My son set this blog up for me earlier this year. I felt that I should actually add something before the year ends.
What will this blog cover? Just about anything that happens to be of interest to me and my family.
My interests cover food, wine, books, art, and all those good things associated with the appreciation of life.
2005 has been an eventful year by any measure. In April, our son received a long awaited lung transplant, and after an unsettled start, is doing quite well. In August, our daughter safely evacuated her New Orleans apartment, only to return to utter devastation. For only having two children, they have managed to keep us at attention!

ARIA is the story of Akari Mizunashi and her day to day life on Aqua as a Undine (gondolier). This is slice-of-life anime at its best. The series started out as a manga and has been translated into animated form beautifully. The stories tend to be fairly simple glimpses into Akari’s life. Wether it is giving a free ride to a young girl and showing her what is special about Aqua or practicing her rowing with her friend Aika. You always find a relaxing bit of story. So far, one I’ll be watching.

ICv2 has posted information about a marathon of Miyazaki films on TCM in January 2006.

ICv2 has learned that in January 2006, Turner Classic Movies, a prominent cable and satellite network, will run nine animated features by the great Japanese anime director Hayao Miyazaki.  Miyazaki’s movies have received scant exposure on American TV so the showings on Turner Classic Movies should expose a wide audience to these masterworks.

A complete list of the films (and airdates) will be released next week, but ICv2 has learned that TCM will show such Miyazaki-directed classics as: Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, and Porco Rosso, as well as Whisper of the Heart, which was directed by Yoshifumi Kondou, though Miyazaki wrote the screenplay, drew the storyboards and produced the film. [ICv2]

I’m pretty psyched. I’ve wanted to see Whisper of the Heart for a while. I’m also hoping for Kiki’s and The Castle of Cagliostro.

Please learn the difference between you’re and your. This is the second disc you’ve messed it up on.

I’m currently watching the first DVD of Girl’s Bravo and just ran into a screw up of your and you’re. At first I didn’t think much about it, but then I thought a bit more and was quite annoyed. It is one thing to download fansubs and have to deal with poor grammar. I pretty much expect it to happen. But when I’m paying for a DVD I expect better quality control.

That should be one of the big things for Geneon (who released this DVD) and other domestic companies strive for. Make a better product and people will have less of a problem paying for it. I should feel that when I am paying money I’m getting a superior product. This is already true with video and sound quality, but whoever is editing/doing QC on subtitles should at least know the difference between your and you’re.

Idiots

My parents left for a long weekend in Boston. Which is good, I think they need more downtime to enjoy themselves. That’s what you are supposed to do when retired. And this has been a crazy year for them, with my transplant and helping my sister deal with everything in NO. The only thing that sucks is being home alone for a few days. Tends to drive me a bit crazy. Though I think I might drive up to see my friends Brian and Emily in Hadley this weekend.

If this works, LJ users will be able to leave comments.

Trying again

With this blog today as I fiddle with plugins. You have been warned.

Another try

Last saturday Naruto started airing on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block of programming. For those of you who aren’t anime fans, Naruto is one of the most popular shows to come out of Japan in the last couple of years. Cartoon Network has a really random reputation when it comes to treatment of anime. Sometimes deserved, sometimes not.

Given the above, I was kind nervous tuning in to check it out. I tend not to be a fan of dubbing, but realize that it is the only way that most shows will make it onto TV. In the end, Cartoon Network did a pretty good job. My biggest complaint was ‘why bother changing the opening and ending?’. The ones for the show are pretty good as it is (and some of the later ones are great). The voices themselves were okay, I think the VAs may have to grow into them a little, but hopefully that won’t take long. Very little editing. One minor thing that bugged me a little was that they edited out nosebleeds. Nosebleeds? They’re an anime thing. When a character sees something naughty or has perverted thoughts they tend to get nosebleeds. No, I don’t get it either, but I’m used to it.

I’ve got it programmed into my TiVo as a season pass for now.