Topicless thread

[Nichi]

@Leaf: Not really. Around bigger cities (LA, New York, etc.), I'm sure they are, but it's much less common in the corners of the country we live in

@Raffaele: Smart phones are always nice to have on hand, and other such things. I often like to carry my iPod Touch with me when my mom goes grocery shopping, so I can use the store's wifi to chat with people :3

[Raffaele the Amigan]

Hello girls and guys.

Unfortunately I had a TIA and I am in hospital since friday performing routine analisys course...
Howewer still alive and unique symptom is a minor problem with moving tongue and speaking... I was lucky...

Oh my god, I just looked up TIA ... you had a small stroke, then? That sounds really scary, but I'm glad you're doing well and are recovering.

Brain TIA... Wow...

[SleepyD]

@Sleepy: Scamming in conventions is something new to me.

@Sleepy: Wow, that would have been a terrible convention to go to. Let's hope my first con is a lot better than that, whenever I actually get a chance to go :\

@sleepy: as long as that took me to read, it was damn scary. makes me think twice about attending any small/new cons. .__.;

@leaf: the katy coope method is for getting things started. it's SUPPOSED to be generic, since if you start looking into books like the one i posted, you won't know where to start. you want something general at first. but if you didn't find hers helpful, you might try this one instead; i've had it just about as long as my katy coope one and it proved to be rather useful from the start. it's thicker, too. :3
don't overwhelm yourself at first. if you want my advice, stay as basic as possible. and work on your proportions and basic (BASIC) anatomy. when i first started out, girls looked like lego bricks i stuck half-gumballs onto for boobs :p

The Las Pegasus con issue kinda pisses me off though. Even though I don't attend said convention, it leaves a bad impression on people that could color their views on the many, many other reputable cons in the area, particularly for those who were first-time con goers. There is a LOT of work that goes into running a good con, and despite all the complaints we staffers get, I want attendees to know that we do care about making their experience the best as we can possibly make it.

Art:
Katy Coope's book was one of the first I ever used (probably the first I've ever seen, even), but I can't say I got much mileage out of it. I've used the How to Draw Manga books, and what they do is they translate similar books made by different Japanese artists. As such, their quality varies depending on the artist writing the book guide in question. Some artists are more represented than others. So if you can, I really recommend just finding the books at a bookstore and previewing their contents to see if it's a good fit.
Also, there is nothing wrong with copying an artist you admire for learning purposes. Doesn't need to be tracing, but doing things like, say, imitating how the artist does lineart, or how the artist draws in the anime eyes. I can see elements of my sisters' styles in my drawings, even though I've never made any conscious attempt to imitate them, so even just looking at other people's artwork can work to your advantage.

If you need a quick reference, Majnouna's (formerly cedarseed) tutorials have often helped me:
(these are gigantic jpg files, btw)
Human body: http://majnouna.com/creation/humantut.jpg
Hands: http://majnouna.com/creation/handstut.jpg
Feet: http://majnouna.com/creation/feettut.jpg

@Kari: Don't you have a store geared towards Japanese entertainment in your area? In the UK anime and jargon is virtually invisible so... yeah.

what? no, of course not. what is this, New York? the closest thing to an anime shop in the area would be Harrison's Comics and Collectibles in The Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester (about a half hour from here by car, less without traffic). they sell both Anime goods and stuff from American Comics, but they have a rich collection. someone said they went out of business, but i don't believe it. i don't even habeeb it.

there's then Tokai, a Japanese good shop in Cambridge under my old school. they don't really sell anything that could be considered "entertainment", though, unless books and origami is counted. most of their wares are traditional Japanese goods, such as Yukata and Tea Ceremony stuff.

Star Music is in Chinatown in Boston (right across from the bus station i would come into every day!), but the majority of their stuff is Sanrio or Bootleg Items. then there's Otaku Shop and one or two other places, but the only place out of all of those you could even HOPE to find something like that at would be that video rental place i went to about 5 years ago, idk where it even is in china town or if it's still in business. @__@;

I am lucky to live here in California, where even people that aren't anime fans at least have a basic knowledge of what anime is. Once you go further east from the Pacific coast, it gets a little harder.

San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego all have a sizable Japanese population, along with the small businesses that cater to that population. We have Book-Off, Kinokuniya, J-List, Japanese grocery stores, and a number of other smaller specialty stores, some of which are indeed otaku-oriented. I doubt there are many places in the US where I could walk into a physical store and look at real, imported figures on the shelves.  Or aisles of old 80s/90s anime laserdiscs. Heck, sometimes people cosplay in the Japanese towns for no real reason.

But yeah, this is more the exception to the rule. Your options are indeed limited to conventions and big cities if you're looking for places to nerd out away from the computer, otaku-wise.

Hello girls and guys.

Unfortunately I had a TIA and I am in hospital since friday performing routine analisys course...
Howewer still alive and unique symptom is a minor problem with moving tongue and speaking... I was lucky...

Oh my, that's scary. I'm glad you're okay. Hope things get better for you. Stay healthy!

[NejinOniwa]

Man, sorry to hear, Raff. Something like that happening to me would make me paranoid as fuck >__>

[Bella]

Indeed. o____o

Anyway I was going through a beginner's Python tutorial when I saw this:

If you are reading this book and flipping out at every third sentence because you feel I'm insulting your intelligence, then I have three points of advice for you:
    1.    Stop reading my book. I didn't write it for you. I wrote it for people who don't already know everything.
    2.    Empty before you fill. You will have a hard time learning from someone with more knowledge if you already know everything.
    3.    Go learn Lisp. I hear people who know everything really like Lisp.

tHE CATTINESS HAS MADE ME PHYSICALLY NAUSEOUS AND I don't think I'll be reading this guide since I don't like reading sass. Or rather, I don't think sass is proper in a LEARNING environment. Especially when it's a dig directed at another group of programmers. Specially-especially when it's a dig directed at another group of programmers who are traditionally stereotyped as arrogant.

That would be like opening up a guide on using Windows and seeing some bitchy comment about Unix / Linux / OS X users, like, whoa man can you not vent here please?

[Nichi]

Reminds me of the 1996 issues of Nintendo Power >_>;;
(Thankfully, the '97 issues were an improvement)

[SleepyD]

Indeed. o____o

Anyway I was going through a beginner's Python tutorial when I saw this:

If you are reading this book and flipping out at every third sentence because you feel I'm insulting your intelligence, then I have three points of advice for you:
    1.    Stop reading my book. I didn't write it for you. I wrote it for people who don't already know everything.
    2.    Empty before you fill. You will have a hard time learning from someone with more knowledge if you already know everything.
    3.    Go learn Lisp. I hear people who know everything really like Lisp.

tHE CATTINESS HAS MADE ME PHYSICALLY NAUSEOUS AND I don't think I'll be reading this guide since I don't like reading sass. Or rather, I don't think sass is proper in a LEARNING environment. Especially when it's a dig directed at another group of programmers. Specially-especially when it's a dig directed at another group of programmers who are traditionally stereotyped as arrogant.

That would be like opening up a guide on using Windows and seeing some bitchy comment about Unix / Linux / OS X users, like, whoa man can you not vent here please?

When I was learning Python at my summer internship, my software lead pointed me to a book called Dive Into Python. The book was also available for free online, so I did get quite a bit of mileage out of that and the guide from Python themselves.
Since then he has updated his book to include Python 3, which is good. I haven't looked at it, but from my previous experience, I trust him.
http://getpython3.com/diveintopython3/

[Chocofreak13]

meh. there are other Python guides out there.

@sleepy: i've been to a bookoff, but it was in manhattan. got plenty of nice things there and wish there was one closer, i'd shop there every day if i could.
i recently ordered something from j-list, so i know what that is, but kinokuniya sounds vaguely familiar, what is it again?

as for books, i'm pretty sure katy coope wrote hers herself, at least they don't seem to fit in the "typical" styles of the other HTDM books i have. if i was going to peg any of them as imported, it'd be the Graphic-Sha volumes, but that's because 1. i know they are, 2. they style is A LOT more detailed, and 3. they mention several art supplies that you really can't get outside of japan, such as tone.
imitating artists you admire is always helpful in the beginning, but eventually you grow out of it. at least, i did. :\
oh, and for the hell of it i made a manga tutorial a couple months back.
http://choco-la-te.deviantart.com/gallery/37448158?offset=24#/art/Page-1-305523731?_sid=5467d8e3

(thanks for the python book, btw.)

@Raffaelle: ;^;
please rest up and get well, don't overdo it! that definitely sounds scary and i really, really hope you're all right. ;^;

@leaf: a bit stereotypical to think that, hm? there's more understanding of it here, but to say that the jargon is all over the place is so much of a stretch it's laughable. >>;;



so guys, i'm nailing out this proxy thing. but it turns out it might not be a problem with my computer at this point, there may be an issue with the firewall on the desktop downstairs affecting the connection here. it seems like a reasonable assessment, since the computer downstairs was recently messed with. i'm gonna need to do some more looking into it, which would be made quite a bit easier if the person who did the repairs was online. >>;
on the upside, registering for the Proxy was easy, as was setting it up, and all but 1 of the Proxy IPs they sent me work. if this turns out to be the root of the problem i'm having, then i'll let everyone know, since it means that setting them up on all of your PCs will be a cinch. >>;

[Raffaele the Amigan]

Oh... well... Doctors are rivoltating me in and out... That's kinda unpleasant... Today I have to made NMR in the afternoon, so I had to stay fasting some time before noon, just in case they had to inject me some contrast liquids...
I hope they don't need to... I have heard it causes nausea until night (I must ask if this secondary effect is for sure or not)

[alfonso_rd_30]

hopefully you'll get thru it...

[LeaflameSD]

@Choco: What else could I have said? :|

[Raffaele the Amigan]

I am just in the waiting room. I meet a person who made it and he said there is no nausea.

Just contrast liquid burns in the blood vessels but only if the pump goes in pressure during some moments of the NMR test. How lucky...

[Nichi]

That's good

So, apparently my e-mail address got hacked by spambots; like my second cousin's did :\
Any advice on a new provider? I think it's about time to ditch this old Yahoo address given the spambot problem as of late

[Chocofreak13]

yahoo is always my baby, never will i leave her. unless she screws me over. but she hasn't yet.

@raff: stay strong, man. be like couragewolf and face each new challenge with a snarling grin. :3

@leaf: just sayin', don't assume stuff till you have a good amount of information on it. for example, not all brits eat tea and crumpets in the afternoon and blood pudding for "supper", right? :\


still trying to work this proxy thing out. now i need to find out the username and password for the router itself, so i can open the ports manually. >>;

[LeaflameSD]

(What is blood pudding? I mean I know what it is but... what is it?)

@MMX: I use Google Mail.

@Kari: Are proxies faster than normal broadband?