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Topics - Sindobook

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1
Except for the Pig / Small Animal News
« on: December 17, 2009, 11:39:31 pm »
Please stop sending PMs to the pig's old skype account.  This account is no longer in use.  Everything that gets sent to it goes into a black hole.

The mascot search at live-evil is not moving particularly fast.  In the meantime it looks like I am going to have to answer several querries that came up.

I woke up this morning and there were 7 mostly-panicked and exzasperated PMs asking what happened between Holly and Mr. Sparkles.  Now please just step back and think about small animal biology.  Mr. Sparkles and Holly live in different houses.  I know they met at a pignic and they were supposed to be together and all that stuff, but the truth from the very beginning is the woman who looks after Mr. Sparkles didn't really like Holly.  Also, Holly lives across town from Mr. Sparkles.  Not to mention that Holly has other (male) bunnies in her life that she interacts with on a regular basis.  I don't need to be any kind of small animal expert behavioralist to tell you that relationship just isn't going to work out long-term.  I don't care if you have the internet today or all this other stuff that helps anyone stay in touch.  If Holly lived alone it might work out.  But she doesn't.  So that was the end of that, and honestly anyone who was banking on that thing working out just doesn't have any idea how small animals think.

2
I am only going to say this once, you have been warned.

The pig has gotten ~15 calls (lost track) about this over the weekend.  From now on, anyone who calls asking the pig to go on strike to protest [DELETED] will have their Skype IP banned.  No more warnings, you will be banned on the spot, no questions asked.

As for the analysis, going 'On Strike' is one of the dumbest things you can do.  Abstaining from something you want to do, over idiotic stuff that happens in the rest-of-world, is at best a futile exercise in masochism.  Remember that when Yue-bing was running amuck in the fansubbing / anime world, the pig and his friends took action to counter this.  In the end, they hunted down Yue-bing and [DELETED] her.  No one, no group, no anything even considered going 'On Strike' to 'protest' Yue-bing's actions, indeed it took a small, tight-knit group of small animals getting off their asses and doing something about it to end the problem. 

And before you accuse the pig or any other small animal of advocating or condoning violence, you have to understand that small animals live in a different world and society than people do.  More often than not, small animals are not exactly at the top of the food chain, so they really only get riled up and fight when they absolutely have to. 

For now, you are still free to discuss [DELETED] with the pig, just don't suggest, ask, hint, etc. that he go on strike, or do something else dumb b'cos of it. 

3
Except for the Pig / About that
« on: April 28, 2009, 01:05:53 am »
I'm getting a lot of inquiries about the pig, with this widely reported 'pig flu' thing going on.  No, you don't have to worrey about our pig.  He is just fine.  He can't get this bug that's going around.  Only humans, and proper pigs can get this one.

To those who are biologists, look at the scientific classification.  Think Rodentia-Caviidae-Caviinae-Cavia-Cavia Porcellus.  That's pretty far from a pig proper, look it up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig

So just stay calm and don't panic.  The pig is going to be just fine.

4
Except for the Pig / Setting up Skype to talk to the pig
« on: October 22, 2008, 09:49:42 pm »
There has been some confusion over this, so I'll post it here.

First you need to set up Skype on your computer as normal.

Then you need to download the "SkyPig" skin/add-on and install that.

Then run Skype as normal.  Enable the "SkyPig" skin/add-on.

Now you'll see a number of tabs and buttons you can click on.

Click "Connect" and then click the tab with the piggy on it.

Now enter the pig's contact sequence:

[Wheek] [Wheek] [Rumble] [Wheek] [Chirp] [Wheek] [Wheek] [Rumble] [Wheek]

Wait for him to pick up.

Now either put your small animal next to the speaker / microphone, or use the
[Wheek] [Chirp] [Rumble] etc. buttons yourself to communicate with the pig.

When done, please rememember to hit the "hang up" button. 

With SkyPig installed, you can also contact bunnies and other animals from around the world.  For instance, you can contact Shinsen's Tuan Tuan by selecting the tab with a bear on it when connecting and then entering the sequence:

[Growl] [Roar] [Pause] [Pause] [Nibble] [Nibble] [Roar]

Have fun!

5
Except for the Pig / How the pig saved Live-evil
« on: September 22, 2008, 11:00:23 pm »
How the pig saved live-evil, part 1 of a series

"The Rise and Fall of Fergie the Rat"

A few years ago, ADV was one of the largest anime licensors in the US.  Matt Greenfield was one of the two people at the helm of this licensing giant. 

Fergie the rat was a late-born runt of his litter and abandoned by his mom, left to fend for himself.  Fergie would have surely perished except that he had the good fortune to be born in Greenfield's attic and Greenfield didn't really clean up his place a lot, he would often leave food just lying around and Fergie would survive by nibbling on this food.

Matt also often left his computer on when he went to work, and Fergie quickly discovered how to get online and surf the net.  The pig met Fergie on the "Lil' Pals" BBS and they became good friends.  Fergie also became good friends with several other de-facto group leaders, including Shinsen's Yue-bing and Mr. Sparkles, who led multiple groups through proxy.  The Pig and these other leaders developed an 'understanding' with Fergie, Fergie would listen in on Matt's calls to and from his work, snoop on him as he used the computer and even read his files, etc.  In exchange, they would send Fergie 'gifts' like food and things like that. 

The pig used his connections with Fergie to know which titles ADV would license and manage the group accordingly.  License negotations weren't always smooth or straightforward and some titles did manage to slip through the cracks, but this strategy did work out pretty well.  Fergie's largest accomplishment was when Live-evil was subbing "Death Note" and early on in the effort (around episode #3) it was discovered that ADV was in the final stage of negotiating a license for it.  After a substantial bribe from the Pig, Fergie sprung into action by whispering into Matt's ear as he slept, giving him nightmares about the iconic horror title.  Fergie did this for three nights, back-to-back, after which Matt ordered his executives to halt licensing negotations on the title.  Time passed; "Death Note" was later licensed by Viz, a move outside Fergie's control, but in the meantime Live-evil had time to sub 9 more episodes of it.

With this, the Pig realised what Fergie was capable of and he and Mr. Sparkles developed a 'grand plan'.  Every new release season, he and Mr. Sparkles would watch the new releases, choose several of the worst ones, and then pass the names onto Fergie, telling him to convince Matt in his sleep that those titles were "must have" licenses for ADV.  Yue-bing wanted nothing to do with this plan, calling it unfeasible.  But their persistance paid off, quarter after quarter, ADV would announce more of thse dumb licenses, leaving fans and everyone else in the industry to wonder "what had gotten into their head".  And only the Pig and Mr. Sparkles knew the answer to that.

Fergie was a strange case though, rather than being content to be "part of the team" he kept demanding more bribes and "goodiez" from the Pig and Mr. Sparkles.  He quickly rose to the positions of "Top Rat" of the Greenfield household, and became the leader of the 70-or-so rats that lived there.  Feeling at the top of his world, he supported his lavish lifestyle with the bribes the Pig and Mr. Sparkles sent him. 

Meanwhile ADV's fortunes were the exact opposite.  John Ledford, Matt's counterpart at ADV, tried to put the brakes on Matt's strange behavior and wild over-licensing of poor shows but by then it was too late.  Early in 2008 ADV had gone heavily into debt and had to scale back several of its divisions and halt operations in other areas.  By Mid-2008 ADV had all but collapsed.

In this way, three small animals were able to take down what was at one time the largest independent licensor of Anime.  Where is he today?  Once ADV collapsed, so to did Fergie's own powerbase being dependent on bribes from the Pig and Mr. Sparkles.  When times were good, Fergie acted not out of friendship but out of greed so when things turned and the Pig and Mr. Sparkles no longer needed him, he was all but forgotten.  Unable to support his lavish lifestyle, he disappeared into obscurity and was never heard from again. 

6
Except for the Pig / Pigcast #74, Your questions and some answers
« on: September 13, 2008, 12:35:46 am »
I've gotten a lot of e-mail about this particular pigcast so I'm posting here to answer some of your questions.

When the pig was saying things like 1 = 2 or 1 < 2 he was not making mathematical assertions or statements.  He was using shorthand for tasking or task methodology.  Go back to your game theory and remember how any given task that can be completed by a single person responds as more people are added.

For instance a certain task might involve moving 400 boxes from point A to point B where one person can carry only one box at a time.  This task responds linearly as more people are added, ie. adding a second person means the speed-of-completion happens twice as fast, or it would take one person twice as long to complete than two.  Adding a third person will increase the speed-of-completion another unit, and so on.  These increases are quasi-linear (if we neglect fractional units) up to 400 people.  Once you have 400 people, you can complete this task in 1 unit time and adding more, no matter how many more, will not decrease that time.  So we can summarize the task properties of this task by saying:

linear
2 > 1 (two people finish the task quicker than one)
1 + 1 = 2 (adding a second person increases speed-of-completion twice as fast)
induction:  N <= 400, N = 1 + (N - 1)
induction:  N > 400, N + 1 = N

When he was referring to a "2 = 1" task he means a task where adding people does not increase the speed-of-completion or mean it will get completed sooner.  For instance, the above example with only a single box.  Or, getting a message from point A to point B by running only (if you assume everyone tires and runs at the same speed).  The intention isn't to model probability here.  It's to begin to model things in a parallel fashion rather than a serial one, which is useful in things like computing once we are beginning to move toward a multi-processor platform.  A "2 = 1" task is one which must be completed serially or 'in order', or where one step cannot be started until the previous step is finished.

singular
2 = 1
induction:  any N, N + 1 = N

You also have synergistic (and negative synergistic) tasks.  Anti-synergistic tasks are ones where two people given the same task take longer or are less efficient than a single person.  For instance say there is a single seller on e-bay who has an item up for auction that you want.  You bid on that item a few times and continue to outbid anyone else who bids on it.  This is an anti-synergistic task.  The more people who want and bid on the item, the harder it is for any given bidder to get it.  Now only a total idiot in this situation would call up his friend and tell him to bid on the same item in an attempt to get it and then send it to him once the auction is completed.  This would only make it even harder to get the item.  These tasks most often have to deal with things like market-driven limited supply actions.

anti-synergistic
2 < 1
1 + 1 < 1
induction:  any N, 1 + N < 1, N + 1 < 1

Logarhythmic tasks are similar to linear ones, only the increase decreases with each addition of a person.  For instance, if one person completes the task at a rate of 1x, two people might complete it at 1.5x, 3 people at 1.75x, 4 people at 1.875x, 5 people at 2x, and so on. 

logarhythmic
2 > 1, 3 > 2, 4 > 3, but decreasing
induction:  still any N, N + 1 > N, but (N + 2) - (N + 1) < (N + 1) - (N)

Synergistic tasks are ones where the rate increases exponentially depending on how many people involved. 

synergistic
1 + 1 > (2) 1
1 + 1 > 2
induction:  any N, (N + 2) - (N + 1) > (N + 1) - (N)

7
Except for the Pig / The Questions in the "Answers from the Pig" thread
« on: September 08, 2008, 10:03:57 pm »
B'cos multiple people have asked, I'll post what I can remember here.

A047) Someone was asking about the breakup of some disgaea fan-group.

A048) Someone was asking about two rumors they had heard about live-evil over IRC.

A049) Someone was asking what the pig's most favorite show to watch was.

A050) Someone was asking about the horse character in the forementioned show.

A051) Someone was asking about [DELETED]

after A051) This was my own comment about whether [DELETED] was telling the truth or not.

A052)  Someone was asking how to make vegetable stir-fry, one of the dishes the pig eats.

A053)  Someone was insisting to the pig that Yue-bing was not dangerous, and this was his response.

A057)  Someone was asking the pig if he he thought Harlock-esque shows were realistic or not.

A060)  Someone was complaining to the pig about their high energy bill.

A064)  Someone called about a politician who made some bad comparison between postwar iraq and postwar Japan.

A065)  Someone was asking the pig about an improper translation in a game they were playing.

A067)  Someone was asking the pig about SOS ("Save Our Sailors") and the Pop Tart Procot, etc.  This event happened long before the pig was born, so he didn't know the answer.

A074)  Someone was asking the pig about covered-call stock / options trading schemes.

80)  Someone was asking a reportedly bad frame in an Episode of Shion no Ou that Live-evil released.

82)  Someone was asking the pig for advice regarding a fansubbing group he was creating.

87)  Someone was asking the pig how he planned to respond to different groups that were attacking Bittorrent and its use online.

93)  Someone was asking the pig about a newer stir-fry recipe.

further response to A051)  [DELETED]

95)  Someone was asking the pig who in "Shion no Ou" his favorite character was.

114)  Someone was asking about a character in one of the pig's online blogs / stories I think.

119)  The pig was instructing someone on searching an online database.

121)  Someone was asking the pig for his report on the "Bunny Caucus".

127)  Someone was asking about the ending in the second season of Higurashi TV show.

129)  Someone was asking how likely in Shion no Ou it was that Shion could be the murderer.

131)  Someone was asking about the pin numbering scheme used with BGA ICs.

137)  Someone was asking the pig where they could get online 'visual novel' type software.

141)  Someone was inquiring to the pig about an unusual IRC user using the live-evil channel.



8
Oppai Fansubs / Transcription of fansubber panel Otakon 2008
« on: August 12, 2008, 05:30:59 am »
Author Notes:  I was going to do a full transcription (unedited, every single word) but this got unworkable after the first 5 minutes or so.  So after that I started cutting out the um's, uh's, etc.  Some of the people, like the moderator, use a lot more 'garbage words' than others...

[UN] = unintelligeable

If you want to comment on it, start another thread, I'm locking this one as I want it to be only the script itself.

The panel actually starts about 1:30, what you see before there is apparently just background chatter.

END NOTES

BEGIN

0:00
Usually like this-
[UN]
Eh?
[UN]

0:05

You know what you can do?
Next... later on...
I recognize some people.
You can scratch your back and say- hold on, I got to crap... I got to [UN]

0:14
You say [UN] tits [UN]

[UN]

0:34
There she is.

0:48
Mike check.

0:56
Do we have mikes for the audience?
For [UN] QA [UN].
[UN]
Okay, cool.

1:04
You know what?
[UN]
[UN]
(groaning noise in background)
Are you surprised they got a lot of responses.
1:15

Okay...
[UN]
Oh really?
Is it a bunch of [UN]
[more chatter in the background]

1:28
Alright, I think we're ready...
If people can quiet down a little bit we'll start.
[laughing]

1:40
All right, all right, so...
[background chatter:  He used to work with Media Blasters, and now he's starting his own I guess company...]
Welcome to the 2008 Otakon fansubber and industry discussion panel.
Umm... uh... this is uh basically a panel involving fellows that do fansubbing and people from the industry itself to discuss the uh developments in the world in the industry and in the fansub world and um hopefully it will be fruitful and uh cordial and uh no fights will break out.
[muffled laughter]
We hope.

2:10
Um so uh, my name is Ken Hoinsky and I'm with MX Media, and I'll be moderating the panel, um but uh these fellows over here will be doing most of the talking, so I'll just ask everyone to uh introduce themselves. 

2:25
Um, Yes, I am known online as Yaoiboy, I work with live-evil as part of their matsumoto division.
[muffled laughter, audience cheers]

2:35
I'm known as getfresh, I work with anime-empire, freelance-fansubs, and shinsen-subs
[audience cheers, single laugh heard in background]

2:45
Hi I'm interactii I uh mostly work for dattebayo but I do do a little work for live-evil as well.
[loud cheering]

Hi, um hishouburaiken I also work with dattebayo.
[more cheering]

And I'm lance heiskill and marketing director for funanimation.
[cheering]

Chung ??? and I work production at Media Blasters and Anime Works.
[muffled cheering]

John Sirabell and I work with Media blasters.
[some cheering]

Alright, so now that you know everbody, uh we can begin.
Uh basically, the format of this uh panel is I'm going to put up a discussion topic for the panelists to uh chime in on and uh just try whatever they want.
I'm assuming that folks uh are um familiar with fansubbing and um uh because we don't have a lot of time to spend on exact details with this that uh on this panel.
But uh, I guess we will begin.
So, without further ado.
[laughter, clapping]
I uh... I couldn't resist.
No way jake(?).
Now the actual first slide, okay.

[Note:  I've had enough of this "uh um", I'm just going to start omitting them now]

Just some things to keep in mind for the panel, this is not an us versus them thing, that's not the idea of the panel, that's not the spirit of it, I want everyone to go under the assumption that fansubbers are not going to stop working on their own, it's going to take some catalyst to force that.  So don't just say they should just quit and that will solve all the problems, that's not beneficial.

We're here to talk about how the industry can adapt and how maybe fansubbers can help and basically try to help the industry out which has been in decline recently and that's... some people you know say that fansubbing is a big part of the problem so that's the spirit of the panel.

Some facts about the industry in recent years.  The industry has seen the collapse or near collapse of many anime companies, that's in the US and in Japan.
Fact:  many companies have scaled down production, less shows are being made in Japan right now for a variety of reasons and digital piracy again some people claim is one of the reasons.  We're not assuming that's necessarily true but this is basically that's the idea of the discussion.

And sales of anime have gone down in last couple of years.
About fansubbing what's changed recently, fansubs are more accessible than ever, a big part of this has to do with the streaming sites, youtube, crunchyroll, etc.  Also fansubs are higher quality then they've been before.  h.264 is a great codec, it's really, it's blu-ray uses it so that gives you an idea of the quality.  A lot of fansub groups now have access to what are called transport streams for Japan which give them the closed captions so they literally have the same script that the industry uses to translate from.  This renders very good translations.  And they have access to very high quality video, literally what's better than on avaliable on DVDs.  Another fact, outside of Japan, many shows are viewed more on fansubs than they are on legitimate sources.  Not all shows, but certainly that's the case.

You can just look at the download numbers for certain titles and then look at the DVD sales after the fact.

[OWN COMMENTARY]
1) Downloaders are not necessarily viewers, how many files are downloaded over BT but never watched.
2) DVDs can be viewed by many people, ie. a DVD shown to a club or shared within a circle of friends.
[END]

6:25
There was a study done by Central Park Media I believe who said that 6 million fansubs are downloaded or viewed every week.  That number might even be small, but that just gives you an idea how rampant fansubbing is.  Certainly I'm sure the fellows at the end of the table can say that they're not selling 6 million DVDs a week.  So let's begin.

6:50
Okay so discussion topic number one, and anyone feel free to jump in and talk, to what degree does the proliferation of fansubs affect the industry positively or negatively.  What is your thoughts on that.

7:00
Anyone can chime in.

7:04
I think it's more of a gray area.
Because fansubbing itself has brought the attention of anime itself to more fans than the actual sale of DVDs has.
'cos if you look at it there's not a whole lot of advertisement unless the shows are getting on something like 4Kids or something like that.
People that didn't really know that it was out there.  But with a fansub hitting the internet, somebody just searching for video or going on youtube, they find a fansub and they learn about anime.  They see the show they like it, and they start searching more and more and more and more and then they start getting into going to cons and doing all this.

Maybe someone, Lance Heiskill.

It's... you know with industry you got a kinda like defined industry b'cos we license the shows from Japan, and whenever we license a show, we have to get all the approvals.
So, with that, it's more of creators' rights.  That, you know that the japanese licensors can control how its distributed, how it goes out, and I mean fansubs can do faster to market than anything but you know you kind-of the creators lose control of how they want it to go out, of how it is.  And then, you know, at the beginning you know fansubs weren't you know granted they did get into a show earlier than it was legally avaliable, but right now I mean you can go to Youtube, Veoh(?), Megavideo, Google video, Daily motion, [UN], Yahoo live video, Googa broadcaster, Go fish, Mega(?), Rapidshare, [many more sites, some uninteligeable] and then you can go to series clearinghouse sites [UN] manga-updates, anime(?) [UN] naruto center, baka-updates, animeforever.org, animeplus, naruto chaos, manga traders, animesix, bleach portal, sane(?) island, naruto wire, anime stash, otaku center, zomg anime, anime eden, manganews, anime pile, anime upload, [UN], it's just I have a list of 94 sites.

9:15
Would you like to publish the list?
I have a list of 94 sites so it's kinda like uh they're easy avaliable, they're (emphasis) real easy avaliable.  'cos you know, I mean, before I got into funimation, yeah, it's like, enter the game, irc, xdcc, get an episode, see if you like it, that was old school.  But today, it's like, like, I would say hey dad, go to this website, there's this show.  Ok.  Click.  It's really easy so the access, it's just like the control of gaining the access is kinda like you know in economics its lowers the [UN] entry.  And so yes, people love anime right now, it's just kinda like the creators rights are kinda like dwindling because they can't have control over how when and where they want to license it. 

10:00
But you know, granted like anime is good content.  It wants to be out there.  People want to watch it.  It's just you know talking, that's why we have these panels, so we can just discuss all this stuff.  It's good content, people want to watch it, it's just you know how can we work on this.

10:17
I think one of the major ways that fansubs I mean originally, absolutely it was a method of fans to get to know anime series and get to understand them and get a preview of them, I think that's almost completely changed now.

10:30
I think the people who consume fansubs are demanding different kinds of things that the industry is not quite delivering but they're moving in that direction.  And I think once that gap gets filled, we'll see a very different picture of things.

9
Oppai Fansubs / interesting video, commentary
« on: August 01, 2008, 07:48:10 am »
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/convention/2008/anime-expo/industry-roundtable-fansubs-the-death-of-anime

This was the closed-to-the-public panel at AX.  I don't know why they kept the public (fans) out.  It was much more civilized than I expected.  I expected some kind of "let's bash fansubbers" session but that's not what it turned into.

One of the interesting things that came out in this discussion was all the hoops and "impossibilities" that licensors have to jump through.  In many cases, this makes it near-impossible to license an older title like creamy mami.  The way the world dispenses with (licenses) intellectual property is simply too unmanageable for this type of thing.  There are many "Content providers" -- content can be anything, it can be like the song Mami sings in a certain episode or such, these guys all have to agree on something for a license to happen, and that's a difficult thing to do in reality.  Try to get a committee of 20 people to agree on anything irl.  Even with mutual gain in mind, it often cannot be done.  For this reason, certain titles just aren't going to happen, no matter how much potential profit is there.

The other problem is the fact that, by and large, the licensors don't cost-downrate certain titles like 'bridge' titles, niche titles, older titles, or others with limited appeal or sales potential in the US.  You get an occasional outlier like Animeigo licensing Yawara but this is far from the norm.  They'll never have a 'fire sale' of older, less well known, or limited appeal (in the US) titles.  To them, these titles are some of their 'best' properties, and they won't license them for anything less.  For instance, To Studio Pierrot, Creamy Mami, Pelsia, Magical Emi, and Pastel Yumi are still to be a matter of great pride and some of their best works.  But in the US, these titles would appeal to a limited audience, if that.  The same can be said for 'bridge' titles, titles which could open a whole new fanbase or genre locally but no local company is going to be able to shoulder that risk completely. 

To survive, the industry, not just the anime industry, but the whole related industry of content providers must evolve to make the overhead costs associated with licensing lower (and faster).  Things like "stock/form/standard contracts" and "licensing / IP pools".  Look at how things like electronic standards catch on -- you either have patent and royalty-free standards, or you have industry groups like the MPEG LA that license with standardized terms and 'fair licensing' agreements gauranteed as a precondition to becoming the standard.  If the industry cannot evolve in this fashion, they won't be able to survive long-term. 

10
Except for the Pig / A "study" poll from the pig, see pigcast #57
« on: July 18, 2008, 07:51:16 pm »
In pigcast #57, the pig refered a poll to be used in a study, so here it is.  This poll should ONLY be answered by people who have bought, or still buy, fan-related "stuff" over the past several years.

Every option is a 'true or false' statement, vote for it if this statement is true.

"Stuff" could mean anything even remotely anime-related.

- Manga
- Cosplay gear
- Commercial releases
- Toys, figures, dolls, etc.
- Anime video games, or games that use the anime style (ie. Disgaea)
- Anything else you bought at a con or store, not including food or other necessities (unless it was anime-related food like cookies in the shape of anime or game characters)
- Anime art or products, wall scrolls, posters, T-shirts, pillows, towels, etc.

11
See Pigcast #55, June 29, 2008, 9:00pm
You may vote once.  Vote carefully, once you vote, you may not change your vote.

As discussed in the Pigcast, the pig is kinda busy planning for his next panel so he doesn't have time to consult with the necessary advisors to arrive at a release date for the final episode.  Multiple callers suggested a poll, and he agreed, so here it is.

12
Except for the Pig / Things to keep in mind when calling the pig.
« on: June 14, 2008, 10:53:41 am »
Alright a lot of people are getting chewed out lately, when you call the pig please keep in mind that he is a pig and does not necessarily care about the things you do, or that he can give advice regarding everything, b'cos he can't (or doesn't care to).  He's not your personal "Dear Abby" or something like that.

For instance if you call the pig to whine about gas prices or to vent about being dumped by your beloved, don't complain if he insults or berates you or your question does not get posted in the answers thread. 

That's all and have fun, happy calling.

13
Except for the Pig / Tuan Tuan
« on: May 14, 2008, 03:09:09 am »
Most of you probably already know this, but Tuan Tuan, Shinsen's current mascot, a giant panda, was injured in an earthquake.  Tuan Tuan replaced the rather unpopular Yue Bing as Shinsen's Mascot only recently, but has already claimed the hearts and minds of fans worldwide.  Since he took over her position as Mascot, Shinsen has seen traffic to its site increase more than twofold. 

Know that Tuan Tuan himself is okay, his injuries are not life-threatening and he is listed in fair condition.  The last time the pig talked to him he was aware and said his doctors expect him to make a full recovery in 3-6 months.  Tuan Tuan was reportedly more interested in the condition of the other pandas than his own condition... Fortunately of the 86 pandas in Wolong, none have suffered life-threatening injuries.

Please join the pig and his friends Mikey, Mr. Sparkles and Min-min in supporting Tuan Tuan and wishing him a full and speedy recovery. 

You can do this by posting on the Shinsen forum, or going to their IRC channel.

Shinsen forum:
http://forum.shinsen-subs.org/
Shinsen IRC channel: 
#Shinsen-Subs @ irc.rizon.net

Thank you.

14
Except for the Pig / Poll
« on: May 01, 2008, 07:32:12 pm »
The polls on that site are messed up, so instead I'm posting it here.
Vote for any that apply.  If you voted for Other, explain below.

15
We all know that ANN is biased; if you don't believe me, 1 week before they interview Tofu, they interviewed the pig but then declined to post his interview on their site.  I guess he just wasn't telling them what they wanted to hear... I was hoping they'd still post it but it's been a while since they posted Tofu's so I think it's time I post this already.  As if people didn't know ANN was biased already, but it's an interesting read nonetheless.  ANN wasn't always like this, but sometime several years ago they turned; enough said, here it is.

Q:

You say that you're the 'leader' of live-evil but most people don't acknowledge
it.  They say that Tofu is the active leader, or that there really is no
leadership other than the collective will of the group.

A:

You need to understand the way that leadership works.

What does a real leader do?

How many decisions does he actually make himself?  Mostly, a leader just
delegates, he makes others in charge of things and lets those people run things,
defering to them and trusting their judgement when the time comes. 

It's rare for a leader to actually make a decision that actually does something
or makes a difference.  Granted, if one of those people he appoints does
something that is obviously wrong, or just isn't working out, he might pull
that one guy out and have him replaced with someone he feels better about. 
But he doesn't really have his hands in every decision made, he doesn't use
his power often, he mostly just sits back and watches.

It's like setting up a machine and then just letting it run.  If the machine
is running well, you just let it churn and do its job.  If the machine starts
to get squeaky, maybe you need to take it down for a little maintainance, but
then you start it up again and let it churn again.  If the machine breaks or
something goes horribly wrong, you get rid of the broken part, maybe change
the design a little bit to make it more robust, and then fix it up with new
parts and start it up again.  That's all a leader really does.

Sure there are leaders who lust for power and who try to have their hands
in every little decision the group makes, who won't delegate at all out of
fear and frequently have to remind everyone or let everyone know they are the
ones in charge, but I'm not one of those kinds of leaders.  Those kinds tend
to waste a lot of their own time in often-pointless tasks and they tend to
burn out or self-destruct in the end.

A real leader doesn't need to let others know he is the one in charge, as far
as the group is concerned he's just trying to keep the machine running; and
when the machine is running smoothly, he just sits there and nods occasionally,
smiles, maybe poses for a photo every now and then, etc.

Q:

So what about Tofu?

A:

What about him?  He's the right guy for the moment, the right guy for his role
and what he's doing right now.  Not much else to say there, really.

Q:

With the local industry in crisis, what is your feeling about the future of
fansubbing?  How do you feel about what you do every day?

A:

I feel just fine, really.  It's much ado about nothing.  There will always be
people running around like chickens with no heads yelling 'the sky is falling'.
There were people like that since the beginning.  So what.  It doesn't really
change a thing.  Good businesses suceed, poor businesses die; that's the world
we live in.  There was a big flap about 'fat boy' produce a while back, pigs
complaining left and right that their lettuce was below par, it was often old,
had brown spots that wouldn't come off even if it was washed, their genetically-
modified carrots just didn't taste like real carrots did, etc.  At some
point the pigs stopped eating their food, and hence people they lived with
stopped buying it; and where is 'fat boy' produce today?  You can't even find
'fat boy' produce anymore, they had a massive recall, they went bankrupt and
ended up shut down, a general business failure and a textbook lesson on how
not to run a produce company.  In any market, in any field of business; you
understand the customer -- what they want, how they want it, etc.  If you
don't do those things, and then you blow it, whose fault is it that you failed?
Just as there are always people who live in a state of perpetual panic, there
will always be people who try to blame those around them for their own
failures; but in reality it doesn't change a thing.  They failed, and that's
that. 

Q:

What about [deleted]?  You live with her, wasn't she a bit pissed off a while
back about the whole thing?  How did that turn out?

A:

I think the truth is she just found something better to do.  Seems pre-occupied
with other things lately.  I really don't worry too much about that... last
I checked she was working with [deleted] and those guys, saying that she could
do things where the creators were actually quite helpful in getting it out
there, they would actually peer review your scripts and help you express their
'original intent' in english, etc.  I mean here I have to tell our translators
to just guess and do the best job they can, we don't have inside people like
that in live-evil.  In a perfect world we would, but those people just aren't
there, or if they are, they're certainly not working with us.

Q:

Weren't you going to do something like the live-evil new fansub lottery a while
back?  To let the fans at least have some say in what was done, if they could
prove they deserved it by beating you at shogi?  Whatever happened to that?

A:

The truth is, that didn't work out so well.  For starters, no one actually was
able to beat me at shogi.  Okay one guy did, but he was playing to have a IRC
ban lifted.  He wasn't playing for the lottery.  Of the guys who were playing
for the lottery, most of them had already lost before they even got to the
endgame.  The only guy who had the advantage going into the endgame made a
total newb mistake and forfeited once he realised that. 

And people were getting impatient.  They had projects in the works and they
wanted to release them.  So that was it, really.  If you have something that
must be done, or it's already done and just needs to get out there, you can't
hold it back forever.  You could try, but it would be futile.  It wants out,
it's going to get out and if you stand in the way too long you'll get pushed
out of the way or even rolled over and flattened.

That's the way things happen today, it's not so much order but more organized
chaos, survival of the fittest, a dog-eat-dog world where 'rules' are really
just guidelines, morals are an illusion and people do what they want, when
they want to.

Q:

How do you feel about the current course of the industry in general?  Not the
local industry but the industry in Japan, do you think it's healthy?  Do you
think it can survive what is happening out there today?

A: 

There might have been a slight dip in 2004 but today I think the industry is
doing just fine.  Look at the quality of the shows that come out at the top
of the game and compare those with a few years ago.  Sola.  Clannad.  When
Noir came out, it was on the top of the game.  But today, if you compare, the
characters, the sense of mystery and anticipation, the plot, the character
designs and the background, it's plain to see the industry is still advancing
and improving, todays best works are better than the best works of 5 years ago.

Some people will be negative about anything, they will cry wolf or yell 'the
sky is falling' and if you listen to them, and who is worse, the fool or the
guy that listens to and believes him?

Q:

What about this season in general though, a lot of fans tell you that the
middle-of-the-line shows are losing quality or that there are nowhere near as
many 'good' shows as there used to be.  What would you say to those people?

A:

That maybe they outgrew the genre and need to move on?  There are many shows
I still find enjoyable, mid-level shows that people often overlook b'cos they
don't start out with all that flash and pizazz but if you sit down and give
them a chance they are really very good.  My personal favorite this season
was 'sketchbook:  full color', a slice-of-life show about some cats and the
seemingly ordinary people around them.  Episodes like "Neko Neko no Hi" and
"Nekoneko part3" which were masterfully done and so true to life I couldn't
believe they were showing it on TV.  The issues the cats had like with the
foreign cat who wasn't able to speak cat-japanese.. that's just like irl where
I still get calls over Skype from Japan or Korea that I have no hope of
understanding and when I call [deleted] to translate me for she just looks
at me funny and shrugs.  Even the human plots are very insightful, either way,
it's a perfectly good example of a middle-of-the-line show that is what it is,
stands alone and doesn't try to be any more than itself.. yet sets a new
standard for shows of its type.

Q:

So with that said, can you give us any hints as to the future direction of
live-evil?  Will you be doing more 'classic' shows in the future?  Will you
do another mega-popular show?

I don't know if we'll ever do another Death Note or Tsubasa Chronicle... but
it really depends on what they want to do.  This year we had Shion no Ou, which
to me was a really big show in its own right; rivaling and far exceeding Hikaru
no Go if you ask me, but it largely got swept under the rug by the other groups
b'cos when it came down to it, it was a soft, tender story about a young girl
who doesn't talk, doesn't have large talents[1], and keeps her hair pretty
short... and of the other major characters, you have an effeminate male
crossdresser, an ojou-sama girl who wishes she could play with the guys, and
so on.  Shion still has a significant following, but the usual groups won't
touch it with a 10-foot pole so go figure.

As for future shows, I can assure you we'll do Yotsuba when it finally comes
out in Japan, that looks really good but again it might be too 'sketchbook-full-
color-ish' to be another Death Note. 

Q:

Okay pardon me, I'm going to have to take a little break here, pardon me while
I feed my bunnies, Jojo has been acting a bit strange lately and Mr. Sparkles
is hopping around like there's no tommorow; you know how that is...

A: 

Yes, I have to deal with Min-min and Yue-bing all the time... I'm honestly
surprised she hasn't driven Vincent insane yet...

Q:

Alright I'm back, who is this Vincent guy anyway?  I can't help but see his
name come up occasionally in your answers.

A:

Actually I don't know much about Vincent other than through Yue-bing.  So I
can't really say much, everything I get is rather second-hand which might be
okay except that, that second-hand, I don't really trust it.

Q:

Since the topic of Yue-bing came up, I know you make no secret that she's
not exactly your favorite bunny, but overall how well do you think you get
along with members of other groups?  Mascots, active members, people, etc.  Or
do you stick pretty much with your friends in live-evil?

A:

Just fine in my opinion, honestly I'm not the only one who has problems with
Yue-bing.  I was never on that friendly terms with her but she's been in a snit
ever since the bunny caucus, not willing to admit she and she alone was the
reason she was so far behind and making even more enemies as of late.

I mean overall I can assure you, I've gotten along just fine with the animals
employed by other groups.  As mascots, active members, or whatever.  People
say animals in groups are unusual, or that it's a big thing when a pig is in
charge of a group, but I don't think it's really that unusual -- I mean one
of the very first groups elite-fansubs had a chihuahua who was a very active
member, h-b has been around for a pretty long time and they have always had
a bunny at the top, animejunkies had a turkey, and even a cow at one time who
was in charge of running their distro.  And I've always gotten along fine with
those guys, so I don't think you can really say that the animals in the scene
don't get along or that there's antagonism between the animals.

Q:

Okay well it's been nice talking with you, I've got to wrap this up, do you
have any parting remarks to the fans or anything else you want to say?

A:

In general no, it's been nice talking with you, thanks for taking the time
to do this.  And to the fans, hang tight, we got some great stuff for you guys
coming out real soon, I know several months ago people were saying we'd had
it, but as long as I'm in charge, that's never going to happen.  Live-evil will
never die, we're going to keep doing what we have been doing, and anyone who
tries to get in our way will get forced aside or rolled over.  And thanks to
everyone who's supported us along the way, we all really appreciate it here.

--- END ---

NOTES:

[1] - "talents" - This is archaic otaku-speak for 'breasts', basically there was one scene in the dub of BSSM where they were trying to decide who should play a character in a play, Lita(?) pointed to her breasts and they translated it as "I have the most talent" so thereafter that became a bit of an in-joke among Otaku... I don't know where the pig picked it up but that's what it means.

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