Blog

Banned from Twitter —

I have been banned from Twitter for posting excepts from an article on the polio vaccine, which was published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.

Oh well it was fun well it lasted, F for my tweeter 2013-2021, another casualty of the ‘rona.

If you are here because you clicked on the link in my profile, you can view the waifu site at chihaya.moe.

Dead site and revival —

It’s been over a year since my last post. I suppose it’s sort of neglect, but I’ve not had much that I feel like writing up in a blog post. I am quite active on my Twitter and Twitch stream, so you could follow those.

I’m thinking about revamping the site though and sort of transitioning formats. I have a lot I’d like to write up in a sort of static article/write-up format that wouldn’t fit well in a blog post. It’s going to take a little bit of rework of the code to get it done though. I think I’ll also remove the comment functionality, since it’s been virtually unused (only 2 comments in over 4 years).

Even more cartoon books —

Wow more manga opinions nobody cares about.

I finished reading K-On! (けいおん!), K-On! College (けいおん! college), and K-On! Highschool (けいおん! highschool). It’s a fun light-hearted series that I really should have read earlier. The premise is simple, a bunch of high schools girls form a music club and get up to the usual anime antics. Anyway you’ve probably heard of it, and it’s popular for a good reason so go read it!

This month a pre-order I placed months ago for a figurine arrived, along with a couple of others I ordered at the same time. There’s some pictures on my Twitter if you care to see them. Worth it I guess, I’ve got the money. I was surprised nobody I knew passed judgement for gay-ass anime girl figurines.

I also finally got around to watching THE IDOLM@STER MOVIE: BEYOND THE BRILLIANT FUTURE! (THE IDOLM@STER MOVIE 輝きの向こう側へ!). It was decent I guess, but the story was nothing really enthralling. It felt more like they just shoved a couple of episodes of the anime together.

There’s another couple of currently-publishing mangas I’m reading:

My Senpai is Annoying (先輩がうざい後輩の話) is a cute little heart-warming series that’s being published on Pixiv. It’s one of those tsundere almost-romance stories.

Wake up please, Ms. Kusakabe (起きてください、草壁さん) is great if you like sleeping and girls that like to take naps.

I watched Pop Team Epic (ポプテピピック) as it was airing. If you can’t appreciate some really avant-garde surrealist humor you might not like it. I thought it was pretty good. A lot of crazy meta-jokes. When I first heard about it (through physical advertisements in Akihabara!), I’ll admit I had no clue how they were going to make it into an anime. But they did somehow and it turned out pretty decent. They gave these guys 24 minutes to make whatever they wanted, and it turns out it’s 12 minutes of whatever they wanted but twice. Go give it a shot, you might like it.

Apart from that I’ve just been up to the usual stuff: work and counterstrike. Follow my Twitch channel if you like to watch people play video games instead of playing them yourself. I’ve also got a vacation planned in a couple of weeks to Las Vegas/Grand Canyon/the Southwest, so maybe that will be fun.

More cartoon book reviews —

I wanted to write an update on the stuff I’ve been reading so…

I finished reading the main series of Nichijou (日常). It’s a great light-hearted comedy manga, but if you can’t appreciate the absurdist kind of humor it features you might not like it, it took me a bit to get into it. If you’re looking for something fun to read I’d totally recommend it. I was something I enjoyed reading during those isolated evenings down in the Mojave desert. The manga almost seems like it was written to be made into an anime with how animated it is. I haven’t watched it though, maybe sometime soon. Helvetica Standard (ヘルベチカスタンダード) is like the DVD bonus features for the manga, I picked it up and you should too if you liked it.

I finished all six volumes of Mysterious Girlfriend X (謎の彼女X ‘Nazo no Kanojo X’) as well. It’s a bit of a longer read but if you wanted to read a romance manga I’d absolutely recommend it. Unlike some others I’ve read I liked how it set the story up for drama but instead of things turning bad everything resolves in a nice wholesome manner, it was almost refreshing. The story was kind of slow and doesn’t make a lot of progression so if you wanted a riveting story that keeps you going for the next volume you might not like it. On the other hand, if you want a sweet, loving, fun story to read you’ll like it as much as I did. There’s an anime too but I haven’t seen it. Considering how many volumes of manga there were I would imagine they cut out quite a bit.

I’m up to volume 4 of Aho Girl (アホガール). I’ll admit I’m only reading it because of the memes. If you want a fun 4-koma comedy manga it’s pretty good.

I’ve been keeping up with Please Tell Me! Galko-chan (おしえて! ギャル子ちゃん ‘Oshiete! Galko-chan’), nothing to add from my last post. Volume 11 of No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular! (私がモテないのはどう考えてもお前らが悪い! ‘Watamote’) was good too.

K-On! (けいおん!) is another series I started reading. It’s a nice fun little manga with cure girls doing cute things. It’s only four thin volumes so it’s not terribly long.

I also picked up a bunch of doujins at Comiket 93 when I was in Japan over Christmas. It was super cool but I don’t really have any reviews to write. X1001977x.jpg

HTTPS —

I got HTTPS working on all my website thanks to Let’s Encrypt! Props to them for being free and painless (except trying to figure how to get this to work with vhosts, that’s my fault).

Photo gallery —

Since I’ve been getting into photography I’ve put some of my favorites in a gallery go check it out here.

Chinese cartoon books —

I wanted to do a writeup on the mangas I’ve been reading. Since I’ve been spending most of my time in the Mojave desert (what I call the shit-ass desert), I’ve had spare time to read these. As much as I’ve been willing to carry in my backpack anyway, but I’ve got good at traveling light.

I’ve been reading No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular! (私がモテないのはどう考えてもお前らが悪い! ‘Watamote’) since the English release started in 2013 and it’s been as entertaining as ever. Whether you consider that a good or bad thing, but it’s consistent. Funny but tough to read at times since the authors are so good at getting that cringy feeling. My only hope is that they come to a satisfying conclusion, better than petering out or choosing some cop-out ending.

I’ve been keeping up with Please Tell Me! Galko-chan (おしえて! ギャル子ちゃん ‘Oshiete! Galko-chan’) and it’s great. Genuine, funny and entertaining, my only concern is that the covers are way too sexual so someone looking at it might get the wrong idea (look at this).

I picked up Nichijou (日常) for reasons I can’t remember. It took me a bit to get into its absurdist sense of humor but it’s pretty funny once you get past the expectation that it’s supposed to make sense. It’s something fun to read at the airport.

I made it through 3 volumes of Haganai: I don’t have many friends (僕は友達が少ない ‘Haganai’). It was OK but I couldn’t really get into it. Maybe once I’m done reading what I am now I’ll pick up the next volume.

Kokoro Connect (ココロコネクト) I read the first volume of but couldn’t get into it either.

I picked up the first volume of Your Name (君の名は ‘Kimi no Na wa’) but I haven’t read it yet since I think I should watch the movie first. I’ve heard it’s really good so I’m looking forward to it. I’ve really liked Shinkai Makoto’s previous films. ‘Looking forward to it’ but the only reason I haven’t seen it is due to my laziness lol.

I read the manga version of 5 Centimeters Per Second (秒速5センチメートル ‘Byousoku 5 Centimeter’) . It’s quite a bit longer than the anime and expands the story a couple of chapters. Maybe it’s because I’m in a different place in my life now, or maybe because the manga expanded a lot on the anime, but it hit me a lot harder emotionally. I’d really recommend it. Watch the anime first for the beautiful visuals, but read the manga for the story. The final chapter really made it, a much more positive ending, or at least more ambiguous and not as negative.

On the recommendation of PaperChazz I’ve been reading Mysterious Girlfriend X (謎の彼女X ‘Nazo no Kanojo X’). I’d agree with him that it’s a really great romance manga. If you just read the synopsis of the story it might seem like this weird drool-centric story, but it’s really great. I’m on volume 4 right now. If it seems interesting to you go check it out.

That’s all I can think of for now.

Things —

I have a new domain name: chihaya.moe. Something coming there soon.

I’ve been down in the Mojave desert most of the time.

This sucks.

Follow my twitter for more frequent updates @crazyfarmsexy.

Server upgrades —

I have moved my server over to a Linux box (running Debian). The most important thing is that this means NO MORE CRASHERINO. Server 2003 is getting a little old anyway.

2017 —

This site hit one hundred thousand hits a while ago, so that’s cool. It’s almost 10 years old too. Thanks to everyone who has visited my site, I think there might actually be one or two human beings.

I’ve been meaning to write a news post on what’s going on over the last half a year, but I haven’t found the time or motivation to do so. I’ve been trying to keep myself as busy as possible so I don’t have time to think or work on this site. There’s a lot of things I’d like to write.

I upgraded my computer, GeForce 1080 FTW and a new monitor, I should do the CPU soon.

I bought and beat The Witness, it was a pretty decent puzzle game. It also head beautiful visuals.

I watched Amagami SS (アマガミSS) and SS+, it was good. I also watched Oshiete! Galko-chan (おしえて! ギャル子ちゃん) and I’m reading the translated manga.

Work has been busy and it sucks anyway, I hate waking up so early in the morning. At least I’ve got all this money, and nothing to spend it on.

If you’re more interested in frequent updates (you’re not) you can check out my Twitter and Twitch, links are on the left.