mikeszekely

BotCon's don't count, in my book.

New Universe toys should be hitting Toys 'R Us now. My local one had a solitary Legends class Animated Starscream, a solitary Hound (which I eagerly bought), several Cheetors (of which I have no interest), and a few Starscreams. With Legends Brawn and the upcoming Deluxe Ratchet, we're only missing a few of the 1984 Series 1 Autobots (Huffer, Gears, Windcharger, Jazz, Wheeljack, and Trailbreaker). I'd love for Hasbro to do them all in Universe, as they (plus the Dinobots) were the season 1 characters I remember best (and even with season 2, Blaster and Perceptor really stood out for me, but I thought a lot of guys like Grapple and Tracks were kinda lame). But honestly, I'd be happy enough to get a proper Deluxe Jazz and Wheeljack (no Legends, and no repaints). EDIT: I went back and got Universe Starscream. The Autobots are outnumbering the Decepticons...

Good news for me! Wal-Mart has already restocked since Christmas! Bad news for me: The only Universe Deluxes they had were Cheetor.

The problem with your ideas is that you give reasons for why those those grammar issues are okay because that grammar works in Polish. However, the translations aren't being presented in Polish, they're being presented in English. For the first example, I agree that "What the hell are you talking about?" is pretty far from "what the fool do you make me?". But "what the fool do you make me" is gibberish without making a second mental translation into more proper English. "What kind of fool do you take me for?" is okay, or maybe even something like "are you making fun of me?" would be very close to expressing the original idea, but the differences in grammar between Japanese and English isn't something that should be on your mind when casually watching anime. While watching television is often useful for a moderate-to-advanced student of a language to give his or herself a little practice and pick up some slang, it's certainly not the place for a grammar lesson. As for the whole "What is city?", it's closer to "What is a city?" than anything else in English (where "what" and "huh" are hardly equivalents). Coming out of Sara or Mao's mouth would have most people wondering if they actually didn't know what a city was, but Shin certainly knew. So leaving it as "What is city?" or translating it to "What is a city?" doesn't make sense in English. Arguments about the falsification of meaning through translation obscures the point... that the point of translation is to take a spoken or written idea and make it understood in another language. Very literal translations often fail to do that without the audience having a background understanding of the original language and culture. To that end, I think we actually agree more than we disagree. We both think that idioms should be translated more literally with an explanation than replaced with some English idiom that wasn't spoken. We both lean toward literal translations, but you yourself have admitted that moderation is necessary. This is what I was advocating in my first post... that the translation should stick close to what's being said, but that allowances must be made to make it presentable in the non-native language. And it's that subtext that I think allowances should be made for. "Anime" is not a genre, and I do not regard it as a hobby. At the risk of offending probably everyone on these boards, lumping all anime into one collective to be adored, and learning Japanese over that collective smacks of obsession. I will not deny VFTF1's claim that anime is an artform, but it is an artform only in the sense that any other story, including western animation and television series, are an artform, and it's a mistake to put anime on a pedestal. I would no more claim to be an anime fan than I would claim to be a fan of all American animation. Yeah, I joined these boards way back in the day because I'm a fan of Macross, but I think I'm a fan of Macross because I love good sci-fi, not because I love anime at large. Learn a language because you want to broaden your horizons or really experience a foreign culture, sure, but to watch anime?

The debate about fidelity/formal equivalence (trying to keep the translation as literal as possible) and transparency/dynamic equivalence (taking liberties to try to more clearly convey the meaning) in translation is neither new nor unique to anime. As has been mentioned, this is often an issue with literature or religious texts, and it often leads to many translations. Complicating the issue is that the line between formal and dynamic equivalence is quite often subjective and blurry, and it's often left to the reader to sample a little of multiple translations and try to pick the one that feels right to them. Of course, while this is often an option with books, and perhaps with fansubs, commercial anime is often a take-it-or-leave-it deal (which really renders the topic somewhat moot, doesn't it?). All I can tell you is that I personally like a balance between fidelity and transparency that leans a little toward fidelity, at least in subtitles. When it comes to dubs, I'll allow a bit more leeway for the fact that dubs have to set to mouth movements, and is sometimes meant for a localized TV broadcast and aimed at a younger or more casual audience. Not to mention that, when watching a dub, I don't have the Japanese to compare it to to know if it's really off. But for subtitles, I prefer the subs to be fairly faithful to the original Japanese, barring obvious edits for the very different grammar. If a Japanese idiom is going to be replaced with an English equivalent, I do like to have a note to explain the actual Japanese idiom, or if the Japanese idiom is used I do like an explanation in case I'm not familiar with it (either way is fine). I'm also okay with making some changes for the sake of flow. I mean, almost every anime will, at some point, have a girl crying out for her older brother. And the Japanese will always be, "Oniichan," "Oniisan," "Niisan," or "Oniisama," and nine times out of ten I'm going to want to read that as "Bro," "Big Bro," or whatever the brother's name happens to be. I happen to understand the Japanese culture behind their choice of wording just fine, but in English we just don't have girls addressing their older brothers as "Big Brother," or "Elder Brother," or "Older Brother" or whatever.

1.) Check the batteries. I know it probably came with batteries, and you'd expect them to be good, but for all of my wireless keyboards and mice, the software will tell you the batteries are low when everything's fine, and it won't tell you the batteries are low when they actually are, and your only clue is that they're behaving wonky. 2.) Check your distance. The distance the mouse and keyboard can send and receive to the dongle gets shorter as battery power drains. The best keyboard I have for distance starts to flake out between six and eight feet from the dongle, and I do have to replace batteries every three months or so to maintain that level of distance. The one I use at my desktop works great on the desk, about a foot from the dongle. If I put the keyboard on my lap, it's pretty good now, but before I changed the batteries even that little bit of extra distance would cause it to start missing keystrokes. 3.) If you installed the software from the CD, go to Microsoft's site here and download the newest version of the software. Try looking up as the combo first. If you still have problems, download Intellipoint using the the model of just the mouse (ex, I bought a Wireless Desktop Elite keyboard years ago, but the mouse is actually an Intellimouse Explorer 2.0). OR If you downloaded the software from the net, try the software on the CD that came with the equipment. 4.) Return the product to the place it was bought, or through Microsoft's support site.. Because I'm telling your right now, I've got three different wireless keyboard/mice sets. I have a Logitech one connected to my home theater PC, I have the Microsoft Wireless Desktop Elite set (both of those use dongles), and I have a Wireless Optical Desktop for Bluetooth that I got for next to nothing from a friend who lost the Bluetooth dongle (which I mainly wanted for the mouse, since it worked well with my MacBook). I really like Logitech's designs, as they tend to be a little more stylish and sleek, but the Microsoft gear is hooked up to my main desktop because it's rock-solid, has ridiculously good battery life (I've had the thing for years, and I've changed the batteries in the mouse once and the keyboard twice), and the Intellimouse/Intellitype software is a little more tweakable than Logitech's SetPoint software (even if, for some odd reason, the keyboard shortcuts always use IE in Vista, even when Firefox is my default browser, and even though the exact same software was fine using Firefox in XP, and the Bluetooth gear goes to sleep after rather short periods and keeps needing to be woken up). Sorry to ramble a bit (no sleep until New Year's Day for me...), but what I'm getting at is that your struggles don't match my experiences with with two different Microsoft mice I own and use extensively, which makes me wonder if the hardware is defective in some way.

I guess all the "filling in the gap" we're going to get is the novel. DLC's a mixed thing for me. I like it, especially when it's free, but I also like finished sequels. In this case, especially so long after the PC release and the BDtS DLC, I'd rather hear that Bioware is working on the sequel instead of more DLC.

Ah, I see. But I don't know if you need to make an account. I know before they moved, you could edit anonymously. It just logs your IP, and you have to fill out a short form that says what you changed and the reason for changing it. In other news, since I to drop stuff at my parents' house, then drop stuff at my friend's parents' house, I figured I'd pop into Wal-Mart real quick to look for the new Universe Deluxes, since I drive right by the entrance anyway. It was a waste of time... it looks like they did get cleaned out, then they restocked with what they had... Animated. The only Universe figure in the store was a lone Sideswipe. I've got mixed feelings. It would have been nice to walk away with Cyclonus and Hound, but if no one stocked them in my area, I don't have to compete people buying toys for kids to get them. Indeed, I can shop Wal-Mart, Target, and Toys 'R Us at my leisure after the holidays.

Uh... you do know you can edit those things, right?

Well, I think FOB's sound has become a little over-produced and commercial, as they keep putting out albums, but I've been listening to them since their "Evening Out With Your Girlfriend" album. So, I don't know that you hear it as much now as you did then, but my answer would be the Juliana Theory, Sunny Day Real Estate, MxPx, Jimmy Eat World, and a ton of bands that went as fast as them came. Pop punk, and the beginnings of the emo scene, I guess. With a few exceptions like Third Eye Blind, I managed to avoid most of the 90's alternative/grunge scene by by clinging to hair bands like Def Leppard, Extreme, and Queensryche before I started hanging around with the guys who'd go on to form the Juliana Theory. They're really the guys who turned me on to the whole pop punk thing... but hey, at the time it seemed like a smarter choice than ska.

Barring reliability issues, I never understood why the studios backing HD-DVD didn't release the dual-format discs exclusively instead of DVDs. One of the main advantages of HD-DVD is that the discs were supposed to cost pennies more than the regular DVDs anyway. They shot themselves in the foot by charging that "next-gen premium" on HD-DVDs anyway, charging even more than the Blu-rays for the dual-format discs, while continuing to sell the DVDs for a third of the price. You may be right about the industry bungling the Blu-ray hybrids back into oblivion, but cost shouldn't be the reason. As it stands, I think the prices of Blu-ray movies are still artificially high. At least Wal-Mart is starting to stock a section of $15 Blu-rays.

You know the thing about me? I'm a trend setter. I picked up Fall Out Boy's new CD because that's the kind of music I listened to in high school over 10 years ago. Of course, it wasn't cool back then (and while you can argue the merits of whether or not it's cool now, it's definitely in[/]). Reminds me of when I was in middle school, and the school newspaper was going around asking everyone what their favorite game was. Almost everyone said NBA Jam, but I got picked on for saying Final Fantasy II. Fast-forward to today, and Final Fantasy X, X-2, and XII were all in the top 25 all-time best-selling games for the PS2.

In other music-related news... I'm just going to come out and say it... I bought Fall Out Boy's new CD.

That's great news. I've got one Blu-ray player, but four DVD-playing devices hooked up to my TV... not to mention a pair of desktops, a pair of laptops, and a DVD player in the bedroom. One of the reasons I was originally in the HD-DVD camp was the dual-format discs. It's great that they're making hybrid Blu-rays, although I think I'd rather flip it and have the full 50GB for Blu-ray. If that were even possible.

I grew up on G1, and kinda left it behind when it faded away. I was surprised to see that Beast Wars was considered Transformers back when it was on, and mostly continued to ignore the franchise until very recently. The Classics reignited my interests, and I quickly found that I'd bought them all. I collected a few of the movie toys, but ultimately I didn't care for them. And while I love the new Animated cartoon, I again collected a few toys then quit, because they weren't really doing it for me. But, I've bought most of the new Universe toys, aside from some repaints. I don't mind if you take a $10 toy robot and turn it into a car with some seams and what not. Even MP Prime has visible shoulder joints in truck mode. Mostly I like them for the exact reasons you said... classic G1 characters, but with improved poseability.

Where at (and what region of the globe, if you don't mind me asking)? I went on a massive shopping run to finish my Christmas shopping, and hit toy stores/departments wherever I could. That'd be a Wal-Mart, a Target, a K-Mart, two Toys R' Us, and two Kay Bees. I *might* try Kohl's early next week, but in all likelihood I'm done until after Christmas.

I just picked up Firefly at Target for $55. Cheaper than Amazon.

Define "many." Define a "decent number." I'm sorry that this guy on YouTube that filmed his has an obviously defective unit, but out of 25 million 360s, you're talking, what, 100? 1000? Even 100,000 is less than half a percent. I don't think it's a widespread issue, I think it's a few people complaining loudly (easy enough to do on the internet) mixed with the idiots that moved theirs around. Statistically, when you're talking about that many units, even without the RRoD some of them were bound to have issues. I know of people who've had bad PS3s, that doesn't mean there's an epidemic of it. And to a point anecdotal stories of 360's scratching discs in a stationary position can be reasonably chalked up to those odd defective units that occur in any mass-produced electronic device.

May you long be remembered as one of the great sages of the 21st century.

Not to mention that the manual that comes with the Xbox specifically says not to move the console while it's on and has a disc in it. As for the whole cost, fifty cents might not sound like a lot, but that's 50 cents times how many units they've manufactured? On a machine they were already selling for a loss? I know VG Chartz numbers are a little suspect at times, but they'll serve as an estimate. 14 million in the US alone, or seven million dollars in savings. 25 million consoles worldwide, $12.5 million saved. Now, I'm not disputing that the RRoD has ultimately cost Microsoft more than they tried to save by cutting corners. But let's be honest, here. Microsoft isn't making video game consoles because they thought that they ones already on the market weren't cool enough. They weren't trying to do people a favor. They were selling hardware at a loss to carve out a market position in the hopes that they would make money on it at a later date. To minimize losses, corners were bound to be cut. If I were the guy making the decision, I'd make the same decision, and people that can't be bothered to read the manual or lack to the common sense to shut the Xbox off before moving it be damned.

At this point, the only thing that could get me to buy MP Grimlock is if Hasbro released it in America at the American MP Starscream's price point. Due to his smaller size, he'd replace Classic Grimlock on my Classics shelf. Mmm... MP Jazz... *Homer drool*

I called it... maybe.

When I first played a demo of Uncharted way back when, I was pretty impressed with the graphics. Since then, I built a solid gaming PC, played Crysis with the graphics settings way up, then bought and played Uncharted, which, by that point, looked like crap compared to what my PC was cranking out. I think this console generation's graphics, on both the PS3 and the 360, have mostly peaked, so I'm not expecting the graphics wow me anymore. Groundbreaking? I don't think anyone wants any ground broken with God of War III. Personally, I'd be ecstatic with more of the same.

Screw Home, this is what PS3 owners have really been waiting for.

Well, I've read just about all of IDW's Transformers comic books. I've loved the main story (although it was a little rushed at the end) and most of the Spotlights. Some of the Spotlights have been pretty weak, though. Megatron Origin was so-so, and All Hail Megatron, while featuring some of the best art in an IDW Transformers book to date, has been all style and little substance. Aside from that, I read the Avengers: Disassembled crossover (loved it), the House of M crossover (liked it), then I tried reading the Decimation stuff. Honestly, I loved the X books prior to Age of Apocalypse, but their current stuff is awful. I kinda skimmed over the Civil War stuff, and I've been reading all the Spider-Man books since, with mostly mixed feelings there (Back in Black was okay, One More Day was terrible, Brand New Day was about as good as it could be post-One More Day, but it's been kinda dull since). I liked the Thunderbolts, but I lost interest after Civil War. I was a fan of the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider, so I've been reading the new Ghost Rider series. It started off okay, quickly lost direction, but is starting to pick up again. I've read every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man, but it started going downhill after Mark Bagley left the series. I also though that Ultimates I and Ultimates II were some of the best-written comic books to date, but I never got around to Ultimates III. I've been reading a lot of the old 80's and 90's Iron Man... there's some good stuff going on with Stark's personal life outside of the usual cornball Iron Man vs. Villain of the Week battles. I've got a collection that goes up to most of the modern stuff, so I'm looking forward to getting to that. No DC on my plate. I was more of a Marvel/Image guy. When Wildstorm went to DC, I became pretty much just a Marvel guy, although I kinda dig what IDW's doing. Haven't read any of their stuff, but the guys at Udon seem to have some talented artists. Oh, yeah, I was also reading Star Wars: Legacy. It started off kinda dumb, but it was getting pretty good for awhile. I wonder why I stopped?