All posts by Jack

Reviews

R.O.D. The TV

R.O.D The TV . Excellent Anime Series. I have been giving this one 8/10 for most of the disks. I have just finished disk 6, through episode 23. One more disk to go; it will be released next month. There is a problem with starting a series before all the disks are released. Good production values, great storyline, great characters, interesting situations and relationships, and books are the stars. One question about the title, does it stand for Read or Dream? or Read or Die?

R.O.D. the TV actually ties back into the original Read or Die OVA, where Agent Paper, a Paper Master, faces four cloned scientist/villians and works to save the world as an agent of the British National Library. In the TV series, three sisters become bodyguards for an child prodigy author (Nenene) who has had writer’s block since Yomiko Readman (Agent Paper), her mentor, disappeared five years earlier. Strange things start to happen around Nenene and the three sisters (who also happen to be Paper Masters; Nenene doesn’t seem to have any special powers other than a short temper.) Many thrilling adventures show the strong bonds between the sisters and Nenene becomes a part of their family as well (she might even be getting over her writer’s block).

The three sisters: Anita, Maggie, and Michelle, are from Hong Kong. The “Heroic Trio” is a classic Hong Kong film starring Anita Mui, Maggie Cheung, and Michelle Yeoh. Coincidence? I think not.

Possible Spoilers:
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As the series continues, we find Yomiko and the young lady she is protecting; we find that Nenene is an important component of the British National Library’s plan to take over the world; and we find that the three sisters have a secret past. But the exciting conclusion is in the next disk and I am eagerly awaiting its release.

Reviews

GANTZ

Watched an interesting anime last night. GANTZ. The premise would appear to be that dead people are brought to an apartment with a great big black sphere in it. The sphere dispenses instructions and weapons and the dead people are given a chance to improve their karma by ridding the Earth of Aliens. Presumably, if they work out, they will go to a good place when the death process is completed; failure means the death process continues right then and there? Hard to extrapolate where they are going with this, since there are only two 30-minute episodes on the disk and they all just finished dying and are in the process of facing their first alien. Maybe Yu Yu Hakusho with better production values? and more of an SF than magic motif?

The main problem with it (other than only 2 episodes per disk) is that the main protagonist is a whiny teenager who doesn’t understand why the world is always against him, and, he has learned you can’t trust anyone. The POV listens in on the thoughts of most of the characters, so that whining really drags on. But, they don’t listen in on the thoughts of the two secondary protagonists (Thank God) so you get a rather lobsided POV of what is happening.

It is a bit gory. The main and secondary protagonists died after the secondary P went down on the subway tracks to get a drunk who fell onto the tracks back to safety. The Primary P felt shamed by his former friend and went down to help. They got the drunk to safety but an express train came through before they could get out of the track well, so, they were smashed and their heads went flying, torn from their bodies, and then they were suddenly in the apartment. A flashback to the station indicates that their bodies disappeared. (And, of course, the primary is mentally whining that it all the secondary’s fault that this happened. He could have just left the drunk lying on the tracks and everyone would be happy; really wearing after a while.)

The third protagonist shows up naked shortly afterward. Evidently, she had just committed suicide in the tub. The nakedness causes some problems with the others in the apartment. Basically, most of the deaders are not nice people. I think there are about nine deaders in the apartment before the orb starts issuing incoherent instructions.

I will start this one off with a 7/10 rating for interesting storyline ( I am interested to see what happens next) and good production values. The artwork is crisp and edgy. But it is borderline on 6 because of the whining. I don’t know that I will care for these characters. I know some people might think it is a little too gory, with exploding bodies and the like, but it isn’t t over the top.

fandom, science fiction

The Scottish Trip

Heading off to the Worldcon in Glasgow in a few months. I am flying direct from Denver to Glasgow (OK, with a change of planes in Chicago) and, from there, go to St. Andrews for a week. (I’m bringing my golf clubs with me:-)

After St. Andrews, I had planned to go to Precursor, a small fannish convention that would allow us foreigners to meet some Brit fans who wouldn’t be able to make it to Glasgow. And after Precursor, a short trip to London to visit friends before heading back to Glasgow and the actual convention. (I plan on leaving my clubs in left luggage somewhere and pick them on the way back.) After the Worldcon, I will be visiting the Edinburgh Folk Festival for a few days before heading back.

But now I find out that Precursor has been cancelled, throwing my plans into disarray. Precursor was going to be held in Walsall, which I think is an industrial suburb of Manchester. I thought of visiting an interesting area in England that I haven’t been to before, but can’t think of any place like that at the moment. Maybe I should try Carnoustie?

Since I am moving around by train while in-country and I wasn’t planning on renting a car, getting around for two or three extra days could be difficult. I suppose I could stay in St. Andrews for the weekend.

Baseball

Week 6 numbers

What do the number foretell this week. I had 5 wins in nine starts last week. There are only seven projected starts this week.

Those HR numbers just jumped. Even with Tino hitting 6, looks like everyone else stepped up as well. And I guess with all those HR, I didn’t have as many baserunners trying to steal. 4 SB for the week is not very good, especially since a couple of other teams had 15 and 13 , respectively.

HR – 18; LA 8.2; PTS 10
R – 48; LA 35.5; PTS 10
RBI – 56; LA 33.6; PTS 10
AVG – 0.272; LAA 0.260; PTS 9
SB – 4; LA 5.7; PTS 9
W – 5; LA 3.2; PTS 9.5
S – 3; LA 2.1; PTS 3
K – 55; LA 36.8; PTS 8
ERA – 2.98; LAA 4.07; PTS 9
WHIP – 1.23; LAA 1.35; PTS 8

Baseball

Week 6 Roster Review

No one on DL that I know of, although Ken Harvey is not playing much with his stiff back. Tino Martinez is going HR crazy, 6 in one week. Hermanson picked up three saves for the week. Kenny Rogers has had a pretty good week starting. And I can’t believe that Randy didn’t get any strikeouts in his last game.

Team report for Rocky Coloradans
Owned by Jack Heneghan

Hitters Team HR R RBI AVG SB

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Javy Lopez Bal C1 FS-AS: 7 22 21 .281 0
WK: 1 3 2 .111 0
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Josh Bard Cle C2 FS-AS: 1 2 3 .192 0
WK: 0 1 1 .167 0
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Tino Martinez NYY 1B FS-AS: 12 25 29 .286 1
WK: 6 10 15 .391 0
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Joe Crede CWS 3B FS-AS: 3 15 15 .270 0
WK: 0 1 3 .261 0
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Ken Harvey KC CI AS: 0 1 1 .130 0
WK: 0 0 0 .000 0
FS: 1 3 5 .220 0
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Juan Uribe CWS 2B FS-AS: 4 16 18 .275 1
WK: 1 4 2 .269 0
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Derek Jeter NYY SS FS-AS: 4 30 18 .327 5
WK: 2 6 5 .423 1
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Julio Lugo TB MI FS-AS: 1 16 17 .262 9
WK: 1 3 3 .174 0
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Manny Ramirez Bos OF1 FS-AS: 10 24 34 .248 1
WK: 3 4 7 .238 0
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Gary Sheffield NYY OF2 FS-AS: 6 25 29 .318 6
WK: 2 5 5 .261 2
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Aaron Rowand CWS OF3 FS-AS: 3 19 13 .258 5
WK: 0 1 4 .308 1
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Torii Hunter Min OF4 FS-AS: 4 19 20 .252 11
WK: 0 1 3 .235 0
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Shannon Stewart Min OF5 FS-AS: 4 24 17 .281 3
WK: 2 7 5 .320 0
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Frank Catalanotto Tor DH FS-AS: 1 14 10 .290 0
WK: 0 2 1 .312 0

TOTALS 60 262 254 .2771 43
OFF PTS 10.0 10.0 10.0 9.0 9.0

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*Travis Lee TB CI AS: 0 10 9 .299 1

Pitchers Team W SV SO ERA WHIP
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Randy Johnson NYY P1 FS-AS: 4 0 50 3.77 1.047
WK: 2 0 7 3.86 1.214
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Bartolo Colon LAA P2 FS-AS: 4 0 39 2.91 1.177
WK: 0 0 3 3.60 2.200
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Kevin Millwood Cle P3 FS-AS: 1 0 40 3.54 1.303
WK: 1 0 12 1.64 0.818
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Kenny Rogers Tex P4 FS-AS: 4 0 22 1.49 1.196
WK: 1 0 2 0.00 0.667
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Kyle Lohse Min P5 FS-AS: 2 0 17 5.65 1.360
WK: 0 0 0 4.50 1.000
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Gil Meche Sea P6 FS-AS: 3 0 26 5.25 1.375
WK: 1 0 7 4.97 1.421
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Dustin Hermanson CWS P7 AS: 0 6 5 0.00 0.656
WK: 0 3 1 0.00 0.273
FS: 0 8 12 0.00 0.764
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Damaso Marte CWS P8 FS-AS: 2 2 16 1.93 1.714
WK: 0 0 1 0.00 7.500
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Gustavo Chacin Tor P9 FS-AS: 4 0 26 3.35 1.283
WK: 0 0 1 7.71 2.143

TOTALS 24 8 245 3.45 1.241
OFF PTS 9.5 3.0 8.0 9.0 8.0

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Justin Speier Tor P7 AS: 0 0 4 7.04 1.435

Baseball

Rain

Looks like threee of my starts were cut short today by rain. Unfortunately each of the starters had given up 2 runs by the time the rains came and they had only gotten in 2, 3 and 5 innings before the delay. Not good for the ERA.

Baseball

86???

This is getting strange. I picked up points in ERA and WHIP because other teams dropped down. (that’s the problem with pitching, they are so much more likely to have a negative effect than a positive one.)

Colon’s start got rained out so he will start a doubleheader today. The hitters went 9/47 (.191) but no one made a charge in average last night.

Baseball

83.5

Looks like Lohse isn’t starting tonight, meaing I have only 9 projected starts for the week. The Twins are sitting Lohse so the rest of the rotation stays in synch. Looks like Lohse’s stiff shoulder is going to be an ongoing problem. Between Colon starting tonight and the rest of the weekend, I have 6 starts coming up, with only two of my pitchers going head-to-head. We’ll see how they do.

Only had 17 At-Bats last night, and 2 hits (.118 avg). It was a travelling day for most teams.

Geek Stuff

Wherefore Art Thou, Smart Homes?

Column from PC Magazine: Wherefore Art Thou, Smart Homes?

I once had high hopes of creating a ‘smart’ house. I have a bunch of X10 remotely controlled light switches and plug-ins and IR motion detectors and remote camera monitoring modules. I even got some software to control them all.

And it didn’t provide a very satisfactory environment, for two reasons. First, when you are walking from room to room, it is easier to turn the lights on and off as you walk by the switch rather than trying to find the remote control that isn’t where you usually leave it. Second, I am trying to migrate to compact flourescent lighting and the X10 modules don’t work with flourescents.

So all my remote lighting control is down to my being able to turn the lights in the TV room on and off from my chair.

The remote camera is still up in the barn to monitor the horses, but the only time you want to monitor them is when it is too dark to see anything and those cameras weren’t very good anyway. You could tell if there as a horse in frame and if it was standing or laying down. I don’t think you could tell which horse it was.

I never found the need to try remote HVAC controls. We don’t have a zoned house and the thermostat is outside the bedroom door.

I can see that a ‘smart ‘ building is an energy efficient method for office buildings and other large structures that have energy zones. In the standard home, it seems like a lot of overkill.

Why do I need a tool to turn off all the lights in the house at one time. 99% of the time the only lights in the house to be turned off are the ones in the room I am in. We usually turnoff lights when we leave rooms and a final walkthrough the house in the evening catches any lingering lights.

So the upshot for ‘smart’ homes is they aren’t worth the time, money and effort unless you want to really geek out.