episodes. Something strange happened along the way. Two somethings, actually. The first strange thing is that I actually found myself laughing at some of the “hilarity ensues” setups. (You know: Boy has to teach cute(sy) girl-shaped robot how to bathe herself. Hilarity ensues. The sort of sitcom-like setups that usually make me groan in frustration.) The second was hints of a very serious underlying meaning to the series. This isn’t to say that Chobits gets all dark and dreary, but it does tackle in some prococative ways what it really means to be in love, and to be worthy of love. At the end, I found myself glad I watched the show.

Oh yeah, and Sumomo rocks. I just had to say it. The little pink imp grows on you… sort of in the way Chibi-Usagi of Sailor Moon doesn’t.

Some other shows, most of which I’m still barely started on, include RahXephon (two episodes seen, seems like Evangelion II but without the blatant Judeo-Christian religious overtones, undertones and middle-tones), Noir (what happens when Japanese storytellers pretend they’re French storytellers… mixed results, but mostly pretty damned cool), Vandread (oooh lookie, 3D-animated space combat, and lots of “battle of the sexes” material… quite fun, though) and the X TV series (I’ve seen the movie; it had better damned well outclass that utter piece of dreck). There’s also the handful of Angelic Layer and Card Captor Sakura episodes available that the kids have been enjoying over and over (and over).

All in all, this is a happy anime-fandom household lately. Hey, don’t knock the notion of having something guaranteed to bring the family together!

Now, with only one hour (therefore two posts) remaining in Blogathon 2003, I’d like to thank everyone who pledged a donation to the World Wildlife Fund on behalf of Your Favorite Little Grey Duck. Thank you Jenn, Wendi, Erin, Amy, Iris, Jayn, Marty, Sam, Mari, David, Sarah, Lilith (& Geoffrey) and Paul. Collectively you pitched in a total of $183! You should all feel proud of yourselves, and I’m proud to have inspired each of you to give a little something.

Sincerely, truly, I thank you all.

This entry concludes my first participation in the Blogathon. I think I made a decent job of it, posting bunny pictures and linkage and reviews and bits and pieces of what-not. It could’ve been better, it could’ve been a helluva lot worse.

Personal thanks go out to Wendi for sustenance and support and (in one notable case) journal fodder, to Alex and Erica for being here and keeping me entertained before bedtime, to Mari for stopping by, to Lilith for calling to say hi, and to Jenn, Dawn, Annessa, Larry, Jaymi, Dalemar and random fellow ‘thonners who chatted or emailed their support and encouragement. I wouldn’t have managed this little feat of geeky endurance without you.

Was I crazy to sign up for and take part in this worldwide extravaganza? Of course I was. The craziness was for a cause, however, and it also provided a challenge. One should challenge oneself every so often, wouldn’t you agree?

So now it’s getting light outside, and I wonder how much sleep I’m going to get. Honestly? I’ll probably only sleep for a few hours. Such is life, I suppose. It’s not as though I had to do anything major with my day (other than a surprise bonus day of loading and unloading Wendi’s DJ equipment).

Let’s do this again next year, shall we? Of course we shall. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to bed. G’nite! Or, good morning…

I decided to take out and dust off a little internet appliance I was given years ago, an Intel InBusiness Internet Station. In other words, a modem-sharing device. The idea in mind was to take the burden of internet connection sharing off of the server so I can (heaven forfend) shut the server down so I can get a decent, quiet night’s sleep.

So I hauled it out and more or less got it working. Then, a flash of stupid moronic asinine inspiration hit me: I should upgrade to the latest release firmware!

So I downloaded the software from Intel and proceeded to do the deed. Only, there’s a problem of some sort with (I think!) the D-Link hub I’m using… communications are wonky between the computers in this room and the device. So the update aborted, leaving the device utterly useless. (My suspicion is that the cheap-assed D-Link doesn’t like having mixed 10-mbit and 100-mbit devices.)

A flash of inspiration struck, leading me to haul the device into the other bedroom to see if it would behave better on the other room’s hub. And it did! I was able to use Wendi’s computer to successfully update… once I could get the software transferred to her computer.

You see, her computer could no longer see the server. And copying the file to a floppy? No good, her floppy drive’s not hooked up (!). So I had to burn a CD-ROM (!!) just to get the updater onto her computer.

But wait, there’s more! I tried doing the simple FTP-based update. Nope. I ran Intel’s updater, and it seemed to be stuck in a loop so I (being the idiot I am) decided to abort the run once I thought (!) that it had already successfully updated the software.

Finally I just launched the updater, grabbed a book, and wandered off to read until the updater itself decided it was done. At which point things started going my way. Except for the part where the D-Link hub in here is so discombobulated by having a 10-mbit device attached that (get this) I can’t get machines to see each other anymore.

I’m online through the device right now, but only on the server. The other computers can’t see the device at all, let alone use it to surf the ‘net. As it is, my connection is kind of… intermittent.

The upshot is: IF IT AIN’T BROKE DON’T FIX IT!

So now I just need to beg Wendi to run me down to the station to swap out the hub. Oh yeah: Peter David’s “Knight Life” is an entertaining little read. Hey, it got me through the afternoon of waiting for progress indicators and blinking lights…