Kage Yume

Sometimes, the fish fight back.

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:35:08 GMT

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/6483758/Japanese-fishing-trawler-sunk-by-giant-jellyfish.html

How would you like to meet this big sucker?

And here's a cool picture of the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

-from the DW forum

This author is so on top of things...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:24:49 GMT

I'm impressed and awed. She really goes about it in a very determined and detailed way before even starting the writing.

http://kimharrison.wordpress.com/

Now that I've met the two in one...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:31:38 GMT

it's time to meet the one in two. Heh.

Asian tastes

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:24:30 GMT

I bought chips with flecks of green on it and a green wrapping. For some reason, I thought it would be a sour cream and onion flavoring. Instead, it's wasabi. Not bad although it took a bit to get used to it. Just thought it was funny the preconceptions I still have.

Done!

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:19:39 GMT

Books 1-7. Hrmm... now I need to search around for some other books.

Everyone has problems in this series...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:35:23 GMT

but her friends really screwed her over these past few chapters. The answer to learning that a friend is in danger and that your protagonist is going to run off to save that friend is not to SHOOT HER IN THE BACK AND KNOCK HER UNCONSCIOUS for a day. WHAT THE FUCK. The answer is "How can we help? What can we do? How can we PLAN this together - given the time limitations - to have the best success?"

When your friend - the nominal protagonist - informs you that she's saved another friend and will need to go back to reassure said friend and falls asleep after being legitimately exhausted from running around saving people, you don't just let her sleep through phone calls from saved friend in which saved friend runs off to get himself killed. At least give her the damn choice to agree or disagree instead of deliberately allowing saved friend to die and nominal protagonist to feel she helped kill him by not even getting the chance to help out!

... And now, the phone call answerer has just basically lied to the protagonist. I bet saved friend is dead now.

ARGH. *bangs head*

This doesn't even take into account that the police forces are pretty much useless at best and deliberately corrupt and obstructionist at worst.

Although I do have to say, protagonist is forgetting one of her partners that is in danger. Granted, she can't DO anything about it but it's like once she realized she couldn't do anything about it currently, she completely forgot about it. I mean, yes, it's important to move forward on the stuff you can do - and there's a boatload of problems just as pressing - but still, I wish the author had stuck in some more worries about the partner in question.

... Hahaha. Protagonist just arrested the criminal ... at his wedding. That takes some guts.

Bad choices

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:18:40 GMT

Choosing to save this crappy dude, who is both stupid, greedy and a cheat and a demon summoner, over the sanity of your best friend and partner is what we call a BAD CHOICE, esp. since he got into this mess by himself and screwing over everyone he met!

ARGH.

What's with all this crappy romance in my urban fantasy novel?

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:18:09 GMT

And if it has to show up, why so suddenly and so randomly? No, I don't believe meeting a guy and then kissing him in less than a couple hours after meeting and 3 chapters in is normal. It's intrusive and damned annoying and I'd say character assassination except that there are a lot of female heroines who seem to lose sight of their head and panties at the first opportune moment for men that are dangerous and stupid for them to date.

Then, it'll be all Romeo and Juliet and oh, we can't do this contrived angst and it's going to take over this damn story. I bet it is. These things never stay as background - at least with a female heroine - and at the very least, it's going to simmer loudly throughout the story so that I can't even ignore it for the ass kicking portions. Well, actually, more like the hope-it-exists ass kicking portions.

I just want my competent, intelligent protagonist. I don't mind them making mistakes based on faulty information or bad luck or all sorts of reason. Falling in love with someone who's working on the opposite side and who you KNOW is outright lying to you is decidedly not intelligent! It's outright utter stupidity.

That's not to say competent protagonists don't have needs. Lust is perfectly valid and I'll even buy it on first meeting - some people are just hot - but what? Already liking a guy and being drawn to him in, I repeat, a couple hours after meeting? The girl is practically planning dinner dates already.

WHY?! WHY?! UGH.

Is this something I'm missing? I don't see this stupidity with the guy protagonists I've read in the UF genre.

I'm pissed and frustrated. I'm obsessive enough that I won't leave a book incomplete once I start reading it and I feel like I'm going to be banging my head against the desk for the majority of this book.

Kimi ni Todoke

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:26:59 GMT

Kimi ni Todoke 1. So. Cute. I very rarely buy into love stories and even more rarely like them, but this one has blown me away. It has a nice mix of comedy and romance. The voice actors seem fine to me, the coloring is absolutely gorgeous, and character drawings feature clean lines and a simplicity with a charm of its own. The basic plot line isn't particularly original but the way they've gone about executing it is fantastic. It made me smile at the right times and made me cry a bit at the heartfelt feelings of Sawako. I don't know if they can keep this up, but I hope so. At this point, it is IMO my favorite episode of this season.

New computer.

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:16:26 GMT

Yay! Shiny!

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:54:48 GMT

First, this is a beautiful cover. I love the slightly dark color scheme, the contrasting colors, and the two images displayed. It definitely fits with the novel.

Eddi is a fairly sympathetic character. It's not that she doesn't make mistakes but things that might seem stupid or willfully blind in others seems different in her. She's independent, sassy, and smart. She learns from her mistakes and is, while a little resentful of the situation forced upon her, pragmatic and adaptable.

My one worry turned out to be not a problem. The Faerie were inhuman and remote. They weren't as ruthless as I thought they'd be but overall, not a bad portrayal. The Seelie were quite obviously the "good" guys, esp. in comparison to what the Unseelie wanted, which I thought was a little biased. The Seelie can be just as cruel as the Unseelie and this was not really shown although it was mentioned as a throw away on screen. The book was from the POV of Eddi though and Eddi managed to meet most of the better or at least neutral Fey.

Music played a large role in this book. The description of making a band, band dynamics, and just feeling out how to create music together was very evocative. The ending confrontation reminded me of another story of a bet involving music in America and I thought it was an interesting parallel.

I really liked Eddi feeling her way through the Seelie and Unseelie world, the portrayals of the Fey, and being able to make a difference / doing the right thing as a musician rather than the latest trend of a warrior or private detective. There were a couple plots that didn't seem resolved - although they were more tangentially related to Eddi - but some of them got cleared up in the extra scenes at the end of the book. Great book overall.

School Opening Ceremony and Buses

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:55:21 GMT

Yesterday was the school-wide opening ceremony. Approximately 9,0000 students gathered at a field and each department lined up in columns at their assigned spot. Now, there are some notable differences between Chinese school opening ceremonies and American. First, there is NO shade anywhere for anyone. It's hot and humid in Shanghai and most students didn't bring a water bottle. Second and most important, we all had to STAND there the entire hour as our esteemed speakers each spoke their piece -- and to add insult to boot, they had a nice stage with a table and chairs.

This had predictable results. About five columns down from where I was, a girl fainted during the speech and landed flat on her back in an audible thunk. (Ouch!) She was helped by some of her classmates to the doctors in the back. I have to say, I'm sort of ambiguous on the presence of doctors. I can't decide if it's a sign that the school is prepared for medical problems or it speaks more to a rather poorly thought out ceremony structure.

Lastly, today I was on the bus that didn't believe in assigned direction of traffic. It's as ridiculously scary as I thought it would be and to make it worse, our driver apparently had a case of either really bad anger management issues or road rage or possibly both. Lots of speeding up, abrupt stops, liberal usage of the horn, and jerks from side to side as he tried to cut in front of as many cars as possible.

Things that are optional in China

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:30:01 GMT

Following traffic signs, traffic lights, traffic lanes, and that pesky thing we call "going the same direction as everyone else in your lane."

Yesterday, I saw a bus barreling down the street going in the opposite direction of everyone else in that lane as cars frantically scattered out of its way. Par for the course. At that point, I was just glad I wasn't on that bus.

Cafeteria Food and Consequences

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:56:32 GMT

Last night, I had my first try at a cafeteria in China. I ordered a 5 RMB "红烧牛肉面" or basically, beef noodle soup.

First, it should have been a huge warning sign when I couldn't recognize that the bowl was my beef noodle soup and had to be prodded verbally by the staff.

And second, this warning sign should have hit eye-blinding neon levels when I kept finding odd bits of shell-something in my soup.

Alas, it was cheap, I was (over) confident in my ability to handle cheap Chinese food, and I ate it. All.

Then, I spent the night waking up at various times to pay my dues for abusing my stomach.

Of course, my mom had no sympathy for me at all. "Well, what did you expect to get for a 5 RMB beef noodle soup?"

I wanted to say, "I at least expected food that wouldn't give me a mild case of food poisoning," but that would have been too much effort to move from my stupor on the couch. Apparently, feeling bad from tons of bug bites on the outside needed to be matched with feeling worse on the inside.

Learning riichi mahjong

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:45:25 GMT

http://mahjong-europe.org/filer/riichisheet.pdf - Riichi Mahjong Cheat Sheet; print it out, have it on hand when you're playing
http://www.tenhou.net - play online here
http://arcturus.su/tenhou/ - guide to tenhou and how to set it up
http://www.osamuko.com/ - mahjong strategy blog
http://www.reachmahjong.com/ - articles on strategy, rules, how to play; chapter 6 and 7 were particularly helpful

Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 06:09:16 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Wow. Can't imagine not smiling while watching this. What a voice!

The world is very weird. Exhibit: Pink dolphin.

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:28:01 GMT

The dolphin is albino, which explains its unusual coloring. Wow. x_x

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4927224/Pink-dolphin-appears-in-US-lake.html

Jahvid Best - Cal RB - Silly Fast

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 04:26:57 GMT

And he's only a soph! All these carries, except for the ones from Michigan State, are from his true frosh days. I do have to say -- what a way to get your first TD by running over star WR DeSean Jackson! ;)

Speaking of Cal alum in the NFL, DeSean had over 100 yards receiving and 200 total yards in his debut game for the Phil. Eagles and a win, Marshawn Lynch had some great carries in the Bears' win over Seattle, and Aaron Rodgers - tonight! - in his debut start for Green Bay had a great day with 18/22, roughly 180 yards passing, a passing touchdown and a running touchdown and a win over the MN Vikings.

Pretty good day for Cal football. ;)

The beautiful game -- clean and crisp

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 09:45:08 GMT

Woooooooow. 24 passes in 1 minute! Crazy, FANTASTIC goal by Argentina against Serbia in the Germany 06 World Cup. THIS is the beautiful game without all the not-so-beautiful part of whining, diving, pushing, shoving, elbowing and so on. Just clean, crisp passes for a beautiful set up and goal.

WBB US Olympics Gold

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:09:42 GMT

SYTYCD Katee and Joshua

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 05:36:56 GMT

My favorite dancers in the show and they didn't disappoint tonight with some fantastic routines! Actually, I liked a fair amount of the dances. The top 6 are pretty strong so it's definitely going to be a fun endgame!

A Celtic fan's description

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 02:18:08 GMT

Go C's! says:
fisher is annoying
when you're not a lakers fan
he's like a tick
that keeps sucking the life outta you

;)

Rematch with the Red

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 06:26:30 GMT

This Sat. Stanford comes to Cal for women's basketball. Cal is currently sitting atop the standings with a slim one game lead over Stanford. If we win this game, we're very likely to be the Pac10 regular season champs. The last time the two teams met, Cal was at Stanford: it was a packed house and Cal lost.

That was very depressing and I had to sit in a bunch of Card fans who screamed in my ear all game long. So I hope Cal gets to return the favor this time. -grin-

Both teams are within the top 10 ranked teams of the nation.

I'm so psyched! I've already convinced one person to go with me. Now, I just need to convert -- er, convince some others to come watch as well.

GO BEARS!

Happy New Year's!

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 08:44:02 GMT

What a great way to cap off the end of the year with a bowl game win by Cal! 42-36 over Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl.

Sports --

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 05:50:15 GMT

A little late (I watched the game but didn't post), but CONGRATULATIONS TO PHOENIX MERCURY, 2007 WNBA CHAMPIONS!

Diana Taurasi, wearing her nifty WNBA Championship shirt.

Aim for the coach!

One Team. One City. One Goal.
...
Achieved!

In other news, watching the World Cup is an exercise in insomnia. It's held in China so games for PST are at respectively, 2 am, and 5 am. Group play finishes up tomorrow morning for Group C and D, after being postponed this morning due to the typhoon (China had to evacuate around 2.6 million people).

Saturday is the start of the quarterfinals! England v. US. In the last game, the US were playing against Nigeria during the beginning of the typhoon (hadn't hit land yet, but was coming) and it was coming down pretty hard! Made the game sort of funny. Balls flying out of bounds all the time because the grass was all slick so the ball would just go slip sliding and continue out cheerfully.

The US has officially survived the Group of Death (#3 ranked Sweden, #5 ranked North Korea, and African champions Nigeria) and in first place! Sweden was the odd one out among the ranked teams; although they beat NK in the last match 2-1, they needed to beat NK by 3 to advance (same points, 4, but goal differential was on NK's side).

The rain isn't too bad in this picture. But this is probably right after Chalupny's goal. :)

Among the top ranked teams, I haven't seen Germany yet so the Germany v. NK match ought to be awesome fun. Brazil has looked -very- good behind Marta. Marta's... 20 or 21, I believe, and she's the world player of the year. ;) Just... wow. If US gets past England, Brazil v. US is going to be very close and hopefully, fun to watch.