Tuesday, February 25, 2003

Tired

Very very tired the past few days... not sure why, but there are moments when it's all I can do to keep awake. Going to try and go to sleep earlier tonight (been doing reasonably well lately, in bed by midnight, up a 7am-ish). I don't think I managed to stay awake on Sunday for more then 3 hours at a time before taking a 30-45 minute cat nap. The EffexorXR withdrawal effects is about 90% gone, although when I'm really tired I can sometimes feel that tiger prowling around in the back corners. And the side-effects from taking the EffexorXR all those months has mostly cleared up (falling asleep twitches are exteremely mild in comparison to what they used to be, almost normal twitches except not as localized as they're supposed to be).

The lack of energy is the most daunting of the physical that I'm dealing with - it makes tackling the others much harder. Especially when I don't have the energy that I need at a certain point in time in order to make something come to pass. Not sure how lucid I'll be within a bout 15 min since I've just taken a sleeping pill (first one in a week).

Heard back from an old friend and the news was pretty much as expected, Magic passed away last fall but Oliver and Pica are doing fine still. Not sure where that contact will lead, but neutral ground is prescribed. Ended up sending back a response e-mail while I'm full-doped with the sleeping medicince... being hopefully a little bit clearer about what went on, yes mistakes were made, but nothing serious. Heck, compared to the majority of the couples out there, we had a pretty darn good relationship for a very long time. At least, until I started getting sicker and sicker from the disease that was hunting me.

Of course, the biggest change since now and then is that I'm letting my hair grow long (probably pony-tail length) and the beard grow out (needs trimmed up at the moment while the underside fills in), there's a possibility that I could walk right past her in a crowded room and she'd miss me LOL.

posted by Wuphon's Reach at 8:39 PM

DVD Burning Attempts

0 for 2 on creating DVD-Rs using the Veritas software, but 3 for 3 on writing to DVD-RWs as DVD-Rs using the Veritas software. However, it takes 55 minutes to write a 4Gb DVD-RW in DVD-R mode, while the DVD-Rs were writing in about 20-25 minutes (estimated). Tried 2 different types of DVD-R media (Maxell's orange label and Verbatim's DataLifePlus - both of which are 2x DVD-Rs), but have not tried scaling back the recording speed.

At the moment, DVD-RW media is pretty much the same price as DVD-R, so it's not a big deal to record using the DVD-RW media (plus, if I get a coaster on one attempt, I can turn around and re-burn it). Plus, the DVD-RWs are readable in my other 2 DVD drives here, so compatibility is fine.

posted by Wuphon's Reach at 3:56 PM

Morning Disorienting

Some days you wake up, sit down to breakfast... and draw a complete blank on just what it was that I wanted to get done today (or what projects I'm currently working on). Mugh, I think I need a 2nd cup of coffee...

posted by Wuphon's Reach at 7:58 AM

Monday, February 24, 2003

Boogiepop Phantom

Kind of a tough anime to slot, it's not your typical anime... but is more of a horror / hitchcock style. The first 4 episodes are dense with information that is not explained until an episode or three later (all of the episodes that I've seen so far are that way at least). Flashbacks to something shown in another of the first few episodes, or even stranger, you'll see something in an earlier episode which seems like a flash back to a future episode (flashforward?).

Well, since it's confusing me... I'm gonna have to start taking notes and keeping track (spoiler alerts ahead). First up are the main characters... according to the title animations, I count 3 or 4 main characters (as they are labeled in the title animations):


Miyashita Toka - Not sure where she fits in yet... but she goes to the same school as Nagi (unless there are two Nagi's...).


Kirima Nagi - Rides a motorcycle, is (was?) hospitalized for some reason, might be a detective (for real or as a hobby?). Attends Shinyo Academy.


Kuroda Shinpei - I *think* he's a real detective, but he's not been given much air time in the first few episodes.


Boogiepop - at least, I think this is Boogiepop or "Death". Either a vigilante or some sort of astral guardian.

Then there are the characters that are in the first episode... some of which seem to show up later.


Tonomura Moto - attends Hijiridani High School (sophmore). Had a crush on Saotome, even though she hadn't seen him since Jr High after he stopped dating her friend, Yasuko. Suffers from the affliction characterized by compulsive hand washing / fear of germs (obsessive-compulsive disorder focused on on the hands).


Suzuki Yasuko - Moto's best friend. More of a free spirit then Moto.


Masami Saotome - He dissapeared during the events of a month ago. Went to Shinyo Academy after Jr High.


Jonouchi - A senior at Hijiridani High School who sees bugs attached to people's hearts (more on that in a later episode).

Which brings me to the timeline... there's "now" (which is when most of the first episode takes place), there's some event that happened a month ago (when a lot of young people dissapeared, with the locii of effect at or around Shinyo Academy), and rumors of a serial murderer(?) from 5 years ago.

Also interesting is the framing of the scenes, where the corners of the image have been darkened out (making you feel like you're looking out from a tunnel at the scene.

(laughs) I just found the rythm and the pacing for the first episode... it does build to a climax, but the cues are just not what one expects. The narration is so understated, which is what throws you off the trail. Still, it's taken me a few watch throughs and trying to keep track of the (3) different school names as well as the abundance of characters to figure out the key items to keep track of. (So many characters are thrown at you... you're often left wondering which ones you need to pay attention to.)

One link that might help is John's Boogiepop Phantom Shrine... although I'm probably going to draw different conclusions about some things then he has (which is why I'm trying to avoid reading his site until I've puzzled out the series for myself).

posted by Wuphon's Reach at 9:52 PM

Veritas RecordNow

Huh... the Veritas RecordNow software that came with my Sony DRU-500A creates perfect burns (although it is lacking in the ability to set the volume name of the target DVD)... which points the finger squarely at Roxio's software.

posted by Wuphon's Reach at 11:02 AM

Wacko, Psycho, or Socio?

So is Jacko Wacko (just plain nutz), Psycho (the alarm system installed in his bedroom hallway is because he feels that the world is out to get him) or Socio (a cunning sicko).... the boy definitely has some issues (okay, probably a lot of issues). But some of the things that I'm seeing 3rd-hand lead me to wonder just how wacko Jacko really is (some of it feels like camoflague as a way of having plausible deniability). The alarm system in the bedroom hallway strikes me as a bit odd... a bit teenagerish... a bit guilty-consciousnessiss...

posted by Wuphon's Reach at 9:45 AM

Sunday, February 23, 2003

DVD Burning (Part X)

Trying to work with the DVD burner again, see if I can do better then my last attempt now that I've defragmented the drive (and cleaned it off some more). Going to try a DVD-RW (Maxell v1.1) using Roxio's Easy CD/DVD Creator softwater to burn it as a DVD-ROM format. The only option it gave me this time was 1x speed (1350Mb/sec) and I'm going to put about 4Gb of data on the disc (around 8,000 files). Total record time should be around 52 minutes.... result - coaster (crc errors, corrupt directories).

While that's cooking, I'm gonna go check Roxio's web page to see if they have any updates (I have v5.3.2.34b). Yep, Feb 10th update.... that upgrades it to 5.3.4a. Specifically mentioned in the 5.3.4 patch is support for more DVD recordable drives. I'm also going to go to Sony's website and get the firmware upgrade for the DRU-500A while I'm at it.

In order to install the firmware update, you have to temporarily turn off Roxio's DirectCD... (easy to do under WinXP using MSConfig... not so easy under Win2000).

Well, updated the firmware, updated Roxio, and still got a coaster. However, I also heard rumor that the software that comes with the drive doesn't give coasters...

posted by Wuphon's Reach at 6:05 PM

Vegas Plans

Right person asked at the right time... so now I'm booked and paid for a trip to LV at the end of March to attend the EverQuest fan-faire...

posted by Wuphon's Reach at 2:02 AM