On recutting a CD

It's funny that from time to time I dig out a CD that I didn't even realize I had (that is, I never even listened to it in its entirety after I got it). This goes for the first soundtrack to the Ghost in the Shell TV series.

But it's not for lack of trying. I got this CD as a pack-in bonus when I bought the DTS edition of the first volume of Stand Alone Complex a couple of years ago. But you know, this is the only audio CD I have ever seen in my life that was this badly authored. Go to the bottom of the review at AnimeOnDVD to see what I'm talking about! I mean, tracks are cut at the wrong place! What the heck? I don't know about the guy who wrote the review (he doesn't mention this) but on my pressing, there's actually an extra 19th track of nothing but 38 seconds of silence. And yes, I checked it using a sound editing program - it's silence, not a track with an extremely low volume or something hidden at the very end.

Anyway, while packing up discs, I came across this disc and decided it was time I finally ripped it to MP3 and editted it. I recut the tracks into their proper lengths and merged the track that was mistakenly split into two parts. I'm just wondering if anybody besides me and the guy at the review place has seen this particular disc. I mean, for the record, he's in the USA and I'm Canadian - was it the whole batch? Was it pure luck that we both got these error-pressings? Perhaps it's only the pressing that was produced to be packed in the DVDs and the regular editions sold seperately were okay?

Score! Piranha Team found!

Alright, if you're one of the few diligent readers who've kept up with both of my major blogs, you'd know that now's probably not the best time I should be thinking of grabbing new kits to build (buying a house and getting ready to move has something to do with thinking that way). But well, being back home for the weekend and just relaxing with my brother, we hit the local hobby store with nothing in particular on our minds but to see what was around... And I had it in the back of my head to get one of these if I saw one:

Allow me to introduce the Tau Empire's newest addition to their arsenal, the "Piranha." It's a Fast-Attack category unit intended for hit-and-run tactics (the model shown here is equipped with a fusion cannon for quick shots at heavily armoured opponents like vehicles).

But before I get into exactly what happened to me this weekend, a little history:
I learned something earlier this year. Turns out that when new stuff comes out for a particular army type, Games Workshop does something special for the hardcore early adopters. They will pick one of the new models and package them as "teams" in very limited quantities. I didn't know this when the Tau (my army of choice) had their big new-release this year... I passed on what I later found out was a limited edition package-deal for 3 Piranha models at a retail value equivalent to "3 for the price of 2."

Naturally, it's been a sore point for me ever since I discovered that. But this weekend, I don't know where it came from, but that local shop just happened to have one more box on the shelf, nearly half a year since they should've been sold out. "That's a no-brainer," my brother remarked. With single-model boxes selling at $36 and this 3-pack marked $63, I was inclined to agree.

You know, tho, the one downside to buying this 3-pack? I got bored fairly quickly. I tried to make it interesting by pretending I was in an assembly line and putting together all 3 hulls before moving onto other components in the instruction manual. But not matter what, the fact is, I'm still building 3 of the same damn thing. But hey, what a great deal it was.

Warning: Feed all wacky

I just thought I'd mention that there's been something weird going on. If you read my other blogs or have seen me on a BBS, you may have noticed that I use Feedburner to advertise this blog. One of Feedburner's options is to generate an animated GIF with all the headlines of an existing RSS feed (in the case of Blogger, that would be an ATOM XML you can turn on and off in your control panel). Anyway, I just noticed that my graphic on other sights has been showing weird headlines from all over my blog (some of those articles are over a year old!).

I've finally figured out what's happening: Everytime I go back to edit an older article (like adding a "Label" or something) it counts as "republishing" the article. That means the feed picks it up as though it were newly published and it gets a new date of publication.

Just thought I'd warn my fellow bloggers out there who also switched to Blogger Beta.

A long meme

This one's a long one - stolen from Hemlock...

1. My roommate and I once: I've never had roomies unless you count times I bunked with people on trips… even those instances were dreadfully uneventful.
2. Never in my life have I: wanted anything but LOVE! :)
3. The one person who can drive me nuts, but then can always manage to make me smile is: I have bipolar relationships - I either hate people or I like them.
4. High school was: Awful. Simply awful.
5. When I'm nervous: My mouth goes dry.
6. The last time I cried was: It could've been yesterday but I held it. It was actually last month when my folks' visit came to an end and left on a Sunday afternoon.
7. If I were to get married right now, my bridesmaids/groomsmen would be: Definitely EvilTwin and JET… probably Starfish …maybe my brother.
8. Would you rather run naked through a crowded place or have someone e-mail your deepest secret to all your friends? I'm not sure - if the naked thing were legal and they were all strangers …I'd consider it.
9. My hair: Black …spikey. Kinda.
10. When I was 5: I was a smaller version of myself - I had a serious case of self-doubt (I'm told).
11. Last Christmas: was really quiet (and I liked it that way).
12. When I turn my head left: I will instinctively turn all the way to the right too just to stretch my neck.
13. I should be: Going to bed.
14. When I look down I see: a mess of envelopes I should've discarded days ago. And a pair of socks - still clean enough for a few more days (assuming I don't go running in them!).
15. The craziest recent event was: Starfish's wedding reception - I never knew what a great dancer he was.
16. If I were a character on "Friends" I'd be: Ross. There aren't enough words to describe what a horrible record my love-life life is.
17. By this time next year: My Acting Senior-Systems-Analyst term comes up for renewal (and my mouth will go dry).
18. My favorite aunt is: The banker: we've always been close (and I'm not just saying that because she's facilitating my mortgage either).
19. I have a hard time understanding: jerks.
20. One time at a family gathering: I met a branch of extended family we didn't even know we had (descended from my great grandfather who came to Canada almost 100 years ago).
21. You know I like you if: I haven't made any smart-ass comments about you to your face yet.
22. If I won an award, the first person (people) I'd thank: mom and dad for getting me out there.
23. Take my advice: The world is your oyster - just shuck it.
24. My ideal breakfast is: smoked salmon on a bagel …and no, I haven't had that in years.
25. If you visit my home town: you'd enjoy the view - then get bored a bit.
26. Sometime soon I plan to visit: Montreal - because there's where EvilTwin and JET live and shame on me, I haven't been in touch for a while. I also want to see Hong Kong again… that's been way too long.
27. If you spend the night at my house: I will freak if you touch my toy collection.
28. I'd stop my wedding if: Not sure about that - I'll go with Hemlock's answer - the one with the medical emergency.
29. The world could do without: racism (and all discriminatory variations thereof).
30. I'd rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: eat one.
31. The most recent thing I've bought myself is: Funny, I really don't recall buying anything lately because I've been so obsessed with minimizing my move. Oh wait, I think it was that DVD 2 weekends ago.
32. The most recent thing someone else bought for me is: a meal (my dad paid for lunch on Sunday).
33. My favorite blonde is: UG, I guess.
34. My favorite brunette is: (assuming we're still talking about the ladies) it's RallyGirl.
35. My car must have a sign on it that reads: "Caution: May Contain Idiot Driver"
36. The last time I was drunk: at Starfish's reception (well, I was buzzed, does that count?)
37. The animals I would like to see flying besides birds: snakes …maybe by plane.
38. I shouldn't have been: so scared of success.
39. Have you ever shaved your pubic hair? Yes… well, trimmed it. Not shaved bare.
40. Last night I: Vegged out in front of the boob-tube (see my other blog).
41. There's this girl I know who: has the worst luck with men.
42: I don't know: where I'm going from here.
43. A better name for me would be: Anakin (because I never really learned to grow up either).
44. If I ever go back to school I'll: probably be really desperate by then.
45. How many days until my birthday?: I dunno - about 335?
46. One dead celebrity I wish I'd met is: Christopher Reeve - he always seemed like a stand-up guy. Besides, he was freakin' Superman! Nobody touches that.
47. I've lived at my current address since: May 1999.
48. I've been told I look like: crap …every morning.
49. If I could have any car, it would be: A Prius, I think. I used to hate the look but it's grown on me - plus it's a hybrid and we all need to do our part for the environment, right?
50. If I got a new cat tomorrow, I would name it: dinner. No j/k! Um… I would call it Nancy. Close personal friends of mine will know there's an in-joke involved here.

DOM9!! Reina!!

My brother once said that Tanaka Reina reminded him of a porn star. He said, "I don't know why, it's not like she looks slutty or anything - just something about her face that makes me think, 'hmm, is she a porn star?'"

I wasn't sure if I agreed with him or not, and besides, she wasn't one of my favourites anyway. But I eventually came around. I watched more concert footage and it occurs to me she always seems to be one who plays to the fans the most - frequently shouting "yay-YAY!" and doing her signature hands-to-face pose (a variation of which she's using in the photo I chose).

One thing's for sure, her wacky-looking widely-spaced eyes, although certainly very tempting, also creep me out a little. ^_^;;

Reaction - GitS2nd Gig - 7th DTS Volume

A while back (a long while, actually) I posted a short picture post about what EVERY DVD publisher should be learning from... especially if they want to curb the piracy running rampant in North America they would like to have you believe (and believe it could be a lot worse - trust me, I know; I'm Chinese). ^_^

Anyway, here's the link to that older post about a Ghost in the Shell volume I bought back then.

Back then I didn't have any idea what Bandai and Manga Entertainment had in mind with those crazy tin cases with the circular window on the front. I did however like the goodies they came with - sometimes being music CDs, sometimes being little collectible knick-knacks. I did however appreciate the full-colour artwork printed on the back of the tins...

Well, the final volume is out and like the first season, it came in an oversized tin. I won't rehash what AnimeOnDVD.com had to say, but I'll say this much - I'm very impressed with their packing solution. This is arguably the coolest keep-case for a DVD set I've ever seen - it's particularly impressive after the rant I had given CPM for not even bothering to release Patlabor consistently after only 1 volume. Here're some pics:

As you can see, Manga Entertainment did not dismiss the individual cases - the final tin includes the 7th tin and had padded slots to fit all of the previous 6 volumes - very stylish. And it was a nice touch that the followed up with the circular window thing on the side. How cool is that.

As for the show itself - I dunno what the reviewer on AnimeOnDVD was on at the time, but I can say it was an amazing ending that featured a great send-up of the opening scenes from the classic 1994 film adaptation of Shirow Masamune's masterpiece. I'm glad I stuck around these past couple of years it took for the DVDs to all come out.

Washing media

Scott's comment reminded me of this one story my mother once told me.

See in Cantonese, the word for "erase" or "delete" is the same as "wash" and there was this old dude who my mother knew in her youth that attempted to "erase" an audio cassette... with soap and water.

...ah the shortcomings of adaptive linguistics. ^_^;

PSA: clean your machine

The other day I was at visited my folks and they asked about the anti-virus software I had previously installed (I reassured them that the pop-ups and all that activity were perfectly normal and that the software was just doing its job and probably caught something malicious).

Which further reminded me to come home and run a spyware check since I hadn't done so in a while. 220 days, to be exact, according to Lavasoft's Ad-Aware. I tend to believe I run a fairly clean machine. I don't visit new web-sites very often. I don't install a lot of demo software (and when I do it's from a reputable source like Gamespot). In general, I haven't had any attacks in years.


But oh I was in for a surprise - turns out that not only did Ad-Aware pick up something, but so did Spybot. Most were cookies, but there were a couple of cases classified as "critical." The point is, don't become a spy-ware snob like I did: run the scans every few months. It doesn't take long - maybe 15 minutes at most. That's like saying, let the scans run while you go take a shower and get changed or something. Really, it's not that big an effort to put in to keep the dangers of lost performance or bandwidth at bay.

Wildstorm #1 (and the last)

I don't know if I hate when they do this or not. But DC saw fit to publish one of those "guide" books to preview upcoming projects for the Wildstorm universe revision. And I picked it up thinking it was actually a part of the yet-undisclosed "big event" that's been talked about forever.

So what is it? It's a series of 1 or 2-page pin-ups with short blurbs about each of the new titles coming in the next few months. I have 2 problems with that.

First, the artwork isn't particularly representative of the regular artwork to expect from said titles. This is a problem dating back to the early 90's when Wildstorm was still on the independent Image Comics circuit and putting out the occassional pin-up book (which were chock-full of hit-or-miss art). I mean, I would've prefered seeing a pin-up by Jim Lee himself for the WildCATS write-up.

Second, as for the blurb - these bits of info I could've already picked up from various sources on the web. Face it, the days of running around between friends and the local comics shop for info are long-gone. We're in the information age and people get their hands on complete movie scripts long before the movie comes out - it's no different for the comics industry.

On the bright side, there are 2 short-stories that set up the latest Stormwatch title and a new title and overall were reasonably entertaining. Plus it has the gorgeous Art Adams cover I posted above (I wish it didn't have a speech balloon on the actual printed cover). This will likely get bagged, boarded, and never read again.

Gen13: Not the I.O. I recall

I seriously cannot remember thinking International Operations being as f*cked up as this.

No really, back when Wildstorm was still something only the most hardcore of us fans will remember as "Aegis" IO was introduced a government agency with questionable motives at best. But I don't recall them selling to the highest bidders who chat on-line like teenagers. Not sure where they're going with this (but I have high hopes for both Gail Simone who did wonders for Birds of Prey andTalent Caldwell who reminds me a little of Joe Maduira in his X-Men heyday). What they have accomplished so far is to make me absolutely hate IO - which is probably the point.

I mean, erasing their own operatives when their "terms" are "up?" Brutal. If you ask me - there's two types of violence in media - the kind that's visual and the kind that knots your stomach... this book was the second kind. And that, in its own way, is actually a good thing - the same way Gundam is chock-full of military-themed violence (well, the oldies, not the new crap that's on nowadays).

The big question - is it a remake? Sorta. We've been promised for months that it wasn't a complete reboot of continuity. I'm the sort of reader who's willing to roll with it. For now, I'm giving the new Wildstorm a tentative thumbs up.

As a side note, I did read Wetworks last week. It was great to see Whilce Portacio at work again - I've missed his erratic "sketchy" pencil-work... it's almost delicate. The new series, unlike Gen13 seems more sequel than remake so... I'm really curious where this will all go (especially since Whilce himself blogged earlier that some of the confusion stems to real-life developments such as botched shipping schedules). *crosses fingers*

WH40K Tau experiment

So I played a "quick" game of Warhammer yesterday with my brother. Quick is that I threw together an army of less than 1300 points and didn't bother to double-check what options I gave my units (such as forgetting to add extra drones, or multi-tracker hardware, etc). But I played Tau - the army I'm most familiar with against his new Imperials. It was a grand experiment - he played with more Troops than ever before, while I attempted to make a fast-moving hit-and-run style army (a single Hammerhead tank and no Broadside battlesuits to speak of)... believe you me, I was having second thoughts when he started bringing out all those tanks and transports.

As it happens, I was fielding a freshly built Pirhanna model - it's one of the new unit types for this year's expansion. Kinda like a jet-bike, it's meant to be fast and be able to bypass terrain... the catch, I was stupid enough to pass on it when it first came out. Yes, yes, there was that 3-pack for a limited time and I kick myself everytime I remember deciding I didn't want 3 for the price of 2 for some strange reason.
So it was a single unit... and was blown away on its first turn... by a huge Landraider tank. Great. Lucky shot.

We played a recon scenario - the goal: to get as many scoring units into the oppoenent's deployment zone as possible within the 6-turn limit. I held him off from advancing thanks to some agressive deployments covering as many firing lines as possible. But Sentinel walkers tied up both my Hammerhead and Devilfish... leaving them frozen for most of the game (the Pathfinders escaped the burning transport wreckage and as luck would have it, I decided to field the rail-rifles this day... they spent the rest of the game taking pot-shots at the Sentinels.
The Hammerhead in the meantime, having been reduced to a "immobilized unit," took shots at pretty much everything on the field within its ridiculous 72" scale range of fire.

But as turn3 rolled around, things were looking bleak. My Stealth team was laid to waste and Kroot mercs were dying by the boatload... they had tried to rush a forested area where a unit of Stormtroopers had been holed up for most of the game thus far.

However a series of lucky rolls turned the tide of battle. A group of lucky shots from my Hammerhead, the rail-rilfe-carrying Pathfinders, the Devilfish's remaining Seeker missile... both of the Sentinels were down, an Exorcist went up, and a Chimera transport fell to pieces. And the poor troopers who poured out of the disabled transport? Fodder for the Firewarriors who I had advanced earlier hoping to outflank everyone - was it luck or strategy at work? I prefer devine intervention for the way things worked out.

When turn 6 finally came to an end, the official score was 1 to the Imperials (he had a witchhunter retenue dropped off in the scoring zone from earlier in the game - my Firewarriors were in position to score but I think by the book, they were just a few inches shy of being in the scoring area). But the real result of the grand experiment? Well, both sides were thoroughly decimated even tho I'm quite surprised I lasted as long as I did (I was about ready to call the game until that string of lucky hits).

As my brother pointed out, perhaps we really are playing smarter. The Sentinels aren't meant to be tank killers - just annoying, tying up the big guns with a constant barrage of lascannon fire. Kroot teams have to keep moving... no matter what. Stealth teams need to Deep Strike to get the best hiding positions to snipe from... The things you learn.

The DL irony

Well, the book is closed on the mystery of the Nero Dual-Layer burn: I finally found a set-top machine that will play back my "failed" discs. And of course, it's the cheapy no-name brand my father had purchased from (of all places) the grocery store.

Its brand is actually "Accura" and has all the feel of a made-in-taiwan POS. The tray is this heavy-set affair that opens up after what feels like an eternity. There is no LED read-out on the front panel and the only sign of life it will give you is the red light that comes on when you press into the hardwired power switch (no, the remote will not turn it on and off). To its credit, it does have an optical cable for digital sound output. Video signal is limited to RGB component cable. And wow, you can actually hear the drive spinning up the disc (listen to that sound of power). ^_^;;;

As babou said to me, "go figure."

downloading music - if it worked

Been to EBGames lately? Yeah - the signs are plastered all over their stores - buy a used game and get a PIN for 10 free song downloads. The on-line store turns out to be Puretracks. Dunno if you also buy frozen pizzas or anything like that but from time to time they give out coupons for free songs too ...and yes, those are also from the same subset of Puretracks.

And for the most part it's a great idea for publicity. But the problem is that as a subset, I hardly ever find anything of interest. And worse - I walk away with the distinct impression that that's all there is that Puretracks can offer me. Now I could be wrong (I'm not going to waste my time going to the actual Puretracks.com site to prove myself wrong), but that's their own damn fault for pissing me off.

And on top of that impression - I also have cultivated a distinct hatred for the web server engine there. Puretracks just damaged the reputations of all online music stores in my view. That is, if one store can't get their shit right, what's to prevent other stores from having the same buggy software running the show? I just spent an hour browsing their meager offerings attempting to find 10 songs I was remotely interested in. Mind you, this was for free music - imagine if I were looking for something to pay for? And then I went to click on the Checkout icon everything went south - firstly at one point the cart wouldn't refresh (switching between a full cart and an empty one). Then clicking checkout revealed that the store had tallied the full 35-track double-album I had previously accidentally clicked (and thought I had removed). Then upon logging in a second time later in the evening hoping to rebuild my shopping cart, clicking on the Checkout icon this time dropped me back to the main home page and zero items in the cart!!

What the hell - they can't even give this shit away. I'm not even imaginative enough to make this shit up, either.

The DL failure

Alright - gonna wrap up this topic for a little while because I simply give up at this point. I don't understand how I got a stable playable burn on that movie for my buddy last night and cannot do the same for the ISOs I downloaded.

Short of using the decryption method (which is used only for the ripping the test disc), I followed the same steps in CloneDVD including the "Clone" option - which performs its own reencode of the VOB set (which as far as I could tell, were identical anyway). In fact, the ending didn't suffer the mystery cut-off glitch that was in the test burn.

Sadly, as things would turn out, my concert disc still freezes at the layer change with my player unable to find the corresponding continuation on the second layer. And the rest of the disc is filled with glitches.

I got a successful (moderately) layer change in my PS2 drive so I'd like to say it's the fault of my old set-top box but that still does not explain why the test burn played fine. The fact is, the test burn and my final ISO burn, despite being on the same discs, coming from the same hardware, and created with the same process, yielded very different results - one playing very smoothly on my old Pioneer DV-333 and the other completely grinding it to a halt.

The DL conspiracy continued

Well, I have my answer - this whole time Nero was apparently not burning dual-layer format correctly on my discs. I don't know what the nuances behind the problems are; the discs work just fine on PC software like PowerDVD or Interactual Player. Nobody I know has a set-top DVD player capable of playing back a Nero burned DVD-Video format DL disc.

So I decided to take turns eliminating the differences between my burns and my buddy's Serenity burn (and I in no way endorse piracy, I'm just saying, it made for a good testing situation). And the first difference was when he admitted to me that he hadn't been using Nero after all (he'd confused himself, he'd later admit). He told me to look up CloneDVD for my ISO needs.

The result: a test burn worked... sort of. Because I was adamant I would follow the example from Doom9 to the letter, I even used the "clone" command in CloneDVD to actually reencode the VOB files I previously ripped to my hard-drive. The glitch was that for whatever reason, CloneDVD's re-encode is missing a few seconds at the end of the final title (including the "goback" chapter that tells a DVD player to return to the main menu when its done).

The follow-up: I tried to burn the concert again, but this time without a re-encode. The disc is better than the Nero attempt in that it plays (more or less) in my living room. However, it has a tendency to glitch a lot with pops, freezes, and skips on the second layer to the point of being unwatchable. Hmm...