Mascot Roadkill Mark 2

^__________^

TONY ALMEIDA!!! ^___________________^

It was sad, really, when Daniel and I screeched that in unison. But what can I say, some things are worth being excited about.

And because I've been watching too much television recently, dang I want the X-Games to be on all year round. It's the only time of the year you get to see actual snowboarding on actual television. >_< I'm not hugely keen on the skiing and snocross (well, no, the snocross is alright in its own way) but the Moto X, slopestyle and superpipe events are just too awesome for their own good. ^__________^

Tonight was the men's superpipe final. So. Unbelievably. Cool. Granted the guy I like (Shaun White...such a dude ^____^) only came in fourth, but but but...the guy who came in first was incredible. Back to back 1080 combo *and* two 900s = amazingly impressive run. ^____^ I suspect the video will appear here at some point in the next few days, so everyone go and watch it, *especially* if you don't like snowboarding. Antti Autti's third run in the men's superpipe finals. Pleeeeeeeeeeeease! It's so cool!! ^______^

Dagnammit now I want to play SSX3.

Yeah so right

I'm over it. There's only so long I can feel depressed about things in an unproductive way before it just really starts to irritate me, so I'm over it. Brain machinations are machinating themselves to figure out a solution, and in the meantime, well, whatever. In the meantime she keeps feeding me Deadpool. Dang I love Deadpool so much. Finally someone writes a superhero I can relate to...

So yep, in other news I've finished Phantasy Star Online III. I don't know whether it was just short or I was just obssessive. @_@ I may have to play it through in Arkz (the bad guys) mode now.

Oh, and in other other news, I now have a toy Ghost in the Shell Motoko. Yay buying too many action figures!! o_0

Because I for one need something to cheer me up

Katy: Depressed at World, Self

So this was, what, Plan F for my getting to stay out here permantently, the whole teacher training thing? Yeah well that's screwed now because I've been rejected by all the places I've applied to. -_- I'm not going to be living in Oxford next year, I'm not going to be living in San Antonio. -_-

You could say I was beginning to get a little disheartened at life. -_-

Gentlemen, let me explain...

Yeah so like, um, I'm addicted to Phantasy Star Online III. o_0 I know it's wrong, I know it shouldn't be possible to like a card game rpg and still maintain a shred of dignity (dignity? what?) but PSO III is really, really good.

For starters, I adore the location for PSO in general. It's like another Final Fantasy VIII, lovely and futuristic with strange magic-technology. The graphics aren't to be sniffed at, and they certainly do add a lot to playing something quite as complex as the PSO III battle system. What has also sunken its spikey little claws into my brain is the music. The music is absolutely spot-on. The one thing that really stood out for me the first time I played the game was that in battles you don't have the usual (and alright by usual I probably do mean "Final Fantasy" :p) frenetic fighting theme, it's all very ambient and thoughtful with more of a feeling of gravity than immediate danger. It's quite hard to explain what's so good about the music, it's just a really good blend of ambient/atmospheric, sort of like the Ico soundtrack, but more definately musical.

The card thing must be the one big turnoff for everyone starting the game. *I* thought the whole idea of playing through cards sounded retarded when I started, but it doesn't so much feel like a card game as strategy game with more limited (but equally complicated o_0) options. The card system is complicated if you want to play it well and understand exactly what each one of your moves is going to do, but there is also sufficient breathing space to guess your way through the first few fights while you find your feet. Right now it's not that I *understand* what I'm doing, but I know how to do it to get it right. ^___^

The other huuuuge plus from my point of view is the fact that you design your own character. ^___^ This from the girl who gets bored of The Sims after she's done the "design your family" bit. ^___^ It is a shame that the character designs haven't chamged from PSO I/II, but then I suppose it is a point of continuity. The Force (mage) costumes are incredibly cool, and did actually make me break my habit of being the "smash everything that moves" group. Hunters look like women of ill repute. o_0 I'll take being a mage over the hotpants and fishnets. o_0 Not that the group you pick makes much difference anyway, because you only ever see your avatar in the station area, otherwise you act as the commander for other characters. But what do I care? I made a person with the same hair colour and the same glasses as me - this makes me happy! ^____^

So yes, it is geeky, but it's also *incredibly* good fun. I'm going to have to get the soundtrack though...

o_0

I'm descending to new levels of geek. I think I may be addicted to Phantasy Star Online III. That's a card-based Gamecube rpg. o_0

*wallows in shame*

Dagnammit...

The new season of 24 is so awesomebad. You would appreciate the awesomeness of what has now been revealed as (I presume) the main plot so. much. ^_____^ Episode 6 was on tonight, which ended the first mini-arc of the series. And there was the shooting and the fighting and the ohmygoshjackbauerissocool-ness, followed by the scariest terrorist idea ever. o_0;;; I jolly well hope the technology isn't there to do that in real life. o_0

And now I'm suffering from not watching the series on dvd and having to wait a week for the next episode like everyone else. Sucks noodles, it does. >_<

Also, Pikmin have taken over my life.

Completely Inappropriate Bloggage

Inspired by the horrible, horrible Constantine trailer to which we were subjected before The Phantom of the Opera today (not to mention the near-constant adverts on TV for Elektra), I open up a debate to the floor.

If you could make your own barrel-scraping comic book film, what would it be?

Personally I'm going for the world-imploding lame-osity of "Nick Fury versus Aquaman", but apparently I'm the only one who wants to see it. D wants to make Batman : Nightfall the movie. That's Batman in a wheelchair to you and me.

In other news, Phantom of the Opera is a supreme slice of edam on a stick. It is actually a two-hour high-budget 80s music video. o_0 But it does bear a little more resemblence to its source than yesterday's monstrosity. Apart from the Opera Ghost is *considerably* more psychotic in the book. o_0 Where was the torture chamber?? That gave me nightmares when I read it, dagnammit!

But it was cheesy and it was amusing and Daniel's mum loved it to pieces, and since that was the aim of the day, all turned out well. ^___^ Now I just have to contend with Daniel running around screaming the Phantom theme for the next few days...

*fumes with rage*

So I know I'm going to be hard to please with this film, but I can honestly say that I have never seen a more APPALLING adaptation of any book ever than this pile of absolute tripe on a stick. It's like someone read the book, decided they didn't like it, and thought they'd re-write it as a horrible, horrible piece of fanfic! >_<

It was TERRIBLE. The plot bore absolutely NO resemblance whatsoever to the book. Yes, I know it's not possible to make a 900-odd page book into a word-perfect two hour film, but please! Making Monte Cristo Albert's father?? Giving Edmond and Mercedes a Hollywood ending and NOT EVEN A MENTION of Haidee?? I find the Monte Cristo/Haidee thing as creepy as the next person, but I'm not going to completely remove her from the plot just because I feel like it!

And the characterisation was abysmal! Monte Cristo in Monte Cristo's head is an avenging messenger of God, not an angry atheist with too much money! >_< That may indeed take the biscuit for the thing I found most offensive in the entire film. You can't change Monte Cristo's motives otherwise the whole story is a soulless farce - which that film is. >_<

Ugh. This really doesn't bode well for the idea of going to see Phantom of the Opera this weekend. I loved that book too, and I haven't seen the musical. Frankly the idea that it's called Andrew Lloyd Webber's and not Gaston Leroux's doesn't seem like a good sign in my head, but then I have a few million West End musical fans to compete with before I can whine about that one, I suppose. >_< Maybe I'll give it a miss, for my blood pressure's sake.

Funniest thing I have done all day...

...told an American how much petrol costs in England.

It was a suitably amusing reaction.

Sad News -_-

Trev, my hamster whom many of you had met and discovered the amazing poopliness thereof, was put to sleep this morning. -_-

Apparently he'd been ill since the weekend and hadn't been able to eat or drink. The vet said he'd done well to live as long as he had (three years) because hamsters usually only live for eighteen months. He'd become very dehydrated, they could have given him fluids but apparently this would only have prolonged the inevitable.

I'm really sad that I couldn't say bye to Trev in person. It probably seems quite odd to a lot of people that I'm that upset about my hamster dying, but he is the only pet I've ever had bigger than a goldfish, and he was the source of a great deal of fun for me. Yes he looked like a poo, but therein lay his charm. And alright, so he weeed on just about everything in the living room, but he was _old_ and they don't make nappies for hamsters.

He was still the best hamster ever.

I FEEL CHEATED!!

...and where better to express my anger than the internet? Well alright, aside from the having expressed it for a good half an hour in the house already. Ventation explanation will be forthcoming after some backstory.

We have been watching filums. Lots of lovely filums, as usual. Perhaps the easiest to deal with is Millenium Actress. I've wanted to watch this for a while but hadn't got round to it. However, it is quite wonderful. The animation is spot on, and I love the way they present the story: a bit convoluted, but purposely so. The characters are likeable (where they should be) and the designs give a wonderful feel of what Japan has been through in the past 100 or so years. So thumbs up, particularly if you like your anime very Japan-centric.

Next on the film line-up, Ghost in the Shell. Now, I've not really made much of a secret of the fact that I adore Stand Alone Complex, but I'd never bothered watching the film because it fell into my "far too hyped" category. I've just not wanted to see it for the admittedly snobbish reason that it always seems to be the only film anime newbies have seen and tends to be idolised out of all proportion. >_<

However if this had been the first anime film I'd ever seen, I have no doubt I'd feel the same way. It *is* good. ^__^ As far as I'm concerned, the animation holds up exceptionally well for a ten-year-old film and presents an incredibly enjoyable mix of action sequences and beautiful scenery shots. I love the way Tokyo is shown in the film, it's certainly distinct compared to other areas of the Ghost in the Shell series. Most of the action takes place in very Chinese-influenced suburbs, complete with fantastic animation of the masses of people and advertising everywhere. And y'know...I could go on about how much I love the characters but that's not exactly news to anyone.

In typical Shirow style, it does delve quite heavily into the "graphic violence and nudity" bag a few times, but to a certain extent, if you're going to design a series with a character like Motoko in, sooner or later the laws of anime say she's going to get naked. o_0

Which leads me to my next article of business, Ghost in the Shell 2 : Innocence Batou the Movie. It's not that I don't like Batou or anything but YOU DIDN'T SEE MOTOKO IN IT ONCE!! >_< The first Ghost in the Shell film is to fanservice what this film is to gritty futuristic detective stories. Which is fair enough, apart from the fact that I LIKE MOTOKO!! >_< Continuity with first film blah blah blah artistic integrity further than naked android women blah blah blah. With animation as utterly sublime as they have in that film they could have at least had a Motoko flashback. *cries* She's so cool. >_<

But aside from my rabid Motoko fangirlism, Innocence is a good film. The animation is absolutely stunning and the storyline is interesting enough, if filled with the usual horde of philosophical quotage. But hey, Ghost in the Shell does it a darn sight better than The Matrix. :p Which reminds me, I have a vague memory attached to Ghost in the Shell of someone from animesoc wondering where the more significant quote they use in the film comes from because they'd mangled it in the English dub. 's 1 Corinthians 13, the ever-so-slightly overused quotation about the difference between what once can see now and after death. ^__^ So there you go, that's something interesting for you.

Anyway, in summary, films good. Films would be better with more Motoko in, but never mind.

Going to eat things now.

ARE YOU READY FOR PICKSHURES???

...If you're not, I wouldn't read this entry.

Katy + scanner + new manga = SHINY PICTURES!!

In an attempt to make everyone else think Trinity Blood is cool, here are many scans of the Trinity Blood manga, vols 1 and 2. ^___^

The cover of vol. 1, with lovely lovely main character Abel Nightlord on. ^__^

Can we say overdose on the religious symbolism? ^___^

Chap covered in roses, from the first volume jacket.

The cover of vol. 2 with the strange android bloke called something like HC-IIIX

From the jacket of vol. 2, bishounen vampire whose spikey hair I'm sure Lizzu would appreciate. ^__^

Bloke with lion, and dandelions!

Postcard that came with the manga. ^__^

BEST. CHAPTER NAME. EVER.

Eeee!! I love Abel.

He (?) looks like some kind of evil lovechild of Tooboe and various Angel SAnctuary characters. o_0

Abel does actually appear to be a cross between Alucard and Mosquiton. With peanuts! ^____^

He also has a dudely alter ego ^___^

Go on go on, guess who I like in this manga.

He seems like the kind of character Jane would appreciate. ^__^

YES FIVE STAR GET'S FOR ME TOO!!

Eeeheeheehee so cool!!

Man, this looks like a green-haird rabies sufferer we might all have seen in Utena...

It's just cute, so cute. ^___^

Some funky-looking female character. ^___^

Evilest. Mermaid. Ever. o_0

And what do we say to evil mermaids?

And if you enjoyed those, please tell me. I spent ages doing those scans. ^__^;;;

ahahahaha!! :D

I beat Daniel at the "who does your mum think is the best-looking bishounen" game!! AHAHAHAHA!!! ^_________________^

It may be a minor victory, but it is a victory nonetheless - Sephiroth has a new fan! ^______________^

It's thundering really loud here. o_0

WOOHOO!!

You rock! I have Trinity Blood manga! ^_________^

It's gratuitously pretty and has men with long hair and guns. And vampires. ^________^

I should have learned my lesson by now...

...but I haven't, through my own obstinance/stupidity. In an attempt to demonstrate why I love Stand Alone Complex, I present my present desktop. LOOK IT'S A TACHIKOMA AND IT'S ADORABLE AND CUTE!! >_< I'm guessing you didn't show the corresponding Tachikoma Day when you showed SAC at animesoc? *weeps* *pets little squished souvenir tachikoma*

I suppose I shall put Stand Alone Complex in the Bakuten/Gungrave/Texhnolyze box. >_<

Incidentally, Andrew, I hope the parcel arrived with you before yesterday (if you've actually had time to check mail o_0) otherwise I'm going to have another reason to hate the post office. o_0 And if not, a belated happy birthday here, but I'd have much rathered you'd seen your spiffy birthday card. >_<

^_________^

NEW SEASON OF 24 STARTS IN AN HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

In other news, why does no one else who reads this blog like Stand Alone Complex? I have been watching chunks of it on both tv and dvd, and I have come to like it a great deal. Alright so these days it might appear that I'm pigeonholing myself into the mecha, bums and boobs category or anything, but it is a good show. o_0

When I come back I may have to whine about showing ep 2 at animesoc. It has lots of tachikomas in. Tachikomas make me happy. Except in the dub, never in the dub. They ruin what is otherwise a fairly solid English version, which *is* more than you can say for Fullmetal Alchemist, yes Jenny. >_<

This is Because I Love You

You get two bits of bloggage in one day. And also carefully dispensed randomly spewed advice.

Never ship anything FedEx. I bought my dad a pair of sunglasses he wanted and since they were Oakleys and somewhat on the expensive side, I decided I should probably use a safer mehod of postage than ordinary mail to send them to him. Between them, the USPS and Royal Mail have managed to mangle three or four items I've posted in the past few months. So off we trundled to the FedEx shop, filled in the forms and got to the part when we were actually told how much the shipping would cost (note I wasn't told this until _after_ I'd spent the half hour detailed what was in the package, how much it was worth, what the name of my first pet fish was, etc etc). Now I understand that I have to pay a little more for a safer, faster method of shipping, and I was expecting it to be a tad more costly than sending it by USPS but FIFTY DOLLARS? o_0 What? Were they going to have their own seat on the plane or something? o_0

Sad to say, I paid it. >_< There is a very long saga behind these sunglasses, they've been nothing but trouble ever since my dad asked me to find him a pair, and I was having kittens worrying about them getting lost or broken in the post. But in return I now feel excessively guilty for thinking I may have done the wrong thing and have caused aggravation for my dad by spending so much on postage. >_< So the moral of the story is, FedEx suck, so do I.

Second on my list of things to whine about, films. Upon watching the first Resident Evil film, which Daniel and I rented for more zombie-tastic hilarity, this evening I have come to notice certain things. Not to sound like a crusty old geek, but action/horror films really do blow these days. Granted Resident Evil isn't exactly the creme de la creme of modern horror, but I would have at least ranked it around the level of grandeur of Predator 2 for its time. But it set me thinking. I'm not the most squeamish person when it comes to films. I'm not the least, but I'm certainly not the most. But within about half an hour of Resident Evil I just got fed up of the gratuitous violence and wandered off to do something else. It wasn't interesting, it wasn't scary, it was just pointless.

Now, compare this to say, the first Alien film. As far as I'm concerned, Alien isn't a particularly graphic film. Alright so I wouldn't show it at my small child's birthday party, but you know what I mean. But it *is* scary. I was biting the cushions (sorry Jane... ^___^) waiting for the crew to get eaten by the alien, and yet there was very little actual gore in it. And this is my point to the director of Resident Evil and its ilk. Just because you _can_ make it look like someone's being sliced into hundreds of little pieces, doesn't mean to say you _have_ to. It's base, it's purile and it's not good filmmaking. Not to turn this into a "sfx are ruining cinema" rant, but sometimes I wonder if both film producers and moviegoers really ought to reconsider what they want to see in a film. I'm all up for a bit of shallow entertainment when I feel like it, but the extent to which it seems to go now is just retarded.

Oh, and the second part of my rant about films. Film ratings. With regard to the progression of special effects and so on I talked about above, does anyone else feel like there really ought to be some kind of review of ratings after a certain time? To bring back my current bugbear, Resident Evil is rated 15 in the UK, and yet I found it considerably more violent than Night of the Living Dead, rated 18. I'd like to hear someone think different if they've seen those two films.

Anyway, I'm going to watch Fullmetal Alchemist. Yes, the dub, on t' telly. o_0

That's probably the most controversial thing I've said all day.

*spluff* >_<

I hate you San Antonio Express News local newspaper. I hate you very, very much. Why did I have to read your article about upcoming concerts for the year, and why did you have to point out that it's highly likely U2 will be playing in San Antonio this year given that the company promoting their tour is based in this city? >_< Why did you have to point this out when I leave San Antonio TWO DAYS before the tour starts? You hate me, I hate you.

Like I'm going to be able to afford to see them play in England. -_-

It's a surprisingly annoying coincidence, this, given that it's been almost the only thing I've desparately wanted to do since I was about fourteen years old. Yes I'm a nerd, yes I was born about fifteen years later than I should have been, but that's the way things go. Please excuse my whining over retarded things like this. >_<

I'm going to bash my head against a brick wall for a few hours and see if it feels better. o_0

Zmobieeees....

(It makes me sad that everyone but Tasha will think that's a typo. *cries*)

Shaun of the Dead - it's like they took everyone who's ever been in Black Books and made them into flesh-eating zombies! But everyone else already knew that, I just hadn't got round to watching it until today. Which turned out to be a good thing, as now Daniel's seen enough English comedy to know who just about everyone in that film is, join me in keeling over giggling when Matt Lucas randomly appeared as a non-zombified person. Honestly, between Black Books, Little Britain and many and various Lee and Herring shows, I think we had spotted just about everyone in that film (and further IMDB research tells me that Greg Evian from TMWRNJ's When Insects Attack was in it too. ^___^) The only disappointment we had was where was Bill Bailey??

Anyway, film good, even if it proves that there are only actually three actors in Britain. Want to throw records at zombies. Going to watch Simpsons.

Ooohoohooh

I like this meme! ^___^

What are your top 3 favorite Final Fantasy...
1. Games?
i) FFVIII (I'm being truthful here, I love eight :p)
ii) FFVII
iii) FFX

2. Characters?
i) SEPHY-SAMAAAA!! *cough*
ii) Squall
iii) Auron

3. Weapons?
i) Lionheart (Squall, FFVIII)
ii) Murasame (Auron, FFX)
iii) Ultima Weapon (Zidane, FFIX)

4. Summons?
i) Bahamut (in all incarnations, otherwise this would be an all-Bahamut list o_0 But particularly Bahamut ZERO (FFVII) and Bahamut (FFX))
ii) Shiva (FFVIII)
iii) Yojimbo (FFX)

5. Spells?
i) Holy
ii) Curaga
iii) Ultima

6. Locations?
i) Esthar (FFVIII)
ii) Mt Nibel (FFVII)
iii) Macalania Forest (FFX)

7. Cutscenes?
i) The ending to FFVIII
ii) Death of a Flower Girl (FFVII)
iii) The FFVIII opening

8. Outfits?
i) Squall. So much. ^______^
ii) Seph. He's not wearing a shirt under that, why doesn't it chafe? o_0
iii) Paine in her Full Throttle overdrive (FFX-2)

9. Songs/music pieces?
i) One-Winged Angel, the orchestrated version (FFVII)
ii) All the Chocobo themes ^____^
iii) *shuffles feet* Real Emotion (FFX-2)

and finally...

10. Spin offs, merchandise and other stuff? (eg: un-numbered games, merchandise, art, etc)
i) Advent Children (I'm still holding on o_0)
ii) Crystal Chronicles
iii) Tactics Advance