Time is but a measurement of how fast we're all deteriorating into nothingness.
So, does it really matter that I've been very lax in keeping this Blog fresh? No, I guess not, right? Onward.

Opinionated Bitch, Ain't I?

I saw Star Wars, Episode Two: Attack of the Clones for the second time a week or two ago, and I enjoyed it just as much the second go-around. Even though, I hadn't slept for over a day beforehand, and was on the verge of dosing off in some points. Some who may have read my review from the previous post might have thought to themselves, "Gee, he slams Portman, but what about the guy who played Anakin, Hayden Christensen?" Yes, his acting was quite awful, in parts, but, in all honestly, I thought he played the role of the confused and cross-crossed Skywalker as well as Hammel portrayed the naivé farmboy Skywalker. Granted, the romance scenes are quite horrible, but Star Wars has never been known for its whirlwind, pristine romance. All in all, since he was next to Portman for most of the movie, his acting looks much better than it would have independently. I stick to my old guns, still a failure rating of 15%.
I am an avid hobbyist, with many, many vents for all of my emotions, ranging from art to dramatics to meditation, so, it should be no real big surprise that I watch a lot of anime. I get my grubby paws on as much as possible, and the best possible, on DVD and from the internet, however it comes, I'd like the stuff on tap in my bathroom, if it were possible. Lately, I've watched small samplings of about a dozen animes, and have completed three new series: FLCL, Love Hina Again, and Read or Die.
First off, I'm a huge fanatic when it comes to the strange and demented. If something's way departed from the accepted norm, throw it my way and I'll probably absolutely love it. This goes for all of my tastes, music, anime, art, you name it. Crazy is the name of my game, and Gainax delivers in full with FLCL. A 6 episode OVA chocked full of pure insanity. The tale of a city where a gigantic factory is ever-looming in the background, a boy named Naoto whose brother has gone to America to play baseball, his brother's girlfriend, Mimiko, and an entire cast of nutballs, especially the moped-riding, guitar-smashing Haruhara Haruko. This anime starts you off thinking, "What the fuck?" and it leaves you saying, "WHAT THE FUCK?" So, in other words, it's absolutely great. Some of the best animation I've seen, interesting characters, a twisted and twisty plot, this anime just doesn't fail in any way at all, except I wish there was more! 0% failure percentage for this one, baby.
Secondly, I have a special place in my heart for throwbacks to some of the older decades, call it nostalgia or a desire to have lived in those days. Old detective movies, spy movies, cowboy movies, and other such relics of times long gone, they're all intriguing to me, in some inexplicable manner. It's the reason I wear a trenchcoat and fedora, it's one of the many reasons I loved Cowboy Bebop so much, and it's one of the aspects of Read or Die I dug. A story revolving around an espionage and strategic library agency, specifically, the agent Readman Yomiko, or the Paper, a bookworm in every definition of the word, and the mission she's been given, accompanied with the mysterious agent, Miss Deep. Drake, another agent prominent in R.O.D. reminds me very much of Batou, from Ghost in the Shell, on a side note. Dissapointly, this is even shorter than FLCL, half the length, in fact, as it is a 3 episode OVA, the main downside of this anime. Still, I found myself greatly enjoying the cute, absent-minded antics of Yomiko, as she floats through, surviving mainly with the assistance of others. Quite admirable animation, great and very fresh takes on fight scenes, and the plot of the evil madman in this is just so perfectly reminiscent of the ones in all spy movies, you can't really dwell on its hockiness and implausability. A meager failure rating of 5%, not quite a perfect scoring piece, but damn close.
The third most recent series I've completed was Love Hina, with the 3 episode OVA Love Hina Again. I had already seen all 25 episodes of the TV series, and both the Winter and Spring Specials, so this was all I had left to see, anime-wise, to have finished off the Love Hina adventures. Quite a pleasurable adventure Love Hina was, too, as I got to watch Keitaro get the shit knocked out of him by Naru, Motoko, Kaollu Su, Sarah, Haruka, and almost all the other cast members. A series revolving around Urashima Keitaro and his continually-failing attempts to get into Toudai (Tokyo University), in order to fulfill a childhood promise he made to a girl, whose name and face he has forgotten. By coincidence ending up as the kanrinin (manager) of an all girl's dormitory owned by his Grandmother, Hina, Keitaro struggles with his prep-school studies while he has to deal with the duties and hassles presented by a group of varying and interesting girl residents. From the innocent and ever-polite Shinobu to the aggressive kendo-practicing priestess Motoko to the indecisive and violent Naru to the mischievous and conniving Kitsune, you can't help but love almost each and every character in this anime. The TV series covers two years at Hinatasou (Hinata Inn, the dormitory), and a slew of events, dealing with all the characters, individually, but mainly focusing on Narusegawa Naru and Urashima Keitaro's growing relationship, with Keitaro always trying to find his promised girl and get into Tokyo U. All in all, I'd give the TV series, episode 1-25, a failure rating of about 3%, as it's splendid, but, still, not quite a perfect score. The Winter or Christmas special sort of stands alone, not really being essential to the series but adding on to it, a bit, which I'd give about a 17% failure rating, due to being a slight bit boring and predicable. The Spring Special is meant to be the end to the TV series, and is very fun, so I give that a failure rating of about 5%. The OVA introduces Kanako, a character you can't help but detest, and further confusion and indecision (On Naru's account, of course) to the series, and is quite well done. As it is newer than the rest, some of the characters have a slightly different, albeit still nice, design. This OVA ranked in at approximately a 8% Failure, for me. Overall, the Love Hina collection clocks in at a mere 8% Failure score, and is one of the most replayable animes I have ever watched, seeing as how I've on, many occasions, just picked a random episode to watch while eating or just when I feel the need for a cheerful, uplifting anime.
As I said, I've watched the start of about a dozen other animes, but I won't rate any of them until I've seen the rest, to get a complete picture, but I might as well list them: Chobits, Final Fantasy Unlimited, Rockman.exe, DNA^2, Detective Conan, Konan, and more. So, of course, more reviews to come. I also saw the Chronicles (?) Of Crystania, the sequel to Record of Lodoss War, sort of, at a friend's house, along with Sprite. The former was dubbed, so I don't want to rate it, just yet, and, suffice it to say, the latter was too awful to bother writing a review just to give about a 99% Failure rating. So, let us not speak of this anymore.

You Speak in Circles, Eh?

I was mulling over my principle regarding art and expression, and it occurred to me, especially after seeing a documentary on those loony Christian Identity people, that there was sort of a hole in my ranting. I failed to really discuss those violence-inciting type of expressionists, and the effects they have on society. When a man stands on a corner and shouts out propaganda about how the Jewish and black are parasites on the Supreme race, I can't help to think, first-off, how nuts these sort of folks off, and, second off, how much I can't believe anyone would even listen to that kind of shit long enough to absorb it. I realise perfectly well that there is a small, very small, luckily, percentage of the population that does listen to that kind of bullshit, nodding as the lunatic spouts on about how the Bible instructs us to hate and kill, and then going out and doing it. Unfortunately, this happens, and people suffer for it, people die for it. These lives should never have been lost at the hands of such morally dead and idiotic, clueless bastards, and the knee-jerk reaction is to blame the ideas that influenced him. However, as per my own opinions, if you silence one man because of his personal ideas, which he is only sharing and expressing, is it not hypocritical to speak of the freedom of speech and human right to be left alone?
Yes, it is. I can't blame the person who spreads the ideas of Neo-Nazism, white supremacy, Christian Identity, or all of the other forms of hatred and genocide media, without actually carrying out any intrusion upon another's rights. Who I can, easily and quite willingly, blame are the people who listen to it, and, moreover, follow their words. These are the people who have the real problems, because, quite frankly, if someone falls for that kind of blasphemous silliness, that person has some serious, psychological problems going on in their heads, beforehand. They've completely lost the concept of what is right and wrong, what is sane and insane, what is logical and illogical. They are the ones who need to be helped, before they ever become murderers or arsonists, there's something lacking in their lives, something horribly wrong with them, and it's almost always obvious, somehow, in the first place. If these maniacs have no audience for their blathering, then there is no need to have to censure them.
I abide by a strict code of respect. Respect others, respect their rights, their world, their bodies, them. Respect is the root of all good notions: love, honesty, responsibility, valiance, bravery, etcetera, etcetera. In no way is it respectful to hurt, steal, murder, rape, or defile in any manner, whatsoever. If everybody just understood and lived by that one mantra, then there would be a lot less hate and crime in this world of our's, and there would be a lot more productive, intelligent members of society. Of course, before I go on and begin to sound like a hippy, I should make it known I fully acknowledge how dismal an outlook I have on this ever happening, as humanity is verging on a completely and utterly lost cause. So, I just keep the idea of respect alive in my own heart, and hope the world doesn't beat me down to the point where I ever lose it.
It came to me awhile ago that some of my ideas are a bit self-contradictory. I am against drug testing in any job where you are not behind a wheel or driving, or, in other ways, have the lives of others to worry about. One of my friends immediately pointed out that the reason for testing was because it's illegal. Well, I thought up, at a later time, unfortunately, a scenario where it was perfectly legal but would still fail the test: Imagine that a man took a week-long vacation to Amsterdam, Holland, where it is perfectly fine to buy and use marijuana, then comes back to work the next week, after having smoked a few blunts or spliffs or whatever lit his fancy. If he had to pee in a cup, the weed would show up on the scale in a heartbeat, but he wouldn't have been forgiven for the situation, and would, most likely, be fired. Also, the first thought I had in my head when my friend mentioned that was, despite it being illegal, even when a positive test comes up, I've never heard of a business having their employee arrested. One hundred percent of the time, the only repercussion is being suspended or fired, having your pay docked or something along those lines. If the test was there to enforce the law, you'd think that wouldn't be the case.
However, in the continuation of the same strand of thought, I am for the legalization and taxation of marijuana. It is probably the single-most harmless drug in existence, it is less unhealthy that cigarettes and alcohol, a man stoned out of his mind has the thought of going out and axing someone to death behind a gigantic cloud of other thoughts, a lot of them involving food, sex, or the colour of the paint on the wall and the texture of the doorknob in his hand, or whatnot. Sure, a stoned driver is dangerous, but anybody inhibited in any way is dangerous behind the wheel: drunk, stoned, or sleep depraved. It's only logical I don't support people in fucked-up states of mind behind the wheel. The only harm to come from marijuana all deals with the trafficking and underground sale of it, the smuggling, drug and crime lords, deals gone wrong, and all that. If it were legal and available in stores, then that wouldn't exist. Nobody would need Paco the Druggies on the corner of 5th and Main to slide him a baggie of pot if you could get it at the 711, a lot safer and conveniently.
However, as a friend pointed out, I am also against the destruction of one's own body, via drugs and abuse, or whatever. It's true, I am concretely set against the use of mind-altering drugs of any sort, even prescribed depressants or stimulants. But, still, I am also conscious of the fact that the prohibition of alcohol failed, in every aspect possible, and that if something is illegal, if people really want it, they're going to get it, no matter what. So, let them have it, let the pathetic losers get stoned off their asses on the weekend and waste away counting dots on the ceiling, let the smokers rot their lungs and teeth, let the alcohols slowly dissolve their livers and kidneys, whatever. I gave up on trying to tell people how they should run their lives a long... Well, I never really did, because I was always acutely keen on the fact that it's a futile gesture. People will make their own decisions, in the end, despite rationale or common sense. Human beings are a screwed up creature. So, in closing, if humans want to do something, nothing is going to stop them, so why not make it as safe and profitable for the rest of us, as possible?

EOF

Alrighty, then, that's definitely enough writing for one night. I've decided to start working on a lot of different things, and writing this was one of the things I wanted to get done, so it's been productive, although another method by which I screwed up my sleep schedule. I'm not overly sure if I'm going to update this, again, soon, but, look out for it, anyway, if anyone actually reads this and cares. I'm semi-worked up, now, so I think I'm going to draw, after this. Woof.

Adios.

Currently Playing Song: Sevendust - Beautiful
Quote of the Moment: "Nothing is amazing, everything's the norm." - Naoto, from "FLCL."