Author Archive for taro

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Umisho

Published on July 15, 2007 in anime by taro. Closed

umisho.jpgMaybe summer season sees the better shows. So far it hasn’t been too bad. This one here although not breaking any grounds in originality, I find quite entertaining. You’ve got the guy who’d had a childhood trauma thinking a mermaid tried to drown him in charge of the school swim team. So is it a sport anime? There’s a bunch of hot girls on the team, so is it a harem anime? Hard to really say. I can say I like the art, and the character designs kind of remind me of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, which is a good thing. And of course there’s fanservice. Fanservice can be a tricky thing, and in this case I think they got it right! So this show is a good example of a show doesn’t have to be very original to be pretty entertaining.

Moetan

moetan1.jpgAnd now we have an example of a show that is really cliched that is NOT very entertaining to me. I was interested in this as some of the Engrish examples from the print media I’ve seen from this was pretty classic. Having finally seen the 1st ep I have to say I’m dissapointed. It’s full of cliches and I can’t really take it. Sure there’s fanservice, of heavy lolita type. But they’re in high school. So if they look, sound, and act like gradeschoolers but say they’re highschoolers it’s alright? Are they trying to pull a USA translation edit? Yes, we all wear seifuku and carry school bookbags, but we’re in college, really! And to top it all off, the Engrish is NOT very “good”, or actually not horribly bad in the wonderful way I hoped.

Despair

Published on July 13, 2007 in anime by taro. Closed

Ah, my faith in anime is renewed. For a while I was getting mired in mass of ho hum anime, but lately there’s been enough good stuff that it has lifted me out of that funk. zetsubo.jpgThe latest discovery is “Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei”, I’d translate it as Farewell Doctor Despair, although more literaly it would be Goodbye Despair Teacher. Teacher would be more proper. This is another show that defies description into a genre. It is a school life thing I suppose. We have the ultimate pessimist teacher, and the ultimate optomist student. Of course they first meet outside of school, as he’s trying to commit suicide, or become taller. Nice art, very stylie, the skinny bowlegs will prob bother Dave, funny stuff.

Yotteko-ya Kyoto Ramen

Published on July 13, 2007 in Culture and Food by taro. Closed

Thursday dinner with the boys, decided to finally try out this ramen place in McCully Shopping center. The Asian skank and hooligan wannabe shopping center. The shopping center of profanity sounding eateries, what with “phuket”, “fook yuen”, “dong”. The shopping center of horrible parking. The shopping center of strange clientel going into the 7-11 (actually, I think that describes every 7-11). Set on the second floor at the very ewa end is Yotteko-ya. Continue reading ‘Yotteko-ya Kyoto Ramen’

Help me!

Published on July 7, 2007 in anime by taro. Closed

What the f?!?! My brain is melting!

potemayo.jpg Okay, so the next cycle of anime is starting up and one of the first I decided to inflict upon myself was this, Potemayo. Uh, how can I describe it? I like the watercolor like BG art. As you can see the chara designs are cute. But how can I describe it? It’s… like Binchoutan on acid. The chibi things are cute yet evil but cute. The OP theme ranks with the finest of brain melting cuteness songs. There’s a pooping yellow piyoko orb. Can’t resist… brain mush… need more….

Oh, and then there’s the promo video for Moetan. Good to see that Engrish education is going strong, reenforced with grossly underage fanservice!

moetan.jpg “Let’s go, you all!” No, really, click the thumbnail.

Past FX Work

Published on July 4, 2007 in car by taro. Closed

I’m going to catch up on past work I’ve done to the FX so I have documentation of what was done when. Between the time I started working on this post and now, the point has almost become moot, but it’s interesting to remember the history.

October 2006

Took delivery of the new FX and picked it up from Pasha Hawaii. Minor adventure. Needed a jump start, clutch was tricky, steering felt wierd, mother is loud. Drive carefully home, feel very self conscious as there are no plates. I stop at the satelite city hall in Hawaii Kai to take care of reg, then take it straight home. Continue reading ‘Past FX Work’

Royal

Published on July 2, 2007 in car by taro. Closed

On Sunday, not having an operational car, I skipped SCCA autocross, and instead got roused out of bed at 10 by a call to go on over to Musso Kustoms to help with them work on Tracey’s new old Dodge Royal(e). By the time I got there, Chuck and Jay had pretty much taken care of the bulk of work bleeding the brakes & pulling coolant hoses off. Cut! Not finding a close enough fit for the water housing, Jay cuts off the offending rusty end. Considering this was probably an original piece, it’s still in pretty good shape once the end is trimmed off.

Continue reading ‘Royal’

Car-ma, Intermezzo

Published on June 25, 2007 in car by taro. Closed

Got home, inspected FX. It’s not good. Seam Look carefully and you can see where seams are seperating on this section of the lower uni-body where the A-arm mounts. There isn’t enough deforming to be obvious, but it’s there. Turning the wheel to full lock it now rubs.  Rub This clinches it, I’m retiring this FX. I know there are cars running out there in worse condition, it’s even probably possible to fix this so it’ll be within reasonable spec, but I know it’ll never be right. I was hoping to get this car in really good running shape, but I’ve never been quite happy with it. The boys have discussed making a frankenFX by choping the front cut of original FX and grafting it onto this one. The original FX is actually very straight, no signs of any repair work, but it really is rusting badly. It might be a fun excercise. But no, I don’t intend to keep running this FX. Oh, and the door doesn’t close tight now and the rear door edge to frame gap has widened.

I’ve got a line on another one, so maybe this was a blessing in disguise.

Her insurance adjuster is coming down tomorrow to check it out, we’ll see what they say and what the outcome of this is.

Car-ma, The Sequel

Published on June 24, 2007 in car and rant by taro. Closed

What the F! Okay, about an hour ago I was sitting here working on my blog entry about past work on the FX. I heard something outside, I thought maybe some kid on a bike or something & didn’t really think anything of it. A few minutes later the door bell rings. Go to answer. Hmm, pretty cute local girl, wonder what she’s selling. Then she asks about the black car parked down the street. Um, yeah, that’s mine. Then she tells me she hit it. Aw geeze, tell her, hold on, I’ll get the insurance info. What the bleeping hell! Does that FX have “HIT ME” writen all over it?!

 Again?!I go out and see that the FX is pushed up onto the curb. That doesn’t look good….

I’m fairly speechless. You know, I was only kidding about if someone hit the other door, then I’d have enough money to buy another whole FX from the mainland. Getting closer, I’m expecting the worst, but it’s not quite that bad. But the wheel is turned in. I don’t usually turn my wheel in to park here. My habit is to turn in where I feel the front starting to rise up the curve of the gutter, then turn back to straighten out so the car is pretty much as far to curb as possible.

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I’m not happy but things are civil. We exchange info. Oo, ouch, that’s gonna smart for her nice shiny 2006 Lexus RX400. img_0690b.jpg 

Looks like things are under control so I go to straighten out the FX. F, the door won’t open. It unlatches & opens, but door won’t swing out. I climb in through passenger side and move the car. I’m expecting the girl to drive off in her Lexus, but then she reverses & stops. What gives? She gets out and explains that her steering isn’t working.  My parents came home from shopping while this was all developing and my mom comes over to see what’s going on. She finds a chunk of munged aluminum with a bit of chassis grease on the ground. Looks like some part of steering linkage, prob a joint of the steering shaft. Wow, junk, LandCruiser that isn’t!

The FX seems to move ok, unknown if suspension , steering, or wheel is damaged. Will have to find out. Hmm, am I going to have to rush to ABC tomorrow and get the other door and fender? And damn, if I get it repainted, am I going to have to have it painted International Orange?! Just what is going on with this car?!

Car-ma

Published on June 23, 2007 in car by taro. Closed

Must have done something right, the car deities were smiling upon me today. Much thanks go out to Troy who called me in the morning with the news that a fellow Toyotaite, Malcom, called him to tell him that there was a FX16 at ABC Used Auto Parts. A chance like this wasn’t about to happen here on this island again, so I got on the horn and recruited Jay to ride shotgun. Picked him up after lunch and headed out to Pearl City. Darn hot, but that’s better than a spoogefest. Jay spotted it first, tucked behind a few cars, but sitting in a nice clearing.

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Continue reading ‘Car-ma’

Enchiladas

Published on June 20, 2007 in Culture and Food by taro. Closed

This past saturday was enchiladas at Wayland’s, and booty from Hokkaido from Dave.

tequila!Since it seems to be Mexican food, we start off with shots of tequila. Honest, I didn’t drink before taking this shot, much. Needed some snacky bits to go along, so Dave busted out the salmon jerky from Hokkaido. Good stuff!  Complete with Engrish! Actually grammatically the English on the packaging was pretty good, just um, ornate.

salmon

Yes, the print is impossibly tiny: “when the high northern sky clears to a perfect light  higher than in any other season  salmon which have survived a long long sea journey return with unrelenting determination  Never daunted by raging torrents  toward the river of their birthplace  salmon are swimming with heartfelt devotion  their silvery scales glistening  What vitality and mystery they are filled with!  A last salmon struggle along in their birthplace  an unending goal throughout their pilgramage  spawn a large number of eggs and then exhaust their remaining energy  only to be carried away by a stream”

Anyway, the enchiladas came out yummy, the Hokkaido craft beer tasty, the rest of night was pretty mellow. All the pics at: http://www.studionewmedia.com/gallery/v/Waylands/2007June16/

 

And speaking of Engrish, was eating dinner tonight and found some. Everyone who comes to the table with a good health deserves a smack.

smack!

I’m maui bound for work tomorrow, at least I won’t have chickens waking me up ungodly early