MIDI Animation

Wow, this guy redid various mario themes and it sounds and looks amazing!

He has more that are equally astounding, including final fantasy, chrono trigger, kirby and more. Check them out!

Carol Megamix *~* Flash Flash Revolution

This is sorta a test to for the youtube sharing feature. This is my vid of me playing FFR.

If you didn't know I post vids on youtube. Look me up!

Kanye West embraces anime

I'm sure a lot of you like Kanye West, and if you are one of these people you have probably seen his video for the song "Stronger." You probably like this very well produced video. I have to say, the video is very impressive. Further, if you are one of these people, I can bet that you probably hate all things anime. Dismissing it as a geeky hobby that you want nothing to do with.

Surprise! You actually like anime...sorta. How you ask? Kanye's "Stronger" video is based entirely off the anime feature film, "Akira," a brilliant anime made in 1988 which even today is still a benchmark of quality in the industry. Kanye's video on Youtube has generated nearly 18 million views, I wonder what the fraction of people who know what the video is inspired from is. I'm willing to guess it's not very large.

Take a look, first is his video, second is a video comparing his video with the movie.

Most people who play Guitar Hero are hypocrites

This pop culture mainstream phenomenon of a game series has polluted the gaming community with hypocrites. Casual gamers who don't deserve to play games because they only like these games that make them look "cool."

What do I mean? Well, these guys will never play any other game as much or passionately as they do guitar hero. Especially, they won't pick up another rhythm game, the very genre they claim to love by playing GH for hours on end. These guys need to fess up to their hypocrisy and realize that GH is not much different than any other rhythm game, such as, hmmmm, I don't know, Dance Dance Revolution. Yes, GH is just about the same as DDR. Think about it for a minute and tell name me the differences between the two franchises.

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Done? I can name three: GH uses a Guitar and DDR uses a dance pad, GH has one more button you need to press, GH has star power. Other than those, the gameplay is essentially the same, and I dare anyone to tell me different.

What's the point? I'm saying anyone who plays GH extensively who calls someone who plays DDR extensively a loser, no-life, geek is a big fat HYPOCRITE! when they are essentially the same game.

If your going to tell me, "No GH rocks 'cause of the guitar-- it's cooler than a dance pad!" Maybe, but take the peripherals out and what do you have? Just about the same game, and other rhythm games that don't incorporate peripherals are about the same too. Without the actual guitar GH isn't much different from the games Amplitude or Frequency, games that Harmonix, the creators behind the GH series, ALSO MADE!

Admit to your hypocrisy, pick up another rhythm game, or own at least six other games on the respective console you own a GH game on, then, and only then, you will be allowed to play GH without being glared at by me. (Not that it matters)

*END OF RANT*

The Online "Community"

They say after you've spent a good amount of time online, you start to lose faith in people. I have to unfortunately agree with this sentiment. One only needs to carouse any online message board to see obscene bigotry, vulgarity, idiocy, and the butchering of the English language that would make a English teacher cry at night. Adding to that , the online communities that make up the followings of online games like MMORPGs and other communities like Xbox Live. The latter being best described as a "bunch of blubbering dickheads."

I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. As we delve deeper into the age of information, we may lose all character.

Living life, a philosophy...

Even though this is a quote from "Van Wilder," which to some may take away from its validity, I believe it's a good mantra to live by:

"Don't take life too seriously, it could kill you."

Or something to that effect anyway. I personally take this approach to life. Going with the flow of where life takes you, not worrying about every little thing. Some (or perhaps most people that I've been around) don't even understand what this quote means. They go on worrying and stressing over everything, which to me, doesn't make much sense if one wants to be anywhere near happy.

If one goes about worrying about things, especially those things that are beyond one's control, than one is just stressing oneself out needlessly while one could be enjoying the experience or at least not worrying about something one can do little to change. People say that one needs goals, particularly lifetime goals if one is to go anywhere in life. I understand this, but we don't need ten goals, maybe one or two at the most.

You see what I'm saying? What's the point of worrying about everything, when all one is doing is stressing themselves out for no reason. If you are one of these people that does this, I recommend that you either try the Van Wilder philosophy for a while and see how it goes, or affirmatively try to change your life position instead of worrying about it.

Another quote that is somewhat similar is from my favorite show of all-time, "Cowboy Bebop." The main character lives by his own quote of "Whatever happens, happens." While this quote is a bit more reckless than the other one, it still is applicable to a lot of situations. Perhaps, not a starship firefight, but to other things that don't carry the risk of death.

Try it, and "Don't worry, be happy."

Empty Head...

I've thought of myself as a thinker. Someone who is constantly thinking. I take an analytical approach to just about everything. Thinking about all the "what if" situations about every little situation, I walk around in constant thought. A lot of times, I even think about whether other people think as much as I do, or if they are walking around with an empty head. I always end up saying that no one is quite like me, but then again that may be a bit egotistical of me.

It seems of late I haven't done as much of the deep thinking that I had engaged in. I really can't explain it. Have I lost myself in the monotony of my daily routine so much that I have lost my way. I definitely don't want to become one of the countless, mindless sheep running around without a thought or care.

If I lose myself, then I've lost everything.

Well...

I haven't made a new video in awhile, and I really want to. That's all I guess.

Closed minds make ignorant people...

It seems like common sense, but a lot of people are unaware how close-minded they actually are. It really pisses me off too. Anything that I talk shit about or bash something, I at least gave a honest effort to try out whatever that something is. I try my best not to be ignorant and have an open mind towards everything.

Plenty of you know what I'm talking about. I catch a lot of crap for playing Animal Crossing, a game where you live in a village of animals and fill your virtual house with furniture and clothes. Just about everyone I talk to ask me, "Why do you play that game? It's so stupid." As you might guess, they haven't played a second of it. Even if they have, it was five minutes when they were already looking for everything bad in the game because of preconceived notions. How do I know they're a bunch of ignorant assholes? The Sims. This game is the best selling PC game in history, and one can make plenty of comparisons from the The Sims and Animal Crossing.

Show me a gamer or any person that has played The Sims and enjoyed it, and won't at least give Animal Crossing a fair shot. Unfortunately, this is the case most of the time! Another point is the game, Guitar Hero. A lot of people, especially in America didn't give rhythm games one look until this game came out. While Guitar Hero has seemingly made the genre mainstream, most of these wannabe gamers won't buy another rhythm game.

I hate these people, you're probably one of them, but they say "ignorance is bliss," don't they?

SODA and DARE are shit...

At least in my school district they were. These two organizations are supposed to discourage and prevent high school age students from drinking alcohol and taking drugs. SODA and DARE fail miserably when it comes to both of these tasks. SODA(Students OK without drugs and alcohol) and DARE(Drug Abuse Resistance Education) are run by students and faculty. They organize special events for students to participate in as an active alternative to drinking or taking drugs. Events like barbecues and free movie screenings make up the bulk of the event calender.

While all this sounds great, the organizations themselves are poorly managed. I know that many students in these two groups openly drank and/or took drugs. SODA and DARE makes no effort to follow up on anyone in the groups. Even though students are required to sign a pledge that says they will not drink or take drugs, this document is merely a formality to most and is for all intents and purposes, meaningless.

Aside from a ignorant freshman year in high school when I didn't know of all the goings on within my school, I refused to join either organization on moral grounds. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm outraged that defiance and ignorance of this magnitude can go unnoticed and unchecked by the school's administration.

Further, as far as the "Resistance Education" as part of the DARE acronym, this is also a joke, seeing as how it is all but commonplace, nay, a rite of passage, for college students to engage in underage drinking. While I don't condemn people for this choice, I do however condemn them for being complete hypocrites.

Digressing further, while drinking may be fine, binge drinking and the act of drinking in order to get drunk are more detestable practices that further exemplify the complete inadequacy of the SODA and DARE institutions.

Animals in Iowa City...

Maybe it's just me, but I swear that animals here in Iowa City are more indifferent to human presence than anywhere else I've been. From birds to rabbits, they allow a person to come extraordinarily close to them. Anywhere else, the animals wouldn't allow someone to come within a ten foot radius before running/flying away. I wonder why the disposition of the wildlife here is so different from any other place.

So....

It seems I haven't found anything to put here and/or I've put those things that I would have put here in other forms and mediums. Meh... >_>

My Summer at home

I was really excited to come home for the summer. Not just because I was going to be off about from school either. I really missed being at home, and I missed the family.

With that said, I have had a quite a disappointing time during my summer so far. My best friend is off in another state, and my other friends seem to be too busy. In short, it has been boring. I don't know, maybe it's partly my fault for it being the way it is. I'm not the most social guy, what AM I going to do?

On top of that, my parents are not helping. I'm 19 and they still treat me relatively the same way as they always have. Being condescending (at least from my point of view). With me being home all the time, I'm around them all the time. They make efforts to talk to me all the time, (got to admire the persistence) but what would we talk about? They primarily want to know what's going on in my life, but honestly all I can say is "not much." Nothing really personally exciting has happened to me for as long as I can remember. My whole life could easily be summed up by anyone. At least, that's how I feel.

They don't relate to me in any way. Although my personality is quite similar and is a good composite of both of my parents, my interests and theirs don't match at all. I don't see any of that changing in the future either. What's more, they seem to think my interests are quite bizarre (to them especially), which involves sports, videogames, and animation. They don't know the first thing about any of my interests (with the exception of sports, which is the only major interest my dad and I seem to share).

I mean, what to they do for fun? Why do they feel the need to bash things that I like when they don't even do anything in their spare time?

Chain messenges have reached a new low

Anyone who frequents Youtube have seen these annoying chain messages (or comments in this case) attached to virtually every comment section on Youtube. I just don't understand how they are so prevelent. I've seen whole pages filled with this spam. I hate this shit.