Shinmaru

She was just joking lol. Apparently smilies just don't convey the messages that they used to. :( Anyway, if I didn't know my real age, I would guess that I was... twenty. Hey, wow, I got it on the first try!! I hope I win something!! :)

I bought the first four volumes of Death Note at Anime Expo a couple of weeks ago and I finished them recently... I have to thank Dagger again for recommending the series so enthusiastically lol. If it weren't for her, then I might not have given the series a try (mostly because I don't really keep up with new manga, haha). What I really like about Death Note is the amount of thought put into everything... the pace is rather deliberate sometimes, but it's worth it because the twists and whatnot pay off so well. I think that where Death Note [i]really[/i] grabbed me is when [spoiler]Light is being tailed by Raye Penber and he goes through that intricate plot to not only find out who's investigating him but to kill them all.[/spoiler] The story as a whole is gripping as hell, and there hasn't been a moment where I haven't been looking forward to the next page to see what happens next. :) I like the art style as well. Most of the characters are fairly realistic and simply designed which makes it much easier for them to be more emotive - especially Light, haha. Most of my favorite visual bits in Death Note come when Light is angry ([spoiler]most notably when L confronts Light at To-Oh University and tells Light that he is L, whereupon Light throws a huge fit when he gets home lol[/spoiler]) or when Light is cackling madly. You wouldn't think that Light would be so expressive considering how serious he is, but he's got a nice range of facial expressions lol. You know, I find it interesting that anyone could actually support Light (though he is a very fascinating character). He's somewhat sympathetic, and his vision of a world without crime is something that I think everyone would support, but his method is completely immoral, not to mention that he's seeking a nice payoff for all of this via the position of dictator of his new world. And no matter how much he denies it, Light's rule would basically be rule-by-fear: Everyone would be in line for fear of being judged by Kira. It's insanity lol.

Mostly what I'd want to do is abolish mullets, because Jesus Christ are those ever ugly. Has anyone ever looked good in a mullet ever? Even David freakin' Bowie couldn't pull one off. So what I would do is execute anyone found sporting a mullet, no exceptions; if you've got business in front and a party in the rear, you'll be partying on down to the guillotine. And of course I'd watch all mullet-related executions in person and keep ample space on my wall for the heads of all offenders. :) Also, I would completely destroy FOX because they obviously cannot be trusted with worthwhile television (not that other stations are more trustworthy but they generally do not air shows that I'd consider 'worthwhile'). In its stead I would establish a television station chock full of quality TV (little-to-no reality television, B-list celebrity blowjob vehicles, formula sitcoms, etc.) that would be supported as much as humanly possible. The untimely deaths of shows like Futurama, Arrested Development, and Wonderfalls would never again be repeated (unlike the shows themselves, which would live on through repeats). Other than that... I don't know, I guess I'd take on annoying stuff on a case-by-case basis. Basically my people could do whatever the **** they want as long as they don't infringe on my rights as a fascist dictator (which are vast and numerous, btw).

I was (and still am, to an extent) part of that bizarre null zone of popularity where I had a decent number of friends, a pretty sizable number of acquaintances, and yet I still flew under the radar at school. I did well in my studies but not well to win a bunch of awards or be considered a genius or something (I blame math for that); I enjoyed sports but the only sport I actually [i]wanted[/i] to try out for, tennis, was one that nobody could give a rat's *** about except for the strange pseudo-cult that formed around it; and I'm not an especially talkative person, so nobody really got a chance to become aware of me. Basically I was just there doing my own thing, pursuing my own interests, and going along with others when I felt like doing so. As much as I trash on my old high school, I have to admit that it was at least an environment where one could be open about his- or herself and not get totally **** on for it, at least in my experience. Or maybe I just wasn't popular enough to be picked on very often. :p As for my view on popularity, well, I honestly wouldn't mind being slightly more popular, though I don't think that I would enjoy much more than that. I could never be someone of DW's popularity, for example; I would become far too annoyed with so many people looking toward me lol. I'm not certain how you popular guys and gals put up with that sort of thing. :)

[quote name='Ikillion][COLOR=#af992f][SIZE=1][FONT=Comic Sans MS]If I had to say which anime has ever made me just completly depressed and just made me feel bad overall hat to be Grave of the Fireflies. I mean if you see the movie you would probaly get it [spoiler]Espically how through the hole movie the kid's lives are just "raped" in a sense of the word.[/spoiler] Other than that..I don't really think there has been an Anime that had made me sad in some parts or another.[/FONT][/SIZE'][/COLOR][/quote] It's the same for me, though Grave of the Fireflies didn't depress me so much as allow me to appreciate life just a little bit more. The story is definitely sad, however, and I'll admit to shedding a few tears while watching it. And that's about it for me. With fiction, it takes something [i]incredibly[/i] powerful to get me to cry, and while I've watched some pretty great anime, I haven't seen anything that's gone straight to my gut so hard that I've felt the need to cry over it. That's not much different from other entertainment mediums, either, haha. :P

[quote name='Papa Smurf][img']http://images2.ggl.com/articles/7_5_06/pspads.jpg[/img][/quote] You know, it's interesting that you post those other ads, Papa Smurf... because until I read your post just now, the only ad that I had seen was the one that everyone is in an uproar about. Singling out the ad in question and totally ignoring the other ads in the series like people have been doing thus far (and I think that it's pretty obvious that they're [i]meant[/i] to be a connected series of ads) is basically engaging in a loaded debate against Sony, which isn't very fair to them (and I say that as someone who isn't much of a Sony fan). Anyway, I can only agree with you that the ad is a contrast in colors and nothing more, especially in light of the other ads.

Brain Age is awesome. It's so bizarre how fun most of the games are... the whole time you're just remembering words, or doing math, or some other activity that would be boring as hell if it weren't in a video game, but trying to beat your high score (or somebody else's) makes them so much fun. I also appreciate that Brain Age is ideally suited for quick bursts of play. It's nice to not have to play a game for an hour or two in order to make any decent progress... nice change of pace from what I usually play lol. I also have to praise the game's handwriting recognition. I don't exactly have the most wonderful handwriting in the world, but Brain Age rarely has any trouble reading the correct number from the gibberish I put down onscreen, haha. The only issue I ran into was that the game sometimes had problems recognizing the color I was saying into the microphone during the color game; however, that was actually remedied fairly easily by holding the DS a little less than an arm's length away from me. After that, the game had no trouble recognizing what I said as long as I said it clearly. So, yeah, I have no qualms with the game now and it rocks. :)

[quote name='Ayokano']Another web comic that relies on dark humor is Perry Bible Fellowship. They're basically your newspaper?s funny pages, but much more twisted.[/quote] The Perry Bible Fellowship is one of the few webcomics I actually look forward to reading rather than simply doing so out of habit. A lot of the comics are just wrong, but damned if they aren't funny. Also it's nice to see someone use dark humor in a webcomic with actual [i]wit[/i] instead of just lazy blood and gore. Oddly enough, though, my favorite comic isn't even one of the darker ones... it's [url=http://70.86.201.113/imageserv2/stilltemporary/PBF002ADQPIInterview.html] "QPI Interview."[/url] The premise behind it is just so ridiculous and it caught me completely off guard when I first read it lol. Another one I've been fond of lately is [url=http://70.86.201.113/imageserv2/stilltemporary/PBF035ADMimes.html]"Mimes,"[/url] for basically the same reason. I also love Sexy Losers... but, er, I probably shouldn't link to that, haha. If you're curious, then you can search for it yourself. A warning: There's a lot of dark sexual humor, and it can be [i]really[/i] disturbing at times. It's a good comic to gauge how far your sense of humor is capable of going. :p Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire is the only other webcomic I'm actually interested in reading. It can be a bit goofy and cheesy (though that's a big part of its charm, for me), but it's a lot of fun and the stories are pretty interesting, unlike certain other webcomics. Mookie is great with updating too - the guy is a machine lol. I don't know how he does it. EDIT: Whoops, forgot about another one that Alan introduced me to recently - Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. Most of the comics are either bizarre, incredibly mean-spirited, or both. It's hilarious.

I prefer the British version of Whose Line to the American version. The improvisers generally got much more leeway in regards to the kinds of jokes they could make, and Clive Anderson was a funnier host than Drew Carey (even though Drew participated in the game to a far greater degree). For a while my favorite game was 'World's Worst,' but for sheer, ridiculous humor, I think that I enjoy 'Dead Bodies' the most. That game cracks me up every time I see it; I can't say that about any other game, except maybe 'Questionable Impressions.'

[QUOTE=Grace][SIZE=1]Ok! Now connect these two: [B][URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico]Puerto Rico[/URL] > [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Law_Olmsted]Frederick Law Olmsted[/URL][/B] [/SIZE][/QUOTE] [b]Puerto Rico[/b] --> [b]United States[/b] --> [b]Architecture of the United States[/b] --> [b]Architecture[/b] --> [b]List of architects[/b] --> [b]Frederick Law Olmsted[/b] Not too difficult. :) EDIT: Connect [b]Cocteau Twins[/b] to [b]Hypothalamus[/b].

Lately I've been listening to a lot of Sonic Youth, Curve, Slowdive, and Neil Perry. Sonic Youth is my all-time favorite band. They're notoriously tough to get into (unless noise rock is your thing, and even if it is, you've probably already heard them before), but listen to them enough and you'll be able to appreciate the work they do in turning what should be horrible, dissonant noise into seriously fantastic music. Sonic Youth are incredibly influential (you'd be hard pressed to find many indie bands that don't at least have a tinge of Sonic Youth in them) and yet their music is still fresh and creative compared to their imitators and everyone else in general. It's also mind-blowing to realize that they've been making music for almost twenty-five years now and they've released very few bad or even average albums (especially since most bands who make music for that length of time inevitably burn out before their twenty-fifth year). Curve and Slowdive are both shoegazing bands (though they're both fairly different from each other); I'm a [i]huge[/i] admirer of shoegazing even though it went out of style like ten years before I started listening to it. Slowdive makes very dreamy sounding music - that's basically enough to draw me in right there. It's light and it's not amazingly revolutionary, but damned if it doesn't create a great atmosphere. Curve is sort of in between shoegazing and electronica; it's a cool combination, and it's augmented by Toni Halliday's gorgeous, amazingly hot singing. She's easily the best vocalist I've ever heard. I got into Neil Perry very recently (kthx R@R lolz) and I've been enjoying their music a lot. I can't say that I'm a huge fan of screamo (mostly due to not being familiar with it), but if there are more bands like Neil Perry in the genre, then I think I'd enjoy it. There's a great mix of hard, energetic music and more melodic stuff in their songs, which I like a lot. It's a combo that works well. Also, they have great titles for their songs. "Igor, My Girlfriend Dumped Me... Let's Write Sad Songs." Haha.

I'm indifferent to them. I don't hate the music that they make, though I can't say that I'm very interested in listening to it either. As for their politics, I'm no fan of George W. Bush (or the [strike]Neocon[/strike] Republican Party as it exists right now), but their backing of John Kerry and the Democrats didn't strike a chord with me at all (I've never really cared for them, honestly, and only considered supporting them for the vague, flimsy reason of "George W. Bush must not be in office anymore!!" Then I wised up, realized that I'd be throwing my vote away to a group I didn't even really support, and I [strike]threw away my vote in a different way[/strike] voted for a third party) .

I'd be a ninja, because, well... [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/Shinmaru/Seinfeld.jpg[/IMG] "I don't wanna be a pirate!"[/center] Sailing the seas is not my thing, and, really, how much buried treasure is there left in the world? Even if you could steal treasure from people, you'd still be easily caught, given today's technology. Going into the past isn't an option either, because I don't want to go to the past just to be a pirate. However, if we were talking Han Solo-type space pirates, then I'd be all over that. I don't think that ninja are [i]that[/i] cool (though they definitely are cool), but being stealthy and sneaky is more appealing to me than wearing a puffy shirt and being seasick.

Took a bit of maneuvering but I got it. :) [quote name='Blayze][size=1][b]Film noir[/b] > [b]Diocletian[/b'][/size][/quote] [b]Film noir[/b] --> [b]Italian neorealism[/b] --> [b]Federico Fellini[/b] --> [b]Rome[/b] --> [b]Roman Empire[/b] --> [b]Diocletian[/b] I'll edit in a new one in a few minutes. EDIT: Link [b]myOtaku[/b] to [b]Edgar Allan Poe[/b].

Haha, I was a bit to slow in getting Revelation's. :P [quote name='Blayze][size=1][b]Stu Hamm > Aqua Regia[/b'][/size][/quote] [b]Stu Hamm[/b] --> [b]Chapman Stick[/b] --> [b]Polycarbonate[/b] --> [b]Hydrochloric acid[/b] --> [b]Aqua regia[/b] I think I'm obsessed with this game now. XD EDIT: Connect [b]David Lynch[/b] with [b]Shigeru Miyamoto[/b].

[quote name='White][font=tahoma][color=#555555]Now connect [B]Sesame Street[/B] to [B]Tumor Necrosis Factor[/B].[/font'][/color][/quote] [b]Sesame Street[/b] --> [b]Cancer[/b] --> [b]Cytokine[/b] --> [b]Tumor Necrosis Factor[/b] That was a good one. I'll edit mine in here in a couple of minutes. :) EDIT: Connect [b]Haruki Murakami[/b] to [b]Piet Mondrian[/b].

[QUOTE=Dodeca][SIZE=1]Anyways, try this one; [I] [B]Oliver Cromwell > Oedipus Complex[/B][/I][/SIZE][/QUOTE] [b]Oliver Cromwell[/b] --> [b]Democracy[/b] --> [b]Ancient Greece[/b] --> [b]Sophocles[/b] --> [b]Oedipus the King[/b] --> [b]Oedipus Complex[/b] There you go. :) I'll edit in one of my own in a few minutes. EDIT: Go from [b]James Joyce[/b] to [b]Groucho Marx[/b]. (Great thread, by the way. This game is a hell of a lot of fun. My sister and I have played it on more than a few occasions. :p)

I've been playing New Super Mario Bros. a lot lately, and I can only agree with much of what has been mentioned in this thread. At first I was a bit disappointed due to the relative ease of the early levels, but as Charles said, the later levels and hidden levels ramp up the difficulty, are designed well, and are just a ton of fun to play through. I had a blast running through World 4 earlier today (not to mention just getting there - I've got a lot of gaming rust on me, so Tiny Mario was a bit squirrely for me to handle at times while I was beating the World 2 boss, haha). :) So, yeah, I'm enjoying the game a ton and it's been well worth the purchase. The comments in this thread have me interested in picking up a DS Lite as well...

This thread won't disappear on my watch. :P [url=http://www.anime-expo.org/?a=programming&b=schedule][b]The programming schedule[/b][/url] is up on AX's site now, so now everyone can make tentative schedules for themselves ([strike]although there's no sign of what's going to be shown in the video rooms as of yet[/strike]). Anyway, it seems like people are okay with meeting up around 11:00 AM or so on the second day of AX, right? If that's too early, then later times work just fine for me - we still have three weeks or so to hammer that out, I guess lol. As for a meeting place, Sennen and I usually met up by the large stairs near the entrance in the middle of the convention center. It's close to the entrance to the exhibit hall, so it's not hard to overlook lol. Lots of people normally hang out there - we'll probably stand out because we (likely) won't all be done up in costume. :p Here's to a fun time for all! :) EDIT: [url=http://www.anime-expo.org/?a=programming&b=film_video][b]The film/video schedule is up now![/b][/url]

Recently I finished a book and I'd like to recommend it to everyone: [b]Red Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes[/b] by Terry Southern. It's an incredibly surreal, hysterical collection of short stories and journalistic pieces; I've probably laughed more reading this than I have with any other book in quite a while. Also, many of the stories provide an interesting look into American culture during the 50s and early 60s (mostly the drug culture, race relations, conflicts involving sexual orientation, annoying hipsters, etc.). Be forewarned that the humor is [i]very[/i] dark at times - I was never really offended by anything in the book, but there were plenty of passages that made me mouth, "Oh my God!" before launching into loud fits of laughter. There's one short paragraph in particular in the last story, "The Blood of a Wig," that's just... really, it's indescribable lol. Anything that I write here would not be able to do justice to how bizarre and twisted it is. Well, one word might be able to do the trick: [spoiler]Neck-rophilia.[/spoiler] Other than that, it's best to experience it yourself, haha. I love almost all of the stories in the book, but my favorites are: "The Night the Bird Blew for Doctor Warner," "Put-down," "You're Too Hip, Baby," "You Gotta Leave Your Mark," "The Road Out of Axotle," "Apartment to Exchange," "A Change of Style," "The Moon-shot Scandal," "Red Giant on Our Doorstep!" "Scandale at The Dumpling Shop," and "The Blood of a Wig." As you can see, it's loaded with fantastic stories. Everyone should give it a read. :)

[quote name='Sara][color=#b0000b][size=1]Did I hear about this a while ago, or am I thinking of something else?[/size'][/color][/quote] Maybe you heard about it from me some time? Lord knows I talk about it on my site enough. :p (By the way, is that Norman Bates I see in your avatar? :luv: )

I'm looking out the window right now, and it's an overcast day during summer in southern California. That's end of the world weather if I ever saw it. So, yeah, we're all ******, basically. I think that the last thing I'll do before the earth eats it is... uh... I don't know. Maybe I'll finally learn how to juggle properly...

Ha, wow, someone actually made a thread for this film before? Color me impressed. Anyway, you'll find the latest trailer for [i]A Scanner Darkly[/i] [b][url=http://wip.warnerbros.com/ascannerdarkly/]here[/url][/b]. The movie just looks better every time I see something new; the rotoscoping (the technique used to make the film seem as if it is animated) may look gimmicky at first, but it adds a really surreal element to the film, which is key to the novel. I don't think that stuff like Agent Fred's shapeshifting outfit or the multi-eyed creature would work as well if they were CGI (not to mention that the visual style makes the characters themselves look like they're in another world). Everything I've heard and seen about the film so far has been positive, and I'm glad that it's seemingly doing the novel justice, because [u]A Scanner Darkly[/u] is a great novel. If you're planning on seeing this, and you haven't read the novel yet, then you definitely should - it's not very long at all and it's just so hilarious and insane. I'll be re-reading it before I go see the film for sure. The release date is July 7th. Unfortunately, since the film isn't exactly mainstream, it'll be a limited release in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle, and then it'll filter out elsewhere after that each week. I think that the film will be well worth seeing if it ends up screening in a theater that's close by. :)

Some more choices that haven't been mentioned yet... [b]A Scanner Darkly[/b] by Philip K. Dick: I've become a big fan of PKD, and this is the best of his novels that I've read. It's about an undercover police officer named Agent Fred who poses as a drug addict named Bob Arctor in order to spy on other addicts and get some information that will lead to a massive drug bust. There's a lot more to it than that, however, and it's a fantastic novel that's just hilarious and disturbing at the same time. There's also a film adaptation coming out in about a month that's looking pretty damn good as well. [b]Paingod and Other Delusions[/b] and [b]I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream[/b] by Harlan Ellison: Two good collections of short stories. Ellison isn't the most stylish writer ever, and a few of the stories are sort of average sci-fi tales, but the best of the best make these worth reading. My favorites are "'Repent, Harlequin!' said The Ticktockman," "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream," "Paingod," "The Crackpots," and "Lonelyache." I still have a couple of stories left to read in [b]I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream[/b]. [b]Haroun and the Sea of Stories[/b] by Salman Rushdie: Very fun, witty children's novel about a kid who visits a far-off land to restore his father's talent for telling stories, which he lost after his wife left him and Haroun temporarily lost faith in the power of stories. I really can't recommend this enough... it's just a blast to read, and it's so damn funny.

[url=www.anime-expo.org][b]AX's Official Website[/b][/url] There you go. That should have everything you need. :) And no worries about starting the thread before me, Solo, haha. If I weren't so lazy, I probably would have started it up earlier. :p