Wednesday, November 8, 2006

I'm Running Out of Creative Titles

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Greetings All! I trust you are all having wonderful days! Mine’s not been the greatest, but it hasn’t been bad. I’ve been feeling a little down all day. When I went to the convention over the weekend, the group I went with had two sick people in it (yes, I’m talking about YOU Emma) and I caught a sickness from either of them. It’s not bad, it’s just a cough and a slight sore throat. I’ll survive. But, I did take tonight off from work. The last thing I need to do with a cough and sore throat is talk on the phone for four hours straight. Not smart. So, the day has been a little foggy (both literally and figuratively).

Borat Shmorat
Okay, here’s my review on Borat: IT SUCKED HARD! Don’t go see this movie! I went and “saw” it on Friday night after the movie I really wanted to see, Babel, still hadn’t made it to the theatres in my area. I should have just rented a movie and been content, but no, I had to go see Borat. You’re probably wondering what made this movie such a bad one, and that’s a really easy question to answer. In short, it’s the most offensive movie you’ll ever see. This isn’t like Passion of the Christ or Fahrenheit 9/11 in the way that they were offensive to just portions of the American public, this movie somehow manages to offend, grossly misrepresent, or simply gross out every facet of American life, and them some. Now, I’m pretty tolerant when it comes to movies. I’ll sit through something even if I’m not liking it for the most part. But, this one just pushed me over the top. I had to walk out. In fact, I should have left earlier than I did. I left at the point where Borat and his producer got into a naked hotel room fight after Borat caught him “pleasuring himself” to a Pamela Anderson photo. Yeah… so, save yourself the time and money and don’t go see that movie. DON’T LISTEN TO THE CRITICS! If they say it’s good, they’re just wrong. It’s not good. If you see this movie and actually like it, you should go see a psychologist, because there is something seriously wrong with you mentally. I give this movie an F-.

Cos-con Yes, that's me in the Kiba costume.
After cleansing my mind through sleep after my previous evening, I woke up at 6 AM on Saturday to get on the road to Cos-con. The drive itself was about 3 or so hours. It seemed longer though, since I was squished between two people in the back seat of a Honda. Talk about a lack of leg room. It was worth the disomfort though. Cos-con was an awesome convention. It was totally different than every other convention I’d ever been to. It was miniscule. I think there were only about 80 or so people (if that) who attended the con. By the end of the weekend I had met and talked to just about everyone there. I kinda liked that aspect of it. The only problem was that there wasn’t much to do. With it being such a small con, there were really no guests to speak of, no panels, nothing. The 24-hour anime room consisted of a 15” television screen and due to lack of popularity was shut down on Saturday night to make sleeping room for con staff. But, that in itself made the convention so much better! We got to actually socialize with our fellow con guests. I got to know a group of Naruto cosplayers pretty well. In fact, Emma (one of the girls from my group and the coordinator of our trip) has already begun making plans to attend Ikkicon next year with us and some people she met there at Cos-con. How cool is that?! Heh heh! Yeah, it was a good con. I managed to walk out with 4 new manga, a Chi keychain, and a commissioned art piece of Kiba and Akamaru for a total of just $25! Is that not the most awesome thing or what?! I’ll definitely go to this con next year. It was too fun to pass up.

Let’s Talk Capitalism
I wasn’t about to let my weekend, as far as movies go, be ruined by crap such as Borat. So after we got back from Cos-con on Sunday, I decided to head off to the movie theatre once more to see Flags of Our Fathers. Now that was a movie worth paying $8 to see. Incredible. It was a different take on war movies. If you hadn’t heard, it’s about the photograph taken of soldiers erecting a flag on Mt. Suribachi on the Island of Iwojima. More specifically, it is how that photograph impacted the lives of the 6 soldiers depicted in it. And, their experiences are directly related to American capitalism. After the photograph was taken, it immediately became an icon of hope to the despairing and pessimistic American public. It was a symbol of victory, of perseverance, of patriotism, and of strength. Naturally, the politicians in Washington who were in charge of raising funding for the war through the sale of war bonds weren’t about to let that get by them without capitalizing on it somehow. They did this by bringing the three surviving soldiers out of the battlefront and sending them on a nationwide ad campaign to advertise war bonds. The three soldiers were treated like heroes and celebrities while their buddies were still fighting back in the Pacific. Yes, they didn’t necessarily want to be doing what they were, but without their help the U.S. might not have been able to raise enough money to continue the war. The ad campaign for war bonds was the largest ad campaign in history, raking in a total of $45 billion for the war. Clearly, what they were doing worked. So, my question to you is this (and I would like to hear your feedback), was it right for the U.S. to use these soldiers for it’s own benefit? After all, they were in the service of the country, they had to do whatever they were told. The U.S. was not doing anything wrong. But, was it ethical for these soldiers to be brought out of the fighting and trotted out on display? Is this an example of capitalism gone wrong? Was there possibly a better way to go about raising the money for the war? I’m just curious. Let me know your views on this. No opinion will be looked down upon.

A Schedule for My Life
The week, up to this point, has been capped off by registration for next semester. I hate this time of year. Two years ago it brought about the “day from hell” when not only did I sleep through a test, but I also registered late, and broke my computer. If you want to know more about that just ask, but that’s not the point of this portion of the post. Scheduling for next semester went pretty smoothly. I got into all the classes I wanted to be in with the exception of photography, which is due to a scheduling conflict and couldn’t be helped. It wasn’t completely without hitches though. First of all, for some reason the university didn’t think I had taken two of my classes and therefore wouldn’t let me register for the courses which those classes happened to be prerequisites for. I had taken both of the classes though. So, I went to the registrar’s office to try and work this little problem out. One of them was just a little mixup and was easily fixed, but the other was a result of my own stupidity. Unfortunatey, I had never actually transferred the credits from my English course that I took over the summer. The university didn’t think I had ever taken it. And, how could they know any better? I had never told them, after all. Heh heh! So, the registrar let me enroll in that last class with the stipulation that I get those three credits transferred to them by January. And, I will. It’s just a little embarrassing is all. So, I will be taking 15 hours again next semester. I’ll be taking typography, graphic design II, evangelical theology, intro to philosophy, and American government. Should be fun. I look forward to it.

Well, with that I’ve run out of things to say. And, you’re probably getting tired of reading, so I’ll be done. I wish you all a wonderful and healthy 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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