Secrets of the Samurai Sword

On tonight's Nova was "Secrets of the Samurai Sword", which was an interesting mixture of materials science and Japanese culture.

The episode will be repeated at 2am on Thursday (after Wednesday night). If you have digital TV, it's on UNC-HD on June 28 at 8pm and July 1 on UNC-ED at 11am.

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No, you weren't seeing things...

No, you weren't seeing this: I actually was at Animazement on Friday, although briefly (about 11:30-4). It was interesting, and I did a little bit of the wide-eyed walking around, trying to figure out what this weird thing was. I did enjoy seeing many of the absent (and probably very busy) contributors to this blog, most of whom I haven't seen in some time.

As TMSTKSBK could verify (since he was there when I registered), I was the probably one of the few (perhaps only?) weirdo who scanned in his registration confirmation postcard just in case I lost it. Since I got it on December 20 (or at least, that was the last modified date on my scan file), I realized that it would be roughly 5 months until the convention, and I knew what my track record was for finding things 5 months in the future (if it's larger than ε I'd be surprised). I did know that I could show ID if I didn't have it, but it's the kind of thing you'd like to have around, especially if the address I resided at changed.

So as things turned out, when I was rushing around getting ready to log a whopping 1.5 hours at work today for the timesheet, I had thought that I remembered sticking the postcard in Junni Kokki volume 1. Flip through the pages. No dice. Then I dug around for Junni Kokki volume 2. Flip through the pages. No dice. Not having much time, I fell back on the expedient idea of just printing the scan out. As things turned, when I got home, I discovered that it was stuck in behind the back jacket flap of Junni Kokki 1.

As a postscript, while it's a nice backup option, I'm not sure I'd recommend this because it might irk the registration people. Since my printout was on a full sheet of paper, it probably didn't stack nicely with the rest of the cards (similar to boarding passes at airports when you have e-boarding passes and kiosk boarding passes of different sizes and paper stocks, which reminds me tangentially that I should have pillaged my cardstock for the SRPE video room table).

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of Animazement, and make sure you have an umbrella for Saturday if you plan to be outside any. As for me, it's time for me to enjoy Aria 2.

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Something on local television

On local (actual broadcast) TV, is the venerable (if panty-shot laden for an MPAA G-rated movie) Kiki's Delivery Service. It'll air on Saturday, October 13 from 2-4pm on WRDC (over the air 28), and Sunday, October 21, from 3-5pm on WLFL (over the air 22), likely SD and edited to fit the time alotted (running at 1:43, they'll need to find a way to lop off another 17-18 minutes to fit the typical standard of 18 minutes of commercials per hour).

It's pretty rare for any kind of anime (barring the stuff on Saturday mornings that is heavily edited) to show up on regular TV (I don't have cable right now), and I never got around to ever seeing Kiki's, so it'll be interesting for me. In fact, I can't remember the last thing I saw on broadcast, non-Saturday morning, TV that was anime.

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Events - Bandai Visual's Gunbuster Sweepstakes

Bandai Visual USA is running a Sweepstakes that offers fans a chance to win a Free Trip to Japan or Figures and Posters (Relayed by ANN from AnimeNation).

Thank you for reminding me ANN. I'm sure there are a few of you that might be interested in this. ^_^

If you haven't already signed up, then go fill out their Survey NOW!

At the very least, you know a few people who would thoroughly enjoy a few Gunbuster goodies! (At the very least you get a 'standard' Gunbuster Wallpaper)

Unfortunately, I can't fill out the survey as the complete embodiment of 'Hard work and Guts', but I'm sure some of you can. (It is not clear as to how much a participant's enthusiasm factors in, but it probably can't hurt to show it.)

Gunbuster is coming!

(As is SRPE's GAINAX FESTA!)