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In The News: Sunday, 13 June 2010

2010-06-13T20:11:00.001+03:00

Well, this is a really short post, only to bring you up-to-date with things:

On Monday, 31 May, the blog had its birthday, turning 4 years old. Happy Birthday!
On Sunday, 4 June, I graduated university. Congratulations! Still have my degree thesis to finish though...
I'm going to be writing articles for the MtG site, DeckConstruct, be sure to check them out, starting Monday, 14 June.
I saw some really good anime and some really bad movies, can't wait to review them
I have a Twitter account, and you can follow more regular updates there, however, the blog will still remain the place where I give make my reviews and give my opinions on stuff.

That's all. See you around.

A Hell Made of Bullets

2010-06-13T20:02:00.002+03:00

If you browse Danbooru as much as I do, you’ll notice it’s full of Touhou characters. I think if you browsed randomly, there’d be no page without at least one such image. So, like any curious person, I thought I’d look into it. I knew it was a game, but I expected it to be some sort of game in which the personalities of the characters are thoroughly displayed, which would explain why they are so loved by everyone. I was extremely surprised when I found out that the games are probably the worst genre to showcase characters: a top-down space shooter!

Well, I call it “space shooter” to distinguish it from the term “arcade shooter” (like The Chaos Engine), but it doesn’t actually take place in space. I’m actually pretty fond of shooters, but there are two things I hate about them: if your ammo is limited and you die from a single hit. Well, I can say this about the Touhou games, at least you don’t run out of ammo.

But before I look into the games themselves, let me talk about the Touhou Project as a whole. Interestingly enough, it is a doujin game. Remember that term? Doujin? It featured in my video review of When Seagulls Cry [Umineko no Naku Koro ni]. Ah, you mean to say I didn’t release that one yet? Don’t worry, it’s still in the works. So, a doujin game, or comic, or whatever is an amateur creation, usually a fanfic spin-off, but not necessarily. It has huge support in

Japan

and you can actually make it big with such productions. Touhou is a prime example. The whole production team behind the project features a single man, ZUN, who did the programming, art, music, everything. Commendable, considering the project is at its 12^th title.

The project mostly follows two main characters, Hakurei Reimu, a shrine maiden, and Kirisame Marisa, a western-type witch, who do all sorts of things to save Gensokyo, the place of the Touhou games, from all sorts of disasters brought about by evil spirits.

Some of the features which are constant in the project are the weapons and behaviours of the characters. Reimu fires homing shots, or otherwise covers a large area of the screen, while being quite slow, whereas Marisa deals large amounts of damage directly in front of her, and has considerable higher movement speeds than her eastern counterpart. Also, by collecting drops from the enemies, you can improve the spread/power of your weapon (depending on character), but you can never change your firing mode. Also, by holding down a certain key, you enter a so-called “focus mode”, in which you move a lot more slowly and smoothly, while concentrating fire in front of you, this being useful when dodging the shots of bosses, and believe me, there are plenty to dodge. You may also use “spell cards”, which other games call bombs or whatnot, which clear the screen of enemies and at the same time render you invulnerable for a limited amount of time. The important feature of spell cards is that if you press them right after being hit by an opponent, they will still trigger, which allows you to barely survive the shot. Mastering this technique, as well as flawless dodging, are the keys to defeating the game.

The first title to appear on the PC was the 6^th game, and I’ve played them starting with that. I’m going to tell you my opinion about them, write a little something about each that I’ve played.

Touhou 6 – Embodiment of Scarlet Devil

If you plan on playing Project Touhou, I suggest you start with this game. It is probably the most iconic, as it introduces the main characters (on the PC at least), as well as important bosses, such as Cirno, Hong Meirin, Patchouli Knowledge, Sakuya Izayoi, and Remilia Scarlet. It is pretty hard. I didn’t manage to finish the game on normal difficulty, not even using 3 continues. I always lost a lot of lives fighting Sakuya Izayoi at the end of stage 5, and by the time I got to the final boss, Remilia Scarlet, at the end of stage 6, I had very little chances of beating her. However, the game is very good as it introduces the mechanics of the series and, like I’ve said, introduces the characters. Also, this is the only one I’ve played which is 100% in English.

Touhou 7 – Perfect Cherry Blossom

This one had an error when I tried to open the archive, so I didn’t get to play it. Moving on…

Touhou 7.5 – Immaterial and Missing Power

This one had a different error, and wouldn’t start either. I read that it’s a fighting game, which must be interesting, but there’s another one down the line which I’ve played, so I guess it’s ok to skip this one too.

Touhou 8 – Imperishable Night

This is my favourite in the series. It has an interesting mechanic, which implies changing the firing mode of a character while being in focus mode. The reason for this is that you actually play as a pair of characters, a human one and a youkai, some sort of spirit. When you focus, you actually activate your youkai, which fires in a different way. This is a pretty cool mechanic. Once you finish the game and obtain the good ending (by not using up a continue), you are allowed to play with single characters, either human or youkai, retaining your firing style. Also, the story goes that something strange has happened to the moon and an eternal night threatens the land. You start the game at 11:00 PM and you5:00 AM. You have a certain number of “time points” to accumulate each level. If meet the quota, the timer moves only 30 minutes, but if you don’t it moves 1 hour. If you reach 5:00 AM, you get a bad ending. You gain time points by either shooting and killing enemies while in human mode, or by dodging shots while in youkai mode. Also, it seemed to me that this game was easier than the rest, since I managed to finish the game and get a normal ending (used 1 continue) on the first try. I totally recommend this one.

Touhou 9 – Phantasmagoria of Flower View

This one is weird. It features a strange side-by-side battle interface, reminiscent of Puyo Puyo. I don’t really understand how it works, but from what I’ve seen, if you engage your charged attack (which is different from your spell cards), a version of yourself appears over at the enemies side and attacks him/her. Also, besides your enemy, there are mobs flying al over your screen, as well as your opponent’s. This one isn’t particularly hard, but I just didn’t like it.

Touhou 9.5 – Shoot the Bullet

This one is very interesting. It has a different gameplay from the other ones. You play as Aya Shameimaru, a tengu (hyena spirit) reporter, and you need to take close-up pictures of the spirits threatening the land for the headlines. You get to meet a lot of the bosses from the other games and your only weapon is your camera. In this game, you face off bosses only and you need to take a certain number of snapshots of each one of them. When you take a snapshot, the bullets in the captured frame disappear, but you have to wait a few seconds for the film to load. Also, if you don’t get the boss itself in the frame, the snapshot doesn’t count towards your quota. The gameplay is interesting, but it gets hard very fast. It’s really enjoyable, but more than that, I loved the flavour of it. Aya became my favourite character, because she is willing to risk herself like a true reporter. Sure, when you’re a witch it’s normal to fight off evil spirits to save the world, but she’s just a tiny wittwe spiwit, so her courage is admirable. Thumbs up for Aya Shameimaru!

Touhou 10 – Mountain of Faith

This one probably sets the standard for the newer Tohou games. The cast of playable characters is reduced to the original two: Hakurei Reimu and Kirisame Marisa. This time though, they have three fighting styles, instead of the original two, so you basically get 6 characters. The power level of your attack is made a lot more visible, since when you gain an extra level, an orb appears next to you, and it’s this orb which releases the extra shots. Also, the spell card system has been modified, since now you don’t have any, instead, when you use a spell card, you lose one power level. This has its ups and downs. The positive aspect is that you can recover spell cards pretty quickly, however, if you’re not good at dodging and rely on your spell cards too much, you’ll end up facing the boss at level 0 pretty fast. Also, the continue system has been changed. You only start with 2 lives (which is a really small amount, in my opinion) and you have unlimited continues, however, when you use up a continue, you start from the beginning of the stage, instead of where you were at. The game itself isn’t that hard, but the fact that you have to finish each stage in just two lives makes it a bit annoying, rather than challenging.

Touhou 10.5 – Scarlet Weather Rhapsody

This is the fighting game I’ve been talking about. I really liked it. The gameplay and graphics are nice (using chibi characters), and if you’re into the characters, you’ll enjoy pitching them one against the other in full contact magic-enhanced combat rather than the usual top-down shooting battles. If you’re playing the singleplayer campaign, you’ll have to fight the characters one after the other in classic tournament style, however, when you deplete a character’s health bar, they activate their spell cards, and will proceed to kill you using a pattern of strong attacks. While they use their spell cards, the characters can’t be knocked down or interrupted, and they usually fill the screen with shots, but we’re used to that by now. Overall I think it’s a really nice adaptation.

Touhou 11 – Subterranean Animism

The gameplay in this one is pretty much a copy of Mountain of Faith. There is not much to say, except that they changed the attack forms of the characters and that they are really shitty this time around. I only played this up to the second or third stage, and really didn’t get into it that much. The feeling in this one is closer to Embodiment of Scarlet Devil than is that of Mountain of Faith, however, I still think I liked Mountain of Faith more, since the attacks were what I was used to. Also, in this one, using a spell card will only make you invincible, without clearing the stage, which is pretty lame sometimes. But in the end, I think both Mountain of Faith and Subterranean Animismare far down in my list, just above Phantasmagoria of Flower View.

So, that’s all for Touhou. I haven’t played the newer games, and I’m not really into them that much. Like I said, I just wanted to get to know the characters a little better, and for that purposes, it worked. It is pleasant to recognise the characters when I browse Danbooru lately. If you’re interested in finding out a bit about them, or just want to play a shooter and test your skill, I recommend you try the games, at least for a few minutes.

Next time, Rebuilding the Awesomeness.

Friend Fact:

Favourite ice cream flavour? Definitely stracciatella. Also, I have this concept that there are two kinds of ice cream: fruits and nuts. When you eat fruits, you should only have fruit flavours (strawberry, banana, pineapple, peach, pumpkin), and when you eat nuts, you should only have nut flavours in it (coconut, coffee, walnut, caramel, mint). I know some aren’t fruits and some aren’t nuts, that’s just the name I gave them. Also, chocolate and vanilla are the two flavours which go with both kinds.

Kiddy Bleh...

2010-05-16T01:14:00.001+03:00

Actually, I had intended to write a summary of some anime I’ve finished recently, as well as ongoing anime that I’m currently watching. Then I decided to split that post into two: one with the anime I’ve finished, and one with the ongoing ones. In the end, this anime got it’s own post, because it’s so special… it makes me want to puke.

I had written two posts about the sequel to my beloved Kiddy Grade, one in which I discussed the awesomeness of the teaser, and one (not so long ago), in which I talked about how bad it turned out to be. I still wanted to review it, so I forced myself to watch it through till the end. It actually took me a while, because the subbing group I was originally following decided to drop it. Since my PC doesn’t run HD, I had a hard time finding a decent SD sub. It seems like no one wanted to sub this. Reminds me of another series, whose sequel was so bad that people avoided touching it with a ten-foot pole. Yes, I’m talking about Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino-. The thing is, that was a much better sequel to the original than this anime is. However, deep inside my broken heart, I am very much in denial, and keep believing that this is actually a spin-off, and the true Kiddy Grade 2, Kiddy Generation (or whatever title it was supposed to have) will one day surface to shine.

Ok, let’s jump head first into this juicy pool of crap… Let’s start of by analysing the characters. When I first saw the teaser, I couldn’t tell which character is which. I mean, I expected a hot-headed Éclair-wannabe and a rational Lumière-copy. But the teaser showed two girls whose personalities you couldn’t make out just from their looks. I was expecting magnificent, new characters, with unique personalities. Instead, I got one-dimensional blandness. Let me explain: Éclair was indeed rash and tomboyish, but she changed so much throughout the series, and had a compassionate motherly side to her which made her lovable; while Lumière was not just some stuck up smartass damsel in distress, but was genuinely elegant and would many times take initiative to act.

Q-feuille and Ascoeur are nothing like that… in the bad sense of the word. Asceour is not hot-headed or rash, she is outright stupid and fumbling. Nothing she says can be taken seriously. There are some really strong moments in the series (surprisingly), which are ruined by her bad personality (I’ll get to these later). Q-feuille seems like a character added only to balance out the stupidity of her partner, and she’s not doing a good job at it. They seem more like a Japanese comedy duo, Ascoeur being the boke and Q-feuille providing the tsukkomi. It is pathetic… Also, since Ascoeur is supposed to be the silly one, I guess that’s why they changed the character design, since she originally looked too much like Lumière, and wouldn’t do.

Then, at one point in the story, we are introduced to Di-air. She is the third member of the team, and is pretty much a third wheel, to the entire story no less! I think the whole series would have been better off without her. She seems so useless, providing nothing but comic relief, the introduction of her pet TAMA seriously destroying character interaction and conversations. I want to forget about her as fast as possible.

I’m not going to talk about their ship and robot, because quite frankly, I didn’t think much about them. Unlike La Muse/Wirbelwind and Donnerschlag, which you become really fond of, and feel the characters’ sorrow at their loss, Mistral and Typhon strike no emotional importance and are seen, at least through my eyes, as disposable machinery.

I am going to talk about the villains, however. They seem like the most interesting characters in the story. Sure, Geacht’er has a serious sister complex, making every girl (possibly even Shade) around him his sister princess, but besides that, they seem like really interesting characters. They each have tragic backgrounds and owe Geacht’er their life, which is repaid through their unquestioned loyalty. It is interesting to see, however, how some villains defect from his cause when they find out the true nature of his actions, while some remain loyal.

Now, I’m going to go into the story somewhat, since that’s all that’s left to talk about. The general story is almost ok, but there are some really annoying filler episodes. If you watch Kiddy Grade carefully, you’ll notice that there are virtually no fillers. The sequel has some, and they are all very annoying. In one such episode, the girls travel to a holiday planet, and wear swimsuits throughout the entire episode, as if it were the obligatory seaside episode of a harem anime. Once again, it is pathetic…

Now, if I clench my teeth together really hard, I can bear with the stupid characters, the useless comic relief and everything else, up until episode 12, when something unforgivable happens. They break canon. That’s right, they break canon, something unforgivable for a sequel or spin-off or whatever. They say that Éclair’s ability is that of Space Manipulation and Lumière’s is that of Time Manipulation. Bullshit!!! Not even Lumière’s G-Class ability, Particle, has anything to do with time manipulation, all it does is manipulate matter at particle level, and she can’t use it for a prolonged period of time anyway! So yes, they break canon, and from that point on, the whole series talks about space/time manipulation, as though it were as simple as walking a dog. Also, space/time manipulation becomes the central plot point, and it gets mentioned as much as nuclear weapons in Metal Gear Solid. It is a serious letdown in the story. If they had gone with the original Teleportation for Ascoeur and Precognition for Q-feuille, it would have been interesting, however, when they obtain these awesome Space/Time Manipulation powers, it seems like they move to a wholly different league, yet still get beaten up pretty bad at times. It’s like watching a bad X-Men episode. And another thing about abilities, they emphasise “resonance” a lot, which has to do with partners sharing abilities, or boosting them. Nothing of that sort was discussed in the original series. A-ou and Un-ou could share their abilities, and Tweedledee and Tweedledum could combine their abilities, but that’s it, there was no generalised concept of such a thing.

Another annoying thing was all the kissing. I’m really not against kissing. I’m not a child that goes “gross!” whenever they see someone kiss, but it’s just too much! Di-air regularly kisses both Ascoeur and Q-feuille to boost their powers, Geacht’er kisses Ascoeur to bring back her memories, Ascoeur kisses Q-feuille to join their powers, it’s really disgusting after a while. I actually ended up turning away from the screen during the last episode, when it got too much. Only in the last episode, they kiss four times! Mind you, in Kiddy Grade, they only kissed once, and that was a truly heartfelt moment. Not the case here…

And another thing I can’t forgive them, the way they destroy the coolness of old characters. I’m going to point out three things here: One, during one episode, you find out Hiver and Sommer’s true identities, and it’s really awesome, but the mood is ruined by Ascoeur’s stupid behaviour. It would have been so nice if they worked on it a little more.

Two, during the last episode, you get to see Viuola/Cesario and Dextra/Sinistra teams joining the fight. This is awesome in itself; however, you get no explanation where they come from. When I first saw the teaser, I noticed some really awesome things: the logo has changed from GOTT to GTO, the headquarters has changed, the Director has changed, some teams have changed, however, some teams have remained (Tweedledee/Tweedledum and A-ou/Un-ou). I wondered, why did these teams remain? What happened to the others? Apparently, nothing, since they join the final fight; but they didn’t serve under GTO during the series. Why? Explain movie! Explain! (ß paying homage here). My guess is that they were also frozen in time during the accident, and got unfrozen when all hell broke loose, but it’s really not explained.

The third and worse crime is that they bring back Éclair and Lumière during the last episodes, and they each have only 2 lines. One line is them presenting themselves, and the other is each of them saying their catchphrases… … … Seriously? Is that the only thing Éclair and Lumière mean to you? Catchphrases?! You know what? Fuck you! Seriously, I hope there’s a special place in hell for the people who made this awful sequel (I think they can burn in the same pot as the guys who make really bad remakes).

Well yeah, that’s the Kiddy Grade 2 we’ve been so wholeheartedly waiting for. Kiddy Girl-and… just saying it makes my face contort in all sorts of painful expressions. The people responsible for this should pray that they never cross paths with me. I’m now going to purge myself of this vile excrement, by watching the Kiddy Grade movies.

Next time, A Hell Made of Bullets!

Friend Fact:

What anime-related song makes my eyes water whenever I listen to it? That would be Shiroi Kisetsu, the theme from the Kana ~Little Sister~ eroge. Granted, it’s not anime, but it’s anime-ish enough to answer the question. I’ve yet to work up enough courage to play the game through a second time, despite my brother’s encouragement to do so. If you don’t know about it, play the game, it will change your life.

Machol Romania is Born!

2010-05-14T21:26:00.003+03:00

Well, here I am, writing about Machol Romania. Honestly, I don’t even know where to start.

We arrived before the appointed time, at ten in the morning, and were worried that we’d have to wait in the lobby till we could check in. It turned out that it wasn’t so. The organisers were already there, and they were very nice to welcome us with bread and brandy. I checked in and loitered around, helping the organisers when I could. We were waiting for the rest of the people to arrive. As they started pouring in, the organisers were really too busy to stay with the instructors during lunch, so I ended up keeping them company. I had known Oren, from Machol Ungaria, but I didn’t know anything about Eran. It was really nice having lunch with them (I use that phrase, though actually I didn’t eat myself), since this close encounter allowed be to get to know them both better. They both gave me a positive impression, and I was looking forward to the sessions with them.

In the evening, we had the opening party. I was surprised to people from so many countries (

Bulgaria

Great Britain

, Holland,

Hungary

Israel

Serbia

Turkey

). We had a menorah put up, and we all placed our blessings for the machol inside. It was a very nice moment. Here’s a video of the first day:

The next day, we started the dance sessions. They were awesome. Both the songs and the dances, the instructors and the young instructors, everything was very nice. We were split up into three groups: beginner, advanced, and seniors. Most of the participants were in the advanced group, so we used the largest hall, which was actually the hotel’s restaurant, after having cleared out the tables. We barely fit even there. It was awesome. This second day, we had the baby party. Honestly, at first I thought this was a stupid idea, but in the end, it turned out really well. Here are the highlights:

The third day, once again, we had dance sessions. I think this was the day we had a debka session, and it was awesome! Thank you Lena for the great dance you’ve taught us! In the evening, we had a very nice Kabalat Shabbat, followed by an amazing Shabbat meal. I was really impressed by Eran’s sefardi-style kiddush, and even though we didn’t have music, we would sing and dance along, well into the night. It was a very memorable Shabbat experience, and I’m sorry for not praising it in the feedback (hope someone from amongst the organisers is reading this post). Here are the highlights:

The next day, we went to Brasov and Bran, and it was a lot of fun… or so I think. Honestly, I was sleeping the whole time. I got wasted the night before, and was resting up, as well as working on a project I had due the day right after machol ended. This was the last night, in which we had the Yom Haatzmaut party. It was a huge success, and surprisingly, a lot of people stayed up, dancing till morning. At seven, we went to eat breakfast, and it was very funny, since the rest of the gang had already gone to sleep, so it was only Dana, Eliza, Erwin and myself, all four of us almost collapsing due to lack of sleep.

Then, we had to make our bags and go home, and everyone was “I’m so sad it’s over!” And it’s true, we really were. It was a really amazing experience overall. The place was good, the food was good, the people were good, the instructors were good, the atmosphere was good, everything. I do have a few complaints, but those are of a technical nature: the internet connection was miserable, and at one point the whole system crashed, and we couldn’t enter our rooms, since they were using magnetic cards instead of old school mechanical locks. But those are small details, compared to the real fun I had there. I also think that everyone else agrees with me. Congratulations to the organisers for making the very first Machol Romania such a huge success! Looking forward to next year!

Next time, Kiddy Bleh...!

Friend Fact:

You know about those annoying Friend Facts on Facebook? Well, I've decided to add some facts about me at the end of every post. This way you'll get to know me better. It's easier than dedicating a post to what kind of ice cream I like or who my favourite bass player is. However, don't get startled if these facts turn out to be a bit weird (read "anime-related"). Today's fact? I've added the "Jewish" tag, and this is the first post to wear it. Will I update the past ones to have it? I don't know. Probably not. Why? I'm just lazy! :P

Clash of the Giant CG Monsters... in Pseudo-3D

2010-05-10T12:31:00.001+03:00

NOTE: I want to finish this entry fast and get down to more important things (i.e. Machol Romania), however, I promised you I’d do this review, so here goes, but I’ll keep it short.

You knew this would happen sooner or later. If you know me, then surely you know how much I loved Clash of the Titans. Not only is it my favourite movie using Ray Harryhausen effects, it is one of my favourite movies of all time. It keeps the story of Perseus simple, yet engaging, truly capturing the epic feel of Greek mythology, with solid acting, amazing effects (for the time) and a very well-paced story.

When I went to see Alice in Wonderland and saw the trailer for the remake of Clash of the Titans, it actually left a bad taste in my mouth. I knew the movie would suck. Not because I have a prejudice against remakes, but because I honestly loathe bad remakes, and from my own experience, remakes nowadays tend to be really bad. So what were the chances of this one actually being good? Pretty slim. Well, it didn’t disappoint in any way… it sucks so hard that time and space get distorted around it.

So, let’s make a comparison between the two, shall we? And let’s hope I won’t get struck down because of this blasphemy.

Story

The original story is pretty straightforward. Perseus falls in love with the princess Andromeda, who is under a curse and can’t marry anyone else, but the one who answers a mysterious riddle that changes every day. Using gifts from the gods, Perseus frees her from her curse, but when they would get married, due to a slip of her mother’s tongue (because she’s overwhelmed by joy, nonetheless) which ends up offending the goddess Thetis, Andromeda is fated to be sacrificed to the kraken. Perseus goes in search of Medusa, whose head can turn anything to stone, even the kraken, an immortal titan. Of course, Perseus succeeds, the kraken is defeated, he marries Andromeda and they live happily ever after. It is an appealing story of love and courage typical for Greek mythology.

The remake focuses a lot more on the war between gods and men (when did that ever happen?). Perseus’ parents and sister are killed by Hades when he makes an attack on the city of Argos. Andromeda insults the gods out of vanity, not ecstasy, and Andromeda ends up being cursed the same way as in the original. Perseus finds out that the kraken was made from Hades’ flesh (what?), so he decides to kill it, in order to weaken Hades and ultimately defeat him, to get his revenge. The outcome is very much the same as in the original, except instead of the wedding, Perseus banishes Hades back to the underworld. Now, my question is: isn’t love a strong enough force to drive this story forward? Is revenge really that much more appropriate? Does it have to do with the violence surrounding us in our everyday lives? Does revenge feel more authentic than love? In the end, it might, but I think it doesn’t involve the viewers enough to warrant a change of the classic erotic theme (and by this I mean love, not something pornographic you’d find on 4chan) so deeply enrooted within the mythology we’re talking about.

Heroes

I’ve talked about Perseus before somewhat, by saying that he’s driven by revenge rather than love. However, that alone makes him a completely different character. The original Perseus is innocent, somewhat naïve, much like Zeus describes him. He always learns things, from the owner of the amphitheatre, from the captain of the guards, from the Stygian witches, and he is confident, in a childish “I’m playing the hero” manner, which I think you would expect a mythological hero to be like. The remake Perseus is filled with rage, listens to no one, shows no interest in anything but his revenge. You’d think “this sounds like a baddass Kratos”, but sadly that’s far from the truth. Deep inside, remake Perseus is weak, and I think overall he is pathetic. His confidence comes from stubbornness and the love interest he develops for Io (what’s she doing in this story?) is more than superficial.

The other characters are very different in the two versions as well. The owner of the amphitheatre takes the role of the wise mentor, however, when he sees things of legend (such as Perseus’ gifts, or the Pegasus), he is genuinely surprised. In the remake, this role is somewhat undertaken by Perseus’ adoptive father, whose only important role is saying that he loves Perseus like his own son and somewhat justifies Perseus’ rage when he is killed. Also, at one point, he says “Perseus, I am your father”, at which point everybody in the cinema laughed; you can’t use that line seriously since Star Wars.

The princess Andromeda and the queen Cassiopeia are very nicely outlined in the original movie. Andromeda’s despair when no one would show up as a suitor is so clearly read on her expression. Cassiopeia, although having a small role, is shown powerful and proud, yet understanding of her place. When she compares her daughter’s beauty to that of the gods’, she immediately realises her mistake, but it is too late. In the remake, these two characters are bland. Andromeda as Perseus’ love interest is replaced by Io, who pretty much guides him throughout his adventure, but seems just as one-dimensional as the other two characters.

The captain of the guards pays an important role in both stories. Given, he gets more attention in the remake, however, I think it has the opposite effect on his character development. I felt a much stronger connection with the original captain of the guards, without knowing things like how he lost his child to the wrath of the gods (or should I say “days of judgment”?) and without his heroic (yet utterly stupid) sacrifice in the face of Medusa.

The remake has a cast of extra characters which are just too stupid to even touch on. Seriously, it includes two hunters which remind me of something from the Conan the Adventurer TV series, as well as djinns. That’s right, djinns. I’m certain the people who wrote the script didn’t spend any skill points in Knowledge (Mythology). Honestly, I think the remake has less to do with Greek mythology than the God of War video game trilogy… and that’s a huge offence in case you didn’t catch it.

Villains

Actually, there are no real villains in the original story, per se. Perseus’ main foe is the fate bestowed upon Andromeda by the goddess Thetis. Note, I didn’t say that Thetis herself is the foe, by no means, what she does is legitimate, so much that even Zeus can’t get in the way (apparently the gods respect each others’ vanity more so than the happiness of their demigod children). Of course, this dooming fate combines with the creature Calibos, who is Thetis’s son, punished by Zeus because he kills off the majestic winged horses (leaving only the stallion, Pegasus). Calibos is the one who cursed Andromeda in the first place, and when Perseus lifts the curse, he cuts off the beast’s hand. Even though Calibos demands vengeance, Thetis is unable to act until she is mocked by Cassiopeia. The original story subtly outlines the rules that exist in the world of the gods.

The remake has one clear villain: Hades. He wants to overthrow Zeus, because he tricked him into ruling the underworld, while he got to rule the heavens (really now, can anyone take this joke seriously?). Of course, he enlists the aid of Calibos, whose true identity is replaced in the remake by Acrisius, the husband of Perseus’ mother, who in the original was destroyed by the kraken. I really don’t understand; what do people have against Hades? Sure, hell sounds bad, but the underworld wasn’t really hell. Hades isn’t Satan, people! He’s not a bad guy. He contributes to the balance of life and death existing in Greek mythology. Also, he is a badass. He is the supreme ruler of the dead, and not even Zeus can stand up to that (in certain aspects). However, here, he is pretty much a pussy boy, though you have to give him credit for scheming instead of a direct attack. Heck, they should have made him Loki instead of Hades; that would have fitted with his personality. What’s that? It’s a different mythology? It doesn’t matter in this movie; we have djinns for crying out loud!!!

Effects

Granted, the effects of the remake are far superior to those of the original, even if they were state-of-the-art back then… … … … that’s what you expected me to say, right? Wrong! Truth be told, some effects are really good, especially the kraken, Calibos, and the aura of Hades (even if he is a useless character). However, that doesn’t mean much. The giant scorpions, for example, move very robot-like, unlike real insects. The stop-motion used in the original befitted the giant scorpions a lot better. Also, Medusa is beautiful until she tries to turn someone into stone, which seems to happen at will, instead of automatically. If that were the case, it wouldn’t be much of a curse, now would it? The original Medusa looked a lot more frightening to me, though that might be because I saw the movie when I was a kid. Also, there were a lot of useless effects (i.e. the lightsaber), useless characters (i.e. the djinns), and useless scenes (i.e. fighting the head djinn and the Stygian witches). I didn’t know where to put those complaints, so I added them here.

Also, I have a complaint, which may sound weird. Technically, this movie was supposed to be 3D. I’m not dying over seeing movies in 3D, but it seems to be the norm, so whatever. The thing is, even though it was marketed as a 3D movie, the actual 3D content is well under twenty percent, and even those scenes suffer from blurry character edges, rather than 3D effects. My take on it is that it was originally supposed to be a regular 2D movie, but when they went into post-production, Avatar came out, and its huge success determined the staff to turn this movie into 3D, in the last minute. It failed miserably. (NOTE: I later learned that this is in fact true…)

Overall

Now, before anything, I have to admit that I liked two things a lot. One of them was the kraken. It didn’t have the fish-like look of the original one, but still retained its monstrous nature. It took a few whole minutes for it to completely emerge from the water, which was really cool. Then, it roared, which really sent shivers down my spine, and it was awesome. Then two minutes later it was dead, which was lame. They should have given it more screen time; it was by far the coolest thing in the movie. The second thing I liked was Calibos. Not the fact that they changed his nature, but the design and the badassness of the character were awesome. When he took on Perseus and his entire band single-handedly, even killing some of them (if I remember correctly), was really sweet.

Besides those two points, the movie sucked and blew all over. If it were up to me, I would have either made a remake of the original abiding by the story and just spicing up the effects (even though you still need good acting, which this movie lacked horribly, despite the fact that the original wasn’t in the award-winning category when it came to acting either); or I would have made a completely different story, turning Perseus into a badass Kratos ripoff, where he would rape Andromeda while choking Calibos with his own bowels.

Next time, Machol Romania is Born!

NOTE: In God of War 2, you actually face Perseus as a boss. It’s a really funny battle, where Kratos takes no break in showing off his awesomeness.

Machol Romania

2010-05-04T20:20:00.001+03:00

I'll be off to the first edition of Machol Romania tonight. I was actually hoping to post something today, but was busy packing and shit. I hope I'll finish it there, and post it when I get back, or maybe even sooner. Next time, Clash of the Giant CG Monsters... in Pseudo-3D. Look forward to it!

2010 Spring Anime Breakdown

2010-04-21T17:23:00.002+03:00

Well, it’s spring, and anime are blooming all around more so than Krosa’s, Llanowar’s and Yavimaya’s vegetation all put together (if you don’t get the joke, don’t worry). Honestly, in all my years watching anime, I haven’t seen such a diverse and full anime season as this one. There’s something for everyone’s taste, however, from all the anime there, more than half of them are to my liking (which is a rare thing). So, I’ll be making a breakdown of these anime, but I’ll only be talking about the ones I’m watching, I won’t make any comments on the ones I don’t know anything about. I’ll tackle them in alphabetical order, I think that’s fair. Here we go:

Angel Beats!

You know all those shounen anime where the characters go to high school during the day and fight supernatural beings by night, being part of a secret organization? Angel Beats! turns this whole thing around and takes it to a new level. From the very first scene we find ourselves confronting the heroine, Yurippe, aiming a big-ass rifle (I’ll leave it to my brother to detail exactly what kind of rifle it is) at a white-haired girl in the distance and telling our main hero that he is dead and that this high school represents the afterlife and that they have to fight the white-haired girl, who is actually an angel, because if they don’t, they’ll be erased. What follows is action, humour, a diverse cast of characters and a strange desire to find out the truth. Yurippe, the heroine, gives off an aura similar to Haruhi Suzumiya, both because of the character design, as well as her bossy attitude, however she shows the compassion the tsundere Haruhi so rarely revealed. At first it seemed like a funny anime which one would take lightly, then, during the second episode, Yurippe reveals the memories of her (past) life and suddenly you freeze. Shock, fear, pity and disgust are the only feelings that linger after her story. Remember So-Ra-No-Wo-To? You know, this winter’s light-hearted comedy anime which half-way turns into a military drama? If you don’t remember it, don’t worry, I’m gonna have a review up soon. Anyway, that was the anime shock of that season, and I think this little gem will be the anime shock of this season. It’s funny, surprising, exciting and heart-warming at the same time. There’s huge potential behind this anime and I’m looking forward to more.

Arakawa Under the Bridge

I believe every season has an anime which relly is out there, and certainly Arakawa Under the Bridge is the candidate for this season. What if you are the successful son of a successful company president? What if your life philosophy was to never ever owe a debt to anyone? What if suddenly a homeless girl saves your life? The obvious answer is that you take her into your home and a slapstick romantic comedy ensues. That’s not really what happens here. The twist is, the girl doesn’t want a home, she is very satisfied living under the bridge, instead her request is “fall in love with me”. And that’s how Ichinomiya Kou ends up being Nino-san’s lover and starts living with her under the bridge. To top it all off, she’s a Venusian (or so she claims). And she’s not alone, the riverbed is full of strange characters: the Village Chied, who’s a kappa; Shiro, who made a rule to marry a chicken if he stepped off the white lines; Sister, the local nun, who carries around an uzi and would resemble a Sister of Battle more than a nun, if he were a woman to begin with; and many many more. The whole story is seen through the skeptic eyes of Kou who is drawn into this weird community against his will, reminiscent of Kyon being dragged by the necktie into the club room by the violent Haruhi, resulting in all sorts of misadventures. If weird is to your liking, you’ll love this.

B Gata H Kei

Japanese animation is really pushing their western audience to the limit with shows such as this one. The show follows a young girl, Yamada, who’s just gotten into high school (aged 15), and her goal is to obtain 100 sex friends before graduation. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see anything wrong with this premise. I mean it. Honest. There have been harem anime by the hundreds (if not thousands), it was about time the main character was a girl chasing boys and not the other way around. Now I have to admit that the heroine (if you can call her that) is more direct than your usual slightly perverted male stuck in pleasant yet embarrassing situations (often leading to painful consequences). As such, she has no qualms with stripping out of the blue in the library in front of the guy she wants to have sex with. When asked by a friend if she was worried about having a slutty reputation, she eagerly answers “But I want that kind of reputation.” Of course, she is a virgin and is afraid that she would mess things up, so in order to have a successful first time, she tries to find a guy who’s a virgin and even more inexperienced than her, but still hot. She sets her eyes on Takashi Kosuda, who is a huge loser (and not only that, but he gets a hard on from almost kissing her… get a grip, man!), and their complicated relationship gives rise to comical situations galore. No, you don’t have to be a genius to foresee that she’s going to fall in love with the guy, unless something really unexpected happens by the end of the series. So, all in all, why is this anime worth mentioning? Two such reasons, actually. Again, it may be just me, but I think Yamada is beautiful, by anime standards, of course. Maybe it’s because everyone in the anime says she is, and so you tend to see her like that, however I feel that she gives off an aura much like Allison from Allison & Lillia, or Kurumi from Kimi ni Todoke. That may not be a reason for watcing the anime in itself, however, the second one is: this series is hilarious. Once again, it may be just me (if you don’t like my taste in anime, why are you reading this post?), but this anime made me laughing harder than any other anime this season. The situations are somewhat foreseeable, yet they really surpass all expectations and leave you with tears in your eyes and stomach aches in your… well… stomach.

Heroman

Honestly, what does this title make you think of? If it’s old school mecha shounen, then you’ve hit the spot! The hero, Joey (yes, he is American, the whole series is set in the States, isn’t that awesome, for starters?!), is very kind-hearted, but poor and is being bullied at school by the rich kids. He’s friends with a nutty professor (doesn’t this sound like Back to the Future?) who manages to make contact with an alien race who decides to invade the Earth. A broken robot toy that one of the rich kids throws away finds shelter and love in the arms of Joey, and when it is zapped by some kind of dimensional-whatever ray, it becomes the only thing that can stop the invading alien race. I can’t believe I wrote that summary. Please go back and read it again, then ask yourselves “why in the world would I want to watch this?” The answer is, because it’s nostalgic. Surely if you haven’t watched anything similar in your childhood, stay far away from this anime. But if you’ve seen any shounen anime or even heroic cartoons back in the 80s and 90s, hell, this is the best thing there is to bring out your inner child! When I read the synopsis and decided to give it a try, I was a bit skeptic myself, but then I was absorbed and found it genuinely entertaining. It has some fantastic animation, but retains all the clichés and good bits of those old anime and cartoons we used to grow up on. If you don’t know what to do, let me give you a hint: if you’ve even remotely liked Power Rangers or Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, give the first episode a go, you will immediately know if you want to continue watching or not.

K-On!!

It is important to note that there are two exclamation marks in the title. Yes, this is the second season (if you look it up, you’ll notice the first one had only one exclamation mark). I’m actually listening to the ending theme while I’m writing this review, it’s simply amazing. If you felt that K-On! ended too soon, if you felt your heart throbbing faster when you were about to watch the later released OAV, then this is the thing for you. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, stop reading and go watch the first season. Ok, I’m still going to explain what this is about, besides it being pretty much useless, since those who know about it don’t need explaining, and those who don’t, won’t care, but here goes. In anime, there is a thing called moe. I’ve come to realize it’s what the overrated “normal” people find discusting in anime: the sweet voices, the big eyes, the tsundere (characters which are violent on the outside, but deep inside feel attached and care about others), the girls with glasses, the cat ears, the clumsy maids, the childhood friends… all of that. Most anime have at least one element of moe, a few lack it entirely, while some thrive on it, with moe oozing out of every possible crevice, making you go “cuuuuuuuuuute!!!” every two seconds. K-On! is one such anime. If I were to compare it to something, I would most likely say it resembles Manabi Straight! The second season continues where the first one left off and it doesn’t disappoint in any way (especially with the awesome new opening and ending).

Kiss x Sis

Another bold one, not for your average westerner. This series has seen some really bad reviews, mostly due to the controversial nature of its content. Ok, completely due to the controversial nature of its content. Simply put, it’s an incest anime. Now, this may not be surprising if it were a hentai, however, it’s not. At least, not entirely. There are certainly no explicit scenes, and the nipples are removed, which allows for it to air during child-friendly hours. However, this does not change the content. A guy and his twin stepsisters, they have a crush on him, he likes it, but considers it wrong, the parents actually encourage it, the girls tease him sexually, what more can I say? I would actually go as far as classifying this as soft hentai. While a few years back, something as innocent as Futari Ecchi was labeled hentai, nowadays we get away with this not being called that. I think it’s somewhere on the same level though. Who would enjoy this series, besides your average otaku? Probably someone who would enjoy B Gata H Kei (though it is nowhere near as good as that series, also I believe that one is suited for a broader audience), or Chu-Bra!! (again, suited for a broader audience), or something along these lines. There’s really not much more to add. Either you like it, or you don’t. Period. Next!

Rainbow

And we’ve finally arrived in the land of serious anime. Right before the anime starts, we get a notice warning us about the explicit content of the anime (explicit being written in red characters), and also the need to use such explicit scenes in order to accurately portray the events of the time. This anime is not about sex or violence. It is about inmates, which may or may not have to do with sex or violence. The anime focuses on seven youngsters in post-WW2 Japan, when the economy is booming, having been blown up (I know, stupid pun). The narrator tells us that the ones to suffer most were the children, and immediately we are shown six of the seven inmates being transported to the correctional facility. The only explicit scene in the first episode is an anal check-up to see if they “have hemorrhoids, parasites or weapons”, as the doctor kindly puts it. The oppressive guard is a cliché, but the atmosphere is indeed gritty and the overall feel of the anime is very realistic. Reminds me of Papillon. It’s actually too early to pass judgment on this one, but it looks really promising. The atmosphere and the characters are a hit. Let’s hope the story doesn’t flop.

Senkou no Night Raid

This is probably the best anime in the season. It has everything: fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles… well, it doesn’t really have all that, if that’s what you’re looking for, check out the Princess Bride. But what this anime has is action, drama, spies, superpowers and more. Set in Shanghai between the two world wars, the story follows the actions of an elite Japanese spyforce (I just invented that word, cool, isn’t it?) armed with paranormal powers. Now, leaving aside the fact that the four squad members pretty much exhaust the uses of “tele-“ as a prefix (having telekinesis, telescopic vision, telepathy and teleportation), the intrigues and stories are really good. They remind me of old spy TV series, such as The Saint or The Man from U.N.C.L.E., but with superpowers… like The Avengers. That’s right; this anime feels very much like The Avengers. It is very well paced, the story is serious, the action isn’t over the top, the superpowers are intelligently used, and overall, it’s a very good anime. I really can’t tell you anything more, just go ahead and have a look, I’m sure most of my readers will enjoy it.

Working!!

Finally, reached the last anime on my list. The family restaurant Wagnaria. The hard-working high-school student who looks like a 12-year old, the self-proclaimed minicon (lover of things small and cute, such as children, puppies, water fleas) who adores her and decides to work there to help her out, the 28-year-old manager who seems to be doing no work at all and apparently has relations with the local yakuza, the quiet serious chef and his partner the talkative smiling chef, the shift chief who always carries a katana at her waist, the androphobic waitress who reflexively punches the protagonist because “men are violent”, bring them all together and… do you need anything else? Working!! was a four-panel manga before it was adapted into an anime, and it shows. The show is full of funny (sometimes idiotically so) moments, characteristic of that carefree style we’ve come to love in Azumanga Daioh! and Yotsuba& (though those weren’t four-panel manga). I gave those examples because, if you’ve paid attention to the list of characters, those are the closest you’re going to get to this series. It is funny. Period. If you don’t like that kind of humour, I pity the empty life you’re living and your attempts at filling it with meaningless promises of life after death or who knows what. I’m joking (somewhat), but really, if you can’t simply disconnect and enjoy these kinds of anime, then you must be leading a sad life. Oops, I did it again! Anyway, you get the picture. Working!! is that kind of anime.

Finally… That was tiring, but fun. I’d love to hear your comments and, by all means, if you think there’s an anime out there this season that I’d like, but missed, I would be graciously kind to you if you’d point me towards it.

Next time, who knows what I’ll be writing about. Until then, pleasant viewing!

A Container for Your EDH Deck!

2010-04-20T17:55:00.001+03:00

Well, I was supposed to post my video review, but although the recording is done, the editing takes a lot longer than I thought. A lot of things happened to me this week, so I thought I'd post some of them, until I finish my video review. Hope you don't mind.

Here's a question: what do you do with your booster boxes after they run out of boosters? You would normal hold cards in them, right? That, or you throw them away. A few weeks ago I found a really nice article on mtgsalvation.com, in which they tell you how to turn the thing on the left of the image into the thing on the right:

Awesome, isn't it? What is it? Why, it's a deckbox, of course. Not only any kind of deckbox, it's a deckbox that can even hold an entire EDH deck, as can be seen in the following photos (showing my Jaya Ballard deck):

In case you want to make one yourself, just visit mtgsalvation.com. Also, one of the things they don't tell you is that you mustn't bind the edges too tight, otherwise the cards will have to be jammed in, they'll still fit, but they won't slide out nicely.

Happy crafting! Next time, 2010 Spring Anime Breakdown...

Breaking the Card - Rumbling Aftershocks

2010-02-15T18:36:00.001+02:00

Check out my first MtG article, on Gameflux. For those of you who don't know, Gameflux is the site for the MtG community of Cluj. If there are any MtG players out there who are reading this and are in Cluj and haven't joined yet, please do so!

Textbook Example of Gang-Rape and Mutilation

2010-01-16T23:12:00.005+02:00

Hello everyone. It's (p)review time again. This post was actually intended to be about something else, however that was more than a year ago. Recently, I've come across something that fits the title just as well.

You may remember my post from some time ago, about two girls offering a stunning show and the soon-to-be sequel of just that stunning show, featuring two different girls that I was dying to meet. Yes, we're talking about my sneak peek at Kiddy Grade 2 and here we are, 2010 and with the sequel entitled Kiddy Girl-and is among the delicacies of the Fall 2009 anime list.

Usually, I don't compare anime series outright, except when we're talking about a sequel or a similar work from the same director/studio or an adaptation after a book. Since Kiddy Girl-and falls into the first category, I will definitely be comparing it to Kiddy Grade. Before I do that though, isn't it strange that they changed the title? Why isn't it Kiddy Grade 2, like they said in the teaser? Simple: because it's not a sequel. I's more of a spin-off. I've heard that they changed the production halfway through the series, and that's why it ended up being a spin-off, rather than a sequel.

Now, equipped with that thought, before I go on, I'm going to invite you all to watch the opening of the two (Kiddy Grade and Kiddy Girl-and), as a starting point for the comparison (as a note, I've chosen the first opening for Kiddy Grade).

So, here's Kiddy Grade:

And here's Kiddy Girl-and:

Awful, isn't it?!?! I mean, what is this?! Where should I start?! I'm surprised I managed to keep my composure this long. Kiddy Girl-and is crap. What even happened to the original character design? Ascoeur was supposed to have white hair and be this really cool girl, reminiscent of Lumière. Instead, we have a pink haired klutz doing all sorts of stupid things. The series has absolutely no action to it. Everything revolves around petty disputes and unimportant events. Everything is taken lightly with so much comic relief it's oozing everywhere. Of course, the series starts with the battle that ends Éclair's life (they probably spent a lot of money on that scene back when the series was supposed to be cool, and didn't want to scratch it).

I'm hugely disappointed in it. I have only watched a few episodes (due to the subbing group slacking off), that's why it's only a (p)review, so please, if there's a true Kiddy Grade fan out there that considers the spin-off to be worthy of the original, urge me to keep watching it, cause I have serious doubts. At the time being, my only hope is that a true sequel, the lost Kiddy Grade 2, will still be made at one point, and it will feature a serious story line and characters, as it should.

Phew... Now that that's off my chest, see me for my next review, Seagulls Also Cry.

Negative Marketing

2010-01-06T23:44:00.001+02:00

I something something interesting on my way back to the dorm today. It was a white van, with a huge green logo on it. It belonged to some kind of energy usage optimisation company. I don't remember exactly, their slogan was something similar to "Energy costs money. We save both." The funny thing is, the car's engine was running, with no driver in sight. Now isn't that a waste? Talk about bad publicity...

PS: As a side note, this is the true 100th post. Due an error in the post numbering system, it appears that drafts were also counted when I published the last "100th post" post. So yeah, here it is! By the way, Happy New Year everyone!!!

Science Tattoo Emporium

2009-12-27T06:37:00.001+02:00

I really wanted to write about something else, but that was over a year ago. I might still go and write about what I had originally intended to write about, but for now, enjoy a link my friend brought to my attention. It's the Science Tattoo Emporium. Her impression was: "can you get more geeky than this?" What's your impression? (come on, my devoted readers, help me get this thing going again...)

Resurrection

2009-12-26T18:28:00.001+02:00

I LIVE!!! Though it's been over a year since I've last posted on my blog (I guess the three-day resurrection lag is not such a big deal after all), the time has come to take up the pend once again and entertain you all with my thoughts, sometimes witty sometimes nostalgic, about life, the universe, and... well... everything, I guess.

PS: Even my hard-earned audience avoids this HTTP address by now, so I'll really have to get the advertisements going if I'm willing to win them back.

NO (100th) POST!

2008-11-28T08:17:00.001+02:00

Image:

Comment:
TO WIN ONE HUNDRED VICTORIES IN ONE HUNDRED BATTLES IS NOT THE GREATEST SKILL. TO SUBDUE YOUR ENEMY WITHOUT A FIGHT, THAT IS THE GREATEST SKILL.
~ Budokan ~

Inverted

2008-11-28T07:48:00.001+02:00

This post is a bit delayed, because of the exams I had at the beginning of the week. But they're over now, so it's time to write!

As you might have guessed, this is another post about the weirdness of things Finnish. It has to do with locks (the mechanical kind, not the hairy kind). Take a look at this door knob (I'm sorry for the blurry image, it's still too early in the morning):

To lock this door, you would normally turn the lock clockwise, wouldn't you? I know I would. I'm basing all of this on my personal experience, so I might be wrong about this one. In all the countries I've been to until now, to lock a door, you have to turn the lock (or the key in the lock) clockwise if the knob is on the right, and counter-clockwise if the knob is on the left.

Here in Finland, this is inverted. Just watch:

It was actually a bit difficult getting used to, at first. It's the same with every lock I've seen in Finland so far. I thought it was the British who were supposed to be so uptight that they do everything the other way around (like driving on the wrong side of the road, and using imperial units instead of the metric system), but it seems they have competition. I'm gonna miss this strange country... Next time, Textbook Example of Gang-Rape and Mutilation.

Slut Machines

2008-11-24T06:21:00.001+02:00

Good morning, everyone. I'm here to talk today about slut machines. That's not really their name, but I don't know the Finnish term. Advances in science have always resulted in a happier way of life for people, and the sex industry had its share of benefits from technological breakthroughs. Now, I've known about the existence of artificial vaginas (like dildos, only for men... I'm not saying that men can't use dildos), but I've never seen one in real life. I didn't expect to see them here in Finland, and not employed with this much lack of shame, in such a public manner. This result is what I call slut machines. These... What? I'm not supposed to talk about slut machines? I'm supposed to talk about slot machines? Well, that explains it... Sorry folks...

I'm here to talk today about slot machines. There's not really all that much to talk about. You know what they are. You know how they work. You may, however, be surprised as to how popular they are, here in Finland. You can find them everywhere, in casinos (though that's normal), in the cruise ship (though I guess that's normal too), at the post office, in supermarkets, everywhere. You can see elderly people, coming out of the supermarket, and playing away their loose change at the slot machines just outside the supermarket. Sometimes, they don't even have to go that far. Now, before all you skeptics jump saying "Pic or it didn't happen!", know that I'm a little reluctant walking into a supermarket to take photos of the slot machines they have there, I'm not even sure it's legal. The photos in this post are of the slot machines on the ship. I guess you'll just have to believe me (or ask finnish bug). Overall, I just found this thing very weird. Tune in next time, for Inverted.

Snowfall

2008-11-23T08:00:00.001+02:00

Well, here I am, talking about the weather. You remember me telling you how upset I was that the first snow wasn't what it was supposed to be, here in Finland, right? Well, it seems the weather got upset, so it decided to snow just perfectly, to prove that I'm wrong.

Before (this is the photo of the street, as seen from our balcony, after the first snow):

After (this is the same scenery, after the second snowfall):

It's amazing, isn't it? There are some swings and other kiddy stuff in the yard. Look what it all turned to:

It's simply beautiful. Too bad there wasn't anyone to play with, so I decided to take a walk, and take a few more photos of the surroundings. I was so joyful, that I stopped in the middle of the street for some shots (yes, the couple of lights heading my way, is a car).

I later made way towards the city centre, passing through my beloved forest. You remember that, right? Well, not surprisingly, it turned into this:

I remember a funny thing: one of the guys here, from Spain, said he'd never seen snow, because he lives in the south. In my opinion this is stupid. I understand if you don't see snow, because you don't have it in your country, but when you do, and in over 20 years of your life you don't travel to the places in your country where it does snow, that's just wrong. I guess he never saw the Christmas tree in its natural habitat:

Even the little ponds near the road thought it would be nice to freeze over:

It has kept snowing ever since, little by little. It still looks like this, and I'm pretty sure there will be more. This is so cool. This is what winter is supposed to be like. Thank you, Finland. Next time, Slut Machines!

That's a Cruise

2008-11-22T08:18:00.001+02:00

As thrilled as I was at the sight of the first real snow we had earlier this week, I simply couldn't write about that, considering the amazing time I had on the cruise these last two days. So, here I go, talking about spending time on a boat. Be warned, this is an image-heavy post.

We were looking forward to this trip. After all, it was our first pre-Christmas cruise ever. Hell, it was our first cruise ever. We were really excited. We took the buses from the university, and they took us to Turku, where we were supposed to board one of Silja Lines's cruiseferries, on route Turku-Mariehamn-Stockholm.

There were sooooooo many people there! It was very crowded, and we had to wait quite a while till they let us aboard. Once they did, the fun started. I actually expected the ship to be different. I expected it to be longer, and have less decks, when it turned out to be the opposite of just that. You could traverse the length of the ship in a short stroll, but it had 13 decks! THIRTEEN FUCKING DECKS!!! Turns out, it is one of the largest cruiseferries in the world. I present you, the MS Silja Europa.

It even has its own Wikipedia entry. How cool is that?! I looked it up after I got home. Turns out, this ship had some troubles along the way, since it's maiden voyage on 14 March 1993. However, that doesn't change the fact that it's cool. Check out the ship map:

THIRTEEN FUCKING DECKS!!! Decks 3 and 4 are for cars. Deck 5 is for passengers's cabins. Deck 6 is the theatre and conference deck. Deck 7 is the tax free market and other shops. Deck 8 is full of restaurants, cafés and clubs. Decks 9, 10, and 11 are for passengers's cabins (again, since it can hold over 3000 passengers). Deck 12 is the sundeck, complete with swimming pool and sauna. Deck 13 is for VIPs only. I believe decks 1 and 2 are engineering and stuff. It's really really cool! It has everything, for everyone. From geeks to playboys, from kids to the elderly:

But up till now, I have only told you impersonal things. It's time to give you my personal experiences. Here is the three of us, waiting for the ship to depart; behind us, Turku harbour:

The first night was wild. Party, party, party! There was a setback, though. You weren't allowed to drink the beverages you bought in the tax free shop on board. Everyone was doing it, though. Everyone except us. And when I say us, I mean students. You see, there is this stupid thing, that if you bought a student ticket, you weren't allowed to buy alcohol until the second day of the trip. This was a precaution, to ensure that students buy the more expensive alcoholic drinks from the bar. It was so annoying. At 21 years of age, I was not allowed to buy alcohol, and was forced to resort to cheap tricks, such as asking the adults to buy it for us. Which didn't work, cause we only found assholes, who wouldn't buy us any alcohol. Fuck them! So, we ended up doing some karaoke instead. All those hours playing Rock Band really paid off!

After the party, we went to sleep, awaiting the wonders the following day would bring...

The next day, we woke up, and went to the café, enjoying a light breakfast, the ocean moving behind us.

After the breakfast, we went up to the sundeck, to take some photos, knowing that this time, we would actually be able to see something, thanks to it being midday. We got there, took some shots, fooled around, took some more shots...

I even managed to get a cool shot of the bridge (from the exterior, that's true, but it's still the bridge!)

And now, I'll leave you with some of the wondrous sights that can be seen from the MS Silja Europa's sundeck, on it's voyage from Stockholm to Turku. Next time, Snowfall. Enjoy!

Last Trip to Tampere

2008-11-20T13:25:00.001+02:00

Hey everyone! It did snow here, and it's wonderful, however, I'm going to write about my (last) trip to Tampere, because it's overdue.

My stay here in Finland is almost over, so I decided to make a final trip to Tampere before going home. Valkeakoski is a really nice place, but it is still a small town, and some things are missing. When you need one of those things, you go to Tampere.

The bus leaves you off right in the city centre, which is great. I've always found it interesting how you have industrious areas right in the middle of the city here. It's because they used to build mills on the rivers and use that for power in the old days. Now the mills are replaced with factories, the river is still there, and the town is larger around it. What you get is these kind of sites right in the city:

I've finally found a hobby game store, after spending nearly three months in Finland. The trick is, don't search for "hobby shop", cause you'll get places that sell power tools and whatnot. I am always grateful to the Wizards of the Coast site, for having that store locator.

The city is beautiful. Especially now that it's decorated for the holidays. It is then that I noticed, after finishing my shoppings at the hobby game store, the little characters made from the lights hanging between the buildings.

Yes, you guessed it, it's the Moomins. I remembered that there was a Moomin Museum in Tampere, and I soon went to search for it. It was an easy thing, being guided by the signs and all:

And this is the museum:

For those of you who don't know, the Moomins are fictional characters (aren't they just cute?), the creations of Tove Jansson, a Finnish/Swedish writer. I remember growing up on the Moomin cartoons (I also believe I have a comic book somewhere), and it is only now that I've visited the museum and revisited the Moomins in my head, that I realised how much they influenced my upbringing. I'm not going to write about them too much here. Read about them yourself, on Wikipedia. Here is the entrance, and on the right they have a souvenir store (full of Hello Kitty merchandise, though I have no idea why...).

For me it was a wonderful experience. Seeing the original art and all those figures was simply amazing. It almost drove me to tears. No, really... It was a very nostalgic moment. Anyone who loves Moomin as much as I do has to see this. I actually intend to buy the Moomin books, refresh my memory about them. They belong in the category of those books that can be read both as a child and as an adult (like the ones mentioned in an earlier post). How nostalgic...

(does anyone else think the original art is a bit creepy?)

I'll leave you now, for in a few hours I'll be leaving for Turku, and from their to Stockholm. It's the last outing I'll be making during my Finnish stay. Tune in next time, for Snowfall or That's a Cruise...

More Weirdness of the Finnish Language

2008-11-18T06:37:00.001+02:00

Yesterday, we had Finnish class, and the teacher said: "Students often say that to study Finnish you have to learn by heart. I think that in many cases this is true." I found it funny, since teachers tend to say the opposite of that, to encourage you.

There is a phenomenon in Finnish, where the beginning "b" of foreign words transforms into "p". For example, "baton" becomes "patonki" (it was very funny, we had to say "täytetty patonki", which means "filled baton", and it was a mouthful, especially in the partitive form "täytettyä patonkia", until I realised that it's so very similar to the Hungarian "töltött", after that it became easy); or "bank" becomes "pankki". So, I was wondering, why does "bus" change into "bussi", and not "pussi"? I then realised, people are making enough fun of this language already, without it having to have a means of public transported sound like an obscene word in English. So, they didn't call it "pussi"... but they kept "slut"?!

Later, I found out that the word "pussi" does exist in Finnish, it means "pack" or "bag", as in "a bag of potatoes". Really fucked up language.

By the way, the photo is from the Moomin Valley Museum in Tampere. I'll tell you all about that in another post.

First Snow

2008-11-17T07:13:00.001+02:00

Yesterday, we had our first snowall here in Valkeakoski. It was pathetic. The flakes were so small and limp that at first we thought it was raining. It snowed for only a few minutes and, needless to say, no snow remained afterwards. I was expecting to take a photo of the first snowfall and post it here, but it very unspectacular (and from the photos you can't even tell that it was snowing). I was very disappointed.

NO POST!

2008-11-16T09:14:00.001+02:00

Image:

Comment:
A MAN WHO CASTS NO SHADOW HAS NO SOUL
~ Out of the Shadows, Iron Maiden ~

Minions, Henchmen and the Like...

2008-11-13T03:26:00.001+02:00

I used to play a lot of Guild Wars some time ago. Even had a post about it, my second one, actually. The game has changed a lot since I started playing. It kept getting better and better. It had a unique flavour to it, and I fear Guild Wars 2 will lose that (although I highly anticipate it's arrival). But I'm not here to discuss Guild Wars 2. I'm actually here to talk about henchmen.

Henchmen were a very nice idea. In case you couldn't find a willing and determined party, you could always resort to hiring some henchmen to help you complete a mission or a quest, which you possibly couldn't do alone. They really helped a lot, and it sure was better than going against those nasty Mursaat alone. However, henchmen had a huge flaw. They were stupid. I mean, really stupid. They would always go where they weren't supposed to, they would keep fighting when you wanted to retreat, and they would stand by looking at the scenery while you were getting butchered by those Titans. At first, that was forgiveable, after all, the makers of the game wanted to give you only a little bit of help, they still encourage forming player parties.

When Guild Wars: Factions came out (that's the first expansion, for those who don't know), they made henchmen a lot more intelligent. They started using skills better and they showed you a lot more support, overall. They still sucked compared to even the least skilled of players (though that wasn't always true), they were a huge improvement over the first batch of henchmen. However, with the release of the aforementioned expansion, a new mode of PvP was released, in which you could compete against computer-controlled enemies. This was weird. PvP was pretty competitive. How could henchmen-like enemies survive more than one round in this environment? Turns out, they were nothing like henchmen. These computer-controlled enemies were precision killing machines. You needed a pretty good team to beat them. They had typical builds and used them to perfection. For example, the Elementalist had a skill that ignored armor, but had some cooldown time and even gave you exhaustion (meaning it reduced your maximum energy for a short amount of time). At a high enough level, this skill dealt around 100 damage (and since it ignored armour, it really did 100 damage), and your maximum life was around 480. Imagine a build of four Elementalist who cast this spell at exactly the same time. It meant that your party members died of one by one, with only a window of 5 seconds (the skill's recharge time) between deaths to actually hurt them. That showed us the truth: henchmen could be a lot smarter, but they are intentionally made stupid! Outrageous!

Why do I talk about this now? Well, I've been playing Diablo 2 recently, here in Finland. It brings back a lot of memories. One of the things I didn't remember was that your mercenary companion is stupid. It's a strange coincidence that they are also called henchmen, here in Diablo 2. It's so strange. They have so little to do, compared to the high-paced skill-clicking havoc of Guild Wars, yet they prove to be complete jerk-offs. I mean, how can you suck so bad?! They get lost, they get stuck behind walls, they fight monsters on opposing corners of the screen, and so much more. Once, I was playing with a ranged character and had a mêlée henchmen. Of course, he didn't want to go into the fray, so I was forced to draw enemies out, and then, when I retreat, instead of covering me, so that I could turn around shoot, he started running as well and I ended up being picked off by the enemy. Damn!

Do game creators get a sadistic pleasure from making computer-controlled aids of the player be more of a burden than assistance?

Menthos. The Freshmaker.

2008-11-08T02:13:00.001+02:00

I usually have nothing against smokers. It's their life, they are free to waste it as they please. As long as they don't blow in my direction. I wrote in an earlier post about how most locals here in Finland prohibit smoking, and the clubs that do have a smoking area have it well isolated from the non-smoking one. I wish that were the case in Romania. It isn't, so whatever. Back home I have to resume to kindly asking smokers to hold their cigarettes in the hand that's farther away from me.

Like I said, usually I have nothing against smokers, but today I really got angry at them. It's starting to get cold here in Finland. There was no snow yet (at least not in Valkeakoski), but by the time we went to school (at around 10 a.m.), there was so much frost on the ground, that you could have sworn it had snowed the night before. The air was so fresh, that you didn't even mind the cold. As sleepy as I was, as soon as I stepped outside, I felt invigorated.

As soon as I get to school, a momentary hatred for smokers bust out of me. The school has two buildings, and in both of them smoking is prohibited. The walkway that connects the two buildings is the only place arranged for smokers on campus grounds. As we made our way from one building to the other, a fetid smell killed off a lot of the small hairs in my nostrils. There were no smokers there, but the smell left behind so utterly destroy the sweet scent of the cold morning freshness that it was simply outrageous.

I know, you could blame the smokers for smoking, or the administrators for making the only connection between the two buildings the only place where they can smoke, or a dozen other groups of people. I know it is not really anybody's fault, but it left me with such a vile feeling, that I simply had to rant about it.

New Age

2008-11-05T08:06:00.001+02:00

I woke up very early this morning (though I can't tell why) with a huge hunger for bread with chocolate spread on it (yum yum). While happily munching down on the aforementioned snack, I turned on the news (on the Internet, of course) and saw that according to CNN projections, Barack Obama is elected as the President of the United States of America. Now, I usually consider myself a non-political person, however, there are some political events that do interest me. The US Presidential elections of 2008 were one of them. And the outcome?... It thrilled me!

Unless he is a slave to the Puppet Masters, we are looking forward to a change for the better (in this stinking world of ours). Actually, there are a lot of changes happening around us. Not only are we witnessing the election of the first black US President, but a few days ago we could also enjoy (at least some of us) the first black F1 World Championship champion. Is a new age dawning?

Idiocracy

2008-11-03T12:50:00.001+02:00

I've noticed that I tend to a lot write about stupidity, and the source of stupidity, scientifically known as idiots. It's not a big thing, everyone writes about that, however, I seem to lack a tag for this genre of posts. So, as of today, I've incorporated the Idiocracy tag (though I doubt anyone browses my posts using tags).

So, to start this post about stupidity, I'll tell you about subtitles. When people set out to subtitle works, they should be aware that it's hard work. In case subtitles come out really stupid, it's probably one of the following: the subtitler (that word is probably inexistant) doesn't know the original language, the subtitler doesn't know the destination language, the subtitler has a hearing impediment, the subtitler is an idiot.

Recently I saw some good movies with bad subtitles and some bad movies with even worse subtitles. Let me give you some examples. The guy who's riding a motorcycle throughout the movie andat the end buys a car saying "I sold my chopper", translated as "Am vandut elicopterul". "People forget that the M in MRI stands for 'magnetic'", translates to "Nu uita ca razele X sunt magnetice". "You might want to avoid the red tape" some believe means "Poate vrei sa eviti covorul rosu".

And these are just a few examples of the stupidities I came across. If you know any similar idiotic (or funny) subtitle (or translation) cases, preferably ones you experienced, feel free to share it with us.

LHC = DOOM!!!

2008-11-01T00:49:00.001+02:00

Does anyone know what happened to the LHC? A little while ago, before they started it on 10 September 2008, people were all over the place saying that the world was going to end. Since nothing happened, people calmed down and continued living their meaningless lives (ignoring the fact that the actual experiment would be held on 21 October 2008).

So what happened? Why isn't there talk about the Higgs boson? Simply because the experiment didn't take place. It seems that there was an electrical malfunction on 19 September 2008, which pushed back the schedule of the experiment a few months.

What I want to talk about is the reaction of the people. Don't you find this interesting? I mean, everyone (by that I mean "everyone stupid enough not to read the least bit about the LHC") was panicking when there was nothing wrong with the machine, but when it malfunctioned, no one gave a damn! Didn't they watch those old James Bond movies where hitting a console with something hard (like a steel pipe) made the whole machine blow up? If that were the case, I would certainly be more at unease since the malfunction of the LHC than before... And who knows, the malfunction may yet have destroyed the Earth... have you noticed the soon-to-be worldwide economic collapse that's happening all around? I'm sure the LHC had something to do with that, although it's not as spectacular as creating a blackhole that would swallow the planet...

Girls, Guns, Tequila...

2008-10-26T01:35:00.001+03:00

It's been a really long time since I made a preview. Mostly because I don't like to speculate on little evidence, such as trailers or posters. Now, there are significantly more facts to uphold my statements, since I saw the first episode of the anime that I'm going to preview. How is it a preview if I saw the first episode? Well, that's all there is to the anime so far, since it's just started airing 15 October (I thus take the liberty to call this a preview).

The anime I'm talking about is called Michiko to Hatchin (English title: Michiko and Hatchin). This is a really strange anime. It's produced by Manglobe, responsible for Samurai Champloo and Ergo Proxy, and directed by Sayo Yamamoto, this being her début work. In the role of music producer we have our beloved Shinichiro Watanabe, the man behind the great scores of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. But all of this you could have found out just by checking Wikipedia.

Let me tell you about the anime, something that Wiki doesn't. It is very important to note who we have in charge of the music, since the tone is very much like that of cowboy bebop. We have slow scenes, with meaningful dialogue, and fast chases and gunfire shoot-outs, a bit outrages, but entertaining. We follow the events of Michiko, who just broke out of prison, and gives the term "Babe Gunner" a new meaning, and Hana, a girl "adopted" by a priest and lives a miserable life, abused by her adoptive father, adoptive mother, adoptive older sister and adoptive younger brother (basically everyone in her "family"). As soon as Michiko gets her hands on some cash (blatantly robbing a bank), her first thing is to make sure she gets her hands on Hana. Indeed she does and frees her from the evil clutches of her oppressive foster family. The episode ends there, so we don't really know what the relationship between the two is (though at one time Michiko says she's Hana's mother, though her foster parents say she died).

It may not sound much, but it has a very real feel to it. It doesn't hide the ugliness of real life, but it's not gratuitous either. Every scene is meaningful and the characters appear very alive. It has an atmosphere to it which rings of Desperado, and if there will be some dark humour in later episodes, I dare to say it feels like Quentin Tarantino. I hope they keep it up. This first episode is well worth watching. From there on, it's your choice.

Ideas

2008-10-22T04:40:00.001+03:00

I'm pretty sure everyone of you goes through periods when you have something to do, but feel just too lazy to do it? Well, I'm having one of those periods now. I just returned from Helsinki and would have a lot to write about, but I just don't feel like it. I still need to write about something, otherwise this blog is going to die, like it did last year. So I'm here to talk about something that could get seriously affected by this laziness: ideas.

Actually, by the end of the post, I'll be asking for your advice on this one. I know that many people have ideas, and quite a lot of them could prove to be revolutionary, however, few people have the initiative to put them into practice, and a lot less to finish what they have started. I know that I've been through this, and probably you as well. I had a lot of ideas concerning stories, and, actually, most of them made it into writing. I know that my stories are somewhat clichéd, and I'm not the best amateur writer around, but I enjoy writing them, and if I can get something through to a person, and he will end up making the right choice about something because of it, I will have been worth it. Most of my stories, however, never got finished. Not because I don't like writing them (or because I have a writer's block), but because I like doing other things more. Yes, the laziness I talked about earlier hits me. When I do get to finish, I end up with good stories, like Full Stop., sadly, not many of my works got to that point. I sometimes find no motivation in it. And thus, here I am asking you about my dilemma...

Recently, I've been doped with a lot romance, as you could tell from the anime reviews I've made. Subsequently, a nice idea for a romantic story popped into my head. One of the biggest problems with my ideas is that the images I get in my head, are just that, images. When I started writing Full Stop., I had the image of Ayami running through the rain, getting to the house, and meeting the man who looked a lot younger than he actually was.Everything after that, was blank... Originally, it was supposed to be a romantic story, then a horror story, and finally it ended up being the philosophical something it is now (by the way, if you haven't read the story and are interested, please feel free to contact me). The same is true for my unfinished stories and is also true for my yet to be story. The scenes and concepts I have in mind, are beautiful (though this might be something totally subjective), however, I still have absolutely no idea about delivering those images and thoughts.

Should I just start on it like that, and end up not finishing it, like most of the others? Or should I just wait till the image stabilises in my head, and then write the whole thing down? Please, give me you're ideas concerning this problem I'm having. I'd appreciate it. Also, feel free to comment regarding your own similar experiences. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would be interested in hearing them. I promise to give you a post on what happened in Helsinki and more, soon enough.

The Night Before The Voyage

2008-10-18T05:03:00.001+03:00

I'm on a highway to hel(sinki that is). I'll be leaving in just over an hour from now, and I probably won't be able to access the Internet this weekend and neither Monday or Tuesday, probably. I spent this night watching some anime, and in between, the Nostalgia Critic (I did this while I was waiting for the anime episodes to stream). I'll talk about these two things in my post.

First off, I really like the Nostalgia Critic. He's funny and he really makes a point with his videos, even though I sometimes disagree with him. I was watching his review of The Wizard, and it really got me thinking. How could they get away with such a thing back then? Like he said, it's much more fun to play video games than to watch a movie about people playing video games. Indeed, such a movie would be stupid, they wouldn't make things like this nowada-... hmm... I just remembered Duel Masters and Yu-Gi-Oh! (*shiver shiver*) Talk about pathetic... Also, that movie had commercial written all over it. I'm thinking, the nowadays equivalent of the sequence when they presented Super Mario Bros. 3 would be having someone play Duke Nukem Forever (actually... that would be pretty mind-blowing). But nowadays we have E3 for that. Anyway... I don't remember seeing this movie when I was little (of course not, we didn't even have Nintendo here, we all had those Chinese-made rip-off consoles), but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have found it interesting, not even back then... which is something I cannot say about Mortal Kombat, which I just loved (I was always more of a Mortal Kombat fan than a Street Fighter fan, since I had a PC), and still think is a cool movie (disagreeing with the Nostalgia Critic yet again).

Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's get onto the more important thing I want to talk about. The anime I watched, which happenes to be ef - a tale of memories. This is a romantic anime, and it is by far one of the most beautiful anime I've ever seen. I have nothing but praise for this one. Seriously, I find no words to express how great it is. I honestly regret having the need to stream it and not watching it some time before in higher quality. Before I go on, for all of you romantics, artists and dreamers out there, this is a must see.

Now that I've finished with the introduction, let's talk about the anime a little. Like all great romantic anime, this one is also the adaptation of an adult visual novel (which is a euphemism for eroge, short for "erotic game") entitled ef - a fairy tale of the two. The list could go on forever, starting with Air and ending with Higurashi no Naku Koro ni... ok, maybe that's not really a romantic story, but you get the idea. It is no surprise that I mentioned Air, since it's the first thing that came into my mind while I was watching ef - a tale of memories. Actually, it was the second, the very first thing that came into my mind was INSERT FAVOURITE MAKOTO SHINKAI ANIME TITLE HERE. And no wonder, since it was none other than Makoto Shinkai who made the opening of the game. And his influence is felt throughout the anime. I'm going to talk about the visuals later on. Now, let's just get back to the story... ... ... Ok, that's it! I'm not telling you anything about the story. Why? Because it's just too damn good to spoil any of it. Suffice to say, it involves boys and girls (yes, more of them, but not at the same time, not really, only in parallel stories) and their relationships. Like someone says (right here in this anime I'm reviewing): "There is no such thing as friendship between a boy and a girl", and thus you understand where I'm getting. Of course you do, I said it off the bat that this was a romance anime, didn't I? But that's not enough to express what I'm talking about. This anime is about LOVE!!! I mean it! The strong feelings it conveys are overwhelming, but I'll get back to that (as well as the visuals, later). Let me finish with the story... ... ... besides the fact that it is hypnotizing, every moment fills you more and more, and just when you've thought you're about to overflow (remember Mamimi ;) ) they give you more and more. Top that with a breath-taking ending, and there you have it. Now as far as the stories go, they don't entwine as much as I would have liked them too (like the magnificent work in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni), but that doesn't make them stand out individually. Also, I believe they wouldn't have had the same effect, had they been separated (unlike in Diamond Dust Drops, for example). So much for the story... I'm not telling any more, honest... go watch it!

Now, onto the other parts, after all, a story alone doesn't make a good anime. And there is more to this anime than the story, I assure you. I stood up talking about the visuals, so I'll get to it now. Like I said before, they have the mark of Makoto Shinkai on them. Though they lack the play of lights and shadows, the thing which I adore most in the works of Makoto Shinkai, they do compensate with those other trademark shots (empty scenes, even though the characters are talking; landscapes in which the tiny characters seem to disappear; scenes in which only parts of the characters are shown with their faces awkwardly being off screen). Coupled with these visuals are powerful artistic images: crayon drawings of the characters, monocoloured frames (for example, the screen going red for a moment when someone skips a heartbeat), the scenes gradually losing colour and a lot more that I simply can't describe. On top of the stunning visuals and the powerful images comes the spine-chilling music. It is more than appropriate, it is fantastic. The tune isn't exactly catchy, but it gets carved into your heart. It gave me goosebumps when I heard it, and whenever I recall it, it still makes me shiver (pretty much like the opening of Kana ~Little Sister~). Now, all these create a heart-stopping atmosphere that is indescribable. I really don't know what to compare it with. It is tragic and beautiful, painful and lovely, burning and soothing...

Now, about the themes. It does have some fantastic elements, but it's far from being Air. It's more down to earth, and I guess I can relate to it more. It talks about love (naturally), dreams, choice, memory, silence, colours and everything in between. On top of that, it has a guy looking like a young Kaji (from Neon Genesis Evangelion), giving one of the kids advice, although not in a melon patch.

Once again, for all of you romantics, artists and dreamers out there, this is a must see. That's all I have to say about that.

The Evolution Of The Supernatural

2008-10-14T13:46:00.001+03:00

Philosophy has a grudge on reader friendly concepts such as plot and characters. Philosophy feels very at home in the world of surrealism, and, as such, is conveyed a sense of inaccessibility. This pretty much defeats the purpose of philosophy. What is the use of enriching thoughts if they are communicated to no one, and thus we are left unenriched? To overcome this obstacle, philosophical writings concentrate surrealism into an accompanying factor, and make room for characters and plot... this is how the supernatural was born.

The earliest works involving the supernatural are probably myths and legends. Basically, these are works involving strong human emotions, such as courage and love, which in the context of the supernatural become epic works of heroism and romance. The Epic of Gilgamesh or the Kalevala are prime examples, in which the themes of human emotion meld into concepts of creation and death.

In modern times, the supernatural forgot its purpose, and spawned a collective of three literary genres, in which it is not a means of delivering engaging and enriching philosophy, but a cadre for the characters and plot, in order to give it a twist. This way, in many works, ordinary people come to experience the epic heroism and romance of old. The collective I'm talking about is called speculative fiction, and the genres included are horror, science-fiction and fantasy.

Before these genres broke off from the single genre of the supernatural, there were writings which still remembered the original purpose of this phenomenon. They were writings with ample characters and plot, but in which the supernatural told something more than the narrative itself. While in most cases modern works of speculative fiction combine the philosophy of the supernatural and the narrative, these primitive (and by "primitive" I mean "original") works set a clear distinction between the two. The result is a story which can be read in two ways. In my opinion, the best example of this is Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

While this duality is specific to works of the pre-separation era, there are modern works which hold true to the original purpose of the supernatural. I'm finally getting where I want with this post. The man I'm talking about (though certainly not the only one) is Michael Ende. Michael Ende (1929-1995) is a German writer, most famous for his work The Neverending Story (German title: Die unendliche Geschichte). It was adapted into a movie with several spin-offs, two TV series, an animation series and even a video game. But I'm not here to talk about his most famous work. I'm here to talk about his second most famous work.

Momo like many memorable books bears a lengthy full title, which happens to be Momo, or the strange story of the time-thieves and the child who brought the stolen time back to the people (German title: you've got to be kidding me...). Who knows, there might even be something to this OMRSTPLRLCNSWMTCTHTALCNEE thing... Anyway, this book is considered by the author a fairytale-novel, and right there you have the duality I was talking about earlier. You can read it either as a fairy tale, a children's book, telling a heart-warming story you are bound to remember, or as a novel, a work of serious depth, criticising element's of modern day life and opening up our minds to that all-so-lost enriching philosophy. Doesn't this sound strangely familiar to you? If you are thinking Antoine de Saint Exupéry's (I know there is an accent there, but the Le Petite Prince (English title: The Little Prince) then you've hit the jackpot.

Amazingly, the two works are extremely similar, yet very different from one another. They both have a child as the main character (and surprisingly, one is a girl the other is a boy) and the whole story is seen through his/her eyes. They both explore the same themes, only in different manners and in different proportions. While the little prince makes a not about the business man who spends all his time counting things, and says that "all adults care about are numbers", this is actually the main theme in Momo, where a group of grey gentlemen trick adults into saving their time (by showing them elaborate calculations), so that they can steal it and feed of it. While in the first part of the book, Momo spends a lot of time with her friends, and even later in the book she always keeps thinking of them, in the end friendship remains a small theme, however this is one of the main themes in The Little Prince, in which loneliness is actually the very thing that drives the little prince to visit planet Earth.

If I were to make a one word comparison between the two, I would say that both works deal with that which is important, however, The Little Prince gives us a very individual view and a strong personal experience, while Momo takes a broader look at the situation and deeply reflects upon society. Those were more than one word, weren't they? I came to this conclusion through the ending of the two books. In The Little Prince, he changes the lives of the few people (and not only... can anyone say "vegetable, animal and mineral"?) and ends up personally enriched. In Momo, he saves the whole world and everyone ends up with their lives improved.

It would be useless to say anything more about this book. If I begin to relate the story, I wouldn't be telling even half of what the book really says. If I begin further telling you what philosophical ideas are hidden within, I would end up telling you even less. How could I comprise in a few words the profound deepness (is that a pleonasm?) that took the author a whole book to express? Here's my go at it: If it were up to me, I'd make both these books a compulsory read at school, not once, but twice, the first time in middle school, and a second time in high school... I think this is what people really need!

Love Conquers All (And So Does Determination)

2008-10-12T03:11:00.001+03:00

I've just finished watching a recently released anime yesterday. I say "recently released", since it started airing this spring. At first it didn't impress me, and I just kept watching only to finish it, but later it got to me. It is quite a surprising anime. I'm talking about Itazura na Kiss (english title: Mischievous Kiss).

I'll give you a plot summery, and then go on to discussing the anime. Aihara Kotoko is a typical high school girl, with less than typical intellect and dexterity. In short, she is kinda dumb and clumsy, like most of the students in class F, as a matter of fact. However, this doesn't stop her from writing a love letter to Irie Naoki, top student of class A, and one of the smartest high schoolers in Japan. Naoki outright rejects her letter, without even reading it, and Kotoko is heartbroken. At the drinking party held at her house later that night, during which she was supposed to forget all about Naoki's rejection, there is an earthquake, which completely destroys her house (and, amazingly, only hers, since it turns out to have been extremely poorly built). As a consequence, Kotoko and her father are forced to live at a friend's house until their own is rebuilt. Predictably, her father's childhood friend turns out to be non other than Naoki's father, and thus they end up living under the same roof. The premises are set, and leave enough room for craziness in this 25-episode TV series.

At first, I thought that this is going to be a typical high school romance anime. I thought the intrigue was interesting, so I decided to watch, till I would get bored. However, there are a lot of surprises on the way. I have to tell you (and I'm sure I'm not spoiling anything with this), that the most interesting thing is, that the show spreads over a period of around 14-15 years. No, it's not a high school romance. It's a full-fledged romantic novel. I really loved this part. I remember Ioana telling me that she didn't like those love stories which end with the main couple getting together, since her philosophy is "that's only the beginning". Indeed, this happens in Itazura na Kiss. It's not a spoiler to say that they end up together, but let me tell you that it happens around the middle of the series, and that the second part of the series handles their struggle as a couple. This seemed very interesting to me.

The characters aren't very complex, but they really do change throughout the series. True, the anime is focused on the two, and side characters are mainly only there to help further evolve the relationship between the two, however, some side characters make second appearances long after you've considered them discarded. Also, each episode ends with a cliffhanger, so much that at the end of some episodes, the story fast forwards a few years only to allow the development of a new crisis. This way, you really feel attached to the characters and their story.

The main selling point of the series, if I may call it that, is the length of the story following their relationship. It surely lacks that "something special", which appeared in Boys Be..., or the manganess (and Gainax ending) of His and Her Circumstances, so it may not appeal to people like my brother, Tibi. However, it follows the joys and struggles of a long relationship, starting from the very beginning up until, what I would call, total fulfilment, so I believe it would appeal to people like my deskmate, Adela.

It really depends on you. I thought it would be interesting up to a point, but didn't expect much, however it proved to be something engaging in a completely different way. If you don't like things romantic, stay away. If you like the flair of Eminescian romance, you might not like it. If you like the monotonous ups and downs of ordinary love, then I most certainly recommend it.

Stand Your Ground

2008-10-11T04:18:00.001+03:00

Probably the most played flash games are the so-called tower defence games. In these, you have to defend against waves of enemies by strategically placing towers around the map, preventing them from reaching your base. There is an enormous number of such games out there, and of course Kongregate does not lack its own horde of them. Here are some of the different tower defence games on Kongregate which I enjoyed (if you're a fan of the genre, give them a try):

Bloons Tower Defense 3 - This one is pretty casual. It's colourful and fun to play. The enemies are all balloons and your towers are monkeys. Have fun throwing darts and launching missiles at them, freezing and melting them, and if you get yourself a super monkey with plasma vision, you're all set.

Onslaught2 - This is somewhat more serious than the previous one. The most interesting thing about it, is the strategy involved. You don't have many options for the towers you build, however, there are hidden combos which make the towers a lot more powerful, and if you're hoping to get past the later parts of the game, you have to figure them out.

GemCraft - This is a really cool one. Here, you have two components: towers and gems. You place the towers wherever you like, but they don't shoot on their own. When you place a gem in them, they shoot differently according to it. Also, you can freely move the gems around, you can conjure up more, combine them into different or more powerful gems and also, if you're out of options, simply throw them at the enemy. Diablo 2 fans will love this one.

Protector: Reclaiming the Throne - This one is seriously awesome. Instead of towers, you place mages and warriors onto the screen. Also, instead of upgrading them, they level up, and when they do, you can choose different evolution paths. Add in the fact that between missions you get to unlock skills which will help you out in battle, and this one turns into a real treat for fantasy lovers.

Nothing Beats Fifth Graders

2008-10-09T22:50:00.001+03:00

Though the title might imply a small dose of lolicon, it actually has to do with the topic of a certain anime. I'm talking about Kyou no Go no Ni (english title: Today in Class 5-2), a manga (which I haven't read) which was developed into an OAV in 2006 (which I simply loved) and remade into a full 13-episode TV series in 2008 (which I'm going to talk about now).

The OAV, was full of Azumanga Daioh-style humour, and I enjoyed it a lot. it had fifth grader sexual references, abstract child thinking and a ton of laughs from the mismatched and colourful personalities of the characters. I'm not going to say any more, if you haven't seen it yet, but liked anime such as Azumanga Daioh, Manabi Straight!, and Minami-ke, be sure to check it out. It's only four episodes, so even if you don't like it, I haven't wasted much of your time.

Yesterday, I saw the first episode of the new TV series. I was very thrilled when I found out that it was being aired, but after the first few scenes, I got really disappointed. The first episodes is comprised of 4 shorts, two of which we are familiar with from the OAV and two which are completely new. I unwillingly compared the two and immediately concluded that the OAV is light-years ahead of it's new progeny.

First of all, the artwork is a lot crappier. It is more childish, and while one might think that it fits the theme of the show better, it actually makes it more shallow, creating characters which lack those fine details and complex facial expressions. A second thing which I immediately noticed during the first short (which happens to coincide with the first short of the OAV), that the sexual content is toned down. This is a huge loss. Part of the satisfaction of the series were the embarrassing situations these kids would get involved in. While in the OAV you had plenty of sensual lip shots, panty shots galore, and even a reference to oral sex, in the TV series, lips and tongues are made less (to the point of not) sensual, and panty shots are missing. I find this a serious step backwards. The third thing I should be ranting about is the voice acting. Some of the voices are so crappy compared to the OAV, that it makes it hard to think with the previously earned amount of love about the same character.

I am going to watch the TV series till the end, probably, just because I'm curious about the new content. About this, I have to say that one of the two shorts was not impressive at all, while the other one was ok. They are nowhere near the success of the OAV shorts, but then again, the same shorts remade seemed awfully low quality as well.

I don't know whom I should recommend this to. I would recommend it to fans of the OAV, since they too might be interested in the new shorts, but for them it's going to be a huge disappointment. I would recommend it to those who haven't watched the OAV, since then they have no prejudice towards it, but then again I would rather have the watch the higher quality OAV episodes. I can't really say anything more. It's up to you guys...

Extermination (Of The Little Multi-Coloured Blobby Things)

2008-10-09T03:43:00.001+03:00

The fact that I'm advertising for another game on Kongregate's website might sound a little monotonous, but these are the things I'm forced to play here. Today, I'm going to tell you about Amorphous+. This game is for all you Crimsonland fans out there. You are equipped with a big-ass sword (the kind that puts Cloud to shame), fittingly named the SplatMaster3000, which you use to splat multi-coloured blobby things called Gooples. You go into their nest, and attempt to clean them out. Now, Glooples come in many varieties, and although most of them are harmless, some of them can be really dangerous (and scary). This game is great fun, and if you immerse yourself enough, you can become easily addicted (in the good sense).

On a side note, if you decide to sign up for Kongregate, please inform me through the comments, so that I may add you as a friend.

Addictive...

2008-10-08T02:30:00.001+03:00

No matter what awesome graphics or complex story new games have nowadays, they could never beat the simple addictive fun that flash games offer. A few posts ago, I wrote about an innovative 1D game, called Z-Rox (I still haven't finished it). I hope you enjoyed playing. Today, I'm going to write about two more addictive games I found on the same site.

The first game, called Straw Hat Samurai, is the perfect game for Ninja Scroll fans. You play a samurai, and you have to cut through your enemies by drawing lines with your mouse. Once you finish, your guy disappears, there is a flash, and when you reappear, the bad guys are all in pieces. You get extra points for decapitating, getting more guys at once, or using your bow (yes, you have a bow too, how cool is that!). After reaching the gate, you also have a small strategy part. Honestly, I think if they worked some more on this game, placed a little bit of variety in it, it could become a seriously intense game (maybe for the Wii?...).

The second, called Gravitee, is a simple golf game. The difference is, it takes place in space. You have to hit the ball through the hoop, but be aware and take into account the gravitational effect of the different planets on the ball. While using the ball's projected trajectory, it is a fairly simple game, but when you turn of this helpful feature, it becomes a serious challenge. I'm pretty sure all you physicists out there are going to enjoy it. Knock your hearts out.

I'm going to point it out again, all these games are hosted on Kongregate's website. You should really register, in my opinion. As long as you play, why not gather some badges while you're at it? (And I should seriously get some money for advertising for these guys...)

Laws Yet To Be Discovered

2008-10-07T00:54:00.001+03:00

I haven't written on my blog for almost a week now. Not that I don't have anything to write about, it's just that I was very lazy.

Anyway, today, during Finnish class, I learnt about a piece of Finnish grammar which really blew my mind. It's called consonant gradation, and it involves the mutation of stop consonants (like p, t, k) when they appear at the onset of the last syllable in a stem and when a suffix is added to a word that closes the syllable. What really shocked me is that the teacher told us that there is no set rule when to apply consonant gradation. I don't know if it is true or not, but it seemed very weird. She explained that a language is an agreement between people and that it is not based on laws. It just appeared, and people later try to find laws to explain it. I somewhat agree to this, however, I believe languages change over time, to eliminate exceptions and find laws to encompass most of the language.

The weird part of it all was, that the phenomenon immediately got me thinking about rendaku. I know the Finnish language is full of weird shit, but this one must be somewhere there at the top of the list, probably fighting over first place with this mutant spawn of the Japanese language. Rendaku also deals with voicing of the initial consonant of the non-initial portion of a compound or prefixed word. It is actually pretty similar (in my opinion). Now, you don't really here these expressions about consonant gradation, but the Wikipedia article about rendaku describes it as: "a common but unpredictable phenomenon in modern Japanese", "manifests in ways currently unpredictable", "Some instances are linked with a lexical property as noted above but others may obey laws yet to be discovered", and, the most hilarious one, "sometimes presenting a problem even to native speakers". That's just great.

You should really read the Wikipedia articles on these two. I've supplied the links. There are many mysteries in the Universe. Who knows, after the experiment at the LHC, we might even learn what laws truly govern consonant gradation and rendaku...

1D - The Future Of Gaming

2008-10-01T00:53:00.001+03:00

Like I said in my previous post, I'm bogged down to playing SNES games on my PDA and flash games on the net. I've started frequenting a site called Kongregate. It has a lot of flash games, but so do many other sites. However, most of these games are really cool and fun to play, and I really like the ranking system of your account based on achievements within the games you play.

One of the games on the site, is a very interesting 1D puzzle game. It is very ingenious. I love it. And it is also very demanding. Tell me if you manage to finish it. You must try this. The game is called Z-Rox.

Throat Of Ashes

2008-09-30T01:52:00.001+03:00

In case you don't recognise these screenshots, they are from Breath of Fire. Since I don't really have any games here in Finland, I ended up playing some ROMs that I have on my PDA, using a SNES emulator. Because of the difficulty in playing on the PDA, I'm only able to take on RPGs. Breath of Fire is the first one I tackled.

Breath of Fire was developed by Capcom in 1993 and the English version was released by Squaresoft in 1994. I have been playing this game since I got here (though not very much, I have to admit it) and finished it two days ago. It was a pleasant experience. It is a classic game, and worth playing by RPG enthusiasts. Let me tell you some about the game.

The plot is simple and well paced. The characters are pretty well individualised, mostly because of their abilities. Each character has a special skill that they can use on the world map, if they are leading the party. For example, Ryu can fish, Bo can hunt and walk through forests, Mogu can dig holes and so forth. You need to use these skills at specific locations in order to progress through the story, however using them independently will yield you rewards (even huge secrets). NPCs are somewhat even more dull than in most RPGs. They mostly have those typical single-sentence roles, that are completely out of context with world events. One interesting thing however, is the day-night transition. While travelling on the world map, days pass, and when you enter a town, the time of day is reflected in the NPCs' activities. Combat is pretty monotonous, all you have to do most of the time is activate auto-battle, except during boss fights, where you have to buff yourself up with spells first, and then activate the auto-battle. Some of the secrets are pretty interesting, though you have no really big thingy at the end of the long chase after side-quests (e.g. Ruby Weapon). The menu system is poor and unintuitive, which coupled with the fact that the names of items are limited to about 8 characters, makes you want to spend as less time on the menu screen as possible. Add in the fact that the effects of certain items (such as accessories and special armour/weapons) isn't visible, and you've got yourself one hell of a headache.

Besides all the bad parts I've pointed out, the game was pretty enjoyable overall (maybe I see it that way because I have no other games to play here). Some parts were unexpected, and even though sometimes it wasn't clear where to go to progress through the story, I pretty much had fun all the way, except through the battles for the most part, since they became boring. But I ended up playing till the end, since I was curious how the story would unfold. Like I said, RPG enthusiasts should try it (though I'm pretty sure you've all finished it by now), hard-core gamers should beat it (since it's a classic), but everyone else, you might want to think twice before sinking your teeth into it.

Because 5 Is Better Than 1

2008-09-28T01:28:00.003+03:00

Well, I experienced my first Magic: the Gathering prerelease today (actually yesterday, since it's 1:29 AM right now). It was an exhilarating experience. Let me tell you all about it.

Let me start with my journey to Tampere. I was down in front of the store by 7:44 AM, 26 minutes before opening. I spent the time listening to music and wondering if they'll open on schedule. They did. I bought myself a couple of sandwiches and a bottle water for the road. I was in the bus stop by 8:06 AM, 14 minutes before the arrival of the bus. Again, I waited listening to music. Now comes the fun part. At 8:18 AM, a strange bus appears. It was green on the sides, and I didn't recognise the company. So I was wondering if that's the one I should take. While I was wondering, it passed by me. Here in Finland, you have to wave for the bus to stop, even thought if clearly you are waiting for it in the station. After it passed, I thought to myself: "What if this was the bus I was supposed to get on and I missed it?" I had the jinkies for the next 4 minutes, till I recognised the ExpressBus coming. I waved, and... surprise! the guy just showed me to back up, and passed me. I was shocked! I realised that I wasn't standing at the correct stop. Now I was really sure that I had missed my bus, till the Valkeakoski Liikenne bus came, not a minute later, I waved, it stopped, I got on, and was on my way to Tampere. After having reached Tampere, it was an adventure finding the right bus to take me to Hervanta, where the university campus is, and once I got there, the hassle to finding the place where the tournament was held. However, when I saw all those people gathering, I just followed them, and I got there, eventually.

I was surprised to see so many people. There were more than fifty participants. It was all so exciting. Enough with the introductions, let's get down to the tournament.

Shards of Alara is a set which story-wise revolves around a plane, Alara, which for some reason got torn apart into five shard-planes. The proportions of the five colours of mana differ from plane to plane, which resulted in the divergent evolution of these planes. Mechanics-wise, this means that each plane is represented exclusively by one of the colours, and it's adjacent "ally" colours. Brings back memories of Invasion. However, unlike Invasion, here each shard-plane has it's very distinct feel. Bant, the white-centred shard, has many small creatures that buff each other up. Esper, the blue-centred shard, has coloured artifacts and each creature is an artifact creature, with many effects that affect or care about your artifacts (I realise I just used the word "artifact" three times in that sentence). Grixis, the black-centred shard, is all about undead, reanimation and creature kill. Jund, the red-centred shard, is all about small goblins and big dragons (so typical), with mechanics which involve feeding the small to the big to make them even bigger. Naya, the green-centred shard, is all about big creatures (with power 5 or greater) and small mana-producers or synergy creatures that buff your gargantuans even more.

After opening the tournament pack and the three boosters, I came down to two options. Either playing an Esper deck or a Naya deck. After drawing Spearbreaker Behemoth, a 5/5 indestructible for 7 mana, and also some pretty good biggies (5/5 vigilance, haste for 6 mana; and 5/4 vanilla for 3 mana), as well as a very good mana base (one tap-land, one obelisk and two panoramas), not to mention that crazy Titanic Ultimatum (a sorcery which for 7 mana gives all your creatures +5/+5, trample, first strike and lifelink until end of turn), I just couldn't resist playing the Naya deck. The Timmy in me was crying out from the bottom of his lungs. He got the best of me. I ended up losing my first two matches because of it. After that, I switched to the Esper deck. I didn't have any real solid card in that deck, but all the small cards worked very well together. My mana curve was highest in the 2 and 3 cost range. I also had a ton of removal, ranging from 2-mana, to 4-mana, as well as some powerful card-drawing. I won the following three matches, and lost in the sixth round to a solid Grixis deck (and an experienced player).

Overall, I had a great time, and can't wait to play in next week's, release tournament.

Intervention

2008-09-24T03:25:00.001+03:00

A couple of days back, I witnessed a strange event. On my way to school, I have to pass an important road (it's the one you drive on as you come from Tampere towards Valkeakoski city centre). I call it an important road, because it's a lot wider than the ones you saw in earlier photos (the ones that go through the "T: Add {G} to your mana pool."). I don't know about roads in other countries, but compared to Romania, the roads here are extremely wide. This one had just one lane for each way, and a whole lot of space on both sides (to pull over, I guess).

So, now that I've set the scene, this is what happened. There were some logs on the side of the road, in this "pull over" section. Now, when I say logs, don't get me wrong, they weren't sequoia trunks, in fact, I hardly noticed them. Then, comes this bus, which suddenly stops, the driver gets out, pushes the logs off the road, gets back on, and drives away.

The fact is, there was plenty of space for the bus to pass, the logs weren't even on the actual road, so to say. I was shocked. I didn't know how to catalogue this event. Should I say it was considerate? Responsible? Freaky? You decide...

Karhu

2008-09-22T02:00:00.001+03:00

Today was Sergiu's birthday (actually, it was yesterday, since it's 2:06 AM right now). It was pretty spontaneous, so we went down to the store, bought a pack of Karhu beer and celebrated.

Even Steiger joins the party.

NO POST!

2008-09-19T01:58:00.001+03:00

Image:

Comment:
FISH, AND PLANKTON, AND SEA GREENS, AND PROTEIN FROM THE SEA. IT'S ALL HERE. READY! FRESH AS HARVEST DAY!
~ Box ~

Sight-Seeing Through Valkeakoski

2008-09-16T01:04:00.001+03:00

After yesterday's blunder, when we decided to go shopping and found all the stores closed (even though they were open two Sundays ago, when we arrived... odd), we agreed to go on a little outing today and do the shopping while we were at it. After all, there were some special offers at Lidl, which we couldn't pass (pair of salami pizza at 5 euros). So, I've decided to show you some photos I took on the way. Let's go sight-seeing through Valkeakoski!

This is what the road looks like, from the dorm to the centre of Valkeakoski:

It looks pretty much like something out of Lord of the Rings. On the sides of the road, all you see is:

Now, when you get to the centre of the city, there is this nice fountain, and next to it, three pyramid-like structures, which I believe represent the Egyptian pyramids, though I have no idea what the connection is with Finland, in general, and with Valkeakoski, in particular. Anyway, it's there, and of course you can't overcome the urge to climb it and take a snapshot:

On our way back, we admired the peculiar architectural design of Finnish homes. They tend to blend in with the environment. Here are some photos, you'll understand what I mean:

It pretty much reminds me of this:

About 10-15 minutes from the city centre, there is Lidl, the place where we get our stuff. Blessed be Lidl, except on Sundays, when it's closed, then I curse it:

We ended up buying too much stuff, so I followed my brother's example and kidnapped a cart:

Also, there are some weird statues here in Valkeakoski, like this... something, which I have no idea what it represents, and this other very communist-looking worker with a pick:

Also, Finnish people have a great sense of humour:

This sign says it all, though I can't really find the humour in that, only after relating it to something I saw on the net:

As a sidenote, in the whole time during our way to the city centre and back, 22 good-looking girls passed us on bicycles. I think you have to be really special here in Finland not to look good. I just love this place!

"Dogs... More Like Pussies"

2008-09-14T04:10:00.001+03:00

One of the most hilarious movies I've ever seen is a flick called Cemetery Gates. Not because it would be a good comedy or something, no, but because it is probably the worst movie I've ever seen. It's supposed to be a horror movie, but you'll burst into laughter after the first few minutes and end up laughing your ass off by the end of it. My friend, András, made a pretty good review of it here (in case you don't understand Hungarian, all you need to do is watch the trailer, it's pretty self-explanatory). I pointed you to this review, because I'm not going to redo it. However, as András himself explained, the trailer points out "From the producer of 'Dog Soldiers'", so I thought I'd take this chance and check out if it lives up to the awfulness of Cemetery Gates (and beat András to doing the review).

I was deeply disappointed. Dare I say it? Dog Soldiers is a good movie. It might not be good, but it is above average and deserves at least an OK. How else can I put it? You won't regret watching it. Seriously. This isn't some kind of scheme to make you watch a horrible movie. Believe me. You might not want to stop reading this review in mid-sentence and go watch it, but you might want to finish reading the review and then watch it.

All right, maybe it's just me, since I was expecting a shitty movie, but I really thought it was nice. The thing is, what they say in the Cemetery Gates trailer is a trap. Indeed, the producer (hell, it's actually only co-producer) is the same, however, neither the writer, nor the director are the same. Just goes to show you how having the same producer may result in such different movies.

Now, on to the review. First, let me give you some details about the film, taken straight from Wikipedia.

Dog Soldiers is a 2002 British horror film, written and directed by Neil Marshall and starring Kevin McKidd, Sean Pertwee and Liam Cunningham. It was a British production, and although set in the highlands of Scotland, was filmed almost entirely in Luxembourg.

Moving on, let me outline the plot: a group of British soldiers conduct a simple training exercise in Scotland, and come across a pack of werewolves. While trying to escape, they lock themselves in a house, and have to survive until dawn, while being besieged by the werewolves. I know, it sounds crappy. The first scene is actually pretty stupid (though not as stupid as in Cemetery Gates). When I saw that, I was getting ready for the fun. However, it soon turns good. The first sign of this is the music. I thought it was very appropriate, they didn't exaggerate with it, and it just feels right.

After the first scene, you may also notice that the camera movement is worthy of a professional movie. It has fast zipping changes when needed, the panorama shots are also very good, and there are some very nice circle-arounds, as well as good close-ups during conversations.

And, speaking about conversations, here comes the best thing in the movie (in my opinion). The dialogue is witty, realistic, and expressive. It would be hard to point out what was the worst thing in Cemetery Gates: the plot, the acting, the costumes, the dialogue, the effects... anyway, I still remember the lines being pretty incoherent (much like the plot). In Dog Soldiers, the dialogue is amazing. First of all, since it takes place in Scotland, the characters have very good Scottish accents. They talk like real soldiers, meaning no censorship on the "shits" and "fucks". And some of the puns are amazing. I'll spoil one of them for you. One of the soldiers is called Spoon. When the werewolves get him, he is downstairs, with no one around. When the others come down, they see his remains, and exchange the following lines: "Where is Spoon?" "There is no Spoon." I thought that was hilarious.

Now, don't get me wrong, by no means should this movie be considered a military movie (too little trigger discipline for that), nor a horror movie (not enough suspense), nor an action movie (not enough effects). It has some of each of these three. It is a weird combination, I have to admit, but the proportions are really well balanced. For example, it doesn't cut back on the gore, but it isn't gratuitous. I thought it was well paced.

So, if you've seen Cemetery Gates, and wand something similar, Dog Soldiers will be disappointed. If you have some free time, and want to see a decent movie, I recommend it. Here's another bit of info, from Wikipedia.

It is considered by fans to be a cult classic due to the writing, direction, cinematography, chemistry of the cast, strong performances and the nearly complete lack of computer-generated imagery used for special effects.

As an ending, I have to add, that there was a 2008 projected sequel, entitled Dog Soldier: Fresh Meat, however it will not have Neil Marshall in the director's seat, and will involve American soldiers... sounds dumb off the bat. But don't panic, it doesn't show up on IMDb, and if it really were to come out this year, we would have heard about it by now. They probably cancelled it, which is good.

Neighbours

2008-09-13T05:01:00.001+03:00

It is a good thing to know about your neighbours. I remember, that in many movies, the plot revolved around ordinary people (usually youngsters like myself) getting mixed up in all sorts of drug-dealing gun-slinging blood-gushing plots due to their neighbours whom they thought were ordinary people like themselves but turned out to be nothing of the sort.

I'm telling this, because, until recently, we always took the elevator. We live on the third floor, it's not a big deal, but we were so comfortable and pleased that the elevator worked (considering that it doesn't, back at the dorms in Cluj), that we decided to use. The odd part is, it's soooooooooooo slow, that we would be better off using the stairs. So, one time, I decided to actually do use the stairs. Now, everyone's name is written on the door. So when I walked passed one of my neighbours, and saw the name plate on the door, I froze.

Now, I remember thinking about the names in Frank Herbert's Dune, and it occured to me that Corino sounds Italian, Atreides sounds Greek, but I could never really put my finger on Harkonnen. I never thought it would be of Finnish origin. I know it's not the same, but it is damn similar. I should worry, having to live next to someone bearing the name of a javelin thrower (it's olympic javelin thrower... but it still implies sharp things).

Other people whose surname is/was Härkönen include:
- Anna-Leena Härkönen (b. 1965), Finnish writer
- Arto Härkönen (b. 1959), Finnish javelin thrower
- Esko Härkönen (1930–1992), Finnish member of parliament
- Jorma Härkönen (b. 1956), Finnish runner
- Kari Härkönen (b. 1959), Finnish cross country skier
- Kirsti Härkönen (1972–2003), Finnish human rights activist and saxophonist
- Paavo Härkönen, Finnish composer and artist

This Is The End!

2008-09-12T03:42:00.001+03:00

I saw this on a post, where the guy said: "Here's what scientists say probably won't happen when CERN's Large Hadron Collider becomes fully operational." I laughed my ass off. I can't wait for 21 October.

Vigilante Coke

2008-09-11T00:20:00.001+03:00

My brother has this habit of writing about products with weird names (such as Titan matches and Laban milk). I've discovered that Finland is not without its own products with weird names. Come to think of it, "products with weird names", they should have a special word for that, or abbreviation.

So, here comes Finland's own:

I think it's very strange. I mean, I knew Finland was the home of Santa Claus, but Batman?! If it were Santa Claus Cola, I could understand it (or is that already taken by Coca Cola and Pepsi?), but this is pretty ridiculous. Maybe if you drink a lot of this, your voice becomes all hoarse and shitty like in the movie. I'm pretty sure the Dark Knight wouldn't appreciate having a soft drink (and more so cola) named after him. However, I have a remedy for it: Wayne Enterprises Cola, now that's a horse of a different colour.

However, besides all these PWWNs, there are also some really good products here in Finland. One of my favourites is:

Yes, that's right, stracciatella flavoured yoghurt. Some of you might know, that my favourite ice cream flavour is stracciatella. This yoghurt is heavenly for me. I remember hating yoghurt a few years back. Even after starting to like it, I only enjoyed the ones with different flavours of fruit. But this, this is just great. I can hardly wait to try out other Finnish foods here. I'm looking forward to going to Hesburger one of these days.

Notorious L.H.C. in the Hood!

2008-09-09T03:18:00.001+03:00

My brother brought it to my attention that they will be firing up the Large Hadron Collider in a couple of days. So, looking around, I came across a video which I believe even non-physicists will appreciate.

Simply Bad...

2008-09-09T02:58:00.001+03:00

I wanted to write about something else today, but I remembered this review, and I just had to share it with you all. Credits go to this guy.

So, without further ado, here's the review of America's 10 Most Wanted! Enjoy!

Avalanche!!!

2008-09-08T01:29:00.001+03:00

Do you guys remember those old cartoons where something happened between too characters, which at the beginning started out small and ended up really big? As an exemple, I remember this one with a cat and a mouse, I believe, who are both starving. And the cat wants to eat the mouse, but it is skinny, so it gives it some growth pills, and the mouse ends up bigger, wanting to eat the cat. In response, the cat swallows some pills himself, getting bigger, and so on and so on...

Another good exemple is that episode from Dexter's Laboratory, entitled Monstory, where Dee Dee wants to tell Dexter a joke, and he doesn't want to listen, so he ends up giving Dee Dee some kind of mutating agent, and then he takes some, and so on and so on...

All these cartoons are meant to give you some insight into important aspects of life. They shouldn't be laughed at... ok, maybe they should, but they should also be taken seriously because of their valuable teachings. But you can't really relate to those cartoons and transpose them into real life. Unless you see them in real life... (well, sort of)

Which brings me to today's post. At the advice of a friend of mine (thank you, Irina), I watched a French movie yesterday, entitled Jeux d'enfants (English title: Love Me If You Dare). It is a romantic story (obviously, since it's French), about a little boy and a little girl playing a game of dare. It starts out small, but as they grow up, it pretty much gets out of their hands. It's a really interesting movie. You can't even imagine, when it all starts out, what it will lead up to...

First of all, I remarked the very good directing. Typical of modern French (maybe not just French, but European) movies, it has a fast change of scenes, which are sometimes very artistic, lacking a sense of reality and delving you more into the emotional part of it all. (THIS IS AN EDIT: the directing is awesome. I didn't stress this enough in the original post. It is very very good.) The acting is very good and the dialogues are well thought up. They all seem very natural. My French isn't that good, and in the first part of the movie, the narator keeps spitting out words like he was auditioning for the part of machine in a sound-only anime, so I was in need of subtitles. Try to make sure you get your hands on some good English subtitles, because mine sucked pretty bad. Thankfully, what the subtitles left out, I was able to understand from the original voices.

It is a very good romantic movie, a very good slice of life movie, a very good French movie, and overall a very good movie. I recommend it to all those French-loving romantics out there (hope you're reading this, Adela).

Aftermath...

2008-09-07T00:10:00.001+03:00

Yesterday, I "enjoyed" the aftermath of Tursajeiset. So, after shaking off the hangover, today I get to write about Thursday's initiation party.

Tusajeiset is what they call it here. There were premonitions of it Thursday morning when we left the lab and asked the people there at what time we had to come in the next day, and they said: "Oh, no, today is the Initiation Party, so enjoy yourselves!" That was a subtle hint that everyone would be too drunk to come to university the next day.

At four o'clock we gathered at an amphitheatre. We got split up into about 8 groups, with about 12 people in every group. These were most of the first year students. I noticed many of them had backpacks, and after sitting down, they started taking alcoholic drinks out of them, mostly beer and vodka. It was very strange, when the organisers said that the student insurance isn't valid throughout the day. So, then it got me thinking... what's going to happen? I was very excited, as can be seen in the photo.

In the end, it was a very long station game that took us all throughout the city and ended at the Onnala, the biggest club in Valkeakoski, where we had the after-party. However, at the stations and during the walks between the stations, our student tutors kept saying: "Drink! Drink!" Indeed! The whole Initiation Party was about drinking! (I like the way these Finns think)

So, from the start of the Tursajeiset until the end of it, I drank the following:
- liquorice schnapps
- beer
- vodka
- pear cidar
- some kind of cocktail, I don't remember the name, since I didn't order it
- initiation party special (another cocktail, don't know what it contained)
- tuica (yep, one of the Romanian guys had a stash of it)
- bacardi breezer
- vodka-battery (vodka + energy drink)
- lonkero

The club was amazing. It had two halls (both had bars). The larger one had a dance floor, and played all sorts of dance music (house and whatnot). The smaller one had a lot of chairs and tables and played rock music. Smoking was only permitted in the smaller hall, so it wouldn't bother you if you wanted to dance. I loved the place. Here is me in front of the club, out for some fresh air (I already had some alcohol in me by that time):

Before that, we also got to have a dip in the lake. It was awesome. The water was a bit colder than the air, so when you got in, it was a bit unpleasant, but when you got out, it was warm. I thought I would catch a cold because of it, but it was just right. Oh, forgot to tell you, we took a dip the hard way:

Yes, it was one hell of a day! I love Tursajeiset!

School Days, Work Place, Office Space

2008-09-04T01:10:00.001+03:00

I previously said that I would be writing about university and what I do here. Today was an exceptional day, so it's the perfect opportunity to tell you about it all.

The degree programme for Automation Engineering in English only started this year, meaning that the university can only provide courses for first year students. Being third year, most of these courses are obsolete for me, so we cannot attend them. Instead, to earn our credits, we are doing some projects in the fields of the courses we should have taken. This is very cool, since we get to stay with the research personnel, have our own computers in the lab, and finally do something, instead of just writing notes during boring classes.

Here are some photos showing the three of us (Ioan, Sergiu and myself) at the office. The place is pretty cool. An amazing fact was that we found Counter-Strike on one of the computers. Ha ha...

One of the projects we're working on is hooking up a slot car track to a logical circuit and give different command through that circuit. We want to plan out the acceleration times of the car, maybe even programme it to optimise speeds and so on. Today, we fixed the track, fixed some cars, installed the sensors, arranged the wiring and just had a jolly old time. Here are some photos to your enjoyment.

After we finished the job, we just fooled around. It was great. Here is a video:

After that, we had a party for all the exchange students. It was great. I tasted good Finnish company (though I would have liked to taste some of them a bit more...), I tasted some good Finnish sausages (try to find that in your dictionary), and I tasted some good Finnish sauna. Yep. I have to tell you one thing... It's hot in there!

So, yes, I'm having the time of my life here. Also had a discussion with Laura from the Student Office, and she filled me in on the good life people have in Finland and about the problems they are facing. Thanks a lot for the info, sorry if I was a bother.

So, yes, life here is good. All of you readers out there, you are welcome to try it out!

Valkeakoski! Tervetuloa!

2008-09-02T00:59:00.001+03:00

Welcome to Valkeakoski!

And here I am, in Finland, in Valkeakoski. It's a most amazing place that I simply cannot describe in words. Everything is so beautiful. It is such a different scenery. Instead of the mountains I was used to, here, the horizon disappears into trees that stretch as far as the eyes can see beyond the sunlit glow of the lakes. Aesthetically paved roads wind among the trees connecting one house to the other. The city spans over two-three pieces of land connected by bridges separating the three lakes on which it stands. It is remarkable. I'll let the picture speak for itself.

This last picture was taken at lake Lontilajärvi, just behind the university building (click on it... it's amazing!). And as long as I got to the university, let me tell you about it. It seems so informal and friendly. The teachers are very warm and helping, smiling and cheerful. The secretaries (and this one is amazing for me) are young, beautiful, know their job, do their job, are helpful and concerned about your situation. I never thought I would see something like that. The canteen has delicious food. And also (and this, again is unbelievable for someone coming from Romania), but this happens not only in the university, but also throughout Valkeakoski and I believe everywhere in Finland, people do not tie down their bikes... Talk about ethics and morals. When you can leave a good bike outside just like that, for half a day, and still find it there when you're done with your job...

I'll give you more information as things happen. Next time, I'll tell you about the dormitory and the workspace. See you! Nähdään!

Off to Colder Reaches...

2008-08-30T02:59:00.001+03:00

Well, here it is. I'll be leaving within two hours. Taking the train to Budapest, from there the plane to Helsinki, and from there the bus to Valkeakoski. That's right! For those of you who don't know, I applied for an Erasmus scholarship HAMK University of Applied Science, in Finland. I received it, and will be spending the next three months at the Valkeakoski unit studying Automation Engineering. I'll be updating my blog about what's happening, so be sure to stay tuned.

Here is a photo from the goodbye party from two days ago: (Yes... I got a haircut)

DMC - Play It Fucking Loud!

2008-08-23T20:23:00.001+03:00

About a year ago I wrote a post entitled D.M.C. - Dumb Mindless Crud, in which I reviewed the Devil May Cry anime series, based on the overly popular video game. Whenever someone would say "DMC", I'd think of that bullshit and would want to punch the guy in the face. This has all changed three days ago.

Another anime series (accompanied by a manga and a live-action movie) is coming out, entitled Detroit Metal City. It is the story of Negishi Souichi, a young countryside lad who goes to Tokyo to become a professional musician. He plays the guitar, writes songs about love and world peace, likes Swedish pop and his favourite singer is Kahimi Karie. After graduating university, he becomes Johannes Krauser II, lead guitar and vocalist of the death metal band Detroit Metal City.

It is an overly amuzing anime, and I believe not just for metal fans. he whole fun comes from the contrast between Krauser, who supposedly is a drug addict, raped and killed his parents and escaped from prison to form the band, and Negishi, who sends carnations to his mom on Mother's Day, has never smoked and is a virgin.

I've seen the first two episodes of the anime and it is extremely promising. I won't say anything more, since I don't want to spoil the fun. I recommend it to anyone who is in the mood for some good laughs.

Reset Generation

2008-08-21T14:46:00.001+03:00

Well, I've been home for two days now, and even though I promised everyone I'd have a lot of things to write about, I've been goofing off. Sorry, everyone. However, today I came across a great game which I wanted to share with all of you. So, here it is!

RESET GENERATION

This one's for all of you who grew up on the iconic games of the last century!

Vacation Is Over

2008-08-18T20:22:00.001+03:00

Hey, everyone. I just got home from my vacation about an hour ago. I have so many things to tell you all. I'm really tired right now, so I'll get some sleep, and tomorrow I'll start posting about all the interesting things that happened. Please look forward to it!

Their Music Shall Split the Heavens

2008-08-05T15:01:00.001+03:00

I'm still on vacation here, but I took some time to write about yesterday's concert.

IRON MAIDEN - SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME

I can find no words to describe what it was like. When I thought about how to write this, those lines from Tenacius D's song Tribute popped into my mind: "Be you angels?" And angels is right! Because I'm pretty sure that for all the 30.000 people there, those two hours were full of joy and nothing else. I'm certain that these people who are Iron Maiden are blessed by any number of deities you might or might not believe in!

Now, on to the concert. I'll try to be as spoiler free as possible, for those of you who plan to see the concert in these upcoming months they have left of the tour.

I'll just shortly mention the openings bands, Lauren Harris and Trooper.

Lauren Harris is the daughter of Steve Harris (bass guitar player for Iron Maiden) and though her voice wasn't all that great they put on quite a show. It really got you in the mood. And the girl looks fantastic, which gets you in a different kind of mood, if you know what I mean. They jumped around and had attitude, though they weren't excellent, the band was pretty well put together, and I think they did well.

Next came Trooper. For those of you who don't know, these guys are a Romanian heavy metal band. They did a great show. They didn't jump around, but they had the attitude. The vocalist came in as the first song started, grabbed the microphone pole, raised it into the air, screamed... it was fantastic. They even managed to blow the fuse during one of their songs (that's a bit of a lie, actually one of the generators fell, but the impression it gave was "these guys are too strong for the equipment"). They said that their dream was to play at a concert as the opening for Iron Maiden, ever since the band was formed 13 years ago. Well, they seemed pretty happy to get their wish. They even made a tribute song especially for this occasion, the lyrics went something like "Sunt pe scena cu Fecioara de Fier". In my opinion both bands were very well chosen and the atmosphere got really electric before the main event came on stage.

Now, onto the bulk of the evening. The first thing that was out of the ordinary, was the song they began with. First on their list was Churchill's Speech, but they didn't start with that. The first song we've heard, while they were still behind the curtains, was Doctor, Doctor. It was some kind of special bonus track, though I believe it may still have been part of the tuning and soundcheck. Anyway, everyone was taken by surprise, and it was quite pleasant. When the curtain went up and they played the first song from tracklist, Aces High, you couldn't even hear Bruce sing, since the crowd roared throughout the entire song. It was electrifying.

You could see by the reaction of the audience which are the favoured songs here in Romania. Most screams came when that strong voice started reciting the beginning of The Number of the Beast or when the stage went completely dark and the first few notes of Fear of the Dark were being played. It wasn't just a concert, it was a whole spectacle. I particularly liked what they did with Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Of course, Bruce did his job so very well. He really managed to get the crowd into the atmosphere. "Scream for me Bucharest!" he kept saying, and scream we did until we had no more voice to scream with and then when he said it again, we would still find the energy to scream once more. I was amazed at how animated the whole show was. They were leaping over the speakers, throwing their guitars in the air and such. At their age, it was such a glorious scene.

For anyone who ever loved Iron Maiden, this is something you mustn't miss. For everyone in Romania, if you're an Iron Maiden fan, and still didn't make it, the best chance you'll probably have is to see them in Budapest, performing at the Sziget Festival, on 12 August. If you're coming, you might get to meet me there. Until then, ROCK ON!

Vacation

2008-07-13T23:06:00.001+03:00

I'll be going on a short holiday these coming weeks. I'll try to update the blog as much as possible, according to my set standard (at least 1 post/week). Please don't be angry with me if I can't make it. Meanwhile, enjoy this little video on the Rules of Metal:

NO POST!

2008-07-12T23:38:00.001+03:00

Image:

Comment:
UNDERSTANDING IS A THREE-EDGED SWORD.

Everyone's Favourite Chemical Element

2008-06-29T22:12:00.001+03:00

Originally, I had intended to write about a different thing, but I didn't really think it over, so this is sort of a filler post.

I remember browsing Amazon a little while ago and found something pretty interesting (actually, it was my brother who brought it to my attention). Feast your eyes on this item (open the image in a new tab, to see it in its full glory):

Yes, that's a real item on Amazon (search for it, you may still be able to find it). Yes, that's uranium ore. And it's for sale. And it's that cheap. Now, you might start saying that it's dangerous or illegal, but it's not enriched uranium, it's just a lump of uranium ore. You'd probably want to buy some in order to calibrate/test your radiation measurement tools.

The funny thing, in my opinion, is actually the lower part of the screen. Let's check it out.

Customers Who Bought Items Like This Also Bought:
- Basic bulb Anal Douche easy to use Rectal Syringe for anal Hygiene
- Anal Douche Rectal Syringe Easy to Use and Clean
- Vulcanite Anal Douche Rectal Syringe bulb type
- Enema Syringe Anal Douche Rectal Syringe
- The Simpsons Movie (Widescreen Edition) DVD

There is no Idiot's Guide to Home-made Bombs, however, this list is pretty unsettling in its own way. My only explanation is that a large group of enema fetishist Simpsons fans all decided to calibrate their radiation measurement tools at the same time, and decided to order some uranium ore off Amazon, and in the process came over some items they just had to buy. Next time someone wants to test their Geiger-Müller counter or wants to watch The Simpson Movie in widescreen, think again before buying stuff from Amazon, you might get associated with the wrong kind of people.

Ban(ne)ds with Other Red Creatures

2008-06-24T21:38:00.001+03:00

I've overshot the deadline with a couple of days, but I couldn't write, since I was too busy (that's a lie, I was actually too lazy), however I'll make it up to you all and I promise to write another post by the end of this week.

No, this post is not referring to Magic: the Gathering, but if you made that association, you're on the safe side of this article. If you didn't, then before you go on, I advise you to take an ordinary IQ test and come back only if you scored above average.

(In case you did go and perform the IQ test, you might actually turn up on the wrong side of this article, though that's not necessarily true. It only proves that you're extremely gullible and you should be careful when talking with door-to-door salesmen.)

But why have I asked you to do this? Well, let's start at the very beginning. About a week ago (when I first had the intention of writing this post), Pali and I ended up in a state of nostalgia and wanted to watch old cartoons (or at least their openings), so we ended up browsing YouTube until about four o'clock in the morning. We found two nice series of videos.

The first one, entitled Top 100 Cartoons Series, has 10 parts, and shows 100 cartoon openings. If you look at it as a hierarchical list, it's pathetic, but it sure brings back memories.

The second one, entitled 100 Greatest Cartoons, has 21 parts, and is a 3-hour show made by UK's Channel 4 based on the viewer's votes. Though I haven't finished watching it yet, it is quite interesting.

There were a lot of comments on both series of videos, in which people demanded (and harshly offended the uploaders of the videos) that Dragon Ball Z be declared as the No. 1 Cartoon of all time (I didn't watch it all through, but from what I understand, it didn't even make it on the list). Now, I never was a fan of Tom & Jerry, and I'm bringing this into discussion because it placed 2nd on the second series of videos I've mentioned, but I've always recognised its value and cultural impact. Of course, not every one of us is objective in his criticism. In fact, none of us are. Also, some of us don't even try to be objective in their criticism. And more so, some don't just give a fuck about reality. What to do about these people?

Instead of all those annoying captcha (if you don't know what these are, click here, and remember, Wikipedia is your friend), they should put IQ tests whenever the danger of a fuck-minded person commenting or posting may arise. And if they fail the test, they should be band... from the whole Internet... for life...

Anyway, now that I've dealt with the turd-brained people, I'll return to the videos a bit. Though the first one can't even be considered a top something list, the second one is pretty good, however, something doesn't seem right to me. Though I suppose Dragon Ball Z didn't make the list, a very La Blue Girl-ish anime, called Legend of the Overfiend (know of it, Szilard?) did make it onto the list. Though I have no problem with the idea of arranging cartoons and ordering them by which is the 'best' (e.g. the best, less best, worse than best), I somehow can't come to compare Legend of the Overfiend with Tom & Jerry, or Akira with The Simpsons. It's just not right. On this account, check out my brother's top 6 anime by genre and my own Anime-Planet profile, where I've rated the anime I've watched so far.

Well, there's not much more to say. I can't think of a way of finishing this post with a bang. Wait a minute... It just hit me! How about 10 points going to the person who can guess why I used this post title (or 100 points the the one who can give the weirdest explanation). That's all folks! Bye-bii!

Death from Above!

2008-06-14T19:56:00.001+03:00

Yesterday I spent an enjoyable time with Andras. Since I took the effort to bring the Monster PC home from Cluj (the damn thing is heavier than it's worth), we decided to fire up the LAN and play some of the games you can't on a single PC (actually you can, but they're not as enjoyable).

We initially intended to play Higurashi Daybreak, and after making use of the appropriate wiki, we found out how to start a LAN game... technically. Of course, as all things go, we didn't manage to start the game, so we swiftly abandoned the idea, and headed off to some of the games we knew would work.

Our second choice was Starcraft, playing the Bunker Command stage. I remember Adi telling me about it back when Starcraft was still 'the rad'. I must say, it was interesting. I believe back then, 'use map settings' stages were considered awesome and defying the laws of the game.

After hastefully dispatching me, Andras suggested a different game, so I cast my vote for DotA. In the same spirit of 'use map settings', DotA really popularised Warcraft 3. I don't even remember, I think we played about 5 games. It was most pleasant. The good thing is, I finally got Andras to like the game. If all goes well, I might have gotten myself a stable DotA partner.

Our final choice for the evening was Unreal Tournament 2004. I can never get enough of this game. It was actually Andras who suggest we play it, and I didn't know he was this good at it (or maybe I was just too sloppy that night). Anyway, we started talking during the match, and tried to find out what is so special in UT2k4. Besides the fact that nothing can compare with a good InstaGib match, both Halo and Quake 3 lack the atmosphere of this awesome game. Even if we're talking about the classic Unreal Tournament, the maps were so amazing. They each had their own style and they were so well designed, that you never had to turn back because of a dead end. There was always another turn you could take. I've realised that the levels are highly asymmetrical, and that makes then really awesome. Hell, even capture the flag stages are asymmetrical, how cool is that? Some of the stages are so intricate, we ended up not being able to frag each other the necessary amount of times and the match ended with a time out. Here is the last image of the game, Andras willing to descend upon me with the fury of his enhanced shock rifle, but too late, as the timer reaches 0 and I am declared the winner.

Built-in OS

2008-06-08T15:57:00.001+03:00

A little while ago, I had a little accident with my PDA, which resulted in a cracked LCD display (poor little liquid crystals...).

So, I ended up ordering a new LCD display + digitizer (that's the thing which recognises the stylus touches) from eBay. For all those people who haven't used eBay before and are reluctant either because they are afraid they may get swindled or because they complain since no one ships to Romania, I have to encourage you to use it. I am very satisfied with the service, and I have been using it for some time now.

Anyway, I received the LCD display + digitizer, and found that I had a lot of problems opening the damn cover of the PDA since none of the screws used are standard ones. Don't you just hate that? It took me 10 days to open the cover, and when I plugged in the new display, I was shocked to find a built-in OS! That's right, can you believe it?! Here is the image, in case you doubt it:

Year 2

2008-05-31T22:02:00.001+03:00

Happy Birthday, myBlog!

Today, myBlog is two years old. I have to admit, I didn't think it would last that much. And sadly, it really didn't... I have to admit that I've been slacking off, considering that now we're at the end of May and my last post was in February. But as we're coming into a new year, I plan to change all that. Encouraged by some of my friends who are fervent readers of myBlog (or more correctly, would be fervent readers, if I updated it on schedule), I feel compelled to make a vow:

As we're going into myBlog's third year, I plan to have a new post every week!!!

I hope this will keep the readers attracted. Also, to celebrate this, I've set up a hit counter and a stats counter on the page (they are right there on the right, under the World Domination Attempt heading). All this being said, tune in next week for a fresh new post.

PS: Everyone, don't forget to say Happy Birthday to Ioana!

Unspeakable Vault (of Doom)

2008-02-14T11:19:00.001+02:00

As you may very well know, enjoy reading webcomics, and recently found a truly crazy one. For all of you who are into the Cthulhu mythos and for those who are only just a bit familliar with it (and even for those who have no idea what it's about), I hereby give you:

It is a webcomic full of that all powerful human something that gets us through life - laughter. I've added it to the webcomic roll on the right, but you can also click on the banner, or on this link here.

Enjoy! (Cthulhu fhtagn!)

42 Mark

2008-02-14T11:13:00.001+02:00

No, I haven't misspelled the name of the torpedo.

I just noticed that my last post (you know, the one about that shitty korrean movie) was my 42nd post. What an embarrasing subject for the one and only 42nd post, right? Well, I would normally celebrate the 100th post or 10000 hits and such, but since I'm not aiming that high, 42 is just fine with me (though who knows, I might hit 100 posts by the time I finish university).

Anyway, since I hit 42 posts, I would like to give a big thank you to everyone who reads my blog or provides material for it or just knows me and has shapped me into the being that writes these lines.

THANK YOU!!!

WTF?!

2007-12-26T22:18:00.001+02:00

I recently watched this movie:

That's a bit of a lie, since I only watched about 30 minutes of it, because I simply couldn't stand it any more. I thought it was one of those typically bullshitty movies with special effects and crappy plot lines. I came to realise it's one of those few movies with special effects and no plot lines whatsoever. Besides all too much Korean with no subtitles, it includes the wonderful following:
- flashback within a story within a flashback;
- clichés, but not from other movies, but what you've seen in this very same movie;
- dinosaurs equipped with missile launchers assaulting 16th century Korea;
- probably many other things I didn't have the nerves to watch...

I absolutely think this movie is a waste of time. In case you have spare time and want to do something just for the sake of doing it, I still wouldn't recommend it.

I'm pretty sure they shot this movie during the Writer's Guild strike, otherwise I can't explain the sheer non-sense of it all.

Overall Rating: Shit-filled

Match the Captions to the Appropriate Characters

2007-11-05T21:42:00.001+02:00

A few days ago I was cleaning my room and came across a very peculiar thing. Remember those funny moments when they present a product, but you know very well that in fact what they are holding in their hands is a completely different product? Or when they talk about a certain scientific law, but in fact the formula is for a completely different law? Of course you do! And since you do, you deserve to see this wonderful poster I found (while cleaning my room, I might add) of Rambo.

Something wrong? Of course something's bloody wrong! Anyone who saw either movie (Either, what do you mean either?) knows very well that the person in the poster is not Rambo (Isn't he?). Of course he isn't! (But he's Sylvester Stallone!) Contrary to popular belief, he starred in more than just the Rambo Trilogy (I say 'trilogy' because I deny the existence of a fourth movie). This poster, in fact, depicts Sylvester Stallone (who also played Rocky, by the way) in his role in Cobra.

Why would someone put the wrong caption on such a famous role? Like I said before, those who saw either movie can tell the difference from Pluto (Planet Pluto, I might add). More than that, even people who haven't seen any of the movies can tell from, let's say, Mars (or maybe even the Asteroid Belt). For example, Rambo is a well-known Vietnam veteran who kicks the asses of Soviets and Americans (USians actually) who treat veterans badly, who are just as bad as Soviets. He is also a friend of the Afghani people, which is probably why they made this so called fourth movie, since they couldn't leave him in that light after 9/11. Cobra is part of a good cop, bad cop duo that's missing a member (I'm sure you can guess which one). He has nothing to do with Soviets, more with KKK-type idiots. Also, is Rambo Famous for his sunglasses and SMG? No, that's Cobra. Rambo is famous for his headband, his knife, his bow, his helicopter/tank maybe, but not sunglasses.

Anyway, here are the original posters of the two movies.

So, the question remains, why would someone put the wrong caption on that poster? My guess is, that the caption isn't incorrectly put out of mistake, but intentionally. The truth is, the captions were probably switched. I don't remember where I have that poster from, but probably there are more posters where that came from, all with mixed up characters and captions. The fun part is probably cutting out the captions and matching it with the right character, then sticking them into some album or something. I have to get my hands on the rest of them! (Gotta catch'em all!)

"The Undreaming is unchained."

2007-10-23T22:14:00.001+03:00

Hello, everyone. Long time no see. I was busy, school and all. Besides, I bought myself a new graphics card (Leadtek WinFast A7600 GT TDH) and am now playing tonnes of new games. One of them is Dreamfall, about which I'm going to talk now (not that it requires a very powerful graphics card, but it uses Pixel Shader v1.0, which is not present on the GeForce 6 series).

Dreamfall is the sequel to the highly acclaimed adventure game The Longest Journey. I'm quite certain that playing this game will give little delight to those who haven't played the first game of the trilogy. Did I say trilogy? of course I did. These two games are part of a trilogy, the upcoming sequel, Dreamfall Chapters, being in production as we speak.

I'd like to talk about this a bit. Sadly, Dreamfall suffers from the "Jump to Trilogy Syndrome", also known as "Buy One Get One Free: Sequels" (NOTE: These names are purely fictional). Much like the dreaded "Dragonball Effect", this audio-visual item production trend is devastating to the content (and value) of the final product and consists in the following: The producers create a game/movie/whatever without any intention of making a sequel; when the game/movie/whatever becomes a great success, they decide to make not one, but instantly two sequels. Of course, the original material had a stand-alone ending, as no sequel was intended at that point. Because of this, the sequel features plot hooks that appear artificial, to override the ending of the first part. Also, the first sequel ends with a huge cliffhanger, to make room for the second sequel. You can observe this phenomenon at games such as God of War and movies such as the first Star Wars trilogy.

Having made this scarce general presentation, I'll proceed with the review through the comparison of Dreamfall toThe Longest Journey. First off, the game is no longer a point-and-click adventure game, instead it is an action adventure game. You now take control of your character from a third person point of view, make full use of the keyboard and also take part in scenes where talking isn't enough to get you past, but rather you require to employ force and go into combat mode or sneak past the guards that are simply just too tough to fight. This is the biggest change and can be felt throughout the game. As a downside, you can no longer experience the majestic sceneries you did in the first game. As a plus point, it creates a different approach to the game and the pacing of the three different elements (dialogue, stealth and combat) was just perfect for my taste. The controls are a bit difficult at the beginning, but you get used to them fast, however, due to a lack of a full explanation of the controls, you tend to get in situations where you know what to do, but you don't know how to do it (HINT: To throw things, you have to use the focus field, pressing the right mouse button, and then select what you want to throw from your inventory, pressing the middle mouse button).

The story of the game seems a bit far fetched at the beginning (due to the "Jump to Trilogy Syndrome"), but you get accustomed to it easily and it becomes really engaging, just like in the first game. However, if in the first game you saw the whole world through the eyes of April Ryan, the story being focused around her for most of its part, in the sequel you will alternatively control three characters, thus giving you a wider perspective of the world(s), and less focus on a single person. Also, the dialogues have changed, giving you the option of taking different attitudes towards the characters you interact with. For example, when you wish to board a ship, you may convince the captain by explaining, pleading, bribing or threatening him.

The overall feel of the game is a much more serious one. Humour and puns either come from characters of the first game, who retain they're jokes of old, or from funny reference to the original game. The sequel has few comical elements on it's own. I truly miss dialogues such as those with the guard at the crash site or the detective. Warning! This section contains spoilers. That having been said, I missed the cryptic remarks of Cortez, but were glad to see the comeback of characters such as Crow, Roper Klacks, Brian Westhouse, the Dark People, Gordon Halloway and the White of the Draic Kin. New comic faces include Theoretically Blind Bob and the Chinese Salesman. Spoilers end here.

The game seems a lot shorter than the first part. Also, I have to admit that I looked into a walkthrough at one point (in The Longest Journey I did that twice). Otherwise, the puzzles are not that difficult and quite self-explanatory. I think the highest number of items in my inventory at any given point was five.

Conclusion: for those who played the first game, this is certainly a must. You will definitely love it (and excitingly wait for the concluding part of the trilogy). To those who haven't played the first one, I recommend you skip this one and instead play that one beforehand.

From the Forest Where Cicadas Cry, There Is No Return

2007-09-27T09:27:00.001+03:00

The title, of course, is a line from the opening of, you've guessed it, When Cicadas Cry (japanese title Higurashi no Naku Koro ni). I've just finished watching this anime, and couldn't go without telling you all about it.

I came to find out about this anime from Szilard. He isked me if I had seen Elfen Lied and whether I had liked it. Since the answer for both questions was affirmative, he kindly recommended that I watch this particular anime. Thank you, Szilard.

The story takes place in June, 1983, in the little village of Hinamigawa, where Maebara Keiichi-kun just moved a month ago. He soon makes friends at school with Rena, Mion, Rika and Satoko. Life seems happy and carefree until the coming of the annual Watanagashi Festival, on the night of which, four years in a row, one person died and another went missing. The same is true for this year, and Keiichi gets involved in solving the mistery.

It doesn't seem like anything special, at first, but I have to say this, it's one freaky anime. This one is certainly not for the light-hearted. If Hello Kitty was your favourite anime, skip this one. This one should only be watched at night, in complete darkness and, hopefully, alone! Those who played Clive Barker's Undying under these conditions understand the feeling.

Simply put, it is shocking! Scenes of intense trepidation sometimes spring up unexpectedly, while at other times are forewarned and last an extended amount of time. I won't hide it, blood isn't spared at all during such scenes. The opening itself chills you to the bone. (For those interested, I've added the first scene of the first episode, followed by the opening, at the end of my post. No spoilers there.)

Warning: Some might consider the following paragraph to contain spoilers.
But the emotional roller-coaster is not everything. I was surprised to find the story end after the fourth episode, only to start from the beginning in the fifth. It immediately occurred to me that the anime had been adapted after a visual novel type game. I compared it with in my head to Critical Point, where, according to your actions, the villain turned out to be the captain of the ship, the enemy shapeshifting robot, the lesbian lieutenant and so on. Another way to look at it (though this only occurred to me after seeing the last episode) is in comparison to the PS2 game Grim Grimoire. For those who played it, think about playing throw that game, but from a perspective different than that of Lillet Blan (if you haven't played the game, I recommend it).
Eventual spoilers end here.

For those of you who liked Elfen Lied or enjoyed the first few Nightmare on Elm Street movies, I recommend this with a warm heart. I have to say, it's exactly as heartbreaking as Air... but in a completely different way. Enjoy!

PS: The story doesn't end in the first series. Be prepared for that.

The Missle Game 3D

2007-09-26T05:38:00.001+03:00

Famous Logos

2007-09-26T02:50:00.001+03:00

Have you noticed that famous logos sell well? It doesn't matter what the item is, if it has the famous logo on, it sells well. Furthermore, some fame-ridden logos also sell well, as long as they look cool. A third category would be the famous logo (or in our case, catchphrase) rip-offs. These it seems, also sell well, or at least the owner of this shoe store thought so...

Intel(R) had a huge impact on the IT market, but I think they'd never imagined they'd give tips for shoesalesmen... But if you steal the catchphrase, why not steal the logo as well? Wouldn't it have sold better that way?

Just imagine...

Minesweeper The Movie

2007-09-23T05:45:00.001+03:00

D.M.C. - Dumb Mindless Crud

2007-09-19T07:01:00.001+03:00

This morning I finished watching Devil May Cry. An anime based on the video game series with the same name. The story follows Dante, a half-demon half-human sword-wielding gunman who hunts devils for a living (talking about an original plot, ey?).

The video games received generally positive reviews, mostly due to their increased difficulty, which provided gamers with a challenge. Considering other aspects of the game, I think they were pretty shitty (though I played only Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition). I thought I would get something out of the highly praised action of the game, but quite frankly, it doesn't even reach the starting line in a race with God of War. I'd also rather not talk about the plot, I think they would have been better of completely without it, I'm surprised people were paid for that kind of stupid ideas. The only thing that surpasses the dumbness of the story is the voice-acting. Dante's personality, and the perfectly matching self-centred Hollywoodian macho voice, is so bad, that it passes the "humorously bad" barrier (unlike the voice-over in the movie 300), and it simply makes you want to cry.

So... what is the anime like? Exactly like the video game, just take away even that little interactivity which it had. Why would anyone want to watch it? Why did I watch it? Maybe I felt the need to warn people about it, but would have felt guilty to criticize without having seen it. Indeed, why would you want to see a guy fighting devils (and not even in a cool way) as if they were everyday hooligans and not breaking a sweat? And I mean not breaking a single sweat! Not even in the very last fight! Even Superman is vulnerable to kryptonite... What's the deal with this guy?

If you liked the games (other than the gameplay, that is, only the story, the attitude, the dialogues, and only if you really really liked them), you will probably like the anime too, though this might not necessarily be true. Otherwise, I advise you to stay away. If you have that much spare time, watch 300 instead, it will at least make you laugh.

17-09-2007 Post 3: It Is All Around Us...

2007-09-17T22:56:00.001+03:00

"Nothing interesting ever happens to me," is a signature phrase of Mitsue Shijou (Kamichu!). Have you ever thought those same words? Well, you're wrong! ("Moses, you're lying!") All you have to do is open your eyes to the world around you. You are surrounded by weirdness and the supernatural. As an example, today, when I was coming home from the School Year Opening Ceremony, I saw this:

Apparently, it's just some graffiti in the park next to my apartment. However, I saw right through into the beyond. For most people, this is a simple spiral, while for the trained eye, this resembles two arcane symbols...

The Symbol of Bethrezen & The SOS Brigade Logo

Of course, some difference applies, but when dealing with mystic powers, you have to be flexible. When such grandeur surrounds us, how can anyone say "Nothing interesting ever happens to me"? The fact is, people blind themselves from the truth. After all "There are more things in heaven and earth,[...] Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." (Hamlet, from Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Act I, Scene V)

17-09-2007 Post 2: "Forward, GO!"

2007-09-17T19:38:00.001+03:00

Yesterday, after doing some farming, err, I mean adventuring, in FFXII, I wanted to sit down and watch something nice. I wanted a light comedy that doesn't rely on slapstick or overboard weirdness humour. I decided to watch Manabi Straight! I hit the nail on the head.

Manabi Straight! (Japanese title: Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight!) takes place in the near future (2035), where due to a severe drop in birth rate, very few people attend school, most of them taking a decision to become part of the basic (and essential) workforce of the nation. In this setting, Seioh (All Girls) High School has a one-member student board which doesn't really do anything, but has survived through time, mostly ignored by the students. Everything changes the day Amamiya Manami transfers to Seioh and decides to become Student Council President with the intentions of doing something "wonderful and exciting".

The anime has a warm atmosphere around it, implemented very well through animation, sound and music. Everything is a bit futuristic, but cosy in the same time. The characters, although in high-school, are drawn middle-school like (you'll see in teh wallpapers at the end of the post). The series is very well paced and makes you want to not let go of it till you finished watching (I realised that at 7 am this morning, when I finished it...).

The whole atmosphere is centered around 5 girls who make up the student council. And just to give you a taste of why it's so cool, I'll say some about each one of them:

Amamiya Manami, aka Manabi-chan (voice: Yui Horie) is the Student Council President. She is hyperactive and weird. "My brain doesn't work, if I sit in one place", she declares herself in the series. As energetic as Tomo-chan (Azumanga Daioh!) with a heart as big as Ai Tanabe (Planetes).

Inamori Mika, aka Mikan (voice: Ai Nonaka) is the original member of the student council and fills in the position of Secretary. When I watched the anime, I tried to think who she reminds me of, and Tokino Akiyama (Kujibiki Unbalance) came to mind. I was later surprised to find out that the seiyuu for the two characters is one and the same. She is timid and naive, also reminding of Akari Mizunashi (Aria the Animation).

Uehara Mutsuki, aka Mu-chi (voice: Marina Inoue) is the athlete of the team. She is very fit and fills in the role of Student Council Assistant. She highly reminds me of Kagura (Azuamga Daioh!), due to her athletic nature, interest in manly stuff, constant appetite, but also a kind and helping heart of gold.

Etoh Mei (voice: Aya Hirano) is an amalgam of characters. A composure like that of Sakaki-san (Azumanga Daioh!), an intellect like that of Chiyo-chan (Azumanga Daioh!) and determination (and "boss around"-iness) like that of Haruhi Suzumiya (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya). She is the Student Council Treasurer and is many times involved in administratively taking lead of the group. I guarantee, she's a character you'll love.

Momoha Odori, aka Momo (voice: Saki Fujita) will probably be my brother's favourite character from the series. She is strange and absent-minded, talks very little, but is highly sarcastic and scheming on the inside. She mostly reminded me of Mamimi Samejima (FLCL).

Imagine what these girls can do together? I recommend this anime to anyone who liked Azumanga Daioh! and the sort. I just can't get enough of it, so here are some wallpapers.

17-09-2007 Post 1: Decreased Natality or Increased Mortality?

2007-09-17T13:13:00.001+03:00

Today, 17 September 2007, I decided to write 3 posts. The events within these posts are not chronological. But if they're not chronological, what do you call it? Of course, if the events are completely in the opposite order, you call it reversed chronological order. But what if they are simply jiggled around? Do you call it inchronological or unchronological? Or perhaps chronoillogical (that makes sense)? Anyway, they're just random.

Today, 17 September 2007, school started in Romania. Usually the school year starts on 15 September, but since that was a Saturday (and there is no school on Saturday), they moved it 2 days farther. People usually say that school starts on 15 September, but this is not a rule. In fact, by rule, it starts on the first working day after 14 September, but I guess that would be too long for people in today's fast-moving society to utter every time they refer to the beginning of the school year.

Anyway, our former class decided to visit some teachers with this occasion. I was really happy to meet some of them, since I didn't go last year (shame on me). It was quite a nostalgic moment (ah, those boring speeches... actually, we have those in university too...).

So what does the title have to do with it? It's a subtle hint to the second post I'm going to make about an anime that takes place in the near future, Japan facing a population problem due to decreased natality (or birth rate, if you will). Where's the connection? Well, out of the proud class of thirty (30) that graduated two (2) years ago, only seven (7) showed up (I'm putting the numbers in brackets to highlight the big changes). Our problem is not with natality, but mortality (or death rate, if you will). At this rate, how many people are going to show up at the 10-year anniversary? I think Romania is facing a crisis that it is not aware of...

Note: This post is supposed to be funny. I know that this event was quite meaningless compared to the 10-year anniversary, which will have a whole-class attendance (at least I hope). I do, however, feel a bit sad that this few people showed up. I apologize to those who could not make it due to serious circumstances, like being on a different continent (this means you, Anca, I hope you're still reading this blog...).

Evening of 12 September 2007

2007-09-12T14:47:00.001+03:00

Shana Tova!

Ramadan Mubarak!

(sorry, I didn't have a photo to match the greeting)

Journey Photo Log, Interlude

2007-08-19T19:26:00.001+03:00

I'll be leaving for a week to Borsec. This is a recreational camp (which means no Internet connection), so I'll have to leave the log a bit suspended. However, I leave you with two movies that we made in camp. Enjoy:

Journey Photo Log, Part 2

2007-08-15T04:38:00.001+03:00

Here you go, everyone! Part 2!

Cristian: (before camp)

Well, as soon as I got to Cristian, I met the people I was going to work with. Some of them had already been there for the previous camps and those of them were really glad to see reinforcements coming. Of course, I had known them from before, the correct way to say it would have been "I met up with". Whatever.

The day before camp, we went to Busteni to see Babele and Sfinxul. For those of you who don't know, these are two famous rock formations which respectively resemble old women and a human face. Here are two photos, one with me and Babele in the background (I never understood where the old women were in those stones; personally I think they look like nuclear explosion mushrooms, but in school books they claim they look like old women, so who am I to argue?), and one with the whole group (not everyone here is an instructor, some are participants from the previous camp who stayed for the next one too).

The interesting part of the journey was the journey itself, not really the rock formations. Besides waiting in line 3 hours, I got an insight on cool/stupid Romanian signs. Check these out:

What's the word for "velocity" in Romanian?

"Viteza", you say? Check again:

I've been to other countries, but I've never seen a "stationing table" before:

Let's suppose I'm looking for a coffin...

Found the best place! Open 24/7:

Where do I park? On the right? Gotcha...

Houston, we have a problem...

Journey Photo Log, Part 1

2007-08-14T01:56:00.001+03:00

Well, most of you know, I've been on quite a trip these past weeks. First of all, I went to Bucharest to see my girlfriend, then to camp in Cristian and after that to Szarvas. I got home 3 days ago, but i needed the time to rest. Now the time has come to talk about my journeys.

Thanks to my brother's benevolence, I got a digital camera for my birthday (Thank you, Tibi!). Using this camera, I took a lot of photos during my travels, which I'm going to share with you through the following days, as I review the past weeks.

Bucharest:

I'll start my log by telling about what it was like in Bucharest. I got my camera here, 2 days before leaving, so sadly I have not enough photos. I especially regret not having taken pictures of TNT Games, the official retailer of NCSoft games in Romania. It was such a cool workplace. What was I doing there? Well, I went to buy a PS1 memory card in order to be able to save my FFIX games. Yes, we all know that Sony are bitches, not letting you save PS1 games on a PS2 memory card. Anyway, this place was really cool and I got to play the Wii here, too! Yay!

Anyway, the purpose of my visit to Bucharest was seeing my girlfriend, Ioana! And here she is!

(by the way, this is the very first photo taken with my new camera)

Ok, let's have some more photos with her, cause she deserves it. Beautiful, isn't she?... (sigh)

Another event was Mariuca's birthday. Who is Mariuca? She's Ioana's older sister. Here's a photo. Happy Birthday! It was a really cool birthday. The whole family got together. It was a ball!

Overall, it was a heavenly time (mostly thanks to Ioana). I can't wait to meet you again...
I'll end here, and resume my stories tomorrow, with events from Cristian, from before the camp.

Kiddy Grade 2 (the waiting's simply killing me)

2007-07-05T22:21:00.002+03:00

I don't know about most of you, but among my favourite anime I count Gonzo's 24-episode science fiction TV series about girls with super powers, an organization bearing the name of God, fanservice and even some unexpected (even outrageous to some) plot twists. Yes, I'm talking about Kiddy Grade.

Views and critics about Kiddy Grade vary wildly. I personally like it. I like the pacing, the visuals, the music, the characters, the setting, the plot, even the fanservice... And just when it was about to get interesting, you suddenly notice that you've just finished watching episode 24 and there are no more... You then re-watch it (well, that's what I did) and enjoy it at a different level, knowing all the subtleties that you've learnt throughout the series. But then, it ends again...

Well, it doesn't have to end there. There will be 3 digest movies coming out, retelling the story of the series, and as far as I know, it will contain new material as well. But what's really exciting, is the fact that they've announced (yes, I know that this happened in October 2006) a sequel. The preview (which I would more accurately call a teaser) was released 2 months ago and I've finally gotten my hands on it. I've watched it and re-watched it as much as the series. I just can't wait...

Well, if all of this is going to be in Kiddy Grade 2, then I guess it's worth waiting. The space battle seems a lot more dynamic, since the battle with Deucalion was a bit dull. The two new main characters seem pretty cool. If in the first series Eclair was the brawn and Lumiere was the brains, I don't see that clear dissociation in these two. Also, if they're taking out Eclair, they will probably have less fanservice. At the very end, did you notice that the sign is different? It doesn't say GOTT, it says GTO! All these little details make me tingle. Help me someone... I'm dying!

New Gadget

2007-07-05T01:02:00.001+03:00

Well, everyone, as you can see on the right hand side of the blog, where you have all the goodies (those cool comics and the archive, which is of absolutely no use to you, I guess), a new gadget has just appeared. "Is that a map?" you might ponder. Indeed it is. But it isn't just any kind of map. It's a ClustrMap. This cool gizmo I took from my brother's blog and it shows how many hits my blog gets and, the cool part, where I get them from. I have high hopes of world domination with it. Who knows...

Anyway, if you want to decorate your own blog with it, check out:
http://www.clustrmaps.com/