It's alive!

Well, I downloaded the divx-to-vcd coverter program that a friend of gokumew2 recommended. I have so far begun the first step (coverting my .avi's to .mpg's). After I have 3 episodes of Hikaru no Go (33-35) coverted, I'm going to attempt to write them onto a CD-R as a VCD. If it actually works, I'll be able to take them to my Chinatown contact to have him tape the episodes onto VHS.

My plot is working! Muhahahahahahaha! ::evil laugh subsides::

Actually, I'm really crossing my fingers that this is going to work because several of my fansub contacts have deserted me. One of them, Kim, has been way busy with college (I think this is her first year) and so hasn't updated her site in months -- leaving me hanging for all of the new anime I'd been getting from our trades (Hikaru no Go, Prince of Tennis, Ai Yori Aoshi, and more). I've been left to trying to find more of these episodes on VHS by myself. However, since VHS seems to be going out (and IRC has been taking over), it's been really difficult (read impossible).

My other contact, Tony from Chinatown, has apparently left for good, (this is what I've heard from one of his co-workers). One of the other guys there, Eddie, is the one who converts all the DVDs and VCDs that they get to VHS, so since I bought those SDK VCDs and lent them to him, I've been considering downloading other episodes, converting them to VCD, and basically getting them on VHS once Eddie has copied them. Which is basically an extension of our agreement with Tony (to whom I'd been lending my VHS tapes of anime he didn't have) in return for free VHS tapes of anime he had that I didn't. Which is really an amazing deal, and we're quite fortunate that Tony's co-workers continue to do that with us. (That was a litte convoluted; I hope you understood.)

In any case, we'll just have to see how the conversion project turns out.

The big problem is finding the episodes to download in the first place. Again, gokumew2 kindly sent me an ftp that had practically all the Hikaru no Go episodes that have been fansubbed so far. But what about all the other anime series that I'm dying to see? I've tried IRC lots of times, but I've found that I absolutely despise some of the channels, and if I ever find someone who has the episodes I'm looking for, it takes way over 6 hours to download a single episode. That is so completely not worth it. And I don't get why it takes so long for me to download anyway -- I have a cable modem, goddammit!

Anyway, I gave in today and bid on Ai Yori Aoshi DVDs on ebay. The series is complete, so at least I wouldn't have to wait for more to come out. Let's hope I win.

---> 75% of episode 34 encoded!

ちょびっツとアニメ。

I picked up Chobits manga today at the discount manga store. Surprisingly, they still had the postcards that come with each tankouban. Which is cool 'cause I have the little photo album thingy that came with the special edition of volume three, which is where I put the post cards.

So now I have volumes three, six, seven, and eight. I hope I remember to go back tomorrow to get two, four, and five. Unfortunately, they don't have volume one. But I can wait.

Another disappointment is that volume eight was actually the last installment of the manga. I was so hoping that the two "bad guys" (bad looking, anyway) were going to have more airtime, at least in the manga! (Jima and Dita? Are those their names?) They looked so kirei... and I hate to say it, but potentially more interesting than Chii turned out to be.

I watched another episode of Witch Hunter Robin, which is interesting, but so far nothing really intriguing has happened. Apparently, Angelica really likes the series because she's bought (or at least bid on) whatever's up on ebay right now.

あたしは... I'm looking forward to more SDK, and I'm dying to get my hands on some episodes of Prince of Tennis.

Does anyone know anything about King of Bandits JING, or something like that? I have the first 6 or 8 episodes, but haven't had time to watch it, and know nothing about it.

Success!

I now have a VCD with Hikaru no Go episodes 33 to 35 on it!

よしゃ！

Now all I have to do is go on a rampage of .avi encoding.

It's not so bad. Angelica gets to do all the downloading. ^_~

I feel like I got stuff done today.

I don't know why; I didn't really.

Let's see. I went to the library and returned my overdue book (Porno, the sequel to Trainspotting, by Irvine Welsh), and sorta took out another copy of it 'cause I'm not quite finished with it. Also, got a chance to pick up John Ringo's When the Devil Dances from the library -- the third book in his Legacy of Aldenata series.

After that I stopped by Book Off and picked up Chobits volumes two and four. Unfortunately, someone bought volume five (unless I only imagined that it was there). So I'm currently missing volumes one and five, which isn't so bad. And I got Clover volume two (so I now have one and two) to make up for it. You know, about two years ago at this time I was still in CLAMP-rebellion mode. I'd only basically seen Magic Knight Rayearth and X/1999 (which although intriguing, wasn't anything really awesome). I think it was really Angelic Layer and X TV that got me to admit I really liked them, and then Chobits just capped it off. So anyway, I came away feeling all triumphant that I'd gotten some good manga.

Oh! And I got to finish Nora Roberts' Chesapeake Blue, which I was sufficiently pleased with. Happy to report that it wasn't so annoying typical of her rehashed plots. Although it wasn't anything unusual or unique from her, either. I wonder if she realizes she reuses her plots and characters a lot? If not, someone should break it to her gently. If she does, though, I'd recommend getting off her Irish obsession. We all know she's Irish and loves the Irish and gets off on all things Irish - hell, I think the Irish are intriguing, too - but really, enough's enough!

Aside from all this book talk, tomorrow I have work all day. And Liz, Angelica and I are going to try to go see LOTR: The Two Towers after work tomorrow, but I don't know if we'll be able to. I don't think that theaters will still be sold out, but it is a Friday night, so who knows?