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Messages - Zen

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16
Past Series / Re: Fall series: Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo
« on: December 20, 2012, 14:02 »
I have enjoyed the hell out of this show. It continues into the new year, so it isn't almost over. I am a couple of weeks behind on just about everything right now though...

17
General Discussion / Gangnam Style - silly dance craze or clever social satire?
« on: December 05, 2012, 11:24 »
The whole "Gangnam Style" thing seems pretty silly to me, but I ran across this comment that made me wonder if it is a bit deeper: (I don't know if tony in the first sentence is a typo for tiny or some term I don't know.)
"Gangnam is a tony Seoul neighborhood, and Park's "Gangnam Style" video lampoons its self-importance and ostentatious wealth, with Psy playing a clownish caricature of a Gangnam man. That alone makes it practically operatic compared to most K-Pop. But I spoke with two regular observers of Korean culture to find out what I was missing, and it turns out that the video is rich with subtle references that, along with the song itself, suggest a subtext with a surprisingly subversive message about class and wealth in contemporary South Korean society. That message would be awfully mild by American standards -- this is no "Born in the U.S.A." -- but South Korea is a very different place, and it's a big deal that even this gentle social satire is breaking records on Korean pop charts long dominated by cotton candy."

It came from "The Atlantic" web site.

According to Wikipedia: "Both the Greater Gangnam Area and Gangnam itself are widely known for its heavily concentrated wealth and high standard of living, which has been compared to cities such as Beverly Hills, California."

Interesting... so this pop craze that is literally all over the world is actually thinly veiled social satire? That makes it much better, IMO.

18
General Discussion / Re: What are you doing?
« on: December 04, 2012, 11:56 »
Quote from: Cirno on December 04, 2012, 06:26
Keeping Gen from going crazy
Good luck with that...

Trying to figure out how I'm going to fix or replace my broken cameras... A professional photographer without a camera is a sad, sad thing...

19
Headline News / "Warp Drive" theoretically possible? WOW!
« on: November 27, 2012, 10:40 »
Evidently this has been known since 1994 when a physicist named Miguel Alcubierre published a paper titled The warp drive: hyper-fast travel within general relativity. The basic concept is to use tremendous amounts of energy to compress space-time in front of the ship, while expanding it behind the ship, creating a bubble that is pushed along at speeds faster than the speed of light, while the object inside the bubble is actually not moving relative to its own little pocket of space-time. The drawback to this theoretical concept? It would take energy equivalent to the mass of Jupiter to go as far as Alpha Centauri.

Well, a few months ago, physicist Harold White came out with a shocker: It can be done with less energy, perhaps as little as something that has the mass of the Voyeger space probe. (Of course, this is a mass of negative particles, or anti-matter, basically. It exists in theory, but as far as I know, there has never been anything beyond theory.) In any case, NASA actually has a team working in the lab to test this theory on an extremely small scale... Warp speed, Mr. Sulu!


20
General Discussion / Re: What are you doing?
« on: November 16, 2012, 16:42 »
Feeling like crap with a sinus infection... :(

21
Anime Reviews / Re: Fall 2012 Simulcast Rankings
« on: November 13, 2012, 14:24 »
My official rankings are out for this week. For full details, read my blog, but here they are in short form.

Tier 1:
1. Psycho-Pass - 5 of 5 - strong story, great characters, fantastic world building.
2. The Pet Girl of Sakurasou - 4.75 of 5 - sweet, touching, and a bit sexy around the edges. This could be a real winner!
3. Blast of Tempest - 4.5 of 5 - smarter than it appears at first and far more twisted too. "Time is out of joint" and nothing is as it seems, including the motives and actions of some of our main characters...
4. Robotics;Notes - 4 of 5 - moving up past the shojo trio, this show looks to be going places.
5. TIE - 4 of 5 - still tied, but Kamisama Kiss has a bullet, with a fun fantasy theme that avoids treating the main character like a second class citizen, except for when it is by Yokai, in which case it just doesn't have the same impact as when it is by the love interest who is supposedly human....
 - Kamisama Kiss
 - My Little Monster
 - Say "I Love You"

Tier 2:
8. Sword Art Online - Some nice action, a nice new game, but a too villainous villain and an ikky love interest story are dragging it down. That and the fact that Asuna is now pretty much a game piece instead of a vibrant, tough, and amazing main character.
9. Code: Breaker - can't decide whether it wants to be a gritty, nasty action show, or fondle the main characters boobs and give them pet names... I really don't think it can do both.
10. From the New World - probably better than I am ranking it, I just haven't cared to watch more.
11. K - wildly off balance, far too many characters and groups with far too little development, but it has Neko, and Neko is worth all the rest of the stupidity!




"Less" SFW content:
http://www.prairieperspectivesphotography.com/Hobbies/BlogImages/Blog-Images/i-dM7tbDV/0/M/Neko_asleep-M.png
http://www.prairieperspectivesphotography.com/Hobbies/BlogImages/Blog-Images/i-6vcc7xW/0/M/neko-M.jpg
http://www.prairieperspectivesphotography.com/Hobbies/BlogImages/Blog-Images/i-t5g2D3D/0/M/k-anime-02-01-M.jpg

How could you not just absolutely ADORE a sweet widdle puddy tat wike dat! ;) (Such a nice kitty!!!)

22
General Discussion / Re: The Random Chat Thread
« on: November 12, 2012, 23:20 »
Whoa, that's bad for you! You'll dehydrate man! LOL!

23
General Discussion / Re: What are you doing?
« on: November 02, 2012, 17:01 »
Trying to recall where Gen's blog was... I know I've read something there at least once... hmmm.....

24
Gensokyo / Re: Hang In There, Kogasa-san
« on: November 01, 2012, 13:53 »
Reminds me of a certain wedding my wife and I went to when we were still dating. I informed her before hand that the bride and I had a brief fling way back when I was in 7th grade and she was in 9th (really, just a one time thing... one of my first "experiences", as I was quite young. Not a real relationship or anything beyond third base) During the wedding, I realized that the maid of honor was also an ex. Similar situation, just two years later when I was in 9th and she was in 11th. I mentioned that to her as well, in case she happened to make a comment...

So, anyway, there we were at the reception, and I was getting drinks next to another one of the bride's maids. She looked at me, did a double take, then said, "Excuse me, are you [insert Zen's real name here]?" I answered in the affirmative and she replied that she was "Lisa, Lisa [I can't remember her last name to save my neck now...]" We proceeded to be shocked. She asked me whether I was a friend of the bride or groom. I replied bride, we went to the same church growing up. She said she was a friend of the bride's from college. Small world!

She was a girl that I "dated" for about 6 months when I was in 11th grade. (I think she was in 12th at the time) We met at a church summer camp, fell in love, and had a rather expensive, phone call wise, long distance relationship for most of that year. We only saw each other three or four times after the camp and it was an emotionally brutal relationship. Since I had never had a "real" girlfriend, having one that I couldn't ever see and wasn't able to drive to see was horrible. (Since I have a late birthday, I was not able to drive until I was in 11th grade. I didn't really have permission for long trips until I was a senior.) Needless to say, this relationship ended in failure and much sadness...

So, I took the drinks back to the table and introduced her to my [now wife] girlfriend. She looked at me with a look of mock anger, that didn't hide the laugh in her eyes one bit, and asked if there were any other ex-girlfriends that were part of the wedding party? I swore that she had just met about two-thirds of my earlier girlfriends! Really, it was massively uncomfortable for me, but luckily, my wife has a good sense of humor. (The fact that we had met one of my two prior "serious" girlfriends at a movie theater just a couple of weeks earlier didn't help!)

It really looked like I was some sort of womanizer, when my recollection of my high school and jr. high years is more akin to the life of a monk! LOL!

25
General Discussion / Re: What are you doing?
« on: November 01, 2012, 13:10 »
Heading to lunch... Pondering how my son got old enough to get a driver's license yesterday... Feeling old...

26
General Discussion / Re: The Random Chat Thread
« on: November 01, 2012, 13:09 »
That almost sounds like a proposition...

JK!

Just wondering if any of you have checked out my blog? Any suggestions?

27
Anime Reviews / Re: Fall 2012 Simulcast Rankings - Tier 1
« on: October 30, 2012, 23:19 »
Tier 2:
7. Robotics;Notes
8. Sword Art Online
9. Code: Breaker
10. K

Other simulcasts I haven't watched, but plan to:
Busou Shinki
Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!
Girls und Panzer
Ixion Saga DT
Magi
Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne
Litchi DE Hikari Club

For more, see my blog

28
Anime Reviews / Fall 2012 Simulcast Rankings
« on: October 30, 2012, 15:07 »
Tier 1:
1. Psycho-Pass - 5 of 5
2. The Pet Girl of Sakurasou - 4.5 of 5
3. Blast of Tempest - 4.5 of 5
4. TIE - 4 of 5
 - My Little Monster
 - Say "I Love You"
 - Kamisama Kiss

For mini-reviews, links to full-sized reviews, and discussion, click here.

Tier 2 coming soon...

29
Headline News / Re: Top Oil Producing Country to Switch to Renewable
« on: October 29, 2012, 17:05 »
Actually, it makes a ton of sense. The less fossil fuel they use, the more they can export, the more money they make!

30
Anime Reviews / Pet Girl episode 3
« on: October 26, 2012, 14:07 »
Rating: 5 of 5

In this episode, we get a ton of character development, for the main characters and two of the supporting cast as well. The show displays its true colors and I am happy to say that it is not a harem! (Many people figured it was at the outset, but it has, at best, a love triangle, not a harem set-up.)

The humor and fan service are nice, but the meat of the show is the relationships and the personal issues of the characters, and those are displayed in fine form in this episode. It is clear that Sorata has a major inferiority complex, but he may not be the only one that suffers from that fate. It is also strongly hinted that Sorata may be developing feelings that go beyond "protector" or "caretaker" for Mashiro. What are her feelings? I am not sure anyone knows yet...

This is definitely the best episode of the series so far.

For more, see my review on my blog.

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