History of lolcats on the internet (chart)

 Infographic by Lorena O'Neal at OnlineClasses.net

Taking on the advice of the internet demigods at Cracked, I decided this website could use more pictures of cats. Click to enlarge

Source: Online Education

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How Resource intensive is WoW (Chart)

How resource intensive is WoW (Chart)

 Infographic by Lorena O'Neal at OnlineClasses.net

I was linked to this info graphic that I found pretty interesting.  Specifically the time spent playing Wow, since it's comparable to holding down a job.


Source:Video Game Design Colleges


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History of lolcats on the internet (chart)

Anime in Focus: ninja Nonsense Episode 4

<-Previous Episode

Why yes, we DO wear these masks ALL of the time

The first half of this episode is the all important beach episode.

This anime decides to differentiate itself from every other beach episode by making everybody keep on wearing their ninja masks during the beach episode.

This episode decides to lather on more fanservice than usual, not only by putting lots of focus on the girl’s swimsuits, but giving us the most gratuitous yuri scene in the anime so far. I won’t be so mean as to ruin it with context, and just leave this screencap right here…

After gratuitous scenes of both hilarity and boobies, we get to the second half of the episode, titled “Miyabi in Love” In this segment, we get to see another side of Miyabi, where she does other things besides psychotically stab Onsokumaru. Onsokumaru then sets on a journey to either help or c***block Miyabi, which is never made explicitly clear.

Unfortunately, going into detail removes a lot of the impact these episodes have, which is a really important punch for this series. Meanwhile, the series has been keeping up a consistent standard of providing both humor and boobies. Hopefully it manages to keep it up. Although the fanservice managees to be a bit over the top, it doesn't bother me in the least, unlike SOME series where it distracts from the plot. In this one it adds to it.

Coming soon: next episode…

Anime in Focus: Rozen Maiden Episode 2

Because the talking doll was DEFINITELY referring to physics

<-Previous Episode

I dare say, my updates have become sporadic. I did, however notice that this copy of Rozen Maiden has been sitting on the desk in that pile of things I plan to watch. I WAS planning on watching Lord of The Rings to catch up with normal society a bit, but then I realized I already read the books...

Having already seen this episode at an anime convention, I sort of already knew what happened, vaguely. It starts by demonstrating a bit of Shinku's powers, by showing her repairing the damage caused in the previous episode. The real plot gets going when one of Jun's classmates shows up and attempts to drop off his homework. Unfortunately for Jun's master plan of avoiding contact with people entirely, they run into each other, demonstrating to her that Jun has been doing nothing but sitting in his room and ordering things online, if his sweatpants and posture are any indication. (hey, if he was older, he'd have stubble too. We can only assume he's reached the level cap in WoW by now) Shinku walks in on this, and notices this girl is wearing a ring.... signifying her as being a servant.

We get to see the relationship between this girl and her doll Hina, who seems rather possessive. So possessive, in fact that Hina winds up sucking the girl into a pocket dimension where doll-person relations get entirely reversed. Such a drastic action winds up drawing Shinku's attention, leading to Shinku hunting her down to investigate, leading to... PLOT REVALATIONS

In the confrontation between Hina and Shinku, we learn that the dolls compete in these things called “Alice Games” where they battle to the death in order to eat each other's souls, or something. This leads to a battle in what looks like a demonic toy box, making this show feel like a bizarre Highlander/Toy Story cross over.

Anyway, after a delightfully bizarre fight involving exploding piggy banks, we get to the conclusion, where rather than Shinku eating Hina's soul, she demands her servitude. While some questions are answered, even more are created. The important thing is that this show show promise, and I hope to see more innocent looking toys used as weapons of mass murder. They can't POSSIBLY screw that concept up.

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Coming when I feel like it:

Next Episode!

Anime Conji 2011

Last weekend I wound up volunteering at Anime Conji 2011, a rather small convention in San Diego, the most exiting city on earth.

Anime Conji was definitely the smallest convention I've attended, with a whopping 1700 attendees, less than one tenth of Anime Expo. The convention's location was spread out of a smaller venue than Anime Los Angeles, (Which took up most of the LAX Marriot) a small part of the Town and Country Resort, sharing a hotel with some respiratory research convention.

See, they have THIS in San Diego

On the entertainment side, I wound up getting to see Steam Powered Girraffe, a band of robotic singers from the 1900's. This was exiting, since I had taken my girlfriend to see this band about a month and a half beforehand. They seemed more exiting at this convention than a month ago, since they were the main event, rather than an opening act to Abney Park (Steampunk band from Seattle, totally awesome) Other than that, the only events I attended were the rave and the mochi maid cafe. The Maid cafe was being held by a bunch of girls in maid outfits, where we recieved free food. In retrospect, I feel that I ordered the wrong item, seeing that I ordered the soup, and it was lukewarm by the time it got to me. The waiters were nice though, and we got to see the maids doing the Hare Hare Yukai.

This convention's rave managed to be.... okay. It was a bit better than the rave at Anime Expo 2011 (way too big, not interesting enough) but not as good as Anime Los Angeles' rave (plenty of room, decent music) Here I learned that my girlfriend cannot dance, and that not everything needs a techno remix. On Saturday, one of the DJ's decided to do a techno remix of the “Over 9000” video that everybody has seen over 9000 times. Unfortunately, this is a bit of an old meme, and the quiality of the remix was not good enough to warrant being played at a rave. The rave on Friday was a bit to big for the room that it was held in (capacity 80) making it difficult to get to. The rave on Saturday had enough room, but also contained the annoying over 9000 remix. Best convention rave still belongs to Anime Expo 2010, until further notice. I'm thinking of checking out the gas lamp district in San Diego after Comic con, assuming that my girlfriend decides to learn how to dance.

There were a large percentage of cosplayers at this convention, about the same percentile as Anime Los Angeles. Gatherings were a massive load of fail (Okay, I couldn't make the blasted Scott Pilgrim party, so I don't know how that went) as the Persona gathering and the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya gathering were made at the convention, and both held less than 10 people. I suppose the gathering organization was comparable to the entire convention's organization.

Organization was a mess at this convention, but this will be detailed in the upcoming volunteer report, however, I will note that I had trouble finding the location based on the description on the website. Apparantly it was a lot better than last year (this was only the convention's second year) so hopefully things are more in shape next year

Overall, my attendance at Anime Conji next year depends entirely on my econimic situation, and whether or not I can secure a staff position. I may take a shot at hosting my own panel if I can manage the logistics. The convention makes a nice bridge between Anime Los Angeles and Anime Expo. It should be considered that the convention tickets were about 35 dollars (student, but there were a LOT of available discounts) and that it takes place in San Diego, a city filled with awesome, cheap restaurants, and wonderful theater districts.

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Anime Los Angeles 2011

Anime Expo 2010
Getting the most out of an Anime Convention

Persona 4 anime announced

While I've been in a bit of a writer's slump, I recently found the news story that I must share with EVERYBODY

Article with info here

Anyway, holy crap, this has the potential to bring in a a whole new wave of Persona fans, which will help me in my unending war with the Final Fantasy fans...

From what I noticed in the trailer, they appear to have made some new music for this. On the plus side, it appears that the person who made the music from the original game will be working on the soundtrack. Personally, I hope “I'll Face Myself” makes an appearance in the anime.

Hopefully, they manage to capture the majority of what made the video game awesome, and allow a wider audience to understand my deep love for Chie. Sadly, the only thing from the trailer we could see was actually less informative than the opening sequence to the video game.

 (starts at 1:48)

More importantly, this will probably force me to bring out my old Seta Souji cosplay. I thought that cosplay was going to be retired, but I guess it gets to come out of the closet again.

Updates will be posted here as I get them, and I would appreciate anybody sending them to Darthsomebody@yahoo.com

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BryAnime reviews the novelization of the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

Last year I watched the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie, and upon realizing that it was the movie that all other anime movies will be judged against from now on, I decided that it would be fun to read the book. While the book was not nearly as good as the movie (Some people say the book is always better than the movie, I say HELL NO) it managed to be an entertaining read.

Since this book is basically gibberish if you aren't familiar with the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya series, I'll just assume that your familiar with it. If you aren't familiar with it, go watch some episodes, read the books, or go read a review more relevant to your interests.

Anyhoo, this book starts with Kyon accepting that his high school life is going to be filled with wacky adventures, and that is his new norm. Until THAT day, when he wakes up to realize that, by some weird occurrence the entire world has gone bonkers. He wakes up to realize that all the insanity with time travelers, aliens espers, and dimensional shifts is gone, and that he is stuck living a normal life. Yes, he got exactly what he's been wanting since the beginning of the series.

In this “normal” life, Kyon notices that the SOS brigade hasn't been formed, and that Haruhi and Ikutski have gone missing. Mikuru is a regular upper-classman, and Yuki has become the most useless person in the world, devoid of any of her universe altering abilities. This leaves Kyon on his own to figure out what exactly what went wrong, and make an attempt at fixing it.

The book sends Kyon on an exiting journey where everything he believes in is put to the test, and where he must use all of his experience putting up with the SOS brigade's madness to put the reigns of the universe back into the hands of a high-school girl. A bit of the suspense was lost, since I saw the movie, and knew what the big revelation at the end was going to be. It's a big twist, and I wish more people in my area knew it so I can argue about the tenants of Haruhiism without blowing the movie's plot.

The writing is pretty straightfoward, is pretty easy to understand, and doesn't take too much out of the reader. It flows pretty quickly, and doesn't dwell on anything too much, unlike Kyon who loves internal monologing. It does expect that you have an in-depth knowledge of the events of the Haruhi universe, so don't pick this up as your introduction.

1000 words are needed to describe this

There were a few differences from the movie, although only one of them affects the plot significantly. The details about the ending are much more fleshed out, leaving less ambiguity about what was going on. The changed perspective causes certain details to get more attention, while downplaying things that were more noticeable in the movie (in the book, Kyon mentions Yuki looks cute. In the movie we get to see every adorable little quirk of her alternate universe self) The movie definitely took the material presented here and expanded on it, making a much more entertaining product. It is much easier to read the book while on the bus though, so it has that factor over the movie.

I'd suggest getting the DVD of the movie when it comes out, or get the book if you wanna know beforehand, and need a Haruhi fix.

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Running the Karaoke room at Anime Los Angeles 2011

While I was at Anime Los Angeles this year, I managed to achieve a staff position in the Karaoke room. Despite what I was afraid would happen, there were no truly bad singers, aside from a few people who couldn't keep up with the lyrics on the screen. During this position, I learned such skills as how to run a switchboard, and more importantly what kind of music is popular in a karaoke lounge. 

The most requested Albums for this year were:

1. Rocky Horror Picture Show
2. Avenue Q
3. Wicked

While I am not surprised by the first two, I was a bit shocked by the last one. The most popular songs were:

1. Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
2. I'll Make a man out of you (Mulan)
3. Sweet Transvestite (Rocky Horror Picture show)

Before this event, I had never heard the song “Sweet Transvestite,” but after the convention I had almost memorized it.

My duties involved managing the Karaoke machine, and announcing who was going to be singing next, along with the occasional munchie run. This managed to a lot more fun than my previous volunteer position held at Anime Expo, less because the job was easier, and more because of the nature of the work.

Being in staff allowed me to meet a lot of interesting people. I got to meet some fellow Pokemon trainers in the staff lounge, whom I managed to curb stomp. I also got to hear some of the con veterans tell me about the various conventions of old, and how things used to be run.

The people I REALLY got to know were the attendees and staff who spent most of their time in the Karaoke room. This managed to be one of the most popular locations for cosplayers to come goof off and show off their costumes. Notable people include Vash, the Organization XIII member with the lovely singing voice, the performer from the Rocky Horror Picture show who sang most of the soundtrack, that girl dressed as Jack Frost, a certain Haruhi cosplayer, and the infamous Hetalia cosplayers.

The infamous Hetalia cosplayers effectively took over the Karaoke room on Saturday night. While I understand that they made it nearly impossible to get on stage and sing due to the half-hour wait they caused, I found that they brought enough energy to the room to make my shift interesting.

Staffing at ALA proved to be about as difficult as volunteering at Anime Expo, which was quite refreshing. The management said they were trying to improve on some of Anime Expo's staffing issues. This was noticeable amoung the management on ALA, as while the manager in charge of Karaoke appeared stressed, the manager in charge of Anime Expo looked like she was about to collapse at any moment.

On a stranger note, actually hanging out the karaoke room managed to be the most interesting part of the convention for me, because it forced me to learn the most, meet the most people, and hey, it's where I met my date for the rave.

I will most likely wind up staffing Anime Los Angeles next year, although I have no idea what department I'll end up in. Hopefully it's one that manages to be as exiting.

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Overview of Anime Los Angeles 2011

^Believe it or not, the guy in the center was a great singer.

This weekend I managed to make it to Anime Los Angeles, the mini convention that exists for two reasons:

1. To give cosplayers and conventon addicts a fix until Anime Expo in summertime.
2. Because Anime Expo has gotten too big and sold out, man

I fit firmly into the first category, since I believe the most people's definition of “selling out” to be silly. Anime Expo wants to make money, and who are we to begrudge a group for making money in a perfectly legitimate fashion?

On the other hand, some of the more hardcore anime fans need something to tie them over until summer's convention's, such as Anime Expo, Comic Con, or AM2. Plus, it's a great place to test a costume, or to meet some convention going buddies. I used to beef up my work resume, so that I can get better positions at future conventions. Hey, con hopping is NOT an affordable hobby.

I spent the majority of my time in the Karaoke room, due to the fact that I was holding a staff position there. This was very entertaining, as I met tons of interesting people, learned what kind of music kids are listening to these days, and met the girl I would be dating for the duration of the con. Full report on the Karaoke room will be posted later.

The Scott Pilgrim gathering.

COSPLAY GATHERINGS: I only attended three gatherings this year, the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Persona, and the Kingdom Hearts Gathering. Normally, I'd say the Persona gathering was the best, but instead I'm giving this award to the Scott Pilgrim gathering. This gathering gets the reward due to having the most complete cast, along with an interesting set of poses. They managed to acquire a complete League of Evil Exes, along with variants of Romona with several hair colors.

The Persona conga line

The Persona gathering lost because a large portion of the people there were also at the Anime Expo 2010 Persona gathering, including the person hosting it. While I greatly respect the man for his dedication to Persona and organizing herds of cosplayers, way too much content was recycled, including poses. Hopefully, the release of a new Persona or Shin Megami Tensei game will make future gatherings more interesting.

I recognized these three

The Kingdom Hearts gathering was interesting, although I am a bit behind on my Kingdom Hearts Knowledge, so I couldn't enjoy everybody's costumes as much. I unfortunately do not own a PSP or a PS3, so playing most of these games is impossible. However, anybody who knows me knows the first thing I'm going to do when I get a PSP is catch up on the Persona series, so the lack of hardware may not be the issue...

AMV CONTEST: The AMV contest at this convention left a lot to be desired. While the AMV's there generally left nothing to complain about, none of them really spoke to me. In fact I would go as far as to say that my little sister could make AMV's like that (Well, she's pretty good at AMV's actually) I was mostly disappointed because I expect the AMV contest at a convention to be a bit more exiting than an AMV contest on Youtube.

THE DANCE: This convention's rave managed to be much more exiting than the rave at Anime Expo 2010, about as good as the rave at Anime Expo 2009 (That rave was so awesome most people couldn't get in.) This rave managed to be exiting, while having a large enough dance hall to accommodate the ravers at the convention. Furthermore, the DJ played a larger variety of music than the DJ at Anime Expo 2010. This managed to be a good rave, that all people could feel free to attend, like a good rave should be.

OVERVIEW: While I feel more at home in the gigantic crowds of a large convention, this convention managed to have it's own charms. That being most of the people managed to be interesting. ALA managed to have a much higher percentage of cosplayers than any other convention I had attended, along with a higher percentage of good costumes. The actual programming could not compare to the programs available at Anime Expo, but expecting it to would be ridiculous. While I overall had more fun at Anime Expo, ALA satisfied my thirst for conventions for the next few months.

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My journey through Anime Expo 2010

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Anime in focus: FLCL episode 6

There comes a time in every boy's life where he must become a super powered energy beam and use a pair of guitairs as a weapon.

Alright, now for the thrilling conclusion to a borderline incoherent series. It ends in the fashion that it started, crazy, fast and interesting.

At the start of this episode, the entire town has been covered by fog, much in the same fashion Inaba was covered in fog at the end of Persona 4. (FLCL came out first) This creates an aura of things not moving forward. Furthermore, Haruko and the TV headed guy vanish, as implied in the beginning of the episode. According to Naota, things have gone back to normal. This realization causes that guy with the huge eyebrows to congratulate Naota and give him a pair of gigantic eyebrows. He then explains to Naota about the great space pirate Atomos and what he was planning to do with Haruko.

This goes on until Haruko comes back, and they do that weird animated manga thing, and ask Naota if he’s figured out what fooly cooly means. I suppose they were going for the “ending in the same fashion it begins” approach. After this, Naota goes on this weird trip thing were he meets Atomos, and winds up in a lot of fights.

As an ending episode, this one wraps up things quite nicely. While I am not entirely convinced that weird stuff will quit happening to Naota, it does give a nice climax to this chain of events. Granted, while I cannot quite express what happened into words, due to the nature of the show, it emits a sense of completeness. To put it bluntly, watching this show is akin to listening to music without lyrics, while you may be getting meaning from it, the meaning is quite difficult to fully express. I’d say the only way to truly understand this series is to go out and watch it yourself.

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Facebook pull's Egg Finger's profile-do they hate creativity?

<- Does this look like a threat to society to you?

I should probably mention that Egg Finger's comic book is on sale now and that you can buy a copy HERE

I recently received a press release from the creator of the Egg Finger comic, telling me that his page got taken off Facebook. This is unsettling to me, as it seems to defeat Facebook's main purpose, bringing people together.

Does anybody really believe a cartoon rotten egg is out to kill everybody? NO! What was really going on here was a small artist's attempt to get out the word about his book, and interact with his fanbase. This reminds me of something (I hesitate to mention this) my ex-girlfriend occasionally did. She would a supervillian on her twitter account, (For bonus points, go on acting like you were looking for Fraiser Crane) and talk smack to superheroes and other supervillians, while making threats and griping about society. She's been doing since before I knew her, which means since before 2009.

While I have verified that the girl is entirely incapable of doing anything more threatening than making angry forum posts, (No seriously, her bone to muscle mass ratio was disturbing) what makes what she does worse than what Egg Finger was doing? A quick look through Egg Finger's profile would show that it was nothing more than an advertising campaign. An advertising campaign that could only be added through a person's conscious decision, and could be tuned out just as easily. If people didn't enjoy having a cartoon rotten make threats at them and the world, they wouldn't have friended said cartoon rotten egg.

This type of removal is bad, since it makes things difficult for smaller businesses to get the word out. Being politically correct doesn't attract attention, and small artists and businesses know this. Yet, Facebook is making it difficult on them by banning them for using the tools they provide.

Would warning people be too hard for Facebook? Can't people defriend of unlike people who spam them too much? Who was even being hurt by this?

And right before the guy's book release? That's kind of mean.

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