Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Acceptance of Cuteness

Have you ever seen a Japanese airline plane? Or their elementary school buses?
Check some of their school buses, for your viewing pleasure.

 As a whole, the Japanese have a great appreciation for aesthetic Cuteness that goes far beyond what we have here in the U.S.
Here, Cuteness is a quality that is linked to children and pet animals.
I am excluding the usage of the word 'cute' when applied to attractive females and males here.

According to tradition, at a certain age American boys are supposed to become 'men', symptoms of which include spurning cute stuff as childish and/or 'girly', sprouting facial and chest hair, choppin' down trees, making their own beef jerky and beatin' on their wives.

In conjunction with the increasing popularity of nerdiness/geekdom, Cuteness has gotten a massive boost in mainstream acceptance with such modern wonders as Lolcats, YouTube videos of cats and anthropomorphized pictures of other animals' faces. Seriously, it's done a lot to pave the way for guys to be able to say they find stuff cute. I attribute this to the coupling of Funny with Cute. If a guy just made a bunch of Cute stuff with kitties, I guarantee people would question his sexual orientation, but since it's a joke, it's all good.

A more recent case would be the burst of popularity for the show My Little Pony in a demographic that is most certainly not the target one: teenage to adult males. There are a lot of reasons these 'bronies' claim to like the show but since I haven't done my That looks like shit! Lemme watch it so I can talk about it routine I won't spew hate on something that I admit to knowing nothing about.
At first glance though, I suspect a healthy dose of hipsters-drinking-PBR class irony at play here.

Also, stuff like this makes it funny. Speaking of LOTR:



Monday, January 30, 2012

Dieting?

I hate dieting. By that I don't mean to say I hate TO diet, because I don't, at all. Ever. I'm thin by nature. I mean to say that I despise the notion that people have of eating less to lose weight in order to become thin. I sit here and I think to myself, "Eating too much is only one of your problems. You also aren't doing anything with yourself."
The worst thing is when I hear someone say they're dieting to lose weight, just for aesthetic reasons. Then I'm like, "Bitch, don't try to get skinny, get FIT!" There's a difference.

Fat, skinny, these are nothing by themselves. BE FIT EITHER WAY, DAMN IT.

Check out my boy here by the name of NO EXCUSES. Let 'im inspire ya.



And another seemingly 'fat' guy who is more awesome than you:



Ah, Sammo, so awesome.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Think



Well, this isn't one of the drafts but it was too good to let slip. Thanks to Mark for bringing it to my attention.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

LOTR and The Matrix

I've always thought of these two film trilogies as a sort of twin pairing:
The Matrix trilogy - Masterpieces of science fiction cinema.
LOTR trilogy - Masterpieces of high fantasy cinema.

Since I'm going to delve into the Matrix films in depth later on I won't waste text talking about them here.

Like any true Tolkien fan, I read the books long before the Peter Jackson films started development. And as a fan, I must say that Jackson did an excellent job with the material. Too often you get film adaptations that are mediocre at best. "The book was better" is a common mantra when it comes to dealing with those types of films. In this case I was supremely pleased to see that they weren't just some cash grab endeavour. I mean, look at that! Three books => three movies. You remember when The Fellowship of the Ring [2001] came out and everyone noted that it was a whopping three hours long? But then you went and saw it and didn't even notice? You came out of the theater and the sky was black and you thought to yourself, "Whoa, its been three hours?" That was me.
I have no doubt that if it were to be released today the studio would have decided to cut it in half and double their ticket sales.
That's not a dig at Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by the way. Sometimes its beneficial to have two movies rather than try to cram everything into one package.

I love The Matrix for making me think. The LOTR series doesn't have all those metaphysics and ontology issues. What it did was make me feel and make me love these characters. The movies did the same.

Sometimes I feel a sadness for Tolkien fans who died before they ever saw these movies. They missed out on something beautiful.


Friday, January 27, 2012

Annoyance #2: Planking? Naw....

Planking? Retarded.

I know, it's a little late to be commenting on it but the draft for this Post got buried beneath a massive burst of ideas that has left me with 23 drafts currently smouldering in the supply closet. I've determined to fully flesh them before writing brand-new material.
=======================================

Planking irks me. It wasn't the mainstream-ness of the phenomenon, particularly.
It was the lack of spirit.
At its best I believe the point of the exercise was to "Expose people to something strange and out of place." You're walking along when, "Hey, what's that guy doing lying there like that?" Naturally, at the zenith of planking's popularity people were just doing it so they could upload vapid Facebook photos of them in odd positions. Vapid, that word is so perfect for my feelings toward this activity. There's a factoid (yeah, I'm using this word properly) floating about from a man, Tom Green, who claims to have first planked in 1994. Well, ok, he lay down on a busy sidewalk and waited for reactions from passersby. You can see the resemblance to planking but, as no one really took note nor did the action spark the current phenomenon, I think we can safely say that Mr. Green does not actually hold any claim to inventing planking. An accolade I think he should be happy to have denied him. What he did could be considered performance art of sorts. Planking as it has become: pointless attention whoring.

I can't deny that part of my distaste for it stems from my foreknowledge of another phenomenon known as the Playing Dead game. Visually, these photos are just so much more interesting. Who could even argue?

That's cool. But after planking the stupidity got worse: owling. I think that one speaks for itself. (- -)

In contrast, check this photo out:
Update: Apparently this is known as 'batmanning'.


THAT'S COOL. Why don't more people do that instead?

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Drive [2011]

Yeah, haven't seen this tag in a while have you? Nevertheless, here's a movie for ya.

Drive was an odd one for me. As a whole it came across as slow, meditative; qualities I really like in my movies, man. Ryan Gosling played his stone-face character very well and the delicate romance he built up with Carey Mulligan worked, too. Opinions on that are mixed but I liked it. Granted, they didn't really have much of what you'd call 'chemistry' but I feel like that was fine. You know or should expect that our boy wasn't going to end the film driving off into a sunset with his girl. The piece just doesn't have enough sunshine in it for that to happen. It doesn't end tragic but it's no Disney either. And that is no insult.

The odd thing is that, despite possessing all these plus points in my book, I wouldn't go so far as to say I really like this movie. Yeah. Strange. It almost seems tailor made for me in some ways. Driver (he has no name) seldom spoke, something I love in my characters, dunno why. He kicks some serious ass without seeming like he has a character shield on. (TV Trope yourself a little if you are unfamiliar with that term.) And yet, my enjoyment of the film never rose any higher than the bar set by the opening sequence, which was amazing by the way.
Check it out:



Again, that's not to say the film was bad by any means. That was a high bar.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

All Hope Is Not Lost, Penny Pigtails #3

So anywayz, continuing from part 2.


#3. Nerds have gained wide acceptance and jocks have suffered a corresponding loss in popularity. On the other hand, a strain of anti-intellectualism continues to run strong here.

I mentioned that I'd talk about The Big Bang Theory later. Well, here it is! Personally, I don't care for the show but the popularity of it is heartening. There have been nerds in shows before but I don't know of a (successful and mainstream) show that has featured a cast of characters almost entirely consisting of socially awkward nerds. You know how cool that is? It's also understandable. Many more of us grew up the nerd or at most normal than the ones who were the varsity all-stars in high school, yes? And we're the ones who are making the shows that get put on TV, the ones who post stuff on Tumblr, 9gag, 4chan, etc. In this virtual world, our physical attractiveness (or lack of it (- -;;)7) doesn't hamper us in the slightest.

Nevertheless, despite the advancements we've had in popular culture on that front, there is still an abiding mistrust of 'eggheads' and 'experts'. 
Here's a fine article from the Dean of Arts & Sciences at UVA touching on the subject.
On the low end, there's a pervasive sentiment for 'keepin' it real', which I attribute to dumb-asses and the remnants of the brawn-over-brain cadre. On the high end, you have people who have already embedded themselves within the establishment and want the masses to stay bovine and docile.


=====================
P.S. Since Blogger implemented the new comment reply system every time I click on a blog name in the Feed the new page opens up and jumps straight to the Reply box at the bottom of the Comments. This is annoying. Is this only happening to me?

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

All Hope Is Not Lost, Penny Pigtails #2

As I said in the previous post, I've done quite a bit of activist stuff here in the past week. It had to be done but I don't want to inundate my blog with that stuff. We shouldn't always be On, you know?

So anywayz, continuing from part 1.

We live in some interesting times, people. No, no, I'm not even referring to so-called "important" stuff like politics and shit. I'm talking about the polarity between Awesome and Suck that defines American society today. I will elaborate.

Monday, January 23, 2012

I Seem To Have Lost My Thread

Whoops. All that excitement led me way off the trail and now I notice that I have quite a few irons in that fire, Matrix, Infernal Affairs, Penny Pigtails and what-have-you. Enough activism for now, from me, I think.


Sunday, January 22, 2012

EX mode Boss Monster: MPAA

So it seems like we get to see the true form of this beast. After the KO we gave those bills last week, one of the masterminds behind the scenes, MPAA, came out with this gem:

"Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake."

These words spoken by Chris Dodd, MPAA spokesman. It's been an open secret that big business lobbies for buys legislation but its always been more or less "under the table". Apparently, there's no need for that kind of cloak-and-dagger stuff now, MPAA just threatened the politicians directly.

Voter apathy has plagued the U.S. since I before I was born but I hope the action all of us netizens have been galvanized into will translate into poll participation when the time comes.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

How Great is the Internet? \(⊙ ワ ⊙)/

Here's an example of how amazing the internet can be. So a group of us Sasuke fans started to notice that a lot of the music used on the program sounded familiar. Most obviously to me was the ending credits song: "Victory" from the Naruto soundtrack. Not too hard for most to identify since Naruto is one of those mainstream anime series. But then things got harder.
"This song sounds so familiar, but what is it?! WHAT IS IT?!?!
"Oh, I knew I heard it from somewhere. It's from Chicken Run [2000]."
Then the pool of knowledge dries up to puddle size: "What is that music that plays when the camera pans over Stage 2's obstacles during Sasuke 22?"



What the fuck, right? That's almost an impossible task. How the hell am I supposed to find that straw of knowledge in the haystack of all the music ever created? Well, damn, Internet to the rescue! Lookie here, someone comes in and tells us that the song is called "Operation Room" and it comes from a PS3 game called Mobile Suit Gundam: Target in Sight, a.k.a. Crossfire in the U.S.
Without this "internet" thing, how would i have found that? Asking my family members? Neighbors? How far can I reach from my chair? Across the world, apparently. (^___^)

Friday, January 20, 2012

Already Bad with DMCA, Straight Fucked With SOPA/PIPA

Megaupload got black-bagged on Thursday. This is what will happen all the time under SOPA/PIPA. We're not on the slippery slope anymore, guys. We're going over the edge, make no mistake about that.

On the plus side, both bills got shelved because of our show of opposition! The People ain't so retarded after all, eh?

Still, the problem hasn't disappeared. We've only won a battle, not the war. Those big companies are still circling and they still have DMCA. The link will take you to more information. It's a good article.

Piracy is crime, no doubt about that. Criminals do what they do. But guess what? Censorship isn't the right way to fight it. Let's look at this fact: A lot of people pirate music. Yeah, you know who we you are. And, yes, people used sites like Megaupload to do it. But guess what happens now that you've taken that site down? Music pirates everywhere cry out and reluctantly buy stuff?


Naw, man. They go somewhere else. Hear this, record companies: It's easy to download music. Let me say that again. It's easy to download music. Oh, did you notice the word I left out? I didn't say "illegally". Betcha didn't notice that the first time, didja? But have you heard of iTunes? Do you know how much money iTunes pulls in? Oh, hey look at that. Millions of dollars that people didn't have to spend but did anyway. How do you explain that? People are WILLING to pay money for products they want. Revolutionary and shocking, I know. Don't tell me they didn't know how to download mp3s either, man. That's weak.

Change always threatens part of the Establishment. It's a fact of reality. Get with the digital times or you'll go the way of Kodak, you guys.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

YouTube and Internet Validation(?)

So if you surf YouTube as much as I then you've probably done your share of Related Video chaining and therefore, you should have run into plenty of shitty videos that suckered you into clicking on them because of their high view numbers. If you are a smart guy like me you probably cursed and wished you could see the Rating on the video before clicking on it. That way you'd know if it had earned its eleventy million views or if you're just going to the latest derp on the top of the herp heap. I present to you this excellent browser extension: here. It comes in Firefox, Chrome and even Safari flavor.

In other news, speaking of YouTube Ratings, only twice have I managed to post one of the Top Rated comments on a YouTube video. By Thor's hammer, what an accomplishment...
(- -___)=3

#1 - Yelle - A Cause Des Garçons
#2 - The Proclaimers - 500 Miles

Was I trying to get lots of Likes? Nope. Did I feel a great surge of pride or victory when I saw my comment within the top ranks? .... Nope. ╮(╯_╰)╭
People should stop hunting for Thumbs Ups... Make your comments clever, poignant or pertinent, guys, come on.

Click those links to watch the nice video, but I don't know when you'll be reading this post so I can't guarantee that my comment will still be there. My comment for the tecktonik vid will be about 2 years old now so it got shuffled under long ago.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

SOPA/PIPA

I considered doing one of the "go dark" things but I think my little blog here would better serve the cause with some information.



Here are some good links for more. Since you're here visiting my blog I'm going to make the assumption that, unlike most Americans, you read things you don't have to and might even like reading things.

http://www.fark.com/2012/sopapipa/
http://blog.reddit.com/2012/01/technical-examination-of-sopa-and.html
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41911.pdf

If you don't live in the U.S. just know this: if you frequent sites with domain names of .com or .org your virtual "neighborhood" falls within our grasp.

I don't know about you but I look across my Bookmarks toolbar and I see this.


http://chadrocco.deviantart.com/art/SOPA-PIPA-Executive-E-Motions-280090484
The big companies backing SOPA/PIPA didn't want "their" money going to the artists then and they aren't concerned about any money going or not going to artists now.

You know what? I don't think anyone really believes the propaganda these big organizations are putting out. Really, they just want you to do nothing. They win that way, too.

============================================
Over the past few days I've become more and more cognizant of the fact that things weren't simpler when I was a kid, I was just ignorant and blind. That's not self-deprecation, by the way. Honestly, I believe that at that age it isn't good to have all kinds of heavy issues laid on an undeveloped mind. A part of growing up is discovering that reality isn't so simple after all. Yeah, now that I'm on this side of 20 I can see that a lot of these "adults" never grew up when they were supposed to.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Tila Tequila: What Do You Think?

I almost labelled this post with the 'racism' tag but I realized I'm being over-zealous. This post does not, in fact, concern racism. It just had something to do with race.

As you all should know, I appreciate the aesthetics of females of the Asian persuasion. Just so we can establish that bit of foundational information.

On to the specimen in question though. Tila Tequila.


If you've never heard of her, that's good. I would best describe her as one of those "MTV personalities". You know, the kind whose entire career is built on ostentatious behaviour for the sake of entertainment, such that you can't really tell where the real person starts and the fake on-screen persona stops anymore. I direct this question primarily to my non-Asian readers:
Is she hot?
Or even pretty? I have to tell you, with the benefit of my trained eye, she has an oddly shaped face. Is she what you would call 'exotic'?

I know I'm not the first to make this joke, but when I first saw her on her "reality show" I said, "Damn, she looks like an alien."

I mean, really.

Monday, January 16, 2012

The Oprah Winfrey Show

Did anyone else catch the episode titled: "Black For A Day"? Normally, I'm actually not a fan of her show but my uncle happened to be watching it this afternoon and it focused on a topic I have much interest in: Racism.

Her "guests" of the day were a couple of people who actually went undercover in the guise of different ethnicities to see how people treated them differently. For example, a black man used make-up to take on the appearance of a white man, a white man took pills that darkened his skin to that of a black.

I won't say it was "eye-opening" for me. It would probably be eye-opening for white Americans though. They're always so surprised when they "discover" that racism still survives today. "I didn't know people like that still existed! I mean, sure there are racists, but I didn't expect them here!" Or "I didn't know it was still so bad!"

I will say that racism in this country has mostly moved to a passive state. Things are better than they used to be. Most people aren't openly racist anymore. Moreover, most don't think they're racist. You might ask me, "What's the difference?" Well, let me tell you there is a difference. On the other hand, the passive variant has proven harder to uproot. The problem lies in the method and the awareness.

With regards to method: Education on the matter, actual contact with those people; these things increase tolerance (this works for religion, too). They do! But beyond that... what can we do? You can't force a person to treat everyone fairly, to consider everyone equally. Where do you draw the line? It will be too late when you listen to the evening news and hear, "Today, City Thought Police raided a local supermarket for discriminatory actions toward colored patrons."
For awareness: Well, as I said, everyone likes to think we've come sooo far, and yes, we have. But complacency is the stupidest thing we could possibly choose to reward ourselves with for that achievement. I mean, come on guys. "We done good. Let's take a break for a few decades." That's retarded.

================================
You might have noticed that I've filled this post with links to comedians' bits regarding racism. Well, yeah, they're funny and some of my favorites but also what did you expect? News articles? Hahahaha, bless your soul. Here in America, we can't rely on "journalists" or politicians to deal with scary, scary reality anymore. I, and many others, have turned to comedians to cut the shit these days.


Sunday, January 15, 2012

Ahhh Tumblr!

Damn guys. I thought I only had one soul to lose but Tumblr's plethora of animated gifs has me scrollin' endlessly.

Not to worry, though. I'm not leaving this place. Got too much to say. (^_^)

Saturday, January 14, 2012

I Look Like This

In the interest of fairness to Z-girl, who looks like this:

I present a cartoonized image that looks like me!


The T-shirt has the character for  Knowledge. The line reads something like "I'm always logical/reasonable/justified".

Friday, January 13, 2012

All Hope Is Not Lost, Penny Pigtails #1

===================================================
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:
I may use more colorful language in this blog from this point on. By that I mean profanity. True, I haven't been stingy with it thus far but I just want you forewarned to the increased levels of it in the days to come. There's a quote by some clever wag floating around saying something to the effect of "the use of course language betrays a feeble intellect" (Delivered in a posh and condescending accent). Well, that's witty and all but entirely rhetorical and unfounded on real life. I've known many foul-mouthed intellectuals and a good number of well-spoken fools. I have no doubts you all have made acquaintances of your own shares, eh?
===================================================

 Now on to the post topic.

We live in some interesting times, people. No, no, I'm not even referring to so-called "important" stuff like politics and shit. I'm talking about the polarity between Awesome and Suck that defines American society today. I will elaborate.

#1. As a whole, the U.S. has become more secular. Say what you want about how the Founding Fathers created a nation with a separation between church and state. It didn't happen. In the letter, sure, maybe. In practice, no. You can see evidence attesting to that fact on our currency, in the various rituals both legal (...and nothing but the truth so help you God?) and political (one nation, under God, indivisible) and, of course, looking at the population that lives here. Christianity still has a nominally solid hold on America but I am pleased to say that most people only pay lip service to their professed faith.
d-(^__________^)-b
You only have to observe a person in the course of their daily life to discover this. What drives a person? What concerns weigh on his/her mind? Thankfully, these days religion features in fewer of these answers. I attribute this to a generally wealthier (yes, even now) and more public institutionally educated society. Most people these days don't learn their "Readin', 'Ritin' and 'Rithmetic" in a one room schoolhouse on which the townspeople keep an eye to ensure their children aren't being taught witchcraft and devil worship. For better or worse, the typical contemporary's motivations tend toward the selfish. That's good! Fewer and fewer people let sexually repressed male virgins priests dictate how they should live their lives.
Furthermore, tolerance is well on the rise, especially my generation and up (or is it down?). Younger. My generation and younger. At least, it grows where the bigoted parents don't find it in time. I once encountered a white cab driver who told me all about how he had done his part to keep the "great Amurrican nayshun" clean by marrying a white woman and having a pure-blood white child. Otherwise, he remained perfectly civil and polite. (A well-spoken fool, no?) I think he truly meant it when he said he'd "done his part" as he betrayed no palpable malice towards my yellowness. I suppose his love of green overcame it, maybe? After helping me with my bags he assured me that his son would grow up indoctrinated with his ideals. Then he bid me good night and left.
Ok, that story had to do with race not religion but extrapolate the message yourself.

Do remember that I speak in generalities. I live here. Before you respond to me with all kinds of anecdotal evidence of fanaticism, excerpts from Fox News broadcasts, etc., recall that I'm an anti-religious Chinese male in America. I know plenty about societal prejudice.

Now if only I was, I dunno, an unattractive (<-this is important) female Jewish Middle Eastern Muslim Nazi Communist who grew up in the ghetto THEN I'd be an expert, eh? Eh? hahahahaha

Once again, I find I'm going to have to split this post for the sake of digestibility.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

So Why Another Blog?

In case you wondered what motivated me to want to make a blog about old stuff, it was this image I found a few days ago.


I realized some people might not get the reference. Yeah! I know, right? Sometimes it seems odd to me that some people have never heard something or never seen something I consider to be an integral thread in the fabric of popular culture. Like the Mario Brothers. Or The Proclaimers. Even if most people only know them by that one song.

As with this very blog you're reading, the second blog is only partly for the sake of readers. I really want to make a personal chronicle of things that have left their mark on my own perception of pop culture's tapestry, too. Everyone else can come along for the ride. (^_^)-b

Incidentally, I believe many of the new generation will have had their first exposure to this song through (what else?) television. Specifically one gag from an episode of Family Guy and one episode from How I Met Your Mother. A round of applause for the writing teams for these two shows please. Someones in there know what is up. (^_^)-b*twinkle

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

The Other Place

So it turns out I didn't really have a good idea of what Tumblr was before setting out to make an account, haha. As is my wont, I thoroughly researched it, posthaste. The best description I found for it, and it's really very accurate, is this: "Tumblr is a cross between blogging and Twitter." That neatly encapsulates what this platform does, right there. Unlike this real blogging thing we have here, where we write paragraphs and insert multiple pictures to create a solid article about stuff we care about, on Tumblr you pretty much post a pic and write a caption or a short blurb of what you think about it. In addition, your Tumblr page will feature Tumblr posts you've Liked and Tumblr posts that you've "reblogged" from other people. It's really a completely different creature from Blogger and regular blogging, it even has its own term: "microblogging". Hey, look! I used "it's" and "its" properly!

==========================

 The commenting system only allows people you are Following to comment on your stuff. I suppose this cuts down on troll responses and such but it really limits the amount of feedback, doesn't it? You'd have to have the guy you're Following Follow you before any commenting could happen.
(- -__)

Lastly, and perhaps most egregiously, someone took the URL "onetofu.tumblr.com".

AND ALL HE EVER DID WAS REBLOG A SINGLE POST FROM A K-POP FAN'S TUMBLR. A YEAR AGO. That's it. A REBLOG. NOT EVEN ONE ORIGINAL POST. 

Bugger and blast him for wasting such a fine URL. 

So I had to adjust. It's fitting, though, since Tumblr is all about being more compact, eh?

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Costco Hot Dog Almost 3 Decades Later: Still $1.50

Do you guys have a Costco in your area? More to the point, do you shop there? If you do then you've seen the food court and you've probably noticed this offering.

They stopped offering the Polish Sausage at my Costco about 10 years ago, though.
I hadn't really given it much thought previously, but that is a pretty good deal these days! Good on you, Costco. The story and history behind the "Hot Dog Combo" really makes for some surprisingly interesting reading!

Feel free to check out this article if you want. I'm a pretty jaded guy but I really would like to believe that the Costco company is a nice place to work and shop.
 
=========================================


Yeah, I was feeling hungry when I wrote this. In other news, I'm thinking about starting a Tumblr micro-blog(?) so I can more easily follow them. Furthermore, I think I'm going to start another blog(spot) devoted to posting classic stuff from my childhood. That one won't have a post-everyday schedule like this one though.

Monday, January 9, 2012

How I Tie My Shoelaces

I've noticed that a lot of people keep their shoelaces tied at all times. They just slip them off and on when needed. I always untie and retie my own. In the past when I used the slip-on method my shoelaces would fray very quickly.

In order to minimize the inconvenience factor I learned to speed-tie the laces.

Lifehacks. Enjoy.


Sunday, January 8, 2012

Ninja Warrior Fucking Sucks

EDIT 7/27/12 : I originally embedded a video clip from Sasuke 10 but it has since been removed.

Ninja Warrior is trash. The editors took out all the emotional footage and pared each episode down to bare footage of the competitors taking on the obstacles. Then they added instant replays with the American narrator making bad puns. Fuck you, G4. It's disrespectful to the competitors when their hard efforts are wrapped and sent off with snarky comments. The Japanese commentators make jokes but they actually care, too.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Controller Redux

Just tying up some loose ends for this run of posts:
Console Controllers of the Big Three
The Playstation Controller 
The Xbox Controller
The pre-GameCube Nintendo Controllers

===============================================

Mark, I envy you for not having any issues with the PlayStation controller. Two fingers works fine for you, but it doesn't for me. Some of you might be like Mark, you might have no troubles with controller balance. But then, there were people who liked the original "Duke" Xbox controller. They probably had big hands, but my point stands. (Hey, that rhymes.)
----------------------------
While re-reading my Controller of Big Three post I noticed what might be construed as a contradiction I had made. I pointed out that I could use middle fingers for the triggers with the Xbox ctrllr then I proceeded to say that I naturally hold it with three fingers. These are both true. The ctrllr is balanced such that I can hold it with two or three fingers equally comfortably. The same holds true for the Gamecube ctrllr, but not for the PS ctrllr.
----------------------------
The Wii-mote is, in a word, wonderful. I won't post a dedicated entry for it because, well, I just don't have anything bad to say about it. The Wii remote itself feels perfectly natural, the motion capture technology works accurately and precisely. Ok, the latter has nothing to do with ergonomics but I felt I should give it due praise. The Nunchuk accessory also feels perfectly natural in hand, the cord comes with an agreeable length, not too long, not too short. So... yeah. Nothing much to say there. Well done, Nintendo. (O_O)-b
----------------------------
Check out the original design of the PS ctrllr:

 If you want to know more about what happened before we got the current iconic design just read this article.

===============================================
So there you go. I'll just leave you with these odds and ends which are related to consoles and such.

Ctrllr anatomy.
Medals from the Console Wars.
Left from top to bottom: SNES, NES, Sega Genesis.
Right: XBOX 360, PS-Could-be-Anything, Dreamcast.

End of the Console Wars. Most of us never cared that much anyway.


Friday, January 6, 2012

Southern Hospitality

What do I think of when I hear the phrase "Southern Hospitality"?

Images like this:

http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/details.php?categorynum=16&theRecord=69&recordCount=74

And scenes like this. Oh, sorry, not that one.

This one @4:14.



Sins may be forgiven, but never forgotten.

Cheers.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Upcoming Matrix Trilogy Discourse

By the way, I'd first like to reassure you guys that I haven't forgotten my intention to do a watch-along of the Infernal Affairs trilogy [2002-2003] and a comparison review of The Departed [2006], nor has my rage concerning the latter diminished in the slightest. Just so's ya know.
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Recently, I was FB chatting with a friend about something or other when the topic of The Matrix came up. Oh, wait, I remember. I happened to be watching part of the Animatrix, "World Record" at the time.

You know how I'm filled with boundless rage when it comes to some things like stupidity, ignorance, racism and bad storytelling? Well, when it comes to The Matrix an opposite reaction occurs. You must understand that when I say, "I love the Matrix" this is a massive understatement. The Matrix is one of the foremost reasons why I am glad to have lived beyond the 90s. Not that I'm suicidal, quite the opposite, in fact. While I firmly believe that decade to have been one of the greatest in the history of movie and television pop culture, The Matrix restored my faith in a future that could hold new wonders. Never before had such deep philosophical material been presented in such... palatable form for the masses.

And yet. There were those who saw it as nothing more than what it might seem: an action movie. An exercise in cutting-edge special FX. Or some who just missed the point altogether. My friend in question- you know what?
I have yet to give her an alias, despite having mentioned her on several occasions! Drumroll please. Henceforth she shall be known as Z-girl. So shall it be. <( ̄_ ̄)>

Remember this?
She said she remembered it mostly being about "man vs machine". Oh, dear. Ya know, it is very strange. I've told you before about how she has some kind of immunity to making me angry. Well, the glasses thing made me annoyed but this incident almost tipped me over the edge. Good thing we were only FB chatting so I had an opportunity to filter my response hahahaha. I believe I still got out something like, "You want Man vs. Machine? Go watch Terminator!!" or some such. In person there would have been expletives. Name calling. And other inflammatory remarks.

So, yeah. Look forward to it, guys. If you didn't like The Matrix or thought it was dumb, go die in a fire. Cheers!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

A Urinal: Bad Design, Good Ad.

If you recall this post then you should have all the knowledge you need to make an educated assessment of this image.

As you should now know, if you give guys something to aim at, they will do so. This is good advertising but, dare I say, piss poor design? *teehee*

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Zombies

I don't have anything in particular to post today, so I'm going to give you my best zombie images.

I don't know why it didn't occur to me but Diseased *IS* a good way to describe the pseudo-zombies.

I'd give Santa a pass this year. Let him stay in the safety of the frigid north.

Asians and weaboos should get this one.




Monday, January 2, 2012

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Hope everyone had a nice holiday, and didn't get super drunk like I did. (- -___)



In other news, I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson in two days. I then proceeded to watch the Swedish film. It has been too long since I've read a good book or watched a good movie. I remedied both. Yay!! New Year is off to a great start.

Oh wait, wrong book.