short takes

Lately the humidifier in the basement has been pulling 2.5 to 3 gallons of water a day out of the air. (It would probably do more, but it doesn't do its thing when the tank is full and awaiting emptying.) I realize that's only about 1.5 toilet flushes or a quarter of a shower or something, but I still find myself wishing for an easy way to feed the collection back into our water system. (Not for drinking or cooking, though.)

The National Council of Churches is unwisely spamming people on a roughly-weekly basis. (I report 'em to SpamCop each time it happens, but it hasn't stopped the messages yet.) They should work harder on demonstrating values consistent with their presumed beliefs (like the golden rule).

Speaking of losing points by spamming, an anti-Bush group calling itself BushFIlter has been spamming me every few days. SpamCop reports have been more effective there; it's been a week or two since they've successfully gotten through. But I imagine that there are people out there who haven't thought about the election much, aren't going to, and are annoyed enough by spam to let it sway their vote; the spammers are making a mistake by discounting that effect. It's really only different in degree, not form, from sending out lots of spam advertising your competitor's URL. (Hmm... nah, I don't think the Kerry folks are that weasely.)

What is the derivation of the word "asshat", which I have been seeing increasingly in the last year or two? It seems to be a synonym for "asshole", but I'd always assumed that if you had to make that word more "gentle" or "polite", it'd be the first syllable you'd have to modify. What gives?

new (to us) anime

Dani now appears to be hooked on The Twelve Kingdoms, a Japanese anime series. I'll call that a successful birthday present. :-) (I started with anime that I already know he likes and then looked to see what people who like those also like. There is always risk in this approach.)

(Is "Japanese anime" redundant? I don't know if there are other sources, which is why I specified.)

I bought the first two discs (chapters? seasons? each disc has five half-hour episodes, which is unusual by US standards). I learned only later that the first three discs complete the first arc of the story; oh well. (I wonder how many episodes there are in total. It's anime, so probably a bazillion.)

I do not know a lot about anime, so I don't know what's standard and what's innovative. The story begins with three Japanese teenagers being sucked into another world (the twelve kingdoms); they experienced it as someone coming from the other side and bringing them over, and what the other side experinced was a destructive storm. This apparently happens from time to time; the outsiders to that world are seen as responsible for the damage, so they're generally shunned or worse. In this case, the king of one of the twelve kingdoms wants them dead. (Or maybe only some of them.)

During the first ten episodes we learn that it wasn't an accident that these particular people were brought over; one in particular has a destiny to fulfill in this world. She, however, is your typical teenager who has some growing up to do. We start to see that in the second batch of episodes, which is good -- in the first she spent a lot of time whining and snivelling, and it was starting to wear thin.

I like some of the secondary characters we meet, particularly the rat-man we meet in the second batch. (ralphmelton, I thought of Tobin in our D&D game.) These half-humans/half-animals ("hochi"?) are only a couple steps above out-worlders to most people.

It's a fairy tale of sorts, so at some level we know that the hero is going to end up ok in the end. But it'll be interesting to see how it develops. I think Dani's going to order the next disc soon. (Maybe I should nudge him to get the next disc of Infinite Ryvius at the same time.)