Thursday, January 27, 2005

   All of Twin Spica in 4 days . . . . .
So one night I watch 4 of them.
The next night I watch 8 of them.
The next night I watch 4 more.
Last night I watched the last 4.

Somewhat obsessed? Kinda . . .


So yeah, after being prodded by all sorts of peoples, I got through Futatsu no Spica in relatively short time. I couldn't help it, I couldn't stop watching! It was too blasted heart warming for me to do otherwise . . .

So let's see . . . in 20 episodes, I teared up about . . . . . four of five times. That's 20-25% of the show, now! I mean, that even beats out Onegai Teacher and its 1-2 in 13! Ah, these blasted heartstring animes . . . . . and yet I can't stop watching . . .

Let us just be glad that Naruto has many, many episodes in between the tear-jerker episodes to dilute the numbers a bit . . .


So yeah. "Twin Spica"? Good, short anime. Has cute little girl with dreams, astronaut school, catchy opening theme, tear-jerk-type episodes, and a ghost that wears a lion's head. What more could you ask for?
Comments (11) | Permalink

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

   A pointless story funny only to Latin Students . . .
I, a man of little ingenuity, for an hour I spent - my translations having been incomplete.

My cup no longer full with hot chocolate, I worked diligently for the purpose of completing my homework, lest I might be scolded in the morning.

I saw the future of my education to be threatened by this work because a failed class is a thing not to be enjoyed.

At last, the final words having been translated, I completed my work before morning came so that I might get a little sleep.

If the translation tomorrow shall have been okay, I might rejoice.


(If this made no sense to you whatsoever, that's okay. It's just never a good thing to put off work that is to be presented so that you can watch rented movies . . . that said, have a good night, yo.)
Comments (8) | Permalink

Monday, January 24, 2005

   This post will either be a movie review or a discourse on my river of emotion . . . in any case, it's gonna be a long one . . . . .
I'm gonna put this up front first . . . . when I was pre-literate, I didn't cry when Bambi's mother was shot.
When Optimus Prime faded black and died in the movie, I didn't cry then either.
A few years later, when I saw The Terminator allow himself to be lowered into the molten metal, I didn't cry then.
In high school, I saw "Saving Private Ryan", "Braveheart", and "Gladiator" among many. The first times I saw these, I didn't cry.

By grade 11/12, I'll admit I got a little misty at the end of "AI: Artificial Intelligence". Likewise, re-watching the previous three movies could lead to a bit of mist as well . . .

Today, I welled up at the end movie of "Kingdom Hearts" and the concert FMV of "Final Fantasy X-2" . . . and don't get me started on "Lord of the Rings", I got pretty misty then as well . . .

I think it's kinda funny that only now, ever since I became an 'adult proper', movies and stuff just affect me a whole lot more now. I really can't explain it. The whole world is just a lot more emotionally compelling for me now, for whatever reason. Is it because I'm being introduced to so many ideas and works in university? Maybe a little, but I doubt it. Is it because I figured out what it really means to love someone or something? While on that, is it perhaps because of all of you people whom I've gotten so insanely close to despite living oh so far away and yet care about more than the people that live five blocks away? Could be . . .
. . . . . is it that I'm just justifying my need to watch and play so many movies and games and stuff? Umm . . . . . eheh . . .



Aaaaaaaaaaanyways, I'm sure you're all wondering what brought this on. Well, yesterday I was in the asian video store looking for cheap (and possibly bootlegged) movies and I saw this Korean movie my buddy "Faramir" told me about. So, for $5 I picked it up and got home hoping to all that is good that it would play on anything in my house (region worries and all), and that it would have English subs (which the back cover didn't say).

That said, "Taegukgi Hwinalrimyeo" (Or simply "Taegukgi" or "The Brotherhood of War" in some releases) is easily one of the most profound war (or anti-war, I should say) films I have ever seen.

The basic story is of two brothers who get forcibly drafted into the South Korean army during the Korean War in 1950. Once in the war, the older brother spends his time finding ways to protect his younger sibling; the younger one, meanwhile, can only see how the war is affecting, changing, and dehumanising his brother.

In terms of a war film, the battles are brutally intense. Anyone can make the comparison to "Saving Private Ryan" since, well, that film's definitive now. But yeah, very visceral fighting, very brutal . . . really gives a sense of how horrible war is. This is good, because much of the movie is spent showing the 'other side' to it all . . .

The older brother is slowly doing pretty vile things himself, especially in terms of prisoners and the like. Meanwhile at home people are being shot for "being Communists". It was really frightening at times, the things they were showing . . .

So why does this affect me so much? Granted, I'm a sucker for the good ol' Hollywood ending (which is ironic, considering it's a Korean movie), but there was more to it. I have two brothers, after all, and one is already a police officer. So I've got that going for me already . . . but I think the thing that clinched it was while I was watching it . . .

It was early in the movie, just as the brothers are stuck on the train full of drafted citizens. I was watching it on the computer and my mom was on the other side of the desk. All she could hear was the fighting of the one guy against the military police so his younger brother could escape (though he couldn't). My mom commented, "It sounds like you bought a really violent movie . . ." . . . and this was before the war scenes . . . . . but yeah, I then described the whole thing of brothers getting drafted, their mother outside the train, the brothers' heads out the window shouting for her to be careful . . . . . my mom then added, "that sort of idea scares me so much . . ."

Her comment was understandable . . . after all, she and her family moved to Canada when the Communists took over China. I know very few things about her dad other than that he escaped from mainland China to Hong Kong by swimming to get away before sending for the rest of them. Plus, all my grandparents lived through World War II over there, so I'm sure she heard plenty about that as well . . .

I'm ranting, obviously. I don't really know where I'm going with this . . . I guess I just really felt like just writing just now. Heh . . . and it's not like "Taegukgi" is some sort of make-all, break-all film (though it's pretty close). I dunno, I guess I'd probably do this with any really emotionally accessible movie. But yeah, very powerful film, regardless of how much baggage you bring into it to begin with . . .

. . . . . maybe I should check my baggage in before I start these things . . . . . . . meh . . .


. . . . . and then of course, everyone keeps telling me to watch "Twin Spica", so now that I've watched the first episode I'm all misty-eyed again . . . heh, thanks guys. You rock.
Comments (14) | Permalink

Sunday, January 23, 2005

   To change up the mood a second . . .
Alright, for the record, I'm really not as upset and depressed as I probably make myself out to be. Despite what I may have listed off the other day, I'm really not doing that badly . . . I just have a Chaucerian pension for self-deprecation, is all. You must always remember this. Not to say that I never get upset about things, just that more often than not I wanna just convey life as it is . . . it's funny in how it's sometimes stupid and stuff, y'know?


That said, I have something insanely stupid to share. It's from eBaum's World, and it's just an animal acting silly with edited music . . . . . but the fact remains that I almost cried laughing as I watched it on my brother's laptop while lying across the top of the couch in the basement (heh, try to picture that!). In any case, here's Technopenguin:

http://media.ebaumsworld.com/index.php?e=technopenguin.wmv

I'll tell you about the funny employee sign at work next time. 'Til then, have a good one. Doei!
Comments (9) | Permalink

Saturday, January 22, 2005

   Full Moon Sways . . . Gentle in the Night of One Fine Day . . . . .
Let's see if I can pull off that linguistic magic tonight . . .

Alright, so I'm dog tired right now.
Bleach number 15 is downloading right now.
Chinese New Year is ramping up soon, so I'm getting all prepped for that (my club is getting set for lion and dragon dances in the next few weeks).
Duo, should you read this, Canada is currently up to episode 20 of Gundam Seed - I was way off, it seems.
Engrish songs have taken over my mind . . . silly Beck (the anime).
For the past couple days it hasn't rained all too much.
Gobstoppers continue to sit on my desk in my room unopened thus far . . . silly 'Beck (the Ojou-chan).
Hurting in my legs and arms since my body takes forever to recover after working out.
Irony of the rain is that it stopped right after I bought a new umbrella.
Just in case, though, they say we're getting 200mm of rain in the next 3-4 days.
Kung-Fu is making its way back into my weekly schedule again, which is good because I was starting to slack off too much; this comes at a good time, considering all the performances coming up in February.
Latin is still kicking my ass. Typical.
Missing one particular girl terribly and am hoping for her alrightness hourly.
Not too far off from above, I need to get back to another girl regarding a different girl I am also missing terribly.
Other day my bro left his police boots at home so I had to drive them to the precinct for him when I got home - that took up some time.
Potentially in a bit of tight money since I only work on Saturdays now and in the next month or so I need to do performances on Saturdays.
Quiz in Latin every Friday reminds me of how I should have just stopped after the second year of it.
Rain makes life sad when it falls in such great quantities.
Shinsengumi episodes are causing me grief since the torrents at D-Addicts aren't connecting for me so much right now.
Tired of school, want to graduate soon . . . know it's just a little longer . . .
Upstairs has water, orange juice, and/or coke. I think I need to do that right now.
"Veni, vidi, vici," Caesar dixit, sed nemo audivit, omnibus interfectis . . ."
Why I wrote the above, I shall never know . . . it's probably wrong, anyway . . .
Xenosaga: The Animation isn't half bad. People who've played the game might get a kick out of it, especially since the original Japanese seiyuu are reprising their roles.
Yearning for more Beck (the anime)! Come on, Anime Empire! Your fans await!
Zygo Catcus. Superstore doesn't sell these anymore.


Alright, bedtime. Night night . . .

What a fool,
I don't know 'bout tomorrow,
What it's like to be,
Ahhhhh . . .
I was sure,
Couldn't let myself to go,
Even though I feel . . .
. . . the end . . . . .
Comments (12) | Permalink

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

   And the rain rain rain came down down down . . . I must rescue my supper . . . . .
So, according to numbers in my " Early / Dark Age Greece" class, Greece gets an annual rainfall of about 300mm on average. It was just enough to grow wheat if it's a good year in the olden days . . . . .

In the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, we've gotten about 300mm of rain in the past 2-3 days . . .

Some call it a "tropical punch" from the South Pacific; a "pineapple express" gone awry. I call it bloody wet. In some areas of Vancouver and the surrounding cities, many places are heavily flooded and traffic has gone the way of poo . . . literally, in some cases where the sewers have overflowed out the drain grates and stuff! Luckily, I'm high up on a hill, so once I'm home I'm safe . . . but dang, they aren't closing schools, that's for sure!


Elsewhere in the country and continent, people are still freezing their bums off in all places east of me, as south as Florida (there was a good shot of that on the news last night), and other such stuff . . . . . considering the hurricane season, the tsunamis, and now this, this year or two hasn't been especially kind in terms of weather, has it?

All together now: Daaaaaang . . . . .


And as a sidenote, I changed the song. Heh, I dunno, I'm in a meloncholy mood since a few of my favourite girls are a little down and out. Heh, I'm sappy that way, yo.
Comments (17) | Permalink

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

   Funny thought . . .
Alright, so I'm not really back to getting all the Manga just yet, and I'm only focusing on redownloading all the newer animes for now. But, I found a good site to get most of my anime music back, so that's a step in the right direction, I think . . . oh yeah, for those of you inclined, they have episodes of "Xenosaga: The Animation" out now. It's not bad. Kinda funky to see scenes from the game in 2D animation, even if they do play around with the plot a bit.


Anyway, a day or two before that whole D: drive debacle, something funny kinda happened. "Legolas" MSN'ed me one night, saying that he downloaded my zipped "Cream Filling & Nougat" stories, saying that he's read my stuff before and figured they'd be good.

LIKEWISE, around that same time, another local friend of mine - let's see . . . let's call her . . . . . hmm . . . . . no good, decent LotR name pops up for her . . . . . alright, we'll call her "V-chan" since she somewhat goes by that anyway, a'ight? Anyway, she messaged me around that time as well, ALSO saying she downloaded those stories and was gonna read 'em whenever she got bored of studying and stuff (though she was quick to add that she didn't understand why I would name two cops "Cream Filling" and "Nougat").


Hehe . . . I TOTALLY forgot that oftentimes some of my local people check my myO page! I mean, I do recall that I've shown people myO before and what I've done at it, but it just never occurs to me that they just might pop in now and then. Of course, the REALLY good part came when suddenly I got all self-conscious with "V-chan", since, well . . . . . heh, I talk about my local people here sometimes . . . sometimes not in the best of lights . . . . other times, well . . . I'll put it this way:
You all recall "The Girl"? So do they.

Heh, "Legolas" has already needled me big time for all of that stuff . . . ah well . . . . . "V-chan" enjoyed my "Mulan" thing about term papers, in any case, so that's a plus.


And, since I'm out of ideas after that, I'm gonna rip off Panda-obasan's move and ask a question: do any of you guys tell your "face-to-face" friends about your myOtaku page or to visit it?
I, obviously, have. Most people just think it's quaint. Others use it as my 'new' webpage, seeing as I've all but abandoned my Angelfire one. I dunno, it never really comes up in regular conversation all too much unless I specifically bring it up (hey, I was proud of those stories back when I wrote 'em. I had to share!).


Anyway, I'd best get back to BT'ing all my anime back. Auf wiedersehen!
Comments (13) | Permalink

Saturday, January 15, 2005

   I think I might cry . . .
The D: drive on the older computer just kicked the bucket on me. Seeing as my computer knowledge is extremely limited, I only knew how to do so much . . . . . I probably messed something up in the process as well . . . but yeah, couldn't access the D drive, and everything else was loading slowly and stuff as well. Maybe it's viral, I don't know. In any case, the dreaded thing came up:

"This drive is not formatted. Would you like to do that now?"


So yeah, there goes all the games (not so important), all the music (a little more important), all the animes and shows I still had yet to burn off (pretty important, especially the large batch ones) . . . . . . and all of my scanlated mangas I never burned off . . . and let me tell ya, Naruto is at about chapter 244 right now, and I didn't burn off ANY of it . . . . . .

So yeah. Dang. Dang very much. Again I would like to state how much I hate machines, especially since they pretended to be our friends for so long. So yes, grr. Lots of grr.

Here's hoping the C drive's documents don't fall to the same fate - 'cause THAT would be crippling!
Comments (13) | Permalink

Thursday, January 13, 2005

   And we're done! Cream Filling & Nougat in Archived Posterity!!!
After about four nights of processing and zipping, I finally have the three current "Cream Filling & Nougat" stories in zipped Word Document files!!!

Not only do these contain the original stories in basically their original form (bad grammar and all!), but they ALSO come with classy little forewords where I just talk about their inception, creation, and execution!!! Uwah!!! Crazy!!! The craziness!!! The crazality of it all!!!

So yes, for those of you who have never heard of or read these stories and are curious as to what the suck everyone's talking about, here they are, in glorious .doc format! You may find them at the URL below:

http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/someguy/stories/creamnougat.html


Now that I've done this, my hope is that everyone might take the time to check these out a bit. They're kinda like my babies, y'know - 'sides, you all helped make 'em. I hope you enjoy the stories, regardless of how ridiculously long they actually are . . .
Comments (14) | Permalink

Monday, January 10, 2005

   Still Around . . . Sorta . . .
Alright, so it's about 12:30am my time. Basically I've spent the past half hour going through all my old posts and turning "Cream Filling & Nougat: World's Finest" into a useable .zip of Word documents. Tomorrow I'm gonna try to do the other two stories in a similar fashion, including little forewords by the author just sorta talking about them a little bit.

Why am I doing this? Well, if I'm gonna write another one of these damn things in the next month or two, I'm gonna need to fill in the people who haven't seen these, right? So, I'll have nice, readable (sorta) files for them to go through if they wanna read these earlier ones. So yeah, once I can I'll upload them to my Angelfire webspace, maybe make a little link-ish page for the zipped stories, and then people can get to them easily! Yay!

Hehe . . . but yeah, writing these little forewords are kinda fun . . . but, I'll still explain the whole story here in a regular post once it's closer to the time as well. 'Til then, I think/know I have school tomorrow, so I'd best head off. Peesh!
Comments (12) | Permalink