Category Archives: Uncategorized

None of the above

On curing a hacked blog

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I noticed a recent comment from a visitor that read “You have been hacked with the pharma hack (google “pharma hack”). You can verify this by doing a google search for your domain name.” I thought it was simply a mistake or (ironically!) a spambot, so deleted it without a second thought. Even so, I did as the commenter suggested – out of idle curiosity more than anything – and discovered that s/he was absolutely correct. So, xensen, whoever you are, thanks. ^_^

I don't actually look anything like this

As far as I know this blog’s never been a victim of a hacker before, and since it’s been a bit neglected in recent months I’ve done only the bare minimum in terms of upgrades, maintenance and general housekeeping. Since a lot of anime/J-culture bloggers I’m in contact with run on the wordpress platform, I might as well outline my experiences in case it happens to any of you as well.

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Reading stats: 800 words, 1 image; estimated reading time 3:12 mins

A quick message of congratulations to Kenichi and Maaya

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I rarely pay any attention to the latest news in the worlds of seiyuu and Jpop (my knowledge of the language is too limited to appreciate the former and my musical tastes veer too far into the indie/alternative to appreciate the latter) but I felt that the announcement of Maaya Sakamoto recently marrying fellow VA Kenishi Suzumura deserves commenting on. I’m supposed to be working on another writing project ATM though, so I’ll have to keep this short.

Source: Alafista (click image for full article)

Maaya is one of the few VAs I’ve paid much attention to: after seeing her name crop up so frequently a while ago, I checked her ANN profile and realised how often I’d heard her voice, both as a singer and an actress. Similarly, Kenichi is another industry veteran and it turns out that they’ve often worked together and have known each other for some time. Compared to, say, the negative reaction to Aya Hirano making certain details of her private life public, the messages of goodwill from the fans at this piece of news are both heartwarming and completely justified.

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Reading stats: 571 words, 1 image; estimated reading time 2:17 mins

I-I-It’s not like I regularly read Colony Drop or anything

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16

I listened to the ANNCast with the editorial team of Colony Drop recently and found it to be an interesting listen. The interview used the site’s noteriety as a springboard for questions on a number of relevant issues from conventions to Danny Choo but it clarified a few things I’d been wanting to say about their approach to blogging and the fan community as a whole.

My personal opinion is coloured slightly by a personal run-in I had with them a while back but before saying anything else I need to point out that my opinion on the site is more complicated than simple approval or disapproval of what they do.

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Reading stats: 1488 words, 1 image; estimated reading time 5:57 mins

Praying for Japan and the Pacific

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It’s been a week spent following the news feeds and reflecting on how, so soon after hearing how family members in NZ are setting about rebuilding their lives in the wake of a natural disaster, another one has hit a place that’s so far away yet in this information age doesn’t seem far away at all. The few people I know in Japan are safe and well, for which I’m grateful; I found myself donating a bit to the Red Cross simply because I wanted to do *something* then prayed for the peace and safety of those affected. I’m feeling helpless and frustrated at my helplessness, as many around the world are.

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Reading stats: 224 words, 0 images; estimated reading time 54 secs

Why having Tumblr might save my sanity

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I caved in to temptation. I know this Tumblr malarky could well be a passing fad or whatever, but it’s currently a less labour-intensive way of writing that fits in well with everything else that’s going on at the moment. This blog ISN’T dead yet (I know I haven’t been replying to comments as often as I’d like) but there are too many ideas that float around inside my head and never make it as far as becoming blog posts.

Think of it then as my writing of stuff that wouldn’t otherwise get written at all. The name, by the way, is a pun on the title of a song by 65dos combined with a few more layers of double-meanings of the sort that I’m constantly amusing myself with. Self-indulgent but eh, isn’t that what blogging is all about?

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Reading stats: 504 words, 1 image; estimated reading time 2:01 mins

So, I’m in this aniblog tourney thing…

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I got an e-mail asking if it was okay to include my blog in the running order so after being reassured that I didn’t have to make any special effort I happily agreed. Whatever the point to it is, I’ve made some cool additions to my feedreader thanks to the blogs being featured on that site; win or lose, I guess it’s good harmless fun and shines a spotlight on the contenders. There isn’t much recent material for the online electorate to go on here I know, since I’ve been preoccupied with other things lately…


Uh, this. As in, trying to sort out my ongoing soundcard issues by buying a twin-channel preamp mixer and new headphones. About time too I might add

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Reading stats: 224 words, 1 image; estimated reading time 54 secs

That was the year that was…2009

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I’m jumping the gun a bit in publishing an annual retrospective but according to my archives this blog is officially a year old…and I’ve managed to update with some degree of regularity for the full twelve month duration. Sooo…firstly thanks to you, the readers and commenters. I wish there were a way to search through the database and pick out your individual names so I hope you can settle for a “Thank you; you know who you are.”

summer-wars

It’s been an interesting year for a number of reasons, not least world events in terms of economies and finances which led to some sad incidents and a general feeling that the film and music industries are dying a slow and painful death. Granted, things have been rough but I don’t buy into the idea that there’s a Moe Cancer killing the anime industry and as for Japan as a whole…who knows what the political changes can do in the long term. In any case, here are my highlights of Interesting Japanese Things from the year.

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Reading stats: 929 words, 3 images; estimated reading time 3:43 mins

Blog housekeeping, Autumn 2009 edition

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I installed a new theme a while back in an effort to move away from the initial one which was nice and minimalist but full of retina-scorching whitespace. For some reason it didn’t turn out nearly as well as I’d hoped so I’ve made a step backwards a bit and tweaked the layout to display the post text in off-white and lighten the blue in the sidebar. Other little details, such as the Georgia font for the headings and a centrally aligned main menu bar were lifted from the initial Yuki theme (which I was quite fond of, for all the whitespace), while the box-style post dates come from my old blog.

megurine-luka-guitar-solo

I took a leaf out of Epic Win‘s book and moved the blogroll to its own separate page, to tidy up the sidebar if nothing else. I want to add subcategories to my links to make use of the extra space and organise them a bit better as well – it’s all in aid of looking classier and more readable (unless you read these posts solely on a feedreader, in which case my efforts will be lost on you). There are still the usual niggling details to iron out but as far as I can tell this theme looks the same in Firefox and IE, which is as much as I could hope for really. Not bad for something I threw together in the space of an evening.

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Reading stats: 574 words, 1 image; estimated reading time 2:18 mins

ANN is not an anime blog but I can sympathise. A little

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I didn’t want to write this post; I don’t like meta-blogging at the best of times. I prefer to write about interesting things rather than writing about writing about interesting things but even so, I can’t not clarify a point that I was faced with this morning, which is somewhat related to the recent discussions on Twitter and Google Reader about ANN’s current standards of reviewing.

duty_calls
Source: xkcd.xom, a site I love

It started with this unfortunate incident that’s an example of (on this blog at least) a mercifully rare side-effect of the user-comment feature: the Annoying Unconstructive Comment. The anime blogging community is a pretty closed one but every now and then, alongside the usual discussion with your blog’s regulars, you get a comment from a stranger who in all probability is ‘just passing through’. I try to reply to these but when it’s a one-line or incomprehensible comment I don’t normally bother – they’ll probably never read my reply anyway. This time I took the bait and was, well, a bit abrupt; in retrospect I was in the wrong but that’s beside the point. Nor am I taking back what I said. Here’s why.

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Reading stats: 1344 words, 3 images; estimated reading time 5:23 mins

Some blogs that you ought to read, but possibly haven’t yet

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Here’s my attempt at irony: a recently-established blog that somehow tries to draw attention to other blogs. Heh. Actually the reason I’m posting the links here is that I’ve started to find I’ve been moving more and more feeds on my feedreader into the wittily-titled Hiatus Disease folder; a feeling shared by others if this is anything to go by. Fresh meat for your feedreader is important so without coming across as arrogant (I know I rule but that goes without saying, right?) I want to see more posts like this one from the rest of you. Hit me with your Recommendation Stick!

casually-surfing
I find using a second monitor to be useful at times but more than that I want an audio cable long enough to stretch to my hi-fi rig so I can back up my full catalogue to mp3 on an external HD

In addition to making my tag cloud a bit more aesthetically pleasing I’ve tweaked my layout a bit here and there and had a minor purge of my blogroll. It’s not that the blogs I removed aren’t of good quality – quite the reverse in fact – but they haven’t offered anything new in a while and I want to keep my sidebar tidier than my old blog’s was. There have been some new additions though, so here is some reading that I hope will provide us with wordy win for months to come without them dying on us. So go read them. ^_^

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Reading stats: 945 words, 7 images; estimated reading time 3:47 mins