Below are the most recent 6 friends' journal entries.

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010
sandpanther	9:40p	Tired, Yet Geekly Early this afternoon I was going to make the following post: So far I've lounged late in bed, cleaned up the kitchen, did a little clearing off of the Tivo and solved two technical problems. I rock! Now, what to fix next? But then I found out what to do next: solve an annoying, unexpected other technical problem. ("But it worked last time!" I whined. "Nothing's different. So why's it broke?") It took me the rest of the day (albeit an interrupted day where I took out my frustration on the problem by severely pruning a bush, pulling the weeds, and raking a bunch of leaves), but I finally got it working! It's a horrid, cludgy fix which more or less completely skirts around actually resolving the problem, but it did at least allow things to move forward. So I call myself victorious. I should retreat to bed now. It somewhat disturbs me that I consider a two hour bout of gardening to be "being slothful." Though to some extent it is, since it ended up taking the place of 45 minutes at the gym. Ah, cardio, how I miss thee! On an unrelated note, I have a torrent for Kouhaku downloading. It's horribly slow thanks to the file being huge and there not being a lot of seeds yet. But I shall yet have my New Years costume dorktasticness! *flames of crimes against fashion dorktasticness* (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, January 1st, 2010
sandpanther	10:38p	Ghost Rebirth 2 2009 had one last present for me: My episode of Ghost Rebirth 2 arrived! I chose to save it as a treat to open 2010 with, so waited until today to watch it. ( My thoughts. Spoilers do follow ) ( Spoilers for all of Ghost Reverse and the Ultra Galaxy movie ) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
sandpanther	8:16p	Green and Roses There was a band from Kyoto/Kansai in the Rose Parade today, the "Kansai Honor Green Band". They were pretty cool, and did a bunch of stuff that had the commentators saying "whoa, that's really hard!" It struck me all as very, very Japanese in their implementation. On a related note... One of the reasons I like bringing newbies with me to Japan is to restore perspective. There are things that I no longer see as odd, just because I'm used to them now. (The most obvious being the wonderful conversation involving the Post Office, and beer vending machines. But I digress...) My mother called to ask me about the Kansai Honor Green Band. She mentioned that the commentators on the channel she was watching explained the "green" in their name as saying that they're an environmental group. "Oh!" said I. "No. 'Green' in Japanese means 'first class'." But it wasn't until she commented that I realized that calling something a "green band" sounds really strange in English. (Comment on this)
sandpanther	12:44p	Oshogatsu Akemashite Omedetou! The phase of the moon turns, the year turns, the decade turns. New stuff is on the horizon. Happy New Year, everyone! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 31st, 2009
sandpanther	8:33a	You Know That Once In A Blue Moon? Today we have a blue moon (*). Yes, that's right. All those once in a blue moon things? They're up due today. This also means it's the full moon tonight. And just for giggles, there's a partical lunar eclipse at 2:23 PM Eastern. (I suspect a lot of people will be missing that.) (* A blue moon, for those who are curious, is the second full moon in a month. The first full moon this month was on Dec. 2.) (Comment on this)
Monday, December 28th, 2009
sandpanther	9:44p	Death Kappa What was it I was saying earlier today? I think we won't be seeing any more giant monster stuffs in the classical tradition of Tsuburaya, since they're all going green-screen and digital these days? Was it just today I said that? (It was.) Well, I'm wrong. Behold: Meet Death Kappa. From director Haruguchi Tomoo, it's being done completely in the old traditional style. The director himself introduces a little bit about the movie, the sets, and why he's doing it old skool. After watching that I have new respect for the guy, and my hat is totally off to him. (Though given what he was saying and what I based my earlier comments on, I suspect he will not be working for TPC any more.) If it's released in the US (and I'm expecting it will be, since he starts off the clip with "Hello, American monster fans"), I will totally go and see it if for no other reason than to support this man. It's not every day you find someone who is willing to stick with what they love, even when it's no longer in vogue. ( Geekly aside, cut so that maybe not everyone will read it and mock me for being an utter goober. ) (Comment on this)