Sdtrk: ‘For o, for o, the hobby-horse is forgot’ by Harrison Birtwistle

I have to apologise for the deafening silence (ho ho ho) recently, as I’m trying to get used to my new work schedule. It’s bizarre; we work evenings on Monday and Tuesday, and mornings Wednesday through Friday. Having no consistent time which I’m supposed to set my alarm is an awfully pointless exercise. Who’s to blame for this??
Also, I’m kinda in a writing slump, as evidenced by the poor showing since the 5th of the month; and no, I don’t rate the last two posts at all, as they are (in order) a linkdump and a YouTube video. I don’t feel entirely bad, as quaisi is in the midst of a null-writing period right now as well, but still.

To be honest, I’ve been distracted lately by the fruits of INTERNET PIRATES. Over the course of the past week and a half, I’ve watched all six eps of Aim for the top! 2 and all five episodes of Battle fairy Yukikaze. Being a big fan of the original ‘Aim for the top! Gunbuster’, I’d resisted seeing Diebuster for a while, as the FLCL-style character designs seemed incongruous, but after watching it with an open mind (HINT: technically, it’s not a sequel to Gunbuster), it was rather fab in the end equation. Yukikaze, on the other hand, had some astounding aerial combat scenes, but man, the homoerotic tension between Rei and James was ridiculous. Heh; on 4chan‘s /m/echa board, they call it ‘Brokeback Airforce’, and rightly so. And then I picked up Burger King’s Sneak King and Pocketbike racing today. Yes. Eminently entertaining!
Then I considered throwing in the towel and switching ‘Shouting etc etc’ over to Blogger Beta cos its categories capabilities is filling my pants with joy, but apparently there’s been some conflicts with HaloScan interacting rudely with it, and obviously, I don’t want to lose all of your lunatic lovely comments. Plus, as SafeTinspector pointed out, as far as Blogger Beta goes… well, let’s just say that it’s called Blogger Beta for a reason.

So, this brings us to here, wherever ‘here’ is, exactly. I’ll knuckle down this week and handcraft something worth reading, as sure as my name is Hans Christian Andersen*

*N.B.: not actually my name

Sdtrk: see below

Looks like I’m in another one of those gaps between writing, it seems. Not only that, I begin my new job today — more fundraising-over-the-phone shite, but this has more hours and it pays better — so in the meantime, here’s a video by one of my favourite bands, The Jesus and Mary chain, with a song that gets played all too often when I’m demolishing my opponents at high-speed in ‘Burnout: Revenge‘. Enjoy!

Sdtrk: ‘The maze’ by Zeigenbock Kopf

Yes, despite all evidence to the contrary, I actually do have interests in subjects that aren’t Gynoids or RealDolls. ‘The devil you say!’ you say. ‘I say!’ say I.

+ Two of my favourite architectural ‘modes’ are Space-age (duh), and Urban decay. Combine the two, and you get the abandoned and possibly haunted San Zhi resort area in Taiwan!

Behold: the ruined corpses of good architecture

+ file under ‘Games That Are Too Spectacular To Be Released Domestically’: Derek sent me a link a couple of weeks ago to Kamiwaza, a game for the PS2. Made by Acquire, the wonderful humans who developed the ‘Way of the Samurai’ series (which I still play now and again), Kamiwaza has you controlling a thief in Edo-period Japan, sneaking round, not being seen, and emptying houses of their precious bootay. He’s got the traditional green-with-white-vines bag that thieves used to use back then — must’ve been union rules — but apparently it’s near-bottomless. If you scope the videos on the site, you’ll see he’s nicking things that are like three times the bag’s size. It looks fun and entirely engaging, and that’s why it’ll never reach the States. But then, I’d said that about Zettai zetsumei toshi, Katamari damacy, and Okami, so…

+ If Shi-chan bowled more often, this would be a fab gift for her, methinks: a Brunswick-made Hello Kitty bowling ball. It’d go well (?) with her Hello Kitty vibrator. That vibe makes a great shoulder massager, by the way, much how I suspect the bowling ball wouldn’t

+ Laibach have a new release out, entitled ‘Volk‘? The devil you say! As long as it sounds nothing like ‘Jesus Christ Superstars’, I’ll be pleased, cos that album sucked so very, very much.
Apparently Laibach, much like 98% of the world’s population, have a MySpace. Guh. Have I told you how much I despise MySpace? Dodgy layouts / unnecessary .mp3 ambushes / scene & emo kids / shitting all over proper English — this would be the death-rattle of civilised society as we know it. Unless the MySpace blog I’m viewing is by or sponsored by the actual band — for regrettably, quite a few of my favourite artists and people have ’em — I immediately disregard whatever’s written on it. It’s much like if the original creators of the Magna Carta were to have written it up in crayon on some sheets of wrinkled control paper; there’s no way you could take it something like that seriously. Heh. MYSPACE: Making Livejournal Look Stylish and Credible.
Sorry, was I ranting? Mea culpa! Anyway, new Laibach Cd out now

+ I’m catching up with a few television shows, thanks to INTERNET PIRATES, such as Life on Mars, recommended by my friend Marika — a police officer from our time gets struck by a car, and wakes up in 1973. Has he travelled back in time? Is he in a coma? Who knows??!?; Dexter, a serial killer working for the Miami Police is attempting to catch another sociopath who murders and dissects his victims with (literally) surgical precision; and Torchwood, the Doctor Who spinoff — Buffy + X-files + a dash of contemporary Doctor Who + swearin’ and snoggin’ + Capt. Jack Harkness = Torchwood. It’s… okay. It’s certainly no Doctor Who, I can tell ya that. Proudly filmed in Cardiff, a fact that they’re not willing to let anyone forget…
Honestly, I need to forgo watching any further episodes of all of those shows until I’m done watching all 50 episodes of Turn A Gundam and Kamen rider 555, as those have been sitting idly by

+ Last Saturday eve, my mate Jeff showed me two of his latest DVD acquisitions: Classic Media’s ace reissues of (most of) the Showa-era Godzilla films. He’s grabbed ‘Mothra vs Godzilla’, and ‘Godzilla raids again’, and if you purchase them from the site, they’re a snip at $15 apiece. Each DVD contains the original subtitled film, as well as the domestic release, and a passel of extras. Plus, the packaging alone is pretty impressive.
Apparently, they’ll also be releasing ‘Ghidorah the Three-headed Monster’, ‘Monster Zero’, and ‘Terror of Mechagodzilla’. *throws devil horns*

+ Despite the unavoidable fact that Lady Sovereign is filthy Townie scum, I found myself laughing like a drain at her ‘Love me or hate me‘ video, as any video featuring a ghost hamster is A-OK in my book. Hell, anything featuring a ghost hamster is something to be treasured

+ Finally, finally, finally. One of the finest anime serials ever made is getting a worthwhile release on DVD!

INAZUMA KIIIIIIICK

GAINAX’s ‘Aim for the Top! Gunbuster‘, released through Bandai’s Honneamise label, will be out domestically in February. That package alone is raw sex appeal.
Now all Honneamise (the distributor) has to do to win my total approval is re-release one of the finest anime feature films ever made, ‘Wings of Honneamise‘, and give it the same treatment. We await with bated breath

+ And it appears Blogger has been rolling out a new iteration of their bloggin’ software; this version (Blogger Beta) apparently — finally — has categories.

Huh.

*now shaking with rage*

ta very much to Derek & Jeff for some of the links

Sdtrk: ‘The weeping dancefloor’ by The caretaker

Normally, I don’t plump for Orient industry’s CandyGirl Dolls cos most of them don’t look mature enough for me, but their new Jewel Rosa line has a certain je ne sais quoi that’s captured my attention. I’m thinking it might be their generously-sized dirty pillows.

N.B.: not to be confused with the Pixies‘ ‘Surfer Rosa’

According to a Japanese Doll news site filtered through Babelfish, it says

Name of truth striking of Orient Industry with “Jewel Rosa”, with atmosphere new work 3 of heads seems that aims toward the doll of the adult. It meaning that product information is not announced yet, details are unclear, but, because it made the naming, “Jewel Rosa” specially, it probably means being the essential difference in size of the bust and other than tenderness. In other words to the framework which past from the framework, it is can do posing slowly evolution (?) That you think whether it is not to do. As for the head, Koyuki (18), Ami (22), Sachiko (26) with, the kind of air which the supposition kind of age which is said separately is produced does. Furthermore, start of incoming order November 2nd from 9 o’clock in the afternoon.

Ahh, machine translations: truly High Comedy. But you get the gist of it, I’m sure. I hope!
More news on the Jewel Rosa series as it rolls past me

Technorati tags: Orient industry, CandyGirl

Sdtrk: ‘The pink’ by Medicine

Happy Pagan New year, people!

I, ah, don’t really have anything else to report at the moment. Sidore and I can offer you this, however:

Oi, where’s her necklace?

That photo is six years old, by the way. And it certainly looks it. But the sentiment is still relevant!

That’s all! Go listen to the new Ricky Gervais podcast!

*’Every day is Hallowe’en’, of course

Sdtrk: ‘Watch that man’ by David Bowie

Anyone can write a story. Not everyone can write a good story, though. And not every one of those everyones can write a good story using only six words. Calling these writers ‘adept’ is being far too verbose, so I’ll just call them ‘a’.
I’m reminded of the Shakespeare quote ‘Brevity is the soul of wit’, and the faster, better version, ‘Brevity is wit.’
(Airlifted from Penda’s Diner)

Very Short Stories
wired.com | Issue 14.11 – November 2006

We’ll be brief: Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words (“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”) and is said to have called it his best work. So we asked sci-fi, fantasy, and horror writers from the realms of books, TV, movies, and games to take a shot themselves.

Dozens of our favorite auteurs put their words to paper, and five master graphic designers took them to the drawing board. Sure, Arthur C. Clarke refused to trim his (“God said, ‘Cancel Program GENESIS.’ The universe ceased to exist.”), but the rest are concise masterpieces. (edited for space)

Computer, did we bring batteries? Computer?
– Eileen Gunn

Vacuum collision. Orbits diverge. Farewell, love.
– David Brin

Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.
– Joss Whedon

Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time
– Alan Moore

Epitaph: Foolish humans, never escaped Earth.
– Vernor Vinge

It cost too much, staying human.
– Bruce Sterling

We kissed. She melted. Mop please!
– James Patrick Kelly

It’s behind you! Hurry before it
– Rockne S. O’Bannon

I came up with a handful whilst at work today; most of them were shite. I found that a number of what I’d written were almost epigrams; one was ‘The Rolling Stones — still alive. Why?’ — that’s not a story. Funny yes, but not a story. It’s almost harder than haiku!

+ Falling, he regretted nothing. Except breakfast.

+ Angry bears with hatchets; hilarity ensues.

+ A singularity? That’s impossible! OH SHI–

+ The cats knew, and fled first.

+ Anneke’s exposed mechanisms gave her away.

+ The Liston knife — Jack’s favourite tool.

+ In battle: ‘I forgot my pistol?!’

+ ‘You’re my Doppelgänger?’ ‘Yes, now die.’

and my personal fave:

+ This sandwich tastes funny. Like… flesh?

If any brave souls care to try their hand, go for it and leave your results in the comments. Mindbending but fun!

Sdtrk: ‘Spring hall convert’ by Deerhunter

Considering eight out of the past ten posts for October were Synthetiks-related, giving this post that title was completely arbitrary. Sometimes that happens! I cannot explain it.

Anyway, big round of applause for China, as they’ve just joined the Synthetiks Race in earnest. It’s like the Arms Race, only much better for humanity. Sexier, too.

heh heh, ‘Maiden China’.
Sorry, there was no call for that

Chinese Blond Female Humanoid Robot unveiled

China displayed their robots at a robot show in early October. One of the biggest highlights of the show were the highly human-like robots.

However it is yet a little bit too early to dub these human copies as robots since their actions and abilities are way too limited. For instance, the female humanoid above only sings and moves her lips a little (that too in a highly robotic manner).

The Chinese robot, nicknamed ‘Dion’ does score a point above the Japanese Actroid female robot with respect to the body precisions and stats (though I do wish they’d given her better tresses), but I yet do find the latter cuter and more convincing than the Chinese one.
the rest of the article is here. CAUTION: POP-UP FEST ’99

I’d actually spotted this gorgeous creature last night on Robot Watch, but there wasn’t a tremendous amount of info on her. More accurately, there probably was a paragraph describing her somewhere, but since I can read only about five to eight per cent of the Japanese language on a good day, I was kinda at sea… However, I did find a brief video of her; remind me, and I’ll post it next month.

I’m figuring the robotics community of China came to the realisation that Rong Cheng, nice as she is, can’t hold a candle to Japan’s Favourite Daughter in terms of sophistication; hence Dion. She certainly looks tasty — in the video, she’s wearing sandals, which of course brought a huge pervy smile to my face — but her facial and body movement are a little stilted. They’re still working on the R&D, I’m sure.
Whoever this group is, they clearly need more funding! We need China to produce more Synthetiks like Dion, and less like.. *cough* Chuka-cannon.

I’d agree with the article writer though — she could stand to have a better hairstyle. But y’know who she slightly resembles? 4woods’ Chris-type of the A.I.NEO Doll series.

Tell me I’m wrong

Technorati tags: Dion, Gynoid, Android, robot, Actroid, Rong Cheng, China, 4woods, A.I.NEO