December 25, 2024
Winter, 2025
So I'm checking out the LiveChart anime listings (Link in the sidebar, it's super useful), and it looks like it's going to be a really grim season for you if you're sick of Isekai. It looks like there's more Isekai than even high school soap operas. And some of them are so lame, even the presence of a Catgirl or two isn't likely to save them.
First of all, it's good I checked the OVAs page, because there's a 13th episode of the final season of Beastars coming out. And WTF? I missed the third season? Kind of, it started December 5th. Batches are out of 1-12, but I guess #13 is going to be a surprise.
Judging by my backlog for the fall season, I've chosen way too many shows to follow.
Okinawa de Suki ni Natta Ko ga Hougen Sugite Tsura Sugiru "OKITSURA: Fell in Love with an Okinawan Girl, but I Just Wish I Knew What She's Saying"
"But Mauser," you might, possibly be saying, but probably not, "I thought you hated High School romance anime." Thank you for noticing, but I'm kinda curious about Okinawa. (Although I didn't watch the show about Gals from Hokkaido).
Re:Zero Continues. Beastars concludes, as I've already mentioned. And a new Fate series, "Fate/strange Fake" starts.
The Isekai plague continues. Some of these look SO stupid, I'm only giving them a chance because Catgirls. But I may finally commit to actually dropping some of these.
The champion of stupid-looking Isekais:
Arafo Otoko No Isekai Tsuhan Seikatsu "The Daily Life of a Middle-Aged Online Shopper in Another World" Holy crow, I didn't think they could get any dumber. Middle aged guy ends up in an isekai, but he can open a window to an online shopping store and get anything he wants, instantly, with no apparent limit (One preview video has him summon a flatbed truck in the middle of the village! Hope they sell gas.). Has two cat girls, but their designs are pretty awful too.
Salaryman ga Isekai ni Ittara Shitennou ni Natta Hanashi "Headhunted to Another World: From Salaryman to Big Four!" Guy gets Isekaied and because of his business acumen, he straightens out the Demon Lord's army.... Where have I seen something like this.... Oh yeah, that one where the hero quits heroing because the people are afraid of him, and joins the Demon Army he destroyed (In disguise). Yuusha, Yamemasu. Only with a boring Salaryman in the lead instead of an ancient demon-destroying Android who wants to die. Still, there's a beast girl of some kind, however, the love interest is a tsundere red-haired demoness.
Speaking of Demons...
NEET Kunoichi to Nazeka Dousei Hajimemashita "I'm Living with an Otaku NEET Kunoichi!?" A Businessman is being targeted by Demons, but there's a pink-haired Demon Fighting Ninja here for the rescue! But after she signs up to stay with him to protect him, she basically ends up bumming around his apartment, mostly gaming, occasionally fighting, and attracting other ninja who want to fight her or study under her or whatever. Could be dumb fun, or just dumb.
And Straight Fantasy:
A-Rank Party wo Ridatsu shita Ore wa, Moto Oshiego-tachi to Meikyuu Shinbu wo Mezasu."I Left my A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths!" Red Wizard leaves his party because of being mocked (Seen that before) But he was good enough he had three hot female students who party up with him. (Hey look, another hot redhead in armor with a ponytail.... But you know which one I'm there for.) Maybe it will be good, they've committed to two consecutive seasons.
S-Rank Monster no "Behemoth" dakedo, Neko to Machigawarete Elf Musume no Pet toshite Kurashitemasu "Beheneko: The Elf-Girl's Cat is Secretly an S-Ranked Monster!" So it's not an Isekai because he's a fantasy warrior and reincarnated into the same world - as a kitten-like cub of a fearsome beast. He gets adopted as a pet to a busty elf-maiden warrior. There's also a cat-girl and other non-humans in the party. And apparently lots of steamy bath scenes, and if you know where to find it, another version where the steam isn't so opaque.
Speaking of elves:
Nihon e Youkoso Elf-san. "Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf!" Basically Food Pron and Fish-out-of-water stuff. Seems to be very similar to the Chotto dake Ai ga Omoi Dark Elf ga Isekai kara Oikaketekita "Yandere Dark Elf: She Chased Me All the Way From Another World!" show in the Spring season, only more wholesome. Apparently the boy hero Isekais in his dreams, and when he gets killed by a dragon in his dream, instead of dying in the real world (which would make for a very short story) he wakes up with the elf who was killed with him in his bed.
And one OVA:
"Make a Girl" Scientific Genius hits the equivalent of Writer's block, and his buddy suggests he get a girlfriend, so he builds a robot girlfriend. As time goes on, she develops her own emotions that are in conflict with her starting program, and she needs to resolve what she really feels.
"Make a Girl" Scientific Genius hits the equivalent of Writer's block, and his buddy suggests he get a girlfriend, so he builds a robot girlfriend. As time goes on, she develops her own emotions that are in conflict with her starting program, and she needs to resolve what she really feels.
Maybe I'll have a chance to catch up. While Beheneko starts in two days, some of them don't start for two weeks.
Thoughts?
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December 15, 2024
Anime Meme Post on Substack
Big ol' bunch of Anime memes: https://drmauser.substack.com/p/memes-5-anime-memes
Because images are a hell of a lot easier to post on Substack than here.
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December 06, 2024
Have another one of these...
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December 01, 2024
Droning on...
I have a co-worker who is really into FPV drones, and he's infecting the rest of the crew with his interest. I kinda got the bug too. Although I've been curious since I saw my first quadcopter in the early oughts at the Seattle Robotics Society. Naturally the FAA has quashed and regulated the shit out of those early heydays, but on the other hand, Consumer drone technology has really, er, taken off. The only thing you need to worry about are the fly-by-night Chinese imitators. Who unfortunately seem to dominate the marketplace. So now the wild west aspect is buying one without getting ripped off.
DJI is a pretty safe bet though. Except the only way to not pay through the nose is to buy through some reseller on Amazon over the official site. The other caveat-emptor factor is choosing the model wisely. DJI's model numbering scheme with a few SE's and Pro's thrown in does not form an even continuum. But the safest way to go is with the Mavic/Mini line, which being under 250 grams, frees you from a bunch of registration requirements, but still benefits from a lot of DJI's remarkable software. (The current models in that line are the Mini 3 and Mini 4K.) The Mini 4 Pro is over the limit, and hundreds of dollars more, but has a full suite of obstacle avoidance sensors and follow capability. Models over the limit are also required to have a Radio ID (RID) transmitter that broadcasts the location, serial number, and YOUR location. The Mini 3 and 4K are capable of doing this if you use the extended battery that takes them over the weight limit, which requires registration, and then you get into a weird legal state if you switch back to the light battery....
Right. So. For me, the big issue was, will the DJI Fly software run on my no-name phone that isn't on the compatibility list, and the answer is, it seems to. (alas, the simulator that is part of the separate DJI store does not appear to work. It loads to 95% and then punts back to the store.). The reason is that the Mini 3 comes with the controller that has a built in screen. But that also makes it a couple hundred more expensive. If the software worked with my phone, then I can save by going with the Mini 4K. There's also the matter of the "Fly More" package that includes 2 additional batteries and a sequential charger, and a carry case. It is not a terrible deal, and gives you a theoretical total flying time of 93 minutes.
The original list price of the Mini 4K package was $299. Amazon resellers brought that down to about $239, But I wanted the extra batteries etc, so the Fly More set ended up being $279 with tax free shipping... a rip-off...
... from China. From a company with a ridiculously long name that hasn't been on Amazon long enough to have ratings, but seemed to be the only one with the product.
So that's gonna take a couple of weeks. Of course, one thing not included was a powerful USB-C wall wart to RUN the multi-charger. You want one that supplies 18W or better. I found a cheap 30W one. Amazingly, there are devices out there that will send 100W down a USB line. You're not going to be recharging the batteries on your computer. I'm just surprised that one isn't included, but apparently the packages are universal.
The last thing I had shipped via China Post was the replacement WiFi module for Etna. It arrived and it works, but they have no tracking on it and Amazon still thinks the package might be lost, and I can't even find a way to say I got it.
At least I can read the manual while I wait. And take the FAA's "TRUST" certification test for recreational flyers, and learn about some interesting airspace maps you can access now.
Oh, and that multi-charger is an interesting bit of kit. If you only got the single battery, you had to charge it in the drone. With the Fly More kit, the charger has three slots for batteries (The original and the two additional) and it charges them sequentially, prioritizing the one with the most charge on it. And then for extra fun, it can ALSO be used as a power bank with the USB A jack on it (The only USB A anywhere in the ecosystem....)
Oh, and as you might have guessed, the extraneous K in the model name cleverly indicates it has a 4K camera. Photography is generally my interest in drones anyway (That and inspecting my eaves for wasp nests). And they've packed a lot of tricks into it. (The big extra feature in the Mini 3 and the 4 Pro is they can flip the camera sideways for portrait format video for instagrammers, and gimbal the camera up more. The pro has all the smart following stuff too). There are a lot of YouTube videos about what you can do with the camera on this drone, and it's pretty impressive.
If you're curious, here it is on Amazon (Affiliate link) and here it is on DJI (No credit for that) (And yes, that link says Mini 2 SE, but the page is updated).
edit: I killed the affiliate link. The seller on Amazon was a scammer. I managed to convince the Indian on the other end of the chat that the tracking number was meaningless, and I didn't have to wait until the 26th to ask for a refund. Once I got him to actually check and see that the seller had been deleted from Amazon, he gave me a refund. But then I looked at the new seller, and the new price ($359) which is the same as the DJI site, I noticed THAT seller had a pretty low rating. So off to full retail I go.
$359, plus tax, with free express shipping. But it's not More, because I shouldn't compare it to the too-good-to-be-true-and-it-wasn't price. I'm just glad I caught on so quickly because I was looking over the Amazon page in order to write this.
Blogging kept me from getting ripped off.
$359, plus tax, with free express shipping. But it's not More, because I shouldn't compare it to the too-good-to-be-true-and-it-wasn't price. I'm just glad I caught on so quickly because I was looking over the Amazon page in order to write this.
Blogging kept me from getting ripped off.
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November 24, 2024
It's unbelieveable 2
Somehow, I am now about 4 episodes behind on everything (Almost, but 5 series for sure) How did this happen?
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November 10, 2024
Gun Memes
Just posted a ton of my own original Gun Memes on my Substack.
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November 03, 2024
SCORE!!
Just got back from grocery shopping at the Mart of Walls. And SCORE! Totally unexpected in the DVD section, a BABYLON 5 BOXED SET! Having heard of how bad the semi-pirate ones you find on Amazon are, and once suffered from a BitTorrent that some "Clever" guy thought he could compress by speeding the episodes up, I'm looking forward to an official re-release. $60, and worth it, I'm sure.
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Shamisen Rock
More!
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Micro-computing
One thing I did to help pass the strike-time (which frankly, I wasted with extreme profligacy) was pick up an Ardruino Uno R3 project board and kit from Eligoo, along with the extra 37 sensor pack. And since then I've been slowly working my way through the tutorials. Which isn't so much tutorial as connecting the wires and running the example code. Although occasionally I would edit them a bit.
I hit a hitch though when it turned out that one of the examples was bogus. After doing the one that ran a simple 7 segment display using an extra 8-bit latch chip, the example that ran the 4-gang 7-segment display didn't actually light up each digit differently and strobe through them, it just ran them all in parallel. Eventually I found someone else's example which skipped the latch chip (which, unfortunately consumes more pins) but I made it work.
It was also around this time I discovered water damage and possibly a little black mold in the basement drywall (Could just be dirt though, there was some mud-like buildup on the concrete below). I traced the source and discovered the dishwasher was leaking through a little tiny seal around the shaft that opens the drain valve. It only leaks about two ounces of water per load, so it never became visible under the dishwasher. I might have never noticed the problem if they had not stopped the vinyl flooring just under the front of the machine. Instead, it soaked the particle-board underlayment in a well defined pool, and eventually made it through the OSB flooring into the wet-wall of the laundry room downstairs. I'll deal with the damage later. The leak was addressed with a couple of YouTube videos and a minor parts purchase on Amazon. The actual part installation should have been simple after I got the machine out, but one minor mistake turned it into a major undertaking, as the shaft the drain valve plate rotates on came out, leaving the plate rattling around inside the pump housing with no way to take it out. Still, I eventually prevailed. And I tossed an old cookie sheet under the dishwasher just in case, but it's really not necessary.
But the reason for that roundabout story is that to get from an $11 parts kit to free shipping, I picked up a few more toys to hook up to the Ardruino. a set of three 32x8 grid LED displays and 5 of these microscopic <1" 64x128 OLED screens. The funny thing is, the chip that runs the 8x8 units (4 of which are daisy chained to make the 32 LED length) was originally designed to run 7 segment displays (plus the decimal point). And theoretically, all three units can be daisy-chained together to make something like one of those scrolling displays you see in some stores. There are code libraries that can make these displays do all kinds of tricks. the OLED displays are just pure bit-addressable space. But again, there are Arduino libraries already written to do sophisticated graphics and fonts. It's almost too easy. It all worked the first time I hooked it up. And they each only use four wires.
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October 23, 2024
I don't watch the anime, nor play the game...
...but this is a thing:
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