Takahashi Shin, the guy who did the comic saishu heiki kanojo has a new comic out.

kimi no kakera (pieces of you)

looks like a great rollicking adventure. I have the first volume and boy does it go FAST.

It’s about some princess chick Ikoro with a mysterious past (of course) being raised in the deep snowy wilderness near some girls’ school where she is furiously learning a lot. A boy in chains happens to fall through the roof of her place and is unconscious. A moment later, some baddies break into the house looking for something. Ikoro the princess chick says she has it. The mysterious boy wakes up, has no memory, but asks everybody if they are friend or foe. Ikoro says FRIEND. Even though the boy has no memory, he seems to have been psychologically and physically programmed to be a great warrior and will do anything to defend his FRIENDS and defeat his FOES. Ikoro and the boy with no memory (Ikoro dubbed him Shiro because his hair is white) manage to escape the house but are now out in the snowy wilderness.
And so the story begins.

in related context, it seems that there are haibane renmei doujinshi scans which were translated to english and floating around the internet. I do hope that these comics will be published in the u.s. so people can get them more easily than trying to find the limited edition japanese doujinshi but if they don’t, this is your best bet for seeing the wonderful artwork and story of haibane renmei, a little bit different from the anime.

Starting the other day MDN:WaiWai has a short series of articles detailing Schoolgirls’ Decade of Decadence, covering everything from selling panties to schoolgirls offering sex for a ride or train fair.

Where Eriko and Chiharu differ is that they exchange their filthy favors for things as simple as a lift to work, or for train fare. Spa! says they treat prostitution like an ATM with no limits, like a pot they can dip into whenever the funds run low. [MDN:WaiWai]

As is usually true when reading WaiWai, words fail.

Oops

Signs land seven in court
By CLIFFORD JEFFERY STURGIS JOURNAL

What started as an April Fool’s joke involving bad grammar landed seven people in jail Tuesday.

Sturgis police arrested seven Sturgis men for placing more than 20 threatening letters on various businesses, schools, banks and at the post office. At least 12 signs were posted Monday morning. Another 20 were put up Tuesday evening, according to Sturgis police.

The letters all read “All your base are belong to us and you have no chance to survive, make your time.” [The Sturgis Online Community]

(via Boing Boing)

Fran Lebowitz: “The opposite of talking isn’t listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.” [Quotes of the Day]

Antipixel has up some beautiful pictures of the cherry trees down the street from him. Stunning. I can’t wait till stuff here starts to bloom.

There’s got to be a way for some of my unemployed friends and I to start some kind of business. I keep looking at my lack of success in finding work and wonder just what other options there are. Regardless of what I end up doing I think it would have to end up being somewhat related with computers (just not data-entry). I can’t think of many other jobs I’d be even slightly happy doing.

On the good side, I did get my resume out to a few more places today.

well let’s see…

mahou tsukai was good. nice and light and easy all the way through, never going deep like a shallow sine wave.

kiddy grade just kept getting loopier and loopier until they completely blow away what the suspension of reality can take and finally just ends. the fan service and the eyecatches were the best parts. i liked kiddy grade as well.

no series lately really has my attention. I’m looking forward to watching the end of Vandread 2nd stage and X on dvd. i’m also rewatching fruits basket. interestingly, snooze is as well since he’s just getting the u.s. dvds. Oh and all i have left to get is the last dvd for the japanese release of haibane renmei. a friend lent me Spirited Away so I’ve been watching that over and over. Even with the glaring red tint.

this is a good time for a rest from anime. lots of other non-anime stuff to deal with.

I was just about to head out to my car to drive down to CT when I realized that I’d just called this morning about getting my phone replaced. They said it would be delivered in between 24 and 48 hours. Which now means that I can’t leave till tomorrow night. Bah. I guess maybe I will be around this weekend after all.

I’ve posted a few times recently about the super-DMCA in the past week or so. Yesterday a Massachusetts legislative committee held a hearing on their version of it. I was aware of it, and thought about going, but in my true slacker sense didn’t make it out. On the other hand, a bunch of people did go, and it sounds like they really may have made a difference. Freedom to Tinker has links to two sites with reports on it.

So, at the end of the day, one national lobbyist who hadn’t apparently bothered to read the relevant Massachusetts law proposed a one-size-fits-all bill to a committee who then heard dozens of ardent opponents. The opponents were ordinary people who had taken personal days to voice their concerns. They learned about the problem through Weblogs, listservs, word of mouth. They came out in force. It was a great vision of the kind of democracy that the Net can foster. I even overheard one lobbyist whisper: “These guys all read the Weblogs.” How subversive.

I hope this committee does the right thing. From what they said, anyway, this bill is in major trouble. It should be scrapped, not amended. It’s a waste of good legislator’s time. It’s a special interest bill, plain and simple. [John Palfrey]

One side thing I caught form both of these blog posts was that people are becoming aware of weblogs. Both mentioned overhearing people mentioning them. Cool. Hopefully people in other states can have just as much success. I wonder if legislators in other states where this has passed will start to feel a bit foolish now that word is getting out about this.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: “Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinions at all.” [Quotes of the Day]