New Anime

Well, a few weeks into another new season and there are, as usual, a lot of new shows. I decided last weekend, to pull a bunch of first episodes of new stuff and see if there was anything worth watching. As it turns out, some were good and some were really bad.

Ergo Proxy
Probably tied for my favorite show this season. It's one of those dystopian future/dysfunctional society sci-fi settings reminiscent of Texhnolyze. Like Texhnolyze, there are tons of mysteries and the viewer is left constantly guessing about how to piece together the various story elements. However, Texhnolyze's fatal flaw was that it was too confusing with too many character threads and every character knowing more about the world than the viewer (although I really like the genre, I never finished Texhnolyze). Ergo Proxy seems to avoid that trap by focusing in an a single main character who acts as the audience's tour guide and doesn't know more about the situation than we do. Plus, there's much less unnecessary beating and dismemberment. The art and production value are also both kickass.

xxxHolic
The other tie for favorite show this season. I liked the structure and stories in the manga this is based off of, and the anime doesn't disappoint, adding stylish artwork and very clever color schemes into the mix in a way that accents the plot and themes. The stories have a self-contained dramatic quality that is most reminiscent of Tokyo Babylon, as far as CLAMP works go, and is probably some of the best writing since TB as well. (Tsubasa Chronicle was an unfortunate disappointment that was like a watered down Card Captor Sakura but lacking all the stylish characters and personalities.)

RAY the Animation
Watched 1 full episode of this. It's a Black Jack spinoff about this girl that was saved by our favorite scarred doctor and grows up to be a brilliant wandering surgeon following in his footsteps. The problem is, while the show has the same serious medical drama tone of the Black Jack anime, RAY is full of weird gimmicks. Ray is not only a brilliant surgeon, but has x-ray eyes that she uses to dramatic medical effect. In episode 1, she is roped into performing surgery on a dying yakuza member by the director of a hospital. But for some reason, this director is a hulking bearded giant of a man with an eyepatch and a peg-leg who has staffed his hospital with ass-kicking martial arts expert nurses (who beat back a horde of yakuza who come to the hospital to interrupt the operation). Sure, Black Jack is sometimes a bit over-the-top, but this is ridiculous. Still, the structure of the show has potential and I'll give it 1 or 2 more eps to prove itself.

Demonbane
Zhang, being way far up on the anime-game tieup scene, would probably laugh at me for even considering watching this show. Needless to say, it sucked. Couldn't even get through the whole episode. By the time they introduce the 8th girl with huge breasts covering all the major fetishes after 10 minutes, I knew that there was no hope. Do not watch this show!

Tokko
Summaries seemed to indicate that is was a modern-day supernatural mystery show that had potential. Summaries did not say that this is a sis-con police fetish show. Not as unwatchable as Demonbane, although I didn't make it through the whole episode of this either. (I was interrupted by meal service on the plane and couldn't bring myself to come back to it.) While on one hand I feel like I should sit out the rest of the episode for completion, I don't know if I can. It certainly won't last past episode 1.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Cliche servicey high-school comedies are interminably boring to me. However after much positive buzz about this show (in particular a directive to watch at least 2 full episodes since ep 1 is strange and out-of-sequence), I was convinced to give it a shot and wasn't disappointed. Perhaps it's not everyone's cup of tea (Doris found it unexciting), but this show has a particular combination of wacky characters and wacky humor that totally cracks me up. I find this show quite creative, non-cliche, and very amusing. One could summarize this show as being about a wacky title character who ropes her schoolmate comrades into all sorts of crazy ventures, but then there are aliens, weird magic, and various apocalyptic scenarios that gum up the works.

Ouran High School Host Club
This one almost slipped under the radar, but a positive mention from Lawrence put it on my list. It's a shoujo high school comedy (thus non-servicey and with less familiar cliches) with an amusing premise. Prevalent in Japan and other parts of East Asia are "hostess bars" where female employees cozy up to male patrons to get them to buy larger volumes of watered down alcoholic beverages. The setting for this show is the reverse-gender concept at an elite private high school (and with tea instead of booze). I've seen two episodes of this. The first is really worth watching, even if you're not sold on the whole concept of this series. It's fast paced and full of wacky and amusing humor. The second ep. was also good, but hints that the series formula might end up being in the vein of CLAMP Campus Detectives (not that it's a bad thing, but the unique hook in CCD is that they were strangely mature elementary school kids which this show doesn't have). The art style is an kind of cute classic shoujo, kind of like Rose of Versailles or Onisama E, except cuter and non-angsty.

GITS: SAC2
So, this isn't new and I watched it for the first time quite a while ago. I just finished re-watching it because it's very plot and detail intense, and my first viewing had such long intervals between sequential episodes that I didn't get a lot of stuff. This show was really really good. What especially makes SAC2 worthwhile is that besides being a good political and covert-ops tale (like SAC), there is a lot of really good character drama and development in this series. There is considerable character build leading up to a strong climax in the last episode in addition to excellent plot build. Particularly exceptional is how multiple character punchlines as well as a strong plot punchline all coincide at the last episode in a way that was so well-built, that the multitude of events doesn't seem rushed, compressed, or forced. There's even time for an epilogue. Watch this show!

Vibrant Copy

“More delicate than Hen’s Eggs – The pears in this gift box have been nurtured through spring frosts, summer hailstorms, autumn winds – and the harvest itself. They’re a scarce commodity, available for only a brief time, with rarely enough to go around.”

A few months ago, my mom sent me a box of Harry & David pears. Included in that box, was a card with eating instructions and boatloads of flavor text, a portion of which is duplicated above. The prose on this card is really over the top, check out this segment:

“Get set to enjoy one of life’s purest luxuries, a hallmark of living well. We call them Royal Riviera Pears – highly prized, extremely rare, truly magnificent. When they are given and received, Royal Riviera Pears bring people together in the tradition of sharing – strengthening emotional bonds and making memories across generations, between families, and among business people.”

Man, who writes this stuff? (Actually, I’ve asked this question to Jen, who works in marketing, who named the person at in her workplace who is responsible for writing these sorts of things.) Moreover, how can I learn to write this stuff? Imagine the possibilities: “Get set to enjoy one of enterprise software’s greatest luxuries: model-driven J2EE performance management…”

Okay, maybe not. But I am putting together abstracts for some Otakon panels that, if accepted, will be printed into the program guide. Sure, virtually nobody reads those things and goes by the 3 word title in the schedule, but if some vibrant copy attracts even 1 or 2 extra people, it should be worth it. If you know where the wiki is, you should be able to find it and give me some feedback. :)

Napa w/ Slava

Slava was in town this week; Rourke and Jen decided Napa would be a place to go. And of course, Napa means vising wineries.

Outpost Winery
This was a very small place, but very nice. There was a fantastic view and a very nice main and guest house. We got to see the winemaking and barrel storage facilities as well. Despite the small scale, the ergonomics of the property seemed really good. They building layouts seemed very efficient and well designed for the work that is supposed to occur on premises.

'04 Zin - Closed nose, but smooth tannins. Will it be good later?

'05? Cab - very interesting tastes, also smooth tannins

The Zin was only bottled 1 month ago and the cab was a barrel sample. Both were very muted tasting (apparently because of their youth) but had interesting flavors. The fruitiness and smooth tannins made both of them seem like they have a lot of potential.

Grenache - Peppery nose, meaty caramelized body. Roast beef in a glass

Also go to take barrel samples of 3 different Petit Syrah clones that also grow on different parts of the hill. The tannins were again, shocking smooth for something so young. When commenting about that, we were told that they use a multi-day cold soak process which makes the tannins smoother. This process may also diminish some of the "structure" (something which I can not yet detect but Rourke can) of the wine, but because they are using hill fruit, there is more than enough tannin and structure to withstand that. Valley fruit, they said, can't hold up to this process.

Neyers Vineyards

2004 El Novillero Vineyard Carneros District Chardonnay
Bright, fruity, dry. Pretty good, not buttery at all. Like a more tart/bright Brewer-Clifton. The only thing here I liked.

2004 Old Lakeville Road Syrah
More savory and tannic, not peppery or fruity.

2003 Neyers Ranch Cabernet
Big fruity nose - herby and pineapple? Herby body.

2003 Neyers Ranch Merlot
Oakier, really tannic

2004 Pato Vineyard Zinfandel
Slightly oaky, somewhat hot. Slightly caramel finish

Biale Vineyards

2004 Old Crane Ranch Zinfandel
Very fruity! A little hot. Needs air.

2004 Black Chicken Zinfandel
Not my favorite

2003 Hill Climber Syrah
Very extracted, not sure what flavors.

There were more, but allergies and palate fatigue dimished my ability to taste. The only thing here I really liked was the Old Crane, which I'd want to decant for a while before drinking.

The IPO Flipping Game

According to an e-mail I received yesterday, as a long-standing Vonage customer, I am elegible to receive an allocation of IPO shares. Now, while I have been a satisfied Vonage customer, I'm not sure I'm confident in Vonage's long term value as an investment given the intense competition in this space. I saw Jim Cramer comment on Vonage on Mad Money a few days ago, and he was pessimistic on this offering's long-term prospects, but bullish on it's value as a day 1 flip.

And that's what I'm mulling over now. Do I have the appetite for the IPO flipping game? Well, many factors go into this. One, how much would I be willing to potentially lose on a learning experience? What strategies would I employ? A laddered series of limit orders? A dollar cost averaging strategy over a period of hours? What about fees?

Definitely, I need to do some research. In particular, I need to start with the following:

• What is the historical performance of day one IPOs?


• For the last 2/1/0.5 years?


• For technology IPOs?


• For IPOs of comparable size?


• Are there any common trading patterns?


• What are various analysts' target prices for various time durations?

Plus, there are other complications. The IPO will happen on May 23. Unfortunately, that will be day 1 of an on-site POC I'll be doing, so I won't be able to be glued to a ticker all day. How does this affect my play book?

Lots of work to be done here.

Dashe Tasting

Bad Rourke and Jen convinced my to go to the Dashe pre-opening open house and buy a boatload of camping crap from REI instead of sand drywall and do my laundry. (I did however, get to experience Rourke be "worse than a gun".)

There were lots of wines here, but only 2 that I found notable. Didn't have the energy to note the others (and didn't taste them all):

2003 Zinfandel Todd Brothers Ranch Old Vines
Plummy nose, bold fruity taste. Good with heavy food (yum, sausage!)

2005 Dashe Late Harvest Zinfandel
Still as good as ZAP, yum yamamomo. This one is a must buy. Probably my favorite late harvest red. Much better than the Ridge '01 Petit Syrah Essence that I brought to Thanksgiving in Texas (which, while highly rated, I didn't like all that much. Too hot and oaky). In contrast, this is very fruity with balanced tartness and doesn't taste hot or oaky at all. Despite its youth, the tannins aren't harsh at all.

Covey Run 2003 Riesling Ice Wine

Rourke had a bottle of this in his pek that he let me taste.

Very well balanced sweet/tart with pleasant fruit flavors. Not extremely fragrant and short finish, but very nice still, especially for $20.

Farewell the red soldiers

The April 15, 2006 issue of The Economist featured a small sidebar article of the same title as this post. It described a growing "problem" for police in China where increasing numbers of people have names that use highly obscure characters that are not supported in the Chinese language input software they use. The answer? Ban all such problematic characters.

But what really amused me is the opening sentence of the article which reads:

"Long gone are the days when Chinese parents often chose such names as Hongbing (Red Soldier), Aihua (Love China), or even Kangmei (Anti America) for their children."

Since all Chinese characters have meanings as standalone words, the oddity of having a name with obvious linguistic meaning is always overstated if name characters are translated literally. While some modern American names do have commonly used linguistic meaning (e.g. "Felicity" or "Summer"), most do not (e.g "Jane" or"Anne"). However, the idea that some real Chinese person might have such a clearly political (and dated) name strikes me as... hilarious.

Hi, Anti America, nice to meet you.