Bartimaeus

Okay, Tomoyo is like borderline...not psychotic exactly, but something like it for Sakura's sake.

So now Tomoyo *and* her mom are both obsessed with Sakura...seems like the problem is genetic. The sight of her daughter grabbing Sakura's hand and leading her away was enough to drive the mom to literal tears. It's kind of messed up that the mom is only making time to see or interact with Tomoyo just because she wants to see Sakura...but I guess it's better than nothing! I love the attention to little details in this show in individual episodes, even if it sometimes makes setups a little predictable. For example, at the bus stop when Sakura gets off the bus, there's a very fancy gated wall to a property you can see right away and continue to notice as Sakura and Kero wander down the street, and I one hundred percent knew that that was going to be Tomoyo's property immediately upon seeing it long before it became clear to our characters. Or Tomoyo keeping Kero's love of cake in mind and taking a piece with her away from the table (without the show making any kind of active note of it but simply showing her demurely walking away with it) to bring to Kero in the next scene. They're little things that can be obvious to adult viewers and telegraph small bits of what will happen, but they help provide a sort of groundedness and sense to a medium that is often lacking enough of it. I wonder: are there animes in non-Japanese that try to tack on the honorifics in a horribly clumsy fashion? I hope so, but the seemingly unequal nature of their relationship would realistically make me fear that exactly what happened with both of their moms could very easily happen again to them and leave Tomoyo broken-hearted...but hopefully that's outside the timeframe of this show, .

Meanwhile, my subtitles call him "Xiaolong", because he's Chinese? I'm not a hundred percent certain. I found some other fansubs that have some additional stylization that looks nice and calls him Shaoran instead, but on the other hand, every single time somebody's name mentioned adds the annoying honorifics like "-chan" to the end, and I rather intensely dislike Japanese honorifics (bad enough I have to hear it, I don't also want to read it!), so I'm still debating...the writing is also somewhat different, and I'm not sure that I like it - maybe I'll make my own hybrid of them, but that's a lot of work. What a shame, . I liked the one where she was talking a mile a minute and had to cut herself off in the middle of her own sentence because she ran out of time to talk, but besides that, yeah, not usually the most interesting. and that better not change otherwise it'll be ME on that first flight back to Hong Kong smh

Remember when I said I hate achievements and pointless, annoying stat-tracking? Netflix keeping track of crap like the exact second you stopped watching every single movie and episode you've ever turned on for even a single second is another example of that. Luckily for me, my main method of watching stuff is NOT Netflix and so I view Netflix more of a trash-tier "let's watch either something for children or maybe just try something out that caught my eye", so I really don't care what it does or doesn't track - if it's something I actually love, it'll eventually be on my hard drives, so who cares? Speaking of Netflix, compare the raw bluray vs Netflix quality: Better crop, better colors, better quality...better transfer. Think I'll take the bluray, thanks, . The song's way better, too...and doesn't sound like literal pointless gibberish like the last one. Big improvement all around. (e):

I was talking Cardcaptor Sakura to someone else regarding the English dub, and we started looking up more online about it - apparently, the dub Netflix uses was an uncensored version that was made for Hong Kong, NOT the notoriously terrible made-for-America one. That explains why, while it's certainly not exactly good, it's also not horrifically terrible as reputed or has had piles of scenes (and entire episodes) cut. Not that it matters - I've settled on the Japanese dub (...or whatever you want to call the original audio track - I think I once had someone yell at me for calling an original VAing "the original dub" for lack of a better shorthand term to describe it, so don't @ me about it, I can't figure out a better way to describe what I mean and get it across even if it's inaccurate). Watched two more episodes, and I think the verdict's officially in - I really like Cardcaptor Sakura, . ...But I'm probably not gonna start writing long posts for each episode...maybe just something notable here and there - it takes a lot of time and effort and slows down actually watching it. Also, it's a good thing the show looks less like its promotional materials... ...and more like this: I'm the complete opposite: if I never hear another single word about any kind of stupid prophecy in anything fictional ever again, I would be all too happy, . I'm usually quite content with being low-key and silly story where appropriate, and it feels appropriate here. Speaking of Sharoan, think I just saw him at the end of episode 7. Not sure I like the sight of him...we'll see!

I'm tempted to link a clip of of Pearl saying "I think your calculations may have been off" and Greg's reply "they can't be off if you don't do any" because that's basically the situation with Sailor Moon in terms of planning, . Nice, I was wondering that - always love it when one-off characters/locations actually aren't as one-off as you might think. And if this ever devolves into a card tournament, that would be a crime against humanity. May be the type of show that benefits from an occasional break, . And yes, that's true - the character interactions aren't bad by any means, just different and clearly meant for a younger audience.

Uhh...who's Shaoran again? Oh, whatever, I'll find out sooner or later, . So I've watched five episodes now, and one thing I think this show improves on from Sailor Moon is that the Clow Cards create unique situations that actually organically interact with the world/characters, often times over a significant stretch of the episode, and have to be dealt with in ways that befit them. The cast and character interactions may not be as strong as Sailor Moon (although I think I'm quickly beginning to love the ever strange and gentle yet lurking and obsessive Tomoyo), but that particular point is a welcome change to make the issue of the day not feel either so formulaic or tacked on like it so often is in Sailor Moon. ...Then again, I'm only a handful of episodes in, so.

I always thought her face looked as if it was like...stretched across her model, sort of like... Yes, I did just compare Miranda to a mold of Squidward whose face was just flattened by Patrick's big butt - deal with it, . I'd also feel quite bad for saying/thinking that if I hadn't already looked up a picture of Yvonne Strahovski and concluded that BioWare did a hilariously bad job at modeling her, especially in light of Miranda having supposed "perfect genetics". Yeah, okay, BioWare. Although, to be fair, a number of BioWare's attempts at real-person modeling for Mass Effect went horrifically wrong, and it certainly was not limited to just Miranda.

I didn't even notice Rei's hair color - is it really full dark purple in Crystal? ...My gosh, I forget just how incredibly abysmal Crystal looked to start out with: What the absolute hell were you guys thinking with this? It really is a shame the entire show wasn't originally made in HD. I can watch freaking Speed Racer in HD, but not Sailor Moon...

Had Netflix on the TV sitting unwatched for a bit just now, and it automatically started showing little poster previews for shows. This popped up: Thanks Netflix, but no thanks. I really hate that. It's so needlessly questionable - literally, because when it happens, questions automatically start popping up in my head that wonder why the setting and period is so weird, . Hey, it was a useful experiment: now I know for sure something like that is literally never going to work. That's good information! I forgot Hitomi even existed. Like, I had to look up who that was because I'd forgotten about her so badly. I mainly remember her for being giving Sayaka exactly one day to figure things out with her guy, which I guess is better than nothing, but shove off. I've gotten more used to Tomoyo's voice already, probably for reasons you mentioned regarding her diction and voice evenness, so it's really just Sakura herself that is less than ideal. I think I'll get more used to it, it's not like she's driving me mad or anything. (e): A couple of more thoughts on Cardcaptor:

You merely failed to appreciate my complete, empathetic, and eternal rejection of all things modern anime...and the actual reasoning behind it and how that would apply to Madoka, . Speaking of terrible modern anime... https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/h1ps4yjrqgiv5zc/firefox_DvsDGWK47y.png Doesn't look quite as good as the original series, but it never does, does it? Although at least it's nowhere near as horrific as Crystal... (e): why can't I get any pictures to embed in this post, that's really weird I probably won't ever feel that way, as that style of voice-acting with all of the different unpleasant mouth sounds and such is just too grating for me, but it currently beats listening to that terrible Kerberos English VA, .

Felt nice to win that OT game against the Heat after last season. Would feel even nicer to win the series.

Okay, I watched the first two episodes - now at least I know those four, .

Robin Hood is an absolute gangster at leaf music. P.S. I should really watch an episode or two of Cardcaptor Sakura so I can at least read your posts without my brain breaking trying to figure out who's who, .

Though we initially committed to watching all three parts of Madoka Magica, we have decided it's for the best that we do not. One additional issue with these movies is how indigestible the movies are at close to 2 hours apiece for new viewers. Things probably would have gone at least a little better (although probably not that much) if we were watching it in 20-40 minute chunks instead. >I feel like they're being entirely unfair to Madoka's father here. He only got a handful of lines and does nothing offensive other than picking tomatoes! I know a lot of people who hate tomatoes for some reason, but surely none of you are among those, are you? Only in salsa...and not even as the main ingredient - onions make a better salsa base, . >One point about the exposition dumps by Kyubey: Those exposition dumps were...not great. They took all the mystery and fun out of Kyubey and the entire setup - I really, really don't need to know every single detail of how Kyubey and his race or magical girls operate (or have everything that just happened over the past few minutes prior re-explained again). Mystery or vagueness is almost always better if you don't have a good explanation for something. I had noticed they were a problem in the first part and had grown wise to them by the time we started the second part and started calling them out any time I thought they were going to happen, and I think I called them out about 4 times...and I was not happy to be right about it. Some subtlety here...and everywhere else would've been nice.

Madoka Magica, Part 2, anime is not simply cancelled, but it never existed to begin with:

I'm pretty sure the 4790k is about as or maybe even slightly more powerful than the listed recommended i7-7700...and there's no way it wouldn't be more than enough for freaking Mass Effect, . Those old i7s are still very good, if getting a bit aged in terms of IPC.

It can definitely be a struggle, but I like having hands-on familiarity with my PCs, especially since I like to get everything just so, be able to do physical maintenance and know what I'm doing and where everything is, swap out drives, etc. The neck-breaking pain, not so much, but

@majestic Do not feel bad; I know that it is doing some interesting things that make it different, but modern anime is just...like I said, it's way more than just the art style, the way characters talk and behave that is mystifying and beyond frustrating to me. I wish I could jive with it, I wish I could get over it and just to try enjoy it for what it is, but it utterly breaks my brain. There's a reason I have repeatedly said that I still just am not an anime person - some very high quality anime films that I've watched as well as Sailor Moon are exceptions, yet that's exactly what they are: exceptions. That makes a lot sense, actually...and so is it any surprise that trying to listen to or watch most any kind of theatre almost invariably makes me put my hands up to my ears so I cannot hear it? That unnecessarily expressive, unnecessarily over-the-top, completely stilted quality to everything inflicts literal physical distress on me. And I really mean that - if there was a video feed of me watching the first half hour of this before switching to Japanese, you would see what I mean as I switched between groaning, covering up my face, covering my ears, looking away, clenching my fists, shuddering, etc. Extreme reactions for just some stilted dialogue or bad voice direction, but that's what happens to me because I'm unable to handle it! Suffice to say, I won't be watching anime as one of my main forms of entertainment any time soon, . It should be noted that I do not really hate Sayaka (or anyone else) for her character in of itself - teenage girls are gonna teenage girl, and that can be perfectly fine. Their actual characters are all secondary to the pain being inflicted simply due to stylistic problems in how they're being presented in the show, which is why I don't want to be unnecessarily harsh on the plot or characters themselves. The show is simply and very obviously not for me, which is probably why I shouldn't be watching it as per my prediction before I started it, . Well, hopefully the second part will be better: we'll be watching it tonight. Wish me luck!

Madoka Magica, Part 1, anime is cancelled, please bear with me:

That seems like a heck of a DIY project - is it for yourself or someone else?

I do have a little bit of an excuse in that I had actually been engaged in a multi-hour titanic battle with trying to mount the heatsink bracket, which on the FUMA 2 is designed in such a way that you have to either have mounted it onto the motherboard outside of the case OR you need a third hand to keep it together, and I'd already put my MB into the case and didn't feel like taking it out, and I'd been putting it together very early in the morning with no-one else around to help. I should've just taken the motherboard out or waited, because I was incredibly incensed at my new PC after trying a bunch of different ideas to do it without either of those - I finally concocted a harebrained solution to do it that worked, but I was mad and tired and just kinda tossed my heatsink onto it in the frenzy without really looking at it. Funnily, after getting it up and running, I actually had the thought "...did I take the plastic off? I specifically told myself to do that at some point, but I don't remember...I must have, it's working, after all!". No, past me, no I didn't. Shocked the temperatures were as good as they were during all of my benchmarking and testing for like an entire week.

hey guys, quick question, is your cpu cooler supposed to look like this (image taken from someone else's reddit post but still accurate) In completely unrelated news, my Cinebench R23 score jumped up to 15620 without any OC or making any changes, no idea why though, must be magic I guess, . Oh, and in other, even more completely unrelated news, I have been cancelled from working in IT or with computers ever again, this is my final message to all of you because my PC and other devices have decided that I'm no longer allowed to use them, goodbye forever

There's a really awkward scene in the original English dub as a result of making Fish Eye a lady.

Yeah, I can't believe Peridot cameoed in Sailor Moon either!