Sadako

Just re-watched my RWBY DVD, and spent the whole time wishing I'd bought it on Blu-Ray instead, lol.

It's basically an anime about socially awkward young girls going to an academy where they learn how to explode monsters with extremely improbable weapons, like sniper scythes and revolver rapiers and shotgun gauntlets. It's done by Rooster Teeth and directed/animated/everythinged by Monty Oum, so the fight choreography is totally sick, and I pretty much love the entire cast and their crazy, nonsensical weapons.

If none of these fixes get your system limping, you can just pull out the HDD and keep it in an enclosure.

If the problem is a mobo issue, then you really are better off skipping the repair shop and just buying a new computer, since that's what you'd be doing if you got it fixed anyway--replacing a mobo that old means you have to replace everything else, too, because it won't be compatible. Might as well just pull out the hardware that will still be useful (on a 10-year-old computer, that's probably only your HDD, but I don't know what you might have put into it over the years) and use it in your next computer.

It's warm enough to have melted all our snow from a week or so ago, and for the roads to have dried up, so I'm no longer housebound. Yay!

Alright, I'll keep an eye on this thread.

Anybody else need Japanese help? lol

Fairly recently--it was actually put together in the span of a few months. The script was translated by a team of 5 Navajo in 36 hours, auditions for roles took place in the Navajo Nation over the May the Fourth weekend, and it was screened on the 4th of July. THAT'S efficiency!

They originally only had a limited printing of 1500 DVDs, sold only at the Navajo Nation Museum gift shop, and they sold out in one weekend. (Since there are over 170,000 people living inside the Nation, that's not really a surprise.) Just a few weeks ago, the Navajo Nation, Wal-Mart and Fox struck a deal to reprint the DVD and distribute it in about 30 Wal-Marts on and near the Rez, so I had a copy shipped from Arizona to my local Wal-Mart.

I am now in possession of a copy of SW in Diné (Navajo). According to the box, there's no Navajo subs; it's just a Navajo dub track added to the SE version of ANH.

I know I saw the prequel films in theaters in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska...and most of them have been closed down and are now replaced by the Lincoln Grand Cinema and parking garages.

...Including the Starship Nine, our dollar theater where I had most of my childhood moviegoing experiences. 

http://www.cinematour.com/picview.php?db=us&id=11498

I'm sure I would have seen one of the prequels as a second run there...but honestly, one of the only things I remember from my theatrical viewings of Star Wars is that Episode 2 was one of the only movies where I ever actually got up during the movie to go to the bathroom because I was so confident that nothing interesting would happen in the time I was gone, and I remember Yoda bouncing around like the tennis ball on a stick he really was on the set that all the actors had to pretend was a puppet voiced by Frank Oz.

(However, I do remember the first time I saw any Star Wars movie--I was in 3rd or 4th grade, and Episode IV was being shown on TV, and my mom made me watch it with her. It was an awesome bonding moment.)

So Lucas was secretly making The One this whole time?

Obi-Wan was as powerful as he was because he was just that good. He was strong enough as a Padawan to take out a Sith Lord, and that was when there were thousands of other Jedi still alive. Yoda was pretty much always as strong as he was, no matter how many other Jedi there were, and we don't see either of those two getting sudden boosts in power as Order 66 is carried out. Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Luke were all as strong in the Force as they were because it was fate/the will of the Force/whatevs.

The Force is something shared by all living things--at least it was, until Lucas made it into something genetic that could be inherited by special bloodlines of Übermenschen. But even that aside, there are plenty of other Force traditions in the Galaxy (some of which have even been canonized in the movies and TV shows, like the Witches of Dathomir), whose numbers didn't seem to be culled by the Empire. The number of these other Force users doesn't seem to affect the strength of the Jedi or the Sith. I don't think the Conservation of Ninjutsu applies to Jedi (or at least it SHOULDN'T apply). Otherwise, ANY Jedi could have been the Chosen One, as there would be no 'fate'/'will of the Force', and ANY Jedi could have defeated Darth Vader.

I'm wondering what specs a 10-year-old computer would have that would keep it still running at a satisfactory level nowadays--aside from the turning off issue. My parents are using a computer that I bought in like, 2009, and it is kept limping along by my constant attention. What wizardry is keeping yours alive?

(My Alienware had a similar issue, and it was hard-drive related. I also have some knee issues which stem from the same incident, since my laptop and I both fell down the stairs when I was running late for class one day.)

At the very least, Palpatine had read the Book of Five Rings.

The Jedi were much more appealing in the OT, where as far as we could tell, they were primarily a spiritual group of clever old guys who apparently practiced swordsmanship as a path to personal betterment--in contrast to the Sith, who only knew how to use brute force and treachery to get power, and used swordplay only to hurt others. PT Jedi, while very flashy fighters, don't seem to uphold that legacy. They're blind, and not even in that cool Zatoichi way. They're horrible detectives, on top of it--it doesn't seem like they're particularly good at anything, when the least they could do is be tragic heroes.

That line in AOTC about 'our powers are diminishing' almost seems like an attempt to explain why they're so lame, but it's a lame explanation in itself.

Sound in space is sometimes handwaved by creators as something that the ship's computer creates for the benefit of the pilots. I can buy that, I suppose...I mean, I'm already buying laser swords and FTL engines and a galaxy without paper.

Too much samurai, not enough Zen Buddhism, and the PT suffers for it.

Seconding Puppylinux. I keep Puppylinux (and Parted Magic) on a Help-I-Broke-The-Intermathing Emergency USB Stick. It'll be blindingly fast, compared to what you're used to. Just get used to single-clicking.

I heard on another thread that there may be need for someone who knows a bit of Japanese here? 

SilverWook said:

 Hi Sadako!

Would you be able to help out with translating a Japanese dub track?

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Monty-Python-and-the-Holy-Grail-1975-theatrical/topic/14138/

 I could probably help out. I'll pop on over to that thread, too.

All 20 of my images have been transcribed, transliterated, and translated. Where should I send these?

Alright, back to work~

My kanji dictionary hasn't seen this much use since my Classical Chinese class, lol.

I've hit the half-way point and I've got an early morning tomorrow, so I'm going to stop working for the night. I'll pick up again tomorrow afternoon, once I'm back from ochakai and lunch and everything.

Alright, I'll keep it as an .odt.

Kind of a bother, trying to translate and watch the ice skating, lol. It's easy to bang them out during commercial breaks, at least!

Alright, I'll get started on those. I'll transcribe the text from the screen into an .odt (or a .pdf, whichever you prefer), then have the translation beneath it. I'll include any translator notes, too, if you wonder about my interpretations, lol.

If anyone is still in need of a Japanese speaker for any project, my degree is in Japanese Studies. I'm sure I could be of assistance in a group.

But there ARE atheist churches--and I don't mean UU churches, or Scientology churches, or Buddhist temples. There are 'Sunday Assemblies' for atheists (a concept which was started by a couple of British comedians), there's the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, there's the followers of the Invisible Pink Unicorn, etc. But you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone attending one of those meetings claiming it's their 'religion', whereas Scientologists, for instance, WOULD claim that they practice a 'religion'.

'Atheist' is just a person's answer to exactly one question ('Do you believe there is at least one god?'), and doesn't tell you anything else about a person's beliefs. It doesn't tell you if they're a skeptic, or their politics, or their favorite sport, or what their ethical code is--same thing for 'theist'. That's how you can have atheists who also believe in ghosts, alien Elvis, or fairies at the bottom of the garden. Or theists who are One Percenter bikers, for that matter.

...And that doesn't even begin to touch on the quagmire that attempting to define 'religion' gets you into.

Liebhabers verbrannte, by Mozart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXYdcHqdmEM

Also, Climbing Uphill from The Last Five Years. And basically every other song from that show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvh3sSDBDag

When you come home to me

I'll wear a sweeter smile

And hope that, for a while, you'll...

Okay, thank you

Thank you so much

I'm climbing uphill, Daddy

Climbing uphill

I'm up every morning at six

And standing in line

With two hundred girls

Who are younger and thinner than me

Who have already been to the gym

I'm waiting five hours in line

And watching the girls

Just coming and going

In dresses that look just like this

Till my number is finally called

When I walk in the room

There's a table of men

Always men - usually gay

Who've been sitting like I have

And listening all day

To two hundred girls

Belting as high as they can!

I am a good person

I'm an attractive person

I am a talented person

Grant me Grace!

When you come home...

I should have told them I was sick last week

They're gonna think this is the way I sing

Why is the pianist playing so loud?

Should I sing louder?

I'll sing louder

Maybe I should stop and start over

I'm gonna stop and start over

Why is the director staring at his crotch?

Why is that man staring at my résumé?

Don't stare at my résumé

I made up half of my résumé

Look at me

Stop looking at that, look at me

No, not at my shoes

Don't look at my shoes

I hate these fucking shoes

Why did I pick these shoes?

Why did I pick this song?

Why did I pick this career?

Why does this pianist hate me?

If I don't get a callback

I can go to Crate and Barrel with mom and buy a couch

Not that I want to spend a day with mom

But Jamie needs space to write

Since I'm obviously such a horrible, annoying distraction to him

What's he gonna be like when we have kids?

And once again...

Why am I working so hard?

These are the people who cast Linda Blair in a musical

Jesus Christ, I suck, I suck, I suck, I suck

When fin'lly you come home to...

Okay, thank you

Thank you so much

I will not be the girl stuck at home in the 'burbs

With the baby, the dog, and the garden of herbs

I will not be the girl in the sensible shoes

Pushing burgers and beer nuts and missing the clues

I will not be the girl who gets asked how it feels

To be trotting along at the genius's heels

I will not be the girl who requires a man to get by

And I...

When you come home to me

I'll wear a sweeter smile... 

What's your response to atheists who are not skeptics (or to phrase it another way, people whose atheism is not informed by their skepticism), and believe in ghosts, Bigfoot, alien abduction stories, Nostradamus, water crystals, etc.?

I find them to be annoying blowhards, who think that religion is just another conspiracy, so they pat themselves on the back for wearing their tin foil hats when they walk past churches, so that super secret Catholic Technology they stole from Nikola Tesla can't brainwash THEM, no siree! They're SMARTER than that, man--it's just another way for The Man to keep us from knowing the truth about Area 51, man. You should read this Geocities page from 1997, it tells you all about how the Mayans knew this was going to happen, so they sank Atlantis and then shot JFK. Then you will have your eyes opened, man. It's like, whoa. Totally.