Post what's on your mind now

[carlsojos]

DST was created to save energy, adjust daylight hours to better support shopping after work, and maximizing inconvenience. Thank goodness clocks automatically adjust themselves nowadays.

[Semix]

Got crysis 2 yesterday, but at a friend's (who happens to be a girl ) yesterday so didnt play it much. I love it, shame drama homework stops me from playing it..

[BenoitRen]

DST was created to save energy, adjust daylight hours to better support shopping after work, and maximizing inconvenience. Thank goodness clocks automatically adjust themselves nowadays.

It doesn't save any energy, and I don't see what connection daylight has with shopping.

[carlsojos]

In some areas, it moves the normal routines slightly earlier, so that activities in the afternoon are less likely to require lighting. As for shopping, it increases the amount of afternoon daylight that is available for leisure shoppers have to explore, theoretically increasing the likelihood of their spending money.

The effect is most pronounced in high-latitude regions, so the benefits might not be significant enough to justify the drawbacks in your area.

[Black Sword]

It's hugely noticeable in the New York area. I'd have thought the impact on Belgium would be equivalent. *has to review carlos' good work for Menase tonight*

[carlsojos]

*has to review carlos' good work for Menase tonight*

What took ya? I would've sent that post the same night you assigned it, but I wanted to run spellcheck before I sent it, so I waited for morning. I admit to slacking off a little, but only because I wanted to get a couple more fanfics out this month.

[Wing-0]

LULZ at Benito. My people (this state only, the rest were cowards) rose in revolt after two years of Daylight Screwing Time. We just carried on with our normal routines and the federal government had no choice but to say "Okay, okay, do what you want... Whiners..." Now we just vocalize many LULZ at the rest of the country.

[Black Sword]

*has to review carlos' good work for Menase tonight*

What took ya? I would've sent that post the same night you assigned it, but I wanted to run spellcheck before I sent it, so I waited for morning. I admit to slacking off a little, but only because I wanted to get a couple more fanfics out this month.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Reviewed it and found it good. I've added you, so now you can post the news yourself! Use the same tags and title previous news has used.

[carlsojos]

Roger, playing with new toy now.

[Black Sword]

I have a rant. About the only one who should be concerned is WING-0, since it concerns my beloved Macross franchise and may hit him with spoilers.

Now then, the director who made Macross 0 went with a really weird ending that was all artsy and crap, but so very unsatisfying. Like, you wanted some tasty pasta, but all you get is wet noodles, barely cooked kind of ending. No real conclusion, nothing. The majority of the fans were intensely, thoroughly disappointed. And this is a series where the love triangle is what most engages people and makes them voice their feelings. He made Macross Frontier, but was cockblocked from working on the ending. Much better ending, a bit ambiguous, things not quite resolved, but hints that let people go from there to decide how things end. In other words, you can resolve it to your satisfaction, picking either green girl, pink girl, or a full blown triangular ending with all three together. Yes, there were enough hints for that kind of end.

Fans were happy! They had a new toy and endless fodder for shipping wars!

Then they gave him two movies to play with. A re-telling of Frontier. One word: fuck.

I just found out, via unfortunate spoilers, that he pulled the same ending from 0 and stuck it into the second Frontier movie and killed the hero while doing so. Or made it seem so. Hard to tell, what with it being spoilers and me not having seen the movie yet, due to me not knowing Japanese and being at the mercy of the various subbing groups.

I found out that he even said, after he released the second movie, that parallels with 0 are present and obvious if you pay attention. Outraged, I watched the first movie today. Second one isn't subbed, and I had planned on watching them both after the second one was subbed...which might be a year from now, so there's a sign of my devotion.

Guess what? I did see the obvious parallels in the first movie to 0. So frakkin' obvious my eyes hurt and wanted to stab my brain to prevent the pain. That kind of obvious.

Now, the first movie is great. Great music, great fight scenes, happy as hell ending, with just that hint of sequel hook that you look for in a series of movies. Delicious movie. But now I know the ending of his re-telling will be angsty, will suck, and will make me very angry. [i]Again[i/]. I've heard people are even more upset this time around than they were for the original 0 ending.

Now, as a writer, I know you're supposed to tell your story, but there's a point where it goes from telling your story, and just being a prick to your audience. You have to take them into consideration too! Flargh. I may may a Writer's Life out of this, that's how much this pisses me off.

/rant

[LegoMuskCat]

Friday. It jacks my swag, but not like My Jeans did.

[Wing-0]

I did read the spoilers about the second frontier movie as soon as it came out and my cousin went to see it. He told me Alto chose Sheryl instead of Ranka. Also, Alto's "death" isn't quite so. My cousin interpreted it as being "caught" in the space fold-in zone (a warp-in) of the Vajra queen and basically taken along with them, with the ending implying he would be back as commented by Sheryl and Ranka.

That said, if people are really coming out of the theatre angry, Kawamori MIGHT modify the ending, although I doubt it. I for one didn't really mind such an ending. Why? I'm sick of the following: Unresolved love triangles, harem endings and ambiguous final moments.

I spoiled the ending for myself willingly since I knew the movie was close to a year away, but as soon as I can, I'll watch it. Subbed first, then on DVD or maybe BluRay as soon as I can get my clutches on either.

The ending seems good to me. It doesn't end with a "happily ever after, everyone survives note." Alto is basically a casualty. He decided who he liked the best and said it on screen, instead of the typical "Ummm, I don't wanna hurt anybody, so I'll say nothing, screw what I feel...". No, for ONCE, a love triangle becomes a line. I give props to Kawamori for this. This only makes Alto Saotome one of the best male anime characters in a very, VERY long time, along with the likes of Guts from Berserk, Batou and Togusa from Ghost in the Shell and a few others.

Changing the topic, my younger cat gave birth. FIVE HOURS OF LABOR... FIVE hours of nerves and worry for me.

The main fear I had was because of her age. She's not even a year old and a HUGE black cat porked her. STUPID ANIMAL!!

In the last month of her pregnancy, she got HUGELY round, something I had never seen, especially not in a small cat.

She gave birth after five hours of yowling, crying and being a general badass. Zero of the kittens died during the birth, but I'm not so sure how good a chance they have of surviving, as it's common during the first hours or even days some might die.

I haven't said how many they were, have I?

FIVE... FIVE KITTENS... Two black, two white and one gray. OH, MAN...

And the big, gray cat hasn't even given birth yet!

What the hell am I going to do!? I did joke about a cat army, but this is ridiculous...

[carlsojos]

The most cats I've ever had was about 25. The populations gotten more stable now, but it's amazing how often people will drive out to the countryside and abandon their former pets.

[Black Sword]

@WING-0

I have no objections to Alto picking Sheryl. I wouldn't object if he had picked Ranka, either, since honestly, the three of them had enough chemistry with each other that a Triangler end would have actually made sense. In other words, I liked all three as well-developed, dynamic characters, so I don't have quite as much objection to harem endings as you do, so long as they're done correctly. Besides, it's still a love triangle, since Ranka still loves Alto. Just because he declared a preference doesn't mean the triangle ends, just that the math changes a bit.

One caveat: Sheryl is in a coma at the end of the second Frontier movie, so she isn't in a position to comment. Anyway, as to your cousin's interpretation: let's assume he's right. It's still the same half-assed ending from 0. It might be artistic, but it's still sloppy and unfulfilling, especially for a movie of a beloved franchise that earned rave reviews and immense love. Based on these spoilers, the final moments are incredibly ambiguous and repeat what has already been done. Very few liked this ending the first time, myself included, and doing it again for the art isn't going to make people like the ending any more than they did the first time, especially from what I've picked up on the forums and such.

I doubt Kawamori will change the ending, or even add an epilogue to make it less vile to swallow, but I hope they remember from now on that keeping him away from the final episode/scene of anything is a wise idea.

As to your cat army...you're the mad scientist. Cat girl army time?

[Wing-0]

Hmmmmm... Interesting... I'll have to ask him about more details... or remain ignorant about them. In any case, I'm still not dissatisfied. Don't get me wrong, I think it could be better, but it's still far from being a sugar coated drama and goes more to feel like the ending in Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack where both Amuro Ray and Char Aznable both die, marking an end to their story arc.

I don't think he will change the ending, but there have been cases in which he modifies things a bit and different things happen. One such case being Macross Plus, in which the OVA had a certain order to its scenes and he modified them for the movie. The original series had a certain story, but it was completely modified in the first movie (Do You Remember Love?). This caused lots of conflict, since he wanted to have two continuities, but the TV series remained as the canon story despite updating it with newer character features (zentradi have pointy ears from Macross Plus onwards for example) and mechanical (the SDF-1 Macross has a different design in the TV and the movie).

I still don't understand why 0's ending comes off as sloppy and unfulfilling to you. In my case, it was a very fulfilling ending, even if tragic. Shin and Sara couldn't be together since she sacrificed herself to fold the bird-human and the reaction weaponry manually to avoid the island of Mayan and Shin from dying, also ending that conflict between UN and Anti UN forces in the process. Mao's love for Shin was an unrequited one from the start. In 0's case, it's one of my favorite endings. It's an unhappy one, but in some form triggers a change in the characters that then comes to show in the Frontier series where Mao appears as an old lady (in photographs) and is not only hinted, but confirmed in production materials to be Sheryl's grandmother, while Shin never went back to the UN army and releasing an account of the events from which the movie in episode 10 of the series is made, titled "Bird Human".

If you really want an ending in which everyone survives, then I'll have to direct you to watch Macross 7 (based on the fleet's number, not because it's the 7th animation project or anything). Everyone survives there and the ending is left as ambiguous as possible. One detail: I hated 7... Oddly enough, I liked a portion of the music. =/

And regarding the cat army... Well, I doubt I can evolve them to make a cat girl army... I even doubt there are many females...