Sunday 9 November 2003

Pic of the day: Or perhaps it's the hyperactive schoolgirls ... Screenshot from inspirational anime Miyuki.

Second NaNoWriMo Sunday

Once again, the day just sailed pleasantly by. Not working really helps my arm; I decided to arrange for a sick leave to get my arm back to human levels.

I played The Sims a little, off and on. I observed that playing this game for a few minutes is relaxing, but playing for more than a few minutes makes me tense. This is when I play with a pen and tablet; I wouldn't touch a mouse while I am in this condition. I haven't tried playing it with a trackball, not in a long time. The pen is nice, but I cannot hold anything in my right hand for long. So, for the duration of this weakness (and NaNoWriMo) I don't play much computer games anymore.

Don't believe that this means my computer has lazy days. There are still anime to download (and share). I am of course talking about fansubbed anime, which to the uninitiated means something like "Japanese cartoons translated by fans for fans". In fact, I would probably have called them that, except many people consider it an insult to refer to anime as cartoons. The style is very distinct from contemporary American cartoons, although the first anime were in fact influenced by early Disney cartoons. Anyway, the short of it is that many anime will not be available in Europe by ordinary commerce. Private translation and distribution has paved the way for this art form to succeed in the United States, and it is still in the pioneer phase here in Europe. Most are still only available with English subtitles, although I have seen one of two with German as well. The original voices are still in Japanese, of course. Think of it as cultural exchange!

Oh yes, the point. I knew there had to be a point here somewhere! I get all this anime through a file sharing system called BitTorrent. And the latest version of the BitTorrent client Azureus is mightily improved. For the first time since one of the earliest releases, it runs reliably on my machine. For the longest time, it used to be that the program "forgot" one or more of the files. The file would still be listed as active, but there would be no activity, which kinda defeats the point. Now it can run all day and all night without dropping files. And there is more! Several new options for seeding (sharing) files will automatically turn seeding on or off for each file, depending on who many others (if any) are also seeding the same file. OK, that sounded more complicated than it really is... What it means to me is that I can make a long list of files. Then the program will share each with other users only if no one else does, or if there is a very great demand. (The same list works as a wish list if I list files I don't have yet.) The more people who use this, the smoother the distribution of files -- in this case, fansubbed anime.

Azureus is available in many different languages. Please don't use it to download stuff you can buy in the shops or rent at your local video rental. This way, the police won't come and take all our computers away. Thank you.

***

The main event of the day was of course writing a new chapter of my novel. "Boyology 101" stretched over more than 2000 words, which is a fairly long chapter by my standards. Also I am afraid all pretense of seriousness left the novel at this point. (I would have said "went out the window", except that's not exactly the right image.) Not a big loss, I am not exactly aiming for the Nobel Prize in literature. It was meant to be a light read, to amuse the young rather than to comfort the dying. (And I say this with no disrespect for the dying. I know the feeling. I just don't feel competent to write a book with everlasting value.)

An online friend has told me that my writing evokes images of anime. I am not surprised. Even though the novel is set in Norway, pretty far from Japan, and there are no school uniforms with short skirts, I am inspired by my daily intake of anime in other ways. The slightly exaggerated emotions and the strings of improbable events, I guess. And the hyperactive schoolgirls that form the phalanx of this subculture. I am not really sure, but I know that when I first started to plot the novel, the scenes in my head were in anime style. Anyway, it beats Finnish TV theater... or my everyday life, I guess!

I did not mean to write this much. It was a very ordinary day. I just could not stop myself. Force of hobbit!