05/21/08

Yay, dial-up

28-12-04

So once again GG finds himself updating on outdated computer (900 MHz?) and Internet connection (45.2 kbps?).  As the year began, so shall it end, I guess.

Why is this?  Well, after spending Christmas with my dad, I've decided to spend my days of with my mom, and this is all she's got.  Dad's computer is faster, but Mom's got slightly better Internet, due to the fact that it's not NetZero.  It's hard to believe that I used to use that crappy service.  Eek.

So Christmas was fun, just me and Dad hanging out, shooting the breeze and eating.  It's pretty much what I did when I lived with him back in the day, which might have something to do with my extreme weight gain back then.  Hey, it's only taken me about 20 years to get back down to respectability.  Good times nonetheless.

Got some new content up here, in the form of a new recipe and a review of some yum that I partook of last week.  I'm still tweaking the sauce for the blueberry pudding, but I'll keep you all in the loop when I get it finished.  The sauce will work if you serve it right away, but it breaks not too much longer after that.  The flavour is just fine, though.

Who'd have thought that GG would rock hard to the new Aerosmith album?  No one, of course, but it smokes!  From what my mom says, they're mostly cover songs, but they just tear them up.  I was listening to it tonight while cooking dinner, and I just felt like getting my groove on.  Good ol' fashioned blues rawk never sounded so good.

On a similar topic, here's a note to Kenny Wayne Shepherd:  Dude, getting Kid Rock to play on your album is NEVER a good idea, and it certainly proved that way on your new disc.  "Spank" has to be the worst song both lyrically and musically that you've ever put your name to.  Just stick with Noah Hunt for collaborations, okay?

The anime series Kannazuki no Miko ended rather nicely this past week, if I do say so myself.  While the ending was pretty predictable, it wasn't insultingly predictable.  There was some good drama mixed in with the melodrama, pretty sweet action and really no room for a sequel.  And by the way, I never would have thought that I'd enjoy a yuri mecha series.

Sorry for no GGJP again.  Mom's machine doesn't have a Japanese IME, so I can't do much with it but romaji, which sort of defeats the purpose.  On the positive side, I got a book on Kansai (Western) Japanese, and it's cool!  Totally different than the Kantou (Eastern) version, as cockney English is different than what the rest of us speak.  Very cool.

A rare opportunity has come my way: a job at a Japanese restaurant!  It's a much longer story than I can really share here, but the bottom line is that it may conflict with my job at Rays, where I have *finally* been promoted to lead.  If the chef at the new place says that I have to choose one or the other, I'd have some serious thinking to do.  We'll find out when I give him a call tomorrow or the next day.  That would be SO awesome to get some experience before I head out to Japan.

Lastly, to Yuuichi & the rest of Vio System Divide, Sreela and Michiko, I hope that you guys, your friends and family managed to escape the ravages of those earthquakes and tsunami over there.  That is just a horrible, horrible tragedy.  One story on Yahoo said, "an entire generation" of Asians have been killed by those disasters.  Did you read that?  A WHOLE GENERATION.  Could you imagine if an entire generation of people disappeared here in the States?  It's really beyond my thoughts...

Senseless

13-12-04

After a lengthy hiatus, the GG has returned!  For the five of you out there who have been paying attention, I apologize profusely.  For the other several million ignorant Internet users, you don't know what you've been missing.  Word to the big bird.

I'm so glad that work has settled down to a normal pace for once.  Gone are my six-day workweeks and strange, "No, you're working pantry" tonight shifts.  Instead, it's five days of, "Yup, I'm the lead tonight."  There are few things more satisfying than that.

Now granted (no pun intended), it's been a while since my last update, but Roastbeef pointed out something that's gotten my goat a bit.  He said, in so many words, that this has become not much more than an anime review site, and I tend to agree with him.  As such, I'm going to devote most of my rant here to music, with the occasional food or anime reference here and there.  Let's begin.

This crusade of mine has been going on for quite a while now, but I'd be a lot less inclined to bash Evanescence if their retarded front woman would quit saying stuff like this:

Kerrang!: Have you become cynical about your peers?

Amy Lee: "No way, but there's just so many new bands out there and I'm not motivated to see a single damn one, and a lot of the bands worth listening to are old and tired now. "

So she's not cynical, but cynical AND apathetic!  How you've proven me wrong yet again, Amy Lee!!!!!

And also this nugget of wisdom from the Denver Post:

"Korn's nu-metal model is outdated, say the fans who speak with their purchasing power, and they've been replaced by more relevant, contemporary combos including Lil' Jon (crunk), Alicia Keys (smooth R&B) and Green Day (pop-punk)."

Number one, what the hell is "crunk?" At what point did that become a form of music? And number two, how can Green Day, a band that predates Korn by almost a decade, be considered more relevant and contemporary? Jeezus, can just ANYone be a fscking music reporter? Where do they find these jokers?

.......it just dawned on me that I'm spending too much time deliberating on Korn, so I'm done.

Of course, all that anyone's been talking about this week has been Darrell Abbott's murder, to which I can add nothing.  Anything that can be said has already been said better than I can say it, so let me just offer up a, "Fscking unbelievable tragedy to the metal world" and leave it at that.  No, I've never been more than a casual Pantera/Damageplan fan, but I *do* both know and understand Dimebag's importance to the metal world, and I know his loss will be felt by many.  This champagne hangover's for you, bro.

I saw perhaps THE most boring Iron Chef episode of all time the other day.  It was Battle Chicken featuring Iron Chef Ishinabe versus some French dude who won medals or something.  SWEET GOD.  I actually got tired of seeing the chefs working all of *two* dishes for the hour they're on TV, and fast-forwarded to the end just to see who won.  In the end, all that happened were four dishes composed of chicken and truffles (one of which was disqualified because it only contained eggs), and the challenger wound up winning.  So, so awful, which is something I thought I'd never say about Iron Chef.

I've got two new recipes for you guys this time around, recipes that I worked on for at least an hour.  Hey, when you're gifted with culinary talent like I've been, you tend to work fast.  I've also got another couple in the works for next update, so stay tuned!

Anime stuff:  Gankutsuou, BECK and Gantz continue to dazzle, while Kannazuki no Miko and Mai-HiME continue to entertain.

So I know you guys all remember Shogun Warriors. I freakin' collected those comics like a bad mamma jamma, and I seem to recall Dad buying us the big robots for some Christmas or other.  My brother Jammo always dug Raydeen, I grooved on Combattler and my other brother Imiloa was the Dangard Ace. Tell me that shit ain't cool.

Why is he telling us this?

Well, in a fit of inspiration/boredom, I did a Google search on them shits and found out to my delight (probably more than necessary, but that's another topic) that they were all based off of anime! Of course, giant robots from Japan being in anime comes as no surprise to anyone, but now I can kind of see where my little fascination with that country and culture began. Between that, finding out that TransFormers were also anime before they were just a "cartoon," and me sitting in a cardboard box or a laundry hamper and watching Wok With Yan at a tender age had to have some sort of divine influence.

Good times, muthafahkoos.

And for my final note, the GG site is fast approaching 5,000 hits in its existence, for which I thank you all.  Granted (no puns again!), that's what Fred gets in about five minutes over at Megatokyo, but I'm happy that folks have sought me out.

HOWEVER!  It's not enough, and I've finally figured out why:  I'm not advertising my offerings!  With that in mind, expect a new set of subpages to pop up next update.  It's time to get the GG ship outta the harbour, yo!

And lastly, I apologize for no GGJP this time around, but I don't have my jisho (dictionary) with me, so I can't translate what I want to say.  We'll save that for later in the week or something.  Ja!

Shame

09-11-04

Four more years of stultifying idiocy from our nation's leader.  If you went out and voted for Kerry, good for you, and feel free to bitch to your heart's content about how everyone else's brain must have shut off during election day.

If you voted for Bush, well...you're asking for it.  I have NO faith in the man as a leader.  Strangely enough (or maybe not so much) the last time that there was a Republican majority in the House, Senate and White House was 1924.  That means that their term ended in 1928, shortly after which was the Great Depression.  There may be a connection there, but we'll have to wait and see.

If you didn't vote at all, shut up.  You gave up your right to say ANYthing by not saying anything. 

(As an aside, wouldn't it be interesting to see what would happen if you could vote not to vote?  Say there was a checkbox that said, "I don't approve of either/any candidate?"  Would that promote change in our politicians or apathy and laziness in the voters?)

Interesting how there's mounting evidence of foul play in the election via vote "spoilage" and malfunctioning voting machines.  This makes me wonder if sufficient evidence comes to light, can the public ask for a recount or new election if they think the thing's been rigged?  Or is legislation the only way to enact that sort of thing?  If a couple million people signed a petition saying, "Hey, this, that and the other thing all say that votes were either misappropriated or misplaced, so we want a do-over," would anyone listen?  How does that sort of thing start?  Who starts it?  Curious...

My roomie americankorean gave me a sweet book by the dude who wrote Fight Club called Survivor.  It's about a guy who was part of the "Creedish" cult who killed themselves as part of their religious doctrine.  The main character is the last remaining member (hence the title), BUT the narration of the book is him talking into a flight recorder of a plane he's hijacked so that he can kill himself.  It's absolutely nuts, and just as darkly funny as Fight Club.  If you can check it out, do so.

Well, I've managed to trim down this season's anime to just a few choice shows: BECK, Gankutsuou, Kannazuki no Miko, School Rumble and Bleach.  The rest of the shows just turned out to be TSOS (The Same Ol' Sh!t), and I've seen enough of that in my life, thankyouverymuch.  I still watch Yakikate Ja-pan, too, but more to see what kind of cooking stuff they're doing.  Frankly, and totally unsurprisingly, Iron Chef is way more educational.

Blargh

28-10-04

Pretty much how I feel right now.  I've certainly had better days in my life, but then again there are always ups and downs.  We're just kind of down at the moment.

After watching the first three episodes of the new To Heart, I'm totally disappointed.  It's pretty obvious that they're trying to tie up the loose ends of the first series, but they're doing so in a hurried and clichéd manner.  I'm about 85% certain that right about the 22-minute mark of episode 12 or 13 (depending on the episode count of the series), Hiroyuki will finally tell Akari that he loves her.  Seriously, it's playing out like that.  Add in the totally shoddy art and forgettable soundtrack, and this might be the second worst sequel to an anime ever (the worst being the unbelievably awful Love Hina Again).

I've said it once, and I'll probably say it a few more times after this:  Gankutsuou is an absolutely beautiful series to behold.  Visually, there's lot to take in (I don't think I've seen a solid colour yet), but it all adds up to a friggin' masterpiece.  Considering the story it's based on, I think the anime lives up to the bill nicely, far outpacing the rather clunky Samurai 7.  This will be the second show licensed this season, right after BECK.

Yay, a new recipe!  I finally got around to cooking something this week during my days off, and it turned out good enough to post up here.  I've also got another one in the works, but I need to work out the kinks first.  I might have it done by next update.

I'm about halfway through the JET application process, and let me tell you, there is a LOT involved.  I've had to get my passport, get a couple letters of recommendation, three copies of each of my transcripts (and proof of graduation, besides), plus I've still got to write an essay, detail my work history and do about another 15 pages worth of application.  They're certainly trying to weed out the unwilling, that's for sure.  BUT I SHALL NOT YIELD!!!!

I tried to write a new Japanese rant, but came up short again.  I might have to make that a once-every-other-update sort of thing until I build up a bigger vocabulary base.  Oh, and thank you so much for helping me edit the previous rant, Yoko!  本当に助けました！

And I'm out...

[Update 01-11-04:  I've somehow managed to generate over 4200 hits on this damn site and still gotten only TWO emails from it.  Seriously, if you stop by, no matter how brief your visit is, could you drop a line?  I've got a comments page and everything!  Yes, the GG site is primarily catharsis for me, but I AM trying to offer a service to all of you who stop by, so please tell me what you'd like to see!  I'm a cook...I *live* to serve!  Thank you!]

Many new beginnings

20-10-04

And here is part two of my fall anime review!  (You can click here to read part one)  There are a few other shows that came out, but I knew from the previews that I didn't want to watch them (I'm looking at you Grenadier, and you Tsukiyomi), so...deal with it.

W Wish:  I don't think I'm wrong when I postulate that this is an H-game anime.  Aside from the fact that it's co-authored by PrincessSoft, it's the one-boy-with-amnesia-plus-lots-of-girls-who-love-him thing.  It was done rather poorly in Hani Hani Operation Sanctuary, and I'm thinking that Wish is going to follow suit.  Blargh.

To Heart - Remember My Memories:  If you recall one of my previous postings here, the original To Heart was a show that almost got it right.  A good cast of well-rounded characters, subtle tensions here and there, a blossoming love triangle...and then it ended.  No resolution, no climactic anything; just over.  So five years later, the show gets resurrected (though only one year passes in the show) and from the first episode, it looks like the focus is going to be on Hiroyuki and Multi instead of Hiroyuki and Akari.  See, Multi is a maid robot who became friends with everyone but was supposed to be scrapped during the previous series...and now she comes back and her memories are gone..."Remember My Memories..."  Yeah, I'm a little disappointed, and the character designs are AFU as well.  Dammit.

Harukanaru Toki no Naka de:  Stylistically, this show looks to be trying REALLY hard to be a CLAMP anime, but falls short in major categories like plot, characters and originality.  Take X's character designs and mysticism, throw in a Sailor Moon-like organization of heroes then chuck some out-of-place-and-time schoolkids down an abandoned well a la InuYasha ("Ma! Pa!  Akane-chan's done fell down the well!!!!"), and you get this.  While those flaws alone pretty much ensured I won't be watching any more of Harukanaru, Aoi-Anime's crappy encoding job sealed the deal.

Gankutsuo:  This is based on the story of the Count of Monte Cristo, a story I should be familiar with but am not.  I guess you could say this is following the lead of the Samurai 7 remake (also done by GONZO) by taking a classic story, adding a retro-futuristic (hey, a new oxymoron!) twist and copious CG while extending the storyline from two hours to six and a half or 13 hours (meaning 13 or 26 episodes).  All that aside and depending on your level of sensory overload, the art here is either A) an indecipherable hodge-podge or B) nothing short of a technological masterpiece.  I'm pretty sure that every color and pattern that humans are capable of seeing is used here...I mean, this show just OOZES decadence and excess.  Gankutsuo also gets the nod for best ending sequence/song of what I've seen so far.  I'm pretty curious to see what's going to happen in future episodes.

Sunabouzu:  A post-apocalyptic comedy?  About the only things going for this show are middling art, the cheezy Lupin-esque soundtrack and light-hearted dialogue.  Other than that, I'd recommend you avoid this fanservice-laden crapfest.

Top wo Nerae 2:  Old-school fans will remember the OAV Gunbuster, which is what Top wo Nerae (that translates to "Aim for the top," BTW) was called when it was imported over here.  According to the title, this is the sequel, though it seems to have more in common with FLCL (another Gainax production) than its predecessor.  For some reason, I remember Gunbuster being some sort of deadly serious mecha/space drama, but this is just a fun piece of eye candy.  However, it is *good* eye candy, so I'll probably keep watching.

Yakikate!! Ja-pan:  I officially have no idea what to do with this show.  First of all, it's an anime based on baking bread, so you know there's not going to be much happening.  The flip side of that is that it's an anime based on baking bread ("pan" being the word for bread in Japanese, a story on which I'll elaborate if you email me), a culinary art at which I am pretty sketchy.  Taking Yakikate just as it is, it's a pretty lame shounen show about a kid overcoming odds to go for his dream.  Been there, done that.  But part of me says that there's going to be some sort of golden nugget of information buried amongst the smarm, and I'm gonna miss out on it if I don't watch.  I'll have to sleep on it.

You'll notice a big, glaring omission in my list of new fall anime, that being Gundam Seed Destiny.  Truth be told, I've never really been much of a fan of Gundam in any form, despite most folks saying that Gundam Seed was the best of the lot.  I dunno, I just can't get behind mecha anime like I used to.  I think I might also be afraid of getting sucked into a huge episode count for a show I'm only moderately interested in.  Either way, there are plenty of other sites at which you can read a review of Gundam, so no big loss.

Mental trauma, thy name is Elfen Lied.  Holy Sweet Jesus, this is like Event Horizon times 10,000.  Psychological distress at every turn, but unlike the obtuse Neon Genesis Evangelion, Elfen Lied hits you with stuff you can identify with.  It's creepy good, but I still feel like I need to take a shower after watching it.  Seeing as how ADV Films has already licensed this show for North America, I'm guessing that there's no way in hell it ever gets shown on TV in any way.  It's too gruesome and too risqué.  Eek.

So Nightwish's screaming new album, Once, came out this past week and shifted a whopping 3,089 units, placing it nowhere near the Billboard Top 200.  Did I mention that Once pretty much OWNED the European charts?  Garnered huge amounts of awards?  Has charted two number one singles in Europe?  That Nightwish just recently sold 50,000 tickets for four-date tour in Germany?  Meanwhile, Korn's greatest hits album checks in at #4 and moves almost 130,000 copies.  Sad.

I would also like to report that I am one of approximately 890 people who purchased Caliban's new album, The Opposite From Within, last week.  No, I'm not making this up.  I predict this number will rise once Caliban gets a bit more exposure over here, since their sound vibes so well with commercially-successful bands like Shadows Fall and Killswitch Engage.  Still, only 890 is almost twice as many as the new Mnemic album, which could only muster 455.

The first GGJP (Grant Goodmorrow in Japanese) rant is up on this page.  I felt like an idiot writing it but oh well; fluency beginneth here.  I know most verb tenses, but my pool of vocabulary is rather small right now so that's why there's not much there.  By the way, since I'll be focusing my Japanese on that page, I might not do the kanji headlines anymore.  We'll see.

A Fall Farewell...

11-10-04

Get comfy, folks.  Lots of words follow.  By the way, I've been wanting to use a Zao reference in my rant for so long, and now it is done.  GG wins.

Why, you ask?  Well, it's because we at Ray's said goodbye to Scooter, the latest and best extern from the CIA.  Of all the guys I've seen come through there, he had his head set best on his shoulders, he knows what he wants to do with his career (culinology, which I'll get to at a later date), and he KNOWS how shoddy the extern program is at Ray's.  The other kids just did their time and moved on, but Scooter was pretty pissed that he was only able to check off *three* of ONE HUNDRED skill items in his paperwork.  That's fscked if you ask me, and if it were me, I'd be pretty pissed, too.  I swear that place survives on smoke, mirrors and Dave Saunders.

So Scooter, if you happen to be reading this, good luck to you.  I'll see you around at some point.  You're always welcome in my kitchen.

This week and last saw a good majority of the fall anime line-up debut in Japan.  Being as that's pretty much my only form of visual entertainment (aside from watching Burke try to juggle two jobs and two girls), I thought I'd offer a run-down of what I've seen so far.

Suika:  Apparently "suika" means "watermelon" in Japanese, though that's not very helpful in determining what this show's about.  In episode one, a dad paints a portrait of his dying wife (instead of saving her life), a few years later paints a portrait of his daughter (whom he drugged) then dies of cancer.  There's another dude who's involved here, but his role is kind of unclear; he might be a boyfriend of the daughter or just a friend.  Intriguing to say the least, but, again, I have no idea what's going on.  According to Wannabe Fansubs, this is a four episode OVA, with each episode only very loosely tied together.  Hmmm...

BECK: A big-budget, slick production that plays out like you're just watching some folks live.  Seriously, there is something almost unnerving about this show.  The opening sequence just dominates, the music rocks, the animation is tip-top, the characters are believable...there's nothing here that misses the mark.  Oh, and it appears that a rock band will be heavily featured, so you bet I'll keep watching.  BECK is my odds-on favorite for hit of fall lineup, and I imagine it'll get licensed before it finishes its run.  And by the way, it's weird to hear English in anime and doubly weird to hear some gaijin dudes swearing like sailors.  Cool, cool show.

Bleach:  My second choice for hit o' the season, mostly because it could turn into more of a mainstream hit than BECK.  Good action, good dialogue, engaging story, solid premise, etc.  For some reason, I'm reminded of Tenjou Tenge, though the two anime have absolutely nothing in common except for fighting sequences.  After seeing a preview of the manga in Shonen Jump, I was anticipating this anime just a bit, and it turned out how I expected.  A precaution though: Bleach could easily turn into a "youma of the week" series (think: Sailor Moon), so we'll have to see how things pan out.

Kannaduki no Miko:  I don't know the origins of this show, but it sure seems like a hentai-game-based anime with a twist.  Instead of the blundering boy as the main character, we have the blundering girl (Himeko) as the main character.  To extrapolate a bit, Himeko attends school with some chick named Chikane whom EVERYBODY is in love with (boys and girls alike), though Chikane and Himeko have a bit of a secret friendship.  Seriously, the first half of the first episode reminds me of the setups for Wind, Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, To Heart, Hani Hani, etc.  And just when I think I've got it figured out, the second half comes along with giant mecha and some sort of apocalyptic storyline.  If you mixed G Gundam with X with, I dunno...Maria-sama Ga Miteru, you'd probably wind up with Kannaduki no Miko.  I predict either really good or really bad with absolutely no chance of mediocre.  It's like yuri anime gone mainstream.

Final Approach:  One dude, lots of girls, arranged marriages, government agents and the bizarre appearance of a Greek letter in the title (phi, strangely enough).  Though it's only a quarter-hour program, Final Approach has all the makings of a harem style anime, like Love Hina, Kanon and (probably more appropriately) Ai Yori Aoshi before it.  Though I wasn't too impressed with episode one, I'll probably watch another couple to see what it's all about.  Hell, I can waste 12 minutes of my life.

Kakyuusei 2:  Apparently, this is a sequel of sorts to both an OAV and a series, though I've no knowledge of either.  From what I've seen this is more harem action.  Granted, I'm basing this off of the opening and ending sequences, which showed a ton of girls and no guys, but I can see this happening.  The artwork's totally blocky, the soundtrack sucks, and the plotline is damn near nonexistent, but for some reason I'll give this show one more chance to make itself worthwhile.  That probably has something to do with the fact that the male lead sounds exactly like the dude from Hani Hani and Chrno Crusade.

Beet the Vandel Buster:  Avoid this like the freakin' plague.  Obviously geared towards very young viewers with the intent of selling action figures and/or some sort of trading card game (a la Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh!), this show relies on lots of action and very little else.  I wanted to give Beet a fair shake, but I turned it off after about five minutes.  Really, this show turned out to be absolute crap.  This, of course, will mean that it's the first show licensed from this season.

Mai-HiME:  Think of this as Titanic plus (insert typical school show) mixed with Melody of Oblivion (which also featured a soundtrack from Kajiura Yuki).  The result is neither nothing special, nor nothing bad.  Some chick and her brother find themselves in extraordinary circumstances due to extraordinary circumstances; oh, and the girl just *happens* to have some sort of extraordinary power bestowed upon her by a red star in the sky that she can see.  I might watch it further, but it's nothing I'd wait around for (kinda like how I'm treating Soukyuu no Fafner).  Again, this is for episode one only (which heavily featured cruise ships in crisis, thus the Titanic analogy), so I can't be sure what's to come.  But to be quite honest, I'm not expecting a whole lot.

Uta-Kata:  The token "mahou shoujou" show of the season.  Other than the soundtrack, nothing special so far.

School Rumble - And now we have the token romantic comedy of the season, BUT it's saved by being very good.  Girl lead (who is normal in every way) likes oblivious guy (who is flawless in every way), guy lead (who is a delinquent in every way) likes girl lead, add friends and stir to combine.  I actually checked this show out on a recommendation from Dom at Megatokyo, and it looks like it's going to pan out!  The bike chase scene in the first ep was totally awesome.

There are more shows being released this week (including a sequel to To Heart, a damned fine show), and I'll try to touch on them in my next rant.

Speaking of anime, long-runner Fullmetal Alchemist ended this past week in fine form (the same could not be said for ultra-long-runner InuYasha).  While it did leave an opening for a sequel (in the form of movie and/or a video game, according to ANN), it didn't leave an opening for 10,000,000,000 sequels.  The storyline for 51 episodes was wrapped up rather nicely, leaving about two hours worth of material left.  Seriously, if this show doesn't take off here in the states (which really can only happen due to poor judgment on the part of Funimation), it'll be a travesty.  FMA (or Hagaren, depending on which continent you're on) deserves to be a HUGE success.  AnimeNation is running a special on the first DVD, so you might want to check that out.  Otherwise, wait for its TV debut on Cartoon Network in November.

Y'know, considering that Chevelle was once not much more than a below-average alt-rock band, they've gotten pretty heavy.  I'm totally digging their new album right now.  Frontman Pete Loeffler said that he wanted to get heavier after Wonder What's Next? and they delivered.  It's nice to see bands that say they're going to get heavier ACTUALLY do that.

So since the webcomic isn't *ever* going to happen, I'm gonna do something different instead.  Starting next rant, I'm going to offer up GG in Japanese!  That should benefit about four people I know, and the rest of you are left scratching your head.  Fear not, though, since the main rant is going to be in English as always, but as Junko-sensei told me this week, "You know too much Japanese to not speak better."

I'm calling it a lack of practice, so I'm gonna try to write some basic stuff and just get better at it.  It's about damn time, I say.  The JET Programme starts next July, and I want to be fairly conversational by then.  Wish me luck, y'alls.

No kanji this week, kids

01-10-04

You may freely believe the hype surrounding the new releases from Shadows Fall and Lamb of God.  On the new LoG album, Ashes of the Wake, Randy Blythe discovers a whole new range in his voice, which now bares an uncanny resemblance to Phil Anselmo.  Beyond that, the rest of the album is a 42-minute ass-kicking.  Straight-up metal!

And the new Shadows Fall album, The War Within, sees them getting just that much better.  The Art of Balance was just okay to me; there were a few good songs amongst a bunch of average rockers.  War is way heavier, more like Of One Blood or With Sombre Eyes to the Sky (which featured Phil Labonte, whose new group All that Remains shreds mightily as well; peep the DotU, yo), and I like heavy.  Heavy is good.

Let's all say it together:  "Hooray for California!"

Check out this story about how they're at the forefront (as opposed to the aftfront, I guess) of a sweeping set of laws that finally call the auto industry on its BS and telling them to reduce emissions by 25% by 2016.

Some auto industry automaton said that the changes required would be tantamount to "reinventing the automobile," but I'm sure they've had the technology for a while and have been sitting on it until we all told them to use it.  Apparently several East Coast states are going to follow suit with these laws as well, which means we can all breathe a little easier.

Once again, "Hooray for California!"

So the series for Wind ~A Breath of Heart~ just wrapped up, and they were thisclose to putting together a satisfying ending.  The female lead (Minamo) was reminiscing about the male lead (Makoto), then he comes over to see how she's doing (her dad just died), she gives him what for inquiring as to what she means to him...and then it's over.  GODDAMMIT!!!!!

Fans of shoujo anime want to see the male and female lead have a bit of resolution, a bit of finality to their relationship to put us at ease.  With a great many anime that are based on hentai or dating sim games, the male lead is indifferent to the end (kinda like Tenchi Muyo! but with sex), even though one girl is far and away the best candidate for girlfriendness or whatever and obviously has a huge crush on the guy.  Even so, the creators of the show decide to leave everything up in the damned air, which will probably spawn a ton of doujinshi manga depicting the main character with all the girls he's already slept with in the game.

That sucks, though, because we WANT TO SEE HIM MAKE UP HIS MIND.  It's why we don't like Makoto from Wind or Tenchi or Hiroyuki from To Heart.  No milquetoast sucka like that will EVER score chicks, let alone making it with every cutie he comes across.  Even lame guys get girls if they say, "Hey, you're babe I want."  So a note to animators worldwide:  Please...give your male characters a personality and some decision-making skills, okay?

I didn't get to see the debates this week (work impeded my progress), but I hope that John Kerry looked good.  Most folks think that it's his last chance to gain ground on Super Stupid Man.  Totally need to get that guy outta office, so make sure y'all suckas VOTE!!!!

そ思います.

19-09-04

I got to play around with canning on my days off this past week. I hadn't done anything like that since I helped my mom back in 1988, and I really don't remember a whole lot about that time. We made an assortment of jams, butters and applesauce, that much I know, but I don't remember how we did it. And boy did it show.

I was out to make some grape jelly, applesauce and tomato sauce. Mom's got a ton of those ingredients from this year and last year's crops, and I didn't want to see them go to waste. Plus I was further fueled by the Good Eats episode on canning and preserving, so I was totally raring to go. I did some preliminary research on how to make juice for jellies and extract pectin from apples, and then I set out to it.

But...it turns out that my pectin was a little too weak--thus preventing the grape jelly from setting--and my applesauce was too runny. Then we ran out of jars, lids and time, so I didn't even get to the tomato sauce at all. I think I fixed the jelly problem, and all I did was add more apple pulp to the sauce to thicken it up, so we'll have to see how the results turn out. Cross your fingers for me.

I saw the last two episodes of Inuyasha last night.  If you're expecting any sort of resolution, keep waiting, kids.  You would think that after 167 episodes and four movies of FIGHTING THE SAME GUY something would happen. But no, we're left with a crappy, "We'll follow Naraku to the end!!!!!!!" line and that's that. Totally disappointing.

And now, a synopsis of the first eight episodes of Elfen Lied: Girl with horns gets released from captivity, gratuitous nudity, gratuitous violence, sexual innuendo, implicit child molestation, explicit animal cruelty, infanticide, more gratuitous violence.  As strange and twisted as it might sound, this should turn out to be the best show of the season, 2x2 = Shinobuden aside.  The little bits in between the action sequences make for good drama.

And now, on to something a little more sober.

Y'know, I've been thinking a lot about the state of the world and stuff lately. The pending election is probably one of those turning points in world history that we'll all recognize 25 years from now, but not really comprehend the significance of beforehand. Like it or not, the U.S. is probably the most influencial nation in the world, and so we've kind of got a duty to uphold as such. The wrong guy can lead us down the wrong path...the thing is, I don't think we've got a right guy this time around. It's a little disheartening.

It's interesting how the U.S. is always spoken of as the most prosperous nation, the bastion of wealth and excess that all other countries strive to emulate. The thing is, isn't our wealth kind of a paper tiger? Is it even possible to pay off our national deficit? Is America really a rich country, or just a greedy bunch of buggers who live off of credit?

And before you think that I'm trying to sound all high and mighty, know that I'm pointing the finger at myself as well. I got my fancy college education through student loans that I can no longer afford to pay off. I maxed out four or five different credit cards while in college with nothing but a blot of red ink on my credit report to show for it. Why? Because I wanted things I couldn't afford. I overspent my means, fscked around for a quarter in college and got my financial aid suspended (in addition to working a job that paid about $100 every two weeks) and I've yet to dig myself out. There's no way in hell I can pay off all my debt on a cook's salary, even if I worked two full-time jobs.

And that's sort of a microcosm of what's happened to the rest of the country. We wanted stuff we couldn't afford, so we all said, "Put it on credit! Sure we'll pay you back." And then all the jobs that we thought we were so secure in left; either to the great fiasco that was the dot-com collapse or foreign companies that wanted to do our jobs for less money. That left us with no means to pay back those who we borrowed from, and they couldn't pay the people *they* owed money to and so it goes, 'round and 'round again.

Way back in high school, I went to this thing called "Natural Helpers." It was kind of a peer-counseling retreat where we all sat around and learned some basic techniques to helping others with their problems. The first rule we learned was that if we, our ownselves, weren't in a good state, we had no business trying to help someone else. That's kind of how I see the States right now. On the outside, we look like we're doing business as usual, but our guts are kind of rotted out a bit. We don't have any business being in the Middle East when people in the midwest can't find a job anymore. I think it's time to just pull back a bit, get our irons out of so many fires and fix what's wrong at home. Doesn't that make sense?

Think about the last big technology that "created" wealth in the U.S. That would be the Internet/telecom explosion of the late '90s and early '00s. Since everything went to hell in late 2000 and early 2001, there really haven't been ANY significant technological or industrial improvements that could create wealth for us. But in that time, we've managed to finance two wars (one ongoing), we've seen a baseball team shell out a quarter of a billion dollars to one person (who eventually got traded anyway) and watched as the entertainment industry grew to bloated proportions. Once again, we're spending money we don't have, on the hopes that maybe, just maybe, we're going to strike it rich by chance.

I, little Grant Goodmorrow, think that we need to stop with the spending and start investing money in companies that could bring about the next technological or industrial revolution. Maybe it's this "space elevator" I keep hearing about or nanotechnology or turning turkey guts into diesel oil or...I don't know. There's got to be something that can spark us to the level of prosperity we saw when I graduated college. When you could just throw a rock at a building and get a job. When an undereducated idiot like me could land a job at a PR firm and be promoted to Director of Marketing at a multimillion dollar a year software company in just over a year.

I want this not because of selfish reasons (hell, I'm happy making $11 an hour as a cook), but because I think America needs to get a morale boost. Our image around the world has been blemished ever since 9/11/01, and the mood on the home front isn't much better. I feel like I'm witnessing the death of an empire, probably more literally than I think. Were there Romans who felt like this near their endtimes? Did someone look up at the advertisements for the lions versus the Christians in the Collosseum and think that maybe their culture had become so obscene that it was time for it to die? Is there anyone else out there who feels like I do? Anyone?

誰を頂きますか?

12-09-04

Big election's coming up.  What with all the politicking going on in the US, there are plenty of accusations being bandied about.  If you want to avoid being swayed by the extreme left or extreme right, browse on over to FactCheck.org, a non-partisan, well, fact-checking organization.  Who's telling the truth and who isn't?  Who's skewing the numbers?  Find out the goods for yourself so that you can make a truly informed decision this year.  Because I think this is such a big deal, you can find their pic and link over there. -------->

I just finished up a couple new reviews for you guys.  As much as I've been hyping it, it was just a matter of time before I wrote down some thoughts on Nightwish's new album.  I think Roadrunner is releasing it later this month or some time in October.  I can't remember which.

I also had to talk about probably the best set of cookbooks I've ever read: the Food of the World series from Time-Life.  Yeah, they're over 30 years old, but dammit there's so much information in there.  Besides, you can still find most of them 'round about your local thrift store.  If you find some, pick 'em up.  Totally worth the three bucks you'll spend.

You will also notice that I redesigned the Reviews page.  It was getting a little clunky to just have everything listed on one page, so I broke it up.  I also gave you handy-dandy thumbnails next to the review titles so you'll know what to expect!  (And yes, I know that the OSTs I included in the anime section are technically music, but I'm gonna fudge on that one.)  I suppose that one of these days, I'll get to do some more in-depth HTMLing, but for right now, it looks pretty sweet.

Tomorrow/today is opening day for the Seahawks.  This makes Burke very happy.  Me?  I'll wait until the Sonics come back around.

誕生日おめでとうございます!

04-09-04

I'd like to extend some early happy birthday wishes to my dad, who will celebrate said event tomorrow with yours truly in tow.  With any luck, a couple of my other siblings will show up or give a call, adding to the festive nature that should be a birthday.

Also on the festive note, this here site just recently passed 500 page views for the main page (just over 3500 for the whole site), so I guess that's something.  Then again, that's probably what Megatokyo gets in an hour, but I'm not quite offering the same quality of content as Piro.

Since I got broadband internet last year, I've been more heavily involved in the anime fansub scene.  Not that I'm doing anything other than downloading episodes, but I've got my favourite groups whose translations I trust more than others.  You've got your big players like Anime-Keep, AnimeONE, ANBU, Anime-Kraze and Lunar, mid-level groups like Froth-Bite, Aoi-Anime, Anime Station and Shinsen Subs, specialty groups like Mutsu (for Shura no Toki), InuYasha4Ever, Anime-Classic, Fork and Spoon (who do Fullmetal Alchemist), and "speed sub" groups like DeathSquad, Shining Subs and Static Subs.  I've also got to note that this is the tip of the tip of the iceberg of fansub groups that are active.

Why choose one group over the other?  Well, the quality of the video is never in question, since most groups grab their "raws" from the same couple sources.  The timing of the subs is almost always spot-on to the dialogue, and the fonts and placement of the subtitles are clear and appropriate.  But the make or break issue for me is the translation.  Are they translating literally, or reading more into the context?  Are the signs or other written characters translated?  Is the English at least grammatically correct?

The speed sub groups tend to forgo subtlety and nuance in order to just get the episode done and out there.  Mid-level groups will take a little more time, but it can still be hit and miss.  And the big guys will have longer waits in between releases, but they're usually full of culture notes or other explanations as to why someone says or does something.  It certainly helps add to my enjoyment of watching a show, since I had no idea why the ninjas in 2x2 = Shinobuden got so excited over some beetles until the Ayu group added the note that beetles are very rare in Japan.  Thanks, y'all.

And now, work calleth my name once again.  More news and notes as they become available...

おさしぶりだね

24-08-04

Greetings one and all.  I just got through moving the GG HQ from Lynnwood to Seattle, so you'll have to excuse the absence of news 'n' activity here.  Me and Burke got a place together, which should translate to more action on the Outta Chowder front, but perhaps not as well.  Motivation is a crucial ingredient lacking in the OC, despite our best efforts.

So a funny thing to note:  The annual Taste of Edmonds, a paltry pittance compared to the Bite of Seattle, has adopted the seagull as its mascot.  Not just a seagull, but a seagull in a beret.  Do you know what seagulls eat?  Garbage, litter, whatever gets thrown at them and crap.  My question is WHY WOULD ANYONE CHOOSE THIS BEAST AS THEIR MASCOT?????  Especially a pompous, French-hat wearin' seagull!  To quote Burke, "Let's get retarded in here!!!"

Speaking of retardation, the last DotU didn't really work, so I'm gonna try it again.  Really, you need to hear "Nemo."  It shreds.

Okay, stories like this one are *really* starting to frost my cookie.  Any idiot should know that eating junk food will make you fat if you A) eat it in excess and/or B) don't get any exercise to burn off the calories you consume.  It's simple physiology!  If the number of calories you consume is greater than the number that you use, then the remainder will be stored as fat.  And yet, people are STILL trying to blame food companies for "making them fat."  Listen, I ate an entire pizza last night around 11:30.  If I did that every day, I'd get fat, and I'd have no one to blame but myself.  Take responsibility for your own actions, ya damn jerks, and quit wasting everyone's money and time!

You ever have those dreams that are SO vivid, but too alien to just be made up by your subconscious?  Where you can totally see, hear, feel, smell things that you've never experienced ever?  How can I know where to go in a mall I've never visited?  Or the pain of getting stabbed in the leg?  Where do those sensations come from?

So here's something to ponder:  What if each person shares a consciousness with others in the universe?  What if dreams are nothing more than our mind being transferred into someone (something) else's?  A collective pool of memories, if you will.  Or maybe the subconscious is just the gateway to other worlds.

Awkward segue!!!!!!!!!!!!

This article is interesting.  It now makes more sense to me why Love Hina Again was so damned ecchi.

Shifting gears, 2x2 = Shinobuden is probably the funniest anime I've ever seen, and that includes Excel Saga.  It's mostly slapstick, but the turns of phrases and other linguistic humour really make it stand out.  Go ye out and find it on BitTorrent.  You really won't be disappointed.

On a totally different anime level, Wind - A Breath of Heart has been a pleasant surprise.  It's based on a hentai dating sim--which, given the current trend in anime, doesn't surprise me a whole lot--but the story has been really good so far.  And the blend of 3D CG and traditional cel-shaded animation is probably the best I've ever seen.  It's just a good show all around.

何が悪いですか?

04-08-04

So I'm currently watching Soukyuu no Fafner, which so far has been a derivative amalgam of Witch Hunter Robin's cryptic names, Dragonball's scripted action sequences, Outlaw Star's girl-powered computers, Pilot Candidate's boy-girl mix, RahXephon's bad guys and Evangelion's mecha.  Even the artwork is a cross between Saishuu Heiki Kanojo and Hoshi no Koe.  Any moment now, I'm waiting for either A) a catgirl to show up, B) some sort of magical girl transformation and/or C) InuYasha.  I'll let you know if it gets any better, though I'm not holding my breath.

A much better show I just found is called 2 x 2 = Shinobuden.  It's a pretty funny show about a ninja-in-training named Shinobu (probably a pun on one of the Japanese words for ninja: "shinobi"), who's an air-headed novice.  She winds up meeting fellow protagonist Kaede in a failed attempt to steal some panties for her master, Onsokumaru, after which slapstick and linguistic hilarity ensues.  Thankfully, fanservice has been kept tasteful and to a minimum so far.  Most comedy animes only produce a smile or two in me, but Shinobuden is making me laugh out loud.  Kudos to that.

On a somewhat related note, a couple of fansub groups decided to revive some old school TransFormers anime.  WolfPack Productions and TV Nippon are doing the "Headmasters," "Super Link," and "Masterforce" series of episodes, which take place after the original TF movie.  My God, it's probably some of the cheesiest stuff I've ever seen.  As big of a TransFormers geek as I used to be, that's REALLY hard for me to say.

Admittedly, I'm far older than the target audience, and so that's affecting my judgment here.  But on the other hand, it's way dope to see some of the cooler toys I used to play with serve a bigger role in the show.

Oh, and by the way, you know how they're called Autobots and Decepticons here in the States?  Well, it turns out they were originally called the Cybertrons and Destrons (their planet was called Seibatron, which could be translated any number of ways).  Optimus Prime?  He's called Convoy.  There were a *lot* of name changes from Japanese to English, but I never even knew.  Hell, I didn't know TransFormers was anime to begin with.

As much as I wanted to go to Ozzfest this year, I couldn't make it.  The line-up was the best I'd seen in at least two years, especially on the second stage.  Speaking of which, I thought it was kind of funny that Hot Topic would sponsor the second stage because I'm pretty sure the kids that shop there and buy the shirts from God Forbid, Lacuna Coil, Atreyu and Every Time I Die have never, ever heard any of those bands.  And now HT is sponsoring them on Ozzfest.  I'm pretty sure that's irony, but I might be messing up the meaning of the word (as most people do).

I saw this article on Yahoo! a few days ago about the Philippines pulling their troops out of Iraq to save a hostage.  Of course, our gubmint was all kinds of pissed off about it, with an indignant Colin Powell saying, "I think a very high price was paid for the policy position that the Philippine government took."

Know how many troops the Philippines had in Iraq?

Fifty-one.  Fifty-fscking-one. 

And we're upset that fewer folks than live in my apartment complex left Iraq?  What the hell is wrong with D.C.?

In rebuttal, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo had this to say:  "It won't take more than three lines to summarize my case, and let me say them.  One, I take responsibility. Two, I make no apologies. Three, I stuck to my oath."

Goddamn right, Gloria.

Lastly, a bit of a rococo side note.  Check your can/bottle/half rack of beer and see if you can find a Nutrition Facts label similar to what appears on soda.  I can guarantee that you *won't* find one, despite the fact that beer is more nutritious for you than soda is.  Granted, it's probably more detrimental to your health in the long run (especially if you drink it in large quantities), but I'll let the following anecdote sum things up for you:

A friend of mine at Eastern was on the track team.  Not just intramural crap, but full-on intercollegiate, NCAA-type stuff.  When Matt was in training, his coach (and all of EWU's coaches, from what I've been told) said to avoid soda at all costs.  If they were thirsty for a carbonate beverage, they should drink beer, as the wheat or rice or barley involved therein would provide them with greater benefits than the corn syrup or sugar that soda was based on.

Next time you're deciding on what to drink, try to keep that in mind.  Not that I'm advocating alcoholism, but if it's a choice between a Coke and a Pabst, think about your health!  じゃであはまた...

あることがたくさんあります

21-07-04

Lots of stuff this time around!  Woo-hoo!

Samurai Champloo.  Seen it?  It's Shinichiro Watanabe's new gig, and it's basically Cowboy Bebop with a twist.  While Bebop = outer space + guns + jazz culture, Champloo = feudal Japan + swords + urban culture.  And even though I have no earthly idea what the word Champloo means or is supposed to mean, it's a pretty dope show.  It's already been licensed by Geneon, so we'll see it here in the States next year, probably.  Trust me, both this and Hagane no Renkinjutsushi (Fullmetal Alchemist, which starts on Cartoon Network in November) are going to be huge hits on TV.

(And from an artistic standpoint, you can add Otogizoushi to that list, though after only watching one episode, I can't say anything about the story just yet.  Nevertheless, it is a beautiful show to watch.)

I finally added a comments page to the site, which is probably a good thing seeing as how I've been around for over a year now.  When I originally designed the site, I had a comments page in the hierarchy, but the FrontPage extensions didn't jibe well with Geocities.  Just the other day, it dawned on me that perhaps Geocities has a comments script, and sure enough they do.  Anyway, now y'all can write to me without having to write to me.  And for those of you who have always wanted to link to me, I now have banners available on the Linkages page!

Though I don't talk about it much, I am a fan of the Seattle Sonics.  However, since Wally Walker took control of personnel decisions the team has been on a serious downturn.  They keep drafting large slabs of granite masquerading as centers and small forward/shooting guard swingmen, then they'll go and sign older, more mature slabs of granite and swingmen as free agents.  As I write this, the Sonics have four centers on the roster (Jerome James, Vitaly Potapenko, Calvin Booth and Robert Swift) and one point guard (Ron Murray, a converted shooting guard) having lost both Richie Frahm and Brent Barry to other teams.  Blargh.

Cliché as it may sound, Brent Barry was the heart and soul of the Sonics, providing whatever was lacking from the team on any particular night.  As ESPN's Eric Neel points out, that should push the San Antonio Spurs to the title next year.  I'd be hard pressed to disagree with him.  (Though Shaq + Dwayne Wade and the Heat are going to be tough competitors.)

Did anyone out there get to see the Iron Chef America series they did on Food Network?  Throughout the four episodes, Iron Chefs Masaharu Morimoto and Hiroyuki Sakai get worked over and abused by Mario Batali (okay), Wolfgang Puck (meh.) and Bobby Flay (DIE IN HELLFIRE, BITCH!).  As a student of Japanese cuisine, it was kind of frustrating to me to see stuff that I knew about getting totally overlooked or mislabeled in the show by food critics.  The most glaring example was from the hostess of Trading Spaces, who thought that the steamed custard dish called chawan mushi was "the fanciest egg-drop soup" ever.  Even super-foodie Alton Brown couldn't tell the difference between konbu kelp and nori seaweed.

Guys 'n' gals, if you're going to be on a show where you *know* there will be Japanese food served, study up a bit!  Don't head down to Hong's Cantonese Chop Suey House and think that it's the same thing!  I wouldn't go so far as to call ICA a travesty because the chefs all did at least one thing that was pretty awesome.  However, I don't think it in any way represented the spirit of the original show.  The lesson is, as always, Americans ruin everything.

おかねがわるいですか?

08-07-04

So we've got two externs from the CIA (that's Culinary Institute of America, not the other one) currently at Ray's, and another guy just went back there.  It's astounding to me how thick-headed these people are, considering they're attending the most well-respected cooking school in the country.  This is what I've had to deal with so far:  a girl who openly admits that she doesn't want to be a cook at all; a guy who doesn't read at all, even admonishing The Last Samurai for having subtitles; and a guy who works at a pace that would make any glacier proud.

This is what tens of thousands of dollars in tuition is resulting in?  It further frosts me that these kids will undoubtedly get the super upscale jobs when they graduate because of where they went to school, whilst I languish in obscurity.  Call me naive, but I still want to believe that it's what you know and not who you know that gets you ahead in life, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Hooray for two new recipes!  I actually did a victory lap around the sauté line after completing the berry sauce, since it turned out almost exactly as I had planned.  The only person who didn't like it was the girl extern, but she adds 1000 Island dressing and dried apricots to quesadillas, so her palate is flawed anyway.  Oh yeah, and anything spicier than tap water makes her cringe.  Baka!  The marinade was spurred by plans of barbecuing with Burke, and while the tea doesn't assert itself as much as I'd hoped, it made both the beef and veggies world tasty.  Let's hear it for successes.

I picked up the new Underoath album, which I've been waiting for since I got "The Changing of Times" a year or so ago.  The first thing I noticed was that their new singer absolutely dominates over the old guy.  His voice is a lot more dynamic, and he can pull off some good clean vocals.  But so far, that's about the only thing on "They're Only Chasing Safety" that's awesome.  Underoath have completely transformed from their death/black metal roots to a rather run-of-the-mill emocore band.  I'm DEFINITELY going to review this album, 'cuz I've got a lot to say about it.  Stay tuned.

Check out this story from the AP about the "insurgents" in Iraq.  File under: DUH!  I also like how they're calling them "insurgents" when, during the '80s pretty much the same group of people in Afghanistan were called "freedom fighters."  I'm so tired of everything going on over there...we just need to bring everyone home and let them be!  It kind of makes me wonder who'll have to come to the United States' aid when our country starts to fall apart in a couple hundred years.  We're pretty much still a new country; only logging in 228 years so far.  You look at China or Japan, which have been around for a few thousand years between them, and we're just the snot-nosed kid down the block.  Once we get to the "teenage" years of about four-to-five hundred, it'll be interesting to see the shape of things.

And here's another AP story about the habits of file-sharers.  Now in it, they say that music is finally taking a back seat in total volume to movies and software.  Of course, industry lobbyists for both are all up-in-arms, decrying that they're going to lose billions of dollars because of it.  Here's the thing, though: what if they just stopped charging two reproductive organs and an appendage for what they're offering?  How about that, huh?

Where did all of this overcharging start?  The way I figure, it has something to do with how much companies are willing to pay for an actor to play a role or what some analyst says the market value of software is.  Then explain to me how shareware companies can still manage to be profitable while charging $9.95 for an MP3 player, whereas bigger companies like Musicmatch are charging $29.95 while saying they're just barely paying bills?

Who began this impossible inflation?  At what point did someone say, "I'll pay you $35 for that $5 gadget over there?"  Was the Sonics' signing of Jim McIlvaine the beginning of the overpricing of average commodities?  Can we revert to the way it was?  Will every actor, regardless of skill and/or accolades, demand a multimillion dollar role in the next crappy Hollywood movie?

Oh yeah, I forgot that garbage like this happens, forcing companies to increase how much they charge for stuff.  This makes GG angry, causing him to ingest huge quantities of alcohol to keep him from breaking several household objects and/or roommates.

Seriously, though, have you ever, really, TRULY thought about how sincere the "money is the root of all evil" statement is?  What sort of crazy shizz would you do for cash?  Who would you have sex with for money?  What famous person would you bludgeon with a frozen carp for some extra dinero?  What embarrassing body parts would you display on world-wide television for a few more bucks?

Bill Watterson, he of Calvin and Hobbes fame, said it best in one of his comics when Hobbes uttered, "I don't know what's more shocking:  That everyone has a price, or that everyone's price is so low."

Chew on that for a while, bitches.

し------------ん

03-07-04

Manga readers will recognize the headline as the sound effect for silence.  That's more or less what I've got on my brain at the moment, as this rut I'm in has sapped some of my creativity.  I haven't been as active in the cooking department (mostly because I don't have any roommates that I want to cook for anymore), but I've turned it into a bit of writing instead.  Thus I'll go ahead and announce the "big news" that I've been saving for a while.

Me and Burke (you'll also know him as Corvus) are trying to start a webcomic.  He's a decent artist, and I'm a decent writer so it kind of matches.  And with all the madness we deal with while cooking...there'll never be a dearth of material to work with.  If that should happen, though, we'll just have to drink heavily and make some stuff up.  Like kitchen ninjas or something.  We've got some preliminary character designs done, as well as about 15 scripts, so I'll keep you posted on the results.

For those of you who come here for my recipes, I'll say this:  Once I get out of this lease here, I'll be moving in with folks who I enjoy cooking for and enjoy eating more than just as sustenance (I think I totally butchered the grammar there), so the recipes should start to come back again.  Besides, I'm downloading episodes of Iron Chef, and nothing says creativity like them guys.  Cola-and-tea-stewed pork, anyone?

Also, I'm starting to hear some explosions outside my window, which means that it's just about time to dust off my jar of vitriol for the Fourth of July.

Now don't get me wrong here.  If you're out there with Old Glory coursing through your veins as you set some bombs bursting in air, you just go on ahead and continue on.  This isn't aimed at you, rather the idiots who just want to get drunk and blow stuff up.  They're the ones who piss me off bigger than life because you know they'd blow stuff up all year long if the fireworks stands were around.  They're the ones who start in late June and end sometime around mid-July.  They're the ones who think it's funny to throw firecrackers at dogs and aim Saturn Batteries at cats.  They're the ones who steal a stick of dynamite from their construction job and detonate it in some vacant lot, sending lethal shrapnel in all directions.  Chances are a few of them will either cripple or possibly kill themselves during the course of the "festivities," and I say it serves them right.

Go out and buy the new Atreyu album, and while you're out there, pick up Glass Casket's We Are Gathered Here Today...  Good stuff both.

べつに...

22-06-04

Sadly, it's become apparent to me that the GG site is growing to be little more than a blog for me, read by about three people a month (Hi, Mom).  I'm not sure why things changed the way they have, but I haven't been motivated to do much of anything lately, be it reviewing anime or music, cooking up stuff or studying Japanese.  I'm not sure if I'm a rut, experiencing a downturn or just plain lazy, but it's hampered my mood a bit.

For whatever reason, it seems like I'm just out for the next distraction; pretty much anything to keep my mind off "real" matters.  I know I should be doing this, that or the other, but I'll wind up doing something else entirely.  Every so often, that something else winds up being beneficial to me (like reading my cookbooks, working out or doodling), but usually I'll just watch some anime, listen to music or play games.  Blargh.  I'm sure that my friend shynewt would have a thing or two to say about my psyche at the moment, but she's a bit busy to ask right now.  Maybe I'll have to sit down for a session with her sometime soon.  That'd probably be good for me.

So remember how I posted a link to Queen of Wands last week?  In my blurb, I mentioned that I couldn't quite place the art style, but I think I might have figured it out.  It's kind of a cross between Disney's Hercules and Aladdin.  Really American, but somewhat stylized and exotic at the same time.  It's really cool, and I beseech you to go read her stuff.  You'll like it.

I finished up Chrno Crusade which was a bit of a bummer.  They left it open for a second season with Azmaria as the main character (replacing Chrno and Rosette), but I'm guess that they're just going to leave it as is.

It's kind of weird, really.  I dig series that leave you wanting more, but if you don't get it, you still get the idea.  Kimi ga Nozomu Eien was awesome because it wrapped up the story they were trying to tell, but you could have kept watching just to "hang out" with the characters some more.  Same with Scrapped Princess, Haibane Renmei, Kanon and Ima Soku Ni Iru Boku.  They all ended what could more or less be called story arcs, so there's a sense of finality, but it could logically be continued on.

Conversely, you get stuff like To Heart, Hellsing, Love Hina and of course Berserk that leave things so open-ended that absolutely NOTHING gets resolved, so you're left hanging.  You don't *want* it to continue, you *NEED* it to continue.  Watching stuff like that is like reading a book that has the last 50 pages ripped out of it.  You're all up in the business of these folks, and then it's over.  And no matter how many copies of the book you buy, they've all got 50 pages missing.  It's maddening.

Though I neglected to mention it, the GG site has reached its one year anniversary.  I'm pretty proud of what it is, even though I'm a bit bummed by my recent lack of content.  Nevertheless, I'll continue on with it, and I promise you that things will get better.  Me and Corvus are close to getting some stuff rolling, so be prepared for hilarity.  In the meantime, you all get to look at my bald head.  Hey, I promised.  Cheers, y'all.

今日はもう大丈夫です

10-06-04

My apologies to anyone offended by the overabundance of vitriol offered up during my last rant, but, well, I needed to rant just a bit.  And then I saw yesterday that Corvus's roomie got all kinds of hacked up on his computer, so it just reinforced my sentiments.  But things are better now, so I shall fret no longer.

I cut all my hair off two nights ago, and as soon as Patrick sends me the pictures, I promise to post one up here.  While my intended goal was to look like Vick Mackey for Halloween, I wound up looking more like Shawn Ryan, the pasty creator of The Shield.  I keep forgetting that some people actually have *colour* in their skin.  Oh well.

I just finished watching To Heart, and I'm a little disappointed.  From what I know of the anime, it's based on a dating sim game, but the show itself had...well, nothing really.  It was kind of like a 13-episode version of "Seinfeld on valium" or something, because it was just the main characters hanging around with each other, doing a little talking and soul-searching.  There was Akari's obvious love for Hiroyuki, and that could have made for a good storyline (a la Kare Kano), but he never really accepted nor denied her feelings.  I was expecting a huge buildup for the final episode, whereupon SOMEone would confess their love for him (a plot twist involving Shiho in ep. 12 got my hopes up for that), but in the end...nothing.  It could very well have been the third episode as opposed to the final one.  A good series ruined by no climax.  Dammit.

It appears that DownloadAnime.org is in the middle of pulling all of their torrents for licensed stuff, so now my searches for shows like Fullmetal Alchemist, Samurai Champloo and Tenjou Tenge are going to be that much more involved.  Dammit.  I wish I could just get a satellite feed of anime from Japan, so I wouldn't have to wait for A) a North American company to license a show, B) have them remove most of the culture references to Japan, C) edit the show heavily and then D) show it on Cartoon Network or TechTV/G4.  Blargh.

I guess ADV is going forward with their plans to make The Anime Network a linear station (it's currently only broadcasting via On Demand), so that could help out some, but there are always going to be shows like Koikaze that are good but slip through the cracks of licensing.  Further impetus to get my shiz together and head East, young man.  Soon, soon.

Lastly, be on the lookout for some extra added goodness to the GG site, courtesy of Corvus and myself.  When it's ready to go, you'll see a link over to your right.  Verily, it shall rock.  それじゃ!

ハ-カ-がころす

25-05-04

First of all, lemme give a big fuck you to anyone who's ever thought of or written a virus/trojan/spyware program.  You're all assholes, and I wish you nothing but ill will.  I hope your kids grow up to be terrorists who slaughter thousands of innocent people.  Maybe I sound a little harsh, and maybe what you do isn't on the same level as that, but I want you to feel the pride and joy that stems from realizing your children are bigger fuck-ups and miscreants than you are.

Much like your parents must feel now, I'd imagine.

Why the venom and bile?  I've spend most of the last week reinstalling WinXP on both my mom's and my machines.  Mom's should have been easy, but hardware issues caused complications.  After reinstalling her stuff and trying to get online to download Windows updates, it took someone about two minutes to hack it and install the Sasser worm.

Re-install.  Get stuff working.  Get hacked again with the Raleka virus.

Re-install.  Get stuff working.  Get hacked again with the Netsky virus.

By this time, I got smart and installed my firewall and antivirus software first, *then* updated stuff.  As Roastbeef would say, "NIGGAS AND BITCHES!!!!"

But why hack basically a blank computer? THERE WAS NOTHING ON IT BUT WINDOWS.  No other programs, no data, nothing.  Why hack it?  Malicious fuckers.

So finally Mom's machine is back up and going, and I pass it off to her.  Shortly thereafter, my three-month-old power source blows up.  After putting my old one back in, I get hacked with a new variant of the Netsky bug, even though I've got fully-updated antivirus software running.  So I go to do an in-place install of WinXP (there wasn't any other fix out yet), only to have it crash midway through, thus rendering my OS completely useless.

Rein-fucking-stall.  EVERYthing.  Thank God for my external hard drive, or I'd have lost this site and damn near my whole life from 1996 on.  My mood would have gone from charcoal to eternal night in short order.

So after I got my machine back up and running (this has gone on from Monday to Saturday, by the way), I go to check my Yahoo! mail, only to find out that some spammer hijacked my account and sent a virus to God only knows how many people.  I might also have signed up for something from Earthlink because of that, which makes it doubly bad.

And now even though everything is back up and running, I'm still pissed that there are people out there who either delight in or don't care about others' misfortune.  What's your problem, anyway?  Can't find enough puppies to kick? 

My buddy from work, Corvus, and I had a conversation regarding hackers about two weeks ago.  He was saying that the damage done by the Blaster worm and the like was really pretty minimal.  "An inconvenience," he said.

I can agree with that, since computers are more a luxury than a necessity.  But Corvus is also the guy who always makes me check out the sunset pretty much every night we work at Ray's.  Whenever I wave it off, he gets on me and chides me for not appreciating good stuff like that.  But because of hacker fucks, I was inconvenienced enough to be unable to watch the sunset for five days.  Instead, I was installing, rebooting, updating, rebooting, organizing, rebooting.  I'd say I was parked in front of dead machines for about thirty hours last week, time I would have much rather used for appreciating life and what it has to offer.  It was way more than an inconvenience to me.

So here's my parting sentiment for those who cost me all that time:  for every minute of downtime you've caused the masses, I hope you spend a year in hell being anally-raped by the thousand-thorned phallus of Beelzebub.  It's just desserts for those who are intentionally mean to others.  The world has no use for you, so please hasten your trip to the afterlife.

えいべつ, しきょ

11-05-04

If you were told that it was your last day on earth, how would you act?  If two people--costumed as stuffed animals or otherwise--told you that you were to die on this exact day, what would you do?  Would you do anything differently?  Call your folks up and say hey?  Go get a hooker?  Seriously, what would you do? 

For those who don't have a clue as to what spawned this train of thought, I just finished watching Full Moon wo Sagashite, an anime about a girl who finds out from the Shinigami (spirits who take the souls of children) that she's going to die from throat cancer in exactly one year.  The cuddly-cute Shinigami (Meroko and Takuto) ask the girl (Mitsuki) if there are any last requests, and she says, yes, she wants to be an idol singer so she can meet up with her long-lost boyfriend, Eichi.  Hilarity, heartache and bubblegum J-pop ensue.

I can't believe I got happy-weepy after an anime series finished up, but seriously...Full Moon wo Sagashite did a number on me.  [This is converse to the sad-weepy that happened after watching the apocalyptic Saishuu Heiki Kanojo.]  I don't know if it was the number of episodes (52), the number of beers that I drank (11) or just the show itself (emotional and character/dialogue driven) that made me get a few teardrops in my eyes, but it happened.  There I was at the last few minutes of the show, eyes reacting from a room full of dust, watching the last bit of time that I'll spend with Meroko, Mitsuki and Takuto.

(Unfortunately, they've all decided that Get Ride! AM Driver was a good series in which to meet up again, so we can at least hear the voices that spawned my sorrow, if not feel the emotions.)

In all honesty, I felt like I was saying goodbye to friends at the end of Full Moon, but far from saying hello in Get Ride!  It's kind of like seeing your class valedictorian whoring themselves out for crack ten years later.  Get Ride! just wants to sell toys (just like Kenran Butou Sai: The Mars Daybreaker), and I'm sad that the Full Moon cast has been drug into it.  I'd get more upset, but they've got bills to pay, too.

Anyhoo, when you get right down to it, Full Moon wo Sagashite spent 52 weeks on the air; a full calendar year, y'alls.  That's a lot of time for many fans to fall in love with the characters and story, thus prepping them for either A) an unbelievable story in which everyone winds up happy or B) a bittersweet story in which some of the people wind up happy.  I think they did a good job wrapping things up, even though I wasn't too pleased with how all the characters ended up.  Izumi seriously needed to be beaten down to within an inch of his animated life.  Screw that guy.

And now I've come to a moral quandary.  Recall in a previous rant that I was just getting into Chrno Crusade when ADV went and licensed it, thus prompting most fansub sites to pull all the torrents down.

Note I said "most."

DownloadAnime.org is still posting translated fansubs of Chrno Crusade.  Fansubbing is a pretty sketchy area to get involved in anyway, and for a group to release an already-licensed (though unfinished in Japan) series is bordering on outright theft.  So what to do?  Do I go and get the final nine torrents and complete the series, or do I wait for another year or so for ADV to release it proper?  It's a thin line I'm treading on here, and I'm just not sure what I'm going to do.

I've got some nastiness going on in my tummy, so I'm out.  I'll get some links up in this bitch tomorrow or something.  Peace.

標題ありませんでしたか?!?

01-05-04

How do you do a rant with no headline?  How did I miss that?  What was I thinking?  AND WHY DIDN'T ANY OF YOU TELL ME ABOUT IT?!?!

Composure.  GG is calm and collected.  Exhale sharply.  ::phoooooooooo::  All better.

I've found the latest anime that will keep me coming back week after week:  GANTZ.  I'm still not sure what it's about, really, but I'm intrigued to find out!  There are some people who just recently died, some black orb that sings songs and gives everyone guns and aliens made out of green onions.  I know that sounds really wacky, but it's more on line with Boogiepop Phantom or one of those other mindscrew shows.  Cool stuff.

If you've not seen or heard the new Killswitch Engage album yet, you need to go here and do so.  If "Rose of Sharyn" is any indication of the rest of the album, GG will gladly spend the cash to purchase the CD.

Also picked up Avenged Sevenfold's Waking the Fallen, which turned out to be a much better album than I thought.  It's not quite as punk-rock-y as Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, but it's got a lot more grandeur and kind of an epic feel to it, plus M. Shadows has totally refined his clean vocals.  Good solid stuff.

My roommate Soo Jin is heading back to Korea tomorrow, and I'll miss her.  She was totally fun to hang out with, more than pleasing to look at, but most importantly a really, really nice person.  She only stayed here a couple months, but they were the best months for the folks here at B-304.  Good luck with your new job in Seoul!  We're totally going to hang out when I get to Japan.  約束よ!

23-04-04

Only nine days between the last updates.  That's getting a little bit better.  Funny thing about tonight: it was the first time in about two weeks that I left for work and actually got home on the same calendar day.  GG's been staying awfully busy, but he's here to make y'all feel good on a Friday night.  Hey, that's the kind of guy I am.

Before I forget again, I need to just mention that Devin Townsend is the coolest guy on the planet.  In a recent bit of news, Strapping Young Lad signed a contract extension with Century Media Records, as well as made plans for an SYL DVD to come out later this year.  Devy, using all of the totally Canadian wit at his disposal, said that he wanted to call the DVD, "For Those Aboot to Rock," but that he was "quickly voted down."  I don't know about you, but I'd totally buy a DVD from just about any band if they called it "For Those Aboot to Rock."  Maybe the GG band can do that.  Who knows.

Speaking of which, I'm one step closer to actually making the GG band a reality.  My lead at work, Joel, has some free room at his place, a pretty good grasp of musical knowledge and recording equipment.  I think I'm gonna set my drums up there (he's got some, too), and maybe he and I can jam now and again.  If I can just get LC or my brother--also a Joel--on the bandwagon, maybe something will happen.  In the meantime, we probably can just write stuff on Joel's keyboard.

Click here for the latest promo pic from Judas Priest.  Considering how influential Screaming for Vengeance and Defenders of the Faith were to me growing up, it's sad to see HOW FREAKIN' OLD THEY'VE ALL GOTTEN.  I mean, K.K. Downing just looks like hell.  Hang it up, guys; you're old, icky and you're done.  Be smarter than Ozzy and know when to quit!

I have to say that the latest crop of anime is rather disappointing.  Tenjou Tenge and Hit wo Nerae! (Smash Hit!) are tolerable despite their blatant fanservice, but Kenran Butou Sai: The Mars Daybreak and Bakuretsu Tenshi (Battle Burst Angel) were colossal wastes of time, and I couldn't even make it through one episode of Get Ride! AM Driver or Moekan.

On the bright side of things, Koi Kaze looks good and Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai (This Ugly and Beautiful World) and Shura no Toki have potential.  Even though it's an older series, Hundred Stories will blow your mind.  If you have BitTorrent, go get it now.  If not, wait until someone licenses it and buy the DVDs.  Good, scary stuff.

I guess FuseTV's Uranium is doing an unsigned/underground band thing, where you can upload MP3s to them and they might play it.  I had to hook my buddies from Vio System Divide up with that, so maybe they can get a record deal over here.  They've totally got what it takes.  And if nothi