Difference between revisions of "2003-2004 Emails"
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== Fall 2003 == | == Fall 2003 == | ||
Latest revision as of 20:15, 16 November 2011
| Email announcements from school year 2003-2004 |
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Contents
- 1 Fall 2003
- 1.1 [MnA] Sat, Sept 27 Meeting
- 1.2 [MnA] Sat, Oct 4 Meeting
- 1.3 [MnA] Sat, Oct 11 Meeting
- 1.4 [MnA] Sat, Oct 18 Meeting
- 1.5 [MnA] Sat, Oct 25 Meeting
- 1.6 [MnA] Sat, Nov 8 Meeting
- 1.7 [MnA] Sat. Nov 8 Extra Notes
- 1.8 Halloween, one last thing (really this is the last one...)
- 1.9 MNA 11/15/03
- 1.10 [MnA] Sat, Nov. 22 Meeting
- 1.11 [MNA] Fri, Nov 20 Pictionary Event
- 1.12 [MnA] Sat, Dec. 6 Meeting
- 2 Winter 2004
- 2.1 [MnA] Sat, Jan 10 Meeting
- 2.2 Room Change for this week
- 2.3 Minna No Manga 01/15/04
- 2.4 [MnA] Sat, Jan 10 Meeting
- 2.5 Minna No Manga 01/22/04
- 2.6 [MnA] Sat, Jan 24 Meeting
- 2.7 Minna No Manga 1/29/04
- 2.8 [MnA] Sat, Jan 31 Meeting
- 2.9 [MnA] Sat, Feb 7 Meeting
- 2.10 Minna No Manga Feb. 12
- 2.11 [MnA] Sat, Feb 14 Meeting
- 2.12 MNM, FF Crystal Chronicles, Pictionary
- 2.13 [MnA] Sat, Feb 21 Meeting
- 2.14 [MnA] Pictionary Friday
- 2.15 MNM 02-25-04
- 2.16 [MnA] Sat, Feb. 28 Meeting
- 2.17 MNM 3/4/04
- 2.18 [MnA] Sat, Mar. 7 Meeting
- 2.19 MNM 03-11-04
- 2.20 [MnA] Sat, Mar 13 Meeting
- 3 Spring 2004
- 3.1 MNM No meeting this week
- 3.2 Minna No Manga 4-8-04
- 3.3 Minna No Anime 4-10-04
- 3.4 Minna No Anime No meeting 4-17-04
- 3.5 Minna No Monga 4/22/04
- 3.6 [MnA] Sat, Mar. 24 Meeting
- 3.7 [MnA] Sat., Apr. 24 Rant (not March!)
- 3.8 [MnA] Sat, May 1 Meeting
- 3.9 Minna No Manga 4/29/04
- 3.10 MNM 5/6/04
- 3.11 Minna No Manga 5/13/04
- 3.12 [MnA] Sat, May 15 Meeting
- 3.13 [MnA] Sat, May 22 Meeting
- 3.14 Minna No Manga 05/27/04
- 3.15 Minna No Anime 05/29/04
- 3.16 Minna No Manga 6/3/04
- 3.17 MNA final meeting of the year! 6/5/04
- 4 Summer 2004
Fall 2003
[MnA] Sat, Sept 27 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Wed Sep 24 13:18:01 2003) Konnichiwa Minna-san! I know, I know. It's another newsletter by that guy, isn't it? Well-have no fear! I promise 137.4% more enjoyment from this year's newsletters over last years. First, the news! First meeting of the quarter is THIS Saturday, September 27. Come back to the Silo for what may just be one of the most ass-kicking years we've had in a while. I don't know how, but someone (I think Nik) sold his soul to the devil to get us Patlabor for the year. Also, Inuyasha continues with another year of amazingness (as it will for forever). And finishing up this year is Hana Yori Dango, the best show no one's ever seen. If it wasn't for Nadia you wouldn't get your Gainax fix. And of course, the man-Yoshitoshi ABe with Haibane Renmei, the most beautiful show in the world. Rounding out our later hours we've got the unbelievable Azumanga Daioh, followed by Noir (girls, guns, no zombies-but two for three ain't bad). And finally some Hellsing and Crest of the Stars. Halloween decorations already? Yes, I was walking through Wal-Mart (evil den of commercialism and well-priced nerf guns) and saw the Halloween decorations and was suddenly reminded that we're having another huge Halloween bash. Start making your costumes today before midterms kick in! Okay, time for the Schedule: 5:00 Fansub O' : Read Or Die the TV - ep 1 5:30 Hana Yori Dango - ep 26 : The Couple's Sleepless Night! Break : How long has it been since you heard "ten minute break?" 6:00 Patlabor - ep 1 : Second Unit, Move Out! 6:30 Nadia : The Secret of Blue Water - ep 26 : King's On His Own Break : I went to Japan this summer and all I got was this lousy scar. 7:00 Inuyasha - ep 51 : Inuyasha Who Lost His Heart 7:30 Haibane Renmei - ep 1 : Dream Of Falling From The Sky Break : My new school year resolution is to be less angry (note last message about scar). 8:00 Azumanga Daioh - ep 1 : Child High School Student - She's A Genius - Frightening Isn't It? (phew!) 8:30 Noir - ep 1 : The Maidens With Black Hands Break : I'm a little too excited about Azumanga and Patlabor and Haibane and... 9:00 Hellsing - ep 1 : The Undead 9:30 Crest of the Stars - ep 1 : Invasion That's all folks! Here now, you didn't think I'd forget to rant my insanity to you, did you? Well, as I sit here repeating my new mantra "i don't need this anger" repeatedly to myself, I realize-maybe I doooo need this anger. Sure my Jamba juice tastes great, but damn that guy took like 25 minutes making it. I could've planted my own damn apple tree in that time and crushed the ice by foot in time to receive my now ripened apples. So yes, what's new in the news that you guys need to hear? First-Japan is expensive. Let no one tell you otherwise. I mean, sure-I voted to sleep in parks but the guys I was travelling with were all about 'beds' and stuff. Damn princesses, I tell you. Second, and possibly more imporant than the money issue-the Japanese Toilet is a complete mystery. I tried more than thirty positions, none of which seemed to work. I'm beginning to think they really keep western toilets around the corner behind signs that foreigners can't read, and that the Japanese toilets they lead you to are all a big practical joke against westerners. Either that or I just can't figure out how to use them. Finally-has anyone seen Lee around? I've got something for him (not like how a puppy leaves you a present-but how someone who went to Japan got something) and I have no idea where to find him. Okay, onto the stuff on the web I need to show you. I've had three months off from this gig, and I've been thinking-there is a lot of f***ed up stuff on the web that I could easily subject you all to, so why haven't I thought of this sooner? Besides the club webpage (which you should all visit now and bookmark) there are a lot of things out there that maybe, just maybe you would all find interesting. I think I found out about this through either Megatokyo or Penny-Arcade (both of which you should probably hit up also), but it's the National Geographic Picture Of The Day. There are some pretty damn amazing pictures in there among all the crap with sunsets and oceans or old wrinkly people who are rrrreally wrinkly. http://lava.nationalgeographic.com/pod/ Second, The Parking Lot Is Full web-comic. Sure they stopped making new ones, but that doesn't mean you can't go through the 5 or 6 years of archives and have a good (if not great) laugh. If there is anything more twisted and sick than this, then please let me know. http://www.plif.com Of course, there's always Redmeat by Max Cannon, and Derfcity by a close friend of Dahmer, and the Boondocks (best comic being published daily) by Aaron Macgreuger (sp?). Hmm... that was a lot of comic talk, wasn't it? I guess I should talk about something more manly or macho here. So uhh... oh yeah! Our out-of-club social event this quarter/year! A Catapult! How about it minna? A Minna No Anime Catapult!! I think we'll be a smash hit at Open House. Just imagine it; we think a show sucks-we put it, along with a few pounds of mild explosive, into the bucket and them BAM! Somewhere kinda far from where we are standing it goes boom. Perfect, no? Just, think about it for now. I think you'll come around to my side. Anywhoo-I guess I should get back to class now. Graduate level math bites my undercarriage. Well, not literally-'cause that would hurt, but you get the idea. I sure hope this 'way of the semi-pissed off peaceful warrior' thing works out for me. -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -Minna no Anime Secretary (the other officers make fun of me... sniff...) -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
[MnA] Sat, Oct 4 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Wed Oct 1 15:09:28 2003) Konnichiwa Minna-san, First, the news. Then, the schedule. Lastly, information worth dying for. News: Our schedule has been rearranged a bit this week. We're trying something out, that we think will work-and hope you all accept. We're shortening our breaks down to 5 minutes between hours so we can supply a half-hour break right in the middle of club. Yep, we gave you dinner time. Now you don't have to choose a show to miss so you can go eat. Also, we hope that with the lights on for a whole thirty minutes maybe you'll mingle among each other and figure out a plan to overthrow our current elected officials (El Presidente and me among other) come spring time and elections and whatnot. Who has costumes ready? Who has costume ideas ready? 'Cause there's no way we're gonna let Josh beat us up in the CosPlay contest AGAIN. Spike Spiegal, Gatts from Berserk, who knows what he's gonna be this year. However, if anyone wants to team up on a costume, or get some help making one I'm down. Just e-mail back and we'll put up a fight against the man of a thousand costumes. Otherwise, the rest of us should get cracking on our costumes right away (you will love my magical girl transformation, especially when you see my cute, furry little sidekick). Oh, and the CosPlay contest is held during our mega-halloween-bash-meeting. You'll be hearing all about that every week as it draws closer. Also, if I can, I'll try and leak some of our secret prize info your way. And now, the Schedule! 5:00 Fansub O' : You'll have to come to find out! Actually, it just hasn't been decided yet. 5:25 Hana Yori Dango - Ep 27 : Doumyouji Goes To New York! Break: Maybe I'll cosplay as Doumyouji? Mess up my hair and get a red sweater that says "Pris" 5:55 Patlabor - Ep 2 : Kanuka Has Arrived 6:20 Nadia:The Secret Of Blue Water - Ep 27 : Island Of The Witch Break : Captain Nemo, that would be a good costume. Everyone would think I was captain Global, though. I could go as King? But I'd have to wear pants. 6:50 Inuyasha - Ep 52 : Irresistable! The Youkai's True Nature! 7:15 Haibane Renmei - Ep 2 : Streets & Walls - Touga - Haibane Renmei 7:45 BIG BREAK: Get some food. Find out who sits behind you and munches on snacks during your favorite shows. Hug an officer! 8:15 Azumanga Daioh - Ep 2 : Today With Osaka - PE & Volleyball - Hiccups - Her Brain - Newbie (phew!) 8:40 Noir - Ep 2 : Our Daily Bread Break : Maybe I can come as one of the girls from Noir? You guys think my hairy legs would look good in a miniskirt w/ a Beretta in one of those stocking-holsters? 8:45 Hellsing - Ep 2 : Club M 9:10 Crest Of The Stars - Ep 2 : Kin Of The Stars That's All Folks! Man, I hope I did all the math correctly when putting those shows in those time slots. I got a memo with times from El Presidente, but apparantly they don't teach mathematics over in the computer science department or something. Wow, I just alienated most of the readership of this newsletter with that comment, didn't I? Okay-THANK YOU to everyone for showing me the proper usage of a Japanese Toilet. E-mails and links on the club webpage have not gone unnoticed. And it is true, the "cool graffiti" is not cool in anyway what-so-ever. That aside, please don't help me with that anymore. I think I understand how to use one, thanks. Last week I sent you guys links to some excellent web-comics. I don't know if you checked them out or not, I hope you did, but either way I'm going to link-ify this rant again this week. First thing, and this one really is so simple that it's forgotten over and over again that many people never go to this website : www.animeondvd.com Really, check that one out. I had a nightmare involving the Navy and thus my thoughts turned to Dylan out in the 3rd level of hell learning how to be a seaman or something, and thus I was reminded of informing all of you about this website of wonders. Okay, here's something more serious. This last summer I went to Japan (as you all know from having read my book "The Wacky Mis-Adventures Of Gaijin Jimmy in Tokyo" or my weblog on blogspot) and a mere two and a half weeks before my departure date someone asked me one of thse most important questions in the world. You see, I consider myself smart, but not smart. I think of things like, "I'll need socks. Yeah, those ones," and, "I wonder if I should take my GBA for those long train trips?" However, until my friend asked me "hey, where's your passport?" I had completely forgotten that such ill-begotten slips of paper existed. Needless to say, I paid a hefty fee to the US gov't so they could get off their lazy asses and process my paperwork in record time. So, here is vital information for all of YOU who want to leave the country sometime in the next ten years. http://travel.state.gov/passport_services.html Also, if you look around a little on google or whatever you can find a place in NY that gets you passports in ONE DAY-no questions asked, cash up front. That place worries the fuck out of me. Big Tony can apparantly leave the country any day of the week, but us mere mortals must apply weeks ahead of time. Many weeks, actually. Okay, here's a question. Is it just me and my friends that do this, or perhaps do you also participate in this age-old practice of odd friendship? Do you also keep around a friend who you all make fun of, but are never really mean to? I mean, we've got a friend (two actually, each in a different circle of friends) who we make fun of because he's one step shy of being the stupidest man alive. We were discussing keeping him around when we all realized that he was OUR idiot, and not anyone else's. We protect the little gimp from other fishes swimming by who want to bite off his empty head, ya' know? An example of his foolishness (for he is both foolish and stupid), we are watching "Terror Toons"-the most god-awful movie ever created by man or satan. One guy gets a 9" needle to the head and "W" (we shall call him) turns away from the screen and squirms. Me: What are you doing? W: I hate needles, ewwwwww! My Brother : Aren't you a paramedic? EMT or something? W: No, I'm a fruit juice blender! ::pause for 2.87 seconds:: Me: What the f*** did you just say? You're a FRUIT JUICE BLENDER?! W: No, I said I'm a first responder. Tony (also there) : I heard fruit juice blender. W: Dude! Nick (also, also there) : Yeah, I didn't understand what you said but it really did sound like you said fruit juice blender. My Brother : Yeah, fruit juice blender. ::laughter at our friend, the fruit juice blender:: W: I said first responder! Me: Yeah, whatever fruit juice. So, yes. If you have this friend, treat them well. Well, I mean-as well as you can stand to treat him/her. We realied these people are worth keeping around for the comical value if nothing else, oh-and there's the whole "friendship" thing too, I guess. Oh, and yes-"W" picked the movie of the night - "Terror Toons." If you want to see a bad, bad movie that's so bad it's bad and not good because it's bad, really really bad mind you (you have been warned this movie is bad) then this is the movie for you. It's... probably for rent at Hollywood video. That's where we found this bad movie up north in the Bay Area anyway, but of course that was the Hollywood with the largest adult film selection in the Bay Area. Needless to say, all of us who own cellphones have him listed under "fruit juice blender." And yes, we are currently trying to convince him that our local junior college can't give him a Masters degree in engineering. You'd be amazed at how true this all is, if you ever met him. Well, I think we've covered all the bases. Anime website, how-to-leave-the-country website, and a bit of my friend "W" for humor. Next week I guess I'll tell you about the worst (or best?) drinking game ever. Hint : It involves LOTR:Fellowship of the Ring and drinking when the word "RING" is said, or in print on screen. Needless to say, three of us nearly died that night. And we still haven't found the cat. Poor Gizmo. -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -Minna No Anime Secretary -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
[MnA] Sat, Oct 11 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Wed Oct 8 14:12:21 2003) Konnichiwa Minna-san! Things are in full swing now that we're heading into the third week of Fall quarter. For those of you new to the mailing list, welcome and I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. NEWS: Well, our schedule is still in that experimental range where we somehow allocate 5 minutes to show 25 minute shows. I've got an updated version for this Saturday that checks out and damn there is some good stuff coming your way this weekend. The half-our dinner break seems to be a great success, but we're still hoping for feedback from your end of things. Come up to one of us during any break and let us know what you think about the shorter breaks in exchange for a dinner break. Also, I keep plugging this because it's important! The Halloween Mega-Party-Thingie! Yes, when else do you get to see us officers dress up like our favorite anime characters? And don't forget to find a costume for yourself-how else can you win our grand prize if you don't at least enter into the CosPlay contest? And if you doooo win, don't pull a Gendo. Don't leave early, the results get tallied later and your overall score is what determines your ranking (and officers can't win so you have a damn good chance) and then we have to hunt you down and let you know that you're going to AX this year on us. Enough news. THE SCHEDULE: 5:00 Kaleidostar - Ep 1 : I have no idea, but I hope it doesn't involve those little girls with the big heads and the sand in their brains. 5:25 Hana Yori Dango - Ep 28 : Tsukushi Goes To Canada! 5 Minute Break : Just enough time to spray febreeze on that guy next to you who kinda smells like octopus. 5:55 Patlabor - Ep 3 : We're Special Vehicles, Section 2 6:20 Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Ep 28 : The Floating Islan 5 Minute Break : Does anyone remember last years trivia question about King's most prominent feature? 6:50 Inuyasha - Ep 53 : Father's Mortal Enemy! Ryuukoytsusei! 7:15 Haibane Renmei - Ep 3 : The Temple - Lecture - Pancakes 7:45 BIG BREAK : Go get some food or hang out and get to know your neighbors, or both? I'm thinking of starting a food run to Kona's or something, anyone interested? Preferably someone with a car? 8:15 Azumanga Daioh - Ep 3 : Nyamo - Factional Rivalry - Yukari Showed Up - It's Not My Problem - Through Thick And Thin 8:40 Noir - Ep 3 : Assassin's Game 5 Minute Break : I never knew the story of high school girls in Japan was so... cracked out. 9:10 Hellsing - Ep 3 : Sword Dancer 9:35 Crest of the Stars - Ep 3 : Daughter of Love That's All Folks! Let's talk about something real, shall we? Like the worm in my roomates head that we named Roy Allen. Here we go! It's hard to determine what this thing is in my roomates head, but I'll give it a shot. Well, I'll try to keep this description timid, but be warned that the reality hiding behind these soft words is so horrid, that one would shriek in terror at the very memory of such a sight. Ahem. Let us begin. My roomate (of which there are many and have been many over the years) came to me with a large towel folded and held against this forehead. Not taking any particular attention to it I continued to fix his computer (god I hate my life) and attempted small talk. Eventually I had to ask about what was underneath the towel, a move I would later regret as I would be unable to sleep soundly for a week. I was asked not to overeact or scream and then the towel was removed. In plain sight, just left of the center of his forehead was an object. There is hardly sufficient time to describe the sheer terror of this white, solid, multi-faceted horn protruding from his temple. My mouth agape I slowly shifted positions to better view it from multiple angles. "I'm going to die, aren't I?" Well, I did want to say yes, but then what would have happened if he did perish? I would have to do something. "Pull it out. I'll get a wrench." "No! I'm not pulling it out, are you crazy? There's a hole in my head!" "Well, there's actually something sticking out of the hole in your head. Pull it out, it'll heal." "No. You were bit by a spider once, right? Did this happen to you?" I shouldn't have laughed, but I couldn't help it as I replied. "Fuck no. I was bit by a black widow on my shin and that messed me up, but not like that." "What should I do?" "Pull it out. I mean, it might hurt a bit but it's better then letting it grow." I cannot recall what happened immediately after that, however, he did go see a doctor. Two, in fact. First he waiting 24 hours and went to the Health Center here on campus where a doctor told him he had very little time left and that there was nothing he could do to stop his immediate shuffling off of this mortal coil (I kid you not. The doctor was the same one I had when I got bit by a spider and he's a complete f***). The doctor then recommended he visit an emergency room, which my roomate did after much woe and sorrow given to him by his current predicament of brain tumor/worm/fever and/or alien implant. Upon arriving at a REAL hospital, the doctors grabbed his head, leaned him back and with tweazers performed a "plucking" motion which resulted in a most interesting "pop" sound being heard within his head. A band-aid was applied, then they asked if he had his Tetris shot. He said, what? Oh, sorry-Tetanus. The nurse, playful with her patient threw him stomach first on a table, and skillfully produced a medium-sized needle attached to near half-a-liter of fluid, all of which was injected in my roomate's rear end. They then asked him to leave and not return unless more worms were growing, in which case they planned to gather their silk and start a company. Okay, I hope that distracted you long enough so that you wouldn't realize I'm in a most delirious state of hunger right now. I could really, really go for one of those "lunch" things. You guys ever use this website? It's pretty bad-ass, especially since I'm an engineer (no ability to spell): www.dictionary.com Hmm... well. Yeah, I've got a few links here I'd like to show you guys but I don't feel like explaining any of them this week so expect some good stuff in the next newsletter. Also, expect a lot less story in the next newsletter. I just wanted to try changing it up and felt like being creative 'n stuff. Not creative like "I like to break pottery then color it pretty colors!" but creative like "how many ways can I throw this pencil at my monitor and have it bounce back to me?" As Cobain once sang, "maybe I'm dumb." Here is where I whore out my own agenda: Here's a casting call for anyone out there with a GBA/GBASP or will have one by the beginning of next year. I'm looking to gather a party of rough adventurers for RPG'ing weekly in Crystal Chronicles. Also, you'll need to own a TV and a house. I don't have either. I do, however, have a GC and will be in possession of... wait a second. Why don't we just make a club and play in the Silo or something? Hell yeah! Ten foot tall monsters sucking on a fireball, ahhh... nothing could be sweeter, except maybe sugar. Lots of sugar. How long has this letter become? Oh-one last note! If you're still reading this then good for you, I'm impressed. I'd be bored by the end of the story and just give up. However, someone asked me about my 'blog. I mentioned it last week and forgot to include a link (perhaps forget is a lie, but still-I didn't think anyone would actually ask for it). Here it is, in all it's glory. sloaero.blogspot.com That covers my trip to Japan, my ability to see demon-nightmare-type-horses, some sherpa's on Everast (or it will when I get my next post on there up), and all sorts of just stupid stuff that happens in my life. Interesting? Funny? Romantic? Well, definitely not romantic. As Cage once said, "...because I am lonely. So very lonely." But hopefully funny/interesting and informative about Japan and all the pretty sights and all the things your friends could possibly to do you so that you are stranded 5000 miles from home, in a completely foreign culture, without the knowledge of the usage of their facilities. Okay, time to end this letter. My fingers are tired. Well, actually I need to go solve the pressure distribution over a Tangent-Ogive section nosecone at multiple Mach #s with various calibers and for slightly modified geometry. OH! Yes, one last link then I will leave you alone for a week, I swear. www.bubbahotep.com I love Bruce Cambell, and this... this is genius! The Oscars must finally recognize one of the greatest unknown actors of our time. I recommend the "king size" trailor, by the way. -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -Minna no Anime Secretary -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
[MnA] Sat, Oct 18 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Wed Oct 15 14:02:41 2003) Konnichiwa Minna-san! Of course-the news, the schedule, and the rant, right? Of course, unless I made some stupid choices about time management and only have time right now for the News and the Schedule? Perhaps some guest commentary? But, and here's the but-if one of my fellow officers sends me their rant I'll have to ship to all of you as a second newsletter. I hope you don't mind receiving two times the mail from us this week as you normally do, but on the bright side you get to hear someone other than me talk. And I guarantee you that I'm a lot more vulgar than my counterparts-meaning the guest rant/commentary would probably have nothing at all to do with the worms coming out of my roomates head, or how to use a Japanese toilet, or even the logistics of building the MnA catapult to launch rival club members at Open House. So without further ado, lets talk news. NEWS: As far as I know, we're still trying our 'experimental' schedule. People are enjoying the 30 minute break for dinner and we feel that once we all get accustomed to a 5 minute break things will just feel right. We hope so anyway, and if you don't like the way things are then let us know soon. Halloween? Yes, our super-dooper, Mega-big, Gianto-strongu Halloween Meeting is slowly approaching. In case you haven't heard, there will be a Trivia contest (jeopardy style this year! Wao!), GuiltyGearX2 tournie, DDR room, viewing room, CosPlay contest, and of course-prizes for competing in these fun contest. Weird aspect to the halloween meeting this year? I believe homecoming is kicking us out of the Silo on Nov. 1 (the perfect day for our meeting! Nooo!), and letting us back in on November 8. Good aspects of that? You get one more week to make a costume! And if you need the help I need the friends... sniff snif... so lonely... Another good aspect? I think we're currently the holders of one reservation of a tatami room in the back of Tsurugis for a Minna No Anime Tsurugi-dinner/lunch trip. We've traditionally been able to fit around 16 people in that room, I think. It get crowded the more people just crash our dinner party, so please sign up early and get yourself a seat!! And, if you're new to the club this is a great way to get to know some of us who have been around and spent more money on anime VHS then you will spend on your entire college tuition. And my favorite part of the Tsurugi dinner... THE WASABI CHALLENGE. Is it wrong? Yeah. Does it burn like no other? Yeah. Did I cry? Like a baby. I walked away the proud winner, holding two wind-up things (one shaped like a monkey that flipped and the other moving sushi which I almost ate one night). The Wasabi challenge, mind you, is not for the faint of heart. It involves ordering Wasabi rolls, and placing Wasabi ON the wasabi rolls. Then, without the aid of anything other than your sheer will power you must eat them. Sure, it may sound painful. Sure, maybe you've had wasabi on your sushi before, or maybe you thought it was green tea ice cream, but this is the extract of the extract of pure nostril-burning pain. It has been diluted and purified for your un-enjoyment. So, those looking to de-throne me, come. I accept all challengers except Paul. Paul's not human. THE SCHEDULE: 5:00 Fansub O': I think I smell Macross on the wind. No, wait-that's F3. 5:25 Hana Yori Dango - Ep 29 : His Warmth 5 Minute Break : Enjoy the last minutes of autumn sunlight. 5:55 Patlabor - Ep 4 : Head To The Evil Mountain! 6:20 Nadia : The Secret of Blue Water - Ep 29 : King Vs. King 5 Minute Break : Did you remember to wear deoderant? 6:50 Inuyasha - Ep 54 : Tessaiga's Ultimate 7:15 Haibane Renmei - Ep 4 : Garbage Day - Clock Tower - Birds That Fly Over The Wall 7:45 BIG BREAK : Get dinner, meet people (it is a club after all), enjoy some music vids or redvsblue. We'll try to find at least one thing to entertain you. 8:15 Azumanga Daioh - Ep 4 : A Fun Job - Pool Pool Pool - Ribbon - Just The Two Of Us - A Good Person? 8:40 Noir - Ep 4 : Sound Of The Waves 5 Minute Break : Oh, in case you are all wondering. My roomate is fine. The worm was removed from his skull (worm? Well, it was something) and he's healing pretty well. 9:10 Hellsing - Ep 4 : Innocent as a Human 9:35 Crest Of The Stars - Ep 4 : Surprise Attack That's All Folks!!! (There will either be a rant arriving later this week, or perhaps I should just double up on the rant next week and really let you guys know who I think needs their head chopped off by Ninjas. Mind you, these would be really cool ninjas.)
[MnA] Sat, Oct 25 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Wed Oct 22 14:47:31 2003) Konnichiwa Minna-san, As usual, the news is followed by the schedule. This week, however, we are returning to our usual "news/schedule/rant" where I get to talk you people about whatever is crossing my mind. OOh, this week is a special treat because I've been pretty high on cough syrup. Well then, let's get started. NEWS: On November 8, we will be hosting our big-ass Halloween party-meeting thing. We expect some support from and members to show up from the Atascadero Japanese Animation Society (despite the fancy name I think there are only like 5 guys in it-at least that's all I've ever seen). They'll be around doing the contests just like everyone else, and you'll recognize them because you'll never have seen them before and they'll have some pretty good costumes. The contests that we're holding are going to be a GuiltyGearXX tournament, a Trivia Contest, there's going to be some rounds of Lee's Anime Eyes contest, I'm not sure if the DDR room is holding a contest, and of course our big one-the CosPlay Contest. Yes, oh yes. You need to participate in a few (3 I think?) in order to win our "GRAND PRIZE" which is always something really nice. Previous years have had prizes such as tickets to a convention and some spending cash when you're there. Pretty good for dressing up like Kenshin, huh? The week before our big halloween party, during halloween weekend we're going out to Tsurugi as a club. That's right, we've reserved the back room (the tatami room with rice-paper sliding walls 'n everything!) for up to 16 people. If there's still room on the signup sheet this Saturday then get your name on there! You can't miss one of our few out-of-club activities, and you especially can't miss the WASABI CHALLENGE. That is, I think, my favorite part of the Tsurugi outings. Uf.. even more news! This is more current than both of those. Minna No Anime Members Mailing List? Yes, that's right. We've sold out and made a yahoogroups mailing list for all you lovely people. Please, please sign up so I have someone to talk to via e-mail besides the MnA officers (dreadfully boring conversations about sandwhiches). So, if you want to join in on our conversation and whatnot here's the address to send a letter to: MNAMembers-subscribe@<removed for spam reasons> Okay, and the final, final last finally last piece of news. We, the officers, are either a) dumb or b) too smart. We've got some trivia questions (by some I mean we've got more than you could shake a stick at) and are looking for more. So, we're offering YOU the chance to make trivia questions. How does this benefit you? Well--you make a trivia question - you send it to us - we like it - we use it - you sign up for the trivia contest - your question comes up - you just earned 100 points or more. Yes, is it cheating? No. The odds of your question coming up while you're on the board are very small. And if everyone sent in a question on two then the playing field would be even. Oh, and some people seem intimidated by our bad-ass trivia contest. Let me tell you right now, and this is from personal experience having hosted this before: The person sitting next to you is not smarter than you are, unless it is Dylan or I. Dylan is off learning how to be a Navy Nuclear Engineer or something, and I'm hosting this. Therefore-the person sitting next to you is not, and I'll repeat this because I don't think you understand me yet-NOT smarter than you. Example? Sure-here are some questions I remember being answer incorrectly last year: In Macross/Robotech who did Hikaru/Rick Hunter look up and call his sempai/older brother? Correct Answer: Roy Fokker Answer given by Contestant: Minmei? In Trigun, what is the bounty on Vash? Correct Answer : $$ 60,000,000,000 Answer given by contestant: The Humanoid Typhoon! Wait... no! See what I mean? The person sitting next to you is not smarter than you, and they never will be. Now send me some questions you'd like put into this years contest (nothing is too simple and nothing is too hard). Either respond to this and e-mail me here or find me on Saturday and hand me your questions in person. Remember, your questions may be altered since we're trying to do a Jeopardy style game this year-and that means your answer must be in the form of a question. The Schedule! 5:00 Fansub O' : You know. I never really have a clue as to what we're showing in this time slot. I only wish to see that Trava Fist Planet of Doom thing again. 5:25 Hana Yori Dango - Ep 30 : Wanna Be Friends? 5 minute Break : Should I put the HYD titles in english or nihongo? Either way they never make sense to me. 5:55 Patlabor - Ep 5 : Rampaging Labor X-10 6:20 Nadia : The Secret of Blue Water - Ep 30 : The Underground Labyrinth 5 minute Break : The wacky-silly part of Nadia is nearly over. Sniff. Good times, good times. 6:50 Inuyasha - Ep 55 : Flower Stones and Shippo's First Love 7:15 Haibane Renmei - Ep 5 : Library - Abandoned Plant - The Beginning of the World 7:45 BIG BREAK : Get some dinner. Get something to drink. Get some fresh air. Sign up for contests, and think of a winning costume (Senorita Grandis would get my vote and my unwanted affection-of course, so would Nausicaa). 8:15 Azumanga Daioh - Ep 5 : Summer Holidays - Welcome to Chiyo's Room - Invitation - An Experienced Person's Tales - It's All Too Much (phew!) 8:40 Noir - Ep 5 : Les Soldats 5 minute Break : I swear, Azumanga is some sort of illegal crack. 9:10 Hellsing - Ep 5 : Brotherhood 9:35 Crest Of The Stars - Ep 5 : The Battle of Gosroth That's all folks! Ouch. I'm sick. Not just sick like, "oh jeez, poor baby." No, I'm sick like "Zombie! Run!!" Yes, perhaps the T-virus vaccination shots I took are taking effect? Who knows. Either way, I ache. I've got a fever. My chest hurts from coughing so much, and so does my back. I pray that none of you picked this up from me last saturday. Of course, that's not help for this Saturday when I'll be in the Silo with all of you again. At least on the bright side as of today I'm kicking this things ass. I'm nearly over it from what I can tell. These have got to be the last 24 hours that I'll be sick. Yeah! That puts me in slightly under a week. Ugghh. You listen to Radiohead much? No? Oh, well-check them out sometime. Just not Kid A. That's just a weird album concept. So it has recently come to my attention that people are beginning to doubt my encounter with the undead over by the house of Josho. I tell you this now, and I tell you this in earnest-if she was not undead then she was soon to become a ghoul. I had no choice but to dispatch her to the best of my abilities. It was messy, sure. And maybe the cleanup sucked. But when you're dealing with the undead, nothing's ever easy. Switching gears. Anyone seen the second Battle Royal yet? I was in Japan and was planning on watching it but stuff came up and I didn't get a chance to see it. Actually, the truth is I got lost in the neighborhood around my hotel and walked around in circles for 2 hours before finally finding my way back via underground passages and subways. The first Battle Royal(e?) was just amazing. I loooved it. There's all this stuff going on and underneath there is this sort of message to the entire film of "if you think you're worth it then go for it." Of course, most people can't get past the violence (and there is a lot of) in this film, but if you can then you've got a chance of seeing what is really underneath it. So yeah. I've seen trailers for the second BR movie. WOW. So I guess instead of losing army guys they're taking the classes now and sending them out after Shuya and his magnificent 7 or something. The little girl with the teddy bear is back in the sequel (the one who was there right in the beginning of the first film) and there are some other people of interest. Most importantly-I didn't see what's-her-name in the trailer for the sequel (Nanahara? No, that's Nanahara Shuya... what's that girl's name-No.. Nobuu... something). Second, Kitano's daughter is in this years class. Weird? Yes, but she's apparently bad-ass. I mean, she is Kitano's daughter after all. Oh, and there's this really hot chic with a sniper rifle. Or maybe it was a guy, but he looked like a hot chic in the few seconds of trailer footage. So... I'm just going to keep my hopes up for that one. Moving on. You have free time, don't you? You're very, very lucky. I remember free time. I even seem to have some on weekends every now and again. Mostly I'm studying or something. Late and night into the early morning I'm working and working.. and then-BLAM. It's saturday. I take the day off and enjoy minna. And then, just like a dream-it's over and back I go to the slave-mines of Grad School. Or at least, trying to be grad school. I realized pretty much everything depends on how well I do in classes this quarter. Wow. That's a lot of responsability on my shoulders considering I'm taking 18 units, 8 of which are in two classes that probably two of the most difficult I've ever taken. Math 501: Overview of what we've learned so far. Fourier Series (review for me) with applications. Fourier Integral and Transform with applications. Sterm-Liouville Problems in solutions for PDEs. Galerkin's method for approximating flutter solutions to PDEs of aircraft skins in flow. Yes, 5 feeks are down... five to go. Midterm next week, another project soon to hit the table. And of course, more topics to learn. Oh-wait, forgot the separation of variables techniques (multiple) that we learned. So yeah, it's been a pretty hectic class. Aero 521: Missile and Reentry Vehicle Aerodynamics. Need I say more? Well-if you know nothing of aerodynamics know this--it's not easy. If you do know something of aerodynamics know this -- it's not easy. Yes. That's about all I can say about that. Am I done bitching about my life yet? No. I have one last, final thing to say about the crappiness of existance for people such as me : The job market sucks right now. Even if I did graduate I'd have to fight for a job only to be fired in a few months anyway. Maybe I should just start a clothing line inspired by the fact that college students don't change their clothes very often? Yeah, that'd be great. Except that the entire line would be nothing more thant white t-shirts and pants. And nothing would make them special to wear for three days. Maybe built-in deoderant? But that would eventually run out, I guess. Hey-I've got it. I'll sell my kidney. Then clone myself. Then do it again, and again, and again! Yes-I'm sure people need kidneys! Is cloning illegal? Can I clone myself in Canada or Mexico? Maybe Russia. But I don't speak Russian. I'd like to learn, but I'd have to learn how to speak Mat also. Mat is the russian language of swearing, in case you didn't know (don't I sound all intellectual-really I'm just high on cough syrup and don't know what to talk about and my fingers wont stop hitting keys). Hey, so-if a million monkeys were on a million typewriters and they were typing for all time, wouldn't one eventually type out Hamlet? And wouldn't one eventually type out the series of events known to us as reality? I mean, a script for reality. Not improbable, right? So-somewhere right now, in our infinite universe of infinite possibility, there is a monkey-on a typewriter, writing down that I'm writing this down. It kinda blows your mind. Well, after you've had as much dextromethorphan hydrobromide as I have in the last 24 hours... well... woo! Yes. Woo. Hey you think John Woo introduces himself as, "Woo. John Woo?" Okay, I think its time to bust out the AirSoft gun and start shooting at things. No, not the cat. I'm afraid of it's owner, my roomate, the scary one... she'll kick my ass. No, I think I'll shoot things like this old Pac-Man tin or maybe some empty soda cans or... old manga I don't want anymore? Nah. I think I'll just give those away sometime. Do a mini-raffle or something. OOh, that actually sounds like a good idea. Door prizes via a raffle at the Halloeen Party? Yeah-I think I'll ask the other officers about that. Because I know that while many of you will CosPlay I know that even more of you will not (because you are laaame!!! or busy?) and I feel sad letting you leave without a chance at winning something. Well, it'll be more than just stuff we dont' want anymore. If we do the raffle/door-prize thing then it will probably be new stuff-but Manga does sound like a good idea for raffle prizes. Maybe even give away a DVD or two. Hmm... perhaps this is a good idea, and perhaps the other officers will beat me down for mentioning this in public w/o consulting them first.. hmm... Yes. Well, we'll just have to wait and see, wont we? Oh-and I forgot to give everyone a great link to go check out this week. Hmm... something, related to anime this week? www.anipike.com It's been around a while, it's been down-but not out, and it's really, really... well. It's just anipike.com. I've found it to be useful somedays and I've found it to be the biggest pile of shit ever produced by the web on other days. I recommend checking it out, though, if you've never heard of it. It's a great way to find fansites for your favorite shows. Also, it looks like they finally (sometime in the last two/three years?) updated their site. But, yeah-the anipike is still the anipike. I just wish it was a little better, more like google-but with only anime. Except that google already returns good anime searches... hmm... -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -Minna no Anime Secretary -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
[MnA] Sat, Nov 8 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Fri Nov 7 12:58:16 2003) Konnichiwa Minna-san! Okay, everything is falling into place, like a giant Tetris game. We're near the dead line, and we Finally got that long piece that will destroy four lines worth of blocks. Yes, oh yes. Can you hear the happy russian music playing? Well, as usual-the news is first. The schedule is special this week, but you already knew that. There might be rant/more news space after I explain to you how we're going to rock out this weekend. Or there might not, I still have to a) think up a costume b) create this costume c) realize that my costume sucks and think up an entirely new and 'badass' costume d) create that costume e) realize my new 'badass' costume looks like a giant penis and place it in my closet never to be seen by human eyes again f) grab some duct tape, paint, electrical tape, a laser, and then make a 2.5 hour costume that everyone thinks is pretty spiffy. Phew. Okay, here we go! NEWS: Okay. It's here. Finally, November 8. Our Halloween meeting!! Yeah!! We have our Jeopardy-style trivia set up and ready to run, we have our DDR room, our Game-contest room, and of course-the big prize--the CosPlay contest w/ Awards being handed out immediately afterward. Now, quite story here. I'll tell you the moral first, then the story. Moral : DO NOT LEAVE AFTER THE COSPLAY CONTEST IF YOU ENTERED IT. The story? Our first place "gendo" walked off because he's Gendo or something, you know-all moody and isht. Or maybe he just thought he didn't do well? Well, we found him next week and yeah. So, since repitition is key, Do Not Leave After The Cosplay Contest If You Entered It. Oh, and if you show up for the Cosplay contest in Cosplay, at least enter the damn contest! Last year? Two years ago? I think I saw a Deedlet show up, and then she disappeared into the wind, much like the real, er, animated one. So, I think this is where I plug our rooms. We have a DDR room! Yes, I believe this is a contest, but don't quote me on that. Either way, I will attempt to bust my mad-suckage-moves on their DDR systems, so be there. You'll never see me do anything like this again. Ever. Well, unless you manage to make to AX and we find a place with Guiness. GGXX? Why... GuiltyGearXX? Spawn of spawn of the badass fighter? Of course, did I mention this is also a contest? Yes, and after watching everyone's fighter game skills last weekend (pretty fighter, sailor moon fighter) I think that anyone, literally anyone, has a decent chance of making it to the finals. Also, maybe El Presidente will honor us and step down from his throne to show us how the game should be played. If I remember correctly, last time I played him at this game he kicked my ass with one hand, on an upside down turned around controller. Of course, there's still rumor of Lee's eyes game, but I'm not sure where this has started? So, we may have this and if we do let me explain it to you. First off, its one of the most fun contests we have. Second off, everyone is in the same handbasket when it comes to this game. The game runs like this, Lee comes to the front of the room, points at all of you and laughs at your pity human brains, then the game begins. An eye is projected on the screen, or normally 2 actually. Everyone sits at their buzzers stupified. The picture widens a little, and now you can see some cheek or eyebrow, or maybe a fluff of hair. Still confusion. Finally the picture widens enough to give the answer away to anyone who has ever seen this character. People buzz in. Sometimes, and this is rare-people buzz in on the first picture. Sometimes wrong, but mostly right when they do. I mean, c'mon-how hard was it to guess that eye belonged to Sharon Apple? Of course, that one guy from Gekiganger was pretty hard. Oh yeah, there's a trivia room. Is it badass? Yeah. Is it too late to sign up? Probably not. This years trivia will involve a jeopardy style video-gameboard with buzzers (oooh, we're almost professional) and of course-lots and lots of anime questions. We've gotten a good response of questions from members, so expect to see one/two of your questions or maybe more depending on how many you sent in. Also, as I mentioned previously-the person sitting next to you is not very smart. So, if you like direct competition then the GGXX and DDR rooms are going to be where its at for you, otherwise our multi-player (up to 12? Probably only accept 8-10 a round) Eyes/Trivia games are going to rock your world. Okay, and finally. The Cosplay and Pumpkin contest! Yes, we will judge you. No, we're not mean little schoolyard kids. Well, El Vice Presidente is, sorta, but the rest of us are pretty nice guys/girls. Mind you-one or the other, not both. Back to the topic? Pumpkin carving contest! Yes, never too late to sign up for that either. If suddenly inspiration strikes you at 3am tonight and you run out to a local pumpkin patch and return with a pumpkin and some barb-wire scars, then feel free to carve the coolest design (anime related?) ever and bring it in! I'm carving Gema, or was it Black Gema Gema? I can never tell. Okay. Uf. Finally the CosPlay contest? Yes. It will, as tradition mandates, take place in the Silo-where we normally have our meetings. Also, during all the other contests the Silo will be hosting spooky, scary anime! Or something like that, we hope. So there is your explanation of the night. In brief. A very large brief actually. Man, that reminds me of this time in Ross that we found this giant pair of boxers and then started laughing 'cause we were just talking about windsocks. Then we realized that, like an iceberg, we'd only found the tip of the shorts-there was an entire other leg waiting to be discovered. Cavernous I tell you, cavernous. So, yes-here is our basic schedule of the night (so you know when to show up!!): THE SCHEDULE: ~3:00pm - DDR Mania begins. Why early in the night? So you're not tired from carrying around that damn 10' sword of yours that is part of your costume. Lasting an hour and a half, think you can last a few round and make it to the finals? Think you can still stand by the time the finals roll around? ~4:30pm - The Trivia Preliminaries. Yes, a few rounds of jeopardy between friends? We'll get the finalists from the rounds we play here. ~6:00pm - We're thinking Eyes Preliminaries. If you can make it through here, then you're gonna have a lot of fun/anguish in the finals (but aren't fun and anguish the same thing Gendo?). ~7:00pm - GGXX. The one. The only. The game tournament. Is it going to kick ass? Hell yeah. Is it going to kick your ass? Only time will tell... only time will tell. ~8:30pm - Trivia Finals. If you've made this far then obviously the guy next to you wasn't smarter than you. However, now you're in finals-where only the knowledge gained from eating the brain of someone smart can help you. ~9:30pm - Eyes Finals. Oh boy are you gonna stumped. If its half as obscure as it was last year only one man I know could recognize these eyes-and that's the guy who made the contest. 10:00pm - Judging for Costumes and Pumpkins!! Finally. The grand finale of the night. We line you up, we vote, we find our finalists, you three take it outside and duke it out while we vote for you, then we call you back in and have everyone sit around remembering good times while we tally votes and scores in the contests and find our grand-prize winner. Grand prize this year? I think, and I'm sorry for not being sure right at this moment-but I am pretty sure we're looking at one, maybe two tickets to Anime Expo or FAnime. ::insert wicked laugh:: You have no idea what we had to do to people to get those. Of course, the fine print: You have to be a club member to win the grand prize ($2/quarter, $5/year). You have to enter at least 2 other contests beside the CosPlay contest. No, you don't have to kick major ass in everything you enter (I think that's a bit impossible to DDR in a gundam cardboard outfit), but think of this as the beauty contest among anime-fans. There's the swimsuit competition, the talent competition, the BS competition, only here its the CosPlay, GGXX, and Trivia contests. If anyone has questions regarding this Saturday's mega-meeting go ahead and shoot and e-mail right back here and I'll try and respond as I finish making gameboards for the uber-badass trivia contest. Oh-yes. Prizes? Besides grand prize there will be a prize for each respective contest, and a few more here and there. You'll just have to show up to find out what you can win. ^_^ -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -Minna No Anime Secretary -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
[MnA] Sat. Nov 8 Extra Notes
(Minna No Anime, Fri Nov 7 13:04:49 2003) Okay, I forgot a few things. Food: We have cheap, CHEAP prices on some pizza. ASI decided they'd help fund us for some food and we figured we'd count their cash as your cash and that way you'd bring less cash and use less cash for the same thing which costs the ... The pizza is cheap. We're looking about $1/slice or $2 for 2 slices and a drink! Best deal in town? Hell yeah it is. Viewing room: In case you're in some downtime, or just not feeling up to posing for more pictures in your costume then have a seat in the Silo. We'll be in the rooms surrounding the Silo for all the contests, leaving the Silo free to be showing spooky, scary anime the entire night!! I think we've made a tradition of showing that one movie.. uhm... uh... vampire girl... sword... killings... Uhm... !!!! Blade? Something like that. Blood! Not blade, that's Wesley Snipes. Ha ha... ooh. Was I wrong. Okay, that is all. Enjoy the meeting this Saturday! And enter the contests, you will enjoy them-trust me. I know from personal experience, and from watching the laughter of someone who sucks at DDR slowly fall onto their opponent, thereby destroying both their scores. -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -Minna No Anime Secretary -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
Halloween, one last thing (really this is the last one...)
(Minna No Anime, Fri Nov 7 16:41:26 2003) Hey everyone, Jamshid forgot to mention one small thig in his last two e-mails... We'll start the party at 2:00 Again, we start at 2, even though the first competition is at 3:00. We want you all to show up a little early so that I can fill you in on all the rules and what-not. If you plan on participating in ANYTHING, please show up around 2:00 or 2:30. -Nik President, Minna No Anime
MNA 11/15/03
(Minna No Anime, Fri Nov 14 22:39:42 2003) Hey MNA members! Our secretary K has been late with the e-mail this week so I'm gonna do it (even though it's friday night). First, if you're interested in joining our MNA members mailing list send an e-mail to...MNAMembers-subscribe@<removed for spam reasons> We have interesting anime related conversations via this mailing list, so if you feel like discussing stuff along with us and other ex-members like the notorious Dylan Hall, then join the list. Now for the schedule... 5:00- Sakigake Cromartie Highschool (Eps 1 & 2) 5:25- Hana Yori Dango ep.31 5 min break 5:55- Patlabor ep.6 6:20- Nadia ep. 31 5 min break 6:50- Inuyasha ep.56 7:15- Haibane Renmei ep. 5 Big-Ass 30 minute break 8:15 Azumanga Daioh ep. 6 8:40 Noir ep. 6 5 min break 9:10 Hellsing ep. 6 9:35 Crest of the Stars ep. 6 Normally K would insert a random rant here, but since boring old me is doing the mail, there will be no rant this week. -Nik President, Minna No Anime P.S. Check out the website (www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub) for pictures from halloween!
[MnA] Sat, Nov. 22 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Wed Nov 19 15:58:31 2003) Konnichiwa Minna-san! Ah yes, the "weekly" newsletter. Well, mostly. Here we go with the standard format; news, followed by the schedule, followed once again by a blurb-of-somewhat-unbelievable-length. The NEWS: Room Change? No, not permanent-or even for the entire night. The first 1-2 hours of club we may be in room 112, right around the corner from where we normally meet. I believe, room 112 was either the Trivia room or the Gaming room for our Halloween contest, so if you were there for halloween you know where to look. If not, then come up to the Silo from the bottom doors and then turn toward the bathrooms and walk past them. I'm sure you'll hear/see us. The library! Yes, our librarian has an e-mail address in case you need to get ahold of some tapes for the upcoming thanksgiving break, or winter break. Just shoot a letter over to: mnalibrary@<removed for spam reasons> And you can check the website for what is in the library currently, and feel free to make suggustions for what you might want in the library (any suggustions for MKR and I will personally hunt you down atomic-elbow your head so far into your chest that...) Okay, but what about before Saturday? You can't wait that long to see my pictio-master-nary-ing? Then have we got something for you, a Pictionary Party at Ben's place. Will it be tame? Sure. Will it be wild? Once I get my head-butt rampage going, sure. Will it so damn fun we'll be talking about it on Saturday? Yes, for weeks. So don't miss out, come and join us for some Pictionary and some chill hang-out time. Drinks/Snacks will be provided by both those of us over and underage for those both over and underage, so we're definitely not pressuring anyone into anything (except for drawing silly pictures on paper). Oh yeah, it's at Ben's place. Directions? They are on the club webpage : www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub But if you don't trust them I guess you could use rand-mcnally or yahoomaps or whatever, here's his actual address: 2374 Flora St. San Luis Obispo Mind you, I think his directions are a little whack. Not like whack-a-mole, but like whack-on-crack. Oh jeez, how could I forget this 'till last? T-SHIRT DESIGN CONTEST!! I believe on the web page there are rules for the contest, but in brief we generally want something that looks bad-ass, doesn't break any copyright rules, and is original artwork. I think there are some rules for color limitations and the date all designs will be put in front of the club and voted on by everyone. Also, the winner gets something nice every year. You get a free T-shirt, and the respect of your fellow club members. THE SCHEDULE: 5:00 Fansub O' : If I had my way we'd be watching Blizzard cutscenes. 5:25 Hana Yori Dango - Ep 32 : Doumyouji... don't come? 5 Min. Break : Laugh, it's good for you. Too bad it's not good for that guy you're laughing at. 5:55 Patlabor - Ep 7 : Model 97's New Replacement 6:20 Nadia : The Secret of Blue Water - Ep 32 : Nadia's Lover 5 Min. Break : This one time... at band camp... I smoked opium while watching GITS, and it all made sense. 6:50 Inuyasha - Ep 57 : Everything about the night at the Dougenkyo - Part 1 7:15 Haibane Renmei - Ep 6 : End of summer - Rain - Loss 30 Min. Break : Get some dinner. Enjoy some company. Say hi to your teammates from Pictionary, and laugh at the losing team again. 8:15 Azumanga Daioh - Ep 7 : Fairy Class - Man Of Character - Let's Go! - Mascot Rival 8:40 Noir - Ep 7 : Black Thread Of Fate 5 Min. Break : I wonder if I'll get to draw a catapult in Pictionary. 9:10 Hellsing - Ep 7 : Duel 9:35 Crest Of The Stars - Ep 7 : Fortunate Revolt That's All Folks! Not much rantage this week. I'm helping my roomie and some others with various engineering crap this week. They have a presentation at Boeing this Friday and I hope they pull together and do well. Otherwise, I'm just trying to finish my damn Math work so I can enjoy Friday night without feeling guilty for taking the night off. It looks like I've been added to the MnAmembers list, which is a good thing-I was planning on signing up for it eventually but kept forgetting. Hey, any of you listen to KCPR? We're having an Auction right now. Just tune into 91.3 between 9am-5pm. I just won a Tattoo. ^_^ Maybe I should let the future of a small patch of my skin rest in the hands of Minna? Yeah, that doesn't sound like a bad idea... no wait, it sounds like a horrible idea. But that's never stopped me before. Okay. Well, if I get the resolve to do this, then it will probably break down like this : You give me a design, I put said design on my body, I show said design to parents (who currently have no idea I'm even thinking of getting a tattoo), and then I save the world from the evil machines who came back in time from the future (thanks to your tattoo design). Of course, maybe I'll just figure out my own design. I mean, if you said I should put a spider on my face and I did... well, that would suck. Well, I guess I'll see you all down at Ben's place on Friday night for some Pictionary? Check the news up at the beginning for his address, or just visit the web page and get directions. You know what? Recently I started reading "A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius," and all I can say is that it is exactly what the title says it is. This may be one of the only books I've ever bought a spare copy of just so that I could loan it to friends and force them to read it. So what's the book about? Well, I haven't finished it yet but I can give you a brief overview. It's amazing how this guy writes, and how his emotions are directly translated into you. He's going through this period in his life where both his parents have died of cancer five months apart and he is no in charge of raising his little brother. This isn't some "chicken soup" story or anything, there is a lot of pain and very little of 'moral of the story' type feeling when you're reading this. I mean, he's just a twenty-something who comes out to Berkeley to try and raise his kid brother, and his digressings and musings and ability to write to anyone who's ever felt any sort of helplessness or joy or any sort of extreme emotion. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox. But if I were you I'd check it out. It made it to the Pulitzer finals, but someone else walked away with the big prize that year. Well then. I must be going now, I believe there are locusts invading our backyard. I've got quite a bug-crushing job ahead of me. Oh, no... nooo! Its the earwigs! Fuck! Did we tell you about the grandiose war between the five of us (the Atomic Penta-Circle Of Power And Doom!) and the EARWIGS (death and decay in bug form) last winter? Damn... I thought we'd wiped them out. Okay, well-think of it this way. What are the odds, the statistical odds of finding an Albino Earwig? Okay, well we saw two last year within two weeks of each other. Of course, there were earwigs everywhere, everywhere, everywhere you could think of. Wake up in the morning, they fall out of your alarm clock. Turn on your computer, they fetched your keyboard. Cook dinner, set the table for five-million. Only this year... they have those damn roly-poly things with them. It's an alliance. An eeeevil alliance. I'll keep you guys updated weekly on this conflict here on Tassajara. Hopefully we'll be able to throw them out again. Remember the Alamo!! Oh, and yes-December 17th. Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King is out. It is also the centennial of flight, 100 years exactly to the day when man first displayed powered flight. So you have 2 reasons to party, which are both less than a month away! -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -MnA Secretary -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
[MNA] Fri, Nov 20 Pictionary Event
(Minna No Anime, Thu Nov 20 21:45:22 2003) Minna, I wanted to give everybody one last reminder about the Pictionary Event to be held at my house tomorrow evening. We at Minna no Anime like to think of this club as a social club; a good place to meet some great friends with the same interests as yourself. And that is what tomorrow night is all about. So come on by and join us for a good game of Pictionary and get to know the other members in the club! Help out by bringing a snackfood or two, and we'll see what we can do about getting pizza. I was talking with Mike today about getting one of those 30" pizzas from the new place that just opened up. Heck, it's worth it just to see how huge this thing is if you haven't seen one yet! People will start showing up at 6 and hopefully the game will start by 7. Instructions on how to get to my place are on the website: http://www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub . If you need a ride or something, I suggest sending an email to the member's list. I'm sure we can accomodate. Hope see you all tomorrow! -Ben
[MnA] Sat, Dec. 6 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Thu Dec 4 04:06:02 2003) Konnichiwa Minna-san! I hope you all enjoyed thanksgiving, whether it was time spent with family or time off from work/school. Hell, even if you worked that night I hope you at least enjoyed that much. NEWS: Last meeting of the quarter is this saturday. I guess that's the most important piece of news, really. As is our tradition, we will have a movie in our schedule so we have to bump a few shows. There was nearly some violent bloodshed over this, but we eventually worked out what is going to stay on the schedule this week and what is merely going to take a breather for a week (and the resulting four weeks of vacation immediately thereafter). Also, the pictionary party was a success. Of course, any party I can walk away from I consider a success, but the fact is we had a nice turnout at Ben's place of about... uhm... well, we had two teams of about 7 or 8 each? So something like 16 people, I guess the math works. And damn, with that many people there I still managed to kill half that 12 pack and coerce Rebecca into giving me a ride so we could get more. And for those of you who didn't show up, you missed a lot of circles with squiggly lines attached to them. More on this in the rambling/rant/review section below. And although I don't know what the official policy is, I'm just taking a guess that you should probably return any tapes to the library that are currently in your possession so you can borrow the next ones over the verrrry long break. And there's an ONLINE TREASURE HUNT THING! On our website! Find all the answers and one of us will reward you with a shower of anime presents! A very short, and dry shower of anime presents. Of course, I wonder what we'll do if you find all the wrong (really wrong) answers... I guess we didn't think about that. Maybe we'll just corner you in an alley and throw our old fansub tapes at you or something. THE SCHEDULE: 5:00 Hana Yori Dango - Ep 33 : Makino Still Can't Decide! 5:25 Nadia : The Secret of Blue Water - Ep 33 : Jean writes a song. A really, really bad song. 5 Min Break: Come as me about the pictionary party, I have gossip. 5:55 Haibane Renmei - Ep 7 : I really hope you didn't miss last weeks episode. 6:20 Azumanga Daioh - Ep 8 : More pigtail dreams, Lupin cameo, Chiyo's father isn't human, Sakaki riding a white horse to the rescue. No, really-I'm not kidding with this title. 5 Min Break : Does anyone like the musical, RENT? We're thinking of going to Vegas to see it again... 6:50 Noir - Ep 8 : Much blood was spilt to bring you this week's episode. 7:15 Hellsing - Ep 7 : Much blood was spilt in this week's episode. 30 Min Break : Dinnertime. Maybe we should organize getting a pizza or one of those 7-footlong sandwhich things that come with steak knives so you can eat your coffee? 8:15 Crest of the Stars - Ep 8 : No other show is this good. 8:40 Millenium Actress - Beautiful. Simply beautiful, read review below. That's all folks! There are two parts to this rant today. 1) the story of how I found love, and then god laughed at me. 2) Millenium Actress 3am Review! 1) the story of how i found love, and then god laughed at me. First off, I think I need to ask you about your Thanksgiving day/weekend/extended weekend. So, how was it? Mmm-hmm. Oh, that's nice. Really? I'm happy she didn't pull that trigger, then. Well, my break? Oh, how kind of you to ask. I fell in love. Yep. Totally, completely, head-over-heels, first-sight-at-love. Er, love-at-first-sight. Does this mean I'm getting soft? No, it means I've found the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. If perfect were a person, she would be it. Except that people can't be perfect, such is the nature of man. And how is she not pefect? Well... I have to somehow get past the fact that she's got a kid. And is married. Now, I haven't met the husband. So he might be a really big guy, but I'm assuming that you have my back if we were to get into a rumble. I mean, who is this random guy to just step back in my timeline, find the woman that he knows I'm going to love one day, and then marry her? The audacity of this little-punk infuriates me. Of course, like any good recon scout I have returned mostly-verified information. The kid? Probably hers. Well, okay-98% chance it's hers. But he's ugly. And not just like, "your kid looks like a fish"-ugly, but "is that your... kid?"-ugly. Like a chihuahua on two legs, I kid you not. And the husband thing? Well, I'm of that retarded age where I need to start checking left hands and ring fingers when I meet women whom I might have to lay the "anime-geek-charm" on. Guys, mind you-said "charm" has no effect I've noted so far. Oh yeah, so the husband thing. I didn't seeee a ring on her ring finger, but then again-I didn't see any jewelry on her at all now that I think about it. And as my roomate pointed out, no-I wasn't undressing her mentally and yes-I played it cool when the kid walked up next to her and that whole thing went down. Now, I think the situation is almost clear enough for you to understand how crappy this whole thing was. Now that you've got those details, let me give you the backdrop to this whole fiasco. This is a woman who I haven't seen in ten years, and back in the day we used to hang out a decent amount. So, I see her at a big family thanksgiving dinner party (no she's not my cousin, although I did have to think about that for a while before convincing myself) and I'm just stunned by how gorgeous she is now. Time to move in, slowly say hi to people until I'm near her. We're like, hey-I haven't seen you in ten years, I'm very happy to see you again. Mind you, our dialogue is much more full of wit than this. So we're talking, sorta (I think I was drooling, but I might have just been staring at her open-mouthed like a moron) when this kid walks up and she calls him by his name and picks him up. I'm like, "okay. she's holding someone else's kid. I wonder who's kid? I know every family here except hers. well, her parents haven't had a kid since her brother, and he's my age almost. he's not married at all. shit. isn't not hers, is it? damn-i can't ask, that'd be too obvious. play it cool, ask her brother." So we kinda split, grab drinks, food, talk to other people-party stuff. I'm hanging out with her brother and I sorta ask him, 'who's kid is that over there?' Like you know, so it's all covert 'n shit. CIA type stuff. His response, "well, I am an uncle ya' know." Perhaps you've seen the Princess Bride? Remember that scene when Cary Elwes is screaming in true pain? That's the sound of a breaking heart. Not just one that was broken in two, or five, or a million pieces, but one that was vaporized by the heat of an atomic bomb that exploded over the sanctity of your happy place. Okay. So. Well, it wasn't until after the party was over and I was still stuck thinking about my uber-woman (she's got two eyebrows this time! I'm so happy!) when I realized... she's got an older brother. No, I wasn't thinking that, perverts. Maybe... just maybe, she took care of this kid all night, nurtured it like a mother, watched over him, and ... and... and maybe it's not hers! Maybe it's her brothers! Who didn't show up! But left his kid with his sister who was going out to a party to look after! Right? 'Cause then the younger brother would still be an uncle, and ... and... I can feel hope dying as I type this. 2) Millenium Actress 3am Review! Satoshi Kon, ever heard of him? Yeah-well you probably know his work, but not the name. It's kinda how things are here in the states. If your name isn't Miyazaki or Hayao then most fans don't really recognize your work. Satoshi Kon directed an amazing psychological thriller a few years ago known as Perfect Blue. I know you've heard of it, or probably seen it. Well-needless to say, that movie was excellent in its animation and use of non-linear time. Other good examples of non-linear time in movies bring Pulp Fiction and Memento to mind right away. Now, Satoshi Kon can work time as well as anyone on this planet. Perfect Blue showed us this, and Millenium Actress (his sophmore work in feature films, I believe) takes us beyond what we expect in style, emotion, and execution. Beyond how story is told we have all the other features of this beautiful movie. Acting, animation, music, and an unfolding plot all come across together and blend perfectly. The movie slips from scene to scene and sometimes you don't even notice how seamless the integration of the entire film is. But you want some of the story and plot, right? Well-I will attempt to leave spoilers out, but be warned-there may be some semi-spoilers. About thirty years ago Japan's most famous actress disappeared and went into hiding for unknown reasons. A reporter finally tracks her down and secures an interview with her about her past. The movie follows her recounting her history from why she became an actress to why she mysteriously left one day. As the story is told we follow through flashbacks that are woven into, with, and around her life on and off the screen. Her on-screen flashbacks into movies she starred in begin to reflect her real life and very quickly you'll notice that it is all one long narrative between her reality and her films (which reflect her reality so much that despite the changing time periods of her films the narrative is coherant and told linearly through the periods of her life). Okay, I think I said the same thing twice there, but I think you'll understand it. How does the movie end? Well-I hate spoilers, but I'll try to explain at least a little to you. This is the same explanation I had to give my 11 year old cousin (who didn't quite understand why time periods were shifting throughout the film) : No, she didn't die in space you idiot. So, if anyone thinks that anyone in this film dies in space I hereby deputize you with the ability to smack that person. I mean, really. Once you see the film you'll completely understand what I mean by that, and just how confused this kid must have been to ask me that question. Phew. Okay. Another 3am movie review under my belt! I love writing these things instead of my lab reports; although, my lab partner is probably going to kill me tomorrow. Have a nice break if I don't see you this saturday! And if you're one of those lucky enough to be an engineering student-I feel your pain. Or, more acurately you feel my pain-a small, small tiny portion of it. -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -Minna No Anime Secretary -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
Winter 2004
[MnA] Sat, Jan 10 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Thu Jan 8 11:29:04 2004) Hi, and stuff. So, no newsletter has been sent yet and I don't even know if Jamshid is still alive. Because of this, I am sending the newsletter. Don't be alarmed, I'll try not to say anything too insulting. Im poretant news: I can neither spell nor type! (keep this in mind) More important news: All you artistic-type people out there have only one week left to finish your t-shirt designs. In otherwords: it's time to get started! Keep in mind that if you design is selected you will be required to create seperations and you will only have two weeks to do so (not that it's very hard, just tedious). So if you think your design is particularly hot and/or complex, you may want to start working on seperations as soon as you complete your design. If you do win and need help with seperations, Ben has said that he will help you (the sucker). One last important bit of information to keep in mind as well: if you win and seperations do not get completed in the two weeks allotted, not only will a runner-up be chosen, but I will also punch Ben in the face. Next week! We will be re-starting Minna no Manga. Come, there will be manga to read/look at/drool over. Bring something from your collection if you like. There is no specific agenda. As I have said on the web page, we've been know to do everything from translate manga, and doing homework to watching strage Japanese gameshows and playing video games. It's big fun for the whole family. We haven't got the room nailed down yet but it will likely be in the computer science building (building 14) and it will be on Thursday nights from 6pm - 10pm. You don't need to stay the whole time obviously. Ok, now the schedule (I don't have titles because titles I do not have, and stuff): Schedule for 1/10: -------------- 5:00 - TBD ep #1 5:25 - Hana Yori Dango ep #34 5:55 - Patlabor ep #8 6:20 - Nadia ep #34 6:50 - Inuyasha ep #58 7:15 - Haibane Renmei ep #9 7:45 - Big-Ass Break ep #GGX 8:15 - Azumanga Daioh ep #9 8:40 - Noir ep #9 9:10 - Hellsing ep #9 9:35 - Crest of the Stars ep #9 No real rant, I just want to say that my break was much better than yours. I moved boxes and was shot in the knee by my cousin with an MP5 airsoft gun from one foot away. Beat that! -Nur http://www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub/
Room Change for this week
(Minna No Anime, Thu Jan 8 20:08:38 2004) Hi everybody, this is Nik. An important fact was left off of the newsletter this week and so I am sending this to all of you to make sure you know. We're going to have the first 2 hours of the meeting in a different room this week (114 I believe). So we'll start off in one of the side rooms we used for halloween. It does suck, but ASI is god here at Poly so there's not much we can do about it. See you allt Saturday! -Nik President, Minna No Anime
Minna No Manga 01/15/04
(Minna No Anime, Tue Jan 13 18:13:03 2004) Just wanted to let you all know that our first official meeting for MNM will be this thursday. Where? Computer Science building, room 252 (14-252) When? 7-10 pm (or until they kick us out) Hope to see you all there. -Nik
[MnA] Sat, Jan 10 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Fri Jan 16 17:24:11 2004) Konnichiwa Minna-san! Okay, sorry for being late. Absolutely-friggen-late. We wont get into that here, suffice it to say if you ask me next week why I was late I'll tell you an amazing (and completely false) story. NEWS: T-shirt contest! Yes, we've heard about it over and over, but why are you hearing it again? Because it's important. We're not very stylish people for the most part, and we trade style for devotion to our favorite shows/clubs. So, it's important for one of us to design a shirt that all the rest of us will vote on and make our club T-shirt for the year. The rules are on the Web Site (www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub) and please be there tomorrow w/ your design. Uhm... other news... I'm looking for cosplayers for this years AX so we can go as a cosplay troupe. I'm thinking like, Azumanga or Haibane or maybe even Nadia-although I'd really prefer Macross (like that'll ever happen). The Schedule! 5:00 Fansub O' The Week : I heard a rumor about ninjas, but I doubt it. 5:25 Hana Yori Dango - Ep 35 : Doumyouji! Sex Change! 5 min Break : Ahhh... episode titles rock. 5:55 Patlabor - Ep 09 : The Demon of Atama Yama! 6:20 Nadia - Ep 35 : I promise you that Jean wont sing again. 5 min break : Naaaaadia... Naaaaaadia... la la la la la la... 6:50 Inuyasha - Ep 59 : Sango's Young Apprentices 7:15 Haibane Renmei - Ep 09 : Well - Rebirth - Pose A Riddle 5 min break : Anyone know how to fix a PS2 that was kicked across the room by a 13-year old having a tantrum? 30 Min Break : You could either a) get food or b) beat all of Megaman 2 8:15 Azumanga Daioh - Ep 10 : Draft Names - Class Change - Wolf - Putting On Airs - Marco 8:40 Noir - Ep 10 : La Fin Du Monde 5 min break : Actually, that last one is a Canadian beverage that ain't half bad. 9:10 Hellsing p Ep 10 : Master Of Monster 9:35 Crest Of The Stars - Ep 10 : Just The Two Of Us That's All Folks! No really, that is all this week. I'll attempt to send a rant out this weekend from Reno. And if it's a good weekend, then I wont even remember having ever sent it out. Good luck with those T-shirt designs! -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -Minna No Anime Secretary -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
Minna No Manga 01/22/04
(Minna No Anime, Wed Jan 21 21:16:23 2004) Just another reminder to you all that we will have another MNM meeting tomorrow (thursday) night in building 14 room 252 from 7-10 pm. If you're interested in learning Japanese, reading manga, becoming an officer, or just want to hang out with us cool people, then head on over. If you're a little timid and prefer a smaller more casual setting to talk to us please do stop by, it's a great way to relax after a long day of school. -Nik President, Minna No Anime & Minna No Manga
[MnA] Sat, Jan 24 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Thu Jan 22 17:24:37 2004)
Alooooooha? Er, Konnichiwa.
Wish I had some new news for you, but I can't think of much you don't
already know. A quick plug though, check out the website for any info
including e-mail addresses for the librarian (you could get tapes/dvds of
old shows you've always wanted to see but never found at best buy!) and
extra news that doesn't get posted here.
OH. Yes, the winning T-shirt will be on the website sometime... uhm...
well, I can't read the future but sometime soon-to-not-so-soon.
THE SCHEDULE:
5:00 Fansub O': Unknown as of this point, but I promise no more
Kaliedostar.
5:25 Hana Yori Dango - Ep 36 : Tsukaka's Mother's Secret Plan
5 min. break : Looking to sell/buy used DVDs? We should hold a MnA swap
meet-any feedback?
5:55 Patlabor - Ep 10 : Eve's Trap
6:20 Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Ep 36 : The All-Purpose Battleship
- New Nautilus
5 min. break : Ah, if only the all-purpose battleship came with a
all-purpose cat-girl.
6:50 Inuyasha - Ep 60 : The Dark-Miko - A Fifty-year Curse
7:15 Haibane Renmei - Ep 10 : Kuramori - Haibane of the Abandoned Factory
- Rakka's Job
30 Minute Break : GGX? WTF? It promises to be fun.
8:15 Azumanga Daioh - Ep 11 : Cosmopolitan City - Confrontation - Don't
Hit It - Covered In Cats - Don't Run Away
8:40 Noir - Ep 11 : Tea In The Moonlight
5 min. break : I don't think the U.S. will ever catch up with Japan when
it comes to Inuyasha
9:10 Hellsing - Ep 11 : Transcend Force
9:35 Crest of the Stars - Ep 11 : Sufugnoff Gateway Battle
That's All Folks!
First of all, some of you might think that MnA is like a two-, nay-three
headed monster which pulls in multiple directions. For those of you who
wish to be officers, think of it more as a pack of wolves where every now
and then one of us :: cough cough me cough :: will completely zone out and
just go wander off in some direction without having a damn clue as to
what everyone else is doing. Also, there's a complete loss of time thanks
to a messed up schedule and the occasional Blue Sparks.
On another note, you played Prince of Persia? I checked it out and damn is
it fun. I could loan it to you if you can find me and get me to remember
you, but I guess the hard part of that might actually be the finding me
part. Viewtiful Joe, Mario Kart (should we play this in the Silo? ^_^),
and a few other Cube games are also pretty damn good. Perhaps worth your
investment of time and money, although time is money so it's really just
an investment of money. And I must admit, there are a few X-Box games
that're pretty great, too-but they shall remain nameless until I can
remember which ones they are.
The funny thing about me typing my stream of conscious is that either a) I
can't keep up with my thoughts and forget what I was trying to type about
or b) I get distracted whenever some pretty girl walks by (I'm in the
reserve room).
So yeah, I had something to say but forgot it again. Okay, focus. Focus.
Oh-I got a copy of Battle Royale on DVD that's really nice and has subs. I
think it's R2 from europe, but that whole PAL/NTSC is easily overcome
nowadays-I think?
Anyone wanna get together and have a big-ol' BR movie night? Perhaps we
could snatch a copy of BR2 and leave with a will to go shoot each other
and then pine about our lost high-school loves, before shooting/stabbing
each other some more? Nah, probably not gonna be that fun.
You like bagels? With the
creamy-creamy-cheese-cream-cheesey-creamy-cheese? Yes, I have been
infected by illwillpress.com, sorry. Someone was telling me that the
squirrel on that website and I had lots in common, to which I replied with
a loud and hearty "WTF?" I checked it out, and I guess that's... uhm...
yeah, I dunno. I'm either cool with the whole thing 'cause me and that
squirrel share similar senses of humor or I'm annoyed 'cause I'm damn sure
my voice doesn't sound like that.
Rest assured, I know what I my voice doesn't sound like-although it's hard
to tell what it does sound like. I've spent enough time on-air at KCPR to
know that my voice is, well-not that squirrels.
Hey-I nearly forgot. Or maybe I didn't? Perhaps you've heard my problems
with Mikado up in JapanTown S.F.? I'm thinking of never shopping there
again due to their CD return policy. I stopped by there during a Friday
and picked up 3 cds ('bout $100 worth, ouch) and when I got home I
realized that my hand-eye coordination is complete crap and that I grabbed
a CD which I really didn't want. Of course, I realized this after putting
it in my CD player.
So, I bring it back exactly a week later and ask for some store credit or
something, and all I get is some fat store-clerk telling me they can buy
it back. But get this, not for like 50% or something decent-no. We're
talking 20%. That's $6. Yeah, he'll give me $6 for a CD I bought a week
ago and realized was my complete fault. I even asked him why the CD policy
if I hadn't scratched the CD and even kept all the packaging. Why? Because
he flat out told me that he doesn't know if I'm a theif or not. Maybe I
burned the CD and sold 100 copies, he doesn't know me so maybe I'm a
theif. Of course, since then I've subsequently found a few places that
share this same "you bought it, you're a theif, you can't return it"
policy."
Borders is another one. This time I was purchasing an Opera CD. Yes, I
listen to Opera, Metal, J-pop/J-rock, OSTs, Classical, and allll sorts of
Big Band and Jazz music. Oh, and a small dab of indie rock.
So anyway, the problem with buying Opera CDs is that you never know if
it's a good analog-to-digital transfer. I'm not talking about the original
quality of the recording, I'm talking about tracks that are cut off early
and start late. Ever listen to a CD where two songs are supposed to track
into each other? Yeah-well, I can guarantee you there are no Operas where
one song ends in the middle of a phrase and the next one begins on the
second note. So, I'm talking to the manager at Borders and I guess it
sorta went like this:
Me : Okay, so I need to know your CD return policy.
Cashier : Only if it's unopened.
Me : So, how would I know if it's any good or not? This is like $15 bucks
that I'm giving you guys.
Cashier : Oh, if it's opened than only if it's defective. And then we'll
replace your CD with a new one.
Me : No, I mean-what if this CD sucks? I pick up Opera CDs and I know that
there can be shitty analog-to-digital transfers. What if EMI classics
really sucks at this? I've never picked anything up by this label before.
Also, this "made in holland" sticker is not very confidence inducing.
Cashier : Well, sometimes old recording aren't recorded with the higest
qualit--
Me : No. I mean, I've picked up CDs before and the end of one song doesn't
quite track into the beginning of the next song. What if EMI produced a
not-so-steller CD?
Cashier : Let me get my manager.
:: wait for 5 minutes as she explains whatever the hell she explains to
him::
Manager : Hello. So, you're wondering about our CD return policy if the CD
is opened?
Me : Yes. I need to know that if I buy this CD and it's got this
horrendesly crappy sound and production value that I can return it and
spend my money instead on a quality product.
Manager : Well, as long as you don't open the CD you can return it at
anytime.
Me : So, how would I listen to it?
Manager : Yeah, that's a problem.
Me : **silence**
Manager : **silence-but he is smiling ^_^**
Me : So if I open it and the CD has horrible production and sound?
Manager : Well, alot of old recording were made on less than modern-day
quality equipment.
Me : Yes, that's true but not what I'm talking about. I buy records and I
know what old recordings sound like. I also know that on my records the
tracks have never been cut-off. I've got a CD where the tracks sort of
cut-off early and the next one starts late. It sounds like the CD is
skipping, but it's really just the production value is absolute crap.
Manager : Well, if the CD is defective we'll take it back and trade it for
a brand new one.
Me : And if it's not defective? What if the CD simply has poor production
value? What if I don't like it? I can't return it and get another?
Manager : No, sorry. We can't do anything about that.
Me : So... I'm buying this CD for $15 as a complete gamble. I mean, this
could be a poorly produced CD with shitty sound and I'd just be screwed
out of $15?
Manager : Yes.
Me : Uhm... okay. I'll take it I guess?
Damn music industry is on it's ass. No, maybe it's on it's head, sitting
on it's head. With it's ass in the air. Perhaps everytime we talk to one
of those music reps at a music store we're really talking to the ASS of
the RIAA or something? That might explain the bad breath of the sales reps
at Best Buy and our inability to buy something and return it upon
realizing that we'd rather spend our money on heroin for the poor than the
p.o.s. disc in our hands.
Derf over at derfcity has a comic strip about this, but I think he's taken
it down already. Another of his true-stories that either he-or one of his
readers witnessed. Some big guy walks into a record store to return some
CDs that he thinks are crap and the record clerks can't do a damn thing
unless the CDs are defective. The big guy, in frustration, breaks the CDs
and leaves the shards on the counter before leaving the store mumbling
something about them being defective now. Funny? Only if you've ever had
to sit there talking to some clerk-monkey about how you'd like to return
something that damn well should be returnable-in fact, music should be the
MOST returnable item. Tastes change and a CDs suck. I'm sure just about
everyone reading this has at one point or another purchased a CD and
realized that they made a stupid/embarrassing choice later.
After all, it's not like you can bump the blue danube from your honda when
you're driving downtown, but it does sound great on Vinyl on your home
system. Whereas, that new Nas record is alright at home, even with having
to switch sides every 2-3 songs-but that CD would be pretty sweet when
you're driving down the strip trying to yell out the window at your
friends. Either way, the CD isn't returnable and I don't think BooBoo's
(the only place in town that sells records besides CheapThrills/Nemo's and
who shops there?) takes back Vinyl either. Of course, you could always
sell it back (in brand new condition I might add) and get between 20-40%
for it. This, in my damn pissed-off opinion, is absolute crap.
That's it. From now on I'm not buying music from places I can't return it.
In fact, perhaps this whole anti-RIAA music thing that I've been hearing
word about on slashdot.org and other places is catching on with me? Maybe
I should start being a bit more vocal about this? yeah... a letter to the
editor here... some airtime on KCPR there... aggrivate the anime community
with stories (true and falsified) of geek injustices... egg-selent... soon
the mighty pig-dog music overlords will be dropping to their knees to beg
us to buy the next Madonna cd! We'll show them just how much the next
3Doors Down album means to us when we can't return it after realizing just
how mediocre their rock really is!
Ahh... who am I kidding? As soon as I walk by Boo's again I'll probably
walk into the Jazz section and pick up the newest craziest remastered
version of Duke Ellington at Fargo in 1940... at least I KNOW that CD is
worth my money.
Ever stuck your fingers together with superglue? I just did that last
Tuesday with 20 minute epoxy. Yeah. Lots of fun. I get to do it again
tonight as I go into the composites lab and do what was originally MY SOLO
project with 3 guys who are all making senior projects out of the work
that I am doing. I'm gonna work those kids like sleigh-dogs. Hya! Hya!
Does that whipping noise I type turn you on? Goodnight folks!
-Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini
-Minna no Anime Secretary (and mega-flake)
-www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
-(I sure hope it doesn't.)
Minna No Manga 1/29/04
(Minna No Anime, Wed Jan 28 18:34:51 2004) Again we're having our weekly MNM meeting in 14-252. Wanna know what we're gonna do? Then show up and find out. -Nik
[MnA] Sat, Jan 31 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Thu Jan 29 16:22:17 2004) Konnichiwa Minna! You have been selected for this weekends Battle Royale! Well, not really-but if we were to have one you'd be in. News? Yeah, something like that. There's rumors of an AX CosPlay troupe. It appears as though PatLabor mechanics is the costume of choice so far, but if you're going to AX and want to hang out with us/CosPlay with us then drop an e-mail or speak up at any meeting. T-shirt design is up on the web page, or so I hear. Check out the decidedly Canadian drawing that will be our rockin' t-shirt for the coming year, or this year... I never really remember how that works. Oh-and really important-Officer Elections are coming up! I don't think they are this weekend, but if you're planning on running then ask any officer about what is required, expected, and what you'll probably end up really doing (like sitting a room 'talking' about how Princess Nine is way better than Hyper Police). It's fun to be an officer! No, really-it is. THE SCHEDULE! 5:00 Bobobobo Bobobo - Ep 1 : WTF is up with that Afro? 5:25 Hana Yori Dango - Ep 38 : I Will Train You! 5 min. break : What happened to HYD ep 36? We... uhm... accidentally skipped it, sorry. 5:55 Patlabor - Ep 11 : Eve's Shudder 6:20 Nadia: Secret of Blue Water - Ep 37 : Emperor Neo 5 min. break : We're right in the final story arc for a few shows: Nadia, Hellsing, & Haibane. Don't miss out! 6:50 Inuyasha - Ep 61 : Kikyo Appears, The Use of Shikigami 7:15 Haibane Renmei - Ep 11 : Parting - Darkness in the Heart - An Irreplacable Thing 30 Min. Break: Yoshitoshi ABe, who's amazing art is behind Haibane, also worked on Lain, Niea_7, and Technolyze. 8:15 Azumanga Daioh - Ep 12 : Chiyo-chan's Day - High School Friends - Lunch - Afternoon - Skipping Rope 8:40 Noir - Ep 12 : Assassin Training 5 min. break : I'd love to see a Noir/Azumanga crossover. Chiyo-chaaaaan! Watch out! 9:10 Hellsing - Ep 12 : Total Destruction 9:35 Crest of the Stars - Ep 12 : Lady of Chaos That's All Folks! Surprised? You should be. Worried? Perhaps not so much. Confused as to what the hell I'm writing about? Good, let me fill you in. It appears that WETA (the badasses who brought us the LOTR graphics) is working in conjunction with GAINAX (the badasses who brought us Nadia, FLCL, EVA, Abeno, KareKano, Honneamise...) to bring us a live-action EVA movie. Happy? Sad? Ecstatic? Fearful of complete corruption of something good? Whatever you're feeling, don't worry-we'll hold you and then let you borrow our old EVA vhs copies if it'll make you feel better. It might even clear up some of that stuffy-headed congestion you've been feeling lately. EVA's good for that sorta thing, you know-clearing your head. Evangelion live action, wow. What an idea. It, of course, brings back the question of what anime would you like to see made into a full-blown American big-budget film? And the follow up question, yeah-but could they do it right? Instead of giving you my spiel on whether this is good idea or not-let me instead digress into the depths of video game hell. Yes, Video Games die and I believe they have a Hell. While some may argue on the specifics of what is required to pass the entrance exams to VGHell (tactics had shitty long menus, persia was too short, onimusha f'd your grandmother) I think it's really easier than we all think. After all, the distinction between VG Heaven and VG Hell is probably the difference in whether some kid had fun w/ it or if he used it to beat his little brother into submission (me, my brother, 1989, and Q-Bert is all I gotta say about that). Let's start with a game that walks the thin blood red line between fond memories of time well spent and time well spent wishing you'd purchased $50 of pudding instead a piece of plastic crap. Skate Or Die! (or for that matter, Skate Or Die 2!) seems to fit this mold perfectly. Sure, when you're 9 years old and have no idea the future of video games involves anything more than 16-bit this game is amazing! There's like-this place you can skate in a pool that's like a half-pipe, then there's this actual half-pipe, and this other thing which resembles-but isn't quite... a half-pipe. At least in SOD2 you can throw tacos at each other. Or at least, that's what I remember about it. Was the game fun? Sure, for about 2 days. Then it just got put on the shelf next to Q-Bert and the Barbie Mall Shopping Game where it would stay until sold at your next garage sale. SOD and SOD2 make it to VG Hell. And to top it all off, where are the hot, 2-D imaginary non-real completely fictitious in their measurements girls? Ahh, but for that we'll need Dating Sims! No, not the Sims with their stupid garbled language. I'm talking dating simulators. Yeah, so maybe we all play these in secret, late at night with the bedroom door locked and the music turned up so no one knows what we're doing, but who will admit to it? Not I. Ahem. So, a quick google search of what is available online and in English (lemme tell you, those Japanese babes don't understand a damn word typed to them in English) gives the page: http://www.newgrounds.com/collections/datingsims.html Now, just because I typed the address does NOT mean you should go there (esp. if you're under 18). With "dating sims" like "the lusty bar fly" and "maid of horror" I think we've found a genre of game that can either appeal to the lonely fanboy or to the lonely fanboy. Depending on whether you're all about the Hentai action or the "i'm actually being social with a girl!" action. And yes, I've heard it a thousand time "the art is beautiful!" Finals comments? Here's a piece from the page: "Frank's Adventure 2:Another magazine needs nude photos! You are called in to do what you do best!" Ahh, a game that goes traight to hell, does not pass go, and sure as hell didn't collect my $200 : Dark Angel. I think this was a PS2 release that was originally made for the PS1. I'm sure when it was originally made the quality control division at Sony decided to burn the CDs, burn the computers they were programmed on, and then burn the programmers just to make sure the virus was contained. It wasn't. Sometime after the release of the PS2 we received a copy of Dark Angel... and about 4 hours later (I played it for 4 solid hours help me god i want those moments back to live differently!) I stood up and I was physically hurt by the game. My ass, which has taken all sorts of punishment over the years, was physically beat. I was walking funny and swearing at the PS2 for the rest of the night and early into the next morning. The story of Dark Angel? Well-the game starts up, some text flashes on screen about how some terrrrrible evil is going to kill all human kind in like, three years, and then the game starts with you, a sword, and a shitload of guys around you who are there to kill you. From here you find out that you're some not-quite-3D girl with a sword, some magic, and a willingness to hack-and-slash for longer periods of time then it would take to code Diablo III. My sister loaned me this game saying "this isn't very good" whereas if I had understood double speak I would've heard her say "I place a gypsy curse upon your ass! Pain! Pain for all eternity!" Yeah, go sis. What makes this game go straight to hell? Well, besides the not-fun-in-any-way-gameplay, not-so-great-graphics, and complete-lack-of-story? How about the not-fun-control system, huge-ass-pains that come about from even viewing footage of gameply, or lack of purpose to what you do in the game? You go to town. You leave town. You fight. Days pass. Evil isn't here yet! Go back to town. Leave town. Figh. Days pass... evil still not ready... lather, rinse, repeat for as many times as you can stand to do so. Honestly, Barbie Mall Shopping might even be more fun than that one. Not like I ever played or owned the Barbie mall shopping game, I'm just saying. You know. It might be more fun. But this is an anime club newsletter, right? Where are all the anime-based games? Well. For the most part they suck, I'm sorry. Robotech came out a bit ago and while it's fun, if you're not hardcore Macross fan then you probably wont get a big kick out of it. The .Hack games? Well-I hear those are actually beyond decent and in the land of "good," but what do I know about a game I haven't even played yet? ArctheLad is well... yeah, nevermind it. The Gundam games looked cool, but I didn't see the point to running around a desert with what seemed infinite ammo and countless targets. Oh my god, I'm late for a class that was cancelled! Ahhh, back to the point of this newsletter. **SHAMELESS PLUG** (i hope you enjoy this as much as i do) Like anime/video game soundtracks? J-pop? J-rock? Weeeelllll, KCPR 91.3FM has a show for you! Arigato Tokyo! Tuesdays, 5-6pm. Anime & Videogame Soundtracks, Japanese pop and allll sorts of things from the island that brought you your favorite addiction-anime. **END OF SHAMELESS PLUG** Ooh, that felt good. I'm not even hosting it this quarter and I figured I'd let you all know about it. Listen next Tuesday and give Cowboy Andy a call (or two). I'm sure he'd appreciate it for about 15 minutes. See you all in club this Saturday! Avoid the Noid! -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -Minna No Anime Secretary -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
[MnA] Sat, Feb 7 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Fri Feb 6 01:25:23 2004) Konnichiwa Minna-san! Another week... another 168 hours lost to a)sleeping b)gaming c)anime d)schoolwork e)eating f)classes. Yes, in that order. Although, sometimes gaming outdoes sleeping, but that's rare. NEWS: I'm going to announce this again, because it was so cool. We have a winning T-shirt design for the year, and if you want one I think we'll be researching prices sooooon... and taking orders VERY soon after that. So check out the website www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub for the design. Library is still open! I think most of you don't realize the treasure chest this club has, in terms of what is in the library. Check out the website for info on what we have (3000 miles in search of mother!!! and Black Heaven!!!) and send a letter to the librarian if you need anything from that list. Officer Elections are around the corner. Yep, it's that time of year again. The current officers are planning on moving on, graduating, leaving, or perhaps just taking some time to ourselves so we can drink more. It's really just that if a club doesn't have new leadership cycle through then it becomes stagnant and we rrreally don't want that. We, the current officers, really do love this club (for various reasons I'm sure) and we want some people who think they can run this club to step up to the plate. Sure, maybe you've never been VP for a club before, but this isn't a management position at a big-time store, this is just a club. Remember that you're doing this because you want to do this, and if you've got even a little amount of spare time during the week you'll be great in this position. The only time that things get crazy is when you're at a pictionary party and up being forced to draw Conneticut blindfolded. Otherwise, it's a blast. THE SCHEDULE: 5:00 Yamamoto Yohko TV - Ep 1 : Okay, "...exceptional physical prowess and videogaming skills." 'Nuff said? 5:25 Hana Yori Dango - Ep 39 : Devil's Triangle 5 min. break : One of these days we're just gonna HAVE to show an ep. of Golden Boy for FansubO' again. 5:55 Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Ep 37 : Emperor Neo 6:20 Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - Ep 38 : ... To Space 5 min. break : Despite the website's ominous fortelling, Nadia will end NEXT WEEK. A final, last, and kinda sad (but fulfilling!) episode. 6:50 Inuyasha - Ep 62 : 7:15 Haibane Renmei - Ep 12 : 30 Minute Break : Probably not this week, but maybe next week it looks like we'll have some AMV's from a former club member. 8:15 Azumanga Daioh - Ep 13 : No Guard Strategy - S - Midterm Test - Formation - Ability 8:40 Noir - Ep 13 : Season of Hell 5 min. break : What the hell do the lyrics to Noir's opening theme mean? Then again, what the hell do the lyrics to Berserk mean? 9:10 Hellsing - Ep 13 : Hellfire 9:35 Crest of the Stars - Ep 13 : Trouble Soaring Through Heaven That's all folks! So earlier today I was hopped up on caffeine. You should've been there - I headbutted a concrete wall, a soda can (it was empty, don't worry), and realized how cool I look when I pose in the mirror. Ever had that feeling of utter and complete doom? I felt that last night. I was in the lab (like most nights, actually) getting work done-or-trying to get work done. It was a bit rowdy in there, and so I pull out my handy-dandy-super-trusty MiniDisc player. And then I dropped it. Yep. My only savior in the island of chaos, and I betrayed it to the forces of gravity. I plugged in my headphones, hit play, and then silently cried the tears of a broken and utterly defeated man. I nearly walked out to the balcony (we're on the 3rd floor) and threw that piece of very expensive electronics very, very far. Instead I decided to bite my lip, pour one for my fallen comrade, and move on with my life. It also helps that Sony is coming out with a new MiniDisc format that is no less amazing then the rumors of your mother's performance in bed (if those rumors are true then I don't feel so bad for laughing). Sorry, I'm not supposed to be mean. It just sorta slipped. Sigh... mantra... "I don't need this anger... I don't need this anger..." Okay, all better. I think we'll be able to throw on some AMV's by an old club alumnus either this week or next. I have no idea if he/she's got any skills, but either way you gotta support your comrades-in-arms, especially when your option is yet ANOTHER GuiltyGear tournament video. Of course, I'd still love to see how they got those monkeys to fly in the Wizard of Oz. I mean, wow-have you seen that film? Or more importantly, have you seen that film while listening to the dark side of the moon (Pink Floyd)? Or even MORE importantly, have you seen that film, with the Pink Floyd album playing, while "relaxed"? Well, yeah... okay, I can't claim to be that cool either, but having done all three separately I think it'd be pretty cool to combine them. You know, like that time when I was a kid and I combined a Chocolate Chip Cookie, Mustard, Wheat Bread, Mayonaise, Lettuce, Swiss Cheese and made the sandwhich to whoop all other sandwhiches. The first bite tasted pretty good actually, but I think that was just my body attempting to rationalize the flavor in my mouth. The second bite... yeah. I immediately went to the trash can and vowed never to play God again, lest I vomit mustard and chocolate all over my pants a second time. There's really just no explanation you can give people for brown and mustard-colored stains. I mean... you try, but they really don't believe you. And for the last fucking time: HERE IS THE STORY OF HOW I GOT MY SUPER-MYSTICAL NICKNAME "K" Freshman year. Fall quarter, 1998. I am living in Sierra Madre (on-campus housing). I write a quote on the whiteboard on my door, "yadda yadda yadda Lord Of Chaos." This of course, causes all the people on my floor to begin calling me the Lord Of Chaos. Now, don't get me wrong-that's a fucking cool name when you're 18 and a freshman in college. My friend, however, thought it was too long to use in casual conversation (at least he didn't start calling me the Warthog) and began to call me "K" as in the first syllable of "chaos." Pretty damn simple, eh? I SHALL NEVER UTTER THIS STORY AGAIN. Thank god, it's finally over. Five years... or is it six now? Anyway, many many many retellings of the story later, I'm fed up with it. I'd love to have a new nickname, but it's hard to stop the inertia of a name. Also, to set the record straight-despite rumors to the contrary, I never owned that damned-straight-to-hell Barbie Mall Shopping game. Although I do own a nintendo, with a bunch of games, and some were my sisters... ahem... What was my point? Oh yeah, the damn cat pee'd on the thing! He's neutered now. Fucker. I mean, he can still pee I guess, but not on my classic NES system! Not again, anyhow. So... I guess I'll pay someone to comeover and clean it and the games? And... uh... for the slave labor I might even pay you in something worthwhile, like food or drinks... probably not cash though, I've got about $5 to last me (and my anime/manga addictions) for another week or two. And if you do find that Barbie Mall Shopping game in the bag full of cat-smelling old-school games, uhm... just lemme know and I'll go hide it somewhere deep in my room and promise me you wont tell anyone 'bout it. Thanks. -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -Minna No Anime Secretary -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
Minna No Manga Feb. 12
(Minna No Anime, Wed Feb 11 22:54:01 2004) Hi everybody! Sorry about the lack of an e-mail last week, I was about to then that silly little thing called sleep stopped me. Anyway MNM will always be run even when I forget to do the e-mail. If for some reason MNM is cancelled, I would write an e-mail saying so. Anyway, Nur and U are still hunting for the big surpruse video we're saving for MNM, if we find it, we'll be sure to bring it. Or else we can just watch another ep of Futurama off of Josho's laptop. -Nik
[MnA] Sat, Feb 14 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Fri Feb 13 00:14:15 2004) Okay. If you're at this weekends meeting you're as big a dork as we are. That, or your girl/boy friend is really, really cool. Konnichiwa Minna-San! News! Alcohal. For thsoe ofyou at Tsurugi's tonight-you understand that statement. Let me tell you, 11:49PM AND IT'S STILL GOIN STROING! Yes. Oh yes. Officer elections are coming up. If you thought VP was easy wait 'till you hear about secretary! Except they'll probably expect you to doooo work, unlike lazy-ass me. Those fliers were pretty cool though. You gotta admit that, and the weekly newsletter has come out pretty much, well... weekly. I try to get it out by Wed., but I had a take-home midterm that has been kicking my ass for the past 48 hours. Otherwise, some subtitling (we'll show you how-it's real easy) and an hour/two to write the weekly newsletter each week and you're done. A flier at the beginning of the quarter can always be pawned off on your photoshop friend, if need be. THE SCHEDULE!! (no ep titles this week, must write letter then go save save Neverwinter!) 5:00 Fansub O': I really, really liked last week's Yamamoto Yohko. 5:25 HanaYori Dango - Ep 40 5 min. break : So... I skipped class today at 4pm so I could go make myself into the literary genius I am right now. 5:55 Nadia : Secret of Blue Water - Ep 39 : The grand finale. No really, it's the ending and there's no more. It's pretty daaaamn sweet also. 6:20 Kokoro Library - Ep 1 : What the hell is this? I don't know either, but it's pretty 'king sweet. 5 min break : Kokoro is talked about by EVERYONE. Well, everyone who's anyone. Maybe you dont' know anyone who's anyone? Hmmm.... 6:50 Inuyasha - Ep 63 : Goddamn kick that things all already! 7:15 Haibane Renmei - Ep 13 : Another ending series. You may need to bring tissues. 30 Min. Break! Yeah, yeah yeah. Time to get food, right? Maybe we should tell you about the officer positions, or mabye just waste your time watching more megamanII videos? 8:15 Azumanga Daioh - Ep 14 : Shopping - Meeting - The Beach! - Capturing Operation - An Adult's World 8:40 Noir - Ep 14 : Girls, guns, now all we're missing are Zombies! 5 min. break : Seriously, that's the holy triad-of movies. Girls, Guns, and Zombies. Resident Evil had it all! 9:10 SaiKano - ep 1 : This is called "She, The Ultimate Weapon" or "The last love story on this little planet" or something like that. 9:35 Banner of the Stars - Ep 1 : Staring after Crest ended, this amazing story continues. Well, I think- I haven't seen this... That's All Folks! Okay-so tonight at Tsurugi (for those of you on the other mailing list, the minnanomembers@<removed for spam reasons> you knew all about this meeting!!) we had a dinner get-together. A good amount of people showed up, including me! Unfortunately, as I realized pretty quickly-I was the only one who was so amazingly shitfaced when he showed up that i can't even remember half the dinner. I have vague recollections of leaning on a freshman and pointing and laughing at TomDave, but besides that I think Imight have made an ass out of myself in front of Rebeca. Damn. Not cool, right? Exacly-except that tomorrow is the big naughty-gothic-schoolchildren party! Don't ask. If you're not invited, you're probably not welcome. Of course, would you want to be invited to the naughty-gothic-schoolchildren party anyway? I'm going 'cause of a girl. A fiiiiine girl. We're not talking the kind of girl who makes your head turn when she walks by, we're talking the kind of girl who makes your jaw drop and your heart stop and your brain stop working regularly. Stupind things come out of my mouth when she's around, and I can feel my face contort into some sort of "smile" type facsimile when she looks at me. I need to get over this retardedness otherwise I'll never lure her close enough to get to know me and my amazingly smoooooth self. So yeah, party tomorrow night. I'm kinda stoked I might see this girl again. Problem? Yeah, of course there's a problem. She's a bit younger age-wise. Not too much, but enough for me to say that I've been out of the dorms for many years and she's just finishing up her 2nd year in them. So what to do? Continue along and hope for a romance that will make me the laughing stock of all my friends or do I give up and remain the laughing stock of all my friends (yeah, they're really not all that nice). I say... go for it! I think I might actually be able to have a "valentine's day" for the first time in years in which I actually had a valentine on said day! Of course, if you show up on Saturday and I'm looking pretty bummed that means nothing happened and I maybe prone to hugging you during the break and asking for your hand in marriage (don't worry, it happens alot, it passess pretty quickly). Problem is I don't know your ring size, so I guess I'll just have to propose half-assed when I ask you for your hand in marriage. Ouch my throat hurts. I think I might have caught something? Or maybe I shouldn't have drank all those drinks followed by all those other drinks... really, shots followed by Martini Chasers. Yeah, smart idea. Real smart. Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty okay right now. I wish I was saving Neverwinter, but sleep may be calling me right now. I do, after all, have to make it to all of my ZERO Friday classes. ^_^ Woo-hoo! Oh yeah, 4 day weekend for me. If noone hadmentioned that this Saturday was Valentine's day I wouldn't have notic4ed-at all.. Instead, someone had to mention it and now I am wishing I wasn't such a damn loser! Perhaps next year I'll rock out with two girls on my arm to make up for this year? Or maybe I'll be working next year's Valentine day early-getting ready for rejection 365 days early. -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -Minna no Secretary -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub -woo I'm tired, I'm seeping triple! This is amazing!yy
MNM, FF Crystal Chronicles, Pictionary
(Minna No Anime, Wed Feb 18 20:33:07 2004) Here, three, three, three announcements in one. As usual MNM will be meeting this week in 14-252, what's special about this week's meeting is that we will (hopefully) be playing Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles in the room a couple of doors down. If you have a GBA and a link cable come join the caravan! Also, this is kinda short notice, but pictionary is on at Ben's place this FRIDAY (2/20/04), there's no definate start time, but I guess people should be there by say...6 PM If there are any questions shoot an e-mail to the member's list on yahoogroups. Hope to see you there! -Nik
[MnA] Sat, Feb 21 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Thu Feb 19 14:11:09 2004) Konnichiwa Minna-san! Ahhh... a week of exceptional midterms, exams, presentations, papers, and the occasional Pint Night. I hope school isn't getting you down, and if you're out of school well, I'm sorry-really I am. THE NEWS: (all the news that's print to fit? I'm not a witty person, d'oh!) Pictionary Party! Yeah, I'm guessing you already got that message, but I'll repeat it because as they told me over and over, "Repetition is Key!" So if you don't know where Ben's place is then e-mail around (either us here or the Minna-no-members list that you should be on!!) and get directions. It's really deceptively simple, except for actually finding his house behind this gigantic hedge-maze thing. I swear, I rolled up to his house and spent half-an-hour walking up and down the street looking for his house, only to realize it was behind what I thought was some sort of cancerous-green-growth. Officer Elections! I, uh, think they're this week. No, wait-I'm SURE they are this week! Come, stand in front of everyone and let them know exactly how much better than me you can write! Trust me... I really, really would love to see one of you doing this job instead of me. I'm sure some of you feel the same way. As far as I know, all the officer positions are up for grabs! So, if you're a Poly student and you've never held a position in a club then this is a great place to cut your chops. Learn what it means to have SAY in something as awesome as this club. That's right, Officers pick shows. (did you like the capital "O") You like KittyGrade? MasterCookingBoy? FullMetalPanicFumoffu? Mahoro Season 2 (pleeeeaaasseeee!!)? Technolyze? PrincessNine (f**k yeah!)? Anyway-this list goes on a while. Just remember, it'll be up to YOU to decide what gets shown on our THEATER size screen. It's kinda like being king-geek, without being a geek... so it's really like being king! Or, you know-queen if you're not a kingly type. THE SCHEDULE: 5:00 Fansub O: (hopefully) the Return of Kaliedostar! 5:25 Hana Yori Dango - Ep 41 : The Beginning of New Ways 5 min. break : I'll admit it... i like soap operas... involving Hanawaza Rui... 5:55 Kokoro Library - Ep 1 : 6:20 Patlabor - Ep 14 : You win! 5 min. break : Although, I've never seen Meteor Garden (friend has like, a bunch of these Taiwanese live-action HYDango VCDs) 6:50 Inuyasha - Ep 64 : Tahoutou's Huge Demon (heeheehe....) 7:15 Gunparade March - Ep 1 : The Visitor 30 Minute Break : Officer Elections! You know you want the power of holding the gray cash-box. Or you could be El Presidente! 8:15 Azumanga Daioh - Ep 15 : Kimura's Family - Did You See That? - The Unconfirmed Wife - Frozen Solid - Results Announcement 8:40 Noir - Ep 15 : Heartless Assassin Act I 5 min. break : I say we toast our new officers! And then wish them all the luck in the world in attempting to figure out a schedule before August, suckers. 9:10 Saikano - Ep 2 : I'm growing... 9:35 Crest of the Stars 2 : Operation Phantom Flame That's All Folks!! Sniff... sniff... did you SEE Saikano last week? You ever gotten ahold of that manga? Damn that's the saddest last love song on this little planet. Anyway, moving on past my sensitive side-and on to the "i can't feel my face" side of things. Pictionary this Friday? Perhaps you've heard legends tell of this mighty game capable of bringing people together in less than a weeks notice. I've seen gigantic block parties in full swing which are less energetic then a bunch of people yelling at someone "it's a goddamn frog! you're drawing a frog! what the hell is it!? It's a froooog!" As if by merely yelling at them that what you see is a frog shall make it so, even if what you're really drawing is a rifle. Added bonus to Friday's Pictionary Party? Well, besides the fact that yours truly shall make a much needed (and sober) appearance, is that you'll be there also. The more people actually decide to show up the more fun things become! So don't be that person who thinks "well... no one's gonna be there..." because last time we had upwards of nearly 2-dozen people. That's right. And not all of them are your usual Club members. We had people who were like "yeah, i like anime, but i don't go to club. However, I Luuuuv Pictionary!" And if you're old enough we'll let you into the "good" fridge. Otherwise, well... I guess we'll let you into the good fridge anyway, we're kinda relaxed like that. And like last time, I will gladly exchange rides for physical contact (massages, headbutts, hits on people, embarrising loss of thumb-war to a 5'1" 95 lb. girlie-girl) or whatnot. Hey-okay... now we're getting serious here. After sending out the invite we got invited ourselves into someone else's Caravan-which we're very cool with. In fact, we're thinking of joining, but it looks like we're pretty much only free on Wednesdays from about 7-11(maybe midnight). So, if anyone else out there wants to join us in our merger of caravans let us know! We could use someone to carry the chalice for us, after all. Ahem... time for my improvised State of the Consumer Address. This is a great time for buyers of anime, such as you and me. However, we must still be wary of where our hard-earned money is headed. Perhaps you realize too late that you like the manga for KareKano more than you like the anime or vice-versa? Where does that leave you? Or even worse, a deal so good on that Bebop soundtrack that it's too good to be true? Probably is, unfortunately. For quite some time the older anime crowd has been using the wonders of the internet to purchase anything we needed, since that used to be the only way to get anything (besides SailorMoon and DBZ). Now? Well, now you can head down to Suncoast in your local mall and peruse their GIGANTIC anime collection. The amount of titles coming out in America is amazing. It used to be you'd only dream of a show like FMP ever making it mainstream enough to be released in the states, and now shows like R.O.D. the TV are licensed before they even air in Japan. This is good for the consumer. We have access to more shows at a cheaper rate. After all, Region 2 DVDs imported from Japan are about 2-to-1 in price compared to their American counterparts (if not more). Sometimes there is quality with that increase in price, and rarely will you feel you got the shaft. This is also a problem. With an increased market size and value, anime has seen more and more bootleg videos appear in more commercial stores. Previous to this gigantic explosion of popularity one could head to Chinatown (SF) and find what they were looking for on VCD if they were lucky. It was a bootleg and it was accepted as such, no disclaimers otherwise. Today though, fancier packaging and "complete ultra!" box-sets featuring entire 26 episode shows (which are normally on 3 DVDs or something just as insane) can be found at local mom-'n-pop stores and sometimes in the non-chain stores in your local mall. But it's cheaper, so it's better for you, right? Well, what you're effectively doing by spending your money on a bootleg is telling the company that produced, marketed, licensed, and distributed the official product that you don't want their item while at the same time informing bootleggers that you agree with their cheaper, non-licensed way of doing business. I really don't want to get into intellectual property rights, copyright law, or paying the creater arguments. I just want to lay it out for you what is happening. Sometimes its hard to tell between the official and bootleg version, and a lot of people don't even know what's going on with respect to this. A quick way to check is inspect the box for copyright markings by the company that produced the show (Bandai, Sunrise, Pioneer, etc.) or a known bootlegger (SonMay-although I think they only do music, etc.). Chinese subtitles are also pretty common among bootleg discs, as most bootlegs originate in Taiwan (they have the weirdest copyright laws). So, for us poor college students this puts us in an odd place. On one hand most of us feel fine downloading songs to our hearts content, after all music is over-priced and the record industry is corrupt. Sure, the artist in that case makes even less money off of CD-sales since people normally download and then burn the album without giving it a second thought. Okay, now movies are similar, right? After all, if $16 a CD is too much to pay, $26 is too much for a DVD, right? If $16 is too much to pay for a CD which I will listen to over and over again, then $26 is definitely too much to pay for a Movie/Show I will watch a few times every few months. At the same time, however, you're avoiding the fact that someone (a lot of someones, actually) had to create the entertainment you're enjoying. A CD is created by a lot of people, not just the artist. At least the studio techs, marketing people, talent scout (to find the artist in the first place), business people, etc. A lot of people worked to bring you that product. Now think about that DVD you just got bootleg. You bypassed all those people who worked on mastering that disc. Instead your money is being routed to someone who took a finished product (without making any investment into it) and sold it as their own. If you don't find this morally wrong then I have no other argument you will likely listen to. The issues of quality control and bonus extras also come to the front when discussing bootleg discs. However, most people are willing to sacrifice these in order to save the price of a meal or two at a fast food restaurant. Okay, sorry-didn't mean to rant about bootlegs. I just saw some less-than-legit discs the other day and got a little annoyed. I had to slap one of my roomate's hands to keep her away from the bebop discs she was eyeing. Anyway, here's a joke to loosen things up. If you're not an Aero engineer you might not get it, and even if you did you'd probably throw a tomatoe at me for good measure. So, flow walks into a difuser and starts looking around. The diffuser walls yell at it, "Hey! Stop stalling!" [insert nerdy laugh] Goodnight folks! -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -Minna No Anime Secretary -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub -p.s. my bad cookie fortune was "Your heart is impure, and your mind clouded, and your soul evil." Upon opening another fortune cookie I received "it may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others."
[MnA] Pictionary Friday
(Minna No Anime, Fri Feb 20 03:41:06 2004) Minna-san, Because none of the officers seem to remember where I live, and I apparently have nothing better to do at 3:30 in the morning (*sigh*), I'm going to make sure that everybody knows my email address so that they can contact me for directions: benl@<removed for spam reasons> I'd say not to give it out to spammers, but judging by the amount of spam that I already get, I don't think that's really an issue anymore. Thank God for spam filters that actually work! -Ben -MNA Pictionary Party Host
MNM 02-25-04
(Minna No Anime, Wed Feb 25 23:23:07 2004) I'll keep this one short and sweet (mostly because I have a big, nasty midterm tomorrow)... Thursday 7-10 Building 14 room 252 We'll do stuff...cool stuff. -Nik
[MnA] Sat, Feb. 28 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Thu Feb 26 22:08:49 2004) Konnichiwa Minna-san Not much pre-letter stuff to say. Check the rant for the, uh, rant. NEWS: Officers have been elected! Yes, a democracy at work elected new officers for all positions. El Presidente : Mike "kinda-reminds-us-of-Santa" Vice Presidente : Annaliese "Sonya-Blade-For-Those-In-The-Know" Treasurer : Ashlee "I-Don't-Know-This-Person-Enough-To-Be-In-The-Least-Witty" Secretary : David "Mr. Opinion" Bathe Librarian : Rob "With-That-Hat-Used-To-Have-That-Hair" Webmaster : Stephen "Real-Quiet-But-I-Still-Wouldn't-Get-In-A-Fight-With-Him" Phew. Okay, sorry-had to give you an idea of just exactly which "stephen" or "ashlee" I was talking about since the club is filled with these people of regular/common names. I mean, just last week I ran across 17 stephens sitting on the right side of the silo alone. Keeping their names straight was hard when I found out one was lying to me and in fact, her name was really Stephanie. That just blew my mind. Ahh... the end of the quarter is soon upon us! Yep, with spring break arriving we'll be showing you guys an amazing movie at our last meeting! We're still deliberating the finer points of our possible choices, but by next week we should have a decision hammered out. THE SCHEDULE: (sorry, super busy this week-no ep titles, ask me on Sat. and I'll tell you about my depression/counselor meeting thingies! Oh yeah... manic baby! Manic!) 5:00 Fansub O': Something you know is gonna be good 5:25 Hana Yori Dango - Ep 42 : Doumyouji does something stupid again 5 min. break : On Friday afternoon I'll be playing baseball if anyone wants to join 5:55 Kokoro Library - Ep 2 : Why Kokoro, you look good enough to eat! 6:20 Patlabor - Ep 15 : Damn those mecha are cool 5 min. break : And I need an x-acto knife. These damn models aren't coming off the plastic as well as they could be... sandpaper too... 6:50 Inuyasha - Ep 65 : About time for another comical episode, I think? 7:15 Gunparade March - Ep 2 : If you missed last weeks episode, I'm really sorry. It was cool. 30 Minute Break : I wonder how many members in club own airsoft guns? We should get together, form a club/league, and then go shoot each other until our friends think we're all idiots. 8:15 Azumanga Daioh - Ep 16 : Combination - Advent - Cute - Order - Advertising Impact 8:40 Noir - Ep 16 : Duuude-that guy/girl thing with the knives was pretty cool 5 min. break : Ahh... my third of being in the caravan. Diary Entry # 3572.b - Today I met a caravan from place X. They were in need of item Y. I gave them the finger. I hope to meet them again. 9:10 Saikano - Ep 3 : If you can find the manga for this show, do it! 9:35 Crest of the Stars 2 - Ep 3 : I'm still in the air about what to call this show. Amazing or really amazing? That's All Folks! No time for a rant! I must get back to work! Yes... Thursday night... and I'm still working. I bet you're wondering "But... how can a slacker like you actually DO anything?" Well, it's not easy. First you've gotta actually have something to do. After that, well-it all sorta falls into line. You set aside some time for whatever you have priorities set for, and then when that time comes you simply begin what you need to do. Example: showering. Now, I know that I don't put a high priority on this and I really don't care much how I smell or how clean my flesh is. Truth is, this is lower on the priority scale than playing just about any video game (except for Barbie Mall Shopping...), and it will probably stay that way until a lot of people yell at me for smelling like cat-urine or something equally despicable. But-in the morning when I think about it sometimes, the priority level of showering rises enough to warrent time before video games. So-I put the controller down, turn off the Cube, and proceed immediately to the closest bathing-station. As for how long I take in the shower and how it is unrelated to how clean I come out, well-like I said-it's still low on my priority list. Another example: Retaining my sanity and keeping out of manic-depressive curves which I am currently in. Okay, so-you'd think you'd want to keep your mind nice and clean if you don't keep your body clean, right? RIGHT. This is high on my priority list, hence-the associated video games and anime high priorities, but it doesn't mean I'll always get it done! It is high on the list and so I try to set aside a lot of time making sure I stay happy and noone gets killed or nothing. Sometimes, however, it just doesn't work out that way. I end up moving the base-priorities of this (anime, vid games, movies, music, sleep, food, etc.) lower and lower on the list as I end up doing more and more work, nothing, coughing, feeling like I have mono, etc. Hmm... okay, nevermind. I think I just ran out of time for my writing this letter. I have to get food and then back to work... Just wanted to say one last thing which you all had better understand, and if not-then go out and figure it out immediately-it's really funny. "Touch my TV and your 'king dead!" -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -Minna No Anime Secretary (not for much longer...) -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
MNM 3/4/04
(Minna No Anime, Wed Mar 3 19:23:29 2004) Again Minna no Manga meets in CSC bulding (14) room 252 from 7-10 pm Perhaps we may watch more Japanese TV shows -Nik
[MnA] Sat, Mar. 7 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Thu Mar 4 00:19:29 2004) Konnichiwa Minna-san 1)news 2)schedule 3)rant(?) THE NEWS: Uhm... well... it's been a slow week. But next week we're done for the quarter. There will be a 2 week break during March 20 and 27 Saturdays, and we'll be back April 3 or something. Expect a badass movie on the 27th for our final meeting of Winter Quarter. I hope to see you all there this weekend or next! Also-Tsurugi's Dinner Outing! Yes, it's that time again. Come, sign up for our quarterly dinner outing to Tsurugi-the badass Japanese food place in town. I think we'll be reserving the Tatami room (sweeeeeeet!) for Mar. 14, but you need to sign up with us or we're booting you out of that room when we run out of room (and I promise you-we always do). Come this Saturday to club and signup to come eat with us. Eat, Drink, And Be Merry... (for tomorrow we die-is the rest of the quote, I think-but it didn't seem appropriate) THE SCHEDULE: 5:00 Fansub Of The Week : I rrrreally liked Stellvia last week. If you did too then let the officers (new or old) know! 5:25 Hana Yori Dango - Ep 43 : Kokoro no Kizu wa Fukakute Omoi 5 min. break : I'll try to implant Japanese titles this week if I can find them. 5:55 Patlabor - Ep 16 : The Unit Crosses The Sea 6:20 Kokoro Library - Ep 3 : The Secret Miss Kirin 5 min. break : I swear, if Kokoro doesn't hole up in a clock-tower with a sniper rifle then this show is NOT going the direction I was hoping it would. 6:50 Inuyasha - Ep 66 : Naraku no Kekkai Kagura no Kesshin 7:15 Gunparade March - Ep 3 : Fireworks 30 Minute Break : Okay, finding Japanese titles wasn't as easy as I thought... or, finding them and figuring out how to navigate sites wasn't as I thought. 8:15 Azumanga Daioh - Ep 17 : Osaka's Scary Story - Something about Pandas? and some Karaoke and Santa Claus. I think. 8:40 Noir - Ep 17 : Return to Corsica 5 min. break : Azumanga Daioh is one of the purest forms of crack available on the black market, did you know that? 9:10 Saikano - Ep 4 : (okay... there was no title for this ep on the pages I found and I'm tired...) 9:35 "I'm-Sick-And-Ben-Is-An-Idiot Of The Stars" - Ep 4 : The First Campaign That's All Folks! Yeah, sometimes you do a search for a show and find that despite the net being "vast" and "full of information" you can not find what you're looking for. Of course, do a search for KillBill and you find that Amazon is announcing April 16th as the release date for Volume 2. Yes... finally... my prayers have been answered and the world is good again. For those of you who didn't see KillBill Vol.1 and have no idea what I'm talking about, let me try to be as concise as possible in educating you. KillBill kicks ass. If you like Tarantino and you like movies, and you don't have a problem with movies that are about revenge of the very human sort, then... well... yeah, this is gonna be one of your favorite films. If you're David though, then you'll fail to see the badass-ness of this film and continue to berate me about how Pulp Fiction was about the violence and the "cool" while this film was not. Mr. Bathe, you are incorrect. Pulp Fiction was extremely well done violence in the fact that very little violence was actually on screen and a good portion of it was alluded to very, very well. Maybe, 5 scenes in the film show some violence, while Kill Bill is in fact-much bloodier and sadder. I'm all about the blood and the sad and the fact that Production I.G. did a scene in the film. Will they return in Volume 2? Fuck if I know, but I'm sure Tarantino would rather have us wowed by something new. Now, perhaps some of you might vie me as being "mental" or in more clinically used terms "fucked up in the head." But, how many of you know that in fact-I truly AM mental? Well, today I got a call from the Cal Poly Health Center. They're in charge of their Mental Health Services and apparently they treat these "visits" (if you will) as appointments of a sort, reminiscent of your dentist. "Hello, is Ahmad there? Yes, well-we just wanted to remind you that you have a dent-er, mental-health counseling appointment tomorrow at 1:45pm." My reply, of course was, "umm... thanks. Bye." I mean, what do you say to the person who is neither your doctor, nor your friend about your tendancies to... well, I'd better not tell you guys either; however, this phone jockey was a bit disturbing. I mean, do I say "why thank you! I'll inform myself later after I've finished the chicken sacrifice!" or do I simply reply with "Jamshid no home! jamshid lie in hole... afraid of boogey-man-sun-goober-popcorn!" Truly, perhaps between the combined mental-ness of everyone on this mailing list we can come up with something really, really memorable to say to this person-NAY-ALL PHONE JOCKEYS!! Yes, I say we come up with a list, and whenever anyone of us gets a call we reply to these telemarketers and secretaries with something insanely witty. Something they'll be telling their children that night over dinner it'll be so amazing the stuff we come up with. "Actually, no... I'm sorry, he can't make his mental health exam this week. No, you see he's left for the Hoover Dam. Something about cliff-diving, I think?" "Dentist appointment? Shiiiiit, that would've been great a week ago before he got those fucking molars knocked out. Yeah, this car was backing up and he didn't see it..." "Long distance companies? No, I'm sorry-I actualy PREFER your competitor because they're more expensive. You see, it's like this-you guys are fucking bastards. They, however-are nice guys. I know them, they're cool-we play poker sometimes. You are like the kid down the street who harrasses me 'cause of my funny hair, and now that I've grown up and am dating your sister I can walk into your room and piss on your bed." I dunno... those are off the top of my head, so maybe they'll be alright. Rating system anyone? 1=shit. 2=uhm, no. 3=okay, maybe if you said it correctly. 4=that's pretty good. 5=that's really good-I'm stealing that as my own next time I'm around that cute guy/girl. You know what I would love to see on the Silo's screen? Beach Spikers Volleyball! Yeah. That would rock. Rocketh. That would rocketh. Sega makes some amazing games, and the best part is you can pick it up and within five minutes know all the controls-considering there's only one button to press-two if it's really complicated. None of this tap punch, forward, forward, half-circle back, kick, punch+kick+double-forward dash crap. No, I'm talking Monkey Ball here people! Simple, pleasureable, fun. Of course, I'm not bad-mouthing complex games or nothing. It's just that Bible Adventures was stupid. Sorry, tangent-but I had to get it off my chest-that game sucked. Hey-who wants to learn Japanese? I've let my studies rrrreally fall behind and I was thinking about how much fun I had when I went to the Land Of The Rising Sun last summer and how I love run-on sentances. So yeah, anyone want to get together and study/learn Japanese? I can teach you basic-basics. But other than that, I can just tell you stupid stories of how we took body-shots off of cute japanese girls and then got laughed at by other cute japanese girls, oh-and apparently the words "fuck this underwear is riding my ass" are universal. That or their high-school English teachers are a lot cooler than ours. So yeah, if anyone wants to get togehter-like... during Minna No Manga or something and actually learn some foreign language skills (I can, however-teach you how to hit on girls in Japan. It's even easier if they speak English!) like how to hold your own in Japan at all sorts of things ranging from food & drink to beating up old ladies who steal your luck while playing Pachinco (or whatever that stupid game is called). Oh-and of course, there are a few key phrases you neeeed to know to absolutely, positively impress any and all Japanese folk. If you can blurt these things out and say them with a good accent or even sound like you're remotely attempting an accent-then like yeah... you're in the club, man. Or woman, sorry for being so gender biased. Hmm... okay, to un-gender-bias myself I guess I should start saying things like, "Guys or girls I shall teach you how to hit on guys or girls." Oh, and if I've never mentioned their fireworks before-dude... Japan has fireworks. What we've got here in the states? No, we've got bottle rockets. I'm just saying, it may be time to repeat my fireworks/sex analogy. Ever notice how with fireworks things sorta just start? You're hanging out, knowing it's gonna happen, but not sure when. And then... poof. The first one flies through the sky. From there it's just natural progression into the next ones and eventually you have this rythm going on. Everything's good and it's going along just fine, and then it picks up. And it picks up some more and then we're approaching the climactic end of the night and it's just going crazy and we're there and the sky is lit up like crazy for just a brief few seconds. And then we're spent. In the states this is about a 30-minute cycle on the 4th, maybe 45 minutes if you're somewhere really nice. In Japan, this is like-1 hours and 45 minutes. There are intermissions-it's fucking crazy. Anyone been to Germany? I was thinking about that country the other day. It seems like a cool place to go, although-most of Europe sounds fun when you're in SLO and you hate everything around you. Except for Taj Palace-those guys/girls rock. Best damn Indian food for at least 250 miles (or however far Cerritos is). Whoa-I better keep this short. Don't forget the dinner at Tsurugi's-you need to sign up!! And the movie-it'll rock! I guarantee a rockin' movie! -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -Minna No Anime Secretary -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
MNM 03-11-04
(Minna No Anime, Wed Mar 10 22:54:39 2004) Meeting...7-10 pm...14-252 That is all. -Nik
[MnA] Sat, Mar 13 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Thu Mar 11 14:06:45 2004) Konnichiwa Minna-san It's our last week of the quarter, so it's movie time! Since we're currently showing Patlabor we decided to show the first Patlabor film-which is amazing. Even if you're only sorta-into the tv-series you'll probably love this precious gem of animation and story. So, check out our altered movie-schedule and enjoy this weeks super cool meeting. NEWS: We're still taking T-shirt sizes, I believe, so we can get a rough estimate of how many shirts we need of each size. If you're thinking of getting a shirt then let us know your size on the sign-up sheet! You can also check the design on the web-page, www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub if you haven't done that yet. Movie this week. Patlabor first movie! It's really great. I can tell you that for a fact you will probably love this film. Other then that, don't forget our schedule is mixed up because of the movie. We'll be showing an altered version of our schedule up until around 8pm, at which time we'll throw on the movie. In fact, here's the schedule. SCHEDULE: 5:00 Kokoro Library - Ep 4 5:25 Gunparade March - Ep 4 5 min. break : Kokoro March? Hmm... librarians who fight to save the world? Or Gunparade Library-soldiers who double as cute librarians? 5:55 Azumanga Daioh - Ep 18 6:20 Noir - Ep 18 5 min. break : I'll pistol whip the next person who says shenanigans! 6:50 Saikano - Ep 4 7:15 Banner of the Stars - Ep 4 7:40 - 30 Minute Break! Yep. Time to get some food, heat up some pop-corn, and drop another 50cents into the soda fund. Kick your feet up, relax, and enjoy the film. 8:10 - Patlabor 1 - Movie That's all folks! So, it's dead week. Right? Next week is finals. And the week after that is spring break. This leaves us with only this to say - wooooohhoooooo!!! Break time! Finally! We'd better enjoy it while we can. I mean, after graduation what are the odds you'll find yourself in a job where your boss tells you, "hey-why don't we just take a week off and go hang out in TJ?" It ain't gonna happen, buddy. I think we all need to realize just how coo' that is. I mean, breaks. You know-like spring break or summer break or winter break. As much as some of us hate (and I do mean hate) school, these breaks are the best. What are yooouuuu gonna do with your free time? Havasu? Tahoe? The beach? Or... like me-nothing. Absolutely, positively nothing. Just laze around the house, maybe finish some gaming, maybe do some cleaning, maybe get around to washing my clothes for the first time in 6 weeks. You know-nothing. Not to change the subject, but let's change the subject. Who else is going to AX this year? We're thinking of going as a CosPlay troupe. Yep, the mechanics from Patlabor. Who else would like to support Special Vehicles Section 2? I do! I do! Yeah, I'm a dork-but I'm only a dork inspired by the collective geekiness of the club. Otherwise I'd probably be working harder on my Final Fantasy:Crystal Chronicles CosPlay idea. You know, the one were I get to dress as my character from the caravan and be all "cool" and "hip" and whatnot. Of course, It'd also give me a weapon to beat anyone who decided to start feeling me up (I have a female character). Speaking of feeling up and beatdowns, we're gonna be at Tsurugi on the 14th. I think? Yeah-there was signups last weekend for it, but there might still be a seat or two available. Check it out this week in club. I mean, it's one of our few social events outside of club meetings and it's a blast. You actually get to MEET other club members! Go figure! Despite our meetings lengthy hours and really good turnout, no one really goes up to anyone else and meets them. I don't think this happens, anyway. How many times have YOU walked up to another member and just asked them "hey, so... come here often?" or even just a simple "hi. my name is _____. what's yours?" Clubs are about people who enjoy similar activities getting together and meeting each other. So-our outside of club activites are aimed at doing just that. Like, how many of you know Nur? Our resident A.I.C. would be super-pleased to meet you. Despite his quiet demeanor and constant glare-of-hatrid he's really a sweet guy who likes to receive hugs and get to meet new people. Of course he'll deny this as soon as you walk up and try to talk to him-but try harder! Then there's Erin. She's really quiet also-but compliment her on her costume from last halloween and BAM-instant conversation! El Presidente? He is a lonely, lonely man in need of companionship. Hang out with him during the big 30 minute break and you can learn all sorts of wisdomy type stuff. Ben? He's probably approached you already-he's pretty outgoing like that. Oh-and of course, David. He'll talk to you about anything as long as you're not a rock. And even then, I think I've seen him befriend rocks before. Just don't walk up and try to talk to me-I'll probably head-butt you or something. I've been known to do so during new encounters with people who scare me. That's just most of the officers-there are still more of us elderly types around (mike for example is really friendly if you offer him money) and lots of club members who I still do not know. Like-that girl who sits on the far-back-right side with the hammer. She scares me. Anyone listen to opera? Or is that just me? Anyway, whatever. Yeah, this is a short rant this week. I'm on meds and I have a lot of work to do-neither of which allows me the mental-state or time to sit back and let you guys know my feelings on politics, philosophy, favorite cheese and why, or love. Yes-I have a heart! It's mostly cold and made of iron-but it's all mechanical in it's pumping of blood-except when cute lil' coke-head girls are around. What? You don't have that problem? Okay - maybe I'm mental. -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -minna no anime secretary (not for much longer, sniff) -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
Spring 2004
MNM No meeting this week
(Minna No Anime, Thu Apr 1 00:19:41 2004) Due to me being forgetful and such, there will be no MNM this week. Hopefully I can get a room for this quarter in the same building during the same time. I'll be sure to let you all know when I get a reservation. -Nik
Minna No Manga 4-8-04
(Minna No Anime, Wed Apr 7 20:30:25 2004) Unless ASI says otherwise, we will have a MNM meeting this thursday in building 14 room 248 from 7-10 PM. A reminder to those that went last quarter, this is a different room from the other one, remember we're in 14-248 -Nik
Minna No Anime 4-10-04
(Minna No Anime, Fri Apr 9 21:29:32 2004) Good news! T-shirts are in and they look awesome! So bring in your $15 (or $13 if you're a member) and come buy them this saturday. Here's the schedule: 5:00 Fansub'o (what it'll be even I don't know!) 5:25 Hana Yori Dango 45 5 min break 5:55 Patlabor 18 6:20 Kokoro Library 6 5 min break 6:50 Inuyasha 68 7:15 Gun Parade March 6 30 min break 8:15 Azumanga 20 8:40 Noir 20 5 min break 9:10 Saikano 7 9:35 Banner of the Stars 7 See you tomorrow! -Nik "El Presidente" Kamachi No rant this week, if you're angry let Jamshid know so that he'll remember to write the newsletter.
Minna No Anime No meeting 4-17-04
(Minna No Anime, Thu Apr 15 01:04:17 2004) Since we have open house this week, there's no meeting. Instead come by our booth and buy some really good chicken teriyaki! We'll be located accross from the library next to the math building. See you there! -Nik "El Presidente" Kamachi
Minna No Monga 4/22/04
(Minna No Anime, Thu Apr 22 11:14:49 2004) Since open house has ended, we can go back to our normal(?) weekly MNM meetings. For those that forgot we now meet in building 14 room 249 from 7-10 pm. See you tonight! -Nik
[MnA] Sat, Mar. 24 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Thu Apr 22 13:22:18 2004) Konnichiwa minna-san! Yes, oh yeah-I'm back in the writing groove. I didn't forget about you people! I've just been busy with this rockets class and building a rocket engine (pointy end up, firey end down) and lots of downtown adventures. but that's all gonna be in the rant (and it will be one hellova rant). NEWS: Open House was bad-ass. For all of you who came by and supported us either by volunteering, giving us money/supplies, or just by saying 'hi' and making us feel a lot cooler than the nail-driving guys, THANK YOU! Also, more news-it looks like animeexpo is getting ready to start confirming guests and they claim weekly updates to their guest list. Right now it's not very impressive (except for the Under17 music group which I mistakingly understood as feeding into my pedophilic tendancies). So, if you're planning a trip to AX this year ask around in club, we might make a carpool type thing or maybe a mass hotel-reservation. It's what we do. The SCHEDULE! 5:00 Fansub O' The Week: Learn about the wonders of zero-gravity. 5:25 Hana Yori Dango 5 min. break: sorry for the lack of episode numbers this week, I'm still getting back from spring break. 5:55 Patlabor 6:20 Kokoro Library 5 min. break: My conputer is squealing... wtf? 6:50 Inuyasha 7:15 Gunparade March 30 Minute Break: It's starting to smell like smoke in here... and it's not me this time... 8:15 Azumanga Daioh 8:40 Noir 5 minute break: I better write the rant in a separate e-mail . It will be long, and I am worried about my computer right now.... 9:10 Saikano 9:35 Banner of the Stars That's all folks! Okay, once I get this smoke under control and I'm positive my machine is okay I'll send out the rant. I have a looot to say this time. Three weeks of silence has raised the pressure within me to some sort of critical level. Expect another -mail later today with news on my computer and allll sorts of rantage! -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -Minna No Anime Secretary -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
[MnA] Sat., Apr. 24 Rant (not March!)
(Minna No Anime, Thu Apr 22 17:28:05 2004)
Konnichiwa Minna-san!
*DISCLAIMER*
This is solely a rant. The news/schedule should have already arrived in
your precious little spam-filled mailboxes by now. Also, I have a lot to
bitch about today.
*END DISCLAIMER*
Okay, lets get right down to business. My computer is fine now, but the
whining hasn't fully gone away. It appears that if you let papers collect
near an open box with 7200rpm fans bad things might happen. The stray
wires didn't help, either.
Now, some of you may know my political stances and some of you may not. If
you don't know, I'm a republican. Now-what exactly does that mean? That I
eat my young? No-I'm all anti-government and moral-legislation, for fiscal
responsability... I guess if you compare me to modern republicans I'm not
very republican at all, but whatever-they're all a bunch of old
ready-to-die-been-holding-on-to-the-country-for-too-long
something-or-others.
Now, three weeks without a rant I can't even begin to let you know my
conspiracy theories! Yes, it is true there is House Bill 163 and Senate
Bill 89 about reinstating the draft, although it's on crack this time.
We're looking at 2 years of mandatory military (not line-of-fire, just
military) service, or something about homeland security (it seemed vague
on that part when I read the briefs). We're pretty much the last
westernized country without mandatory military service, or so I hear many
people say. Would it be good for people? I'm still deciding on the wording
and what I think about it.
Now, the conspiracy theory arises from the fact this bill has been flown
under the radar last year through congress and left to rot in committee...
or has it... Let's go farther back in the way back machine, professor!
Oooh, no child left behind?
Yeah, that sounds great-EXCEPT THERE'S NO GODDAMN FUNDING! So yeah,
despite Bush being all high-and-mighty with his 'education reform' bill,
we have to figure out what he's trying to do with this thing. Oh, what's
that Mr. President? You want all high school juniors and seniors'
information to automatically be handed over to the military, even without
an ASVAB or consent? Oh, right-consent to NOT hand over information
requires a signature from the parent and not the child, I believe
(under 18 you're not a human being, you're a dependant clinging onto your
parents or that's how they look at you). So, we've got a two-year
mandatory service bill aimed at men, AND WOMEN (equallity for ya') of ages
18-26. Hmmm... conspiracy afloat? Oh, and don't forget we're in a war on
an idea, folks. An idea is pretty fucking hard to beat and declare victory
against.
Mind you, I don't like what Clinton did with restructuring the military to
be more dependant on reservists, and I don't like how our boys and girls
out in Iraq and Afghanistan (bet you forgot where it is already-HINT:not
in Africa) are in some seriously dangerous shit, but damn I support every
single one of those soldiers and hope they make it home in one piece, and
not as one of the 11,704+ casualties or 700+ fatalities.
So, you've been watching FoxNews or CNN lately-what do you think about all
this? Have you realized that with the Pentagon's US Soldier body count of
100+ since April started that we've lost 5 boys a day? When you wake up,
when you arrive at work/school, when you eat lunch, when you get off
work/school, and when you eat dinner just think that those are my fucking
friends from high-school who grew up too fucking poor to go to school and
those are my roomates' brothers' friends who were on leave for Easter and
were shipped back and then told they're indefinitely being held.
Am I for pulling out of Iraq and leaving the country to destabalize? No.
Am I about whining about the president? Sort of. In my opinion, he's done
a lot worse than cheat on his wife-and look at the trouble Clinton got
into for that.
Now, Is the war for oil? Money? Revenge on the guy who tried to kill Mr.
Prez's daddy? It's about stability. Satellite stability in an unstable
region. Now, Saddam was a bad man. No questions or doubts there. But you
need to recognize the major players here and tip your hat to a regime that
is pretty radical, very open about it, and has the best fucking media
spins ever. We're looking at Wolfowitz who will (and has) openly
discussed stability in the middle east, protecting US interests and speaks
in phrases that allude to, but don't come out and say, that the American
Empire must be protected/expanded.
Oh-back to the draft thing: On April 20th (what, two days ago?) Chuck
Hagel, Republican Senator, urged the Senate Foreign Relations committee to
reinstate compulsory military service. I wonder what he thinks of the
mandatory service bill.
Jesus fucking Mary and Joseph I am still writing and bitching and haven't
even gotten to the fact that we're sponsoring WarLords in Afghanistan.
That's right, feel like helping the Afghan economy get back on it's feet?
Buy an extra 50lb.s of heroin this season. You'll be doing just about
every farmer in the country a favor. Of course you could try to donate to
an international aid organization, except that we're (as in the coalition
over there-not the US alone) not doing a very good job of keeping them
safe. We've gone from over 26 to FIVE international health/aid
organizations in Afghanistan in the last year alone.
So, with soldiers on every continent in the world (except Antarctica,
since we seriously doubt Osama is hiding out down there) how many
resources do you think we have left to fight a war on terror? Oh-shit, I
almost forgot-we're currently in a war on drugs! Fuck... anyone know how
that's going? I mean, we won-right? No more drugs are gonna be
infiltrating our schools and fucking up the heads of our little neo-con
children? Hmm... fighting the war on drugs... I think Bush was doing that
when he paid the Taliban $50 fucking Million dollars and then they gave us
teh finger when we asked for Osama Bin Laden in both May, and August of
2001. Mind you, we just gave them $50 million so they were really nice
about giving us the finger-after all, under the Taliban rule Afghanistan
barely produced any heroin at all. And shit, they even managed to keep
order or some fucked up variety. This year? This year looks like the best
heroin producing crop in Afghanistan ever recorded.
Worst part of it? I'm hearing stories of our marines staring addictions
and then being flown to Germany and Washington (Walter Reed) for
addictions/mental problems and the cause being Marijuana and Alcohol (both
capital letters because they are my friends or something, I guess I'm too
lazy to hit the "backspace" key). From the news reports I've read it
appears that local Afghan workers on bases are just bringing shit in with
them. In their pockets, backpacks, whatever. Of course, when you're on
base for a long time with nothing to do there is always your friend and
mine, heroine. Is there supposed to be an "e" at the end or not? Quayle
never got back to me on that (ooooh-old joke for the old timers!).
Hey-did anyone ever hear that Prescott Bush (G.W.'s what... great-great
grandfather or something?) was aligned with some seriously big Nazi money?
Look it up-okay, enough sensationalizm. Fuck, I can't spell that either.
Oh, and king George the first, from what I understand from his signature
being on certain pieces of legislature and checks written to certain
fucking organizations, is a biiiig eugenics fan. In case you're wondering
what that is all about... well... it's pretty hardcore. I mean, really. I
can tell you that the Iraqi civilian fatality count is between 8900 and
10700 and I would really rather not go into our Country's shady racist
past (and present). Needless to say, the US started the first real strong
nationwide eugenics movement and the Nazis were so impressed they copied
California's laws and eventually took it a bit further and committed
genocide. By the way, eugenics is still a common theme in government-you
just don't realize it.
ARGH. So many fucking things!! Now, for those of you out there thinking of
joining the military (which has crossed my mind quite a bit in the last
six months) or have already enlisted I fucking commend you. I hope you all
make it back alright. Now, if you don't mind-I'm going to go enjoy my
slacker-ass college student life and enjoy a Thursday night going to
Farmer's market and yelling at the democratic/republican party booths
downtown about how stupid their leaders are. Oh, and then I'll be going to
SLOBrew for pool. Mmm... and around midnight... oh yeah, I'm letting my
hair down and going to Denny's to get back into studying.
And I hope you all found the article in the Mustang Daily about whether
Jesus would vote republican or democrat. A laugh riot a la L.A.-style
riots.
Peace out.
Love one another.
Peace out... actually, yeah-peace is sorta out the window right now, isn't
it? God I hope our military commanders in Iraq find a decent strategy to
keep our troops safe (I heard we lost control of major roadways/whatnot a
few days ago but that was complete fucking hear-say from a stoned friend
of mine). Same with Afghanistan. Although, I'm kinda worried about both
countries slipping into the same conditions you find in most
post-civil-war countries that can't rebuild themselves and don't want
anyone else there to help them (because they know they're being used and
that's why they had the civil war in the first place).
Fuck, gotta go before I start to go off on domestic policies involving
racism and economics.
-Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini
-Lone Wolf In Pub
-How many of you don't actually understand the lone wolf in pub joke? I
think it's actually quite clever and witty.
[MnA] Sat, May 1 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Wed Apr 28 21:54:33 2004) Konnichiwa Minna-san! I am in a lot of pain right now (walked into a tree tuesday night, broken glass incident, hit by hardball, hit in nuts THREE GODDAMN TIMES in the last week, back is sore, left hand covered in band-aids from various activites that will tear skin off, oh-and allergies from the plant-filled fields of hell) so we'll keep this letter to the point. Or, mostly to the point. NEWS: I believe last week in club we might have possibly accidentally mentioned that we're out of our old black club t-shirts. We might press more of this and other cool designs, but we need to know your size if you want one! Otherwise... yeah, good luck fitting into that baby-tee that El Presidente ordered as a joke but doesn't have the balls to wear. Ahem, so if you want a shirt let us know at the meeting at Saturday and we'll see what we can arrange. Also, the black t-shirts rock. Open House stuff-once again, thank you everyone! I believe we're STILL counting money. Now, this can only mean one of two things. No, wait-it might mean both. Either we're very stupid and can't count, or (hopefully) we made a pile of money so huge that we can't count that high using our finger, toes, friends appendages, etc. I'm personally of the school of thought that relates to the idea where we made a lot of money and are all very, very happy right now. I have some baseball stuff I want to talk about in the rant so don't forget to scroll down and read it. THE SCHEDULE! 5:00 Fansub O' The Week : What could it be this week? Come find out! 5:25 Hana Yori Dango - Ep 46 5 min. break: Whoa-have you guys seen that Mario Sprite Drama?? Daaaamn! 5:55 Patlabor - Ep 19 6:20 Kokoro Library - Ep 7 5 min. break: The guy is using music from Radiohead, LoTR soundtracks, Dvorak compositions, etc. 6:50 Inuyasha - Ep 69 7:15 Gunparade March - Ep 7 7:45: 30 Minute Break! I swear, we finally get to episode 69 of Inuyasha and I can't think of anything funny to put as the title name. 8:15 Azumanga Daioh - Ep 21 8:40 Noir - Ep 21 5 min. break : So there are currently 4 (out of 5) parts of the Mario drama up. It's very... good, I recommend watching it. And if anyone can figure out a way to bring into club I would love to put that on during break. I just have to let you know, I cried when Luigi fell to Koopa. It was very sad. 9:10 Saikano - Ep 8 9:35 Banner of the Stars - Ep 8 That's All Folks! You like samurai swords? Funny, I like baseball. No, really-I do. I was wondering if we could put together some sort of rag-tag team and play sometime? It's spring and we need a social event that doesn't involve me becoming plastered (although sloshball is almost as much fun as regular baseball/softball) or attacking people with chopsticks, or both. So, I like baseball-in fact I understand the rules! Whaddya know? If anyone's interested then we should meet at club this week or next week or just send out a holler on the club mailing list. I'm sure we don't need two full teams. Even if we just went out and just hit it'd be a blast. Ahh, the Mario Drama? I don't know what you'd call it. I found a link on PA and (amazingly) the site wasn't wanged so it still had enough bandwidth left over for me. So, the story isn't anything new. It's mario, the princess, luigi, the mushroom people, and koopa causing trouble. We've all been there quite a few times, and we've always stopped him. The games have always been fun, but now there's a crazy, CRAZY cinematic flash version available to watch. It's like getting an old video game redone for your X-Box with new cutscenes, it's pretty sweet. Hmmm... I am extremly in pain right now. I'm exhausted! Maybe I should go finish that Tahoe Joes cheesecake I've got in the fridge? Okay-so, last week my roomate throws one of those hard pillows (you'll know what I'm t alking about when you see it) at me and it hits me in the crotch. Ouch. Then, a night or two ago I'm "adjusting" and I do this lil' jump thing 'cause it seemed like a helpful idea. My arm ends up moving entirely wrong and I hit myself in the crotch again. OUCH. Tonight, a girl is running up alongside me trying to get my attention so she takes her purse (I would call something of this weight, size, and hardness a 'briefcase' but it was over her arm so I dunno what to call it) off and swings it. It hits me in the crotch. Ouch, ouch, ouch... I just figured you were owed an explanation. I said I was hit in the crotch and didn't explain it at the time. Also, that tree-incident? That ended up forcing me to drop my glass and that shattered on the ground. Of course, at the time my ego was more hurt than my knee. Little did I know that today my knee would feel like some sort of dog tore it off. I'm really feeling a lot worse now, writing about the injuries I've sustained recently. I mean... I'm in piss-poor shape right now. Band-aids all over my left hand from stuff, back pain, allergies, etc. Hmm... let's talk about something happier. Er, well-I guess we're not really talking here, are we? I'm typing to you and informing you of all the news you'd never hear otherwise. Like, you guys knew about the solidarity march in Washington, right? I might have mentioned it before. If not, google it or check your favorite news site. Ooh! This weekend I will not be attending club, so if you need to get ahold of me you MUST do so before the weekend! It appears we will be heading off to lovely Indio Valley for the Coachella Valley Music Festival. Now, me and my roomate are old veterans of this festival, we've been going since year 1 and we know our ways around. What is this festival, you ask? Well-let's just say this year the headliners are Radiohead and THE CURE (fuck yeah!). Oh, and the Pixies are returning from the grave also. In fact, the list is too long to put in the newsletter so just go to: www.coachella.com and check out this 'king unbelievable list. I mean, the Rapture, the Sounds, whoa! Dude! This is crazy! So, for two days I get to pretend I'm hip and with it with the music kiddies and whatnot. But really... the Pixies. I've seen radiohead, but c'mon! The pixies and the cure are both returning from the underworld to fight it out in some sort of undead, unholy rock marathon battle of the reuniting bands! Hmm.. I'm a lot less focused this week. I keep thinking about that cheesecake. Yum. I think I'm going to go eat that right now. Hey, don't forget-when life gives you poop. Make poop juice. -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -Minna No Anime Secretary -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
Minna No Manga 4/29/04
(Minna No Anime, Thu Apr 29 00:21:40 2004) Yet another MNM meeting this week, one unfortunately that I cannot make (lousy take home mid-terms...), but the meeting is still on (Nur will entertain you all with something). 04-248 7-10 pm -Nik
MNM 5/6/04
(Minna No Anime, Thu May 6 00:51:06 2004) As I make my triumphant return to MNM I in no way promise to entertain or be coherant in any way. While a newsletter is no place to describe my woes, I have had one hell of a bad week. Anyhoo, no Nir this week, but I'll be around so feel free to join whatever we end up doing on thursday 7-10ish in 14-248. See you there! -Nik
Minna No Manga 5/13/04
(Minna No Anime, Wed May 12 23:54:17 2004) This week's meeting will be unique in that it's going to double as our annual new officer's meeting. Anyone is welcome to show up, but don't expect anything spectacular. Building 14 room 248 from 7-10 pm -Nik
[MnA] Sat, May 15 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Fri May 14 16:39:33 2004) Konnichiwa Minna-san, Let's get started, I've got a rant to write. NEWS: Well... AX and Fanime are both just around the corner! If you're thinking of going to either talk to people in club, you'd be surprised how many possibilities for roomates/road-trip buddies you might find. And there was a little something about if you have recommendations for next years schedule now is a great time to offer your opinion (either by e-mail or by stapling a request sheet to El Presidente's forehead-don't worry-it's thick, he wont feel a thing). THE SCHEDULE: 5:00 Fansub O': I want more Kaliedostar!! 5:25 Hana Yori Dango - Ep 49 : The Couple's New Connection 5 min. break : Only a few eps of HYD left! The suspense! The drama! Will anyone ever get hit by a bus!? 5:55 Patlabor New OVA - Ep 10 : Something with mecha in it... 6:20 Kokoro Library - Ep 10 : The Library May Disappear 5 min. break : There are just some shows where if you ever met anyone in CosPlay from them you'd probably tell that person "I hope you burn in a fire and I hope the library burns with you." I'm not a happy person, I guess. 6:50 Inuyasha - Ep 72 : Toutousai's Strange Ordeal 7:15 Gunparade March - Ep 10 : Once Upon A Dime 7:45 - 30 Minute Break : 8:15 Azumanga Daioh - Ep 24 : Courses - Confrontation - Go Quickly - Popularity - Together With Maya 8:40 Noir - Ep 24 : Recurrence Into Darkness 5 min. break : As Azumanga is coming to close don't be surprised if you hear me crying in the silo. I love high-school girls, I'll miss them. 9:10 Saikano - Ep 11 : Our Time Together (sniff... sniff) 9:35 Banner of the Stars - Ep 11 : The Flaming Battlefield That's All Folks! Ahhh... sorry I couldn't find the title for the Patlabor ep. It's just... dificult to find info on that show online, at least for me anyhow. Remember what I said in the Minna-no-members mailing list about pants and this newsletter? Nothing on. Not even my watch. I figured why half-ass it when I could go all the way. Anyhow, on to some stories... So, Thursday Thursday Thursday at the truckathon my heart and soul was crushed underneath the big-foot rejection in such a way as to inspire insanity. Now... lemme start with the background to my very existance. There's this girl, see. Yeah-I know, girls are trouble. Big time trouble, nothing but heartache and infections all around. But it's not like I can keep away from them-I'd have a better chance putting down the bottle for good. So this girl, let's give her a false name like... Vashti. We don't have any Vashtis in club, do we? I don't want to accidently be talking about someone who I'm not talking about at all. That didn't make sense, did it? I'm digging this Vashti girl, alright? Been hanging out with her, calilng and seeing if she wants to hang out-get a bite to eat, shooting some pool, having some drinks... been hanging out with her for a while now. So, that's the background on her and me. Here's the background on just me. I'm attracted (and this is through no damned fault of my own other than possible self-inflicted head injuries and/or ex-girlfriend-inflicted head injuries) to two types of women, infallibly. One, I dig asian women. I was like a puppy in some sort of mad-craze last Summer when I was in Japan. Two, for some unknown reason (although we have theories, boy do we ever have theories...) I'm also attracted to lesbians. Now, it's not that I say "oh, there's a lesbian-hell yeah!" No, it normally works out like this, "Dude, I really like this girl-I think I'm gonna ask her out on a date. I think she's the one." To which my friend(s) normally respond, "cool, I know her. Oh, wait-HER? Duuude... uhm... she has a girlfriend, sorry." You can probably see where this is going. I got zinged good this time. Thursday. 6:30 am. 6-'king-30-am. Not that bad, really. It's do-able. Except I went to bed around 3 the night before. Up, shower quickly, eat a banana or some peanuts or whatever the hell snack ended up being my breakfast/lunch. Study. Study so damn hard for a 10am exam that is SUPPOSED to be short answer, a few multiple choice-sorta, and some number-crunching problems. I study for this sort of exam only to arrive to class early and find out it's been switched for a scantron test full of nit-picky details from hell. Thursday morning sucks. I get home and start working on some rocket engine calcs, or at least making them look a hellova lot better (which I should be doing right now, actually), and get to the point of insanity where my engineering diagrams are now filled with yellow smily-faces with thought bubbles like, "Mixture Ratio 4 is nearly as fuel efficient as Mixture Ratio 3, but with a better performance indicator on the area ratio as given chart 5!! Whoopie!" I'm insane. Class time! I walk my ass to campus in the blazing heat of the Sahara winds that blew over half the world just to find me and melt my flesh on this already-shitty Thursday. I make it class sweaty. Looks like I didn't do to well on my midterm from the other week... d'oh. Thursday sucks. Big time bogus suckage damn it I hate Thursdays. Head home in the afternoon. Start writing e-mails to groups and group members, continue reading the Handmaid's Tale (fucking GREAT book, not very happy...) and then head back to my computer. Pass out in the chair for an hour 'n a half in a position that likens on what a possum on the side of the road might look like if it's neck were snapped and hanging over the back of a satellite-shaped-chair-thing. When I finally rouse myself from the slumber of the damned I find that my neck hurts. A lot. Thursday rrrreally sucks. Oh shit, it's now Thursday night and I can't remember what the hell I was planning on doing! Apparently I completely forgot there was an officers-type-meeting on Thursday night because instead of going to campus to work some more I decided to call around and see who wanted to head downtown for drinks (no one, actually-my friends were either not-interested or already drunk/stoned somehow?). Finally, Vashti and I decide to go see a movie with some of her friends, who arrive either way late (and don't sit with us) or just don't show up at all. So, we're hanging out and we watch a movie, by the way Mean Girls is hilarious-it even has someone getting hit by a bus (one of my favorite things to see in movies/tele!!), and then afterward we're on our way to Mission Grill to enjoy some expensive drinks and good/bad bartending (good 'cause they'll remember you everytime you return to the bar and bad 'cause sometimes I swear that they make drinks out of pure water). We get there and find a seat toward the back porch exit and just sit, talk, and enjoy watching people. The best thing about Vashti is that she's a conversationalist. Not a talker, not a silent-nothing-to-say-listener. No, she converses. Two people talking, building ideas off of each others lincoln-logs like some sort of skyscraper of words and ideas that at any moment might come crashing down if one of the architects said the wrong thing-but the thing is there IS no wrong thing to say with her. It's a solid fucking conversation skyscraper and we return constantly to floors we've visted before and either redesign those ideas or build from there outward. This asian girl walks out of the back porch area and of course I turn my head and look at her. She's kinda cute, granted, but I'm here with Vashti and therefore must not be an idiot and lose focus of the situation. Vashti looks over at her and we start commenting on her hair. I say the weird-ass strips of blond/bleach-blond work for her and she says she looks like a horror-movie-queen-zombie. This is when I explain to her that I am and always have been, for reasons unknown to anyone, attracted to two simple types of women. Asians and Lesbians. Vashti, you must understand is as white as they come. We're talking light brown hair with these hazel eyes and she looks like Meryll Streep (hey fucker, Meryl Streep is hot), only shorter. As I tell her the two types of women I'm attracted to she covers her mouth and tries to suppress a laugh as her head dips. Fuck, I think to myself. Fuck fuck fuck. Again, I'm thinking, I can't believe AGAIN. "Are you straight, Vashti?" "No." Followed by giggles. "Figures." I nod my head, understanding my fate and living it at the same time. Now, this has happend AT LEAST A DOZEN TIMES over the past 6 years I've been here at poly. I have some sort of, curse-or maybe condition? I can pick lesbians out of a crowd at a hundred meters or more. We're talking women who aren't obviously lesbians and who don't even show up on my lesbian friends gaydar. I'm the last line of gaydar defense, apparnetly. Lesson learned? Thursday sucks. Oh, yeah-I forgot. After all this happened I got the wonderful chance to walk back to my house (just off of foothill) from downtown in some sort of shameful defeat. I got up to the plate. I swung. I struck out. The problem is that I was swinging my feet thinking it was kickball or something when the game was really softball. Girls are trouble man, girls are trouble. Wait, so what is the lesson learned here? Thursday sucks or girls are trouble? Or maybe just that I should stop going after girls who aren't asian? By the way, I don't think I've ever gotten even decently along with an asian lesbian, except maybe once but I wasn't sure if it was a he-or-a-she for quite some time. I love these personal moments you and I have together. I tell you the crap that happens in my life. And you laugh at me. Needless to say, I'm gonna take one more at bat here in a few days (maybe even tonight) with this other girl I really dig. And if that doesn't work out... well... yeah, I don't really have a game plan if that doesn't work out. Right now I'm at 0 for 3 for this quarter. No base-hits but a few foul balls and damn I got beaned in the nuts by one of those girls... that shit hurts. I didn't even get my complimentary walk-to-first-base. I think some designated runner got it for me, bastard. Ladies, you will never know the pain of nut-pain. Nor will you ever know the pain of plucking your nose hairs. That hurts, also. Man, if I was wearing clothes right now it might be really hot in here. -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -Minna No Anime Secretary -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
[MnA] Sat, May 22 Meeting
(Minna No Anime, Fri May 21 16:45:13 2004) Konnichiwa Minna-san, Let's just get through this and forget you ever read me. NEWS: Well, FAnime is rapidly approaching and rides/rooms are being set. If you're going or planning on going I hope you managed to fide a ride and/or a room to share. But don't forget about AX! Other news? It's nearly the end of the quarter and we're looking at possibly having a fun end-of-the-quarter-and-end-of-the-year sorta thing. Maybe a pictionary party following a Tsurugi's run or something? I haven't whooped you people at the Wasabi Challenge in a while. THE SCHEDULE: 5:00 Fansub O' : Have we shown Technolyze yet? 5:25 Hana Yori Dango - Ep 50 : We shouldn't see each other anymore 5 min break : What am I going to do without my weekly soap opera about high-school relationships? 5:55 Patlabor New OVA - Ep 11 : Ame no Hi ni Kita Goma 6:20 Kokoro Library - Ep 11 : Joldy's Diary 5 min. break : Does anyone else think that Kokoro Library is really just a cover-up for an underground child-prostitution ring involving Kokoro's two older sisters as the sellers? 6:50 Inuyasha - Ep 73 : The feelings of the mother, the child Shiori and Taigokumaru 7:15 Gunparade March - Ep 11 : A Good Reward for their Labour 30 Minute Break : Man, I'm hungry. I say we order one of those gigantic pizzas again. You know, the ones that are the size manhole covers, except larger. 8:15 Azumanga Daioh - Ep 25 : Discussing Courses - Prayer for Exam Success - Fight - Study Club - Tomo & Osaka's Day of Reckoning 8:40 Noir - Ep 25 : Depths of Hellfire 5 min. break : Nooo! I'm losing another of my high school soap operas!! 9:10 Saikano - Ep 12 : Love Song 9:35 Banner of the Stars - Ep 12 : The Battle for Aptic Gate That's All Folks! You want rantage? I'll give you rantage. San Luis Obispo's fucked up system, how's that for a start? You probably went to your local voting drive, registerd, and then felt like a worthy and responsible citizen. Of course, you did your part in the chain of politics and democracy that this country was based on. Oh wait, no you didn't. 'Cause of course being just a student around here no one wants you to vote. Until you prove you're local they're going to ask you to return to your 'home county' and vote there. Of course, living here for 4-7 years doesn't mean you LIVE here, it just means you occupy our streets, eat our food, shop at our stores, buy our products, pay our taxes, and possibly raise your children in our schools.... but we'd really appreciate it if you'd take your filthy under-25 voting flings elsewhere. Yeah, so register to vote and then you have to go down to the County Clerks office (currently on Monterey Street close to downtown) and show them an ID with and address, or a check or bill or something. I think I might have brought this topic up last week, but what the hell. I get annoyed everytime I think about it. Fuckers don't want us involved in local politics that obviously affect us (like them taking away the Mardi Gras Parade and then forcing sand-bags and rubber-bullets through our windows). It's not that hard to crowd-control a party. Just realize that the party will go until it's over. You may not like it, but it's going to happen. I have a bad feeling that repetitive use of force by police on Mardi Gras is going to end up with someone seriously getting hurt one of these years. Poly Royale may have had different reasons for breaking out into a huge riot, but I see police using rubber bullets two years in a row and the first thing I think of is how I'd love to snipe some of those facemasks with a paintball gun. Really-can't the locals figure out a better way to do things? I mean, let the party go wild in some corner of the world, like Mustang Village, and then you know WHERE the party is going to be, WHERE trouble might start, and if you don't cause beef (like not letting students cross the street to return home/go to parties) then you're probably not going to have a problem running an ambulance through a crowd if need be. And cancelling the parade? That DOES NOTHING. The parade, in case the city hasn't noticed, hasn't been the issue it used to be since they moved it's time to 2 in the afternoon. A nice sunny day, very little flashing. I'm just saying, the only times bottles have flown by my head have been at night, when people are drunk because nothing can stop them, and they're pissed off either at the police or the crowds being created by the police. And what's up with not firing some of our local police chiefs? We've got what's-his-name up in Atascadero raping and pillaging and he's not even fired or reprimanded? Not to mention our own SLO Police Chief being responsable for two (is it more? I forget) deaths of individuals IN HIS CUSTODY over the past year. There should be no damn reason ANYONE in the custody of the police should die, short of heart attack or stroke. No, this man was "positionally asphixiated" (I can't spell, sorry). Meaning, he was put into a position where they knew he couldn't breath (it was, afterall-the purpose of the position they put him in) and then left him there for enough time to kill him and then not even notice 'till much later when it was far, far too late to worry about it. Let's talk about something more fun. Genetically modified food. Okay, I'm not a biologist or tree-hugging greenie or anything, so I have absolutely no idea what people's problem with these are. I'm not talking about hormone treated animals, I'm talking about rice with vitamin A added, or whatever else they do to food these days. Can anyone help clue me in to what they're doing to food and what's so horribly, unspeakbly evil about it? I thought we were just trying to make food better in some intangible way. Here I am thinking about adding vitamins to rice so we can ship that to third-world countries (or whatever we end up doing with it, I have no idea) and someone's yelling in my face that we have no idea what effects this will have on people around the world. Well... if we're adding some vitamin A into their rice I imagine that they no longer will have a deficiency of Vitamin A. Wait... I think I remember hearing somewhere that a deficiency of vitamin A leads to docile-ness in populations we're trying to control. So... if we give them the magic vitamin A, mana from the heavens straight from mount olympus and endorsed by Thor (when he's not selling shoes that is) herself, when we give them this magical potion-they're going to rebel and learn to hate us! Oh no! What will we doo! ::emulate crying and rubbing eyes:: Boo-hoo! Oh wait, too late. Hey-I've got an idea. Why don't we all figure out a way to make people NOT hate us, and give them their vitamin A at the same time. Is this too much to ask for? I mean-we could fly a thousand planes over their third-world-country villages (or whatever they have, I've never been there but apparantly I own a small somalian child according to the plack in my bedroom) and bombard them with food (genetically modified of course). Wait... we already make enough food to feed the world? What are we doing with it then? Oh. That's right. We're burning crops and destroying crops to keep farmers in business. Wait... so, they're staying in business by keeping prices "fair" by making us pay the price for crops we're not even consuming? No. The G-men, the government is paying larger farms to destroy their 'excess.' So,... we're making too much, then paying 'fair' prices on food that aren't fair at all, and then our taxes are going to pay for food we didn't consume? Of course. i knew it... it's a conspiracy by the hidden Communists. They're still around, did you know that? I bet you thought all the communists left Soviet Union and migrated to Hawaii to start nice little ABC stores. Good idea, and partly true, but we're missing some of the pieces of the puzzle. It all relates back to Metal Gear Solid : The Twin Snakes. You see, Russia is a p.o.s. nation that wants back it's title of "able-to-take-on-the-US." Right now? It's just a bunch of little shit states that all are trying to govern themselves even though they have no idea. Did I mention that a few are nuclear powers? Yeah. They could blow up half of europe before our missile-defense-system failed and we got bombed back to the stone-age. Of course, it'd be a post-apocalyptic stone age involving cockroach people and Mecha-Godzilla. So yeah. The twin snakes. They're gonna launch a nuclear warhead on a railgun. I'm positive. The Missile Defense system will only inspire other countries to find a way to break our system. The improved shield always inspires an improved sword. The sword has always won. So, here we are... sitting on a useless Missile Defense System, by the way-it's one of those things that we'll never really be able to "test." Sure we can fire missles at ourselves and put nice little homing beacons on them... but that's not the real danger, now is it? No, the real danger comes from space-launched hyper-velocity kinetic energy weapons. One launched asteroid at Washington and BOOM. Hmm... Of course, you dont' even need to be that extreme. The components to build a missile are as near as your local hardware and fertilizer stores. Oh, and electronics. But, if you're mildly compotent with all those then you're set. Hey, my turtles just nodded. They agree with me that the Big U might just be one of the best books ever written. Once again, that's "THE BIG U" by Neal Stephenson. Okay, I'm gonna step off my soap box. Ahhh... this is one of the last times I'm gonna get to do this. Make you listen/read every damn word I have to say. One last question though, how do you all feel about starting a Minna No Anime group on Orkut? I can send out invitations and we could use their bulletin board system thingie forum. Yeah. Forum, that's the right word. It might be cool, and we all loved friendster-and now in it's google-incarnation it's very, very nifty. -Ahmad Jamshid "K" Amini -Minna No Anime Secretary -www.calpoly.edu/~minnclub
Minna No Manga 05/27/04
(Minna No Anime, Thu May 27 01:42:02 2004) Yet another MNM meeting, but this time we'll get to see Nur strut his stuff in his spiffy Manga-Samurai cosplay! (or at least see him finish it) I know you're all curious, so join us in 14-248 from 7-10 pm. -Nik
Minna No Anime 05/29/04
(Minna No Anime, Thu May 27 17:07:59 2004) Since we're having a buncha shows end and it's Fanime weekend, the schedule's going to be altered a bit. Here it is: 5:00 Fansub'o 5:25 Hana Yori Dango 51 5 min. break 5:55 Patlabor New OVA 6:20 Kokoro Library 12 5 min. break. Wow, that last ep of Kokoro blew me away. 6:50 Inuyasha 74 7:15 Takahashi Gekijou theater 30 min. break 8:15 Noir 26 8:40 Saikano 13 5 min. break Both Noir and Saikano come to a close, will it be happy, or emotionally devastating, the suspense is killing me! 9:10 Gunbuster 1 9:35 Gunbuster 2 Seeing as GPM, Azumanga, and Banner are being held off until next week, I figured a good old classic Gainax OVA was in order. See you saturday! -Nik "Soon to be ex-president" Kamachi Sorry no rant this week. I just don't have the knack for telling amusing tales like Jamshid
Minna No Manga 6/3/04
(Minna No Anime, Thu Jun 3 00:20:17 2004) Final meeting of the year, so come join us and listen to me ramble on about how Inuyasha Movie 2 will rule. 14-248 7-10 pm -Nik
MNA final meeting of the year! 6/5/04
(Minna No Anime, Thu Jun 3 23:05:49 2004) Hey all, this is it! The last MNA meeting of the year. First off, the t-shirt re-presses are in. So if you signed up for one please bring the $$$ ($13 for members and $15 for others). And now for the schedule: 5:00 Fanssub'0 5:25 Patlabor New Ova 5 min break 5:55 Kokoro Library 13 6:20 Gun Parade March 12 5 min break 6:50 Azumanga 26 7:15 Banner of the Stars 13 30-45 min break 8:30 Inuyasha Movie 2: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass For those of you wondering, we're going to show Inuyasha Movie 2 off of the Japanese disc with my own sub-titles. No crappy quality video or messed up subs here. So get your friends and drag them to see it! -Nik
Summer 2004
MNA Summer NOT THIS SATURDAY
(Minna No Anime, Fri Jun 18 15:54:20 2004) Hey all, this isto let you know that MNA Summer quarter starts NEXT saturday (June 26th) not this saturday. Sorry for the late notice, hope to see people next week! -Nik
MNA Summer Quarter 6/26/04
(Minna No Anime, Fri Jun 25 08:48:47 2004) Hey all, first summer meeting this week. Schedule: There is none! (Yet) As I mentioned, summer is kind of a bring and show setup. We may eventually show all of something, but for now, it's kind of a mixed bag. I'll bring somerandom shows that you may like, but everyone else is welcome to bring shows as well. Like usual we'll go from 5-10ish. -Nik
MNA 7/17/04
(Minna No Anime, Thu Jul 15 11:29:08 2004) Hey all, sorry about the lack of a newsletter last week even though there was a meeting. Since this summer is my final time in to run the show, I've been subjecting people to Risky Safety and Sakura Wars OVA 2. As a reward though, I have shiny new US releases for ROD the TV, Gad Guard, and Wolf's Rain. Oddly enough the Big O has been getting some screen time too (Yaya for leveling entire city blocks with a giant mech!) As usual mettings go from 5 to whenever and the schedule is determined then. See you there! -Nik
MNA Summer 7/24/04
(Minna No Anime, Fri Jul 23 10:10:24 2004) Summer quarter cranks on with me at the helm. Still no set schedule, but it looks like we'll continue Risky Safety, Big-O, and possible start .Hack//SIGN. 03-213 5-10 pm -Nik
MNA summer 9/11/04
(Minna No Anime, Sat Sep 11 01:30:22 2004) *Creek*...Holy crap there's actually a newsletter... I'm back just in time to announce the LAST summer meeting for the year. First I want to thank Brain and Matt for running a great big majority of the summer meetings while I was absent. I've been gone so long I have absolutely no idea what will be shown. 02-213 5-10 pm -Nik
