Ginger drink
Mood:  cool
Now Playing: "Qui Sommes Nous" - Olivia Ruiz
Topic: Seriously
I finally got to the Asian market round here for some goodies and I couldn't pass up talking about this amazing drink.  Gold Kili's Instant Ginger drink is like hot, slightly creamier ginger beer.  I love ginger beer.  I love the strange difficulty I have drinking it when the carbonation forces the face smacking spice into my nasal cavity.  I love the warmth and the weird non-sweat that happens to my face.  Ah, its good.  And somehow, this instant ginger drink is even better!  Lacking carbonation, but consumed hot/warm, this drink is amazing!  I highly recommend it to anyone who doesn't have an unsubstantiated hate of ginger (you know who you are) to drink this drink.  Bonus for those who like something invigorating but are cutting down their stimulants--this is caffeine free.

Hatsune Miku
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: Hmmm?

So, has anyone read Little Heroes by Norman Spinrad?  It keeps coming up in my head ever since I searched and searched for the title with only a couple of measly plot points in order to add it to my awesome list of every book I'd ever read.  I found the title, and now that I know what it is I am constantly reminded of the whole creating a virtual rock star--completely synthesized voice and music with a cg representation of a person.  Of course, in the book it was marketed as a real person, but Hatsune Miku is the virtual rock star in real life real now.  Über poppy and high pitched, the music is actually kind of fun, and becoming more and more popular.  She is the first character released with the vocaloid 2 series vocal synthesizing program. 

 

 

 

 

 

iGoogle geekdom
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Love Psychedelico
Topic: Ignore me please

Alright.  I've talked about iGoogle customization before and I'm gonna do it again.  I've got a couple of tabs in my iGoogle and change out the headers and themes about as often as I change out my desktop background.  I was searching through the newest additions today to find some options and realized that perhaps I should share (seeing as Google has yet to have any kind of subject indexing and poor, if at all functional, keyword search).  

So, following is a selection of themes I was drawn to today--I love the xXxHolic art (number 2) so I would even put up with the image coming out short on both sides.  All of these are yummy!

Oh yes!  and Samantha Brown (prev) has a set of iGoogle themes too!

Yellow Beard
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Oh So Shiny
I have fond memories of Yellowbeard from early on in my childhood.  It stood among movies like Rock and Rule, Young Frankenstein, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Zorro the Gay Blade, and Heavy Metal as fantastical depictions from the world of adulthood and inside jokes.  Upon revisit after a long absence, I can say it is slower paced than I remember and slightly more staged, terribly dry and absolutely wonderful--just like I remembered.  Given the reviews I caught glimpses of while looking around for it, I understand that it is far from everyone's cup of tea.  Originally marketed as the "greatest comedy cast ever assembled for a movie," perhaps it attracted the wrong kind of expectations from its audience.  It is a strange mix of comic style that blends the British dryness of Monte Python and the utter silliness of Cheech and Chong.  Whatever the reason for its initial flop, I am happy I have it in my DVD collection.

Online TV: thoughts first, where to get it second
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Seriously

I read an article once about how we have ceased creating new words for concepts in lieu of retrofitting old ideas to new innovations.  The article had to do with the concept of e-Books and how the book is really only a vessel for content.  Before we had the book the very same content was held in a codex or scroll, so, since the online environment is a new vessel--we should come up with a new name.  My husband says the author had too much time on his hands to resort to obsessing over something like that.  I can't say I don't agree with him, but its a very interesting point.  Take, for example, online TV:  the television is really just a vessel the same way that the book is, but with today's mirror world online the things that exist there are not given their own life entirely.  It's like ebooks and online TV are so named and will always be named this way because they are tied like a shadow to their counterparts in the real world--wherever that is.

Anyway, that was a big paragraph for a thoughtful meander.  I haven't done much online TV watching myself besides short videos here and there, but I am warming to the idea more and more, especially as my at home office situation gets more and more comfortable.  One day, I will have my living room TV hooked into a server that gets me full access to files and internet and such in a TV viewing style, and when I do, this list of where to score TV online will really come in handy.

Beyond the über popular worlds of  YouTube, Yahoo video, Google video (question:  since Google encompasses YouTube now, why are these still separate?), and the all Japanese Nico Nico Douga (there's a pretty cool introduction to Nico Nico Douga on MetaGold) lives sites dedicated to content more along the lines one might find on TV.  These are what I found:

• Hulu -- could this be self-explanatory?  Everyone in the world, it seems, has been here before me.  But, there is a lot of English language programming--stuff that is very traditionally TV channel oriented and movies galore.
• Yubby seems to be more an aggregator where you can mine video sites in order to create custom content channels.  Check out the Bob Ross channel, man!
• Crunchyroll -- fresh news on Crunchyroll is that Kadokawa Pictures USA has teamed up to bring their Japanese Horror anthology and the Tomie series online (Japanator).  Subtitles here!
• NFBA (National Film Board of Canada) hosts documentaries, animation and alternative dramas online.  
• MySoju offers daytime dramas and movies from Korea, Japan, and Taiwan--and a plus--all of them I've tried are subtitled.   
• AnimeNetwork Online has some programming online for all the poor folks (like me) who live in states that don't get the channel.
• FUNimation Online chanel also has anime programming available to watch onlnie.  
• PBS programs have recently begun hosting entire sets of their series online.  Did you miss the last NOVA?  Well, catch it here. 
• Free Culture TV and Yes We're Open:  free movies, music videos, and TV using MIRO (Boing Boing).  This is untried for me, so if you know about MIRO give a hollar.
• Danny Choo talks up Fresh Verse for streaming Japanese programming.  I have not tested this yet myself and he says the programming is pretty sporatic.  
• Keyhole TV for Japanese programming requires downloading a player, but gets rave reviews online.
• Livestation also requires viewers to download a player and touts channels from France, the UK, Russia, and more.
• TV Online has channels from many countries that will play directly through the player you already use--at least it does on Windows Media Player.  My tiny little comlaint:  what's with the constant sound?
• TVChannelsFree also has channels from all over the world.   Looks like they all play in an embedded player.
• Beeline TV also plays through your media player.  Why is Rod Stewart on German music TV?
• ChannelChooser plays through an embedded player as well and has channels from all over the world.
• wwitv also plays through an embedded player and offers world selection.
• inner-live with embedded player and world selection

Anime beats real life again
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: "Soldat" - Lube
Topic: Hmmm?

I don't know if constantly drawing connections in today's science and medicine news to anime I've seen indicates that I've seen too much anime or perhaps that it, as a medium, is simply playing host to some amazing ideas.  Although, now that I've gone and pulled my list of 'previously on the bean,' I see that it isn't only anime I've been reminded of in the news, so I'm not so specific a geek.

I was reading about the totally intriguing story of a 64 year old woman who reported the appearance of a phantom arm after having a stroke as reported on SwissInfo.  She recently underwent some tests to figure out what kind of messages her brain is getting about the arm and the doctors proved to themselves that she's not lying--sorry, that's my doctor aversion talking--they proved that the arm is completely real for her brain.  When she moves it the motor centers of her brain activate as though she were moving one of her other arms and her visual cortex is stimulated meaning she is seeing something as well.  I find this completely fascinating, and, of course, was reminded of an anime with a strangely similar phantom arm phenomena. 

The difference with the phantom arms in Elfen Lied is that they inflict horrible damage and kill people.  They are possessed of a group of all female alien humans who were born with horns and terrible powers.  All these young girls were all summarily herded up by the government to live a life of seclusion, restraint, and cruel testing until they turned on their masters and bloody craziness ensued.  

So yeah, that lady should totally train up that arm for some supernatural feats! 

Previously:

Sci Fi Movie Reality

What anime hath fortold

Electronic Face Masks and Animated Prophesy

I love me some futuristic architecture

Successful Arm Transplants and a Murderers Hands

Lasers in the Sky:  life from the movies

 

Oh Oh, more Japanese
Mood:  cool
Now Playing: Miyavi
Topic: Seriously

I promise, I am not going to steer this blog by way of the Japanese language--there are many already who do it better than I could, but because I was just jumping up and down in my chair I had to share.  Read the Kanji is a kanji flashcard program/site that keeps statistics on your knowledge.  I am ridiculously low level right now, but I just love it when I conquer one.  Yay! 

I heard about it originally through Tofugu, and those other blogs I was talking about (if you are interested) are:

J-list side blog

Japan Probe

Japan Subculture Research Center

Japanator

Japan Newbie

Rocking in Hakata

Tokyo Mango

Oh yeah and this handy site:  http://hiragana.jp/en/ will put furigana (hiragana cheats next to kanji) on any web site.  I just tried it with Nico Nico Douga (YouTube esque? video site) and it worked on all the text that was not an image.  Pretty awesome, yeah.

I do do stuff when I lapse in writing, I do.
Mood:  bright
Topic: miscellanea

Cold Comfort Farm
Mood:  happy
Topic: Oh So Shiny

 

I've just been acquainted with the idea that people who should know about Cold Comfort Farm do not.  This is a grave oversight on the part of the universe and I am only doing my small humble part to correct it in any way.  With a cast including Kate Beckinsale, Joanna Lumley, Stephen Fry, and Rufus Sewel it's hard to imagine that it could have slipped under the collective noses of so many people even if it was initially released on TV in the USA.  

The story follows a young society woman who is left with less money than would allow her to maintain her life-style after her father's death.  She selects a temporary home from among her country relatives and proceeds to re-arrange them in order to get experience for the book she will write at fifty.  

There isn't a normal person in the cast of characters and this includes the heroine herself.  Everyone is crazy and out of touch in their own special way.  This, of course, offers up a host of highly quotable material which I will indulge in a little for you:

"I saw something nasty in the woodshed."

"There have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm."

"Nature's very well in her place but she mustn't be allowed to make anything untidy."

"Highly sexed young men living on farms are always called Seth or Rueben."

"There'll be no butter in hell!"

Instructions for making a SPASMO
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: The Veronicas
Topic: Ignore me please

So, I survived the Giallo Meltdown with very little damage compared to some of the rougher moviethons.  One notable exception to this was  SPASMO.  Now, I normally love the unreliable narrator, but I think it works best when there is an area of stability for the character to reflect off of--this doesn't happen when everybody in the damn movie is crazy too!

Ok, here are a couple of notes I took about living in your own personal SPASMO:

• Every woman you meet is your new girlfriend--act as though you've known each other forever and you're old girlfriend will disapear (if you are a woman, then your old boyfriend will re-apear constantly and try to get you back)
• Overreact to powerfailures
• Overreact to everything
• abandoned bloody shears are nothing to worry about
• be indecisive
• its ok to break into someone's house if you know their friend
• invite all intruders in for drinks and have them stay the night
• you know everything about the strangers you are with -- be their psychology
• everyone knows everthing about you -- take their advice and believe what they say
• you needn't look at a dead body yourself to believe its there and dead
• tell everyone you meet that you murdered a man -- keep telling them until they believe it
• why does everyone know about your brother? -- why do you not find this odd?
• doors should always be left open
• all coupes turn into sedans on impact
• the motel is a conspiracy
• home videos always contain footage of hospital shock-treatment
• the perfect time for sex is now -- especially if you're on the run, in danger of being caught, nearly murdered, suspected dead, and trying to solve the mystery yourself
• every woman looks like a red-head in murder flash-backs 
  

Howdy Music!
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Music! Music! Music! Music!
Topic: Ignore me please

 

Create a playlist at MixPod.com

 

The Online Personality: thoughts
Mood:  quizzical
Topic: Seriously

A couple of little things have got me thinking about the way people portray themselves on the internet.  One of those things was talking with my Mother about the process of friending and un-friending people on social networking sites, and another of those things was signing up for yet another social networking site myself. 

Seeing as how she's a regular reader of me , let me get this out of the way--'Hi Mom! I'm gonna talk about you now.' 

When we were talking about relationships online my Mom was rightly, I think, but maybe impractically applying her concept of person to person relationships into the social networking environments.  Really, I think a person should handle their online relationships anyway they see fit.  If they are a more private individual they obviously are not going to wrack up hundreds of friends on Myspace/Facebook.  However, when entering social environments these people are in the minority, and its only good to be mindful of the type of relationships that proliferate the most successfully in the network.   Our talk got me thinking that most of social network 'friendships' are like gradeschool.  We friend and un-friend based on some bizarre virtual make-up and break-up dance--you know:  "Suzie wore pink when she said she was going to wear green like me so I can't be friends with her anymore"--at least not until Penny does something that forces me to commiserate with Suzie.  I know I am cynical and sarcastic, but overall I think our social networking environments allow us to remain 14 forever online, even if we grow beyond that offline.  

This idea was only supported by what I found when registering for a professional social network.  This is a site dedicated to information professionals to discuss policies, ideas, innovations, happenings, etc.  Part of registering included listing some interests.  Not feeling very inventive at the time I selected the option to scroll through ones people had already listed and lo and behold I found some fourteen year olds!  There was some clever nonsense like 'cannot find my harddrive' and some juvenile sex obsession like 'blowjobs' and 'naked,' but they were all surprising to me in the environment I was in.  They were surprising until I realized that this environment is still online, and regardless of the intent, I guess the medium really does encourage juvenalia.   

On the other hand, I find I really admire those people who create and flesh out a completely alternate personality online.  I've considered trying this often but am daunted by the work it would be--an extra but completely anonymous and unconnected email account that would get me more but completely separate personality accounts and then thinking up someone who wasn't me, but was close enough to something inside that I could convincingly play that person.  And finally, the secrecy--you could never really tell anyone and remain successfully a different person online.  You would have to make friends from scratch.  It all reminds me of Little Heroes by Norman Spinrad--a book I read long ago by browsing chance on one of my bookstore trips.  Two programmers create the ultimate rock star and though it is a triumph for the company, it is also a secret that the guy doesn't really exist at all.  Music fans need that human connection, I guess.  And on Twitter Japan there are bots like this--more power to the programmer that can make their bot believable!  

I think, because of its insubstantiability, the online environment is more condusive to humor than anywhere else.  This might be what explains the constant teenage like behavior.  I can't say I'm specifically imune either.  I enjoy when weighty matters are dealt out like rubber swords and I laugh, and upon being confronted with other's more thoughtful reactions I wonder--"why so serious?"

Big Man Japan
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: Oh So Shiny

I really love this trailer for the movie Big Man Japan, it is now on my Netflix list and I am sehr excited!

 

What exactly have I been doing?
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: Seriously

I'm not sure the Bean really ever recovered from the sporadic posting over the holidays.  I do like to have a post for every work day, even if they only hit RSS readers on Wednesdays.  I am trying, but my normal writing routine has been thrown way off.  Why, you ask?  I have finally hit my second wind on my language learning.  For any of you who may think this sound familiar, let me outline how my self instruction usually plays out.

• Firstly, I become absolutely obsessed with lots of energy, goals and dedication.
• If I'm serious about what I'm doing I might not have a few lazy nights where-in I have to force myself to stick to my plan--it takes three weeks to build a habit, they say.
• Eventually, kicking myself in the butt a couple of times will actually commit me to it.
• But then there will be a vacation, or overall upset that will keep me away from my chosen study for long enough that I totally get over feeling guilty for not doing it.
• And then it is like starting all over again, except that there is an added task of review that makes it all the easier to avoid.
• Enter the second wind--if I manage to get this far I am obsessed all over again and overfill all my free hours with study.

Like I mentioned in relation to the iKnow site, the in class practices of guilt and reward for work make this whole sequence fade away into a simple follower mentality.  We are never taught to teach ourselves, and so it is often ridiculously hard to do so.   While I am still so very satisfied with I know!, even after they admonished me for not studying often enough, I have been playing around and researching other online options that would give me a variety of inputs like tutorials, writing and correction, reading comprehension, chat and friends.  

Oddly enough many of these sites, especially the social ones, are in beta mode just like I know! (now Smart.fm).  

• http://www.babbel.com/ --(European languages) although I am constantly given the message that tutorials in German are not yet available, I enjoy the vocabulary lists and quizzes that are available.  This is my favorite of the sites I have tried to get my German on, but it still doesn't compare to iKnow course ware.  Where it far exceeds is in the socialization (I probably say that because I made a friend).  Babbel allows you to ask others for help and make language exchange connections without forcing it.  I quite enjoy the requests I get to check someone else's English work, even if I never exchange with that person again.
• http://www.palabea.net/ --BETA (European languages) focused primarily on getting you in direct contact with a language exchange partner or a language school.  I was unimpressed with the few study aids that were offered, but this is in Beta, so its bound to develop further. One small detraction is that there is no way for a user to delete their own account--this is a pet peeve of mine.  I have tried out a lot of social networking sites and I find that the ability to remove myself on my own is comforting even if I never use it.  On the other hand, the help I got in this arena was very quick and accommodating.
• http://busuu.com/ -- (European languages) mix of vocabulary list/lessons, mini quizzes and texting with native speakers.  I am somewhat irked that I cannot complete a list/lesson without posting on the forum and then texting with a native speaker. The mix of inputs is good I think, but shouldn't be forced. There are also a couple of features for paying members only, that I can't report on, because I'm cheap.  ***UPDATE:  I may be completely hooked on Busuu  now.  The writing requirement for the lessons just took some getting used to and I found a way to get past the chat.  Eventually I will try this as well.  Two things now have me hooked.  I made a friend, and for each lesson set completed my little garden picture filled out more and more.  I'm all for the intangible and symbolic rewards, and getting those email notifications that I have a message waiting for me gets me on the site often--which just leads to doing more lessons.
• http://www.mangolanguages.com/main -- (European languages + Brazilian, Greek, Russian, and Japanese)  Mango offers free introductory lessons, but requires membership for anything further.  The lessons are much like what you might get from listening to Pimsleur with written accompaniment.  There is very little interaction and a lot of repetition.  Consequently this would be a good way to start if you had no prior study in a language.  
  
• http://www.phrasebase.com/english/ -- BETA (Large language selection) This is a forum focused social learning site.  There are areas for web classrooms and lessons that are, as yet, not fully developed.  The phrase and word lists have promise but are also not complete.  However, unlike some of the more structured sites the words and phrase lists are open for user alteration.     
• http://www.livemocha.com/ -- (Many languages) this social community records your progress and interaction with a 'mocha points' account.  Slick internal design including the ability to create personalized flashcard sets to use and share with other language learners.  There is a writing portion to the exercises much like Busuu, although, I think it is a bit more difficult.  It certainly took more agonizing from me.  Also included in the lesson plans is a verbal section where other users can listen to your pronunciation and give you tips.  This is both awesome and problematic.  I know nothing personally about my computer mic set up and so have not completed this part of the lesson.  I think it may be worth a good headset, though.

There are, of course, several non-social sites with excellent language material as well.  Here are some that I picked up along the way--if you have any that you like, please let me know.  So many of the open access college pages are great references but do not index well in Google Searches.

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/--I don't know about you but I love the BBC online--the history, the news, everything!  So of course, I was tickled to find they had a languages area as well.  They do not represent all the languages you might want to study but it is worth stopping here to see if they've got what you are looking for.
• MIT OpenCourseWare--has a hefty list of online tutorials and study guides on a fair few languages and the cultures that go with them.
• http://www.internetpolyglot.com/--advertized free language lessons online. I haven't yet completely explored here, but browsing through, I see a lot of extensive vocabulary lists with sound functionality for a very large range of languages. 
• http://abacus.bates.edu/~kofuji/ --A Bates University Japanese course with excellent materials lists the way only Academia can build them.
• http://www.about.com/ --has loads of pages on Languages as well.   I have mainly used the page for Japanese (http://japanese.about.com/) and it is really wonderful. 
  
• http://jisho.org/ --Japanese phrase and Kanji dictionary.  This seems to be the best online Japanese/English dictionary there is out there.  It is not always so good with full sentences, but indispensable for Kanji meanings. 
• http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/dings.cgi?lang=en;service=deen --German/English, German/Spanish, German/Portuguese dictionary.  I believe it was created to primarily serve German speakers learning other languages, which is most likely why its such a good dictionary for English to German.  Although more focused on certain languages, the best course work and dictionaries I have found were not originally made for English speakers learning other languages, but for the other way around (like iKnow). 
  

Doomed MovieThon's Chow Down
Mood:  happy
Topic: Seriously

 

It is finally here!  Richard Schmidt of DoomedMovieThon has released his "Chow Down:" a Stephen Chow marathon review spectacular.   I was there for it, and it was a wonderful movie-thon--amazingly devoid of moviethon hangover.  I still find it hard to gush over Stephen Chow without sounding like a fan lunatic, but I have made some previous attempts.  Please read the awesome article, and maybe you will understand how the greatness of this comic/actor/director.

Previously on the Bean:

News that makes me happy:  beauty and the commedic genius

Stephen Chow