Wednesday, September 20, 2006

And Life Returns to Normal

A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Greetings All! I hope you’re all having a wonderful day! Mine’s going all right for now. Unfortunately it hasn’t been too productive yet, but that should be changing soon. I’m meeting with the Dean of Students in about two hours to talk with her about starting up a club on campus. I’d like to start a Go club. Go, if you didn’t already know, is an ancient Chinese strategy game. I got really into it over the summer when I started going to the go club near my house. Unfortunately, there isn’t a club in the area of my college, and due to the crappy web service on campus, I can’t even play online. So, in order to satisfy my drive to play this game, I’ve decided to start a club. I really hope it works out. I’m not fully sure of what all I have to do to get this thing started. I think I have to send a petition around campus to survey the potential interest in the club, I have to sign an agreement with the university to somehow “impact the community” be it on campus or off, and I think I need to get faculty support for the club. Although, that is only what I have heard around campus from people who haven’t actually gone through the process themselves. So, the information isn’t too reliable. That’s why I’m meeting with the Dean of Students. I’ll just wait and see how it goes.

Darkness Descends
One of my friends on campus had come into possession of a rather large collection of eggs. Apparently he went to Sam’s Club with his parents before coming to school and bought about 5 dozen of the lovely elliptical objects. Well, after 5 weeks of class, the eggs were approaching their expiration date, so he decided to try and get rid of them all by throwing and “egg party.” So, Monday nigh, I and three other people converged on his little house to eat more than a healthy portion of eggs.

While we were chowing down on the white and yellow goodness and watching television, the power began to flicker. The television started turning on and off and the lights upstairs began doing the same thing. Not the entire house though, just the upstairs lights and a selection of other electrical appliances. That sort of ruined our television watching plans, and having eaten more than my share of eggs at that point, the party was brought to conclusion. I went to the student center to browse the internet. Lack of interntet service, probably from the same odd power fluctuation that I had experienced back at my friends house, foiled my browsing plans. Now I was irritated. So, with a black cloud of irritability hanging over my head, I trudged to one of my friend’s rooms to see if he was having any luck with his internet. He wasn’t. After a few more circles around campus I ended up back in my dorm where I was met in the staircase by my RD (residential director) who informed me that they were going to be shutting down all power in ten minutes. Ten seconds later the power went out. It was really cool too! The lights went off starting from the top of the buildings down. So, it really looked like darkness was actually descending on the campus. It was freakishly cool! The power stayed out for about an hour. During that time I sat talking with guys from my dorm hall under the one emergency light we had. Interesting conversation. A couple guys had light-up Star Wars light sabers and started dueling right there in the hall. Their battle eventually migrated out into the quadrangle outside my dorm hall where they were joined by other idiots fighting equally pointless, although colorful, battles. After the power returned I went to the student center once more to access my email and see if anybody was on AIM. Then, it was off to bed for me.

Anime Club Irritants
I have been a little disappointed with the way the Anime Club on campus is being run. As I might have told you in a previous post, I was appointed vice president of the Anime Club. The president has been doing some really stupid things and isn’t listening to any of my advice, nor the advice of the rest of the club's attendees for that matter. He’s been doing stupid things like starting an anime and then not ever finishing it, cutting a show off halfway through to switch over to CN to watch Trinity Blood and Bleach (both of which everybody in the entire club has already seen the beginning of), and showing anime (get ready for it) in ENGLISH (BLASPHEMY!!!)! But, that’s not all. One of his little irritating qualities as a leader is the fact that the man doesn’t lead. He feels like he has to put everything in the entire club up to vote. I’ve tried to tell him multiple times, without luck, that putting everything up to a vote just complicates things. Everybody in the club has tastes that vary too greatly to put things up to a vote every time we show a new anime. It just doesn’t work. Also, this little democracy prevents people from ever seeing anything new or that they haven’t heard of. If they haven’t heard of it or seen it, how are they to know what it’s like in order to vote on it. Some AWESOME anime that I have suggested, such as Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror, Haibane Renmei, Jigoku Shojo, and Genshiken, have all been shot down in the vote because nobody knew about them and therefore didn’t vote on them. So, we are stuck watching only the popular anime, which isn’t bad, but isn’t good either. We don’t get any variety this way. We only get to watch stuff that stays within the norm. We aren’t watching anything that pushes the limits of animation and storytelling, or that has a story that doesn’t conform to the anime norm. Everything we watch ends up being an action comedy mixed with some aspect of romance. Nothing original. My hopes for the anime club this year have been completely crushed by the lack of leadership skills in our “leader.”

But the WORST thing that this guy has done is shorten Anime Club. We are no longer meeting for six hours like we used to. Rather, the man has shortened it by a full two hours. Because of this, we aren’t going to be able to show anything that goes any longer than a season. I was hoping to be able to show some anime that were a little longer, but since anime night has been shortened, we can’t do it. We used to be able to watch a full season in two nghts, now it takes three. Also, a half-season long anime goes for one and a half nights. That’s just irritating and I think it’s going to cost us attendence. I don’t like what he’s doing to the club. And, I’ve been talking to a few of the other member’s of the club who are also irritated with his performance as a leader. He’s just not very good. I try to tell him about the error of his ways and convince him otherwise, or at least get him to see the other side of an issue, but he won’t budge. He’s too stubborn. So, I’ve given up on trying to do anything with the club. I’m just going to show up. He apparently doesn’t think he needs my help anyway. Grrr…

Sorry about that little rant. It’s just been on my mind lately. We get to see the middle portion of Last Exile this coming week. The middle! There will be no intro, because we’re stating in the middle of the show. And, there will be no conclusion, because we’re also stopping in the middle of the show! That’s just not a very good way to do things. Anyway, I’ll spare you further rantings on this issue. I promise, unless the man does something profoundly stupid or actually gets something right, you won’t hear from me about the club anymore. Lastly, I recommend you all take another glance through my Anime Ticker. I have made some significant updates over the past few weeks. Perhaps I've seen something you've been wanting to or you have some comment you'd like to make on what i've seen. Feel free to PM me anytime if you would like to chat about anything! ^_^ So with that I wish you all a wonderful day and I’ll see ya ‘round TheO! Sayonara!

Caesar1280's Anime Ticker

.hack//Legend of the Twilight, Air, Air: The Movie, Akira, The Animatrix, Appleseed, Aquatic Language, Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror, Beck, Black Lagoon, Blame!, Blood the Last Vampire, Bokurano, Burst Angel, Castle in the Sky, Cowboy Bebop, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express, Egao, FLCL, Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala, Gankutsuou, Gatekeepers, Genshiken, Ghost in the Shell, Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society, Gin-iro no Kami no Agito, Grave of the Fireflies, Grenadier, Haibane Renmei, Hellsing, Highlander: The Search for Vengeance, Hikaru no Go, Howl?s Moving Castle, Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade, Jyu Oh Sei, Karas: The Prophecy, Last Exile, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, Midori?s Days, Milennium Actress, Mushi-shi, My Neighbor Totoro, Naruto, Naruto: The Movie, Nausicaa, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death And Rebirth, Ninja Scroll: The Movie, Other Worlds, Paprika, Perfect Blue, Pet Shop of Horrors, The Place Promised In Our Early Days, Prétear, Princess Mononoke, Read Or Die, Read Or Die: The TV, Samurai Champloo, Samurai Seven, Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal, She and Her Cat, Spirited Away, Steamboy, Tide-Line Blue, Tokyo Babylon, Tokyo Godfathers, Trigun, Voices of a Distant Star, Witch Hunter Robin, Wonderful Days, Wrath of the Ninja, X

Anime I've Seen - .hack//Legend of the Twilight - .hack//Sign - 5 Centimeters per Second - Air - Air: The Movie - Akira - The Animatrix - Appleseed - Aquatic Language - Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror - Baby Blue - Beck - Black Lagoon - Blame! - Blood the Last Vampire - Bokurano - Burst Angel - Castle in the Sky - Cowboy Bebop - Cowboy Bebop: The Movie - Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express - Doorbell - Egao - FLCL - Fullmetal Alchemist - Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala - Gankutsuou - Gatekeepers - Genius Party - Genshiken - Genshiken OAV - Ghost in the Shell - Ghost in the Shell: Innocence - Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society - Gin-iro no Kami no Agito - The Gokusen - Grave of the Fireflies - Grenadier - Haibane Renmei - Happy Machine - Hellsing - Highlander: The Search for Vengeance - Hikaru no Go - Howl's Moving Castle - Innocent Venus - Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade - Jyu Oh Sei - Karas: The Prophecy - Karas: The Revelation - Last Exile - Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi - Midori?s Days - Milennium Actress - Mushi-shi - My Neighbor Totoro - Naruto - Naruto: The Movie - Nausicaa - Neon Genesis Evangelion - Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death And Rebirth - Ninja Scroll: The Movie - Other Worlds - Ouran High School Host Club - Paprika - Perfect Blue - Pet Shop of Horrors - The Place Promised In Our Early Days - Prétear - Princess Mononoke - Read Or Die - Read Or Die: The TV - Samurai Champloo - Samurai Seven - Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal - Serial Experiments Lain - Shanghai Dragon - She and Her Cat - Spirited Away - Steamboy - Tekkonkinkreet - Tide-Line Blue - Tokyo Babylon - Tokyo Godfathers - Trigun - Trinity Blood - Vampire Hunter D - Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust - Voices of a Distant Star - Witch Hunter Robin - Wolf's Rain - Wonderful Days - Wrath of the Ninja - X Total: 93

Anime I Haven't Completed - .hack//Roots - Ah! My Goddess - Angelic Layer - Avenger - Baccano! - Bamboo Blade - Basilisk - Binchou-tan - Black Cat - Bleach - Blood+ - Boogiepop Phantom - Case Closed - Le Chevalier d'Eon - Chobits - Chrono Crusade - Code Geass - Coyote Ragtime Show - D.Gray-Man - D.N.Angel - DearS - Death Note - Dennou Coil - Desert Punk - Digimon - Dragon Ball Z - Ergo Proxy - Eureka Seven - Excel Saga - Fighting Beauty Wulong - Final Fantasy Unlimited - Flag - Freedom - Full Moon - Gantz - Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Gintama - Glass Fleet - Great Teacher Onizuka - Gundam Seed - Gundam Wing - Hayate the Combat Butler - Hellsing OVA - Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - Ikki Tousen - InuYasha - Jigoku Shojo - Kage Kara Mamoru - Karin - Kino's Journey - Love Hina - Loveless - Lovely Complex - Lucky Star - Makai Senki Disgaea - Marchen Awakens Romance - Meine Liebe - The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Mononoke - Monster - Moon Phase - Mr Stain on Junk Alley - Naruto Shippuuden - Negima?! - Negima! - Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion - Nerima Daikon Brothers - NHK ni Youkoso - Night Walker - Ninja Nonsense - Noir - Peacemaker Kurogane - Pokemon - Prince of Tennis - R.G. Veda - Ragnarok - Rec - Red Garden - Robotech - Romeo x Juliet - Rosen Maiden - Rurouni Kenshin - Saikano - Sailor Moon - Samurai Deeper Kyo - Sci-fi Harry - School Rumble - Scrapped Princess - Shin-chan - Shingu - Shion no Oh - Shuffle! - Shrine of the Morning Mist - So Long, Mr. Despair - Solty Rei - Sousei no Aquarion - Speed Grapher - Spice and Wolf - Super Milk Chan - Tales of Phantasia - Tenchi Muyo - Tenjhou Tenge - Texnolyze - The Third - Tsubasa Chronicles - Urusei Yatsura - Venus Versus Virus - Welcome to the N.H.K. - Winter Cicada - X-1999 - Xenosaga - XxxHolic - Yu Yu Hakushou - Yume Tsukai - Zero no Tsukaima - Zipang Total: 116

Manga I've Completed - Cowboy Bebop - FLCL - Manga Messiah - Manga Metamorphosis - Q*Ko-chan - Saiyuki - Shirahime-Syo Total: 7 Manga I Haven't Completed - .hack//Legend of the Twilight - Black Cat - Blame! - Chobits - D.Gray-man - Darkside Blues - Death Note - The Demon Ororon - Desert Coral - Disgaea - Eureka Seven: Gravity Boys and Lifting Girl - Fruits Basket - Getbackers - Hayate the Combat Butler - Kamunagara - Legal Drug - Love Hina - Loveless - Megatokyo - Naruto - Negima - Read Or Die - Rurouni Kenshin - Tactics - Trigun Maximum - XXXHolic Total: 26

Anime I'm Currently Watching
Samurai 7, InuYasha, Samurai Deeper Kyo,
Boogiepop Phantom, and Shrine of the Morning Mist

Manga I'm Currently Reading
Read Or Die, Hayate the Combat Butler, and Megatokyo.hack//Roots, .hack//Sign, 5 cm per Second, Ah! My Goddess, Angelic Layer, Avenger, Basilisk, Binchou-tan, Black Cat, Bleach, Blood+, Boogiepop Phantom, Case Closed, Le Chevalier d'Eon, Chobits, Chrono Crusade, Coyote Ragtime Show, D.Gray-Man, D.N.Angel, DearS, Death Note, Dennou Coil, Desert Punk, Digimon, Dragon Ball Z, Ergo Proxy, Eureka 7, Excel Saga, Fighting Beauty Wulong, Final Fantasy Unlimited, Flag, Full Moon, Gantz, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Gintama, Great Teacher Onizuka, Gundam Seed, Gundam Wing, Hayate the Combat Butler, Hellsing Ultimate, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Innocent Venus, InuYasha, Jigoku Shojo, Kage Kara Mamoru, Karin, Kino?s Journey, Love Hina, Loveless, Lovely Complex, Lucky Star, Makai Senki Disgaea, Marchen Awakens Romance, Meine Liebe, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Mononoke, Monster, Naruto Shippuuden, Negima?!, Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion, Nerima Daikon Brothers, NHK ni Youkoso, Night Walker, Ninja Nonsense, Noir, Ouran High School Host Club, Peacemaker Kurogane, Pokemon, Prince of Tennis, R.G. Veda, Ragnarok, Rec, Red Garden, Robotech, Romeo x Juliet, Rosen Maiden, Rurouni Kenshin, Saikano, Sailor Moon, Samurai Deeper Kyo, Sci-fi Harry, School Rumble, Scrapped Princess, Serial Experiments Lain, Shingu, Shuffle!, Shrine of the Morning Mist, So Long Mr. Despair, Solty Rei, Sousei no Aquarion, Speed Grapher, Super Milk Chan, Tales of Phantasia, Tenchi Muyo, Tenjhou Tenge, Texnolyze, The Third. Trinity Blood, Tsubasa Chronicles, Urusei Yatsura, Welcome to the N.H.K., Winter Cicada, X-1999, Xenosaga, XxxHolic, Yu Yu Hakushou, Yume Tsukai, Zero no Tsukaima, Zipang

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