Tuesday, November 11, 2003

   Good things, good things

Well, the banners are (obviously) back up... so is the little dancing Vashu sprite thing... and for the moment, my server seems to be stable. My e-mails still seem to be in need of their settings fixed, but I'll just have to go do that myself sooner or later. Probably later. I'm lazy and I have an essay due tomorrow that I could have started a week ago... oh well. I'm a procrastinator. Buuuuut... *thinks* happy Veteran's Day, everybody. Love and peace. Now... for breakfast. *runs*

Comments (6) | Permalink

Monday, November 10, 2003

   *stabs*

Okay, obviously my server is still being evil and the banners and things aren't viewable. I'm not at home today (hanging out at a friend's house) so there isn't anything I can do at the moment - but I'll contact the hosting company as soon as I get home today. Evil... server upgrades have never taken this long >.<;;; At least my e-mail is back up... but all of my settings appear to have been reset. Damnit. Oh well... this is the first time the company has screwed up like this, so I guess I can forgive them - I've been with them for almost two years, after all ^.~ *grabs the neon-blue mallet of scary doom and grins evilly*

Comments (5) | Permalink

Sunday, November 9, 2003

Wow, I've been posting more than usual... Okay, you might have been noticing that the banners I made aren't exactly viewable at the moment. This is because my server is being glitchy (the hosting company I'm with was going to run an upgrade last night, but it got messed up, so they're trying again) so my website is temporarily down. This will affect anyone who is direct-linking to the images, but if you have saved the banner you liked to a server of your own, it won't affect you. This shouln't last too long, only a few hours at most. Ah, and while I'm here. Direct-linking to the banners is fine with me, I have ample bandwidth on my server ^.~ there's a good side to not getting a lot of visitors to my website, I suppose.

Comments (5) | Permalink

Saturday, November 8, 2003

   Hap-py! HAP-PY! O.O;

Weellll... *tweedle* eehee... Mom found Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door for sale at Blockbuster's for $20... eehee... and they didn't have it for rent, either... so... I am now the proud owner of a gently-used and very special certain DVD... ^_________^ ... *shrieks* ... sorry... Ah ahm jus' so happeh! ... o.o; To quote Invader Zim... "OHTHANKYOUyou'vedonetherightthingmytallestyouwon'tbeforgottenwhenIruletheuniverseokayBYE!!" ... or something to that effect... ^o^ eehee...

Comments (3) | Permalink

   Happiness...

I bought some good things last Thursday that I haven't had a chance to write about yet... *grins* Rehearsal on friday afternoon, then going off to work kind of left me with no real time to post much. Then midnight rolled around and I realized that if mom happened to find me on the computer, I would be met with certain death... ^.~ Anyway. I finally got the second Rurouni Kenshin DVD (curse my lack of money! >.<;), on which I watched the first three episodes... man, how awesome, hee... freakishly cool... anyway, I have Monday and Tuesday off from school, so I'm planning to do sort of a drooly anime marathon for myself today and tomorrow (Trigun, Rurouni Kenshin, and then I must go rent Knockin' on Heaven's Door! Must! Must!), then I'll sleep all through Monday (seriously. Go to sleep sunday night, wake up Tuesday morning), and on Tuesday my homework will mysteriously get devoured by some evil being from beyond (...>.>'...) and I shall get some writing done. I also need to make room on my walls somewhere for a new poster (well, actually, wall scroll) that I got... it's a cool one of Kenshin as the battousai, in the blue shirt thingy with two swords and before he got the scar... hee. It looks a little weird, though... oh well. If I find a better one, I can sell this one ^.~ Now... answer me this, my friends... why is it that raindrops but snowfalls?

Comments (3) | Permalink

Thursday, November 6, 2003

   Anime Theory Number One

Anime features all sorts of styles and colors of hair, anyone who's ever glimpsed any anime show on TV can tell you that. But, have you ever noticed that so many anime characters have hair that somehow is naturally spiky, floofy, or has some other unique way of defying the laws of gravity? Well, here is my attempt to explain this strange phenomenon. Brought to you by the Ketchup Advisory Board, and by Powdermilk Biscuits... Anime Theory Number One: Hair! The gravity-defying behavior of anime hair can be explained by the fact that anime hair naturally grows upward, unless inhibited by weight, clothing, or gel. This is demonstrated by the following exhibits: Exhibit 1: Vash the Stampede, of Trigun Notice the spikyness of the hair. It's blonde and it clearly isn't gelled, because it seems to have plenty of fun blowing around naturally in the wind and doing pretty things like that. And yet, it's spiky! No gel, and yet wonderful spikyness. Exhibit 1A: Younger Vash the Stampede Remember cute little child Vash? With the looong, blonde hair? Note that when Rem cut it short, all she had to do was comb it up to make it stand up. There is no evidence of gel being used to spike it up at any point in time. Exhibit 1B: Vash the Stampede as Ericks The "Ericks" version of Vash had longer hair than the ordinary red-coated spiky-headed Vash, which sort of flopped over. And yet, when Lina cuts it shorter, just as when Rem cut his hair early on in his life, there is no gel or anything needed to make it stand up - a bit of combing, and it seems to return to its usual spikyness. Exhibit 2: Spike Spiegel, of Cowboy Bebop Notice the poofiness. This is not, I say, the poofiness of a deliberate afro, or the kind of poofiness that it takes hours of... well, poofing, to attain. If you watch the series, you will notice, this man does absolutely nothing to his hair. There is no evidence of him making an effort to attain any certain looks, and he certainly doesn't use gel to make it stay how it is. Exhibit 3: Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky 4th, from Cowboy Bebop Ed's hair is quite similar to Spike's (albeit it's orange), and seems to follow the same principals. It's never really cared for, yet it remains so wonderfully floofy. In addition, no matter how long she keeps those goggle things on her head, her hair shows no sign of being affected. Exhibit 4: Kenshin Himura, of Rurouni Kenshin That is some seriously FLOOFY hair that this man has going on. Despite it's length, it still manages to be rather puffy; I think the whole world aught to be thankful that he keeps it tied back with something or other, or it might be able to devour a whole person or two. Watch out. Let it be noted that in the early stages of this theory, it may have been thought that anime hair actually is not responsive to gravity at all. This is not true - evidenced in both Exhibits 1A and 1B, as well as the following. Exhibit 5: Rem Saverem, of Trigun Notice how long her hair is. Quite long, and it also fails to defy gravity. This led to the inference that anime hair is affected by normal physics, especially because Rem clearly does not use gel to keep her hair from spiking or floofing - it blows around in the wind and seems to act much as non-gelled hair ought to. What keeps it from floofing? It's weight - thus, affected by gravity. Exhibit 6: Kaoru Kamiya, of Rurouni Kenshin Kaoru's hair exhibits much the same characteristics as Rem's hair in the above example - it's long and heavy, which prevents it from floofing. Exhibit 7: Chi, of Chobits Long, long, long, LONG hair going on in this example. Clearly, it is of sufficient length to prevent any floofing or spiking. It also may be possible that Persicoms intentionally have hair that is less prone to sticking up. So, then, how do other characters without significant amounts of hair keep theirs from turning into rabid balls of fluff or giant masses of spikes? The secret of short and sleek anime hair: hair gel. On to the examples! Exhibit 8: Meryl Strife, of Trigun Observe not only the shortness and the neatness, but also the unnaturally shininess of this woman's hair. How does she keep it from floofing or spiking? Liberal amounts of gel, which also accounts for the unusual shininess. Exhibit 9: Vicious, of Cowboy Bebop Here's a man with rather strange hair. It's rather chunky at first glance, not to mention that it doesn't floof or spike. The reason for all of this is, again, great amounts of hair gel. I think it's possible that in his youth he may have applied it improperly; notice how his hair is all clumpy and stiff? However, there do seem to be a few exceptions to the theory here. Going on... Exhibit 10: Faye Valentine, of Cowboy Bebop Short hair, and yet it doesn't spike or floof. I have two possible explanations, and these might also work together in some way. First, I think her hair is too thin to really do much except let it hang like she does; second, I think there must be some special anime hair shampoo that prevents floofing. I bet it's expensive, but it seems to do wonders... I want hair like that. Exhibit 11: San, of Princess Mononoke San's hair, though it seems to be a little fluffy, isn't nearly to the extreme that some hair often is. It's possible that moisture in the outside air keeps it from getting too poofy. Thus, Anime Theory Number One: Hair! is now concluded. I want your comments, so my theory may become more refined, and fun things like that. (My sincerest apologies to Prairie Home Companion and National Public Radio >.<; I looove youuuu! Don't sue meeee!)

Comments (7) | Permalink

Wednesday, November 5, 2003

   .... stuffy.

Well... first of all... I'm linking to the banners I made for THAT, just because I can, and because I'm happy that my site still exists. Scariness, I managed to exceed the disk space limit O.O; fifty friggin' megabytes, how could I go over that? Heh... well... I upgraded to the next hosting plan, so I now have 47 megabytes to waste. Diddly. Here be the banners. http://www.cucurbitalane.net/that1.png http://www.cucurbitalane.net/that2.png http://www.cucurbitalane.net/that3.png http://www.cucurbitalane.net/that4.png http://www.cucurbitalane.net/that5.png I'll probably make more in the future. And... what else was I going to say... oh, yes! Right... I wanted to inquire, if anyone would happen to know if/where I could get a Spike plushie? That would make me happy, indeed it would... Mm. Lastly. Managed to borrow the last Bebop DVD from my friend today... aw, man, it's so... tragically provocatively beautiful... *sigh* but I've ranted on that already in my LJ so I'll shut up now. Even though I'm still swooning over the greatness of the whole show (Note, I said "whole show," not just Spike. Really, it all is stunning. I consider Spike's good looks a bonus ^.~). So, then... nighty night all!

Comments (9) | Permalink

Monday, November 3, 2003

   Aww...

Aww, I feel so loved. ^.^ You guys actually like my banners? Hee... well, they were fun to make... Well, now that I know the story behind THAT... what fun. *grins* Yay, oh, yay, for the torture of bounty hunters and bounty heads... *grins and evilly hugs Vash and Spike* anyway... yes... I couldn't resist the little happy Vash sprite... heh... I'm a happy camper today. ^.^;

Comments (5) | Permalink

Saturday, November 1, 2003

Halloween and stuffs o.o

Happy belated halloween! I would have posted yesterday, but my halloween evening was taken up entirely by a wedding, for which my cello teacher, grandmother, and I performed the music for the processional. The wedding was really cute, and fun... I'll post pictures as soon as they're developed. Now... I found out more about my parts in Dracula! Not only am I the executioner, I am also a guest at a ball held by Ms. Wenstrom, and I'm the one who spreads the news about the ghostly ship arriving the night of the storm. Fun. As for the executioner, that part is going to be written into our script. So, it is likely that I WILL get to "execute" Count Dracula in the first scene. Oh, I am rather pleased with my lot in life at the moment. *torches things* by the way... what, exactly, is THAT? (ooh... double entendre...)

Comments (9) | Permalink

Thursday, October 30, 2003

Oh, yes.

I almost forgot. Fancy that. =.= My part in Dracula... I am... the executioner in the first scene (the group re-wrote the script as a whole, so it doesn't exactly follow the book or any other versions of the story). I have about... three lines? Well, at least I get to "execute" the Count... heh... I like fire... ... but... I would like to know why I got the executioner and not a different part. My same issue about the fan art picture things, I don't mind getting bad reviews or anything as long as I'm told what I did wrong. ... I felt like the readings I did for the parts I wanted went pretty well, you know what I mean? There were a lot of people who read but didn't really have much emotion. I'm not going to say that I thought I did better, it just didn't seem to me like they really felt what they were saying. *shrugs* Like I said... I just want to know why. Of course, Kline, our director/teacher/whatever, said for us not to be upset over what parts we didn't get and all that stuff, so I don't really want to approach him and ask. Still, a critique would be nice...

Comments (4) | Permalink