I'm almost done with this anime series (thank you, Netflix), and it really is quite incredible - no doubt one of my favorites. It has no strong plot, no typical anime mysteries, where you have no idea what's happening until the end. Instead, it's a series of shor stories, each powerful and self-contained. The setting is one of feudal Japan, and Shinto pervades the entire anime, which features these ever-present spirit creatures: "Mushi."

The show is not violent, not fast-paced, but instead peaceful and subtle. Each one ends leaving you satisfied, yet strangely wistful. I don't really want to say any more about the stories, nor do I think I'm able to.

I would strongly recommend this to anyone who enjoys stories which exist simply to be told, and adapt some folklore into the setting. The artwork is incredible, with many scenes looking like they used silk paintings for the backgrounds. The dialogue is clever, and any idiomatic expressions are dealt with in such a way that non-Japanese can understand them. Available on Netflix, and no doubt many other places.

Tags: anime

Yeah, I'm still blogging :-)

I went snowboarding this weekend with Idan, Stacey, Ben, Eric, and Ben's mom. We went to Heavenly in Tahoe, and it was amazing. It was my first time snowboarding, so we cobbled together a full set of clothing for me by combining extra gear from Idan and Ben, and then renting the board/shoes.

Even in the brief time that I was boarding (about 6 hours, I think), I felt myself getting a lot better. There is a certain confidence of motion that I know will only come with more practice. Also, I need to get better at stopping/slowing down - actually moving and steering I can handle decently well, but I start moving too fast and I panic.

After a long day on the snow, we had a very nice dinner in the village and cozied up to the fireplace on these excessively comfortable couches. After that was the 5.5 hour drive home. Many thanks to Idan and Stacey for shuttling me back and forth, and Ben's mom for her words of encouragement throughout the day and picking up the tab.

During downtime I was able to learn a lot by watching the more experience boarders moving down the slopes. Next time I go snowboarding (there will be a next time), I think I will do much better. I was pretty sore the next day, but other than some tenderness in some areas, I've pretty much recovered.

If you have the constitution to handle the falls (I probably fell about 40 times in total), and have a decent sense of balance, you must give snowboarding a shot. Go with some friends who know the sport, or take a lesson.

Tags: pain, awesome

I think this is the best, most accurate window into Steve's mind in his writing of the letter.

You must read it.

Link to Google News result so you don't have to register at nytimes.com.

Getting rid of all those little trinkets will help, but this is a voluntary moratorium, and the pharmaceutical industry still has their big advertising technique: direct-to-consumer advertising. If only we would follow the world's suit and outlaw these practices, we could begin to mend our over-medicated society.

When the industry is spending twice as much on advertising as they do on R&D, you know there is a systemic failure that requires correction, one that cannot be fixed by losing a few pens.

I've adapting a lot of Taoism into my personal philosophy over the past few years, but this could be an interesting situation.

Looking at the flow of my life, I see a big decision coming, one which could significantly alter my course through the universe. I do my best not to think about it - to shut it out of my mind and continue living in the present, but I've always had my head in the future.

In all honesty, I've never actually had to make a choice like this before - one where the two options are so closely balanced. Wu wei has always led me to a natural and beneficial conclusion in the end, and has yet to steer me wrong. The difference here is I don't see how wu wei is going to help, but then, I suppose that trying to dissect Tao is going to get me nowhere fast.

I guess I will have to hope that when the time comes the right choice will be obvious.

I am tired.

Somehow in this November/December timeframe I always have a lot more to do. With work getting increasingly busy, my rising workout intensity, playing bass for Super Squidy (third Google result, woot!), and a resurgence in my social life, everything is starting to take a toll on me. The weird thing about it is that I don't remember ever feeling so completely fulfilled. I wonder how much harder I can push myself before it all becomes too much; I bet I can still do more.

I am tired - but life is good.

Oh, and if you weren't aware, I have the biggest party ever at home (watch your volume).

As Gabe & Tycho have so accurately pointed out, we find ourselves in a dire situation - there are simply too many good games to play. For a time I thought I would be immune to this, but I too have succumbed.

Are all three games I'm playing sequels? Yes, but that doesn't make them bad. In fact, I picked the three most promising titles to fritter away my precious spare time. All RPGs, but only one turn-based one. My interests have been steering more towards action RPGs in the past few years, and it is starting to show in the games I choose. But Mother 3 is so excellent - a dark, intense story-line presented in the fun, light style of Earthbound.

I finished the main storyline of Fable II (I picked the Love ending, by the way), and so most of my console time is now being devoted to Fallout 3.

Tags: fallout 3, mother 3, fable 2

I don't mean the kind you get in the grocery store.

I used this recipe for the dough and a modified version of this recipe for the filling. I need an actual cookie cutter to make them better, these came out highly irregular, but still delicious - surprisingly a lot better than store-purchased pasta. Next step is to get a pasta maker so that I don't have to roll out the dough by hand, and so that I can make noodles.

Since it's now going to be immortalized in the blog, it's not going in my recipe wiki.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/30/netflix-watch-instantly-coming-to-tivo/

Netflix clearly has a brilliant partner engagement team. Bravo.

Tags: netflix

If you don't believe me, try it.

Yay. My previous goal of 30:00 was met some time ago. It was pretty hard to make it this time. I would love to reach 20 minutes for 5k, but that works out to 9 miles per hour. Can I run that fast?

Tags: running

Most of you know my opinions on the motion of our economy and if you don't then I probably don't want to tell you :P

I know that Hank Paulson is your and my favorite Secretary of the Treasury. This is a picture of him. Beyond the fact that I have an incredible level of disdain for him and the way he does business, look at him. Doesn't something look a little strange to you? Either this man has hit the gym and seriously bulked up, or he really needs a new tailor. He looks this way in every picture of him that I pull up.

What's going to happen? I don't know. Maybe Paulson will get a better suit and figure out what the Treasury should actually be doing.

I think I'm finally starting to put some of the pieces together on Google Chrome (which I have yet to try).

In 2006, 85% of Mozilla Corporation's revenues came from Google. Google has a contract until 2011 to pay for every ad someone clicks on after using the Google search box in Firefox.

If Google makes its own browser, which they have, and it costs them less than they pay every year to Mozilla Corp., they might not renew that contract again in 2011. Mozilla is heavily dependent on the revenues from Google, and I see this as a brilliant way for Google to hedge its bets on the future.

Bravo.

Finished my first run-through of the game. Did it as the Commando.

Though Ben Croshaw (not safe for work) is spot-on in picking out issues with the playing the game, it was still really fun. I think it took me about 15 hours, and it got a lot easier towards the end as I discovered all of the power in the Commando class. I think next time I will play as a Berserker. Only read more if you care about this game:

As a ranged-weapon specialist I always had a lot of trouble dealing with hordes of enemies. While I could shoot and immobilize one of them, the other would keep getting closer, and the Commando really can't use melee weapons effectively. Finally I realized the power of my battle cry, which gave me extremely high ballistic knockback. I combined this with a rifle that had +100% ballistic air juggle. The result was that I could fire at a bunch of enemies, knock them all away from me, then shoot each one up in the air the finish it off. The battle cry also added knockback to my Commando's grenades, so that each one would send enemies flying off of ledges and into the air.

Tags: Too Human, xbox

http://www.jackinthebox.com/pitasnacks/

If you've seen this ad on TV you know what I'm talking about. If not, then don't click on this link - seriously.

The cry of a baby/child causes some kind of powerful reaction in the human mind. We find it particularly harsh as a species so that we are driven to act to care for a child in trouble. This is one of the reasons we all hate playing Yoshi's Island 2 for SNES - whenever you lost baby Mario the cry was so intense that you frantically tried to get back to him. The process was so frequent and annoying that you eventually stopped playing out of dread of it happening again.

If an adult imitates this act, it does cause the same reaction to some extent. It is also very agitating, and no doubt will hurt their ad campaign.

Tags: ads