[Most Recent Entries] [Calendar View] [Friends]
Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
shikomekidomi's InsaneJournal:
| Saturday, April 9th, 2011 | |
| 11:04 pm | If you destroy the working parts, what you'll get is a broken machine. Still from LJ: Feb. 13th, 2011 Gurren Lagann has definitely claimed a place on my top anime of all time list. It's not just a show where, for example, a walking battleship hurricane kicks a giant bird-like flying aircraft carrier. It's got surprisingly good symbolism to fit with it's themes of spirals and progress versus stasis, down to the ending itself not being exactly a happily ever after, because you want to keep moving forward. Plus it IS a show where a walking battleship hurricane kicks a giant bird-like flying aircraft carrier! If you can't see the appeal of that kind of thing, don't bother trying to read the ISB. The only flaws is that I don't really care for some of the background music vocals and it occasionally indulges in annoying fan service. |
| 11:04 pm | What would they do if we held them still? Also from LJ: Jan. 29th, 2011 It's astonishing how complex well written children's pieces can be. And how people can miss the point. Let's take Sesame Street. We can't even examine all those complexities, so let's take Cookie Monster. There was a fuss where people were afraid of the message he was sending their kids so he ended up publicly being made to state "cookies are a sometime food". This is dumb. First, that there was a fuss, and second that it led to this. Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoNAT8ZY In it Cookie Monster states his love for the moon. Then he mentions how he pictures what it would be like if the moon was a giant cookie. He'd fly right up and eat it, he says. Then, his voice sorrowful, he points out that this would be a terrible thing, because then he couldn't enjoy the moon any more. This is a character outright admitting that it's a good thing that the things he loves aren't in the way of his obsession because if they were he would not be able to stop himself from destroying them. Cookie Monster is an addict and he knows it. He doesn't say "if the moon were a cookie I'd miss it too much to eat it" he says "good thing it's not a cookie because he literally could not stop himself if it were. And the sorrowful tone the tune takes here reflects how bitter a pill to swallow being a junkie is. You see Cookie Monster is an anti-role model. He has flaws that you're supposed to learn from. He's a messy, out-of-control slob and if your children aren't clever enough to grasp that concept on their own you can point it out to them. It's not subtle. He's already conveying the message that cookies alone aren't enough or it wouldn't make him sad. |
| 11:03 pm | Now the wheels are spinning out of control... From LJ: Jan. 5th, 2011 The holidays were a busy time of year, so I'm just now returning to LiveJournal. Indeed, I'm still quite busy between Reccetear, Minecraft, filling in for absent coworkers, and doing late Christmas shopping for relatives who live far away and won't be seen for months (and now that I've received some of their gifts via other relatives who visited me after visiting them, I know how much I'm willing to invest in each of them). Some nice, occasionally Lovecraftian images can be found here, in a style reminiscent of Gorey, Gahan Wilson, and Charles Adams: http://johnkenn.blogspot.com/ An old, belated Christmas favorite to get that holiday spirit flowing, even after the fact: http://www.hulu.com/watch/4267/satu So the next step will be exploring the vast vistas of strange my few friends here have surely sent up and probably posting a few more links. |
| Saturday, December 18th, 2010 | |
| 10:22 am | Well, a friend once told me: Men, they would follow any man who could turn the wheels Well, distressing developments for all anime/manga fans. My first mention of this was on facebook, but this is the much expanded version. http://dankanemitsu.wordpress.com/2 For more detail on this bill: http://dankanemitsu.wordpress.com/2 http://dankanemitsu.wordpress.com/2 Oh, it gets worse: http://dankanemitsu.wordpress.com/2 It's rather worryinig. At least the artistic community seems to be doing more than lying back and taking it. https://dankanemitsu.wordpress.com/2 http://dankanemitsu.wordpress.com/2 More depressing, some of the ways overseas media is reacting: http://dankanemitsu.wordpress.com/2 |
| 10:22 am | They sold it to the devil and now, it's all gone to hell and they wonder how. My first experiment with uploading to media fire. I've created and am constantly tinkering with several custom playlists over the years. This one is "Music for dramatic moments, particularly just before, after, and during boss fights." It's still not perfect, but there's a decent selection. http://www.mediafire.com/?puktt6b1xtbg3 |
| 10:21 am | It's like they gathered up the city Originally from said book of faces: I was suddenly reminded of the Chronicles of Narnia today. By the way, this triggered memories of rage... So beware capslock abuse and ranting. The worst moment in the series is in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader when the main characters' so far completely unlikeable cousin gets turned into a dragon through his own greed AND THEN CRIES ABOUT IT UNTIL HIS TEARS SOMEHOW CHANGE HIM BACK. We're supposed to learn a moral about sharing or something and the virtue of honest repentance. My response was something more like "Look, you're a FUCKING DRAGON. Stop sniveling like you always do and go actually contribute to the dangerous adventure you're on. You know, it'd be a lot easier as a giant armored flying reptile that breathes fire than a useless little kid with no special skills or abilities. At that age I'd have killed to be a dragon." I don't curse that often, but this calls for it. You would not believe how much I hated that kid. That last line reminded me, I think his name was Eustace, because I always called him Useless and I believe that was a pun. |
| 10:19 am | And the man in the tower controls it all without raising a single fist Crosspost from LJ: Random reminded me of the true meaning of the latest holiday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccj2BH25 And people get progressively more paranoid and bullying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqCuCm5F I'm so glad I generally don't fly (I prefer trains for some reason as long as it's not so large a distance as to render them impractical, if just driving is out). Also, I recently remembered I have an account on that odd thing called "face book". I don't think I care for it as much as journal sites. For the sake of having something up I placed this gem, at which one must be amused or one will be upset: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfKxTu4P I also used excerpts from this quote for my profile (I couldn't fit the whole thing): "INADMISSABLE: adj. Not competent to be considered. Said of certain kinds of testimony which juries are supposed to be unfit to be entrusted with, and which judges, therefore, rule out, even of proceedings before themselves alone. Hearsay evidence is inadmissible because the person quoted was unsworn and is not before the court for examination; yet most momentous actions, military, political, commercial and of every other kind, are daily undertaken on hearsay evidence. There is no religion in the world that has any other basis than hearsay evidence. Revelation is hearsay evidence; that the Scriptures are the word of God we have only the testimony of men long dead whose identity is not clearly established and who are not known to have been sworn in any sense. Under the rules of evidence as they now exist in this country, no single assertion in the Bible has in its support any evidence admissible in a court of law. It cannot be proved that the battle of Blenheim ever was fought, that there was such as person as Julius Caesar, such an empire as Assyria. But as records of courts of justice are admissible, it can easily be proved that powerful and malevolent magicians once existed and were a scourge to mankind. The evidence (including confession) upon which certain women were convicted of witchcraft and executed was without a flaw; it is still unimpeachable. The judges' decisions based on it were sound in logic and in law. Nothing in any existing court was ever more thoroughly proved than the charges of witchcraft and sorcery for which so many suffered death. If there were no witches, human testimony and human reason are alike destitute of value. " I love Ambrose Bierce and his Devil's Dictionary. |
| Wednesday, November 17th, 2010 | |
| 12:18 am | At the heart of this city there is a tower that looks over all that is. I've been watching a lot of horror movies. Sure, Halloween is come and gone, but we're still closer to it than Christmas and Thanksgiving is a boring holiday. Besides, it's never the wrong time of year for horror. The mythos spreads it's tendrils ever deeper into modern society in amusing ways: http://davidmilano.wordpress.com/2010/1 There are probably going to be some concerned guidance counselors in some of these children's futures. And now back to movies: Paperhouse is a very strange movie, not actually horror just sometimes horrific. It's about a little girl who goes into the world she draws when she dreams and meets a little boy. How cute. Then things get ugly. It turns out it's dangerous to give little girls with poor artistic ability godlike powers. In fact, it's a very, very bad idea. Rather quickly, things get too wonderfully disturbing for me to call it a children's movie, despite the overall feel. I'd almost call it a 'take that' to the whole idea if it didn't have a somewhat happy ending. Ah, darn, now I've spoiled it. Fair Haired Child, which was one of the those linked to by Psychomachia has a really well done kidnapping scene at the beginning (great use of classical music and obscuring camera angles), a decent middle, and a twist ending you can see coming but still enjoy. It's up on youtube under Masters of Horror: Fair Haired Child, if you want to watch it. --- But for something really disturbing, I give you the Daily Show: http://vodpod.com/watch/4811463-watch-t |
| Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010 | |
| 3:55 am | Maybe we can bring back the light. So, I'm studiously working my way through the many enjoyable entries Psychomachia posted in October, as they contain a wealth of videos, music, and horror movies that I might want to look up. Some recommendations of my own: If you want a Lovecraftian non-Lovecraft story, look no farther than "Teeth" by Matt Cardin. It appears in the collection "Children of Cthulhu" as well as in a collection of Cardin's works called "Dark Awakenings." Sadly, I couldn't find a copy available online. As far as movies go, I cannot say that I've recently seen anything spectacular that isn't something I either recommended before or isn't mentioned over at Psychomachia's journal, but "Carnival of Souls" was enjoyable. It is something I caught on cable while stuck in a hotel a while back and the makers did a good job on a tight budget, even if the twist is foreseeable. In it a woman is essentially unable to avoid a mysterious carnival. There's more to it, of course, but I'm aiming for minimal spoilers. You can watch the whole thing here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exUFpSFb Also, it amuses me that Lovecraft is now mainstream enough to see this made: http://grimreviews.blogspot.com/201 |
| Tuesday, October 26th, 2010 | |
| 2:18 pm | But I can still feel the heat on my skin. So, for Halloween, since it 'tis the seasonn. This is more amusing than scary but in retrospect some of these ideas are rather creepy: http://www.cracked.com/article_1709 http://www.cracked.com/article_1709 Sadly, some of the video links are no longer up but that's what google's for if you really want to see them. Showed some of my friends Re:incarnation recently as a piece of Japanese horror with nice twist (it's a little too early in the movie for me to call it a twist ending). What I ought to do next is show them Ju-on 1&2, but I keep finding copies of the American version instead when I look for it, which is annoying. The American remake is less varied, less suspenseful, and plot/timeline alterations mean it makes less sense. Plus, in the original the curse is clearly growing in strength and reach with each kill which Fridge Logic says may have started the occult apocalypse, unless mankind can just reproduce fast enough to stay ahead of it. In case you missed it when I first talked about it, MarbleHornets is a very good example of amateur horror, at least until it jumps the shark, and watching the first 14 episodes is a good way to kill an evening as long as you don't mind shaky camera footage and possibly frightening yourself. Even some of the later episodes manage to regain a lot of the feeling that many fans feel it loses past a certain point. It's cheaply made but manages to, at least much of the time, hang on to a feeling of creeping horror. http://www.youtube.com/user/marblehorne |
| Sunday, September 12th, 2010 | |
| 9:10 pm | There is a city this darkness can't hide. There are the embers of a fire that has gone out, So, I was showing Berserk to a friend, because of it's refreshingly straight forward brutality, and we're in agreement that Sephiroth is a Griffith clone. High ranking feminine military guy with long white hair. Check. Still the strongest fighter around, at least at first. Check. Archrival who wields a gigantic sword (though at least Guts' is explained in backstory). Check. Betrays comrades to please a godlike being. Check. Transforms into a creature with bird features to unleash full power. Check. Oh yeah, also been going out of my way to take care of an ill relative, so that's eaten up a bit of time. |
| Thursday, July 15th, 2010 | |
| 4:26 am | Cut me down or let me run, either way it's all gonna burn... The only way they'll ever learn So, it's been a week and I did say I'd get back to talking about AX. There were a lot of people. Many of them wearing wonderfully bizarre costumes. I rather wish walking down the street was normally as varied a view as conventions provide. I met Random who doesn't look quite like I imagined, if only because we have different definitions of the term "mohawk" and possesses amazing, carnie level skill at guessing people's age and weight (she got my age perfectly and was off by one pound on weight). We still don't know each other's given names, which seems mildly odd but fitting. She's Random and I'm Shikome Kido Mi, so we already have names for one another. And names we pick ourselves must be at least as appropriate as any other. I was wearing a nametag but since, unlike most, I paid cash at the door I could make it say Shikome Kido Mi since I wanted to and none could gainsay me. My hotel was cheap, badly located, poorly equipped, and in the no-longer extremely bad but still not good part of town. Luckily the convention ran fairly late (though I couldn't stay as late as events went because I wanted to walk back before the streets turned too hazardous). There was a tendency to have events either all be mediocre or all interest me at once, which led to some tough decisions. Still, even when nothing else was going on I could watch the crowd of madmen and madwomen for entertainment or wander over to the dealer section and browse. After the first time I went in and bought seventeen graphic novels/manga and two shirts, hemorrhaging money as if someone had cut my financial artery, it was strictly browsing. Oh and I also got back up sunglasses. I did also play BlazBlue, which reminded me both of Guilty Gear and DarkStalkers, and Capcom vs Tatsunoko (which is hilarious but not really balanced) for the first time for free as well. Plus: Black Lagoon Season Three looks like it'll be very good. And Hiroe Rei was fairly funny if his interpreter was doing his job right. |
| Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 | |
| 4:18 am | And with a spark, it's going to be the biggest fire they've ever seen. Back from AX. It was mostly a lot of fun. I stand by my statements that anime conventions are festering pits of madness, in a good way. Rather tired from train rides, so I'll go into more detail later. Though I will say that train rides consist of half scenic country side, almost as much Half-life 2 maps, and a dash of normal downtown areas. EDIT: And I got to sit in on the WORLD premier of Black Lagoon season three and then a question and answer session with Rei Hiroe and you (presumably) didn't. Haha! |
| Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 | |
| 7:15 am | I've got this burning like my veins are filled with nothing but gasoline. This made my day: http://spoonyexperiment.com/2010/04/0 Oh yeah, I'm going to be semi-incommunicado for the next week or so. So, live without me as much as you can. |
| Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 | |
| 9:47 pm | I've got this burning like my veins are filled with nothing but gasoline. Okay, so I already knew this, but to reiterate, people are crazy: http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/jo I mean, wanting to have a relationship with some guy that has a history of killing women seems like a bad idea for a woman. Admittedly, if I picture an attractive murderess I suppose I can see how it might be appealing on some level, but he's in prison so it's not like they can sick him on their enemies or anything and I'd still prefer my attractive murderess to be inclined towards targets other than my personal demographic. Plus, they don't know the guy except from court transcripts and so on, so it's not like he won them over with his personality (and yes, personality is a heavy factor in attractiveness to me). So... Yeah. Crazy. It might be different if they'd gotten to know him prior to his arrest and just loved him so much it didn't matter he'd killed a couple people (though that's still a little crazy, it's not "clearly evolution is failing" insane). |
| Thursday, June 17th, 2010 | |
| 10:23 pm | Flip a switch, turn it off, you won't be able to breathe. Either way you're a casualty. I remembered what I was going to post last time! Unfortunately, only the broadest strokes remain in my memory but it was another entry in the "things sound cooler when you say them out loud " category. And that is that using oil is a lot cooler when you realize your car is running on the liquefied putrescent remains of dead dinosaurs. That you are literally burning for power. And that the latest problems in the gulf is the because the oil companies 'dug too deep and too greedily'. And now a blackness is upon the land, a dark stain covering the ocean as the dead terrible reptiles that once ruled the planet strike back at the life that replaced them, poisoning everything around them, punishing the mammals that replaced them for their hubris. The best part being that that's all exactly what's actually happening. |
| 12:06 am | Machines can keep you breathing but what happens when you find a new war's begun? I thought of something that would make a neat post earlier today, but subsequent thoughts annihilated it from my recollection. I hate it when that happens. So, on a completely unrelated note... I've known for some time that there's something of a anti-female bias in a lot of shounen anime. But it stands out a lot more than it used to since 2009 to me. Why? Well, a friend and I were watching a variety of shows and we happened to notice they all had female protagonists. Subsequently, because I like continuing patterns, we kept the theme for the year. Then one goes back to say, Bleach, and realizes that, as cool as it is, the women get pushed out of being as awesome as they could be. Just compare Ulqiorra's released duel with Hallibel's. Of course, other series, like Naruto are worse. But then many are much better. Martian Successor Nadesico may be partially a romantic comedy but it's also a deadly serious mecha show at times and the women in it are all competent. For the curious the shows watched in Summer 2009- summer 2010 with said friend were: Revolutionary Girl Utena (his third time through, his brother's second, my... fourth or fifth all the way through but I've seen the first third of the show at least nine times now) Jubei-Chan Jubei-Chan 2 El Cazador De La Brujah Sora o Kakeru Shojo Mai Hime Serial Experiments Lain Ni X Ni No Shinobuden (AKA Ninja Nonsense) part of Madlax (which was just not well made enough to finish) And it feels like there was at least one more, but I'm pretty sure Noir and Gokujou Seikotai and Princess Tutu were all previous years. Oh, I also showed him and his brother Buffy the Vampire Slayer seasons four and five, so that's got a female protagonist. Now that it's a new year, I'm showing him Berserk for a change of pace and some refreshing brutality. Does anyone else think Griffith is Sephiroth? |
| Friday, June 11th, 2010 | |
| 12:55 am | This city's sleeping like a soldier trapped inside of an iron lung. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is oddly enjoyable. I say oddly because it isn't as good as Princess Tutu or Jubei-Chan: Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch but it's also completely lacking in the underlying madness that helps set those two apart from traditional magical girl shows (Tutu in particular has insanity literally lurking beneath the surface of it's plot while Jubei-Chan is more slapstick and has lovely fight scenes, particularly in season two). On the other hand, the characterization is solid and fight scenes are both common and lovingly done while the schmaltzy themes are not overplayed as they so often are in such things. High powered magical battles make everything more enjoyable, after all. |
| Saturday, June 5th, 2010 | |
| 6:20 pm | So come on, come on, just open your mouths and revive it. Therion's a good band but they can be fairly obscure. For example, I have no problems following Blood of Kingu, because I happen to be familiar with Babylonian mythology: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3vT9pGO Collect the blood of Kingu from the great old sea And Arrogate the primeval waters Inside your veins the power of the demon flow Have you ever searched for your descent? Gaze into your soul, we are the children of the ancient ones On the thin facade we are the kindred of the benign gods Take up and read the tables of your destiny they hang around the neck of Kingu Prepare the war between gods deep inside your soul You are the one to fight in this war! [Pre-Chorus:] March for war in your soul. Hail! Demon Kingu rise, rise, rise from the void. Hail! Kingu rules the honred dragons, Ugallu, fishmen, Mushussu, umu, bulls, frogs, scorpions, dogs... Kingu rules the void! [Chorus:] Kingu is the blood of man drawn off from this early waren In your veins you find the strength from the demon's heritage Chaotic waters covered every part of earth The old gods split it like shellfish But in the shells the blood of chaos still remain Mother Habur suckle her children [repeat pre-chorus & chorus] [Bass:] Kingu, general of the host of chaos, fighting for Tiamat; Bearer of sky and earth [Soprano:] Kingu, the mighty master ruling eleven demons Kingu, your blood is running insinde the heart of mankind The ancient demon, they will return... The blood of Kingu... their open gate But another enjoyable piece, Trul, mystifies even me to a large extent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVeFPeFw If you run in the track of wolves you're entering Trul A land beyond the Shepherds grove in the depth of night Do you understand? Runes expelled from the world of God, (runes) with demons and trolls (They will) push you down with the trident fork, (the) four stave rage of man Enter Trul Wolves are going to hunt the shepherds flock and tear them apart Bear the sign of the beasts of Trul, (the) four stave rage of man Enter Trul This seems somewhat Norse, but I actually have a minor familiarity with Viking runes and don't recognize the term Trul for any of them. It might also be a mystical land but not one I can find mention of anywhere online. |
| Friday, May 28th, 2010 | |
| 3:57 am | There's loss and there's silence and sadness. This: http://cube.ign.com/articles/385/385945 Just... That. Thanks for alerting me, penny arcade! I take back what I said, "there's worse things than death here" should have been THIS entry title. |