Extending the Welcome

And yet another summer is quickly coming to a close, and another semester in IU HCI/d will start up on Monday. There was so much that got taken care of this summer (go ahead to poke through all of the archives here to see what went on!), namely: Tabletop programming, consulting work, helping out GZ.tv, and also, helping to make the incoming class feel quite welcome and comfortable into the program.

The welcome first began on last Monday, where I got a chance to talk to a small group as they were eating lunch during the first day of orientation. I could see myself in their shoes: worried, reticent, and wanting to go back home. We spent a good hour together just getting to know each other, and then we went back to orientation (I went to spend some quality time with my family).

During the next couple of days, our Ubuntu program kicked into gear: we went around the campus to show the students where important places are, and also where some of the best restaurants are, too. A group, myself included, ended up going to Nick’s on Kirkwood, where we got to get to know each other better. We also found out that another new person joined the cohort, making 37 excited designers in training. It’ll be great to see how they grow. Something else this week ended up leaving with me was how much the last year’s cohort cared about our group. I didn’t really get to see much of it because I didn’t get to establish the best of ties with my friend, and it also took a little longer for me to be able to trust the knowledge and experience of the previous class. The shoe is now on the other foot, and I can’t really anticipate how we were interpreted by the new cohort. Only time will tell.

For me, I’ll have to start worrying about how capstone will start kicking into gear, but once it has, be sure to look for weekly postings about it.

Smiles! (^^)V

xxxHolic / xxxHolic Kei

Another one of the anime series I finished watching and now be recommending to you are the 2 seasons of xxxHolic. While the title may have the adult characters XXX in them, this series is far from adult themed. On the contrary, it is mostly humor and Japanese-culture based.

The story follows protagonist Watanuki, a high schooler who is fed up with seeing strange spirits everywhere. On his way to school one day, he finds this mysterious fortuneteller and her store, and decides to go in. He wishes for the spirits to go away, and while he can’t see them anymore, his troubles are far from over, as he now has to work for the fortuneteller to work off this wish. The two other main characters, Doumeki and Himawari, also accompany him on his travels through Japan and the spirit worlds he gets roped into going. Watanuki also has to cook and do other chores for the fortuneteller, Yuuko, while proprietors come in and tell her about their troubles.

This series was very well done storywise, and has a very interesting artistic style – the arms and legs of all the characters are much longer in proportion to the rest of the body. The story left me wanting to know more about the culture of Japan, as it went in-depth about superstitions, cooking, and ghosts. It also even went into great depth on how to play Mahjong! The music and sound were pretty well done, but the aspect of this series I’ll remember most is how Watanuki’s mood can drop at the change of a hat – from swooning in love to great anger. The way he flails his arms and legs is quite funny as well (and is accompanied by a wonderful sound effect!).

It also left me putting a Mokona (the dancing animal in the video above) on my Christmas list, too. It kept getting drunk and wanting food – so funny. It put a big smile on my face.

Enjoy!

Flash Gordon – 80s Awesomeness

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to a housewarming party. There was a lot of people there, and we were also swimming in the amount of chicken we could have to eat. There was roast chicken, even more roast chicken, KFC, macaroni and cheese, and then there was more chicken. We were able to stuff ourselves, schmooze for a long time, and then settle in for the night with a great movie – Flash Gordon.

Now, first, this description comes from watching it on laserdisc – a technology I don’t remember ever seeing before (it supposedly was the first DVD), but it looked awesome, so I went with it. We watched this movie on an epic large projection TV, and in complete darkness. The movie was full of 80s-ness, and the soundtrack was done exclusively by Queen. So I was thinking, “This should be good”. We then sat down for the rest of the night engaging in MST3K-ing comments of the movie, as it was suitable for these comments. If you don’t believe me, I’ve left a snippet of the movie at the end here for you to feast your 80s eyes on.

Also, with the sets, bad green-screening, and having Timothy Dalton in it (yes – James Bond), it contained all the elements of a worthy epic bad movie. Enjoy!

Xenosaga: The Animation

One of the anime series I just finished watching was Xenosaga: The Animation. This is an anime based upon the first video game of the trilogy in the Xenosaga series. I have completed the first of the series, and played most of the second. One of my friends recommended this to me, and now I recommend spending some time to watch this anime to you as well.

This anime follows Shion, a developer of technologies for artificial life in the future, as she finds herself on a ship that gets destroyed by an alien race, bent on eating humans. She is saved by her latest research project, KOS-MOS, a female robot equipped with power lasers, guns, and swords. Unfortunately, this robot can only act through commands and objectives – you can probably see some of the issues revolving around that. Anyways, they travel through space, along with a large and boisterous cast, as they try and stop a crazy Realian (artificial life form) from releasing more of the aliens upon the universe, while also trying to find the clues as to how the aliens got released into the world, an event called the Miltian Conflict.

Without giving any spoilers, this anime is very true to the first of the three games. It helped me to relive the first game, without the hours of boring grinding. The music and sound were also quite reminiscent of the game, and I have included the ending them, as I found it the best of the music in this anime. The anime also helped me to remember some of the backstory of these characters, and made me want to pick up the games again (which I think I will), just to be able to re-engage with the story again. If you get the chance to pick this up, it’s worth the time – and it’s only 12 episodes.

I’ll be trying to find the second and third seasons of this, as they match the other games in the series as well. Have a good one!