Liteon SOHW-1653S 16X Dual Layer

Today at last, after almost a month of waiting, I picked up the dvdwriter I ordered from Rising Sun Computers at Taft. It is a Liteon SOHW-1653S 16X Dual Layer and priced at P6,500. Included in the bundle is Nero Express and PowerDVD 5.





The first thing I noticed as I took it out of the box was it size. It's around an inch shorter than older optical drives. After installing it on Tsunami(name of my pc since 1998), Windows XP didn't complain and so I uninstalled the older nero and put in Nero Express.

"This ain't Nero!" I heard myself say. They moved around a lot of the "oohh so familiar" features. But after a while it seemed usable enough :)). But it suddenly hit me, "why is Nero restricting me to 4,400MB?" So I searched the net and found that 4.7GB is a marketing thing. They say that 4,700,000,000 bytes is 4.7GB when it is just 4.3 something GB.

I passed by CD-R King in Quiapo on the way home to sample some of the dvd media available. I bought 10 pieces of a brand named "Premium" which is 4x DVD+R at 9 pesos each and 10 pieces of Ridata 8x DVD+R at 35 pesos each.

Its actually weird that the "Premium" dvds are labeled on top as 4x, whereas its is actually 8x at the bottom and as detected by the drive. I have burned 5 and all of them were perfect. I'm still to try the Ridata media but I have long trusted them with my 'precious' stuff.

I have written anime that has been clogging my hard disks for ages but soon enough I'll be doing avi->dvd and other interesting tricks.

A is for Alcohol, B is for Brymac

Q: How much alcohol is needed to make brymac reach a drunk state?
A: "I losht count ehh...."

Beer is a traitor: you wouldn't know that its already stabbing your back.

Brymac should remember to avoid Red Horse or similar strong beers. The "sipa" actually leaves a horseshoe mark in the forehead. He was massaging his temples like fat Baron Harkonnen.

Brymac doesn't have a hang-over when he wakes up, even if it is just 3hrs of sleep. It used to show up after he sleeps again, but 12hrs of sleep can eliminate it.

Alcohol does seem to shatter some inhibitions as brymac turned pretty talkative, though he recalls to be still quite himself only with a sloshing brain and toddlers balance.

Ah! My Goddess TV

Five years after the movie and 12 years after releasing the original OAVs, they wanted to keep the magic of Ah! My Goddess alive by lashing out a TV series. They kept both the voice talents and staff intact, which should be of some comfort to die-hard fans and skeptics as well.

I grabbed and watched episode 1 via bittorent, which was fansubbed by [solar]. As far as the story has unraveled ... I prefer the OAVs. Yes there are more info, better setups and introductions, but at the pace that it is going, people who watched the OAV will end up drumming their fingers in impatience. That's just episode 1 though, there is still space for it to pick-up (25 more episodes in fact).

WoW

World of Warcraft has been chopping away chunks of my time recently. I've been trying to deny that I'm addicted to it, but losing time for work, blogging and anime watching maybe proof enough.

The character i'm playing is a Night Elf Druid. I chose the druid class due to its flexible strategy of fighting, which allows me to use brute force, spell spamming or a party healer. So far I can transform into a bear for plain melee fights or a seal for long underwater adventures.

My character has also taken up herbalism and alchemy as professions. I've been researching a bit and I'm sort of excited when I can create the philosopher's stone and transmute some neat stuff (feeling full metal alchemist ^_^ ).

AnimeRev Batch 3

Elfen Lied

Browsing thru Animenfo's top 200 list This title caught my attention as having the highest place among 2004 releases and having been licensed too quickly.
Overall, this anime was amazing, distinct and developing characters, underlying pasts and great visuals. As I was watching, I came to realize the reasons in its popularity: nudity, violence, bloodshed, decapitation and even sensitive topics. Disturbing is a term i'd like to use, at the level of Evangelion or beyond it.


This is Nana (the number 7 in jap) and is Matsuoka Yuki's character. She's obedient and affectionate, having only the love of her 'foster' father to carry her through all her suffering.




I can't help but crave to post these caps. Its from episode 13 and was done by [ghetto-subs]. I laughed hard at how they inserted linux awareness in an anime (these 2 lines had nothing to do with the real dialogue).


Grenadier: The Smiling Senshi

I couldn't help but cringe while watching this. "To win the fight by vanishing the opponent's will to fight". Rushuna is a gunslinger with huge racks who shoots a revolver not killing opponents and reloads her gun by popping out bullets from in between her bussoms. It took 5 episodes to introduce Matsuoka Yuki's character Kurenai Mikan, a balloon expert orphaned by a gang when her father refused to pay for protection. Skip this anime if you can...

Mikan is on the left, Rushuna right.

Gundam Seed

I was avoiding this anime for no apparent reason. People around me liked it and the series was ongoing so I put if off until recently. It has great mech/fight scenes and teenage hormones and angst flying around. Friend becoming foe, foe becoming ally... it relays the message that going the extra mile to understand people could eliminate unnecessary conflict. A memorable line goes "What are you fighting against?".

Wolf's Rain

"Amazing". It tells the story of wolves capable of disguising themselves as humans who are in a journey to reach paradise. The only complain I have about it is 4 consecutive summary/review episodes, making it 30 eps other that the normal 26. But hey, just skip those 4 and enjoy an absolutely beautiful anime.

Haibane Renmei

"Slow, Sad yet Beautiful". I liked the soothing feeling that this anime gave me. Despite loss, pain, suffering there is always hope and redemption.

Near Death Near Christmas

BANG!!!

A resounding crash was heard as the apartment manager and his assistants bashed the front door and stormed inside the house. The noise both inside and outside the house was high. Half-asleep and half-shocked, a resident of the house ran down the stairs to assess the situation. Gas fumes had saturated the house unnoticed by the slumbering residents. A faulty hose was found, a tragedy was avoided.

Thus were the events of this morning. I'd hate to admit that we were all saved by the nosiness of my neighbors. They alerted the apartment manager because they could smell the gas although the doors and windows were shut.

An accident like the one in fight club was averted. What a way to wake up to the day of Christmas eve.

TANG INUMIN MO!!!

(this is not a paid advertisement)
We should be thankful for little things that get us by everyday. I'm taking time now to list some of them.

1) Litro Packs of Tang. A 'healthy' addiction. I prepare it to almost the consistency of flavored water, with 3 liters of water to a pack. Why so diluted? Dunno. Cost-effective, I guess. Also drinking it straight is easy, just the right amount of flavor and blandness. On a busy day, I can consume 3 packs=9 liters (and they just suggest only 8 glasses a day :)) ).

2) Audio Books. While programming or any activity requiring less than 100% concentration, I listen to all 5 Harry Potter books (read by jim dale). Having listened to each dozens of times, they provide a consistent amount of background sound, partially devoid of mood compared to music. Im trying out the dune series right now, but I prefer jim dale as an audiobook reader.

3) Downloaded Watchables. Be it anime, smallville or whatevers, watching stuff entertains my otherwise bland life. Watching too much makes one dumb, but wasn't I already to begin with :))

Osaka wo Sagashite

(Searching for Osaka)
If you've been following my posts, you should have noticed that my favorite anime character is Osaka-san (aka Kasuga Ayumu) of Azumanga Daioh. Why, you may ask. Because I see myself in her personality and frequent "spaced out-ness". Following the trail of her seiyu(voice actress), Matsuoka Yuki, I've found some amazing anime which employed her voice for their characters:

[Azumanga Daioh]Kasuga Ayumu (aka Osaka):



[Appleseed 2004]Hitomi:



Hitomi is the dark haired girl in the pics. She is probably the character with the most speaking lines. This movie is special because most characters are 3D-rendered and celpainted. It takes some time, even after the movie to get used to celpainted 3D. Maybe its because I've gotten accustomed to how they mix them in Macross Zero. But thats not to put down its Mechs and incredible battle scenes, as they are some of the best I've ever seen. As for the story pace, it was uneven: slow on some parts, and too rushed in others. Overall, it is a landmark, a view of what anime can become in the future.

[Bleach]Inoue Orihime:


Bleach is an ongoing anime and is generally about a teenage boy with above average spiritual powers who after some turn of events inherits the job of Shinigami (soul reaper). I find it interesting so im tuning to it every week, with [Lunar] fansubs in the lead in translations. Yuki here is a spaced out girl who silently grows an interest in the lead character.

[Maburaho]Kazetsubaki Kuriko:


Another Harem setup (one guy fawned over by lots of girls) but with a twist! Its in a world where magic is limited and overuse leads to death. With an average use of 8000 in a life time, how's our lead to survive with only 8 to start with? Yuki here is a confident and capable heir who has interest in the lead character.

[Stelliva of the Universe]Glennorth Arisa:


Yuki here plays a loud and friendly character who while not being as talented as the lead, is the one that supports her the most.

I'll probably post more as I exhaust Matsuoka Yuki's discography :D