Sanity… is for the Weak

Your Star Wars Name And Title

Your Star Wars Name: Tomlo Tasin Your Star Wars Title: Holcho of Xela

Hur hur hur.

I’ve posted this picture before, but today I was hit by a wave of homesickness when attending a seminar at the base ~ I miss the shipboard life… God knows I *HATE* driving a desk.

He’s bound to be guilty ‘r he
wouldn’t be here!
Starboard gun…FIRE!
Shooting’s too good for ‘im,
Kick the louse out!
Port gun…FIRE!

- Ancient chanty used to time saluting guns

And the first anime theme song appears on the third episode ED:

FUMOFFU! The insider joke being Kyoani was the company which produced this series XD XD XD

I’m very impressed with Hirano Aya’s vocal range ~ especially since her normal voice is squeakily breathless:

Finally found some time to go for Open Sessions after a long break, and it was tiring, but fun. I’m not looking forward to doing it winter jackets for conditioning, but them’s the breaks, especially if I want to go full period kit of Gambeson, maille and plates.

Anthony was right, the Open Sessions of stress training and sparring really helped me to improve my swordsmanship in leaps and bounds. Some take-aways from last night’s session was:

1) I have a “tell“. I can supress it if I concentrate, but right now, it comes out about 75% of the time.

2) I tend to speed up as I get tired or winded. Dunno why, but when doing the stress drills with Joel & Page I found my self hyperventilating and going faster and faster in my defence and counter, to the point of missing the deflection or yield.

3) My foot work suffers when I speed up. I don’t side-step off the line enough and I end up crossing my back leg.

4) I’ll need to work more on my muscle memory. Sparring with Greg and watching others spar made me realise that stopping to think means giving my opponent that much more time to attack me with. And defences have to happen on an instinctive level, and not “see-attack-coming and select-appropriate-defence”. This is not Final Fantasy with a menu-driven combat round!

Everybody’s got a plan until they get hit.
- Mike Tyson

Attack! Attack! Attack!
- General Patton

Hope my schedule settles down enough to attend more Open Sessions. Anyhoo, Seng Kian mentioned last night that our steels from Hanwei will be arriving in two weeks’ time.

w00t!

I have to admit, I’ve been a little jittery ever since the VA shootings a few days ago. Not that I fear that something similar will occur here on our peaceful little island, but rather that the usual blame game of “he’s a loner”, and “it’s all because of those violent video games he plays”.

Why is it that the gaming hobby gets more than it’s fair share of this backlash? Back in the 80’s it was D&D and Satanism, and now it’s Counter Strike or Grand Theft Auto.

Are people simply looking for an easy way out? I read the article by Heather Chaplin, co-author with Aaron Ruby of Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment & Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution, and I realise that this is probably so.

As a culture, we fetishize violence……. The fact is, whether we want to admit it or not, we’re seeped in violence both virtual and real. We don’t just play violent; we are, deep down at our core, violent.

Look at our history. We’ve been waging war every day since manifest destiny first became popular more than a hundred years ago - some above ground like the current war in Iraq, others clandestine…. Just a few years ago, we gave the go ahead to our government for a policy of pre-emptive strike. What is that if not an emphatic endorsement of violence as the prime solution to a given problem?

And as the Virginia Tech shootings reminds us once again, anyone who wants a gun can get one as long as they can pay for it.

Most of us learn how to abstract away the faux-violence of pop culture and to stay numb to the real violence in the world around us. But when one of us does become sick - really sick the way Cho was - perhaps it shouldn’t be so surprising that the sickness manifests itself as a bloody reflection of all the culture showed him.

To blame violent videogames for this, let alone videogames as a medium, is short sighted, hypocritical, absurd, and, frankly, a little desperate. It’s an argument made by people who fear a medium they don’t understand and want a bogeyman more than they want real answers.

- Heather Chaplin

Come to think of it, Cho might not have walked this path of insanity and violence if he had actually been a gamer ~ providing him a safe and suitable outlet for his fustration, and the chance to meet and know people how actually shared this hobby. Who knows, he might have just turned out to be just another nerdy gamer.

:Links:
Slashdot: Gamers Grapple With VA Tech Shooting
Dr. Phil Blames Video Games for Virginia Tech Massacre
MSNBC Agrees With Kotaku: Jack’s A Tool
Feature: Dissecting Jack’s Lies
Gamers to rally in New York, but may be missing the point
Op Ed: SmartBomb Author on Va Tech Shooting

Heh.

You Are Heineken

You appreciate a good beer, but you’re not a snob about it. You like your beer mild and easy to drink, so you can concentrate on being drunk. Overall, you’re a friendly drunk who’s likely to buy a whole round for your friends… many times. Sometimes you can be a bit boring when you drink. You may be prone to go on about topics no one cares about.

Actually, I do like Heineken

Audio/Visual Update
Audio:Slave
In the B&O:
+Queen: Greatest Hits
+OST Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - Wave 103
+Red Hot Chilli Peppers Greatest Hits
+Utada Hikaru: Ultra Blue

Visual:Slave
In the DVD:
+Mythbusters: Season 1 / Season 2 / Season 3
+I.33 - Fencing with the Sword and Dagger
+Man of the Year

In the PSP:
+Sumomo mo Momo mo
+Pumpkin Scissors
+Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge
+Freedom
+Kanon 2006
+Ghost Hunt
+Lucky ☆ Star
+Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS
+Lovely Complex

Movies to Catch - ‘07:
+Spiderman 3
+Transformers: The Movie
+Ghost Rider
+Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
+300
+Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
+The Simpsons Movie
+Shrek: The Third
+Bridge to Terabithia
+Seraphim Falls
+Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
+The Last Mimzy
+Day Watch
+Nomad

Movies soooo bad, it’s gotta be gooood
+Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters
+Grindhouse
+Balls of Fury
+Black Sheep

Current Read
John Ringo & Tom Kratman: Watch on the Rhine (Die Wacht am Rhein)

Yessssss…..

And now, back to my other obsession. Diving.

Plane tix ~ check
Hotel booking ~ check
Passports ~ check

Just need to do some packing and off we go!

I was right…… T_T||

It *WILL* be a different karaoke of some random 70’s Super Sentai theme song for every episode ED.

Lucky ☆ Star - ED #2

Akumaizer 3 OP

Oh God….

I wonder if someone will link all the ED’s together at the end of the series run for a whole two hours worth of Konata’s karaoke?

Just caught episode 2 of Katsuhiro Otomo’s Freedom_Project. All I can say is that it really gave me the chills, especially since it sticks pretty close to the “hard” science fiction genre that I like. The sight of a blue Earth, rising over the Lunar horizon was…. breath taking, to say the least. Will be looking forward to the next episode, to be released on 25 Apr 07.

Of course, having one of my fave singers perform the OP is a bonus too!

:Links:
+Freedom Project
+Utada Hikaru

I think I’ve found the perfect thing to hang in the new car.

Fuzzy Dice. Not just any old fuzzy Dice, but D20’s

w00t!

:Link:
D20 Fuzzy Dice Danglers

We got tickets to the Asian Civilisations Museum a while back, and so spent sunday wandering around in the museum.

I’ve always liked history and archaeology (caused by too many movies about a certain professor from Barnett College, New York) and am still interested in artefacts (brought on probably by too many readings of the Cthulhu Mythos), so we tend to visit museums whenever we’re overseas on holiday.

Somehow, I seem to prefer Hindu artwork. It just seems so much more “alive”, especially if one has read the Ramayana or Mahabharata.

I especially like how the light just seem to make the artefacts seem to glow with an inner light.

Just caught the RAW of episode 1, and though I only caught about one joke out of every eight or nine, it was still funny, not the usual funny-ha-ha physical comedy of Kyoani’s previous works, but still tickled my funny bone.

For those who caught it as well, but was left wondering where the heck was the ED… well, remember what Konata (seiyū: Aya Hirano) was singing in the Karaoke at the end?

Lucky ☆ Star - ED #1

Uchu Tetsujin Kyodain. XD XD XD

Wait. Does that mean that every episode ED will be a different karaoke of some old cheesy 70’s Super Sentai series??!?

Oh God. What have I gotten myself into?!? T_T||

Adds another to anime “Must Watch” list:

And now… to stop hitting the play button again, and again, and again, and again….

+Lucky ☆ Star

GTA IV, what else?

And of course the other reason is Metal Gear Solid 4:

Anime Updates
Finished Kanon 06 and Ghost Hunt (?)

Kanon Remake
At times happy and funny, and others tragic and heart breaking, this is an emotional roller-coaster of a series. Not going to recommend it to wifey though, or at least, I won’t be anywhere near when she’s watching this or I’ll end up with my Tee-shirt half wet from tears and snot. She’s emo that way. :p

Ghost Hunt
Episode 25 ended rather… abruptly. Did the producers run out of funds of something? But all in all, a great season, with very unusual background, great story and creepy atmosphere, this series really creeped me out. Recommended if you’re feeling hot and need a chill down your spine….

New to watch

Lovely Complex
Been reading this best-selling manga for a while now, and it’s finally made it’s way to animated series. The first episode just aired in Tokyo yesterday evening, and I’m waiting for it to be uploaded to youtube… or something

Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS
Aaaaaaaannnd Season 3 is finally out. From what little I could make out with my limited Japanese, looks like the new season will focus more on the new blood than the old Nanoha/Fate/Hayate combination. We’ll see… in the meantime, the upload quality on youtube sucked, big time.

:Links:
+Lovely Complex
+Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS

Wishing all Christian friends a Blessed Easter.

Deus, cui proprium est miseréri semper et parcere : súscipe deprecatiónem nostram ; ut nos, et omnes fámulos tuos, quos delictórum catena constringit, miserátio tuæ pietátis clementer absolvat.

Deus, qui culpa offenderis, pœniténtia placaris : preces pópuli tui supplicántis propítius réspice ; et flagélla tuæ iracúndiæ, quæ pro peccátis nostris meremur, averte.

The horses in the race are:

1. Passionate Lady——
6. Clean Sheets——
2. Bare Belly—–
7. Thighs—–
3. Silk Panties —
8. Big Johnson ——
4. Conscience—-
9. Heavy Bosum——
5. Jockey Shorts–
10. Merry Cherry

At The Post:

And they’re off!

Conscience is left behind at the post… Jockey Shorts and Silk Panties are off in a hurry. Heavy Bosoms being pressured. Passionate Lady is caught between Thighs and Big Johnson in a very tight spot. At the halfwaymark…… It’s Bare Belly on top… Thighs opens up and Big Johnson presses in. Heavy bosom is being pressed hard against Clean Sheets. Passionate Lady and Thighs are working hard on Bare Belly…. Bare Belly is under terrific pressure from Big Johnson.

At the stretch:
Merry Cherry cracks under the strain… Big Johnson is making a final drive with Passionate Lady coming.

At the finish:
Its Big Johnson giving everything hes got and Passionate Lady takes everything Big Johnson has to offer. It looks like a dead heat, but Big Johnson squirts through and wins by a head. Heavy Bosom weakens and Thighs pull-up… Clean Sheets never had a chance.

XD XD XD

For those of you who’ve been asking for wifey’s picture at sword class (yes Angie, that means you!) here it is:

:p

A little late, but it’s been busy.

Dinner was Tom Yam Soup, made with dried spices we bought in Thailand during our last dive trip:

Surprisingly spicy, even after being kept for so long, and relatively easy to make. I think I over cooked the prawns though, so maybe next time I’ll boil the spices for longer before tossing in the prawns for a quick blanch to cook before serving.

An Aspiring Swordsman
Been trying my hand at making a chainmaille haubergeon to complete my Historical Kit in sword class.

It’s tedious and time-consuming work, but probably well worth the effort as the materials for making myself a set chainmaille armour will probably come up to something around SGD$150, as compared to a ready-made shirt by specialist companies for USD$1,000 and up.

Anyway, after 4 hours of winding, cutting and weaving, I have enough chainmaille to make a small placemat. Which I promptly placed on Stanley as it’s about the right size for him to work as a armoured coif:

He didn’t look too impressed with it though…