The online orders, not so much.

Dear eBay, continued…

To no surprise, the package that was “out for delivery” to a city about a thousand miles away was delivered to an unknown location there. eBay’s automation knows nothing of geography, so it cheerfully informed me that it was now in my hands.

A query to the seller was answered in a few hours with the news that their logistics department doesn’t work on Sundays, and they’d get back to me Monday, which they did. My assumption was that they’d pasted in the wrong tracking number, but they claim the package was lost and they’ll ship another, which sounds a bit sketchy; USPS certainly doesn’t think it was lost.

The email included the detail that they’re located in Wuhan, so I’m thinking that if it ever shows up, I’ll carefully sanitize the contents.

(why buy from a Chinese company on eBay? Because the product is a limited-run item made for the domestic Chinese market)

Checking in on Robo-Ho

So, a month after I dropped the show, the only things that have changed are that they no longer cover Makina’s featureless crotch with steam, and Blue-Haired Emotionless Loli is now hanging out with them, supplying information to slightly move the story along. And by that I mean that Our Nerdy Servant Boy is still failing to fix the busted joint in her leg while trying to keep her nipples from poking his eyes out.

Blue’s exposition includes memories of living with Makina and a third sister, a combat bot who slept all the time (seen in the credits). She suggests searching their old blown-up home for spare parts or some hint about their manufacturer, but when they get there, even the rubble is gone. What is there is the psychotic stun-gun-wielding gal who filled Makina’s head with BL nonsense, and I stopped watching as she started to freak out in the exact same way she did last time.

So, yeah, dropping that one was the right call.

Summer season start dates

For me, it will be July 2nd for Vending Machine 2, July 4th for Call Of The Night 2, and July 19th for Kaiju No. 8 2. Sigh.

Dear Amazon,

Your little scrolling boxes of recommended items occasionally get offset by about 50% with part of the previous page still visible, but the click area is not offset, so you have a high chance of getting taken to the product page for the adjacent item.

It’s probably browser-specific, but that’s what your QA department gets paid for. At least I hope they get paid.

(it’s particularly annoying for me because I typically right-click to open product pages in another tab, and by the time I go through them all, I’ve forgotten what half the tabs were supposed to be)

Domain Drift

The site calling itself Big Boobs Japan is at tokyocafe.org, Big Boobs Asia is at tokyobombers.com, and Big Boobs Tokyo is at… bigboobsjapan.com. Repeated hosting problems have apparently bounced them around (coughcough).

(of course, all three should be viewed with shields up and Javascript down)

Slime-Killing Witch 2, episode 11

God Fight Tonight! (as foretold in the prophecy). It’s painfully shouty, with Kikuko Inoue’s Eternally-Young Goddess turning it up to eleven and Our Eternally-Young Witch constantly freaking out. Not their best effort.

Bumpkin & Harem, episode 11

This week, more poorly-integrated CGI swordfighting (with simplified character art that makes Beryl look a lot younger, and there’s an odd texturing effect on everyone’s armor that doesn’t move when they do), as the international incident escalates. Busty Blue-Haired Foreign Knight Gal manages to convince White to warm up to her, but she’s not fooling Our Sword Daddy, who confronts her in the woods.

Verdict: only one more to go, which suggests a rather abrupt wrap-up next week. Can we get another glimpse of Hot Teacher, please, since she’s the only age-appropriate potential partner in this show, and most of the haremettes presented to us turned out to be no such thing?

(hot teacher is unrelated)

The Librarians: The Next Chapter

So far, this is not good. I made it through the clumsily-written first episode, helped by Christian Kane’s guest appearance and Jessica Green’s bouncy running. I couldn’t make it through the second episode, because the Serbian actors that fill out the cast are just not very good, and the core cast are still figuring out their characters.

I hope they can make it work, but that’s not the way to bet.

Dear eBay…

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that this package will not arrive today in Miamisburg, OH…

(despite the tracking insisting that the package originated in Florida, it was handed off to USPS by “Yun Express”, a company in Shenzen, China…)

Internet Of Kitchen Sinks

I do not need a $650 app-enabled remote-controlled kitchen faucet, because if I’m using the water, I’m guaranteed to be standing right there at the sink. I know some people who like hands-free control, but that just requires a simple sensor on the side.

I also don’t need a “connected” fridge, oven, range, range hood, microwave, garbage disposal, dishwasher, toaster, blender, mixer, coffee maker, can opener, washing machine, dryer, etc. I kind of wish it were still possible to buy a TV that wasn’t tarted up with apps and spyware.

Good news: all the plot threads have come together.

Bad news: next week’s episode has been bumped.

Call Of The Night manga ends

There were some missteps in later volumes, but the end is properly focused on Nazuna and Ko’s relationship.

Restaurant To Another World novels resume

I bought book 5 in 2020. Book 6 comes out in December.

Tell me you haven’t watched Dungeon People…

…without saying you haven’t watched Dungeon People.

Early summer debut: Marry Me, Let’s Have A Baby!

No, I didn’t watch it. First, it’s only streaming on OceanVeil, which wants you to pay a stiff fee for their small collection of hentai and ecchi shows. Second, it sounds really dumb: boy meets girl, boy panics and runs off because he can’t get it up, boy goes to erectile disfunction doctor, doctor is girl, boy gets it up for girl, girl demands babies.

The official promo pic for this 8-short-episode series has her flashing steamed clam in a wedding dress. And the character designs have really wonky eyes in the teaser trailer.

(unrelated cosplayers are more likely to make babies than the couple in this show…)

Youtube clarifies Apple’s new UI

(they’ve “fixed the glitch” since this was screenshotted)

An NFT? In 2025?!?

Coming June 25, Shinsei Galverse is an OVA featuring a number of well-known voice actors shilling for NFTs of the characters. But not just the characters in the OVA; there are 8,888 shiny new NFTs for sale. Y’know, they could have picked up a bunch of Bored Apes at fire-sale prices, but maybe these tokens are somehow special.

…

Nope, just checked. They’re about as original as typing “draw a headshot of an anime girl” into Stable Diffusion, with painfully randomized “character names”. So their only value is based on gullibility, just like every other NFT.

I find it reassuring…

…that ordinary Midwestern Americans (like the gal who just cut my hair) have no idea who Gavin Newsom is, and that they recoil in horror when they find out what he’s done to San Francisco and California.

Sigh, I was afraid of that

With only a few weeks to go before the new season starts, a lot of shows still have only vague teasers up, so I was initially pleased to see that a proper trailer for Vending Machine 2 showed up today.

Initially pleased.

Lacking any source material to adapt, they’re picking up the “let’s fight the demon lord” plot that the author started before abandoning the series. While trying to show that they’re also going to be fun and whimsical. This does not inspire confidence.

(speaking of confidence, a lot of upcoming shows still don’t have any posted trailers; I started the Spring season with 9 shows and ended up with only 3, and right now I’m starting Summer with only 3)

Dear Apple,

If there’s no accessibility option that says “turn off all this transparent shit”, I ain’t installing the new OS.

Dear Sheetz,

What prison supplies your burger patties?

(this oni girl would surely kill everyone within miles if she were fed a Sheetz burger…)

Network Solutions? Again?

Apparently they’re on an acquisition binge, and bought up the company I’m hosting my primary email with, which has been bought up so many times over the years that I can’t even remember who I actually signed up with back in the late Nineties.

They swear nothing is changing now that my mail host is called, I kid you not, “iPage”, which sounds like an abandoned Apple product. The last time my email provider swore that there’d be no change, it took days to get through to someone who could fix it, and meanwhile half my incoming mail was bouncing.

But when they say nothing’s changed, they mean the login page for my account has changed, and the link they provide in the email goes through a third-party tracking site.

And it won’t let me login to the new control panel. And there’s no way to contact them. But basic mailflow still seems to work, so they’re at least that much more competent than the last bunch.

It seems that the migration email went out quite a few hours before the migration was actually finished…

Second-Longest drive since I moved…

[Update: somehow I forgot about driving to Chicago to take care of my sister...]

My mom had an appointment with a neurologist in Columbus. She hasn’t been able to drive on the highway for years, and 150+ miles of construction-infested driving was a bit much for my over-Ninety stepdad, so I took a day off. As a bonus, the comfy back seats of my Kia Sorento are easy for her to get in and out of, and being in back reduces the anxiety caused by her double vision and lack of depth perception in traffic.

Despite the Perpetual Lowest-Bidder Roadwork That Will Need Redone In Two Years, we made good time, and had left early enough to have a leisurely lunch. The appointment went long, in a good way, and they were both impressed with the doc.

Eight hours of my time, start to finish, but low-stress, and good company.

[Unrelated, anyone playing the current season of Diablo 4? I can't quite hit Pit 55 or take down Belial in Torment 3, either of which will complete the achievements for me so I can get the new cat pet]

[Update: suddenly realized I didn't need to beat Pit 55 before the clock ran out, just eventually; my problem was single-target DPS, not survival, so I just nibbled on the boss until it went down.]

The Apothecary Diaries 2, episode 21

It is often the case that Maomao solves a problem in a unique way. This may be the most Maomao-ish solution yet. It’s a small moment in an episode packed with dramatic revelations, which makes it all the more precious.

Slime-Killing Witch 2, episode 10

Idol concerts are the Demon Lord’s workshop, and those who do not have fluffy foxgirls are doomed to invent them by slipping some special shrooms into dinner. The chase scene was way too long and shouty, but the episode had enough Best Girl Beelzebub to pacify me.

(Pecora is best consumed in small doses, however)

Bumpkin & Harem, episode 10

Good news, bad news.

Good: a flashback reveals that there were a lot more cute gals in his dojo than we’ve met yet. Busty Blue-Haired Foreign Gal was apparently a much more recent student than the others, so there’s still a few in the pipeline. Not that Beryl’s laying pipe…

Also good: Our Father-Figure Hero is finally developing a danger sense about Thirsty McWhiteHair’s obsession with him.

Still good: more daddy/daughter bonding over dinner, dashing the hopes of certain fan-artists who want to see Mewi as a proper haremette (just saw a set of pics where the entire female cast was about six months pregnant, sigh).

Bad: the big fight scene was entirely CGI, with poor character art. Disappointing, since they’d been doing a good job handling the sword work with mostly 2D.

(nice touch having Mewi reluctantly ask for help reading; it’s a realistic problem for a girl raised on the streets, and it makes sense that she’s afraid her classmates will look down on her if she reveals it)

Getting a piece

…of dinnerware, that is. Years ago, after a visit to my house in Salinas, my sister ordered my mother to go in with her on replacing my dishes. “Oh my god, mom, he’s got Corelle!!!”

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A-Cup Alchemist, the novels

The yuri subtext seen in the anime has finally become straightforward gay-marriage-of-convenience in the recent novels. Not that it will necessarily stay convenience. Most of the cast is clearly open to the idea of sharing a big bed; it’s just not likely to turn into onscreen lesbian porn.

This one needs two cours…

…for its deep, penetrating story, if it ever gets licensed:

That Time A Forty-ish Office Worker Who Reincarnated As The Logistical Genius Who Got Kicked Out Of The Hero’s Party Stumbled Across The Hero’s Mom At A Slave Market, Banged Her Silly And Made Her His Wife, Then Went Back To His Hometown To Wife Up The Moms Of The Other Hero Party Members, Who Despite Having Adult Children All Look Like 23-Year-Old Supermodels And Used To Be S-Rank Adventurers, So Now His Harem Is The New Hero Party.

I might have left a few things out. I’d have to actually read it to be sure.

(hot cosplay teacher is unrelated)

Shorter headline: “investor promotes investment”

Jony Ive’s OpenAI device gets the Laurene Powell Jobs nod of approval

Seriously, OpenAI and Jony Ive are trying to summon the persuasive corpse of Steve Jobs through the medium of his widow, who has a financial interest in The Magical AI Thingy’s success.

(who else is on board?)

The world’s tiniest violin is bigger on the inside

For those old enough to remember when Doctor Who was a thing, Russell T. Davies has been desperately pandering to that nostalgia while simultaneously offering to feed you a shit sandwich and promise you’ll love it. It’s gone so far downhill that I think the only person watching the show is the one writing episode reviews for Engadget.

And even that poor sucker finally couldn’t find enough hot sauce to mask the flavor.

Anyway, Gay Black Doctor is out, Billie Piper is in, but there’s no audience and nobody willing to write checks to produce another show, so there’s not actually anything for her to be in.

Repeatable

The best part about my xTwitter “for you” feed switching to Japanese-hottie mode when I scroll to the end, is that it’s not a bunch of heavily-manipulated photos from click-farming bots with random account names. It’s feeding me tweets from the official accounts of actual recognizable professional models, some of whom I’ve mentioned here over the years.

Slime-Killing Witch 2, episode 9

Last week ended with Our Heroines about to brave the depths of a dungeon filled with undead to… convince another undead shut-in to come out. Surprisingly, they didn’t send for Our Busty Undead Catgirl Gamer to join the quest. Fortunately Best Gal Beelzebub is around, and Our Queen Of The Undead turns out to be a nerdy cutie. Second half has Our Legal Loli Plant blossoming; it seems concentrated fertilizer makes everything grow.

Bumpkin & Harem, episode 9

Red seems to have grown out of her crush on Our Daddy Figure, and to signal this, the show went out of its way to avoid some very obvious opportunities for fan-service. She still dresses for it, but despite all the action as she horsed around in the woods, they even skipped showing her heaving bosom when she was sweaty and out of breath.

White, on the other hand, is still easy to rile, such as when a brand-new contender for Most Affectionate Former Student suddenly appears.

Verdict: Beryl is a total dad now, buying school supplies, saving up for Mewi’s future, and even walking her to the school bus carriage on the first day. He even works in a dad joke. The only flaw is that we didn’t get to see hot teacher.

(Mewi’s uniform and bustline are both much more modest than this, but she’s getting good nutrition now…)

The algorithm is learning…

I scrolled my xTwitter “for you” feed all the way to the end, and it filled up with half-nekkid Japanese gals.

Then when I went back to the top, it had more of them. Finally, AI I can live with!