Sanity… is for the Weak

Audio/Visual Update

Audio:Slave
In the B&O:
+The Sex, the City, the Music: Shanghai
+Monkey Majik: 空はまるで
+Queen: Greatest Hits
+The Rolling Stones: Rolled Gold
+Metal Gear Solid 20th Anniversary
+Best of Creedence Clearwater Revival

Visual:Slave
In the DVD:
+Heroes Season 2
+My Neighbor Totoro
+Appleseed: Ex Machina
+Band of Brothers
+The Machine Girl

Animania:
+Freedom
+Hayate no Gotoku dropped
+Clannad
+Rental Magica dropped
+Bamboo Blade
+Toshokan Sensou (図書館戦争)
+Birdy the Mighty: Decode
+イヴの時間
+乃木坂春香の秘密

Movies to Catch - ‘08:
+Sweeney Todd
+The Spiderwick Chronicles
+Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone
+Iron Man
+The Dark Knight
+Cloverfield Missed this
+Jumper
+Hancock missed this
+Get Smart missed this
+Charlie Wilson’s War
+Bangkok Dangerous
+Speed Racer
+The Love Guru
+Wanted missed this
+Indiana Jones and The Temple of the Crystal Skull
+Forbidden Kingdom
+Doomsday
+27 Dresses
+Juno
+The Bucket List
+Hellboy II: The Golden Army
+You Don’t Mess With The Zohan Missed this
+Kung Fu Panda missed this
+The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor
+Wall-E
+Star Wars: The Clone Wars
+007: Quantum of Solace
+Tropic Thunder
+The Spirit
+Death Race
+Punisher: War Zone
+Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
+Full Battle Rattle

Movies soooo bad, it’s gotta be gooood
+Oneechanbara
+Zombie Strippers
+Jack Brooks - Monster Slayer

Current Reads
RAWs
+謎の彼女Ｘ - Chapter 25
+魔法 先生 ネギま! - Chapter 222
+死がふたりを分かつまで Chapter 15
+おばあちゃんはアイドル

Dead Tree
+Freakonomics
+Conquistador
+Why We Want You To Be Rich
+Party of One: The loner’s Manifesto
+Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition

Online
+Questionable Content
+Real Life
+The Order of the Stick
+Turn Signals on a Land Raider

The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor
I meant to post this together with the writeup on The Machine Girl, but totally forgot. Well, we caught this third installment of the Mummy franchise, and it was a let-down, after the antics of Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones. I’m not that rabid a fan-boy to piss on the movie simply because Rachel Weisz is not on the cast list this time (in fact I thought that Maria Bello filled her role rather admirably), but despite the exotic locations and exciting action sequences, it still fell flat on the plot. It just simply didn’t feel… epic.

Anyway:
One star for the hilarious pissing contest between father and son when comparing guns.
One star for the adorably cute Yetis.
Half star for the huge undead vs terracotta warriors battle scene.

Total 2.5 / 5 stars

Audio/Visual Update

Audio:Slave
In the B&O:
+The Sex, the City, the Music: Shanghai
+Monkey Majik: 空はまるで
+Queen: Greatest Hits
+The Rolling Stones: Rolled Gold
+Metal Gear Solid 20th Anniversary

Visual:Slave
In the DVD:
+Heroes Season 2
+My Neighbor Totoro
+Appleseed: Ex Machina
+Band of Brothers

Animania:
+Freedom
+Hayate no Gotoku dropped
+Clannad
+Rental Magica dropped
+Bamboo Blade
+Toshokan Sensou (図書館戦争)
+Birdy the Mighty: Decode

Movies to Catch - ‘08:
+Sweeney Todd
+The Spiderwick Chronicles
+Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone
+Iron Man
+The Dark Knight
+Cloverfield Missed this
+Jumper
+Wall-E
+Hancock
+Get Smart missed this
+Charlie Wilson’s War
+Bangkok Dangerous
+Speed Racer
+The Love Guru
+Wanted
+Indiana Jones and The Temple of the Crystal Skull
+Forbidden Kingdom
+Doomsday
+27 Dresses
+Juno
+The Bucket List
+Hellboy II: The Golden Army
+You Don’t Mess With The Zohan Missed this
+Star Wars: The Clone Wars
+007: Quantum of Solace
+Kung Fu Panda missed this

Movies soooo bad, it’s gotta be gooood
+The Machine Girl
+Oneechanbara
+Zombie Strippers

Current Reads
RAWs
+謎の彼女Ｘ - Chapter 25
+魔法 先生 ネギま! - Chapter 220
+死がふたりを分かつまで Chapter 15
+おばあちゃんはアイドル

Dead Tree
+Freakonomics
+Conquistador
+Why We Want You To Be Rich
+Party of One: The loner’s Manifesto
+Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition

Online
+Questionable Content
+Real Life
+The Order of the Stick
+Turn Signals on a Land Raider

The Dark Knight
One word:

Wow.

Audio/Visual Update

Audio:Slave
In the B&O:
+The Sex, the City, the Music: Shanghai
+Monkey Majik: 空はまるで
+Queen: Greatest Hits

Visual:Slave
In the DVD:
+Heroes Season 2
+My Neighbor Totoro
+Appleseed: Ex Machina

Animania:
+Freedom
+Hayate no Gotoku
+Clannad
+Rental Magica
+Bamboo Blade
+Toshokan Sensou (図書館戦争)

Movies to Catch - ‘08:
+Sweeney Todd
+The Spiderwick Chronicles
+Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone
+Iron Man
+The Dark Knight
+Cloverfield Missed this
+Jumper
+Wall-E
+Hancock
+Get Smart
+Charlie Wilson’s War
+Bangkok Dangerous
+Speed Racer
+The Love Guru
+Wanted
+Indiana Jones and The Temple of the Crystal Skull
+Forbidden Kingdom
+Doomsday

Movies soooo bad, it’s gotta be gooood
+The Machine Girl
+Oneechanbara
+Zombie Strippers

Current Reads
RAWs
+謎の彼女Ｘ - Chapter 21
+魔法 先生 ネギま! - Chapter 211
+死がふたりを分かつまで Chapter 13
+おばあちゃんはアイドル Vol 3

Dead Tree
+Freakonomics
+Conquistador
+Why We Want You To Be Rich

Online
+Questionable Content
+Real Life
+The Order of the Stick
+Turn Signals on a Land Raider

Iron Man
Iron Man was a total blast! From the soundtrack to the F/X to the comic scenes to the fast and furious fights, in a totally awesome romp through the Superhero genre. The only thing that jarred came at the end, after the credits rolled ~ why, oh why, did they cast Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury?!? Then again, this probably means that this vision of the Marvel Universe will probably be cast on the Ultimates couch… but why did he mention the “Avenger Initiative”? Will that mean we’ll be seeing a Thor and Captain America movie sometime soon, seeing as Hulk is coming up next?

スミレ１６歳！！ , or Sumire 16 sai!! is a rather… quirky manga to come out of Japan recently.

In a nutshell, it’s about the daily life of Sumire, a sixteen year old high school girl… except that she’s actually a life-size puppet, controlled by a guy in black clothes.

What’s even weirder is that they even made a live-action TV drama out of it.

Like, WTF man?!?

The first chapter may be read online here.

:Links:
Wikipedia Entry
Shonen Magazine
TV Drama

Been a while since I did this

Audio/Visual Update

Audio:Slave
In the B&O:
+The Sex, the City, the Music: Shanghai
+Monkey Majik: 空はまるで
+Queen: Greatest Hits

Visual:Slave
In the DVD:
+Heroes Season 2
+My Neighbor Totoro
+Appleseed: Ex Machina

In the PSP:
+Freedom
+Hayate no Gotoku
+Clannad
+Rental Magica
+Bamboo Blade

Movies to Catch - ‘08:
+Sweeney Todd
+The Spiderwick Chronicles
+Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone
+Iron Man
+The Dark Knight
+Cloverfield
+Jumper
+Wall-E
+Hancock
+Get Smart
+Charlie Wilson’s War
+Bangkok Dangerous
+Speed Racer
+The Love Guru
+Wanted
+Indiana Jones and The Temple of the Crystal Skull
+Forbidden Kingdom
+Doomsday

Movies soooo bad, it’s gotta be gooood
+The Machine Girl
+Oneechanbara
+Zombie Strippers

Current Reads
RAWs
+謎の彼女Ｘ - Chapter 21
+魔法 先生 ネギま! - Chapter 210
+死がふたりを分かつまで Chapter 12

Dead Tree
+Freakonomics
+Why We Want You To Be Rich

Online
+Questionable Content
+Real Life
+The Order of the Stick
+Turn Signals on a Land Raider

Other Stuff

Finally went back to training after a 1-month hiatus due to increased workload, and it seems like my conditioning has slipped by quite a bit. This is worrying, as we’re due to head up north to Helsinki in June for training at the mother school ~ looks like additional training is in order. That aside, due to the change in syllabus, and me missing most of the classes last month, I had to skip the current evaluations ~ I don’t really mind, as I think I’m now at a comfortable position of the learning curve, trying to get the basics down perfect before moving on to the advanced stuff. That said, kudos to the rest of the students who worked very hard and were promoted, you guys deserved it!

*Ding!*

I….. I can actually read stuff like this and actually understand what’s going on!

How’s that for self-taught language lessons?!?

Currently Reading:
Freakonomics

Listening to:
Monkey Majik: 空はまるで

Mood:
Laid Back

Oh my.

I’ll confess: I’m a wannabe Bibliomancer. I’ve always wanted a library in the home, but space always seems to be an issue. But this creative idea of combining the staircase and bookshelf seems is simply genius.

I *want*!

:Links:
+Apartment Therapy
+Gizmodo
+Biong Biong

Have been trying to get my grubby lil’ hands on a copy of The Dangerous Book for Boys ever since I saw a copy over at Anthony’s.

I think the preface from the book pretty much says all about why this book is a must-have:

I Didn’t Have This Book When I Was a Boy

In this age of video games and cell phones, there must still be a place for knots, tree houses, and stories of incredible courage. The one thing that we always say about childhood is that we seemed to have more time back then. This book will help you recapture those Sunday afternoons and long summers—because they’re still long if you know how to look at them.

Boyhood is all about curiosity, and men and boys can enjoy stories of Scott of the Antarctic and Joe Simpson in Touching the Void as much as they can raid a shed for the bits to make an electromagnet, or grow a crystal, build a go-cart, and learn how to find north in the dark. You’ll find famous battles in these pages, insects and dinosaurs—as well as essential Shakespeare quotes, how to cut flint heads for a bow and arrow, and instructions on making the best paper airplane in the world.

How do latitude and longitude work? How do you make secret ink, or send the cipher that Julius Caesar used with his generals? You’ll find the answers inside. It was written by two men who would have given away the cat to get this book when they were young. It wasn’t a particularly nice cat. Why did we write it now? Because these things are important still and we wished we knew them better. There are few things as satisfying as tying a decent bowline knot when someone needs a loop, or simply knowing what happened at Gettysburg and the Alamo. The tales must be told and retold, or the memories slowly die.

The stories of courage can be read as simple adventures—or perhaps as inspiration, examples of extraordinary acts by ordinary people. Since we wrote them, it’s been a great deal harder to hop about and curse when one of us stubs a toe. If you read Douglas Bader’s chapter, you’ll see why. They’re not just cracking stories, they’re part of a culture, a part we really don’t want to see vanish.

Is it old-fashioned? Well, that depends. Men and boys today are the same as they always were, and interested in the same things. They may conquer different worlds when they grow up, but they’ll still want these stories for themselves and for their sons. We hope in years to come that this will be a book to dig out of the attic and give to a couple of kids staring at a pile of wood and wondering what to do with it.

When you’re a man, you realize that everything changes, but when you’re a boy, you know different. The camp you make today will be there forever. You want to learn coin tricks and how to play poker because you never know when the skills will come in handy. You want to be self-sufficient and find your way by the stars. Perhaps for those who come after us, you want to reach them. Well, why not? Why not?

- Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden

Perhaps, I’m getting nostalgic for my childhood now that I’m officially middle-aged, or maybe I’m secretly wishing for a child so that I can share these things and see the wonder and enjoyment reflected in his eyes, I’ll never know ~ but I do know that I enjoy reading these things, so there.

But in the meantime, I managed to find something similar from an earlier time: Athletic Sports and Recreations for Boys, circa 1861 by one Rev. J. G. Wood.

Containing everything from Sailing, to Horse riding, to fencing with smallswords and broadswords, to archery and many others, it is certainly a fascinating read, now preserved online by Google Books.

Il Principe (The Prince), by Niccolò Machiavelli.

Yes, I am well on my way to Evil Overlordship:

“… men ought either be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, but of more serious ones they cannot; therefor the injury that is to be done to a man ought be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.”
- Machiavelli (1469 - 1527)

There is a *special* place in hell reserved for me, I’ll bet.

“To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.”
- Conan the Barbarian

No, I am not dead yet.

No, I have not been spending *ALL* my time on the PS3/Wii.

It’s just that real life has a habit of intruding itself into my version of reality.

Current Read
+John Ringo & Tom Kratman: Watch on the Rhine (Die Wacht am Rhein)
+David Drake: The Complete Hammer’s Slammers - Volume One

Bookmooch

10 Random books I’m giving away on Bookmooch:

5 random books I’ve gotten from Bookmooch:

Books on my wish list:

:Link:
BookMooch