Hello all:
This is Naota writing another episode of Random Thoughts and I am including some nonsense to balance out this entry. However, this is my blog and I can write down what ever that comes to my mind.
As most of you know Wednesdays and Thursdays are the two days that make up my weekend. And, I have been just resting and what not. I got out of work at 1 Am on Wednesday morning and completed watching the anime series Kanon which was a remake of a series from 2002 with a modified storyline that compliments the original series. (Which I didn’t find out until later today but I will explain that later.)
Now I was watching a subbed version of the anime series which I have had for a long time but never had the time or energy to read it. So A couple of days ago, Sunday to be exact, I started to watch it. The series starts off Really well and since I was reading it, I was a bit lost throughout most of the series because I was missing small details. Anyways, I made my way through all 24 episodes and loved every minute of the series.
Kanon has a well constructed story line. The character development is spot on and the animation style is simple yet effective. The story is about a School Boy named Yuichi Aizawa. Yuichi moved to a new town because his parents are constantly traveling for their jobs and he stays with his Aunt and Cousin. Yuichi use to come to this town a lot when he was 10 years old and he has forgotten much about the past. The main plot is that he needs to remember certain events and people. As the story unfolds you meet all the characters from the main characters to the supporting character. All the characters play an important role in making this story a great tale.
Now that is the whole description I am going give not to spoil the series for those who haven’t seen it. But as I said before I watched all 24 episodes in subtitled mode. I got the whole story but I missed a lot of things what went on. I have started to watch the series again with the English Dubbing. Now that I know the story line and that it is easier for me to understand in English, I am seeing and hearing things I missed because of subtitles.
As I watched the English dubbed version, I found out that Greg Ayres plays a role in the series. I have to laugh when he screams, “YOU DILLWEED!” to Yuichi and other remember one liners. I Greg, Chris Patton, Brittany Karboski did a wonderful job with their voice acting talents to bring the story alive even further.
At this time I am 1/2 way done through the series again. I am enjoying it a lot better now than the original first time. I am glad that I did it this way. And I don’t care if you think it is stupid or not.
As I reflect upon the story line, it makes me wonder about life. Makes me wonder about all the small things that are happening now in my current life and what could happen now as well as the past. I try to keep the past the past and the present a way of reaching the future. I got to thinking about how the main character is similar to me in the sense that his life gets turned upside down by moving into a new place. Reminds me of when I moved back up to New York State back in mid 2000 and how sometime you can forget something important about the past that could play a major roll in the upcoming events.
Any who I am tired and I will be going to sleep now. I leave you with the Opening Theme for Kanon in English then in Japanese, Enjoy.
Last regrets
Vocals: Ayana
Lyrics: Key
Composition: Key
Arrangment: Takase Kazuya
I won’t say ‘thank you’; I’ll leave it in myself forever
Goodbye, after a dream that doesn’t overshadow it, quietly lands
I forever, forever embrace the pieces pouring into my hands
And I already know the strength of laughing until the end
Good morning, waking up is blindingly bright and sad
Goodbye, our inexcusable weaknesses were fine
The common kindness in us moves around like flowers, like love
I can’t hear the quietness of the low clouds waiting for the wind anymore
I forever, forever embrace the pieces pouring into my hands
And I already know the strength of laughing until the end
I won’t cry anymore, I won’t cry anymore, I won’t cry
Last regrets
Vocals: Ayana
Arigatou iwanai yo zutto shimatte oku
Sayonara wa kagerinai yume no ato shizuka ni oritatsu
Ryoute ni wa furisosogu kakera o itsu made mo itsu made mo daite
Saigo made waratteru tsuyosa o mou shitte ita
Ohayou mezame wa mabushikute kanashii
Sayonara yurusenai boku-tachi no yowasa ga yokatta
Futari ni wa arifureta yasashisa hana no you ni koi no you ni utsurou
Hikui kumo kaze o matsu shizukesa mou kikoenai
Ryoute ni wa furisosogu kakera o itsu made mo itsu made mo daite
Saigo made waratteru tsuyosa o mou shitte ita
Mou nakanai mou nakanai nakanai
This past week has been a pretty nice week in my opinion. I was able to accomplish some things that I have been putting off for quite some time. Now I am just relaxing and enjoying my weekend. For those of you who don’t know me that well, my weekend is Wednesday and Thursday and Friday starts my work week.
On Friday, I went to work and had a pretty decent day. It started off nice and ended nice at work. I got home and I decided to fix my RC Truck. My RC truck is a TRAXXAS E-MAXX 3905 1/10th scale monster truck. This monster truck is pretty sweet. With a fully charge set of two 8.4 Volt batteries it can reach speeds of 30+ mph.
During the last time I took this truck out and raced with it after work back in early April, the chassis broke. I received a replacement chassis from TRAXXAS and I haven’t had the time to replace it.
Once I got home, I took the truck out and carefully removed all the parts from the chassis and put it back together. I had no left over screws and everything worked well. I charged my batteries, made sure the motors ran, checked the wheels, suspension and other parts and I went to bed.
The next day, I went to work and had another decent day. Everything was fine, I had a 7pm lunch but things happen. I did what I needed to do and I left at 1 pm. When I clocked out DAMONSTA and I raced our RC Trucks around in the parking lot at work. I wound up getting about an hour of play time with my 2 large Batteries. After the batteries discharge to about 20 percent left, I took them out of the truck and we left to go to our homes.
On Sunday, I just chilled for a bit. Around 4:00 pm I picked hung out with Moroii. I know what your thinking, “Isn’t Moroii in Florida?” Yes and no. He had to come back up to finish taking the rest of their belongings and to Get his mother so they can drive down. He was up and we hung out for a while. We played some Magic the Gathering, and we Watched LUPIN the 3rd Strange Psychokensis Strategey. We had a good time. And it was nice to be able to hang out for a while.
Overall, Monday and Tuesday was fine. I did have some crazy calls come in but that is to be expected from people. I did what I Needed to do and I left like normal. I started at 2pm and I left at 1 am. Plain and simple, I just took care of business.
Today was fine until about 40 minutes ago. I was working on tuning the suspension on my RC Truck. I was able to raise it up a bit and it looks a bit better. I couldn’t find the suspension Kit so I could make it stiffer but that can wait since it runs good for now. As I was making the adjustments, I found out that the rear right bulk head was damaged. I have the screws but I need to replace the actual bulk head so that it runs the way it is supposed to. Tomorrow (meaning later today) I will go to the hobby shop to pick up the parts. It shouldn’t run me that much money. On average it costs about 10 bucks. That won’t break the bank.
Now spending 10 bucks isn’t going to make me mad. It is what happened next that made me mad. I finished working on the suspension. I was going to recalibrate the steering and radio to the Electronic Speed Controller of my truck. I turned on the radio and I placed my first 8.2 Volt 3000 Milliamp battery into the truck and hooked it up properly to the speed controller. I did the same to the second 8.2 Volt 3000 Milliamp battery and to my surprise the ESC didn’t want to work. Now I checked the connections to find that the first battery I put in was starting to SIZZLE. I quickly unhooked the connections, the Battery was hot. Once I took it out of the truck, that battery started to spew SMOKE. I placed the battery in a bowl and proceeded to place water to neutralize any battery acid and placed the battery outside to see the battery bubbling and making weird noise.
I was like Damn it. What the hell just happened? So I tried to hook another known good battery to that first terminal and that battery got extremely hot so I put it outside with the other battery and not in the water but outside to cool. I thought this is odd. I took 2 smaller 7.4 Volt 1800 Milliamp batteries and it did the same thing, but this time I was smart enough to pull the batteries out before any damage started to happen.
Now, I disconnected the speed controller from the motors and used the 7.2Volt battery to check the motors. They both worked without any problems. So this is telling me that the speed controller fried for no apparent reason. Looks like my luck sucks at this point in time. So I wrote TRAXXAS and email and I am now waiting for a response.
So, you can see why I am pissed off. That ESC is about 160 bucks alone. I don’t have the money to replace it. Let alone get new batteries. So I will see what they have to say that speed controller. Now, this truck is less than a year old. I think there is a warranty on their products so I have to see what they have to say.
TRAXXAS already helped me get a replacement chassis when it broke for no reason. So Hopefully they will deliver and help me too with this because, that speed controller shouldn’t of died within 15-20 runs like that, let alone blow up a battery and possibly damage another battery. I guess we shall see what will happen.
Here is the math If I need to replace these parts
$160.00 New ESC
$079.00 Battery
+$079.00 Battery
_________________
318.00 Total
That is a lot of clams to fix this truck. I mean the whole truck cost me about 400 bucks. If I am going to spend 320 bucks on a new esc and batteries I should buy a new one and keep this one for parts. I guess I need to wait and see.
Now I am tired. I need some sleep. I am going to go to bed. Goodnight all.
I am going to put a new rant out today. This Rant will be about Anime DVDs. Why does anime dvds have only limited amount of episodes on them? Why do we have to spend 30 dollars on a DVDs just to be able to watch maybe 6 Episodes at one time. I know you can put more than that onto one dvd. It is not that hard to do. I love all the extras and stuff but what they should do is put 8 episodes of an anime series on to a disc then when the series has ended include a bonus features disc. So that you can spend less and get more. I think it would be nice if that can happen. However, I like what Funimation is doing. They are releasing 1/2 a season at a time so that they are reducing packaging. However, I don’t want to pay 50 to 60 dollars on 2 discs. An Anime DVD should be max 15-20 dollars. Not all anime fans have the money to drop on anime series. You think that they would get that. That is the main reason why services like hulu, anime-seasons and youtube (and others) are streaming anime and the fansubs are on the rise. If you charge a reasonable price you will get good sales. Fansubs, what about them fan subs. Some fan subs have better translations than the offial licensed products here in the states. How does that happen? Sometimes if it wasn’t for the fan subs some of the popular anime series may not gotten the licensing in the states. But I Digress. This is my rant on Anime DVD’s. I hope you enjoyed it.