I'm also favoring the new over the old with my anime-watching. That 10-series list from the Anime Iowa recap was pared down to 6, but two series have been added- .hack//SIGN, which seems too much like my kind of series to avoid any longer, and a new series called Zegapain. Nick recommended this one to me and from his description it's The Connection with mecha. Picture my MAXIS with a smaller CPU and limited ROM and you've got this world. And in spite of myself, I got the first volume of Pani Poni Dash (a series I deliberately avoided in the fansub stage) which is routine/random high school fun like Azumanga and Doki Doki and all them. It is, but it's nice and pointless and stupid and the manic-depressive bunny is a nice touch. Plus Becky actually acts her age, which was exactly what was so wrong about Doki Doki (Mika-sensei you lazy drunk!). So it's okay.

They somehow slipped through the couch cushions at my uncle's place in Chicago, and I didn't realize they were gone until we were halfway home. The keys themselves were recovered the next day and mailed back right away, and I had backup car keys, but the net result was that I was locked out of my apartment for a few days. As a result, no settling in and no access to any of my stuff. How is this good? No distractions, which meant I had absolutely nothing to do but write Level 3 at my parent's house. Thanks to the flash drive I got for Christmas (which would have been very useful for updating the site last year), I got the whole stage written and saved on the computer. Edited Friday, posted today, and we're one step closer to completion. While the lockout did prevent me from the promised EALA update, that too will come in the next week.

The real reason for the post (and the Haibane Renmei reference in the title) is that I will be moving to my own digs this weekend- from the parents' house to a renovated factory building with apartments too cool to describe. Apartment hunting and cutting through the associated red tape has been another major distraction to my fanfic, so it'll be nice to be on my own. The additional benefit is the peace and quiet needed to write and the fact that my computer will be hooked up directly to the internet- meaning more expedient website updates. While I'll almost certainly be putting up some Google ads or something (as the site is currently being paid for straight out-of-pocket), it will also mean I can update the moment the urge strikes me. Which is good because I just received some great EALA submissions that will be up soon. Finally, I'll also be able to chisel away at Level 3 and get that wrapped up. I hated making everyone wait too, but the first two stories weren't written while I was employed full-time. Stage seven is reaching its climax and stage eight will come very quickly with the holiday business over and the grand denouement staged almost completely in my head. So bear with me- I haven't let you down before!

(looks at title of post)

Oh... right...

On Survivor, with the whole ethnicity adding up to be a whole lotta nothing (especially since Team Whitey is quietly dominating), there hasn't been much to say either- same old business on the island. However, I keep watching, and I'm increasingly horrified at how many of the new twists and surprises seem to be in present in my upcoming Champion's Cup. I won't specify which ones exactly, but I've counted three events which I had considered fresh turns in CC that Survivor suddenly comes out with. Considering I had CC planned out two years ago, it's quite disheartening. At least Survivor won't have an Amazing Race leg stuck in the middle of it. I can count on that... right?

Why did I stop? Firstly, my "I don't do cosplay" gene kicked in about ten years before I knew what cosplay was. Most importantly- my mom always buys at least three or four bags of candy to distribute to trick-or-treaters. Since we live in a town of 700 and are isolated on top of a hill in a very uncrowded part of town, only the most dedicated of strangers and a few family friends bother to come up here. Meaning plenty of leftovers. In other words- why work for it? I always ended up with just as much candy as any other kid, without leaving the house! This attitude has prevailed all these years, even when I was on my own in Sturgeon Bay when my grandma sent me two bags of candy (and I didn't receive a single visitor). I brought up the subject with my mom a couple days ago when she bought another three bags this year (despite not having a single friend with kids under the age of 15). She confessed who the candy was really for.

Thank God for it too, because my Packers seem headed for another craptastic season after losing 26-0 (and thanks to some unfortunate spoilers I already know the result of the Devil Bats' game against the Spiders in my E21 scanlations). Without going into details, let's just say watching the action around the league is a completely different experience, especially with the live fantasy scoring on NFL.com keeping me engaged more than the TV. I spent a good hour Sunday staring at the screen hoping my Eagles' running back would out-gain the Eagles' wide receiver playing for my opponent (which, ultimately, he didn't). The team I drafted at AI did very well, dominating with a 100-60 win (naturally, that site doesn't have live updates and I didn't tinker my roster at all since draft day). The NFL.com team, the one I was staring at like a hawk for hours and had me dropping players, raiding the waiver wire, and making several trade propositions in the preceding weeks, lost 98-74. Yet despite the "if it ain't broke..." rule in full effect, I feel the itch to trade the Aliens' backup quarterback to the team I'm playing next week.

In the unlikely event that you're interested in joining me in the joys and agonies of the Aliens and Gunmen, I'll post their scores and records next to my MSN Messenger screen name- just add firstagentadam@hotmail.com to your Friends list. Drop me a line while you're at it!

The primary goal was to finish up the nine eps of Chrno Crusade I had left (considering I've been watching the series in 3-ep blocks for the last five months). Using some smart scheduling, I took them in three blocks, breaking up the tension with cult-favorite Haruhi Suzumiya in-between. Since I knew Chrno had a doozy of an ending, I thankfully had the foresight to give myself an hour of downtime after the whole thing (I don't think I've ever cried watching anime, but I came damn close here). Haruhi is as totally awesome as everybody says it is, although after seven episodes I'm a little concerned that I not only see why they show it out of order, I'm following along with it just fine. Rounding out the weekend were three episodes of Digimon Savers (which WtW is finally starting to release again), three episodes of the recently-acquired Narue (hardly top-20 material, but worth the $30), the first volume of Koi Kaze (pretty good- dead serious about the subject material while still finding ways to break up the uber-angst) and the first half of volume one of Kannazuki no Miko (some encouraging spots, but for the most part kinda blah- I'll give the rest a whirl if I'm ever bored again). This leaves me with just Haruhi and Narue to work on, and watching those two is no chore.

In the last couple weeks, the subject has come up again. One weekend I went up to Eau Claire to spend time with my No Brand buddies (and create three more Eyeshield 21 fans). On my way back, I took a detour to a Whitewater friend's graduation party. Not only do I go from No Brand mode to Whitewater mode, there's also the additional factor of being at a party with all of Scott's relatives. Not a challenge at all, especially when Nick and I join a game of "one bounce allowed" volleyball (it's gonna hit backyards everywhere!). The real kicker was this Friday when my uncle took a busload of friends and relatives up to Milwaukee to catch a Cubs game in Miller Park. With plenty of tickets to spare I invited Nick, a Brewers fan, to tag along.

After a planning escapade akin to the ones on my convention recaps (although blame goes to my area's lack of cell phone coverage and the ridiculous highway numbering in Waukesha), it was a great night (especially since the Cubs won 7-2). I found it a bit interesting maintaining both "Whitewater friends" mode with Nick and "family mode" around my relatives. While I typically shy away from exposing my true anime geekiness to the family, I could still discuss such stuff with Nick privately. Conversely, I was in open family mode and certainly not shy about my passion for the Cubs, inside jokes within the family (helped along by the fact that my absent brother is also named Nick), and the playful fighting between my sister and me (although I can't forgive her for taking a big spoonless bite out of my ice cream and leaving me to finish it). Chalk it up to the belief that as strange as we are, I consider that side of the family perfectly normal (as opposed to the rednecks on my Dad's side). Then again... I also consider the Miyazawa's in Kare Kano perfectly normal.

Quick Level 3 update, since you're dying to read it- yes, I'm working on it. I'm hitting the home stretch now, and it will definitely be finished before the end of the month, hopefully with a week or two to spare.

With the Packers going 4-12, Eyeshield 21 is directly responsible for helping me survive last year's football season. It may not be the most realistic football action, but the diversity of the teams and their strategies (and the fact that we actually get the dirt on most of them), and the occasional sprinkling of honest football techniques like the screen pass or bump-and-run coverage (CHARIOT BUMP!!) keeps me interested and engaged in some football action. Now that I've found Eyeshield scanlations, I'm still really deep into that, but now it's baseball season and the Cubs are coming off an atrocious month. I have no less than seven series in stock waiting to be watched, yet I have this strange desire to watch Princess Nine again.

Indisputably, Cirie saved this season of Survivor. Not only was her frank and funny attitude a hit, but her surprisingly sound strategy shook up the game when it desperately needed shaking up. Voting somebody off because they were an intriguing Final 2 opponent? That was smooth. Because of her, I was really happy with this year's Final Four, especially since there were worse tagalongs than Danielle. It was quite anti-climactic to see beloved fan favorites Cirie and Terry fall first, but definitely good strategy on Danielle's part. Terry actually lost favor with me towards the end with his stubborn insistence that he should have had the "heavy hitter on minority tribe overcomes all odds and wins" ending that he deserved. He *did* deserve it, mind you, but nobody likes a whiner. Besides, that outcome would have been too predictable, and the winner came from the minority tribe last year. Aras never pretended to be either the big hero or the psychotic villain, but I liked him. Ultimately, he was on top of the majority tribe the whole way, and as Colby, Boston Rob and Stephanie will tell you- it's really hard to pull out a win when leading the whole race.

Speaking of races, the Amazing Race finale was perhaps the single most satisfying two hours of television I've watched in a long time. This year's race took a big dive around episodes 3-5, primarily because of the epidemic of "needle in a haystack" challenges, the fact that obvious obnoxious villains Lake & Michelle were knocked out earlier than expected (I thought they were a lock for Final Three), and how Dave & Lori just didn't represent us nerds that well. Somewhere in the middle of Australia, it turned around big time. Joseph & Monica were edited into the villain roles (something I tried, and failed, to do with Yukino & Arima), the challenges turned downright nasty (preparing the food at the monkey temple and gold-leafing a Buddha statue were brilliant alternatives to the Extreme Sport model of tasks), and Ray & Yolanda emerged as a team that you couldn't help but root for (in spite of the fact that their travel skills left a lot to be desired and Ray never seemed to get comfortable in front of the camera). The last episode clinched it: not only did the race have a leg in Japan for the very first time (which is surprising in its own right), Tyler's love for the country and its culture (the way he spoke Japanese seemed inherently otaku to me) helped us enjoy a country which could have been portrayed as a nightmare for travelers. My only complaint was that they had cars the whole time, which definitely doesn't follow local culture. Despite the usual row of bunch points in the last leg to keep everybody even to the final city, I enjoyed the Alaska segment (first time up north since season 2) and I always find it appropriate when the final challenge relies on geography and memory of previous legs. Best of all, it was only fitting that the hippies won: while Eric & Jeremy were great racers and fun to watch, it just didn't seem right for them to win. This was BJ & Tyler's show, and for the second year in a row the overwhelming fan favorite won the million. Well done, gentlemen.

She's an expert at everything convention-related, and even ran the AMV contest in Tekkoshocon in Pittsburgh a couple weeks ago. While making my pitch for No Brand Con, she brought up what she saw as its main problem- it's crammed in-between Anime Detour and Anime Central and nobody in their right mind would attend two conventions in three weeks. My response- No Brand doesn't give a flying flip about ACen. Despite having about 3% of the attendance, No Brand considers itself better. It is.

After explaining this to her, she began justifying my viewpoint. She helps out at Anime Central and immediately delivered a laundry list of reasons why ACen (and a lot of other larger cons for that matter), are quickly heading downhill: A lack of new ideas- the bureaucracy involved with getting something new and creative is unfair. So few people are involved with Guest Relations around the country that every con gets the same list of guests that every fan has already met before, especially certain voice actors from the Texas distributors (especially now that ADV is spiraling downward like I had predicted two years ago). The conventions that are able to get new and rare guests, like AX and even SogenCon in southwest Minnesota, get a huge leg up. Finally, and this is what I had always imagined- the people who run large anime conventions quickly are corrupted by power and lose all interest in actually keeping things fresh. Somehow, this all just fits with what I was originally thinking.

Anyway, the smaller No Brand Con will have a Man Auction, a Variety Show, the premiere of a fan parody and a midnight screening of Hanzo the Razor. ACen will have... a war protest. Fun fun anime stuff, eh? If this causes a huge uproar and the con loses all credibility, you heard it here first. Remember- I called the fall of ADV!

As for creative works, I really hate keeping Level 3 fans waiting, but between this site, my AMV, and the newly-revived MST, delays are inevitable. I have about four pages written, but that doesn't add up to much when recent stages have topped twenty pages.

First off, there's the NCAA tournament. That's unnecessary stress right there- watching as your office pool bracket quickly disintegrates into worthlessness. As with every year, I'm already out of my pool, despite picking Northwestern State in one of my brackets. But it's the thrill that counts. The other big sports-related thrill is the World Baseball Classic. I know it's not getting as much attention as it should, but that Japan/United States game last week was amazing. As I always cheer for the underdogs, I've been rooting for Japan this year, and was so happy the U.S. choked against Mexico and allowed Nippon to sneak in there. How often do you get to hear the Hanshin Tigers mentioned on ESPN?

And of course, there's the Amazing Race, which went out of its way to up the stress factor in an already hair-pulling game. Besides the trip from tropical Brazil to frigid Russia, there was the communications barrier, the maddening doll Detour (I thought the funky music and Bolshevik dancing was a very nice touch) and the increasingly-present fake Pit Stop. It's never been done this early, but I must admit they picked a delightfully evil place to do it. My only concern is that the Russian tour again doesn't last very long. In my opinion, double-length legs should at least stay in the same country. Oh well, Germany's fun too.

I read during my lunch break, and over the last couple weeks I finally got around to reading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Now everybody reading this should know that my writing style varies wildly based on what I'm writing, along with other extraneous circumstances. Needless to say, Douglas Adams's style overwhelms and corrupts any hope of me writing my Takato angst. Instead, I'm writing two things that nobody is clamoring for- Champion's Cup (I'm on episode six; no soul besides me has even read episode five) and a novelized format of an old manga project a friend and I had been kicking around for the last few years. I haven't touched that thing in a year and suddenly get this burst of inspiration to write in this droll casual style that's usually reserved for my convention reports. Frankly, it has the makings of some of the best stuff I've ever put out, but that's besides the point! My current goal is to get the new stage of Level 3 up before No Brand Con, which constitutes an even *longer* delay than previous chapters. I finished Hitchhiker this week, but somehow I doubt that the Yotsuba& manga I'm reading now is going to get me back on track.

But the real fun was Tuesday... finally... a new season of The Amazing Race... not that fake flag-waving family filth they put out last season. Admittedly, it wasn't the strongest premiere episode, especially when it's a country they've been too before. The rain and traffic snarls also put a damper on what is usually a majestic debut. Then again, season six had a great first episode in Iceland and ended up sucking. Not that it was a bad start- the race hadn't been to Brazil since season two and some of the teams have real promise, particularly BJ and Tyler. There's a few downers- the "Ken and Barbie" team who will either flame out like a candle next week or sleep their way to the finals, this year's "alpha male & submissive girl" team in Lake & Michelle, and while I really want to get behind "nerds in love" Dave & Lori, they have yet to show any personality besides fawning over each other every ten minutes. If these guys are as geeky as they look, I want to see it! Anyway, for what may be the first time- the "race to avoid last" wasn't between a heartwarming team and a "meh" team (they were tied 4-4)... it was between two teams I really could do without. The "Frosties" and the... John & Scott. Just once, couldn't Phil pull a Donald Trump and eliminate both teams just out of spite?

Until now.

Last night, I inserted my first truly digital effect. It's not transparent (well... the effect itself technically is, but you'll notice it!), it's definitely non-linear (which is the term for editing on computers; linear involves two tape decks and/or a razor blade), and the most important criteria of modern-day digital AMV editing: IT LOOKS FRICKIN' SWEET! Considering I don't have After Effects, doing *anything* remotely frickin' sweet on Premiere gives me goose bumps. I'm totally pumped about it. I feel like watching a Naruto marathon and kicking a tree out in the backyard. Dammit!

I could say more about last week's Survivor episode, namely how the small tribes really helped us get to know the players better (and how the early shake-up shot that all to hell; I don't know who's who, much less who's where), how the schoolyard pick was pretty pathetic since nobody knew anybody and relied solely on physical appearance, and how this whole Exile Island thing will either keep things fresh and spontaneous or get really monotonous fast. But I won't. I'm working on my AMV. Having a website to host all my creations is nice and all, but the top priority should probably be working on said creations instead.

BTW, I know I told some people that my next video would be Haibane Renmei (and I logged the first volume of that a while ago). After discussing it with a couple of my friends, I'm going with Kino's Journey instead. I think my Kino video is a little more exciting for public screening, and there are already a ton of Haibane videos on the market (most of them a lot angstier than mine). I'm going with the underused series for now, although I plan to do the Haibane video later in the year.

Watching this with my Mom, the first strange observation she made about the new season was the name Misty. Apparently she didn't realize Misty was a genuine name and considered it odd. I, of course, know the name from other sources (not related to beach volleyball). Maybe it's her unfamiliarity with names shared by anime characters; the last time she commented on a strange name was at a Brewer game. The offender? Brewers pitcher Tomo Ohka. I, of course, was heckling him with my "Tomo-chan" chants. Anyway, we both immediately took a liking to Tina, especially after I placed her accent in the Wisconsin/Minnesota range. Yep- she's from Hayward, on the shore of Lake Superior. I was quietly wondering if a second Tina would become Sole Survivor. Naturally, she became the second Tina voted out first. This is also the second time a woman with Wisconsin ties went up against a sassy black woman for the first vote. It's now tied up 1-1, but just like in Palau (where Angie was spared in favor of Jolanda), it'll probably prove to be a bad decision.

• Anime Reality has 18 MB worth of scripts. Most of it unformatted HTML. No wonder I couldn't find a decent free host.
• Since I'm doing character pics for all of the stories on Anime Reality, I noticed that the more mainstream a series is, the harder it is to find a decent image. American cartoons and DBZ ended up being the hardest series to find good pics for. Pokémon wasn't a problem since I went to fanart site Pokesho.com. When looking for a pic of Tally for Roomies 3, the site I knew had a good picture was screwing up and not finding images beginning with the letter "T."
• Why did it take two months longer than expected to get the site up? "One game of Spider Solitaire to calm down, then on to the site." I've never seen a game that's as simultaneously addicting as it is frustrating.
• Okay, domain's registered, hosting's paid for, access codes received... all I need now is a decent FTP program. I downloaded three free programs- nothing would let me connect. Somehow, my old copy of NextFTP (which I've been using since 1999 on my old campus site), that reminds me that my evaluation period expired 5 years ago, works fine. I didn't even install it onto the new computer I'm using; I just dragged and dropped.