Spring Break

It is spring break, it is after the midterms so there is down time, having started Oblivion Elder Scrolls and loving it before the break, I'm now reminiscing over anime I remember to give a shout out to, one that I enjoyed very much was 時をかける少女 or The Girl Who Leapt Through Time by Yasutaka Tsutsui, the 2006 animated version is spectacular and a must see. Just finished 新世紀ヱヴァンゲリヲン劇場版 or The End of Evangelion, which is the movie remake I would say of the last two episodes of the original series, unfortunately it make nearly as little sense as the original, there is even an entire wikipedia section on what the ending means, I guess you just need to find your own interpretation.

ご愁傷さま二ノ宮くん, SGA and Dynamics

ご愁傷さま二ノ宮くん, Goshūshō-sama Ninomiya-kun or translated as, Our Condolences, Ninomiya-kun. Which is the title of the anime as well as the last phrase said to the main character Ninomiya-kun, meant to be ironic as the main character has all the girls in the school all falling for him but the two he is tied with two girls who if he kisses either causes long term memory loss to even a possibility of death as they take his life force. The entire series is very light hearted and comical, which fits with the fact that the series began as a light novel in a light novel magazine Monthly Dragon Magazine, this later evolved to become a full length set of 8 additional novels. At 12 episodes the series is short enough to enjoy a few sitting and considering that it can be found on youtube is quite a plus for an American fan with otherwise little to no access to Japanese anime.

Also have been trying to catch up on 亚特兰蒂斯 or Stargate Atlantis due to the fact that it is a controlled property it is thus hard to find on youtube and I'm disappointed that they do not follow the other big company's trail and put the current series online so those who have missed the show can catch up all refusing to do so just causes people to have to find the show on other sites, and with that they would miss out on potential revenue, like many fans out there I'm sure that if they put a their show on a stable delivery platform like youtube, which as one of the smoothest streaming video I've seen; along with my favorites of revision3's shows, diggnation and the totally rad show, I would be totally happy to put up with advertisements to be able to watch episodes online, it is fine if it is put up a few hours later so that the main stream TV finishes it's run, but for students like myself it would be great to have a place to watch if I miss the main run due to classes or the like. Oh execs did I mention that you could make money? besides did you really think that the people that want to watch would wait months until the DVD release or hope for the rerun? Notice that after big sites like NBC and CBS put up their select shows it became nearly impossible to find those shows on other streaming websites, because it was impractical to re-stream video already freely available with perhaps the exception of dubbed videos.

On another note ME212 dynamics midterm is coming around on Monday so tomorrow or rather later today due to the fact that it is already early morning I'll be getting together with a study group and going over problems and putting together a formula sheet, hope this test goes well, the last two; FSHN110 and CE215 seemed to go well, so hopefully this one does as well.

Igudesman and Joo

Bringing classical music to the masses Igudesman and Joo, although it has be nearly four year since their international debut in 2004, it seems I have been missing out and just finding them on youtube was a delight.



The two very talented musicians bring classical music back again, with a mix of comedy routine, slapstick humor, and impressive performances, even in German the humor comes through without a hitch. They have preformed throughout europe and I'm just hoping for an US debut.

Refection

Have been looking over Taiwan pictures, it is nice to remember all of the things that happened over the summer. It is now a down time after a crazy two weeks with midterms and essays, a little surprised that my immune system was able to keep from crashing like it usually does. This three day weekend is very much needed, and so now it is just going over homework, my resume for summer internships and then just things here and there.

Some shows that I got hooked on, besides the TV shows which are for the most part on hiatus due to the fact that the months long writers' strike just ended recently, mostly animated includes a movie "Byousoku 5cm" a short by Makoto Shinkai. I believe that the first part was on Yahoo, with a kind of promotion, love it, although I think I am partial to happy endings and it is sad that things don't work out like you would want, although perhaps that is life. Another show is Scrapped Princess a kind of generic anime, even so I love it anyway it has some kind of strange charm to it, and just having looked it up it is by Ichiro Sakaki also known for Cowboy bebop, another great favorite of mine. Naruto Shippuuden is my current catch-up on youtube after finishing the original Naruto series, the show is fun but sometimes I wish the show would just cut to the chase, they sometimes spend up to an entire episode and all they do would be set up for the fight with at times boring dialog taking forever to lead up to the fight scenes. Yet even so with the exception of filler episodes it still enjoyable as long as you don't over analyze and think too much.

Sometimes conversations between engineers end up taking the strangest tangents, from google's Lunar Base idea to electronic rail guns, it seems for our study groups we spend equal time BS'ing as we do actually review and do homework. Although setting up a study group has perhaps been the best thing I've done for my grade in a long time, it cuts the stress because I know that we will be able to have a set date for homework and if I don't know how to solve a problem my friends will have a different perspective and will most likely be able to help and visa versa.

We will not Forget

September 11th, 2007. It is the 6th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, we will always remember. I still remember the moment in school my freshman year, when someone comes in and tells us to turn on the TV, the entire class watches as what seems to be clips from a movie keep playing over and over again; and we learn what had happened . . . everyone is in shock. We shall not forget, but we shall not let this blacken our hearts ~ everyone needs to live their lives better because of what happened, go out and volunteer, help others, become a better person and live a better life for the people who lost that chance.

Yakitate!! [Japan] Suihanja-pan Bread #2

In Taiwan right now in the Jungli City Public Library, and the sun is glaring down outside, things have been uneventful as of yet, although the food is awesome and far cheaper than what you find in the US. Recently I've been addicted to an anime Yakitate!! largely because that is the only thing on TV besides sports, news and soap operas. In the anime the character shows you how to make a simple and delicious bread, but I didn't catch the recipe and finally found it on a fan site on Xanga. If the link stops working the recipe is as follows:





Ingredients :

3 1/3 tablespoons (3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon) butter
2 1/2 cups bread flour2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/3 tablespoons milk
12 tablespoons water
1 heaping teaspoon salt
1 heaping teaspoon dry yeast

• -In a large bowl (or the rice cooker), mix dry ingredients except yeast.
• -Dissolve yeast in a little of the water. Add the yeast and the rest of the liquids except butter.
• -Knead until well incorporated and unsticky.
• -Work in the butter.
• -Let dough rise in a warm area for 60 minutes.
• -Drop the dough from a height of 3 feet onto a clean surface, just to let out some of the excess air. Return dough to warm area again for another rise, 60 minutes.
• -Place into rice cooker and set to cook. Once it's done cooking, flip it over and cook once more. Flip and cook for the third and final time.

I haven't been able to get the pictures off my camera mainly cause I can't find a computer with a card reader that I can get full access to, and load them to my USB. So when I do I get some pictures up to embellish.

Summer Return

Just got back from Pullman only a few days, decided to take a walk to the local library and read a little, these were the pictures I took along the way.










It is nice relaxing, sucks that I couldn't do better in classes but it is over so I'll need to change my routine next year and get on the ball, spend more time in sloan and dana to study, hopefully I can get a plane built so I can fly it during the semester, to stay outside more and be more active. This summer I'll be able to upgrade my computer and get it more powerful so I can run the programs I want.