Okay, so I don’t normally do posts like this, and… I don’t normally listen to Lady Gaga… Really, all I know is “Raaa-raaa-raa-aa-a! Romma-raaa-aaa!”… but after listening to a CNET’s Mp3 Insider podcast a while back, and the recent “First Look” video at the Monster Beat’s “Lady Gaga Heartbeats” In-ear earphones, (I WANT THAT SQUID/OCTOPUS SHE’S WEARING) it prompted me to watch the music video, as senior editor Jasmine France noticed the fair amount of Monster Beats advertising in the music video. I mean, the video itself is crazy enough, and now I know why they say Lady Gaga is so… weird…
“These earphones aren’t for the faint at heart. -Oh yeah, I went there.” ~Jasmine France
So, yesterday, Shannon, one of my friends, had her 17th birthday party, and we had to dress up as “a Treasure Hunter” as it was a “Spectacular Scavenger Hunt Birthday Bonanza”. Though I can’t really say I was “fully dressed up” but I did what I could and bought some cheap viking gear from a cheap dollar shop, as I struggled to find anything super-awesome/wasn’t willing to spend so much money on ‘cos I’m stingy. Other people turned out in some pretty awesome outfits. I don’t quite understand how they have this stuff unless they’ve used them in a previous party or something… Shannon herself had an awesome costume. But, most of the time, the thing that excites me the most about parties is cake. (Screw having friends and fun and stuff… Cake is better! XD) Shannon’s cake was pure legendary. I’ve seen some of her other caKe photos via Facebook, but this was the first time I had seen and eaten one. I bet you she didn’t learn how to make a cake like that in Food Tech! XD Thanks Shannon for organising an awesome party of awesomeness! (Photo Credit goes to Janice)
I really don’t think I’d be that fussed about spending money on a an actual costume if I didn’t spend as much money as I do on a regular basis. In the past 8 days, I haven’t spent more money in one week since… I ordered my Camera back in the January holidays. If I can maths correctly, I’ve spent a bit over $500 the past 8 days, though a variety of expenses, most notably some Anime Merch, which cost me somewhere round $150, and the MANLY trip to the city footed me at least another $150 that I can account for… Then there’s something like $180 that had been floating around and had been injected to some economy somewhere… I don’t know where it goes, but I AM SPENDING TOO MUCH MONEY! I still wanna buy a laptop and go to Japan and stuff… Those are my top priorities at the moment, and since I’m going to China soon, I’m really worried as to how much money I’m spending… I need to stop!
And that money disappears why? ‘cos I procrastinate. I spend a lot of time not doing work, and instead, reading tech news, listening to tech podcasts, browsing AmiAmi, refreshing items on AmiAmi hoping they’ll be instock, watching Leon’s vlog whenever he uploads something, taking photos of Ethan and trying to get him a career in modelling… a bit o’ Skype… Oh and Facebooking… I have an essay for English to write which is due Wed, a Maths test early Fri morning, and another Maths test sometime soon as well… Which I will definitely need to study for…. Which I should spend the time to do now… So instead… I use this time to dress my Tofu plush in the Viking stuff from Shannon’s party. Do you like it?
As all voting for the preliminary rounds are over, we are all now set for the main tournament of International Saimoe 2010. The first stage of voting, as always, is for the Aquamarine necklace, the first of seven necklaces in which whoever wins the most matches out of every 7 rounds, will win. From the Peliminary Round of voting, we have seen many new comers, and many, previously powerful contestants no longer qualifying.
As expected KyoAni has the most characters from one studio in ISML, and new comer K-ON! has easily earned it’s way into ISML, with four characters, Mio, Yui, Ui and Azusa in, while Ritsu and Tsumugi failing to earn the votes to the main round. Eight of KyoAni’s CLANNAD characters have not surprisingly made their ways to the main voting rounds, as well as the usual three Lucky Star characters, and the three main girls of Haruhi. Unlike last year, KyoAni does not have any Kanon or Air characters this year, which for me, is rather disappointing… I’m also quite dissapointed that Umineko didn’t get any characters in, but it’s understandable. More newcomers from Seitokai no Ichizon and Railgun have also been voted in, as well as Bakemono’s Hitagi. Shana, Nanoha, Higurashi, Hayate, Fate/Stay Night and Toradora continue their roll in characters for ISML.
What surprises me is the lack of Rozen Maidens, who had were a force to be reckoned with near the end of ISML last year.
So, who will I be voting for? RIKA-CHAMA!!! I was ecstatic when I found that she relatively easily made her way into the main round through the preliminaries. (But really, it should be expected, as she finished just outside the top 16 last year.) I shall also be voting for all the CLANNAD girls in the absence of Kanon, as well as having finished CLANNAD recently. Fate and Nanoha will also be earning my devotion!
Then, there are also those who I will be voting AGAINSY. It’s really just two of the contestants, and I’m sure you can guess who they are… Haruhi and Yui. Really, the only two characters that I hate. Generally, the rest I can deal with. Mio, Ui and Azusa are characters I won’t vote for, but I won’t be voting against them either. The same goes for Mikuru. As for the rest… I remain neutral on, as… I really don’t watch that much anime… So… They will remain as neutral in my voting ballot…
My predictions remain the same as my post about the prelims. By the end of the tournament, “Mio, will no doubt will get within the top 16. (possibly with Yui and Asuza too) I kinda expect popularity for Haruhi (the character, not the series) drop a little as a result of the infamous Endless Eight arc. Characters from CLANNAD may fall down similar to how Kanon and Air’s did, as a result of their series finishing last year. Shana’s popularity will remain high, and so will Nanoha.” Now, I still don’t know how Lucky Star is continuing it’s trend in popularity… We will probably see Hitagi in the top 16 pretty easily, and someone from Seizon as well… I’ll be sad to admit, that we’ll probably see Rika move down as well as Hanyuu, but as always, I will be voting for them!
Wow… I’m actually somewhat surprised that I haven’t actually done a post about my normal life for a while now… But what better way to get things back into gear, than by writing about the weekend I just had where I spent a lot more money than I had thought/planned I would have… I did quite a bit of training on the weekend… Much more than a normal trip to the city, as I took a few detours before I met up with my friends. It always seems to be an interesting train ride whenever I get some of my friends down to the City… 8 of 10 times, there will be a classic moment of awesome. Or so I find at least…?
To kick things off, Saturday was when Cameron, Leon, Ben, Nick, (Squiggley Nick) Martin and I went to salvage what was origanally planned to be an epic mass outing to IMAX to watch Alice In Wonderland. So, seeing as I was sacrificing earning money for that day, I went out to see if I could see if there was anything to salvage for the trip. We didn’t end up seeing it at IMAX, and just went to a normal cinema instead. Alice in Wonderland wasn’t as good as I was expecting… Maybe I had too high expectations, but still… I felt that it was rather rushed, and too fast paced… It was fun to watch, but not as awesome as I was hoping it would turn out to be…
Poor Ben… He needs to talk more… =P So…. Ben was hungry… He told me about how he was hungry just before we got off the train… So I reassured him, that eating would be one of the first things we would do. So, after getting off the train at Town Hall, we walked into Galleries Victoria, and there, we indecisively, chose where to eat. After some back and forth, and Leon’s demand for some nice hunk of meat… we ended up going to where we always go… Ichiban-boshi… The Noodle place next door to Kinokuniya… And strangely, it took longer than normal to get our food out… I read the latest issue of Newtype Magazine while I waited for the foodstuffs to arrive… I ended up getting mine first… And Ben… As well as Cameron, who both ordered Karage-dons, ended iup getting their meals last… Ah well…
So after that… We went down to George Street and Nick, Cameron and I waited in a long line to order our tickets for Alice. So, the other three decided to go visit Billy Hyde. We were to meet up with them at Billy Hyde once we had gotten our tickets, and so, after paying for them all on my eftpos, we went to Billy Hyde… I was afraid I was half lost, but once I saw the sign for Clarance Street, my confidence was restored, and as we walked up to Billy Hyde, we saw Martin, Leon and Ben running down the street from the opposite end, trying to beat us to Billy Hyde… Haha. Nice work guys!
After that, we decided to head down to Chinatown to… see and do some… very manly things… Okay… Fine… We went into Morning Glory…
Yes.
And… instead of just looking, and laughing at some of the stuff, pretty much all of us, except for Martin, ended up buying something from Morning Glory. Real man style… And as a result from Morning Glory, I now haz a tofu!
It’s so cute! And Soft! And squishy! And you can put your arms through it and hug it! It is awesomeness!!! They kinda remind me of Dango from Clannad… Now it makes me wanna collect them! Maybe in when I go to China in Two months time, I can stock up on lots and lots of Tofu! And I can have a wall of Tofu!
We also met up with Taylor, Molly and Jack. Who were planning to stay a lot later than some of us had planned… So, half of us bailed, and Leon and Cameron and I decieded to join them for a little dinner… Where I sort-of almost pissed off a waiter who was annoyed when they claimed I made an error as to what I wanted to order or something like that… So that was fun… All in all, after doing the maths for that day, I seemed to had ended up spending about $150 that day… And only bringing back a Tofu and Newtype magazine…
Then Sunday came along, and so after four hours of work in the morning, I decided to do a quick trip to the City, and my Sister decided to come along too. And well… we decided to try Ajisen Ramen… Seeing as how it seems to be… Everywhere… But anyway… So, I ordered a Gyoza Ramen… Which I have taken a picture of below…
I don’t feel that it was as good as Ichiban… I mean it was still good, but umm… Still good, it was not overly stong. It was a very nice and kind of neutral soup. I guess I’ll probably be going back there sometime soon as they had a pretty awesome Melon Frappe thingy… I was hoping to buy an Archos Battery Dock for my Archos 5 both Sat and Sun, but I was never able to find the time to do so. And so… I’ll have to find one some other time then…
Anyway… So, that was a… quick? wrap of my weekend… I’m sure it was more awesome than the way I described it here, but I have a Tofu now, so I is happy.. For now…
This weekend, I shall be going to Shannon’s birthday party!! Which will be very fun!
Okay, so a bit less than a week ago, I created a small-ish light box using one of my many acquired boxes which I had payed good money for. I sued a relatively simple guide provided here. My first and current light box is of temporary and experimental nature, and hence it is quite a mess, but once I get a better light box built, I hope I can do some… better… photos… I hope I somehow acquire a nice DSLR Camera by the time that happens as well… But I took a few shots of my figurines/mp3 players with my new found light box, and I’d thought I’d share them with you…
Package 6 of ?:
Arrived – 3rd March
Origin – Tokyo, Japan (Amiami.com)
Value – ¥5890 JPY ($73.86 AUD)
Contents: “Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Complete Guide book”, “Key 10th Anniversary Mug – Nagisa” and “Maria’s Bracelet”
Hrmm… So ummm… I’ve known about Dannychoo for a while now, but I never took the time to find out who he was or anything… But I visited the website just earlier and I was in awe at his photos…. Especially his ‘desk diary‘! It is insane… and I am uber-jealous of this guy… Figurines, Merch, Tech and Uber-awesome cameras?!?! And he gets paid for all that stuff! He really made me feel that anytime I got something in a package was almost inadequate or something… It sunk my heart to know that he has all that pure awesome-ness… But enough about Dannychoo… I’ll just celebrate what I can afford then…
Package 5 of ?:
Arrived – 26th February
Origin – Asahikawa, Japan (eBay)
Value – $127.49 USD ($147.24 AUD)
Contents: “Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai Character Analyze book”, “Clannad Visual Fan Book”, “Clannad After Story Official Fanbook” and “Clannad memorial”
Wow… So… After watching Clannad, I got the same temptation I did when I finished Kanon, and so, I went hunting for their artbooks, with surprisingly little success… Some sites had the first season’s artbook, but finding After Story’s artbook was a much more difficult task. I always seem to be a little late when it comes to trends in anime… As a result, I did some hunting on eBay, where I discovered japan-ssdyuk who has LOADS of artbooks for bidding/sale. So, I ended up buying three Clannad artbooks, in addition to the first season of Higurashi’s Character and Illustration book. As a result, another $150 down, and four artbooks to add to my slowly growing collection. I should soon have All four Higurashi Analysis books soon enough, and the Umineko one on it’s way soon as well.
So, it was about time that the folks at abi released their review for the Archos 5 Internet Media Tablet with Android. As you may know, I myself got me an Archos 5 a few weeks ago. I probably should have waited for abi’s review before diving in for the purchase, but I was already well aware of the issues that it has had, and am experiencing them first hand as well.
They have written a VERY long review that goes nicely in-depth about the Archos 5 in terms of how it works. If you are unfamiliar with the Android OS, or have no idea what I’m on about, I suggest you read the review, especially if you’re looking to purchase an Archos 5 yourself. Like I may should have done… =P
My official thoughts on my Archos 5 shall be posted here within the coming weeks, as well as a bit on my Cowon iAudio E2.
Now, had this AMV won an award, it would have gotten a mention back in my reap up of the Viewers Choice Awards of 2010 for animemusicvideos.org. but I thought it was crazy enough to get a mention as a separate blog post. The AMV was nominated for EIGHT awards though, such as ‘Best Action Video’, ‘Best Fun Video’, ‘Best Parody Video’, ‘Best Use of Lip Synch’, ‘Best Use of Multiple Anime’, ‘Best Use of Special Effects’, ‘Most Artistic Video’ and of course, ‘Video of the Year’. I thought it was deserving of at least one of these awards, and I was rooting for it to win ‘Video of the Year’. The editor “Chiikaboom” was also nominated for Editor of the Year, with addition to another video of his that also was nominated for many awards, titled “Chronicles Of The OCD Goth Cowboy Jesus Future Overlord” which is another interesting title that is very appropriate for “Death the Kid’s” (Soul Eater) character…
“Fluffy Kittens & Rainbows” is certainly a misleading title… It’s a crazy ass AMV with seizure causing flashiness, and moe-shoujo-ness that could cause rivers of blood flowing from an otaku’s nose. It’s no soft, slow moving character profiling AMV retelling a teary love story, nor is it an insanely hardcore action with explosions and guns AMV… It is a collaboration of the reason why otaku’s love watching anime… Girls… What else would it be? This AMV reminds us all that girls in anime will always be better than girls in real life… Haha… Just kidding. But, I wouldn’t be surprised if some people out there think that way… *shifty eyes*
If you do watch just the beginning of the video, she does quote a member from the AMV.org forums, which I kinda agree with. Anime Music Vidoes are a form of art, and that you can’t just cram your favourite anime, to your favourite song, and call it “The Best Video EVER”. Though on YouTube that may be the case, as long as everyone has the same taste as you, but I find that some of the best AMVs aren’t on YouTube, or, if they are, they’re tucked away, by people who do it mores a hobby, than for popularity. Though I do think that some users on “animemusicvideos.org” are a little up themselves claiming that the site is only for people who make ‘real AMVs’. The Chiikaboom also notes that finding constructive criticism is very hard to find these days, and as a result, many aspiring editors aren’t able to improve as much as they potentially could. As she states in the video description, these days, what you’ll get as feedback is “this video sucks”, “anime sucks”, sync blows”, which may be true, but generally dissapointing and annoying… Some people have done AMAZING things with ‘crap anime’.
In regards to the actual music video, I give a lot of credit to Chiikaboom. There are A LOT of clips, which must of taken a fair while to put together. The whole sychronising to a somewhat… aggressive song that technically shouldn’t match what the footage is, it’s an amazingly flashy collaboration of girls, and a song that more suited to a blasting action video or something… I guess that’s why he did use a fair number of mahou-shoujo anime as well. I do feel that he was a little lazy at the end, once the footage with K-On! began. It felt more rushed, and the continual reuse of K-On! at the end just didn’t seem to make it very flowing from then on, as the rest of the video was a crazy combination of awesomeness from a variety of anime. Anyway, I still think that this is an AMV well deserving of a ‘Video of the Year’, which it didn’t get, but hey… Some people think otherwise.
Below is an embedded YouTube video, if you’re reading if from Facebook, then READ IT FROM MY ACTUAL BLOG! (But then why should I be importing my notes to Facebook then…?)
So, the Winter season of anime is nearly over, and so, it’s time for some new life, and so comes along spring… I really didn’t follow many anime during Winter… In fact, I’ve only been watching Ookami Kakushi which hasn’t been of normal Ryukishi standard… (Well… Higurashi that is…) It hasn’t been bad… It’s actually been pretty good, but not as good as I had hoped it’ll be, but it’s definitely gaining some momentum. And the Hassaku commercial is certainly catchy! I’m also still yet to catch up on Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which I haven’t seen from episode 35 onwards… It’s not a bad line-up this season, and there are many high expectations from a number of Anime, most notably the super-powerhouse that is KyoAni and their mind-blowingly popular “K-On!”…
So, here’s a small list of the two anime I probably will end up falling behind with somehow…:
