MDL film screening -- Day 3 (final)

Our MDL screening was simply awesome. Even for me, watching the films for the second time was still entertaining and interesting. I was told that the program was well made, and the films were indeed different from each other and spoke to different type of audience all the time, which makes me happy, since this is the thing I was aiming for.

The last day featured 'Fish Story', 'Boku Wa Kuma' and 'My Wife is Gangster' which were extremely interesting and light in a way. I tried to make the last day lighter than the others, with less 'thinking' involved, but at the same time to have refreshing films. Hopefully it was good enough.

I want to credit and thank all the people who helped us with the screening, because without them this event would have never been so entertaining and special.

Katen No Shiro translation team:
Bluechan
Komorebi
Suketeru
Akiraka
Yoko

Film Picking:
Alleinr
Bluechan
Machan

Designs:
Machan
XDsmile

MDL film screening -- Day 2

Hooray! day two is behind us, and we are all delighted and happy and glad. I got to eat awesome sweets, and I'm thankful for yuyu for exposing me to this tasty thing.

Which reminds me, this was the day where most people attended the event, so it was extremely nice. However, it had it own disadvantages, because there was some random guy (have no idea who it was XD) who just went in with his child (who was extremely annoying by the way) and ruined us a major part of the film. Luckily, they went away and I didn't have to kick them out at the end of the film. I really dislike people like this one, who only have things to complain about and ruin other people's fun. He complained that there is echo in the room (which was true :P) and it disturbs his great Japanese abilities from understanding what the people on the screen are saying ('cause his great English reading abilities are not good enough, you know). I listened afterwards with my eyes closed, so I won't be able to read the subs and I understood what they were saying perfectly. Other people understood it good as well... so I assume the guy had too much pride and didn't want us to kick him out? xD

Anyway, aside from this guy, the whole day was just gorgeous. We got us pizza in the second break and ate it together, we watched films and had a lot of fun. In fact, we even watched Egao (the short by Makoto Shinkai). I love this one, it's so cute.

At the end of the day, everything was just so fun. I hope the last day will be fun as well! Day 3... here we come!

(pictures coming soon)

MDL film screening -- Day 1

(The screening room without the viewers, made by linguist)

Oh God, despite the fact the event itself is rather small, it took a lot of effort and time to prepare it. We worked all week long to make it possible for everyone to enjoy the screening, torturing our poor feet to death :P all that aside -- we watched films, made subs and created the whole program for half a year (or more).

But enough with that :P the first day was extremely awesome. First of all, not many people attended it, so we had nice time together while watching stuff, eating and doing all those things normal people do or do not do. The film choice was also very nice, I must confess and the order :P

The day started with a dark humor comedy film, followed by a korean animation and afterwards the very awesome chinese film that left everyone speechless like always. I wonder if "nothing to say" in this review I was reading about the film 'Curse of the Golden Flower' was referring to the fact the reporters simply didn't have anything to say about the film.

Both films were really different and created two different images (completely). I liked that. Anyway, I should stop praising myself :P

There were some things we failed at, things we'll have to think through for tomorrow, as it is going to be a 'bigger' day with more films and more people. Technical problems solving -- here we come!

Unfortunately I can't find my USB cable, so I'm afraid I'll have to upload the pictures later. Took pictures of the ruins that were there before, and how we turned the ruins to be... more sympathetic looking ruins :D

Thanks everyone who helped with the screening, I'll credit you all later xD.

Random Chan Day

Like usually, I haven't been updating the blog at all due to the fact I'm so down and busy lately that I don't really have energy to do that. Next month we will have the MDL screening and feature some films I worked hell hard to find haha. Well, as long as I will see the people satisfied at the end, I'll be satisfied myself.

Like most of you know, the Random chan day took place on the 7th March, like last year, on the Radio Day this time. As someone very wise called this day: "Randiom day". I came to like it for some reason, but I guess next year I'll have to deal with some other pretty creepy name again :P

So, you probably wonder what I did this time on the Random chan day? I didn't make people worship me like last time, but I did make a MDL photo competition. There were three winning categories, and to tell the truth, if I had more money right now I would have given them all a dvd, however, only the first place got the price this time.

Fortunately, I'm planning to feature all three winners on the screening's program / as part of the opening video... I'm not quite sure yet. But I have to say, they were truly great. I'm happy people spend so much effort and creativity on my ideas :P

Now, without waiting any longer, i want to present you the three awesome works I really liked this time:

First place (Best Random Chan Day):

Second place (Best Design):

 

Third place (Best MDL):

 

:P Each of them represents the category it's featuring in the best way. Random Chan day category is the 'random' category that has something to do with myself, mdl and esthetics at the same time, design category deals mainly with the 'best visuals', or more beautiful photo design and MDL category centers around the photo that represents MDL in the best way.

I personally find those photos totally awesome :P I found all photos totally awesome, and that's why I had to get help from 12 (o.o") people who helped and voted for those three categories. Thank you people, your choices were great.

I thank everyone who took part in the competition and hope to see you taking part in future events as well! See you on the screening :P I will probably make only once post beforehand with the program.

Let there be many people~~!

デスク

They Are Not Real Ninjas!

On the 15th October a pretty big Japanese festival (aka: Japantag) took place in Düsseldorf.

To tell the truth, I expected a lot more from this festival. The whole idea and events sounded really really nice, but in fact I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

Well, first of all, there were hell too many people. I swear, most of them were simply breathing and doing nothing major aside from standing there and taking too much place. Of course, I'm not saying you should shot all those extras who have no real function in life, but I really don't get why this festival became an otaku event.

Well, fine, it leads me to the next thing I didn't like -- it's a hell JAPANESE festival... not anima con. HELL -- there were almost no people who were not dressed up like they are in some third rated anima con... and annoyed the hell out of me.

Yes, anima is indeed a big tradition and cultural element but it's far from being the only thing in the japanese culture, and it made me really sad that people didn't get it after such a long time.

Now, basically, the event itself was pretty neat... but I wont say well organized. The workshops were randomly put around the area and the map (*cough*) was as exact as my mom trying to tell a story. Trying to search for workshops was one of the most annoying thing I could think of (so I didn't do it. Which is a huge hole in my Japantag experience).

As there was no train I noticed (as far as I remember we found one doing half the way to the coast) that took us to the river... so we had to walk all the way. The good thing was though, that some random Japanese people put their stands there... and I could happily buy things when I got 1/4 the way.

The stands on the coast however were really crowded. I remember I couldn't enter some because they were filled with people who (again) simply stood there and did nothing with themselves. I hardly found things to buy through the crowd and didn't want to waste other people's time myself (so I looked around a bit and went away, like many many people should have done x.x. Trolls).

Putting the tables 10 cm backwards could be a good solution (considering the fact you couldn't WALK x.x because of all the people).

At least I bought new things and enjoyed some good food... heard drums and pretended to be pretty (singing songs in the train, street, station, hotel, wherever :P).

If you saw a weird person singing 'the internet is for porn' along the way -- it was me. XD

There were 2 good parts I really liked. The first one (surprisingly involving cosplay) was ninjas. Ya, you heard correct -- ninjas. There were some lame guys in ninja cosplay (not naruto... just ninjas) and I COULD SEE THEM. My first thought was "They are not real ninjas" you can't hell see them.

The second, involving the festival itself were the wonderful fireworks. I generally really like them, especially when they are pretty. I expected some sailor moon firework at the end, but the super huge one that colored all the sky yellow was really pretty as well.

Enjoyed, but not sure I'll go there next year. Was a nice experience anyway! ^_^ (we had an awesome hotel btw!).

MDL Special Winners

Since I couldn't decide, as there were too many people taking part, I've decided that I'll make a small vote within the team to pick the best and later, when I'll have only 3 participants left, I'll make hideki decide in which order I should put them.

Thanks everyone for participating... all the photos were great that I couldn't pick anything I liked @~@... I liked all of them.

So, those who will be featured on my blog and next year's birthday post as the winners are (drums):

First place goes to dutchviola

Second place goes to lothiriel

3rd place goes to hidde:

----

Special thanks to those who made the following MDL birthday things for our event:

;___; can I just put all cards here? they were so amazing... thanks everyone <3 I love you so much.

Random listing and a tiny update about new mdl

As many know or not, I stopped updating because of a certain case that is making me and hideki work twice as hard. In a way, I'm actually very thankful, and will be even happier when liars would die, or just kill themselves... whatever it is, it's good for me.

MDL V3 will be ready really soon (we release alpha project this month already) and beta will come soon after. The official version will come up with a lot of interesting, new, fresh features you never used. There is A LOT to expect.

The new MDL will have a different policy, a more mature apprentice and be a lot more user friendly. Everything you don't know will be answered in the Help center, for further questions you'll be able to send a message to the admins automatically.


Anyway, there are more other ways we made our policy different, and we hope that every one of you will be happy and pleased with everything we'll have to offer.


Thank you everyone for using MDL and I'm really happy you stayed with us that long.


----

Sorries now guys, but I have to put here a list of animas I have to rewatch. Sorry again:

Ins: wa = watch
low = low priority

1. Antz ✩✩
2. The Prince of Egypt
3. The Road to El Dorado✩✩✩✩
4. Chicken Run (wa)
5. Shrek
6. Spirit✩✩✩
7. Sinbad✩✩
8. Shrek 2
9. Shark Tale (low)
10. Madagascar
11. Wallace & Gromit (low)
12. Over the Hedge
13. Flushed Away (low)
14. Shrek 3 (low)
15. Bee (wa) ✩✩
16. Kung Fu Panda
17. Madagascar 2
18. Monsters vs. Aliens (low)✩
19. How to Train Your Dragon
20. Shrek 4 (low)
21. Megamind (wa)
22. Kung Fu Panda 2 (low)
23. Puss in Boots (wa)
24. A Bug's life✩✩✩✩
25. Monsters Inc. ✩✩✩
26. Finding Nemo
27. The Incredibles ✩✩✩
28. Cars (low)
29. Cars 2
30. Ratatouille
31. WALL-E
32. Up (low) ✩✩
33. Toy Story
34. Toy Story 2
35. Toy Story 3 (low)
36. Despicable Me ✩✩

Oh God, I saw some films I really don't want to have more parts of... oh well x.x too bad.

Ouch

I'll tell you the truth, I'm actually getting really emotional on goodbyes. I mean, I don't really care for people or anything, but when it comes to say goodbye to something I feel connected to, I just feel like crying.
In fact, when I see other people saying goodbye in a certain way that makes me feel really connected, I can fully feel how they feel standing there.
Soon, I'll have to tell the old MDL goodbye and start a new circle with a better MDL, new features... a lot of work.
I can already see now how I don't have even a little bit of time for myself, and how I work all day on developing ideas and other things for the MDL V3.
I know, it'll be amazing, and every person entering it and using it will feel this way. It's a complete upgrade that has a lot more than any user could wish for. Anything you ask is just... there. Like magic.
You know, everything is turning up so well that it's hard to believe we are actually doing it. I'm amazed how strong my connection to MDL became over the 1.5 (a bit more) years I'm working on it.
I mean, hideki would call that 'a child', I believe, but for me it's like a play or a film. I don't feel like I've created it, but more like I'm taking part in it... in a huge project I'll have to be even greater to fit into.
I'm also afraid sometimes, that those shoes are too big for me... how can I be a part of such a huge project and attempt to lead it. It's just too great.
Every user becoming part of our site is for me completely magical and great. For me, seeing this numerous number of users just make my heart jump.
Are there really so many people using my website and sitting at home surfing it? that's totally crazy. I mean, I never even thought there are so many people liking drams... I wanted only a list for myself.
It's different now, though, when I know all those people and realize how huge the world out there is.

MDL in Nippon Connection (land)

Timetable is now available.

Download it: Here

Read about on: MDL

Pick yourself whatever you want to watch and have fun.

We will be there, and you can meet us if you want (drop by my profile or hideki's and we might have time to see you ;P).

I will be selling MDL shirts, if anyone wants (even if you're not coming to the con and want to buy one) contact me privately ^_^.

Filters and search pretty much done

That's how filters are going to look and work.

• Search by: all titles, dramas (also films), animas, people, users, characters.
• Order by: ascending, descending, score, popularity, recently added.
• Listing by: is/is not on my list, on my friends list.
• Medium, country, episodes, year, genres.
• Actors and staff (by entering their name, mdl will show you a dropdown of possible names).

In the options part, you'll be able to chose one of the options, and in the filters you'll be able to chose multiply and add more and more options to your search.

Search is also pretty much done, it'll how it'll look. You options, like said before will be pretty nice.

• Instant search (searches as you write in the upper menu, you can remove your search).
• Shows results (how many).
• Navigate between pages.
• See year, rating, synopsis, poster, genres, type
• See 'on my list' or 'not on my list'
• See 'on my friend's list' or not.
• Use filters.

Hope you like it. There are some minor bugs we're still working on, but that's how it'll generally look at the end.

Information theft from mydramalist.info by an iphone app

Today, we were reported about an iphone app that uses the entire mdl database. This app costs money.
It copied pictures, information but mainly (what stands also in our site under protection policy) synopses.
We reported the issue and hope it'll be deal with. If not, we will start to act on our own, firstly by blocking requests from iphone devices and/or any other devices using such programs.

Stealing something on the Internet is like stealing in real life. This database was earned by hard work and lot of time. We appreciate our users and think it is terrible to do such a thing. We wont go lightly on it.

Read More Here

Advanced Search

Those are not all the filters, they are only being worked on.

• Search by type: Animas, Dramas, People, Characters, Users (later other things as well).
• Search by medium: Film, TV, etc.
• Search by Actors and Staff.
• Search by general info.
• The search will allow you to pick many genres, many cases (as you can see on the picture) and many different combinations.
• Instant search. The second you pick something it'll write it under the search, and search by it. You can pick 'is' and 'is not' together (see picture).

Screencaps

• Screencaps from shows and films.
• Featuring only pictures from the first episode.
• Three alternating screenshots.
• Adding by episode (1, 2, 3...) / part of film (beginning, middle, end)

Upper Menu

Upper Menu Done:

• Sort by search as well as instant.
• Guidelines link.
• Help (FAQ) link.
• About link.

That's how our sketches look

Well, that's our idea for the menu above.
Search + three nice bottoms (will look different, probably).

• Search will search when you type, but you'll be actually able to sort even before by the type you want to search. Just click (+) for drop down menu).
• FAQ will be updated, with a whole guide of 'how to use mdl'. Pictures, answers etc etc.
• About will contain a few new CC rules, information, credits, and everything that has to do a major part with the site's info.
• Guidelines will be updates into a better format, maybe with a few explanations as well.
• The comic will have its own place on the main page, so it does not show at the upper bar.

Final Design and a Few New Features

After a long time with no posts, I show you
final results of the new design for mdlv3.
That's how this babe is going to look, but we
are currently working on the upper menu search
design and looks. Soon we'll be done with it.

To encourage you for new ideas, I'll list here
new features we already have in the brand new version:

• Instant Search. Searches as you write.
• Instant Filters. Filters to your wish.
• Screencaps. Add screen shots to titles.
• New Menu. Focusing on your lists more
  than before
• Drama Share With Friends. See what your
  friends watched, and what they didn't without
  looking directly at their profiles.
 

Those are the features mostly completed
and will be available on the new site.
Big thanks for lustmord who helped us
figure out the upper menu problem, and we'll
work hard to develop it and make it look nice.

Now before I end this post, I wish to give Random Chan Day cards awards: (7.3.11)

Here will be all the best cards I've got ^_^.

First Place In Category Cute Card: rainbow

First Place In Category Looks Like Me Card: fara

First Place In Category Motivating Card: chentse

First Place In Category True Card: lothiriel

First Place In Category Unique Card: spluffen

First Place In Category Disturbing Card: kematic

First Place In Category Quoting Card: fara (second prize? O_O)

Thank you for all of your cards. (gives hug to everyone). Remember, Little Men Love Robots (I don't want to know how this user got my darkest secret, but I'll be sure to pay back. You yet to see my wrath).

Best Quotes I got for the Random Chan Day:

linguist: "hideki is holding a gun on linguist's forehead"
namechan: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY RANDOM CHAN!!!!!!!!"
junho1582: "May I give you a hug?"
buybites: "SIR - I was delighted to see that today is a day celebrating the randomness of Random Chan..."
honey: "*haha* Bye ^^"
chrizolina: "I think I should write a letter to the Bulgarian president and tell him that he have to call you and wish you a happy Random chan day"
irate: "i bet you like rabbits, skiing and yoghurt"
komorebi: "it's 23:55, so it's totally still Random-chan day! :D Well then....happy Random-chan day"
kematic: "you're mdl user #9. THE VERY LAST SINGLE-DIGIT NUMBER"
dallon: "You are awesome because You will be born in about 10 years from now."
komorebi: "I heard it's nice in cockroach heaven"

New MDL DESIGN

As you can see, we were breaking our brains on a new logo (which we quite... found... but it's not 100% what we wanted.......) anyway, in the process of half dying half wanting to throw up... we got this design (not real, btw...)
I'm GOD. You're NOT.

Interesting Question: When will the 'Random Chan' day be celebrated? 

MDL V3 Building, part 1.

Today, after finally waiting for such a long while since we actually announced mdl's third version, you'll be able to see few developments, and the blooming ground we're making.
This system will be better in many technical ways, have a lot of options and also will be suited for a lot of users.

First sketch we made for the new design:

first steps of work:

We can't find really how to change the inner mdl to fit right for animations, dramas and so on yet... but you can see a few tries already:

I hope you'll stick up with our messy work a bit more. We have a lot of funny ideas, and as you saw, the spotlights of the site went into a different direction.

The search is awesome, I must tell you all... it's just not even similar to what you've seen before in our site.

The profile and the lists, which our site features will be now so close and available in only one click.

A new logo, groups, more possibilities and also an wide open door to add anything else.

You can drop here, or by my profile in mdl, a comment about ideas, things you want to see in the new version and whatever comes to your mind.

Part one ends here XP.

History

I was thinking about a post that will have to do something with mdl, but after thinking a lot I've decided not to reveal yet some 'secret projects' we're working on...
Everything is just so 'fast' and it's hard to follow. I learn and learn but nothing seems to come from it. Just more and more things I understand that i don't know... and probably because of it my health is starting to get worse again.
My headaches are back with my depression... sort of a funny feeling of 'lost' and 'unsure'.
I don't have a single idea how i'll pass everything... and it just makes me so sad and scared. I know I shouldn't care, and there's always the possibility to do nothing and just live of my husband's money.
But I want to promote myself, and be also a director... I want to remain an actress... but why... why is this world so cruel and wont let me do my favorite things? because of money, papers and, so called, 'order'?
All those are covering the faces of people nowadays... haha, it'll be quite funny when we'll get beaten up 'by our papers' and not 'by our faces'. Old joke, but reversed it sounds even funnier.
Anyway, I lost it again... I should go back to the main subject. Which is, of course, the past year's mdl logos (you can see the new Halloween one on mdl).

Vday, BunnyEaster, EggEaster and Happy1year. There was a Christmas one... but We lost it, eventually...
Aren't they really cute? :) even though I paint so bad hahaha.

New Search -- soon in mdl

ah... the days go by and we try to prepare the site for the upcoming animations in so many ways. One of them will the search of course that will become better in a few perspectives.
You can already see a preview here:

It's only the first shot towards a better, helpful search that will allow us all to have an awesome time when we browse mdl.

What reminds me, have you seen the awesome work that was done on the merging? From about 199 titles, we dropped down to 60. Sadly, maurice is still alive and the Chinese 'wonderful' sources are still annoying as always... so we weren't able to hit the '0' (was that a word play?... lol).

I wish I didn't sleep so much today (2pm)... I wanted to watch dragon drive... I want to finish it since it's sort of awesome and lame at the same time...
Maybe I'll start watching the one before the newest season of digimon afterwards?...
That'll be quite interesting...