Category: Media

This is a container category for media reviews and related drivel.

Still Watching Anime: Snow White With The Red Hair

Just because i deleted the unused anime blog and just because I spent most of the last three years barely using my CrunchyRoll account doesn’t mean that I’m not still an anime fan.

For instance!

Starting up this month is the second batch of episodes for a delightful fluffy gem of a fantasy-romance show called Snow White With The Red Hair.

What’s it about, really? In short: A spunky redhead who wants to be an herbalist comes to the attention of a sleazy local prince who tries to force an indecent proposal on our heroine. She promptly cuts her hair and kites off through the forest toward a neighboring country. Along the way she runs into trouble and is saved by… the younger prince of that country. Sparks fly, adorableness commences, adventures are had, hearts and minds are won over, and so on.

Let’s be clear: This is fluffy stuff. Sometimes it almost looks like it might get a smidgen dark, but that’s been averted every time so far. It’s just that kind of show. Bad things do happen but the show doesn’t make a grimdark deal about it.

And you know what? I adore the show. It’s nice to get a relatively uncomplicated romance with two young, determined, smart, devoted people surrounded by similar smart and devoted mentors and minions. If Snow White can’t make you smile, you may need to consult your doctor about a heart replacement.

You’ll find it on Funimation‘s streaming service, which runs you something like five bucks a month. Honestly I’d say it’s worth it to be able to watch Snow White and Arslan alone, never mind whatever else is in their streaming catalog.

28 January, 2016
The Riveting Adventure Of The Grey Quaggan

Kyla loves the Guild Wars 2 MMO game. I mean, I like it too, but she likes and plays the game far, far more than I do. Which is fine, it’s good to have something fun to do.

In the game, one of the fantastical races are called Quaggans. They’re sort of little aquatic blobs with funny voices. Kyla bought herself a purple plush one to add to the stuffed-critter menagerie in the apartment.

Guess who received a grey quaggan for Christmas?

So, last weekend she took the Amtrak Cascades northward to visit folks for a post-Christmas kind of thing, leaving me alone. Well, alone if you don’t count the new grey quaggan, along with all the other stuffed what-have-yous.

I took this as an opportunity to post a silly little photo series on Instagram, which I’ve replicated for posterity in this gallery. Enjoy, won’t you?

12 January, 2016
The Linkage Awakens

Kylanath and I went to see that new War In The Stars movie thing. In a theater, no less.

My spoiler-free reaction?

I liked “The Force Awakens”, mainly due to how incredibly fun and engaging the new characters are. Also, it’s occasionally an incredibly pretty film, what with the panoramic backgrounds full of crashed Imperial Star Destroyers and what-not. (Be cynical on your own turf. I’m not immune to well-done nostalgia.)

On an almost unrelated note, one of the things I realized that I can do with this site is to tell you, dear reader, about things I like. Sure, this was always supposed to be a journal. (Was I ever good at journal-ing? Probably not.) But back while it was a more active web location, this site served the same function for me that Twitter does now: Quick thoughts, and links to stuff elsewhere on the Internets that I find amusing/informative/etc.

So. Let’s do more of that latter thing, the linky-ness. And to tie this back into today’s theme, I’m going to link to the Xanadu Cinema Pleasure Dome podcast’s website. This past Thursday they put up an episode all about the aforementioned new movie, and I agree with pretty much all of their reactions, so listening to them for an hour will give you a good idea how I feel. (I’m 100% less tipsy than they were when they recorded, mind you.) And if that’s not enough, I wrote a blog post’s worth of comment on their post. Ahem.

Be aware, if you haven’t seen the movie yet, do that first and then follow this link to the “KlaxOn! KlaxOff!” episode of the Xanadu Cinema Pleasure Dome. Enjoy, won’t you?

26 December, 2015
Gundam It All

You know those time lapse things I’ve been doing? Here’s something a bit more along the lines of what I’m really hoping to do with the technology. (Well, that and a lot more cloud shows. Because seriously. Clouds!)

Let’s be clear: I am not a skilled model assembler by any stretch of the imagination. (The less said about that chest sticker, the better.) But “doing things on camera” like this amuses me, so expect more of it as I find more things to do along these lines…

5 October, 2015
Not a bad start to the day, not in the least

I walked out the door this morning, backpack on my shoulder and trash bag in hand. As I reached the bottom of the stairs I looked to the East to see what kind of sunrise we were getting.

Well.

Yeah, that wasn’t too shabby. Then I turned toward the dumpsters and looked up to see… This.

No, but seriously.

I tell you what: Hillsboro Oregon gives fantastic sky, sometimes.

25 September, 2015
Thyme Laps Video

I bought a new tablet. I installed Lapse It Pro onto the tablet, and this afternoon the clouds were rather pretty and scudding across the blue sky quite nicely and… this happened:

Not bad, eh? Now, for this video I basically just propped the tablet up on top of one of the living room bookshelves, opened the window, started the recording and walked away for an hour or so.

And walked back, and walked away, and walked back, and finally decided I should go play a game or something for a while because otherwise I was going to be tempted to tinker with things while the recording progressed. Ahem.

I’m hoping to do more like this, but I’m mostly looking (once the tripod mount arrives) at doing some time lapse “build” videos, such as for assembling one of the very small Gundam models whose boxes have been collecting dust for a couple years now. (A devoted modeler I am not, apparently.)

Why not use the Pentax? Because I don’t want to assemble these videos from a pile of raw images by hand, that’s why. The additional expense of shutter timer equipment is also a factor.

So here we are. A guy needs a hobby, right? It’s not so much about the Gundam model as it is about what kind of video I can make out of the process of building the model…

20 September, 2015