News & Updates in August, 2006

Posted the anime profiles of Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer, Ninja Nonsense: The Legend of Shinobu. Posted the character profiles of Jimmy, Cathy, Dr. Gaia, Atlas, Achilles (from Cyborg 009), Sensera (from Samurai Girl: Real Bout High School), Holland Novak (from Eureka Seven).

So as it would happen, we decided to go out last Sunday to see if we could find a reasonably priced, comfortable, swiveling, rocking recliner. The first place we went had only one... and boy was it ugly! It was some kind of strange looking off-white texture and the design of the chair back looked like it had a butt coming out of it. The only thing good about it was the price, $399, which isn't bad at all... but we decided to continue looking. The next place had none in stock that rocked and swiveled, but they had one and only one model that they could order. It wasn't bad looking, but it was the typical recliner price of something like $600-$700.

So then we moved on to the next place, and they had a whole bunch, like 20-30 to choose from. Out of them all, we found two that we really liked. And as luck would have it, when we checked the price we found that one of those two was marked as a special, which was even cheaper than the first one we saw. So we decided to get it. Unfortunately, that one required a special swivel base, not one of the three standard sizes that all the other chairs took, so they had to special order it and said when it came in they would come by and put it on... for no extra charge! Well, it came in today and sure enough someone came over and put the sucker on. So now Treese has a nice, new fan-back microfiber swivel-rocker-recliner.

Posted the anime profiles of Animation Runner Kuromi 2, Debutante Detective Corps, B'tX.

Posted the character profile of Bisuit Kruger (from Hunter X Hunter).

Posted my review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Volume 5.

Posted the character profile of Hayate Gekkou (from Naruto). Posted the anime profile of Spirit of Wonder.

Posted the character profiles of Seira Morimura (from Princess Nine), Lilica Evette (from Burn Up Scramble), Rio Kinezono (from Burn Up Scramble), Maya Jingu (from Burn Up Scramble), Fantine Valjean (from IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix), Suboshi (from Fushigi Yûgi), Dante (from Fullmetal Alchemist), Ribitta (from Megaman NT Warrior). Posted the anime profiles of Paradise Kiss, Invader ZIM, Welcome to the NHK, Bomberman Jetters, The Transformers: The Movie.

Posted the anime profiles of Nazca, Digimon: The Movie. Posted the character profiles of Mao Daidoji (from Princess Nine), Ryo Hayakawa (from Princess Nine), Kanako Mita (from Princess Nine), Lady Bat (from Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch).

Posted the anime profiles of Astro Boy, Pretty Cure, Raimuiro Senkitan, Magical Doremi Mo~tto. Posted the character profiles of Tobigera (from Outlaw Star), Muta (from The Cat Returns), Goku Jr (from Dragon Ball GT), Suzu Edogawa (from Tactics), Rosalie (from Tactics), Muu (from Tactics), Sugino (from Tactics), Yoko (from Tactics), Haruka (from Tactics), Ichinomiya Kantaro (from Tactics), Kyoya Ohtori (from Ouran High School Host Club), Prince Kakashi (from Howl's Moving Castle). Kirbyfan106, dude, I don't know what's up with your Nintendo e-mail address, but every time I reply to it my emails get bounced right on back to me with the message "Recipient address rejected: No such recipient". So... either some e-mail server hates you, or that's not a correct address.

Wow, look at all the updates already, and the month is only a little over half way through! Looks like I've been jammin', getting updates done every single day this month up until last Monday. So then what, pray tell, have I been doing since last Monday? Well, if your web browser happens to wider than about 900 pixels, then you can just take a gander over to the left and set your sights on the new navigation bar I came up with. The main inspiration behind creating this was to get a way I could type in the anime or character I wanted to look up in the index without having to first go to list pages. It took a little doing to find a layout that I liked and that still fit with the current look of the site. I finally finished it off this afternoon and uploaded in the evening.

Of course, when I came back later and actually started using my site, I began to realize that having those large colorful icons over to the side were actually quite distracting. My first thought was to make them smaller, but I really didn't want to go through and redesign the whole thing, so that led me to come up with the little header at the top where you could toggle the menu on and off. And obviously it had to remember the toggle state between pages, as I didn't want to be toggling it off on each and every page. Once that was implemented, I realized that it got kind of annoying to toggle it on and then toggle it off again after I clicked a link and arrived on the next page. So that led me create a temporary state where the menu would display just by running the mouse cursor over the top of its header. So now it seems to work pretty good.

The only thing I'm not happy about is the jerkiness of the menu when scrolling the page in Internet Explorer. Unfortunately, there isn't much I can do about this. Internet Explorer just plain sucks. It doesn't recognize the "position: fixed" CSS property like every other standards-compliant browser, so instead I have to use a hack. The first hack I implemented worked great, with no jerkiness at all, but I then discovered that it had other consequences... namely, my tool-tips no longer worked. So I used another hack, one which basically just re-adjusts the menu's position when the page scrolls, and this re-adjustment is quite visible. It's not as bad as some of the JavaScript workarounds, but still a bit annoying. At least Internet Explorer 7 won't have that problem.

My wife and I finished watching Jim Henson's The Storyteller Collection, which was one of the gifts I got her for her birthday. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but they were actually pretty good. They mix live-action with muppet-like creature in very stylistic settings, and the stories they tell are ones that I've never heard. Most even keep you thinking about them after the show ends. I'd recommend anyone looking for some good fantasy entertainment to pick up this DVD. It's currently under $10 at Amazon.com.

So, I've been bald for about a week now, and I still love it! I had forgotten how nice it was to not have to deal with the hair everyday. The last time I had a buzz cut was my final semester at Solano Community College. By the time I met Treese, which was about 3 years later, it had all grown out again. I'm not sure why I let it grow out... probably just never got around to cutting it. Well, this time I think I'm going to keep it short for a while.

Hm... what else has been going on... oh, I set our TiVo to once again use the serial cable to change the channels on the Sony SAT-B55 satellite receiver. We were previously using the IR blasters, but it messed up twice this month, so I decided to switch and give the other method a try. We originally switched from the serial cable to the IR blasters because they serial cabled failed change channels correctly a few times. I'm hoping now that I have the satellite box outside of the stereo cabinet with much better airflow all around it, that the original serial cable problem will not rear its ugly head again.

We've also been having some problems with our Yahoo/SBC/AT&T DSL connection. For about a week there it would just constantly lose the connection, and our router would come back with a "Can not get a IP address from PPPoE server" message. Rebooting the router never made any difference, but rebooting the DSL modem almost always works. Of course, "almost" isn't "always". At first I thought maybe it was the heat, even though the modem never felt hot, or even above average warm. Even so, I took it out of the closet and moved it to the desk so it could have better air flow. The problem still persists, but at least it's more convenient to reset the modem now. I think it must be a problem with SBC, but I have no idea how to find that out. Their customer service is absolutely horrible... absolutely... so I don't even bother with it anymore. Perhaps we'll just switch to cable internet next time our contract period runs out.

Posted the character profiles of Granny (from I'm Gonna be an Angel!), Miss Shinobu (from I'm Gonna be an Angel!), Raphael (from I'm Gonna be an Angel!), Fuyuki (from I'm Gonna be an Angel!), Chaser (from One Piece), Sena Kobayakawa (from Eyeshield 21), Leilong (from Outlaw Star), Alv (from Kiddy Grade), Dvergr (from Kiddy Grade), Armblast (from Kiddy Grade), Viola (from Kiddy Grade), Cesario (from Kiddy Grade), Kansuke (from InuYasha). Posted the anime profiles of Magical DoReMi #, Victorian Romance Emma, Ben 10, Basilisk.

Posted the anime profile of Wrath of the Ninja. Posted the character profiles of Shigi Taishiji (from Ikki Tousen), Sousuke Aizen (from Bleach), Umehito Nekozawa (from Ouran High School Host Club), Ryoji Fujioka (from Ouran High School Host Club), Renge Hoshakuji (from Ouran High School Host Club), Kaoru Hitachiin (from Ouran High School Host Club), Hikaru Hitachiin (from Ouran High School Host Club), Yuzuru Suoh (from Ouran High School Host Club), Haruhi Fujioka (from Ouran High School Host Club).

Posted the character profiles of Chief Eclipse (from Kiddy Grade), Rick Thunderbolt (from Oban Star Racers).

Posted the character profiles of Tasuka Nandaba (from FLCL), Swanzo (from Outlaw Star). Posted the anime profiles of Tenamonya Voyagers, WXIII: Patlabor the Movie 3, Wicked City, Samurai Gun, Salamander, Ayane's High Kick, MAPS.

Well, this evening I finally did it... I shaved my head! I just got really tired of it all, and felt like my scalp needed a change, so off it came. I washed it and my wife braided it beforehand so that we could snip off the braids and donate them to Locks of Love. Hopefully they can make a good wig out of it that'll make someone happy. Anyways, after those were bagged up, Treeses took the scissors to the rest of it, and then followed up with the razor. I've never been bald before, had a buzz cut a couple times, but never bald, and Treeses had never seen me without hair, so I was concerned that she might not like it... oh yeah, and she was concerned about that part too. Thankfully, she actually loves the new look!

Posted the character profiles of Akasun Sasori (from Naruto), Orihime Inoue (from Bleach).

Posted the anime profiles of Witchblade, Air Master, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Voogie's Angel, Uta~Kata, xxxHOLiC, Sol-Bianca: The Legacy, Sol-Bianca, Otaku no Video, Samurai Jack, Zaion ~I Wish You Were Here~. Posted the character profiles of Leon (from Kaleido Star), Nanashi (from MAR: Marchen Awakens Romance), Phantom (from MAR: Marchen Awakens Romance), Boss (from MAR: Marchen Awakens Romance), Alviss (from MAR: Marchen Awakens Romance), Dianna (from MAR: Marchen Awakens Romance), Rolan (from MAR: Marchen Awakens Romance), Tenma Tsukamoto (from School Rumble), Martin Mystery (from Martin Mystery), Steven Stone (from Pok�mon Advance).

Posted the character profiles of Yuka (from InuYasha), Eri (from InuYasha), Ayumi (from InuYasha), Juzo Hasegawa (from Cyber City Oedo 808), Dominic (from Fullmetal Alchemist), Kiyotaka Narumi (from Spiral), Madoka Narumi (from Spiral), Tweedledee (from Kiddy grade), Tweedledum (from Kiddy Grade).

Posted the anime profiles of Bubblegum Crash, Future GPX Cyber Formula, Gear Fighter Dendoh, School Rumble, Whisper of the Heart, This Ugly Yet Beautiful World. Posted the character profiles of Ryuga (from Fist of the North Star), Tatsuki Arisawa (from Bleach), Merill Yanagawa (from Cyber City Oedo 808), Chachamaru Karakuri (from Magic Teacher Negima!), Ayaka Yukihiro (from Magic Teacher Negima!), Asuna Kagurazaka (from Magic Teacher Negima!), Ako Izumi (from Magic Teacher Negima!), Jii (from Miami Guns), Chumley Huffington (from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX).

Posted the character profiles of Renji Abarai (from Bleach), Saki (from Steel Angel Kurumi), Kyouichi Saionji (from Revolutionary Girl Utena), Nanami Kiryuu (from Revolutionary Girl Utena), Wakaba Shinohara (from Revolutionary Girl Utena).

Posted the anime profiles of Barefoot Gen, The Legend of Black Heaven, Batman Beyond. Posted the character profiles of Yoichi Hiruma (from Eyeshield 21), Avatar Kyoshi (from Avatar: The Last Airbender), Rangiku Mastumoto (from Bleach), Yachiru Kusajishi (from Bleach), Akira Okochi (from Magic Teacher Negima!), A-ou (from Kiddy Grade), Dextera (from Kiddy Grade), Bastion Misawa (from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX), Baron (from Whisper of the Heart), Nodoka Miyazaki (from Magic Teacher Negima!), Kenpachi Zaraki (from Bleach), Yoruichi Shihouin (from Bleach), Shunsui Kyouraku (from Bleach), Jack (from MAR: Marchen Awakens Romance).

Posted the character profiles of Dorothy (from MAR: Marchen Awakens Romance), Ginta Toramizu (from MAR: Marchen Awakens Romance), Alan (from MAR: Marchen Awakens Romance), Miyu Yamazaki (from Super GALS! Kotobuki Ran), Kureno Sohma (from Fruits Basket), Satorious (from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX), Tyranno Hassleberry (from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX), Lu Amano (from Miami Guns), Kyuzo (from Samurai 7), Morté (from .hack//Legend of the Twilight). Posted the anime profiles of The Adventures of Mini-Goddess, Shakugan no Shana, Black Jack, Digimon: Digital Monsters, Zoids: Genesis, Oban Star Racers, ex-Driver, Death Note, Air Gear, Elemental Gelade, Tokyo Godfathers, Super Atragon, Moon Phase, Z-Mind, The Boondocks, Princess Princess, Ah! My Goddess: Everyone Has Wings, Rozen Maiden, Powerpuff Girls Z, Tomorrow's Nadja, Spider Riders, KamiChu, Black Cat, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Hell Girl, Lamune, Ginga Legend Weed, Omishi Magical Theater Risky Safety, Martin Mystery.

Posted the character profiles of Byakuya Kuchiki (from Bleach), Soi Fon (from Bleach), Jyuushiro Ukitake (from Bleach), Yao Sakurakougi (from Miami Guns), Ririko (from Legendz). Posted the anime profiles of Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin, Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman, MAR: Marchen Awakens Romance, Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne, Sensual Phrase Phrase, Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach, Tristia of the Deep Blue Sea, Megazone 23, G-On Riders, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, Munto, Wandaba Style, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala, Labyrinth of Flames, Star Ocean EX, Street Fighter II V, Texhnolyze, Kaze no Yojimbo, Mermaid Forest, Legendz. Posted my review of Beavis & Butt-head Vol. 3- The Mike Judge Collection.

Posted my review of Ultimate Avengers 2. Posted my review of The Pusher Trilogy. Posted the anime profiles of Transformers: Victory, Beast Machines: Transformers, Mobile Suit Gundam F91. Posted the character profiles of Koharu Hotta (from Princess Nine), Raimundo Pedrosa (from Xiaolin Showdown), River Marque (from IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix), Binka (from Shinzo), Gooley Andrew Francis (from Dirty Pair: Project Eden), Keel Lorenz (from Neon Genesis Evangelion), Ken Kaizaki (from Legendz), Leo (from Legendz), Jean (from Gunslinger Girl), Jose (from Gunslinger Girl), Rabello (from Gunslinger Girl), Yazoo (from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children), Gai Shishio (from King of Braves: GaoGaiGar), Takashi Morinozuka (from Ouran High School Host Club), Mitsukuni Haninozuka (from Ouran High School Host Club), Sherry Bellmond (from Zatch Bell), Kei Kishimoto (from Gantz), Sara (from I'm Gonna be an Angel!), Silky (from I'm Gonna be an Angel!), Tomo Takino (from Azumanga Daioh), Hervé Pichon (from Code Lyoko), Commander Zhao (from Avatar: The Last Airbender), Toph Bei Fong (from Avatar: The Last Airbender), Momo (from Avatar: The Last Airbender), Monk Gyatso (from Avatar: The Last Airbender), Jet (from Avatar: The Last Airbender), Avatar Roku (from Avatar: The Last Airbender), Cain (from Bleach), High Priest Aknadin (from Yu-Gi-Oh!), Chuuei Totaku (from Ikki Tousen), Genjo Kakoton (from Ikki Tousen), Kouha Kannei (from Ikki Tousen), Kouro Enjutsu (from Ikki Tousen), Gakushu (from Ikki Tousen), Moutoku Sousou (from Ikki Tousen), Koudai Chinkyu (from Ikki Tousen), Genpou Saji (from Ikki Tousen), Housen Ryofu (from Ikki Tousen), Coop (from Megas XLR), Saga (from Saint Seiya).

On Saturday, Treeses and I went to see Superman Returns. Based on the previews and commercials, I really had no desire to see it in the theater. But Treese wanted to go, and I wanted to see it eventually, plus I like watching movies with my wife, so there was no question that if she went, I was going with her. Anyways, so we went and saw it... and it was a little bit more crappy that I was expecting. If you haven't seen it yet, save your money and wait for DVD so you can rent it. It's looong, and mostly boring. There are very few action sequences. Lets see... there was the airplane scene from the previews... then a short little montage... and then near the end with the whole earthquake thing. That's about it. So yeah, wait for DVD. Trust me, you'll probably want to hit the pause button several times to get up and do something else.