Archive for May, 2009
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
Things are crazy at work. Hard deadlines are everywhere. Every projects that pops up are “very important.” It’s not easy being in IT—everyone wants so much from you. We don’t have projects of low or medium urgency. We only have urgent, very urgent, and ultra urgent projects. Urgh.
Not everything is bad in life though. I finished translating K-On! episode 9 today. (translation #730) Also, there was some progress in Black Jack ground. More release is drawing near!
Saturday, May 30th, 2009
Earlier this week, I wrote something about being lazy. Maybe I’m wrong. With so much stuff going on, maybe I’m getting lightly burned out. It does take a lot to keep up with translation of two weekly shows. And I do more on top of them. And the day time job’s been crazy this week. Let’s hope that I won’t get completely burned out.
Here’s some news.
According to this info site, this season of Ippo will only be 26 episodes long. That means the season will end as soon as the current match is over. That’s a bit shocking. I’ll be free from one series much sooner than I expected. With K-On! coming to the end at the end of June as well, I’ll really be free.
…or not. I’m already slated for several other shows. As I once mentioned, I’ll be translating the theatrical version of Major when it comes out. Also, I’ve promised Frostii team that I would pick up Mouryou no Hako when I wrap up some of my current series. Then, just today, I’ve been requested to pinch-hit for the remaining episodes of Mahoutsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora. Another possibility is some latter episodes of Sengoku Basara, as the current translator is stepping down after completing episode 4. And I’m sure that the annual summer Lupin special will air again this year. And there is a Nodame OVA coming in August. And the third season of Nodame in October.
That’s really a full plate already.
On another topic, it’s been a while since I last posted the general status of Frostii projects. Here they go:
- K-On, Eden, Ippo – No need to talk about the series that’s making timely releases. They’re all moving along fine.
- Black Jack – episodes 49 through 52 are being edited now. I haven’t translated any more since this post.
- Charady – next 4 episodes have been translated and timed. I’m not sure why it’s going so slow all of sudden. I know that the translator was busy for a while, but beyond that… I dunno.
- Gosenzosama, Yoshimune – No progress since the last status update. The project lead for Yoshimune just poked me today about the status on the latest episode, so maybe this will start moving again.
- Lupin vs Conan – we had to switch the encoder. That means there are certain amount of rework involved. We are waiting on the audio encoder to provide us with the proper audio track before we can adjust the script timing. We’ve been waiting for almost a week on him.
- Mahoutsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto – The third version of Release Candidate for episode 8 has been provided. This really better be it. After that, episode 9 translation will be waiting on me until July. I should be able to plow through the last 4 episodes once I get to them.
- Nodame Cantabile – Episodes 6 through 8 are done. Episodes 9 through 11 are in various stages of Release Candidate checking. After those are complete, we encode the small resolution version, check those, then we can finally release everything! Also, I have the OVA (due out in August) on pre-order.
- Ristorante Paradiso – Episode 5 is in quality check, one of the last stages of our process. Episode 6 has been translated. Looks like we’re switching the encoder for this show as well. At least this series is moving, just slowly.
- Sengoku Basara – awaiting on the translation on episode 4, and searching for next translator for episodes 5 and up. This hold up is going to be a long one.
- Spice and Wolf OVA – everything is ready to be encoded. And it’s stuck there. We’re frantically poking the encoder.
Friday, May 29th, 2009
Stayed at work until almost 10PM tonight. Came home, finished Ippo episode 21 translation (translation #729), practiced some piano, played about an hour of Zelda Phantom Hourglass that just came in the mail today… That was the whole evening for today.
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
I consider myself lazy. I felt particularly lazy today. I still not have finished translating this week’s Ippo, and I’m not going to finish it tonight. About 60% of the episode is done. I will finish it tomorrow. For now, I need a good night’s sleep. Stress from work is really getting to me this weeks.
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
My days are so busy, the time is flying unbelievably fast. Which means that I’ll be flying to Japan before I know it. How exciting!
I got a question if I’ll be making posts from Japan as well. Yes. And here are some of the things you might be reading about:
- Nagoya Port Aquarium
- Hiroshima Peace Memorial
- Hardrock Cafe in Osaka or Tokyo? (I’ve already been to the one in Nagoya)
- Check out some trains I normally don’t get to see, like steam locomotive Yamaguchi? That’s a big maybe.
- Railway Musium
- Maybe onsen or castle or both?
Speaking of trains, I need to buy Japan Rail Pass soon. Without it, my trip to all those different places will be much more expensive.
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
Tuesdays usually are the days I translate Ippo. But it so happens that the raw is not available this week from our usual source. This is going to lead to couple days of delay for us. The team has found a raw I can use to translate. Translation will happen tomorrow. Oh, what a week to have this trouble…
Today, I switched to new monitors. I went from one 22-inch widescreen and one 19-inch square monitor, to two 23-inch widescreen. The desktop size went from 2960×1050 to 3840×1080. It feels really big. I love it, but I’m still not sure how to maximize this screen realestate yet. For casual PC users, I think this Samsung 2333SW would be plenty sufficient.
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
It was a very lazy Monday. I watched a whole bunch of Gundam W, finishing up to episode 20. I added Full Metal Alchemist episode 8 along the way, as well as finishing Final Fantaly 3 that I’ve been playing.
Then came release of Hajime no Ippo episode 20. Ippo’s battle just ended the last episode. Takamura’s match was supposed to follow immediately after that. But as I was reading the mang over and over, I couldn’t tell if the production team was going to cram the inter-game happenings in half of an episode, or stretch to a whole episode. But, man, what a way to handle that segment. I really can’t wait for the next episode!
Luckily enough, the next episode is coming tomorrow. Woo hoo!
Monday, May 25th, 2009
There are times when I think living in a small town really limits my opportunities. One of those moments came when I attended the first annual Jiggle Jam, a kids’ music fest. They could pull it off in Kansas City with the right combnation of number of supporters, available venue, enough artists and such, and financial power to bring big name artists like They Might Be Giants.
Anyway. That’s where I was yesterday and today, which explains why I missed a post last night. It was pretty fun again this year. My daughter is already 10 years old, and she might be getting a bit too old for this kind of purely kid-centric activities. She’s coming to the age of hard-to-entertain. *sigh* (One good thing is that she’s become a big fan of Black Jack. I can keep her busy between the new volumes of manga and anime for a while.)
After being in the heat for two days and driving about 7 hours total, I’m pretty exhausted. I thought I might head straight to bed after releasing the latest Eden of the East… Until I started watching another Gundam series.
I’ve been going through a bit of a Gundam binge as of late. This year, I’ve watched Gundam OO, the original Gundam, Z, ZZ, Turn-A, X, V, Char’s Counter Attack… and now picking up W. I think I’m going to watch couple of more episodes before I go sleep…
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
It’s official now. I’m going home in Japan for 3 weeks this summer. The flight is only a month away. Man, the ticket price is really low right now. I really couldn’t pass up this opportunity. My employer’s having a 4-week furlough this summer, so I’ll have no job anyway. This is going to be a perfect vacation.
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
This is more of a note to self than anything else.
On my way to work, Handel’s Messiah was on the radio. I own couple different recordings of that. But this one was different. Boston Baroque and the group did another marvelous recording of this work. Other two recordings I have, one by Academy of Ancient Music, and the other by English Baroque Soloists (my first copy). But this one by Boston is still different, while keeping the Baroque style just like the other two. Very convincing, and powerful, but not heavy. I really want to check out the whole thing now, as I only heard the last 4 minutes of the entire set.