Becca Stareyes

As in, it thinks doing a Kino's Journey/Slayers fusion fic would be a good idea. Or even a crossover type dealie taking Kino, Hermes and the feeling of Kino's Journey* and bringing it into other settings. Just as kind of a series of one-shot crossovers to play with settings/characters of various series and to write Kino and Hermes.

* If you like thoughtful anime, I recommend this series highly. Basically, the premise is that Kino is a traveler who only stays a few days in each town she visits and Hermes is her motorrad (think motorcycle with AI). A lot of the episodes are stand alones or two-part arcs, and they're very concept oriented. For example, the first episode, Kino visits a town where the inhabitants developed an ability to read each other's minds. As time passed, they discovered that knowing the innermost thoughts of even loved ones was making it impossible to live with them, so they all isolated themselves and used robots to do everything. The one person Kino meets tells her this, then invites her to stay, since she's the first person he's talked to in a while and he wants to live with people who he can't read. It's a very matter-of-fact anime, showing great beauty and kindness, but also great suffering, irrationality, and brutality. (Oh, the ending...) "The world is not beautiful, therefore it is."

I really liked it, because it was... I guess because it wasn't depressing for the sake of angst, but because it was matter of fact, showing the world which was. It's on my list with Haibane Renmei and Mushishi for cerebral anime that I liked from club and want on my shelf.

You know, it's funny, but I can be incredibly inspired by what I think are other people's bad ideas. Sometimes to rant, other times to get my own. Shame it doesn't extend to writing things. I have a lot of worldbuilding ideas, but never do anything with them plot-wise. I think it's a bit intimidating to find a story in them.

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I'll be out of town from the 8th to the 12th -- beach weekend with the family. I also booked my trip to Puerto Rico in October. It's work related -- there's a conference on planetary science there, and I'll be giving a ten-minute talk on my research*. I am taking an extra day to go on a tourist trip to the Arecibo Radio/Radar Observatory. Arecibo is the largest telescope in the world -- a giant radio dish set into a sinkhole. (You can see it in movies -- it's in Goldeneye and in Contact). It does things like shoot radar at asteroids that swing by Earth both to get positions/velocities and to study their shapes -- handy to make sure you know if one will hit us on its next swing around. It's also involved in a gi-nourmous galaxy survey, which three of my friends are blogging about.

I'm also going to be swimming. A lot. Because I'll be on a beach for a week, and I need something to let me process all the science.

Problem is that the hotel didn't give us enough space, so I am in limbo for the last two days. The night before my flight out I can head back to San Juan and get an airport hotel room so I don't have to wake up as early for a flight that will probably be in the morning. I don't know what I'll be doing on Friday night for that trip, but AAS has started trying to figure out how to deal with this screw up...

* Identifying ring particle properties.

Um, anyway. Anime! I have the CJAS archive, and I'm thinking I should start raiding it for stuff to watch. Well, if we ignore I still have Planetes, Twelve Kingdoms, Utena, the rest of Banner of the Stars, half of Babylon 5, and a couple other anime titles I want to try. Might be interesting to do a review blog of first episodes -- mostly to see how these encourage me to watch/not watch the rest. Some anime have some really crappy first episodes, while some hook me right away.

Speaking of, I downloaded some fansubs of first-episode airing-in-Japan anime. The first one I watched was Aoi Hana/Sweet Blue Flowers, which is supposed to be a coming-of-age story about a pair of childhood friends reunited after ten years. It has pretty, pretty art, but seems to be a bit slow paced. Some of that is probably because I'm accustomed to action-y series, though. It's also got a lesbian/closeted lesbian/whatever lead who gets to spend the first episode coping with the fact her crush just got married (and is also female and her cousin). From the opening, it seems like she's going to hook up with her friend. We'll see how it goes.

Okay, I've got Invoking Urania over on DW (here. Mainly because I decided I prefer a place where all my friends are for blogging, and I can tell it to crosspost things to InsaneJournal anyway -- overall, since more people use OpenID to leave comments, since IJ is a bit of a ghost town, it doesn't make much difference. If things work out, I'll get a paid account and start crossposting to Invoking Urania on LJ again.

Plus, there's nesting tags. Look at this. Snazzy. (Yes, I still have a default layout. Give me time, folks.)

I still miss my icons, though. I care less in fic journals, though.

All the content over there is stuff I've already posted to the Internets. Except a trio of fanart pieces, which have been up on DevART and Elfwood and my site and various LJ comms and... okay, I don't know if anyone's seen them, but here . (I'm not gonna start posting my massive backlog of original and exchange art there, but I'll do it as I go.)

In other news, I have taken custody (legally -- I was sworn in on my Slayers Premium DVD and everything) of the CJAS anime archive. This means I have half a closet (a big closet) of anime, mostly from the 1980s to mid 2000s. (About when people started downloading anime). Plus a VHS and Laserdisc player. Yes, you need that to watch some of the stuff in the archives. There's also stuff like several projectors, a table and chairs, the Weekly Get Rid of It! box*, raffle (well, ROFL) prizes, and our banner.

* Filled with free stuff anime companies send us that we regularly give away to members.

Star Trek tonight! Yay for Star Trek!

It's just a cold, though. It does mean I've been eating a lot of soup and ice cream, my favorite comfort foods when sick. I discovered Taste of Thai puts out a nice instant soup -- lemongrass curry with rice noodles. The package says it's medium-spciy, but I haven't found it to be that bad. It's got a bit of heat to it, but not in an overwhelming way, and it's got a very savory taste.

Anyway, need some help from you all. Anime club is looking for stuff to show next year, and I want to suggest some things. I've already gone through things I've seen or started, but I'd like some new things. So, anyone know any good anime series?

(A note: We can't show hentai, so don't suggest that. We're also limited to things that have been licensed, thanks to Cornell's legal office coming down on us -- the anime makers are usually happy to give us permission, since it leads to better publicity for them.* There's also a list of titles we can't show, because they were shown during previous years.)

* Except Studio Ghibli films. Apparently the Mouse wants several hundred dollars to show an English-subtitled Miyazaki film in public.

So, after today's tax mess, and some attempts to code at home (that ended up with a 'I need notes in my office' about an hour in), I started cleaning the bookshelves in my apartment. And I have some duplicate books and DVDs* that I want to sell. Some of these were because I found a deal on eBay that lead to me buying books 1-12 in a series because it was cheaper than buying the books I missed on B&N or Amazon. Others... well, organization is everyone's friend.

All of this is 'best offer' (plus $5 so I can ship it to you -- more if you live out of the country), but if you don't know what the heck to offer, I can give you a price.

Manga
Basara #1-6
Revolutionary Girl Utena #2

Anime
FMA DVDs 1 and 2 (contain episodes 1-4 and 5-8 respectively) The DVDs are fine, but the packaging on one had an accident with some water, so I don't have the booklets.
FMA boxset #2 (contains DVDs 5-7/episodes 17-28)

Somehow I accidentally got signed up for the MAX art exchange when I'm supposed to be blacklisted until I finish my previous exchange. Hawk probably pushed the wrong button or something, since I'm a regular. Or else the fact I was half-blind for most of the round made him do an override. That means I have to work extra hard to get both done to my high standards. Yay!

Oh, yes or no question -- should I post thumbnails of my drawings to this journal? Or, rather, would all of you like to see them, since I know how to use a LJ cut.

Speaking of, my glasses are fixed. I even skipped anime club to pick them up, as I was sick of eyestrain and blurriness.

I'm also the archivist of the anime club for next year. Which means I need to clean my closet to hold the anime club's archives. This may mean that I take advantage of the bad weather to clean my apartment. It's a bit of a dump right now. I'm hoping I can get to the 'writing code that takes forever to integrate' stage, so I can justify staying home to clean.

As far as resolutions go, I've lost about 25 pounds of weight. This is probably about a third of the amount of weight I want to lose, and a ninth of my starting weight. There's a math problem for ya.

I was vague about birthday gifts this year, so I now have $120 of gift cards to Barnes and Nobles, and $30.00 from Mom. Shopping time!

Gave a presentation today. Note to self: you are NOT talented enough to give a research talk off the cuff. Next time, practice more. Also, redo it so you have plenty of canned slides for next time, so you can just recycle three quarters of them, then spend your time practicing.

In astronomy related news, today a 100-meter asteroid passed 1/6th of the Moon's distance from us. We knew about it in advance, and knew it wouldn't hit. But I'll bet Arecibo got some kick-ass radar pictures of it.

Due to an absence of busing I ended up skipping anime club. While I was hanging out at home, the lens popped out of my glasses and somehow managed to disappear, despite the fact I was sitting at my desk on the computer. While I was going to go to the Stitch and Bitch the Women's Center was putting on, now I better get a new set of glasses (or see if they have a replacement lens for the ones I have).

And I just realized I forgot to get the vision and dental part of my insurance forms filled out last year*, so that means the damn thing is an out-of-pocket expense. Not that I can't afford this**, but, well... (note to self -- the next time you get forms, fill them out. Also do your damn taxes.)(4)

* Mostly because the forms got sent to my mother's house, so by the time she mailed them to me, I had forgotten about them and they were nearly due. Yeah, yeah, I know -- I'm bad.

** Surprisingly, I am pretty well-off for a grad student. Probably because I'm in the sciences, an introvert, single***, don't drive and don't drink.

*** Pros and cons here. Two incomes would be nice, but you have to get a job for the trailing spouse/SO, in a town full of trailing spouses, many of whom are quite bright and well-trained. Plus many, many college students, who are also quite bright and less trained, but want something to do for beer money.

(4) I always wonder how much eyeglasses savings (and things for routine maintenance like dental check-ups) there is for insurance. Since the idea is that the insurance company is essentially taking your premium and investing it, and betting that the people who have Horrible Diseases and Emergency Surgery cropping up will be covered by the masses who are pretty healthy. But routine stuff is a near-certainty, so the insurance company can't spend that much more than people pay in(5). I wish I knew more about finance -- my knowledge being limited to high-school economics is what prevents me from taking opinions on economic matters.

(5) Not that I'm saying I shouldn't get dental and vision insurance. I had eye surgery as a kid, which means that I'm aware of Horrible Diseases and Emergency Surgery. But that I wonder how good it is for dental visits when it isn't just 'here, you get it as part of your job' rather than 'you have to pay extra for it'.

Wow, lots of footnotes. I'm rambling, that means.

I've been moody recently. Possibly because I've been bad about taking my meds. I have an anxiety disorder, and generally unless I take my meds, I get this kind of bull-in-a-china-shop feeling when in any sort of social situation, that any sort of action is going to break something. Yeah, this ain't fun, and it's usually distinct from my PMS symptoms (which is mostly just crying at anything). On the plus side, I don't get any of the other fun symptoms of SSRI withdrawal, the anxiety just comes back and if I try to restart, I go through a week of being tired, just like when I first went on the meds.

( Anyway, my weekend was fun. )

Also, on Friday, I am sending out Christmas cards. If you want one, comment and check to see if I have your address.

So, Rightstuf has a Bargain Bin Sale on, and I'm having to stop myself from buying Way Too Much Anime. Part of me is used to the bad old days where finding a box set for under $40 was a bargain, so my first reaction to cheap anime is 'must buy now'. Never mind that I own things I haven't watched yet. But it's a slippery slope -- I see something like the Disc of Banner of the Stars that I'm missing, then notice that Utawarerumono is on sale for $5 a disc, and the site is listing the box set for $50 on pre-order, then notice what the 'free shipping limit' is and wonder if I can find enough cheap crap to get to it, and then my common sense forces the browser closed.

And it's not like I'm going to have time to watch any of this stuff.

You know, I can't decide if this is the hell of a PMS case, or the side effects on my SSRIs' side effects have come back and the primary effect has stopped working. If I'm going to feel like I need 9-10 hours of sleep, I could at least have the courtesy of not feeling like some hidden project is going to jump out at me when I'm awake.

If this doesn't pass in a week, I'll reschedule my appointment with my psychologist.

Anyway, so I promised a post about anime club and what we are watching, so here goes.( Read more... )

My weekend was good. I went to the annual Dept. of Astronomy Salsafest (the food, not the dance, though there was salsa music playing). I spent an hour helping to chop tomatoes for the Big Val of Salsa. (Seriously, picture one of those large Rubbermaid storage boxes that you keep in your closet. Then imagine it full of chopped tomatoes, peppers and onions.) There was also chili, black bean soup and hamburgers. After that, I went to anime club.

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On the other hand, my apartment needs to be cleaned urgently. If I can get some plots made tomorrow morning, I might go out for a late lunch, then go home to clean.

Dear Bones,

( Spoilers for Episode 42 of Eureka Seven and end of series spoilers for Fullmetal Alchemist )

I wish I could quit you,

Becca Stareyes

P.S. If anyone knows how I can see a couple of episodes of Eureka Seven, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and Haibane Renmei, I would appreciate it. I'm going out of town, so will miss the anime club's showings, and don't want to be lost when I return. They also are starting Banner of the Stars II, but I own that (well, first two disks of three).

( I figured out what it is about Renton that bothers me! )

So, the anime club is showing Eureka 7. It's famous for only barely surviving the voting at mid-semester to get outed -- a lot of people use the excuse to go into the hall when we show it.

I have a love-hate relationship with Eureka 7. On the one hand, if you get past the goofy premise (mecha that surf on air!), it's not a bad show. On the other, it has moments of just head-bashing stupidity. ( Review follows -- spoilery bits blacked out )
So, there you have it. I'd like Eureka 7 a lot more if the gender roles didn't make me want to throw things.

So, anime club is starting back up again on the 26th. I'm looking over the schedule now.

• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya I know the plot of this, but I'm not sure if I'll like it or not. We'll see.
  
• Eureka Seven I'm surprise this made it on the schedule -- we watched the first half and most people were in the 'sitting in the hall group' during it. At this point, I just want to know what the hell is going on. (Why is it half of all mecha series have Weirdness involved. Oh, yeah. Evangelion did it.) At the very least, I don't hate it, though the main characters are just meh to me. (Setting seems neat, though.)
  
• Haibane Renmei I've seen the first couple of episodes of this -- it's a bit slow, but I want to know what the heck is up with the setting.
  
• Banner of the Stars/Banner of the Stars II Hell yeah! I'm a big Kin of the Stars fan, and I didn't think that we'd get to watch past Crest of the Stars, since the first half of that series drags. I hope Banner/Banner II are better.
  
• Utawarerumono I LIKE this series, so I'm glad to see it's coming back. Plus, I want to see how the story plays out.
  
  There are also a few movies, and the Hellsing OAV later on on the schedule. The one downside is that Utawarerumono is being shown later in the evening than it used to be, so I'll have to catch a later bus home -- and 11 PM is about when the Saturday night buses start running not very often.
  
  So, it looks like a good semester. Anyone have any comments about stuff they've seen?

Okay, let it be known I am a nut for trivia. I am also very competitive. So, these two piece of news should be taken in that context.

1. My team got second place at Galaxy Lunch's Galaxy Jeopardy. Despite the fact three out of five of us were either planetary astronomers or physicists (Shannon was also a physicist, but she does galactic astronomy, so she counts). Part of that was aided by the fact the Daily Double we got was identifying a photo of a galaxy Shannon worked on.

Things were complicated by the fact Ann and Sabrina had expected everyone to know roughly how Jeopardy worked. Turns out that neither professor who showed up (and some of the grad students) was that familiar with the show. Their team still won.

(We also were hindered by the fact a lot of the ESL folks had problems reading the questions quickly.)

Comedy moment came when one category was about the professors who came to Galaxy Lunch. Ann has dug out a quote from Ricardo's thesis, and asked whose it was -- no one answered, including Ricardo.

2. I am one of the three finalists for the anime club's Semi-Annual Anime Trivia Gameshow. There was a written exam, and I somehow managed to pass -- I blame a good memory and fanficrants (How else would I learn who Naruto's parents are? I don't watch most popular stuff.) Root for me on the 1st of December.

3. I apparently am my seminar's way of knowing constants and orbital radii -- Seth asked me what the orbital radius of Callisto and I was able to give him an answer. (Well I gave him the period, and Jupiter's mass and asked for a calculator to find the radius from that.)