opinion

My Thoughts on the Tragic Incident at Rutgers

September 30, 2010 by chikorita157

If you have not seen my tweet that I posted last night, a freshman boy from Rutgers (New Brunswick campus) committed suicide (jumping off the George Washington Bridge) on September 22 over some indecent videos that a boy and a girl took over a webcam without the boy knowing. The indecent video involved a sex tape of the said freshman guy having sex with another guy and being leaked to the public. This wasn’t revealed until just recently.

I have to say; this was probably the most immoral and stupidest prank that a boy and a girl pulled on an innocent boy. It was not funny at all and I feel sorry for the parents who have to deal with their tragic loss of their son because it’s something that should never had happen. I hope that the perpetrators get severely punished for their horrid act and they are most likely going to be expelled from college…

It makes me wonder, what was gained from doing this horrible act? Absolutely nothing considering that their futures are completely ruined and they could never re-attend school or get a job since they have a criminal record. If I was them, was it really worth it pulling this prank that you think its funny even though it would result in a tragic loss? Absolutely not…

Social media is taking a big part in people lives. As a result, it makes cyber-bullying acts like these easier to carry out and hurtful more than ever. Colleges, High schools or perhaps the government really needs to pass some kind of cyber bullying law and prevention programs to prevent something like this from happening, since it is only going to get worse.

Tumblr is not what is cracked up to be…

September 29, 2010 by chikorita157

Our close friend at I Think I’ll Pass finally transitioned his tumblr back to good ol’ Wordpress.(original tumblr still open for socializing)

Although tumblr is dead simple for most people, once you want stuff like native commenting, better archives, categories, PuSH, etc, tumblr won’t cut it. This is a reason why I never caught on with Tumblr fully since I am a power user and I am so used to all the extras in Wordpress. So much that I wouldn’t give it up for Tumblr.

Also, setting up an extra Wordpress blog isn’t really hard nowadays. You’ve got fantastico, Wordpress Multisites or perhaps your host have an auto installer for Wordpress. So yeah, accessibility isn’t a big deal.

This is why I love tsunderes… the way …

September 27, 2010 by chikorita157

This is why I love tsunderes… the way they react to cover up their true feelings is so hilarious.

Crunchyroll felt like trolling people with their private viewing of 5 Centimeters per Second

September 15, 2010 by chikorita157

crunchrage — My reaction to the whole thing...

Its true that ADV lost the licensed to the most beautiful movie that I reviewed yesterday. Just recently, Crunchyroll obtain the rights to redistribute it with a re-do of the whole dub. However, someone at AnimeSuki became dissatisfied when Crunchyroll decided to be an ass and ruin the ending of the movie.

One sour note – believe it or not, Viz Cinema cut off the screening in the middle of “One More Time, One More Chance”! Seriously – with about 5 minutes left, the house lights came up and some moron from Crunchyroll started telling everyone that they were going to cut the movie short so that they could start the VIP reception in the lobby.

Because of their dicky move, I decided to boycott Crunchyroll for this despicable act… I mean, such a good movie doesn’t deserve this kind of treatment. It was also disrespectful towards Makoto Shinkai who made this masterpiece. They owe everyone an apology for doing this…

Then again, it doesn’t matter anyway because I don’t like Crunchyroll and I don’t like their practices of locking users into the flash player or the iphone app for streaming without the option to download the episode to any device.

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September 8, 2010 by chikorita157

158820399 — The thing that made me gone beserk... The inapproperate use of Comic Sans

I had a long discussion about me getting work up with Comic Sans on Melative. I know its just a font and nobody should really care so much… I wouldn’t have mind if it wasn’t used EVERYWHERE on EVERYTHING!

For a history lesson, the font was created since someone got sick of Times New Roman being used in a comic. After the font was created, it’s practically spread like wildfire since its availability (It can be found in any version of Windows and Mac OS X.) Because its availability, it started being overused on tests, signs, advertising, memos, etc.

So, why people get so worked up about the font? Mainly because the people in my and younger generations grew up with the font. I have to admit, I have used the font when I am in elementary school, but I don’t anymore. It’s mainly because it feels childish and immature. If you were to hand in a research paper in Comic Sans, I’m pretty sure that your professor would take a lot of points off in doing so.

Many can argue that Comic Sans is very easy to read. I do agree, except with long writing where it could become tiring to read because of the style of the font. This is probably a reason why you don’t see this font on most blogs, websites and books, simply because serif and san-serif fonts are easier to read for longer works.

So, was it worth it going berserk over looking at a short email in Comic Sans? Absolutely not… even though I expect College Professors to use a different font that projects the message better. Then again, popular consensus on things like aesthetics, it’s always going to be opinionated… So that’s saying, if they don’t like the font just because its cool to hate it, be my guest because haters gonna hate.

More Anime Industry Angst… “Black Butler” Author directs the blame at the Consumer… Great!

August 17, 2010 by chikorita157

Doesn’t these posts I written in the past sound familiar? Anime is dead? BULLSHIT! , Chris Beveridge, Asinine remarks and the Anime Mafia and RAEGing about the Anime Industry… doesn’t solve anything. I wouldn’t be so angry if the author of “Black Butler”, Yana Toboso didn’t blame the consumer… but she did.

She does make some valid points and we all know that the artists, production team, etc get hardly anything after the production is all done and over with. What I don’t agree with is shoving the blame to the fans and consumers since it will always turn out bad.

The problem these days is that the industry directs the blame on fansubs and scanlatons when DVDs costs 40 buck a pop for 7 episodes or 10-12 dollar a pop for one volume of manga. Do you expect a high school or college student to afford this? No… Even though there are streaming services for Anime, the sub/picture (if you aren’t subscribed) quality is still rather poor, doesn’t allow me to view on any portable device without an internet connection and its limited to select regions. Top that off, there is no viable legal manga site that allows people to read it legally. How are you going to solve the problem when there is no solution that will work for anyone? If not, you have no right to complain because ultimately, you are going to get the fans enraged and they won’t buy your products… simple as that…

Also, I’m not going to buy every anime out there just so I can watch it. The only situation I will buy the DVD is when I like the series and want to own it or when there is a licensed series I want to watch badly. Otherwise, I’m not going to make a blind purchase just because it’s immoral. I just don’t want to waste money on a series that I probably won’t like.

Lastly, the manga-kas should consider ditching the middleman and self publish! By self publishing, they can get more money they deserve and not have it taken by the middleman…

Overall, her misguided rant was stupid… I would also like to point out that sharing is not stealing. If I share a cookie with a friend, would I consider that stealing? Absolutely not.

Air OST Short Impressions

August 14, 2010 by chikorita157

I have listened to the whole Air Original Soundtrack and yes, the music is amazing… A few tracks caught my attention besides Tori no Uta…

Natsukage (Summer Lights) – We know there is a lyric version made by Jun Maeda and sung by Lia, but the original song sound just as amazing, or even better without lyrics… Don’ get me wrong, the one with the lyrics sounds good too.
Niji (Rainbows) – It’s a very upbeat and a nice listen… Kinda reminds me of the bubbles Michiru were trying to blow… lol.
Hanemizu (Splashing Water)- This song obviously have a summer feel to it and you wish you were at a pool or water park… hehe…

Air Orginal Soundtrack also features some emotional tracks like with Kanon, which had Mukai, Tōdo Kōgen and Kaze o Matta Hi. Air has Sōsei and Futari… although I could be missing some of them.

Lastly, Hane is a music box version of Tori no Uta… similar fashion to Angel Beats, My Heart.

Overall, the Air soundtrack like the Kanon and Angel Beats! is just as good. What makes this soundtrack better than the two is the many memorable tracks it has and also how well it captured the summer theme that the whole VN is going at. So, if you can get a hand on this, give it a listen.

Also, I will probably have a full editorial focusing on select Key songs on my Anime Blog in a few weeks.

(A carryover from Tumblr)

Conversation over Computer Hardware Longevity

August 9, 2010 by chikorita157

Borneo Conversation from Twitter.

I had old computers that lasted a long time… an NEC Desktop from 1995 used until 2002 and an IBM Desktop that brought in 1998 and used until 2005. Rarely, cheap PCs ever last long… my mom goes through so many computers that it’s not even funny. Dell Inspirion 9100 overheat after two years, Inspirion 6000 had its HD crashed, but replaced, HP Pavilion DV9000 motherboard got fried and a really old 2002 HP Laptop which its plug got wrecked after 3 years of use…

Not to mention, my fan on the Dimension 2350 became extra noisy and I had a broken DVD drive after one year on my Dimension 8400.

What ever happened to quality machines? Do we need to buy a Bussiness Class laptop (such as a Dell Latitude or a Thinkpad) a Mac or build our own just to have a computer last longer than two years? Can’t these computer companies build better quality consumer machines that last at least 4 years? I guess this is the cons of buying cheapo computers… better hope for the best with them…

And yes, I’m still using my old Macbook Pro from 2006… still running strong with some intense programming and virtualization. Can handle 720/1080p videos too!

opinion

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