So I’m looking at my search referrers.

Here are the top 3 in terms of wtf?!ness:
how can a banana be sucked into a bottle by only using air pressure?
miko banana sex
tifa pregnant pictures

K: …

I’ve been getting hits for Hagun Seisenki again. I really should do something about that. Like finish the page. :P

Look who won the Wesley Crusher plate!

From the BBC:

The highlight of the exhibition at the National Archeological Museum in Naples was a marble statue of the mythological figure of Pan - the god of shepherds and nature - cavorting sexually with a goat.

A local priest condemned it as a temptation that could “corrupt the morals of the chastest”.

K: Er.. um.. yeah. Sure. *backs away quickly*

From SBRL: Undressable Lupin!

Well, today was just action-packed. I’ve finally gotten home and resettled so will write a bit about it.

First of all, Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix opened last night. The website is still rather a mess, because I suddenly have to write a bunch of content for it but it’s mostly functional. So anyway, I was tired and busy from that, so I went to bed relatively early.

This morning I had to get up and drive Okina to the airport. That was quite fun. I hate driving into the city. On the way there, traffic suddenly slowed and ahead I could see a car which appeared to be perpendicular to the way traffic was going. It drove to the left hand breakdown lane and stopped. No clue why. After that we managed to get there and then I got out again without taking a wrong turn or getting stuck in deadly traffic, always a plus.

Instead of heading back to the apt after dropping Okina off, though, I was heading up to my mom’s house. I made really good time, so stopped to get cheap gas and to pop into Ames before getting to her place. Naturally I went over to the “electronics” section to see what they had; I still needed another gift for Jeff. And what did I find there? A shelf full of Game Gears and Game Gear Games. o.O;;;;;;; I thought I’d time-warped to 1994. These weren’t used, either — they were NEW and in boxes. It was so so weird. I was almost tempted to buy one (They were only $30) just to prove to myself that I’d actually seen this. (They had NO GameCube, Dreamcast or X-box stuff.)

Escaping from the time-warp, I went back out to the car and headed for mom’s. On the radio comes a commercial for Fashion Bug (note: Fashion Bug is a store which sells women’s clothing.)

Ad: … get jeans for HER, a sweater for HER, and then pick up a sparkly top for yourself…
K: *choke* Did they just say what I thought they said…?
Ad: … our prices are so low, you’ll be able to get a skirt for HER, some nice slacks for HER, and a cashmere sweater for yourself…
K: Oh. My. God.

[Note: If you do not get the above, the way they were saying "HER" is the same way they say "HER" in those stupid jewelry commercials. Get her (... the woman in your life) some diamonds now!]

I got to mom’s house intact and then we had to hang around and wait until the football game went into halftime. In the meantime I was able to admire their tree, which was exactly the perfect Christmas tree shape. I swear, it was perfectly conical. (More on the tree later.)

Finally we all pile into the car and drive and drive until we get to the other side of the state and meet up with my aunt, my cousins and my grandma so we can do our gift exchange. (Everyone drives halfway and we meet and have dinner in the middle.) On the way there, we have to listen to the stupid football game because the world will end if we don’t. Otherwise things go smoothly on the ride, aside from one other idiot who pulled off of the road to drive through the grassy median and turn around on the highway. We got to Applebees and ate and opened presents. One word: pinecones.

Then we drove back to mom’s house. We listened to CDs on the way back, as the game had ended, which was all right. (Mini-digression on Christmas carols. About the only thing I liked about church was the hymns. They’re so stirring. I can really see how a religion would get you with them. And of all hymns, very few can compare to Christmas Carols for intensity of feeling and spirit. For example, my favorite, God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen — “to save us all from Satan’s pow’r when we were gone astray”. Doesn’t that just sound.. thrilling? It does to me. Astray is such a fascinating word. It sounds kind of fun to be astray. I always end up feeling very energetic after listening to carols. Vaguely religious.) We get back to the house and head in. Jeff is in the lead.

Jeff opens door and steps in: Oh shit!
K, mom and Jonathan crowd behind: What, what? (I was seriously thinking we’d been robbed or something.)

But no, instead we come inside to find the Christmas tree sprawled drunkenly on the floor of the living room.

Luckily the only casualties of the mini-disaster were the star on top (which I repaired) and a Celtics ornament (good riddance). The tree was righted and after much fussing, mostly restored to its former state.

After that I went home. Lots of people on HP. Need to finish fixing up the website.

Time for various mini-reviews!

Rose of Versailles: From what I can tell, the live action movie actually pre-dates the anime, which I thought was interesting. The movie had a Toei logo at the start (As Okina said, anything from the makers of Gojira must be good), but I’m not sure if they just distributed it or if it was their production. The director was french, but the cast was of various European ethnicities and they were all speaking English. I guess I don’t have any feel for how popular RoV was when it was coming out in the 70s. Would Japanese people have gone to see a subtitled live action movie about a shoujo manga? Apparently. I must admit up front that I’m not really familiar with the ending of the RoV manga. I know the basic plot, but have tried to remain relatively unspoiled until I can get around to watching/reading it. So I can’t comment on cuts and additions which this movie made. I can say that I thought it was actually pretty good. It started with Oscar’s birth and ended with the storming of the Bastille, so spanned a pretty long period of time in 2 hours, but they simplified the plot enough that this wasn’t a problem. They also went the distance trying to get their actors and actresses to look like the manga characters. Oscar /was/ Oscar. It was very impressive. Summary: It had everything I look for in a movie of this nature: costumes and swordfights. Probably not entirely accurate to the manga but not painful to watch. It was good. 7/10.

Harry Potter: No, I haven’t seen it again, but after seeing Lord of the Rings (below), I have to revise my opinion of it. I think that I begin to see the point of the people who are complaining that ‘they stuck too closely to the book to make a good movie’. That’s not entirely accurate, but I get the idea. They were too worried about including as many incidents from the book as possible. The movie was essentially scene after scene, shot out rapid fire with little to connect them. Each event seemed to have as much importance as the next, which was, essentially, none. There was no character growth, no learning process for the audience. The book takes the reader through the first year of Hogwarts, introducing us to the wizarding world as Harry learns about it. Quidditch and Voldemort are persistant themes throughout the book, but in the movie, they seemed more… pasted in, not a continuing thread. Because of the obsession with scenes, the movie failed to present a cohesive plot, and as I said before, really missed the characterization.

Lord of the Rings: I’ve seen it twice now, and it was better the second time. Wow. Just.. wow. The effects were wonderful — as seamlessly integrated as they could have been… none of that Harry Potter rubberiness for LotR, thank you. The acting was top notch. The first scene of HP was a little flat (to go back to that movie for a moment); the actors seemed to just be reciting their lines. There was none of that here. It pulled you in right from the very beginning. There was action and plot and character development and everything happened for a reason. Even if we didn’t find out about it yet, it was obvious that we would eventually. Things did not happen only to be forgotten and never thought of again. The purists are still raging that it didn’t ape the book, but I’ve already voiced an opinion on that. I don’t think the book was that great. I’ve been reading it again, and making some progress, but… it drags. The movie took the plot and tightened it a lot. And now, the actors… again, wow. Aside from their acting, which was great, they were (for the most part) SO YUMMY. See, you don’t get that in the books. It’s just ‘here’s a story with all guys and hardly any girls’. I forsee lots of slash in the future. Not that I happen to agree with all of the pairings (already) being suggested. But I can see the potential for some. I mean, if there are no women around, these boys have to be doing something, right? 10/10.

From slate:

In other NFL news, NBC has announced that during halftime of the Super Bowl, it will air a 20-minute special of the drek “reality” show Fear Factor - “reality shows” being the least real things on television - in which the contestants are six former Playboy Playmates of the Year. Swimsuits will surely be required for the so-far-undisclosed event. Maybe it will be a tanning-oil rubbing competition! The segment will start the moment the Super Bowl second quarter concludes, to lure viewers from Fox during the halftime festivities. (Or “festime halftivities,” as Official TMQ Brother Frank Easterbrook is wont to remark.) This ratings-driven display of half-naked mega-babies is transparent, cynical exploitation. What channel did you say it will be on?

I am really getting sick of the constant LoTR vs. Harry Potter movie debate.

Yes, the script to LoTR is not an exact transcription of the dialogue in the book. GET OVER IT. No book has ever been made that faithfully into a movie. Never ever. And there is a reason: books and movies are different. What works in a book may not translate well on a big screen, may not translate well into live action, may not translate well into animation. Frankly, the trilogy will be the better for a little tinkering; the books are pretty boring, but at least you can skim through all the crap a la Moby Dick. Until the movie comes out on home video, there’s no way to skip the bad parts, so naturally the producers/writers/director want to keep them to a minimum. You have a certain freedom in the written word that you don’t have when you’re under budget constraints and under time constraints and can’t possibly turn in something much longer than 3 hours.

But, honestly, this is the same moaning that happened when they made the X-men movie, the Batman movies, the Superman movies, Episode 1, and it’ll happen again next spring when Spiderman & co come out. I really shouldn’t care about it anymore, and I wouldn’t care this time, except for the constant mentioning of Harry Potter (they ought to pay JK Rowling every time they use his name.)

The most recent version of this rehashed comment that I’ve read is from CNN.com:

“The Lord of the Rings” draws comparisons to the recent movie adaptation of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in its ardent following — not to mention its fantasy themes of wizards and mythical beings. The decision by “Harry Potter” filmmakers to adhere closely to the book delighted many fans but drew some critics’ barbs.

*sigh*. No, it didn’t. They can say it did until they’re blue in the face, but it won’t make it true. The Harry Potter movie was not the same as the book. It was as good a try as most book->movie transformations make, but it was nowhere near the same. Characterizations where changed, characters were missing, plot points were missing — definitely not an adaptation to hold up as an example for adhering to the book, in other words. I wouldn’t be surprised, if, in attempting to make a good movie first, LoTR won’t do a better job overall.

In honor of the LoTR opening (tonight, actually, though I’m not going until later in the week), we present something very very wrong.

Looks like Sunday is free now after all. This is good. Found my Chobits #2 which is also good, as it’s been missing since July.

I was a Lt. Commander, Engineering. Surprise surprise, eh?