Your Betrayal AMV

Just rendered this and uploaded with morning!

I watched a couple of instructional videos on youtube before I made this, and I actually learned a couple of things I could do with the video to make it uber-shiny. This probably had the most effects I've used so far, with a total rendering time of an hour.

I realized though that my downloaded version of Eva 1.0 wasn't in 720p, I'll probably have to download a new copy. My version of 2.22 has no audio or subs though, making it perfect for amv's. Weee!

My Mom

My mom is a great person. She has always been there for me, and has helped me grow up into the semi-functioning adult that I am today. Sometimes though, my mom will just randomly take a though pattern on a tangent, and throw common sense out the window.

Sometimes, I really can't tell what goes through her head. For instance, I may be on my computer or doing something in my room, and she calls to ask if I want a snack:
"Are you hungry?"
"No, I'm fine." (Knowing there is nothing in the house that I would want to eat.)
"OK"
Five minutes later, she shows up with a plate of something random. You may say that I'm horrible for complaining when my mom tries to do something nice, and that she doesn't get the credit she deserves. So this might be true, but in reality she is just making unnecessary work for herself, after she subconsciously convinces herself that I'm hungry, when in fact, I am not. Even after I got my wisdom teeth out, she still tried to serve me stuff, though I was obviously in no condition to eat. The first day, she brought me out something, and the only thing I was able to mumble out through the gauze was "What do you expect me to do with this?"

What's worse is that stuff that she tries to bring me. On my own, I grab something easy, like chips or wheat thins. My mom turns making a snack into a small science experiment, trying to make some sort of new dish out of whatever is in the fridge or cabinets. One time she brought me Ritz crackers with cheese melted on them. Ritz with cheese is good and all, but stuck in the microwave, the crackers become like little circles of soggy rubber.

I know my mom tries to make good food sometimes, which is especially challenging after a couple weeks of not going to the store. However, the cream cheese sandwiches I was forced to eat in middle school beg to differ. A cream cheese sandwich is just what it sounds like, cream cheese in between two slices of bread. I usually had one of these bad boys packed in my lunch a couple days a week. Cream cheese is good on bagels and all, but that's really it. What's more, my mom really doesn't know the difference between it and sour cream. Just to let you know, chive and onion really isn't that great when put on a taco.

My mom treats the bathroom as something like Schrödinger's box. First off, she never closes the door when she goes pee, only after going out (which doesn't really make sense). When I go pee with the door closed, she barges in, and then apologizes because she didn't expect there to be anyone in there. Basically, she only knows if someone is in there if she can see them, and if the door is closed and can't see (or hear) anybody, it must be empty, despite seeing someone enter just before.

I guess leaving the contents of her brain where they should be would save me a lot of time puzzling about. Now and then, though, I will always think to myself "wtf was she thinking?"

Two Months...

Wow, it's already been two months now since this blog started. Time really flies. I want to keep this short, and I will tell you why.

I recently discovered "Hyperbole and a Half," a great blog with hilarious writing and even better illustrations, and it made me think about my own writing. After thinking about some of the things that I've written on and posted, I realized that recently, I’ve been kind of selfish. I've writing about what I wanted to write about, and not what people would want to read. This might sound a bit hypocritical; it is my blog after all, I should be able to write about what I want. However, I though back to my Post on Hirigana and Katakana, and what I posted on my twitter after the fact.

"Ugh that was a long blog post to write out. Good service to my readers though."
That’s when it hit me. I wasn’t having anymore fun writing my posts than my readers were having reading it. Service to my readers, say what? It made me think about all of the boring informational crap I read in high school. I didn't care for most of the stuff that I read in then, but these were the worst.

Lately, I've focused on writing for fun. I'm trying to cut out my habit of trying to over-explain everything, and just writing for entertainment. I'm also trying to reduce my amount of giant wall-of-text posts. To put a positive spin on it, I guess you could say I've improved my writing so that more people will enjoy it.

Well that's it for now. I probably won't make another update like this until the one year mark, at which point this blog may or may not be around anymore. Only time will tell. Troll Man out~

Best of Youtube: Real Life Ninjas

The arts of Parkour and Freerunning involve using anything and everything as your own personal gymnastics equipment. People climb, jump, swing off things, and do other crazy moves that you would only see in video games, such as Splinter Cell or Assassin’s creed. The ability to do stunts like these requires extreme levels of physical fitness and training, but once mastered, you will become a true Urban Ninja, a master of movement.

How not to do it...


This guy is one of the best. Getting chased by the cops? Let them try to follow you once you climb up a wall, onto the roof. and across an alleyway to another roof. Even after getting injured, this guy is still pulling crazy shit with only his upper body.


Another amazing freerunner. What's up with all of these Europeans?


Say you want to combine these moves into an all out off-the-wall fighting style? Your opponents should be afraid.


This guy has the look down, but is kind of lacking in the moves department. But he definitely is funny.

Herp Derp

Herp derp squiggity squeee herp herp herperderper derpadoo wakawaka hapa hapa lala.  Derp snick skidoo wala wala muffin.  Herpadera herps derps ip dip doo!

Herpppppppp.
Herpa derp bleh moo meow idk, don't ask me rukaroo opaaaa har redededed jak jak.  MURDER waka wooloo gra flaga flee neba varg yarg harg darg blarg.  Derr.  
DERPAAAA DERRRRP
Daka do yar fleck varga ipo jya lololol.  Mya, kerg var pop Red manganese.  G q-can har ban wala quee; dah uup nay za.  Das ist nicht Deutsch.  Iin farga saaab gleck busey opop yarr.  Derpa derr!

Anime Cutie of the Week

Let's face it. Girls in anime are made to look cute, with their big eyes, brightly colored hair, and funny facial expressions. However, there will always be a certaint few that will make you "d'aww" especially loud...

Ranka Lee (ランカ リー)
Anime: Macross Frontier
Macross Frontier has its share of cuties, from the mature and classy Sheryl, to the hilarious giant-turned-loli Klan Klan. However, Ranka always stood out in my mind. Yet, I don't know what it is exactly about her. Maybe it's be cause she is part alien, with big red eyes and green hair, which makes her kind of look like a carrot. Maybe it's that she's the innocent shy type.
*kira*
Maybe it's because when she sings, it looks like she has a fang. I'm a huge sucker for fangs.

Ranka's seiyuu sings one of the openings for the show, as well as many other insert songs throughout the series. With her singing and her little squishy phone, along with her clumsy and shy nature really make her an anime cutie.

Ok, so I had to edit this when I remembered this scene of Ranka stopping an entire army of giant aliens with only her cuteness. Weeee!

Getting Teeth Pulled...

...is horrible.  It's like pulling teeth. 

I got my wisdom teeth out this Friday, and though it can be an "interesting" experience, I am glad it only happens once. I have never really minded the dentist, needles or other stuff of the sort. I don't like them of course; it's not like I'm a masochist or something, but if it's something that has to be done, I'll sit back and take it. The prospect of me getting to sleep, completely drugged up, though the operation, intrigued me though. Needless to say, that morning I had butterflies both from anxiety and excitement.

I went into the office, and was guided by the nurse into the backroom. As they hooked me up to the heartbeat monitor, I could hear the bleeps indicating my heart rate jumping all over the place. After the doctor put the needle for the IV in, I laid there for a bit. After a minute or so, I realized that I wasn’t feeling any sleepier. I though to myself "I must be superhuman or something, the drugs aren’t even effecting me." Suddenly I felt a small tug on the needle, followed by him saying "I’m going to start adding the medicine now." My illusions of greatness were shattered, and before I knew it, *clunk*, I was out.

Long story short, I woke up an hour later with four less teeth and completely loopy. Laying in the recovery bed, the first course of action, of course, was to text my friends saying "I'm totally trippin balls right now!" Before I knew it, I was sitting at home, starved, and wondering what would be able to eat. A couple of web searches later, I realized that my options for the next few days were going to be limited to rice pudding and yogurt. Yum! (not)
Amongst the suggestions for soup, pudding, ice cream, and jello however, I did find this jewel, which I bring to you completely unedited.

"The next day, I was eating "round Table Pizza" My m,outh had no infections alter on or nothing, the thing is they dotn want food stuck in thue gums, so basically clean out your gums, I would close my mouse and blow hair into it, and other ways to get the food to move around, just find a away and ucan eat, although, it can cause further bleeding, its been months since then, still no infection. "
This is why you don't go on the internet while you are still partially sedated.

Wait, what?
As I move towards today, I really can't think of any interesting things to bring you.  Getting your wisdom teeth out sucks, and you're pretty much hungry all the time. I have been eating some solid food, most of which is still crappy semi-soft stuff.  Despite not using the close-mouse-blow-hair technique, my mouth feels pretty good as well. But god damn, I really want a hamburger...

Stuff for Your Eyes to Consume


Got my wisdom teeth pulled and feel like shit, so I don't feel like posting anything real. Here's some anime wallpapers. Funny story to come when my brain is no longer full of f**k.
Azumanga Daioh
One Piece
Gurren Lagann
Evangelion

What is a "Troll Cave"?

To most people, a troll cave is a dark, drab place, where bad things happen. If you are one of these people, I must ask why you are here. To others, it is a retreat. I think Urban Dictionary says it the best.

NOUN: A dark, messy, downstairs room in which trolls, usually teenage guys, lay around smoking, playing Halo, drinking, making beats, eating, sleeping, watching TV, trolling about, or talking about plans of going outside. Even during the daytime, a troll cave is dark because the trolls keep the blinds pulled down so that the light doesn't burn their eyes. The only sources of light in a troll cave come from the computer screen, the TV screen, or the lighter. Common items found in a troll cave: a couch, an X-box, a TV, a computer, a bong, some pipes, empty beer cans, stray lighters, dirty dishes and clothes scattered on the floor and surfaces, food wrappers, etc... Girls are generally not welcomed in the troll cave because they disrupt the trolls' way of life. Girls want to open the blinds or turn the lights on. They complain about how stupid the game Halo is and they want to change the channel on the TV. Girls try and get the trolls to pick up their clothes, bring the dirty dishes upstairs, and throw away the food wrappers and beer cans. However, the main reason that trolls try to keep girls out of the cave is that they always try to motivate the trolls to go outside. Even though trolls talk about leaving the cave, they rarely do.
Ok, so this Troll Cave and the troll cave described are a little bit different. However, we can compare the traditional Troll Cave to the cave of my own. Let's go over a few things.
A dark, messy, downstairs room in which trolls, usually teenage guys...
Ok so my room isn't that messy, and I've even been called a neat freak, but I do like my room dark. (Hey, it reduces glare.)
Common items found in a troll cave: a couch, an X-box, a TV, a computer, a bong, some pipes, empty beer cans, stray lighters, dirty dishes and clothes scattered on the floor and surfaces, food wrappers, etc...
I'm not a slob or a stoner, thank goodness.
Girls are generally not welcomed in the troll cave because they disrupt the trolls' way of life.
If by girls, you mean moms, then yes. However, my girlfriend is welcome over anytime.
Even though trolls talk about leaving the cave, they rarely do.
Ok, ok, I have to concede to this one. But come on, it's hot outside, and I have a fan!

So I'm not a troll in real life. I know, there goes some of my rep. However, when you are trolling, on the internet or real life, words do actually speak louder than actions, or actions that you didn't do, such as cleaning.

Best of Youtube: Stupid People

The world is filled with stupid people. It's a sad truth, but I can not stress it enough. And what do these stupid people do? They do stupid things and say stupid stuff, and it ends up on the internet. Welcome, and enjoy your stay.


Hey, America is a pretty smart country right? Right? Damn...


Her lips are moving, but is anything really coming out?


Not saying anything about religious people or the south, but if you choose to ignore valid scientific facts just because your beliefs say otherwise, you need to realize that you're maybe a little too far in.


Not really a dumb person, but something (actually a lot of things)about him makes me want to punch him. The fact that he recorded this rant and posted it on Youtube was pretty stupid, though.


Somebody takes jokes from South Park a little too seriously...


Rainbows, everywhere! (via)

So Hot...

Like the title says, it is hot here. Let me give you some perspective. It's summer, and for the past several weeks, the highs have been over 100 degrees, and have stayed there. My car also has no air conditioner. Well, it does, but it's more of a "blow slightly less hot air than what's in the cab, but still warmer than the air outside" fan.

I've been doing yard work for a family friend for some extra cash lately, and before I go out, I always put on sunscreen. Spf 50 of course, because I sunburn easier than snow. So anyways, I put some on when I get there at 9 in the morning, which is already blazing hot. After a couple of hours and a gallon of Gatorade later, I go with my employer to get lunch. Keep in mind, my car is sitting out this entire time, in the sun. When I get back from lunch, usually overstuffed from the food which is already on top of a reservoir of Gatorade and water, I go to put more sunscreen on. However, I find that it's been sitting in a perfectly place sun ray in my already hot car.

I open my door and pick up the bottle, and then immediately drop it, resisting the urge to scream "everything is on fire!!" I can even hear that the usually viscous sunscreen in the bottle had turned into a liquid, probably near the point of evaporation. After the outside finally cooled to the point of tangibility, I poured a little bit into my hand, only to find that it had in fact, turned into molten lava. Giving up on that, I head back to the back yard, where I find that every single tool that we left out had gained the ability the melt flesh off of bones...

Long story short, I ended up with a sunburn and slightly singed hands. Thank you, summertime.

Bad-Ass Character Special

And you though Kamina was the best I could bring out?

A little while agi, I saw the Movie Despicable Me. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's about an evil super-genius who adopts three little girls as part of a plot, but ends up falling for them and having his life changed completely around.

This got me thinking, this motif shows up a lot, especially in animes. I came up with a hypothesis for this: the bigger the bad ass, they less they are able to resist cuteness. Let's take a look at some examples.

Bleach:
During the latest Bleach filler, after all of the Zanpakutou go back to normal, one remains in spite of his master. Hisagi Shuuhei's Kazeshini. So what does he do to let off some anger? He just goes around smashing stuff, including other rouge zanpakutou. However, when he finds a baby after it's parents had been killed by one of them, he begins to take care of it, despite the heckling of the other Zanpakutou. He doesn't even flinch when he gets pissed on by the kid. Come on, it's not like there's any child services or anything, it's fricking Soul Society.
"Take good care of him."
In the end, he ends up taking a mortal wound for him, thus ending his section of the arc.

One Piece:
After the Enies Lobby arc, the crew is just strolling around Water Seven and hanging out. The resident bad-ass of the crew, Zoro, ends up getting caught up with some kids, who make him their big bro. As you may or may not know, Zoro is pretty unsociable. So when the kids mom brings him back to her house to take care of chores, Zoro Aniki is stuck having to deal with three little babies. Come on, he has three swords, and there's three kids. You do the math. Despite poorly suppressing his annoyance, he ends up saving the family in the end.

A Certain Magical Index:
Accelerator is the top level 5 of Academy City, the best of the best. He can kill anybody and do whatever he wants because he is the pet of the researchers in the city. His ability, vector manipulation, basically blocks out any outside force that he doesn't let pass... except for cuteness. One day wandering the streets, he comes upon the the tiny clone of another level 5, his nemesis, Misaka Mikoto. He is truly at a loss with this rosy-cheeked loli, calling herself "Misaka Misaka." But then again, who wouldn't be?Daww, I want one for myself. (via)
In the end, he actually does something for someone other than himself, and saves this cute little girl.

As a tribute to this heroism and the inspiration for it, I will now make "Bad-Ass Anime Character of the Week" come out once every two weeks, and in between I will be introducing my new "Anime Cutie of the Week." Bad-Ass Guys and Cute Girls. For the sake of my reputation, I hope I don't accidentally mix the two up...

Engrish

HARRO EVERYNYAN, ai am heaa to tok to yu abart Engrish! Banzai!
Warts dat? I raff I ruse?
Before I explain it, it though it would be best to give you an example. These are two clips I took from the most recent Evangelion Movie, with the Japanese seiyuu (voice actors) speaking in English. Exciting, right? Dear god Kaji...

De anarizis purring da permafrust extrazion...
Excuse me, but what? English is my native language, but without the subs I would probably be lost. Mari, on the other hand, has really good pronunciation for the most part.

Japanese has its fair share of words borrowed from English, but anytime (especially in Animes) they like to stretch the boundaries of languages, it usually turns out bad. For instance, the character Free from Soul Eater likes to cuss out loud repeatedly in English. And of course, any special movie that any character has, ABSOLUTELY must be in English.
"GIGA DORRIRU BUREAKAAAA"
-Simon, Gurren Lagann
Of course, these characters come with such splendid American names. And what great names they are, ones you would normally find in America, such as "Roy Mustang" and "Spike Spiegel" (In his defense, Spiegel is German). I can't imagine what Japanese people think goes on in the United States, especially after the recent release of Heroman, which supposedly takes place o somewhere in California.Typical American kids wearing typical... omfg what is with that hair.

Also what better way to show your affection for someone than by expressing it in broken English?

If you want a list of every possible reference to English that has ever happened in anime, check out the TV Tropes article. (But dear god, do not click any links or attempt to read the whole thing. You will NEVER find yourself back here.)
Yes Kana, you are Boss. (Unlike Andy Samberg)

And of course actual English spoken by gai-jin or "foreigners" in anime sounds something like this:
Pera pera pae, perpera pera pa.
To be fair, "pera pera" means "to be fluent" in Japanese, and a lot of people in Japan are "Eigo pera pera" (Fluent in English), but don't expect every person you walk up to on the street to speak English. You simply need to learn to speak Japanese the right way. Of course, then you would be be committing Japongo. Which is a word I just made up, but it is just as bad.

Today's "Best" Music

So occasionaly I pull away from my J-Pop and Breaking Benjamin to listen to what's on the radio these days. I don't really listen to the "new stuff" because my car radio no longer works, and I only really get a chance when riding in my friend's car. I've been using playlist.com a little bit, and from there I checked out some of the trending artists, just to see whats new. Let's take a look at what people are listening to nowadays:

Ke$ha. Ughhhh. First impressions were that she was going to be terrible, just from the way her name was stylized.

Classy

When I first heard "Tik Tok," I though her voice was extremely nasally and hilarious, and when I noticed how auto-tuned it was, I began to laugh even more. But then something happened. I started liking it. FUUUUUUUUU. Ok so she probably doesn't have any real singing talent, and her songs are all written for her, but they're so catchy. Tik Tok is even one of the most parodied songs, with this video explaining Ke$sha's secret to success perfectly. I love to hate her, but I guess getting her song stuck in my head makes her the winner... for now.

Justin Bieber. He would, be like, so totally awesome, if I was like, a 14 year old girl. He's like so totally hot with his prepubescent voice and pseudo-lesbian haircut. Serious though, if I wanted to listen to a girl singing, I would find my old Kidz Bop tapes, dust off the cassette player, and listen to the tween version of "What a Girl Wants." Yes I bought the very first edition of Kidz Bop. Don't judge me. Truthfully, I haven't even listened through even on of his songs, but if one million little girls agree, I'll have take the opposite route. You can thank Canada for this corruption of our pre-teen girls. Despite 4chan trying to send him to Korea where he could possibly be blown up, he will still continue to produce bad music, or at least until his balls drop.

Taylor Swift. I've never payed attention to American Idol or Country Music. However, one day my mom had the radio on and I heard one of her songs without even knowing until they announced it when it ended. I was surprised and found myself liking it. I knew many of people in High School who talked about her and listened too her, and I tend to agree with my peers more than Justin Bieber fans. She seems a lot more classy (refer to the previous example) and talented than a lot of performers today. Also what happened at the VMA's was YO TROLL CAVE I'M REALLY HAPPY FOR YOU AND IMMA LET YOU FINISH, BUT 4CHAN IS ONE OF THE BEST HATERS OF ALL TIME.
...God damn it Kanye...

As for other new stuff I like to listen to, it's been difficult. I try to download a few new songs every couple of weeks, despite my Ipod almost being full. Currently I'm listening to Suneohair, another Japanese artist, which I heard first from the Arakawa Under the Bridge ED. It isn't anything new, but I've been also listening to his songs from the anime Honey and Clover, which I have yet to watch. Pretty smooth and soothing, almost like a Japanese John Mayer. Some songs I hear on the radio are good as well, and I usually end up downloading them.

Hiragana and Katakana

Before I start, I'll have you refer back to this post, or otherwise this may not appear as it should. It has come to my attention, however, that there have been some troubles installing this feature, involving needing the Windows disk. If people don't have the disk, like with my mom's laptop, the feature won't be able to be installed. As soon as I find a solution for this, I will post it.

Also, as a disclaimer, I have to say that this guide will be only for printed Japanese. Handwritten has a slightly different style and specific stroke order which are hard to describe without an actual demonstration. Take this as an aid to read some basic Japanese, such as on Youtube on in animes.

So during my first semester of Japanese in college, I learned to read and write both basic alphabets, and I'm here to teach my readers a bit too. Hiragana is the first one I learned, and the most useful. It is used mostly as filler in sentences, such as in particles, endings for verbs and other words, and can be used to show the pronunciation of the harder Kanji characters. Katakana is the second alphabet, used to write Japanese adaptations of foreign words, or for onomatopoeia, like "wan wan" (woof, woof), as well as certain other things.

Here is a simple chart of both of the alphabets. As you can see, they are made up of 47 characters, composed up of vowel sounds, or a vowel sound combined with a consonant sound. The reason I say sound is because traditional Japanese doesn't use any Roman letters (Romaji, what you are probably reading this in), and the pronunciations shown are simply the closest phonetic spelling to the syllables used in Japanese speaking. The vowels in Japanese are the same as in English, and the consonants are K, S, T, N, H, M, Y, R, and W (as well as some others, described below).

Because the chart is pretty drab, I'll put this wallpaper up for your enjoyment.
Set it as your wallpaper or Google background, and study without knowing it. Note it is read from up-down and right-left.

On top of the 47 characters, there are more sounds which can be made with the use of accent marks. If you add a ゛ (pronounced "ten-ten", or dot dot) to the K, S, T, or H columns, the consonant sounds becomes G, Z, D, or B, respectively. For Instance, か(ka), with the ten ten added, becomes が(ga). In addition to this, the H row can also have a ゜(Chisai-maru, literaly, little circle), Making it into a P sound. へ(hi)becomes ぺ(pi). The same marks work for both hiragana and katakana.

Glides are another way of changing the sound. Basically, one pairs something from the い(i) row with something from the Y column. The Ya, Yu, or Yo is written smaller, and the vowel from the first character is replaced. For instance, ち(chi) plus や(ya) becomes ちゃ(cha), which can go to make up ちゃん, or chan, like in Onee-chan(little sister), or even 4chan.

Anther interesting thing is the double consonant. Because there are no unpaired consonants in Japanese, excluding the n/m sound, to create a double syllable in a word requires a ちさいつ, or a chisai(small) tsu. It becomes smaller just like the ya, yu, or yo in the glide, but it copies the consonant from the next syllable to the previous syllable. It also creates a spoken break between the consonants. For example, し(shi) plus the chisai tsu (っ) and ぽ(po) becomes しっぽ (Ship*po) meaning tail. All of these also apply to katakana as well.

While Japanese extends a long way beyond just these two alphabets, this is more than enough to be able to read basic writing. It took me several months to learn both alphabets by heart, and it definitely takes practice and plenty of exposure. I don't expect a lot of learning to come out of this, but it will work as a nice reference. In order to input these into a computer, without having special software or a keyboard, I used this. It isn't fast or pretty, but it gets the job done. From here on, good luck with your Japanese. Gambbare, Yokudekimashita, to Oyasuminasai. (Good luck, good job, and good night.)

Best of Youtube: Fake Movies

Whenever you watch a movie trailer, you immediately judge how it's going to be. The general consensus is usually somewhere between "That looks awesome" and "That's gonna suck." However, you know the actual movie is never going to be the same as the trailer, with all of the best parts mashed all into a minute and a half. I don't go to the movies a lot, so most of the trailers I see are on the internet, some of which are fakes. Depending on the quality, though, it may seem like they are the real thing.
This really impressed me, and I even showed it to a friend believing it was the real thing. I was disappointed later to find out that it was only an April Fool's joke.
This is another April Fool's joke with amazing quality. You know if they can make a trailer, they can make the whole movie. Quit being lazy...

I am a HUGE Evangelion fan, so I squeed'd so hard when I found this, but it was obvious that it was made up of different movie clips and shots from the Eva games. Besides, Elija Wood is way to awesome to play Shinji. Besides, the rebuild movies are definitely good enough to match any live-action film.

Adapting games into movies is no new idea. There has been plenty of talk about a Halo movie and so on, but what happens when a not-so-recent game gets made into a movie? You end up with the above.

If you like that, there's also Minesweeper and Pac-Man the movies.

Twitter

Why has nobody told me about this site before? It's like my very own mini blog, for stuff that I just want to say and not have to make a giant blog post about. I can just make a post about something random, and have people read it.

Sure, I have a Facebook which can do the same exact thing. But Facebook has so many people on there, a lot of people who you may or may not know. Of all of those people marked as your friends, how many of those would actually want to socialize with you after you post a bunch of geeky stuff (which I have been tempted to do before, but stopped myself because of this reason)? Or maybe there's people on there who you still want to socialize with, but don't want them to know that you love anime or play online games or whatever? With Twitter, it is much less personal and people can follow who they want to.

Continuing with the Facebook thing, how many people on there, that are actually your friends no matter what, really, REALLY, love to talk? If you post one thing, they immediately swarm it with likes and comments, and a ton of notifications later you wish you hadn't posted in the first place. Hell, I've even seen discussions carried out on my very own wall with me not even being involved. With twitter, you post something, people read it, and that's it.

One thing I kind of love/hate is the cell phone integration. For one thing, I would be nice just to post something right when it pops into your head, instead of waiting to get home and get online. However, I despise texting and don't have unlimited texts. I think I'll leave my phone off for the time being.

So anyways, Twitter is now kind of my side project/blog where I can just write whatever pops into my head. Follow/Tweet/Honk/Chirp at me or whatever it's called.

Bad-Ass Anime Character of the Week

Has there ever been that one character that you saw, then thought to yourself, "that guy's a bad-ass"? No matter what situation he gets in, what enemies he faces, or what happens to their friends or their selves, they continues to fight on. This is their tribute.

Kamina (カミナ)
Anime: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

This week, I had to hold back and prevent myself from calling this post "Bad-Ass Anime Character of Eternity," because this week I'm talking about Kamina. Just look at him. What do you notice first? Of course you notice the bitchin' glasses. When you're as awesome as Kamina, your glasses stay on your face out of respect. On top of that, he wears a cape with no shirt on under it- like superman but without the sissy tights.

Kamina basically does whatever he wants when he wants to do it. See a Ganmen that he wants? Well of course, HE'S GOING TO FUCKING STEAL IT. If he wants to rebel against the rulers of the world and overthrow them, then they better be prepared to bend over and take their ass-whooping. Want to make two mechs into one? Get ready to combine, because if you yell loud enough it's bound to happen. Say your battle isn't going as planned and you're feeling kind of down? Well, prepare to grit yer teeth, cause he's going to punch you into the next fucking dimension. It's like a bro fist, but one that makes contact with your face. Quit being a baby and snap out if it, we have more stuff to steal before this day is over.

Charisma? Charisma basically runs through this guy's veins, and when he works up a thirst, he cuts himself and drinks it down. If this was in DnD, you would need a hundred-sided dice just to measure his charisma. Believe in yourself? Don't make me laugh. If you believe in him who believes in you, then you might get yourself somewhere. ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWER.

That concludes MANLY-BAD-ASS-REVIEW of the week. Stay tuned for a special next week.

Late Night Runs

No, not the kind that put you in the bathroom when all you want to do is go to sleep. I'm talking about nighttime excursions to whatever might be open to try to fulfill those late night cravings. Whether it be a drink run for a party or just an insomniac on a mission, they are always fun and rewarding. Places like Taco Bell and Carl's Jr have stores that are open all night long just for people who desire fast food in the wee hours of the morning. Every town also has at least one 24/7 supermarket or gas station for those who are desperate.

I pulled one of these runs the other night, with no particular reason in mind. It was 2 am, and I wanted caffeine, as well as other things. The adventure started off with me realizing that my truck was almost out of gas, then having to try to figure out how to use my card at the pump, since the store was already long closed. After I put some gas in my tank, I headed over to my local Winco, which is always open.

Winco is the cheapo grocery store in my area, and despite having a recently opened Walmart Supercenter right across the street, it is constantly packed during most hours of the day. Also during the day, it gets extremely hot and my truck doesn't have proper air conditioning. With these min mind, nighttime becomes the obvious time to go shopping- or sough I though.

The first thing I noticed when I pulled in was that they were repainting the lines of the parking lot. Most people never are awake to see this miracle, and assume the lines appear there by magic, however that night I was able to see the truth. Moving on to the inside of the store, I was surprised to find it almost as busy as it was during the day- this time with employees. People restocking, cleaning floors, driving forklifts, and generally being pissed that they got stuck on the night shift. So I went in and bought a can of Arizona Sweet Tea, a Monster energy, and of course a package of bacon. I was able to get a random employee's attention for long enough so that they could ring me up, and I was out of there. Mission Success.

4chan and K-on!!

As I've talked about before, a large pocket of hate is reserved for K-On!! on the anime board over at 4chan. At first I though it was just haters doing their thing, everything going as usual.
However, Coalguys, a prominent fansubber for the series, as well as many others, released a not-so-official statement on this issue.

There you have it. The people over at [a/ are a bunch of sad, sad kiddies who never jumped off the troll train long enough to make friends. As far as I go, I've already said my opinions on K-On!

"I personally like K-On but for the sake of trolling, you hate everything..."
I'm gonna go and have fun with my real friends now, k bye.

Summer Animes

So it's been about a week since the summer season of anime started, and most of them have already put out their first episode. Last season, I didn't really pay attention to the list, and I ended up missing a few gems. For instance, I watched K-On!! and Arakawa from the beginning, and was able to catch Working! early, but recently I had to start Heroman, and watch a bunch to catch up. Watching an anime while it's still being released a double edged sword, for one you take up less time than marathoning a full season, but you may feel anxious as to what will happen in the next episode, and end up having to wait until the next week.

Moving back to this season, I planned to watch most of the new releases, excluding the second seasons of ones I hadn't seen yet (Basara, Strike Witches). Let's take a look at the chart to get a visual of these.
Yup, most of those I ended up watching. I went through the list, painstakingly wading through the crap so you don't have to. I'll present my picks for what I think is definitely good and what may go either way.

My Picks:
Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi (Ookami-san and her seven Friends):
This was the first episode of the season to come out, and it's pretty hilarious, with a good selection of voice actors that you may recognize, as well as some pretty interesting characters.

High School of the Dead:
Think Shaun of the Dead meets Elfen Lied. The one good serious anime of the season. Plenty of gore, violence and fanservice, as well as zombies. Can't wait to see how this will unfold.

Seitokai Yakuindomo:
Another good funny pick. It reminds me of Azumanga Diaoh, but with dirty sex jokes, with a touch of harem. I mean, it's about a guy who joins a school which just changed from being all-girl. Plus it has a trademark midget girl.

Mitsudomoe:
This one is also hilarious one with plenty of dirty jokes, with an interesting art style. Through the first episode, they even create an ongoing joke after they name the class hamster "nipples".

Others:
Amagami SS:
I've never played the game that it's based off of, so I'll probably have to keep going with this one to see how it works out. Cute characters though (see below).

Nurarihyon no Mago:
This is an anime about demons and supernatural activites, but it's in a chibi, playful style, which ruined it for me. The main character looks pretty cool when he goes into demon mode though. Might keep an eye on this.

Occult Academy:
This looks like it could be entertaining, with an art style that I like. More ghosts and supernatural stuff.

Shi Ki, Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Shukufuko no Campanella:
I'm gonna be lazy and clump these into one. Compared to the others, they're nothing special. Maybe they just aren't my type, or the first episode didn't give a very good impression. I'll have to watch more to see if they're worth seeing all the way through. The first two have more of a serious tone, while the other one is more humorous. About ones I missed, forgot about, or have yet to come out, well sorry.

Looks like this guy from Nurarihyon no Mago has a sister in Amagami SS.


As far as the best character this season, it has to be Ookami-San.
With her Neko-Neko Knuckles (Yes, that is their name) of crime fighting, she can beat anybody's butt. She also reminds me ALOT of Taiga from Toradora, with a few feet added on.

The runner up has to be Kaoru Tanamachi from Amagami SS, with that amazing sex-hair.



And because I love music, the best OP's and ED's.
Best Opening Theme: Highschool of the Dead

Runner Up: Ookami-san.

Best Ending Theme: Seitokai Yakuindomo.

Runner up: Amagami SS

At the end of the season, I'll probably make another post about how these turned out. Stay tuned!

Web Comics

As a kid, I loved searching through the brick of ads that made up the Sunday paper to try to find the comics. What kid doesn't? Well nowadays, now that I don't get the newspaper and my sense of humor has more adult (lol what, I know right), webcomics are my thing. What, you though my only source of entertainment was 4chan?

My favorite webcomic has to be QC, or Questionable Content, by Jeph Jacques. I discovered this a while ago after one of my internet friends posted it on her Facebook. I was instantly hooked, and ended up reading the almost fifteen hundred comics in about a week. All of his comics are in full color with excellent artwork, which I might add, has improved greatly since the comic began back in 2003. Jacques's comics are packed full with references, with everything from Anime and MMO's to obscure inde bands and European techno makers. The cast of characters is very extensive, all of who have interesting quirks and backgrounds. His writing is top notch and hilarious as well.

Two more that I like are xkcd and Cyanide and Happiness. The art styles are both simplistic and meant to be almost rough looking, but their contents are polar opposites.

Cyanide and Happiness strips are usually offensive, with fart jokes, occasional stickman nudity, as well as making fun of the homeless and disabled. (Remember what I said about my sense of humor maturing?)Basically, it's awesome.

XKCD is a very smart comic, with a lot of references to science or math, which I am able to get because of the happenstance that I was awake that day in class.
Also, when he makes references to things like Daft Punk, I have a little nerdgasm. You can read my friends post about xkcd as well.

Some of my other favorites, which sadly don't update as much anymore, include VG cats, and Geist Panic.

Best of Youtube: Covers

So what happens if you take a song, then have it performed by somebody other than the people who put it in the spotlight? Impression is the greatest form of flattery, but if you ruin it you're better off not trying. A lot of times covers by nonprofessionals turn out to be a pile of crap that makes the original artists cry. These renditions can range from some garage band trying to play a hit song at a party, or some fangirl mumbling a song from their favorite artist so they can post it on youtube for their fangirl friends. Other times people mix it up and make it better, for instance Alien Ant Farm's cover of Micheal Jackson's "Smooth Criminal," both versions being great, but in the context of different styles. On the other hand, some covers may even put the original to shame...
Cobus is the poster-boy Youtube drum cover, with tons of great videos and even more subscribers. I love drum covers personally, because in the original songs the drummer usually won't go overboard so so they won't overshadow the singer and lead guitar. Covers make the drum part the main focus.


Ignoring the bald guy, this is one of the coolest covers/remixes I've ever heard. I think Robert Miles needs to step up his game a bit.


I love the movie The Fifth Element, especially the scene where this comes from. She definitely has an amazing voice.

Who needs a duet partner when you have an amazing falsetto?

Lady Gaga. Now with an English accent.

Meanwhile in...

The world is so full of so many countries. Living in the Unites States will teach you so much about different cultures and social acceptance, as well as the ability to accept people despite their different backgrounds. Let's check out some of these great countries, starting with our neighbors from the north, Canada.
Exciting! However we must not falter, for there are still many different continents to explore. To Australia!
Hey, did you know in Australia, toilets flush the other way around! Um, wow that doesn't seem quite normal at all... Let's try Europe now.
I'm totally booking my flight right now. Where's my passport?
Ha ha ha, I get it. In Soviet Russia, everything you do normally is reversed! However, I'd like to got to a place where I can do things without having my every move closely followed. Let's try Poland, I always enjoy a good Polish Dog, and all that... other stuff that Poland has to offer.
Well...shit. There goes Poland. Oh well, I'm goin' back home...

Bad-Ass Anime Character of the Week

Has there ever been that one character that you saw, then thought to yourself, "that guy's a bad-ass"? No matter what situation he gets in, what enemies he faces, or what happens to their friends or their selves, they continues to fight on. This is their tribute.

Holland Novak
ホランド ノヴァク
Anime: Eureka Seven

Holland is the captain of the Gekko State, and rules it with an iron fist. He had a pretty spiffy job in the military before he said "screw it," and high tailed it out of there, becoming an awesome lifter (basically, you ride a skateboard on AIR) and an outlaw. When Renton, the new kid on board joins and starts throwing around his opinions everywhere, Holland just throws him in the brig. Take that, brat. That'll teach you to try to make my crew into an actual functioning group.

When a couple of ex-military people try to come in and hijack his ship, he does what every other self respecting captain would do. He strips down to his skivvies, covers himself in camo paint, and hunts out the poor sobs. Despite receiving a leg wound and getting blood absolutely everywhere he possibly can, he gets his man. Finally, at the end of the series, he knocks up the hottest bitch on the ship he can find. Good job- you deserve it.

The (Illustrated) Story of the Internet, as told by me.

At the beginning of the internet, there was very little. However, the people were amazed at the speed at which they could send mail and shop on sites such as ebay. The they did not see the truth though, the beginnings of the internet were drab. As people turned to the internet as a source of entertainment, the only thing they could find was fail. The internet, completely void of win and lols, was a desolate wasteland. Upon finding this, I muttered the only thing I could at the time:
"Fuck you internet, fuck you."
I fell into despair. I frantically searched for any source or win, but I only fell upon more fail. As more and more people blindly hoarded to the spectacle of this new "interweb," they became distracted by the warm glow, completely oblivious to the intense fail surrounding them. I became enraged, and began to yell at the top of my lungs:
"Get away from the internet, I'm cutting it down!"
The people screamed in terror and rage as their new-found source of technological stimulation was threatened. With my chainsaw-chucks of failslaying in hand, I rushed towards the source of the evil. Just as I was about to strike it down, I heard a small voice through the wailing:
"Oh hi, I come from the internet."
The small creature exited from the darkness, bringing with him much lols and win, and thus was born the lolcat, a gift from ceiling cat himself. From then on out, the interwebs were blessed with much greatness and hilarity, reserving the fail for only the worst of the worst: twilight fans.

/ck/

For the days when I'm tired the anime boards, and I am able to remember that /b/ is no longer interesting, or am just feeling hungry, I usually go to /ck/, the cooking board. Sometimes there's actual recipes and food discussions, but other times it's just people trying to find something to make for cheap, or for looking at food pron. Either way, it's always interesting seeing what people can make with things like ramen, bacon, nutella, fried foods, cheese, or various combinations of the above. /ck/ has also shown us great inventions such as the waffle-sicle, or the all-in-one nutella cup of epicness (pictured below).
In addition to that, /ck/ was also the mastermind behind the KFC double down, (which is delicious, but will leave your arteries crying out in agony). They were also the unofficial inventors of the El Niño, or the gigantic pizza-turned-taco, its hamburger counterpart, as well as microwave brownies and countless sausage-bacon-ham artery bomb concoctions.

As far as trolling, /ck/ is actually one of the easier boards to do it on, being that few people have any real cooking experience, barring boiling water for their ramen. In reality, however, trolling there is not very common, because food and eating are loved by everyone in general. There always are a few fun cases, though.

"In order to test the temperature of your oil, throw a few ice cubes in."
If you don't have any experience with hot oil, this is where things could go bad. Throwing ice cubes into oil will cause them to turn instantly to steam, causing an explosion and sending skin-searing oil all over your body. Third degree burns are fun!

Another post I saw was relating to tea, asking if would dehydrate you when drunk. Hidden within the topic was this jewel.
"Throw some salt in the water to make it boil faster."

Oh boy, the OP is already thirsty, don't make him parch himself even more. Just like peanuts, pretzels or other salty snacks will make you want a cool drink to go with them, salty water will suck up more moisture out of your system. This is why they say if you're stranded at sea to not drink the ocean water. Also, very salty water will give you diarrhea, a great thing to think about while you're browsing looking at delicious foods.

Iced Tea

Iced tea, at least where I'm from, is one of the most popular drinks to hit people my age (late teens and 20's)- up there with coffee and coke. Despite not being from the state it's named from, Arizona is one of leading names- with almost as much notoriety as Starbucks. And why not? You can buy a huge can of deliciousness for only 1 dollar! This stuff practically runs through my veins. They have many different flavors of tea, from raspberry to sweet, or a more conventional green tea or black and white tea. They also have a big selection of fruit juices, such as watermelon which is surprisingly delicious.

Recently a competitor, Peace Tea, came out with their version, sweetened with real sugar instead of corn syrup, which is great for me, already having poor teeth. While they don't have as many flavors, the real sugar has a different, but interesting flavor that I like.

My college campus sells this stuff, (as well as every gas station in town), and it's rare to go into a class without someone drinking one of these. Every party with my friends that I go to also hast to have tea- it's pretty much a rule. Hell, it's better than other parties where people go to down tons of alcohol.
Seems like people are trading it for other things too.

Maybe you're not a tea drinker? I never liked hot tea, but if you add in enough sugar and flavoring, chill it down, and put it in a can, it's all good. Of course, there's always people who go "Ice + Tea= Iced tea." Ya ya, I know a tea bag only costs a fraction of a can of Arizona. In times of desperation, I've even made my own tea this way. Sure it's cost effective, but on a hot day you just want to be able to crack open a chilly can of tea, and sit back and relax...

Vuvuzela

This is possibly the best invention ever for trolling in real life. Brough to light in the most recent world cup, many many fans raged and flamed this horrid horn, screaming for its banning from the games.
Why would you do that???

At the same time, it became a hit on the internet. Youtube added a soccer ball button on their videos, and pressing causes the blaring horn to block out most of the original audio (for an extra whammy, try it with this video). Even /b/ got in on the act, with a hidden flash file playing the sound throughout the board. Hell, you want to hear this site with it? Go here.

Haven't had enough torture? Try this:
What hath the internet broth forth? (via)

And you though the internet couldn't be any worse...

Best of Youtube: AMV's.

So my last Youtube spot, "It Came from Youtube," just wasn't cutting it. I watch a lot of youtube videos. I've had my account there since 2006, and right before they got rid of (or at least hid from me) the video views counter, I was up around 15 thousand. That's almost 4,000 videos in one year. Instead of just posting interesting videos that I see, I will start posting the best videos I have seen throughout all of my viewing history. This week, one of my loves, AMV's.

One of my favorite animes paired with one of my favorite bands. It fits so perfectly!


Elfen Lied + Ramstein= Win


Excellent editing and another great match.


Gurren Lagann- What more is there to say?


I just love this AMV and this song. It was partially the inspiration for my Kaji the Womanizer AMV.


Tons of great animes with one of my favorite mixes ever.