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24 Oct 2008 mellow_bunny

Hyakko - A tale of introversion and bread.

What follows in this post is the mad ramblings of a person who forced himself to watch something crap. Super crap. It was about as bland as a piece of bread. Bread that had perhaps been left in the cupboard too long and had gone a little dry. It was horrible. It was so horrible I cannot even be bothered to post pictures. I cannot be bothered to edit what I typed as I watched. I cannot believe that I am still posting this. I will have to choose another show to watch. Hyakko is retarded.

I will state however Ayu has the most Moe voice matched to a character I have ever experienced. EVER. Chinese-like girl was super generic. All of them were generic. Long live their uniforms and Moe-chan’s voice.

I apologize for any grammatical or spelling errors below. It was merely meant to serve as a guide for when I refined it into a post.

Rolling Transcript of Hell

leaping…
something about tigers… yuri?? ok.. jumping through the sky..
weak start imo.. that made no sense and not enough pantsu.
the uniform is cool (the only thing in this show that possibly would have been good. the uniforms. and only because they would be featured in doujin. damn you blissmo i’m not a pervy old man D: .. ok maybe I am pervy.)
the animation.. is odd… almost too simplistic in some respects .. just.. out of proportion. ok short darkhaired chick looks cool and chinese..

whats with all the dark shadows? this is japan they have electricty dammit.
she feels she is different?(short orange)
looks like she was trying to decide what kind of personality to have. timid and worrying. or outgoing and extravert. she cant change just like that though :/ she;s the same as she was in middle school?

ok it’s official. 3.27 minutes and im as bored as a turtle with LIFE. she’s crying.. ok kinda moe…

she’s totally lost .. might have been more moe if she was lost cos she was just hopeless. instead its a huge school. DARN YOU REALITY.

hmm another girl.. niiice boooots. er wut.. eyes. ok orange-chan is too moe. purple chick is stiff or just like memory like a gold fish.. ok she’s sharp. ok sub tl notes suck.

HER VOICE IS TO MOE. MOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

hahahahahahahhahahahahahhaahahah THEY ARE BOTH HOPELESS. lol. lololol. hahahaha back to class? what are you kidding hahaha. ok im confused. what. what the hell is going on. STOP MOTION FTW?

er….. she’s lost tooo moe-chan. BEADS OF SWEAT. THEY ARE BOTH LOST LOL. ok now she can’t decide how to say it. JUST ASK DAMMIT. ASK ASK ASK ASK ASK. CHANGE YOURSELF. COURAGE.

DOOOOO EEEEEEEET. Moe-chan’s voice is toooo gooood. MOOOE MOOE. also yes she’s totally sharp face. but she’s lost as. ASK THE DAMN QUESTION ASK ASK ASK WHAT THE HELL IS THIS ???. ASK IT ALREADY DAMMIT. -.- this is hopeless. MOOEEEEE AYUMI <3. Lol she has no idea where she is.

purple-kun. lolz
ok wut dramatic clouds. LOLOLOL PURPLE-SAMA LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLLOLOLOLOLLL. SCREAMMMS. they both suck. even after 10 years. ok wut flipped it.they dont know where their class is though.. random breeze…. that was a pantsu opportunity.

ok flying chick.. what’s with the animation….. odd expressions… wut.. OUCH THAT WOULD HAVE HURT… also… ouch.. it snapped like a twig… also who was the stalker…

ambulance. FRICKIN HELL CHINESE CHICK IS AWESOME. still needs moar pantsu. SNAP. damn replaying that bit looks painful. also that stalker guy makes me think this is an ero.

ok she spoke without moving her mouth. INCOMING. CHINESE CHICK ENTERS. (replayed that scene if you were confused) NANI.

those two are mad. seriously mad. im going to have to choose something else to blog. this show sucks. seriously its super crap. first ep sucks. Suzu is awesome. did i mention the uniforms are awesome. LOST SYNDROME.

straight lines are awesome. isnt school over yet. hahahaha how the hell did she jump that. cross country or flowers. fisheye lens? random cafateria. HAHAHAHA THE DOOR HANDLE.

who’s the little girl…

these guys suck.

er
what the hell is that. a badger?

left arm. right arms…. er weird….

balance.. need more balance. three right handed one left. they’ll slowly veer right. lol gps. ENGRISH. they all suck at listening. ayu eh.

new nickname. this show actually sucks. hahahahaha they have to register. locked… why is this still going on. suzu has magic? she snapped it off hahahahahahaa
LOOOOLL BRICK IT BRICK IT GOOOD. I like the rock music. FLYING BRICK.

no alarms?

lol random teacher MAN. HOLY CRAP .. THAT GUY…THAT GUY IS RETS FROM MISTAKES OF YOUTH HOLY CRAP. THIS WHOLE SHOW IS A PLOT BY WILDARMSHEERO!

FALCON PUNCH! or something simliar. she just ko’d him. loloolol shading in this show is whack.

lol the teacher is possessed. lolololoolol. their teacher. …… squirrel voice? ok he talks to much.

20 Oct 2008 mellow_bunny

HORROR! | Or is it just spooky violence?

So I saw Mouryou no Hako and Kurozuka last week. I had no idea what was going on in Mouryou no Hako but there was hints of yuri and then random suicide? It was odd. I cannot be bothered to watch more to be honest. It was good but yeah not my cup of tea. It brought to mind thoughts of shows that bored me.

Kurozuka on the other hand was a brilliant (see: enjoyable) watch. (Yes hate on me if you will, I know someone at least will say the show is crap) I liked the art, the action, the impossibility and the atmosphere of the show. I was reminded of Samurai Champloo for some reason (see: footnote) I think it was the copious action and zombie type people. Anywho the show looked lovely. I don’t know about you guys but the quality of the shows this season seems to be higher then the previous… not to mention all the Aitch-Dee. As much as I enjoyed this show I think i’ll wait till it’s all done to actually watch it through.. or heck watch it streaming. It didn’t catch me enough.

It's funny because this picture has nothing to do with the post... I should work on that.

I plan to watch more Toradora (who isn’t) along with a little Hyakko. As well as a show JTFish is going to attempt to flap his fins at.

Anyway I altered the layout specs for mSPACE 09 again. The design has broken it’s centered box form. As you may noticed I have altered the current theme as well. As much as JT is able to influence my design skills with his Taiyaki powers, pink will forever be er shunned. IMHO.

Footnote

Samurai Champloo, full of seemingly endless filler-type episodes was an enjoyable show nonetheless. HOWEVER. It had one of the worst endings I have ever seen. I think the severity of a bad ending seems much higher when the rest of the show seemed to be ok. It achieved the badge of CRAPEND as opposed to BADEND (see: School Days) along with Kare Kano.

I'll work on relative images next time.. honest.. I will.

15 Oct 2008 mellow_bunny

Despair | Have a cup of tea love.

Hyakko! I haven’t seen it so I have no idea what it’s like. Toradora! I love it, well I like it a lot and am enjoying the show. Yozakura Quartet! It’s ok, nothing like I wanted it to be though.. unless I see a major plot twist and some killings i’m not interested (make this show dark dammit). Skip Beat! I have no idea but for some reason I have it. Chaos;Head! Ok THIS SHOW WAS WHACK. Not interested though. I want a dark shocker but this switches between comedy and horrors so much that it’s laughable. I swear it must be a Korean director.. darn Koreans and their genre mergers. Kurozuka! This looked kind of interesting.. I think, I can’t remember I have it here to watch though. To Aru Majutsu no Index! Looks SAWEEEET! In fact i’m a huge Komoe fan. EVE no Jikan ACT02! Win. I assume. Still need to watch this too.

Yay for huge pointless paragraphs. Anyway homies this week sucks on so many levels but i’m trying to look on the bright side. Anyway I now post an image for you. Maybe it’s for me. I don’t know. SMASHING PUMPKINS ROCK.

06 Oct 2008 mellow_bunny

Tidbits | Music and my mind or being creative.

I got hos in different area codes

In an amazing turn of events when I awoke this morning nothing had changed. I didn’t awake to find myself somewhere else. I did not awake to find I had a completely different life. I did not awake to find that everything I knew was a conspiracy or lie. In fact I awoke to find life was just as it was when I went to sleep. This post was considerably depressing when I first drafted it. I decided to lighten the tone though and see if I can’t imagine a world which would be better, one I could dream about and that would get me through the day.

In other news I need to find a nice journal, with a nice leather or substitute cover. Why? Well I have so many things I want to write down these days. Small ditties that pop into my mind every now and then. Something I can write my post ideas in for the most part. I find myself scribbling down layout designs and website plans literally on napkins these days. If my laptop had a touch screen i’m sure I would use the screen writing function. As it is however it’s not practical to use a pen on my screen… it tends to cause damage D: (thanks nephew).

I like the idea of having a journal too. I spend a lot of time on public transport and having a journal would be perfect for 1) keeping me inconspicuous and avoiding eye-contact 2) ensuring that all the amazing ideas and thoughts don’t go to waste. Using public transport gives you time to think about “stuff”. Just everything. If I could use this time of day more productively I would feel better. Who knows, I might start drawing.

The thing is I really want a good one right.. and I have no idea where to look. My sister probably knows a shop in the city somewhere. If you could point me anywhere though I would appreciate it.

I was thinking about my anime watching habits and the shows that I like or appreciate. A lot of them are comedies sure, I do find however that I am drawn to shows with alternative styles. Take as an example Dead Leaves. I loved it.. it was funny, nonsensical and looked like nothing i’d seen before. I’ve also enjoyed movies like Tekkonkinkreet and Appleseed. Quite opposite when you put them together but then they stand out from the norm anyway.

Something along the lines of this style...

or maybe this...

I’m not aware of anyone else who does this but i’ll let you in on my own mind anyway. Whenever I listen to music my mind drifts to this story. I see this story as an anime that plays in my mind. The art style shifts quite dramatically from loose brushstrokes to intense detail depending on the speed or actions of the people or environment. It involves four people so far, they are rebels of some sort. Rebels for a good cause. I’d put their age at around 20? Give or take a few years. I haven’t seen their faces yet so I couldn’t really say.

The music sort of dictates what they are doing. If I listen to Daft Punk I always see these characters running from military forces and exchanging fire of some sort. They seem to be able to create visible force shields as well as fire energy with the use of high technology that is positioned around their head as well as a natural ability of some sort. The technology shifts from being internal and overlaid on their vision to being expressed physically with tattoos of varying colour and design that light up when the character’s ability is in use.

I have this Daft Punk album called Alive 2007. It’s a bunch of remixes they performed live. Anywho whenever I listen to the album I can imagine this massive long battle which culminates in the destruction of this massive broadcasting fortress that is under control of a great empire. It would appear the empire’s methods include lying to the masses to keep them under control.

It doesn’t matter what type of music or when I play it. I always get these characters and they mould themselves to the music and react to it depending on the mood it conveys. It’s amazing, I just wish I could draw it all. It’s funny… I used to think that only artists were capable of thinking of unique art pieces. I guess this was because they were able to express it. I know differently now though. I can think of these things but translating them into a form for others to see is the bit that I cannot connect.

Anyway, here’s to a great week everyone!

ZOMG SOMEONE VECTOR THIS <3 | Care of nekosasu!

05 Oct 2008 mellow_bunny

Threes | I don’t care if that sounds wrong.

It’s somewhat a celebratory time here at mellowSPACE. We have reached some milestones! :D! We passed 3000 unique visitors this week (since we started using Woopra). We did it by posting three posts by three authors and we got about 300 uniques for those posts all up :)! So in celebration you can all go buy yourselves cake or candy.

I managed to watch Toradora the other day. I saw it in RAW and then grabbed the GG subs when they came out. I’m going to fanboy Taiga just to annoy Mike hahahahaa. I enjoyed the show and i’m pretty sure I will follow the series. I just need to get my CentOS CLI FLV converter to run. I hate putting acronyms in capitals but whatever.

I also saw the first episode of Yozakura Quartet. I watched it in RAW so I can only guess at what the back-story is. It looked somewhat interesting but not amazing. I will probably watch one or two episodes if it gets subbed. Cat girls are irresistible.

Another great release by icie is out for all you Eve no Jikan lovers. We get to explore more of Sammi’s life I guess. I still need to watch it.

The new mSPACE 09 design is coming together nicely. I managed to sketch out a lot of the layout today while I was travelling around. Notebooks are awesome. I would love a leather bound journal to use though .. with a nice pen. ALSO PLEASE IF SOMEONE IS FEELING GENEROUS AND INSANE GO HERE.

Anyway peeps that’s all for now i’ll catch you later. (Going out to a BBQ.. also I HATE databases.)

03 Oct 2008 mellow_bunny

Bloglomerates | They are forming, are clouds of war approaching?

“Bloglomerates”  As told to me by RyanA (his thoughts here). The following are my own thoughts on the word and what it means.

I may have mentioned this before but I have a very active imagination. I treat it as a special gift. The title of this post is somewhat misleading as to what I actually think of bloglomerates but it painted a cool picture in my mind.

Imagine a world where writers control mankind. Not through magical words but in great literary battles that are fought between the great corporate writing bloglomerates. Their clashes shaping and moulding the world around them and changing the opinions and thoughts of those who read their words. I keep imagining some sort of anime done by BONES on the subject. Bloglomerates would rise and fall, new alliances and friendships and new enemies would be found in each clash. Those destroyed by the power of other’s words or the lack of any will to fight themselves, would disappear off into.. wherever.. obscurity would be good. I think that would make an awesome show.. or at least some sort of narrated art book ;D!

Anywho my actual opinion on bloglomerates isn’t that of fear or as seeing them as fighting and squabbling groups. I actually think they are a sign of the progress and friendship that is formed in our greater community. We have a few bloglomerates of late and there is two types from what I can see. The first type of bloglomerate could be defined as “self-contained”. They are self-contained in the sense that they have a single focal point to represent themselves. The writers for these bloglomerates may have their own blogs but they choose to post either in parallel or dedicate more to the bloglomerate headquarters. Below is a list of some of the bloglomerates that I know of and follow…

Are-are

Heterochromia

Oi, Hayaku!

THAT Animeblog

The Scrumptious Anime Blog

Yukan Blog!

㊥出し

These bloglomerates are great places to get regular written food for the mind. They are composed of multiple authors who usually post on different topics thus allowing you to enjoy a wide range of topics. These are the first type of bloglomerates and probably the more obvious. Because of the amount of content that the bloglomerate sites generate a lot of people will follow the bloglomerates in herds. HERDS I TELL YOU. Followers of a bloglomerate may end up joining the group or even forming their own bloglomerate.

There is however a second type of bloglomerate. This type may be composed of different multi-author or single author blogs that work in harmony to reach certain goals. They could be involved in projects together that are for the community or they could be friends who regularly work together to create posts or events.

This second type of bloglomerate could be classed as more creative or innovative. They are more likely to make things that aren’t in the norm or that are new and exciting. They are not confined to writing to a particular schedule or to particular guidelines and are more likely to develop ideas that they come up with.

I would like to think that mellowSPACE is part of a bloglomerate that combines with one or two other bloggers. We work together behind the scenes trying to bring new things to the community and in that sense we have more then just a common purpose or goal. We actively work together to make these things happen. I guess the one thing we lack is perhaps an outward unity which is visible through writing collaborations or similar.

What is your take on bloglomerates? Do you agree with how I have portrayed them? Would you place yourself in a bloglomerate? Could you envisage a more formal arrangement for bloglomerates such as an index?

Edit: I for some reason was not aware that Random Curiosity is multi-author. I’d say that RandomC is deifintely a self-contained bloglomerate that has quite far-reaching influence.

02 Oct 2008 mellow_bunny

Code Geass | The little train that won’t go away.

I don’t care about it. I wish to state this clearly. I DONT CARE ABOUT IT. WHY MUST YOU PEOPLE TORMENT MY RSS FEEDS WITH THIS UTTER NONSENSE. Sorry.. it’s been a long day. A looong day. Work was very tiring as there are lots of issues I need to resolve before my deadline tomorrow. The issues seem to be growing rather then shrinking. Also I was at work early today for a meeting.

I don’t hate people’s posts about the show but seriously it finished already.. who cares anymore? A new season is upon us and yet there must still be ONE ZILLION posts on Code Geass being crafted as I type this. You know what ignore this post i’m just being a total bawmonster.

In other news i’m waiting to see Toradora and Xam’d. Yay for FLV anime ;P! Also I want to see Quartet. The show should be airing in about 6 hours or so which means I might be able to see the raws tomorrow. RAWS U SAI? Yes I say. I can’t be bothered waiting for subs :D!

P.S The site looks a little different cos I got COMPLETELY pissed off at work and decided to bum around for 30 minutes.

Maid + Gun + Eyepatch = YOU ARE DOOMED SUCKER

01 Oct 2008 mellow_bunny

Planning | It is not for the foolish.

In preparation for projects be they big or small, it is necessary to plan ahead. Why? Quite simply because it helps you to avoid problems which can either slow down your work pace or completely nullify the work you have done. With any project you should first lay out your goals and objectives. Then once you know what you want to achieve you can begin the process of planning how you are going to get to that point. <– THIS ALL I KNOW ABOUT PLANNING.

Planning has left me in EMO ANGST.

I have a serious problem when it comes to planning. I am a complete impulse creative. I all of a sudden think of an idea and WOOOOOOOOOSH I need to make it. I do not know of a good formula for actually writing a plan out. A structure that is easy to understand and which covers everything I need to think of. I think I really should just sit down and sort that out before I continue on any of the work I am doing. If anyone can suggest a good way of doing it please let me know.

Some of the things I would like to implement in mellowSPACE 09 are user accessibility related. An optional minimal theme that will display for both IE6 users and those who choose to view the site in that manner is a necessity as I will not support IE6 with some of the more modern code I will use on the main theme. I also want to implement a mobile ready version of the website. Now, I know these things can be done and relatively simply. My problem is that I haven’t written down ANYWHERE all the things I want to put in. So I now find myself not knowing what to place where in my design because I haven’t defined what I need.

In fact I think I work in reverse when it comes to making new websites. I start with a design and then work out how i’m going to use it. It’s a bad way to go. Here’s a small look at the coming new mellowSPACE design.

This is just a draft by the way, this shows a post preview.

My launch date is set at the 1st of January 2009. Once mellowSPACE is up and running all new-like then I will be working hard on getting the Bloggers Anthology 2009 going. That project is going to be awesome by the way. The end result will be a 200-300 page magazine that you can read and enjoy.

I think I should probably change the title of this post to something like Not Planning | Is the fools way because seriously .. it is so much harder to do things without thinking them through.

Anyway congratulations to Yukan Blog! on their new design and new authors. It’s good to see blogs with nice layouts and easy to read posts. As a collective whole if we present ourselves in a classier manner we are more likely to get more attention.

Anywho I should do some work, my boss is looking at me like ( ~_~)!

26 Sep 2008 mellow_bunny

Team Dynamics | How stuff goes down in mellow town.

So as you may know.. there is actually like… 5 writers.. wait 4 writers on this blog. Toshiyuki has retracted himself as he focuses on his school work. Also Toshiyuki smells like eggs. Having 4 writers on board doesn’t mean we actually have a lot of content though. We have a very relaxed kinda style around here. There are no deadlines, no topics of the day.. nothing. We just exist together. Like some freakish symbiotic anime/manga consuming organism.

There are winds of change blowing towards mellowSPACE however. Currently underfoot is a rather large construction of not only a new theme but many new features. This theme will most likely stick for the whole of 2009 but will be able to be altered by users. At least the colour scheme that is :P! There will be openings for writers on mellowSPACE to either a dedicated topic or just whatever they want to post. Writers will share in any success mellowSPACE might experience financially as well. It’s not just the writers that will benefit though, readers and members of mellowSPACE will be able to take advantage of new services and features as well as promotional offers from sponsors.

So in light of this mellowSPACE is moving away from being just an anime blog. It is moving towards becoming a provider of otaku content. As tj_han pointed out recently the anime blogosphere isn’t that anymore. Otakusphere does indeed seem to fit better. More and more blogs are either merging or partnering together. They aren’t always blogs either. Some sites are more resources for images or show information. But they fit under the larger umbrella of an otaku realm as such. As a good pal Ryan said er…. it was something like… “bloglomerates are forming” but he said it with more dramatic impact. These bloglomerates are providing more then just anime content.. they have seiyuu posts, merchandise posts, blog on blog posts (maybe I should have just copy-pasta’d tj’s post lol).

One question I want to know the answer to is if the same type of online Otaku community exists in Japan. Do they have blogs like ours? Do they gather in forums and IRC channels?

Anyway… I can’t remember what my aim was with this post. Enjoy a picture.

17 Sep 2008 mellow_bunny

Life Changes | They come thick and fast.

A Moment Of Thought

So in a moment of clarity last night I came to some conclusions about my life. In a manner that is easy to read and looks official I will list them below. A numbered list even, that’s how important this is.

1. I spend to much time on IRC.
2. I spend to much time on my computers.
3. I have attempted to invest my time in too many things.
4. I have failed to look after my health.
5. I spend to much money on something that gives no return. (Server .. which is up to $450NZD btw.. darn you exchange rate)
6. I need to have more control over my situation.
7. I need to stop downloading anime to have a clean conscience.
8. This all needs to happen right now.

An Explanation

The amount of time I spend on IRC is huge. If I am on a computer.. I am on IRC. We are talking upwards of 12 hours a day here. RIDICULOUS. As much as I love to converse with fellow bloggers and anime people the fact is it distracts me from my work. It is also mentally unhealthy. The content of some of the conversations can a lot of the time conflict with what I actually believe is right or drops below my normal “out of net” moral standard. All in all it is having a negative effect on my mental health.

As I mentioned before I can spend upwards of 12 hours a day on computers. I spend a minimum of 8 hours at my place of employment and then I logon when I get home. This means that I do not spend time with my family, friends or just time winding down the mind and doing something productive. My physical health does not improve either as I am not spending time on exercise. This has to change now. I have calculated and I kid you not.. of the last 6 months I have been sick for 5 1/2. I have had 2 weeks of good health in half a year.

I love the possibilities that abound in the internet. I love them. There are so many opportunites to create and collaborate with so many awesome people. Because of this interest that I have in making new things and being part of exciting projects, I find myself in a predicament. As of right now.. I am meant to be working on 9 different projects. I should be able to invest 4 hours of time for 3 of those projects a week. At this point it’s more like 30mins. Why? Because I have become exhausted and ill. I have spread myself too far and now i’m stuck in a situation where I am failing to meet the minimum requirements for the projects that really matter.

My health hit an all time low last month. I was told by the Doc that I needed to sleep, eat, work and then sleep again. I am almost running on vapors. As a result my mental health has suffered when it comes to managing stress. Of course this has a flow on effect back to my physical health. What does this all stem from? It comes from stress related to making sure I give my best to all the people I have dedicated my time too. This includes my full time job and the 9 other projects I am part of. This also comes from a lack of looking after my body with exercise and healthy eating. I am now on a managed eating plan of healthy foods. I am meant to be doing exercise daily but that hasn’t started yet.

I currently have expenses monthly that almost exceed my income. The one large expense that is growing with the current market uncertainty is my web server. Here is the dilemma for me. This server is the gateway to me producing online income. The problem is I haven’t as of yet created anything which will produce income. The scheduled upgrade and change of mellowSPACE isn’t meant to begin until the 1st of January 2009. In between now and then my expenses are set to increase with trying to keep myself healthy. I can definitely pay for this coming month’s bill which will see me through to October. After that I do not know.

I really need to take charge of what i’m doing. At the moment i’m drifting in life. Cruising. Just going with the flow and it’s completely pointless. I have goals I want to achieve and I want to make sure they are my priority. So as they become more of my focus then other things will swing around and shift in or out of my life. The end of it needs to be that I have command of what I am doing in my life for the positive.

Being perfectly honest with myself downloading anime is illegal. Totally illegal. Don’t give me crap about “unlicensed content” and stuff. People made the show and do not receive what they deserve when we download it illegally and not through official channels. I don’t want to have that sitting on my head anymore. As much as I love watching anime I cannot justify my actions.

All these things that I have finally admitted to myself are things I need to act on now. In fact this post is more for me then you as a reader. In writing this down i’m having to admit to myself where I am falling short. It serves as a sort of explanation to people too. I guess you’ll hear from me if I have a changed situation for you in regards to projects. At the moment all I can focus on is my full time employment and the web company that I am part of. I apologise if this puts anybody in an awkward situation but such is life and I can do no more.

Why would I not put a picture, seriously.