Monday, May 26, 2008

Hisaishi at the Budokan

Well, I will not make it to Tokyo for this concert in celebration of Miyazaki's July premier of "Ponyo on a Cliff". But the fliers are out and despite the absence of Chihiro, they are fantastic.

ewaste

I do not feel I do enough as far as recycling goes. My apartment does not have a convenient way to dispose of paper, plastic, or glass and so I tend to be lazy and just throw it away. So since I am moving in a month or so, I decided to do something good with all that electronic equipment I had stashed away. Phones, cameras, mp3 players, cords, power adapters, VCRs, you name it and I had it and it was time to declutter. Fortunately, there are ways to appropriately recycle this ewaste.

One good place I found was Recycling for Charities. They take wireless phones, PDAs, ipods and digital cameras and either sell them back to companies, through online auctions, donate them to other charities, or dispose of them properly meaning their parts are safely smelted to be used for other consumer or industrial products. This 501(c)(3) uses the money for further environmental protection. None of the ewaste is thrown back into landfills reducing dangers from lead, beryllium, arsenic, mercury, antimony, and cadmium. I work with this stuff so I know what lies in every transistor and contained in circuit boards sold to the average consumer. I feel better already.

But there is more. Office Depot has a program called Tech Recycling Service. While most store recycle ink jet cartridges, cell phones, and computers, Office Depot goes a step further and does most any kind of electronic equipment you can name. All that stuff I listed above which fits in a $5 prepurchased box, which covers the 100% recycled cardboard and the shipping, is sent to be stripped for its raw materials (glass, copper, aluminum, etc). The boxes are then recycled and the loop starts over again. I did not research enough to find out what happens to the left over materials but was unhappy to read that 50-80% of supposedly recycled ewaste is sent to China. I am going to trust Office Depot to do the correct thing but I am keeping an eye on them.

Monday, May 19, 2008

How do you say airbender in French?

In learning a language it is necessary to have both written and audial exercises. To practice my French, I have been listening to Harry Potter and some podcasts on the web. As much as I love Harry, I have been absorbed in his story for ten years now. And the podcasts, while interesting, just do not keep me that interested.

Providentially, I was watching my "Avatar: The Last Airbender" DVD sets, listening to commentaries and savoring the art and story that never ceases to amaze me. While doing this, I found that the series is dubbed in French and the voices are fantastic, very close to the originals. Furthermore, they match the animation closely which is interesting given that the English is recorded prior to the animation. This means the French was probably ADR and the voice actors did a great job of it. Now I have something to keep me interested and get lots of French exposure. Incidentally, "Firefly" is also dubbed in French.

FYI, the last airbender translates to le dernier maƮtre de l'air in French.

Friday, May 09, 2008

Batmanime

I have always been a Batman fan because he is all broody and dark. "The Batman", the animated series never pulled me as much because he is a bit lighter and happier. Without much advertisement, another Batman hits the market in July. This time it goes the way of AniMatrix and moves directly to DVD. Take a look at the fantastic anime influenced trailer. This is definitely already on my netflix list.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

gambit, thank goodness

For a minute I was disappointed but he showed up if only briefly. It is a fairly substantial trailer even though the art is slight and the movie tie in is evident.