Tuesday, July 4, 2006

What? My pants are not on fire!
So, I was reading someguy's fourth of July post for last year and it made me remember this interesting article I read that I think would be appropriate to share on such a holiday.

The article was basically a psychology study. The team of researchers went to numerous nations and took a random sample of data in the form of personality surveys. They found that a lot of national stereotypes were false. I remember Canada and America the best (though they also mentioned England, Germany, Poland, and maybe Holland). It showed that the myth that Americans are brash and somewhat beligerent was wrong, and the myth that Canadians were a bit more submissive than Americans was also proven false.

In sum, we're all the same in the end and world harmony and rainbows and all that jazz. :D

Anyway, aside from my potentially misguided attempt at being fascinating by quoting articles from over a year ago, not much going on here. I'm starting to get a bit of a cold (complete with upset stomach...ugh...), but as long as the aspirin kicks in, I'll be fine. I did go out to the mall Saturday and managed to pick up the first .hack//Another Birth novel (which chronicles the games: Although I have the games, I'll probably never finish them 'cause I suck). I also finally became one of the cool kids and got Kingdom Hearts for the GBA. I hate the battle system with the cards and stuff. It's an okay concept, but having a card for a normal attack is a bit much. I kind of wish it were a better system. I've also been playing another (albiet much older) GBA game called Monster Rancher Advance 2 (or something) in which you raise monsters for battle in tournaments and stuff. I enjoy it muchly, even though I get choked up when I have to retire my monsters. Despite the fact that they're called monsters, they're really cute. Maybe I'll try to take some screenshots (with my uber-crappy digital camera...it probably won't turn out well).

I also managed to get out of the house to see Cars, which I've been wanting to see since I first saw the trailer. It was really good, definitely one of the better movies I went to see with the family (some of the awful movies I saw with them included The Medallion and The Pacifier). It's mindboggling to think that all of that was lovingly programmed and designed by human hands. I couldn't pay that much attention to detail even if I tried. Although I could see the general flow of the plot within the first fifteen minutes, it did have a few surprises. I think the best part was the kind of adult humour that usually flies over a kid's head. Stuff like references to actual pro racers and just the kind of humour that only people who know a thing or two about racing can fully understand. Oh, and I advise sitting through at least a bit of the credits. They have some really cute stuff in the end credits, including a bit where they parody a few of the other Pixar films by changing the actors to cars. "You're a toy car!" "You're a sad, strange little wagon." It was really funny. XD

I'm also looking forward to the Pirates of the Carribean sequel. I might even brave the crowds this weekend to see it. I already have a few takers among my schoolchums. :D

Yanno, I think I'll just leave you with a few nifty links.

-MC

I saw some interest in online Japanese/anime radio stations. I'll post a link to a few of my favourites.

1) AOL radio: Anime music. You'll find it under "Kids" when you open the radio player. You can find Japanese pop under "World music."

2) Japan-A-Radio is a radio station run entirely by fans, but listener slots are often low (meaning sometimes you can't access the station). You'll need Winamp, RealPlayer, VLC player or something to use this. Windows Media kind of works, but you have to do some special ninja trick to get it to work.

3)Anime Academy Radio is a lot like Japan-A-Radio, but plays more anime music than J-pop. Windows Media works just fine with this station.

4) LiveScience.com breaks and confirms a lot of myths about the world around us. Definitely fascinating. :D