Picture Perfect Paranoia

I used to think that it would be a good opportunity to announce it out now. Rather, it has come to my attention that this blog wouldn’t even last. So, to straighten it up, I’ll be announcing my retirement.

Up to now, I’ve noticed blogger past and present declaring their intention to put down the pen and venture into other opportunities at life. Work, school, unemployment, you name it. Life has been tough on aspiring bloggers of anime such as myself. I appreciated the effort and time to bring the anime industry to the masses, enlightening the mostly ignorant populace on the once-unwalkable terrain of anime. Once relegated to the young generation, meaning those until the high school level, anime has now encompassed and widened to include even those who are young at heart, imparting things that even Real Life feared to tread. I salute.

When I first started blogging, I came up with the vision that readers would be enlightened to take a gander at the then-fledgling anime fandom. Take time to think things through, whether such an industry that started outside this country would even be worthy of garnering attention.

Now, it looks like the industry is in good hands, or so I think.

Venturing solo is not a good idea, I now realized. The crusade towards better appreciation of anime in and of itself should not start with a single individual. With the proliferation of future anime bloggers now set to take the helm of some of the aforementioned veteran anime bloggers who have taken their mantle off, I gathered now that now would be a better time rather than postpone it and regret it somewhere later in life.

Ronin AnimeLover, signing his resignation letter to the anime blogging community. It was nice working with you all, from all walks of life all over the world, while it still lasted.

So, um… yeah. I haven’t been around much

Seeing as today ends the first year of Torture (aka Med School), I am finally free to indulge in what I love best. Reading some manga here, checking out the latest scanlations to come out there, I haven’t had the time to brainstorm about what I should tell the anime community, which I fear has regarded my existence as a mere blip on the radar.

While I was gone from the community, I was busy improving and maintaining my academic standing in med school. Sure, there were some pitfalls I happened to come across, and met fellow students who were, suprisingly fans of anime, just as I am. I think they’re not much aware that I was there to hear about it. Too bad, though, that what titles they know were mostly from the 80’s, which is when I am from. I happen to know some things they don’t, but I won’t divulge openly. I don’t want to come across as an elitist, braggart, or a know-it-all.

Well, now that the introductions are over, for the peeps who don’t know me very well, I happened to stumble upon SaiMoe. Yeah, that SaiMoe which has been around for the past 3 years, and that which I am not familiar with much. Right now, they’re in their Aquamarine Period (whatever that means), Round 2.

Putting my personal preferences in the voting process:

ARENA 01: [Shiina Minatsu] Fukuji Mihoko
ARENA 02: [Asahina Mikuru] Sakagami Tomoyo
ARENA 03: Furude Hanyū [Akiyama Mio]
ARENA 04: [Hirasawa Ui] Ichinose Kotomi
ARENA 05: Takamachi Nanoha [Fujibayashi Ryō]
ARENA 06: [Fate Testarossa] Kawashima Ami
ARENA 07: Shiina Mafuyu [Saginomiya Isumi]
ARENA 08: [Nagato Yuki] Okazaki Ushio
ARENA 09: Suzumiya Haruhi [Kushieda Minori]
ARENA 10: Konjiki no Yami [Katsura Hinagiku]
ARENA 11: [Haramura Nodoka] Furukawa Nagisa
ARENA 12: Hirasawa Yui [Sengoku Nadeko]
ARENA 13: [Aisaka Taiga] Louise Vallière
ARENA 14: Akaba Chizuru [Minami Chiaki]
ARENA 15: [Illyasviel von Einzbern] Sanzen’in Nagi
ARENA 16: Holo [Nakano Azusa]
ARENA 17: [Sunohara Mei] Shana
ARENA 18: Saten Ruiko [Misaka Mikoto]
ARENA 19: [C.C.] Nymph
ARENA 20: Ibuki Fūko [Hiiragi Kagami]
ARENA 21: [Hiiragi Tsukasa] Saber
ARENA 22: Tōsaka Rin [Fujibayashi Kyō]
ARENA 23: Sakurano Kurimu [Izumi Konata]
ARENA 24: Furude Rika [Senjōgahara Hitagi]
ARENA 25: Ikaros [Maria]
ARENA 26: Kōsaka Tamaki [Miyazaki Nodoka]

Have you voted yet? I would suggest doing so right now, as polls are closing tomorrow (PH time) at around 1500 GMT (3:00 P.M. at PH time). By the way, Local Time = GMT + 8:00 (Standard Time). So yeah.

That’s it for dropping by. Now to indulge in the Summer Heat Wave.

Finally, I has a post!

Seriously, though. By now, regular readers of this blog may or may not get used to intermittent updates like this, but it’s a fact of life. Like fellow anime blogger Michael, I’m an official medical school student. Thus, updates like this.

Anyway, just to show you how out of the loop I am in the anime blogosphere: I have just heard/read that Read the rest of this entry »

Ah, it’s good to be back.

After a lot of angst and rage from the sidelines, I decided to look back at the community that I have felt close for the past 5 years or so. Lo and behold, I have been left behind.

Some of these posts were taken randomly based upon my own interests, which were slowly crawling back at the moment the Source of Great Stress arrives. Yes, I’m talking about medical school, which will start in three weeks or less. Whoa is me.

With the workload probably dumped onto me from the first week onwards, I need a great stress reliever, and what better medium that what I have missed since turning my back for the more accessible other. That other is manga, and what I missed was anime. They is relevant to my interests.

Yes, I strike back. Even if no one remembers me anymore. Ha ha ha!

Dang. It’s one thing after another, isn’t it?

By the time you’ll be reading this post, I’ll be away on a trip to the US to get my VISA passport renewed. For three weeks I’ll be weaned from the Internet, supposedly to “condition” me to a life of no vices and no hobbies. I will have the mindset of a doctor not on my own volition, that’s for sure.

Unfortunately, I won’t be around, either, to witness the fourth anniversary of his hobby blog. Kinda ironic, since I was looking forward to it, yet I won’t be around to witness it. As you see from the paucity in posting rate, I am already conditioned to not think of trivial things, and focus on the goal of the “family”, not mine. I am being indoctrinated, for a lack of a better term. It’s not helping me at all.

Sigh. What can I do, you ask? I’m a human with free will, right? Well, I’ve been taught that it is theoretical, that is, it does not apply universally. To specific cases/conditions/situations does the “free will” exert its force, and in my case, the ability is invalid. Such is the tragedy that befalls my identity. I am the doctor of the family, “Dr. Brion M.D.”, and not who I am. My existence is sorely underestimated.

So much for celebrating an anniversary of what would be an impression I wish to make on my own, not on what others have taught me to be, but on my own personal will. It’s depressing.

I already planned ahead this time, for this month. I was supposed to finish sprucing up my long-overdue summary post of the Kimikiss anime, which has long been finished (and apparently licensed). I decided however to withheld doing just that. I mentally cursed myself for such a decision, but that decision is not without justification.

Within less than a month, the medical board exams will begin as scheduled. As such, my mental faculties are not yet primed for such an event. For that justification I mentioned, this blog will go on hiatus, again.

Apologies for dragging personal issues into this hobby blog.

This post will serve as a checkpoint. I intend not to let this blog die, yet.

There was a recent brouhaha over at Dynasty, and it’s about scanlations. Again. It’s an issue ad nauseum.

Read the rest of this entry »

I owe everyone an apology for being inactive for a week or so, at least. I guess being not excited about anime can do that to you. Plus there are other issues that demand my attention. They are all after the end of the old and the start of the new, if you will.

During the Holidays I haven’t ate much, which would result to me not being plump. That’s all I have to say about that.

Where were we? Oh yes.

It’s been way… too long since I’ve last updated. So long, I wonder if the people still come to this site. Or worse, if they do, but they just don’t remember me.

Anyway, with me applying for med school (sorry to drag these things that are too personal, but it’s true…), I haven’t got much time to catch up on things that I should have been, or drafts that I haven’t finished since a year or two, so this blog being quite is a testament to it.

Now that this has been updated, back to RL I suppose.

As you can see from the posts quality which I’ve been chruning on this blog, I need a break. Guess that’s pretty short and sweet.

Yeah, that’s the gist of it. I don’t want to go into the gritty details of how I came to this decision, and neither should my readers… I think.

Expect me to lurk more.

Bush Signs Law Creating Copyright Czar | Threat Level from Wired.com

President Bush on Monday signed into law legislation creating a copyright czar, a cabinet-level position on par with the nation’s drug czar.

Two weeks ago, the House sent the president the “Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act”(aka “Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO-IP) Act”), a measure the Senate approved days before creating a cabinet-level copyright czar (Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator or IPEC) charged with implementing a nationwide plan to combat piracy and “report directly to the president and Congress regarding domestic international intellectual property enforcement programs.”

As if the Financial Crisis of 2008 isn’t depressing enough. Now we have the Internet Police being created.

I suggest rewriting this in Simple English so that even the layman consumer can read and comprehend what this law says about “copyright infringement”. Those are two big words right there.

Playing baseball with tanks and rocket launchers - JapanProbe

Last night, NTV (link) attempted to determine the speed of a baseball fired from the barrel of a tank. To conduct the epic experiment, they enlisted the help of the Cambodian military, which saw the TV show as a means of spreading PR about how Cambodia is now a peaceful nation with a professional military.

Cambodia’s military initially responded to NTV’s request by suggesting that the experiment be conducted with a rocket launcher (RPG) instead of a tank

Epic? Well, that’s a surprise.

Next thing you know, other countries might be interested in launching things other than baseballs and rockets into launchers unto unsuspecting audiences. Would that lead to a conflict rising? XD

Remember this?

Confused by the the title post? Well, you’re just as confused as I am now.

If you’ve been following this rather unimportant issue, read on.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s official folks. After months of speculation, Taro Aso has become the new Prime Minister of Japan. I said before that Total Otaku Support would be grossly exaggerated (Mark Twain’s rolling in his grave by now lol), and oh boy, I’m now eating my own shorts. I was wrong. There’s no doubt now that this choice of the citizens of Japan will bear witness as Mr. Aso takes on the lead.

Other bloggers that lave lend their voices:

• AkibaBlog
• Black Tokyo
• JapanProbe
• Kitsune’s Thoughts
• Sankaku Complex

LOL. Talk about unknown.

With the rate this “vanity page” is being set up, Alodia may have been known by now.

And here is a “notable argument” by one of the voters:

An appearance and a corporate sponsored award in one episode of a cable TV show does not merit notability. And do we really need a list of what character she cosplayed according by event and year? Most of these events go unnoticed even by the general population of Filipino anime/manga fans. Going by the rules of of (sic) WP:BIOL she has not won or been nominated enough times for the awards featured in this page (which i repeat are not notable enough by themselves).

See where this is going? I’d laugh myself off these fanboys and notability experts.

Looks like the Japanese will never run out of wacky ideas to think of.

Casio Exilim puts “makeup” on your picture - ForeverGeek

Take for instance the new Casio Exilim cameras that feature a “makeup function”. This new feature recognizes the face of the subject then automatically adjust the focus and exposure. Pressing a dedicated button will basically make the subject’s face look softer and smoother. It also softens the shadows that appear on the face. If I’m not mistaken this feature is actually a first and we should see future cameras coming out with this feature.

Notice the difference in the two pictures in the link above, and you’ll see some “touches” on the photo taken. Undoubtedly, people who are either conscious of how they will appear on still camera, or are simply vain, will find this camera feature a must-have.