Aria

ARIA DEFINES UTOPIA. PERIOD.


(Note: this viewer has not finished watching this animated series. Please consult this blog at another time in the future for further information regarding the opinion of this viewer on this animated series.)

Disregard this (Post #200 btw)

OMG MY PROFESSOR DIDN'T EMAIL MY GRADE TO MY ADVISOR FESIfvwonvFPCSEFNefip FNSIF I HOPE THIS FREAKIN GETS FIXED I DON'T WANT TO RUIN MYDAMNRECORDJUSTBECAUSE MYPROFESSORDIDN'TEMAILMYDIRECTEDRESEARCH GRADE OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMG AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARFGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH sjFOSIDV soF isofiaof aifo asiS
I NEED
TO BASH
SOMETHINGGGG

A sense of humbleness

One of the things I was always raised with was to be compared to people. I don't know if that's really a good thing or a bad thing (most people seem to regard this as a bad thing) but typically my parents (and eventually, I myself) frequently refer to others like role models and the oh so famous line, "why can't you be like them". I think in regards to most people, eventually they started comparing themselves to worse people and saying "its a good thing I'm not like them" or to just stop comparing themselves. But as a person myself I still look to the skills and achievements of others, and at the same time realize the insignificance I am compared to many of these people. It's a dejecting feeling, to know that you haven't in the least accomplished as much as others have, even more so if they're about the same age as you; but musing it over it appears that it can't be helped. It's always a disappointing feeling for myself when I realize myself as "just average"; on the one hand it could be worse, but it could always be better. This is the scenario to be dealt with all the time, no matter how much I want to better or worse my life.
The obvious solution to this is, of course, stop being lazy, stop procrastinating, do more in life. In terms of procrastination, I attempt to do things a little at a time so it they don't build up, so despite my ADHD I'm not sure of that's a particular problem, however, it seems difficult to devote myself to work aside from school work (and more recently, lab work). I believe this will not fare well for me in the future and in real life, and indeed if I could overcome this problem, I can probably be more "achieved" in life like others I refer to. Stop playing games, do more work? maybe. That would change who I am though, although maybe a change is needed...

In an ideal situation I'd still be able to play games and work hard and achieve something. I think I'm reaching as an ideal situation as I can get, maintaining fairly nice grades, doing a decent amount of work in lab, and still going to anime club and playing RO. But it's always the inevitable feeling... when will the ideal situation end? When will I have to start achieving more and giving up what silly yet entertaining pleasures I have?

Life is never going to be so simple. I hope I can grow up without any problems...

Lucky Star

One of the big burning questions (ok, maybe not so big and burning) is why people would hold this show in such high regard for its, in many people's honest and decently logical opinion, mediocrity. It's artstyle isn't that great, the music is poppy and catchy but nothing truly emotion touching, and to inquire if there was any sort of plot would be futile. However, Lucky Star has, for me and for many other viewers, been a very decent show to watch that has proved to be more entertaining than the other "mediocre" shows out there, and there remains the mystery of why this is so.

This is most likely because it's the best anime-tized lifestyle one can relate to. Anime in general will frequently have references to cultural events or other facts here and there that one can say "hey I know what they're talking about", but Lucky star does that about every episode for the normal person, and every 2 minutes for the common otaku. This is why it has so much appeal; the joy of saying "I TOTALLY KNOW HOW THIS CHARACTER IS FEELING RIGHT NOW" or "I DEFINITELY KNOW HOW THAT FEELS" every so often, only you're seeing it in anime form with cute girls acting out your everyday quirks and actions. This is probably Lucky Star's greatest strengths, to relate to so many events that everyone has in their lives, especially in the common everyday life of an otaku. Not even a hardcore otaku, but also the casual otaku who, like Kagami, is interested in normal life just as much as the anime culture.

Speaking of Kagami, I'm not typically a fan of tsundere but Kagami is my second favorite character (in the main group) plainly because she's so funny and I can relate with her a ton of times. If anything, it feels like both the personality of Kagami and Konata are with me all the time, with the "Kagami" conscience always saying "why the hell are you doing that"... Kagami's wtf moments are the best scenes for laughing, as great as Tsukasa and Konota's cousin's bumbling moments are the best scenes for gushing...GUSHGUSHGUSH ok enough of that.

SPOILERS NOT LIKE ANYONE WHO'S READING THIS CARES OR IF THEY DO THEY PROBABLY FINISHED LUCKY STAR ALREADY. In terms of the scene where Konata's mother comes back as a ghost figure, I think that was probably, personally, the least realistic and relatable subject yet most fantasized situation of any otaku individual out there. To have a loved one (and a childhood friend at that!) presented as so easily "obtained" is most possibly the most ideal scenario any otaku would want... just like as if it had come out of a dating sim game. I bring this up because one person apparently was telling me how great it is and wanted me to finish up Lucky Star just so I can watch it. It's a decent scene, but nothing along the lines of AIR and Lucky Star just isn't an anime to be taken seriously, so it would be a bit out of place as well. I understand that there are some anime which can put in a real serious moment after so many scenes of happy and funness (see: Full Moon wo Sagashite), but Lucky Star isn't one of them: it's comedy and pure comedy and anything deviating from it would be illogical.

Or Kagami would say. :V

Neurobiologist's guide to Ragnarok Online

STR- actin filaments, muscle spindles, golgi tendons, neuromuscular junction activity
DEX- Motor neuron, motor cortex, procedural learning, cerebellum activity
AGI- Propeoception, somatosensory cortex, myelination
VIT- Increased endorphin release, Dorsal cell ganglion
INT- Hypothalamus and Temporal Lobe, Declarative Learning
LUK- ...:V

Scientific Journal Articles

The truth.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/63957/How-to-write-Consistently-Boring-Scientific-Literature

*hijack* this blog is now a lab rant blog.

OMG I can't believe that I did that aaaaaggghhh I thought yesterday that I had completely run out of primary antibody and that my experiments had to be delayed once again so I panicked and requested an overnight delivery request but of course all the offices were closed and I couldn't find a fax machine so I had to wait until the next day at 8 AM and hope they can get it before 8:30 AM (that's the deadline for overnight shipping) but it turns out the guy in charge of orders is out for the ENTIRE DAY so I probably won't get my antibody tomorrow but then I come into lab and came up with this INGENIUS idea that of course I couldn't think up yesterday to vortext the damn antibody and well what do you know there IS ENOUGH ANTIBODY FOR ME TO USE BUT GODDAMMIT I RUINED THE ANTIBODY BECAUSE I DIDN'T PUT IT BACK INTO THE FREEZER BECAUSE I THOUGHT I RAN OUT OF ALL THE ANTIBODY ALREADY AND SO NOW THE ANTIBODY IS COMPLETELY RUINED but I'm going to try probing with the primary anyway because I figured any result at this point is a good result and even if I don't see anything surely by the time I develop my blots I'll get the emergency delivered new antibody and I can just reprobe without stripping or anything since its the same antibody anyway and I'm sure if anyone reads this blog they couldn't care less other than the fact that this is the most terrible run on sentence they have seen in their life.

Lab Drama

So, First off I want to make a recognition and acknowledgment of "being emo". In general, most people believe "being emo" is bad in itself, that it's some entity that takes over people's minds and makes them want to kill themselves. On the contrary, I think its normal to have specific emotional fluctuations depending on mood. Typically, its the source that causes a person to become "emo" that is the problem, in my opinion. When someone is "emo" because of something, it means he or she REALLY REALLY cares about it. He or she may state, while being emo, that he or she hates (emo source), but in reality he or she probably feels like he or she can't live without it. In this general sense, I believe people who become "emo" over a game like Ragnarok Online should find something else to care about because in essence RO is just a game. I find people that become "emo" over love, personally, a bit silly BUT I acknowledge that they find it an important thing; I certainly respect their emotions if they are in a depressed state and will not try to state their rightness or wrongness in drowning in their emotions because of a loved one.

I bring this issue up because recently I've been having a LOT of issues regarding lab work in general. It is very difficult because I am not a person who will openly say "DEPRESSED LAB WORKS SUCKS RANT RANT RANT" because we need to have a people-friendly environment in the lab. But recent issues that have come up with my advisor and an endless array of mistakes that I never seem to improve on is driving me up the wall. Remember, I acknowledge that I like lab work and, for the most part, when I'm actually doing the work I'm quite happy. However, 2 issues is leaving me to feel like little more than dirt:

1.) My Advisor. I respect and honor my advisor a lot for teaching me so many techniques and introducing me to the lab environment. He has, for the most part, been guiding me, perhaps in his opinion too much, through various conferences, lab meetings, and experiments to get me where I am now. But one slight mistake I made and he decides to abandon all the guidance he has ever provided and treats me no better than anyone else in the lab. In one sense, I can understand this action. It is time, he believes, that I should be independent, solve mistakes on my own, analyze data and journal articles, and become ultimately the same level as he is in terms of stature. But I'm not, I'm still hanging. Its not that I don't do anything now that he's not helping; I'm going through experiments, doing more than I ever did before, trying to solve problems and read papers... but his lack of acknowledgement is discouraging. If even just once, he says something like "you're doing a good job" like he did before, even if he didn't help me, I think I'd feel much better. But he just treats me (if I dare say) coldly, not giving any acknowlegement to the work I'm trying to desperately do to prove to myself and others that I'm not just a child but someone who's actually devoting time and his life to research.
I believe that it's probably a selfish request, to request for acknowledgement. In the real world no one is going to care if you're a scientist or a toilet scrubber. But still, I can't help feeling down about it.

2.) Mistakes. I make them all the time. In midterms, while playing piano, and in experiments. I believe the lack of acknowledgement from my advisor and others also relates into this area, because if I keep on producing mistakes, I can't produce data, and without data I can't prove that I've been working hard. This is the sad truth of my lab life, that in spite of how hard I worked, I haven't produced any data on my own that I can say, "I did this, this is what I have shown". Yesterday I came so close, SO CLOSE, but then, I realized this morning, I did one slight stupid error... and ALL the data I ahve collected, as well as some of the experiments I had been doing, have been screwed over and wrong. So, I had nothing to present at the lab meeting today. This depressed me to no end, and my advisor of course gives no sympathy. But, lesson learned (or rather relearned, over and over again) that nothing ever goes according to plan. NOTHING... I just worry if I can make my experiments on time.

I stopped halfway through this blog post and began to do more experiments and now I feel a helluvalot better than I did before. I apologize for anyone that bothers to read this blog for this post, as I try to make my blog entries as emo-free as possible. But then again I suppose I now understand why others emo into blogs, because when other people (like, your advisor) don't listen to you anymore you want a place to "talk" to and and maybe just pretend people are listening to you. I love working in lab to its utmost fullest, but it being something I love, even more than a game, means I'm going to have some drama and emoness tag along as well.

:V

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Perennial Midterms Rant, cont

So after the first fiasco involving my BME Physiology midterm, we had our second today and, looking back, I realized I have missed a lot of things I could have easily gotten right if I was just in focus. Once again I was overthinking one problem due to some rule that I thought was important (but now that I look back on it I should have just ignored it and I probably would have done fine), giving up time where I could have looked through my problems and corrected some really easy errors that I made. But again, its only when I look back that I think "oh, that's wrong" and realize I'm going to lose a few points not because I didn't know the material but because I rushed and made an error.

The frustration is hard to cope with. Unfortunately I can't go off campus until about 5 PM so I'll have to deal with it until then.

There's a break but there's also a lot of work coming up. Hopefully the least this midterm can do is wake me up and get me started on some things I need to do before it gets all crammed to Hell Week #2 for this semester...

Perennial Midterms Rant

There was an episode of Lucky Star I watched over the weekend where one of the characters had something bad happen to her, then it showed her going through her day and making small, stupid, annoying little mistakes, which mostly have nothing to do with the bad thing that happened at first, but just because of the bad event she was now having a bad day.

I could not relate to this scenario any more than right now.

As a side note, I need to make a entry on Lucky Star after I finished it. As if it wasn't obvious already, I think its key attribute is the fact that many of the watchers are able to relate to the events occurring in Lucky Star fairly often, even if you're not a hardcore otaku. Like the 3-second rule, or the bad day example I was just talking about.

...If I get a C in one of my classes my life is over.

LOL what

An anime artist drew a picture for the cover of "Cell" recently.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-09-07/jojo's-araki-draws-cover-for-u.s-biological-journal-cell

Obviously, the people who requested it (and have their article as the main one to read in Cell) were Japanese. For those who might not know, Cell is a highly academically acclaimed scientific journal that publishes the latest research in cell biology. It is VERY prominent and to have your paper published in Cell is a great honor, similar to getting your paper published in Nature or winning the Nobel Peace prize (well, that could possibly be the greatest honor of all in science).

While the artist is just another passing artist, it was still nice to know that something from two worlds I thought could never come together... comes together in this unique and awesome way.

I am absolutely reading this article just because of the cover. :V (It's a good article and relates to neuroscience! People should read it!)

Code Geass

TERRIBLE WAY TO END THE FIRST SEASON But I suppose it's appropriate. Almost makes me not want to have finished it, but I needed to free up room on my harddrive.

An EXCELLENT series, one that I supremely love and nominate as best anime for this (or last?) year. Unlike what others (including my friend) may think, I can define this as one of the most "hotblooded" series of the year, if taking into account "hotblood" is the definition of the feeling of excitement and anticipation. For me, the excitement and anticipation lies in the planning and ingenuity of Lelouche, most likely the most impressive character I have ever met. While having a slightly annoying ego, his intelligence greatly makes up for it and can be classified as one heck of an awesome character. What's most intriguing is that all his hopes and efforts are for his sister, in his efforts to find revenge to the one that did her sister harm and to have a world where him and his sister can live in peace (obviously, highly idealistic). For someone to work out plans so logically and base them on something so human... this is the human rationale. All of logic, whether from math or science, originates from ideals and imagination, an entity that does not truly exist. There is no such thing as a dot, or a line, as they can all be traced into being either a circle or an extended rectangle. Yet because we are able to establish a "dot" or a "line", we can define things like circles and rectangles. Idealogy is everything in reasoning, and part of Lelouche's character reflects that.

Additionally, another great factor of Code Geass is that no matter how great his plans were thought out, something always falters and fails. If none of his plans gets ruined, then it would just look highly unrealistic. But even if his plans fail, he manages to take advantage of whatever the situations that come up. Only in VERY FEW events does he rely purely on luck, and in that case, its quite forgivable (hey, this is anime after all, isn't it?).

Aside from Lelouche being the coolest male protagonist I think I have ever seen, other characters are fairly interesting in their own ways. Lelouche's good friend, Suzaku I believe, is interesting in his own respects. A kind guy, albeit a dangerous pilot. I was entertained how his movements were predicted by Lelouche after a while. Overall I didn't concentrate too much on him because there was obviously someone much cooler close to him that I was trying to figure out. As for some of the girls, I find that Euphemia and Shirley were both reasonably cute. C.C. had her own style of "cuteness", if more appropriate termed the word "hot" although I seldom use the word and don't like to use it often.
Slight spoilers though if you are reading this you either a. don't care or b. already watched Code Geass already. Not like anyone reads these blogs anyway... BUT
I find it really interesting that of all the ways that Lelouche's plans get ruined, the one that seemed to deal him the hardest blow was by his sister Euphemia. That was one twister I really liked. Another was shortly after how he accidently manipulates her to conduct a genocide, ultimately putting things in his favor once again. What's interesting about that is how he regretted his decision, but continued to move on. An amazing show of persistence, even if despite the fact that he is sacrificing one of his relatives to "save" another. (Needless to say his logic begins to falter, but there's so much other things going on that I never really had time to develop and think on that).

Orange-kun is strangely entertaining! He is similar to one of those guys everyone loves to pick on just because he gets angry, and he gets angry because he gets picked on. A lose-lose situation on his part, but oh well. AND HE PILOTS A GIANT ORANGE LATER!! How entertaining is that :V

The music... overall I enjoyed the intro to the first half of the show, ending to the second half of the show, and the intro to the last episodes, the other OP/ED was not as much to my tastes.

With that I believe I have said most of what I wanted to say in Code Geass. There has so far never been as an exciting of an anime as Code Geass. Code Geass and Sola are the anime to watch this season! Go for it! :D

Planetarian

Lately I haven't been writing significant posts, particularly reviews on anime and other related material. This is mainly due to the fact that I had to take Writing 340 over the summer which resulted in me not feeling like writing up anything. This is not necessarily due to the fact that I haven't been watching any (decent) anime (on the contrary, Sola was a very good anime that I would suggest to others, but have not yet written a review yet). However, presently I have just... (Played? Watched? Read? insert appropriate verb here) Planetarian, the Reverie of a Little Planet, and, like any otaku fan that knows of Key, the work was spectacular.

I have to admit, similar to how when I first watch Haruhi and AIR, the work seems to be pure eyecandy. I can't deny that I enjoyed most of the visual novel because of how cute the Planetarian girl looked, because personality wise I (until the very VERY end) did not find her any more exciting than an AIM bot dressed nicely. VERY nicely. In fact this makes me worry, in the event that in the future people will design advertising bots just like her and possibly warp the minds of many into this monopolistic world of fantasy... but I digress. This visual novel isn't, of course, about the mindnumbing cuteness of the main heroine and it's theoretical possibility of brainwashing poor fools into buying things just because they're cute. It is an entertaining story, sometimes fun, sometimes sad, overall very moving and heavily touching.

Following this point there will be spoilers.

The part where she is attacked and begins "dying", so to speak, was not particularly moving in that she got shot and is dying. This the authors (ie, Key?) probably realized, even though, yes, the death of a cute character like her is indeed sad. What made the entire scene so touching was her memories that she recalled. What's moreso about it is how throughout the entire visual novel, she mentions the concept of memory here and there, and at the very beginning only briefly mentions her holographic replay feature. It almost hits like a brick when they finally reveal the emotional link of her memories to her character. Yes, admittedly, when that part came, I had tears. I was not crying, but it could not be watched without some emotional movement within yourself. But alas, this is probably what makes the novel so great.

The little charm music, of course, helped. In fact, music was done VERY nicely to portray an appropriate mood in Planetarian. This novel is, indeed, a masterpiece as many have already said many times before, therefore, I need to blab you no further on it.

Instead I should be telling you about Sola, which is also a good anime, but for the time being I must finish up this obsession over planetarian.

AIR to be released soon

My friend told me that AIR had premiered on Anime Network yesterday, July 27th, the date of my birthday. As such, I decided to look up when AIR will get released in anticipation of buying it.


Amazon.com says it'll be released on August 14th.

http://www.amazon.com/Air-TV-vol-1/dp/B000RHMQLM/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-3770257-6421245?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1185655046&sr=1-1


Man, the cover looks so nice. *drool*

Best. Anime. Ever.

I My Me Strawberry Eggs

Overall a fairly interesting comedy anime. I think the characters are a little weak and need development, especially the characters besides the main characters. If they had more story behind some of the other characters besides just the teacher and about 3 students, then this should could have been potentially more interesting and touching. The thematic concept of the anime is decent enough; not unique, but touching upon many of the aspects of discrimination, though I do say some of the characters are quite stupid in some respects. (AKA they took WAAAAAY too long to settle the whole ZOMG IT WAS A GUY AFTER ALL issue at the final episodes) The music is a little funky (weird country music) so not that great.

Well, at least the main heroine was really cute, and though she was spaced out most of the time she seemed smarter than most of the other girls in the school. A decent enough anime to watch.

AX 2007

Once again, all my BSing skills will be needed for my ethics paper in WRIT 340, which REALLY needs the BS because ethics is ALL about BS. Therefore, short bullet point summaries.

-Aya Hirano is the cutest seiyuu I have met so far, and probably will be the cutest seiyuu ever. While I still like KOTOKO and eufonius better in terms of singing, Aya has everyone beat in terms of personality, (normal) voice, and basically being an idol. Her (incredibly high) energetic nature is just like... dangerously cute for some reason. While other seiyuus might pretend to be cute, for whatever reason I find that the way she acts is as if she's genuinely excited and curious about America and her American fans, and that excitement is terribly incredibly cute for some reason.
-Aya Hirano likes cake, Yuki Goto likes alcohol, and the voice actor for Nagato likes chocolate.
- quite a lot of stuff bought. There was a lot of 2 dollar manga that me and my sister jumped on and pretty much bought the entire shelf.
-Orskaband (sp?) is cool but only because they have a trumpet, saxophone, and trombone player in their band. Unique!
-savage genius was really good, but unfortunately I was worrying through most of the concert that I wouldn't be able to get a good seat at the SOS concert to enjoy it thoroughly. I bought one of their albums though.
-the SOS concert, in the meantime, was the most poorly organized concert that ever existed. There was a 1 and a half hour delay, then when the concert finally started we find out that about half of the "concert" was just the Japanese and American VAs reciting lines from the anime. In what little music they had left, Hirano Aya and the voice actor for Nagato (I highly apologize but I cannot remember her name) both were lagging in their singing, that is, they started their singing a bit later than they were supposed to. Not only that, but the VA for Nagato also forgot some of her lines from her songs.
If concerts were graded on a 1-10 scale, this concert would have gotten a -22 except Hirano Aya was there, so that adds +100 to the concert scale. :V
-Chiaki Ishikawa (or the Yuki Kajiura sidekick) Concert was decent, and my sister liked it.
-The Momoi concert was the most organized and "best" concert in AX. Too bad it was the concert with the smallest attendance.
-Bought a lot of box sets. Only 35$ for thinpacks now, that's within my range for buying series.
-Did I mention Aya Hirano is cute? I won't deny that it might also be the age factor (being one year younger than me), but if it weren't for her remarkable enthusiasm and cuteness she would have never charmed me as much as she has right now. :V

Maybe more, if I can think up more later.

Fanime

I should talk more about fanime but I probably won't because I have drained up all my BSing skills into my Writing 340 class that I must take over the summer. Therefore, once again I present to you, a brief overview of what happened at fanime!

1. Met PJBW. Pwned him in EFZ, didn't get him to play touhou though. :(
2. Found out the 3 Japanese voice actors from Haruhi are coming to AX! Though I could have found that out without going to fanime too.
3. Went to Industry Panels. Stuff got licensed. Only thing that really perked my ears was Shuffle, though that was kind of old. Still surprised Shuffle got licensed, though.
4. Went to a Pangya panel, purely because they had an awesome music video using KOTOKO songs. The game looks fun, I might try and play it some time. But it also seems like a waste of money, and I think there are set characters rather than customizable ones like RO so :/...
5. Went to some Anime Blogging panels. Interesting to note that my personal blog is more sophisticated in anime reviews than 99% of other anime blogs (which usually just give EVIL SPOILERS AND SCREENCAPS)
6. Went to 4chan panel. Think /b/. Enough said.
7. Amazingly, I bought stuff when I thought I told myself I would never buy stuff. BUT I FOUND 2 DOLLAR STELLVIA MANGA AND 30 DOLLAR ENTIRE SET OF GALAXY ANGEL SEASON 1 ;o; WHY MUST I BE TORMENTED LIKE THIS!!

2 vs 2 battle in game (Pokemon) = Heal Slave (RO)

The general concept of 2 person vs 2 person battling isn't original nor that great, but the fact that the pokemon get completely recovered right after battle IS FREAKIN WIN!!!

I SWEAR I CAN GET LIKE 20 LEVELS EVERY TIME I GET A TEAMMATE PARTNER PERSON!

durr durrr darrrrrrr seifuku!!

How to lose 1 week of cramming and studying in one and a half minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtkQdOP2rt8

A bunch of anime I watched 3 weeks ago...

But never had time to write up on it. Consequently, my BSing capability isn't exactly super great right now, so most of these will just be like a few lines of approve or don't approve. I can't even remember all the anime I watched that weekend, I swear I finished like 3 series. One of them was probably insignificant, that's why I can't remember it...


Aria the Animation: Overall one of the best, one of my new favorite series. The series is quite the "slice of life" anime, only its a slice of life in Utopia: everything in here is perfect and goes perfectly. All the people are remarkably kind, everyone is good, its like the story of something after it finishes with "happily ever after" because all this anime is is happiness, joy, and tranquility. It has the same flavor as Stellvia of the Universe, only even Stellvia at times showed a more realistic point of view, that sometimes people can turn against others for their own thoughts and feelings. Aria is like, everyone is a good person, everyone helps each other, and everyone has their name start with A. Definately the best series I've seen in a while.

Gargoyle of the Yoshinagas: This is also a really good series that I finished up over the weekend. It was great all the way to the end, though I wish there was more. I currently can't find ANYTHING on it (whether it be the OP/ED, any manga or game relation, or whatnot) except for the anime, which makes me really disappointed.

Lucky Star: I began it, the first half seemed kind of longwinded and eventually was getting tedious, but the second half was some what of a comedy relief.
...
Opening was like Opium for my Optic Nerve.
...

The Third: I watched through half of it. The animation looks good, but the story is getting quite mundane and boring. I dunno, it seems kind of interesting but... its... boring at times. It seems like.

Sola: Has potential, especially with the whole undead thing. Seems to be a trend lately. THEY ALL COPIED FROM MY PLAGAL IDEA, I TELL YOU!!!

That's all I can remember for now. Now, I SHOULD be getting back to finals... >.>

AIR LICENSED

http://www.animeondvd.com/news/pr.php?pr_view=1026

HOLY SHIT

MOETAN IS GOING TO BECOME AN ANIME

LOLOL PREPARE FOR JAPANESE ENGRISH LEARNING

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-04-27/moetan-english-teaching-anime-to-air-in-july-in-japan

in other news, I haven't updated my blog for a while. I should review the 10 or so anime I watched that one weekend I came back, but I should also be finishing up my research lab report and preparing for finals then attempting to get a DS and pokemon Diamond. :p So, the reviews might take a while...

MEANWHILE PREPARE TO LEARN ENGRISH FOR SAKE OF JAPAN OTAKU! COME JULY!

Methods and Materials

WRITING UP THE ENTIRE PROCEDURE FOR AN EXPERIMENT WHERE YOU ONLY DID A PART OF THE WHOLE THING IS RIDICULOUS. It feels like I've cheated the whole way since I only ran Western Blots and did practically nothing else in this lab.

*sigh*

I want my own experiment.

Laboratory Work Stuff

I haven't been watching anime lately because I've been swamped with schoolwork (however this weekend I'm going home so I'm going to finish up a few series and start few new ones that are coming out right now). On the other hand, some interesting events regarding my lab work have come up which are worth noting.

First off is that I received a Fellowship award of 5000$ just for submitting a filled out application and a one page BSed paper on what I'm doing in my lab already (although its supposed to be what I'm supposed to be doing during the summer...) Consequently I never thought of this as THAT big of a deal, I mean, ok, 5000$ means my parents can pay 5000$ less on me and my school fees, if not needed now, then in the future. :p However, my lab director made an incredibly big deal out of it and got my entire lab excited over my award. I've been thinking on why he might be so happy about it, and I think has to do possibly with the fact that the lab also recieves 2000$ into the research account to "support my project" :x. Well, all's good and well in the lab, and as long as everyone else is happy, I can feel happy too. :p

Secondly, I'm presenting at a public Undergraduate Symposium at USC tomorrow. Outside. In the Sun. For 2 hours (would have been 3 if I didn't have class). So I will probably be waiting outside feeling dumb and hoping no one asks me a question about my poster which I don't know the answer to... that would be embarrassing... well I'm not sure, consequently we'll have to see how tomorrow goes. In the (highly unlikely) event that people from USC read this blog, if you wish to inquire me of my research which I supposedly have extensive knowledge on, check out the symposium, located in front of the Trojan statue in USC.

...I am definitely looking forward to the weekend where I can relax and watch anime the entire day. :(

Haruhi! Haruhi! More Haruhi!

Eh, well, I finished reading another chapter in the translation of the Haruhi novels on baka-tsuki.net, and since there's not much else to do but study *cough*, I thought I'd write some opinions on it and other things, mainly concerning with Haruhi... Oh, yes, there will be spoilers sort of, so you've been warned. Again. I know I'd like to be warned if there were spoilers! :p

Volume 8, the first half with the writing-a-journal story. Kimidiri Emiri REAPPEARS!!! I am elated and now have confidence that she will be my new favorite character. I actually wanted her to be my favorite character earlier but she only appears in one volume for like, one paragraph and I wasn't sure if she'll ever come back again :(. Even though they made a character album for her, despite her only saying like, 3 lines in the entire episode... BUT YES she is pretty awesome :3 I had hoped that the novel would explain more about her purpose for coming, whether she had any cool role or awesome powers to show off as well.
Some things Koizumi said might give some hints onto what she does, and they sort of lead to a philosophy which I think is how the Data Sentient Entity works by. Koizumi assumes that Emiri is a "chaperone", to keep Nagato in check so to speak, in contrast to Asakura where Nagato had to stop her from going beserk and killing Kyon. Whether Freudian ideals just happen to be a natural thought occurance in my brain or whatnot, I just thought that this would be an almost-ideal model for the Id, Ego, and Superego "persona" of a person. If the Data-Sentient Entity is considered the mastermind or "brain", then Asakura, Nagato, and Emiri are the Id, Ego, and Superego of the data, respectively. So, Nagato would be the one that is aware of her senses and knowing what is around her (hmmm... seems slightly ironic considering how she just sits there reading all day but she IS always constantly aware of her surroundings), Asakura represents the desire to see results and wants action, hence her rash and unreasonable action, and if this were to follow suit, the Emiri would be the conscience, thinking and knowing what is going to happen and making sure things do not go out of hand for the Data Sentient Entity. This is even more important since Nagato had, in volume 4, changed the world and now (because she feels she has to make up for it) restricted her view into the future. Additionally, as if to further prove the Freudian concept within the Data-Sentient Entity, Asakura Ryouko appears in Volume 4 as a major figure, and essentially "stays" there until the world is changed back to its normal function. In a sense, this may be Nagato (possibly the data-sentient Entity?)'s desire to make a world where she can fall in love with Kyon and at that time, Asakura was representative of that desire. Hence from this conclusion, Emiri would be the one that, as Koizumi says, makes sure Nagato stays in check and does not do something like that again, reminding her of her purpose and being on the planet.
Consequently, Nagato's story that she wrote for the journal... I can't help but think it must have some really deep and serious meaning to it. Some interpretations I can figure out: I believe that the girl she meets that is "like her" is Emiri, and the conversation involves her travelling to Earth and gaining awareness of what being human is like. I think that the snow scene is reminiscent of when she probably first came to Earth (most likely, therefore, in the wintertime, while it is snowing). In her third paper, the two characters at first I absolutely believed was Kyon and Haruhi, since I'm pretty sure her "home"- the coffin - is the Data-Sentient Entity. The major reason Nagato is still here, after all, is because she must observe and "study" Haruhi and Kyon. But then what is the recital? I'm not too entirely sure, but it may be the point where Nagato discovers something new about Haruhi, and what the Data Sentient Entity always wanted to look for in Haruhi. I predict this is when Haruhi and Kyon finally "get together" and something remarkably astonishing happens. Likewise for that reason, it is also not unreasonable to think that the two blocking the coffin are Koizumi and Mikuru and they are also waiting for this "recital" to happen, so everything can go through smoothly. Certainly the personalities match up with those two better than Kyon and Haruhi.
Ultimately it seems that everyone in the SOS Brigade really want Haruhi and Kyon to get together, and essentially see what happens. The predicted result would be the world turns into some utopia, but then if that happens there would be no more Haruhi stories. :( That would be sad. Well, oh well, regardless, I kind of like how they've been focusing a little more on Mikuru now. And to throw out a random prediction, I think the genius kid that Haruhi tutors and Kyon's sister will get together someday. Just a random thought. And, possibly, the two may be Mikuru's great great grandparents!! Although if that was the case, then the girl in Kyon's story would work better in getting together with the scientist kid... because according to Kyon she's cute and rivals, in her appearance, Mikuru if it were not for her age. Either that or we discover that Kyon is a lolicon.

Other Haruhi-related things.

1. )Apparently in a facebook group it is said that there will be a live-action Haruhi drama (WTF?).
Source being: http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/sarasiru/
...Well, I admit the Mikuru they found looks cute. Nagato looks rather...not-Nagato-ish though. KOIZUMI LOOKS FAT D: I AM SADDENED BY THAT...

2.) English Haruhi promo video. They only really had Kyon's, Haruhi's, and Mikuru's voice, but I somehow get the feeling that Haruhi's voice is very annoying, and would be hard to get used to. Partly probably because the voice actor can't even pronounce Haruhi's own name correctly (although I'm not bashing her for it, I tried it myself and I find it hard to get the pronunciation right for Japanese in general). I have to say though the voice actor they found for Mikuru is phenomenal, possibly the best English VA out there. To maintain and keep Mikuru's cute and appealing voice from Japanese to English is a Godsend.
A lot better, anyway, than Haruhi's "American Feminist" voice (at least, IMHO).


EDIT: The live drama is apparently a rumor. Blog is a wishlist apparently of, if Haruhi was made into a live drama, who the blogger wants as actors. Still funny, though :p

Urgency

One of the most annoying things in the world is on any typical school day, I wake up being anxious to death about how much work and crap I have to do for the day, goto school, do some of that work, then by the nighttime I'm browsing 4chan and feeling bored even though just that morning I felt like I'll have work that will never end. I feel guilty and like a hypocrite yet it happens anyway. Perhaps this is just the stupidity and lack of efficiency of a "normal" person... alas if only I could be not normal and do something great like cure cancer with my not-normal-ness...

I played Touhou a while ago. That game likes to taunt me. I'll never beat this game with 1 cc even in normal mode. It reminds me that I need years to get decently good at a game, like EFZ, where other people get good at games in 2 days. :p Not that games are important, anyway. I already have fair composition over myself in playing games and not getting to into them. Although Touhou really frustrated me today.

Over Spring break I watched a few anime series. I finished Asatte no Houkou (an emo anime) and Kanon (an awesome anime) and began to get caught up on Code Geass (an upbeat anime). I could BS more but I'm tired, and finally not bored because I have someone to talk to over AIM now. :p

Utawaremono, Crescent Love, Gargoyle of the Yoshinagas

A couple series I've watched/been watching lately. There will be spoilers, in particular with Utawaremono, but I'm sure everyone already knows that if they're reading my blog. :p

Utawaremono: I know I should say a lot about this series, but honestly for me there isn't too much I can say about it. It's a good series, and its rightful that it's popular; nevertheless, there some major flaws which I cannot overlook. One of the biggest problems I have with the series is its thematic concepts (and with it, again the whole "look at the evil scientist!" scenario) and I truly don't think that the quest for "power" as they put it will bring all of mankind to doom. In many cases science and discovery is both good and bad, but they seem to enjoy portraying the evils that come with knowledge without giving deserving credit to science and technology as a good thing (granted Utawaremono IS set up so that technology is minimal and people are living in a sort of medieval type of civilization). Hence, I don't think Utawaremono is fair in that respect, and their main theme of "technology is wrong, we should all live in simple bliss in a little village on top of a mountain" is incorrect and wrongly portrayed.
Aside from the thematic problems, there were many logical problems with Utawaremono as well. Again, some of this is associated with the "science" they portrayed, like somehow humans evolved from monkeys via a giant doglike demon (o_O) or that the monster can turn people into this weird "immortal" jello thing which I have been trying to think how in the world could that be logical (Yes, I know, I shouldn't think about the logic in an anime that has humans with animal ears and a tail, but it comes to me naturally :( ). Other logical problems reside in plot, but I can actually forgive this. This is because Utawaremono was originally a game (and, I presume, a very long game) so its impossible to get all the stories of the characters flushed out and properly arranged the way they should be. Nevertheless, many questions remain, including the history and deeper storyline of pretty much all the characters besides Hokoro's (sp?) life story. In particular, I thought the one character, the one with cat ears and weilding a rediculously huge sword, had a very unclear story in the anime; they left the audience with very little detail about the "evilness" of the emperor, why the character wanted to leave, and nothing about the whole "flowers on dead bodies" thing. That was the only time where I felt there was something lacking in that sub-story.
Overall, though, Utawaremono is a good anime. It has really good organization and flow when it comes to moving one story into another; there actually seemed to be a transition and slow progression into each story rather than suddenly, in a new episode, popping in something completely new and unexpected. The character designs are spectacular, the music is unique sounding with it's chinese-folk-put-to-techno style, and the character personalities are both relatable and admirable. I have to say, Benawi is an awesome guy, personality wise :D too bad I'm not a fan of spear weilders and I didn't care much about his fighting style; the two twins and their archer techniques, however, were freaking awesome. But I can't admire them too much due to the girliness they displayed throughout the entire anime, which made me sad... :( yes so sad...
In terms of the other characters. Kamyu by far is my favorite female character, you could say, mainly because of her youth state and she has wings (Her sister, I forgot her name, has wings too but she's the onee-chan type and I'm not fond of onee-chan types :( ). Anyway Kamyu has a nice upbeat "happy" personality, which is probably the only reason I find her different from Mikuru in "The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi"... certainly, the two characters' designs were designed for the same purpose :p. Erurruu actually has a very kind and attractive personality. I think she best resembles a mother-type character though she is supposed to be young. But this is appropriate since the main character (Hokoro? I forget their names) is supposed to be the "father" according to Arurruu. Arurruu, to me, isn't anything really special (Kamyu is better) EXCEPT for this one part where Kamyu gives her a present (some little sculpture of a tiger cat) and Arurruu just keeps on going "Oooooooooooooooooooohhhhhh" and I thought that was just awesome :D :D :D The blind girl... she's nice but admittedly, not the most original of characters, though I think her situation is rather sad :( That "holy warrior" girl is funny because she reminds me of people who continously think their way is "right" and they could never go wrong... oh well its a good thing they made her skills really good :) And all other chars are cool but I don't feel like analyzing any more. :(

Crescent Love: Is a really bad anime, but not as bad as Mamoru-kun (or whatever that was, that was horrendous). The art work is REALLY REALLY nice and honestly, that was the only thing that kept me watching this series. Even their "chibi moments" and humor was really.... bad.

Gargoyle of the Yoshinagas: I hvaen't finished this series but I have to tell you, I really like it for whatever reason. It seems like a kids' show, but it also seems to have some sort of depth to it... something that I think makes it really good, similar to Stellvia in a way... I think. Regardless, I really like this series.

Rewatching AIR, "The Life of a Cell" video

AIR is truly my absolute favorite anime. I think I only told this to a few people, so I'll tell this to a few more people that might actually read my blog: AIR is an absolute masterpiece. I'm rewatching AIR and trying to figure out some things about the mysteries of Kanna and her feathers and it continues to astound and puzzle me. It's as if it almost makes sense, but still not feasible enough to make a reasonable conclusion from them. It could be that I'm really overthinking all this and the stories of Kano, Minagi, and Misuzu are all different: as in, sure they have some similarities such as the feather, but no overall connecting "theme".
Actually this is wrong, there IS an overall connecting theme that's pretty obvious, but I want to look even deeper. Deeper, behind the mere stories of maternalism, and possibly try to understand what, exactly, are these feathers. Are they memories of the deceased? This right now seems like a highly logical conclusion, giving the connection of the living with the dead. Apparently, as seen with Kano, I believe they can contain more than just one deceased persons' wishes, dreams, and memories.
Its highly confusing and racking my brain, the whole concept of a feather. I think they contain memories, such as the memories that possess Kano and how Michiru says she'll bring happy memories, then turns into a feather. But I think there's also more. Rewatching AIR for the 3rd or 4th time will not be enough; I will have to look over it again sometime in the future.
Additionally, I left out addressing the issue of Misuzu. Hmm, Misuzu as everyone already knows is the reincarnation of Kanna, but seeing how Kanna is cursed and etc. she begins to go through painful experiences and is never able to make friends. Right now I can't really think of her being much deeper than that, though there could be more deeper meaning. (Plus I have yet to figure out what's the "scientific" name of her symptoms, I think its similar to Parkinson's Disease but I'm not sure). But one comment I do want to make: I believe Misuzu in the 1st timeline (the one where Misuzu never had a crow with her) was actually saved once Yukito disappeared. In that dimension, I want to imagine that she ended up living a good healthy life, minus Yukito. So what about the 2nd timeline? I have yet to think more on that. Maybe its the curse passed onto Yukito, and he is living his life as a dream. I will not know for sure, yet.

A few final comments. Many people are raving about Haruhi right now, and Haruhi is great and all, but really has not much "deep analysis" to think about. Or at least, its not the same type of literary analysis AIR gives. Its more of a philosophical "what if that can happen" sort of thing; rewatching it doesn't necessarily point out deeper meanings (but you may be able to spot cool scenes that you may not have seen before). To look for deeper meaning in Haruhi is just thinking more philosophically and doesn't even require rewatching the anime: what if the world is fabricated? What is time, space, etc? AIR is remarkably different and if I would say, more complex. There IS meaning in almost every aspect of AIR, even in those small frames where it shows a mother Robin feeding her chicks. Even that is a foreshadowing, a symbolic meaning, a link to the maternal themes presented in AIR. Everything seems connected, but I don't always know how they are connected; this is why it is so mystical.

Speaking of Mysticality, and relating to the fact that I have a biochem exam I SHOULD have been studying super hard for instead of rewatching AIR, I'll present to you this video. It is the GREATEST science video I have ever seen, and really re-inspires me to do more biology. I dare say that it rekindles why I want to be in the field of Biology. I may want to do something like this in the future; not just research, find new information, but present it in a beautiful, mystical way just like this video does to everyone, showing how complex and amazing the world of Biology is.

http://www.studiodaily.com/main/technique/tprojects/6850.html

EDIT: One more sidecomment I want to make about AIR: I do believe the game should be better, but I wouldn't know how tolerable I would be to trying to play it and figure it out. I heard from other people that its immensely long and tedious, most likely, so I'm not sure. :x I still really want to play though; I believe if it ever came out in America (haha insert laugh here) I would automatically buy it, no questions asked. :x This would probably present a problem with my parents... But yea, its hard when you can feel so riled up over a "followup" of something that was originally presented as a game much earlier, so I feel I really want to look into the source.

Don't worry (or maybe you guys should), I'll be talking more about AIR in the future, sometime.

The "Instrument" Story of Engi, in IM + RPGwannabe format

I apologize for the length and excessive... excess stuff. This is mostly just to keep it somewhere, anyway, and not really for anyone to read. If this person ever makes a nicer story version out of this, then I'll post that for everyone to read. It would sure be a helluvalot better than this. :p

iatentdead: have you ever considered making an rpg?
TheMysteriousBox: I have a plethora of ideas
iatentdead: *is too lazy to*
TheMysteriousBox: but I never make them
TheMysteriousBox: not necessarily becuse i'm lazy, more because I know I probably wouldn't keep it up
TheMysteriousBox: that, and I lack BSing skills
iatentdead: im just afraid to start it and then lose interest
TheMysteriousBox: lol
TheMysteriousBox: I thoguth for a while that if you ever watned to start an rpg
TheMysteriousBox: I could give you ideas
TheMysteriousBox: and you can bs on it
iatentdead: LOL
iatentdead: it would be
iatentdead: PRETTILY WORDED BS TO SUCKER YOU GUYS IN BY EMOTIONAL FAUN CHIKO-SAI
iatentdead: and
iatentdead: RPG IDEA, PLOTLINE, ETC BY ENGIMATIKUL
TheMysteriousBox: hey it would work :p
iatentdead: wait for the next RPG downtime
TheMysteriousBox: yup
iatentdead: right now the forum is 'booming'
TheMysteriousBox: want to know some ideas anyway :p
iatentdead: sure
TheMysteriousBox: I had them floating around in my head anyway
TheMysteriousBox: although some of them need some fitting into RPG, but I could figure something if I really thought about it
TheMysteriousBox: or maybe you I don't know
TheMysteriousBox: one has to do with instruments that transform into weapons, and mainly came from a char I had made up a while ago
TheMysteriousBox: the general plotline went something like
TheMysteriousBox: in one "universe" or dimension, there's been a phenomenal discovery on making "minidimensions" that act like little universes on their own
TheMysteriousBox: and people could watch them like they watch TVs
iatentdead: o.o
iatentdead: *making* universes?
iatentdead: anyone could do this?
TheMysteriousBox: however people began to suspect that peopel are developing ways to travel and move into these kind of dimensions, and even "storing" things
TheMysteriousBox: no not anyone
TheMysteriousBox: more like
TheMysteriousBox: only one laboratory
TheMysteriousBox: has that technology, and its top secret
TheMysteriousBox: but anyway, people are beginning to think they're doing thing more than just watching dimensions
TheMysteriousBox: but instead "storing weapons" so to speak within them
iatentdead: so this labis evil
iatentdead: lab is*
TheMysteriousBox: no
TheMysteriousBox: not really, the lab people are actually good guys I think :x
TheMysteriousBox: but it makes for a cool plotline anyway
TheMysteriousBox: anyway its the government that's evil
TheMysteriousBox: and wants the weapons for themselves
TheMysteriousBox: so they kill all the lab people and try to get access to the dimensions, but can't
iatentdead: they're the ones spreading the evil rumours?
iatentdead: but there are survivors rom the lab
iatentdead: or close relations
iatentdead: who want to know the truth
TheMysteriousBox: yes
iatentdead: from*
TheMysteriousBox: well its a bit complicated
TheMysteriousBox: because the stories actually revolve around the people inside the dimensions
TheMysteriousBox: and less around the dimension that created them
TheMysteriousBox: let me tell you more
TheMysteriousBox: one character, a daughter of one of the lab professors (of course, I know, very cliche)
TheMysteriousBox: was the lats one to be killed
TheMysteriousBox: and how she was killed was rather unique
TheMysteriousBox: imagine this large weird machine in the center of the lab
TheMysteriousBox: and it has like, a globe with a bunch of screens that show different dimensions
TheMysteriousBox: when she got shot and died, she fell like, into that globe place
TheMysteriousBox: and as she did, her blood sort of like, "flowed weirdly" into the globey thingy
TheMysteriousBox: and became something like doves made of light
TheMysteriousBox: OK THAT WAS THE INTRO
TheMysteriousBox: now the characters, and what they exactly do
iatentdead: so shes *in* the dimensions? o_O
TheMysteriousBox: yea, she sorta flowed into the dimensions
iatentdead: in different guises
iatentdead: in each one theres a differnt type of her
TheMysteriousBox: actually I wanted only one
TheMysteriousBox: so maybe just one dove thingy :x
TheMysteriousBox: is anything weird or unclear right now?
TheMysteriousBox: well ok
TheMysteriousBox: the whole thing is werid
TheMysteriousBox: but unclear?
iatentdead: i thought you were going to do something with lots of her in lots of different dimensions
iatentdead: hats about it
TheMysteriousBox: maybeeee something like that
TheMysteriousBox: but about the dimensions and the characters
TheMysteriousBox: each character, if you haven't figured out, has an instrument
TheMysteriousBox: that they can play unusually well for their dimension
iatentdead: WHOO AIR GUITAR
TheMysteriousBox: apparently this instrument is actually
iatentdead: ...sounds a bit like a band RPG though
TheMysteriousBox: the weapon that they designed
iatentdead: 'they'?
TheMysteriousBox: lab ppls
iatentdead: they designed one for each dimension?
TheMysteriousBox: one reason they designed them as instruments is, well, if you have an unusual huge scary superweapon in a dimension, it would be... odd
iatentdead: but why disguise as an instrument?
iatentdead: i mean
iatentdead: it could be a
iatentdead: pencil
TheMysteriousBox: and its more like, two per dimension
TheMysteriousBox: it could be, but imagine how much more complicated
TheMysteriousBox: it would make things as an RPG, and plus, instruments are cool
iatentdead: "stylistic reasons"
TheMysteriousBox: exactly
TheMysteriousBox: people tend to think instruments and music as being somewhat mystical in a way
iatentdead: we'd need a bassist, a percussionist, a lead guitarist
TheMysteriousBox: I was thinking more orchestra :x
TheMysteriousBox: in any case
iatentdead: would there be 'microphones' for lead vocalists
TheMysteriousBox: one of things I really wanted to emphasize most about it was the dimensions themselves
TheMysteriousBox: each char (or two) would come from a dimension with a completely different background
TheMysteriousBox: and an instrument that would fit that background
iatentdead: since these dimensions are made, it would have been made from the whim of the lab ppl wouldn it?
TheMysteriousBox: ah you're touching upon another point
TheMysteriousBox: that I was going to make later
TheMysteriousBox: all the character that would participate
TheMysteriousBox: and are weilders of the wapons
TheMysteriousBox: are clones of the lab people
TheMysteriousBox: technically this would not be known
TheMysteriousBox: until later in the RPG
TheMysteriousBox: so they're designed after themselves
iatentdead: OOH I KNOW
iatentdead: they could
TheMysteriousBox: and in a way, the RPG would progress so that they learn more about their counterpart
iatentdead: who the lab people really wanted to be
TheMysteriousBox: yea
TheMysteriousBox: that too
iatentdead: fragments of dreams
TheMysteriousBox: its who they dreamed
TheMysteriousBox: they wished they were
iatentdead: *insert romantic philosophical stuff here*
TheMysteriousBox: I really did want it to be along those lines
iatentdead: tagline: "remember some of your dreams?"
TheMysteriousBox: now when you think about it
TheMysteriousBox: that girl that I was talking about that dies
TheMysteriousBox: she has a clone too
iatentdead: the dove?
TheMysteriousBox: yes
iatentdead: would that clone be extra special in any way
TheMysteriousBox: supposedly, yes
TheMysteriousBox: first off
TheMysteriousBox: the dove in itself
TheMysteriousBox: sort of provides a key
TheMysteriousBox: that allows the people who have the instruments
TheMysteriousBox: to move from dimension to dimension
TheMysteriousBox: so the dove kind of have to meet up with them in order for them to move
iatentdead: so the dove is the clone
TheMysteriousBox: no :p
iatentdead: its a clone in dove form?
TheMysteriousBox: the dove is the original's spirit
TheMysteriousBox: the clone is in another dimension
TheMysteriousBox: and looks exactly like the original before she died
iatentdead: but
iatentdead: what would these clones do
iatentdead: how would they get into the 'maker's' dimension
TheMysteriousBox: well one of the reasons the dove wants to warn them
TheMysteriousBox: is because they're kind of like after these guy's weapons
TheMysteriousBox: a little more on the weapons
TheMysteriousBox: the character that has the weapon
TheMysteriousBox: they could have discovered their power already
TheMysteriousBox: or it could ahve still been innate
TheMysteriousBox: for thsoe who discoverd the power,they're something like superheroes
TheMysteriousBox: in their dimension
iatentdead: what happens if the government is watching all this >_>
TheMysteriousBox: which they probably are
TheMysteriousBox: they're trying to go after them though
TheMysteriousBox: that's supposedly where the plot I dunno, breaks down :p
TheMysteriousBox: theoretically its like you said
TheMysteriousBox: its supposed to be romantic, and have the chars discover their "true" selves
TheMysteriousBox: and then ponder about themselves, if they are just dreams and made up
iatentdead: so its mainly an introspection RPG
TheMysteriousBox: and that, everything they knew was fabricated
iatentdead: but those usually dont hold up very well
iatentdead: without a so called plot
TheMysteriousBox: its like, if you found out you're just part of a book, and taken out of the story
TheMysteriousBox: yup
TheMysteriousBox: which is why I said it needs work
iatentdead: at least half the cast would emo
TheMysteriousBox: obviously :p
TheMysteriousBox: it was more from a fanfic idea
iatentdead: just to be contrary i probably wouldnt -_-
TheMysteriousBox: but it was the one that fits more appropriate
TheMysteriousBox: to an RPG
iatentdead: ngrrrh
iatentdead: do you know
TheMysteriousBox: I mean, you kinda read my THomas story
TheMysteriousBox: I think :x
TheMysteriousBox: do I know?
iatentdead: yeah, a bit of it
iatentdead: do you know about weasel's Nexus RPG
iatentdead: its another RPG with dimensions
TheMysteriousBox: the one she advertised? :p
iatentdead: only its a straight up 'dungeon crawler' type
TheMysteriousBox: I was really thinking about doing something aside from dimensions
iatentdead: you could maybe combine yours with hers
iatentdead: yah
TheMysteriousBox: because it made things 100000millionx complicated
TheMysteriousBox: if you tell her my idea, maybe :P
iatentdead: especially making em and how to get in and out and etc..
iatentdead: i was a bit worried about ehrs
iatentdead: like, how to get things continues
iatentdead: continued*
TheMysteriousBox: RPG FUSION!!
iatentdead: since the current premise is... dungeoncrawler
TheMysteriousBox: but yea, things with plotlines are hard with multiple characters
TheMysteriousBox: like, the story I have for Thomas
TheMysteriousBox: wouldn't work
iatentdead: yeah
TheMysteriousBox: because I don't know how the chars would play out
iatentdead: you'd have to get
iatentdead: people who'd play exactly like you want them to
TheMysteriousBox: I have another idea but it was less original
iatentdead: thats why need lots of discussion ><
TheMysteriousBox: its still rather fun though :p
iatentdead: and a set number of players
iatentdead: what idea
TheMysteriousBox: it involved elements :p
TheMysteriousBox: and basically
iatentdead: ack~
iatentdead: xD
TheMysteriousBox: combining elements to make new ones XD
TheMysteriousBox: the general idea was
TheMysteriousBox: There are the (lame) four main elements
TheMysteriousBox: and they combined their power sort of
TheMysteriousBox: to make 6 "new" elements
TheMysteriousBox: that had unique powers
TheMysteriousBox: and they could combine their power too to make a lot more
TheMysteriousBox: and 2nd generation is rather interesting
TheMysteriousBox: 1st generation is the lame fire,water, wind, earth
iatentdead: how would you combine?
TheMysteriousBox: 2nd generation is life, ice, electricity, steel, sand, and
TheMysteriousBox: oh right
TheMysteriousBox: steam
TheMysteriousBox: or mist
TheMysteriousBox: life = water + earth
TheMysteriousBox: ice = wind + water
TheMysteriousBox: sand = earth + wind
TheMysteriousBox: mist = water + fire
iatentdead: right, but who'd represent these elements
iatentdead: or combine em
TheMysteriousBox: the story I had goes like
TheMysteriousBox: there are four main elemental guardians that picked for hosts
TheMysteriousBox: now the guardians are fighting against each other for this competition
TheMysteriousBox: conveniently the competition allows them to beat up "monsters" in the world so they're actually saving the world
TheMysteriousBox: but they're kind of collecting the power from the monsters so that in the end they can battle each other for some prize
TheMysteriousBox: ok where do the 1st generation come in?
TheMysteriousBox: as cheesey as it sounds
TheMysteriousBox: whenever two main guardians are in conflict
TheMysteriousBox: and do some kind of powerful attack
TheMysteriousBox: it has a chance of mixing together and forming into a person that happens to be nearby
iatentdead: so the 'person' is actually the entity
TheMysteriousBox: yes and becomes the new element thingy
TheMysteriousBox: this is remarkably cheesey, BUT in an RPG standpoint
TheMysteriousBox: it would bekinda intesesting
TheMysteriousBox: because you can have four main element people to be determined
TheMysteriousBox: but then the rest 6
TheMysteriousBox: will be determined as the RPG goes along
TheMysteriousBox: rather than having people pick which element they are
TheMysteriousBox: the only way they can kinda get the element they want is to be closely related to the host
TheMysteriousBox: or two, of one that they want
TheMysteriousBox: even then its still all up by chance, and plotline
TheMysteriousBox: however, I must admit, this is a cheesey way of getting a new power :p
iatentdead: and you'd need lots of people..
iatentdead: actually ive been wondernig
TheMysteriousBox: I didn't plan
TheMysteriousBox: for the 2nd generation to actually work
iatentdead: how do successful rpgs end :o
TheMysteriousBox: but I was busy trying to make one anyway
iatentdead: cos
iatentdead: its either you have a plot, but so many people in your rpg you can't keep a handle on it
iatentdead: or so few people, you cant really get on with the RP
iatentdead: although its theoretically possible to finish an RP with 3/4 players
TheMysteriousBox: in terms of the element RPG, it could actually work as the four main elements, given that they're actually devoted
iatentdead: (which is how most of them finished)
TheMysteriousBox: and the others can be side chars
iatentdead: what about the uh 6 other people
TheMysteriousBox: they can be side chars, OR
TheMysteriousBox: they can prove to be someone major
TheMysteriousBox: its of course up to them
iatentdead: the instrument one is more interesting though
TheMysteriousBox: yea
TheMysteriousBox: I like my instrument thing
TheMysteriousBox: helluva complicated htough
iatentdead: its not too bad, though I think people like Roy will have problems digesting it
iatentdead: good, since it means he wont join
iatentdead: its just the plot thing
TheMysteriousBox: well isolate him in a single dimension if that's the case
TheMysteriousBox: at first I'd have hope that maybe something like
TheMysteriousBox: the government does something so that it disrupts all their dimensions
TheMysteriousBox: and work from there
TheMysteriousBox: dunno how that would work either though
TheMysteriousBox: this would work awesomely as an anime if I had lived in japan :-(
iatentdead: we'd need government players
iatentdead: submit it to kyoto animation >D
TheMysteriousBox: no I'd have to write a book about it and have it be the #1 top hit in japan first
iatentdead: with moe illustrations
TheMysteriousBox: of course the central dove char and her clone will be moe
iatentdead: yes
iatentdead: its a requirement
iatentdead: in any case, it makes for better graphics
iatentdead: i'm surprised, haruhi isnt a really moe character
TheMysteriousBox: she's tsundere
iatentdead: its nagato and mikuru that are the moe spinoffs
iatentdead: i like tsunderes, they're funny ^^;;
TheMysteriousBox: hummm
TheMysteriousBox: silly tsunderes
iatentdead: are there any tsunderes in kanon
TheMysteriousBox: Kawasumi Mai, and Makoto
TheMysteriousBox: would probably classify most
TheMysteriousBox: on a few more notes about the instrument thing (yes I thought about it probably way too much)
TheMysteriousBox: the instruments themselves, sort of represent what weapon they make
TheMysteriousBox: although obviously this is imposible for every instrument, I kinda thought they would have some linkage
TheMysteriousBox: ideas that I thought up were that, the Keys of a piano would represent different daggers; a violin with its bow is like a sword a shield; an electric guitar is like a photon ray gun :p
TheMysteriousBox: and somehow a drum bass set turns into this gundam mech thing
TheMysteriousBox: but that really needs a lot of imagination and some of my ideas probably don't make sense to you :p
iatentdead: o.o
iatentdead: the piano one is ok
iatentdead: but i thought a violin would be a
iatentdead: bow
iatentdead: and arrows?
iatentdead: flute = blowpipe
TheMysteriousBox: hmm
TheMysteriousBox: violin can be bow and arrow too
TheMysteriousBox: or maybe something a cello :p
TheMysteriousBox: actually the wepaon type
TheMysteriousBox: also is determined by what dimension they come from
TheMysteriousBox: so you're not going to get like
TheMysteriousBox: a photon cannon in a roman/greek era dimenison
iatentdead: you mean its like
iatentdead: japanese dimension
iatentdead: tribal dimension
iatentdead: alien dimension
iatentdead: etc
TheMysteriousBox: yup
TheMysteriousBox: I had a plotline sort of
TheMysteriousBox: my plotline had my character with the piano, the character's sister which had violin
TheMysteriousBox: in the 1700 england classical era dimension
TheMysteriousBox: another character that had electric guitar and bass drums in a futuristic and technologically advanced dimension
TheMysteriousBox: and then a character with a flute and a char with a harp
TheMysteriousBox: the flute turned into a staff, while the harp was one of those stringy weapons
TheMysteriousBox: that people weild and like, cut things up with using invisible strings :x
TheMysteriousBox: anyway that was something like a medievil dimension
iatentdead: *is imagining erhu and guzhen in chinese dimension*
TheMysteriousBox: who what?
iatentdead: erhu is a chinese cello i think..
TheMysteriousBox: oh those weapons
TheMysteriousBox: eer
iatentdead: guzhen is a chinese i dunno what
TheMysteriousBox: instruemnts >.>
iatentdead: it sounds like guitar
TheMysteriousBox: yea I knwo waht you're talking about
TheMysteriousBox: lol I saw a chinese martial arts movie
TheMysteriousBox: where there was some mystical demon girl that used one as a weapon XD
iatentdead: my mom wanted to play guzhen once, and erhu i learnt from listening to a Do as Infinity song >.<
TheMysteriousBox: zomg she plucked things and circly projectile things flew out!
iatentdead: did you watch kung fu hustle?!
iatentdead: was that kung fu hustle?
TheMysteriousBox: I dunno, it was some other show :x
TheMysteriousBox: my parents were wtaching it
TheMysteriousBox: I don't think it was kung fu hustle because it was like,a serious martial arts
iatentdead: awww
TheMysteriousBox: although the instrument thing was funny
iatentdead: i cant watch serious ones
iatentdead: boring
iatentdead: condor heroes was ok but that was cos it was a bit funny
TheMysteriousBox: I have like, 0 knowledge on chinese martial arts, even though my parenst watch it all the time
TheMysteriousBox: but then again they know nothing about anime, so it fits
TheMysteriousBox: haha, so just to finish up on the instrument thing, I got the idea when I somehow wanted to imagine a fight scene whenever I listend to a song
TheMysteriousBox: any song :x
TheMysteriousBox: and it kinda works in my weird brain
iatentdead: you know, if this was an idea for an anime, it would be really cool
iatentdead: each episode would be featuring a diferent song
iatentdead: though lack of vocals is a bummer
TheMysteriousBox: yes, I seem to make
TheMysteriousBox: a lot of ideas for anime
TheMysteriousBox: probably because I watch too much
TheMysteriousBox: but with my position, I can't really do much to progress D:
TheMysteriousBox: btw
TheMysteriousBox: the whole dove girl
TheMysteriousBox: her "weapon" is supposed to be her voice
iatentdead: boom vocalist!
TheMysteriousBox: yup :p
iatentdead: i'm a sucky plot-maker, im only good at finding out things that are wrong with other people's plots LOL
TheMysteriousBox: her story in her dimension is, strangely enough, she's an android that can feel things
TheMysteriousBox: like, chii!
TheMysteriousBox: from Chobits!
TheMysteriousBox: or any other anime that generically has an emotional robot
iatentdead: GITS?
iatentdead: though that was a human brain in a robot
TheMysteriousBox: GITS?
iatentdead: ghost in the shell]
TheMysteriousBox: oh
TheMysteriousBox: I never watched that :p
TheMysteriousBox: but you know the genre
TheMysteriousBox: but it comes from only one dimensions
TheMysteriousBox: so its ok
TheMysteriousBox: other dimensions are other cliches of other anime
TheMysteriousBox: like, a magical girl dimension
iatentdead: ugh... roy
iatentdead: and an Edo-era dimension
iatentdead: frankly though I'd pinch the erhu idea and go for a kungfu dimension
TheMysteriousBox: yea kung fu
TheMysteriousBox: or samurai
TheMysteriousBox: lol
TheMysteriousBox: roy in a magical girl dimension
TheMysteriousBox: ROTFL
iatentdead: he would so love it
iatentdead: HES ALWAYS MAKING HIMSELF MAGICAL GIRLS ANYWAY
iatentdead: ...its a bit worrying
iatentdead: considering he has a girlfriend (apparently)
TheMysteriousBox: he does? that's new
TheMysteriousBox: I thoguht he broke up
TheMysteriousBox: its ok
TheMysteriousBox: if he becomes problematic like I said
TheMysteriousBox: isolate him in some random dimension
iatentdead: dont think he'd join though
iatentdead: the plot is not straightforward enough
TheMysteriousBox: hmm thinking
iatentdead: you could maybe run it as an RPG till that 'truth' about the clones is revealed, and then finish it and ask people if they wanna fanfiction the epilogue
TheMysteriousBox: except I'd never write the fanfic D:
iatentdead: make them write their own epilogues!
TheMysteriousBox: LOL
iatentdead: it would be a sequel
iatentdead: some would be too emo to continue
iatentdead: so BYE BYE to them
TheMysteriousBox: that was supposed to be my main char's sister's role, to get all messed up and confused at the whole thing
iatentdead: although still have to think of a premise for the second part
TheMysteriousBox: and then somehow turn to the government's side
TheMysteriousBox: because evil things mess with emo people
iatentdead: "its better for all of us if i do this"
iatentdead: lblahblahblah
iatentdead: you could make them try to assimilate into the lab workers' families
TheMysteriousBox: something that was supposed to go along was
TheMysteriousBox: the sister character in the main dimension is actaully alve
TheMysteriousBox: and the main sister char can use the weapon just like the clone could
TheMysteriousBox: btw the clone sister eventually was in some kind of mind control zombie state after a while :p
TheMysteriousBox: so that's the reason for it, anyway
iatentdead: maybe the lab worker never told his sister he made a 'perfect' version of her
TheMysteriousBox: well obviously she wasn't perfect
TheMysteriousBox: but I kinda imagined the two sisters to be rather contrasting despite being clones
iatentdead: MAN THE ANGST
TheMysteriousBox: the cloned sister, coming from like a historical background, would be all pretty with a nice dress and stuff
TheMysteriousBox: the original I thought more had a tomboyish and tsundere look :p
TheMysteriousBox: the instrument thing I always imagined as being rather angsty
TheMysteriousBox: its music, its emotion, music lives on angst half the time
iatentdead: there's happy poppy music..
iatentdead: the clone is the lab worker's impression of his sister
iatentdead: poor, obsessed lab worker ><
iatentdead: is this a siscon thing?
TheMysteriousBox: NO IT ISN"T D:
TheMysteriousBox: dammit!
TheMysteriousBox: the character I think was attracted to the main dove girly
TheMysteriousBox: and happy poppy music would kinda fit roy, so maybe not
TheMysteriousBox: although it would work for cool battle scenes
TheMysteriousBox: maybe the sister thing was more of a "damn I wish I didn't work in this lab and had a peaceful life with my family" type thing
iatentdead: devoted brother
TheMysteriousBox: So anyway to add to the angst, the two guys from the future are brothers, and the younger brother (has electric guitar) has a crush on the sister
iatentdead: i can just see older devoted brother going STAY THE F*** AWAY FROM MY SISTER
TheMysteriousBox: he actually doesn't care too much :x
iatentdead: aw damn
TheMysteriousBox: although he might be alittle bit annoyed if some guy from the future with a whacked up hairstyle and looked rather dangerous
TheMysteriousBox: with a electric guitar ray gun
TheMysteriousBox: but its short lived :x
TheMysteriousBox: the older brother is a blatant cameo type character of Prof. Jb Wolf's old characters
TheMysteriousBox: so anyway its midnight, I shoudl sleep since I have class tomorrow
iatentdead: i should be doing work >_>
iatentdead: but its boring work..
iatentdead: prof does noble characters i think
TheMysteriousBox: if you ever feel like BSing something, I would be forever greatful if you made this buncha mess into something prettyish
TheMysteriousBox: noblish = honorable but stupid?
iatentdead: umm yah
TheMysteriousBox: yup I agree
TheMysteriousBox: I'm going to post this in my blog for convenience, any qualms?
iatentdead: wait till RPG downtime and we both have even less to do than we already have
TheMysteriousBox: as far as I know Roy doesn't read my blog
iatentdead: soemthing might grow out of this
iatentdead: he did mine once, it was scary
iatentdead: okles pokles go ahead and post it
iatentdead: and when we're both bored we'll get on with it

A few series I picked up on

This will be brief, and mainly just to emphasize what people might be interested in and what series people should avoid.

Mamoru-kun ni Migami no Shukufuku wo!: A horrible series. Rediculously stupid concept, extremely cliche and predictable lines, another impossible "cute girl that can do everything falls in love with dorky looking boy" scenario. I don't suggest anyone to watch it unless they like the art (the art and character design is decent enough). Even the music and the intro is worst I've ever seen.

La Cordo D'oro: A Reverse Harem/Shojo anime. Kind of like a serious Ouran Host Club involving a music school and faries. I find it interesting because its not often in anime (at least, not yet) that one finds such an anime like this which gives different representations of male personalities (since I like to analyze/relate to characters in Anime) so this one doesn't look so bad. It is, at least, not horribly intolerable as some more shonenai-type anime... if anyone enjoys watching bishonen type anime like Ouran this one is pretty good.


Soukou no Strain: A mech series. Not terribly original but it fares well, I suppose, since I can't really predict what's going to happen... I'll see how it goes, assuming it doesn't get licensed or anything (I think its a good chance it could get licensed, kinda like how Coyote Ragtime Show got licensed so I just dropped it :p).

Nodame Cantabile: The best series I've started, yet. The artwork design is not typical anime/CGish type quality, but the concept, characters, story (of episode 1 anyway) and music all make up for it. I'm really liking this anime; its like Honey and Clover in a sense but in a music school instead of an art school, which I feel I can relate to more (since I've had some piano playing experience) than to an art school. Excellent series I think many people would like.

Manabi Straight: A highly otaku/loli-esque show. I don't reccomend it to anyone except for people who like watching anime as eyecandy. The whole purpose of the series is most likely going to be eyecandy, elementary grade school loli eyecandy at that. But if you're one that likes those sort of shows.... this anime is kind of tasty :d.

Strawberry Panic

Overall this is a remarkably good romance anime. Although initially I was a bit skeptical at the whole show being rather "overexpressive" in the girls' relationships, after thinking for a bit I thought that this may actually be rather appropriate. This is because that I have heard (not truly read or watched) that romance novels women usually read, as well as various shonenai shows that girls would be a fan of, are typically quite lucid in themselves; however, the fans typically back these perversed stories up by saying the story is remarkably better than anything perverse that, say, a guy would go after. I think Strawberry Panic is definately around that sort of area. It's very likely still aimed at men (and maybe a small population of homosexual women), but the format of it is smooth and "romantic", not like other romance comedies or whatnot that bluntly puts a girl in an uncomfortable position just to satisfy the watcher's needs. So, in spite of this quirk I had against the show at first, I could somewhat see why it would be like that.
In other regards of the anime, many of the characters and their relationship stories are quite deep and flushed out. I think that since there are absolutely no guys in this anime, relationships are more free-flowing since there is no gender barrier that these characters must go through, so anyone can have a relationship, so to speak, with anyone else in the school. Many of the characters portrayed in the show are typical stereotypes of different girls, ranging from the cool "I'm almost a guy" type character to the cute first-year lolis. Overall, I liked all the characters. I also like how the show presented some characters as mischievous and distasteful in the beginning, but as they begin to close the series, showed that they're nice people too. Every character, even though they represent typical stereotypes, has their own personality and depth to them, and that's what I like about character variation anime like Strawberry Panic.
I also liked the music from this show. Not just the opening and endings (the ending music videos were kind of weird though), but the background music for most of the show is rather light hearted and simple, something resembling that of the Baroque era in music... simple, classical, uncomplicated. Regardless, its nice enough to listen to it, different from various OSTs that usually have fast paced songs followed by ominous "the devil is coming" music (well, ones that I have anyway). I'll have to look into the OSTs.
How do I think of the characters? Well, I think that in terms of character design, Aoi Nagisa's hairstyle is just horrible. I really didn't like how she looked when she first came to the school in that old-school uniform outfit... I thought the other characters such as Tamao-chan and that little girl (I forgot her name) that helps them out... I like that little girl the best and all her other 1st year friends are awesome too :3 (or are they second year? I forgot by now).
I think that, for many of the characters, the friend vs. lover conflict is pretty powerful (in many cases, there is the friend who is actually in love with her friend but her friend loves someone else). They make the thematic conflict rather dramatic, especially at the end of the episode which just bursts out with such romantic drama; appropriate, though in my personal opinion, something I would never ever want to do nor have it be done to me...
In all conclusion, Strawberry Panic is just romance, romance and romance. A bit of comedy, a lot of drama, but overall the odd romances of girls stuck in an all girls school. I'm thinking this wouldn't really happen in real life since there ARE guys that exist in the world but perhaps I am wrong and the girls, mostly isolated from the rest of the world and whatever male population it may have, can only turn their romantic expessions to themselves. I liked the show though, for its strong emphasis on romance, character, and plot, rather than other-like series which focuses more on blatant fanservice.
Speaking of such a series, I believe I need to look into Mariamite or that other christian-girl-school anime that seemed to develop popularity over the last two years or so. I think the series is quite similar to this one.

Karin, Kamisama Kazukou

I recently finished two anime series: Karin and Kamisama Kazukou (I think that's how you spell it).

Karin: Defies logic even when applied to vampires. Sure, one person may think that vampires is already stretching the sense of reality and logic in an anime, but this anime makes even a world of vampires seem illogical. Biologically speaking, if there is a "vampire species" that uses blood in its diet, then spewing an excess amount of blood as a biological anomalty is impossible; at best, it would probably be fatal at birth, or whenever their "puberty" thing with the vampires sets in. Think of it this way; a human doesn't vomit on a completely empty stomach, that is, it doesn't produce vomit without intaking something first. Ok, one may say, but Karin still eats human food, and maybe that's why she is able to produce blood? And the vampire instincts are just inherited? This may be a feasible argument, but conclude how much food and neutrients she must produce to avoid the loss of blood each time she "nosebleeds". That's assuming that she has a superhuman body that can immediately convert food into neutrients and then blood. She would also need an abnormally high breathing rate to keep her body from being deoxygenated... but we can assume that she has a superhuman body because she's a vampire. She STILL needs to consume a HUGE amount of food, which probably wouldn't cover expenses covered by her family AND she shows no signs of being hungry all the time, though she does show evidence of being capable to eat a lot. It just strikes me as being rediculously impossible even for a vampire, this Karin show; the fact that I still cannot express my points clearly is rather vexing. I will need to work on it more.
Regardless of the lack of logic in this anime, it proves to be somewhat amusing at times. Although I think they overemphasize at it trying to be an ecchi series through the opening, I'm glad it isn't mainly ecchi but just lame humor, which is always enough to amuse me. Everything else about the anime is pretty mediocre. Even though the little sister Anju is cute, she isn't like others which you just squeal "MOEEE" when you see them, to me... Hmm well actually I thought that green haired girl was cool. :3

Kamisama Kazukou: Another rather mediocre anime that defies logic, but I won't go into the details for this one; I'll leave this up to any enraged theist believing this anime is a mocking of religion. In terms of plotline, this anime is pretty loose up until the end where they only loosely link the different "stories" for each plot together; even then, its rather confusing with the whole "this person only has memories of this" "that person went back in time so no one remembers anything but him" issues. I think the characters were pretty stupid, shallow, and dense-headed but as long as they make me laugh I suppose that doesn't matter. The character designs were mediocre, but not anti-moe... (weird word, anti-moe?)

Now I'll probably finish up Strawberry Panic. This anime seems to have a strong innuendo against the French and seems to be more perverted than some-- Wait I think I'll leave it at the whole French part.

MY HIGH SCHOOL BLEW UP AND GOT TAKEN OVER BY DEMONS

...well, not really, a slight exaggeration. But it changed a lot and I couldn't figure out where my old teachers were. :( I was sad as I was carrying around a math book to give to my math teacher but I never found her... D:
Apparently the school got in a good lump of money and finished their construction. It was remarkably clean and nice; even the bathrooms seemed new and not disgusting like they used to be. I'm quite amazed and a bit jealous that the students going to COHS now have such better facilities then when I went to the school, when our governor cut like 99.9% of public school funding... ok not really, but still. They have cool science labs! How I was deprived of cool science labs when I was a high school student :( well, now I'm working like 40 hours a week in lab, so I suppose there was time to make up for it.
Other observations: The population seems to remain mostly white and hispanic. I didn't really see many Asians or African-Americans back at COHS. Additionally, a lot of gothics in the high school population. This isn't unusual since it was similar when I was in high school, but I think the number increased. I suppose its mostly a trend thing, since the gothics look pretty distasteful and I'm not sure why anyone would want to be that way. Of course, they COULD be tasteful, like, loligothika kind of gothic, but most aren't loli nor moe so it doesn't really fit. :/Silly high school students.
COHS IS SHORT ON PHYSICS TEACHERS!! Apparently from information from my chemistry teacher, all the physics teachers they've had didn't last long. It sort of reminds me of the Defense against the Dark Arts teachers in Harry Potter, where they'd be in for a year, do something that screws up their position, then a new one comes the next year, and repeats the process. I think they're really looking for a good Physics teacher right now. I wonder where I could find one. >.> <.<

In other news I started watching Code Geass. Watching a CLAMP-Mecha anime is like a great irony in itself, since you don't typically see CLAMP doing Gundam... this seems amusing enough to watch, and of course the mysterious girl always makes it worthy to watch... the mysterious girl that's designed by CLAMP :D

Overview of my Classes

So while I'm sitting here recovering SP on my bard, I figured I'll go over a brief overview of my classes this semester.

Biochemistry- The "main course" of the semester, so to speak. Like Ochem of last semester, this is the course that I'm going to be most devoted to the entire semester. Right now they're just going over review stuff, though. Such as drilling into our heads for the millionth time that Evolution exists and our cells ate bacteria that we now call Mitochondria... memorizing structures is going to take quite a bit of work though.
Cell Biology- THERE ARE ONLY TWO TESTS AND THAT'S IT. ONE MIDTERM, ONE FINAL, BOTH WORTH THE SAME AMOUNT OF POINTS. I'M SO FREAKIN SCARED OF THIS CLASS. :( Aside from that, the content seems really interesting to me. Too bad half your grade is dependent on one test you take.
Computer Simulation for BME- I really haven't gotten immersion into this class to know how it will go. I'm hoping it will be fairly easy so I don't have to focus on it too much, but then again people said EE was easy and I had really hard time with it... well oh well. We'll see how it goes.
Topics in Neuroscience: This could be the funnest GE I have to take. This could be the most work in a GE class that I have to do. This could be both. I anticipate the future.
Honors Seminar: Same as the year before. Not much to talk about here.
Lab: Same as I have been doign pretty much for the lats year except now I have to write a report about it. Greeeaattt :/

On side notes, I have a 3 exam week once in my schedule, and two of them are on the same day. To make things worse, one of those exams on the same day is my Cell Biology exam... This year will be fun...

A Church made of Wood and Planks...

I thought I would post this up really quickly before I lose all sense of my intelligence from 4chan and Bikko.

Earlier in one of my Biology classes (Actually of the General Education required Bio class, so technically it doesn't really count as a "bio" class according to my major but it still seems interesting and difficult enough to classify as decent Bio class for this year, I think) one of our teachers made a very interesting analogy. He said that we cannot determine "Holism", that is, using small parts of a problem to conclude a "larger picture" problem, and used the concept of a church to emphasize his point. He states that the church is made of wood and planks; if one just determined that there were wood and planks in the church, they would be missing out on a lot of information, such as the people worshipping there, the type of community, etc... basically, missing the essential function of the church. What I think he was trying to do is tell us that Neurobiology and neurons are like the wood and planks, and while useful in analyzing singularly, not useful in analyzing the whole brain, and therefore psychology comes into play. I think he did this to emphasize that psychology is just as important in Neuroscience as biology is.
I think though that the analogy needs a little adjusting. Rather than saying the wood and planks are the neurons, I believe the wood and planks are in fact, just atoms within the neuron; if we are keeping the brain as the church itself, then what are the neurons? The neurons are structures that the wood and planks form into, not necessarily the whole church, but parts of it. For example, if one finds a Cross, a couple of wooden benches, and then a glass window with a picture of Mary instead of the whole church, they can come to some conclusions as to what goes on in this "church". They can probably easily conclude that the benches are used for sitting; if they are not familiar with religion, then the cross and portrait of Mary would be more tough, but they can easily make a logical and reasonable conclusion based on what they have, for example, perhaps they think it is some artwork or exhibit? Granted, this is still a very wrong answer, but still closer than analyzing wood and planks. I'm not saying that being close enough is just as good as being right; far from it, being close enough is really still frustratingly lacking. But nevertheless, the analogy should properly be portrayed as, "If you found a cross, a picture of Mary, and a couple of benches, but you had no idea what the cross and Mary mean, how would you interpret it? ...This is the way us humans interpret the function of Neurons relative to the entire brain. It makes sense to them, but not to us."

I hope this makes some sense.

LEVEL 99

My bard reached level 99 two days ago! Though not a particularly remarkable event considering how easy it is to get 99 by hydroing or Biolabbing, the fact that I had to pretty much do it the old fashioned DS way due to my level 6 Magic Strings made it a bit more tedious but the payoff was a bit more fun, at least. :D
The 99 party did not go quite as planned... whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to the opinions of my friend who took part in the party. :p We found GTB accidentally which caused a whole lot of problems until we finally got it under control...it would have been cool if I had MVPed and levelled, but that wasn't the case either... :/ well regardless I did level shortly after and got to 99. I suppose the good thing was that I didn't die during my 99 party, so all's well that ends well.
Now, the fun part!! Analyzing my stats at 99!!! YESSSSS

W/Bless+Agi
STR: 12 +12 (Extra points, used it so I can carry more arrows/loot)
AGI: 82+29 (Main method of defense; with this I can get full effect of IR even without Agi)
VIT: 1+3 (1 VIT FTW!!)
INT: 46+15 (A lot more int I thought I would be getting. :D SP Recovery still sucks though :( )
DEX: 99+51 (Self Explanatory)
LUK: 2+4 (An accident that turned out not too bad since I get 1 extra crit)

HP: 4918 (Not even 5k with Pupa armor on... >.>)
SP: 1048 (w/o bless... bwahaha over 1k SP :3)

Flee: 230 (w/Agi Up, enough to dodge Lolis... we all know how much they like to hit on me :p)
ASPD, with Conc Pot, Agi Up, and Soul Linked IR: 184 (Instrument), 189 (unequipped), 175 (Bow, doesn't get boost from IR ;o; )
Crit: 3 (13 with Gloria!!)
Def: 28 + 4 (lol >.>)
Atk: 282 + 25 (I just realized I still don't know the exact calculations for Attack :( )
Mdef: 0 + 61 (YES I'm protected from Magic!)
MAtk: 125-205 (I WILL JT YOUUUUUUU)
Hit: 251 w/bless (I CAN HIT ANYTHING well not really. *coughMVPSuperFleecough*)
Status Point: 0 (Yup, I used all of it :p)
Weight: 3060 (More arrows ftw!)

Finally, thanks to ALL for everyone's support! As far as I know no one really held any grudge or engaged in serious drama with me, and I'm grateful for that. I would rather have 3 long years of levelling but fun rather than 6 months of horrid drama with speedy (boring) hydro levelling. People from TL, People from Niff, Allies from WoE, Ixis, and Spats were all very helpful in supporting and helping me 99!

...This almost sounds like the end of an Anime season XD Well in a way it is, coming next season: EngiMatikul, Transcend! :O