Arch Linux report
So I decided I'd install Arch Linux on my netbook. This was after an older cousin showed me around on it and I ended up pretty confident that I could actually install and use it myself. This confidence, though, was undercut by a deep fear that I was definitely going to screw something up. However, when I tried to actually think about those concerns, I found an even deeper egoistical belief that I was more than capable of pulling it off flawlessly. Analyzing that left me skeptical of it, and so on, and so on. I often have this sort of problem. Sometimes it stops me from trying in the first place. This time it DIDN'T.
Why I wanted to install Arch Linux
1% - Experience with Linux might help land me a job
9% - Experience with Linux might help me not look like an idiot while talking about Linux
20% - Too lazy to figure out how to change desktop background of previous OS, Windows 7 Starter
25% - The idea of doing a bunch of stuff in Command Line seems “fun” and “what a hacker would do”
45% - Like the name
Problems I encountered while installing Arch Linux in chronological order
-Program that puts an iso as a bootable image on USB device corrupted USB device
-Cannot edit config files
-Won't boot Display Manager
-Display Manager resets after I log in
-Xorg-server does nothing
-Window Manager does nothing
-xterm does nothing
-yaourt can't seem to install correctly
Solution techniques
-Install everything to do with the thing I was trying to install instead of just what I thought I needed
-Google every word to do with problem
-Install something that seems, at best, tangentially related, but showed up in some search results
-???
-Success, by some definitions
What I am able to do now in Arch Linux
-Have a desktop
-Change the desktop background
-Play Tetris, although there's like +-10fps of lag pretty often, which is pretty annoying
-Have a command line and do some stuff in it
-Browse the web – this is really the big one
-A million billion other things that I will never want to do but installed with the Window Manager out of desperation and I think they're all slowing down my system and I don't know how to get rid of them
What I am unable to do that I kinda want to do
-Get to the Window Manager in less than five steps, those being: 1) Load display manager 2) Quit display manager, get command line login 3) login as root (I know, I know) 4) start xorg-server 5) start Window Manager
(Now, you might wonder why this is. Briefly it's because starting the Window Manager from the Display Manager seems to restart xorg for no reason, so I can't do that. But I have to load the Display Manager because it seems like I can't adjust the run level to 5 unless I do that. I also can't do anything as a non-root user because I can't seem to change the local settings for xorg for any non-root user. Bun.)
-Play music
-Use word processor or spreadsheets
-Use MSN
(These I think are all really easily solved by getting yaourt working)
What I suspect I am unable to do but have been too afraid to try because that will then force me to try to fix it and honestly this has been enough of a headache for now
-Plug in USB harddrives etc
-Anything with sound
-Connecting to wireless internet
-Playing video files
-Playing like flash video stuff online
Each of these I'm like 50% sure will work maybe.
Anyways
This was probably the worst time to try all this because I will likely very shortly actually need my netbook to do well at least wireless internet and word processing and probably some other random obscure crap too. So yeah good one, me! I'm thinking my next step might actually be a like 100% retry. It would fix a few things, at least. I might go with the like, core install versus net install too.
Recent Anime
Usagi Drop episode 9
Ah, what a lovely episode. The school scenes were lots of fun, typhoon's always a nice environment for an episode. Real big Yotsuba vibe from this one, but like, the latter half would be a scene in the neighbors' house. And uh Yotsuba would be both child characters, except sometimes Ena would be Rin. Anyways yeah that's about the highest praise I can give, that it was as fun as Yotsuba. I wonder just where the “romance” plot will go, I honestly wouldn't mind if it was developed pretty heavily so long as it doesn't start to exclude the kids in the show. These are characters that I like enough that I just sorta want them to be happy, I guess. So yeah, no complaints, really. Kouki and his mom are becoming more interesting characters, Daikichi had some good development with the scene at his office, Rin probably had the least significant scenes but her scenes were so much fun I don't care. Good stuff. Also there were a few tracks in the soundtrack of this episode that I really noticed as being awesome. Gonna maybe start rating things now I think maybe and thus this gets an 8.
Idolmaster episode 9
Lots of fun. Second sort of “genre parody” episode they've done in a row now and they've managed to nail the combination of parody and example again. The intro was especially impressive. It's easy to say “do a murder mystery show” on paper but they actually went the whole distance with it, made it feel very legitimate. I've been worried that the twins would have a really dramatic episode soon with like, themes of jealousy and such, and that it would just be painful and not very fun to watch, but this wasn't it. Those things were addressed swiftly and smoothly with just the right level of tact. Maybe the parallel with the show within a show was too shoved in our face, that was a bit awkward. Great to see the whole cast being so involved, though, and it was a great way to highlight each of their personalities. Also the ending sequence was great. This is also gets an 8.
YuruYuri episode 10
Okay first off my only complaint: when you do off-model deformities as a joke and include them in like 75% of gag punchlines and you have a really gag-dense show it creates this really weird feeling where the animation in a whole lot of scenes just gets... weird. It's off putting in the best of times, and the slightest step back can make it almost intolerable. Also uh Chitose's nosebleed jokes have gotten really, really disturbing now that they've had to kick them up so many notches into absurdity to make them still funny. Like, bleeding into your soup? Bleeding out of your eyes? Exactly who is this appealing to? I do not want to meet them but uh congrats to them on having this amount of fanservice. Anyways aside from all that this was great, really great. Trip episode obviously has a lot of potentially great scenes and this nailed all of them, including some new ones. It also had some idea of like... moe tempo? Moe hype? Moeticipation? I guess it's because the reaction to something really moe is such a basic reaction that you can very simply give the sense that is upcoming like you can build tension in a scary scene. Seriously like before you even know the whole premise or consciously realizing what scenes will probably result, just DAT music and DAT bus and just the ridiculous tempo of the opening scenes and how jarring all the changes are, it just sets you up so perfectly. Oh yeah here's my other complaint, and this is the big one, actually: come on you have a whole other show's worth of cast that you are just completely ignoring and since every character is my favorite character you are neglecting my favorite character four times over. I think the tsundere twins actually shouldn't appear too often though? Like uh their relationship is so simple that trying to force it into too many scenes would just ruin it. Oh also I remembered that this episode I thought Yui was a little too quick to get aggravated. It seems like I mainly complained here but like everything I didn't explicitly mention as bad was great. Gets an 8.5.
Nichijou episode 23
Wow. What is this nonsense? Build up a lovable cast of characters through the wackiest gags in anime history then go all hard flipmode and use these same characters in these absolutely legitimately beautiful scenes? Every second of this episode was in some weird surreal world where cliché and originality meet. It was like a second layer of heartfelt sincerity was hiding behind every character. Yuuko has like, transcended the idea of a main character, and now her misfortune is like a universal constant to be admired with awe instead of just simple laughs. Mio's despair at the horrible tasting jam prompts one of the finest flashback montages I have ever seen. The soccer and igo club developments, the Sakurai siblings at home, the confession to the “punk kid with the mohawk”, the scene of Yuuko getting guidance counseled... it was all just so pitch-perfect and sincere. Sincerity! If I have one really abstract and high-level and not fully developed complaint about YuruYuri is that it's just so self-aware and has this sorta biting undercurrent of, like, satire. It's still stuck in the level of irony, brilliant but with a deep hollow center that can be hard to ignore. Nichijou, then, is post-ironic, and, unlike K-On!, which is also post-ironic, Nichijou is complex enough that playing it straight is actually more difficult than copping out and doing simple satirical sketches. How weird is it that pure absurdest humor with a heart, probably the simplest form of humor, the stuff kids will try first, is so difficult to find while it seems like everyone can crank out some overblown version of something with the asterisk linked to “I know it's silly!” clearly marked when the latter requires all sorts of sophistication and knowledge that the former doesn't? Have we hit some sort of cultural threshold where it's become easier to metaemote than to actually emote? And yeah of course that scene with Mai and Hakase like, what can you say about that? It's so touching for so many reasons. The 180 of Mai's character and then the 180 of your own character when you realize that it wasn't a 180 at all. Beautiful. Really, really beautiful. Easy 10.
Curb Your Enthusiasm s08e09
Funny funny episode. Everything escalated very quickly, but they managed to link everything together pretty well. Lots of pretty funny scenes, Larry's flashback was handled well, as was the guest star. Really great Leon action, too. Not a whole lot to say, honestly. This is just classic Curb. Has the inevitabile feeling on a lot of it's jokes, the multiple plot threads, the wackiness in every classic Curb category – baseball, sex, race, Jewishness, celebrity. Nothing super super great I guess but solid. 8.5
Das Racist report
RELAX COMES OUT IN A WEEK
Saimoe report
Yeah you better believe I'm following Saimoe. There's been some interesting matches so far but it honestly hasn't really begun to heat up yet so it's okay that this is my first mentioning of it really.
Misaka beating Homura is really unfortunate, I think. Well it was unfortunate that they were in the first round against each other, seriously. Railgun is probably my favorite character in Raildex, which is a series where I like maybe a half-dozen characters and sorta like the general plot but dislike so many other aspects that I can't bother to watch it. But geez Homura, like, this is supposed to be a moe contest, right? You can't get more moe than flashback Homura, you simply cannot.
Seems like K-On! isn't actually gonna do well this year, eh? Well they all had sorta tricky opening matches but I wonder if it's more like an anti-K-On voting brigade behind this? Hm let's see:
-Jun is a minor character so of course she's prolly gonna lose to a titular character. Plus apparently she has a boyfriend now in the manga? That's a death sentence.
-Nodoka was a minor character but I dunno I thought this might be her year? Nah just kidding/hoping.
-Mugi geez she had a shot but the angel love is just too strong I guess. I prolly should watch Angel Beats at some point. Saw the first episode but it seemed like too much of a “thing”, y'know?
-Wow Mio got STOMPED by Squidgirl. I'm actually... okay with this? She had her time in the spotlight, well deserved. She can do great again next year after the movie. It's Ika's time!
-Geez Azusa losing to someone in a series I've been too lazy to even consider being too lazy to watch sorta bugs me, but I guess it's prolly really the same deal as with Mio.
-Ditto Yui losing to some Baka to Test girl.
-Ui is awesome and probably has a shot, which is disappointing, because I want Hakase to win this one. Actually I just want both of them to win.
-Ritsu will be devoured by Kyoko. It is just what needs to happen. This is Madoka year and I would want nothing else.
-I like Sawachan and all but if Miyako doesn't win that one I will be displeased.
So yeah, no K-Ons making it past round one as far as I can see. Pretty shocking, eh? I guess it was a pretty slow year for K-On, all things considered. The movie, which I am pretty hyped up for, will change all that.
Oh yeah speaking of Hidamari Sketch, I am very, very pleased to see that Yuno completely STOMPED her match. She would have won even if all the Raildex fans allied against her. Unless this is somehow skewed by some anti-Raildex sentiment, it seems like she has a lot of well-deserved support. I could see her going as far as group finals! Geez Squidgirl vs. Yuno in group finals would be great. Too bad about most of her comrades. Miyako will probably win her round one, I think, though. And Hiro's could go any way, I don't really think HSotD has a following on Saimoe but Momo will be formidable. I'd be okay with Ayase beating Nazuna, as will probably happen, 'cause Ayase is pretty great.
Nichijou is doing better than I thought it would be but way worse than I think it should be doing. Yuuko won a close match, I didn't think she'd be able to take down a popular Strike Witch. Mai losing is a bummer but she put up a good fight. Izumi was never really a factor which is a shame, but Last Order is pretty cool at any rate. Mio, Nano and Hakase I think all have a good shot at their round one, so let's cross our fingers.
Those are the main ones I care about. A few others surprised me but whatever on that. Sorta nice to see Tooru and Run from A-Channel winning, that show was pretty moe if nothing else.
Anyways if I have to make predictions, and I guess I ought to:
Group A is won by Misaka over... geez, I dunno, I guess Miya has a shot.
Group B is won by Yuuko. Ha, I wish. Nah I think Merry has this? Her or Erica, maybe? I really don't know.
Group C is won by Madoka over either Elsea or Run.
Group D is won by Yuno over Ika Musume. I believe it!
Group E is won by Sayaka over Ohana, probably. If Charlotte beats Sayaka I will be peeved.
Group F is won by Mami over... Anjou? How popular was Ano Hana, all told? I hope Nano makes it that far but I have my doubts.
Group G... wow, Index, Kirino, Yuri and Haruka all have like, group final potential, I'd say. Kyoko will destroy Ritsu and Kanata, which is sort of sad because I like all those characters, and then move on to crush Charlotte and whoever else, unfortunately including Mio and Ayase. Oh well, only one can win, and anything to do with Madoka will and should. Kyoko over Index is my final guess.
Group H will be won by Kuroneko although probably Kuroko and hopefully Miyako will give her some competition. No idea who she will meet in the finals but I'm gonna guess Kanon cause people seem to like TWGOK.
Too lazy to figure out how the quarter finals and all that will be seeded but I think Madoka will beat Mami in the finals. Or at least I hope.
Okay that's it for this blog post
They should do a Saimoe-like tournament for Linux distros.
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