You Have Control!

[psst! Now you say “I have control!” in your best Engrish, to gain control of the giant robot we’re piloting.]

Yeah. Today Marin and I got called into work as cheap manual labor to clean out the back room in preparation for some remodeling on Monday. We didn’t mind, though, because we got doughnuts afterwards…we’re easy to please, in that way. I wasted the afternoon away by checking out the AOD forums and setting up Eudora (now at version 6) to start checking my OSU mail account again. (I switched OSU email to Apple’s Mail program when OSU switched to IMAP, and Eudora’s IMAP support was somewhat spotty. Though I really doubt anyone cares.)

I’m thinking of picking up a copy of Joseph Campbell’s Hero of a Thousand Faces, as it seems like it might be an interesting read—and might be a fun framework to help build my own crazy tales. I’m not quite sure why I think I can write crazy tales, but it should be fun to try. At least my writing would be more-or-less technically correct, even if it wasn’t interesting—which couldn’t really be said of most other creative endeavours I might undertake.

In some ways, this is probably just another thing I’m using to try and put distance between me and that linear algebra book I really need to start reviewing. In other pre-academic news, I just looked at my fall-term schedule and so now know what my other math class is: computational number theory. I’ll let y’all know what it’s about once I know what it’s about. Which should be sometime late September.

Oh yes! One aspect of Strawberry Eggs that I forgot to comment on last night was the relatively large number of extras that were included on the discs—most notably unscripted audio recordings of the cast goofing off as the characters of the show. Another extra, and the reason I mention this at all, was a compilation of the various commercials used to promote the show. The first couple featured a boy handing a girl a note (ostensibly a love letter) and walking off, followed by a close up of the girl biting the paper. (???) Another one featured the gal sitting alone with her lunch on a hillside. She looks down her shirt, and then pulls a bagel out of her lunchbag and stuffs it down her shirt. Then someone walks by, she freezes, and the commercial cuts to some text of when the next show will be aired. (?!?!)

Those crazy Japanese.

The new show of the evening was Betterman, a show that features an odd mix of comedy and horror. [As a result of finding that link I’ve also learned that BetterMAN is “a tested, all-natural Chinese herbal supplement formulated specifically for American man,” and BetterMan is a “male improvement community.” Stupid internet.] Horror is a genre not usually explored in anime, and as I have a perverse affection for horror movies (and an incredibly stupid sense of humor), the show plays to my weaknesses. It’s interesting to watch typical horror-movie conventions—close-ups that don’t give you a sense of what is occurring around the character, unsettling camera angles, unexpected noises—adapted/adopted in an anime. The “you have control!”/”I have control!” bit at the start of this entry was, of course, ripped straight from Betterman. The show, you pervy scum! (“Pervy scum” comes to you courtesy of the Love Hina manga, FYI.) Get your mind out of the gutter.

 

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