I was browsing through the site logs the other day. The site generates its own basic stats (click here or on the visitor count to the left to view them), but the Apache logs throw up some much more interesting information. For example, did you know that, at the time of writing, BBI has had 69,505 hits? (That's 'hits' as opposed to 'page views', so is really a meaningless figure but one which looks impressive nonetheless.) More interesting are the search strings people have typed into search engines to locate BBI. In theory, they shouldn't be able to, but AltaVista seems to pay little attention to robots.txt. I intended to remove the restrictions in robots.txt once I had enough content on the site to make it useful - the Osaka shopping guide would be a good start - but I suppose appearing on AltaVista can't hurt. Anyway, the top three search queries were:

Yes, I am being completely serious here. After some thought, I've come to the conclusion that it was probably the BBI log entries regarding Moerin that caused that last one to return a link to BBI. At least I hope that's it. Either that, or there are things about BBI that I don't know. *glares at the webserver*

Following Senator Orrin Hatch's comments about music piracy I posted last time, this news article was quick to appear. ^_^ Not much else to talk about here at the moment. Still fiddling with the map for the Osaka guide thing. I have a moderate interest in space exploration, so I was going to comment on NASA's development programme for impulse engines (the VASIMR to its friends). Following the success of the prototype ion unit on DS1, the folks at NASA seem to be continuing the trend of building more exotic propulsion systems. Unfortunately, I don't have any weblinks though since the website of the On-Board Propulsion Branch of the Glenn Research Centre seems to be a complete mess.

——— Update ———
Indeed, Moerin was to blame for the lolicon entry in my webserver logs. Check Altavista UK's search results for lolicon and you'll see what I mean. -_-;;;

First of all, yes, that is an advert you see up there. I'll explain that in a minute.

Sorry about earlier this week. I'm feeling much better now since the last post I made on Tuesday - I was just feeling a little worn down. I'm sure there will be other occasions when I don't see the world through rose-tinted spectacles, but for the time being I am GenkiSoZ again. ^_^ I also have myself a LiveJournal now. >_> I'm not too sure why, but apparently I needed one. I can feel a strange sensation, like evil feasting on one's soul, but that would seem to be normal for new registrants.

I have been fiddling with BBI a little. Probably the most noticable change is the advert on the front page. No, it's not part of some money-making scheme. Yes, I put it there on purpose. Why? Because I felt like it. I often come across things I like that I feel I should share with the world so that others can enjoy them too. I can write about them here in this log (as I have with all of the adverts currently shown), but I would like to do more to 'spread the word'. That's where the adverts come in. In my opinion, they're not really intrusive and they add a splash of colour to the site. If you have an opinion on the matter, feel free to let me know. I will leave them up for a little while anyway, just to see how they fit in.

In other BBI news, I've been tinkering with the Osaka shopping guide again. I've just rechecked all of the details for the stores listed on the guide and am in the process of finishing off the Nipponbashi map. I don't want to make a promise I can't keep, but there is a possibility I'll get the guide online sometime this weekend or early next week.

What else was I going to ramble about? Oh yes, more humour to be had as a result of the authorities' attempts at combating online music piracy. I'm speaking of Senator Orrin Hatch's proposal to destroy PCs involved in online music piracy. At a hearing in Washington earlier this month, Senator Hatch supported a plan to attempt to remotely damage the machines of file-swappers. "I'm all for destroying their machines." Did I mention he was from Utah? Of course, such practices would be illegal under current laws. It is a little worrying though that the proposals were put forward by a person for whom making changes to the law is their business. "Norton AntiVirus says: Your computer has been infected by the RIAA-datamasher-v1.02 virus. Sorry, but this is a legally sanctioned virus and cannot be removed. I have taken the liberty of locking your keyboard while your data is trashed. Have a nice day."

Volume 7 of Kino no Tabi was released the other week, now available everywhere except places accessible to SoZ. -_- That's not the only thing Kino no Tabi fans have been looking forward to though. In case you didn't know/care, the Kino no Tabi game is in the final stages of development and goes on release next month (July 17th). It will take the form of a visual novel/adventure game (yay!) which pleases SoZ greatly. The visual novel part of the game will consist of a selection of chapters taken from the Kino no Tabi novels, plus one other written especially for the game. With the accompanying visuals, music and voice, the travels of Kino will really be brought to life. Yet another reason to get myself a PS2.

nyaa~~~

Ugh. I feel exhausted again. My short break seemed to work, but the effects weren't long-lasting. Unfortunately, the last few months have not been great ones and coupled with spontaneous health problems, have really worn me down. I'm feeling a little better this evening - the nasty throat thing that had been annoying me over the past few days seems to be clearing up and I am in the company of good friends (thanks to IRC) and a good manga (Dragon). Hopefully I can make the LAC meeting next month too which should serve to lift my spirits.

I should also apologise for the lack of updates. I've not had much time for BBI updates recently, and when I have had time, I've not really been in the right frame of mind to do them. That's not necessarily a bad thing - you're being saved from dozens of potentially bad SoZdoodles. ^^ Anyway, I'm verging on angsting now... which is a bad thing. If I'm not careful, I could end up with a LiveJournal. >_> *shudder*

I've been playing iRO and Nexus when I've had the time this week. AzieƖ is now level 41/30 and is well on her way to becoming a hunter, while in Nexus I can now morph into a purple cat. ^_^

Not much else to say. I could comment on To Heart 2, but everyone who would be interested probably knows about that already by now. No word on a PC release, but I wouldn't be surprised if AquaPlus announce one somewhere down the line. If it's a long way off, I may have to resort to sourcing myself a PS2 that can sit next to the 2nd hand Dreamcast that's already on my list of consoles to obtain. ^^

Yuriko kindly gave permission for the image I spoke about in the previous log entry to appear on BBI, so here it is. Cute, ne? *^^* Visit Yoizuki.com for more YuriArt. I'm sure she'd appreciate any messages or comments left on her TagBoard too. ^_^

Last weekend was good fun, although I felt a little guilty as others were unable to join in due to a heavy workload at the moment. Hopefully everyone will be able to make it next month. Asahiya didn't have volume 2 of .hack//Chibi (Udeden) in stock though, so I was forced to once again return Balmung-sama-less. ;_; Worse, I still ended up spending an obscene amount on random tankoubon and shoujo magazines (JP-Books had the sacred May edition of Nakayoshi with the first chapter of Koge Donbo's new series, Kami-chama Karin - Asahiya only had June's). Before I get started on my main topic for this post, I want to bring to your attention something that Maiko brought to mine earlier. Presenting Acts of Gord, the humorous chronicles of a video game store owner's never ending battle against the stupidity of the public at large. Definitely worth a read if you have time to spare.

Anyway, onto the bit where I ramble at length about something that doesn't interest you. No, really. Go over to Penny Arcade or something. I hear the Fruit Friend 2000 is causing havoc over there again. ... Still here? *sigh* A real glutton for punishment, aren't you. Oh well, don't say you weren't warned.

I first read about Nekoneko-Soft's (Mizu-Iro, etc.) new adventure game, Aka, in Comptiq back in February (in their "Hit Maker 2003" special feature for anyone else who reads Comptiq). At the time, I remember reading about it and thinking that it had the potential to be really quite good, story-wise. Since then though, due to creeping release dates (I think it was originally April) and a lack of media coverage, it had largely slipped from my mind. All that has changed now though. The release date is set six days from now for Friday 13th (I hope they're not superstitious) and the media hype machine is once again whirring away quite happily.

Aka is set around 1000 years ago which puts it in classic RPG territory as opposed to the city suburbs and country retreats of more modern renai adventure games. The desert environment has really allowed the background artists to shine, creating vast walled cities and plenty of beautiful stone architecture. The depth and attention to detail complements the story perfectly, allowing the player to truly be drawn into and feel a part of the game world. The characters are of the usual cute variety Nekoneko-Soft has delivered in the past, although the character art does look more refined than in previous efforts such as Mizu-Iro.

The game itself takes the form of a visual novel. (You should all know by now how much I like the visual novel format.) This should give the scenario writers the room needed to tell the story properly. Unlike the commonly recognised visual novel format in which the image is used as a background onto which the text is overlayed, Nekoneko-Soft prefer what they call the "cinemascope" approach, where the graphics are letterboxed and the text is displayed in the black space at the bottom of the screen. I've always been somewhat sceptical of this approach, believing that it doesn't offer quite the same degree of story telling flexibility as the common visual novel format. It's more like a visual novel forced into the dialogue box of a normal adventure game. Having said that, I don't think story development in this case will be a problem given the time they have had to adapt to the system of storytelling. Then there are the movie cutscenes which have been spliced in at key moments and which also play a large part in driving the story forward.

The in-game music is well above par too, although with I've involvement, I would expect nothing less. Eiko Shimamiya's Suna no Shiro is strangely catchy and now gets multiple daily plays here in SoZville. It's not just the vocal tracks either - from what I've heard so far, the regular BGM is really quite impressive too. A few tracks including various BGM samples, Sunagin (the opening) and the aforementioned Suna no Shiro are available to download from Nekoneko-Soft's download page along with the opening movie. (For those who can't read Japanese, Sunagin is BGM sample 3, Suna no Shiro is BGM sample 6 and the opening movie is the third link down. Sorry, but I feel guilty about directly linking to someone elses files.)

The first edition release of Aka will be released for the PC on June 13th at 8,800 yen. The normal edition will follow a couple of weeks later on June 27th at 6,800 yen. Both versions include a copy of the OST, although the first edition one is apparently gold and more shiny - and therefore obviously better.

Before I go, some other brief game news. NEC-IC announced a while ago that they were planning a release of Episode of the Clovers on the Dreamcast. After a long wait, it's almost here - it should hit stores on June 26th. And now, some genuine red-hot news straight from the source. It turns out that Studio Mebius and NEC-IC have decided to attempt a console release of Mebius' hit renai adventure, Snow - yes, that one I really, really want. Not many details yet, but according to the official announcements, we should see the Dreamcast version of Snow making an appearance some time this Autumn. ^__^

That's all from SoZville for the moment. Now to locate my nearest supplier of 2nd-hand Dreamcasts...