I’m sure the attendees at this tech convention were wondering what in the world I was doing taking pictures of an empty chair and so forth, but whatever. I’ll never see any of those people again, and I got a fun picture out of it.
Originally posted to social media accounts on November 11th, 2016.
Tiger, the official cross-country companion duck, went with me to IT Nation last year. Not all of the pictures went up in a timely fashion, unfortunately.
At any rate, the “owl” logo for ConnectWise seemed a good place for a duck to perch.
Originally posted to social media accounts on November 9th, 2016.
The property management office for our apartment complex throws little party events from time to time. On this occasion, a Halloween party, I brought along one of the ducks. Don’t worry: The machine wasn’t on. I wouldn’t risk melting a member of the flock!
Originally posted to social media accounts on October 31st, 2016.
We went to the mall, and we took a duck along with. As one does. I don’t know why this lift was parked near the entrance to the sporting goods store but I certainly wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity.
Originally posted to social media accounts on October 28th, 2016.
The WES commuter rail line’s stops each have one of these weird art installations called “Interactivators.” The idea is that you slide around the various weird metal shapes along the grooves for whatever purpose amuses you.
So I put a duck on one. As one does.
Originally posted to social media accounts on October 27th, 2016.
Do you like the idea of bounty hunters in space but don’t want to commit to watching all of Cowboy Bebop? Well, this might suit your needs.
Iria: Zeiram the Animation is a six-episode (roughly three hours long) story created as a direct-to-video prequel to a live-action movie.
It’s your typical girl-meets-monster, monster-kills-nearly-everyone, girl-seeks-revenge-on-monster story, really. If you’ve seen one you’ve seen ’em all, am I right?
Part of Iria‘s appeal is that it’s straight-up sci-fi action fluff in a modest-sized format. It isn’t terribly deep and some things don’t make much sense if you stop to think about them, but it does have a plucky heroine shooting the heck out of monsters and there’s an interesting design aesthetic to the characters and the worlds they inhabit.
The plot is not one of the show’s strong points. It’s not actually terrible, nor is it particularly strong. The plot’s function here is to get us from one set-piece to another.
Also, if you were hoping for a really strong female character, you might be somewhat disappointed. Iria is certainly capable and such, but her non-combat mode is basically “but what about my brother Gren?”
My current copy is the oldest of the DVD releases, so I didn’t even bother trying to use it to source screencaps for this post. (Let’s be real: I only did that for a couple of posts all year long.) At one point, however, I used it to make a music video. (If you don’t want to have the ending spoiled, do not click that link.)
…yeah. That happened. Look, I was trying to learn video editing at the time. It was only my third attempt.
Late July of TWO THOUSAND TWO? Gods, I feel old now.
Anyway.
Speaking of music, I rather like some of the songs on the soundtrack. Again, like everything else about Iria, it’s not top-notch stuff but it’s solidly enjoyable.
Nobody has it for streaming as of this writing, so shiny-platter version is your only recourse. Look for the 2016 release, though. That seems to be the best of the bunch.
