retroCRUSH has a list of the 100 scariest movie moments. Some of these are scenes definitely scared the crap out of me when I saw them, now I’m trying to think of things that I think should have been in there that aren’t. Though I think #90 should be higher up. Some of those kids movies had scary scenes. I always used to hide behind the couch when watching The Wizard of Oz

I was looking at all the CDs I’ve been ripping and have decided on a new project I want to try. I want to set up some kind of streaming server that randomly grabs music from my playlist and broadcasts it. Then I want to make a simple web interface so that I can ‘request’ songs. So while it’s random I can just request a song and it will show up within the next 30 min, kind of like a custom radio station.

Of course the next thing to do would be to find a way to share this with friends. You could share bandwidth costs with a few people and only let those people in. And only give those people access to the web server for requests. Have everyone contribute music to it so that you have a nice big collection of stuff. It would also have the bonus of exposing everyone to things they may not have heard of before. The thing I wouldn’t want to do is just have it open to anyone. Once you do that things like bandwidth cost becomes a much bigger issue.

As I think about this I’m realizing that there are all kinds of wacky things you could do. You could have it so that people could give a song a thumbs down, and if 80% of the users give it a thumbs down it doesn’t get played (and the thumbs down time out after like a month).

Almost done re-ripping all my CDs. It looks like it will take two storage boxes to hold them all. Not too bad actually. It just means I’m going to send some stuff down to CT with my parents next time they stop in. The other bonus? I’ve got an extra shelf worth of space for DVDs, so everything fits again now (now I just need to update my dvd page).

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to think of cows being milked the same way after seeing this. And I just might have some very odd dreams or nightmares.

I just finished watching the final disk of Chikyu Boetai Kigyo Daiguard and I have to give it a big thumbs up. It started off looking looking almost like a slight spoof on other giant robot shows (*cough*Eva). Over the course of the show though, it’s shown to have quite a bit more depth than that. The main characters are wonderful, my favorite being Rika, the genius who designs the weapons for Dai-Guard. She’s wonderfully insane and is voiced by Shintani Mayumi (who voiced Haruko in FLCL).

The thing that made the show stand out for me though, was that it considered things you normally don’t think about in a giant robot type show. One major focus was on the economics of the whole thing. Who pays for fuel? Repairs? What about property damage? There’s also lots of interesting storylines to do with the civilian DaiGuard team and the military’s team.

What I find interesting is that this show really hasn’t gotten much attention. While each release didn’t necessarily have me impatiently waiting for its release, when I started watching it I couldn’t stop till I finished watching all the episodes on it in one sitting. I think it’s one of the more underrated shows out there. Netflix carries it, so give it a try on rental first.

My next big project is to set up Quicktime Streaming Server so that I can start doing DJ sets online again. Since getting out to the clubs is a bit more difficult for me these days. Of course I also need to get a new mix done. I just need to pester a friend of mine to let me use his Final Scratch for a few days.

Last night I watched ep2 of R.O.D. – the TV with my wife. (I’ve been watching the raw Japanese episodes by myself, and I’ve seen through ep6, then I’m going back and watching the subtitled versions with Darla to fill in the gaps in my comprehension.)

I finally realized the biggest reason the TV series feels different from the Read Or Die OVA — it has a purely modern setting, rather than the steampunk setting of the OVA. Granted, there was plenty of modern tech in the OVA as well, with the steampunk aspects mostly employed by the I-jin and the British Library folks; I wonder if that will turn out to be the case in the TV series as well, or if that’s just an element they didn’t carry through.

If you are observant, you’ve seen semi-regular comments here from me. I’ve known Gregory for a number of years online, and a year and some back he seduced me into the modern world of digital fansubs. I’ve been exposed to anime (without realizing it) since the early 1970s, via Speed Racer and Star Blazers. Then, in college, one of my roommates was heavily into All Things Japanese, with shelves full of manga and countless GIFs of Bubblegum Crisis and the like; I picked up a small amount of knowledge through osmosis. Finally, some years later, I discovered that my wife was watching Sailor Moon on FOX in the morning, and I said, “No, no, let me show you the real thing,” and my journey to the Dark Side was complete. Now I’ve badgered Gregory sufficiently that he’s given me posting access here, so you’re all doomed.

I’ll certainly be offering my thoughts on recent shows, but I will probably venture beyond that as well, looking at some older shows and perhaps at other aspects of anime, manga, fandom, and Japanese culture. I help run an anime con in Denver, and I’ve studied the language in my Copious Free Time for 8 years or so now, so I flatter myself that I’ve seen a bit deeper than the surface layer.

(Hm, Movable Type doesn’t seem to like Unicode, so I’ll use roumaji: Yoroshiku o-negai shimasu.)

I just watched the third episode of this and I think it may just become one of my new favorite shows. The first two episodes gave us a taste of the characters. But the third episode dove right into their background, which I found quite well done. I needed another nice fun action show to balance out all the cuteness I’m currently watching. And I want the ending music, because it’s cool.

Mark Pilgrim has a nice multipage writeup of What’s New in OS X 10.3 Panther. I’ve read through the first few pages and it’s a nice writeup of the features. If you’re still wondering and wondering what’s different this is probably a good read for you.